Honesty:God's Reality--Linden Malki

"To be honest about it.." I cringe when I hear those words; even when I catch myself about to say them. The implication is not only may it be something someone may not want to hear, but that other things I say might not always be as honest. I try to avoid saying this because I want everything I say to be honest. It's easy in one sense, and not easy in others. It's easy because you don't have to keep track of who heard what from you, but often hard because it deals in hard reality.

We live in a world that doesn't do reality well. We are learning that a whole lot of what we are told isn't real--it's all about someone's agenda. How many internet ads to we see that promise a new face, or body, or hair, or whatever, for only $5 (plus access to your credit card)? This is the political season that is loaded with a zillion versions of reality--some of them carefully crafted to be what they think we want to hear, some of them based on what someone wants to believe about the world, too many based on someone's self-interest. The problem is that honesty is not usually a factor. And some people will respond that what you say may be true for you but not for them--everyone has their own truth.

This attitude has been around as long as mankind and even before--when one of God's own angels challenged His reality and was allowed to go his own way. Jesus constantly had to deal with "religious leaders" who couldn't--or wouldn't--deal with the reality of Him. At one point, He bluntly told them that they were listening to the wrong side, that  "He [the Devil] couldn't stand the truth [about Jesus] because there wasn't a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. (John 8:44-47, The Message)

Doesn't that look like the reality of the world? We are called to something different: "Tell the truth, the whole truth, when you speak. Do the right thing by one another, both personally and in your courts. Don't cook up plans to take unfair advantage of others. Don't do or say what isn't so. I hate all that stuff. Keep your lives simple and honest. [This is the] Decree of God." (Zechariah 8:16-17, The Message)

"What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ's body, we are all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself. Tell the truth, the whole truth, when you speak. Do the right thing by one another, both personally and in your courts. Don't cook up plans to take unfair advantage of others. Don't do or say what isn't so. I hate all that stuff. Keep your lives simple and honest." (Ephesians 4:25, The Message)

Love: Skin to Skin by Pastor Paul

 This week was beyond belief.  Wednesday morning, July 18thy, Karen planned to take  me out for my 57th birthday.  We were  getting ready when the phone rang.  It was our daughter Jennifer, who was pregnant with a little boy baby, due in mid August.

She was having cramps or contractions.  They were regular, and consistent.  Mom and I yelled into the phone, call your doctor.  An hour later we were in the maternity ward of St. Bernardine Hospital.

They gave Jen medicine to slow down the contractions.  It did not work.  They did the tests, had the discussions, and decided that a baby was on his way!

I had the privilege of spending my birthday with my daughter, her husband, my wife, and the extended family.  I would not have wanted to be anywhere else.  As the day wore on I kidded with Jen, and told her it was time to push if my grandson was to be born on my birthday!  About 11:30pm I really chided her and told her we were running out of time.

As the evening wore on Karen went home for a nap and Chris joined us on the baby watch.  At 5:30 am the nurse checked Jen and spoke the magic words.  Nine and one half centimeters.  Every woman who has had a baby knows the beauty of those words.  I called Karen and told her to hurry back to the hospital.  I told her not to shower, just to come.  She laughed.  She had showered at 4:30am, washed baby clothing, and was already dressed and ready.  She made it from our house to St. B's in about 3.5 minutes.  I apologize to anybody who might have been in her way!  Noah was not destined to be born on my birthday, July 18th, or his mother's birthday, July 20th.  He has his own birthday, July 19th.

Just before 7:00am Noah Jeremy Mcallister joined the human race!  He was messy, beautiful, and early.  After a brief time with mommy and daddy he was whisked off to NICU.  The doctors and nurses did there thing, and did it well.  But mommy and daddy only had one desire... to hold their baby boy.  As the day wore on, and the nurses continued to be protective of Noah, I could see the longing building in Jennifer and Jeremy.

Friday morning, after a tearful conversation with her Doctor, the fix was put in over at NICU.  A short time later we gathered at the window and watched through the glass as Jennifer and Jeremy were able to hold their baby boy.  The look of loving bliss made us all cry.  Noah was calm, peaceful and sleeping.  Mommy and daddy had the hole in their heart filled with the dear, sweet presence of their first born son.

