Sneak Peek for this Sunday

Angry, vindictive Ben wanted to get back at his girlfriend so this man who weighs over 400# (having already lost over 300# after having surgery to staple his stomach) decided to punish her by taking a walk, in the summer, on the streets of Phoenix in over 100 degree temperatures! Not the best choice.  He ended up with 3rd and 4th degree burns on his feet.  

From outside in we can clearly say: not the best choice.  But how frequently do we make choices equally poor out of anger and hurt?  How frequently are our emotions, our thinking, our choices, our desires and our words dictated by whim rather than connected to faith? 

Here’s the basic need in our hearts and lives— to bring our lives back to Jesus moment by moment.  What if Ben, rather than this decision to punish and hurt his girlfriend and impact his own life as well, instead of this self destructive action chose to speak, to say: “Here’s what I’m telling myself right now…” and honestly communicated the kind of stuff going on in his head? Well, maybe, rather than thousands of dollars in hospital bills and the possibility of never walking again, they might have worked through the feelings and hurts. 

If Jesus is everything the New Testament writers claim he is, truly, then He has the desire, the right, the ability, and the sovereignty to be our Lord in every aspect of life.  He literally can be our go-to for all those stray aspects of thought and action. We can give him our hearts and allow him to sway them.  

Sometimes we use the words “Lord Jesus”  without meaning them. Not that we actually think we are doing this, but we pray to the “Lord” yet don’t follow his lead. 

I don’t write to shame, ever, but to expose and raise the question.  Is Jesus Lord of your life? Where are the areas, where are the places over which he needs to be given lordship? 

For as we look at scripture there’s no doubt that those people living around Jesus believed wholeheartedly that Jesus was the Lord, “My Lord and My God,” Thomas proclaimed. Let’s learn to live this as well, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

I was in Kansas for preaching during the month of July.  It was hot -- 107F plus around 100% humidity. The day we arrived, I walked to a nearby Subway for a snack. Once inside the air-conditioned building, I asked about a salad and they only had one that was basically a full meal.  I said that I didn’t need that large of a snack. I asked if I could just have a 6” sandwich, but no bread? Laura, behind the counter, said, “Sure, I can do that.” So, she put the meat, cheese, veggies, into this cup. It was a really full little cup of goodness.  And then she charged me for it: “That will be $1,” she said. 

“One dollar?” I said, staggered. “Did you really say one dollar?”  

“Yep. I charged what I think you ought to pay.  And this looks like a good meal. All the colors of the rainbow.  I always say we are rainbows so need to eat them.”  

“Well, thank you,” I responded.  Her comment sparked a conversation about life, faith, trust in Jesus, and the fact that I was there for a retreat happening across the road. You oughta come!”  

Laura said: “The food is great there. Say ‘HI!’ to the chef for me.”  When I did convey her greeting to him, he told me, “Well she better say ‘Hi,’ I am her uncle!”  

Ah.  A small town!

I went to a quick stop for some dark chocolate was a necessity.  I bought it, paying more for it than I had paid for my lunch at $1.69, and then walked back to the college the two blocks opening and eating it as I walked.  It melted in the packaging due to the heat as I walked. I ended up mostly sucking the melted goodness out of the package! 

That reminded me of the heat back in Kentucky when I was attending seminary there.  Karen and I one day had taken a cube of butter out of the freezer and placed it on a plate on the table, and then got the rest of dinner and brought that to the table. By the time we got back to the table moments later that frozen cube of butter had totally melted.  Welcome to humidity! 

There in Kansas I was one of the leaders for a four day retreat happening at Sterling College. The retreat was a Christian Ashram, a movement of retreating started by a missionary to India in the 1930s named E. Stanley Jones.  It is a powerful model that opens up the opportunity for the Lord to move in and through those gathered. At every Christian Ashram I have been involved in for the past 38 years, I have seen God move powerfully. This was no exception.  Through prayer groups, preaching, teaching, times of joy and fellowship the way is opened up for God to touch those gathered and change lives.  

