Weekly Poll: Trick-r-Treat or Hide-n-Seek?

How do you celebrate Halloween?

Like it's a religious holiday and with much anticipation/decoration I dress up and pass out candy I hand out gospel tracts with candy I don't (I'll pray for the rest of you)

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Weekly Poll Results

Last week I asked what your favorite type of evangelism is. Here are the results:

Leaving gospel tracts in public places 16.7%
Shouting "Jesus loves you" to friends and strangers 0%
Inviting friends to church with hopes that someone else will share the gospel with them 8.3%
Casual conversation 75%
All of the above 8.3%
Don't evangelize/ don't know what it is 8.3%

Check back later for a new weekly poll!

We Have A Dream: Week 2, "Loving Others"

“We have a dream that we would be a movement of God in which we are a force in our community loving others without boundaries or excuses.”


Dear Dan Hynes:
Loved your painting yesterday. I really dig the light/dark contrast. I also liked the way you incorporated mixed media. Awesome touch. I should probably note here that I’ll be bringing in a painting for Week 4 of this series, and I don’t want you to think I copied you and your excellent ideas, though imitation is the highest form of flattery. I’ve already finished the painting I’m turning in because I didn’t want an unfair advantage of having more time than you and Rachel and the Surprise Artist for next week. Plus, I didn’t want the temptation to steal anyone’s cool ideas. So please don’t think I saw your rad painting and then went home to copy certain elements, kay? It’s so neat to see the Spirit show us similar techniques so we could work in concinnity! So, we cool? Good.
Also, who are you? Have we met? Can’t wait to see more of your artwork!

Dear Brian,
Thanks for sharing your testimony yesterday. I love to hear how God comforts us and brings us peace during such devastating periods of our lives. I would never wish for hard times to fall on anybody, but it is really amazing to see God’s hand reach out to steady His people. It’s great to see His faithfulness, and also your own faithfulness to continue following Him steadfastly. I am so happy to know He has blessed you and your wife with 4 beautiful children!

Dear Joel,
Dude, you rock! I was overjoyed to see you up there yesterday with your guitar and praising God. I love to see the joy on your face every week and to see your heart of worship. You are such a blessing!

Love, Jody

So yesterday we talked about the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). I could relate to Charlie’s story of having the kids by himself for a few days, and what a test it can be at times and at other times the hugest blessing. I was a nanny for a year a half, for three kids. For a long time, when I saw a mom in distress, I pulled the nanny trump card. "Excuse me. I used to change diapers for a living." I’d say this with the conviction a retired heart surgeon might use when administering first aid and questioned by a paramedic at the scene of an accident.
The family I nannied for have the best-behaved kids I’ve taken care of so I don’t have any horror stories, except one time little Danny, age 2, peed on me in the middle of the Capitola mall during winter and when I ran him outside to the car my teeth were chattering because the pee cooled off really fast and my shirt stuck to my stomach. It wasn’t so much the pee that bothered me, but the bone chill I caught immediately afterwards.
So nothing horrible ever occurred, but I remember one day when Isabella (then 5), who is by and large the sweetest, most loving and cuddly girl I know, was having a naughty day. When she wasn’t yanking toys away from her little brother she was swatting at her older brother. Joey, the oldest at 7, finally retreated peacefully to his bedroom to escape further abuse. Things escalated when I caught her stuffing forbidden candy in her mouth and taunting Danny with it, and it landed Isabella in a time-out for 5 grueling minutes. She sat in a chair in the living room with me, in total silence, probably willing my hair to fall out or my eyeballs to melt.
A little while later when time-out was over and she was back to her old self again, she came to the couch and nestled on my lap to rest her head on my shoulder.
“I love you,” she said.
What do you do with that?
“Oh,” I said, “I love you, too. Say, would you like some ice cream or candy or something? A trip to Disneyland in a private jet?” Anything?
I was the last person to expect love from her. I had only recently punished her and it was as if she had forgotten all about it. Even Joey sensed harmony and came back downstairs to play. So what do we learn from this besides how easily worked-over I can be?

