This is the New Year

Every year ends pretty much the same way.  We take some time to reflect on the past twelve months.  We read lists of the “Best Albums of the Year,” or “The Year’s Top Celebrity Moments,” or “22 Greatest Food Fails of 2013.”  We are still feeling the effects of the holiday season, which may take the form of extra weight, extra debt, or an extended hangover.  Then, at the stroke of midnight on December 31st, we stop all this reflecting and move on to celebrating the future.  We set unrealistic goals.  We talk about how this year will be better than the last.  We trade our nostalgia for hope. 

New Years, much like graduations are about endings and beginnings.  They cause us to take stock of the events that have led us to where we are, survey the highlights and lowlights along the way, and look forward with anticipation of what the future holds.

 In the spirit of reflecting on the past and looking ahead to the future, Pastor Nate took some time this past Sunday to recap some of this year’s sermon series.  As we look back on messages past, truths are reaffirmed and we are reminded of the highlights.  As I listened to the sermon, I began to think about all the lessons I had learned over the past year.  

Sometimes, learning something new means changing something that you thought you knew.  We don’t like to admit that we believed something false.  In fact, when faced with some truth that confronts a long-held belief that we’ve comfortably settled into, our instinct is to challenge that truth and fight for our false saviors.  Learning can be painful and uncomfortable.  Some of the things I have learned over the past year were these hard-fought truths.  As I look forward to the year to come, I anticipate that more of the “truths” I hold onto now will be challenged.

Jeff Hyson

The Earth orbits the sun once every 365.25 days.  It has for as long as we can remember.  Still, every time it does, we celebrate.  We celebrate the past, and we look forward to the future.  This past year I’ve learned that God’s truths are truer than mine.  Do not be afraid to learn something new this year, even if it challenges a false “truth” in your life, because giving up something little to gain something big should be everyone’s New Year’s resolution.

New Year’s Quiz: What Kind of Fish Are You?

(By Lois Robinson)

Years ago, a counseling teacher taught me a few things about fishing. He told those of us in the class that fish are different, and they like different bait and even different types of rigs. “Hmmm”, I thought, “maybe that’s one reason I have never been very successful at the art of fishing.” My thought was, “Just get a line, put a hook on it, grab a worm, drop it in the water and I better catch something in five minutes or I’m leaving!” The old instant gratification condition won most of the time. I would still want seafood though, which was why I went fishing in the first place. So to solve my current dilemma I would spend money I didn’t have to buy it at a restaurant!

Fishing didn’t become one of my favorite things to do because it was too much work! I was more than happy to spend money in the store, or better yet a restaurant, because it was even less work!

Are you seeing a pattern here? I wanted to avoid as much work as possible. Instead, I was willing to go into debt, being a poor steward of finances, just to get what I wanted!

Let’s go back even further now; I was taught in Sunday School a wonderful little song called ‘I will make you Fishers of Men.” Wait a Minute! How does this all connect?! Well, the Gospels in the Bible tell the story of how Jesus fished for men/women/children. He carefully chose the way he would love them to build relationship in order to bring them to a better understanding of their Father’s love and purposes for their lives. 

But let’s not stop there. There is another very important truth in this fishing example we must not be ignorant to.

The bible clearly states:

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” Hosea 4:6

“Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst.” Isaiah 5:13

The counseling teacher’s point in the lesson was not about fishing for people on Jesus’ behalf but how the devil himself is a fisherman as well. His purpose is to destroy us! The teacher demonstrated how the enemy sits, chooses the bait, schemes, baits the hook, drops the line at the most opportune time and desperately wants us to bite! As any real fisherman knows, the bait stays out in the water for a while usually, and the fish who are hungry smell it for miles. As the bait lingers in the water, saturating the surrounding water, the fish swim toward it. At first it may be just a “swim by,” then they come back to nibble, toying with it you could say. Not biting but dabbling. As their appetite grows for the bait.... BAM....they’re hooked and reeled in! From the shore, you can see the fisherman’s face light up. He has conquered the fish! I would encourage you to take a look at yourself as the holidays are over. Some will worship themselves by denying the birth of Jesus, some will worship debt, some will worship depression, some will worship anything or anybody but Jesus. Some will choose to Worship Jesus Fully. 

These questions are designed to help you know your bait preferences. 

1.  What kind of fish are you?

2.  What kind of bait are you attracted to? 

3. Are you just nibbling, “swimming by” with interest or ready to bite?

4. Is it Jesus bait? This gives life.

5. Is it Satan bait? This will kill you. 

6. What fisherman will be happy when you take the bait that interests you? 

Jesus our King or the father of lies?

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Things That Go Bump In The Night

Back in the day, when the world and I were young, my brother and I were the family dishwashers. This was the forties, and unless we got lucky we did the job every night after dinner. One night I washed; the next night I dried, but as soon as the food was put away we got down to our real business, which was to make the other one do more work than we did. This involved diligently searching for any tiny speck of food left on a washed plate, so the washer had to wash it twice, but the dryer only had to dry it once! Hah! One point for the dryer! Of course, the next night the situation was reversed. All this was accomplished in relative silence. This was so that we could at the same time listen to the radio. If we got into an argument, the radio got turned off. Our weary mother was a teacher, and found little patience with fractious children who ought to be getting done with the job at hand and on to their homework. So we mostly behaved, because we wanted to listen to the radio more than we wanted to fight.

There was no TV back then – I was in college when we got our first tiny TV – but every night there were radio shows! “Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy!”;  “The Green Hornet”;  “ Buck Rogers”; “The Creaking Door”; “Lights Out”;  “I Love a Mystery” – all of them somehow more vivid because we could use our imagination to create the people who owned the voices. It was wonderful.  And oh, those mystery shows! Scary, scary, scary! Many were the nights I checked under my bed before I turned out the light! I didn’t know what I was afraid might be there, because I had nothing visual to apply, but I looked!

The pertinent thing is that at our young age we could only imagine what our experience and our minds could enable us to picture. We were basically protected from horror by the limits of our actual reality. How unlike some of the television shows today, which graphically illustrate every kind of depravity.  So, there are shows I simply don’t watch. I like cop shows; I like spy dramas,  I love football! But I find I cannot watch psychopathic horror shows. The images are far beyond anything I can easily dismiss. They stay there. And so I try not to clutter my mind with this degree of illustrated evil. Could I handle it? I don’t know. I choose not to. Believe me, I don’t for a minute think there is no evil lurking in my mind! My miserable sin nature is very busy luring me with all sorts of evil, which God enables me mostly to resist, but I think I surely don’t need to go looking for more. I am an adult, with a clear understanding of the reality or lack of same portrayed on the screen, but I still can be affected by what I watch.

Which brings me to our children. Can we really convince ourselves that terrible graphic images on the screen have no effect on them? That they, too, don’t somehow struggle to find a safe place to hide pictures they cannot forget? Are we carelessly burdening them awfully with concepts they aren’t even able to process? Can we believe that they’re not changed, however subtly, by these experiences? We wrap them in seat belts. We vaccinate them against disease. We teach them about dangerous strangers. We would give our lives to save them. And still, in spite of how we try, we know we cannot wrap them totally in soft cotton batting. The world as it is will indeed batter them in many ways. But could we please try our best to protect their very young minds from images God never meant for them to see or try to understand? Could we let them be innocent a little while longer?

