Let The Future Begin

Dominick 

Baruffi

One of the things I do to stay organized is make to-do lists. I make them a lot. I have lists on my phone, sticky notes on my bureaus, marker boards, journals, you name it. Inevitably one of the lists I compile gathers all of the things that I need to get done eventually but aren’t really pressing right now, like close an old account or send that important email I have to write up. I might as well name this list “Stuff I Will Never, Ever, Ever Get To,” because those tasks never, ever, ever get done. I’m tempted to say this is due to my laziness, but I think it’s more accurate to say it’s due to a lack of motivation. Life is busyness, and when you don’t prioritize something, it tumbles farther and farther down the to-do list, until eventually it drops off completely. What’s interesting about this is the tasks that we often allow to go undone are really important things! I’m reminded of Ron Livingston’s famous line from Office Space: “You see Bob, it’s not that I’m lazy. It’s that I just don’t care.” Funny, yes, but totally accurate, is it not? What we do reflects what we value. The same is true of what we leave undone. 

I say all this because we, the people of Living Faith, have been bombarded of late with what is essentially a to-do list of really important things. Two weeks ago we heard about disciple-making, and this week it was church-planting. Both are huge on the heart of God and are spoken about at length in Scripture. But often, you and I get caught up in the urgent things of life, so much so that the important things are left undone altogether. Things that God highly values get lost on us because we’re consumed with the daily grind, always shuffling from one thing to the next because there’s just so much to do. And everything that doesn’t get done gets put in the “Someday” or “Future” category of our lives, and just like the to-do lists, in time will usually disappear completely.

Friends, this should not be.

For the people of God, the question must always be “what does God want?” We are His representatives, His servants. He is our King and we orient our lives around what HE says is important. As we seek Him, the Kingdom is revealed before our eyes, as is our role in His Big Plan. We see clearly what it looks like to be part of the Dance of God, with all of us moving in time to the beat of His glory. And those are the moments when we feel truly alive, when everything comes into focus and the “urgent” things of life fade to distant memories in light of the radiant goodness of our God. 

Here’s the rub, though: you’re probably going to have to start saying “no.” A lot. Are you a follower of Jesus? Then go value what Jesus values. “Does this offend you?” (John 6:61) It should. The Gospel stands directly in contrast to your agenda and my agenda. The Gospel is about God’s agenda. This is when we start to find out how committed we really are to following Jesus. It is easy to put things off for “someday.” But for the people of God, “someday” is today. 

For Living Faith Alliance Church, there’s something new afoot. I believe the Spirit of God is at work right now in a totally new way. Do you sense it? The time is now to embrace that newness. No more “someday,” no more future. The future is here. Let the future begin.

Right Here. Right Now.

Jessica Noblett

As I've reflected on Sunday's sermon, those four words have echoed in my mind. The idea that God has set where I will go and live and the call to grow as a disciple and to make disciples is right where I am: right here, right now. 

The call isn't later in life, after my husband and I have bought a home, secured better jobs, freed up our weekends or honed our people skills (okay, well if you've met my husband you know that was never an issue to begin with.)

Honestly, when I step back and look at my life on a broader scale, I already know that living on mission and loving people like Jesus isn't something to wait on. In many ways I believe that my life does reflect that. But as I've thought about it over these past few days, I've realized the problem is that my excuses are more....daily.  

As a server, I don't always love my job but I love the people I work with. It seems like we are all at a turning point in our lives. Some are trying to get through school, some have been laid off from other jobs, some are single moms and some, like me, are servers because it was the job that was available. The bottom line is that waiting tables isn't the place any of us wants to be for the rest of our lives and one way to enjoy the job is by enjoying being with each other. It’s remarkable to see the unlikely friendships that have formed.

So here I am. God has placed me in a job not only with so many people who are ready to be known and loved but people that I truly enjoy being with. Right here. Right now. So what's the problem, right? The problem is the tiny excuses I make on a daily basis. I'm writing this on my day off and so far I have grocery shopped, done laundry, read a book and done just about everything I can to avoid spending time with other people. Because its my day off and I'd rather not. Not right here. Not right now. In the words of the effortless Scarlett O'Hara, I can't think about it today, I'll think about it tomorrow. 

Even though I believe I am committed to growing as a disciple and making disciples and everything that comes with it, when the small daily things pop up, I'm not as willing as I think I am. It can be so much easier to go on a mission trip than to show people at work who Jesus is on a daily basis is by watching my words or lending a hand when I'm exhausted. It doesn't come naturally but it is where I'm at and how I can love people well. That's the whole idea of letting Jesus into every area of my life.

The truth is, none of my tiny excuses stand a chance. As Nate said, living like Jesus makes me feel weak. It can be discouraging. It can even be, dare I say, irritating. But there is nothing else quite like stepping back and seeing how my life, my choices and my relationships have been changed by Jesus to line up with God's purposes. As painful as it can be, I love seeing God not satisfied in commanding the broad values of my life but stepping into the daily nitty-gritty to change my heart in the smallest decisions. Isn't that what it means to take up our cross daily and follow him?

Let's be encouraged, friends, that the call to grow as disciples begins one day at a time. I’m interested to know, what about this is hard for you? Or the opposite, comment here or on Facebook. What works for you when loving those around you?

"_______is not the absence of_______"

​Sarah Howard

 “Faith is not the absence of doubt.”  That phrase was shared in pastor Nate’s sermon on Sunday.  It started me to thinking so I brainstormed some similar phrases:

• Courage is not the absence of fear.

• Strength is not the absence of feeling weak. 

• Friendship is not the absence of conflict.

• Beauty is not the absence of imperfections.

• Good parenting is not the absence of my child misbehaving.

• Purity is not the absence of temptation.

• Living secure in my identity as God’s child is not the absence of lies.

