BELIEVE Review Part 2

May 11, 2016
Jeff Lampl

 In Part 2 of BELIEVE, we learned the following 10 things about what I am supposed to do as a believer . . . . . .

God has made us with the goal of forming us into the image of Jesus.   This requires the formation of new habits which rewire our brains into a new kind of creature, a creature like Jesus.

1.    We are told to worship God.  Worship means to live in gratitude to God and in praise of God for who He has revealed himself to be.   Worship requires a shift – from living so that I am noticed to living so that God is noticed and loved.   (Psalm 95:1,2) (Romans 12:1-2)

  

2.    We are told to pray.  Prayer is what happens when believers are in an interactive relationship with God.   It includes attentiveness to God’s promptings, trust and obedience, asking for help, apologies, appreciation, talking with God, each of which are aspects of a heathy life-giving relationship with God. (Psalm 66:18-20)

3.    We are told to study the Bible.  The Bible is the record of the work of God on planet earth written by over 40 people over 1,400 years.   It teaches, instructs, warns, shapes us, grows us, so that we grow into the image of Jesus.   Bible reading may have the most significant formative effect in growing Christ-like character within believers. (Hebrews 4:12)

4.    We are told to be single-minded.  It is a great truth that when we put first things first (God), second things (all other good things) will be “thrown in”.  When we put second things first, we miss not only the first thing, but the second things as well.  (Matt. 6:33)

5.    We are told to surrender unreservedly  This means that we tell God that whatever He wants from me, He can have, and that, as much as it is possible, we mean what we say.   I am willing to surrender everything, because I know that God will replace it with something unimaginably better.   (Luke 22:47)

6.    We are told that we must be in biblical community.   This means committing to a vulnerable, honest, growing relationship with other believers, with whom and through whom God grows us up.   Without this we will not grow.   This is the foundational meaning being in a church, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, where we learn the meaning of “koinonia”, “one-anothering” (Acts 2:42-47)

7.    We are told that each of has a spiritual gift and that we must use it for sake of others.   A spiritual gift is a special ability (1 Cor. 12, Romans 12) given to each one of us.   You may not feel you are gifted, but you are and you are responsible to God for its use. (1 Corinthians 12)

8.    We are told to offer our time to God.  Each believer must take the 24 hours given her or him, view it all as an offering to God, and steward it wisely.  This will include time for your children, spouse, colleagues, those in need.   Sometimes it will mean saying “no”, other times it will be mean saying yes to very hard things.   Your time is not yours, it is a gift granted you from God.  (Colossians 3:17)

9.    We are told to give from our resources.   The Bible tells us that all we have is all gift.   As such our income and material possessions belong to God.  That’s the starting point for Christian giving.  From there we learn to live on less and learn to give more for the sake of others.  The biblical guideline is to give one tenth of one’s income to the local church and then increase giving beyond that to other areas of the world’s need.
(2 Corinthians 8:7)

10. We are told to share our faith.  God came to earth as Jesus to show us what He is like - and to show us how much he cares by dying on the cross – and to show us that he is now alive and well and reigning over the earth.   The world needs to know this.  Your friends need to know this.   God expects us to tell them about this.   In fact each of us carries the burden of the future destiny of other people.  Each of us is to some degree responsible for our neighbor either living a flourishing eternal future with God, or living an eternal regretful horror apart from God.   God expects us to take this reality with utmost seriousness.  (Ephesians 6:19-20)

Note:   You can read Believe Part 1 summary here.  Believe Part 3 summary will be posted on Friday.

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Believe Review Part 1

May 10, 2016
Jeff Lampl

In Part 1 of Believe we learned the following 10 things about God . . .