If we were to have a – what shall we call it – a strenuous disagreement with our spouse, we would never sit our toddler down in the middle of it! You know what would happen: the little one would be frightened to tears.  So how can any sane adult assume that a small child with absolutely no life experience is able to understand the intricacies of television and know that it is all make-believe?  One of my daughters had nightmares for years after watching the Wizard of Oz, because of the Flying monkeys! Flying monkeys, for goodness’ sake! Who knew! Certainly not me! How much more frightening must be portrayal of real people doing awful things. Our babies’ minds are such precious things. We need, need, need to protect them, and do it diligently!

 Am I urging an absolute absence of television? I am not, though some choose that path. Time marches on, and so does technology. There are great programs to be found there, for children and adults alike. But just as we are careful to dress our kids appropriately for the weather, we need to filter what can reach their minds.

The truth is that God charmingly limited their understanding, placing the responsibility of caring for them upon us. The way a baby will crawl happily toward a hot surface or toward the edge of a bed is a perfect illustration of their total innocence of the consequences of going over the edge. We grab them.  

We need to be just as protective of their minds, that they not fall over the edge or be scarred by burns.  Grab them.

Norma Stockton

The Foolishness Of God

It seems to come and go faster every year, doesn't it? The Christmas season, I mean. It’s not that I don’t love it, because it never fails to fill my heart with joy. But it’s such a blur anymore that if I don’t put any effort into properly slowing down, I can fly through the advent season faster than you can say Kris Kringle. I know the stories and songs by heart, to the point that I become anesthetized to it. But that is not what I want to talk about here. Not really, anyway. 

By the time you read this, we will be inching dangerously close to the time of year when the Internet explodes with articles on New Year’s Resolutions and how you can achieve them. This is usually followed by everyone you know deciding that this is definitely the year they will finally get in shape, or start eating better, or ditch that nasty habit that never goes away. And yet, by the third or fourth week of January all is essentially forgotten, and we’re left with this hopeless sense that we are never really going to change and what’s the use? But that is not what I want to talk about here. Not really, anyway. 

If you’ll indulge me for a minute, I just want to talk about me. 

I am getting married next year. It is an unbelievable joy to write a sentence like that. Dawn and I are in the thick of marriage prep, and we’re confident that we are walking in obedience by taking this step. And yet, as we careen towards our wedding day like a rocket heading to space, I find that it becomes easier every day to be filled with fear. Where will we live? What about my job? Will we have enough money? I am compelled to worry about these to the point of obsession, because I have to be sure I can provide a safe and stable situation for us. 

Sounds wise, right?

What would you say if I told you it wasn’t?

*  *  *  *  *

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul says this: “This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25, NLT). The “plan” Paul is talking about here is God’s plan of salvation, which culminated in the birth of Christ and extended even to the Gentiles, which was practically unthinkable to first-century Jews. I love the way this translation puts it: the “foolish plan of God” that is wiser even than our best attempt at wisdom. It serves as a helpful reminder to me of who is God and who is not in our relationship. 

His thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways.  Christmas is the perfect time of year to meditate on the mystery of this. God himself incarnated was born into our dirty world, lived an uncomfortable life, died a rather unfortunate death, and is at this very moment interceding on behalf of sinners like you and me at the throne of heaven. “Practically” speaking, this had to be the most inefficient plan God could have come up with! Yet this is the option God chose, not because of its “foolishness” but because of its surpassing wisdom. 

More often than not, following God has to make sense in some very practical way for us to get on board. In other words, it has to be safe. But when we say “safe,” we really mean “comfortable.” Safety is allowing the Master to do what he wants with you and trusting Him to provide everything you need along the way. Our definition of safe turns out to be following God right up to the point that it becomes uncomfortable and begins demanding more from us than we’d like. The New Testament has a name for people who act this way. It’s “Pharisee.”

Answering practical questions is important. What’s more important is following the Master’s voice.

*  *  *  *  *

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of resolving to do the same things every year and giving up after three weeks because the shine has worn off. And I’m tired of being controlled by fear. I want to follow Jesus in 2014 by actually following Jesus: that is, taking my cue from the voice of God, regardless of how risky or “foolish” it may seem. His foolishness is wiser than my wisdom, and my hope is built on nothing less. 

Now there’s something to be joyful about.

Dominick Baruffi

The Devil's Courtroom

(By Thor Knutstad)

Satan always rushes at the mention of legal matters.  Though Revelation 12:10 says that he is "expelled from the real courtroom of God," the accuser finds himself there by the door trying to twist kernels of truth into mountains of accusation and condemnation on God's people.  The deceiver wants us to prove and defend our stance with God by performance and works.  In true essence, Satan is the most obvious and yet most subtle approval seeker.  He puts the attention on our sins (all of our sins) and he causes us to be deceived to think that we stand and fall on our own behavior.  He tries to make us think that we are alone and without advocacy – and raises questions about the extent of God’s forgiveness in Christ’s atoning work.  He (the enemy) will go so far as to make God’s people think that their moments of struggle are some abuse of liberty and license when it is not (for some it is, but more on that another time).  If I trust in myself, I live in the devil’s courtroom and hand him the gavel, which he in turn hands to me for self-judgment.   At this, I need to not hand the gavel back to the one true Judge (our merciful and satisfied God), but plead for His mercy that is already provided through the grace healing work of Christ.  Judgment is pronounced on Christ - not me.  Jesus takes it.

When I stand in His grand courtroom, I know and humbly acknowledge that my good deeds are not enough.  I put my hope FULLY in Christ.  When I am truly convicted of real sin, He points me PAST my sin, BEYOND self-condemnation and on to the beauty and purity of Christ.  His last word to me is hope.  You see, my defense is the Lord Jesus Christ.  When I trust in myself to perform, my hope is in me.  Yes, I race to repentance and accept the joy of conviction with a smile, knowing that this heart of mine testifies to Messiah and His permanent and full atonement.  And then I learn something more that God my Father has been teaching me all along – that this reality of being convicted by the Spirit of sin is very different than being in the devil’s courtroom.  In the Kingdom life of God’s courtroom, I see MORE sin – not less.  And my God welcomes me to the battle with a good judgment – “Son or daughter, because of my Son, there’s nothing you can do to make me love you less."  You see, He always delights in His sacrificial love for me.  He never decreases in love for me and His love is constant.  Sure.  Full.  Permanent. Unlimited. -- Praise Him.

