A Rush of Gratefulness

Last night was our "family-night." I bbq'd some skirt steak while the boys played next to me in the back yard. To make it feel a little special and different, we ate out on our back porch. After dinner, we loaded up and drove to get some frozen yogurt (no ice cream because we're a no-sugar family -- except for special occasions, like donuts at church, which I consider to be part of their training that God and church are fun). We drove down to Capitola beach, ate our fro-yo, and then ran around chasing seagulls and jumping on and smashing all the sand castles that had been built during the day.

I snapped this shot with my camera phone as I felt a rush of gratefulness swell up in my heart. I can't believe this is my life. I can't believe this is my family. It's way more beautiful than anything I deserve...

The Joy of Serving

I was just cleaning up and deleting old stuff that's on my phone and came across this photo that I snapped at "Glimpses" earlier in the summer. I was impressed with the system that the team had set up for pre-plating all the dinners. But even more impressive was the joy and the life that pervaded the atmosphere.

When we serve with willing hearts, we learn to delight in each other and find deep satisfaction in what we get to do (instead of what we have to do). Many thanks to the hundreds of you who have served with willing hearts this summer. Your choices to invest in others have produced a joy that's contagious. From VBS to Glimpses to softball games and barbeques... you've made this summer something special for our church family.

Israel 2007 - Day 6: Hiding in His Shade

As I mentioned previously, I want to finish blogging about our trip to Israel. I've found my memories are already fading... so I want to capture them before they get away!

This was the first full day of Convention. I especially appreciated hearing from Ari Sorko-Ram (that's Ari and Shira in the tie-dye). He leads Maoz Ministries, which plants second generation Hebrew-speaking, indigenous Messianic congregations in Israel. He taught us about God's plan for His people and how they hold a special place in God's heart and in His Kingdom. His gentleness and the analogies he used to explain God's plan were what I needed.

He told a story about his own kids to help us understand God's heart and plan for His kids - both Jew and Gentile (the rest of us non-Jews). As best I remember, here's how the story went.

Ari asked his son, "Would you like to go to the store with me?"

"No thanks, Dad. I'm busy," came the quick reply.

"OK," said Ari to his son, and then turning to his daughter he asked, "How about you? Would you like to go?"

"Sure! I'll go!" she replied.

"Oh good, because it's an ice-cream store I wanted to take you to! I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on that."

Once again, Ari invited his son to come along. But instead of admitting his mistake and accepting the fun invitation, Ari's son once again claimed that he was busy and stubbornly and petulantly refused.

Then something special happened. Ari's daughter went to her brother and encouraged him and invited him. She said it would be such fun and that he should come along. With his sister's encouragement and support, Ari's son was able to admit his mistake and apologize to his dad and they all had a wonderful trip to the ice cream shop together.

God's plan, said Ari, is that Israel will always be invited first. Another word-picture he used is how in football, when the ball is snapped, the quarterback always gets it first. It doesn't mean that they are better. It's just how the game is played. God has set up the rules of spiritual life. One of them is that Israel comes first.

Just like with Ari's son, Israel's stubbornness does not disqualify them, but it does help us (the other sibling) to understand our role. We are to support and encourage and continue to believe the best of God chosen people.

You can read a summary of the whole session here.

After the morning session, we all loaded onto our tour buses. We started our tour by driving up to the summit of the Mount of Olives. A group shot from the top of the Mount of Olives. You can see the Dome of the Rock in the top left corner of the shot. It's Muslim mosque that stands where the Temple used to be.

Another shot of Hilary and I. You can see more of the Temple Mount above Hilary's shoulder.

After eating lunch at the top of the Mount of Olives, we walked down a narrow road that leads from the summit into the valley below. This is where Jesus road on the donkey one week before He was crucified. It was easy to imagine the road crowded with throngs of people shouting, "Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"

At bottom of the hill is the Garden of Gethsemane. In a brief moment where our group pulled together in the shade, Vania Dimitrov (the blond lady next to Hilary above) shared a thought that the Lord had planted in her heart for us. Mitko and Vania are the national leaders for the Foursquare movement in Bulgaria. It was an honor to have them touring with our group all week.

