Second Leadership Training: Discernment Team Workshop on July 6, 2014, 7 pm – 10:30 pm in Granite Bay, CA

Scriptures: Matt. 16:13-25 & Acts 15:36-41, NRSV

7 of our leaders (plus one guest) gathered at our worship minister’s home in Granite Bay. We spent over 3 hours of workshop to complete the “Step Two: Who Do You Say I Am” and “Step Three: All On The Same Page.”

After meditating the Scripture verses (Matt. 16:13-25), We discussed the Peter’s ‘getting i’ and Peter being ‘stumbling block.’ We agreed that we were/are all like Peter who was very spiritual at one moment and very flesh at the other moment. As we struggle with our own agenda, worldly desire and flesh things, we lose the mission as Christians. Rather than prioritizing Jesus, we tend to focus on our own priority.

Each shared who Jesus is and most of us said Jesus is everything of our life as Redeemer, Savior and Healer who we only can trust. To spread the Gospel to non-believers, we have act like Jesus. Without love, sacrifice, and suffering, we cannot be true blessings or blessed ones (makarios in Greek) to others. The only and most effective way to win a soul is to become like mom and dad who give love to their children. Lots of young people miss the true love that heals broken hearts and restores relationship. We also have another duty to restore the reputation of church by spreading the love of Christ, not by the mouth only but with proactive action. Love heals all.

The church (or fellowship of Christians) should be the community of love. When we share our true love to non-believers continuously, they will find the church as their haven and home to grow spiritually. We don’t have to tell who Jesus is directly to non-believers if we are able to show His love through us. Love builds relationship and Jesus can be best presented through our deeper love toward others. Jesus is love!

When we have disagreement in the community of faith, we have to do our best to resolve spiritually to avoid divisions and hurts. As we are guided by the Holy Spirit in every decision-making matter, we will become a great team whether we work together or work individually. The key to the blessed ministry is great team work followed by deeper prayer and love, which is work of the Holy Spirit.

These are the questions and missions that each one of us will pursue as we build a foundation for the Fellowship of Mosaics.

Who is Jesus?, What is Church? What is a witness? What is gospel? What is a disciple?

What is our missions?

Gen Xers should delegate more missions to Millennials (aka Mosaic Generation or Mosaics) as they are the most effective evangelists to their own peer group. Gen Xers should act like “mom” and “dad” who mentor and coach continually behind as Millennials seek love and protection. Gen Xers are responsible to heal the broken generation as healers of Jesus Christ. Love heals everything.

As Gen Xers and Millennials work together as a team, more and more Mosaics will come to know Christ.

Let us keep the fire burning and spreading for the salvation of Mosaics so that the Kingdom of God is expanded and the gospel of Christ will reach the end of the world.

Maranata Jesus!

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39, NRSV

“This I Believe (The Creed)” by Hillsong Worship

“One Thing Remains” by Jesus Culture

<A picture from our Saturday worship service on June 28, 2014 at Parkview Church Social Hall>

God is not only seeking a prepared person but also prepares a person who is ready to serve Him. 

One thing I learned from ministry is that a leader keeps his/her time, words, and missions with God and others. 

Stewardship is all about managing everything (gifts, time, provisions, missions, etc) according to His will and surrendering oneself to God all the time for His glory so that God can use him/her as His instrument over and over again.

Without separating oneself with the world, it is very hard to serve the Lord, Jesus.

I pray that God will use the Fellowship of Mosaics to reach out the Millennials effectively as Satan is stealing their hearts in these days. May God bring more faithful servants to the Fellowship of Mosaics so that our ministry spheres will be expanded and more people will be saved for the glory of God. Let our worship music and preaching to be pleasing aroma to God!

First Leadership Training: Discernment Team Workshop on June 22, 2014, 8 pm – 10 pm

Scripture: Matt. 9:35-38, NRSV

Eight of us, a newly formed leadership group members of Fellowship of Mosaics gathered in Elk Grove to start the workshops called, “Starting New Worshiping Communities” on Sunday evening. Our first task is establishing our identity by articulating core beliefs about Jesus, Church, witness, gospel, and disciples.

“Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

As we meditated upon these verses, we realized that we are living in the worst time of the history as we all face helplessness in our time with our own agonies and selfishness to destroy each other. We all became like sheep without a shepherd. We all confessed that we were so selfish and lived like lost sheep.

We deeply sensed that we need to start a new worshiping community for Millennial (or Mosaic) generation with compassion of Christ because they are most confused and vulnerable generation filled with selfishness. They need Jesus because He alone can gives a true guidance for their life. We all agreed that Jesus is the body of Christ, our Savior, Deliverer, Redeemer, Healer and the Lord of our life within whom our life will be transformed to become new creations (2 Cor. 5:17).

To build a strong faith community, we have to be accountable each other with love and encouragement as we continually witness that love toward others are getting cold in our days.

We prayed that we want to become a love-giving community for the Millennials in the harvest of Mosaic generation. Amen!

How to Begin a Relationship with God

by Insight for Living

The world is filled with competing theories about God, religion, and salvation. Alternate views of Jesus vie for our attention at every turn. Different paths to different gods market themselves in the ever-changing desert of ideas. Yet in the midst of this world of contradictory claims, Jesus Christ made a bold assertion: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).