“What is Man that You are Mindful of Him, and the Son of Man that You care for Him?” (Psalm 8:4)

(By Diego Cuartas)

The path began this way: On October 27 I wrote in my journal, “With digestive issues, a muscle in my left arm hurting and eyes that seem weak these days I am reminded of how fragile we are–like the grass flower that is here today but gone tomorrow.” Then on October 30 I recorded the thoughts found in Psalm 8:4, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” This same day a few things unfolded that eventually formed the diagnosis of a Bell’s palsy case. While having breakfast I noticed my tongue was somewhat strange, it felt numb on one side. I dismissed it after suspecting that I might have burnt my tongue the day before during dinner without realizing it. By 11:30am the numbness had moved down toward my chin and then up toward my right side cheek. By noon I was feeling muscles around and above my right eye acting strangely. The symptoms intensified but remained in the same locations. After taking the necessary steps to seek counsel on what to do, I was referred by my doctor to go to the emergency room. I was reluctant to go but thought it would be better to do so. Four hours later I was diagnosed and treatment had begun. I could not believe how quickly something like that could develop and impose a series of limitations on my normal functions. If you had asked me in the first days that follow to hold water in my mouth while standing in front of you, I guarantee you an unsolicited splashing would have been experienced immediately. Half of my mouth would not close! I won’t burden you with details, but I noticed that my life was placed in a situation where thoughts were being filter through these key thoughts: “Am I really fragile?” and “Is God mindfully caring about my situation?”

For the last three weeks I have been the recipient of underserved grace. As the days progressed and the uncertainty of how soon recovery would take place, I was reminded of these truths God had so kindly revealed to me before I became sick. One thing I notice is that when God speaks to me, He is being merciful in that He is delivering something I need on that moment or day. But He is also orienting me for the future. The reality is I don’t see further than 12 inches beyond my next step. How gracious of God to speak to me three things that He knew I was going to need within hours. What He spoke to me through His Word became an anchor for my soul during the 21 days of this struggle. I must admit that as I write this blog I am still experiencing a remaining 3-5% limitation due to the condition. I am thankful and doing very well. The recovery has been incremental and felt daily. Here are the three things that God used to hold me while my body was adjusting to the abnormalities:

• Humans are fragile
• I am mindful of those I have created
• I care about them

This is not how I heard these statements. The way I heard them was more personal than that. It sounded more like this:

• Diego, you are fragile; this is who you really are
• Diego, I am mindful of you
• Diego I care about you

Another observation I make is that there are times when God speaks in some general terms, and there are other times when God speaks more personally. His voice was sustenance to my soul. And in the moments when other voices were introduced into my situation, it was very helpful to anchor my soul in God’s words.

God does accomplish a lot of things in our lives through hardships, but one thing that I am learning is that hearing God speak and orient me created a space for my soul and mind to glean other fruit God had prepared for me to receive. First, he created space for me to embrace a more humble approach to life—this was emphasized to me daily as I recognized that I could not do things the same way I was used to due to the limitations produced by my new condition. Second, he reoriented my soul to consider being more merciful toward others who are undergoing their own version of suffering or the limitations they involuntarily experience today.

So, we really don’t know how much there is for us tomorrow in what God speaks to us today. Perhaps we would listen more attentively. Perhaps we would cherish His voice as the voice of One who loves us. One who whispers into our ears, “I am mindful of you and I care for you”.

• In what experiences of your life are you feeling alone? Perhaps forsaken?
• Whose or what voice influences your heart the most?
• What kind of things is God providing space for you through your present hardships?

May God share His heart with you too.

Christmas Lights in the Darkness

They were buried in the back corner of the Christmas section of the store. I had to pass all the expensive, shiny, technologically advanced decorations to get to what I sought. 

Christmas lights. Good old-fashioned cheap incandescent bulb lights. $5 per box. The price was right. I put them in the cart and passed all the pricy LED color changing lights and gigantic inflatable lawn Santas on my way out.

This is the first year I have owned my own home. It is also the first year that I am navigating the holidays, the family times of togetherness, without the center of my family universe, my mom. Money and spirit are both at low levels. Yet…I wanted a symbol of some kind that all is not lost. For me, that became a cheap set of lights.

Two days after a tough tear-filled Thanksgiving, I set out to string the lights on my small porch. I wasn’t into it at all, but I kept going. A clip here, a clip there, a plug…and there they were. They looked pretty raggedy and not at all impressive. But they were working, glowing and colorful in the growing dark. 

I started to realize what is so important about light at Christmas. Sure, I always made the connection between the darkest time of year and the need to offset that with more lights to function by. And there’s always the relationship between light and warmth in the coldest season. And yes, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Light of the World, makes light a great symbol of the Incarnation.

What I see this year is that light equals hope. When everything around is dark and cold and lifeless, light fights that. Even if it is a just a tiny candle or mini incandescent bulb, it takes away darkness in its small vicinity. It does what it can within its power to eliminate what seems to be vast and endless.

 Hope is like that. Even if it is there in the tiniest, almost non-existent way, it makes a difference in beating back the darkness of despair and sadness. Hope is powerful and the antidote to all things dark. 

I know so many people dealing with huge struggles in their lives right now. Some have had moments of deep despair where things just don’t look like they will ever improve. I myself spent a few hours on Thanksgiving sobbing uncontrollably at a situation that will not ever change here in my lifetime. Loved ones don’t come back from the grave. Reunion will be in another time and place, a wonderful one. But that can be cold comfort in a moment of missing someone so badly that your body physically aches and you don’t think you can bear the pain of grief.

But we have a Savior who was born into humanity and experienced life’s hurts and disappointments. He knows our griefs and sorrows. He knows what it is like to weep at the death of a loved one. He knows what it is like to be betrayed by those closest to him. And He promises comfort for our pains and a glorious future. That’s hope personified. 

So my little Christmas light display is my symbol of hope. Even if it is small and dim and imperfect, any little bit of hope is worth displaying in the darkness of a life at times overwhelmed with pain. Any little bit of hope shows that the Lord is holding on to us and keeping us in His grace.

Keep the lights shining this Christmas. Small or large, dull or bright, let’s keep hope alive even in dark places.

Nancy Vasquez

Confessions of a Sleepaholic

Let’s talk about sleep. More specifically, what you should know about me and sleep.

My roommates used to joke about my obsession with sleep. They’d laugh at the death threats I’d send them via text if they didn’t quiet down in the living room. They’d joke about the groggy monster I was in the morning, knocking over chairs and shoving them out of the way for a cup of coffee. I think they were using humor as a coping mechanism.

I still hold a small but potent grudge against a certain group of gentlemen who, during one of our church’s summer ministry internships, woke a group of us up at 6 am to “make us breakfast.” I’d never heard of such a cruel joke in my life. I begged the girls not to open the door. “They’ll go away eventually and we can all go back to sleep!” I cried. Breakfast smeakfast.

During my internship with UrbanPromise, a couple of my housemates woke my roommate and I up in the middle of the night with firecrackers. Again, just a harmless prank but I later wept to my best friend, asking her, “why do they hate me so much that they’d wake me up?!”

So yeah, sleep is kind of my thing.

During this week’s Sunday service as Nate talked about worshipping God fully I was honestly pretty frustrated. I wasn’t connecting to any of the examples he gave of what we worship instead of God. That’s not to say I don’t struggle with fear of money or fear of man or anything else but it just wasn’t hitting home deep in my heart. I kept saying to God, “okay I know I’m not perfect, I know I have idols, so where is the conviction I need?!” But throughout the service, I was mostly just distracted. I was sooo tired. I kept thinking about how uncomfortable I was, how exhausted, how frustrated that I had so much to get done after I left church and that I didn’t feel like doing any of it.