It was extremely hot. My head was pounding and I could feel the sweat rolling as Vania was talking. As we were all crowded under the shade of a tree, she talked about how the Lord invites us to hide in the shadow of His wings (Psalms 17:8). Life brings a heat that is unbearable, but the Lord invites us into a cooler place of protection and comfort.

The trees in the Garden are the very ones that Jesus would have knelt beside as He prayed and wept the night before He was crucified. Hilary shared that what makes each site special along our journey is not the physical stuff (the trees, the ruins, the mountains or lakes), but the fact that Jesus was there. The physical stuff was pretty ordinary and unimpressive. It's the same for our lives. Read more of Hilary's thoughts here.

After a swim in the pool and a nice dinner at the hotel, we attended the evening session of Convention, where Pastor Jack shared about the fresh oil of the Holy Spirit that God has for us. Everybody received a vial of olive oil and we spent time anointing and praying for one another.

Owning Responsibility

Everywhere I turn right now, I'm feeling instruction and correction from the Lord. It's a bit painful, but I'm wonderfully hopeful at the same time. When I feel His correction, I know that He wants better things for me...

Our goal as a church is always to get more people involved. We talk about that a lot. In fact, I think I talk about it at every leadership gathering -- with staff, with MD1, with my pastoral team, etc. It's a subject that needs that much attention -- because it's so easy to lose that focus. It feels so good to get the "to-do" list done. But that's not the goal! The people are. We are always to evaluate our success based on how significantly we are able to include other people.

Today, however, I'm remembering that one vulnerability of wanting to get other people to help us is when we aren't fully owning the responsibility ourselves. The Holy Spirit is helping me to see that in several areas I've wanted to hand the job off because I don't want to do it myself. Where I'm feeling tempted to be frustrated with other people, the Lord is convicting me that I need to do a self-check on my own motives first.

To legitimately ask for help, it must be something that I feel 100% committed to. I believe in the project's value. I believe that this person will be personally benefited by getting involved. And I'm asking for their help because of what it will do for them. Not for me.

In Judges 4 and 5 Deborah's personal ownership of the vision God had given her created a place for a whole lot of people to get involved. Even when Barak didn't step forward, she still made sure the job got done. Right now God is helping me to see that when the job doesn't get done, I look for someone to blame. Here's a line from Deborah's worship song that she wrote after the victory was won:

When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves — praise the Lord! Judges 5:2

So I'm praying, "Lord, help me to really lead." I believe that most people really want to help out. They just don't want to left holding the bag when their "leader" chickens out or gets too busy. On the other hand, true leadership and servanthood are infectious.

P.S. If you feel like you read a very similar post to this one a couple days ago... It's because you did. Rewriting it has been part of my repentance process. I deleted the other one.

Mid-County Post Article

More news about the property here.

There's a myth out there that if we try hard enough, we can end up controlling our destiny. Watching just one episode of the early rounds in "American Idol" will cure most people of that delusion. *smile*

The reality is that there are forces at work in our lives that are beyond our control that influence our lives whether we like it or not. That's why we must ultimately put our trust in the Lord.

Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the Lord.
For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without inhabitant.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose trust is the Lord.
For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.
Jeremiah 17:5-8

Trusting God enables us to be confident no matter how "hot" it is. It means letting go of the fear that wants to make us into Chicken Littles -- backing us away from every opportunity because, after all, "the sky is falling!"

I love the whole chapter of 2 Samuel 23. The first part contains David's last words... the last song he ever sang. He rehearses his covenant with God and proclaims that putting his trust in God has paid off.

The rest of the chapter lists off all of David's mighty men and their triumphs. These are the men David had trained how to listen to and follow God. Notice, they aren't men who fear difficulty and danger. No, they face it. Sometimes they even pursue it.

