Oasis has fun! We have this initiation that the youth group does. They put forks in the lawn of every new family and they put signs up with notes. Well, we woke up Sunday morning to this and pink silly string! Oh yeah, it must be Pastor’s Appreciation Month!
And to all the V.I.P. Youth group: IT’S ON! And who wrote “bangin eye color”?
Our church is not a building, even though we seem to talk about our building often these days, following the fire. Our church is a people who gather together to learn about God, to pray, to lift one another up, to encourage each other to good works. Our church is generational where parents have brought their children and their children are now bringing their children and we are months away from one family having four generations worship together in the same row in our congregation.
Today blessed me and I wanted to share it with you. Vincent has just turned 3 years old a few weeks ago. He wants to be a guitar player. He got a guitar and he immediately came into the sanctuary and got up on the platform and took his place. He was very serious. His mom had to help him with his strap but then he got busy. In some churches the culture would make this inappropriate but we believe with all our heart that the children learn to lead this way.
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
Vincent arrives with his mom and dad on prayer night and kneels at the altar in between his parents and begins to pray. He’s three, he gets bored after a while, so pretty soon he lifts his head but remains kneeling and pushes his trucks and cars quietly in his place while his parents continue to pray. Oh, how I wish I could show you a picture because this blesses me. Only I feel that I would be intrusive taking pictures during prayer so I refrain. Let me just tell you, it’s beyond a blessing to see and it touches your heart. I’m sure you can picture it.
Today though, when Vincent got up on that platform I couldn’t help but snap a few photos. I hope they make you smile like they did me. I pray that you are teaching your children to praise God, to worship him and to make him the priority of their lives.
I thought I’d post some pictures of how the rebuilding of the church is going!
The first thing the city told us was that we needed to put up a fire wall between the sanctuary and the fellowship wall. In order to do this the bathrooms had to be moved a few feet. The city also required the plumbing be upgraded to today’s code so trenching and jackhammering 7″ of concrete flooring to get this done had to be completed first.
Plumber Jerry Yanez puts in the parts that are required to pass code.
At the same time the plumber is doing his thing the trusses are coming down to replace the burnt part of the ceiling.
Don’t they make it all look so easy? It must have been because they seemed done in no time at all.
Meeting with the general contractor, he shows us what is going on and what needs to happen next. It’s strange to see the church cut in two pieces but we know it will all be put back together again soon.
Jody Jasso and Pastor Doug stop to pose for a picture.
Walls are framed to hold things together until the new trusses arrive next week.
I am reading Sex God by Rob Bell and it really put these thoughts in perspective for me. The thought of how we devalue people and treat them inhumanely by simple acts. I mean we don’t go around torturing people but we don’t have to torture to devalue.
Have you ever watched a man’s head turn, like he’s Linda Blair in the movie the Exorcist, when he sees a women he finds attractive walk by? Have you ever heard a man say to another man, “Wow! I’d love to have a piece of that!” Of course you have and you see it everyday.
The problem is that “that” is a “she”. When we dehumanize a person we are devaluing her, God and ourselves. If we believe the bible and it says we were created in the image of God then to call her a “that” is to be void of any recognition of God in her. God didn’t create “that” he created “she” and “he”.
And it doesn’t just happen in those moments. It happens all the time in all sorts of situations. When we see a person who is homeless and it makes us uncomfortable so we ignore them. When we see a woman who we think dresses immodestly and we label her a slut, we devalue who she is. When we see an alcoholic who is behaving obnoxiously and we are disgusted because of his lack of self-control and determine that we are better than that.
An incident happened in my life to really bring this home this week and I had to examine my own heart regarding this situation and really assess how I had devalued someone. I know a man who is not what we’d consider a nice man, he’s not breaking laws but his lifestyle leaves a lot to be desired. Anyway, you get the picture.
He came to me with a story that totally made him the victim of something bad and I didn’t want to believe him even though I had to because I could tell he was telling the truth. I wanted to say, “Well this is how you live your life so deal with it”, but that would have been wrong because I would never have told anyone else that. It also would have been a lie because he didn’t deserve to be treated that way no matter what he had done. I realized that in my mind because of his lifestyle I had devalued him as a person. The feelings I had towards this new situation in his life had more to say about me than it did about him. I had forgotten that he was person.