Then it finally hit me. That’s all I can think about? I know exactly what my idol is.

Because I’d had already hit the snooze buttons about 5 times too many and showed up to the service a half hour later because I valued sleeping more. I wasn’t paying attention to the service or meeting God because I was focused on what I wanted or thought I needed.  I was dreading making time for people throughout my time and week because I just wanted to crash in front of the TV and hibernate.

My idol is comfort. It slips past me so often because it just feels like I’m living life. It doesn’t show up in the big choices but in the smallest moments and most ordinary thoughts. But seeking my own comfort inhibits me from loving God and people every single day. Even as I confessed to only thinking about myself and what I wanted I started noticing the people around me that I wanted to talk with and bless and love. I try not to give too much credit to my emotions in moments like that, but the peace and joy I felt were unmatched by anything but what God gives. Honest to goodness freedom.

God calls me to love and worship him even in the little cracks and crevices of my heart where there’s usually no room for anyone’s desires but my own. I know to look to God in the big stuff but just like every real relationship, its about commitment in the ordinary daily stuff too. 

        Author: 

        Jessica 

         Noblett

Discipline

(By Tammy Vaughn)

I thought that I would write a blog that touches on the area of discipline – the kind of discipline that is needed to do something that you do not really want to do but need to do.  Some things that immediately come to my mind are reading the Bible, eating in a healthy way, communicating hard things to people you love, exercising and maintaining your cool when you want to blow up.  The list goes on and on.  Here are some thoughts on discipline.

Discipline takes courage – courage to change.  It really does not take much courage to stay the way you are.  It is easy to remain in the same old unhealthy patterns of life.  For me, all the signs have pointed to me being unhealthy and slowly killing myself by what I was eating. However, change felt hard and staying in the same old way that I was felt easier, more comfortable.

Discipline is countercultural – to create a discipline means denying yourself of the thing that you want.  It includes self control.  In a culture that is all about getting what you want now and putting your own needs in front of the needs of others, denying one’s self is not the norm.  The truth is that if you want to create new patterns, new norms, you have to deny yourself.  It can be such a mind game.  I often find myself thinking, “This is not working; why am I wasting my time?”  Unfortunately, I then entertain the fearful thought that if I don’t do something to change my situation, I will be worse off and even dead.

Discipline can be difficult – quite honestly I get easily frustrated when I cannot see the results of change immediately.  I recently hit a plateau in weight loss.  I had to continue to follow my eating plan even though I was not losing weight.  This went on for a couple of months.  FRUSTRATING!!!   I started to give in to temptations, little ones, but they all add up.  Pretty soon I found myself justifying the little compromises.  The little indulgences became acceptable.  “After all”, I would tell myself, “the eating plan is not working.”  I knew, however, that I had to keep at it if I ever had the hope of losing more weight. 

Well, in the center of my desire to create new disciplines in my life is the person of Jesus.  I was dying in my old patterns of thought and behaviors.  Jesus Christ has stepped into my life and helped me create new ways of thinking, new patterns of behavior.  It is like he took the Holy Spirit flashlight and shined it on areas of my life that were a mess.  While Jesus stands ready to help us, he does not overstep our free will.  This is important to realize because it challenges the thought of a quick fix.  We all generally want a quick fix – “Jesus, take this addiction.  Jesus, give me money. Jesus, heal me.  Jesus, change my marriage.”  For me, I used to pray that Jesus would just take the weight off my body.   I believe that Jesus could melt my fat off my body in the middle of the night if He wanted to, but that hasn’t happened… yet. ☺  Instead, my daily pursuit of Him as God in my eating and exercise is how my pounds are melting away.  To be more specific, I look at what I eat and ask myself, “Does this glorify God?  Is this what He wants me to eat?  How should I manage my time so that I can add in exercise and glorify God with my body.”   “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your bodies.”  I Corinthians 6:19-20 

That is deep!  I was bought with a price.  My freedom was purchased with a price,   Jesus’ very life.   And I still make the wrong choices.  HE did the work so that I could be free.  Unhealthy patterns of behavior and thought do not line up with us being more like Jesus daily.  I believe that while creating new patterns, God always meets our efforts.  I love that! In fact, what does it look like to the world when they see “Christians” stuck in unhealthy patterns of thinking leading to unhealthy patterns of behavior?  We look powerless and weak – not attractive or appealing and not a good representation of our Lord.

We serve a living God who is strong and mighty, who wants to help us as we walk in discipline and health.  As you take a personal inventory of the un-health in your life, what are the areas where God is calling you to make changes?  What is the discipline that you need to allow God to help you make so that you can be transformed to be more like Him?  How do we show the world, fellow believers as well as non-believers, the gospel in action? Discipline!

The Holidays: Not the Cover of Better Homes and Gardens

(By Lois Robinson)

WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FELL AND THINK ABOUT THE HOLIDAYS?

 AHHH, the holidays! For some it is an, “AHHH, I can’t wait until the Holidays are over!” And yet others say, “AHHH, Yeah! I can’t wait for the holidays to be here!” Whereas others say, “I’m numb, and it really doesn’t feel like the holidays because of very significant losses that have happened.”

I admit, I have experienced all of the above to some degree. But usually I find myself getting very self-focused and wanting to experience a form of utopia, sometimes literally expecting that picture on the front of a magazine where the whole family is gathered in the beautifully decorated BIG home with the fireplace aglow while everyone smiles and laughs with little appetizers in their hands. The table would be set with more silverware than I know what to do with, the huge delectable turkey in the middle of the table and everyone holding hands thanking God for His blessings. Dinner would be wonderful! No uncomfortable silences, everyone engaged with each other, not a cross word would be exchanged. We would all connect in meaningful ways. Then the coffee and MANY pies would be served. More laughing would occur as we moved into the huge living room with the fireplace (can’t leave that out!) as we began to play games as a family- fully knowing each other, connecting and engaging. Oh, can’t leave out the 6 inches of snow that spontaneously began to fall as well! AHHH, the Holidays!

 FUN WOULD BE HAD BY ALL!!!

 Well, I can honestly say, I have never really experienced that scenario with my family. What I have experienced is some of the above- the fireplace all aglow, some laughing, many awkward silences, forced conversation with some, ministering to some, holding my tongue with others and at times tactfully rebuking inappropriate behaviors demonstrated by the Christians in our family. I believe my family represents a microcosm of the world.

VERY MESSY AND UNCOMFORTABLE

Why is this?? Aren’t the holidays supposed to be celebratory? Hmmm. Yes, but we must remember what we are celebrating!

Is Thanksgiving a time when we engorge ourselves and say thank you out loud for everything we have but make sure we keep it short so the food doesn’t get cold? Laughing and getting a buzz?  Kicking back because, “Darn it, I deserve a break from all the stress!” Christmas has its own scene going on, and unfortunately it doesn’t involve the manger scene- that gets squeezed in where it can fit. It has become a HUGE event that the advertisers enjoy showing more and more commercials of what we need, what to buy so we can be cool (of course) and where to get it. Pipe in the Christmas scents through the store ventilation, play the music and put up the Santa so people will help us make more money for the stores revenue!!! YEAH!!!!!

