Mosaic Church Of Bellingham

On a scale of one to ten, with 10 being "plugged in all day every day" and 1 being, "I'm more Amish than anything else", how would you rate your media usage? Media can be tv, phone, tablet, radio or computer. Some of you may want to include magazines or newspapers as well. Now, ask someone close to you how they would rate you. Are they the same? Now, read 1 Corinthians 6:12...

"Feed My sheep..." My journey from California to Washington state started with this quote about feeding sheep, and it’s still moving me today. Jesus said it, but I read it in a book by Jen Hatmaker prompting me to question my way of life—to jettison the excess and simply to focus on feeding people that are hungry. Reading Hatmaker’s book, Seven: A Mutiny Against Excess, invited me to question my own assumptions, like the fact that my husband and I each had found our lifelong career and would continue in our respective jobs until the day we retired and traveled the world and spent all our savings. I had taught high school for seven years and was finally feeling effective in my role as (mostly) motivational speaker and (partly) Latin teacher. And yet, coming out from under the rock of postpartum depression I was looking for meaning beyond worldly security, and I found that longed-for meaning in this basic request of Jesus— in the exhortation to feed His sheep—to give of myself and pursue God wherever He sho

Here's a great activity, go into your dressers and closets, then count every single item of clothing, shoes, accessories, underwear, socks, coats, scarves, gloves, etc.... How much is enough? What does it mean to take stock of our clothing and give away some of what we have, or take away from what we spend?

It probably wasn’t that long ago that you heard someone or yourself saying, “There’s nothing to eat in this house”, as you stared into your packed fridge or stuffed cupboards. Talking about topics like food, clothing, possession, etc… hit close to home for all of us. Lent is a time to take a deep dive into those areas that can easily become areas of huge excess in our lives as well as take control of our lives. As I have said many times, “seasons become lifestyles” and “silly habits become controlling behaviors”. Just about anything can go from a short term permission to an unhealthy lifestyle, if unchecked. This is why Lent is so important. It’s a time for us to stop and take stock. To actually look at ourselves and ask questions. Lent helps us to get ready. It is a time to know more about the One who is Easter. It is also a time to learn more about who we really are. To remind ourselves that there is freedom in giving away and taking away. There is freedom in fasting.

Lent is one of the oldest known practices of the Christian Church, having been around since at least the 2nd century. The focus has always been on penitence (which has to do with sorrow and repentance for wrong doing) and fasting, as a means of preparing ourselves to truly celebrate the feast of Easter. Lent is about making room in our lives for newness. Like our Mosaic journey in the past, making room is often the first step to being able to experience freedom. One of the most famous stories of Jesus is when he is questioned by a wealthy young leader. The writers of the Gospel, tell the story on the heals of Jesus’ interaction with children. Do you think the contrast is intended?

A Storm... A Demonized Man.... Sheep.... A Bleeding Woman..... A Dead Daughter.... What terrifies you?

One of the difficult things we discover shortly after we are encountered by God, is that much of what passes itself as “christianity”, is really just having the right set of beliefs in your head. Belief and faith are taught to us as being synonymous terms, and therefore, it is super, super important that you believe the right things about God (Father, Son and HS), about the Bible, about the church, about doctrine, about heaven/hell, the 2nd coming, etc….. Before long, our “faith” is reduced to what we think about all these things. But, belief and faith, are not first and foremost “thought” words, they are “trust” words. Trusting God is the basis for most of the Biblical story, from Genesis right through to the end, and this trust was built, not on a perfectly clear understanding of God, but upon encounters with God.

Every year, on the first Sunday gathering of the NY, I take a little time to reflect on the past and share what I am musing about. This year is no different. If you haven't done it, go back and listen to the first Sunday of 2017, it was really good (of course that's my opinion) and pretty much captures what's on my heart (apparently for many many years). Though I generally think I am coming up with new stuff, I really don't. When I go back, I just repackage the same thing over and over. But, I have to say, I still think it is the main thing and really believe that we need to keep the main thing, the main thing.

How radical is it that God became a baby? Though it is hard to believe for us, it was just as crazy a couple thousand years ago.

To understand why the life of Jesus was such good news to those that encountered him and were willing to have their eyes opened, you have to understand the world of kings and caesars. Monarchism, and it's religious/political counterpart, Imperialism (with its "pontification" of its Emperors) was the lens through which the people of Jesus' day saw the world. The anticipation of a Messiah, was firmly tied to their understanding of King, and in the case of Israel, the only King that YHWH ever wanted them to have was YHWH!

In Luke 1 & 2, we find angels visiting Zechariah, Mary and then the Shepherds. With each of visitation, came major interruption and a declaration that things were about to change. There was about to be a disruption, the likes of which, the world had never been seen before. As we talked about last week, Jesus' life (not just his miraculous birth, death or resurrection) created massive disruption in the lives of individuals, in the Jewish nation, in the Roman empire and eventually, the whole world. What was it about Jesus’ life and teaching that resulted in a disruption of this magnitude?

Part 4 of our pre-advent series “The Lost Gospel”. I am suggesting that the "lost gospel" is the missing part in our creeds, atonement theories, celebrations and evangelism, particularly, the three years between Jesus’ miraculous birth and his death/resurrection. In other words, my concern is that we have made our main messages ABOUT Jesus, something that was not the main message OF Jesus. Take a listen...

i want you to take a minute to read Luke 1, when the Angel of the Lord appeared to Mary with the famous annunciation, and then turn the page and read Luke 2, when the angels made the announcement to the shepherds. Did you read it? If so, what do you think the "good news" is, that the angels said would be to all people? What about Jesus' life, was going to be such good news?

If you were to study the major creeds of the Christian Church, you might notice an interesting similarity. Not only do they all capture very important elements of Christian belief in a concise and easy to remember way, but they also all seem to leave something out. Find the Apostle's Creed online and notice what happens after affirming the virgin birth. Do you see it?

If you know the famous story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Anderson, then you know where we get the phrase, "The Emperor Has No Clothes". As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, many of you, like me, have grown up with a view of Bible study that focuses on coming to the correct interpretation and understanding of the text. This involves understanding the context; the history, the geography, the culture, etc., and understanding the text itself; meanings of words, tense, original language, etc… Though these are extremely helpful tools in understanding the author's original thought, they generally have as their goal, that we come to a right conclusion about what the text says and what we should do with it. In this way of thinking, we tend to believe that if we just add another layer of knowledge to what we currently have, everything will fall into place. Unfortunately, many of us have found out that simply adding more precise interpretation, better doctrine or more “correct” theology, does not

There are times when things happen to people we love that stop us in our tracks. Sometimes, when they happen, they also break through the barriers we keep up in order to cope with all the suffering that's going on in the world. That's what happened this morning, so although we were going to focus on our rhythm of study, we also took some time to pray and be quiet.

Rhythm guides your lives. From the steady rhythm of the heart pulsing life-giving blood, to the breathing in and out of oxygen necessary for survival to the simple left-right-left-right marching pace as you walk along your path, rhythm governs each second that tick, tick, ticks away. How's the rhythm of your life? Is it steady? Is there a cadence to it that you are happy about?

Hospitality is the "acts of making room for others". It is making room for another.