Da Mish...

Here are some pics from this past wednesday at the Good News Rescue Mission. Some of the Discipleship Groups came and served, led worship, preached, etc.

Check the title link for some words about the evening...


El Jeffe! Bringing the Word!



Cheryl from the college group grabbing a tray to serve one of the guests behind her.



The Smiths, thats Todd with the spaghetti, Allison says, "Don't forget your veggies!"



The crazy Englishman who ran the kitchen... I know him so I can call him names, besides he is crazy!

The Good News

I have tried to point to a problem within the evangelical understanding of salvation; this problem stems from an inadequate understanding of how to read the Bible. We have inherited the lenses of our age* (reducing all knowledge to its smallest parts; dividing disciplines into an ever greater diversity of study; assuming that the whole is the sum of its parts) and we wear these lenses when we read our Bibles. It is, quite simply, inappropriate to think that we can pick and choose which words of Paul to use to define our understanding of certain ideas, or to do the same thing to the words of Jesus, or to do the same thing to the Bible as a whole.

This fragmented approach to the Bible, as well as the person and teaching of Jesus, is what has led us to understand the gospel in such a way as to actually exclude the teaching of Jesus from the message. Our hermeneutic forces us to ignore the many passages that refer to Jesus “preaching the gospel” because we do not believe Jesus preached the gospel. We believe the gospel is that “Jesus died on a cross to get evil people into heaven;” how then could Jesus preach such a message if He had yet to die on the cross? This forces us to ignore many passages of the four Gospels, and to do great violence to other passages as we continue our hermeneutical and exegetical gyrations.

Here comes the fun part…

We have spent a post and a half talking about what isn’t the gospel, now let us begin to describe what is the Gospel of Jesus!

Jesus message was one of the present availability of God’s presence; from his inaugural address (Luke 4) to his description of salvation as “living water welling up from within,” from his life of compassion and power to his death and resurrection, everything about Jesus words and deeds screams out “God is here and present, available in a way that He never was before!” Jesus very words, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” could be seen as the summation of the gospel message; “God is available to you here and now, your black heart is no barrier to his love, turn from yourself and your ways, give yourself to Him and His ways, step into His Presence, His Authority, His Rule, His Realm of Influence!”

The Gospel

God exists!

God is a being so pure and real that He is a unity, and yet so loving and alive that He is a plurality. God is a community of divine love and selfless submission; the Father who is, the Son who reflects His glory, and the Spirit who proceeds forth; and all seeking the glory of the other, a glorious dance.

God is Beautiful! He is unlike anything else in holiness and righteousness, beauty and power, justice and mercy, energy and creativity! His very being screams out life! His words drip with unimagined realities, his breath is the sweetness of life itself, his activity is the world made – unmade – and remade in an instant…

He is the source and fountain of all goodness, He is the source of all existence, He simply IS!

God made man in the very image of Himself. Man was created to be with God, to be loved and known by Him, and to love and know Him. Man was created to be like God and to take care of the creation that God spoke into being. Man was the regent who ruled in the king’s stead; given charge to rule and bear responsibility as God’s representative.

God is heartbroken over man’s desertion of his place in creation. God is sick with grief over the decision to forsake Him. We have chosen to abandon our responsibility to creation, but even more, we have cast aside the imago dei, the very imprint of our creator, His DNA, and have thrust ourselves into the maelstrom of abyss. We exist apart from He who provides existence and so share in the part of that which does not exist; we are the “once-men” who were and no longer are. And God weeps…

…into this world steps Jesus. He lived a life that revealed who God is, He healed the sick, chastised the self-righteous, protected the helpless, raised the dead, proclaimed freedom to those in bondage, declared love and compassion upon those who suffered, brought justice and mercy to all who would receive it; and for this we destroyed Him.

