God is Barging in to Bless the City of Portland – and You Can Partner with Him
We’re still new-ish to town. From what we understand, Portland has changed quite a bit in the last few years. Most people seem to think that things are changing for the worse.
Kristy and I talked with one person recently who said that the city is in crisis. Houselessness, drug issues, and more are causing many people to leave Portland.
According to the most recent census data, it looks like Portland has lost more than 27,000 residents in the last five years.
But for all the doom and gloom out there, we’re fully convinced that’s just part of the story. We’ve seen a different story and heard a better song being played in the streets of Portland.
People may be hurting. Scared. Some may be leaving, others may want to. But I know this for sure – God’s not leaving. He’s here. The love of God is on the move in powerful, tangible, transformational, restorative ways.
The Bible makes it clear that this is who He is, so this is what He does: He loves to bless the world. Shockingly, amazingly, thankfully - He loves to bless His enemies.
God Showers Blessing in the Midst of Brokenness
It seems like the Bible can’t stop telling a story of God blessing people who don’t deserve it. He constantly reveals Himself to be a Father who can’t stop Himself from loving His children with a potency that brings beauty in the midst of brokenness.
Jeremiah is one of those places where this song is sung.
“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”.”
This passage is moving and inspiring just as it stands, right? But when you understand it’s context, it’s just mind-blowing.
Look at the Backdrop of God’s Blessing
The Nation of Israel was being disciplined. Severely. They worshipped false gods and ignored God’s loving commands. They exploited the poor and were filled with greed. When they did obey God, it was with this half-hearted, just-follow-the-rules attitude.
God sends prophet after prophet to beg, plead, warn – do anything to win the hardened hearts of His people.
After decades of warning, God exiled the nation of Israel from the promised land, just like He had warned them would happen since Moses was given the Law.
Exile is a major theme of the Biblical story. Adam and Eve were exiled from Eden. Israel was exiled from the land. Humanity lives in exile from the Kingdom of God.
But don’t worry, God has a plan!
Brutality in Babylon Won’t Stop God’s Blessing
Babylon was a rough, nasty place. With an unhinged king. This is the city where Nebuchadnezzar commanded that an idol, a statue of gold, be built, and if anyone didn’t worship it, they would be burned alive.
According to the book of Daniel, this statue was supposed to be 90 feet high and nine feet wide, made of gold. If this idol were to be built by our standards, it would take 2 – 5 years to build and cost $279 billion.
Nebuchadnezzar was off his rocker! He tossed Meshack, Shadrack, and Abendigo into that furnace because they wouldn’t worship. He chucked Daniel into a lion’s den.
God’s people were forced to worship the Babylonian gods, stripped of their culture and customs – even their names. They couldn’t obey God’s laws, enjoy His feasts or festivals – this was not a vacation destination.
Israel was being punished, and the Babylonians were nasty. It was into that context that God says – bless, bless, bless these people. Build homes. Plant gardens. Get married, have babies – be fruitful and multiply.
How the Beauty of Blessing Breaks through the Darkness
God’s blessing is utterly astounding. He tells His people to seek the peace, shalom, and prosperity of this city. Because if it prospers, if it has peace, you will too.
I mean – what? How? Are you kidding me? Isn’t God punishing Israel? Shouldn’t He want to judge and punish the Babylonians?
When our kids were little, we would read this story in their kids’ Bibles. Sometimes, the author would call the exile a big time-out. But you know? This isn’t that. It can’t be.
God isn’t making Israel sit in the corner alone while they cool down. He’s with them. Sure, they were forced to leave their home. But their God never left them.
Just like He told Adam and Eve in Paradise – be fruitful and multiply – He tells Israel to do the same thing in Babylon. And just like He promised to bless Abraham so that Abraham could be a blessing, now He’s saying the same thing to His people in exile!
This is who God is! He can’t help Himself. He has to bless. He has to bring mercy, goodness, peace, and abundance into this world.
Like a good father holding a newborn baby, it’s like God just has to say – I love you, I love you, I love you!
He cannot, will not leave you. He absolutely refuses to bail on you or ever leave you stranded. There’s not a bone in His body that can stomach the thought of ever doing anything other than what is for your absolute best.
God loves you so incalculably that He never even feels neutral about you. When He thinks about you, He bursts into loud singing that shakes the heavens and moves history.
He can’t bear the thought of ever being separated from us. It’s in His Name – Immanuel – God with us. It’s why God not only created everything that exists, but keeps on coming back. Keeps on engaging. It’s why Jesus came.
God Entered our Exile to Bring us Home
In Jesus, we see the God who is love wrap Himself in skin and walk on this earth. He didn’t just seek the peace of one, nasty city – He brought peace to the whole world!
I just can’t get over how incredible Jesus is. Just like with this situation in Babylon, Jesus didn’t only bless the good, nice, clean people who deserved it, did He?
No. He forgave the prostitutes and politicians. He pursued the greedy and the gluttonous. He cast out demons, raised the dead, and healed multitudes of people – even those who would never thank Him.