Friends, is that what the Holidays are really about?  NO!

Thanksgiving is a time that we celebrate what we are thankful for. In the Christian faith, we are primarily thanking God for who He is, what He has done through Jesus and how He has provided for us. It’s not about us. Christmas is about us celebrating Jesus. Yes, Jesus. He came to save us from our brokenness- our broken families, our broken lives, even our broken hearts when our idealistic holiday picture didn’t happen the way we imagined. He came for the picture I described my family to be.

I wonder what your experiences are with the holidays. Where are you in your life? What are you looking forward to? What you are dreading?  Or you may just  want to wake up when it’s all over. I don’t know where you are, but I know where I want to be. I want to keep focused on the One the holidays exist for. I want to be a part of the holiday where I can be used by the Savior Himself to bring about change in a broken world, a broken family, my own broken life. I know that Jesus says in John 12:32, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (ESV).”

I would encourage all of us to be focused on this verse during the holiday season. I do believe that when we live that verse out, we will actually get closer to the picture I dream about. 

Hmmm, new thought. Maybe that desire I have is actually from God. When we get to the Great Banquet in Heaven :) A promise for all those that have placed faith in the One we celebrate,  Jesus Christ.

                          Blessings, My Friends

The Book of Love is Long and Boring

Dominick Baruffi

here are very few things that I am sure of in life. For instance, I am sure that the man who invented the sandwich deserves sainthood, knighthood, and a battlefield commission. I am sure that the push-to-start sink faucet was the worst idea ever. And I am fairly sure that nobody puts baby in a corner. Beyond that, all of life is a mystery to me. 

But when I consider myself, I find there is another thing that I am sure of: I am sure that I am hardwired for love. The funny thing is that I cannot really tell you why I feel this way, nor that I am even sure I know what I mean when I say it. I guess you could say that I’ve seen too many movies, or that I’m just being romantic and idealistic. But for whatever reason, I find that I speak about my desire for love with tremendous confidence. I seek it unconsciously, the way I seek water when I’m thirsty. I want to be loved.

Here’s what’s interesting about this: even as I seek to be loved, I find I’m not very good at loving others. I guess I try to love people, but only up to a point. Whenever it inconveniences me, I can usually excuse myself out of whatever I need to do. Typing these words is both embarrassing and convicting, but it’s the truth. 

When I was growing up, my youth pastor taught me that love is a selfless concern for another’s best good. Not a bad definition, all things considered. Today, however, I want to suggest a slight amendment.

There’s a song by Peter Gabriel called “The Book of Love” that begins with a fantastic line: “The book of love is long and boring.” It sounds like he’s talking about waiting for a bus, doesn’t it? As far as adjectives go, “long and boring” is about as un-sexy as it gets. But I think he’s right. Too often, we confuse love with passion. But the times that I’ve felt most loved are not necessarily full of passion. Honestly, they’re pretty mundane and routine. But usually it involves someone in my life moving towards me in a time when I didn’t deserve it or didn’t appreciate it. I treasure these memories, and most of them are, frankly, quite boring. They revealed a love that was willing to endure me at less than my best.

This is exactly the kind of love we see God exhibiting towards his people in the Bible. We see it in the person of Jesus Christ, born in humiliating circumstances and suffering servant of all. Jesus does not endure the life He endured because he felt like it. He did so because God had made a covenant with his people, and He bound Himself to his word. “Feeling” had little to do with it, and his death was the single greatest act of love the world has ever seen. That’s because Jesus knew something about love that we often forget: love is not cheap. Anything that says otherwise is a lie. Love is more than just a concern for another’s good. It’s a commitment to endure, even in times when we’d rather not.

It’s easy for us to follow the path of least resistance when it comes to relationships. It’s less work. We don’t much care for long or boring if we can help it; the easier and more convenient, the better. But that is not how God defines love. When we look at Scripture, we find a God who demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. His love was characterized primarily by patience and long-suffering. He was committed to his people. That’s what covenant means: a binding agreement to never give up. Just as the Father comes running to his prodigal son when he comes wandering home, so does our Father run to meet us when we come to Him. If we’re going to call ourselves Christians, we need to love people like that.

So as we gear up for yet another holiday season, let us be the kind of people willing to love others in small ways, boring ways, ways that test our patience and drive us nuts. Let us make our neighborhoods and our cities marvel at our unrelenting commitment to never give up on them. Because the book of love is long and boring. But I love it when my God reads it to me. And I love it when we read it together, for His glory and the good of all peoples.

The Joy of A Painful Journey

(By Thor Knutstad)

Proverbs 14:10 – Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share in its joy.

Empathy can sometimes be overrated.  When we feel understood by another person, our heart feels a connection – a safety of sorts.  They seem to be able to step back in time with us into the darkest and most painful moments of life.  Our hearts want to rest in the compassionate sympathy of someone else walking in our shoes.  At a simple glance, even the most seasoned theologian will read the above verse and want to hone in on the word “bitterness.”  The legalism of a moral stance is taken, and we wrongly assume that the wise poet is saying something about forgiveness or maybe resentment.  But that isn’t what he is saying at all.  The first part of the verse says something like this (as I can best translate in my biblical vernacular): “Every person’s journey is unique to him or her – only that person knows how they have suffered, been under tests and trials and hurt in pain through heart moments individually.”

This is not a stance against empathy.  Empathy comes from the one who has experienced something similar or who can, at minimum, feel what has been experienced.  But when I read the wisdom of Proverbs 14:10, I am reminded that my journey has this unique direction – it’s made just for me.  And it’s not just about pain and suffering; it’s also about my joy.  In other words, I am the only one who really gets the good things in my life – these things that absolutely elate my heart and bring happiness.  I don’t think that there is a distinction between the temporary and the eternal here, but it appears that the lean is on the earthly and the “earthy” of this present and pre-eternal life.  So whether in my pain or in my joy, only my heart has lived in that context and within all that history of moments both individually and accumulated.  Of course, our ever present God was and is there through all the moments and sees into my overall heart, but others really cannot – not my wife, not my husband, not my pastor, not my counselor and not even anyone in my family.

The reason a verse like this ought to prick our hearts is to remind us that though we think we see into the depths and the scope of another’s life, we cannot and we do not.  When we wrongly do this or some variance thereof, we border on being a Pharisee.  Our counsel is full of shoulds, woulds, oughts and ought nots.  Our assumptions judge the moments and another’s varied responses and reactions.  We label reaping and sowing and consequence without marrying this to God’s grace and mercy – which only He can ever do in His magnificent combination of omniscience and sovereignty.  I think maybe I can say that our God knows His own pain of weep and magnanimous joy simultaneously.  The best illustration of this is in our Lord Jesus, where the cross merges in all of history.  It’s a bitter moment to watch Your Son be beaten, be mocked, be condemned and be crucified – sad, painful and fearful.  But it is joy knowing that Your wrath (God’s) over sin is fully satisfied by the cross and that sin is paid for – fully.  Joy.  And the resurrection awaits.  God’s joy, eternal fellowship and bliss await.  The pivotal moment of the cross forever changes history because it merges perfectly both suffering and joy.  God gets it.  He lives it as a Father, and He lives it as a Son.  He lives it as the Spirit who permeates our lives and walks each step in us and with us.  In this we can rest.  In all the bitterness there is joy.  And an even greater joy awaits us still yet.  Praise Him.