Yesterday we looked at a group of people who were faced with the opportunity to reach out and love their neighbor. Instead of feeling compassion for a suffering person, they analyzed themselves through a loophole to get out of caring for him. They drew love boundaries and excluded the man on the road for various personal reasons that we’ve all used once or twice. But one man, the Samaritan, trampled those love boundaries by helping the suffering man and taking him to safety. He didn’t stop to consider the boundaries or to make excuses for not helping the man. He had mercy on the man, and Jesus tells us to “Go and do likewise.”
Who, in our lives, do we make excuses for not loving? Certainly Isabella could have ignored me for the rest of the day after being punished, and I would have accepted that because she would have had an excuse to be upset with me. But she didn’t use her excuse and she didn’t redraw a boundary to exclude me from receiving love from her. We should go out and do likewise.

Daylight Savings Time Ends

Don't forget to change your clocks tonight before you go to bed. It's "fall back" so we get an extra hour of sleep!

Looks Like Charlie Gets His Dream After All

Did anyone else know Passa Chollie plays hockey for the Idaho Steelheads (currently undefeated)?



I guess dreams really do come true.












Happy Friday!









(h.t. Patrick)

"For All You Do, His Blood's For You" and other enhanced beer ads

Real Christians of Genius

I think it is true that we take for granted some of the alienating "christianese" terms in everyday conversation. Some of the over-used words outside of my lexicon (before I became a Christian) included:
"on fire for God," "witness," "fellowship,""anointed," "backslide," "feelin' convicted," and "spiritual warfare."

Great Big Not Good User of Words

Last night while Patrick and I had coffee with our friend, Mike, we discussed our experience with Genesis thus far. Mike has never been to Genesis but was curious to learn more, and since he was willing to suffer through us perorate through a lengthy discourse we felt somewhat confident in our ability to describe Genesis using mere words.
After taking turns discussing the community as we know it, I was finally able to boil down the essence of what Genesis has meant for me over the past few months.
"It has kind of been like…a hospital…for me. And now I feel better and I want to stick around and help others get better."
You would think I could come to a conclusion as simple as this without having to go crabwise around the topic for a half an hour.
But this is the challenge for me. If something demands a concise answer and I don’t have a ready answer I will often abandon all brevity and involve a person in the process of exploring a really reflective answer. Unfortunately, not everyone has time to cogitate over coffee.
Take, for instance, this guy Frank at ChristianCruz.com. His website serves to inform Santa Cruz County about the different ministries, churches, companies and so on in the area, with links included. He added a link for Genesis and a link for this blog but he said he was dissatisfied with the descriptions he wrote for both. He was open to any ideas for revision and this is the point at which I mentally shut-down, much like when I’m ordered to add or subtract numbers on demand. Frank’s website is not a place where I can effectively define Genesis as "kind of like a hospital…"
But several words came to mind, mostly starting with the letter ‘C’. Community. Christ-centered. Creative. Church. Multi-generational. Fun….Etcetera. And then comes the necessary stringing together of abstract nouns, linking verbs, modifiers, articles, and prepositions to form a synopsis. This enterprise makes me feel like a great big not good user of words.
We just started a series at Genesis, "We Have A Dream," that aims somewhat at broadly defining what Genesis is. But we have, like, six weeks to work through it. A brief synopsis affords me, what, two to five lines? No fair.
How would you describe Genesis, this blog, and our collective goals? (You can use more than 2-5 lines).

Weekly Poll: "Jesus Loves the HELL Out of You!"

What is your favorite method of evangelism?

Select up to 4 of the following: Leaving gospel tracts in public places Shouting "Jesus Loves You!" to friends and strangers Inviting a friend to church with hopes that someone else will share the gospel with them casual conversation All of the above (Heck, I'll use ANYthing to warn people about Hell!) What's evangelism again?

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Poll Results

Last week the poll question was "Do you think God causes bodily harm to people, or does He merely allow it?"

7 people voted, and here are the results:

Yes, He causes it to happen 0%
No, He merely allows it to happen 28.6%
Both, depending on the situation/ person 57.1%
Don't know 14.3%

As you can see, most people believe God allows and sometimes causes certain things to occur. I agree with the majority, based on scripture, although I can't recall a time when God used such means for me personally.

Check back later for a new poll!

And here is a photo of the High School Ministry Staff that FINALLY loaded.

