Ecclesiastes 3:1-4       
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

God himself modeled rest to us in his creation of the world, by resting on the 7th day.  God didn’t rest because he was so tired that he needed a break.  No, that would be heresy.  God modeled rest for us in order to demonstrate that rest is not for the weak, it is not for the weary, it is an essential part of healthy life.

God then commanded that His people rest, by giving them a them a Sabbath.  A Sabbath day was one day out of seven that people couldn’t do any work at all, not even cooking.  They just had to rest.  Think about how much harder of a command this is to people that are surviving off of the land that they are working themselves.  Today if we are hungry, we go to the store and buy a frozen dinner.  They had to grow and harvest their food.  So when God says, take one day a week off, that is costly to them.  Yet rest is so important that God commands it and structures it into the rhythm of life for His people. 

Are you getting even one day a week totally off?  One day completely free from the demands of work and school and obligation?  You’ve got to fight for this, because the way that we live life today takes a fight to get true rest.   But even if we get a day of two off, most of us don’t know how to take a day off.  Does having a day to yourself conjure images of how much you could get done on your house?  Or how many errands you could run?  Or how many things you could check off your to do list? 

To truly replenish ourselves, we need 3 things: rest, recreation, and spiritual reflection.

• Rest- we need to physically rest and allow our bodies and minds to rebuild.  You simply cannot get more done by never stopping to rest.  You will be much more productive if you are not burning yourself out but trying harder and harder.

• Recreation- we need to play.  Life is a gift from God and it is meant to be fun and enjoyable.  If you never stop being productive and start enjoying life around you, you are missing out on a huge purpose of God for your life.  Sometimes we feel guilty about having fun, like we’re “on the clock” and God is going to be angry if we’re goofing off.  Well, we are always “on the clock” in terms of living our whole life in the service of God, but the good news is that to He wants us to laugh, to play in the sunshine, to enjoy the goodness of the life He’s given to us.   

• Spiritual Reflection- We need to take time to connect with God and reflect upon what God is doing in our lives.  If we never do this, then we are going to miss all the lessons that God is trying to teach us in the classroom of life.  Chances are God is trying to teach you something through the circumstances of your life right now, through your relationships, through your hardships.  If we never stop and reflect, we’ll miss the meaning in the motion of life.

I’ll leave you with the wisdom of an old monastic parable, recounted by one of favorite Christian writers, Joan Chittister:

One day a hunter in the desert saw Abba Anthony enjoying himself with the brethren and he was shocked.  What kind of spiritual guide was this? 

But the old monk said to him, “Put and arrow in your bow and shoot it.”  So the hunter did.  Then the old man said, “Now shoot another.”  And the hunter did.  Then the elder said, “Shoot your bow again.  Keep shooting; keep shooting, keep shooting.”  And the hunter finally said, “But if I bend my bow so much I will break it.”

Then Abba Anthony said to him, “It is just the same with the work of God.  If we stretch ourselves beyond measure, we will break.  Sometimes it is necessary to meet other needs.”  When the hunter heard this he was struck with remorse and, greatly edified by Anthony, he went away.  As for the monastics there, they went home strengthened.     

Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. I am not sure but that this is not one of our greatest troubles today. We come to our services and they are orderly, they are nice ‒ we come, we go ‒ and sometimes they are timed almost to the minute, and there it is. But that is not Christianity, my friend. Where is the Lord of glory? Where is the one sitting by the well? Are we expecting him? Do we anticipate this? Are we open to it? Are we aware that we are ever facing this glorious possibility of having the greatest surprise of our life?  —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Nothing breaks through hopelessness like true encounter with the living God, the Lord of Glory, the King of surprises.  And we have every right to expect that when you encounter God, that he will change us.  That he will reshape us.  That we don’t have to be stuck cycling through the same sins, the same fears, reacting the same way to things in life.  

The problem is that we often reverse our expectations.  We think that God expects things of us that we need to do by ourselves.  And so we try and fail.  Try and fail.  Try and fail.  Then lose hope because nothing changes.  If only I prayed more...if only I could stop doing this sin... if only I made greater sacrifices.  But the truth is that God knows who we are, he know that we aren’t any good at changing ourselves.  The problem is that many of us don’t really know who God is—that he is the one who has better things in store for us than we can imagine for ourselves and that he is the one who has the power to bring it about.  The Apostle Paul writes that God,

Ephesians 3:20
...is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

God is both able and knows what he’s doing better than you or me.  

So here’s the truth: God knows who we are, but do we know who he is?  He knew us through and through when he chose us, when he called us, and when he loved us into relationship with him.  God is not expecting things from us, it is us who are to be expecting things from him.  That’s how it works.  Our job is to come before God with radical expectation for him to work powerfully in us and through us, for his own glory, so that we might join Paul in proclaiming,

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.    

Paul said this not because of how great he was, but because of how great God is.  So no matter who you are, you can still have confident expectation in God, because it is totally based off of him, not you.   

“Be confident in expecting great things from God, for though you may be unworthy, and grace will show you your own unworthiness, yet you stand upon the righteousness of Christ.” —Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

So how does this happen?  How can you increase your expectation of God working in your life?  Start with your expectation of God’s presence and power displayed in the midst of his people, the church.  Instead of simply showing up to go through the motions of religion, start thinking about church the way that the author of Hebrews thought about church:

Hebrews 12:22-25        
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,  23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

If we begin to open the eyes of our hearts to see beyond the lights, the music, the order of service, to see the living God in the midst of his people, we would begin to experience the awesome power of the Lord of Glory bringing change and hope and healing to every area of life.  The author of Hebrews concludes that if we do so, if we recognize what is really happening when we gather to call on the name of the Lord, we get more than we could ever hope for: the consuming fire of God!   

Hebrews 12:28-29        
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,  29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”

I’d like to point out a few features of the site.  First, be sure to check out the small group finder, where you can now see a map of all our small groups which are color coded by type of group, or you can search for a group by day of the week.  Pretty cool.  If you haven’t joined a small group yet, check this out!  It is easier than ever to find a group that will fit you and your schedule.

Second, be sure to check out the three new live recordings of Jeff Anderson and the Joshua House band.  These are three great new songs that Jeff has written and I am thrilled to be able to listen to them at home now!  You have the option to either play these tracks online or download them to keep for yourself.  Really cool.

Third, the calendar function of this site is amazing and the great news is that we update it ourselves and so the info will be current all the time!  Gone are the days when information gets outdated and stale on our site.  So please trust us once more with the expectation of a current, accurate website.  We are moving to using the web as a primary communication tool for members in JHouse.   

Fourth, I will post a blog here on a monthly basis on various spiritual topics that I find interesting and ideas about God that I find compelling. So please check back, my first post will be April 1st.  

So please continue to check out the new site and explore what God is doing in Joshua House. 

Grace and Peace,

Jonathan Rue