Do You Know Who I Am?

Ed worked with the CFO of a large company.  The CFO drove Ed and others crazy because he was so rigid on how all the department heads could spend their budgets.  Ed figured the man was a control freak.  When the company invited the department heads and directors to an off-site planning meeting, one of the activities they did was to share one story of overcoming adversity.  The CFO shared how his family grew up poor, but he managed to escape that poverty.  He then added, “I guess that’s why I am so frugal with our resources.  I never want to be poor again.”  This was a light bulb moment for Ed.  By knowing a little of his CFO’s story, he understood some of his motivation and character.*

We connect with people through common activities or places, such as church, running, reading, or work.  However, connecting does not equal knowing.  Knowing comes when we build relationships.  We learn each other’s stories.  We ask questions that help us see the person, not a position or title.  In starting to know someone, we build the foundation of trust.

This piece of wisdom is a good application of Paul’s words to the Philippians when he wrote, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:3,4, ESV)  Knowing our brothers and sisters happens when we put their story first and learn who they are and where they have come from.  When we have a disagreement, we can trust there is no evil intent in our spiritual siblings if we have built a relationship of mutual concern and knowing.

This may seem so simple, yet it is a foundational piece missing from simple mutual connections.  We think we know someone because we see them all the time or like the same sports team.  We allow affinity to stand in for knowing each other.  It works until someone gets hurt; then the fragile trust is broken.

Do you know who I am?  You may know the public persona, but there is stuff below the surface to learn about me.  The same is true for you.  Let’s make it a point to care enough to truly know each other.  And if we have been separated by a past hurt or sin, let’s make it a point to forgive one another for the good of the whole body of Christ, that we might continue to do the Lord’s purposes in this place together.  Let’s learn to know each other… and let trust blossom.

Pastor Mike Spinelli

 

* from Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business.

Sow the Seed

There is an old song that goes: “Tho April showers may come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May.”

I have a single Thompson grape vine that goes 50 feet along the fence at my house. In January it was looking pretty dead. Then my neighbor (a grape farmer) pruned it for me, but it still looked like there was no life there. Then in April, with watering and food it started to green out. Now in May I can already see bunches of grapes forming. Looks like a bumper crop.

The term May Day has a couple of meanings. May Day is a spring festival in many countries. It is also an international radio-telephone signal word used as a distress call. Things happen in our lives and we call out: May Day!!! May Day!!! I think of our own Pastor Roger, who lost his wife on

May 1st of last year. How do we respond to such distress? I Corinthians 15 speaks of the resurrection of the body. When we plant, we don’t plant the flowers, but the seed. That seed seems to have no life at all. But in the spring it breaks forth in all its beauty. So it is with us. The body that is sown is perishable, but it is raised imperishable, in glory, in power, in a spiritual body.

There are people all around us who are calling out, “May Day!!! May Day!!!” It may be a silent cry or one with an outright sign of need. Let’s be ready to sow the seed so we can see new life.

 

Pastor Ed Willems

Reflecting on Legacy

Last week I went to two funerals.  The first was for the teens that were killed in Dinuba by a drunk driver.  The other was for a childhood friend.

As I went and celebrated the lives that were filled with passion and humor but were also taken too soon, I couldn’t help but think of what will be remembered about them, while also thinking about what will be remembered of me if something were to happen.

It’s not anything that I enjoy thinking about.  I don’t like to think about the potential of an untimely death.  But it’s important to occasionally think, “How will I be remembered?”

My friend Zac was 27.

I haven’t seen or talked to him in years.  But at his funeral, people spoke of his courage to keep fighting (he had a brain tumor in elementary school and lost his mom at an early age), his boldness in all things, his ability to always make friends, and that he always made people smile.

My memories of Zac are similar to what was shared at his funeral.

I’m 27.

And I wonder what people would say of me if something were to happen.

I’d like to think I would know, but our self-perception isn’t always quite as accurate as we think.

What would be said of me?

What would be said of you?

Is the way we are living our lives a reflection of what we believe?  Is it a reflection of the character we are to emulate as followers of Jesus?  Is it consistent?

May our lives be fully and completely centered on loving Jesus and being like Him.

Pastor Jason Kinzel

Now What?

 

 

Easter is over. 

Thinking back over these last few days, a theme rings out that says, “It’s all about Love.” That love was shown to us in a vivid way on the cross when Jesus gave His life for us. It was a demonstration for us in the baptisms on Sunday when those who gave testimony of their faith and love for the Lord were buried and raised to new life in the waters of baptism. God’s love in our hearts was manifested in music as we sang and played from our devotion to the One who redeemed us. Our testimony to the world will be shown best by our love to one another and to those we come in contact with each day of our lives.

With all the turmoil and stress of life around us, let us cling to the Love that the Lord supplies for each need we may have.

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”  1 John 3:18

Care Pastor Ed Willems

Sustaining Hope

During this past year, I’ve been thinking a lot about how our Christian faith impacts, strengthens, and sustains our sense of hope.  It was during the week prior to Easter of last year that Naomi went to the hospital for the last time, during which we were told that there is no longer “any hope” for recovery from her four year battle with Crohn’s Disease, and that the end of her earthly journey was near.  But you know – once the shock of those words passed, God gave her (and me) a sense of relief that the suffering is almost over, and her final two weeks at home with hospice care formed a peace-filled conclusion to our forty-five years of life and ministry together. When she took her last breath on May 1^st, I was even able to say “thank you, Lord”.

The only explanation I have for that spirit of joyful peace and gratitude has something to do with what we call “our Christian hope”. The “peace that surpasses all understanding” has been my experience ever since, for our hope for the future is also a sustaining hope in the present. The truth that “to be absent from this body is to be present with our Lord” is based on hope.  Naomi’s deliverance from earthly suffering and full possession of perfect and full redemption is based on hope.  As I approach the one year anniversary of life without her, I am filled with the joyful prospect of seeing her again.  Why? It’s called hope.

This hope that we as followers of Jesus possess is so much more than a weak “hope so”.  It’s a hope of strong conviction, for it’s based on the biblical accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The Bible teaches us that through an authentic faith union with Christ in His death, our sins are forgiven and our deserved condemnation is removed.  And through our faith union with Jesus in His resurrection, we have the promise – not some possibility – but the certain promise of sharing His eternal life and His perfect righteousness forever.  The New Testament is full of references to Christ living in us, which the apostle Paul calls our “hope of glory’.

As we look at life’s unpleasant circumstances and get caught up in the hopelessness and despair that increasingly characterizes so much of today’s world, let’s take another look at Jesus Christ.  Pull out a good Bible Concordance and read all the passages that speak of hope, and be encouraged and sustained by the hope that only Jesus can give.

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you………Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ……..Let us hold fast he confession of our hope without wavering , for he who promised is faithful.’  (I Peter 1:3-4, 13; Hebrews 10:23)

Transitional Pastor Roger Poppen