Upward: Like A Child

On a rainy day not too long ago I was sitting on the couch in our living room enjoying a comforting fire in the fireplace. On the floor my two kids were playing very contently (which does not happen often enough). I just sat, watching them. They were playing with each other, playing with their toys and having a good time. I will tell you, it brought a huge sense of joy into my heart and a smile spread across my face.

Was it what they were doing that made me smile? Was it the setting that made me smile? I don't think so, because it has happened many other times before that and since then. The reason I was smiling is because they were my kids, and I love them. Not for what they have done, or what they have given me, or how good they are. I love them for the mere fact that they are my children. 

Through these times of watching my kids, God has given me a small glimpse about how he feels for me. He loves me because I am his Child. It is not because of what I do, or what I give him, or what I accomplish, it is solely because I am his Child. 

As I get that glimpse of God's love for me, it stirs in me a love for Him that I cannot always understand. I can only love God in response to his deep, filling, Love for me.

-Pastor Chris

Comments?

Upward: Loving God--Linden Malki

For a moment, think about a very good friend. The kind that you enjoy being with just "because", whom you go to first with your good news and bad, with whom you have a special connection. Now think about times that they are too busy to take your calls or come over, or just simply drop the ball where you're concerned. Having been there, done that recently, I realized that this is a taste of what God goes through with us. 

He loves us; He actually created us "just because" He wants our company, and is willing to forgive us when we fall short. Just imagine how pleased He is when we go to Him with what's on our hearts, and how it must disappoint Him when we ignore Him, when we don't have the time or interest in connecting with Him. I John 4 tells us that He loves us first, and because He loves us, we are able to love Him and to love others. These are all one package! If we respond to His Love, we will want to do the things that please Him, just as well-brought up children want to please their parents. We will want to connect with Him as often as possible, just as we grab our phones to call someone to share good news or ask help with something. We will want to read about Him, and read His Word, just as we want to know more about our family and friends. 

I have been doing some geneological research lately, and it is amazing how most of us want to know where we come from--and how much more we should want to know everything we can about our heavenly Father. Jesus tells us that just as we want to give good gifts to our children, He wants the best for us--and that the best is not necessarily what we may think it is. But just as we know that some of our so-called "friends" only hang out with us because of what we can do for them but have no interest in us beyond that, if we expect God to give us what we want because we want it out of our own self-centeredness, we are not loving God for who He really is. 

Jesus said that when the self-important religious folks of His day got rewards from the world for being "good" in their own eyes, that is all the reward they will get. If knowing God is not where they're going, they won't get there. If we really let God pour His Love into us, it will reflect back to Him and overflow out of our lives as well.

Linden Malki 

Life Notes: Change 2 Peter 1:3-11 - Pastor Chris Reinhard

Welcome: What is the longest trip you have ever taken? Where did you go and what did you do?

Worship:  Connect with God through songs, prayers, and creative arts.  Invite the Holy Spirit to move and minister in your group!  Be open to God’s leading and presence!  Enjoy this time with God and one another.

Word:

1. If you could be better at one thing, what would you want to improve?

Read 2 Peter 1:3-11

Read the Life Application Commentary Summary of 2 Peter 1:3-11

“Salvation does not depend on positive character qualities and good works; rather, it produces those qualities and works. A person who claims to be saved while remaining unchanged does not understand faith or what God has done for him or her. Faith in and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ that leads to growth in these qualities causes believers to make a difference in their world and persevere to the end.”

2. Do you see anything in the scripture that is not mentioned in the Life Application Bible summary?

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3. What words or phrases stand out to you in this summary? Why?

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4. How equipped do you feel for life and godliness? Why do you feel that way? Is your feeling rooted in reality or in insecurity?

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5. Which of the qualities listed by Peter do you consider to be the most important to add to your faith? Why?

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6. Which of the character qualities that Peter listed do you find the most difficult to practice?

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7. Why is it easy to forget what God has done for us?  (v. 9)

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8. What are you going to do, starting today, because of what we have studied in this time together?

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Witness: 1 Peter 3:15 (MSG)
¹⁵ Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ,

your Master.  Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy.

Mentoring: “Imitate me as I imitate Christ!” - Michael White

I absolutely love the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials. Side note…is it okay to reference a beer commercial in a Christian blog?  That’s another topic for another day.  But those commercials crack me up!

Here are a few lines that describe this man…

“Athletes seek his autograph. His passport requires no photo.  He can keep one eye on the past while looking into the future.  When he drives his new car off the lot it increases in value.  Though he can't walk on water he's never slipped on ice.  Dolphins love swimming with him.”

Have you ever had a moment if your life when you encountered someone who simply just captivated you?  No…I don’t mean attraction to the opposite sex.  I mean someone who you just felt like you needed to be around, someone you really wanted to be like.

In the early years of my faith, I prayed often that the Lord would send me someone who could serve that role in my life.  I was a “Timothy” yearning for a “Paul”.  Some years ago, while working at Thousand Pines, a man came in who was leading a retreat.  Something about him intrigued me.  He was clearly bathed in the grace of the Lord and I wanted the same for myself.

Today, that man is my mentor and has been for the past 4 years.  He’s never promised the answers to my life’s situations.  Instead, only to walk with me through them.  He’s impacted my life beyond measure, yet, if you ask him, he’ll take credit for nothing.