1.    God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a Community, a Family, a pulsating, ever creating, ever joyful being who has invited each of us into his joy and into his eternal life, which the bible calls the “life that is truly life”, a life some of our “church fathers and mothers” have called the “Divine Dance”.  (2 Corinthians 13:14) (click HERE a wonderful song worth really listening to which puts the “Divine Dance” to music)

2.    God is Personal:   This is so hard to comprehend, but God knows you personally, your coming and your going, each of your thoughts.  His eye is not just on the sparrow.  His eye is on you. (Psalm 121:1-2)

3.    God came to earth as Jesus to rescue us, to reveal Himself to us, to experience the pain that everyone experiences, to take our sin upon himself and forgive it, and to invite us to trust him as forgiven sons and daughters of God himself.   You and I are free to accept or ignore this salvation.  Actively accepting this salvation means eternal life with God, a life of endless joy.  Actively ignoring this salvation results in eternal life without God, a life of endless regret.  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

4.    God has revealed Himself to us in Jesus.   The Bible is the record of witnesses to God’s creation of the world and humanity and his never ending love of it.  The Bible has been vetted thoroughly and has been found reliable by the best of objective scholars.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)

5.    You and I are (almost incomprehensively) God’s Sons and Daughters!   That’s who we are!  Our earthly task is to live as such! (John 1:12)

6.    Churches are gatherings of those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son, having died for our sin, having been resurrected from the dead, and now reigns over earth by means of His Holy Spirit at work in those believers.  The task of these believers is to love and worship God, love each other, and love others.    (Ephesians 4:15)

7.    You and I are sinners.   This means that you and I fall far short of who God created us to be.   Sin means that on my own I am incapable of achieving the kind of godly character that I am meant to have.   I need God’s help.   God has provided that help in Jesus Christ.  (John 3:16)

8.    God is compassionate.   God cares about you.   God feels your feelings and knows your struggles.  You matter to God.  (Psalm 82:3-4)

9.    God has given every human being the task partnering with Him as stewards of all that He has granted us.  Natural resources, relationships, family, material possession, money are all gifts from God and we are responsible for stewarding all of it in a way that gives honor to God.  (Psalm 24:1-2)

10. The Good News (Gospel) is that God is making and, when all is said and done, will have made everything in heaven and on earth new.   Heaven and earth will be merged and every believer will live a joyful, purposeful, vibrant life in partnership with God and others.  (John 14:1-2)    (Revelation 21:1-5)

“So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable.
Always work enthusiastically for the Lord,
for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever in vain”.
1 Corinthians 15:58

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A Mother's Day Psalm

A Mother’s Day Psalm

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Jeff Lampl

Mothers are God’s sacred and first  . . . .

means of communicating to each of us how precious we are to Him.   From conception to birth to the day she departs this earth, a mom knows her child and loves her child in a way that no other human being can.   Moms, be honored today.  It may be that you have the most powerful position on planet earth.  There is no human alive who has not experienced something of God’s love through you.   Thank you!!!

Psalm 139 

¹ You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you . . . . . . .

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

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Faithfulness

FAITHFULNESS

Thursday, May 5, 2016
Megann Graf

This blog is not just for moms...keep reading!

  The fact is, that I feel like the word mother can be replaced by the word Christian, and this saying can still hold its weight.  We live in an interesting society now, where things are so hyped up and glorified, it can make the average Joe feel very overwhelmed.   And social media can help us portray whatever “perfection” we feel will give us the most likes or shares.  And sometimes, we look at people online, and think that they must have it all together.  Everything looks so perfect.

This past Sunday, Ben preached on faithfulness.  I love how he addressed this fact, and also challenged us in our “faithfulness.”  He challenged us not to think that faithful living has to look extraordinary, but in fact, that often, faithful living looks very, very ordinary. 

I’ll admit, when I read this phrase, “…but there’s a million ways to be a good one,” the word “good” didn’t seem good enough.  It seemed like it was still lacking something.  I don’t just want to be a good mom.  I want to be awesome.  Sometimes, I also want people to tell me I’m awesome.  (And sometimes they do…other times they tell me I’m the worst mom in the world, and they don’t even know how I got this job…true quote, from my kid!)

Then I thought of the parable that is taught in the book of Matthew.  It’s the one where the master gives out different quantities of gold to 3 men.  Two of the men use the money they were given, perhaps some risk was involved, but they end up doubling that money in the end.   In Matt. 25:21 and 23, the master says to them “Well done my good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of your master.” 

