Tag: Gospel of Luke

Day 6 :: Living Stone of EMPOWERMENT

Join us for the 12 Day YMCA Devotion Series – LIVING STONES: LEAD, CARE AND SERVE LIKE JESUS

How can we be ‘like Living Stones’ used by God to strengthen the presence of Christ where we lead?

Recently, 24 YMCA leaders with the OnPrinciple program visited 12 places throughout the Holy Land where Jesus taught about how to live and lead in God’s kingdom.

From this experience comes 12 spiritual leadership principles – or Living Stones – (inspired by 1Peter 2:4-5) that Christ-followers can embody as we are being built up to lead, care and serve everyone, like Jesus.

by Tim Hallman, Christian Emphasis Director with the YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne

Standing in Jericho near the base of the sycamore tree many believe Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus, I looked up into its gnarled leafy branches.

I used my imagination to envision the crowds surging through the area, of Jesus making his way along the street, of Zacchaeus hefting himself up into the tree, and of Jesus stopping to look up.

What was Zacchaeus thinking? Why did he want to see Jesus so intently?

What was Jesus thinking? Why did he want to see Zacchaeus? What did he see in him? What did he have in mind for the wealthy chief tax collector?

We know from his own words that Jesus saw in Zacchaeus a son of Abraham, a sheep of Israel that he had come to find, rescue, heal and save (see Ezekiel 34:16).

When Jesus the highly respected and righteous rabbi looks up to Zacchaeus the corrupt tax collector and invites himself to dinner, Jesus uses his power of holy presence to transform Zacchaeus’ life.

Jesus helps us see how proximity can be empowering.

Despite the muttering and complaints of the crowd – as deserving as they were – Jesus empowered Zacchaeus with the courage to withstand judgment one last time to receive a new calling, to become a living stone and not a burdensome one in the community.

There can be an isolating and enslaving power in the names and situations we find ourselves with – roles and reputations, expectations of the future based on the past, of our habits, fears, and desires.

Through sharing in a meal together, Jesus put his healing power near the sinner Zacchaeus, he put his holy power in him, that he might be set free to lead like him, to love, care and serve as he does.

I’m sure Jesus smiled big when Zacchaeus pledged to make amends to his community through his financial generosity.

What an empowering and healing moment for his neighbors – getting their much-needed money back and sighing with relief at no more bribery, corruption, or greed from their chief tax collector.

In whatever leadership opportunities God calls you to, look up for ways to empower others, to be present to see in them what Jesus sees.

May the presence of Jesus draw close to your spirit, may his power in you compel generous compassion that brings healing to the wounded, strength to the weak, and God’s salvation to the lost.

“So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”

So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.”

Gospel according to Luke, 19.4-6

This YMCA devotion series brought to you by onPrinciple – click here to learn more about it – a new leadership development program to strengthen the presence of Christ in the YMCA

Click here for the entire devotion series as a downloadable PDF booklet.

Click here to access entire devotion series on YouVersion

Day 4 :: Living Stone of HONESTY

Join us for the 12 Day YMCA Devotion Series – LIVING STONES: LEAD, CARE AND SERVE LIKE JESUS

How can we be ‘like Living Stones’ used by God to strengthen the presence of Christ where we lead?

Recently, 24 YMCA leaders with the OnPrinciple program visited 12 places throughout the Holy Land where Jesus taught about how to live and lead in God’s kingdom.

From this experience comes 12 spiritual leadership principles – or Living Stones – (inspired by 1Peter 2:4-5) that Christ-followers can embody as we are being built up to lead, care and serve everyone, like Jesus.

by Mike Bussey, Board Chair with Friends of the Jerusalem International YMCA

Having lived and worked in Nazareth for two years as a YMCA World Service worker, I often worshiped in Jesus’ home synagogue. 

It’s easy for me to reflect on what it must have been like in Nazareth when Jesus returned home following an extraordinary series of events in his life and new ministry.

Just months before, he had been baptized in the Jordan River, the heavens had opened, the Holy Spirit had descended on him, and he heard his Father’s voice say, ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you, I am well pleased.’

He was then led by the Holy Spirit into the Judean Wilderness where he endured forty days of fasting, prayer, and temptations, and then on to Galilee to begin His public ministry. 

News of his preaching and miracles spread throughout the region.

During all that was happening, Jesus must have looked forward to returning to his hometown to rest and for the opportunity to worship in His home synagogue.

As it turned out, the joy of returning to Nazareth soon turned into confrontation as his home  community questioned His legitimacy as He boldly read from the book of Isaiah, authentically proclaiming, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’

Nazarenes had known Jesus for nearly 30 years, most recently as a carpenter, and couldn’t understand what had changed since he’d left home just months before.

Was he being honest about his proclamation that the scripture had been fulfilled?

What had changed in Jesus’ life?

He had been filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered by his Father to honestly proclaim the kingdom of God, even if it meant creating discomfort among his friends and family.

As followers of Jesus, we have the same Holy Spirit dwelling in us, empowering us to spread the good news and to love and lead honestly and authentically like Jesus, even amidst opposition from those closest to us.