• A great marriage is not the absence of conflict or difficulty. 

• Following God is not the absence of struggle or ‘fighting for my faith.’

• Joy in my stage of life of staying at home with my kids is not the absence of the realities of things like boredom, struggle, feeling overwhelmed.  

This list is so refreshing to me, because I so want my life to be ideal. I hate to feel weak; I feel like I’m not strong if I’m weak. Or I feel that a beautiful friendship will be ruined if we happen upon a conflict. When my daughter freaks out in the middle of the lobby on Sunday morning, I despair of parenting her well. But it seems that God does not think life is best lived in obtaining ideals. Instead, it seems like He’s wanting to meet us in the middle of the mess, in the midst of the struggle, wanting us to know Him there. 

How about you? Do you struggle to realize God is in the middle of messiness? How would you fill in the blanks “_________ is not the absence of __________”  as God shows you He wants you to know Him in that area? Feel free to comment here.

I'm Not Good Enough!

Blog entry:  

Sherry Engel

A few weeks ago, I looked over the schedule of bloggers, when I realized that I was scheduled to write the blog entry for the Easter Sunday sermon. My mind immediately went to, Oh No! I’m not good enough.  Really!!!!…. how could I write about the most important message of all time?!?

Rewind my life about 20 years and I recall a similar thought pattern.  Jesus doesn’t want me.  I’m not good enough. I try to be a good person, but I’ll never be the “perfect Christian”.  I can’t stand hypocrites, so how could I profess to be a Christian but still make the mistakes I make.  I can’t be baptized, committing to Jesus, because there’s no way I’ll live up to those standards.

Thankfully, I wasn’t left to hang out in this misery.  It was like a brick hit me over the head and helped me to see, “THAT’S THE POINT….. I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH!  If I was good enough, I wouldn’t need a savior.  If I was good enough, I wouldn’t need anyone to help me navigate life.  I can’t live the perfect life, only He did.  I need Jesus and He loves me even with all of my imperfections.

In fact all of my failed attempts at perfection, to be good enough, have only made me more desperate for a savior.  Someone perfect who will win despite all of my fears and failures.  Having that kind of savior in my life is the kind of good news I want to hold onto each day.

So while I continue to struggle with the sinful battle of trying to be “good enough”, trying to control my life, I now know I have a savior that will guide and help me along the way.

Pastor Nate’s sermon articulated it well, I have a savior that…

• died so that I would have the assurance that He is King and is in control and that I have nothing to worry about 
• allows me to set aside my false saviors including myself
• over powers death and gives me eternal life
• gives me a new life filled with the overwhelming power of the spirit of Jesus Christ living within me

So while I’m not good enough, I am loved enough.  Enough that Jesus died and the Father brought Him back to life for me, to guide me to become more and more like Him.  I bank my hope on this, and one day, because of His gift, I will be perfect, just like Him!

Picture Perfect Obedience

Obedience is a big part of my life. As a high school teacher, I spend a lot of time trying to get 150 teenagers to do what I say. This is often a futile endeavor.

There are the usual comebacks to my demands: “Why do I have to do this?” or “I’m just not feelin’ it today.”

 And then there are the nonverbal responses: the heavy sighs, eye rolls, and dirty looks.

Sometimes these protests are followed by the grudging following of whatever I asked. Sometimes there is outright defiance.  Sometimes the students will do part of what they are expected to do and ignore the rest. The responses vary, but rarely does the obedience come easily and cheerfully.

I don’t think most of us are that different from my students. We may end up doing the “right thing,” but we too often get there through a journey of grumbling and whining and second guessing of whoever is issuing the orders.

And the One issuing the commands is God Himself.

Many of us will do what we can to avoid the hard “stuff” the Lord commands: being a good steward of the gifts He has given, being open to whatever mission He calls us to, being forgiving and loving, being willing to capture every thought to put under His control.

While we’re busy making excuses for why we can’t, we’re missing the “big picture” of what life could be if we surrendered it to the Father.  

 Before last Sunday’s sermon, I had never thought of Jesus’ night in the Garden of Gethsemane as the perfect picture of obedience. If anyone had the right to reject and complain about what he was commanded to do, it was Jesus: the spotless Son, asked to carry and redeem the wrath of His Father toward a world of messed up people who deserved every punishment they had coming to them. But the Son accepted His Father’s command to become the world’s most complete picture of love and sacrifice.

There is something very beautiful in simply saying, “Yes, Lord, I will do as you will.” No excuses, no avoidance.

However, the reality is that this kind of graceful obedience comes at a price. Jesus had to die a painful death and take on the identity of a sinner to fulfill his “Yes.”  His sorrow at Gethsemane was real as He agonized about what His Father willed. Yet He still left the decision where it belonged, with God the Father. Jesus didn’t try to bargain His way out. He didn’t try to make excuses for why He couldn’t. He didn’t challenge the Father with a series of “why me” questions.

To obey beautifully requires sacrifice of self to Someone way bigger than we are.  Jesus led by example with His journey to the cross. His death and subsequent resurrection remain the most miraculous, life-affirming acts of love in history. Our acts of obedience to our Heavenly Father will result in the beauty of God’s plan unfolding as we grow in Him, both individually and as a body of believers. Let us strive to follow His steps by leaving personal agendas behind and simply, beautifully saying, “Yes, Lord.”

Are you willing to make the little and big sacrifices it takes to obey? What excuses need to disappear from your life so you can follow the Lord’s commands willingly? Pray and let the Spirit speak the Truth to you.

Blog entry by:   Nancy Vasquez

To He Much Is Given....

Blog entry: 

Dominick Baruffi

When I was a child, my dad made a habit of coming into the room my brother and I shared just before bedtime. He would tuck his two boys in, read to us, and pray over us as Dante and I slowly faded from the land of the living. Almost every time he sat down with us, my dad would repeat the same phrase from Luke’s gospel. Lately I’ve taken to calling it the Baruffi family motto, so frequently was it repeated in our house those days.

