Author: Pastor Jesse Moss | Duluth

March 10, 2019 Pastor Jesse Moss | Duluth

Your personal identity shapes your life. Shaping your life based on another person’s identity or a false identity is a crime. In 2018 nearly 16 million Americans were victims of identity theft. It is a crime that is becoming more and more common as the years go by. As a result, the authorities are taking cases of identity theft more and more seriously. The penalties that are faced in this country for living out a false identity are high. Including severe fines and decades of imprisonment. The US government is doing all that they can to get people to live life as who they really are.

A Two-Sided Problem

Today the church is facing the same problem. Millions are trying to live their lives contrary to their identity. There are two different ways that this creates serious problems for the church. Many unbelievers, those with an identity that is not in Christ, who are not born again, try to live as though they are. They attempt to prove their identity as in Christ by any means necessary, but that is simply not the case. They hold out seemingly legitimate identification: IDs showing them as church members, letters and emails showing a connection with those who are in Christ, they may have passports stamped full with all the places they have gone for the cause of Christ, they even have bank statements showing their generosity…  But in the end they have not been born again, they do not have an identity as in Christ. They can show all the documentation they desire but it’s not enough because they don’t have a birth certificate. The second way the church sees this problem is with Christians, those who are legitimately born again but don’t live out that identity as they should. They have all the right paperwork declaring the truth of who they are, but none of the right actions.

Who are You?

What is your identity? Are you a child of God? Is your identity in Jesus or is your identity in something else? You should be whoever you are. If you are an unbeliever, don’t pretend to be a follower of Jesus. He isn’t fooled, no matter how much documentation you might provide. Continuing to cling to an identity of Christian when it is not true does no good, in fact, it will only do you harm. But, if you have been saved and now are a Christian, be one. Be one with all your thoughts, words, actions, desires, and pursuits, be a Christian with your character, be a Christian with all of your life. Let all of who you are be shaped by that identity.

Make the Reality Real

Over and over the Bible talks about how our actions are in relation to our standing in Christ. An example of this is found in 1 Corinthians 5:7 where Paul says, “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed”. In the Bible yeast is a picture of sin. He is saying, “Jesus died as a sacrifice, and if you have put your faith in Him, He has already made you sinless, so now get rid of the sin.” God tells us that if your identity is a Christian there are several truths about who you really are. He tells us things that are already a presently held reality, but then also tells us to fight and strive for what He has already made us.  

As a Christian, we instantly become positionally holy, and yet we are told to kill sin, to strive for righteousness. (1 Cor. 5:7 Col. 3:12, 1 Pet 1:15) When you become a Christian you are the light of the world (Matt.5:14) therefore, “let your light shine” (Matt. 5:16). God has made wonderful truths a reality for us, we are to live in a way that those realities actually become real in our lives.

Christian, Be Yourself

This is by no means a call for you to be true to your heart, yourself, or to trust your gut. It is not a call to excuse yourself from striving or fighting because you are simply letting you be you. But if you are a Christian you are a child of the almighty God. That is your identity and that identity will change your life. Go and be who you are. Be holy and righteous, be bold and courageous, be meek and humble, be ambassadors for God’s kingdom. As God’s children, there is a lot that Jesus calls us to be and to do. Fulfill the destiny that is befitting of your identity.

How can we do this?

Becoming like Christ is not impossible. Growing more and more into the person God has made you to be can be a reality. However, you cannot do it by your own effort and work. If you try you will fail. No amount of study and no amount of time invested will be enough. You can only do this by union with Christ. Your identity comes from Him, your identity is in Him, and you can only live out that identity through Him. Jesus longs for your identity to be found in Him. That is why Paul said on Colossians 1:27 that “Christ in you is the hope of glory.” You cannot hope to accomplish this apart from Him.

There are serious consequences for those who practice identity theft today, but the consequences of spiritual identity theft are even farther reaching and will leave their mark for eternity. Be sure you have all the necessary forms of identification and do not be satisfied with anything less. If you do not have that birth certificate declaring you to be a child of God go to Him, seek Him with all you have. If you do, let nothing get in your way of becoming all of who you are identified to be.

February 13, 2019 Pastor Jesse Moss | Duluth


Street Level Twin Ports is now a few weeks into the semester and things have been busy despite a week away from campus due to the frigid temperatures. Getting back into the swing of things after winter break, we have met many new students and reconnected with familiar faces.

Street Level at Lake Superior College

One of the most exciting new things to report is that the Twin Ports branch of Street Level has now expanded to include Lake Superior College. We have been on campus trying to meet people by giving away coffee and attending “Student Success Days.” Our plan is to have a casual open format Bible Discussion right in the middle of the student lounge on Wednesdays during the school day.