(From left to right)
christian warne: hs ministry associate 831.465.3394 / christian@tlc.org
erica stubblefield: hs ministry associate 831.465.2261 / erica@tlc.org
clint crivello: hs ministry director 831.465.3387 / clint@tlc.org
judy littlefield: hs ministry admin 831.465.2260 / judyl@tlc.org

We Have A Dream: Week 1

"We have a dream that we would be a movement of God in which we are unashamedly communicating the transforming love and grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ."

This morning we began our new series, "We Have A Dream," with Matthew 5:3-15. Each week throughout the series artwork will be featured depicting the theme or topic of the week. Today we got to see a beautiful scene by Rachel Nigh. Hopefully I’ll have a photo soon because I doubt I can adequately describe it. The painting will be on display throughout the course of the series.

This morning we discussed the Beatitudes and our calling to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. What does this mean exactly? Charlie pointed out that salt was used in ancient times as a preservative, often for food. His example was a juicy steak and what might happen if it sat out unrefrigerated and unsalted.
I’ll tell you what might happen in this instance:
Long ago, before I was born, my uncle and his wife and their six or seven kids were rushing around the kitchen before school/work when a covered roasting pot shifted on the counter- by itself. The kitchen became still and quiet while my uncle crossed the room to lift the lid off the roasting pan. Beneath it was the leftover carcass of the Thanksgiving turkey, which had been sitting on the counter for an estimated 3 weeks. When the lid came off and light shone upon the skeletal remains, hundreds of maggots caved into the rib cage, seeking to hide inside the hollowed chest cavity, causing the pan to move slightly again.
Uncle Mick put the lid back on, carried the pan to the backyard, doused the carcass and its legion of parasites with kerosene and struck a match.

Thanks, Charlie. I’m always looking for opportunities to tell that story.

So the point is that salt preserves life and slows decay, and light exposes darkness and leads the way. This morning at Genesis I bumped into someone I graduated from high school with. I haven’t seen David since graduation day, and I am always happy to see people from high school who might remember me best with a pentagram hanging around my neck. Usually their reaction to my Christian faith is one of surprise.
Although I don’t recall Dave and I having an actual conversation during our four years of Biology and P.E.together, I knew he and his friends were Christians. And while everything they stood for went against everything I stood for, I always had profound respect for them because they did what was right and they never mistreated people and they didn’t hide their faith in God (although they probably wanted to when I walked by. Someone once told me that even at 5 feet and under 100 lbs, I was...intimidating). I always esteemed David and his friends highly because they were salt and light, and even if part of me wanted to cave into the darkness of a decayed chest cavity in their presence, I couldn’t deny the life that was in them.
They didn’t need to picket outside my house to convince me I was in need of a Savior. They didn’t stuff gospel tracts in my book bag when I wasn’t looking. They didn’t do a "walk-by" as Charlie calls it and say, "Jesus loves you." If they had any bumper stickers I wouldn’t know because I didn’t drive. But I knew what their values were from overhearing their conversation, and by listening to their discussions in class. I knew they weren’t perfect, but I knew they were living at a much higher standard. They were an example, and I knew exactly who they were trying to emulate. I thought that was awesome.

The quote of the week in the bulletin is, "Preach the gospel always, and when necessary, use words."- St. Francis of Assisi.
This is not to say that using words is ineffective. But if our actions don’t match our speech then what are we really saying?

The challenge this week is to review the Beatitudes and see if one of them resonates strongly within us, and then interact with others while keeping that idea in mind. Lately I’ve been learning to become merciful towards those who have hurt me. So I am encouraged in this effort by reading, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy," and also, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."

Which of the Beatitudes stand out the most to you?

Graffiti: Change of Plans

Hey Genesis Community!

For those of you planning on doing the Graffiti project this Saturday,
ourplans have been changed. The graffiti work we were going to do
isn't quite ready for us. Instead of the Graffiti project, we get a
great opportunity to serve our community in the name of Jesus by helping out
at Harbor High School. We are going to help out with yard work and
other projects around the school. We would still love to have you
there! We will meet at 9am this Saturday (the 21st) in the lower parking
lot by the pool. Make sure to bring money if you want to go to lunch
afterwards. I hope you're having a great week!