One element of this particular Ashram is the lay witness.  During this time different people shared about how Jesus had impacted and changed their lives, and kids did skits and sang songs. It was this joyous time of sharing in the beauty of what God is doing and how he works constantly. 

I was struck in this time that God is moving in ways unseen even at an event that is designated to make Him visible.  

Even though we were there to experience and celebrate the fact that Jesus is truly Lord, still, there were moments during the time that surprised us as we encountered God in ways unexpected.  For me, one of these was that brief encounter with Laura at Subway, and while on a walk, another day in conversation with a new friend at this gathering during which she could share her heart, and a third was when a group of us went to go sing hymns at a retirement home.  I stayed after we had sung, which was so enjoyed by the residents there, to play bingo. Seriously, I am big into a party! :-) There was a volunteer with a perpetual smile who had had polio as a child and therefore moved and spoke with great difficulty. She could have been home feeling sorry for herself, but instead, was serving others. She loved those residents, helped them, got them their special coffees or teas and laughed at their jokes. She was Jesus with skin on in that place.  It was beautiful to see.   

In life -- sometimes we look for really big, obvious signs that God is on the move, but perhaps it can be the simple, little things of life where we can look and encounter the goodness of God.  Certainly in the book of Esther we see God’s fingerprints in everything from a beauty pageant, to overhearing a conversation, to insomnia, to self sacrifice, to fasting, to celebration. God everywhere even when unnamed.  May God show up everywhere in your life as well. 

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

Walking in the story of Esther we find that although God is not mentioned, God is there. Again and again -- in a king’s sleepless night, in the words of Haman’s family rightly predicting his downfall, in a poor girl-become-queen’s decisions, in stifling arrogance, in the defeat of enemies -- God worked, He moved, in ways unseen and yet visible. 

Sometimes in our daily lives we can be unclear on God’s action.  Prayers that remain unanswered as we have been praying them, situations unchanged, hurts unabated.  This book is one place we can see again on display this very basic fact that God keeps His promises even when we cannot see God at work.  In this book God is fighting on behalf of a people behind the scenes in ways that leave us staggered and amazed. This is how God works, oftentimes, behind the scenes.  Sometimes we don’t “see” God at work, yet that doesn’t mean God is absent. It might just mean we are looking in the wrong direction.  

I have seen this in healing prayer so many times.  There comes a time when I am walking someone back into a memory when I will ask them to “look for Jesus in the memory,” and I always have to remind them, “you might need to turn around.” I’ll never forget one woman who gasped when she beheld Jesus behind her. All through the years she had believed God had abandoned her in her pain, in that moment, when her dad was there yelling at her, but there was Jesus behind her. She gasped, tears came to her eyes, and we walked through then what Jesus was doing, and what he spoke to her heart in that moment which forever changed that memory and altered her future.  Seeing Jesus was there made all the difference. 

In your life, friend, no matter what you might be encountering, I can promise that Jesus is there, at work, wooing you to Himself even in the midst of circumstances that remain unaltered.  Don’t stare at circumstances, or at the pain that is unrelenting, instead gaze at Jesus, look to the One who has not left you alone in that place, that valley. He is with you. I know it. 

This book makes this testimony as well. Although God’s name is never mentioned, not once, God is at work. He is fulfilling the prophecy given to the Prophet Zechariah (2:8) in which God promised not to leave unpunished anyone who wrongs the Jewish people, whom are the “apple of His eye.”   

This book declares to us all “God keeps his promises” and this can shout to you and to me, and God will keep those promises in your life and mine as well. This is not the promise that everything will be easy in life, nope.  Jesus never said that. Indeed, Jesus promised that “in this world you will have trouble,” using the word for tribulation or persecution! But Jesus promised never to leave or forsake you and me. He promised to be with us always, even to the end of the age. He promised that he would use everything, even the hardest things for the good of you and me both. He promised that these various things would be worked together for the good of those called according to his purpose.  

When tough things are happening-- don’t forget that God keeps his promises, in his time, and in your life.  Turn toward Him, not away from Him, and look, look, look for his good purposes to be unveiled. 

