written by Michael Himick

Friends, last week, my good brother Dr. Jeff Hallett introduced a new ministry based in Champaign-Urbana called Sunday Action. This week, I’ve been given the opportunity to tell you about the goal of this new ministry. Next week, I hope to tell you more – specifically about Sunday Action agape feasts.

But let’s start at the beginning.

At base, the mission of Sunday Action is to help Christ-followers put the gospel commands of Jesus Christ into action. I think all of us realize, at one time or another, that we have a tendency, as Soren Kierkegaard said, to “believe that the Christian commandments (e.g., to love one’s neighbor as oneself) are intentionally a little too severe, like putting the clock half an hour ahead to make sure of not being late in the morning.”

But we also know, with the solidity of the Word itself, that Jesus really does expect us to put His teaching into practice. We know, absolutely know, that doing what pleases Jesus is an essential expression of our love for Him. Jesus says this throughout the gospels.

He said:  “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15)

He said:  “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” (John 14:21)

He said:  “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)

He said:  “He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (John 14:24)

He said:  “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31)

He said:  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

He said: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)

So, here’s what we at Sunday Action propose.

Let’s resolve to go on the greatest adventure of our lives. Let’s resolve to follow Jesus’s teaching more actively every week. He has done everything for us — forgiven every failure, given every grace. He has even promised us that when we step in faith toward Him, God the Father will direct and empower our steps through the Holy Spirit. God himself will enable and aid our obedience to God.

We’re resolved. Starting this Sunday at SundayAction.com, we’re going to examine the gospel commands of Jesus Christ one at a time, one week at a time. We’re going to tackle just one teaching a week, but with a firm and prayerful commitment to put that teaching into greater practice over the course of that week.

Some weeks may be easy. Others will be painful and require us to die to self. Regardless, each week, let’s commit to surrender more and more of ourselves to God’s will. Why wouldn’t we? Jesus, in perfect love, gave himself for us. He gave us life. If we love Him, why wouldn’t we truly give our lives to Him?

Join us this Sunday at SundayAction.com. Following Jesus’s teaching more actively every week is our first goal. I hope to tell you about our second goal next week.

written by Dr. Jeffrey Hallett

Recently I have been convicted by the fact that I am a rich Christian, and generous, but I typically pay others to help the poor. Giving out of our abundance is something Jesus calls us to do, but how many of us actually know and love the needy, as Jesus did? When we speak to Him on Judgment Day, and He asks us what we have done is His name, what if He asks us to name one homeless person, or prisoner, or hungry person? What if we can’t? I have realized I am poor in community. I lack deep relationships with my Christian brothers and sisters.

Also I have been meditating a lot about communion. Certainly in the first century it was a real meal, not thimbles of juice and breadcrumbs. If you don’t think God honors real communion meals in a mighty way, read Acts 2:44-47. It describes rich and poor, believer and pre-believer, sharing in the name of Jesus. When the body of Christ held regular Agape Feasts, God added to their numbers daily.

Have you noticed how modern American Christians use the word “fellowship”? We use it as a verb, don’t we? Something we do with our friends from work or church, with little more commitment than sharing some chips and dip.

In the Bible the Greek word for fellowship, koinonia, is more often used as a noun. It means “close mutual relationship” and it is a gift of our salvation. It is this common sharing in the abundant Spirit-filled life that makes us the complete body of Christ. In this commonality described in Acts, the Christian family was sharing assets to alleviate needs out of love, not legalism. The congregation existed outside church walls and beyond Sunday mornings. Koinonia was, and is, the gift of our salvation that transforms us from individual consumers of the Gospel into corporate producers of the Gospel.

Have you noticed revival lately? I know if you care about what God cares about, you are sensitive to that sort of thing. If you are like me, you have prayed to be in a place where you can see conversions, and baptisms, and miracles, and changed lives, and you are seeing those prayers answered.

I’m really excited about a local ministry that already has its roots in our town ofChampaign-Urbana. This ministry is called Sunday Action. It is spearheaded by a gifted brother in Christ by the name of Michael Himick, who will contribute to the UTS blog next week. The concept of Sunday Action is simple and biblical: sit down with other Christians, and have a meal together, and invite those who need a meal to join the Christian Family. We are witnessing a local revival like that described in Acts. Just like in the early church, relationships formed over these meals are leading to love and generosity among Christ followers, and multiplying Christ followers. The materially poor are developing their assets alongside the wealthy. Many rich Christians, like myself, are realizing their relational poverty, and seeking to grasp this koinonia as a gift of their salvation! Please continue to pray for God’s work in your town!

written by Dr. David K. Webb

We are now living during this, the “church age,” the “end times,” the earth-focused “Kingdom of God,” the time of the fullness of God’s revelation, or the time of the powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Men and women are called to be Christ’s Body here on earth, living simultaneously in the world but also in theKingdomofGod.  As redeemed people, we are to live in community, bounded together in self-sacrificing love; we are to seek to influence each other away from sin and its pervasive destructive effect on our person and toward wholeness, healing, life and total well being (Shalom).  Within this community of faith, for the purpose of addressing human suffering, individuals are separated out to be “vessels” filled and equipped with Jesus’ heart, wisdom and (yes) even His authority and power.  They are to be conduits of His love and “willingness” to make broken mankind whole and “clean” again.  Society has, without realizing it, cooperated with this plan: physicians and other health care professionals are trained and given permission to uniquely connect with people of all types in all stages of “dis-ease” and ill health.  As a Christian who is a physician I learned early in my career the awesome privilege and responsibility I was given to be Christ to the people who sought my care.