This weeks NCF Blog topic is love.  I can't think of a clearer image of God's love for us than the look on Jennifer and Jeremy's faces as they held and cuddled Noah.  The entire Bible is one long love story.  It is about a God who loved us so much that He sent His only begotten son to die on a cross and shed His blood to pay the price for our sins.  To open the door for our adoption as His sons and daughters, and to heal the breach that Satan used Adam and Eve to open way back in the Garden of Eden!

Don't miss the opportunity to study God's love, and our call to love, in the small epistle of 1 John.  We will begin our study tomorrow at 10:00am!  I pray that every member of NorthPoint joins us for this amazing journey through God's love.

I love you,
and more importantly,
God loves you,
Pastor, Poppie, Pirate, Paul

Love: Be The Extension Cord - Pastor Chris

Just recently I was working on a project and using a power saw. The power saw was plugged in to an extension cord, and extension cord was plugged into the wall around the corner, or so I thought. I got the piece of wood I was going to cut all set. I checked my measurements, I aligned the saw and I hit the button, nothing. I checked to make sure the power cord was plugged in to the saw, it was, so I tried again, nothing. I then put everything down, walked around the corner and found that the extension cord had come out of the wall socket.

This got me thinking about this weeks blog. We are a lot like the extension cord. We are only the conduit that the power of God flows through to pass on to other people. We ourselves are not the source of the power. We need to stay connected to God on one side, and People on the other. (Matthew 22:36-40)

1 John 4:7 (NLT)
⁷ Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

There are times where we may think, "There is no way I can love that person," and you are right, you can't. On the other hand you can be the conduit that passes on the love of God to others. We are not the source of Love, God is. We cannot create love, we can only conduct it from God, through our lives, to others. Without remaining connected to the power source, God, we are just a useless length of cable!

Are you a good conductor? Are you staying plugged in to the source of the power, or are you trying to do it on your own?

Love: Not as the World Gives--Linden Malki

'"What the world needs now is love, sweet love, the only thing that there's just too little of..." In some ways, the world has just too much of what is too often called "love". We  too often see it as a label for selfishness, possessiveness, jealousy, emotional sloppiness, ego gratification, excuses for bad behavior, irresponsibility, I'm sure we could all make our own lists. Our rose-colored glasses can blind us to evil. Too often, the emotional and chemical high of butterflies in the gut override our good sense, and when the butterflies die, we want out.

We have an incredible description of what God means by "love": "Love is patient and kind, is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs.." This sounds too good to be workable. But there is more: "Love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth." In other words, love is not an excuse for bad behaviour or deception. There is always the context of wisdom, discernment and responsibility. At its best, "love never gives up, and its faith, hope and patience never fail." *

Does that sound hard? Like so many aspects of a godly life, it is impossible on our own. Jesus once said about peace that it is not what the world offers, but what He gives. That applies to love as well: He offers to fill us with His love so that we have it to give away. You can learn a lot in a long-term marriage; I finally learned that arguing doesn't work nearly as well as shutting up and praying.


The summer I was married, I got this unforgettable advice from my aunt: "When I was first married, I thought I should put my husband first. This didn't work. I found that if I put God first, everything else fell into place." We were priviledged to be at their 60th wedding anniversary--and my husband's comment: " It was great! The house was full of people, and nobody was yelling!"
*I Corinthians 13 (TEV)

Hope Changes Everything! by Pastor Paul

 

In the movie "Pale Rider" Clint Eastwood plays a gun toting preacher.  I may have seen it on a plane or edited for TV... so if there are bad parts forgive me.  But one scene stuck in my mind.

The bad guys are trying to get the poor miners off of their claim.  The bad guys do all the usual things to run off the poor folks.  When their spirits are at the bottom of the barrel and they are ready to quit the preacher shows up.  The boss man returns from a trip out of town and his henchmen report all of their evil doings.  They casually comment that the only new development is the arrival of a raggedy old preacher.  The henchmen don't think much of this development.  It is, however, a big deal to the boss.

The boss explains to his men that the poor folks are beaten down and ready to quit.

But if the preacher starts talking to these people they will get faith.

And if faith takes hold they will get hope.

And if hope gets hold of them they won't ever be able to move them!

What a powerful truth!!!

Hebrews 11:1-2 (NLT)
¹ Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen;

it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
² Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.

What are you hoping for?

Do you have enough faith to hold on until you get it?