Under His Mercy,
Charlie Broxton
Pastor to Genesis
Twin Lakes Church

What's Going on with that High School Ministry?

Guestblogger Clint Crivello is here with some news from the high school ministry:

HEY FRIENDS.

Here is some info about our high school ministry.

You can also check us out at www.tlc.org/highschool or www.myspace.com/tlchighschool

tlc high school staff (note: Clint sent me a photo of the staff and I can't get it to load right now- sorry!)


christian warne: hs ministry associate 831.465.3394 / christian@tlc.org
erica stubblefield: hs ministry associate 831.465.2261 / erica@tlc.org
clint crivello: hs ministry director 831.465.3387 / clint@tlc.org
judy littlefield: hs ministry admin 831.465.2260 / judyl@tlc.org

ONGOING EVENTS:


THE LIVING ROOM
sundays 9-10:15a / mh5






THE WELL
sundays 7-8:30p/ mh1






SMALL GROUPS
various nights / places

UPCOMING EVENTS:

10.27 & 28.06 / MONSCHKE HALL
ONE LIFE REVOLUTION
We are fasting for 24 hours to raise $$$ for orphans affected by AIDS / HIV in Africa. Our goal this year is $10,0000. Fasting begins at 7a October 27th. Join us for an all-nighter at the church starting at 7p. We will have fun together for a good cause. Fast ends at 7a October 28th with breakfast.

You have one life. Do something.

11.3.06 / 7:30p / APTOS HIGH SCHOOL
SOQUEL @ APTOS VARSITY FOOTBALL GAME
Get out your face paint and pom-poms. This game is going to be one for the ages. Come to watch the game and stay for our AFTER-PARTY! Ice creams and treats all around!!!

WANT TO GET INVOLVED?
TLC HS Group is looking for adults who are passionate about building into the lives of high school students. If you are interested contact erica@tlc.org or talk to anyone on our high school staff.

dove evolution

The neck stretching is a little creepy. I mean the whole thing is creepy...

Baristas Wanted

If you've got coffee experience, or if you're looking for coffee experience, here is a great opportunity to volunteer.
Higher Grounds, that funky kiosk outside of Monschke Hall, is in need of Saturday night/Sunday morning assistance. Proceeds go to missionaries, so you might say they need your help, too.


If you're looking into the coffee industry for future work this could be the experience most coffeeshops prefer to see on your resume. Try your hand at a "perfect puck" of espresso grounds, frothy foam, exquisite crema that heals when you stir it, and how to prevent acid fallout in a latte. Plus learn key terms such as:
"The grind is off."

"We serve arabica here. Robusta can be found across the street,"

and "Dennis, I have your double, decaf, nonfat, flat, half vanilla half coconut latte with an Equal (TM) packet at the bottom, to go!"

For more information contact Cassie: mamacass0268 (at) sbcglobal.net

Weekly Poll: Father God...or the Godfather?

Do you think God causes bodily harm to people, or does He merely allow it to happen?

Yes, He causes it to happen No, He merely allows it to happen Both, depending on the situation and/or person I'd like to see what others think before I make my final decision

Create Free Polls

Poll results about polls

It's Tuesday again, and with that comes our Genesis online poll results. Last week the question was What type of online poll do you prefer? Out of the 10 or so people who voted, it looks like a tie between topics on Christian philosophy/theology and current events/pop culture. Here are the numbers:

Deciding on special events at Genesis 10%
Christian philosophy/theology 40%
Best Sunday worship song 0%
"What type of weather are you?" 10%
Current events/ pop culture 40%
Meh. Online polls are lame 0%

Remember, if you have any ideas for a poll question just let me know.

Check back later for a new weekly poll!

What is God doing in your life?

The Genesis Breakfast yesterday was fantastic. I had so much fun hanging out and meeting people and hearing Justin Fox lead worship.
The purpose of the breakfast time was to hear what God is doing in each other’s lives, which is great because not everyone has the opportunity to hear about these things, or share about themselves. I don’t often introduce myself and say, “Hi, I’m Jody. Here is what God is showing me right now. What is God doing in your life?” So this forum was the perfect opportunity to get to know each other a little better.
I was blessed by everyone who shared. I wish we could have heard from more people, but since we didn’t have a lot of time maybe we can do it again sometime?

