Letter From Jesus
On Sunday, April 27th, Lighthouse remembered Jesus as we observed the Lord's Supper. As we honored God for all he's done at and in Lighthouse over the past couple years through Jesus, we stopped to imagine what Jesus would say to Lighthouse if he was with us physically. These words were delivered in the form of a letter, written and delivered by Pastor Tim. The contents of the letter are inspiring, challenging, encouraging, moving and ultimately glorifying to God. We invite you to read them below and ponder your personal reaction to them:

To those who belong to me, who call Lighthouse your home:

I want to begin by saying thank you for all your kind words. I also want you to know that I regret that I am only able to be with you in Spirit today…that I am not yet present with you…again…in the flesh. But, then maybe you do not regret that fact…that I am not present with you today…in the flesh …for as I have tried to make clear in my letters to you, the next time I am present with you in the flesh things will be quite different from the last time that I walked among you.

But that’s another story for another Sunday.

Suffice it to say, you have no idea how much your words mean to me…your words of thankfulness and appreciation. I take great delight in you…you have no idea what I have planned for you. I am the one who is the author of your hopes and dreams and to see you drawing closer to me…letting me love you…restore you…and set you free; every time this happens, I am reminded that it was worth all that it cost me.

It was worth the cross…the shame…the suffering…to see the change in you that I have seen over these past months. In you I long to establish a relationship of love and trust and I long to see you growing in my grace…as many of you have been over the past 18-24 months.

Please never forget, that I do long for our relationship to develop…and for you to lift up your hearts and minds in prayer to me…I promise you…I can and will do exceedingly, abundantly beyond any thing you might hope, dream or imagine. Not in your wildest dreams, has it ever entered your minds what I have planned for you if you will love me and follow me with wild abandon…the sort of wild abandon that does not worry about reputation, or about what’s safe and expected.

This morning you have been kind enough to remember what I have been doing among you. In return let me remember what I have seen of the new life that has begun to spring up among you. Over these past months, I remember…

• The believing spouses among you living out your faith with grace, and going the second and third miles in service to your non-believing spouses…
  
• To those among you who, like me, have a burden to reach those all around in your community…who do not know me…I see you…and I stand ready to help you…
  
• I remember the prayer warriors who have repeatedly, persistently, and lovingly lifted up to me requests for provisions of my grace…may your tribe increase…Keep praying and don’t grow weary in doing well…
  
• I have seen so many of you display the courage to change…what joy that portends for you…for our relationship…and for the Kingdom…
  
• I have seen the loyalty of your body as you trusted your leaders as they were making changes…sometimes haltingly…as they heard from me, and as they began to try and change your church…in the process of obeying my promptings on their hearts…
  
• I have seen your openness in worship…your willingness to respond to my Spirit…and as you delight in me in worship…know that I delight in you even more because of your openness and vulnerability before me, and before each other…
  
• I have seen wives leading husbands…
  
• I am hoping that husbands will begin leading wives…that they will “Man Up” as Pastor Tim said a few weeks ago…
  
• I have seen the humility and transparency of your youth…and I have responded by hearing their prayers…and enabling them to become more like me…
  
• I have begun to see fruit in you…please know for those who will trust me…who will trust in my pruning…there is much more fruit to come…
  
• And you have stumbled into creativity…what a great thing…you are slowly, surely unwrapping and displaying the uniqueness I have packaged within you…what a hoot!
  
• I have seen those among you who have begun to give…out of love…not out of duty or compulsion…to give because you know that you have been given to…you are starting to ‘get it’ and that is a source of great, great joy in my heart…and, as I have said, for you it means I will be opening the windows of heaven and will be pouring out my blessings on you in such abundance…that you will not be able to contain them…
  
  

Now, let me give you a few words about the near term future…before we begin the Supper…

• Don’t turn inward…don’t return to making this church, my mission, and even your life…about you…
  
• Remember, it is much more blessed to give than it is to receive…
  
• It is not that my church, this church, has a mission…my mission precedes the church…you see, it is more like the mission has a church…because the mission comes first…it’s really not that hard when you think about it…
  
• We have a family characteristic…inherited from the Father…that characteristic is that we are ‘other centered’…it has always been that way in our family…well before you came along and joined…the Father loved and served the Son…as the Son did the Spirit…and the Spirit the Father…that’s the DNA of my family…
  
• And now that you belong…now that you have been ‘adopted into’ our family…you get the same Spirit, the same Lord and the same ‘other centered’ life that is so much of the essence, the identity, of our family…
  
• In the weeks and months to come…don’t lose heart…start from where you are…you really can’t start from anywhere else…but, do get started…
  
• And please know that I know…that you are struggling with all this…what with your ‘breathe out – breathe in’ … your ‘personal missional expressions’ … and all that…I will help you…but do get started…
  
  

Now we come to the time to take the Supper. As you know, when it comes to observing the Supper…to taking Communion…we are talking about remembering events that cost me my life. These events are very important to me…and to you…as you submit your spirit to mine and engage in the process of being transformed by me..

So, as you begin your preparations for the Supper…thanks again. Like so many of you have a favorite drawer, or closet shelf, or file folder where you store those sketches, drawings, thank you’s, that you receive from your children as they grow up…please know that I am planning on doing the same thing with today’s service. I plan on storing its memory in a safe place…as a reminder to me of how much you love me. It thrills me beyond what I can ever express for me to witness you being you!

Love,

Jesus