I pray you do,

Paul

Hope: Christ in Us--Linden Malki

　
The difference between our faith and every other religious system in the world is the quality of our hope. Jesus came first to the "lost sheep of Israel" that had a long and spotty experience of waiting on God, who had basically proved that 1500 years of divine law could not produce perfect harmony with God no matter how hard they tried. Jesus' first message was "The Kingdom of God is at hand", given to people who were supposed to be expecting God to do something--but they were thinking in terms of a political, this-world Kingdom. The world is still looking for ways to make the perfect political and social community on this earth.

Thinking about this topic, I went to a Bible concordance and was suprised to find no references to "hope" in the early Old Testament. We begin to find it with the Psalms--David in a number of places, expresses a hope in God, but often in the context of not knowing what God is doing in his life. Jeremiah expresses the hope that the exiles will someday return to their land. (Jer 31:17). We don't even find the word in the Gospels. The Old Testament is full of the idea that God is going to do something with His people, and Jesus starts there.

One of the last century's leading preachers on discipleship was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who was executed near the end of World War II for actively opposing Hitler. His book, The Cost of Discipleship, turned up at my house the other day. I picked it up and began to reread it at a point I had left a bookmark several years ago, and found this: "In his very first word, Jesus lays down a limitation of their [the disciples] work...they can only go where the word of Christ and his commission direct them. 'Go not unto any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel'. ... Not until after his resurrection does Jesus charge his apostles to go out into all the world. ...In the end it turned out to be a means of grace for the Gentiles. When they received the good news, it was the good news of a crucified and risen Lord."

Biblically. there is a huge difference in teaching about hope at this point. The Gospels show who Jesus is; the early church proclaimed how everything is changed. In Acts 2, Peter preached the death and resurrection of the Christ. Paul talks about hope in seven of his letters; and Peter tells his readers "to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you.." (1 Peter 3:15). "It was a living hope, full of a sense of reality, that was born into the world by Christianity, and with which the New Testament is vibrant throughout." (Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Bible Dictionary)

The hope we find in Jesus Christ is a living hope that is only found when we learn to lean not on our own understanding. Before Jesus, there was a "mystery that had been hid from from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints; to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:26-27)

Face Down Faith by Pastor Paul

 

Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for

the evidence of things not seen.

I find it amusing that this weeks topic is faith and that one of the key New Testament verses on faith speaks about things not seen.  There are a lot of things I have not seen this week.

Last week I had a black floater moving around in my left eye.  On Friday things began to get hazy.  By early evening I had what looked like a planet with a beautiful purple edge rising from the bottom right quadrant of my eye.  Saturday morning the planet had risen 2/3 of the way up my field of vision.

Urgent Care sent me to Loma Linda where Karen and I spent the day in the ER.  I saw a delightful third year resident who told me my retina was torn and detached from the eyeball.  She went over and above, making me a 7:40 am Monday appointment with the attending ophthalmologist, Dr. Lam.

Karen drove me to Riverside for the appointment, which led to Belinda, Karen, Jennifer, and I heading to USC in L.A. for emergency eye surgery.  It was great fun... I met new people, made new friends, went to sleep, and woke up with a big bandage on my itchy eye.

Then came the fun part.  Keep your face pointed to the ground for the next five days.  No lifting, bending, or jerking for weeks.  No swimming and above all else... no gain in elevation for six to eight weeks.  The gas bubble that is in the eye will expand and do really bad things if the pressure increases!

So here I lie, on my face, listening to everyone else packing for Yo-Camp.  When I look through my one working eye the gas bubble and stitches in the other create a very weird kaleidoscopic effect.  Lovely yellows and purples take the place of the full field of vision and depth perception that I had just last week.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,

the evidence of things not seen.

The weird thing about being face down is what I can hear around me.  The grand kids feet zip, the kids clop.  Karen is barefoot and she pads around the house.  I can tell who is talking by their voice.  I have even watched a movie while kneeling at a bench and looking down into a mirror aimed at the TV.  How amazing to discern a world moving all around me, that I am not currently a part of.

I wonder what God wants me to see and hear in the world of faith

while my sight is dimmed and I spend my days face down?

You pray for me, and I will pray for you...

that each of us learns what God desires to teach us
about the world we cannot fully see and the things we do not yet know!

Pastor Paul