Be Strong and Very Courageous

What scares you?

Not like the heebie geebies when you see a spider or a snake or singing in front of a group of people.

I am talking about the middle of the night pop up. The wide awake breathing fast, sweating, scared out of your pants, scared that haunts and cripples you to the point that you can't figure out how you are going to make it, so scared that you wonder if you are the only one in the whole world that experiences this kind of fear.

My dad saw way too much of life. By that I mean he was there at the Battle of the Bulge (WWII, Europe for those of you who do not know). He saw a whole lot of people die. He grew up in the depression. He experienced poverty and wealth. The thing that scared him the most was a movie that he saw as a young man. He went a 1935 film Dante's Inferno. In the movie there is a ten minute scene describing Hell. As a grown man my dad would have nightmares about hell and it combined with the war made death a very real fear of his. He was scared of death most of my life and his adult life.

This week I conducted my first funeral as pastor of Golden Gate Community Church. It was for a wonderful woman named Pam Conway. I had the opportunity to visit her before she died. She had been battling cancer for a long time and she knew that her time was coming near. She and my dad had this in common. They had the opportunity to prepare for their deaths. I was thankful that Pam and my dad were not afraid in the end. They had placed their hope in Jesus. They took their fears and placed them where they belong, at the feet of Christ.

I have been teaching on fear the last couple of weeks on Sunday. It is no coincidence that we have had many attacks around this theme in our household. From bullies threatening our kids, to restless nights about the economy and what that means for us as a family, to news of possible cancer in our extended family, to a cold. It seems that that there was plenty to give us worry and if we let it, could cause us to be afraid. If we were not careful fear could have immobilized us crippled us from being who Christ calls us to be.

Perfect love casts out all fear, writes the beloved disciple.

Yet we get afraid. I think that fear is one of the driving forces of evil.

As we live our lives in faith it is clear to me that we are engaged in battle against evil. It is easier and more convenient to put a face on that evil, but not helpful, productive or true.

Paul writes to the church in Ephesus chapter 6 verse 11:

11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

 

As we address our fears it is important to realize that we are dealing with a spiritual matter. Our fears are an attack in the spiritual realm and should be addressed through prayer. It is out of that prayer that fear can be taken for what it is, baseless lies. It is through talking to God our creator that we can find the peace we are looking for.

The bible encourages us to start our prayer by thanksgiving. We thank God for who he is and what he has done.

It is out of this spirit of gratitude that we can find the correct posture for our prayer.

Phil 4:4-7

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 

This week it would be easy to forget what we have to be thankful for and focus in on what we are afraid of, but the way of Jesus is to place things in their proper perspective, the way of Jesus is to look at the eternal things and not the things that will rust and fall away. This week as we prepare for thanksgiving, take some time to thank God for who he is and what he has done. This is the best antidote for fear.

God spoke to Joshua and said:

Chapter 1verse 9

9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

We can have courage because our faith is not in ourselves or our circumstances but in God, who never fails.

 

 

Peace

Edwin

 

Body Building

When I was in high school I was a wrestler. I had this coach, Coach Baird who was my idol. He wrestled for Lehigh University. For those of you who do not know, that was a Division 1 wrestling powerhouse. He went to the NCAA tournament and although he was not a champion, he got a four year scholarship and did respectably well. He wrestled as a lower weight, but when he was my coach he was huge. He lifted weights and had gotten to be monster strong. He made all of us use the weight room and had us all on a regiment of power lifting to build up our ability to wrestle. He was getting us ready to be the strongest and fastest wrestlers on the mat.

I don't know what your high school weight room was like. What was hilarious about ours was that it was not co-ed. What would always happen is that the girls would swing by and say hi and as soon as that happened, everyone would magically have a weight in their hand, mostly guys doing curls. So much so that Coach Baird would say: "Curls are for the girls." He was mocking those who did not take his path to power and strength seriously. He could tell the difference between those who were looking for power to compete effectively on the mat and those who were looking for a superficial appearance of strength and competency.

In Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus he writes

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. 4:11-16 NIV

Paul's teaching is helpful for pastors and church leaders who are trying to figure out what the church should do. He encourages these leaders (prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers) to spend their time and energy building up the Body of Christ to become mature and unified, so that the Body can do its work. It is a plan for the "coaches" to get the "athletes" in shape.