• Adino killed 800 bad guys at one time
• Eleazar killed Philistines until his hand cramped on his sword
• Shammah stood in the middle of a lentil-field and single-handedly defeated an entire troop when the rest of the army fled.
• Abishai killed 300 bad guys with just a spear
• Benaiah chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day and killed it (love the imagery and detail!). He also snatched a spear from the hand of an "impressive" Egyptian warrior and killed him with it.

Sometimes people say that faith is for weak people. I used to be offended by that -- probably because I felt like I had something to prove. But not anymore. I'm happy to admit my weakness -- because I know that opens the door for God to show how strong He is.

Let's not live in fear of what the future may hold. Let's be men and women of courage and strength and put our faith in God. I'm still praying and believing that we'll be on this property for a long time to come. Not because I'm afraid of what it would mean if we needed to leave, but because I believe this is where we're supposed to be.

Property Update

This past weekend in services, I gave a brief update about Dominican's efforts to the sell the property. If you weren't able to be there, I wanted to keep you in the loop.

A week ago, there was an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel regarding the property sale. Dominican has identified Clarum Homes as the company that they are negotiating with toward a sale. Clarum has 90 days to put together a final proposal before Dominican will formally accept their offer and they enter into escrow. Apparently their plan is to put an ecologically-friendly hotel and a senior-living complex on site.

Of particular interest for us is the fact that Clarum’s president mentioned that if they end up finalizing the purchase, they would want to continue leasing the facility to our church while they plan and seek permits. The article indicates that this would be for at least three years—but those familiar with the permit process here in Santa Cruz have told me that it could actually be a lot longer than that.

I’m very happy that all of this is all in God’s very capable hands!

I am feeling so encouraged by the Lord to continue on our course and purpose—loving, mending, training, and sending—and not to get distracted by peripheral issues like this that could take a lot of our time and energy (if we let them). This whole issue can feel so huge, but I definitely feel the Lord instructing me not to let it take my focus.

Have you ever felt similarly instructed by the Lord? "Stay focused." "Don't get distracted." "Trust Me to take care of things that are too big for you."

While I’m interested in what happens, I’m paying attention, and I’m seeking input from leaders in our church family and from throughout our Foursquare movement (including discussions with Glenn Burris, Robby Booth, Steve Shober, and other pastors who have gone through property transitions), I do not feel like it is an immediate priority that should distract from our primary purpose of investing in people. The Lord is our Shepherd, so we don’t need to worry and fret like sheep who don’t have one.

That said, please continue in prayer with me that the Lord will have His way in this whole situation. I'm excited to see what He does through all this!

Salsa Recipe

Several of you have asked for my salsa recipe. It's kinda funny because I've never written anything down... and it turns out different every single time. But I do have a rough pattern that I follow. So here goes.

6 nice tomatoes
1 can petite-cut diced tomatoes with green chiles or jalepenos
3 cloves fresh garlic
1 bunch cilantro
1 yellow onion
1 or 2 avocadoes
1 bunch green onions
3 fresh jalepeno peppers
1 cup red wine vinegar
Kosher salt (to taste... don't know how much)

I fire up the bbq and grill the green onions and the jalepeno peppers until they are totally black. I want to get a little burnt, smokey flavor in there, so you basically can't overdo it.

Dice everything up and stir it up! I pay extra attention to the garlic and peppers to make sure they are very finely diced. A big chunk of either of those could really change somebody's opinion of your salsa!

If you want to post your recipe, that would be great! This blog is mirrored in two places... On the Coastland's site (where you're probably reading it), and on blogger.com, which you can find here. On the blogger.com site, you can post comments. Post your recipe in a comment and I will create a link to it in a future blog entry.

I'm Back!

Wow... What a fabulous last several weeks!

Returned from Israel on Saturday, July 28. Still hoping to finish updating my blog with entries from the remaining days that I haven't written about yet. I don't have a great memory... so blogging about those days will be as much for me as for anyone who ends up reading them.