When I forgot that that he was human I didn’t just devalue him. I devalued his creator. My actions said God had made junk. It really hit me that I thought somehow I was better and I am not any better. My sin is no less than his. My actions are no better than his but somehow I had reconciled all of that in my brain. I had justified something false and fake all the while wanting to be authentic. Truly, it breaks my heart, as I am no one to stand in judgment of anyone. In fact, to question what God was doing was not even my right or my place. I had to repent and see him as God saw him. God saw him as broken, hurt and in need of help. That same creator, the one who also created me saw the weaknesses in me as well and it broke his heart just as much for both of us.
Let’s begin to see people as God’s creation. We are his masterpiece. I for one have learned a valuable lesson this week. I hope I’ve expressed it well for you. My prayer is that we all begin to see each other as human. Yes, we notice flaws but that we notice them with the understanding that we all have them. We need to understand that we all fall short. That we are all in this together and that we would do better to help each other rather than to judge one another.
Yes, you read that right. I believe in evolution. I don’t believe that I am a descendant of an ape but I do believe that I have choice to either evolve in my life or atrophy. The second option just doesn’t seem like an option to me. No, I can unequivocally say to atrophy or get stuck isn’t even in the thought process of my life.
So, I read, I listen, I watch, I search out wisdom. I want to be learning something on the day I take my last breath. I don’t think that I will ever achieve nirvana and complete enlightenment, but I want to go out a whole lot smarter than I came in. I’m not content to just believe something because someone told me it was so, I want to know it for myself. I plan to be a student forever.
I also work on myself, not just intellectually but emotionally as well. I want to find a balance in life. Where there are too many deadlines and stress in a life, there is a shortening of life where eventually you meet your own deadline in the form of a flatline because of a heart attack or high blood pressure or a stroke. I have the ability in my hands to shorten my days and I don’t plan to do that. For this to happen, I must plan my life and I must take control of my health. This means that I must balance my life between the world of my work and my personal time. I can’t let either consume me. This was a hard lesson to learn but I believe I’ve come to a peace within myself.
1 Corinthians 13:11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
While many Christians are consumed with the earthly debates of rapture and end-time prophesy and their opinion on pre/post/mid, I don’t even care. God isn’t here yet and I have work to do. I know that whatever God decides whether it be pre/post or mid I will be secure in Him. In the meantime, there is an urgency to find out what my destiny and purpose is and then to fulfill that purpose. There are people who need someone to talk to about their problems, I am a good listener. There are people who need a meal. I am a good cook and I have in my hands a network of resources to buy some groceries or get some help. There are people who need a coat for winter. I’m not above asking someone to help with an extra coat. There are babies who need strong arms to hold them and love them, and I am capable of that. There are animals who need our help and humanity and I have a heart for that as well. There are just too many things that need my mind to be focused on them. For me to be worried about at which point my Lord decides to take me out is just a waste of time. One day God will reveal to me all I need to know. For now, I have work and love to give and I have my part of this whole picture called life on earth, to live out.
So yes, I believe in evolution. So what about you, are you evolving?
Romans 12:2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
I had a couple of questions that weren’t asked directly to me on the blog but instead came by way of search that I really want to answer.
To the person who said they blasphemed the Holy Spirit and there is no point in living. There can be no way to blaspheme the Holy Spirit and feel remorse, so while you may have been mad at the Holy Spirit it’s a different thing to blaspheme. I know that you read my blogs on this topic but please hear me when I tell you, your life is worth living. I am desperately praying for you. This is a massive trick of the enemy to steal your soul and I pray you are able to stand on the word of God through this.
To the person who asked Why does he put stipulations on getting married? He puts stipulations because he doesn’t want to get married and this is probably a good thing. You want someone with whom you are compatible and who loves you and wants to spend his life with you. To tie yourself to someone who “loves you but…” is no way to live.
You guys rock! Keep reading and I hope I can help!
What an awesome 3 year-old. She prayed solidly for seven minutes. Beautiful!! She ministered to me today. I pray that she touches your heart as well. She certainly was given the proper name wasn’t she? Hannah, who poured her heart out before the Lord as Eli walked by thinking she was drunk only to find out that she was praying in her heart’s desire. Oh, Hallelujah Jesus! We praise you for parents who teach their children to pray! May you bless them Lord! And Lord while I’m here with you in this moment, you know my grandchildren that have yet to be born to time, may they be mighty prayer warriors and worship you with all their hearts, souls and minds! In the mighty name of the one and only Jesus! Amen.
Compromise: A settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions.
The result of such a settlement.