An Old Phrase or A Misinterpreted Truth

(By Diego Cuartas)

Recently someone asked me what my thoughts were concerning a common phrase we often use in our Christian circles. The phrase: “God will not give you more than what you can bear”. This is not exactly what the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians more than 2,000 years ago, but the phrase is rooted in the first letter he wrote to them. Paul said: “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (10:13, NAS).

If I were to go by human experience, I would have to emphatically say that God does allow me to experience realities that honestly go beyond myself. I have often found those realities unmanageable or out of my control for the most part. And so in that sense they are more than what I can bear or handle. So, this common phrase is one that deserves careful thought or it has the risk of having the same misunderstood popularity as the phrase “God helps those who help themselves”--if it hasn't already. My hope is that you would be inspired to do diligent study of the truth expressed through the Apostle Paul and arrive to more concise, biblical conclusions rather than be left to lean on a common phrase that may represent a misinterpreted truth. Can I give you another motivator? The truth Paul is expressing in 1 Corinthians 10:13 is one we need to apply to our lives as a sail is to a boat on a daily basis. It is a truth that can set the direction of your heart as you face testing or temptation.

First observation: the word used in the beginning of verse 13, peirasmos, denotes testing or temptation.  What Paul has in mind is not only temptation but different testing we experience in life. The testing or temptation is described as what is “common to man,” so in this sense it would not be appropriate to believe that what we may be facing is somehow the result of being singled out by God—others are experiencing similar testing or temptation.

Second observation: this truth is given to us in the context of a warning against testing Christ through our responses to testing or temptation. Through the example of how Israel, the people of God, tested him, we are warned about not doing the same thing. The warning is followed by an exhortation to examine ourselves regarding how we stand before our present difficulties. Paul desires for us to hold on to the fact that God will be faithful to help us in our time of need. Though testing and temptation are common to man, your experience or suffering in it is not generic, it requires specific grace only God can offer to you.

Third observation: there is an illustration elsewhere from Paul's life that shows that we are indeed tested or tempted, at times, beyond our abilities. In 2 Corinthians 1:8 Paul reported: “we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.” Notice that Paul very clearly states that the pressures he and others were facing were “far beyond [their] ability to endure” and that experience led them to despair.

My conclusion, contrary to the old phrase or misinterpreted truth, is that this verse is not saying that you will only experience testing or temptation within your abilities to handle. Ready for the encouraging news? I believe what this verse is saying is that the reason you will not be tested or tempted beyond your abilities is because God promises to provide you with the way to escape or the grace to be able to bear patiently what you are facing. And somewhere in between, as John Calvin believed, God “sets limits to the temptation” (Calvin's Commentary on the Bible, studylight.org).  What is happening here is that the emphasis is on God's grace made available to you, not how much you are able to bear.

Friend, at times you will, like Paul, celebrate the fact that you have been rescued from difficult times or given the way out to escape as it was reported in 2 Timothy 3:10-11. At other times, like in the case of slaves who believed in Christ, the Apostle Peter would encourage them and commend them because they were bearing up “under the pain of unjust suffering because they [were] conscious of God” (1 Peter 2:19). The point is whether you are being rescued or given the help to endure, God will be faithful to you in your situation.

A few further truths/questions to meditate on...

You will be tested.(2 Timothy 3:12)
You will learn to decrease as you trust in God in the midst of tests and temptations. (2 Corinthians 1:9)
God will deliver, you can hope in Him. (2 Corinthians 1:10)
Sowing through prayer you and others will reap a harvest of thanksgiving. (2 Corinthians 1:11)

In what ways are you being stretch beyond your abilities?
How is God helping you escape testing/temptation in your life?
How is God helping you endure testing/temptation in your life?

Christmas is coming…my tree is getting fat?

Sarah Howard

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very year, I run into the fact that I’m not content with my Christmas tree decorations. I don’t really care for the color red. It’s probably my least favorite color. But somehow, the majority of the ornaments on our tree have ended up being…red. So every year, I daydream about my ideal tree, and I kind of sneer at our current decorations. As weird as it sounds, I feel this…drive to have this ideal tree that I picture in my mind. It feels like I’ll be more happy, more content, when my tree is decorated the way I want it to be.

    This year, I was flipping through a magazine and I saw a picture of a wreath. Instantaneously, I knew that I had found my muse for our tree. It was the exact style of what I’ve wanted and I knew I could easily reproduce the same decorations on the larger scale of a Christmas tree. Again, as strange as it sounds, I was seriously excited about this new decorating scheme. I was ready to trash all of our existing stuff and hit up Target right away.

    Right in the middle of my thoughts and plans for our tree, though, God showed up. He dropped a random thought into my mind that I would have never expected at that moment. He said to me, “In the United States, we’ve moved from the defining characteristic of our possessions being functionality, to the defining characteristic being beauty. Because of the wealth that Americans experience, that you simply have a possession is no longer enough. Now if you already have it, but that possession isn’t necessarily perfect to you, it seems ok to replace it for the sake of beauty.”

    Honestly, that thought shocked me. It made me realize that I can so easily be literally wrapped up in thoughts about how to perfect my possessions…but God might have a better way, a better story. 

    Now, I’m certainly not trying to imply that our things and our homes, including our Christmas trees, should NOT be beautiful. In fact, if you look at creation, God made things to be both functional AND beautiful. However, I think there’s more to my Christmas tree example than just a creative expression that reflects God. 

    What I think God was gently saying to me, was, that I, like many Americans, am a subconscious slave to materialism and consumerism. Somewhere along the line, because we are a rich enough society to already HAVE things (like tree decorations), the main focus of our possessions is no longer necessity or functionality; beauty has become the main ‘need.’ We’re no longer content with just having possessions…they have to be perfect, ideal, exactly in style, exactly what we like. 

    ‘So what’s wrong with that?’ you might ask. Well, here are my initial thoughts as I think through the lens of my current tree situation. 

1. If my thoughts about decorating my tree this year are all wrapped up in getting new decorations and decorating my tree perfectly, I’m probably valuing the beauty of my tree. There might be other values that, if I were more settled about my tree, I could focus my energy on: like my family. Like the incarnation. Like my neighbors. 
2. Consumerism and materialism say that I have to keep buying MORE, accumulate MORE, and have nicer, better, prettier things. I just don’t think that that’s what Jesus would say. I think He’d value being content, settled, and restful. I think He’d want me to know that my value is never determined by my Christmas tree or by my ability to decorate it well.
3. And lastly, God says many times in the Bible that He has a huge concern for the poor. He calls people that love Him to partner with Him in caring for the poor. I think He would want to adopt His value system in every area of my life, even Christmas trees. I think He’d want me to wrestle through how His values could be worked out practically in my life, in the middle of the United States.

