The Moral Decline of Society

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." - Matthew 5:14-16

Although many people want to remove God from our nation's public consciousness, God and his ways do have a positive influence on society. The Barna Institute just released some findings from a survey of over 1000 adults taken in May 2008. You can read the findings here.

Don't give up, fight the good fight, and know that we can make the world a better place.

The "Agony" of Defeat, Part III

I don't think she's praying but it would be cool if she were...

Last Wednesday morning I read an email that advertised a church function with a guest speaker who had won an Olympic gold medal. I didn't know who that person was, and frankly didn't care. I was reminded that after a few years, the Olympic glory fades and the vast majority of champions fall off into obscurity.

People in the secular world might deem Jones' loss as catastrophic, but all Christians know that is not the case. We know that there is something greater than earthly fame, fortune, and accomplishment. When the Disciples marveled that even the demons are subject to them as they spoke in Jesus' name, Jesus told them to rejoice rather that their names are written in heaven.

As believers we have a prize which will never tarnish or fade - life in heaven. Win or lose, we know that the things of earth are all temporary and will never bring us true joy. That, my friend, can only come from having Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. So take a moment and rejoice that no matter what life throws at you, you can always have joy because your name is written in the book of life.

The "Agony" of Defeat, Part II

Notice the downed hurdle in lane 4

Jones once said she picked running hurdles because of it's parallels to life - that there will always be obstacles to overcome. Ironically, it is one of those obstacles on the track that may end up becoming an obstacle in her life.

But one of the amazing things I observed about Jones' loss was that even though she stumbled, she did not come in last. That means that even though she made a mistake, she kept running and finished as strongly as she could.

The Christian life is the same. There will always be obstacles. Stumbling over one of them is more a matter of "when" than "if." But the cool thing about God is that no matter how badly we have stumbled in the past, with God we always have a chance to finish strongly.

Maybe you are going through some difficulty now. You have the choice: give up or finish strongly. What will you choose?

The "Agony" of Defeat, Part I

Thinking About "What Could've Been."

Last Tuesday night my heart ached for Lolo Jones, the heavily favored 100 meter hurdler from the U.S. In the final, her foot got caught on the second to the last hurdle, causing her to stumble just enough to break her rhythm and lose momentum. And just like that she went from first to seventh.

She was the picture of class and poise as she was interviewed on camera after her loss. I remember wondering if she was a Christian because she carried herself so graciously. But after she left the interview, a cameraman got a shot of her before she made her way to the locker room. She was leaning against a wall and crying. The shot was especially sad because she was alone, with no one else in sight.

I remember thinking that these are the moments that she needed a hug; someone to just be with her and share her grief.

I could almost feel her sense of despair, training for years just for this moment, only to come up short. But then I remembered: as Christians, we are never alone. What a blessing from God, to know that even in the darkest of times, as Jones experienced, we can receive comfort from the "God of all comfort."

God loves you! Take some time today to thank and praise God who saved you and will always be with you, through good times and bad.

Lessons from a Bag of Onion Rings, Part II

Moments before the feeding frenzy

As you ponder the truth of the last post, there is another lesson that can be gleaned from this "bag 'o grease" as some call it, which is that in order to best share our God with others, we need to all "taste and see that the Lord is good" first.

I have to admit that I loved those rings! Even now my mouth waters just thinking of having a plate of those hot and crispy deep fried rings of joy in front of me. Because of this, it was so easy to tell others about them.

How great is God to you right now? Of course the Sunday School answer is, "Really great. The greatest thing that is in my life."

But really, is God greater than a bag of onion rings to you? Do you look for opportunities to talk about his goodness with others as you would your favorite food? The better God "tastes" to you, the easier it will be to obey his commands to be his witnesses . Take some time to "taste and see that the Lord is good" and sharing with others will come naturally.

Lessons from a Bag of Onion Rings, Part I

A "small" order of onion rings at the Sequoia Drive Inn. Notice how it encompasses the entire plastic tray.

Driving to Summer Camp, my car and I stopped at the Sequoia Drive Inn for dinner. Esther wasn't too hungry and ordered the small onion rings. To our surprise, the "small" was ginormous! They came hot and fresh from the fryer to our tray. The batter was crisp and light, with a just enough grease to make your taste buds faint with delight!

It was a tall task but Esther, Theresa, El Geoffie, and me managed to finish them off.

The next day word got 'round about the "small" order of onion rings, and before we knew it, Jachin had organized a large posse to get to the drive inn on the way home, so we could see what the large looked like!

The Bible says to taste and see that the Lord is good. Just as we tasted and saw that the onion rings were good and shared them with our friends, how much more should we look to share our Lord and Savior!

Flip the Question

We often hear the atheist's battlecry: "How can a loving God allow people to go to hell?"

Josh McDowell flips the question around: "How can a just, righteous, and holy God allow sinful people to be with Him in Heaven?"

The answer, of course, is LOVE.

Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Hidden Talents

Mark "The Ping Pong Pistol" Tchao in Action

During the free time at summer camp I had the opportunity to play some ping pong with some really great players, one of which is pictured above. I knew I had no chance of beating "The Pistol" so I said that I would play him only if he would use the translucent plexiglass Alliance Redwoods paddle rather than his own.

Of course, I would get to use one of the good, expensive paddles, as an advantage of sorts for me. He agreed and the match was underway. The Pistol remarked early on how the plexiglass paddle was "dead" feeling and it was tough to put spin on the ball. Not that it mattered.

Although he was just toying with me, I still lost 4-11. Later I realized that I had made a major miscalculation: I had thought his power came from his expensive paddle. Little did I know that it was the glasses! Next time I will only play him if he takes off his "Fearless Fly" glasses.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_GJIMMa3i4&NR=1) Can't compete with millions of megatons of energy!

Seriously, I did take something home from the match (besides a beating, I mean). And that is that people are much more than what you see at church. Besides being a trustee, charter church member, translator, and teacher, Mark is a man who also has mad ping pong skillz. Too often we fail to consider the whole person when we deal with people, especially those we are in conflict with.

We forget that they laugh, cry, hurt, and feel as we do, which is a big reason why the command of Jesus to "love your neighbor as yourself" is so neglected. If we at TCCBC treat others as we expect/want to be treated, as whole persons, that would go a long way towards unity in this body of Christ. This week let us strive to love others as Jesus loves us - warts and all.

Mosab Hassan Yousef

See the story of Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a prominent Hamas leader. Hamas is a militant extremist organization that the United States Government considers a terrorist organization and Mosab has renounced it and renounced Islam in favor of Christianity.



This video is just a glimpse of this amazing young man's transformation and journey.

Mosab said of his conversion, "when I studied the Bible carefully verse by verse, I made sure that that was the book of God; the word of God for sure. So I started to see things in a different way - which was difficult for me, to say Islam is wrong."

He had an internal dialogue with the one Almighty God:

"Islam is my father. I grew up for (one) father — 22 years for that father — and another father came to me and told me, 'I'm sorry, I'm your father.' And I was like, 'What are you talking about? Like, I have my own father, and it's Islam!' And the father of Christianity told me, 'No, I'm your father. I was in jail, and this (Islam) is not your father.'"

Mosab made an incredible sacrifice in leaving his religion, his family, and even his safety behind. He likened the experience of leaving his family as "taking the skin off [his] bones." Nevertheless, he felt duty-bound to glorify his new King.

"My family is educated and it was very difficult for them. They asked me many times, especially for the first two days, to keep my faith to myself and not go to the media and announce it. But for me it was a duty from God to announce his name and praise him (around) the world because my reward is going to be that he's going to do the same for me."

But when asked how he feels about Muslims and their distortion of Chrisitianity and their evil and false world-view, he was gracious and compassionate.

"So definitely I started to figure out the problem is Islam, not the Muslims and those people — I can't hate them because God loved them from the beginning. And God doesn't create junk.

God created good people that he loved, but they're sick, they have the wrong idea. I don't hate those people anymore but I feel very sorry for them and the only way for them to be changed (is) by knowing the word of God and the real way to Him."

Read the complete story HERE.

Summer Camp!

Summer Camp Praise Team

This year's summer camp was really cool. It was encouraging to see the work of God in the English congregation as we strived to have a heart after God. We had some very encouraging and uplifting messages by Dr. Gregg Watson, Associate Professor of Old Testament at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

Dr. Rick Durst, also of GGBTS was supposed to be the guest speaker but couldn't make it at the last minute due to a death in the family. It was especially interesting to hear about how months earlier God guided Dr. Watson to NOT attend a mission trip this summer, which freed him up to be able to come to the camp.

God was working in our midst before and during the camp! Now that we are back, I am excited to see how God will work after the camp.

God or Genie?

Therein Lies the Rub... Or not!

One of the big life lessons that God has been teaching me lately is that he is God. Obvious, I know, but what does that really mean? It means that he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants. He is not a magic genie that is subservient to my wishes.

I remember a restaurant worker on a mission trip asked me once, "Does God answer prayer just to get you to follow him then stops answering prayer?" She asked this because she could see God's miraculous answers to her prayers before she became a Christian, but now that she has decided to follow him, he no longer seems to answer.

At the time I fumbled through some Sunday School double dribble God talk but the truth was that I really did not have a good answer for her. Or at least one that is acceptable to me.

Now I do.

If I could meet that worker again, I'd tell her this: God loves you and he still answers all of your prayers. It's just that the answers are not coming in the way that you'd like or expect. First he showed you his power and generosity. But now he is showing you his sovereignty, to keep you from being confused as to who is in charge. Even more valuable than his blessings is God himself, and that is what he is giving you.

Worship the Blesser, not the blessings. Besides, do we really have enough knowledge to always judge blessing from curse accurately anyway?

YOU Are the Light of the Earth...

Ephesians 5:8
for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=026YlRFUfkQ


Matt Redman is so cool...

May the words of this song be the aspiration of your hearts this week...