Compromises. We make them every single day as we work together to make life easier on everyone. Today, I want to blog about compromises that we should never make because they erode our belief system.
Compromise when talking about your belief system becomes a contagious disease that will ultimately destroy who you are or who you believe yourself to be. One compromise will lead to another and another and pretty soon you will look nothing like you used to. I know most people think it won’t happen to them but it always does when we decide to take this road.
So why do we do it? Why do we compromise our belief system? There are two reasons. One, is that we never really believed that our belief system was valid in the first place. We talked the talk but could not ultimately walk the walk. We thought we believed it but when it came right down to it, the act was more important than the substance of the presupposition.
The second is that we want the person with whom we are compromising, in an unhealthy obsessive way that ends up throwing our own self to the wolves to be devoured. It isn’t a healthy love that causes us to compromise our beliefs, it’s based on a low opinion of ourselves and a desperation and manipulation. Healthy love would never ask you to compromise your belief nor would you want to.
Don’t compromise your belief system. You are worth so much more than you give yourself credit for. And while we are here, let’s talk about what I mean when I blog statements like don’t compromise. First off, I don’t mean compromising on the color of the couch we are going to buy together once we are married. I am not talking about simple everyday things like learning to live with the fact that your husband likes to sleep with the light on and you like it off. I mean things like followers of Christ who marry unbelievers with the hope that they will attend church one day. I mean allowing someone to mistreat you because you love them, or they love you. I mean dating a married man who says he is miserable and getting a divorce.
Notice that I am writing about things that will alter who you are forever and cause you to sneak around and live in shame and not openly live your life out loud. If you have to keep a part of your life a secret then you are compromising your beliefs. The reason that this is so important is that while the compromise is happening, we lie to ourselves and say, “Okay, I’ll compromise on this one thing but I won’t go any further.” The fact is that we will go further and we do because compromise is a slippery slope. Once we swallow down the bitter pill of the first compromise, the other pills go down a little easier and don’t taste as bad. Pretty soon our compromises have taken us to places we would never have gone and we look nothing like what we and God intended.
Ask yourself a very important question at this point in your reading. Have you compromised your belief system? If so, let me ask you another question. Did the person you compromised for, also compromise their belief system? I would venture to bet dollars to donuts that they did NOT. Remember a compromise is a settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions. I would bet that you compromised on the HOPE that they would hold their end of the bargain but believe me, I’ve lived long enough to know I am making a safe bet. They didn’t hold their end of the bargain and never intended to. You were played. Oh, that is so harsh to say but I say it because only truth will set you free.
So that being said, what will you do now? Will go back and get your beliefs back? Or will you stubbornly allow the initial compromise to take you out? You are so worthy of going back and taking inventory and getting your life back! It’s okay to take a positive step forward to look in the mirror and say, “I need a do-over. This isn’t working for me. This has cost me too much.” Compromise, it’s an insidious contagious fungus that will eat up everything in its path. Don’t allow it to devour you.
Have you ever been around a person whose attitude just stinks? They are negative all the time and no matter how positive you stay, they have something that can dampen your fire? Their life’s perspective isn’t one of joy but one of impending doom.
What causes them to be negative all the time? I think for some it comes from a feeling that if they think negatively about situations and don’t get their hopes up then they are not disappointed when they don’t get what it is they thought they might. My husband is usually a positive guy but get him ready for vacation or trip of any kind and a couple of days before he begins to get quiet and moody. Why? Because he convinces himself that this vacation is doomed, that it won’t be fun like the others we’ve been on or that something will happen at church to keep us from going. This negative talk keeps him from getting his hopes up in case he is disappointed. Crazy? You bet! However, some people don’t just live moments of their lives this way, they live their whole lives this way.
Have you ever watched the Debbie Downer skits on SNL? Everyone is happy and she has a negative word that eventually brings everyone down. We all know people like this, they are never happy about anything. They have the ability to sober a room with a sentence. I don’t think they intentionally want people to feel down like they do I just don’t think they give it much thought. If you are a person who is easily influenced or bent toward negativity then limit your time in the company of others who share this bent.
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
Matthew 12:34 For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
So it seems that the reason negativity in speech exists is that is flowing out of the negative heart of that person. Whether that person was hurt profoundly and now sees the world as harsh, horrible, and out to get them or whether they were born with a negative bent towards life, they are speaking out of what is going on within their own mind.
