Fight the Good Fight

In 1 Timothy 6:12, the apostle Paul says to his student, Timothy, 

“Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

Many people characterize fighting the good fight as a spiritual struggle whereby we stand firm in the truth of God's word and battle against the world--standing up for what is right - to stand up for freedom and liberty, to war against the flesh, the devil, and our own self-will.  We often think that fighting the good fight of faith is not so much hostile combat against an enemy, but rising to the challenges of living a Christian life, living a good life. This is the message I believed for much of my life until during a Bible study, a friend turned my world upside down. As we were studying a passage in Romans he shared that the fight we are engaged in is, “… not against flesh and blood….” (Ephesians 6:10), it is to stay tethered to the vine.  We are called to fight the good fight to be connected to Him!

There are important issues in our world that must be addressed, and at times, there are issues that we must take sides in. HOWEVER (and I would put HOWEVER in capital letters!)– it is important to understand – and this is just how human nature is – these fights which may be important can cause us to forget the one good fight of faith that is critical.  I have seen it so many times – where people get involved in important stuff – but that stuff distracts them from the one fight that matters most – the fight of faith--to be tethered to the vine.  If you have ever read CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters – the enemy’s goal is not to get you to do bad things – but to distract you from the Best Thing – even with good things. His goal is to get their minds off the gospel with seemingly important stuff.

John 15 is one of my favorite power scriptures that I love reading over and over again.  Jesus says beginning in verse 4, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me." 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” 

Our daily, moment by moment battle, is to be connected to the Vine. What does it mean to be connected to the Vine?  It is meaningful time with Him every day.  Turning to Him when we face challenges or anxiety.  Trusting in Him and being willing to stand still in Him.  We cannot trust or stand still unless we are connected.  We cannot be connected unless we spend time with Him.  

Our world is facing much disruption! All around us from war to politics to natural disasters to _____ (you fill in the blank). There is so much out of our control and that we don’t have answers for. I am reminded of what is within my sphere of influence—my thoughts, my actions, my words, my attitude, and even my faith. But even more importantly in these uncertain times we can rest in knowing that we have a Creator God who is all powerful and all knowing and all present. A Creator God who walks before us. A Creator God who walks beside us. A Creator God who fights our battles. We can trust that God is going before us, and friends—He wins. We can let go of all anxiety and face our daily battles with more courage and strength because we know that whatever the outcome—based on His promise in Romans 8:28: "God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”  The very best possible fighting positions that a believer could possibly take is in God’s word and on our knees.  

Maranatha!

—Ric Peinaado

When You Can't Do it All

There is a simple truth that is very challenging to us Christians and pretty much every human being: we can’t do it all. Whenever we think we can do it all, we are lying to ourselves.  

Life is much kinder to us when we understand this concept because it allows us to focus, to fine tune our lives on what it is we can really do. It is a subtle shift in thinking but we are then enabled to balance our lives with valued and important things.

The Gospels tell us of the story of how Jesus quieted the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The disciples were doing what they were very good at, seamanship, a task they had great experience and skill at.  Until . . . they realized they couldn’t do it all. They needed help. 

This is the heart of life, our Christian life. Obviously, as Christians, we have recognized our human limitations, our inability to live a sinless life.  None of us can. But we do have a Savior, a personal God, who is asking and waiting to be an active guide in our daily lives. 

God has realistic plans for each of us. He doesn’t want us to settle for a scrambling, frantic rat race of a life. He wants us to start to enjoy His kingdom in the here and now. Everyday, we are to invite Him into our hearts and lives, to learn about Him, to think of Him, to have His Spirit guiding our actions in blessing everyone around us with kindness and loving attention. 

With the Spirit of Christ in our hearts, we’ll be able to do everything that is truly important and start to live in the Kingdom of God.

—Dr. Bill Pritchard

How is that Working Out?

My wife and I visited China a few years ago while seeing our daughter and her family in Japan. While in Beijing, we toured the stunning and immense Imperial Palace, or what they call “The Forbidden City.”

As we walked through the grounds and buildings, I noticed that at each outside door entrance we had a step over a door threshold or sill of 9”-12”. Our guide said it was to keep the bad spirits out and the good spirits in. Apparently, the spirits can’t step over anything, but it also would have made it difficult for the handicapped.

