Tessera Materials

Mosaic Friends,

Happy Tessera Weekend! After opening with a prayer of thanksgiving for your opportunity to gather, please take time to remind each other of our Mosaic baptism/pool party celebration on August 9 at 5:30pm at Cooper YMCA. Even if swimming isn't your thing, come on out and encourage those being baptized!

Read/Reflect: Romans 8:12-25 (NIV)

Prince shared with all of us in those famous spoken words from 1984, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life."

And in life there's joy and beauty. And there's hardship. And there's struggle. And there's worry. And there's hostility. And there's pain. So what's our obligation?

It's NOT to strive harder in our own strength! If the elevator tries to bring you down you can go crazy and punch a higher floor, or you can fulfill your obligation to lean into the Spirit of God who is with you in each and every hardship bringing you to a day of glorious redemption and freedom in the age to come. Reclaiming this hope has a way of causing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control to bloom within us for life in this present age.

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

• Living with hope in one hand and hardships in the other is no easy dance. What will it look like this week for you to entrust yourself to the Spirit in you? What fruit of the Spirit do you desire to see bloom within you in the days and weeks ahead as you hold onto hope?

Closing Prayer

Steadfast God,
teach us your way and your truth.
Root us in you alone,
help us to grow in grace and love,
that we may fulfill our role and our work
in the reign of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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