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

Esther tells the story of empowerment. It says there are enemies and people need to stand against them. What enemies do you see around you at this time within your life or without it? Against which do you need to stand? There are actions that we disagree with across this nation, truly. There are places where we need to take a stand and fight. There are places we have authority to do so, and other places where we do not. Certainly, within our own lives we have authority, God-granted authority, to stand and fight. But often even in that sphere, we give in rather than stand.

In Esther we are shown a king who gives permission to stand. This is the grandest permission slip ever given, perhaps: “I’ve said you will be killed, but now I say, no! Stand! Fight!” Suddenly, a people who were cringing with certain fear, had courage. Permission can do that, grant courage. “I give you permission to…” and we can stand, we can walk, we can forge ahead. What permission do you need to stand in your own life?

Don’t fight alone. Come find the authority God has given you to stand and fight. It is worth knowing you have this authority and important to take ahold of it. “Take thou authority…” intones the bishop over ordinands for ministry. Take it!

Come worship. Come hear of this authority. Come receive permission to stand and fight!

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

This week has been our Joint Camp Iwannabe hosted at Christ UMC’s location.  We have been ministering to a bunch of kids from the area inviting them to become effective vessels of compassion.  So, if you are normally someone who attends 2nd service, there are two to choose from at Christ: the 9 am or the 10:30 am.  Pastor Ric and I will be preaching at both of these services.  

Our regular 8:15 am service at Westside will be focusing on chapter 7 of our journey with Esther and Mordecai. Finally the wicked scheme exposed, Haman is judged, for when you are wicked or acting in wickedness often the things you do will come back to haunt you.  Haman had built a means to destroy Mordecai, and instead has built his own means of destruction. Haman has been told by his family that since he is dealing with Jews, he is doomed, and their words proved prophetic!  

We can see that this turnaround happened at the last possible moment.  Sometimes in our lives, we don’t see how hope will arrive into the darkness we are experiencing.  We cannot see around the corner or over the hill. All we can see is the present circumstance, the dark, the hopeless feelings.  This might have been what Esther was feeling at this second banquet. 

Remember Esther did not know that God was on the move. She did not know that the king could not sleep the night before, nor that he had been reminded about the saving deed of Mordecai.  She did not know any of this, only that she had invited the king to two banquets and had not yet told him why she had done so. And he would be asking. What would she tell him? How would she tell him?  What could she say? This must have been going through her mind.  

But Harbona, the servant of the king, knew more than Esther did.  He knew about the plan to execute her cousin Mordecai. He knew about the gallows Haman had built. He knew that the king had not slept. He knew and without being asked offers just what the king needed to hear then.  It’s a great surprise that he speaks -- a servant with a word of wisdom. He doesn’t make judgment he just provides the information that no one knew but him: more wickedness exposed and Haman is undone.  

In our lives, in all these days, we experience all kinds of days and all kinds of feelings.  In the middle we might not believe Jesus even knows what is happening. We might believe that we are alone or that our prayers are not heard. We might feel like Esther -- uncertain what we will say.  God has the answer, the direction, the hope. And perhaps will bring a word of deliverance through an unlikely source.  

This story is continually about a God who is working behind the scenes all the time and loves us immensely.  No matter the circumstance we are facing, no matter if it is wickedness, God is at work. We can be caught by this very fact and encouraged to simply do one thing:  trust.

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

The book of Esther reads like a good story: a protagonist, an antagonist/evil villain, and a conflict. A plot of destruction and revenge. A hero emerges in a young woman seemingly with no power. But who is the real hero here? And how can we apply this to our own stories?

Are we aware of God’s movement even when it’s small and seemingly insignificant? Do we discount or overlook God’s part in the process because it seems so small or goes unnoticed? Do we believe that God can do great things in our everyday lives? Do we believe that God is moving behind the scenes?

Join us this Sunday at 8:15 or 10:30 am to learn more about Esther and the “insignificant” movement of God.

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

It’s here! The Sunday that we worship, sing, rejoice, share, and thank God for our baptism.