 Sitting by our bedside, my dad would remind us: “To he much is given, much is required.”

                                                                         * * * * *        

The words of my father seemed to be ringing in my ears as Nate preached from the stage on Sunday. I had been given much…but what had I done with it? Haven’t all my resources gone towards making my life as easy as possible? Just like the third man in the parable, I often conclude that, despite whatever “talents” I possess, I am not especially talented, and am therefore exempt from the commands of the Master. For surely, if God wanted to really use me, He would have also given me greater resources, greater abilities, greater opportunities to do great things? I tell myself this in order to justify any action I take that I know doesn’t fall in line with the way God is leading me. If much has not been given, then much is not required.

I don’t have nearly the time nor the space to tell you how hypocritical this line of thinking is.

What is needed, I think, is a new definition of “much.” You and I define it as “whoever has the most.” The Master defines it as “whatever I have given you.”

                                                                         * * * * *

Dallas Willard, one of my favorite writers on the spiritual life, once wrote that being a disciple of Jesus means learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live life if he were I. You might want to read that back again. I like Willard here because an important distinction is made; that is, the question is not so much “what would Jesus do?” but rather, “Given these talents, limitations and resources, how would Jesus respond?”

Here’s another way of putting it. You live within a very specific context: you have a job, a family, friends, classmates, etc. You are also equipped with a very particular skill set, regardless of how you may feel about the quality of those skills. The question that demands an answer from you daily is this: if Jesus were me, how would He go about my business? How would He schedule my day? How would he do my job? How would he spend my money? Keep in mind that while Jesus operates without limits, you do not share His ability to do so. You are limited in the time you have, the tasks you can accomplish, and the people you can impact. How would Jesus respond to the particular situations you encounter if He spent a day in your shoes?

I believe that we will come to think differently about the gifts given to us by the Master when we truly come to know the Master. I recently heard John Piper say there is a universe of difference between knowing about God and knowing God. He’s right. Take this word to heart today: know God. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the very knowledge of Himself as revealed in Scripture. Pursue the knowledge of God that leads to a transformed life, for that is the life we were designed for in the first place. The one who knows the Master’s heart knows what to do with what he has been given.

The Poor, Logs, and Pharisees

This week’s service was a bit of a roller coaster for me.

The first part of the sermon was encouraging because I truly love hearing about Jesus’ heart for the downtrodden- for the poor, the broken, the shame-filled, the outcast and those in bondage. I love being reminded that Jesus is so for the people we naturally consider the least.

So yes, this week's sermon was right up my alley. That is, until the end of the service when Pastor Nate said something about all of this applying to every person in this room and, in some way  or another, we're all poor, broken, shame-filled, outcasts in bondage.

My heart drifted to the floor like a deflating balloon. Not because it's a shock that I one of those, but the reminder that I'm called to love all of the messy Jesus-followers with abandon too. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that my pharisaical heart loves people on my own terms, my ideals, my rules.

I love loving the poor, broken, shame-filled, outcasts in bondage who don't know Jesus.  Not always and not perfectly, but I see Jesus' heart for them and my heart aches th at they don't know the hope, grace and salvation that Jesus offers them. I love wading through their messiness with them. I love stories of tangible redemption (don’t we all?!)

On the other hand, I'm much less inclined towards the poor, broken, shame-filled, outcasts in bondage who are already following Jesus but still messy. I guess I want them to have it more figured out, to be further along, to have things fixed. I like making rules for Jesus followers to follow, even if it’s just in my head.

It's a classic example of pointing to the splinter in everyone else’s eyes and ignoring the log in mine. Moreover, it’s convicting to realize that I don’t know Jesus’ heart as well as I’d like to think, and I certainly am not living out His heart for His people.

In the end though I’m encouraged, even though it doesn’t feel like I should be.  The bottom line is that we’re all messy and broken and Jesus has chosen to love us anyway, right in our mess. With love that big and grace so sufficient, I’m hopeful God has bigger plans for my heart as He takes the logs out of my eyes.

Incompetence Does Not Make Me Exempt

Water skiing sucks. That was my mantra for 6 years of growing up on a lake. My dad really wanted me to learn how to water ski when I was a little girl. If you’ve ever water skied, it feels incredibly awkward as you’re learning.

You have to ‘sit’ in the water in a chair position...while trying to steady these wobbly planks strapped to your feet...the whole time, you’re trying not to topple over into the water sideways... meanwhile your arms feel like they’re being ripped out of their sockets every time you take off...then you pretty much drink the entire lake through your nose each time you fall. As I said, it’s not pleasant. Each summer, I’d give learning to ski a good 3 attempts before I’d start crying and say that I couldn’t do it. That I just wasn’t good at it. I’d give up for the rest of the summer. It took me about 5 summers of this routine to finally learn to water ski.

Do you ever feel that because living missionally isn’t natural to you, you don’t want to do it?

It sure isn’t natural for me. When it comes to living missionally, I have the same mentality as water skiing. It feels awkward. It feels unnatural. I’m friends with our neighbors, but when an opportunity comes to mention the name ‘Jesus,’ everything I think of saying feels really strange, so I choke and end up not saying anything at all. It just doesn’t flow.

I don’t know about you, but it makes a world of difference for me to have permission to not be good at something and have it still be ok. That’s what Nate’s little diagram in this week’s sermon  about ‘unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, unconscious competence,’ did for me.

I realized that just because it’s not easy for me, I’m notexempt from a missional lifestyle. It’s not a natural gift, but that doesn’t mean that I never have to bring up Jesus with my neighbors. It makes sense that if I’ve never done it before, of course I’ll feel awkward, and I’ll have to work on it. God’s intent is ‘comptence,’ but it takes effort and time to get there.

