Our Grand Opening!

Tomorrow is the official Grand Opening of Grace Bible Church Honolulu! After months of planning and preparation, the “eve” of the “big day” is finally here!

This week, Gregg was sharing with me his heart for tomorrow’s services.

Frequently, when our children have had a big birthday celebration, we’ve ended their “big day” a little unsettled. We invest so much time and energy to make the event fun and engaging that we neglect to pause, honor and enjoy the child for whom we’re giving the party.

Gregg’s hope and desire (and mine, too), is that in the midst of celebrating the opening of this church, amidst all of the fun, food and activity, that we wouldn’t fail to honor and enjoy the One for whom we’re doing this.

Tomorrow, and every Sunday for that matter, we’re really celebrating Jesus. He makes this possible. It is Jesus for whom and by whom the church exists.

You’re invited to join us tomorrow! We’re going to have a great time. Gregg will be sharing “In the Real World, the Church Really Matters”. There will be special guests sharing, lots of food, and even a bounce house and shave ice for the children. (Last time, we had the shave ice machine, my boys overdosed and ate at least three each and got sick).

To the next step in our journey . . . hope to see you there!

Same Old Boring Stroke

Yesterday, Justin and Jordan started tennis lessons. They received tennis rackets for Christmas (2008), and have been hitting balls against the garage door for over a year. Armed with rackets, they headed to their lessons and began to learn the basics of tennis.

Last Sunday, Pastor Steve shared about an experience that his boys had with a tennis coach. Let me attempt to explain it to you.

He said that their coach would drill them on the “same old boring stroke” and encouraged them not to come up with something new, fancy, tricky or spectacular. Just the same old boring stroke, executed strong and well.

The church can host a lot of events and do a lot of things, but if we neglect the necessary and foundational things—the  “same old boring stroke” (not really boring, but you know what I mean)—we will fall short of what God desires for us to be.

Every believer should be a disciple and make a disciple—nothing fancy, tricky, new or spectacular, but the essential ingredient to demonstrate God’s love to a needy world.

Same old boring stroke executed strong and well, and the world will never be the same.  

  

Keep Running!

Note: For this post, I unashamedly offer this one excuse: I am a mother talking about her children.

Last weekend was packed with sporting activities for our family. Jessie’s ballet classes started again and the boys are immersed in soccer and football. Justin scored two incredible goals during his soccer game; Brandon scored a touchdown and forced an interception; and Jojo, in his flag football debut, scored two touchdowns!

During halftime at Jordan’s game, we asked him how it felt to run the entire length of the field and score his first touchdown. He replied, “Good, except I forgot to ask my coach where the end zone was. I didn't know where it was so I just kept running.”

Jordan took the ball and ran. As he looked back, he saw the other team was still chasing him and his parents were still frantically yelling, "Don't stop!"; so he kept running.

Years ago, Justin had a soccer coach who would tell him, “If you move the ball down the field, good things will happen”.

A big determinant in our success will be our ability to persevere and fight through difficulty. I believe that if we refuse to quit, if we’ll continue to move forward and keep running this race, we’ll experience the fullness of all that God has for us.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1)

One Mission

We’re just one week away from officially planting Grace Bible Church Honolulu. It’s been an eventful few months and the excitement continues this weekend as we host Every Nation’s President, Steve Murrell.

Gregg and I are so thankful that he and his wife are here to stand with us as we begin this new adventure. Over the years, Pastor Steve has been a mentor, an inspiration and encouragement to us. We’re looking forward to hearing his wisdom for our and church this Sunday.

If you’re anywhere near Honolulu this weekend, come join us as Pastor Steve shares with us about having One Mission.

Our mission at Grace Bible Church Honolulu is to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ.

Sounds good. But how do we practically do it? We'll explore that tomorrow. Hope to see you at church!

Do They?

Let me ask you a couple of questions. These are some things that I’ve been considering myself this week.

-What difference does the presence of Jesus Christ make in your life?

-What are some distinct differences between living the Christian life and allowing Christ to live his life through you?

Our lives should show the world what Christ is like. It should attract others to him. God wants people to see Christ in you everyday.

At work.

At home.

At school.

Even when we’re tired.

Even when we’re hurting.

Even when we’re treated unfairly.

Do they?

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

My Daily Challenge: Balsamic Chicken with Creamy Pesto Sauce

I found this recipe in one of my Rachael Ray cookbooks. She posts the recipe as a 15-minute meal. I haven’t been able to complete it that quickly, but it is fast. My whole family enjoys it and the presentation is beautiful. In fact, my children said that it looks like something you would order at a restaurant.

2 T. balsamic vinegar

4 T. olive oil

Salt and pepper

4 small chicken breasts

About 6 cups of spinach

Juice of 1 lemon

2 T. butter

2 T. flour

1 ½ cups chicken broth

1/3 cup half & half or cream

¼ cup store bought pesto

Parmesan cheese

In a bowl, combine the vinegar, 2 T. of the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Add the chicken and turn to coat.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat with 1 T of the olive oil. Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes on each side.

While the chicken is cooking, in a large bowl combine the spinach, lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper to your taste.

Remove the chicken to a cutting board. Add the butter to the skillet, and when it has melted, add the flour and cook for a minute or so. Whisk in the chicken stock and cream and bring to a simmer to thicken. Remove from the heat and stir in the pesto.

Slice the chicken and arrange on dinner plates. Pour the pesto sauce over the chicken, then top with the spinach and Parmesan cheese. Enjoy! 