Join us this Sunday at Hagg Lake at 11:00 am in the Sain Pavilion. There will be a potluck lunch, so please bring something to share.

There will be no 8:15 service this Sunday.

Don’t let anything stop you from attending. Be like Esther and show up.

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

Evil. We see all kinds of evil in this world, from situations in families, to institutions, to political events, to the treatment of people in many circumstances around the world. There is only one word for it: evil.

How we deal with it can be challenging. I get daily texts from one organization fighting against the evils they perceive in the world. I hear from another organization representing the families who encountered losses in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. They are fighting evil.

There are the border battles. There is evil on all sides in many of these ongoing issues.

I had a conversation a while back with one of our daughters about gun rights. She was overcome with the grief she felt at the impossibility to make a difference!

It can be overwhelming. But what we do have control over is this: how we choose to make a difference. Will we choose to respond with love in every situation? Will we choose to make anything we say no matter how we might disagree express the character and attitude of the God we serve? And how might we love the person God places in front of us well? That’s one thing we have control over. We also have to believe in this life that the choices we make do have consequences. In the true story of the book of Esther, her choices do make a difference for a nation.

FB arguments bother me so hotly, for they are totally avoidable as long as we always treat the comments from others on FB as if from REAL people with hearts and souls and feelings and minds. The minute we dehumanize our audience, we will participate in evil by how we treat them, write at them, and deal with them. This seems to happen all the time on FB but also personally by how we look at those who are from other races.

We can make assumptions based on fear.

For example, were I to write this:

“He met her in a bar and offered to drive her home. He said he knew a shortcut, and got her home in time for her to watch the 10 pm News.”

I imagine you had a different ending in mind, as in, “she was on the 10 pm news…” because of making an assumption out of fear.

The book of Esther is this magnificent account of what happens when someone chooses to act rather than making an assumption out of fear. It is this beautiful tale of how one woman changed the future of her race.

She is facing off with evil, but does so demonstrating an unspoken confidence in God’s goodness. None of us may need to face such evil. But we can choose to act to make a difference in the world in which God has placed us by taking action similar to Esther, we can choose to realize that no matter the evil, that God might just have placed us in our sphere of influence for “such a time as this,” for us to act.

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

There are many things I have loved about the book of Esther over the years.  First, the fact that it is in the bible yet God is never mentioned by name. God’s people, the Jews, are named, but not God. I find this incredible. It tells me the significance of the story and the way God is inferred to throughout it.  Also, it is a story applicable to our time -- today, still, men and women still struggle with equality, and people still struggle with racism. Third, it is about real people, living at a real time, dealing with real life circumstances that challenged their faith, and they needed to face it.  Finally, I love the characters, from Queen Vashti, a true-blue, steel magnolia, and Esther, Mordecai, the wicked Hamen, the king, and especially Harbona. This servant is a great behind the scenes guy who SEES everything and is involved all along the way. So -- let’s dive in.  

As we are facing change here -- I know a year off, but still a real change to face, process and feel -- we can use the reminder that God is always behind the scenes, that no one bad is powerful enough to thwart God, and that together we have great ability to come through.  It is helpful to have story with us in such times. I love the power of this story to speak on so many levels.  

In my own life this has been the most fascinating season I’ve ever lived.  Just the other morning, God highlighted a verse in 1 Samuel for me. It was Samuel speaking to Saul, then King, but missing it up royally.  Samuel said, “Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lord has anointed you king…” (15:17).  

When I read this the Lord spoke to my heart reminding me how frequently it applies to me as well -- thinking less of myself than God does.  Naming myself far less then the anointing names me. Believing my thoughts not God’s anointing. I think it impacts us all -- we can live to the level of what we believe in our hearts, or to the measure of what God speaks about us.  I would rather do the latter! In this story a young woman, certainly with no thought of qualifying to become queen, becomes queen. No matter what she might have thought of herself in her heart, God raised her up. This is a picture of us, placed in a position of honor, of calling, of anointing, no matter what we might imagine be true of us.  