The critical point, and the foundational process in this ministry of healing, is to seek and employ in the examination room the “heart” of Jesus, specifically the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  We are to love the “fellow leper” with Jesus’ love; we are to reflect to them Jesus’ patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and self control; we are to seek to lead them into His peace and contagiously transmit His joy.  We are to show all people the respect He gave that diseased leper inGalilee, and to communicate understanding and empathy for the circumstances of their dis-ease.

In my experience, the key to being able to join Christ in this ministry, and the source of all that is needed to be useful, is prayer and the study of His Word.  In prayer, I share my burdens and personal weaknesses, my fears and my fragility; I am daily fortified and empowered to be obedient and serve Him on behalf of those He will bring into my medical office.  In His Word I get to know Him and learn how I can and should be part of His functioning body in my practice; in His Word I hear Him.

In my daily walk with Him, as a physician, going from one patient to another, Jesus shares His wisdom with me.  In each individual person’s situation, with their unique needs for healing, He adds His perspectives, insights, priorities and revelations.  This wisdom is the seasoning to the medical knowledge I hold; this is the proper bases for my medical decision making.  The combination of His wisdom added to the knowledge that He permits His creation to possess, directs the Christian physician toward the high goal of healing as Jesus did.

Just as Jesus, I seek to see my patients wholistically.  They are fallen beings struggling spiritually and loaded down (in varying degrees) with poor choices, disrupted relationships, destructive thoughts, imprisoning habits, and painful memories.  They live in a fallen world where all creation functions out of synchronization with God’s intention, causing harm and destruction from within and from without.  They know physical pain and disability; they struggle with dying and death; they confront their fears of mortality and the loneliness of isolation; they suffer the pain of a rebellious adolescent and an unfaithful spouse.  They live as dying lepers; they need the “reach” and “touch” of Jesus.

I pray with some; I pray for some.  I speak of Jesus when the Spirit gives me liberty.  I smile when it seems helpful and I touch when it is appropriate.  I listen when they need to talk.  Yet I am well aware, and am daily reminded, that this is only Jesus, ministering through His Body (us), and not me the fellow fallen leper.

I believe we are only “scratching the surface” of His available power and authority over all sickness and the forces that produce it.  In this regard I feel like a novice who knows it is true but know not how to bring it to full fruition.  It is in this area I continue to seek the fullness of the Jesus who makes a leper clean with a word from His mouth.

written br Dr. David K. Webb

In the first chapter of his Gospel, Mark describes an encounter between Jesus and a leper.  This particular leper, sufficiently confident of Jesus’ ability to make him “clean,” begs Him to also be willing to do so.  In response to this request, most versions of the Bible describe Jesus as being “filled with compassion.”  Some earlier versions describe Him as being “filled with anger.”  Clearly, Jesus held deep and strong feelings for the man and his state of being.  He responds in action; he “reaches out His hand and touches the man.”

Possibly He knew at that moment both emotions: compassion and anger.  He may well have been deeply disturbed at the totally ill state of mankind: the physical body destruction, the emotional distortion, the relational estrangement, and the depravity of life styles.  Men and women, all of us, are as unclean and as dying as that Galilean leper.  Jesus hated what resulted from our choice to reject God: the cosmic derailment of all creation from the wholeness, health and well being He intended.  There in front of Him, personified in this one individual, was the state of all mankind: estranged, desperate, rejected by community, valueless, tormented by bodily pain, and dying without hope, joy or peace.  From the moment of Adam and Eve’s first sin and our consequent adoption of the sin nature, His whole creation was thrown into conflict with one another: virus and bacteria now sought to invade and destroy, body cells now were capable of transitioning to cancer cells, knee cartilage could wear out over time, man could justify killing another because of war, tobacco was used in destructive  ways, and the list can go on inexhaustibly.  Further, man’s self serving motives and loss of understanding of good and bad open him up to a life style that breeds accelerated destruction of the body, harmful habits and addictions, risk taking behaviors and unloving conduct in relationships.  Anger, anxiety, depression and all forms of emotional distress spin out of control.  Jesus came to have victory over our sin nature and the evil forces of Satan and his demons that tempt and deceive all of creation.  Jesus was angry at the state of His beloved creation and the evil perpetrators of its demise.

Yet simultaneously Jesus was filled with compassion, fueled with unconditional “agape” love, for those the triune God had created.  We were made in Their image to know intimate fellowship with Them, and to share in the depth of Their love and community.  Jesus’ designated eternal purpose was to bring a remnant of this creation back to the intended state of being.  Going back to Mark 1, we now see that of course He was “willing – it was His joy, His mission and the demand of His love!  Jesus “reaches” across all barriers of man: social, political, and religious.  He overcomes man’s fear, pride, and jealous disdain.  He “touches” the untouchable, gives warmth to him who has become cold from society’s rejection and isolation, respects what all others have condemned,  and shows understanding to him who has been regarded as inhuman.  Without a moment’s hesitation, Jesus risks all for the sake of the leper who is on his knees pleading for the Lord’s mercy.

Jesus declares the leper “clean,” not just healed of his physical disease, but also emotionally whole and relationally welcomed back to community.  As the leper connected with the Lord of Life, the creator, maintainer and sustainer of all life, he was spiritually realigned so that he was able to be whole and healthy; he was restored, for ever so brief a moment, to the man God intended him to be.  At the moment of His touch and command, all the forces of evil that distort, confuse and tempt all of creation were paralyzed, the body’s physiology was jolted into proper synchronization, the mind knew and understood a peace never before experienced, and the cleansed leper sought community in which to love and be loved.  The man was whole but just for a moment, then the sin of the fallen creation overtook him and the spiral to uncleanness commenced again.

Jesus sees the brokenness of all of His creation as a result of the spiritual breech of man.  This then produces a pervasive and a downward spiraling array of disease: disease of the body, mind and the relational person.  He shows us a vivid and exalted example of the great physician as He makes “clean” what is so diseased.