Find Hope, Brothers

[Tony]---- A quick note of hope to my brothers at Ekklesiah.
In response to the times we find that community can also be messy----

Sometimes its difficult to see where and how God is moving in our lives not because He is far away or has taken a more distant seat, but rather because he is so close that He goes unnoticed. The winter has been long and is finally beginning to show signs of loosening its grip. We have spent a lot of time inside the house together over the last few months- a gift that cannot go unnoticed. I have watched God use the time that we have had, cooped up in the house on cold nights, to mold us, to shape us, to make us face up to some of the most vulnerable places of ourselves, our pasts, our presents, and each other, and ultimately, to grind us together and hammer us, like a blacksmith, into His sword. We go to these places, standing in the recognition of pain and struggles and change, because they are worth it- because in the end, the thing that God is shaping us into is a single body that looks like Him and His Kingdom. As we work through our most human struggles, we learn along the way that we struggle together, and that we find each other there, recognizing each person's truest and deepest nature, and ultimately, finding God in one another. Our struggle does not go in vain, and does not go unnoticed by our father in heaven. We push through because we love each other that much, because God has showed us how to love that deeply. Even though there has not been a lot of movement as of late as a community, doing things together outside of the house, I promise you that God is using this time, and had planned on this time, to push us, to train us, to ready us for the ministry that He has called us to. Transformational ministry outside of our doors is not an easy endeavor, on our streets, there is tremendous amounts of pain, anger, violence, neglect, hate, and lack of hope. To go there, we must be one- we must be one in each other and we must be one in God, as a body. In order to fit together as tightly and as firmly as we need to, we must be broken, reshaped, casting aspects of ourselves aside, shuffling off the layer of stone that covers the hearts God longs to shape. In order to fit together, we must cast away our layers of stone and let our hearts be revealed. Let your walls fall away. As a community we are being remade in the image of God, just like the first time each one of us first freely gave our hearts to Him. We shed layers of the stone that was formed on us and gave our hearts to God. Now, as a community, we are doing it again. Remember how difficult, but how beautiful the giving of ourselves to God for the first time was. I promise it will be that beautiful again.
Have hope in your brothers and find hope in your brothers. We have each been called, by God the Creator, to the same mission, to the same objective. God's Kingdom is being made more present and tangible on earth as it is in heaven every single day in our house and the community that we share. I see it manifesting, I see its roots growing deeper and I see its branches bearing so much fruit. May we, as a community, find a place in the comfort, trust, and unconditional love we have for one another, to become more fully human, and to grow to unfathomable depths in our relationships with God. May God use us to change our world before our eyes and may our eyes be open to recognizing the beauty and glory of what we are seeing- the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. May God open our eyes to see the fruits of our labor in one another. May we set our desire on a thirst for knowledge of deeper relationship, deeper love, and deeper faith. May God set the truth in each of your hearts that you are loved deeply by your brothers and that God is pleased at our obedience and pleased to work in and through us for His glory. May God open your hearts to find hope in these things as I have. Jesus is alive my dudes! Jesus is alive! May we be the vessels through which God reveals this truth to his beloved creation!
Through Jesus, humanity is being remade. God is restoring us and our world to a place of right relationship, as we speak. Here's a vision to dwell on: God is redefining the way in which humanity lives and what it lives for. Through Jesus, God has given us a glimpse of what that life may look like. Through the Holy Spirit, God is making it possible for us to give that same glimpse, that same hope, that same picture of a different life, a different world, a different way to live and to love to each other. There is a new world, growing, becoming, right here, right now, in the midst of the old one we see all around us. Ekklesiah is a picture of that new world. We are a picture of that new way. Let it be that in everything that we do, every word that we say, and every breath that we take, the Kingdom of God becomes so real that you can touch it. Do not be afraid to lift your eyes to greater things. Do not be afraid to dream about a better way. Do not be afraid to let your life, your hands, your feet, your love for others become a glimpse of a better way, a better world, of tangible restoration. You have been remade! You bear the likeness of the one who has saved you.

“But we have this measure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but now destroyed; always carrying in the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifest in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” 2 Cor. 4:7-12

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:7-12