Giving up is not an option. Mentioning Jesus to my neighbors will probably continue to be awkward, but as I do it more and more, I’ll move through those 4 steps of competency, just like I did with water skiing. In fact, even though it’s been a good 15 years since learning to ski, it’s like second nature to me. And I actually love it now.

What about you? Does living missionally come naturally to you?

 Blog entry by:  Sarah Howard

Wake up!

Did you ever just want to scream at someone: your kids, your friends, your spouse, anyone , to say “Wake Up”! Why can’t you see clearly?  That’s what I feel right now. “Why can’t all this wisdom I’ve gained change YOU?!?”

Think back to when you were in your late teens and someone tried to impact some truth on you.  How did you react?  I know what I thought…they’re clueless.  They just don’t get it.  I remember my father’s “Haroldisms”, as we called his words of wisdom.  Back then, I didn’t get it. Today though, they resonate clearly.  I remember a friend’s father repeating over and over, “Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.”  At the time, I thought he was annoying and irritating, but now those words are seared in my mind.  I also remember watching a Godly woman demonstrate what a Christian wife and mother should live like.  Qualities that I aspire to today.

In this week’s sermon, Pastor Nate discussed being prepared for judgment day when Jesus returns.   He shared,  “My desire is that you would just wake up.”   Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was just that easy to “wake up”  or that easy to “wake up” the ones we love?

If any of you are parents of a child entering adulthood, you can understand.  You love your children and want the best for them but you aren’t in control when it comes to changing their hearts.  In his sermon Pastor Nate noted how preparedness is not something you can transfer to another person.  Each individual has to make up their own mind.  It comes down to their choice, not yours. 

That’s a tough place to be when you love your children so deeply.  I’m learning through this season in my life that I’m not my children’s savior, Jesus is.  And sometimes God has to rock our kids hard, in order to wake them.  So as a parent, you may need to get out of the way and let your child be woken up. 

Reflecting back over the last 20 years, I realize God didn’t just bring me out of my sleep all at once, but gradually, awakened me.  So while you may just want to scream at someone to “Wake up! Jesus is coming!”   You may just need to quietly continue to plant the seeds.

How can you plant seeds to help others to gradually “wake-up”?

Blog entry by:  Sherry Engel

A Fine Line? Not So Much…

            Just how fine is the line between solid Christian doctrine and a crazy doomsday predictor living in a camper?  Doesn’t the Bible tell us to be ready, and doesn’t it give us some signs to look for?  Shouldn't all good Christians study this with zeal?  

            Predictions of the end of the world have been coming fast and furious over the past several years.  Needless to say, you are reading this because they’ve all been wrong.  Oddly enough, each seems to get more attention, more press, and more followers than the last. Usually mixing in some misconstrued scripture, a little wishful thinking, and a pinch of doomsday fear, the would-be prophets stir up a following and usually manage sell some books.  Humans are naturally eager to know what the future holds, and we love to latch onto anything that gives us a glimpse of things to come.

           This passage in Matthew 24, from which Nate has been teaching,  is often cited as a sort of “road map” for spotting the milestones of the second coming of Jesus.  It includes things like false messiahs, natural disasters, and war.  Anyone who watches the news or reads a newspaper would not be off the mark in thinking that sounds a lot like the world we live in today.  Indeed, it does. With our 24/7 news culture, at least one of those things makes headlines almost every day.  Surely, we're living in the "last days," right?

            The only problem is that none of these phenomena are new.  Even a brief overview of the last two thousand years shows a world history punctuated with the rise of false prophets (leading to many world religions and cults), natural disasters (global cooling, plagues, volcano eruptions), and wars (The Mongol Conquests, the Crusades, World Wars I and II).  Every generation since Christ could have read Matthew 24, looked around at the world, and been justified in thinking the return of Christ was imminent.

            So if Jesus isn't speaking specifically (and cryptically) to Christians of 2013, what do we do with this teaching?  Jesus lays out some pretty specific guidelines.  Stay alert, watch out for false teachers, don’t be lead astray, stay strong and don’t live in fear.  These seem like pretty good guidelines for living, period.  Even if we’re not focusing on the second coming. 

            I must admit, if it's not obvious, that this is one of my least favorite topics of discussion.  The primary reason I don’t like to focus on the “end times” is that people often seem so eager to lose the forest for the trees.  In other words, this topic, more than most, seems to capture the imagination and draw our focus away from the primary objective of reaching people, feeding the poor, caring for the helpless and hopeless, and sharing the love of Jesus with the world.

            I know and agree, “the end is near,” but instead of a myopic focus on a specific prophesy, this truth should spur us into action.  The end is, indeed, near.  Whether it’s the end of the world, or just the end of our time on it, we need to remain focused on doing what we’ve been called to do.  Let’s stop wasting time and resources on counting vowels in Genesis to calculate the date of the rapture, and use our energy on something that will yield fruit; that’s a line of doctrine I can follow.

Blog entry by:   Jeff Hyson

Missing Jesus?

“We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—“

                                -Paul Laurence Dunbar

These are the first two lines of one of my favorite poems. It speaks to the cultural truth that we like to hide from reality.

It’s second nature to me. I have worn a mask my whole life, one that attempts to make me appear as an individualist, willing to do my own thing no matter what anyone thinks. One that makes me look as if I don’t need other people’s approval.          

                Lies, all bold-faced lies.  I’ve only recently begun facing this truth that I’m a liar.

I desperately care what other people think. I always have. My life is so full of paralyzing fears of relationships that I literally can’t deal with them at times. I second guess everything I say, everything I do, everything I think:

                Did I say the right thing? Is someone going to be offended?

                I should have kept my mouth shut!

                Should I have done something differently? That made me look stupid!

