But then (in V16) Jesus scares His disciples by portraying a caricature of them, not sheep amongst other lost sheep, but rather sheep in the midst of wolves. No warm-fuzzies there…

Jesus prescribes the way to live in the second part of the verse…”be wise as serpents and innocent [gentle] as doves“. Here lies the crux: to operate in a life that has great value, calling, and glory – but it is not always easy…like a sheep in a pack of wolves. To operate knowing the Enemy, but utilizing the great & costly grace of the Lord at the end of the day. We should live our lives with the grace and mercy of Jesus, so that we can go to sleep easy at night. Be tactical in wisdom-filled thought, because we have asked God in faith for it (James 1:5-6); but at the same time dealing and talking with people with such measures of grace, wisdom, and gentleness knowing that vengeance (reckoning) ultimately belongs to God.

I like how Hebrews 12:14 puts it “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord”. Live deliberately, yet live in the innocence of gentleness…even if “sheep” are acting like wolves. Let’s face it, the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:20)!

ScottC

This should seem so obvious but it is something that we often fail to do. On our youth trip this past week I found myself often pulling kids aside and sharing this verse with them because we can sometimes be just downright rotten for no good reason. Or maybe it is to get a laugh at someone’s expense, or to elevate oneself, but it is just foolish. Let us be kind toward one another, not using our words to beat each other up, but to encourage each other in the Lord. And if you have been wronged or hurt – forgive. Why? Because Christ forgave you. Odds are you are going to be hurt or wronged by someone at some point, and God has called us to forgive. If you are holding onto something that someone has done, forgive them. Give it over to the Lord, pray that bitterness would not creep in, and seek out that person and let them know that you have forgiven them.

Not long afterwards, the boy called out to the Lady by saying “Mom”. Come to find out he was adopted into the family!!!

Galatians 4:4-6 says “God sent forth his Son…to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Just as the boy claimed his familial relationship by calling the lady “Mom” so to, and in a greater way we exercise beings sons (children) of God by crying out to God as “Abba – Father!” God can and does this by sending His Holy Spirit to dwell within our hearts of believers. (Romans 8:15-16).

As you have received and trusted in Christ, enjoy being in the Family of God! What a birthright!

ScottC

TFAB we are called to prayer, not just today, not just this week, or a month of prayer but a lifetime of prayer. My hope is that our knees would be red from the carpet and our carpets worn down in our closets from so much time spent quietly before God in earnest prayer.

Brett

If ever there was a man who lived a quality life of quantity, it was Solomon. Solomon oversaw the nation of Israel at its peak of prosperity. Some of Solomon’s accomplishments include building the temple, housing 40,000 stalls of horses, speaking 3,000 proverbs, writing 1,000 songs, marrying 700 women, planting national forests. A life of quantity that no man has yet to repeat, however Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 4:6 – “Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.”

At the end of his life Solomon looks back and tells us to live two handedly. Live in one hand working hard, getting the most quantity out of your time. Be as the ant in Proverbs 6 who prepares her bread in the summer. But hold in the other hand times of quietness, times of rest for your soul, times that aren’t weighed in quality by their quantity. Solomon goes on in chapter 4 verse 18-20 to say: “Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil–this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.”

Through the person and work of Jesus Christ we are reconciled to God and given fullness of joy in right relationship with Him that we might walk in joy recognizing such things as gifts from a loving father.

As the recent weather suggests, summer appears to have arrived, may we be like the ant that stores up bread, works hard, does all things with our might according to the will of God and may we enjoy the toils of life given to us by God. May we breathe deeply in those times of rest and quietness. Instead of driving fast while talking on the Bluetooth, telling the kids to be quiet, rolling the windows up so you can hear and eating your fast food that shortens your life: Drive slowly, roll the windows down, turn the music up loud, tell the kids to sing at the top of their lungs, sit down and take more than five minutes to eat food that will nourish instead of kill you because as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, these things are gifts from God. Augustine spoke well in saying “If these be the beauties afforded to sinful man, how much more for those who love Him?”

