Get Out Free Card

So do you all remember when we past out these "get out of ___ free" cards? i just heard a great testimony from a lady.

She told me that when she got the card, she did what most people might have done....Laughed and thought the idea was cute. She then told me that she just put it in her purse and went home and didn't think about it. But that next night as she was cleaning her purse, she took out the card and started to think about her life and some things she would like to get out of. So she took the card and decided to fill in the blank with "debt". After she wrote this in, she prayed that the Lord would honor the card and help her in that situation.

The lady began to then tell me about one of her debt situations which involved the IRS and $2000 that she owed. About 2 weeks ago, she told me she received a check in the mail from the IRS for the amount of $2000. She said it was absolutely crazy what happened. She said that somehow after about 5 years of this IRS thing, they sent her the letter and a check and basically said "sorry it was our mistake". She was overjoyed that the Lord heard her request and did this modern day miracle.

I just wanted to say hats off to the creative team behind this. It's just another example of how what we do, doesn't just affect Sundays, but affects people's lives!! You guys are the best. EASTER 08 is coming......YEAH!!!

In The Darkness of Doubt (2008jan20)

Camera: Mike Nicholas
Notes: Clara Yang

- Jesus Brings Faith into the Darkness of Our Soul (Luke 7:11-29)

Introduction:

John, the Baptist – He was filled by the Holy Spirit in his mother’s womb, had a prophecy over him that he would go before Jesus and pointed out who He was to the Israelites. At this time, he was imprisoned.

Luke 7:1~18 Jesus raised a young man from death. The disciples of John the Baptist saw and went to tell him.

Luke 7:19~23 Upon hearing the news, John sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the One who is to come? Or are we waiting for someone else?”

Q. - John the Baptist being not an ordinary believer and follower of Christ, what shook his faith in Jesus?

1. The Question of Identity: “Who are you?”, raised by

people surrounding John (Jn 1:20)

• “Are you the Christ? Are you Elijah? Who are you?”

Some people tried to put John in a box;

Others knew he was going to be great, and expected great thing from him.

• John answered, “I am the voice in the wilderness.” (Is.40:3)

John didn’t have an ego issue, because he had a clear understanding of who he was.

We all ask the question, “Who am I?”, at one time or another.

When we don’t have a clear understanding of self-identity, we may fall into the temptation of PRIDE, trying to elevate ourselves above what we really are.

2. The Question of Purpose: “Everybody is going to Him instead of coming to us…”, raised by the disciples of John (Jn 3:26-30)

• When John’s disciples saw more people went to Jesus for baptism,

they questioned John, “Are you fulfilling your goal?”

- Because John knew very clearly his calling and his purpose (i.e. the voice in the wilderness, he could tell his disciples with ease that Jesus should increase and himself decrease, and he was satisfied with that.

- When we are not sure if we are accomplishing our life purpose, we tend to ENVY others by comparing what we do with their achievement. We may even act or talk in certain ways in order to prove to others that we are better than what they think of us.

3. The Question of Choices: “Are You the One?...”, raised

from within John and was directed to Jesus.

• John’s question was not an intellectual issue but a personal DOUBT in the darkness of his soul.
• John has seen the power of Jesus, he might anticipate that he would be on Jesus’ side and live to see the victory. But that was not his mission. He was disappointed with Jesus, “Are You the One….for ME?”

We may ask the same question when our prayers and personal expectations didn’t happen. The disappointment in Jesus shakes us at our core.

Learn from John –

1. Rely on close friends with strong faith

- John didn’t abandon Jesus, but sent his disciples to Him.

- When our darkness is so deep that we can’t go to Jesus, we rely on others to pray for us, those who have strong faith and won’t be scared off by our darkness. If you don’t have close friend with strong faith surround you, you are not prepared for the darkness of your journey.

2. Be reminded of things we already knew about Jesus

- John was reminded of the things that Jesus had been doing, healing the sick, setting free the captives, and making the blind see. - We too need to remember what Jesus has done for us when we used to follow Him by faith.

