No Gathering This Sunday 9/5

Hey everybody,

Just a reminder that we won’t be gathering together this coming Sunday.  And though we won’t be coming together, we can still be the church, worshiping Him by collectively taking the time to listen to and obey Him.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

September 3rd, 2010 | Leave a Comment | Posted by hideyo

Sunday: Living for the Audience of One

Do we live in such a way that reflects that the Lord’s opinion of us is all that matters?  Will it be enough to here those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and share your master’s happiness”?  Or do we want more than that?  Do we also need the approval of others as well?  Or will we play only to the audience of One?

Personally, I’ve found the the most accurate test for this, to see if we play only to the audience of One, is when we’re falsely accused.  I’ve been going to church long enough to know that in difficult times, I’m supposed to pray.  And most often I do.  I’ll usually switch between praying the abject “why is this happening to me?” prayer and the “protect me, save me” prayer.

But my action rarely stops there.  I don’t just take it up to God in prayer.  I take it up to other people too.  I want God and a bunch of someone elses to understand.  And so, I try to get other people on my side.  I scramble around, trying to get anybody to listen to my side of the story.  Often I’ll paint a picture where my accusers look like the bad guys with the hope that I’d look like the good guy.

Now, contrast that with what David did in our reading last week when he was also falsely accused in 1 Samuel 24:1-9.  David falls from favor because Saul sees him as a threat to his throne.  In response, Saul chases after David with several thousand men.  All the while, Saul’s told that David is “bent on harming” him.  An outright lie.  David then has the opportunity to kill Saul in a cave.  But he only cuts a piece of Saul’s robe and spares Saul’s life.

If we simply look at the story in 1 Samuel we’d know the facts, the events in history that occurred but we wouldn’t know what David was thinking, what he was feeling at the time.  And that’s where the Psalms come in.  It’s believed that David wrote songs, Psalms during this time.  I’ll highlight a couple.

In Psalm 140, up to the first three Selahs from verse 1 to 8, it sounds familiar to us.  They’re “protect me, save me” prayers.  But starting from verse 9, the tone shifts significantly.  Suddenly, David wields prayer less like a shield and more like a sword.  He goes on the offensive in his prayer.  And while this doesn’t sound all that great character-wise, let me put this in perspective.  When I go on the offensive, I try to right the wrongs done to me myself.  I go around trying to set the record straight.  I make the rounds bad mouthing my accusers.  When David goes on the offensive, he goes to the Lord to right the wrongs on his behalf.  It’s not that time healed all wounds for David.  It’s not that David came to the place where we didn’t care if Saul got his in the end.  It’s that David trusted that the Lord would act as the judge and dole out the consequences for the wrong done.

And that goes into the other Psalm, Psalm 56.  We see a lot of the same themes that we saw in Psalm 140, but what we see even more clearly in Psalm 56 is that theme of trusting in the Lord.  In this particular Psalm we see that the opinion that the Lord has of David is sufficient for him.  David lives for the audience of only One.  While word spreads that David is guilty of treason, seeking after the king’s life, David doesn’t feel the compulsion to go around the country on a campaign setting the record straight.  “In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”  David only has eyes for the Lord.  David came to the place where all that mattered was what the Lord thought of him and he carried that with him for the rest of his life.

Is what He thinks of you all that matters?  Because it’s true, He is more than enough.  As David later wrote, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” and “Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”

August 23rd, 2010 | Leave a Comment | Posted by hideyo

The five-fold ministry of Ephesians 4:11

Hi BayLight.  I’m back from India and looking forward to journeying through the above with you.  Just to recap from the last time when I introduced the subject, I thought I would summarize and post my slide from then.  

The King [Jesus] conquered the enemy and passed out gifts strategically and purposefully to the church. Jesus gave gifts to each and every person.  What are these gifs/giftings?  This is how Paul put it in Ephesians 4:11-12:

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.   

What do these gifts do?  

12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 

Notice how the church is not an organization or institution.  Building or no building, denomination or no denomination, if it lacks life and lack connection to the head, it is not the body of Christ.   The church here  is a living, growing entity in connection with its leader (literally “head”), Jesus.   Listen to the relational and organic language here in v.16: 

16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.   

Everything is connected.  Everything is working well and properly.  Life is active.  This is a sign of maturity for the apostle Paul.   And the key to this is the equipping of the church through the five-fold ministry giftings. 

Here’s my summary of them that we will explore over the next month.

 – apostles – those who connect us to the mission of Jesus in all its scope.  

        For those gifted in this way, it’s about multiplication and new foundations.

 – prophets – those who connect us to the voice of the Spirit in all its authority.

         For those gifted in this way, it’s about hearing and obeying

 – evangelists – those who connect us to the heart of God for his lost children in all its urgency. 

         For those gifted in this way, it’s about people: lost people coming to Jesus.

 – shepherds – those who connect us to the heart of God for all his children in all its strength.

         For those gifted in this way, it’s about people period: loving them with the love of Jesus.

 – teachers – those who connect us to the word of God in all its richness.  

         For those gifted in this way, it’s about truth and unswerving fidelity to it.
On this side of the Protestant Reformation, we have only seen the latter two giftings emphasized and have created ministry titles and roles out of those giftings called “pastors” or “ministers.”     But if Paul is not lying, then we need all five and not just the last two in order to be all that God designed us to be.  
Thankfully, the King has scattered gifts to all of us.  And so I plead with you to open yourselves up to discovering something new about the Kingdom of God and your place in it as a gift to the church here in the Bay area.   
Looking forward to journeying with you through this old-but-new ministry paradigm,
Mike

 

November 17th, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Posted by mike

Tenderloin Coffee Outing THIS Saturday

Hey all, a group of us are heading out to the Tenderloin this Saturday morning to offer prayer, a cup of coffee, and some warm clothes to people on the streets.  Just another way of following Jesus and participating in God’s mission to bring a small token to bless others.  We’re meeting at my place at 8am.  If you’re interested, zap me an email.  Shalom!

November 13th, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Posted by jason

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