Following God’s Lead

The Duluth/Superior area is home to several different colleges. Becoming involved in another one has always been in the back of our minds, but we were waiting to do so until it was clear that God was leading us in that direction. This semester God did so by sovereignly lining up all of the necessary components. It started quite a while ago when we discovered that the LSC campus has a large student population (over 5,000). We also discovered there was very little presence of other Christian Student organizations on campus.

With that in mind we decided to go to campus, give away coffee, and let people know about the church. While there, we met the director of student services who was very excited and encouraging about our involvement at LSC. We also met another staff member who expressed a willingness to be our advisor if we ever desired to pursue official club recognition. With no student to be our representative there was still a piece missing. Shortly after God led a LSC student to make the drive over and become involved at Street Level Superior. With prayer and trusting God’s leading we stepped forward and fulfilled the requirements becoming an official group at LSC.

Street Level UWS

Superior Street Level continues to get on campus in attempt to meet and connect with students by cooking dinners in the dorms and giving away coffee for students on the way to class. (Who can say no to free food and good coffee?) We continue to hold our meetings a Big Apple Bagels. This semester we are taking some time to look at some of the biggest questions in life. Encouraging people to really think about these issues and come to informed final opinions about matters that have great implications. Rather than mindlessly continuing to believe something to be true because someone once said it was.

Prayer Requests

Looking back at all that we have been up to in the last month reminds me that we are a busy group. We have done a lot, and plan to continue to do so in the future. But no matter how hard we work, if done outside of the leading and empowerment of God, it is all for nothing. So please pray that we are meeting the students that He want us to meet, that we are being lead by Him. Pray that right from the start Street Level LSC would become whatever it is that Gods wants it to be. Please pray that we will have hearts for the glory of God, advancing His kingdom and not our own.

Twin Ports WOTS staff in the Cities for a WOTS workshop
Coffee Giveaway at UW-Superior
November 10, 2018 Pastor Jesse Moss | Duluth

A quick google search will find you 2,880 different “world records” for different balancing acts. You’ll find thousands of desperate attempts at fame such as: “longest time on balance beam while also singing and playing the ukulele” (3 minutes 35 seconds) or “most hockey pucks balanced on the forehead” (31) and even “longest time balancing a running lawnmower on chin” (3 minutes 34 seconds). Many of the attempts at balancing are rather pathetic, but a few are actually quite impressive. Some people have even become world famous for their incredible feats of balance. Philippe Petit, for example, wowed onlookers by crossing between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

You may not have ever found yourself with a ridiculous amount of hockey pucks on your forehead or shaken in fear of tipping off the high wire and falling to your death, but have you ever had more to do than time to do it? Have you ever had so many things vying for your attention that you didn’t know which way to turn? So many responsibilities and passions that you didn’t know where to place your concentration? It’s easy for your life to begin to feel like an intricately complicated balancing act far more difficult than holding up a hockey puck because you are trying to balance all the different aspects of your life all of which are unique in their size, weight, and shape. How are you supposed to hold up your work, family life, church involvement, time spent with God, hobbies, duties at home, and maintain your social life all at the same time?

That was the question I recently heard asked, “how are you to balance all of the different parts of your life?” How much do you put into your school work or how much effort do you put into your job in order to do it well, but not get lost in it and to still have time for God? I’ve been there with all the different parts of my life precariously propped up by my varying amounts of time and effort, everything carefully stacked upon each other. The problem was that if a little bit of effort was diverted somewhere else or time spent on the wrong thing that perfect balance that was holding everything up would be thrown off and everything would fall crashing down in a mess causing a domino effect of destruction. So what are we to do?

Stop the Balancing Act

Stop trying to get a perfect balance and exhausting yourself holding everything up. You can’t, at least not for long. The answer isn’t to divide up all you have and put 60% towards God, 20% towards work, 10% towards church, 5% into entertainment, and 5% into double checking your math to make sure you have all your percents. The Bible doesn’t speak in those terms. The Bible doesn’t divide our lives up like that as if each part is autonomous of the others. Instead, God says things like, “Seek first the Kingdom of God” and “Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, mind, and soul.”  We are to go all in on God. 100% of all that we have, all of our time, all of our effort, all of our love, all of our mind, and all of our body go to God. That’s the perfect balance. It all goes to Him.

Our lives are not intended to be lived out as a conglomerate of individual self-sustained parts. If you are a Christian, you do not get to have different lives: church life, work life, social life, and family life. You have one life and all of those seemingly separate aspects of your life are all linked together. And all of them should be driven by your relationship with God. When you give God all that you have, all of those different parts come together to form the whole. That is when they all can be sustained.

