Happy Are the Fruits of Our Labor

The firstfruits of our garden.

Sign Saying

WHY DO WE NEED TO

TALK MORE THAN LISTEN?

"Peace on the Grid" Outreach Event, Mid-Town Friends Community, Sacramento, CA

Peace on the Grid was a Mid-Town Friends Community outreach event in which some of our folks participated. I wonder if Pastor Judy would be so kind as to comment on each picture for us?

UPDATE: Warren K in Czech Republic

Hi Everyone-

Made it sort of safely to the apartment via two subways and a trolley. The only mishap was Rachel who has too many & too heavy of bags . . . fell on the escalator. Nothing broken but an ego. New rules for next trip . . .

The apartment here is great. Quite a ways (twelve minute trolley) out of the old city but really nice. The best of any place we've stayed thus far. Separate WC and shower room. Two bedrooms, living, kitchen and nicely painted with good carpet and tile. All for $50 per night.

Camp ministry was great and we helped in Ostrava after moving the Fishnet language school from one office to a new one (they partner with Young Life on the English camp).

We shot a couple of promo videos for Young Life and Al and I took a train across the Polish border to see Estera Wijha (and APU alumni "com media studies major"). She wants to arrange timelines to have a team come participate with them on one of their youth seminars.

A couple of us are still sick but getting better slowly.

I think that is it . . . We're going to dinner.

Warren

THRIVE! by Being Silent

Words are powerful.

Two psychologists, Cliff Notarius of Catholic University and Howard Markman of the University of Denver conducted a study of newlyweds over the first decade of their marriage and found a subtle but telling difference at the beginning of the relationships. Among couples who would ultimately stay together, 5 of every 100 comments made about each other were put downs. Among couples who would later split, 10 of every 100 comments were insults. That gap magnified over the following decade, until couples heading downhill were flinging five times as many cruel and invalidating comments at each other as happy couples.

"Hostile put downs act as cancerous cells that, if unchecked, erode the relationship over time," says Notarius, who with Markman co-authored We Can Work It Out. "In the end, relentless unremitting negativity takes control and the couple can't get through a week without major blowups."

The Apostle Paul wrote this to the ancient church in Colossae: "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." (4:6) He wrote this in the context of encouraging the Colossians to be good and attractive witnesses for Jesus to the hostile-to-Gospel world around them. Instinctively we know this is good advice not only in witnessing with our mouths, but any time we dare open our mouths.

Overall the bible strongly suggests to us that we limit our speech. Jesus tells us in Matthew's gospel that we will be judged for our "idle" words. In other words, be circumspect and thoughtful before and during your speech. The Apostle James echoes Jesus' teaching that we'll be held to account for our words.

Words can heal and bring life. They can also sting and destroy.

• Humor can lighten the mood or sarcastically slash and burn.
• Rumor is rude and uncalled for, and is rumor in spite of its truthfulness. Uncalled for facts or fiction is rumor.
• Words communicate emotions such as fear and anger as well as love.
• Our forked tongues arise from our duplicitous natures; with our tongues we both praise God and curse men (or the other way around).
• We use our words to needle others, inciting exasperation for sport (fathers especially should watch out for this sin).
• Words have the power to bring beauty and positive change into our world; a word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
• With words we speak truth in love or spin sweet lies to deceive.
• We use words to inflate our egos, offering self-congratulations, boasting, bragging and patting ourselves on the back.
• Jesus tells us that our words are like an built-in thermometer. They tell the world what is going on inside our hearts.
• Our church words preach, prophesy, comfort, call, encourage and evangelize. Our Church Lady (Dana Carvey's Saturday Night Live character) words denigrate, wound, shame, accuse, manipulate and silence others.

Our world is so filled with noise that the noise actually comforts us. We use the noise of the television set to drift off at night. We use the noise of the radio to scare away our loneliness.

We use extra words to try and mask our real spiritual condition: we're scared to death of being alone with ourselves and with God. In the silence and solitude we find that we can't hide from our true nature, our sniveling, desperate, deflated, sinful selves. We assiduously avoid silence so we won't have to face the inner music, the painful dissonant chords of brokenness. To be silent is to invite God to "search us and know our hearts; try us and know our thoughts...see if there is any wickedness in me."

As I suggested, the bible tells us that the best course of action for human interaction is to limit our words. It also suggests a prescription for us to thrive in our walk with God: be silent! The cranky old Preacher of Ecclesiastes acknowledged this hard-learned lesson.

"Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

Do not be quick with your mouth,

do not be hasty in your heart

to utter anything before God.

God is in heaven

and you are on the earth,

so let your words be few.

