Uncategorized

I was sitting at a restaurant the other day and there was a table of about ten women with one empty chair. A couple minutes later I saw a young lady walking up to the door and just KNEW that the empty chair was for her. Turns out, I was right. For better or for worse, we tend to associate with people like us.
I make judgments of others and shown favoritism or “prejudice” for those that I choose as friends, not in any malicious way, I don’t believe, but I gravitate toward people who are “like me.” It’s natural. Like osmosis (that we learned about and quickly forgot in science class): water moves from areas of high concentration to low concentration. It’s the path of least resistance. It’s comfortable. It’s easy.

Fortunately for me, being a campus minister in a new campus ministry, I don’t get to pick and choose who walks through that door. No matter who they are, they are valuable to me; one, because I want people here, and two, because they are valuable to God. Under other circumstances I probably wouldn’t know most of the people that I know right now. Maybe our personalities don’t click, or we don’t have common interests, or we don’t walk in the same circles, or we have a hard time understanding one another (linguistically or culturally)!

But being a part of Genesis means that I spend time with people from many different backgrounds: cultural, financial, religious, social, and whatever other kind of backgrounds there are. As we spend time together I learn about people; I get to know their personalities; and despite our differences, we become friends. When we go out together as a group we must stick out like a sore thumb because we cover nearly the entire “spectrum” of skin color…

And do you know what I’ve realized? That it is absolutely fantastic! 

Here’s why:

Being with people who aren’t “like me” means our friendship starts with me seeing them the same way Jesus saw people. Jesus fought through ASSUMPTIONS to make CONNECTIONS, connections with those no one else wanted to make a connection with. When my first impression says, “Not a chance!” Jesus whispers, “But I love them.”

When we fight through ASSUMPTIONS to make CONNECTIONS with different kinds of people, we find that God’s love is as wide and diverse as his people. Diversity is difficult; it WILL BE messy. But when we fight through our assumptions to connect with different people who are made in the image of God we get a glimpse of heaven on earth, where people of EVERY tribe, nation, and tongue will praise God together

Morgan Hines

I show favoritism. When I receive a request for help of some kind, my mind immediately begins processing that request through a number of filters.
• What is my relationship to this person? I will aid a friend before I help an acquaintance and an acquaintance receives more consideration than a total stranger.

• Why does this person need my help? I am unlikely to help if I sense that that he/she is taking advantage of my kindness with inadequate motives.

• Does this person intend to return the favor someday? If so, then I am willing to do more for that person.

• How did this person ask for assistance? I am far more likely to help someone who asks me for assistance if he/she does so in a respectful manner.

But as a I consider my list of filters, I realize that I am much more likely to assist people who share my values – in other words, people who are more like me. 

I have wrestled with this tendency as I have come to realize two fundamental truths.

First truth: My values are shaped by my culture as a middle class American. For example, the Umbundu language of central Angola has no word for “please” and thus the Ovimbundu people communicate “respect” in other ways. Rarely does anyone say, “please” before asking for help.

Another example: my belief that the recipient should show some intention to repay my kindness arises from my American ideals about charity. My parents taught me, “Always repay your debts.” We had some lean years when I was young, but my dad always found a way to repay a kindness. He wound not accept a free lunch. But why should I expect an Angolan friend to offer something in return for my assistance? In traditional Angolan culture, those that have an abundance are expected to share with those that have a need.

Second truth: Jesus freely helped those could never repay their debt. Many whom Jesus helped were complete strangers to Him. Some were taking advantage of Jesus’ kindness with less than perfect motives (the crowd of 5,000, John 6:26) and others would not have seemed to need help at all (Zacchaeus, Luke 19).

If Peter had employed logic like mine, I doubt he would ever have arrived at Cornelius’s home. Peter preferred the company of Jews. It took a vision from God followed by a command from the Holy Spirit (Acts 10.19-20) to get Peter going in the right direction. Thus Peter’s words in 10.34-35 carry great weight. Peter himself showed favoritism (see Galatians 2.11-14). But Peter learned that God values all people equally.

God wants all people to come to know Him (1 Timothy 2:4). When I have an opportunity to serve another, I should fight against my tendency to help only those who share my values. God does not show favoritism, nor should I.

I see this wisdom in Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:42. “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (Also see Luke 6:30-36.)

I also see how Peter’s experience in Acts 10 shaped his theology. He instructed the church to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3.15).

I am recommitting myself to serve as many as I am able, especially those who look and think differently than I. I pray that through these efforts, God will give me more opportunities to share the reason for my hope with others.