God was willing to risk everything, and pay any cost, to redeem all things. By way of the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus (who was the Christ, the Son of God) all things have been reconciled to God, things spiritual and physical, heavenly and earthly. In the person of Jesus is restoration of God’s image to mankind, and the created order put right as man steps into his rightful role as regent over the earth. In Jesus can be found the restoration of friendship with God, as He once walked in fellowship with mankind, so does He desire to do today.

Jesus offers us this restoration, a renewed fellowship with the God of All Things, a restoration of His image, a re-commissioned responsibility over the created order. By rejecting ourselves and the death we had become, and by accepting His life and choosing to live it, we can regain what had been lost. By simply trusting Jesus enough to receive what He desires to give us, we can once again experience life on God’s terms, free from the chains we have shackled ourselves with. By way of simply accepting what Jesus said as true to the point where we are willing to act upon it, we can share in the very nature of God (which was destined to us); namely hope, righteousness, peace, love, power, faith, eternity, truth, justice, abundance, beauty, infinity, purpose, and mercy.

Daves place

This is a picture of my brother's studio in the San Diego area. He has openned up shop as a personal trainer. If you know my brother you would find it quite fitting that he lives in an apartment that has a full weight set and all of the workout equipment needed, right there in the "living room." The door in the back of the picture leads to his small room with a bed and shower.

Acts 1-4

I read Acts 1-4 out of the message the other day. It was really amazing to me because I hadn't read it out of the message before. It was amazing it made things more real for me. Peter was nuts for the Lord. It was really neat to read about him in the first few chapters of Acts. He wasn't the guy you read about in the book of Matthew. This was Peter, the Rock that Jesus was going to build his church on. And he was doing a great Job. I think he preached like 4-5 times since the book started. He took EVERY opportunity no joke. The book starts and right off the bat the 11 disciples are in a prayer meeting and they are trying to determine who will replace Judas. Then they decide on a guy named Mathias. Then Pentecost happens and people are wonder what is happening because all this crazy stuff is going on and people are speaking in tongues, and some people understand them and they are like what's going on, then Peter steps up and he's like, "Hey this is what's happening, this is what Jesus said would happen, and the prophets of old!" Then he tells them about Jesus, and 3,000 people come to know the Lord that day and Acts 2:42-47 happens.

41That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. 42They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. 43Everyone around was in awe--all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! 44And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. 45They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met.
46They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, 47as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

Hello! This book is dang amazing! Then Peter and the disciples were in their way to the temple and they heal this guy and he gives his life to the Lord! They all go into the temple and the Bible says, " Peter saw that he had a congregation and so he started to preach." 12When Peter saw he had a congregation, he addressed the people:

Then he started to tell people about Jesus, and eventually he and the disciples get arrested. The priests were trying to stop them but the word says that during that night the news of Jesus had spread to about 5,000 people, and they gave their lives to the Lord! Then they go to the trial and Peter tells the lead dudes there about Jesus too and they say, "Well maybe this is a fad that will die off, and if it really is God then who are we to stop him?"

Peter rocked the house he didn't think twice he just took every opportunity to tell people about Jesus! It was amazing! I was praying while I read this and I was like God forgive me for all the opportunities that I didn't take! Forgive me for not being willing to get uncomfortable for the sake of these peoples souls! I want to take every opportunity! People everyday die without knowing Jesus! I can do something about it though! I can take every opportunity and tell people the good news that was told to me! Somebody had to get outside of their comfort zone to tell me about Jesus! I want to get super uncomfortable so people can know Jesus! And I know that the more I do it the less uncomfortable I will be! Maybe telling people about Jesus would become like second nature to me! That would be a glorious day!

"I Never Knew You..."

Many today have taken the following passage (Romans 10:9-10) to mean, “acknowledge Jesus death on a cross, acknowledge that you are a sinner, ask Jesus to make His home in your heart, and you will be forgiven of your sins so that you can enter heaven after your physical death.”

If the gospel is to be understood as such, what are we to make of the following words of Jesus:

“Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”

…what else could possibly be meant by these words than what is the plain and stated meaning of the words!