As a dream comes when there are many

cares,

so the speech of a fool when there are

many words." (5:1-3)

As Friends we have a heritage of silence built right into our central mode of being in the world, our worship. We invite the silence, in order to know Jesus better. We still ourselves, the discipline that positions us to wait and listen to the still, small voice of God.

"Be still and know that I am God." Be still. Then silent. Then wait. Then listen. Then know... God.

Then thrive.

Road Trip To Sacramento

We have several folks from our congregation heading to Sacramento this weekend to work an EFCSW Church-to-Church project, Peace on the Grid, an outreach by new church plant Mid-Town Friends. Rose Drive Friends, Sacramento Friends and Citrus Heights Friends are also helping.

Pastor Judy, how can we be praying for you? Who is traveling with you? What's your schedule? When will the event take place? Who from our church is planning to do what?

The Faces of Victory

The Heart of the Christian

"Search me, O God, and know my heart..." Ps 139:24

"...serve the Lord your God with all your heart..." Dt 10:12

"I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh." Ez 11:19

"Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live." Dt. 4:9

"...circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code." Ro 2:29

"The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." Ge 6:5

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Ps 37:4

"But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." Mt 15:19

The bible speaks about our hearts a lot.

Joseph Stowell wrote this in Fan the Flame (Moody, 1986) about what the bible means by "heart": "Heart is used in Scripture as the most comprehensive term for the authentic person. It is the part of our being where we desire, deliberate and decide. It has been described as 'the place of conscious and decisive spiritual activity,' 'the comprehensive term for a person as a whole; his feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will,' and 'the center of a person. The place to which God turns.'"

DESIRE, DELIBERATE, DECIDE. Powerful words for the powerful concept that to thrive in the Christian life our hearts must be attuned to the Lord Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

"We live from our heart." This is the opening line to Dallas Willard's book, Renovation of the Heart. Even the coldly rational and calculating Sherlock Holmes would affirm this statement. Willard contends, "...the greatest need you and I have--the greatest need of collective humanity--is renovation of the heart. That spiritual place within us from which outlook, choices, and actions come has been formed by a world away from God. Now it must be transformed."

The Psalmist knew well that what he needed most was honest self-reflection guided by God. "Search me, O God, and know my heart..."

Happy 65th, Ruth and Lindy!

65 years of marriage--Wow!

God bless you both.

Sanctuary Construction, circa 1983-84

Our sanctuary was originally a used modular building, made up of four pieces.

Tom and Rose Lunderby.

Why No Sunday School in August?

For several years now we have postponed Sunday School for the month of August. Why?

1. It values our teachers by giving them a break.
2. It allows for extra events, like this year's "August Line-Up" (see blog sidebar).
3. Hopefully the month-long separation of student from class time, study and fellowship will make the heart grow fonder when we return in September.

UPDATE: Saturday Softball GameTime -- 4:00pm

Check back here for game start time. When I know, you'll know.

End of Fiscal Year Update

We began a new fiscal year on July 1. How did we end last year? Here are the numbers...

General Giving, year end $118,605

Rent Income, year end 17,290

Total Income, year end 135,895

Projected Budget, year end 149,868

Total Actual Expenditures, year end 142,398

Difference, year end -6,503

Faith Promise Missions Giving, year end 16,552

Other Designated Funds Received, year end 15,621

Designated Funds, Total on hand 9,232

Total Cash Balances Available, year end 4,112

Balance of Loan Payable (pay-off date: 03/01/10) 4,659

In many ways, the number that matters for our new fiscal year is the "Total Cash Balances Available" amount of $4,112. In effect, this is our new cushion. When that amount is gone we will no longer be able to finance deficit spending (as you can see, this cushion padded last year's deficit by $6,503).

What about June, 2009? It was a poor month. Expenses outpaced Income by $2,592, which ballooned our year end deficit.

Check Engine Light

If any of you good church folks have a "check engine" light shining in your car and need it checked out, just let Jim O know and he may be able to help you out. He has a nifty little device that hooks into your car's computer and reads the offending code. It's as simple as it sounds, but for lots of us who are low on funds, this is a great service and can potentially save lots of money.

All Hands On Deck

We're moving our wood chip piles on Monday, July 13, 4-8pm.

The wood chips are intended to act as a weed barrier. You can help even if you aren't a gardener.

Sign Saying

HUMILITY IS A STRANGE THING;

THE MINUTE YOU THINK YOU

HAVE IT, YOU LOSE IT

Quakers Beat Presbyterians--In Softball

Our Friendly Softball League was happy to welcome a team from an Anaheim-area Presbyterian church. They were a smiling, cheering bunch who brought along a good crowd. Lots of females were on their team. One of their guys wondered to me about why we didn't have any females on our team. "We recruited" was my response.