In a confusing world filled with signs pointing us down different roads of philosophies and religions, can we be sure we’ve placed our feet on the right path? The answer to this question comes from the all-time bestselling book, translated into more languages and read by more people than any other book in human history. The Bible marks the path to God with four essential truths.

Our Spiritual Condition: Totally Depraved

The first truth is rather personal. One look in the mirror of Scripture, and our human condition becomes painfully clear:

“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12)

We are all sinners through and through—totally depraved. Now, that doesn’t mean we’ve committed every atrocity known to humankind. We’re not as bad as we can be, just as bad off as we can be. Sin colors all our thoughts, motives, words, and actions.

If you’ve been around a while, you likely already believe it. Look around. Everything around us bears the smudge marks of our sinful nature. Despite our best efforts to create a perfect world, crime statistics continue to soar, divorce rates keep climbing, and families keep crumbling.

Something has gone terribly wrong in our society and in ourselves—something deadly. Contrary to how the world would repackage it, “me-first” living doesn’t equal rugged individuality and freedom; it equals death. As Paul said in his letter to the Romans, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)—our spiritual and physical death that comes from God’s righteous judgment of our sin, along with all of the emotional and practical effects of this separation that we experience on a daily basis. This brings us to the second marker: God’s character.

God’s Character: Infinitely Holy

How can God judge us for a sinful state we were born into? Our total depravity is only half the answer. The other half is God’s infinite holiness.

The fact that we know things are not as they should be points us to a standard of goodness beyond ourselves. Our sense of injustice in life on this side of eternity implies a perfect standard of justice beyond our reality. That standard and source is God Himself. And God’s standard of holiness contrasts starkly with our sinful condition.

Scripture says that “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). God is absolutely holy—which creates a problem for us. If He is so pure, how can we who are so impure relate to Him?

Perhaps we could try being better people, try to tilt the balance in favor of our good deeds, or seek out wisdom and knowledge for self-improvement. Throughout history, people have attempted to live up to God’s standard by keeping the Ten Commandments or by living out their own code of ethics. Unfortunately, no one can come close to satisfying the demands of God’s law. Romans 3:20 says, “By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

Our Need: A Substitute

So here we are, sinners by nature and sinners by choice, trying to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps to attain a relationship with our holy Creator. But every time we try, we fall flat on our faces. We can’t live a good enough life to make up for our sin, because God’s standard isn’t “good enough”—it’s perfection. And we can’t make amends for the offense our sin has created without dying for it.

Who can get us out of this mess?

If someone could live perfectly, honoring God’s law, and would bear sin’s death penalty for us—in our place—then we would be saved from our predicament. But is there such a person?  Thankfully, yes!

Meet your substitute—Jesus Christ. He is the One who took death’s place for you!

[God] made [Jesus Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

God’s Provision: A Savior

God rescued us by sending His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins (1 John 4:9-10). Jesus was fully human and fully divine (John 1:1, 18), a truth that ensures His understanding of our weaknesses, His power to forgive, and His ability to bridge the gap between God and us (Romans 5:6-11). In short, we are “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Two words in this verse bear further explanation:  justified and redemption.

Justification is God’s act of mercy, in which He declares righteous the believing sinners while we are still in our sinning state. Justification doesn’t mean that God makes us righteous, so that we never sin again, rather that He declares us righteous—much like a judge pardons a guilty criminal. Because Jesus took our sin upon Himself and suffered our judgment on the cross, God forgives our debt and proclaims us PARDONED.

Redemption is Christ’s act of paying the complete price to release us from sin’s bondage.  God sent His Son to bear His wrath for all of our sins—past, present, and future (Romans 3:24-26; 2 Corinthians 5:21). In humble obedience, Christ willingly endured the shame of the cross for our sake (Mark 10:45; Romans 5:6-8; Philippians 2:8). Christ’s death satisfied God’s righteous demands. He no longer holds our sins against us, because His own Son paid the penalty for them. We are freed from the slave market of sin, never to be enslaved again!

Placing Your Faith in Christ

These four truths describe how God has provided a way to Himself through Jesus Christ. Because the price has been paid in full by God, we must respond to His free gift of eternal life in total faith and confidence in Him to save us. We must step forward into the relationship with God that He has prepared for us—not by doing good works or being a good person, but by coming to Him just as we are and accepting His justification and redemption by faith.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

We accept God’s gift of salvation simply by placing our faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins. Would you like to enter a relationship with your Creator by trusting in Christ as your Savior? If so, here’s a simple prayer you can use to express your faith:

Dear God,

I know that my sin has put a barrier between You and me. Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to die in my place. I trust in Jesus alone to forgive my sins, and I accept His gift of eternal life. I ask Jesus to be my personal Savior and the Lord of my life. Thank You. In Jesus’s name, amen.

If you’ve prayed this prayer or one like it and you wish to find out more about knowing God and His plan for you in the Bible, contact us at Insight for Living. You can contact a biblical counselor on staff.

______________

Source: http://www.insight.org/resources/articles/how-to-know-god/relationship-with-god.html?t=how-to-know-god

“Don’t Ever Stop” by Chris Tomlin  [Live @ Passion 2014] 

“Blessed Assurance” by Matthew West

Leader’s Three Qualification

1. Be Humble:
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” – 1 Peter 5:6

2. Be Grateful:
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

3. Be Flexible:
“I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:12-13