Honestly, those 3 thoughts don’t sound too pleasant to me. They sound like a lot of work to think through. And it’s pretty ingrained in me that my possessions will save me: they’ll make me safe, they’ll make me significant, they’ll give me ‘the good life.’ But last weekend, at the Parent Summit, Pastor Nate said something that has stuck with me the past few days: “We’re driven to get the ‘Good Life’ (i.e. clothes, food…tree decorations). We don’t believe that Jesus is good. But as we meditate on the Gospel, we say I think His story is better than mine, and I let go of my false view of salvation and I’m freed of my story. I can then follow God’s leadership and what He puts on my heart.”

As I let go of the story to which I’ve clung so tightly, that beautiful possessions will save me, God has room to bring a better story into my life: a story about a Person saving me. A Person making me safe. A Person making me significant. And that Person is Jesus. 

So…I’d love to hear some feedback. Most people would say I’m crazy and legalistic to say that God wants to touch on the area of my Christmas tree. What do you think? Are there areas that God is challenging you to adopt His story for your life instead of your own?

Weighed Down!

(By Tammy Vaughn) 

Lately I have been learning a lot about the process of losing weight.  I started this journey in February 2013.  My current diet is mostly based on Dr. Fuhrman’s “Eat To Live” plan.  It is a way of eating that has totally changed my life.  It has been eight months now, and I have lost 62 pounds.  What once seemed impossible is now happening little by little.  How did this radical change all start?  It started with me feeling hopeless and helpless.

My father passed away in November 2011 from a very rare and aggressive cancer called Sarcamatoid Carcinoma.  The medical personnel kept saying that they could not get the proper read on certain medical tests because of his large habitus.  “Large habitus?”  It dawned on me that they were referencing his overweight body.  The words “large habitus” would ring in my ears.  Was it not awful enough that he had rare and aggressive cancer and was dying?  Did they have to keep referring to his 350 pound body as a “large habitus?”  This made me angry for a couple reasons, but mostly because it made me wonder what future medical treatments would be difficult for me since I also had a “large habitus”.  Two weeks after my father’s diagnosis, my family had to make the difficult decision to take my father off of life support. Now let me say, I know that my father is with Jesus, so I rest and take comfort in that.

The next life event that made me focus on my weight was a knee surgery that I had in June 2012.  My knee just never quite healed, and in the process of treatment, my doctor told me I would eventually need double knee replacements.  I had just turned 40 years old.  One of the main contributing factors to the decline in my knees was due to my “large habitus.”  The key to putting off knee replacement surgery was to lose weight.

I was frustrated, embarrassed and in pain.  It was sobering to think I would need surgery due to beating my knees down daily with my weight.  Finally it was all catching up to me.  The pain was so bad in my knee that I just thought to myself on several occasions, “I am going to have to live my life in a wheelchair or scooter.”  I was getting comfortable, coming to a resolve that this was how it was going to be.  I want you to understand how hopeless I felt.  I was going to give up!  After all, I had been on every diet you could imagine, including an all liquid diet for weeks.  Nothing worked, and now I was looking at major surgery if I did not lose weight.  Now a scooter or mobilized wheelchair is fine IF this is what is genuinely needed.  For me however, I would end up in the power chair because I was overweight and did nothing about it.  I would be choosing to live in defeat.

In talking to a close friend about this, I told her that, “I want to know the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in this area of my life.”  To me this was a way to say, “Jesus, this area of my life is dead, hopeless, lifeless, stagnant, even sinful, but the resurrection power can bring what is dead back to life.”  Paul said, “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection” (Phil 3:10).

I have experienced that power in other areas of my life, so I know Jesus gives us access to this power.  In fact, this is the reason He victoriously came and conquered death—so that I do not have to live defeated.  Yet I was choosing just that.  I knew in my head that Jesus has the power to heal and change people; I just did not believe it could happen for me, in this area of my life.  Oh me of little faith!  Here I had access all along to the power to change.  I just felt extremely hopeless and overwhelmed.  One large uphill battle!

While on a family vacation in January 2012, my brother came to me and told me about an eating plan he and my sister-in-law were going to follow.  He said he saw me struggling and wanting to lose weight.  He then offered to journey with me, not just to lose weight but also to get healthy.  He presented Dr. Fuhrman’s “Eat To Live” book and plan to me.  It was radical.  He told me I would have to radically change how you eat.  He said “I know you can know the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in this area of your life.  You pray about it.”  I did not really need to pray about it; I had prayed the same prayer earlier that week- to know the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.  Reluctant to start yet another “diet” only to fail, I told him I was in!

Well, fast forward eight months.  With the help of Jesus, good accountability, support from my family and friends and Dr. Fuhrman’s medical team in North Jersey, I have lost 62 pounds.  I have gone down five pant sizes and two shirt sizes.  Seems like a miracle to me some days; other days it’s not enough and I still have a long way to go.

I believe that Jesus will continue to help me lose weight.  It is not easy.  At times I want to give up.  But Jesus has helped give me the strength to resist temptation, to persist and be disciplined one meal at a time.  I have knowledge about food that I did not have before.  And knowledge is power.  I don’t see quitting as an option, although I want to some days.  I can really feel God doing something new in my body and in my mind.  I’m often encouraged by 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If any is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”

I value the support of my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I also call out to my brother when I am struggling or feel I cannot eat one more salad.  God uses him to encourage me to get back on track.   I view my eating as an act of worship unto the Lord.  My body belongs to Him; it is His temple.  Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.  This is your spiritual act of worship.”  I cannot possibly do all God has called me to do while slowly destroying my body and eventually killing myself with food.  I was created for more than just drowning in my own fat!  Maybe this sounds extreme.  It is not extreme to me when I think about watching my father die in Cooper Hospital because he had tumors growing inside the fat of his abdomen that they could not see because of his “large habitus”.  It motivates me to keep going.

I am fully aware that it will not happen on my own strength alone.  I am so grateful for my wonderful loving Savior who loves me and cares about me and gave me a new sense of hope in this area of my life.  The praise is all due to Him!  I hope you feel encouraged to present the areas of your life where you feel hopeless and defeated to Jesus.  Pray and tell Him that you want to know the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in that area of your life.  That power is available to all of His Children.  I hope someone is shouting Amen somewhere! I know I am!

God Will

Nancy Vasquez

Sin is hopeless.

 As a kid going to Christian school and attending church, I heard enough sermons about sin to last me a lifetime. Don’t do this. Don’t say that. Don’t even think about it. Fix your attitude. Be better. Try harder. 

I left high school with a sense that I was pretty much a failure. God loved me in some vague way, Jesus died for my sins, but I could never seem to “get it together.” The bouts of depression and anxiety that were a part of my life for as long as I could remember never seemed to totally go away, no matter how hard I tried to improve my attitude or say or do the right things to make God happy.

I did what a lot of young people are doing. I left church altogether. I was bitter and defeated and didn’t belong among all the others who had their “perfect” Christian lives in order: Christian college, marriage, kids, career. Me? I was very successful in college and career, but I didn’t belong with all of those who had the answers, the keys to God’s approval, as I saw it. God’s grace covered me in a thousand ways during these “lost years,” but I didn’t see it until later. I only returned to church in my thirties when I came to the end of myself and knew I had no emotional reserves left.  It was a move of sheer desperation.