I am, as I see it, socially awkward. My life has been spent attempting to emulate the outgoing, the “cool,” the people who can talk to anyone with confidence. When I couldn’t copy them, I sat in my tiny corner with a mixture of envy and awe toward those front and center, who work their way through relationships with seeming ease.                  

I became a people worshipper.  My entire identity was wrapped up in what other people thought of me. I clung to those who “approved” of me, my friends and family, as my heroes and my idols. When these idols let me down, as fallible humans always will, my identity went crashing down, too.

I was the first point in last Sunday’s sermon  a person embroiled in “an obsessive and destructive pattern of using people to…feel loved, becoming a slave to others’ opinions.” 

I was so busy seeking approval that I didn’t see what God wanted me to see: His plans, His purposes, His sovereignty, His wonder, His deliberate creation of me as I am.

There is such great freedom in taking the mask off, to breathe fully and without fear. To finally realize that I am God’s precious daughter, created as beautiful in His sight, even with what I see as horrible flaws. To be honest enough to reveal the truth that yes, I am a mess who needs to get my priorities straight, but I am not a hopeless mess. To step out in faith to do what I can to repair relationships destroyed in part by my unrealistic expectations of people as my saviors.

When my focus is on God, I have freedom to pursue what He wants for my life without distraction, to face Him and the world without the suffocating restrictions of a mask of lies.

Blog entry by:   Nancy Vasquez

Hey...He Was Talking About Me!

I think I would have rather had a tooth pulled than write this post. In fact, I did everything possible to avoid writing this all week, including reorganizing my entire sock drawer (which, though very important, was far from pressing). I did this primarily because I did not want to relive Sunday's sermon. I’ve heard teachings and lectures on the Seven Woes of the Pharisees before, and honestly I was expecting more of the same going into the service. But Nate’s message was not more of the same. It was personal. It wasn’t about the leaders of Jesus’ day. It was about me.

Because I am a Pharisee.

I am guilty of every charge Jesus brought against the religious elite of his time. I am selfish, blind, arrogant and proud. I am full of all manner of lust, greed, slander and envy. And this is not hyperbole, friends. I see this play out in the decisions I make each and every day: decisions to gossip about someone to be part of the crowd; decisions to be showy when being discreet would do the job; decisions to ignore God altogether because why bother when I’ve got me?

I am a Pharisee.

And this is why I wanted no part of reliving Sunday’s sermon. Because I get it. I'm a Pharisee. I'm horrible and selfish and want all the glory for myself. I'm a Pharisee, ok? What do you want from me? I know I'm a sinner and guilty on all accounts. I live with it every day. I don't want to sin, yet I repeatedly choose to do so. And there are days where I have thought that I am never going to change, that I should just give up altogether because what’s the point?

The Judge has spoken. The gavel has dropped. The ruling is clear: “Guilty.”

What do I do now? How do I respond to that, other than “yep?”

It took me until midweek to realize my mistake. While all this is true, it is only half the story.

There’s more.

The beauty of the Gospel is there is always more grace. Just like the prodigal, we have a Father that is forever waiting at the gates for us, ready to run out to meet the poor, disheveled soul who thought life would be better if he did things on his own. I cannot tell you how many times I have been that poor, disheveled soul. It seems like a billion, billion times. And every time I come crawling back to God, embarrassed to even show my face to the Father I so quickly deserted, He does what he has done so many times over: He embraces me. He takes me back. I am unworthy to receive Him, but He does not count my sin against me. That penalty has been paid.

All because of Jesus.

This is the Gospel we claim as ours. Even in our sin, we can confidently approach God because we come as sons and daughters. Most of the time, we’re too distracted by our sin to remember this. That’s exactly what the enemy wants. As long as the focus is your sin, you are of no threat to him. But instead of spending all my time focusing on my sin, I’m learning to spend all my time focusing on Jesus. Sin is my problem, but Jesus made it his problem by dying in my place. And grace covers a multitude of sin.

I am a Pharisee. But by the grace of God, that is not all that I am.

Blog entry by: Dominick Baruffi

Prove it, Again?

            Have you ever thought a sermon totally didn’t apply to you, but then all of the sudden, WHAM, you remember something you were thinking like a week ago?  Yeah, that happened to me this past Sunday…and I was a little embarrassed when I thought of the context in which I was ‘judging the Judge.’  

            The week before Christmas, my two daughters caught a nasty cold.  It lingered, and a few days later my husband caught it as well.  I was completely sure that I would inevitably catch this cold.  And I was angry about.  Angry about how sick I was going to be (with this cold that I hadn’t yet caught).  It was Christmas, for crying out loud.  I could just picture myself on the 25th, with watery eyes, sneezing and coughing uncontrollably, trying to nurse and care for my seven-month-old, while also disciplining my rammy two-year-old. 

            As I waited for my self-fulfilling prophecy to come true, I realized that my anger was not just towards the situation, but actually more towards God.  He controls all things, right?  So couldn’t He control this cold hitting my family at Christmas?  Couldn’t He have kept us healthy at least until the day after the holidays? 

            As the days went by, I kept not getting sick.  I expected to wake up with instant strep throat, but every morning as I opened my eyes, I felt fine.  As Christmas Day approached, I felt torn.  Was God being gracious to me, the mommy who carries so much weight for the family?  Was He sparing me and caring for me, knowing I couldn’t handle being sick myself while trying to care for my sick family?  Or was He just cruelly waiting until the very last second to slam me on Christmas morning?

            I know this all sounds a little ridiculous, but I’m not exaggerating these thoughts.  I really had them!  I even told my husband about this struggle.  My thoughts were honestly dominated by wondering about my fate: would I be sick or not sick?  ‘Is God being extra kind and good in sparing me, or is He being completely mean and malicious?’ I thought.  As you can imagine, I felt far from God during worship time on the Sunday before Christmas and on Christmas Eve.  I was waiting for Him to prove Himself before I’d say anything good about Him.

