MosaicRC

Hey there MosaicRC!! New pictures from the February Arts Night at Syphon Coffee House in Upland have been posted!! Check ‘em out under the “Pictures” tab!!

I love watching kids opening presents on Christmas morning.  The way they are so    excited to find out what is inside the package.  My daughters Maddy and Claire love gifts and can’t wait to rip off the wrapping paper and find out what surprise awaits within.  As their father I love to give them gifts.  I find great joy in treating them to a special present that might give them pleasure or make their lives easier or maybe help them help others.  Who doesn’t like to receive gifts?

As a father who love his children it is quite satisfying to see my kids use the gifts that I have blessed them with.  We bought Maddy a bike a few years ago, a two wheeler with training wheels.  It was a little big for her at first and a little scary, but exciting for her at the same time.  It took a couple of weeks for her to get the courage to ride it without me behind her, but after she got the hang of it she rode it like a pro.  Finally, after awhile she got so good that we took off the training wheels and she was off a riding like a big girl.

I think God’s Spiritual gifts are to us  like a two wheeler is to a little girl who has not quite mastered it; exciting but a little scary.  I find it a bit easier to practice with mine (spiritual gifts) remembering that God is there beside me like I was beside Maddy on her bike.   God is pleased to give us His gifts to build and equip His church both in spiritual strength and number.  I believe it makes Him proud when He sees us exercising and learning how to use them to their potential.  I remember when I let go of my girls bicycle seat and they rode off down the street all by themselves on two wheels, with a big grin and a loud shout I said, “Great job!”  I wonder what heaven sounds like when we “Take off” in our giftings?

So, I am wondering, have you unwrapped your spiritual gifts.  Do you know what it or they are.  Have you been practicing with them?  1 Peter 1:10 tells us that we all have been given at least one spiritual gift and we should use it (or them) to serve one another and build up the church.  So, let’s find out what we have within our wrapping and start practicing with our gifts and see how God might move within our church.  He is always there to catch us!  If we listen hard I’ll bet we might hear a very proud Papa say, “Great job!”

Hey Mosaic!

There is a new calendar section to help everyone stay up to date on any upcoming events. You can find the link at the top of the page.

Well, it has been a while since I posted last.  A new year has reared its head and invited us to incredible possibilities as a community.  God has visioned us to be a church that thrives not only survives.  With that comes a call to make ourselves ready for action.  Like a finely trained army we need to ready ourselves with practice in order to function like a well oiled machine.  Though we may fight wars of sorts ours is a war on the spiritual battle field.  Our weapons are not guns, bombs, or even swords, but equally as powerful.  However, like an Army sniper practices his skill shooting every day at a single target until he can hit it from 500 yards away, we too must practice our spiritual disciplines with the same intensity.

To be able to hit the mark every time we must practice, practice, and practice for perfection.  That means disciplining ourselves to practice even when we don’t feel like it.  That is what discipline is, pushing through the “not wanting to”; drive, perseverance, persistence, enduring brings us into discipline.  Reading our Bibles, spending time in prayer, fasting, worshiping, and giving back to God, are ways we practice the presence of God.  If we want to go where God is calling us these areas we must master.  Come and join us as we investigate the godly disciplines.

Genesis 22

There are many list that we may be familiar with a grocery list, to do list, Christmas list, top ten list, and many others.  But one list that is enormously more important that these is found in the bible under Hebrews chapter 11, and it lists the fathers of faith.  Those men who followed God at all cost.  Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses top the list.  Abraham is the one that is reffered to more than any though.

Abraham as we have seen over the last few months was really no more than an everyday guy.  It was God who chose him to become the father of faith. Fortunately, Abraham was a tenacious man.  God tutored Abraham one on one until He produced a man who was capable of following Him even to the extreme ends of faith and trust.  Each day Abraham ventured to trust God he became more understanding of just who God was, good, faithful, and trustworthy.  Every time Abraham stuck his neck out God covered him and blessed him.  It might have become easy to trust God until it got really close to home.  His family, Abraham’s most precious, his sons.

First he is pushed by Sarah to send his son Ishmael and Hagar the handmaid away into the desert with little water and food for survival.  Beside himself Abraham sought God.  God instruced him to send them away because Ishmael is not the one to bring the “Promise to be a blessing to the world” to fruition.  I am sure it was with great sadness that Abraham said good-bye to Ishmael.

Obedient Abraham has one more jewel in his crown that God wants to secure so that He is sure that Abraham’s heart is fully His.  God asks the unthinkable, “Abraham, I want your one and only son Isaac.”  As usual, Abraham complies and begins to prepare for the journey to the place God will show him.  A three day trip to a place that will become infamous throughout the Bible.  Abraham wakes early and he begins to cut the necessary wood for the sacrifice .  I imagine he was trying to work out this request and figure out what God was up to in all of this.  Finally ready, Abraham gathers a couple servants to help with the travel, his son, the wood, fire, and knife for the offering and sacrifice.