But kidding aside, ever since that day, I have seriously thought about the concept of Chinese door thresholds. Thinking to myself, “what raised 'door sills' do I have in my spiritual life?” Seriously, what habits, what beliefs, what ideas have I picked up that simply do nothing for my walk with Christ? What do I do that simply is not working, not helping, or not benefiting my spiritual life?

As we mature in Christ, as we get to know our heavenly Father, as we grow in grace, perhaps there are a few things we can clean up or clean out to simply make our spiritual life more effective and more efficient. What do you think?

—Dr. Bill Pritchard

Here and Everywhere

Scripture teaches us that God is omnipresent, meaning that “God is everywhere.” Solomon proclaimed, “the heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you.” And the psalmist praised God by proclaiming, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (Ps 139:7) In Saint Augustine’s words, “everything that you fill, you fill with all your being” (Confessions 1.3). God’s presence is inescapable because He is everywhere.

However, there is a difference between saying “God is everywhere,” and saying “God is here.” Both are true, but they are not the same thing. The former is our default way of thinking, which is fine, but if that is all that it is then His presence is impersonal. When we say “God is here” we are emphasizing an important theological concept: immanence. Meaning, God is close and intimate. Scripture emphasizes God’s manifest presence more than His omnipresence because His presence manifests in relationship and redemption. This is why Jesus is called Emmanuel, "God with us," because in Christ God became incarnate flesh in order to make "his dwelling among us" (John 1:14). 

Read Psalm 139 again and pay attention to how the psalmist praises God not merely for being omnipresent, but for being present everywhere that he is. The psalmist is confident that from the time he was knit in the womb till his death, God has been and will be intimately close. God was immanent when he manifested with His people in the tabernacle/temple, God is immanent with us now through the incarnation of Christ, and will continue to be immanent in the new heaven and new earth. Yes, God is everywhere, but He is also here.

High King of Heaven, you are here, near to the brokenhearted. (Ps 34:18)

—Pastor Alex Portillo

All In = I love You

Last Sabbath, Pastor Jana concluded our sermon series entitled All In. We spent six weeks examining what it means to be All In within our Church Family, community, nation, and world. We talked about everything from Faithlife - our new church app; to our MGC Worship Service teams; to International Children's Care and ADRA; and so much more.

As we unpacked All In, we looked at when Jesus called each of His ragamuffin disciples, as well as others who seemed 'unfit' for leadership, and we saw that He wasn't looking for a list of accomplishments or qualifications on their gilded resumes. No, He was looking for something less tangible and more undescribable.

What Jesus seemed to 'see' in those that He called was simply willingness and openness. The willingness to hear God's call, to respond and react, was ... and is, a way of saying 'I love you'. Being All In is another way of saying . . . 'I Love You'. I love you, Lord. I love you, friend. I love you, neighbor, Church Family, even stranger.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud."

"Love does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."

"Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth."

"Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

"Follow God's example ... and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us ... ."

"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these in love."

Jesus calls us to be All In. We were created to live in community and to reach out to those around us in the ways that God has gifted us. Let's continue to be All In together!

—Karen Mallory

Rahab's Legacy

Today's world is significantly different from that of the time that Israel left Egypt. The world then was very patriarchal, and women had very little say in life. In most cases, if a woman was not married, she had to rely on her father and later her brothers to take care of her. Therefore, the concept of the men of Rahab's town setting her life course into prostitute is not as far-fetched in that world as it would be today. What girl grew up dreaming of being a prostitute?

When the spies arrived at Rahab's house, it is easy to understand that she realized she had an opportunity to change her life. She could go from being "that woman", to having her own family. So with faith and trust, she stepped out, risking her and her family's lives, to join an enemy nation on the way to conquer her own nation.

The name Rahab means broad or large. She had large hope for an improved life as she began to see her life's circumstances change. In her case, everything went as well as she could have dreamed. God blessed her for her faith. She also became a part of the lineage of David and Jesus. 

There are times when we face opportunities to change the trajectory of our life's course. I believe that as long as we continue to make decisions based on God's leading in our lives, even difficult decisions will create a heritage for us and our family.  

Rahab's legacy was to step out in faith. Will our legacy stem from a place of fear and not accepting the life-changing opportunities that God gives us, or will we, like Rahab, take a chance that will make a difference for all eternity?  