What kind of honesty is the Holy Spirit requiring of you as you seek to live and lead like Jesus in today’s world?

Pray with me: God, we thank you that you sent your same Holy Spirit to us so that we may fully and honestly be your people, authentic living stones wherever you call us to serve, like Jesus.

“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.

He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.

He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.

Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.””

Gospel according to Luke, 4.14-19

This YMCA devotion series brought to you by onPrinciple – click here to learn more about it – a new leadership development program to strengthen the presence of Christ in the YMCA

Click here for the entire devotion series as a downloadable PDF booklet.

Click here to access entire devotion series on YouVersion

YMCA & The Paris Basis For Thriving in 2021

What will guide our YMCA in 2021? With what we think is ahead of us, with what we are preparing to overcome, with what must change within and around us – what is our cornerstone for the Y future? Since 1855 the Paris Basis has been a foundation for YMCA’s around the world to navigate unprecedented disruptions and cataclysmic upheavals. What is the Paris Basis, and how can it aid Christian leaders in the Y to “build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all?”

What is the original animating genius of the YMCA?

What is the power source for sacrificial service, resiliency, and love that enables the Y to endure for over 15 decades globally and locally – especially here in Fort Wayne?

The Paris Basis of the YMCA is a concise yet potent agreement for shaping how a global youth movement can adapt to a plethora of cultures and unique circumstances while embodying a transcendent purpose and calling.

Here in the United States, the Paris Basis guided the YMCA amidst the violent upheavals of the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Great War, the Great Depression, World War Two, the Cold War, Civil Rights Era, Korea-Vietnam-Central America-Iraq-Afghanistan wars/tragedies, 9/11, and now COVID.

The Paris Basis was adopted on 22nd August 1855 in Paris, France at the 1st World YMCA Conference

“The Young Men’s Christian Associations seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their faith and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his Kingdom amongst young men.

Any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the constituent members and associates of the World Alliance.”

YMCA Paris Basis, adopted at First World YMCA Conference, 1855, organized by Henri Dunant
draft document of the Paris Basis, 1855

The spirit of the YMCA leaders that drafted this document also shaped the future ecumenical movement of European and then international Christian churches.

The emphasis on Jesus Christ, his Kingdom, and harmonious relationships should not be underestimated for its significance on the growth and vitality of the Y in a turbulent and war-torn century.

George Williams, a founder of the YMCA, who embodied this kind of Christian spirit of service, was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894.

Henri Dunant, organizer of the first YMCA world council, also embodied this Christian spirit of service, and would go on to found the International Red Cross; he would be awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

The Christian spirit of service embodied by Williams and Dunant, as expressed in the Paris Basis and enculturated across dozens of nations around the world in those early decades, still exists today for YMCA’s to work together and collaborate in their communities.

It has been necessary and good for the Young Men’s Christian Association to adapt and mature over the past 175+ years.

In regard to the Paris Basis the need prevails to immerse our mission in it, as we fully immerse ourselves in the cultures of our communities. We still live in a violent, broken, yet beautiful world, as 2020 revealed so clearly to us.

The genius of the Paris Basis is its emphasis on the personal, not the abstract: Jesus Christ as our faithful God and courageous Savior; on its reconciliatory nature as revealed by Christ’s kingdom that prioritizes forgiveness, oneness, and sacrificial service.

The world doesn’t need platitudes or empty promises; it does still need real people living as peace-makers inspired by the words and works of the real Jesus Christ.

The YMCA is at its best when it is personal, when it connects and unites communities, when it brings out the best in others. What makes this transformative is when it happens amidst irascible conflict, brokenness, and apathy.

The spirit of the Paris Basis originated among twelve industrious young Christian men who associated to improve the lives of workers around them living in darkness, squalor, and hopelessness.

When YMCA workers seek to embody this same spirit in its complicated context, the Paris Basis can be a guiding light and spiritual fuel as it enters into difficult and overwhelming circumstances.

The Paris Basis emphasizes some key texts from the New Testament:

– the dynamic person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Gospel according to Luke, especially the first four chapters.

– the transformative kingdom of Christ unto which we are disciples in faith and life, described in the Gospel according to Matthew, particularly chapters five through seven.

– the harmonious relations stem from a robust and powerful vision of Jesus Christ as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane “that all may be one” as recorded in the Gospel according to John, in chapter 17, but prefaced by the call to “love one another” in chapters 15-16.

Christian leaders within the YMCA movement can draw great wisdom and strength from reflections on these three core Gospel writings, as they go about their demanding work in the community.

Like anyone else we can get overwhelmed by the upheavals on our world; the Paris Basis can be our North Star in the wilderness, our compass in the storm, our lantern in the dark.

You may not be knighted for your YMCA work, nor receive a Nobel Peace Prize. But that same spirit of Christ that animated Williams and Dunant, as articulated in the Paris Basis, is still alive and vibrant, for those willing to embrace it.

Together we can strive for more peace, in the way of Christ and his Kingdom, especially in the troubled times still ahead for our world in 2021.