When God is in control of all we have we can give everything else the attention that it needs. It isn’t as though we now don’t go to work, or take care of our homes, or spend time with family, but In giving everything to God He will then direct the rest of our lives. The Bible says that if we seek first the kingdom of God He will take care of everything else.

Colossians 3:23 states whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men. This breaks down the separation of life categories we tend to create. If we give God 100%, that means how we function at school and work, how we interact with friends and family, what we do at church and how we serve all flow out of our relationship with God. Now instead of struggling through trying to decide for yourself how to operate in all these areas, you ask God what He would have you do in those situations. He is in control of it all and seeks to be glorified in every aspect of your life, so you can bet that He will direct you through it all.

Think of those old school balances with a plate to hold weights on either side. As you add more weight to one plate, the other goes up, take weight from one and the other goes down. Now imagine one of those with enough plates to represent each area of your life. You can carefully distribute all that you have evenly trying to keep any from falling, desperate to keep everything in the air and not leave one neglected. But as things change and grow you will constantly have to be adjusting.  You will constantly have to be adding to and taking away to keep everything in the air. Or, instead, you could put all the weight, all the time, all the efforts, all of who you are squarely in the middle of the plate for God. There will be no fear of anything moving, no fear of anything crashing to destruction because everything is being held up by what you have given to God.

God calls us to a lot. He has a lot for us to do and to consider. If you try to figure it all out on your own you will fail, you will not be able to hold everything up in perfect balance indefinitely. So do not even try, instead give it all to God. Not because you want Him to uphold all those other areas of your life. Not so he can help you succeed at work, school, and church. Give it all to Him because He is worth it. He already gave it all to you.   

July 10, 2018 Pastor Jesse Moss | Duluth

stairs and rock

A few weeks ago I was able to travel with our Duluth missions team to Kentucky where we did some extensive work on the foundation of a building. Over the years the foundation of this building had shifted several inches leading to severe compromise of the structure and safety of the building. Simply stated, buildings are not supposed to move and when they do there will inevitably be problems.

You know that the Christian life is one of continual growth, moving forward, continuing to change more and more into the image of Jesus. Christians lives should never be static, yet there is one way that we are to not move, one thing that we are to stand firm upon keeping us unchanging and unwavering. Everything in this world will be moved, everything will change, shift, and waver. There is only one thing that will last and that is the truth of God. We are to be built immovable upon the truth of Jesus Christ. What we are building upon is not to be just words, theories, or human philosophies, but upon Christ himself.

1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” We are commanded to be immovable and that can seem to be a daunting task when we consider the world that we live in. It seems as though everything around us is pushing and pulling at our hearts and lives. Our worldly desires pull us away from God, the storms and difficulties try to push us down; and yet we are to stand unshaken and unwavering. We are to remain steadfast for our Lord. How can that be possible? The prior verse has the answer. 1 Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We are to build our lives upon the rock of Jesus Christ, you know that, but have you?

We can remain steadfast because of God, because of the victory He provides in Christ. God stabilizes our lives. He takes us from going up and down and all over the place to standing firm in Him. He says that we are no longer to be like a wave tossed about too and fro. We are to build our lives upon the rock of Jesus Christ, you know that, but have you? That is the question you have to answer, have you really built you entire life upon Him? Will the problems and pleasure of this life cause you to drift, to be thrown about, to lose the firm foundation that you thought you had? Or will you weather the storm?

It is easy to start well, to began upon that rock of Christ, but then carelessly drift away. Sometimes we think we are standing strong, but really the only reason we haven’t moved is because the right pressure has not yet been applied. What will it take to get you to move? The right job, the right spouse, the right house, the right adventure? If you really know Christ as your strength, none of that will matter. You will not be shaken. You will not be budged from God, His plans for you, the church He has placed you in no matter what happens.

Psalm 62:6 “He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.”
Psalm 125:1 “Those who trust in the LORD Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.”
Proverbs 10:31 “The righteous will never be shaken”

Are these verses really true of you? Can you confidently say that you will not be moved because of your trust in Him and what He has done?

So how are we to do this, how can we really become steadfast, immovable, resolute, trusting our Lord? The answer is NOT to try really hard not to move, to flex our muscles, plant our feet, and dig in. This will surely eventually end in failure.

We are to know Him. If we do not know our savior, we do not know what we are to build upon. We are to know His word. His truths are the one thing we have to hold unto in this world that will not change. We obey Him and see Him come through for us time after time. We are to do it together, because it is a lot easier if we are not standing alone. Above all, and really the only answer that matters, we need to love God. If we love Him, above and beyond anything else, nothing will be able to remove us from Him.