But there was one man, who didn’t do anything with his money.  It wasn’t that he squandered it or spent it frivolously; he just didn’t do anything with the money.  In modern days, maybe he took a selfie with all his gold behind him and posted it.  It looked good.  But that is not what his master wanted him to do with that money.  He didn’t want him to sit around, afraid to fail, or too proud to go do something with it.  He wanted him to TRUST that what he was given was for a purpose.  He wanted him to be FAITHFUL with what he was entrusted with.  And, the master didn’t tell the others- Well done you great and perfect servant.  You rock!  What you did with that money was tremendous.  Nope, he just used two words to describe his servant- good and faithful.   Nothing extraordinary, nothing fantastic, just two simple words.  Followed by the mention, that those two words can allow us to enter into
His joy.

Whether you’re a mom or a CEO, a student or a scientist, a middle class worker or a millionaire, if you are faithful, you get the same two words.  They won’t build your ego, because what good would that do?  There is no way to be a perfect Christian.  But there are a million ways to be a good one.  There are a million things we can do to be faithful to the One who gave His life for us.  While most of us moms would want to hear our kids say we are awesome, I think we would likely admit, that if we just end this journey with a child looking at us, sincerely, and saying, “well done mom, you are a good one,” we would probably tear up and consider it the best compliment in the world.  We’re not in this life for our glory; we’re in it for His. 

To my fellow mamas- Happy Mother’s Day!  The day will likely not be perfect, but I hope it’s good.  Plain and simple!

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What does a kind life look like?

What does a kind life look like?

Friday, April 29, 2016
Mark Cirino 

What does a life of kindness look like? Being kind to one another is a really good thing. When someone does an act of kindness towards me, it makes me feel really good. My heart is warmed, When I do an act of kindness towards someone, it makes me feel really good. I am uplifted. As I pondered these life-giving acts of kindness, I wondered what does a life of kindness look like?

I thought of my mom who recently turned 82. She is quite the character. Despite her nuances. Despite her idiosyncrasies. Despite her preferences which is a nice way of saying her stubbornness. Despite all of these, I love her dearly. One of the many reasons why I love my mom dearly is because of her kindness. I admire her kindness. I use her kindness as a role model for my life. Now, it’s not that she is the one who is always making a meal for the neighbors, or running errands for other people. It’s not that she doesn’t do these kind acts. She does do them. These are kind and good things to do. But it’s much deeper. It’s who she is. It’s how she has lived her life – with kindness.

My mom grew up in Japan during World War 2. This was when she was around 10 years old. She remembers evenings when she, her 4 sisters, her mother and father would be eating dinner and the air raid sirens would go off. They would have to jump up from dinner and start running to the bomb shelters which were caves dug into the mountain side. As they were running they would hear the engines of the US bombers. They would see and hear the artillery being shot at the bombers by the Japanese military positioned at the tops of the mountains. Quiet a horrific experience for a 10 year old. As you can imagine, she has many other stories.  Including that her father was killed when an US submarine that had snuck into the Sea of Japan and torpedoed the ship that her father, who was a civilian at the time, was on.

Here’s the thing though, my mom loves the Unites States of America. She is very honored to be an US citizen. She admires and speaks highly of our US Government and what this countries stands for. The Unites States of America is her home. We can’t get her to go back to even visit Japan. Why should she. As far as she’s concerned, Casapula’s makes the best Italian hoagies in the world, and they are ten minutes from her house. Why leave?

How can this be when the country you love was once set out to kill you, your family, and your nation? My mom could have become hateful, sour, untrusting, and cynical. But instead forgiveness has given kindness a place deep in her heart which then has made her life a walk of love.

"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

Ephesians 4:32

BTW, about 10 years ago, my mom showed me a little silver cross that she has carried in her purse since she was in her early 20’s. She and my dad were in a small group. Someone in the small group gave that cross to her. That was a kind thing to do. She said that she always prays to Jesus for her children. So that’s over 50 years of praying for her children. That’s a kind thing to do. That also brought to life for me the power of prayer.

