Explicit: Money

On Sunday we heard Erica talk about money, and not just money but material wealth that can sidetrack us or become more important that the things God wants for us.
Some have said that God really wants us to be rich and to live life to the fullest. But most people who attain physical wealth will tell you that it is never satisfying, and you'll always want more. Instead, if we focus on what God values we will reap eternal benefits and we will be satisfied. Jesus says in Matthew 6: 22, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." If you're most prized possession is something that can be destroyed it is likely you are setting yourself up for disappointment. But when you cherish the things of God you can rest in the satisfaction that it is eternal.


Jesus also says "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." I think what this means is that the human heart cannot accept the duality of two affections. You cannot parcel out pieces of your heart and have it remain intact, and you cannot devote your entire heart to more than one object of affection at the same time.


This makes me think of chick flicks.
Growing up, I used to both love and despise the prolific genre of romantic comedy. I loved the idea of the perfect relationship/circumstances/person/self. I hated that it wasn't real. It is because of this form of entertaining drivel that a young girl will envision her mid-twenties on a glamorous film reel, starring herself as she and her loyal best friend lounge by their own pool with a pink cosmopolitan in one hand and the other shading their eyes from the happy sun. After a long day pursuing some indiscriminate-yet-successful career, Young Star would like nothing more than to complain about her life. And her relentlessly loyal BFF is more than happy to listen supportively, because she exists solely to lavish compliments on the Young Star and to fixate intensely on the Young Star's pathetic love life.
Then YS meets the man of her dreams; a dashingly handsome and sophisticated man with smoldering eyes and an expensive Italian suit. Meanwhile her close guy friend, who was originally cast as just a supporting character, is madly in love with her. This guy friend of hers is rather goofy in comparison to Smoldering Eyes, but he has a disarming grin that she finds comforting.
Of course, Smoldering Eyes and Disarming Grin Guy must now compete for the Young Star's affection. Young Star becomes torn. She claims to love them both, but how can this be? How can you really love two people at the same time in the same way? You can't.
If someone told you to your face, "I love you and I want to be with you, and you are important to me. But, I also love this other person, too, and I want to be with them because they are just as important to me. I'm torn," would you honestly accept that? Nod your head if you think that is ridiculous.* But S.E. and D.G. are patient.
Of course Disarming Grin eventually wins when YS realizes she's really been in love with him the entire time and Smoldering Eyes was merely the catalyst of said realization.
And the thing is, none of this ever happens. Ever.
In real life, Relentlessly Loyal BFF is actually jealous of Young Star, and doesn't care a whit who YS ends up with because she's too wrapped up in her own problems, and being emotionally torn between two eligable bachelors just doesn't seem to be a "problem" as far as BFF is concerned.
In real life, Smoldering Eyes is not sophisticated. He's predatory.
And now that Dismarming Grin Guy won the girl, he dumps her because he discovers it was really all about winning and since S.E. is gone, so is the thrill. Young Star comes home from a mediocre day job and throws herself across her bed and weeps. Oh yeah, and this morning she detected wrinkles around her eyes.
So, I digress slightly, but coming back around to the point I was making about being torn between two masters...

Something suffers. We're so used to overcommiting ourselves and working toward exhaustion that we forget what's really important, and we can't give ourselves fully to the cause of Christ. When we remember to keep His perspective in our thoughts and in our hearts we'll know that we are serving Him.








* Did you really just nod your head? You do realize I can't see you right now, don't you?

Mexico Photos from Kayla

Thanks to Kayla, we have some visual aides to help tell a story. Some might require more explanation than others, but I really feel like I have a good idea of what things were like.

Thanks Kayla!

Celebrate Mexico

Right now I'm supposed to be at Celebrate Mexico, listening to all the amazing stories from the Isaiah Project. Instead I'm just wiped out and I feel like a flake because I want to be there but...

So if you want to share anything about the trip to Mexico, (pictures, stories, spiritual truths) feel free to post here or send me your pictures.

