community - family (youth) have community - grow up and live alone (college/after) - then, have family. I think there is something to being in community that correlates to being in family. I also see that the early church lived in community. In our age, community is freely rejected in an unspoken manner. Part of it is self-centeredness and part of it is extolled as "freedom" and "individuality".

In the past few days I've had some interesting thoughts come to mind, things I think God is placing on my heart. Without writing a novel, I'll hit the highlights:

1) regional curses. A few years ago I was in discussion with someone who was thinking about how African deserts were really the result of global warming. I pointed out that it doesn't make sense that a region would just wither up in a 1 year period. As we were talking I realized that this is how the kinds of curses thrown out in the Old Testament would have worked. A flourishing region suddenly becomes a barren wasteland. Imagine what Jesus did to the fig tree. Now, put that on a regional level. Principalities and powers.
2) people are cut off. This is not the way the church in the first century was. If you look throughout scripture, Jesus didn't have an office. He didn't make appointments. He didn't have a safe title. He interacted directly with people. It was raw. It was in your face. It was real. There were patterns to where he ran into people. There were markets, synagogues, wells, streets. He went to where people were. He surrounded himself with people. Too often these days, people wall themselves off. They hide it seems. People avoid interaction with others. Like I've talked about before, I think people don't want to get involved because they don't know how and they don't want to have to give up their time or energy. In other words, they don't want to commit themselves. But, this is about the contrast between how Jesus (and the disciples) were drawn to where people were. Today, people are repelled by it. Community has been lost.
3) A quote worth considering, "If satan can't make you sin, he will keep you busy."
4) Recently I have been having new notions about what I am called to do. Earlier this year I realized that I needed to stop looking for some "special" calling and do what all Christians were called to do: the great commission. For several years now, I have been looking for something about my walk that would make me special. God said, I needed to recosider that. After he got my attention turned in the right direction I started trying to see what he wanted. It turns out, it was there all along. Help those who need help: the widows, the orphans, the defenseless. Pray for the sick. Gather in community, break bread. Sing songs of praise. So many things that can be done...why focus on something special.
Once I have gotten out of looking for something specific I realized I'd been looking for something that had been in front of me all along. Now, it's a matter of actually doing those things. I look around and I don't see anyone I know doing these things. Living in Christian community. Praying together. Laying on of hands. Praying for the sick. Miracles. Healing. Singing songs of praise. These are the things the early church did...and, they worked. The church was filled with power and love. Today, there is no power and little love. I feel God is showing my special calling is to begin living like the first century church. To actually do these. In our day, we don't see the church living as the church lived then. What the church does now is powerless, a shell of what Christ called for. I sense he wants me to speak the message he gave us in the first place. I sense this is my "special" calling. I kind of find it ironic that doing what we're supposed to do is "special". Only because the church today does not do what it is supposed to do is there any irony, only because of this is there a lack of examples to follow. I ask that God would strengthen me to be a Christian as Christ and the disciples were. Make me what I am supposed to be Holy Spirit!