I was particularly blessed to hear what Joel said about coming to Genesis. “I am happy to be here…I’m glad that Jesus saves us…I’m happy to be sharing our lives and I’m thankful for the people here who pray for me…and I want to be a part of Genesis.”
Yeah, that pretty much says it for me, too.

I have also been thinking a lot about how God uses even the painful times in our lives to reveal His truth and plan. And I am grateful for a lot of the hardships that he's brought me out of- not just grateful that they're over but that they even happened at all, because I learned a lot about how God shapes us to fit perfectly in the Body.
One of the questions I've been wrestling with lately is whether or not God punishes us for taking our focus off of Him. I overhear so many people say things like, "... and then I broke my leg and I knew God was trying to get my attention." I know God does allow hardships in our lives, but is He the perpetrator? Because when I want to get someone's attention I don't ram my car into their car. And I don't burn their house down either. Then again, God's ways are not our ways.
I've looked into specific instances when God tried to get someone's attention, a few of which included gently waking someone from a deep sleep, but not so much bone crunching. There are instances in the Old Testament when God wipes out a population to get His point across, and we worship the same God as in the Old Testament, so what gives? The Holy Spirit is often described as gentle and dove-like, so it's difficult for me to imagine God weilding a Louisville Slugger and threatening to "get our attention" (Crack! "Can you hear Me now?"). We know that the Lord gives and takes away, but does He do so in a manner akin to the mafia? I will continue to wrestle with these thoughts.

So what has God been showing you lately?

Shirley Phelps-Roper on Fox News

What do you think of this segment?
Was the guest out of line, or was the newscaster out of line? Or both or neither?
What do you think of the newscaster using scripture to rebuke the guest?
The newscaster stopped just short of a roundhouse kick to the face. How would you have handled the situation differently from either side?

"What's Happening With the College Ministry?"

-You might be wondering. I know I was!
Guestblogger Sarah Marsh is here to tell us what the crazy college kids are up to these days:

Hi all. This is Sarah Marsh and I am part of the college ministry (“The Other Side”) at Twin Lakes Church. Exciting things have been happening! We kicked off the fall semester on September 6th and have been going strong ever since. The Other Side is for college-aged students (18-25) and we meet every Wednesday night at the house on TLC campus. Our months look something like this:

1st Wed – Fun Night

2nd Wed – Teaching Night

3rd Wed – Dinner and Teaching Night

4th Wed – Service Night or Student Night (we alternate months)

On top of that, we do fun activities on the weekends. For example, we just had a “Bigger or Better” scavenger hunt a couple weekends ago. Teams brought back crazy things like a BBQ, a refrigerator even a DOG! We are in the midst of planning our annual fall road trip to Southern California. This year we’re going to Disneyland – the Happiest Place on Earth!


This fall we’re doing a teaching series called “Adult Survival 101”. This series tackles issues like money management, relationships, dealing with anti-Christian sentiment and other things in “adulthood” we should know about but no one really teaches us about them. We are also starting men’s and women’s small groups and working on a ministry at the Cabrillo College campus and seeing where God leads us with that.



We want The Other Side to be a community where students come and feel welcome, accepted, cared for, and loved. We want it to be a safe place where they can learn more about God, be involved, and share their thoughts on things. We want to be a family that can have fun together, but also go deep together. If you are in the 18-25 age category, come check us out!



Sarah Marsh

College Director

(831) 465-3334

sarahm@tlc.org

www.tlc.org/ministries/college/

Weekly Poll

What type of poll do you prefer?

Deciding on special events at Genesis Christian philosophy or theology Best Sunday worship song "What type of weather are you?" Current events and pop culture Meh. Online polls are lame.

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Ministry Poll Results

The results are in: When asked which Genesis ministry you would be most interested in joining most of you voted "Other."

Thanks to all 13 who voted. You guys rock.

The only "other" ministry described was a video ministry. Great idea!

Final numbers:
Prayer: 23.1%
Worship (through music): 23.1%
Outreach to migrant farm workers: 15.4%
Washing coffee cups: 30.8%
Other: 38.5%

Check back later for a brand new Tuesday poll!