Robert Meyer

“It’s like they didn’t even see me walking toward them.  I guess that’s better than having them give me a dirty look.”

“You know how people are who live in THAT part of town.”

“Now, let’s not just invite everyone.  I want it to be fun and some of those people are just awkward to be around, you know?”

 

It’s easy to spot favoritism when it’s obvious and it’s happening in someone else’s life.  I can see someone is prejudice for or against someone when I see them discriminate between people and treat some better and treat others with disdain at some level.

If I see someone giving preferential treatment or attention to one group to the exclusion of others, that’s favoritism.  Sure, some of it’s “normal” and a part of everyday life, but that’s kind of the point – when we accept what is normal and turn down the call of the Lord to accept and relate to all people, we’ve fallen prey to the hollow and deceptive philosophies of this world that are based on human traditions.

Spotting in other is easy.  Spotting in us takes some discernment, a deeper look inside our heart and in our habits.  Most of the time, we can explain away our prejudice and our discrimination:

 

“I don’t have time to get to know everyone.  I mean, there’s just a few minutes before and after church to talk with people and I want to make sure I touch base with the people I want to see.”

“Maybe if the church puts together a class time where we’re able to connect with different people, THEN I can try to see what other people are like.  I don’t have time or desire to do it on my own.”

“I’ve tried to reach out to people who are different from me, but it just seems like we don’t have anything in common and they aren’t very interested either.  I mean, what are we supposed to do?”

 

And once we see our habits and our heart, we can begin to step out and do something different – something that is a move toward God’s heart toward people.

It’s not always rocket science or something super formal.  It’s as easy as just being you and asking the other person to be themselves.  And then making a little time here and there to connect and talk.

As Leon challenged us this past week, have a coffee or maybe have lunch together.  15 minutes here.  An hour there.  Just pick some time.  Maybe ave someone over for dinner and just relax and get to know each other.

 

“Hey, tell me about where you grew up.”

“What’s your neighborhood/job/commute to work/family/etc like?”

“What’re your thoughts about ___________________?”

 

And just listen.  And then share your story.  A place to start in overcoming any of favoritism in your heart is just to start talking with people that you don’t normally take the time to get to know.  Try it this week.

 

Romans 2:11 “God does not show favoritism”

 

Wade Poe

This Sunday we will explore a portion from Acts 10.

34 Then Peter began to speak: “Now I really understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, 35 but in every nation the person who fears Him and does righteousness is acceptable to Him.

This is good news; but we don’t always see the good news as good. Too often the seat we are in colors our ability to see good as good. It took Peter a while.

It would be easy to find some injustice in the world and share it. But for this weekend, lets reflect together on where in our lives we show favoritism (as individuals) and where in our lives we can more fully pursue righteousness.

Be in prayer that our Central community will grow God’s kingdom through our hearing and practicing the truth as given in the Word. Pray that the Word will be flesh and dwell among us.

We’re all just different kinds of dirt.

It would do me good to remember that God breathed life into a handful of dirt and called it “man.” I take myself too seriously sometimes. Jesus also called us “dirt” in the “Parable of the Sower” (Matthew 13/Mark 4/Luke 8). But not all dirt has the same qualities.

Jesus shared this parable with a “great crowd” of people. He meant for each person who had gathered on that beach to consider what type of soil he/she was. Jesus broke them down into four types:

• Do you allow the unexplained mysteries of the Gospel to prevent your faith from taking hold, like seed that never penetrates the surface?
• Will your faith waiver when trials come and tear you free from your shallow roots among the rocks?
• Are you so caught up in your concern for worldly things that these “thorns” will choke the life out of your faith?
• Or are you so excited to have received the Good News that you go out and share it with others, like seed sown in good soil that bears much fruit?

It seems to me that our congregations (whether we live in Angola or the USA) are made up of all four kinds of soil – just like Jesus’ crowd on the beach. So the first question that we ought to ask ourselves – if we’re striving to be part of God’s Kingdom – is, “What kind of soil am I?”

But I think there’s a second crucial question implied in Jesus’ parable: ‘How can I better prepare myself to bear fruit like the good soil?”

If you told the Parable of the Sower to a group of subsistence farmers (in Angola or Ancient Palestine, for example), they might burst into laughter. “Who spends a week’s wages on seed and doesn’t first till the soil? He is either lazy or foolish!” Even the casual gardener knows you ought to remove the rocks and weeds before you plant the seed. And you never cast your seed on the walkway.

I confess that I have not always been “good soil.” Nor does my life reflect a “thorn-free,” well-tilled garden. My little patch of dirt is more of a mix of the four soil types.