I guess as evangelicals committed to both the gospel of Jesus, and the authority of Scripture we must come to a new and deeper understanding of just what the gospel is. This passage and others simply do not allow for the atomized, formulaic, and self-focused gospel that has been the mainstay of the Church during my lifetime.

Let us begin by saying that I do not want to denigrate anyone who came to faith in Jesus by way of the “American Gospel” (as this is how I came to faith), nor anyone who has led others to faith in this way (I have also led others to faith in this way); simply to clarify the gospel. Sincere men and women have been describing the gospel in terms of “heaven when you die,” with nothing but heartfelt passion for Jesus and a firm commitment to serve him here on earth. I applaud their devotion to Jesus, and point to their very devotion as yet more reason to rethink the common language of the American Gospel. The compulsion that they feel to live for Jesus this side of heaven, is reason to doubt the message they preach that Jesus only concern is what happens after they die.

Circles

I had a great conversation with Nancy the other morning...

(at least I had fun, which is another way of saying I got all fired up and started preaching at her, sorry Nan!)

...so we live in what, one could argue, is the most fragmented society in the history of man. This is certainly a legacy of "me" thinking that has its historical precedent in the Protestant Reformation ("I" can interpret the Bible for "my"self) and bolstered by subsequent events of consequence in Western history; the American Revolution, the push for exploration, the development of consumer capitalism, even the modern charismatic movement with its emphasis on "my" experience of God; this is not to paint any of these factors with a negative brush, simply to emphasize the nature of the society we live in.

Our level of technology and the individualist mindset that we Westerners (and especially Americans) swim* in has led us to a place of social bankruptcy. We now have the material wealth, technical know-how, and inculcated tendency, to manifest a society that alienates and fragments social units and individuals, and ultimately destroys the social cohesion inherent in any community or group.

All of this to set the stage for the observation that individuals do not congregate in the small number of intimate circles that we all desire to belong to, rather we are scattered and diffused throughout a great number of social circles in distinctly different settings. Our spiritual-social DNA (as it were) causes us to hunger for intimacy and identity that can only come out of relationship, yet our society is structured to prevent that very thing.

Our culture is such that we very likely did not go to school with the same individuals for our entire education, and most certainly did not enter into the job force in the same place as the individuals we went to school with. The people we live next to very rarely work in the same arena that we do, our Church is likely to be some distance from the places that we shop, etc., etc..

The result is that we live our lives in compartmentalized circles, one circle only rarely overlapping with another. We have a circle of relationships at work, a circle of relationships at Church, a circle of relationships in the businesses and shops we frequent, a circle for hobbies, a circle for parents of our kids friends; it is the exception for any of the relationships from one circle to carry over to another.

This (major) facet of our way of life has the result of feeding the individualism that spawned it, both a manifestation of and a catalyst for a society of individuals; it has crept into many corners of our life. We no longer find it odd that children would spend forty hours a week watching television, or that we would never actually see our neighbors at a close enough distance to enter into a conversation. Even our architecture has been impacted by this reality; our homes have front yards designed for sterile eye-appeal, fenced back-yards for private retreats, enclosed and attached garages to allow direct access from our living room to the highway; all to insulate us from the people we live next to.

We go to great lengths (perhaps unwittingly) to prevent any meaningful relationship from taking place, even choosing to enter different circles precisely because of the anonymity provided there (how many people attend the mega-church to hide from relationships). All of this has the result of fragmenting our society and even our very selves as we maintain different faces in each of the circles we swim in.

*I love the analogy of fish=man and water=culture; it takes a very self-aware fish to recognize just what water is like...

dre

Yo yo this is dredawg in da hay-ouse!! Buffalo!! It's good to be a disciple of Christ. Following Jesus is what its all about. He is the way the life and the truth. Enough preaching... I'm excited to go to Buffalo soon & I love chicken, beef, biscuits & ofcourse cheddar. I love being married to my crazy husband sam with the emotions of a teenage girl. I'm going to start doing ballroom dancing soon so look out! Salsa salsa cha cha cha! A goal I have is to travel the world before i die. Doesn't that sound fun? Okay, bye bye now.

sam

hey folks and family its Sam Mason.

