TAKING PART IN A MOST INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE!

As I write this article the 40 Days of Community Campaign has not yet begun.  As you read the article, it will have been going for a week or two.  I share these thoughts to encourage you in what can be a most incredible experience.  When I say “can be” that is the key phrase.  God has been and is doing His part.  The rest is up to us.  Let me explain what I mean by that.  In Exodus 19 the nation of Israel has just left Egypt and stands gathered before Mt. Sinai.  God through Moses addresses the people and after challenging the nation to obey him completely and follow him wholeheartedly the people respond back to God.  Their words are recorded in Exodus 19 verse 8, “Then all the people answered together we will do everything that the Lord has said and Moses reported this to the Lord.”  The key word in that verse is the word ‘together.’  As a community of God followers they unanimously responded to God and said, “We will obey, we will follow.”

What this tells us is that we are more than just a collection of individual Christians who happen to get together for worship at the same time on the same day.  We are a community.  We are a family.  We are a church.  We are the body of Christ.  Individualism is the enemy of the family, it’s the enemy of society, and it’s the enemy of the church. Paul says in Romans 12 that each part belongs to the other.  You and I are connected.  And for this 40 Days of Community campaign to really work we need the same kind of corporate commitment.  In everything we do we will truly be working together.  Each small group will be studying the same 40 Days of Community curriculum. Our children, our young people as well as the adults are all studying and talking about the same theme.  We are all in this together.  That's why it is not an exaggeration to say we are hopeful that every single person who considers this church to be his or her family will say, “I am in.”  And I hope that there is something inside of you in your heart that when you hear, hey, this is what our church family is doing, that your response will be, “I will do my part,” because I am a part of a community.  It's not just about my things and me.  I am a part of a family.  If the family is doing it, then I want to be a part of it, because I belong here.  So to truly benefit from this experience, we need to commit with the community.

As we think about and become involved in this campaign it is also important that we prepare ourselves and fully involve ourselves?  Again I refer you to Exodus 19 where it says, “The Lord told Moses go down and prepare the people for my visit, purify them today and tomorrow and have them wash their clothing.  Be sure they are ready on the third day for I will come down upon Mount Sinai as all the people watch.”  Tucked in these verses is a very practical suggestion that can help us to really take advantage of all that is taking place in these next few weeks. 

Here it is.  Set aside time. God says in Exodus 19 that over the next three days He wanted them to get ready to meet with him.  Remember, these people were just like us.  They had jobs and they had responsibilities. They had families to take care of; they had tasks that were on their list.  And yet God says, “This is important enough.  I want you to carve out time to be involved with meeting me.”  So again just to be very up front if you are going to get the most out of 40 Days of Community it's going to happen partly because you set aside time.  Assuming that we have set aside the time, there are six very specific commitments we are asking every single one of us to make through out this campaign.  Some of them are very simple.  Some of them are a little more time consuming.  The first one is that as far as possible you say to everyone around you “Hey, I am a part of this 40 Days of Community.”  The next thing is to get in a small group.  Just try it for the six weeks.  You can find a group that's close to you that fits the time of the week that you want to meet on.    The third thing we’re asking you to do is over the seven weekends that the campaign takes place, do your best to be at church every weekend.  I know our lives are busy.  I know we have a lot of things going on.  But each weekend builds on the last.  We are asking you to commit to being here for seven consecutive weekends in a row.  Then read a daily devotional each day for 40 days.  Each daily devotional is going to be about 3-4 pages long.  You can read it in about 7 or 8 minutes.  What a great way for you to start off your day, reading God's word and understanding what his plan is for you and what it means for you to live in relationship with other people.  And then, memorize a verse each week.  You are going to get a set of memory verse tags that you can put on your key chain and on the back of each tag is a different verse.  We are going to ask you to memorize a verse a week because we know the power of putting God's word in your life.  Finally we are going to ask you with your group to participate in a special project that we will be carrying out.  A couple of projects have been lined up for Bridgton and Harrison that will enable us to truly show our interest in a practical way in the communities we serve. 

Of course, it is possible to come to the church and not get involved, but what a shame.  If you jump from Exodus 19 to Deuteronomy 4 you are jumping forward to a day 40 years later when Moses is challenging the people as they are about to enter the promise land.  Finally they are there.  Moses is not going to accompany them but he begins to warn them and gives them instruction and he says: “When you cross the Jordan and you get on the other side and life gets good and easy and comfortable and prosperous don't forget God.  Don't forget everything he has done for you and be sure and pass on to your kids and your grandkids all that God has done, the stories of faith.”  The very first example that Moses uses is Exodus 19.  In Deuteronomy 4 verse 10 it says this, , “tell them, speaking of the kids and grandkids, especially about the day when you stood before the Lord your God at Mount Sinai.”  Forty years later Moses points back to Exodus 19 as the defining moment in the history of the nation of Israel.    Forty years later he points back and he says, don't forget to tell your kids and your grandkids about the day when God came down.  So come now to the present.  In 5 years, 10 years or even 40 years for those who live so long, wouldn't it be great if we could sit with our kids and our grandkids and say:  “Let me tell you about one of the most incredible experiences I was ever a part of.  I was a part of the Bridgton Alliance church at a time when God did some things that only God could take credit for, and we were a part of a wonderful ride in this journey with God where he showed up and people's lives were changed and our community was touched and we were forever different because of that day.”  I hope that as this campaign continues that you will get involved and that you will be able one day to testify that you were part of a most incredible experience.