Owned, Week 4: "How Do I Live It?"

Yesterday we wrapped up the series called "Owned" with a final message on how to live with the concept of all things belonging to God. We read in Psalm 100, verse 3, to "know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture."

So how do we live with this in mind?

Charlie points out that to exist within the parameters of black and white rules is to concede to legalism. If you've attempted the legalistic lifestyle then you know how impossible it is to meet your own standards and how easy it is to carry yourself with enough braggadocio to repel other people. Instead, we can follow certain flexible guidelines to rethink some areas of our lives.
Charlie gave four areas to look at as examples on how to apply Psalm 100 to our lives.

1. Time- How do I spend my time? What are my priorities? Do my priorities match the priorities God has for me?

2. Money/Resources- How can I give back to God what is already His?

3. Earth- Am I a steward of His creation? How can I embrace His ownership of the Earth without actually worshipping the Earth? (One final note- not only does it take 500 years for a styrofoam cup to dissolve, but when it is broken into pieces it releases poisonous gases into the atmosphere. I think we can all agree that poisonous gas= not good).

4. Gifts and natural abilities- How does God want me to use my spiritual gifts and natural abilities? Whatever He has given you, start using it. It's not what you do but whether or not you are obedient to use it. Remember that obedience is the highest form of worship.

I think I am most challenged by the Money/Resources area of stewardship. So you can pray for me with that in mind.
This has been an awesome series and I can't wait for the next one to begin.

More on this stewardship business

The Natural Resources Defense Council published an article about Christian stewardship and the environment in OnEarth Magazine. "The Gospel of Green" includes some great quotes and thought-provoking passages to consider as we discuss stewardship throughout the "Owned" series, while drinking coffee from our donated mugs (wink):

"Calvin DeWitt carried one lantern. A mild-mannered midwesterner with a
Ph.D. in zoology, he helped in 1979 to found the Au Sable Institute in northern
Michigan. The institute devotes itself to organizing field courses and
conferences that teach ecology, always stressing the Christian notion of
stewardship, the idea that, as it says in Genesis, we are to "dress and keep"
the fertile earth. To understand what a religious environmental worldview might
look like, consider this from one of DeWitt's early statements: "Creation itself
is a complex functioning whole of people, plants, animals, natural systems,
physical processes, social structures, and more, all of which are sustained by
God's love and ordered by God's wisdom. Thus, Au Sable brings together the full
range of disciplines -- from chemistry to economics to marine biology to
theology -- that we need if we are to be good stewards of God's household." That
doesn't sound too frightening, right?"

Anyway it's a really long article with a lot of issues to unpack. Good thing you have all weekend to read it!

Art for God's Sake

Normally I wouldn't try to recommend a book I've never read, but I fully intend to read this one. But since Borders doesn't have it yet I may actually have to buy it.

Art for God's Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts by Philip Graham Ryken talks about the displacement of the arts in the Christian subculture. Somehow the arts have been devalued over the past few years and some leaders do not consider artistic gifts to be very important.
Ryken argues that artistic talent is God-given and can be used to glorify Him. I heard an interview with him where he spoke about the assumption that artistic talent can only glorify God if it is being used to explicitly convey the Gospel message via tracts, comic books, heavily themed paintings, or pieces that boldly depict a Biblical concept. However, he believes that God can be glorified just by reflecting what we see in nature, in God's creation.

So while I intend to read the book soon, at least you can hear the interview (it's not very long) to hear more of his thoughts and perhaps re-evaluate your own thoughts on this subject.

New Genesis Poll!

Which Genesis ministry are you most interested in joining?

Select up to 5 of the following: Prayer Worship (through music) Outreach to migrant farm workers Washing coffee cups Other- tell us what you wanna do (ie, leave a comment)!

Create Free Polls

Just Say No To Non-Biodegradables

This is Genesis on styrofoam.

This is Genesis on earth friendly ceramic mugs.

Donate your excess coffee cups to Genesis to help save $ and the environment!

Owned, Week 3: Where's My Stuff?