Nothing like family...

Uncle David!

What are you teaching her...

I get to be apart of the hope of the world

Hey my name is Mary and I am also going on the Buffalo churchplant. I am so excited for what God is doing in this world. I agree with what Steve said in his profile that , "The church is the hope of the world." Since I am part of the Church then I guess that I get to play part in what God is doing all over the world! That is the most exciting thing ever. I have been thinking about it lately that I, me Mary, get to change the world for Christ! I get to do this! What an incredible honor it is for me to get to be a part of this! (And by the way, when I get really fired up I repeat myself sometimes.) (And by the way, when I get fired up I repeat myself sometimes.) Ha, ha how'd you like that. So this is my thing, I went to a conference called World Mandate and it totally rocked me. This conference is all about having God's heart for the world. So that is what God has been doing in me! Did you know that there are 2.1 Billion people on this earth that haven't heard about Jesus! There are 10,000 people groups that have not yet been reached! Even less than that now! This was 3-4 weeks ago so how many people have given their lives to Jesus since then! I get to be apart of this in some way and it's not small either, if you think about it! When one person comes to know Jesus ALL of Heaven throws a party! If I were to lead only one person to the Lord not only would ALL of Heaven party but it would be totally worth it, cause Jesus would have died and did it all for that one person. What a huge roll I have to play in this! I get to spend the rest of my life in earth loving the people that God created. Now I'm not perfect I have those days when I just don't want to love the person on the other side of the counter, but what an oppurtunity to let God change my heart, even if I don't see it as an oppurtunity at the time! Anyway like I said 2.1 Billion people, 10,000 people groups, thats what 1/3 of the world left to go! Let's get a move on people, Jesus is coming soon at the amount of people we have left. There are 2.1 billion people left let's make sure that they ALL have a relationship with Jesus! Dream big! This is an exciting time. I am so lucky to be apart of this! God chose me. I better stop right now and post more later because I am so excited the page might just explode! Let me say one more thing though. None of this can happen if we aren't spending time getting to know Jesus and let me also tell you that you will never stop getting to know him! He is unfathomable! It is all out of being intimate with our savior. It is all out of relationship with Jesus, and that is what I am excited about is bringing people into relationship with Jesus! I want them to know him! It's more than just a prayer, it's more than just a title, it's a relationship, a new life, a chance to start over because you don't have to do the things that you once did! Hello? Why do you think that they call it the good news? So this is me and this is what has been rolling around in my brains for the last month or so and I don't want it to stop, I want to have ten times this passion for Jesus weeks, months, and years from now. Amen!

Awesome financial opportunity...

...I just recently discovered an awesome new investment possibility. If anyone is interested just check out the above link. There is a niche market that has yet to be truly capitalized upon. If you would like to partner with me on this new, sure-to-be-a-success, financial strategy email me at:

steves@onesies_for_adults.org

the wife, round two

It took me awhile, but I finally figured out how to log in as me

Jesus

So here is the other thing that has been rumbling around in my ponder pot...

...there is nothing but Jesus. We can make it about so many other things but it is quite simply only about Him, all else is distraction; sin. Not to say that all else is evil, or even all else is to be avoided, but that Jesus is what is to be pursued; worshipped. He will lead us into all else good.

Jesus is the "head over everything," he is the Master of all creation. The beauty of this place, from the glorious expanse of the galaxies to the wonderous industry of the insects, life is emmanating from the heart of Jesus. He stands over and above the universe, His arms stretch from the beginning to the end of time. "Through him all things were made," all that is, and was, and will be, flows out of the power and glory that is the Son of the Most High. His light illumines all things, He is our life! His Kingdom pours forth over the earth, a thunder of hope and joy! There is no limit to the "unsearchable riches of Christ," we learn of goodness from him; he breathes Truth into us; beauty is his laughter. He is the Lord over Death, the Lord of Life, the "Lord of the Dance!"