Sorry I'm not there to see everything!

Explicit: Fasting

This week we looked at Matthew 6:16-18, which talks about fasting. As Charlie mentioned, we live in a country where we don't eat to live, we live to eat. And the practice of fasting does not apply only to food, but to other resources, distractions, personal habits, etc. As we see from reading the old and new testament, fasting should remain a part of our lives. And there are several reasons for fasting. One that comes to mind is the Isaiah Project, wherein 100 people from our community traveled to Mexico to spend a week building homes. They gave up their iPods, showers, real toilets and bathrooms, comfortable shelter, personal relaxation time, Spring Break, FDA quality controlled food, etc., to serve God and fellow man. Yet they had joy and lots of fun, and in the process they built relationships, grew closer to God, and realized the many blessings in their lives.
And as Charlie noted, there are 5 main reasons for fasting:

1. as an act of repentance
2. for guidance and direction
3. to pray for specific needs
4. to seek God's protection and deliverance
5. as an act of worship to God

Whatever the reason may be, scripture tells us not to announce why or when we are fasting. There are a couple reasons for this:

• It annoys people and, no, it does not make you appear more spiritual
• God will notice and He will reward you

We also need to be sensitive to those who are fasting. There's nothing worse than being tempted with the very thing you are tempted by. At a prayer meeting, I once offered a friend some food that was good. She declined once, and I said in between mouthfuls, "Come on, don't make me eat alone." She declined again, this time saying she didn't want any. I said, "Just try it. It's sooooo good. Mmmm. I feel bad eating in front of you. Please have some." Food tumbled out of my mouth and I caught some of it in my hand and shoved it back into my mouth, carelessly brushing the fallen pieces from the table to the floor. My friend's gaze dropped to her lap and she said quietly, "I'm fasting." I lost my appetite. I felt so badly so I groveled and removed the food from her presence. My insistance drove her to disclosure. I felt like a jerk, but I would have been a bigger jerk had I cackled and shoved the plate closer to her. That's the stuff of Satan.

Weekly Poll: Textbook Scripture

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Explicit: Prayer, or Lord I was born a ramblin' man

This week's passage is about prayer; specifically personal prayer. This is where Jesus shows us how to pray to our Father in Heaven, by keeping the focus on God. As Charlie noted, we're not supposed to pray for show; meaning that our attempts to appear pious and holy in front of men will amount to just that- God knows our true intention.


And we should not pray repeated mantras in an attempt to nag or convince God to do things our way. This exercise is about as charming as small children constantly asking, "Can I have it now? Can I have it now? Can I have it now? Please?...Can I?...Why not?..." It becomes a test of will, and you just can't out-do God on this one.

As straightforward as this particular topic seems to be, I still have some questions.
Forgive me if this seems off topic, but is it okay to pray to Jesus? Or for that matter, the Holy Spirit? I only ask because I once heard that we should only pray to the Father, which confused me immensely because I'm supposed to boast that Jesus is my best friend, but how do you become best friends if you don't talk? The counsel I received delineated God to be structured almost like a cell phone company. The Holy Spirit is able to translate our groanings and articulate our cries for help. Does that mean when I'm sobbing uncontrollably the Holy Spirit is licking the tip of a pencil and dictating my grievances on a legal pad, so He can decode my rambling to Jesus- because as I understand it Jesus is continously interceding on our behalf. And is it a sin to pray to Jesus? Does He silently pass my request on to the Father? I find this to be a troubling understanding, because it makes the Holy Spirit a lofty receptionist and it makes Jesus a kind of complaint department.
It was once explained to me that we should pray to the Father, and that sort of encompasses both Jesus and the Holy Spirit under a finely-printed Trinitarian clause. And that the whole reason Jesus went to the cross was to create some kind of satellite signal for us to go directly before the Father, unencumbered by land lines and tunnel static. Forgive me for being crass. Sometimes I just want to talk to Jesus.
Sometimes I sense the Spirit stirring in me.
Sometimes I want to mentally or physically crawl into my Father's lap.
I don't want to stand in line or have my account number ready for the next available representative.
And then it's like, "Well Jesus prayed to the Father. See how He does it?"
And I'm all, "Yeah, but why on Earth would He pray to Himself, like 'Self, hallowed be thy name...'?"
Admittedly, I may be overthinking this. But if that's the case then why do we sing worship songs to Jesus? Or is that a whole 'nother canno?