I can only imagine what thoughts must have been floating through his mind as they got closer to the place. Then thinking it through Isaac asks the obvious question, “where is the animal for the sacrifice?”  Could you imagine what emotion must have been triggered?  Abraham mustering up as much faith as he could tells his son, “God will provide the sacrifice.”

Upon arrival to Mt. Moriah Abraham following through with his task tells his servants that he and Isaac would go and worship and then come back.  How did he know for sure  that Isaac would be back?  Because he remembered what God told him as he sent Ishmael away, “The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac.”  I believe those words were the very thing that Abraham hung on to for dear life.  Up the trail they headed.  As isaac watched his father prepare the altar he probably sensed that all was not well with his situation.  But after growing up watching his father worship and follow God he too had a strong faith.  Abraham begins to bind his son for the sacrifice with no fight from his son.  Isaac willingly goes along with the program even willing to die for the faith of his father.

Ready for the deed Abraham holds the knife ready to plunge it into his only son and at that exact minute God comes to the rescue. “Abraham! “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!  Now I can see that you trust God and that you have not kept your son, your only son, from me.”  God did send a sacrificial animal, a ram, stuck in the thicket at just the right time.  He substituted Isaac’s life for the life of a ram.  However, God did still require a sacrifice.

As I see it God wanted every part of Abraham, calling him to surrender everything.  Abraham was pushed to the very edge of faith and passed God’s test.  Through this journey I am confronted with the question, “Is there anything I am holding on to so tightly that I am not willing to give it to God?”  What is there in my life that I might be putting before God?”   I pray that our journey has helped un to see which way God is calling us to go.  Thank you father Abraham for pointing the way to our destination:FAITH.

Genesis 19

Lot is a pretty interesting guy.  Journeying the entire way with Uncle Abram from Ur to Haran to Canaan, he has seen a miraculous change in his uncle and the rewards of following this most powerful God.  Lot has witnessed Abram’s attempt to follow, understand, build altars, communicate, and reap rewards for his faithfulness.  Uncle Abram has been blessed beyond comprehension with fame, fortune, and power because of his faith and obedience .  Lot has benefited too as a result of being related to Abram, and he is also a wealthy man by their standards.  I wonder why his Uncle’s example and lifestyle were not enough for Lot to follow in his ways?

Abraham, in an attempt to keep peace between Lot’s and his own households, graciously gives Lot the choice of the land to raise his livestock and set up his house.  Looking from upon the hills he notices the valley of the Jordan plain is perfect for what he needs, and it is close to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Something about his choice seems a little selfish leaving his uncle to raise his cattle in the desert hills with less than perfect conditions for a rancher.  But Abram, content to trust God, went on his way to the mountains.

The cities were known for their inhospitable and immoral ways, but something was alluring about it.  That seems true of a lot of things that are bad for us today. We know they are harmful; but for some reason, we want to experiment with them anyway.  Lot moved down on the plain near Sodom. Later, he moved to Sodom. And finally, he became one of Sodom.  “Sitting at the gateway”  (Gen. 19:1) is another way to say he had become a civic leader of the city. Lot had acceptance and respect.

How does one come from the family of a man like Abraham, seeing and experiencing the blessings of God, and wind up living in a place like Sodom as a leader no less?  One word, COMPROMISE.  Lot may have been a new resident near the city who was actively set against the attitudes and actions of Sodom.  But as time went on, he must have seen so much everyday that after a while what once repulsed him didn’t seem so bad.  Making friends with some of the Sodomites, he might have thought, “Hey, we’re not too different.” So moving there did not seem so bad.  Now he was in it deeper — maybe not participating, but surely dulled to the effects of their lifestyles.  And finally, he must have been well accepted by the community to end up setting at the gateway as a judge to the city.  The apostle Peter tells us later that Lot was still considered a righteous man (2 Peter 2).  Though there is no evidence that Lot participated in the rituals of Sodom it is obvious that Sodom and it ways wore him down.

In order to have risen in stature, he had to be liked.  It is very plain to see that he lived a life of compromise; for if he had called what was going on wrong, he would have been thrown out on his ear finding himself and his family back in the wilderness tending sheep (would that have been so bad?).  Compromise is like a cancer that gets into you and slowly begins to eat away at you: a little dab will kill you.  Sometimes you may be one of the lucky ones who discovers it early and gets rid of it, living a good long life.  But the cancer of compromise can be a tough one to fight.  It has the power to cause a false sense of control, making us live in a place called denial.  We may say things, as I am sure that Lot said, “This isn’t that bad,” or “I’m good,” or “I’m not too far into it,” or “I can quit anytime I want,” etc…  Truth be told, we are stuck and need help.