He is the coming King, heralded by a throng of dancing cripples and shouting mutes; accompanied by laughing lepers and addicts-set-free; attended by dead-men-come-alive and prisoners loosed from their chains. He is the joy of widows and the hope of orphans.

Nothing we could imagine in a dream could even hold a candle to what He purposes for our world! This is He who spoke and it was! The one who pours out blessing on the earth, who comforts the greiving heart and silences the evil man; justice is only the beginning of his desires. Jesus is good with an "other-worldly" goodness; a rightness almost painful to behold; his mercy overcomes all evil, his forgiveness knows no boundaries; even the ones who tortured him and then mocked him, spitting on the Lord of Life, only caused Him to love them ever deeper.

We are confronted with this Jesus and we play video games!!!???!?!?!?!

I am appalled at the utter lack of gravity with which we approach GOD!

Nothing compares to who He is. Not money nor power, not sex nor pleasure, not family nor reputation, not companionship nor posterity; even good things, even "christian" things fade in comparison. Our devotion to prayer, or to people, to the church, to the world, to helping the hurting, to ending hunger; all things are less than Jesus. We do ourselves no favor by setting up a new law in the place of the old. We are destined to be daughters and sons of the Father, conformed to the character of Jesus the firstborn over all creation, admonished to "imitate God."

In our pursuit of Jesus we will discover him leading us into his Father's loving presence, into community with our brothers and sisters, and into His mission and purposes in creation; but let us respond to who He is. We do not pursue these things for any other reason than that we have been captivated by the heart of Christ, and this is what pours forth out of that heart.

Our lives are His dream! We do not create our own life, church, community, and invite Him into it; but rather fall in love with Him and join with His People, His Purposes, His Dreams, His Life!

Jesus:

Lord of Life
Lord of the Dance
Hope for the hopeless
Joy for the joyless
Good news to the poor
Freedom to those in bondage
The Firstfruit
Firstborn Over All Creation
The New Man
The Chief Cornerstone
The Accomplishment of the Purposes of God
Boundless in Love
He fills the whole universe
The Fullness of Deity in Bodily Form
The Perfect Execution of the Law
The Second Adam
The Life
Crucified King
Son of God
Perfect Image of the Father
Love
Messiah
Fulfillment of Times
Creator
Alpha and Omega
His arms stretching over all of time
The Truth
The Way
Conquerer ove Sin, Disease, the Accuser, Death, Shame
God in the Flesh
God come Near
Resurection
He takes our burdens upon himself
The Consummation of All Things
The Fulfillment of the Law
The Foundation
The Bridegroom
The Head of the Church
Vulnerbale Divinity
The Curse on Our Behalf
The Action of the Father's Will, the Outworking, the Fruition, the Manifestation
The One who Broke Loose From the Grave
The Centerpeice
Mediator
He Makes All Things New
He is with the Rejects, the Outsider
With the Children
Real Life
Full Life

Jesus

Relationships

Our church just recently had a men's prayer and worship meeting that lasted a good portion of the day; one of the pastors of our church shared some observations with me about the day:

Of the over 30 men who showed up to the prayer time, aproximately 90% were involved in one of our discipleship groups.

Two men stated during the meeting that they would not have come to the prayer meeting were it not for the role the discipleship groups had played in their lives.

Two other men shared with my friend that they were only at the meeting because of their involvement in the discipleship groups.

I find these observations telling...

This is by far the largest turnout we have ever had to a men's event of this nature. We have spent months beating the men of our church over the head with guilt (only a slight exageration) and not had this level of attendance at men's retreats and breakfasts. This time around there was much less emphasis during our Sunday gathering times; men were simply invited by the leaders of the groups they attended (if they attended a discipleship group) or else were invited by one of our pastors.

The telling aspect of this occurance is that the men who chose to show up were predominantly men who were involved in a discipleship group, in other words, men who had RELATIONSHIP with other men in our church. It never ceases to amaze me how complucated we think it is as compared to how simple it really turns out to be.