This book tells us to live into what God says of us, not what we believe about ourselves.  As Mordecai says to Esther, perhaps “you have come to your royal position, for such a time as this.”  We too have been given a royal position, have we accepted it, do we walk in it, do we believe it, for such a time as this?  

How much we need this at this time!  

Stand.  Be. Trust.  Be the difference needed.  

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

The thing about what happens in Scripture is that many of the events only occurred one time in someone’s lifetime.  It was not a weekly occurrence. It is easy for us to view individual events as if they always happened, as if they always felt that way, always saw those visions, or had those dreams.  Peter, for example, only once had the experience of his vision of something like a sheet lowered from heaven by its corners and within it a variety of unclean animals, and hearing God say, “Get up. Kill. And Eat.”  Shocked, dismayed, Peter didn’t but lamented, “Never, God!” But was told three times, “What God has declared clean, do not call unclean.” Then men unknown to him knocked at the door and he was ushered from his safe Jewish world into the Gentile world and saw God show up with power.  

The story in Acts 10 is one of God breaking the barriers between peoples.  How Jews had viewed the outsider, God changed by experiences that shook their safe Jewish world.  It caused the Jewish believers to change what it meant to hold to the law and what it meant to ask others to do so.  This was changing something that had been in place for some 2000 years.  

The Holy Spirit treated Jews and Gentiles alike later in this story, therefore, they also ought to do the same.  So how might we follow suit? What might it look like for us to love others, even the “others” who are different from us, in a way that gives God glory?

When Jesus taught about loving our neighbors he didn’t speak of the neighbor as the other person, but as us becoming the neighbor to them. That we were the neighbor to all who are around us.  This is the direction of love -- toward the other. It is not love that we choose to demonstrate to some and not to others. This is being a person who loves-- no matter who the other is. This is Jesus. This is the gospel.  

How are you doing at being that neighbor?

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

I was speaking with a friend who told me how much he wished he had never been born.  I was surprised by this. “Really?” I asked him. “You don’t believe anything was worth this life? And hey, I’d be super disappointed for I wouldn’t have known you.”  He laughed and we talked more about those feelings, which speak of a heart narrative that is ruling his own thinking. It is his belief that his life doesn’t measure up, isn’t important.  Now I know I have had such feelings -- which makes me a great person to talk with for I get how deep they can go. But how painful to live with them, when the reality is, by every measure of all of creation, the love for us is immense, absolutely immense.  There’s so much beauty, joy, pleasures, laughter, fun in our lives that are all evidence of God’s immense love for us. That God loves us -- like a father, “daddy” is the biblical name “Abba” -- is the basic, bottom-line of all of the scriptural testimony. Immensely loved.  

Indeed in Sunday’s passage, Ephesians 3: 14-21, Paul prays a prayer that outlines just how all encompassing this love is -- it is love with dimensions.  This Sunday we are reflecting on the love we get to show God as we have received Love from God, but also we are expressing love as we commission the Wells’ Family and Jan Shoemaker off to their missions work on our behalf in Seattle and Houston, respectively.  We will be praying for them in worship and celebrating their presence with us after worship with a feast of burgers, hotdogs, and all the salads and sides you might want to contribute.

Don’t miss experiencing love in worship by not coming Sunday, and don’t miss expressing love in worship for God and for these families whose lives have immensely blessed our lives.

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

Remember -- 2nd Service this Sunday is happening at CHRIST UMC, 12755 NW Dogwood St in Portland, at 10:30 am.  There will be no 10:00 am service at Westside.  We are meeting at Christ UMC as the joint worship opportunity after the Help Build Hope day on Saturday June 15th.  

We will have the 8:15 service at our building so if you cannot make second service, come to first service.  Come worship. Come connect with God in community. We need these times of connection. They are good for our hearts and provide necessary nourishment for our souls as we walk this walk of faith.