I too have had the opportunity to mentor others.  I was intimidated at first at what it would mean…do I know all I need to know, do I have all the answers to the questions I might be asked?  Was I actually qualified to say, “imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor 11:1)?  But I calmed myself by remembering my mentor…never promising the answer…only to walk with me as we discover it.

Who’s walking with you…who are you walking with?  As you follow…lead others.  Mentoring really is that simple.  

Mentoring:Three Reasons Not to Mentor -Pastor Paul

I think the thought of becoming a mentor

frightens Christians for at least three reasons!

Reason One:    There is something seemingly arrogant about the   idea of being a Mentor.
Reason Two:     I certainly don't know enough to mentor anyone.
Reason Three:   If I do become a mentor than I will be responsible for what I say I believe.

If I think I am better, smarter, bigger, stronger, and more spiritual than somebody else then I am probably too arrogant to be a mentor.  However, if I am a sinner/seeker/servant, willing to let Jesus use  my story, mistakes, and victories to encourage another then I might qualify.  The older I get the less I know and the more questions I ask.  When I meet to mentor, it is just one beggar showing another beggar where to look for the bread.  Honestly and willingness outweigh intellectual competence every time!  You don't need to sit upon the mountain top to mentor.  Being a step or two ahead on the path is all it takes!

God doesn't call us to mentor based upon what we don't know.  You don't want me fixing your car, doing your taxes, fixing your teeth, or roofing your house.  In fact there are countless things I know little or nothing about.  But there are things God has taught me, usually through mistakes, that can encourage and assist another believer on their journey.  Sometimes the best mentoring gift I can offer is an open heart and a closed mouth.  Sometimes people just need someone to listen and love them.  It is amazing how in our silence the Holy Spirit can speak.  If we will simply enter the process, their is no telling what God will say or do!

It has been said that the teacher learns more than the students.  The preacher spends a great deal more time working through the message than the hearers ever will.  The same is true for mentoring.  I might meet to mentor another, only to find that God has sent them to mentor me!   Proverbs 27:17 (NLT) As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.  Mentors prepare, read, pray, listen, reflect, confess, and wonder deeply what God is saying and doing.  You can't care deeply about God's work in another, without God taking His work in you to a different level!  When we show up to mentor another it will cause us to look more deeply into the mirror of our own soul.  We will only be able to help people find a path that we are walking our self.  If we are off wandering in the weeds it is only a matter of time before God and our mentee  help us see where we are!

There are two other things at work.  One is fear and the other is satan.  The father of lies does not want people gathering in two's and three's, honestly sharing their hopes and dreams.  He does not want sins confessed, prayers prayed, and plans made.  He knows that discipleship relationships are the single most powerful method of Christian transformation and formation.  Satan will do anything he can to keep us from such a relationship.  He will use our fear of the unknown, and our fear of our own potential, to keep us from exploring the powerful potential of mentoring.

My prayer as your pastor is that God will connect you with a mentor, who will guide you in the process of becoming a mentor.  I pray that God uses you to birth a pyramid of disciple making mentors that rock their worlds for Jesus.  AMEN, AMEN, AMEN     Paul    

Mentoring: Location, Location, Location - Pastor Chris

Kids screaming, waitresses interrupting, cappucino machines wooshing, people eavesdropping, does it really matter where you meet for mentoring?

I think so! How open is the person you are mentoring really gonna be when there are other people sitting next to you at starbucks within earshot. How focused are you really going to be if every 10 minutes a kid comes running into the room for a question or a phone rings that must be answered.

Finding a quiet spot to spend your mentoring time is difficult, I will admit that, but I believe it is necessary. This is not to say that you cannot meet other places once in a while. But I would encourage you to meet in a place conducive to open sharing. A place where there may be possibility for some serious discussion.

This really hit me last week. In one of my mentoring sessions we had some extremely open and honest conversation. Neither of us planned for it to go there, but the Holy Spirit led and we followed. Praise God we were in a quiet secluded place. If we were in any kind of public environment this conversation would never have happened.

Where do you do your mentoring, is it the best place or just the most convenient?

Comments?

God Bless
Pastor Chris

Mentoring: Standing Tall by Lifting Each Other - Linden Malki

I have learned to appreciate how blessed I have been by people in my life who have taken the time and concern to enrich my life. It started with big brothers, who never treated me like a little kid, but rather like a small person and taught me how to recognize a good and godly man. There was the neighborhood branch librarian who first steered me to interesting books, and later gave me my first job, and took me to visit her Episcopalian church one Whitsunday, to "see us at our most peculiar". She was the one who recommended freighter travel when Dad and I took the trip on which I met my husband, and she loved to talk about her favorite interesting passages of Scripture. There was the associate pastor at Calvary when I first came to San Bernardino, who not only mentored me but had mentored my father and introduced him to my mother. I could go on with stories of people who shaped my life, people whom I was priviledged to mentor, and people I meet with in mutual mentoring relationships. 


But there have been people who could have mentored me, who could have helped me develop gifts and talents but were unwilling to share. God does not intend for us to hoard our gifts, to look good by jealously suppressing or discouraging others. We stand taller when we lift each other up, and grow together in wisdom, spiritual stature, and in favor with God and man.

Linden Malki