Lot is a good example of a person who was willing to pick acceptance and position over being a truth teller.  In the end, it cost him everything: his home, possessions, position, friends, and his wife.  The consequences of the compromise of his life are more severe that what he might have thought.  Living in that community and condoning their lifestyle seemed to rub off on his daughters.  For when they seemed hopeless of preserving their fathers line, they got him drunk and became pregnant by Him (Gen. 19:30-38).  What seemed okay in Sodom (sexual immorality), the place Lot raised his girls, also became the teacher for their moral compass.  Lot’s willingness to live in the city and be “Okay” with all that it offered affected the principles of his daughters.  Lot should have considered who was watching him and learning from his lifestyle and actions.  Scary, isn’t it?  It makes me think, “What kind of teacher is my life to my children?”  How about you?

Keep standing up for what is right and just,

Rod

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

In chapter 18 of Genesis, God tells Abraham that he has been chosen to direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just (Genesus 18:19).  God’s call to Abraham goes out to us today.  Like Abraham, we are to teach, train, direct, or impress God’s ways to our children and/or our household, impressing on them God’s truths.  As a people that follow Jesus, our call is to be salt and light to a dark world – to live before them a life that seeks out goodness and justice.  These instructions to us are found also in Proverbs 22:6 and in Psalm 78:3-7.  It is also scattered through the New Testament.

This must be important if God has chosen to relate it to us a number of times.  If He says it once, notice what He said.  If He says it twice, pay attention.  If He says it a third time, understand it.  If He says it more than that, do all of the above and practice it.  Whether we are parents with kids at home or childless, the call is the same: take the people who are within your influence and train them up in righteousness and justice.  Let those in our influence see what it looks like to live within God’s ways.  In these uncertain times, our actions will speak louder than words.

The way we live our lives around others will impress upon their hearts what we believe.  This is a sobering call for Christians.  Hopefully we are communicating with our actions the same message we proclaim with our mouths.  Remember that God is with us, has chosen us, and will lead us.

Go out and make impressions that last,

Rod

Some say that laughter is good medicine.  Doesn’t it feel good to laugh?  There is nothing like laughing until your belly begins to hurt and your eyes are watering.  It makes all of life’s problems seem to melt away.  No question, laughing is good.  But what about scoffing?

Scoffing is laughing to yourself in disbelief about something that seems too good to be true like Abraham and Sarah laughing to themselves about God giving them a son at the ripe old ages of 90 and 99.  In Genesis 17, God reminds Abraham that a   promised son is coming through his wife Sarah.  Abraham, prostrate on the ground laughs and to himself saying, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old?  Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”  Then in chapter 18, Sarah, listening to the conversation between God and Abraham, hears God tell her husband that in a year he will be a father and Sarah a physical mother.  Sarah’s reply?  She laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

I love God’s reply, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”  If Abraham knew anything, he knew that God was able.  Was Abraham doubting God?  Maybe.  Remember it was 24 years ago when God first promised him descendants.  So when God’s timing came due, Abraham may have thought God was able but wondered if he was?  I wonder if he may have doubted himself?  I find this to be true for me; that when God calls me to something, I sometimes doubt if I am up to the challenge. But  God doesn’t doubt me for a second.  Because it is all Him.  I am only working through His strength, knowledge, abilities, timing, etc…

Wow!  Did you catch that?  Though I may doubt myself, He never doubts me… when it is His calling on my life.  It is the same for you.  So, who is calling you to whatever your doing in your life, is it working out?  When Abram and Sarai moved on their own strength with Hagar, separate from God, it failed.  But God’s plans never fail.  This will become more obvious in a couple weeks.  Stay tuned.

Is there anything worse than waiting? For instance, the waiting room or any waiting area is usually drab and boring. Why is that? It only makes it harder and time tic by seemingly slower. Waiting for things can be painful, especially “good” things. A luxurious vacation, moving into a new home, or having a baby — these are a few things that are hard to wait for. In chapter 16 of Genesis, we find Abram and Sarai in this very predicament, waiting for their promised son. In Chapter 12:7, God had promised them an offspring to inherit the land they were now living on. In chapters 13:15 and 15:4, God again reminded Abram of His promise of a son, from his own body, not an adopted heir but born into his family.

** tic toc tic toc ** After 10 years of waiting and Abram 86 years old talking about it with a 75 year old Sarai, it must have seemed like God had forgotten. Sarai, deciding that God Almighty must need help, turns Hagar, her Egyptian maidservant well within her child bearing days, over to her husband, Abram — a form of surrogate motherhood. Not waiting for God to fulfill His promise and deciding to “help Him out” usually has lots of complications. It is always a mistake to interfere with what God is doing and planning.