And it is just that walk that we are looking at this Sunday, both Father’s Day and Trinity Sunday.  For Jesus invited us all to “follow.” This entails movement. Sometimes we are tempted to stop moving, stop walking, and just stand, point and be critical of others.  But that is not the movement into which Jesus has called us. We are to stir up the flame within us, be filled by the Spirit and walk. Specifically in Colossians 3, Paul has very specific instructions for the believers in that city, and for us, on how to keep walking.  Using powerful word pictures Paul tells it like it is. If you cannot make the 10:30 service at Christ UMC, come to Westside at 8:15 as we look at this incredible passage and “walk” together.

Walk. Be filled. Move. Keep in step. Stir up the fire. Take action with Jesus.  

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

Pentecost. It was a day unlike all others. The promise made by Jesus to the disciples was fulfilled where the Spirit that had been “with them” by being in Him, now was “within them,” outpoured. The disciples had waited and God had come -- like a wind, like fire, and they had been filled, spoke in other languages, and witnessed boldly to Jesus. The result of Peter’s first sermon was 3000 added to the church that day. Imagine what that was like. And then, having been filled, they were filled again and again, and the boldness showed up time and again.

What began on the Day of Pentecost, continues today. God isn’t done moving dynamically. Sometimes people experience a personal pentecost, a new experience of the Holy Spirit moving upon their lives. This can be as simple as hearing God speak or as profound as a time of being immersed in God’s Holy Spirit. Other times whole areas or a whole country experiences such a move of the Spirit, followed by many conversions and awakenings. There have been many, many of these ongoing movements throughout history. One in 1972 involved a chapel service at a college in Kentucky that rather than lasting one hour lasted 186 hours and led to student teams leaving every weekend for months after that and going across the country to share at other college campuses and the Holy Spirit showed up in a similar way at each.

God is still moving. God is still alive. And God still moves in ways that are surprising and can be earthshaking. This Sunday we will revisit that first Pentecost, hear stories of other awakenings and look at how God might be asking us to position ourselves for such a move today.

How open are you to the move of God’s Holy Spirit? In what ways are you positioning yourself to experience Pentecost in your life?

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

Saul’s conversion, described in Acts 9, after which he is called Paul, and his life of ministry described throughout the rest of that book and alluded to in his 13 letters, is filled with suffering, suffering for the sake of Jesus, which Jesus promised would be the case at his conversion. It is interesting that Paul never asked about this when he was prayed over, received his sight, told he would suffer, and began to do so. Paul never complained about suffering for the sake of Jesus. Indeed, Paul embraced whatever came his way. He considered all suffering as something that filled up what was lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Put that into your pipe and smoke it!

Imagine that -- the suffering of a mom caring for young children, and denying a call to do some other work, to the suffering of a man persecuted for his faith, to the suffering of someone dealing with cancer, to the suffering of a child on the playground. Filling up what was lacking-- whatever that may mean.

The long and short is that there is nothing we walk through that is not something God will use. And there is nothing that is not and cannot be an expression of God’s grace into our lives. His grace looked like Saul getting slammed to the ground off his horse outside Damascus, and like him shipwrecked at sea, and like him in many instances of suffering. In these times, God showed up, strength came, hope birthed, and the promise was fulfilled in his life that he would suffer for the sake of Jesus. But more than that, God’s grace came through him to reach so many, many others for that same Gospel.

This Sunday we are looking at this grace in Paul’s life, and more than that, at how grace is what God works in our lives as well, no matter the hardship or difficulty. In life every experience can make us bitter or better. God’s grace can move us to better, if we welcome it.

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

Karen still remembers the exact amount. I came home from work that day in 1990, to her and our then three little girls, and told her that a woman had come into my office unable to pay her rent so I had loaned her $242 to help pay it.

“You did what?” Karen asked, thinking of our own meager budget and our need for groceries and our need to pay the bills. I told her again, and she was filled with disbelief and was not just a little angry.

It was that day that I learned it was best to get her buyin to large financial decisions (and that was one) before making them. The reality is this: when she has an opportunity to have buyin, then, she has the joy of giving as well.

I have regretted it every time I have not done this.