Easter Sunday at the Beach: Part 2

Easter Sunday at the Beach: Part 1

Easter Sunday: Rio Del Mar Beach!

This Resurrection Sunday, April 8th, we're meeting at Rio Del Mar beach at our regular time, 10:45 am.

At this early date, various weather reports predict "partly sunny," "partly cloudy," and "few showers." Show up on Sunday and find out which report is correct!

Here and There

Keep praying for the Isaiah Project while our friends are in Mexico. Pray that God will continue to use them as they build homes for families and pray for safe travel as they come home to Santa Cruz.

Also, pray about volunteering with the Salvation Army. Tonight is the night to serve in the Watsonville location. Talk to scott@tlc.org.

Weekly Poll: Don't Almost Give

Many home groups have started at Genesis, and some might still be considering what to do for their "service night". The Ad Council is running a campaign called Don't Almost Give, which encourages the public to notice needs in their areas and to take action. Perhaps some of their suggestions will inspire your home group!

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The Ringing Bell

Derek Webb's newest record is now available for pre-order. The Ringing Bell will be in stores May 1 but you can listen to the Beatle-esque project here. This time Derek is expanding beyond music into the realm of graphic novels. I'm not sure if a different artist illustrated the 96-page book or if Derek did it himself. But it looks cool.

Explicit: Giving

This morning Kevin preached on Matthew 6:1-4 about giving. As Kevin mentioned, few of us need to be reminded to give to the needy, but when we do give it should not be flaunted or bragged about. As Jesus says, those who boast of their "generosity" are looking for admiration from other people, and they'll get their reward. But we should give discreetly, and God will still see it if others don't.

Kevin talked briefly about "human economics" and the difficulty we have with just giving for nothing in return. It makes sense to us to pay others back for lunch or gifts or what have you. This cycle of reciprocity is normal in our society, in fact normal across the world. It's proper etiquette after receiving a gift to send a thank-you note. In my family, iron curtains have been drawn because of the savage inconsideration of neglecting thank-you cards; and thank-you emails are both undignified and unacceptable. Most people want something in return, as though by default of receiving a gift you are hereby bound to an unspoken exchange agreement that will gently wane for the next 7-10 years. Friendships and romances are reduced to fine print contracts forged by credit card companies.
But there are people who prefer to have their deeds shrouded in secrecy, such as some home groups at Genesis that practice "drop and run" operations under the cover of night. Some folks would rather others don't know the depth of their generosity.
Patrick and I have met such people. When we were living in a two room raccoon-infested hovel on Depot Hill in Capitola, during the first and almost final year of our marriage, some friends of ours offered to loan us money to buy a house. They told us God blessed them and they wanted to bless us. The stipulation was that we not tell others who gave us the loan, and if anyone asked we were instructed to say "private loan," or "none of your business."
And our friends didn't stop with just the loan. They also helped us find a house to buy, guided us through the escrow process, helped us move and clean the house, and helped us furnish the house. It was like "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" but without an obnoxious person with a megaphone standing in our front yard. And for those of you who think a home loan doesn't count as a gift because we have to pay it back, I have just two words for you: home equity.

This week I'd like to practice giving without expecting anything in return. To give God the full glory I think it best not to keep any of the glory myself, which means I won't sniff if someone doesn't say thank you. The idea is that the receiver knows the gift is from God and I am just the delivery girl who doesn't accept tips, because my God takes care of me.