Last August I sent you a letter to ask you to pray for the leaders in the church, for our city, community, and church leaders, and that we would discern his vision for our future. This prayer was essential to help us chart a course for our future as a body.

Our trustees and leadership team gathered for a weekend retreat to pray, discuss our core values and mission statement, and ask God about our future direction. In preparation for this time together, I invited you to respond to a series of important questions. You did and we read those and discussed them. We also sought out the Lord in prayer and we discussed where we felt God was leading us.

We also began asking the question, what are the hallmarks of a disciple of Christ, what are our roots, and who are we as a community? Then we asked the question, what direction would God have us go?

After much discussion, prayer and reflection we fell back to scripture for guidance as well as our roots. With that we believe that our purpose statement moving forward is that we are a community who are:

Learning from Jesus

to seek Justice, (Doing its work)

Love and serve others, (Being unified)

And walk humbly with God. (Becoming mature)

 

We believe that this provides continuity with our roots, our history, and our DNA as well as moves us forward in the direction that we unanimously feel led by the Holy Spirit and our understanding of the scripture Micah 6:8

 

It is our belief that as a church it is our mission to help you in your spiritual formation to become the fully integrated mature follower of Jesus that you are called to be. We hope to do this by creating a dynamic and enriching worship service on Sundays from 4-5:30. This will be all of our opportunity to mature and grow in our faith through strong biblically based teaching, worship and prayer and also through taking communion together. We also hope to promote service and community though our small groups that are offered midweek. And finally we hope as a church to serve the city of San Francisco. That as a church we seek the welfare of this city through seeking justice for all those who live here as well as for those who live in other parts of the world.

I feel that this new direction is a vocalization of who we have always been. I am hopeful that by writing out our purpose we can see what direction we should head in and more clearly see how God is going to use us in the future.

Please continue to pray for our community and leaders as we seek out God's direction.

Peace

Edwin

It Is Bigger Than All Of Us

Like most of you, I sat in front of my TV on Tuesday. I started earlier than most because I have been sick all week. I sat and listened to all of the talking heads go on and on about the significance of each state, each county. I learned more about Indiana in those hours than I ever needed to know (and that is my mom’s home state). But then it happened, just like that. The polls in California, Oregon, and Washington closed at 8:30 pm and CNN declared Sen. Obama the victor. To some it was a moment of fear, fear that all of the hate and smear that was thrown at Sen. Obama would come true. He has been painted by his opponents as a Socialist, a terrorist, a Muslim, an elitist, a false messiah, the anti-Christ and unfortunately most of the more extreme accusations came from my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Then Sen. McCain got up on stage in Phoenix to speak and said the following:

 

My friends, we have — we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.

A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.

 

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

 

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

 

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

 

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

 

I became hopeful that maybe, maybe we could move forward after such a difficult campaign. The words of Sen. McCain were marching orders to his supporters: get out there and support our new president, help him help America and the world. Then we waited and President Elect Obama stood before hundreds of thousands in Grant Park where a generation ago in 1968, ten thousand protestors fought the National Guard to end the Vietnam War, and the night ended in bloodshed and violence. On that stage President Elect Obama spoke to all of us:

 

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

I marveled at his speech, watching Rev. Jesse Jackson cry and the thousands of young people look up in hope and the words out of his mouth were not of boasting, not of self congratulation but of humility, peacemaking and looking at the tasks ahead. It was a call to all Americans, Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Progressive, to work together toward a better world.

 

After the speech, with Jake on my right and Grace on my left, Julie and I prayed for our country and our world.

 

“Father, we thank you for the peace that we enjoy, we thank you for the privilege of voting for our leaders. We ask that you would protect and bless President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and their daughters. Would you help them lead us as a country to peace, to prosperity for all in this world. Would you help us, all of us find a way to support him in his endeavors to help the least of these. Would you please help reconcile us as a nation so that we can work together for the good of all. Amen”

 

Join me as we pray for our City, our State, our Country and our World.

 

Jeremiah 29:7

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.

Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

NIV