Mistakes

• Sarai — Taking God’s place to make something happen.
• Abram — Going along with Sarai’s plan.
• Abram and Sarai — Not asking God’s counsel on this issue.
• Hagar — Pride and arrogance toward Sarai after conception.

Consequences

• Sarai — Marital discord with her husband for giving him into the intimacy of another and the loss of Hagar as a loyal supportive servant.
• Abram — Confusion and marital stress with Sarai due to his passivity and not consulting God.
• Hagar — The loss of a good position within the family system and the vengeance of Sarai.
• Ishmael — He will be a “Wild donkey of a man and be the enemy to all and be an enemy of all.”

So here we have an example of what happened when someone decided to help God out near the beginning of humanity, not good. And so it is today. I have a hard time keeping my nose out of God’s business and often lean toward the ignorance of Sarai. I have seen time and time again, when I or others get into the role of “God’s unwelcome helper” and find it gets quite messy. So how do we wait on God?

I think Noah is a good place to see how to wait on God. Noah is the only righteous man in God’s eyes as God sees it fit to wipe out the evil humanity of Noah’s day. God meets with Noah and tells him His plan, “I am sending floodwater, make an ark.” Throughout the story we see these words, “God said to Noah.”  God said to Noah, “Make an ark.” God said to Noah, “Get in the ark.” God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark.” God said to Noah, “I now establish my covenant with you.” God revealed to Noah His plan a hundred years before it came. All the way through, God guided him; and Noah was obedient to His every word. Noah didn’t act until God directed him. The Bible says, Noah did all that the LORD commanded him (Genesis 6:22, 7:5).

Abram and Sarai took God’s matters into their own hands and made a mess out of things. Thankfully, God is gracious; and He worked around the situation. Noah waited and was obedient to what was asked of him by God. Both men are known in the Hebrews 11 as fathers of faith, but Noah’s example seems cleaner and easier than that of Abram and Sarai’s. As it has been penned and sung by Tom Petty and the heartbreakers, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

It had been 10 years since God had eluded to Abram that he would have an offspring. In chapter 12:7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” Abram still waiting for this particular promise feels like precious time is slipping away from him, and his heart longs for a child of his own. After an incredibly lucrative rescue victory of his nephew Lot and an encounter with Melchizedek the pre-incarnate Christ (Jesus before he was born on earth), Abram gives all of his worship (not to mention the treasure) to God (chapter 14).

Chapter 15:  In a vision, God speaks to Abram and tells him not to worry, He will protect him, and God is his great reward. Abram is an enormously wealthy man. Rewards mean nothing to him at this point, because he has nobody to leave them to. He subtly reminds God (as if God didn’t know) that he “Still” has no heir of his own; and when he dies, all of his inheritance will go to servant who is not a blood relative.

God instructs Abram to look up into the night sky and count the stars. He reminds Abram of His promise (10 years earlier) that his descendants will exceed the stars. A light bulb went off in Abram’s head and fell down to his heart; Abram believed God! Amazingly, Abram’s status went from an unrighteous man to being reckoned as righteous. It has been said that there is no longer distance for man than the distance between his head and his heart. This is just what God needed in order to make a (Covenant) formal agreement with Abram.

God sends Abram to collect the necessary animals for the covenant sacrifices and to make ready the alter and preparations for the ceremony to officiate the contract. A bull, ram, goat, dove, and pigeon must be cut in two and laid out opposite each other with room enough for two people to walk between as the vow is made. Abram, waiting for the presence of God to show up to finish up the contract, falls asleep and sees the future of his descendants: slavery under the Egyptians for four hundred years and finally they will possess the land where Abram is living. As for the man himself, he will die peacefully at a ripe old age and be buried in the land.

A groggy Abram, seeing through blurry eyes, looks upon the severed animals in the middle of the night to see God in the form of a smoking pot and burning torch walking between the sacrifices. God has promised Abram an offspring, descendants, land, blessing for himself, cursing of enemies, and that through Abram the entire world would be blessed. These promises were so gigantic that God left Abram’s name off of the covenant. By walking between the sacrifice Himself, we are assured that these promises will be fulfilled. God doesn’t make promises that don’t come true!

It was through the blood line of Abram that Jesus came, a blessing to all who “Believe.” There are many promises given to us in the Bible, the greatest being in the book of John 3:16. When we believe, we have a life everlasting in heaven with God and Jesus, a life in true paradise. A wonderful thing happens when our heart “Believes” this truth: our status increases from our own unrighteousness to that of Jesus’ righteousness. That is, somehow when God looks at us, he doesn’t see our junk. He knows about it of course, but chooses to overlook it. He sees us like He sees Jesus: His one and only Son.