We mercied them in the fifth inning. (This last sentence is a statement of softball fact, not a theological reflection in any way.) Glendora Friends Church loves Presbyterians and hope we get to play them again REAL soon.

Update: Warren K in Czech Republic

Hi All-

We arrived safe and only short two bags (both boys have no clothes).  The
blind rental of the "hostel apartment" is great, two big bedrooms, a
living
area and a kitchen & two WC's!!!  Seems family run and hopefully secure.

Tired and going to nap before dinner.

Warren

July 4th Chili Cook Off and Picnic

The winner of this year's chili cook off was, once again, Dennis T! I heard his secret ingredient was... chocolate.

Financial Peace University

18 families have signed up for our inaugural Financial Peace University, Dave Ramsey's course of getting out of debt, building wealth and giving like never before.

Six of the 18 are from outside our church family.

We had more than a dozen inquiries from the community and one call from the Dave Ramsey website.

Keep this ministry in your prayers.

Humility

Pastor Judy preached last Sunday. Her "Thrive" series topic was on humility.

Humility is a strange thing, the minute you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.

 

The problem of how one practices humility proved to be a problem for the early church.  Early dessert father’s solved the problem by going off into the dessert alone where the competition and strain of community life were essentially non-existent.  Then along came St. Benedict in the late 5^th century who felt that monks alone in the dessert became their own idols and were usually nothing like Christ.  St. Benedict saw community life as essential to becoming like Christ and that humility was the cornerstone of that community life in that the stress of living in community assisted transformation into Christ-likeness.  So St. Benedict came up with a “Rule” to order community life.  Communities were made up of 12 monks with an abbot.  And they all lived by Benedict’s “Rule,” although, I must tell you that this was not as easy as it sounds.  St. Benedict’s first group of monks tried to poison him!

 

That aside, what Benedict concluded was that in order to grow in humility, one dare not focus on humility, but focus instead on the love of God and love of neighbor.  Benedict’s suggestions here are timeless and became the dominant structure for corporate religious life for over 1,000 years.

 

St. Benedict's 12 Degrees of Humiliated, Slightly Adjusted to be of Use to Us Today

God focused:

1. Fear God, have healthy respect for the creator and author of all life.  He is to be obeyed and served because he is God and we are not.
2. Follow the Lord’s will and not our own.  We should endeavor to look at life as God sees it.  He is the center of the universe and it is about him, not us.

Community focused:

3. Submit to others.  Get input from others.  Take advice.  If you know more than everyone else, you’re in trouble. 
4. Persevere with a superior’s instruction.  This develops our character.  Life never goes exactly our way; this helps develop us.
5. Share candidly, openly and transparently with a trusted friend (for monks it was the abbot).  Allow someone to hold you accountable.  This helps us take responsibility for our actions and speaks another viewpoint into our ego-centered minds.
6. Be content.  Accept willingly the challenges life presents.  Doesn’t mean we don’t correct bad circumstances (our trusted friendship help us here), but there are some things we simply are forced to just accept.  
7. Put ourselves lower than others.  We can do this in safety in Christian community where the community works to look out for the best interests of others, lifting others up and helping one another to understand how we need each other’s service.
8. Follow the rules/laws set forth by the community.  Enough said.
9. Speak carefully, words that are thoughtful, truthful, encouraging and helpful.
10. Check that our laughter does not come from the ridicule of someone else, that it comes from joy, delight, appropriate humor.  Laughing at someone else’s expense feeds our ego!
11. Use reasonable words and a humane tone of voice.  Our speech should lift up, not tear down or destroy others.
12. We must be aware of our physical posture, that our body language and manner of dress do not serve to distract or offend others.

 

We live at a time when many people are suffering and struggling.  Job losses, home foreclosures, economic uncertainty coupled with the usual stress and strain of life in terms of health problems, personal conflicts and destructive addictions.  These are tough times.  Humility is NOT a slapping down, the loss of self-esteem, groveling and being devalued.  On the contrary, it comes from just the opposite.  Jesus knew he was God.  He knew and had confidence in the work of the Father, so he did not have to struggle but surrender to his life of service doing the will of the Father and the results were incredible!  In Christ we are God’s treasure, his beloved children.  We have a future and a hope.  Humility is not demeaning, but it is a firm conviction of God’s power and authority in the midst of our circumstances that frees us to focus on the needs and concerns of others. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking about yourself less!  Friends, for us today, in Christ, we are called to humbly serve God and to humbly serve each other, to minister to the hurting and struggling around us even as we ourselves hurt and struggle.  We can trust God with the outcome.

Pastor Judy