Invitations

The Evite arrives in my inbox.  It's efficient, budget-friendly, digitally communal, and is automatically resent if I delay my RSVP.

The formal invitation arrives in that antiquated box on a post near my curb.  It requires me to walk out to it in rain, snow, sleet, or 100 degree weather (serious First-World problem).  The person who delivers it is rarely seen.  It has a stamp on it.  The font or professional handwriting is beautiful.  The crisp thick paper is nice.  The final destination of the invitation is on our refrigerator door secured by a magnet.

The phone rings.  The caller's voice on the other end is familiar, kind, and genuinely interested in how I am doing.  Then comes the personal invite:  Let's hang out.  Let's grab coffee.  Let's get dinner.  I feel special.

This morning I am thinking about the different ways we invite.  Nothing wrong with the three described.  Each has a different purpose and is warranted depending on the nature of the occasion.  

But in my heart today I am reflecting on Jesus' invitation to me, you, and the world.  Come to me and Follow me, he speaks.  I'm grateful that Jesus knows our name and that He speaks our name as He invites.  He said, "Zacchaeus," not "Hey you up there in the tree."

Jesus has the ability to invite the world to follow him, and yet, at the same time, it is also a personal invite to each of us.  He casts the net wide, but it feels like I'm the only one He catches and takes into His Hand.  How does He do that?  Who cares.  I just love that He does it.

Even though His invitation and calling is personal, it is never designed to make us the center of His attention.  Quite the opposite, actually.  He draws us close so we may join the multitude from every tribe, nation, and tongue on the earth who are worshipping and glorifying His name.  It's the ultimate party.  It's a global movement.  It's His Kingdom.  But somehow in the midst of all of it, I can still hear Him calling my name.  He is doing it again this morning.  The voice is familiar, kind, and genuinely interested in how I am doing.  

I'm relishing in this mystery today.  Oh, and He is calling your name again this morning as well.  Can you hear His voice?  Are you listening?  His kindness and goodness is there to fill your heart again to overflowing.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

  

Barn Story Five: Only Fools Pray in Barns

 For the foolishness of God is wiser than anyone's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than anyone's strength. - 1 Corinthians 1:25

In the first chapter of the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the Holy Spirit inspires him to compare the work of Christ on the cross and those that follow the message of the cross as a kind of "foolishness." Why? Because it is!  From a human rationale perspective:  How is death victory? How is losing oneself the way to finding oneself? How does decrease produce increase? How is more less and less more?

The Bible talks a lot about wisdom.  And while the way of wisdom is essential and God-ordained, it is the way of "foolishness" that lands us in unlikely places - with unlikely people - doing unlikely things - but square in the middle of God's Presence and Purposes.

You and I miss so much of what God is up to because we reject foolishness.  We want God on our terms, with our people, in our comfort zones, within our time constraints, and limited to our adventure tolerance.  God is not looking for people who have a nice and neat spiritual resume.  He is looking for fools who are foolish enough to recognize human ingenuity as limited and the mystery of God as compelling.

I like it when people like me.  I like it when people say, "Job well done."  And I like it when I hear, "That just makes good sense."  None of those statements are bad.  In fact, they are often necessary outcomes for successfully completing a variety of tasks.  

But I want to add to the list some other statements and learn to like them as well.  I want to like it also when people say, "Are you sure?" or  "That's so crazy that it better be God." or "Isn't that a strange combination of people?" or  "Why is God leading you to do that? (and not knowing the answer and being ok with that)" or "Do you think that might be too big a prayer? (and just smiling)"

A group of us pray in a barn in Goochland every Wednesday night because:

• We are fools for Christ and proud of it
• We have been drawn to this space by the Holy Spirit
• We want to see:
• The Word of God proclaimed
• Prayer and support and encouragement for all our pastors and churches
• Prodigals return
• Hardened hearts made tender
• The lame walk
• The blind see
• The deaf hear
• Strongholds demolished
• Disease and sickness gone in Jesus' Name
• Fresh baptisms in the Holy Spirit
• Spiritual gifts in operation
• The lonely comforted
• Weekly inner renewal so we can go out on mission for another week
• A youth movement emerging that produces young people on fire for the things of God
• Men and women Called into ministry and trained and commissioned
• And whatever else the Lord has ordained for us at His appointed times

So only fools pray in barns.  I wonder if God is calling you in 2022 to become a fool with us.  The time is now, and the time is urgent.  We are not a church; we are a prayer movement.  We are not in despair but we are in a state of longing for a great move of God that brings glory and fame to His Name in all the earth.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

(If interested in joining us, email me at rrhoden@ascent.edu or call/text at 804.239.0032.)

#PrayInTheBarn

#BecomeAFool