Surely Jesus didn’t mean to reject those in his audience who weren’t serious disciples. Instead he invited them to a more robust faith with deeper roots. He challenged them to grow. His words ought to remind us that gardening requires constant attention. We till the soil, pull the weeds, and do all that we can so that our soil will produce a greater harvest.

If I want to be part of the Kingdom, then I need to work hard to uproot the distractions in my life. I don’t want the cares of this world to crowd out things of eternal consequence. I need to fortify my faith through prayer, Scripture, fellowship, and service, so that I’m ready for the trials that come. Following Christ won’t be easy, just because I received the seed.

We’re all just dirt, but God has planted a seed within us. As we seek to grow God’s kingdom, let us be diligent gardeners, so that we, and our fellow disciples, will bear much fruit.

Robert Meyer

School has begun and with it routine. The flexibility and long days of summer we leave behind to embrace homework, practices, and schedules. And this is good. Summer is fantastic – don’t get me wrong, but there is always a sense of peace that comes from the routine of autumn.

My youngest has been so excited to tell me what she has learned each day in school this year. And though it’s only been a couple weeks, the eagerness with which she shares her day is far greater than any other start of a school year. And maybe it’s because she is a year older and she knew her teacher before she started, or maybe it’s because the material she is learning is that much more exciting (props to Lizzie W.), or maybe it is just because she has a desire to learn this year more so than any other. Whatever the reason, to hear her sing about evaporation, gravity, and metamorphosis is quite captivating. I mean, she’s six.

Learning Jesus is the fourth habit in Michael Frost’s Surprise the World.  He describes this habit as totally marinating ourselves in the work and words of Jesus. Most Christians are aware of what he calls Jesus’ greatest hits (birth, death, resurrection, a few miracles, and a couple parables), however by learning these main points of Jesus life we have boiled him down to a sacrificial lamb. And though he is this, we lose a big part of His usefulness in our lives today if that is the only thing He is to us. For it is right and good and true that I believe he took away my sin on the cross and rose again so that I might live. However believing that makes no difference as to who I might call upon for help when I am struggling being the best wife I might be. Knowing that I can live with him in heaven someday doesn’t help me today when I lose my temper and yell at my kids.

What I learned from chapter 6 in particular as well as other sources that I’ve studied from recently is that Jesus was the smartest man that ever walked the earth. And yet if I ask myself who I get my answers from to life’s problems, I would have to say that for most of my life it’s been other people, lyrics from songs, inspiring books, teachers, etc.  And though these aren’t bad, if I don’t believe that Jesus understands my life and or know all about our universe then I don’t trust Him with the things that are important to me. And if I don’t trust him, then I can’t believe he is competent to handle my day-to-day problems. Therefore I turn to other sources.

In my mind I can think of Jesus words as either “pretty words” or as words to bet my life on.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs IS the kingdom of heaven” Matt 5:3

“This poor widow has put in MORE than all the others” Luke 21:3

“Whoever loses their life will save it” Luke 9:24

“Whoever obeys my word, will never taste death!” John 8:51

These are all strong statements. How can He say the widow who put in two coins put in more? And how can He say those who obey will not die?  It’s obvious he speaks from a different worldview. He sees the world beyond just the physical. His reality is the full world, not a world through mere human eyes.

So to learn Jesus, I must spend time viewing the world through His eyes. As Dallas Willard says in The Divine Conspiracy, many Christians “have faith in faith but little faith in God, and they may believe in believing but not able to rely on God, and who love ‘love’ but in practice are unable to love real people”.

Too often I’ve read the Bible for facts instead of looking to know God.  But this chapter among other things has inspired me to marinate myself in the work and words of Jesus to this end: that I may be transformed into a person who believes the things about God and the world and life that Jesus believed.  I am excited to read the Bible differently. I hope I am as eager as my daughter when she sings her science song. But more than that, I pray I believe the things Jesus believed as strongly as I believe in gravity. I pray we all will come to know Him as more than just a sacrificial lamb. For if he truly “created all things and holds the world together” (Col 1:16,17) then maybe he knew how to molecularly change water into wine, interrupt weather patterns, and transform the human body from sickness to health, as Willard points out in his book. And maybe just maybe I will start trusting that he can help me as I work out problems at work, at home, and at play. Not just a sacrificial lamb but also a brilliant teacher. Let’s learn.