Skylar

This morning I was so blessed to drive on down to the church office and spend an hour worshipping Jesus with about 10 people from the body. If you are not aware of it on Thursday mornings at the office from 6:30 to 7:30 we have a great time of worship, a reading from the Psalms, and a time to partake in communion. This morning after I partook of communion I opened my bible to where I am currently at in John 9 for my daily reading and something really jumped out at me that I wanted to share with you today.

John 9 Which says 1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2And his disciples asked him,”Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
8The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

Now I love this story, I mean only Jesus can throw a mix of mud and spit on a blind guy and have it turn out all right. The first thought that came to mind as I was pondering this for myself this morning was the simple fact that Jesus passed by, and saw a blind man. There are people on a daily basis that we are passing by that are blind. They can’t see Jesus, they don’t know Jesus, maybe they have heard about Jesus, but they do not know what he looks like. We at this moment have a opportunity to respond like Jesus, or like the disciples.

The disciples responded how self righteous, religious, spent way to many Sundays doing church rather than being the church people respond. The disciples said “dudes blind who sinned? Because somebody obviously had to do something at some point for this guys to end up like this. These guys are wanting to point out sin like all self righteous people are rather than help open the eyes of the man that is blind. They want the dirt on this guy, and they want to keep on walking by.

Now Jesus on the other hand does something totally crazy here. First Jesus says it wasn’t some hidden sin that made this man this way. Now question, was this man a sinner? Were his parents sinners? Yes, the bible is totally clear that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Rom 3:23. The point though is that this man was before the foundations of the earth designated to be blind in that place on that day for this specific event that would bring glory to God and provide witness of the power of God through Jesus. Maybe you have a special needs child. Maybe you have a medical issue. Listen, God can receive Glory in this trying season, this season however many years it may be will provide witness of the greatness of Jesus as you serve the littlest ones, or the least of thees in the kingdom. Well Jesus sees this man, He stops, He spits, He makes mud, He throws it in this guys eyes. How crazy is that. Jesus just put mud in the eyes of a defenseless blind guy. If your the blind guy and you have heard of how great Jesus is, you have heard that he is loving and kind, and now you meet him and he puts spit and mud on your face, HOW IRRITATING.

This morning I was asking myself Why did Jesus do this? I mean He could have just said open your eyes, He could have just touched Him, Why did He have to irritate Him. This would not have been comfortable. have you ever had dirt in your eye. Ever had spit in your eye. Usually people that do those kinds of things to you are those you want to hit not hug. Why did Jesus do this?

My thoughts led me to think about Hebrews 11. In Hebrews 11 we have seen how faith responds. Abel worshiped, Enoch walked, Noah witnessed, and now this blind guy had a decision on meeting Jesus, would His faith respond. Would He obey the words of Jesus. Would he get up and walk and wash. Would He follow the instructions of Jesus. You see, sometimes we don’t respond well, sometimes we don’t want to listen, so what God will do is put a little mud, a little irritation, a little spit in our eyes, and in our lives to help us to obey. For Jonah it was a Fish, Paul it was a thorn in the flesh, for David it was a Saul, for a unknown blind guy it was a little spit, and a little mud, and all of these irritations caused these men to be obedient, and what???? ULTIMATELY SEE JESUS!!!! The blind guy, goes, He washes, and now He can see!

3 things Happen now that He can see.
1. He meets the neighbors, this is where his missional work kicks in. He doesn’t have the best theology, He hasn’t read the bible (how could he, blind) but He had been irritated, and touched by Jesus and He is ready to tell some people that all He knows is that He was once blind and now he sees.

2. He meets more self righteous guys. He meets the Pharisees. These guys want to tell him how wrong he is for meeting Jesus. They want to question his sight. They want to question Gods work. This will always be the case for the one who has been touched by Jesus. People will come and say, thats not God. Your confused, something else must have happened here. Religious people do not want to give glory to God.

I love what he says to these guys all I know is that I was once blind but now I see. I was in darkness, then I was irritated, I followed his instructions and now I see…. then he said in v27 do you want to be his disciples. This is funny. He starts witnessing, maybe even out of ignorance to the men that placed him on trial.