Jesus was able to usher in the unrestrained blessing of the Kingdom of God because He is the King who is God. And in His presence, there is nothing but peace, wholeness.
Which is why when Jesus went to the cross, there was nothing but wrath and isolation. This is why Jesus was then and is now able to love messed-up, broken people.
Somehow, He didn’t only embody the fullness of God – He embodied the fullness of the sin of the world and took it to the cross. And at the cross, our sin, in Jesus, was exiled from God and humanity, so that the righteousness and blessing of God could be showered on us.
We can have full confidence that God will do nothing less than love us wildly because three days after Jesus was crucified, the Holy Spirit of God raised Him from the dead. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling and reigning over all things in love.
And the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and at work in us.
Filled with the Holy Spirit of Love to Bring Loving Blessing into the World
Have you ever gotten stuck in prayer? I tell you what – just ask God to show you how He wants to bless people. It’s like Drano.
Your soul will be unclogged as the power of the love of God breaks apart everything and anything that could keep Him from pouring out His love on this world.
When you become a Christian, you are filled with the same Spirit that told God’s people to bless their enemies. Pray for and seek the peace of the city.
God said then – and is saying now – “Let’s work together, let’s partner together to bring goodness, mercy, and beauty into this place. Who cares whether or not they deserve it?! Won’t it be fun to just bless the socks off of people without calculating how worthy they are?”
So you see, people may be moving out of Portland. I’m not judging that. But here’s what I see God doing. He’s here. He’s moving in power. Among people and in places that aren’t pretty. That are hurting. Just like He’s done for me.
He wants to bless us and partner with us to bless the city because He just so loves being good without measure. God is in this place, He is doing amazing things. We have seen Him miraculously heal people.
During one prayer walk in Old Town, Kristy and I walked with a couple of people through one of the homeless camps.
From the other side of the block, a man wearing a tank top that was too small and too tight and women’s underwear and nothing else – calls out to us from across the camp – “Hey! Will Ya’ll pray for me?”
People are hungry for the love, healing, hope, and peace that only the presence of God brings.
Enter God’s Love, Extend God’s Blessings
God has invited us to partner with Him in so many incredible ways. On our good days, we all know that we stand on the shoulders of others who have come before us.
But right here and now, Restoration Church is watching Jesus build His church in, through, and with people who have been laboring in love far longer than we have.
One of the dreams God gave us was to host a pay-what-you-can-afford community market. The Holy Spirit is bringing the pieces together in miraculous ways. I’ve never seen so many organizations together to bless others.
Matthew 25 is planting gardens on Transitional Youth properties so that Restoration Church can host a fellowship/farmer’s market on the Rivercrest community church grounds. These organizations want the same thing – for Jesus to be known and loved and for people to be blessed.
We are watching God work out the vision, values, and dreams He put in our hearts. Restoration Church’s core values are surrender, invitation, kingdom collaboration, and holistic restoration. All of those values are on display in this collaborative market.
This is going to be a pay-what-you-can-afford market. This gives people the dignity of providing for themselves or their family without needing to showcase their need or prove their poverty.
We’re also going to set up some relational and playful spaces. We intend to have areas where people can just hang out. Maybe at tables, playing chess, cards, and so on. And since Jesus seems to love kids, we plan on setting up some stuff for kids, too. Just simple yard games.
Lord willing, we’ll also be able to have space for prayer and worship. That way, we can intentionally invite God’s presence into the market, and people can step into experiencing Him, if they want, but no one would be forced to.
We believe God is creating a place. He’s building a table. And that, not just a place where “the poor” receive help, but rather, where the community comes to be together. A place where those who are struggling will know that they won’t just be offered material help, but also relationship.
Do You Want to Partner with the Spirit of Blessing in Portland?
What can you do to jump in on this? First pray. Pray, pray, pray. Unless the Lord builds a house, the laborers labor in vain.
Second, consider how you could jump in practically. We’re going to need all kinds of hands-on deck.
People to set up, tear down, run booths, hang out with kids, be available to pray with people, run security – the list goes on and on.
Third, consider giving to this. None of this exists, yet. Everything requires being either purchased or donated. So if you go garage sale shopping, maybe keep an eye out for yard games, chessboards, bean bags, things like that. Donations can be dropped off at the Rivercrest building.
This is all going to be here before we know it. We’re planning to run this on Saturdays, starting in July. The start date will be contingent on the harvest. Tentatively, we’re planning for either July 5th or 12th.
We will most likely host the fellowship market from 10 – 2. And we’ll wrap it up sometime in the fall, when the garden beds stop producing.
I don’t know what God is going to do with all of this, but I know that all of what He does will be so good. He told His people to seek the good of the city, to pray for and pursue its peace and prosperity.
This is one way that we can partner with God as He brings goodness, hope, and joy to the people and city He loves enough to not only die for, but to live for, move into, and enjoy blessing – with you.