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Kindness

Kindness

April 27, 2016

by Megann Graf

I’ve gotta be honest.  I know that this is a common saying, but I’m not a fan.  Mostly I’m not a fan because I’m a cynic, and it’s hard for me to see or say something like that and mean it sincerely.  But, I don’t think I’m alone here. 

When you use or hear this saying, aren’t you still ultimately trying to “annoy” someone else?  I mean, yes, we are supposed to be kind.  Yes, it’s important to be kind.  But, we are called to be sincerely kind.  Sometimes, I find myself just “acting” kind.  Now, I suppose the acting is still better than letting unkindness take over, but I’m fairly certain that it’s not what God intended when He was talking about us bearing good fruit.  Who wants to eat something that looks real but is actually fake?  (One time, I mistakenly thought that I was putting chunks of chicken on my salad, and it turns out it was tofu.  Trust me, tofu does NOT taste like chicken.  And faking my way through kindness is not bearing me any good, lasting fruit, and is definitely not a compliment to my Spirit.)

We all struggle with being kind.  Some struggle a lot and some a little.   Sometimes, it’s easier to just “act” kind, but it really can take on a whole new meaning, to us and to others, when we learn to sincerely be kind.  Sometimes that means we have to wrestle with the fact that it’s hard.  Sometimes, it feels like it’s killing US to be kind.  But, please, let’s not try and “kill” others with kindness.  That’s not the love they deserve. 

Ephesians 4:32

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other,

just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Be kind, not to annoy someone, or to “kill” them with kindness, but because God in Christ was kind enough to leave His rightful place in heaven and come to earth.  He came to forgive us by giving up His own life as a sacrificing atonement for our sins.  He didn’t kill us with kindness, but instead, He was killed for our transgressions.  It was not a fake act, it was the most sincere act of love and kindness for mankind in human history.  Let’s not “kill” anyone with kindness.  Let’s love someone with kindness, forgive them with kindness, heal them with kindness, encourage them with kindness, and show them Christ by our kindness. 

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Tempers Were Boiling

Tempers Were Boiling

Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Mark Cirino

It was hot, humid, and dusty. Tempers were boiling and about to explode. I felt like I was in a pressure cooker. This was an experience my wife Kelly and I found ourselves in when we decided to take the local train. We were in Athens, Greece back in the summer of 1985. We went slightly off the beaten (tourist) path and found a local train to take us further down the road. Apparently, so did some other tourists. There was even a tourist family - dad and mom with a couple of small children.

As we were squeezing onto the train, both the tourists and the locals started to realize that the ticket office sold too many tickets. That meant not enough seats. Nobody was happy about that. Kelly and I doffed our backpacks and crunched down on the floor near the doorway. The doors then closed. I heard tempers raging. Even though I couldn’t understand some of the languages, I knew that a bunch of mad, bad words were flying around the train car. Then the shoving started. I felt like I was in a pressure cooker. The heat was turning up. The pressure was building. We were going to explode. Oh no, I thought, should I try my best to protect Kelly, or should I jump in the breach and try my best to stop this thing from exploding (like that was really going to happen).

As I was suspended in my analysis of my self-reactions, I looked up to check the status of the impending explosion. I then noticed one of the locals get up from her seat and offer it to one of the tourist children. She then started to share her food and drink with the child. In an amazing instant, this act of kindness was like the pressure relief valve going off, letting the pressure out. The environment went from unkind to kind in an instant. I was amazed (and relieved). Locals and tourists were shaking hands, hugging, and settling in for the hot, dusty ride.

This local lady had a tender heart. She responded with kindness. She demonstrated the ability to go beyond her wants and needs to see and meet the need of a child. What a great picture of the love of Christ. “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (Lue 23:34). Even though the train car did not explode, my understanding of forgiving love certainly exploded that day. I guess I could say that I tasted the Lord and saw that He was good that day.

Remind yourself often by marinating your heart in God’s Word:

John 3:16

“God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son, that
  whoever believes in him shall not parish but have eternal life.”

Luke 24:34

“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

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