3. He meets Jesus. This whole time he still had not seen Jesus. After they Cast him out in v35 from there presence Jesus comes to Him. He says and this is important do you believe in the son of Man. He says who is He that I can believe in Him. Then Jesus says ” It’s me” he says I BELIEVE. He was born blind, he could have hated God for this, He was judged by Jesus disciples, he could have hated the Church, Jesus put spit and mud in his eyes, He could have hated Jesus, He was questioned by the religious, This guy could have just hated everyone, but after His Irritating encounter, HE SAW JESUS, AND HE BELIEVED JESUS WAS GOD! The irritation, leads us to see not disciples, not judges, but Jesus. The irritation causes us to be obedient. Following His words, produces faith! Faith In Jesus. Not faith in LOVE! Not faith in Religion! Not faith in the church! Faith in Jesus. Let the Irritation work in your life, and you will see Jesus, you will witness for Jesus! Your life will be touched and changed by Jesus!

And things go wrong. Suddenly whatever the area you were commanded to be obedient in suddenly falls apart. Whatever it was it just went bad. So you press into the Lord and seek His face yet He now seems so distant. For those who know the scriptures you can then walk through Romans 8, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 23 and all the other coffee mug/precious moments cross-stitch verses but maybe there’s still a gnawing deep within you that just doesn’t cease. Yet we know these promises to be true. The Lord is good and is after our ultimate joy, that He will work all things together for good and that He has a hope and a future for us. Nevertheless in our humanity there is gravity upon us during such times. We can’t step back far enough to see the full scope of God’s design.

There is a consolation in that most of the men and women of the Bible share with us in these things. David, a man after God’s heart cried out to the Lord repeatedly asking God to reveal himself. (Psalm 13, 35, 89) Elijah the Prophet cries out in the cave. (I Kings 19) John the Baptist, the greatest man born of a woman, wrestles with doubt in prison. (Luke 7) Not to mention Noah, Moses, Joseph, and countless others who in obedience counted the cost of following God and in obedience picked up their crosses to follow Him. So what do we do with this? On one hand we know that the Lord is good and sovereign and after our joy, yet the very Son of God sweat drops of blood the night before his execution and wept over the city of Jerusalem. The gravity of humanity weighed heavily on Jesus as well. And therein lies the beauty, the comfort of our soul, that we have a sympathetic high priest in Jesus who partook of flesh and blood. (Hebrews 2:14-18) The God we serve is able to come along side us and say “I know, I know it hurts, I know this weight is heavy, I understand, I’ve been through this.” Jesus then for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. (Hebrews 12:2) We can look to our High Priest, Jesus, and for the joy set before us endure these light momentary afflictions (aka life) knowing that these things are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison. (II Corinthians 4:17-18)

So may the words of Christ sink into our hearts today, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Skylar

This section is not a call to go out and be more sinful so you will love more. However understand that sin has separated us, but Jesus came to reconcile the believer, he has redeemed the believer, and we daily see that and it causes us to love much.

The first thing I want to say is thank you so much for being a part of this body. God is doing some amazing things and we are so excited to see what He has in store for us individually and as His body. Great things are taking place at TFAB, if you haven’t noticed we are growing. We have grown from a church that could meet in my living room 6 years ago to a church that’s weekly attendance is pushing over 500 people and still growing. It is so exciting! It is not simply people coming from other churches, but as we continue to witness it is people that are coming to know Jesus!

Now, because we have this growth taking place, the leadership of the Church has been in a place of prayer realizing that either we need to find a new place, again, or we need to start doing another gathering time on Sunday, which is something none of us are huge fans of because we want to do all we can to keep the body together. When you start adding services things become a little mechanical and you lose something in the multiplication. So we have been praying, “Lord open a door some where!”

Well a Door has Opened up, several weeks back we stumbled on a 22000 sq ft shell of a Commercial warehouse in a very well trafficked area in Bend. After knocking on doors at the city, talking to engineers, the preliminary report is that a church could potentially take this space. This is amazing because there are not many places churches can go, and there are not many places a growing church our size can fit.