            Well, after all of this internal struggle, I ended up not getting sick.  You would think I was settled in my mind, then: God is extremely kind and gracious, giving us what we don’t deserve and not giving us what we do deserve.  Nope.  Not me.  I actually forgot about it.  As each day passed without sneezing, the struggle faded more in my mind.  I’m not even sure if I ever even said, “Thanks, God, that I didn’t get sick.”  My lack of sickness didn’t actually prove God’s goodness in my mind.  I felt okay to open my heart to Him again, but not cemented in my belief in His care.  

            So in the end of the sermon last Sunday, when I heard these lines: ‘I’ll follow God when He makes it more clear,’ ‘I can’t follow God until I have it all figured out,’ and ‘I’ve found a loophole about Him,’ I saw myself the week before Christmas.  Delaying my declared love for God until I figured it out and saw the end of my story.  I was willing to be thankful and have an open heart to God IF I didn’t get sick, IF He proved, yet again, that He was good.

            The answer that Jesus gave to the third ‘test’ in Matthew 22 really stood out to me.  The religious leaders asked Him which was the Greatest Commandment, and He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.”  You know what Jesus, with that answer, says to me?  He says, “Guess what? I might not choose to prove Myself in every situation.  Every situation is not a fresh test of My goodness.  There may be times when you can’t outright see My goodness and care.  But I still demand your love, Sarah.  I still call you to worship Me as good, to declare My faithfulness and care for you, even when you can’t see it.  Enough with the tests!  Enough with the having to prove Myself over and over and over again.  Love Me with all you’ve got…and loving Me includes every day stuff!  Even when you might have simple cold.  Love me there.  One way it’ll look is believing and declaring that I’m good in any situation you encounter.  You don’t have to wait for me to prove Myself again.”

            So I’m taking this and running  Maybe you’ll join me, too.  So whether in sickness or in health, let’s love the Lord our God…who is good in every situation.  Whether we see it or not. 

Blog entry by: Sarah Howard

Faith and the Art of Waiting

This past week's sermon had to do with things I've had to do a lot: asking and waiting. More specifically, it was about prayer. The promises and conditions of "whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." (Matthew 21:22)

I got all kinds of hung up on that "Big Condition" of faith. 

Because when the burden is fully on God's capable, eternal, all-knowing shoulders, I can start to grasp that maybe I'll “receive.” But when my faith is the deciding factor, let's not hold our breath. I’m not known for moving mountains and, frankly, placing that kind of responsibility on my faith isn’t something I’m very comfortable with. After all, when it comes to rearranging geography and such, aren’t those matters best left up to God?

That’s where my asking and waiting comes in. 

I've realized over the past few weeks that while I may ask, I rarely wait. Or at least the waiting I've been doing lately has been pretty non-participatory. It’s waiting room waiting. The kind of waiting that doesn’t require much of me and puts all of the initiative and responsibility on the other party.

I ask God to reveal something. No answer. I ask God again. No answer. I'm a fairly stubborn person (to say the least) so this can continue indefinitely and that’s not really my point.

I’m talking about what happens to the rest of my life while I'm waiting for that answer. I've taken God's lack of answering as it's own solution - that I'm not budging until I hear his answer. Or, in other words, until I get what I want. Meanwhile, the rest of the world continues and my life stays apathetically on hold. Putting off decisions, dodging commitments and keeping everything else to a bare minimum. Because, let's not get too comfy, I know this is only temporary until I get my answer

The Bible gives plenty of examples of people who were called to wait until God answered them (emphasis on the “calling.”)  But my waiting has been more like a stake-out, or maybe one of those union protests at a building site. I’ve got my lawnchairs and a 20 foot blow-up rat and I’m staying put until God decides to be more reasonable.

And that's not really the same thing as faith, is it?

Faith looks more like what's described in Hebrews 11:13-

"Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world." (The Message)

In the light of those examples, it seems like waiting for an answer isn't faith at all. It seems more like my excuse to do nothing. To be faithless. Most importantly, my waiting has allowed me to ignore everything I’m called to in the meantime.

In the words of Pastor Nate, my active faith aligns myself with God to receive. Active faith. Faith that's still busy loving, serving, listening, obeying and worshipping a Holy God, not just sitting on the couch waiting for him to call me back and give me what I want.

It seems that it takes as much faith to ask as it does to continue faithfully honoring everything else God has put in my life, while I wait. That I would wait in the midst of my active faith, instead of the other way around. 

So even if I don't have "in hand what was promised", I do still have a promise to base my faith on: that He always keeps His word. Maybe I’ll never get my answer; maybe my answer is still a long way off. Or maybe I already have my answer to be faithful and committed in what I’ve already been given. But ultimately, my faith still rests in a good God, never in just the answer itself.

 Blog entry by: Jess Noblett

Scars

What do Candy Lightner, Donna Whitson, Bill Wilson, and Robbie Parker all have in common? 

• Candy Lightner –  lost daughter in a drunk driving accident - founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving
• Donna Whitson – daughter kidnapped and murdered - co-founder of the Amber Alert
• Bill Wilson – suffered with alcoholism - co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
• Robbie Parker – lost a daughter in Newtown shooting - a light to others during the tragic loss of his child

All of these people experienced extreme pain and sadness. All of these people turned their sorrow into love in action.

Every single one of our lives is full of hurts of one kind or another.  There is no one exempt from brokenness.  So situations come into our lives.  We experience pain.  We have scars from that pain.  What do we do with those scars?  Do we just cover them up? Do we become bitter and angry? What we do with the pain we’ve experienced is pivotal. 

Baron Batch, Pittsburgh Steelers running back puts it this way. 