Circumstances do not matter. When the earth and sky is falling away, when everyone around you is panicking, when the winds and waves our crashing all around you, when everything in your life seems to be falling apart our God remains sovereignly enthroned; and our God wins.

I’ve been around long enough now to see people moved, people that at one time seemed immovable. I thought they would remain steadfast to the end, but they didn’t. Their lives were built upon a rock of empty religious devotion and fleeting emotions. The foundation looked strong. The rock looked right, but in the end turned out to be hollow. No amount of trying to patch up that hollow rock would suffice. No, the only real fix is just like the fix to the falling building in Kentucky. The old foundation needs to be smashed to bits and removed, allowing no part of it to remain, and in turn replaced with the new unfailing rock of Jesus Christ.

April 10, 2018 Pastor Jesse Moss | Duluth

Awesome

Human beings desire to be amazed. We want to see incredible, beautiful, powerful and shocking things. We go to great lengths traveling thousands of miles and spending millions of dollars to behold and experience things that will leave us with some small sense of awe. Unfortunately those things are short lived, few and far between, and insufficient. We seek the awesome and find ourselves settling for the unexceptional. The word “awesome” has become a watered-down slang word that we use for anything that we find to be even mildly intriguing and interesting but when you think of the true definition of awesome (overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration produced by that which is grand, sublime, magnificent, and extremely powerful) there is very little that we know that can be described this way.

Other Things or God

I know that you know where I am going with this. The the things that we turn to for amazement, the things we attempt to find awe in will disappoint, but our God will not. He truly is awesome. He is great, powerful, magnificent, incredible. Adjectives stretched to their farthest fail to even begin to capture the glory of God or describe how much higher He is; how much we should be filled with awe that we can know and be in a relationship with Him. And I know that you know that.

So we as humans desire to be in awe, to be amazed, and we as Christians know that we can know and experience a relationship with the One so amazing and incredible that we can be filled with this awe forever, yet it seems we don’t live in that reality. Instead our reality is mundane and mediocre, monotonous and routine, day after day. And if we are not careful those days turn into weeks, weeks into months, months into years, and before we know it a lifetime has passed us by and we can’t remember the last time we stood back in awe of our creator, shocked at His power, amazed by His goodness, entirely overwhelmed by His love. We need to recover a REAL awe of God, an awe that goes beyond intellectual knowledge and understanding.

Real Belief

We come together week after week and we sing sings that boldly proclaim how great our God is. Our songs are about His power, His grace, His glory. We learn about it, we even read about it for ourselves in verses like 2 Chronicles 29:11, “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.” We are quick to talk about how awesome God is, but my concern is do we REALLY believe it? Has the reality of who God is and His awesomeness really sunk in to the core of our being?  Don’t let a false familiarity with God plunder you of your awe of Him.

Why does this even matter? What difference does it make whether or not we still find any sense of awe and wonder in the Lord? It matters because our lives are either captured by the majesty of God, or they will be captured by all the cares and fears of this life. When they are captured by His majesty WE WILL live for Him and we will do it with hearts filled with joy. When our lives are captured by the cares and fears of this life we will live for ourselves and no lasting joy will be found. Obedience is easy and natural when our hearts are filled with an excitement for God, a love for Him, a fear of Him, amazement of His power, and overwhelming appreciation for His love.

What to do

Now the question, what are we to do about it? It seems hard to answer, how can we possibly regain a lost awe of God? Here are some things to help: look at ourselves, look at others, look at God’s creation, and look at God’s word.

Ourselves- Now I don’t mean to take a deep look inside at who you are and what you have done, that probably won’t lead to awe of anything. Take a step back, stop thinking about all that you have done, turn to what God has done. Think about everything that He lined up and miraculously worked into your life all the way through to get you where you are right now. Take the time to reflect on the incredible work that God has done in your life up until now and thank Him for it.

Others- Look around! I know sometimes we don’t see it, sometimes it is slow and painful, but God is doing great work all around us. It might not be the work we expect, but God is saving souls and transforming lives. We will see it if we look.

Creation- There is a reason why Romans tells us that since the beginning of creation God’s qualities, His power, and nature have been on display for all to see.

The Bible- Read passages like Isaiah Chapter 40 where you can find the glory of God displayed for all to read. Read His word again and again, and dont read it just to become more intellectually informed or to find a list of things to do, but to discover God. To behold the true and awesome nature of our Creator and Savior.

Our God is an awesome God. He is magnificent, powerful, and wonderful. Believe it, trust it, and let’s live our lives in light of that fact. Then we can say farewell to the mediocre and mundane that the rest of this world knows and embrace the awe filled life that God would have for us.