These are pictures from some of our Discipleship Groups:







As the Church we continue to put together programs for this and programs for that when all that is really needed is groups of people who will get together in the name of Jesus to pursue His purposes for our lives. As we gather in His name we will discover Jesus leading us into the Father's love, into community, into mission and service, and into equipping and training others. It is this group of individuals comitted to loving God, loving people, making and teaching disciples, that is the basic unit of Church; the "cells" of the body of Christ.

It is simply impossible to be a disciple of Jesus outside of one of these communities!

What's in a name

...so, the whole "Chi-Chi" thing. (Sorry sis!)

My brother, Dave, is the reigning champion of nicknames. This is no small feat for anyone who has tried to give, create, recieve, or get rid of, a nickname. It requires the right timing and a certain knack for bizarre associations, free-flow, stream-of-consiousness thinking. He actually gave a teammate of ours in college at least a dozen, perhaps two dozen, nicknames; all of them stuck!

So my sisters name is Christina. My brother started calling her Tina chinina, chinina being my grandmother's italian word for small. This of course evolved to "Chi-Chi." At that point my sister refused to answer to her nickname, but when we continued on Chi-Chi=>Chi-Chi-Rodriguez=>C-Rod=>Crawdad=>Pops she finally caved and started answering to Chi-Chi.


Here is my brother holding my son.

Popstar magazine and an interview with Chi-Chi

Popstar Magazine....

...what in the world!

I have never in my life read so many words together in one place with so little meaning!

I was over at my folks place today and got to peruse my thirteen (she is tapping my arm right now to inform me, emphatically, that she is soon to be fourteen) year old sisters reading collection. What is the attraction to such shallow collections of gossip?




My sister, Chi-Chi (I'll explain that later), says, "It's not shallow, it's interesting!"

"Why," I ask...

"...because... I don't know... let me think about this for a minute..."

-minutes pass-

"It has a lot of interesting facts about different stars."

Two part question:

Why do you find someone elses love life to be interesting?

Why do you care about "stars?"

"It's not just love-life; behind the scenes movie info is interesting."

"It's interesting to see how different their lives are than most people"

Another question:

"Do you particularly desire to live the life you now have, or the life that you read about in this magazine?"

"I kinda like both lives... because if you live their life you usually have alot going on, but in my life there is more of a routine."

And you like routine?"

"Sometimes, and sometimes I just wanna have a lot of fun."

Last question:

"If you could do anything with your life, with no limitations (other than the physical limits of the universe that we live in, i.e. we still have gravity, etc., and I am not talking about your vocation but rather your passion), what would you give yourself to?"

"I would say acting and singing, I like singing in my spare time, and I like drama."

One more question (Sorry):

"If you could make a significant difference in our world, knowing it would cost you a lifetime of effort to acheive that difference, what about this world would you be willing to work to change?"

"Starvation, because we have alot of it, and if there was one thing that I could change, even a small amount of it... no one should have to starve to death just because they can't get food."

Two grandmas and a baby

This is at the birth of our 2nd child Zane, these grandma's are as happy as can be. The little guy in the picture is now almost 3 months old and not so little. He is one of the happiest little fella's I have ever seen, although our first child Zoe was also quite a happy little thing. She is now almost 2 and I can't believe that the time has flown by so fast. We are now a family of 4 and our lives have been so radically changed by children.

These have been some of the best changes ever, I think that when you have kids you life gets more complicated but you get to experience a joy unlike anything you have ever experienced; I have come to understand to a better degree the love of the Lord through my love for my children. Watching them grow into such interesting little people has been more than a blessing, words don't describe it. Our children are blessed with two wonderful sets of grandparents and 3 sets of great-grandparents, Steve and I were lucky to have such great parents and now our children are just as lucky to have such wonderful grandparents. Anyways anyone one else out there feel like kids bring out the true joys in life...

Tamy