 “God gives us scars sometimes to remind us where we’ve been and more importantly how he’s healed us.  Once we have those scars we can show people and say, look, this is what God’s done for me. “

Pastor Nate’s message last week taught how we should Love All.  He defined love as a big deal, in action, with a specific target.   We can easily become overwhelmed by pain, either our own or by the world’s. We can’t fight the fight for every single battle that exists. God created us with limits. But as Mother Theresa put it, “If I look at the masses, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.”

Look around you. Look at the one. Who is hurting? Who is hurting like you’ve hurt? How could God be calling you to Love All through your scars?

Blog entry by:  Sherry L. Rhone-Engel

So This is Christmas

            I must admit that as I entered into last Sunday’s service, I had lofty expectations.  I know that Pastor Nate’s message is titled Give More, and my inner advocate for social justice is ready for the hard hitting, no-holds-barred assault on self-centered “me”-ism.  I am anticipating a focus on charity and a good Christmas-themed giving message.

            As the teaching begins, things are progressing nicely.  God is a giver of good gifts.  Amen.  He gave humanity his greatest gift, his son, Jesus.  Got it.  The world is full of evil and awful things. Wait… what? Did I miss something?  Are we really going to tackle the problem of how a good God allows evil to happen… in a Christmas message?  I am ready for a comfortably predictable talk about helping the less fortunate.  This is bit much! 

            The question of evil has plagued the minds of mankind for our entire collective history.  It is no doubt fresh in the minds of many as recent events in the news continue to showcase human suffering.  While unexpected, a message like this could not be more timely.

            How can a good and loving God allow so much suffering in the world?  I have heard the question asked, and I have heard several people attempting to answer.  Outspoken atheists take to Twitter to ask “Where is your god now?” while members of the Westboro Baptist Church (the “God Hates America” group) proclaim, “God sent the shooter.”  With all of these competing and confusing voices, we are in need of some clarity. 

            We believe that God is good and is the giver of good gifts.  We acknowledge that we are sinful and fallen.  Despite our sinful and fallen state, God continues to bless us with gifts.  Evil is a result of the collective sin of mankind.  We continue to do what we think is best, instead of following God.  But, contrary to what the Westboro folks would have us believe, God is not angrily smiting mankind for one or two specific sins. God is still good and is still the giver of good gifts.

            So how does all of this fit into Christmas?  When we see suffering around us, our tendency is to feel hopeless.  It is in that hopelessness that we can find hope.  God gave us the gift of Jesus.  That is the essence and message of Christmas.  We were hopeless, and we received the gift of hope. 

            I did not hear the predictable Christmas sermon about giving that I expected to hear on Sunday. I suppose my lofty expectations were set a little low. But any time I can get some answers to one of life’s major questions, I’ll take it! 

Blog entry by: Jeff Hyson

Surrender to the Adventure

I don’t like surprises. Even good ones. As a child, I would cry when well-meaning relatives would have the servers in a restaurant sing “Happy Birthday” to me. I’d probably do the same thing now.  I like my restaurant meals and life in general to be safe, predictable, and steady.

In short, I am not one of those people who joyfully embrace the surprises God gives us all from time to time.

Mary and I have that in common. I’ve never thought of us as on the same page. Me and one of the great women of the Bible? Yeah, right.

Mary was planning a very ordinary, safe life for herself as a carpenter’s wife in Nazareth, a completely accepted and expected life for a young Jewish woman of the time period. When an angel showed up to tell her that God had bigger plans for her, she cheerfully accepted, right?

Not exactly. Like so many great figures of the Bible, Mary has become larger than life in our eyes, a human above and beyond our feelings and shortcomings. A look at Scripture usually reveals that those used by God are a lot like, well, us.

Mary was “greatly troubled” at the news she received. She needed to think about it.

She reacted just like I or all the other play-it-safe people in the world would. With anxiety. With fear. With questioning.

To live an extraordinary life as earthly mother to the Messiah, Mary had to let go of her ordinary expectations.

Letting go is hard. It means saying “yes” to the unknown, the adventurous, the threatening. It means saying “yes” to faith and hope and trust in the unseen.

Mary said “yes” despite her doubts because she knew Who was in charge of this great, exciting journey of life.

She had the wisdom to know she wasn’t in charge.

Saying yes didn’t mean the easy life. Mary had to face the shame of unwed motherhood, the questions, the rumors, the stares. She faced childbirth alone in a barn far from the comforts of home.

About 33 years later, she watched that innocent firstborn get crucified.

But she also watched the miracle of humanity’s redemption come to pass when that same firstborn conquered death and walked out of that grave alive and triumphant.

What’s better? The safe life we crave or the adventure God has in store for us?

It seems like such an easy choice. But it isn’t, when strong desires for a comfortable life and secure relationships with others stand in the way of Godly wisdom and surrender to the unknown.

Saying “yes” is a journey and a sacrifice, one the mother of our Savior knew well.

Let go of safety and let God take the reins. At least take the first step with a tentative “yes” to God’s will, not your own. Follow Jesus step by step, because He will never send you down the wrong path.

Go ahead, the still small voice of our loving heavenly Father says. You can do it. One step, one moment at a time.  We are His beloved works in progress.   

 Blog entry by: Nancy Vasquez

God With Us: From Bethlehem to Newtown

Twenty little kids slaughtered with an assault rifle. Mostly first graders, the medical examiner said on television. Shot by a twenty-year-old for reasons not understood.

The events in Newtown, Connecticut have horrified our country and the world. The brutality of the mass killing of innocents has shaken us to the core. We can’t help but ask, Why? Even Christians wonder how a loving God could allow such a thing to happen.

For a world in grief, the Christmas story provides some clarity. Jesus wasn’t born into a world of easy circumstances, free of pain. As a part of the Trinity, co-equal with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, Jesus IS all-powerful, all-knowing God. He could have chosen many routes to save a sinful world.