One Missing Piece

Several years ago, I bought a 1000 piece Thomas Kincaide puzzle. Every Christmas since, I’ve dusted it off, opened it and attempted to assemble this incredibly difficult puzzle. And every year, I fail to finish it . . . until this year.

After hours of work, days of neglecting housework and feeding my children cereal, I finished! Well, almost. One darn piece was missing.

Thankfully, after searching around a bit, I found it and officially finished the puzzle.

It made me think of Gregg’s message yesterday, The Power of One Life. He talked about the value of one person’s life—their potential to make a powerful difference in the world.

Even before God fashioned you in your mother’s womb, He knew you. You are valuable to God. Before you did anything, accomplished anything, achieved anything, you had value to God. God has a unique purpose for your life!

As I looked at my puzzle that was missing one piece, I was reminded that every life is valuable to God and necessary. Just one person living separate from God’s created purpose, makes a big difference.

God knows you intimately and designed you for a specific work. It’s a work that stretches beyond your own life and invites you to share with God in his compassion and concern for the people in your city.

Don’t be that random puzzle piece that’s hiding on the floor somewhere. Allow God to use your life to create something beautiful.

Pray for Haiti

While driving my children to school this morning, I heard that the news reports say the death toll in Haiti could reach well into the thousands. One report said it could reach as high as 500,000. That’s one fourth of their population. Gone. I can’t even begin to fathom the magnitude of the destruction.

How devastating and heartbreaking. It made me pause this morning to reflect on how God has truly blessed our nation.

Four women from our Every Nation church in Raleigh, North Carolina traveled to Haiti yesterday for a missions trip. Their plane landed just two hours before the earthquake hit. No one has been able to reach them. Please keep them in your prayers.

Please help us find them and as well help with relief efforts by following the link below: 
 http://tinyurl.com/yd3o8jz 

P.S. Our team was contacted and all are fine. They're working to provide aid to the region. Their update: http://bit.ly/7pIjkQ

Oneness

Over the weekend, we had friend and mentor, Kevin York, in town to meet with our leadership team. Here are just a few of my random notes from our time with him:

-There are about 400,000 churches in America; 360,000 of them have hit a plateau or are in decline.

-Oneness can only happen with maturity.

-For maturing Christians, church should be less and less about us, our likes and preferences and more about how we can engage those who don’t know Christ in a way that is relevant to them.

-Our goal should not to become a “crowd” but a church that can influence culture and transform a city.

-It is love that compels us to do this. A love for God and a love for people pushes us beyond convenience, beyond comfort to reach others in need. 

Compelling Love

This morning during my devotional time, I read this passage from 2 Corinthians.

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

It’s easy to become comfortable and to build our life around our preferences.

I believe God calls us to live differently.

Christ’s love is a compelling love. His love is active. Moving. Outward focused.

The love of Christ, ignited in our hearts cannot remain quiet. It cannot remain stagnant.

It is a compelling force that changes our focus, our priorities and the direction of our life.

Christ’s love compels us to sacrifice.

Christ’s love calls us out of our comfort zone.

Out of convenience.

Christ’s love compels us to live for something greater than ourselves.

Christ’s love compels us to forgo our own preferences with the hope of seeing others embrace Christ, to be eternally changed by his compelling love.

Adventures in Church Planting: Lots to Do, So Little Time!

In just three weeks, we will officially launch Grace Bible Church Honolulu. We have been operating as an extension of our Pearlside church, but on January 31 we will officially become our own church!

It’s an exciting way to begin a new year. To help us in the final preparations and process, our friend and mentor, Kevin York, will be visiting us this weekend. Kevin is the Director for Every Nation churches and he’ll be helping our team plan, build and strategize for the coming year.  

Values, mission statement, web design, logo design, operations to get up and running, office space set up,. . .Lots to do with so little time! 

One More Thing

Last Sunday, Gregg spoke about investing our lives in the one thing that will make the biggest difference in our lives—pursuing a relationship with God. Gregg gave me the opportunity to share some thoughts as well. Here’s a little peek at what we discussed.

As a vital part of our relationship with him, God invites us to join in conversation with him through prayer. I received a new little devotional for Christmas, Experiencing God Day By Day. To my surprise, today’s thought was similar to what we shared on Sunday:

“God gave us prayer so we could have conversation with him, but we often distort this by “saying prayers” and hurrying off without ever listening to what is on our Father’s heart.”

Luke tells a story that illustrates this idea. It’s a story about two sisters who had the privilege of hosting Jesus, yet each responded differently during their evening with Jesus:

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me! "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42)

I can identify with Martha. I’m task oriented and enjoy being productive. In fact, my sense of responsibility can actually hinder me from relaxing and enjoying an event. Martha’s problem wasn’t her productivity or commitment to excellence; it wasn't her work ethic or sense of responsibility. She was distracted. That evening at their home, Mary and Martha both had a choice to make as to how they would invest their time.

Martha was so busy serving and producing that she was unable to enjoy and appreciate the presence of Jesus in her home. Mary chose the one thing—the important thing. Mary chose to break away from the busyness, to pause and listen to what was on her Father’s heart. And when the evening was over, she received something eternal that could never be taken away from her.  

One Thing

Yesterday, Gregg shared about one thing that could make the biggest difference in your life. By pursuing this one thing our lives gain greater clarity, possess greater peace and gain greater perspective.

We were encouraged to not enter the New Year without this one thing. Because without this one thing, our lives can lose focus and become stripped of meaning.

It is this one thing that we were created to pursue.

This one thing is a relationship with God. God is a real person who invites into relationship with him. And it’s the one thing that should be our priority in this New Year.

One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, 
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)