Will You Be My Neighbor?

Today Pastor Paul Luna walked around the neighborhood and asked people if he could pray for them. If they where not home, he left a nice little note that said they can write down their prayer request and he would pick them up tomorrow and pray for them. Here is how it went.

Celebration of Grace!

The woman in the story came to the well at a time when no respectable woman would come. She came to the well to get water to sustain herself and her family for a time. She was met by Jesus at the well. She was an outsider; an outcast for the respectable people, she met the ultimate outsider the one who came from heaven to earth to make those who would come to Him become insiders.

John 4:7-26  Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

The hope of living water is available to all insiders and outsiders, those who are thirsty will come. That is the hope we have for this well at the Seminary in Chad. Estes seminary now has a well that the students can use to gain clean water, and those around can come and receive clean water.

Water is a problem for the people of Chad, it is becoming harder to get clean water. It is crucial that the water that is offered to the people of this small community be clean, refreshing and a symbol of God’s care. For me this is a celebration of Grace- something that only God can do. The fun part is we get to participate in the offering of a Grace gift to people in need. God is blessing the people around the seminary and us at the same time. What a powerful gifts to us.

John 7:37-39 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” ³⁹ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Now at Easter we know that Jesus has been glorified and the Spirit of God is given to those who believe. We know that the Spirit will flow from us as rivers of living water. Being a source of encouragement to others is a grace gift! Let’s celebrate God’s Grace!

 photo by Rocco Stecher

The Affection Due Her

Why do we understand that great success comes after hard work, but often fail to recognize that great marriages also come after hard work?  When working on any project we understand that it takes time to research, plan and build skills to successfully pull off that project. This includes everything from making a cake to building a sky scraper.   Not only is all this true for any project, this is also true in developing a healthy marriage.   Great marriages don’t just happen. They take time, effort, commitment, change, growth and knowledge.  In a marriage, this starts with the husband.

A vast majority of counselors and psychologists communicate that a good majority of wives appreciate touch, holding hands, hugs and a kiss.   “Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.” 1 Corinthians 7:3.  Logically, husbands understand that our wives need affection; however what we often think of as a showing of affection is not always what our wives are looking for. Affection does not mean sex or any activity that leads up to sex; rather it’s a simple act that says I love you and ask for nothing in return. Read more >>

Hope in Death

Death is sobering thought, but it does not need to drive us to hopelessness. For a follower of Christ who has lost a loved one that knew Christ as their savior, we can focused on a life lived with hope. “And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died.” 1 Thess 4:13-15 (NLT).  Here are three truths you should know when facing death. Read more >>

The One You Love

Do you realize that the Bible does have double standards? God gives husbands one set of standards and wives a completely different set of standards. It is easy to miss this double set of standards in a quick reading of scripture, but when one realizes the significance these two verses it can redefine ones marriage, particularly how husbands look at their marriage.

“To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.” 1 Corinthians 7:10,11 Read more >>

An Invitation to Celebrate the Birth of Christ

An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”). Matthew 1:20b-23

Have you ever been in a position where you don’t know what to say or do? This is especially true when you want to talk to someone about Christ, but you don’t know where to start. Believe it or not, pastors are in the same boat more often than not. It’s true that witnessing gets easier with each attempt, but that does not mean is always easy. Read more >>

Not a Fan of Jesus – Day 1

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23

A True Story of Romantic Pursuit:

This weekend a fiance’s love saved 25-year-old teacher Gul Karacoban from being left to die under the rubble of a restaurant she was eating at when a deadly 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey on Sunday, October 23, 2011.

When the quake struck, Eryasar rushed from his base in Van to the town of Ercis some 100 km (60 miles) away to find Karacoban, and by talking with her friends and colleagues he learnt where she had gone to lunch.  Finding the restaurant in the dark, he shouted out her name. Hearing the voices of other people trapped in the collapsed building he persuaded one of the rescue teams to begin digging.

By late Monday morning his perseverance was rewarded as the young woman was carried out, alive and conscious after 18 hours pinned under a mound of concrete and masonry.

“All I want is for her to live, I don’t care if she injured or not. It doesn’t matter, I just want her alive,” air force Lieutenant Onur Eryasar told a Reuters photographer before climbing into the ambulance.

Day 1

Let’s be honest, no one is a perfect follower of Christ ALL the time. Sometimes we do better than others times; other times we don’t do so well and try to ignore that fact.  However, there is usually a general idea of where our commitment is with Jesus and that is what we are looking at here.

A fan of Jesus is someone who is an enthusiastic admire of Christ. They cheer Him on, know all his stats and stand on the sideline. A follower of Jesus is someone who has a passionate romantic desire to pursue Christ as one pursues a loved one. They are involved in missional ministry (to be defined later), are concerned about God in every decision they make and are actively seeking to know and LOVE God more. But, before we can continue on, we first need to determine where we are before we can determine where we ought to be.

Ask Yourself: If you had to decide between, “I am a fan of Jesus,” or “I am a follower of Jesus,” where would you place yourself? What do you want your relationship with God to be like?

Ask God: What are you holding onto that prevents you from following Christ fully? Today, take the time to talk to God and ask him to reveal to you what holds you back from pursing Him as passionately as you could. Is it money, time, fear, anger, self-centeredness, contentment, etc.?

Do: Today, prepare yourself to give up the things that hold you back from perusing Christ fully.   Make a note of the things that will need to change in order to be available to do His will.  Be ready, because tomorrow we are going to ask God to interfere with our lives.

Listen to the Message “Not a Fan of Jesus“

When we don’t get our way…

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“I once was young and now I am old” so the Psalmist says in Psalm 37:25. I am sure that age brings maturity to some. I’ve seen it; I’ve experienced the wisdom of those older than myself. I have listened as they told me to be patient, to wait on God, to trust when the situations of life seem to crash around me.  I know that as I slow down to trust God the bumps seem to get smaller, the dips get shallower, and the people who bug me seem less intimidating.

Psalm 37

 ¹ Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong;
² for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Read more >>

Making the Greater Impact

As I sat at the table with several friends, who are involved in ministry, we chatted about our ministries, happenings in our community and finally the ministry of some of the pastors of the biggest mega churches we know of in the United States. “Did you know Rick Warren was cooking up burgers for everyone who was volunteering at Saddleback’s Church Workday?” was one comment. That comment was soon followed up with, “do you think if I cooked up burgers at my church people would show up and help at our church?” For the next twenty minutes we just talked about these pastors and the great ministries they appear to be having. If one was not careful, it would not take much for some of us to get envious of these mega church pastors and jealous of their fan like following. But, should we really envy these guys? Read more >>

Was Steve Jobs a Christian and Where is He Today?

There is no doubt in the minds of many that Steve Jobs was a brilliant and intuitive visionary that made technology accessible and fun. Never had phones, listening devices and computers been so hip till the introduction of the iPhone, iPod and iMac. However, Jobs is dead and many are left wondering, where is Steve Jobs now?

There has been much speculation about the beliefs of Jobs. Some have asked, “was Steve Jobs was an atheist?” Others followed up with asking “was Steve Jobs a Christian?” Steve Jobs was neither a Christian nor an atheist; Jobs was a Buddhist. Read more >>