On today's episode, Steve shares a brief reflection from Psalm 16:6 and boundaries. There's something pleasant and delightful about boundaries ... something taken from us as our boundary lines have collapsed or disappeared during the disruption. And yet, Jesus meets us on the other side of our boundary lines. We have to decide how to respond.
LINKS
On today's episode, Steve mentioned InterVarsity Live. To catch previous episodes of those broadcasts, check out InterVarsity's YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeP3EwLytbF16bn9zhjqYbgToRtVe9Xhe
We've created a website (updated daily) full of resources to help you with Ministering Online Through COVID-19: intervarsity.org/online.
Steve Tamayo: 0:01
Hi, friends. This is Steve. No music today. No interview today. Just a thought about ministry during the disruption. Years ago, during a hard time in my life, a friend passed along this verse. It's from Psalm chapter 16, verse six. It reads like this. "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance." Can you see the resonance between that verse and our season right now? The boundary lines of campus have shrunk down to our homes or they have dissolved altogether and our networks are wide open. Ministry can happen anywhere, with anyone, at any time. In ancient Israel, boundaries provided safety and security. When God gave his people the land as an inheritance, he marked out boundary lines for each family. This was their land. They could farm there. They could have a home there. They could build a life on that plot of land and it could never permanently be taken from them. They had a right to it. Over the course of the history of God's people, those boundary lines would be messed with. They would be moved by unjust people by powerful people who would prey on widows and orphans. In the most epic example, the boundary lines would completely dissolve as God's people were carried off into exile. And in those places, when their boundary lines were moved, when those boundary lines were dissolved, God's people found God still present with them. Even when the boundary lines had dissolved, even when the boundaries had tightened. The boundaries are tight around us as we social distance and are stuck in our homes. The boundaries have dissolved as campuses are debating whether they're going to go back in the fall. What do we do when we don't have the boundary markers to give us our delightful inheritance? In the Christian story, there is, at the heart of it the story of a boundary that falls away. You can look at it as the boundary of death, that boundary of separation that creates this absence. It's been an enemy from long, long ago. It shows up in every society. It shows up in every human life. And yet when we see Jesus die on the cross, death doesn't have the final word in his life. When Jesus rises from the dead, we see life on the other side of death and all of the sudden that boundary is gone. Now it's not gone, right. We'll still die. Death will still come for us. And yet we know that there's something on the other side of this boundary and that gives us hope. Gives us peace. It gives us courage. It gives us confidence. It opens up a new range of possibilities for what ministry can look like, for how we can love our neighbors, how we can love God. If death doesn't have the final word. If the boundaries that we have been so used to aren't permanent, then maybe there's life on the other side. Friends, I want to encourage you today to dream big, pray a big prayer. I'll share one of mine that I'm praying right now. As part of my job I get to direct InterVarsity Live, which is a once a week gathering for worship, to engage Scripture. First, I have a chat and a little bit of fellowship to hear some stories of students engaging in ministry. It's so incredibly encouraging. And over the course of the last four or five weeks, we've seen over 100 people make a response to Jesus, either a first time response or a recommitment to Jesus, and this has felt incredibly special. I was walking around my neighborhood today, was thanking God for what I saw. And I found this stirring in my spirit, this desire, that there would be more of that. More people connecting with the Jesus who pulls the barriers down, who pulls the boundaries down. More connecting with the Jesus who brings life on the other side of death, more connecting with Jesus who can bring hope, who can bring beauty, who can bring love, who can bring joy. I found myself praying a pretty radical prayer. It involved a specific number and I found myself just asking God that this many people would respond. I have no idea if that prayer is from God. I have no idea if we'll see the number I asked for. I have no idea what life on the other side will look like, but I know who will be with me in the midst of it all. Jesus is with us. He's with you. No boundary can stop him. No barrier can block him. He's right here with you. What risky prayer is he inviting you to pray today? Pray it. Pray it with everything you've got. Pray it and keep praying it. Ask him. Ask, seek, knock. Who knows what God will do?