As Karen predicted that night, we never saw that money paid back. It took a tight couple months to recover with us limping along. It was years later that I learned how my own mythical thinking about money, my own poor budgeting, and my own lack of boundaries kept us strapped. God provides and when we honor Him with our finances, He blesses us with the ability to be good stewards of all He has provided. Then we can give!

Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy to instruct those rich in this world how to view money or wealth. His instructions are timeless. Truly, even when we were strapped financially in San Jacinto, we were still among the rich of this world, the most wealthy. We would have done well to heed his advice.

He told Timothy to warn them not to be proud (not to trust in their wealth); Trust in God and use their money to do good; To be rich in good deeds (always being willing to share with others). Paul wanted those who were rich to be generous-hearted, people who gave and gave freely. He warned Timothy that those who craved wealth, who loved money, have pierced themselves with many hurts, even fallen from faith. It was a message written to be delivered to people living in Ephesus in the first century but could easily have been written for us, today. All of us, no matter our incomes, are easily among the wealthiest of the world, living in the wealthiest of nations.

To see money not as what we “have” but as what we “have been given” is a start. It is to agree that all wealth, even if we earned it by our efforts, or by saving diligently, still is granted by God. God said this to the Israelites after leaving Egypt to beware of forgetting Him when they became wealthy, saying that, “He is the one who gave you the power to earn wealth…” (Deuteronomy 8:18). What Paul wrote to Timothy was entoned previously by God through Moses there in Deuteronomy 8.

Money is curious. It is simply a means of commerce, yet, it can grab our hearts, it can give us a sense of power over others, and become something we crave more of. It can be dangerous that way. Heeding God’s warnings is helpful to undercut the ways money can have in our lives for it tends to grab our hearts.

This week we will be looking at Paul’s advice to Timothy and listening for how God is speaking to us today. We will also recall how John Wesley used money in his era, even when making what today would be $160,000 a year, Wesley chose to live on what was equivalent to $20,000 per year and gave the rest away. Wesley wrote that his own hands would be his executors -- he would give while he lived. And he did. He died penniless other than the money needed for his funeral.

If you cannot make it, ponder: How am I a steward of all God has given me?

In what ways do I guard against money gaining access to my heart?

How do I practice Wesley’s advice to “Gain all you can; Save all you can; Give all you can.”?

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

A brother in Christ and fellow pastor, David Beck, has cancer. Pancreatic Cancer. He was first diagnosed more than 16 months ago now and has been undergoing excruciating, ongoing treatments.

Back in December of 2017 when called to serve a church outside of Seattle from Sacramento, he arrived, preached a couple times, began to feel too exhausted to name, and in going to the doctor got this diagnosis.  So, he had been doing the right thing, following God, obeying, showing up, being faithful, and the result, cancer. Sometimes the facts of life leave one mystified.

The unanswered questions can leave a person numb.  

Circumstances can thwart us.  But through this 16 months David has been posting on the Caring Bridge site in a blog that has now reached well over 50,000 readers. Week by week, through the struggles and impossibilities of his circumstances, he has simply shared his heart, his faith, and his determination to simply live every day as fully as he can, even if his last day is upcoming ahead of schedule.

So far, David is still alive.  It is a marvel. It is like he is sitting in this jailhouse called cancer yet still praying, still praising, still believing, and certainly still sharing his love for Jesus.

This week, on Sunday, we will share in a passage, from Acts 16, in which a circumstance which looking in from the outside we would have to admit is dreadful leads to more people hearing about Jesus than ever would have otherwise.  Although we only read of one family converting as a result, the overflow of this one must have been massive. Crowds had witnessed a miracle -- and even though this had been covered by false cries, still, God had moved in their midst.  A slave girl had experienced the power of God over her life. Prisoners had witnessed the newest arrivals not yelling with anger or crying out in pain, but singing and praying, all of which they were listening to.

Read Acts 16 this week and look at Paul and Silas and wonder with me what we might learn about them that they chose praise and prayer over self pity or despair! They could have felt betrayed by God in this little circumstance, but you don’t see this.  They could have chosen to complain, but didn’t. They could have said, “Hey, we are doing the right thing here,” but they don’t. What we do see is a choice in the midst of a circumstance. That choice made the difference.