God has revealed Himself to me in tremendous ways over the past several years since that move. But when I realized the sermon last week was going to be on sin and atonement, I reflexively wanted to bolt out of fear. I felt like that confused and sad teenager all over again. 

My fears were challenged by the following passage from Ezekiel quoted during the sermon:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.  (Ezekiel 36:25-27 ESV)

Look at how many times the phrase “I will” is used in this passage. God is telling His people what HE WILL DO FOR US! He wants our repentance, but He is the one doing the heavy work of changing us. I don’t have to “get it together” alone and live in a cycle of trying harder and failing. HE WILL do the things He has promised for me.

It is human nature to try and do everything independently. Anyone who has spent time around toddlers can attest to the constant attitude of “I can do it myself!” Little kids want to do everything themselves even when they have a team of adults willing to help. We never really lose this desire for independence, and it wreaks havoc on our relationship with God and our understanding of the Gospel.

 We can’t do anything ourselves, but so often we latch on to the idea that we can. We do this even when we have Almighty God saying that HE WILL do tremendous things to us and for us. We get frustrated and give up even when the only resource we need has promised to do the work of changing our hearts.

Sin is hopeless. Our God is not. Jesus’ death and resurrection are proof of God’s ultimate power to change us.

Where is your hope today? What will God do for you today to change you?

Diagnosis Code 911: BUSZERKITI

(By Lois Robinson)

 Description- A tendency to stay very BUSY that can lead to a disorder called
GOING BERSERK

I was driving to work one morning this week, stopped at a red light and thought, ”Hmmm, busy and berserk start the same. That’s interesting!” That is how my brain tends to work. Think I will write a blog about that.

So, I get to the office. I then reflect on statements that I hear from the majority of the many people I chat with....

“It’s been such a BUSY week”
“ Our kids are so BUSY”
“We are too BUSY to go to TFL classes”
“We were too BUSY to get to worship this week”
“We are too BUSY to pray together”
“I am too BUSY to spend time with God”
“I’m too BUSY to come to counseling”
“We are too BUSY to invest in our marriage”
“I am so BUSY at work”
“I have to stay BUSY because I can’t stand down time”
“BUSY is my middle name!”
“There is not enough time in the day because I am soooo BUSY”
“I am too BUSY to eat right”

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!!!

My friends:) These are the statements that people truly believe but the truth is:

B  - BEING

U  - UNDER

S   - SATAN’S

Y   - YOKE

Often BUSYNESS is a tool of the enemy that pulls us away from our Savior and feeds the false gospel of saving ourselves.

There is no way any of us can hear God’s still small voice in BUSYNESS.

I used to buy into the American cultural belief system that staying BUSY meant that you were an active, contributing member of society that would be a successful, prestigious person who would have a great big house and blinged out car, get married and have a bunch of kids. That was success!  That was fulfilling the American Dream, right? I went BERSERK!! I really did. I began to feel empty, working many jobs at one point in my life to pay bills, and seek relationships as medication. The next chapter: I entered COUNSELING!!! I began to seriously seek God’s plan for my life. At this point, I live in a wonderful little house, drive a car that works, I am not married and have no children. I love my life!!! Because it is the life God has called me to. I would have been miserable if I continued to strive and pursue what my then friends, family and work said I was supposed to be and look like.

This is a lie my friends. It leads to a lifestyle that felt like I was going BERSERK! Have you ever felt that way, or was it just me??

I would encourage you to not let the “calendar monster,” as I call it, fill up with BUSYNESS. Set those boundaries. Say ‘Yes’ to life-giving things that lead you to Jesus and ‘No’ to those things He is NOT calling you to- even taking roles in the church ministries!

He has made you special, unique and one-of-a-kind. You have a unique design on your life and a purpose to live out. It is your responsibility to protect those gifts and talents that He has given you :)

Learning to say Yes and learning to say No prevents BUSZERKITIS. It is a painful disorder and I encourage you to take steps to avoid it!

A statistical glimpse of Nate and Sharon’s Trip to Russia and Ukraine

Number of days away from Vineland: 18

Number of countries visited: 2 (Russia and Ukraine)

Number of cities visited: 3 (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol)

Minimum number of hours worked per day: 13

Number of CMA workers we met with personally: 24 adults and 22 kids

Number of nights slept in a different bed than the previous night: 13

Miles traveled between major cities: 12,010 miles 

Modes of travel: 7 (walk, taxi, mini-bus, airplane, train, subway, cars)

Number of group teaching/sharing sessions: 11

Number of odd foods tasted: (ask us if you want to know)

Number of Russian words learned (kind of...it I a really hard language): 18

Number of times we fell: 2 (Sharon in the airport, and Nate on an elderly lady in the subway)

We are so thankful that our church supported us for a second year in this trip as the pastoral care couple for our CMA workers here in Russia and Ukraine. God deeply touched our hearts as we got an up-close view of their lives, families, and ministries. We were in almost every worker’s home. We ate with them, played with their kids; we walked with them in their neighborhoods, and rode in their subways. Time after time we heard powerful stories of how God has called them and given them grace to give their lives to be light in a very dark area of the world.  Moscow alone has 15 million people, 2 million are Central Asians. Few know Jesus. Life here is not easy for them or their children, but they faithfully give themselves to learning the language, adapting to the culture, and intentionally building relationships with people in order to share the Gospel of Jesus.

We cried as we held one final meeting with the Moscow team. We thanked them for their gift of opening their hearts to us.  They wanted to make sure we expressed how grateful they are that we took the time to know them personally and to listen to the burdens they carry in their role here.  They asked us to thank our church for sending us and supporting our partnership through prayer and your gifts.  

Living Faith Alliance Church, please know that your lives and partnership with North and Central Asia are making a difference!

NCA Worker's Blog: "They Are Always Watching"

Check out an NCA worker's blog: My 2 Rubles' Worth. It's a good reminder of why we do things like the Parent Summit.  

Loving Sheep

 (By Thor Knutstad)

Christian man, Christian woman, do you radically risk entry into the journeys of others? Do you walk with people, the sheep of God's Pasture? You see, it is more than listening, asking questions, spending time with, and providing the opinion of counsel. Do you help them imagine God's Dream for them? Do you speak hope, vision, and a future beyond the context of their current struggle? Do you have a wise "heart aim" in their world? Do you know how to love a sheep? Yes - we warn profusely. We beckon with practical wisdom. We admonish with advice. But there's more to it than that. Much more.

If you're willing to touch the dirt and the dirty details of someone else's life, you will get dirty - but do you take that dirt and fashion it like clay? Do you love that person with fascination for God's creation on them and speak with creative imagination into their very hearts? Do you awaken the heart for sunrises and horizon moments? Do you speak TO them and not AT them? Hmmm. Rereading that last full sentence would do us all some good.

As you address the burdens of another's very soul, you will either heavy or lighten that same load. When you lighten the load, you bring clarity of vision to God's calling. You evoke their own imagination. You have loved well. You have cared for a soul. You have saved one sheep. You have been like The Shepherd - and joy abounds --- in you, in that person, in Even The Shepherd Himself. Praise Him.