—Pastor Scott Young

How to Prepare for Communion

On September 25th we will be celebrating communion. Jesus, the king, invites us to sit at his table to commune with him. The table is a symbol of his acceptance of us, the bread a symbol of his body given for us, and the wine a symbol of the blood poured out for us. We do this “in remembrance” (Lk 22:19) of our king “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6-7).

In Scripture remembering has less to do with memory and more to do with “bringing to account.” God does not remember our sins, not in that he forgets and cannot recall them, but in that he does not bring them to account when he judges us. Simply put, he does not hold it against us. We are also told that God remembered Noah and the animals in the flood (Gen 8:1), God remembered Rachel and enabled her to conceive a child (Gen 30:22), God remembered Israel when they were in bondage (Ex 2:24), and David cried for God to remember him (Ps 25:6-7). Did God forget? Read all these stories and you will see that ‘God remembering’ always has to do with bringing into account God’s promises. We “remember” Sabbath by “bringing to account” that God is the sovereign king of the universe who is both creator and deliverer. “Bringing to account” simply means presenting a fact or a reality as a piece of valuable evidence to determine an action or response.

So, we too, when we take communion in remembrance, we are “bringing into account” what has allowed us to sit at the table of the Lord, and what makes Jesus worthy to be Lord. It is grace, mercy, forgiveness, gentleness, meekness, compassion, patience, longsuffering, service, and most importantly love. Hebrews 2:10 tells us that Christ was “perfected through suffering.” What does this mean? It means that in heaven Jesus was perfect as God. In his incarnation, he was perfect as man. But by his suffering, he became perfect as savior. Only a compassionate savior who knows what it feels like to suffer as we suffer can be worthy to save us. In remembering, we are bringing to account the evidence that makes Jesus worthy to be king, and the radical call to follow in his example.

At his table, we are welcomed as adopted children, and heirs of the promise (Rom 8:17, Eph 3:6, Gal 4:6–7). In one act we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1) and confess with all the heavenly host and the universal ecclesia that Jesus Christ is Lord.

This beautiful act of worship requires preparation. How can I prepare?

Read Scripture

Read the following passages: Luke 22:19–20; Matthew 26:26–28; Mark 14:22–24; 1 Corinthians 11:23–25. Immerse yourself in the story of Christ and allow your imagination to go wild. Place yourself in the upper room with Jesus and consider the gravity of the moment. Jesus, being God, has become fragile flesh and his taking the role of a servant by washing feet and serving food.

Examine Yourself

Paul commands us to “examine ourselves” before taking part in communion (1 Cor 11:28: rf 2 Cor 13:5, Gal 6:4). As Socrates’ famous dictum says, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Examine your heart, your intentions, your judgments, your words, your actions, your thoughts, your life, your relationships. Ask yourself, am I living the way I want to live? Am I living the way God wants me to live? What do you love? Why are you behaving the way that you are? Examine yourself not to shame yourself, but to receive clarity and self-awareness. As I said in one of my blog posts, “How else can we achieve joy unless we truly allow ourselves to examine what may be preventing it? The restless heart is an unexamined heart.”

Confess

Examination allows Christ into hearts. His presence illuminates it’s deep and mysterious caverns. You may not like what you find in your examination, but you’ll be glad you found it. Confession is a joy when we know that God is faithful to forgive and purify a repentant sinner (1 Jh 1:9). As it is written, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb 4:16)

Be reconciled

If the table of the Lord is a physical reminder of God reconciling us to himself (2 Cor 5:19), then we should also be reconciled with our neighbors. To use Johns' logic, how can we say we are reconciled with God who we cannot see if we are not reconciled with our neighbor who we can see? (1 John 4:20) Jesus teaches us that being reconciled with our neighbors is more important than our worship (Matt 5:23-24). Who have you wronged? Who are you holding a grudge against? Go and be reconciled.

Fasting

Although there is no Biblical warrant for fasting before communion, there are many Christians around the world who dedicate the 24 hours before communion to prayer and fasting. Start Your fast on Friday just before lunch and break your fast with communion.

King Jesus invites us to his table. Let us prepare to receive the bread and the wine and commune with our savior.

—Pastor Alex Portillo