Although I was nearly delirious with jetlag, I really enjoyed the weekend of July 28 & 29. I spoke about integrity and came at it from the angle of encouraging personal honesty and vulnerability. My thoughts were born out of the nearly two weeks that Hilary and I enjoyed with the team that went to Israel. When you're sweating in close proximity with people for that long, there's just no hiding the real you. We really got to know each other, if you know what I mean. :)

I woke up on Monday, July 30 with a high fever. Laid on the couch all day shivering.

Recovered as quick as possible on Tuesday, and then kicked off "Glimpses" that evening. What a great time it was! Quick overview:

• Tuesday evening
  
• Dinner: Barbequed sausages (my favorite was the jalepeno one)
• Worship: Georgia Jacques & Laura Huff
  
• Speakers:
  
• Peter Otvos spoke about the "gates" of our heart that Jesus wants to open. He referenced the prophecy about Jerusalem's Eastern Gate that says "it shall be shut" (Ez. 44:2). Indeed that gate is closed until this day. But it's the gate that Jesus will walk through when He returns some day. In the same way that He will open that gate, He wants to open up parts of our hearts that feel like they've been forever closed.
• Hilary spoke about how we are called to rise up and fight for the inheritance that's ours. She referenced the story from 2 Kings 13 of how Elisha instructed King Joash to strike the ground with a bundle of arrows. But there was something in Joash's response that was half-hearted and incomplete. She also referenced the story from 2 Kings 5 about Naaman the leper. When Elisha instructed him to go take a bath in the Jordan, it didn't seem like a "big" enough instruction -- after all, it was something Naaman was already doing every day! In the same way, Hilary said, when the Lord instructs us to keep doing something that we've already been doing, but promises that victory will be the result, it can feel confusing or painful or just plain crazy. But God has promised victory, so let's battle for it with all our hearts!
  
• Wednesday evening:
• Dinner: Burgers (I had a double-decker!)
• Worship: Greg Martinez & Jessica Clowser
• Speakers:
• Priska Martinez spoke about the woman caught in adultery. She encouraged us that God never shames us for our mistakes. She helped to identify several different voices of condemnation that would want to come at us and prayed for all of us, too.
• Referencing a prophetic word that was given by one of our pastor-friends from Switzerland, I talked about how the Lord has prepared the victory for us. Yes, we must fight. But the victory has been arranged. We don't struggle in desperation, but in hope and expectation. Interestingly, I felt keenly from the Lord that the key to our victories will come as we submit ourselves to His correction. Check out Isaiah 29:1-7. It's promise of significant correction and total victory. I love that God would build a siege-work against our hearts when they are closed to Him. Basically, He's coming in one way or the other! I don't know about you, but I take great hope in that.

Over the weekend of August 4 & 5 I had fun teaching on rest. Especially because our family left for vacation in Santa Barbara on Monday! We did indeed have a very restful time... A few highlights:

• Asher learned how to leap from the side of the pool into my arms
• I discovered another way that Ethan is a chip off my block (yes, I did just call myself a block): In addition to being a not-so-great sleeper and a great eater (two of my primary characteristics), we discovered that Ethan loves hot-tubs. Is that healthy for little kids? I'm gonna ask my pediatrician next time we go... because I'm telling you, he was a hot-tub fanatic!
• The highlight of the trip for me was the evening that we played and bbq'd at the beach. There's something about playing and eating in the warm glow of a sunset on the beach that is so beautiful... Oh yeah, and Asher had his first experience with digging up sand crabs that evening.

We drove back into town at about 3:00am on Sunday morning (we drive at night because Asher gets car sick). I woke up at 7:00am, quickly made some salsa, and headed out to the church wide BBQ at Monte Vista. Despite all my smack-talking, I didn't end up winning. But I was pleased with my third-place finish. J.R. Ybarra and Lorraine Dermott will get to rub it in for a whole year. But don't worry. I'll be back.

If you're interested, tomorrow I'll post my recipe...