What impact might those praises have had on those “listening in” prisoners?  

How might the jailer’s life and his family’s life have been altered because of this imprisonment?

What was that midnight baptism like as Paul presided over his and his family’s baptisms?

This story reminds me that we are partners with God in this grand adventure and everything, not just the good stuff, is used so that God can be made more visible through our lives.  It also reminds me of this: that I’m being observed all the time. And whatever I might imagine, when I come and go, when I speak and listen, my life is on display and others are watching to see how I respond, and what I say from the circumstances of my life.  Perhaps, just perhaps, we could remember just two things of how Paul and Silas chose to follow in their circumstances to impact our own. Rather than anything else, rather then defensiveness or anger, in response to horrendous treatment, they prayed and praised.  Perhaps this week, no matter your circumstances, you could choose the same and see what kinds of earthquakes shake your world for good.

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

It is post Pentecost in this Sunday’s scripture (even though by the calendar we are still walking toward that date), the end of Acts 2. The church birthed on Pentecost. Before it was a group of disciples, waiting, praying, hoping, not knowing what to expect. After that morning when the Spirit fell like a rushing wind, it was an organism, a body, a linked unit of people moving together in concert. It was a sudden shift.

Certainly they did not do everything together, they all still had their various jobs. But even so, everything had changed. No longer were they afraid, they boldly proclaimed the risen Christ. No longer were they hiding, they were everywhere, and as a body always growing, first by addition and then by multiplication. It was a movement with a mission set by Jesus that shook the establishment.

So what are we to do with this church thing? I mean, we can look at this first picture of the early church in Acts 2 and believe, falsely, that that was all they ever were -- healthy, sharing, giving, dynamic, bold and transforming. But scripture is ruthlessly honest. Although the early movement grew rapidly, it also ran into major difficulties with deception, arguments, comparisons, persecution and the like, all within the first months.

It is helpful to us not to glorify this early movement, and believe it was perfect. But what can we learn from the early church? What can we see happening which we may be able to learn from as we seek to continue this movement today?

This Sunday we will look together at how this early fledgling community became the “word made flesh” in their era. They did not just preach, they embodied the scriptures. It was not the word become word, but the word made flesh among them that spoke the loudest to their contemporaries. This is where we can still apply what God wants for us today -- today still, we are called to this same thing, to make the Word flesh through our corporate lives. How does all that we do lend toward this desire? That’s what we will be asking on this Mother’s Day.

Sneak Peek for this Sunday

How did Jesus disciple people?  He did it by inviting them to follow.  “Follow Me” is Jesus’ two-word, oft-repeated invitation in the Gospels.  Again and again, to all kinds of people, from all kinds of backgrounds and income brackets, Jesus simply welcomed them into the opportunity to follow Him with their lives. For them, at that time, this meant to literally walk away from their normal lives.  The fishermen left the sea, the tax collector his tax collecting box, the politically connected their causes. The prostitutes left their employment, the sinners their pasts, the outcasts their lostness. Following Jesus was not just a decision that changed direction, it was a decision that changed life for good.  Indeed, it was for good. And when someone needed restoring after stumbling, Jesus knew just how to do that as well. In today’s passage, John 21, Peter is in need of such restoring, and Jesus takes him back in order to take him forward.

This Sunday we are welcoming into membership and into the life of this congregation the seven guys who have been walking in the confirmation class throughout this year. They have had weekly classes, more than 20 of you praying for them, fun outings, a weekend retreat, and lots of discussions about Jesus, about life, about what it might mean to follow Him more fully.  So, this Sunday is the culmination of that class. We will welcome these seven guys into this congregation: Jordan B, Barrett F, Conner F, Liam F, Holden S, Dylan T, and Jesse T.

Part of that following for you and me is connecting with the body, coming to worship, experiencing that life together.  So -- come! Don’t let us miss out on worshiping and being with you, and don’t you miss out on what God has for you in the worshiping gathering.