randalevan's blog

what is going to make me happy?

There's a story in the Gospel of Mark about a paralytic man who is carried to Jesus by his friends on a mat.  (*To read the story, go to Mark chapter 2, beginning with verse 1.)  One of the remarkable things that happens is that Jesus heals the guy!  But He does something else...something that the man didn't even ask Jesus to do:  He forgives him.  Why did Jesus do that?

¿whatever happened to the american dream?

I was shocked to read in yesterday's Mercury-News that there are over 13% of Americans who are living in poverty.  How can that be?  Whatever happened to the American Dream?  Sounds more like a nightmare to me!

The problem is so large and complex that there is certainly nothing I can do about it.  (*I used to think this way, but somehow, I don't feel like I have a "free pass" to ignore this awful truth about our country anymore.)

I wonder what the church I go to can do about it. If the Lord's Prayer were to be answered, especially the part that says, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven", what that would look like?  I don't think there are going to be any people living in poverty when God's will is always done on the earth!  Lord, what would You have each one of us do?

  (*To read the article, please go to: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13307046?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1

why did they follow him?

Our new senior pastor, Alex Van Riesen, taught from the Gospel of Mark this past Sunday.  He read chapter 1, verses 16 thru 20.  (*If you would like to hear the teaching, go to vcfp.org, click-on SERMONS, then select "download" under the teaching for September 6th.)

One of the comments Alex made was that Jesus' invitation to Simon and his brother, Andrew, to "Come, follow me, ... and I will make you fishers of men" (v.17) seemed bizarre.  I mean, can you imagine Jesus saying something similar to you...and if He did, you dropping everything to follow Him?  What was it about Jesus' invitation that was so appealing...appealing enough to leave everything behind in order to go and be with Him, to go and learn to do what He was doing?

Alex did a great job talking about Jesus' invitation to His first followers - and to you and me today - that it was an invitation to be transformed, to adopt a different orientation toward life, to discover a new reason and purpose for living.

As I listened to the teaching this past Sunday, a short DVD called "Dust" by another pastor came to mind.  It talks about what it meant for a 1st century rabbi to invite a 1st century Jew to become his disciple.  The pastor's name is Rob Bell, the DVD series is called NOOMA, and I think it is really worth watching.  I will include it here on my blog. Hope you enjoy it, and, that God uses it to increase your faith!

a pastor's dilemma

A friend of mine and fellow pastor, Sean McMasters, made an interesting post on his blog recently that I would like to share with you.  Here's a brief quote.  (*If you would like to read more, click-on the link below.)

"Pastors are caught within a wonderful dynamic: On the one hand I need to be an example of what it means to be a successful follower of Christ; on the other hand I am not, & never will be totally successful. What makes this more interesting is the never-ending appeal of religion; Those who do good are--gooder & I am the gooderest of them all. Right? However, I'm not good.

What is the role of a pastor? To create the "That's it" image? I need to teach Saints & non-saints how to be: Broken, angry, forgive, sexually appropriate, depressed, frustrated, etc. However, do I teach them from the position of: "When I used to..." or "Last week when I..." Don't I have a pious image to uphold, since no one wants to follow a loser? Especially a pastor who wrestles with sin. No doubt there are limits to my involvement with any sin & it's ability to control me vs. my ability to yield to the Spirit. However, we can so easily create a theology of leadership, which says, "Follow me as I follow Christ" because, "I've arrived," vs. "I've been working on this for years, & I'm still walking."

To read more, please go to:

http://offthewahl.blogspot.com/2009/09/pastors-are-caught-within-wonderful.html

talking about heaven and hell

I just finished N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope. 

It's a good book and I recommend it.  I think you'll be surprised by some of the things that he says and encouraged to look at your life differently.  I liked what he had to say about heaven and hell.  Here' s a quote:

Two important factors for personal growth

I have a friend from church named Heather.  She shared with me this past week two important factors for personal growth.  It's funny, because I think they are two things we often run away from as fast as we can...and yet...I also believe that we cannot grow in any significant way with out them.  The two things are living in close proximity with others, and, being pruned.

is jesus alive or dead?

The church that Jacquie and I are part of is about to begin a new teaching series on the Gospel of Mark.  As a member of the pastoral staff team, I started thinking about Mark, reading it, and reading books about the gospel.  I just read something that I think is really cool that I would like to share with you about Jesus.

empowering the weak to become even weaker

Let's assume I want to lose 20 pounds.  (*Funny, I DO want to lose almost that much!) Let's further assume that I share this desire with my closest friends...people who really care about me and my health.  One day, these friends all get together and decide they want to help me out.  What do they do?  They put their money together and they buy me a Laz-y-Boy recliner, an 80-inch flat screen TV, and a "never-runs-out-of-money-always gets-replenished-automatically" gift card to Coldstone Creamery.  So, are these guys acting like my friends?

interesting article on the growth of the church in cuba

Just read an interesting article on the growth of the church in Cuba.  You might enjoy reading it, too: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/july/22.20.html

never thought i was like judas

Yesterday morning Jim Lin (*one of the leaders in our church) did a teaching on Judas. The thing that stood out to me was the fact that Judas was one of the closest friends of Jesus and yet it appears that none of the other disciples saw him as any different than themselves.  They ate together, worked together, went on road trips together, experienced both wonderful and terrible things together...and yet, when Jesus told them during the Last Supper that one of them would betray him, they all didn't point their finger at Judas and say, "Behold, the man!"  Instead, when Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me", this is what happened: "Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, "Am I the one, Lord?" (Matthew 26:21 & 22)