So after looking at the space we drew up some potential buildout plans on this particular location, and our early sketches show that we could put around 1400 people at a time in this place. We also have a written letter from a near by tenant, who has agreed to allow us to park in their over 140 spaces, which means we will have enough parking with a combined over 200 plus spaces.

Now Why should we move?
Stability- I personally know of Churches that have met in schools and then on short notice they have been asked to leave. That may be easy when you have 50 people but not when you have over 500. We have also sought counsel from several large church pastors and administrators and they all have given the same counsel which is, if you can find a place take it.

Growth- This one is easy. We just need more parking, more space for kids, more room in the auditorium.

Stewardship- We are looking at doing a 10 year lease with a 10 year option-
We also would have the right to Sublease it or buy our way out of it if we needed to leave.

The rent per month would be cheaper than trying to do multiple services at a public school

Now some say why lease when maybe you could buy?
To buy and build, if you don’t know, would cost somewhere between 5-10 million-
The life of the first 10 years of this lease would be 800k, which is so much cheaper – and if we lease for another 10, still just 1.6 million. That saves us 4-10 mill that we have to spend on other things.. We believe this is good stewardship and we have thought through all the scenarios on this with business minded men.

Discipleship- A permanent place means multiple meetings, women’s studies,
high school, middle school, outreach, apologetic courses, Redemption groups such as for those struggling with pornography; etc….
Benefits of this are endless

Obedience- We believe that God is asking us to do this for the benefit of the body of Christ, so we are trying to Lead the way as leadership and follow Jesus in Faith…

The needs-

1. Prayer- Pray for wisdom, pray for direction, pray for the other tenants, pray that if this is God,s will it will happen, pray that we be a people of faith.

2. Financial- TFAB needs 300k-ISH- to do the build-out, which will include electricity, bathrooms, walls, paint, seismic stuff etc… we need this before July to make this happen.’
If we meet this goal then we will need..
3. Volunteers- people to Paint, people to frame, people to clean up etc..

What we want you as a body to do- Is to pray about how the Lord might have you partner with us by faith in building this Box…. LIKE NOAH =)

We want you to pray about it with your spouse/family.
We also want you to know- we are not going to push. This not going to be pledges, thermometers, drives, or Cheesy magnets! We will remind the body about it and where we are at for the next couple months,
And if we make it we do it, but if we don’t have the cash we will save what we have for what we believe the Lord is calling us to do in the future.

If you give we ask that you do this as an offering above what you already are so graciously giving, which meets the normal operating expenses of TFAB.

All I can say is that this will be a super exciting Faith Stretching time for us at TFAB and I have know doubt that God will grow us all as we are obedient to what He calls us to.

Love you guys,

Loren

But here comes contrast of THE GOOD NEWS of the Gospel – “that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (II Cor. 5:17-21). Any other attempt at satisfying the demands of a perfectly holy God by our own feeble means is vain religion. When God saved us by Jesus Christ, for those who are born again and believe, he saved completely and emphatically.

The jaw-dropper is that God has reconciled us in Christ, and now He carries out this ministry of reconciliation through us as embassadors/representatives/envoys for Christ. The gospel mission is to implore, encourage, come alongside people to be made right with God (v20). How great the Lord is to grant us favor, make us a new creation (v17) with a new heart (Ezek. 36:26), and bring us back to Himself as His creation and the object of His love – through the death of His Son (Rom. 5:8).

Having four wonderful, beautiful, and enjoyable children, I see this practically in our home. They can be sinful and selfish at times – but no matter what, they will always be my son and daughters. I always want my children around me, even though a specific sin could tempt them (in condemnation) to alienate them from Janae and I. Nothing in our home is irreconcilable! And so to it is for the Children of God.

If God can graciously, decisively love the unloveable in that way, shouldn’t we love in that same manner? Before reconciliation, we were enemies of God (Rom. 5:10), and Jesus (our greatest example) told us to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44-46) to demonstrate the reconciliation that we primarily have with the LORD. This love (Jn. 13:35), which is the mark of every Jesus follower, drives us to forgive others of their trespasses. The exact character trait that our Father demonstrates to us (Matt. 6:14). From this day forward: Be reconciled to Jesus and be reconcilers for Jesus!

– Scott