City Church of Long Beach

I do not seek to shame those who assent to the lie of political whiteness. The shame is already there. I seek to free them from it. Repent and believe in their own mere humanity, God’s Godness, and the full presence of the image of God in ALL. - Lisa Sharon Harper How we respond to shame - whether we let it scare us into hiding or denial OR let it bring us the table where God and others long to meet with us - has real world implications. And not just for our personal relationships, but also for the deep rooted issues like racism that we're wrestling with in our culture as a whole, as Lisa Sharon Harper makes clear! Where is God inviting you to the table today, to experience freedom & healing? Who else will benefit when you show up, willing to be seen and loved into wholeness?

Sunday Service today at 10:30am PST. Join us on Zoom: http://citychurchlb.org/media if you need help connecting please let us know!

As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peacebut now it is hidden from your eyes. - Luke 19:41-42 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the s...ufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. - 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 Jesus is deeply affected by the world around him. He’s brought to tears by the loss and loneliness of those who remain far off from the fullness of the Kingdom of God. Although it’s a different approach, there are some real similarities when Paul says that the kind of comfort we receive when we weep is meant to be shared with others. Both Jesus and Paul don’t allow comfort to be merely private. Not that private comfort isn’t important or even essential. But perhaps the need for our comfort should come at least in part by the suffering of the world (as with Jesus in the above passage) and perhaps the purpose of our comfort is not simply to enjoy it but to pass it on to a world in desperate need of comfort. These are the twin missional aspects of comfort in loss. How missional are you when it comes to comfort? is there some loss in the world God may be calling you to embrace so much that you truly need comfort? Is there some loss you’ve experienced that God has met you in which you might go outwards towards others and meet them in that sort of loss as well?

To wrap up our Plot Twists series this Sunday, we're talking about an uncomfortable and really important subject - we're talking about shame. Too often religion weaponizes our feelings of shame, uses them against us to try to get us to act a certain way. What if what God really wants is to release us from shame? What difference would that make in our lives and relationships? Join us Sunday and we'll think together. Zoom link at citychurchlb.org/media

Join us tonight for 30 minutes of worship & prayer at 7. Check out citychurchlb.org/media for the Zoom link if you need help connecting please let us know!

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you when you already have it with you. - Prov. 3:27-28 // There are all sorts of things we can't fix, no matter how much time we spend worrying or doom-scrolling. It's not our job to fix everything. But we can do the good right in front of us. Who's the neighbor you can encourage or help today in a real, practical way? Which organization needs that extra few dollars you've been wondering what to do with? Who's the leader you can contact and make your voice heard?

Sunday Service today at 10:30am PST. Join us on Zoom. Link at http://citychurchlb.org/media if you need help connecting please let us know! #cclbathome

Today, take a moment with this prayer. Where does it connect with your need? Where does it bring you hope? What do you need to say to Jesus after reading it? Prayer for the Morning ~ Audette Fulbright Fulson... Did you rise this morning, broken and hung over with weariness and pain and rage tattered from waving too long in a brutal wind? Get up, child. Pull your bones upright gather your skin and muscle into a patch of sun. Draw breath deep into your lungs; you will need it for another day calls to you. I know you ache. I know you wish the work were done and you with everyone you have ever loved were on a distant shore safe, and unafraid. But remember this, tired as you are: you are not alone. Here and here and here also there are others weeping and rising and gathering their courage. You belong to them and they to you and together, we will break through and bend the arc of justice all the way down into our lives.

We're all trying to make sense of the week we've just had (and are still having). We're wrestling with the real pains and tensions of this moment, and often having to sidestep all sorts of spiritual gaslighting along the way. Can't wait for Sunday to talk this through together. Join us at 10:30am. Zoom link at http://citychurchlb.org/media

Join us tonight for 30 minutes of worship & prayer at 7. Check out http://citychurchlb.org/media for the Zoom link if you need help connecting please let us know!

"Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him." - John 13:3-5 // God, you showed us most clearly who you are in your son Jesus - Jesus, who was given all power and showed us ...in his every action and every word how you mean power to be used. Not power over, that focuses on ourselves, but power with and power for... power to love, serve and lift up others, to build and be part of your beloved community. On this election day and in the days and weeks that follow, help us know that you're near us in the places where we ourselves need that love, where we need to know that you see and value us - that we are not forgotten. And from that awareness of love, help us to recognize and use our power to serve others the way that you did. Help us to center those our society tends to push to the margins - the poor, the persecuted, the mourners. What does wrapping towels around our waists and kneeling to wash the gritty feet of neighbors look like practically in our lives today? Give us eyes to see, Lord - make our hands and hearts willing. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. See more

Anger is not inherently destructive. My anger can be a force for good. My anger can be creative and imaginative, seeing a better world that doesn’t yet exist. It can fuel a righteous movement toward justice and freedom. - Austin Channing Brown, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness Will we take time, as James urged us so long ago and Austin Channing Brown encourages us now, time to listen compassionately to the desires that battle within us? What is your anger telling you about brokenness in the world that needs to be addressed? How might that lead you in the direction of shalom these days?

In an intense season, sitting with James 4 invites us to look with honesty and compassion at the mess of longings that battle within us. Are they leading us towards deeper relationships and a more just and loving world? With Jesus as our guide, they can. Sermon is posted (citychurchlb.org/media) if you’d like to join the conversation.

Sunday Service today at 10:30am PST. Join us on Zoom. Link at http://citychurchlb.org/media if you need help connecting please let us know! #cclbathome

This week we’re reflecting on what it means to be peacemakers. As Cody Miler pointed out yesterday in the sermon, if we are going to be peacemakers, we’re going to need to start by making peace with ourselves. On his way to talking about being a peacemaker, James points out how difficult it is to make peace if there’s a lot of junk inside of us: Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.... But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. - James 3:13-14 As Cody pointed out, when anxiety, fear, and control dominate our internal world, they are often ‘harbored’ in our bodies, replayed over and over in our minds, and bubble up in the emotions that pour out of our hearts. What if, in the name of becoming a peacemaker like Christ, we took some time today to listen to ourselves to understand better where we are not at peace? So let’s try an exercise. Get some place comfortable and ask yourself these three questions - and give yourself a few moments to really scan yourself as you do so - and then offer up the prayer. Listen to your body. Can you hear any disruptive thing harbored there? Listen to your heart. What emotions are bubbling up? Listen to your mind. What anxious thoughts are on repeat? Prayer: Body, heart and mind - you are each part of me but not all of me, and you are showing what’s on my inside I welcome each thing you’ve spoken to me - welcome, welcome. Lord Jesus, I surrender each of these things to you, granting that they are indeed within me. Would you bring your healing touch as well as the healing that comes as I welcome my own self.

What are you fighting FOR? In these final days of the election season, do you have a positive vision of the good God's calling us to work toward together, in your close relationships and in your politics? James 4 takes us there this Sunday - let's talk Zoom link at http://citychurchlb.org/media

Who do you know who’s struggling with anxiety about the election or loneliness because of the pandemic? What if you took five minutes right now and reached out to them, human to human, to express that care or concern? Maybe following Jesus isn’t just about learning more stuff - but putting into practice his ways.