1. Move closer to God’s signal.  It’s a simple as ten minutes of solitude spent listening to God.  It’s like prayer without a to-do list for God.  Just listening to him.  Which at first will be hard, but over time will grow easier.  You’ll find yourself moving closer to God.  The closer you get to the source of a signal, the stronger it becomes. 
2. Install a filter.  An electronic device uses a filter to sift through the competing signals and reject the ones you don’t need.  God’s word often works like a filter.  Anything that doesn’t match with what God has said about himself, or about you, gets rejected.  Five minutes a day reading God’s word could be a gigantic step forward in receiving the signals you need from God.
3. Look around.  If you’re driving and you suspect your GPS isn’t doing its job, look at your surroundings.  Sometimes a visual check will do wonders for navigation.  In your spiritual journey, look around.  Is your life where you want it to be?  Do you like the things you see around you?  Is your interior life headed in the right direction? 
4. Ask for directions.  Sometimes the best way to confirm where you are and where you’re headed is to roll down the window and ask for an outside opinion.  Find a spiritual friend (see the podcast from June 19, 2011 for details), and ask them where they think you are.  Or if they see you moving in a healthy direction.  Very often God can speak through spiritual friends…but we have to ask. 

1. You’ll remember again what it’s like to be the guest, and be thinking about that when you return to Seneca Creek.
2. You’ll witness the variety of ways in which people worship God, and be reminded that we’re just one part of God’s richly diverse family.
3. You might pick up a new idea, song, or inspiration to bring back with you to Seneca Creek.
4. You might meet someone and discover that God brought you together for a divine appointment.
5. You might be able to experience God in a powerful way, especially if you’re busy serving every week at Seneca Creek.
6. You might create some rich family conversations as you talk about what you experienced in a different place.
7. You’ll probably return with a fresh appreciation for the unique church that God has built here at Seneca Creek.

The response to the series, “iRelate,” has caught me by surprise.  God is doing some incredible things in peoples’ lives and in their relationships as a result of the tough, painful conversations we’ve been having.  Many of you could probably tell stories similar to the one I shared last week.  This is an area that is so real and so challenging for all of us.  But before we leave this topic and move on, I’d like to invite you to a challenge based on last Sunday.

Last Saturday was the date given for the end of the world.  But we’re still here.  I’m not really interested in bashing the predictions of someone else.  Those who choose to dabble in predictions will have to sort out the confusion that inevitably ensues.  I’m interested in why this is so interesting, and how I can better make sense of what God does have to say about the end of the world.

– Pastor Mark 

Every couple years I pay someone to clean out my gutters. I know it’s time because we have to exit our front door through a waterfall. Every rain storm brings odd splashing noises on both sides of our townhouse.

Something gets clogged in the gutter or downspout, and the rain gets backed up. It doesn’t flow through the downspout like it’s supposed to. Then it fills up the gutter, causing it to sag ominously under the weight. Finally, the rain from the gutter gets dumped all over the front and back of my house. It’s actually destructive to the house, and to the yard. Yuck!

It seems like my relational life can be like that gutter. Maybe yours is, too. Things get clogged up with stuff like conflict, avoidance, busyness, lack of boundaries, unforgiveness, etc. The relationships don’t “flow” the way we’d like them to. Then our relationships start to sag under the weight they weren’t intended to carry. We wonder how long they can hold up. And things like emotions, reactions, words, and patterns start to spill over in places where we don’t want them. They start to cause long-term damage to us, to others, to our future, and more.

So what’s the solution? We need someone to help us clean out the debris in our relational world. Someone to get up on the roof of our lives, get a good view of the problem, and start clearing out the junk. The good news is God is up for the job. The same God who designed us for life-giving relationships is the same God who has the wisdom and the power to help us change.

Our current series, “iRelate” is designed to help us tune in to God’s design and God’s plans for our relationships. And in the process, to “unclog” those aspects that are causing the problems. We started with our relationship with God. Then we moved on to conflict. Last week was forgiveness. Any of those areas could clog things up, and start to cause long term damage for our life. I hope this series will continue to help you grow in your relational health, and experience more of the life-giving dynamics of relationships, and less of the clogged up, overflowing, damage-causing problems that afflict us all. By the way, this week is about boundaries. I don’t know about you, but I can always use help in this area! Hope to see you Sunday.

– Pastor Mark

Interesting, thought-provoking talk…comment below.

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

Pastor Mark