3. Know that Jesus still believes in us

• Ultimately it was Jesus’ confidence in John that sustained him in the darkness of his soul. Jesus praised John in Lk 7:24~29, “….among those born of women none is greater than John….” John desired to see the victory of Jesus. But that wasn’t the time. Until Jesus died, resurrected and returned to heaven, there John will see the glorified Christ.

• When you are struggling in believing Jesus, know that He still believes in you. (2 Tim. 2:11-13)

“…even if we are faithless, He remains faithful,

because He can’t deny Himself.”

Hello friends,

Prayer request for our brother Mike Nicholas from NSLA film team>>
Just before the new year Mike's grandfather had congestive heart failure, and although he was doing better, this past week he had a string of heart attacks. Mike is currently in Boston with his family and it seems his grandfather may not last much longer. Please keep Mike and his family in your prayers.

Thanks.

1_6_08

Just one of the many elements that happend on the first Sunday this year!!

So you remember that movie we made that one time?

hello hello. first post here for tracy. peter and rickey practically forced me into this. (just kidding.. kinda).

i'm here to make the announcement that our short film "Name, Age, Sex" has gotten into the Santa Barbara International Film Festival! wooohooo!! so it may not be Sundance or Cannes or something, but it's still a superb film festival, believe you me! haha no seriously. we're really proud of.. us.

backstory.. The NSLA Film Team made this film almost a year ago now (wow. crazy). We were selling DVDs at church, but i don't think we did a very good job explaining what it was. i guess the title makes it sound shady. plus the poster made it look even shadier. but it's not a dirty movie, i promise. (is that weird that i even wrote the words "dirty movie" on a church website? even if it's to say what it isn't? hahaha... feels wrong. sorry.)

ANYWAY. in a sense, i guess it is about shady things since it's about sex trafficking. but it's a serious take on a serious issue that a lot of people don't know much about. From the beginning, Gary Chan (the writer), Peter Chung (the director) and I (the producer) discussed how we wanted our film to touch on the idea that when it comes to something like human trafficking, it's easy to vilify the criminals and pity the victims, but no one really talks about the customers, who really are the reason why the industry exists in the first place. it was important for us not to point fingers but to understand how we're all, in a sense, responsible for the sin that happens in the world.

a lot of hard work and time and creative juices came from various members of the film team to finish this project... so in that sense i am happy for it to get some sort of.. appreciation, i guess? but for me, i think it's also exciting to know that something i feel speaks part of God's heart is going to be seen by the public and can maybe teach or touch someone.

woot.

Reverend Rickeyhair.

A coupla weeks ago, at bonboncookiemonster's birthday party, dayooch and I had fun playing with Rickey's very pretty hair.

Beauty is subjective of course, but generally speaking, I think most people consider straight hair more pretty. In a side by side comparison, a single strand of straight hair may seem more beautiful than a squiggly one. But I think that Rickey's sunburst 'fro is so much prettier than mine. It's totally cool! Because you can braid it, twist it, hide small objects in it. And you can do all that, because his hair gets tangled with itself, and it sticks together.

That day, Rickey's hair taught me a sermon.

Rickey's hair is pretty because it does what we should be doing as Christians. Getting messy. Entangling into each other lives because we care. Causing ourselves to stick together. And making it hard to split apart. We are so much more beautiful together as one cohesive unit than a bunch of singular straight strands that may appear fine by itself, but lacks the strength of unity.

So let's learn from Rickey's hair, and stick together!

to be Jolly....

Tis the season to be jolly (jollie?)!! And what better way than to go out to Long Beach and play arcade games and bowl and virtual reality. And for the super super extreme people......EAT!!!

This Sunday (Dec 9th), i'd like to treat you (CAM NSLA) to some fun at GAMEWORKS in Long Beach. SO here's the deal, we come to church..set up...run service...breakdown...people scatter to eat...we recoup from food coma....and then reconvene at 7pm at GAMEWORKS!! if you plan on coming out please just shoot me an e-mail or comment on this blog. (tryin to get a head count).

Also, GREAT job this week guys. The entire service flowed really well and Adam has been giving us the thumbs up and Rave reviews!!!