But He chose to be born as a human baby, living a human life with all of its pain. He was born in a barn with filthy animals. He lived in a land under oppressive rule. The king of this land was so threatened by Jesus’ birth that he ordered all children under two years old to be killed. Jesus’ earthly parents had to flee to another country to avoid the slaughter of those innocents.

It was hardly an easy way for God to choose to live. But He chose it with purpose.

Often the Christmas story has been reduced to a pretty Nativity set on a shelf, or to Linus reciting Luke 2 in A Charlie Brown Christmas. In reality though, it is a story about God’s sacrifice, of choosing to live in a world full of darkness and be its Light. He came to live among us with all of our sinful ugliness and brokenness. He wasn’t coming to give the divine answers from a distance.  He came to give us abundant life right here among us, relating to our struggles, Immanuel, truly being God With Us.

The story continues. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, his message was ignored and mocked and hated. It seemed that His ministry ended when God was crucified like a criminal to the mockery of a crowd. It was suffering and injustice at their most powerful, a Messiah preaching love and peace executed in the most humiliating way possible.

This was how God purposefully chose to redeem humans from sin: through pain and suffering and sacrifice.

Did God’s Son take the easy, painless route? Hardly.

The good news is that Jesus conquered suffering and death in the resurrection! The life begun as a baby in a manger became the ultimate demonstration of God’s power and love for a world of sinful people.

The work of that infant Savior isn’t done yet.  He is among us and knows what it is like to hurt and question, but He also knows that He will have the ultimate victory over sin and death. Until that happens, we will continue to live in a world where tragedy and sin seem to rule, where small children can be killed on a quiet Friday morning for no reason that we can fathom.

But His Kingdom is coming. Jesus even said it’s already at hand. So we must follow Jesus’ example of being Light to a world filled with pain. We must let the world know that a baby born in Bethlehem, fully God and fully human, understands our suffering because He lived it. God chose the difficult path to bring hope to a seemingly hopeless world. And just like Him, our purpose is to bring this Light and this Hope and this Love to a suffering world. He changes lives. He redeems souls. He restores broken and grieving hearts.

He is Immanuel, God With Us.

Blog entry by:  Nancy Vasquez

A Christmas the Grinch Can't Steal

"Spend less." It's easy to say, isn't it? Rolls off the tongue quickly, almost effortlessly. It's so simple that it's almost trite this time of year. To tell you the truth, if I hadn't heard it from the pulpit on Sunday, I might've been tempted to dismiss it altogether. Sure, I'd tell you, I'd love to spend less. Nobody wants to be wasteful. But I have gifts to buy for so many people, and there's so little time to get all that shopping in, and of course I have to get the perfect gift for everyone, and really how much should I be spending on gifts anyway? And then I walk into church and we start talking about giving to the poor instead, and I just feel guilty about Christmas altogether. It's like I can’t win, no matter what I do.

I imagine you've felt this same hopelessness before. And after Sunday, I'm left pondering a question that continues to bug me year after year: how can we ever hope to practice "Spend Less" in a healthy, responsible way?

Any time Jesus wanted to convey a truth about how to live, he told a story. He could have given us a field manual, or a systematic theology textbook. But he knew that the best way to teach us about life was to speak in terms of things we already knew, like construction or gardening. I like that He did this because it’s easier for me to follow, and stories are way more interesting than textbooks anyway.

 So let me tell you a story.

It's one of my favorite Christmas stories, and one I'm sure you're familiar with: "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," by Dr. Seuss. It's a simple story that asks a simple question: what happens when there aren’t any presents on Christmas? You know the tale: the mean, old Grinch steals all the presents in Whoville on Christmas night, only to find them singing together on Christmas morning, "without any presents at all!" This baffles the Grinch. And at first, it ought to baffle you, too. The Grinch has taken everything even resembling Christmas: "all the ribbons, the wrappings, the trimmings, the trappings." No presents. No food. It's all gone. And yet the Whos wake up singing.

Why? What's left to sing about? “Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small” joins hands and sings the one truth of Christmas together. So what are they singing? Well, it didn’t have anything to do with sleigh bells or shopping, I can tell you that. Because if all you have to sing about on Christmas is presents, decorations, and the "Christmas spirit," then you have a Christmas that the Grinch can steal. Christmas has to be about something bigger than presents, bigger even than your loved ones, for it to inspire you to sing all by itself.

Which is why I'm inclined to think the Whos were singing something you and I might know.

O come, all ye faithful,

Joyful and triumphant,

O come ye, o come ye to Bethlehem

Come and behold Him,

Born the King of angels

O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him

O come let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

That, friends, is a Christmas the Grinch can't steal. It's the truth that keeps the fire of Christmas burning: that hope doesn't come from a department store. That the King has come, in the most unlikely of fashions. And there's a rumor going around that He's going to change everything.

When we stop worrying about things that are less important than Christ, everything falls into place. That's the secret of "Spend Less." Like Jesus' friend Martha, we are worried about many things; "all the ribbons, the wrappings, the trimmings, the trappings." We can't begin to think about slowing down because how will anything get done if we don't work like crazy through the holiday? And I can promise you one thing: until we shift our values to focus on the "Christ" part of Christmas, we will always rest dissatisfied. We can make every excuse in the book, but it comes down to our willingness to follow Jesus into every area of life, even the uncomfortable places like how we spend our money.

So stop for a minute. Quit worrying about your to-do list. Remember to sing. Remind yourself why you’re doing all that cooking and cleaning. Spend time in the presence of God for an hour instead of browsing around endlessly on Amazon. Make room for Jesus every day, and watch Christmas take on a whole new life. Because when Christ comes, everything changes.

Blog entry by: Dominick Baruffi