Today we had the pleasure of hearing Adam Nigh speak on Owned: Where's My Stuff.
The main theme dealt with the burden of discontentment in our own lives. I so needed to hear this. Probably you did, too.
I like that Adam asked the question, 'What breeds discontentment?" He named materialism, but this could easily be replaced with body image, jealousy of another person's spiritual gifts, and so on. The thing to remember, I think, is how Phillipians 2:5 tells us to that our "attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." We can all agree that Jesus was never preoccupied with how to furnish his house... although he probably made everything himself. Okay, bad example, but my point is that He did not care if the color scheme "worked" or about the luxury of high thread count. His focus and purpose in life was to fulfill His Father's will on Earth.

Adam mentioned living in a mobile home, and the occassional pangs of intense covetousness for another person's house. I too live in a mobile home, in every sense of the word. It is actually moving as we speak, at a downward slant not unlike the Titanic just before it split in two. The other day I was thinking, here I am living in a jacked-up house (literally, some guys came on Friday to jack up one end to declare the house "level" in order to meet the state inspection this week) and I always pictured myself in one of the homes my dad used to build, with lots of acreage, all-day sunlight, and a firm concrete foundation that defied underground rivers.
And as I was thinking this, and as the men outside were crawling among the black widows and cat poop under my house to secure the pilings, I realized it is only by the grace of God that I am not on my hands and knees swiping at spider webs and sinking a kneecap in a stray cat's droppings to level off someone else's house.
I suddenly wanted to bake these men cookies and serve lemonade, but I didn't want to turn the gas stove on while they worked beneath it.
So it's easy to focus on what I don't have. But when I think about the things I do have I am contented. It's such a simple practice, but so hard to remember.
For example, here are the thoughts that went through my mind during this morning's service which revolved around being content with what God has given us:

Hey, that girl Steph can really sing! I wish I could sing. I mean, sing. Singing would be awesome. Remember when I used to sit in my bedroom by myself and train my voice to sound like my favorite singer at that moment: Jewel, Lauryn Hill, Ella Fitzgerald? Ha ha, that was funny. I was such a dork. But I still wish I could sing like that girl Steph can sing. And play guitar. At the same time! I should really practice guitar more.
(Later):
Ooh, the Phil Wickham song. Yessss. Is that...a banjo I hear? Let me just look over some heads and--it is a banjo! I wish I could play the banjo. I wonder if Dad will let me have his someday? I really love banjo music. I didn't know Craig could play the banjo. There he is doin' Phil Wickham proud. And probably David Crowder too, while we're on the subject of bluegrass.

...After Genesis I walked over to Cabrillo to meet a friend at the pottery sale. If you've never been the Cabrillo Seconds sale you should really go. There's another one in May. Anyways, I had already planned to go to the sale before I heard this morning's message on contentment so it's not like I just blew off everything I heard and went shopping. But when I got to the sale I really wanted a lot of stuff. Mostly clay pots and one or two necklaces and things. And I wanted to buy Christmas gifts for people, too. And since I am morbid and selfish, and always thinking about my parents dying suddenly, I thought I would buy Momma Mason an expensive present and I justified it by telling myself that it would one day be mine. What is wrong with me??? I bought her the present anyway as penance for being one of those freaky family members who stake out a person's material legacy long before they are even sick. I really disgust myself sometimes.So you can tell the message sunk in real deep for me.

But I think the important perspective to have is exactly what Adam outlined from Ecclesiastes 5:15 and Job 1:21: Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart.
Everything that is ours is "on loan" from God. It is never really ours to begin with. Which ties back to stewardship from previous discussions.

The frustrating thing about contentment for me is that it always seems so fleeting. When I reach a state of contentment there is always that annoying part of me that niggles. It says, "Things are really good right now! What if something goes terribly wrong?" And sure, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away (Job 1:21)," but we'll never be satisfied in life if we are only thinking of ourselves. That's why I appreciate that Adam chose to read Philippians 2:3-4.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider
others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own
interests, but also to the interests of others."

When we truly believe that God is sufficient and good and knows our needs before we even ask then we are free to fulfill the will of the Father. We would not be so distracted with our own desires and needs and we would focus on others and what their needs are.
Our salvation through Jesus is more than we deserve.