Andrea Tappe

A new congregation of believers is emerging among the middle-class in the city of Huambo, Angola. We join several families for worship and study on Sunday afternoons. They are dual-income families and single mothers working hard to make ends meet during a nation-wide financial crisis. They want the best for their children, so they put them in private schools, take them to gymnastics and academic clubs, and seek the best health care available – often traveling abroad to find it. They have struggling marriages and extensive obligations to extended family. They are seeking God in a fast-paced, urban environment. They are busy. I’m sure you can identify.

We call this body of believers Renovo, a name that reminds us that we are not to be conformed to the world’s way of doing life. Instead we are to be transformed, renewing our way of thinking and doing life God’s way (Romans 12:2). Week by week Renovo is being transformed as we read the word, help each other to understand God’s way and obey it. We are there to encourage and be encouraged. Our time together is invaluable and I often leave a gathering in awe of God’s presence and overwhelmed by how much more there is to share about his love, mindful of the importance of being with the church. Sadly, our time together is limited by our fast paced urban lifestyle and our cultural obligations. It shouldn’t be. That’s the world’s way of doing life. 

When my lifestyle feels hectic, going to a women’s prayer meeting feels inconvenient, or I just don’t feel like speaking Portuguese that day, I remind myself of the value of meeting with the church and that motivates me to go be with my church family. I want to model this for my brothers and sisters in a transparent way, sharing my struggles and weaknesses, so that we can encourage one another to be obedient to God’s call to a transformed lifestyle in this busy and distracted world.

What lifestyle changes will we make and what perceived cultural obligations will we sacrifice for the sake of the church and the name of Jesus?

I don’t use the Message very often, but this is right on.

Romans 12:1-2 MSG

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

 

Teague Meyer

The Bad News
I’ve heard it said that you can’t fully understand good news without first understanding the bad news. As I understand it, this is the bad news:
– The God of heaven is not just holy but wholly just.
– Because he’s righteous and holy, he can’t be around anything that falls short of his
perfect standard (which he gave us in the law).
– Because he’s wholly just, he must exercise justice by punishing sin.
– Since I’m not perfect, not only can I not be with God, he must punish me. (Rom. 3:23)
The Good News
God is also the God of grace, love, and mercy, so he sent his son Jesus as he promised he would. Jesus was tempted like we are but lived a perfect life and thus fulfilled the law. He took on our punishment of death on the cross as a perfect sacrifice and God raised him from the dead; therefore, our justification no longer comes through the law but by believing in the saving grace of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8-9; John 3:16; Phil. 2:5-11). Not only does this mean we get to be WITH God in heaven, but God lives IN us now in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Summary
Sin brings wrath (characterized by God’s absence). Perfection brings glory (characterized by God’s presence).
Christ was perfect, and we are not. Although Jesus deserved glory, he took on our wrath so that despite our sin we might receive his glory.
This changes everything!
Morgan Hines

When we ask ourselves, “What is the gospel?”, there may be a tendency or a desire to want to give a “new” answer…a creative twist to the message of the “good news”. This is logical of course, because we people like to hear a new idea, a new tagline, a new way of updating that which may have grown stale. 

The thing with the gospel; however, is that it is timeless. It incorporates the very things that we’ve heard all along: God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s sacrifice. To “sum up” the gospel doesn’t mean a search for something new, but a proclamation of something we that we’ve heard over and over.

John 3:16-17

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Even these two verses speak to the heart of the gospel message. God loves us. God seeks to show mercy on us. God sacrificed His son for us.

I believe sometimes we, as Christians, may believe the same way about the gospel and yet disagree on the emphasis of the message or then what our response is to it. Sometimes we agree on what the gospel “says”, but don’t live the good news. We don’t always love the world. We don’t always show mercy to others. We don’t sacrifice anything.  

I saw this video recently of a talk held at the Pepperdine Lectureships, a “Pep Talk” done by an old friend, Mark Moore, who has spent much of his life as a missionary and a person who seeks to feed the hungry (physically and spiritually). I’d encourage you to click on this link and fast forward to 1:14:00 for his talk on the gospel message. 

I think much like Jesus’s example, we are partners in a mission to feed the hungry and give living water to the thirsty. I believe the gospel has more to do with life than it does to do with death. I believe the gospel springs from the love of God and the implications of His love for us. I believe the gospel is that though we have needs and though we lose our way, God is a God of mercy and grace, and lights our path toward the life we are called to. I believe that Jesus, God’s Son, is that way, that truth, that life.

I believe there are hungry among us and that we should eat with them. I don’t believe we are sent to condemn the world, but to help proclaim that God is saving that which is lost, restoring those who are broken, and feeding those who are hungry.

Chad Tappe