This helps us to deal with them as you see that their negative talk is not because they want to bring us down, rather it’s a byproduct of what is going on within them. Can you imagine how utterly sad to live your life always thinking something bad is going to happen? To see life as negative and that there is nothing to look forward to? Life is so great, even in the hard times, that I can’t imagine not having the faith that things will get better as the general thought process of life and that there is something better right around the corner for me. Yet, for the negative person, that something better isn’t coming because even if it’s a blessing there is a failure to recognize it because they are only looking for the negative and they miss the positive.
Then there are those for whom if they conceded that this was good, whatever “this” happened to be in their life would be to miss out on the next greater thing. For them it’s a process of not wanting to settle and instead missing it all. For these people they have never been able to find contentment in their own soul. Can you imagine a life where the good in it was always missed as you waited for the next best thing? That is a tragedy. Does this not break your heart? They live their lives in a way that the great parts of life will be missed because they are looking down the road not to see the positive but to catch the negative.
So the next time you are in the presence of the Debbie Downer in your life, take a moment to point out the positive. Refuse to go down the trail of negativity with them. Refuse to let them get you down. Refuse to accept their negative word over your situation. Begin to speak life into their lives. Instead of walking out with the stench of negativity in your nostrils, speak a positive word into their life. They may counter with a negative but refuse to accept it. Speak life, speak positive and refuse to let the stink get on you!
Small towns. John Cougar Mellencamp sings about it, and I complain about it. Most shopping has to be done 45 minutes away and we are very limited on services. If someone from out of town visits you, people ask who they are. Today the Lord reminded me of the blessings of living in a small town.
If you’ve never been to California and traveled extensively, you imagine California to be Los Angeles and San Francisco. It isn’t though. There is large area of California called the Central Valley and it’s made up of small farming communities. That’s where I was born and have lived a great deal of my life. As a teen I couldn’t wait to leave! Small towns were good places to be from, not to be in, I wanted big city lights.
Educated in a small town
Taught the fear of Jesus in a small town
Used to daydream in that small town
Another boring romantic thats me
I moved back to the valley when I was 29 and have lived here ever since. I finally stopped commuting to the Bay Area 7 years ago and I have lived exclusively in a small town. We are a small town to the core. When something new happens everyone knows about it here. When we get a new store, we all rejoice and think we are big time now!
Well I was born in a small town
And I live in a small town
Probly die in a small town
Oh, those small communities
So here was my day yesterday. Lulu and I headed to the office via Starbucks.
“Good morning, welcome to Starbucks, would you like to try a blah, blah, blah?”
“No thanks, can I get a Grande Soy Chai Latte please?”
“A grande soy chai latte, we’ll have your total at the window”
I get to the window and big smiles from the staff, “Hi Lulu! Here’s your whipped cream”
Lulu is dancing in the front seat and crying and drooling all at once. No one can ever say my dog doesn’t multi-task just like her mom!
“Awwww! She’s the cutest thing!”
We run to the office and work.
At lunch we run to the bank. The teller waves me over.
“Hey Susan come on over. LOVE the new flowers in your yard. What’s the stuff you put in the beds it looks so full.”
Then we run to the dry cleaners:
“Hello Mrs. Young, your cleaning is ready. Do you want to pay today or is Mr. Young coming in to pay?”
Then we run to the post office:
“Hey, how’s the church building coming along? I saw men working there, is it almost done?”
“Where’s Anthony been? Haven’t seen him around lately. Heard he’s dating a local girl, whose her family?”
(yes, everyone is involved in your business, it can be kind of annoying or it can be kind of comforting depending on your mood that day). At least they care if for nothing else fodder for gossip.
“Is Casey still in Los Angeles? Good for her! Sounds like she is she doing okay for herself. Sometimes I think I should have moved to a big city when I was younger for more opportunity but hell, I raised my kids here, married my high school sweetheart, my parents are here and we’re okay.”
All my friends are so small town
My parents live in the same small town
My job is so small town
Provides little opportunity
On my way back to the office I get a phone call, “Stop talking on your cell phone. It’s against the law. Besides I was waving and you didn’t even see me. When did you change your hair color? Weren’t you blonde last week?”
Yes, the things that used to drive me nuts blessed me today. I am a part of a community. Maybe I’ve realized it for the first time ever in my life. Maybe it’s a really good thing. I’m not part of a neighborhood. I’m actually part of town. A place where my children are often asked about and cared about. It really was the best decision to raise them here.
No I cannot forget where it is that I come from
I cannot forget the people who love me
Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town
And people let me be just what I want to be
Pastor Susan 