A Love Affair is Two-Sided

God wants us to personally experience the bursting-at-the-seems love He has for us. Far beyond just having knowledge that He loves us, He wants us to feel His love, taste His love, and touch His love. A love affair is not one-sided.

We need to receive His love poured out on us just as much as we pour out our love on Him. Receiving His expressions of love to us is one of the greatest ways for us to express our love to Him. When’s the last time we let Him spoil us? Sit back, listen, look, and just enjoy His love. Isn’t that a father’s greatest joy, to see his son or daughter delighting in his loving word, touch, or gift?

A love affair is two-sided. When a love letter is sent, the beloved sends a letter back. God sends us love letters all day. He doesn’t keep what He thinks about us a secret. We can read in the Bible of how He loves us, but He also has brand new words and expressions each day of His freshly squeezed love for us. I would guess that hundreds of the things we experience in a day are a product of His love: the beautiful tree branch that fell in your path and kissed your senses with its sweet evergreen fragrance; the cloud in the sky that reminded you of a pleasant memory; the time you thought you heard someone call your voice and it was really the audible voice of Jesus. He is so near and so in love with us. It’s impossible for a love struck groom not to interact with his prized bride. He is pulling at our shirts saying,

Take me away with you.

Let’s just run off together.

You’re what I’ve always dreamed of.

Compromise and Comparison

One of the top two things I've been learning about lately and really digging into is not comparing myself and in the same breath not compromising what I stand for.

In my world, I have to know what I believe in and what I stand for.  God is good.  He is so good.   The other side to this is we are good.  We are made in His image.  We are powerful and amazing. WOW! God is proud of us.  He thinks we are beautiful, and heaven is cheering us on to go and be us. 

When I start comparing myself to others, I begin to believe two things.  One is that I am not good, or two is that the other person is not amazing.  I don't believe God is talking to the angels telling them "this person is really awesome but you know this other person . . . not so much."


So how do I express that I disagree with other people's opinions, theologies, or actions? First there isn't a real simple answer.  Sorry.  In my heart, I have to step back and remember that these people are so loved by God and ask Him what is the "gold" in them that I can find to bless in them.  I have to remember I am not here to criticize or judge.  I am here to bless. I am not here to argue or debate. I can disagree. That's OK, but it's kindness that leads to repentance. 

 To sum it up, I would rather love people to Jesus and into greatness with clean hands than punishment and pointing out their weaknesses.  Really when it comes down to it, it just makes things better.

Abbi Rodes

God's Never Mad

Is it really possible for God to get mad, frustrated or disappointed with us?  He is perfectly good and loving and it is His kindness that leads to change and new perspectives.  His nature is the fruit of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.  This means that God's response to our failures will always flow through one (or many) of these immutable virtues.  There is no fruit of anger.  Any response God has is strategic toward transformation--fruitfulness.  Madness may make my 5-year-old behave better, but it will be at the cost of him fearing me.  Perfect love casts out fear, "because fear has to do with punishment."  Love can't get mad because love can't cause fear.  It's impossible.
So, here's the brutal short of our developing theology of God's outrageous goodness:  He doesn't get mad, nor is He likely to even get disappointed.  Jesus forgave everyone and healed every single person that came to Him.  All this before there was a payment for sin.  It just gets better...  He exudes life, peace and joy.  Get used to it:)

Target Group/Church Planting Model?

We have been asked many times about who our target group is or if there was a church planting model that we followed.

Here's our official answer:
For us we don't have a target group even though it may look like this in our church because we are mostly a younger crowd with a sprinkle of addicted, homeless, and an older generation.  But, we pray in the marketplace for everyone.  We want to love everyone.  We don't believe Jesus only targeted the homeless or the fishermen.  If anyone wants to be prayed for, loved on, delivered, accept Jesus, or all of the above we are thrilled!  Our heart for our church is a balanced church of old, young, hip, not hip, homeless, not homeless, and whatever.

Consequently our church should look like who we are.  Being who we are as God made us, and finding our sound and direction totally is of God.  We listen to the Lord about what our "sound" is in worship and create through the creator.  We listen to the Lord about what to say and just be us.  Our church is us. I think if someone asked us who our people group was 10 years ago we would say the homeless or the poor.  Now I would respond that it is everyone and anyone that is hungry.  

A church planting model has always seemed a little weird to us as every situation is different. Is the goal to grow a church or change the world?  Our hearts are to follow the Lord in everyday life, listen to Him as He directs, make lots of mistakes, and create an environment where people can be honest with each other and make mistakes.  So, to really correct myself, that is the church model--imitate Jesus. 

We may not be a huge church or financially successful but to us that doesn't matter.  What we have is a group of people that have been through or are going through healing, deliverance, and know that God thinks they are amazing.  They are equipped and eager to pray for anyone in whatever situation.  This is amazing!  I am so proud of our people.  Seattle isn't safe from the love of God with these crazy people that are in love with Jesus.

Abbi Rodes

Freedom in the House

What if it's true that "where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom"?  I love exploring this in CU, being okay with an occasional mess and truly allowing Holy Spirit to have the reins in a meeting.  If God's present then there will be liberty.  God doesn't control people and we're learning that we gotta avoid that doosie, too.  Amazing breakthroughs for people happen when God is allowed to move.  But being willing to be unpolished is so key.  We really aren't very seeker-friendly.  We're learning that the only kind of friendly that has long-term significance is that with the Holy Ghost.  God being free in our meeting is priority, and His move will beget a movement of freedom.

Benji Rodes

What this blog is for:

It's amazing the revelations that we have gotten in 10 years of ministry. Also it's fun to see that other churches are getting similar if not the same ones. God is here. He is talking and we want to listen and share what our church is getting. Thanks for listening.