God's Thanksgiving List

At HRock Church, we always have a service on Thanksgiving morning, and I give people an opportunity to publicly offer thanks for the good things that have happened in their lives over the past year. Of course, I am also able to share my own Thanksgiving list.

This year, five events were Thanksgiving stand outs for me: the birth of my granddaughter Annabelle on January 25, my grandmother's centennial birthday party in Korea in March, my youngest daughter Mary receiving her Masters degree from Pepperdine, celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary, and my son getting engaged in October.

We also had many exciting events in our local and international ministries, including some important breakthroughs, especially in China. But for me, personal family happenings struck the deepest cord of Thanksgiving. As we survey the past year, I think most of us would find that our Thanksgiving lists are full of special relationship moments with family and friends. Accomplishments and acquisitions often bring momentary joy, but meaningful times shared with those we love produce lasting thanksgiving in our hearts.

Traditionally we use this season of the year to pause, reflect on God's goodness and offer Him thanks, but have you ever thought about what's on God's Thanksgiving list? You see, Father God is thankful for many things. In fact that's where we get our ability to be thankful. When we are full of joyful thanksgiving, we are behaving like our heavenly Father.

So just what kinds of things are on God's Thanksgiving list? Scripture provides us with many examples. Father God takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servants (Psalm 35:27b). Father God created all things for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11). He takes pleasure in our worship (Psalms 69:30–31), when we obey him and love one another (Jeremiah 9:24, Deuteronomy 30:9–10), and when we reverence Him and hope in His mercy (Psalms 147:11).

Notice a common theme in what God takes pleasure in and gives Thanksgiving for? The common theme is us and our relationship with Him. Zephaniah 3:17 states that Father God rejoices over us with joy and singing. Ephesians 1:4–5 describes what tops God's Thanksgiving list. “Long ago, even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gives Him great pleasure.”

Like us His most meaningful events center around our relationship with Him. So this Thanksgiving season as you reflect on everything you are thankful for, take a moment and realize that you're on God's Thanksgiving list. In fact, make His day and top His list by saying “yes” to His love and becoming a member of His forever family!

Please join us this Sunday at one of our three services at 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM. We are entering the Christmas season and my message this Sunday will be “Christmas Peace.”

Pastor Che

Giving is Contagious!

“Giving Is the Best Communication” is a heart-warming video on flixxy that has gone viral. It's the story of a small restaurant owner in Thailand who comes to the aid of a young boy caught stealing painkillers from an alleyway pharmacy. The boy is stealing them for his mother and the restaurant owner pays for the painkillers and also gives the boy some vegetable soup.

Years later the restaurant owner, who is still giving handouts to the needy, collapses and is hospitalized. His daughter is faced with an enormous medical bill and in despair puts his restaurant up for sale. But then she receives a second medical bill that states, “All medical expenses paid 30 years ago with 3 packages of painkillers and some vegetable soup.” The doctor providing for the man’s medical care was that little boy that he helped so long ago, and the doctor has cleared the bill. (You can view the video at: http://www.flixxy.com/giving-is-the-best-communication.htm)

The video has the reassuring message that a person's acts of generosity will return to bless him, but you may question does that happen in real life or just in heart-warming stories?

Last month in late October a phenomenon began breaking out across the United States called the “drive-thru pay it forward” response. In a number of states at various fast food drive-thru's, people began paying for the order of the car behind them. These are not isolated incidences but chains of “pay it forward” actions sometimes 50 to70 cars long. And it seems to be catching on as the incidence of “pay it forward chains” is growing in frequency.

What might be causing this behavior? One participating driver stated: “It's such a nice thing to have happen to you. It makes you want to do it to someone else.” Another commented: “It's fun! It's a nice way to make a positive impression on another person’s life.”

You see, whether we realize it or not, giving is actually contagious. Jesus declared that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). He wasn't saying that it's blessed to give because you will get something in return. He was stating a far deeper principle that it's actually more personally fulfilling to give than it is to receive.

Endless generosity characterizes the heart of Father God. He is the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). Since He didn't spare even his own son Jesus Christ, but gave him as a sacrifice to set us free from sin, we are assured that Father God will also freely give us all other things (Romans 8:32).

Since we were originally created in Father God's image, like Him our hearts are the most fulfilled when we experience the blessing generosity brings through our acts of giving to others. In giving, we become conduits of God's love to others, and they respond positively to that love. Experience for yourself how giving is contagious. Let your generosity flow to others, and watch how your giving encourages them to do likewise!

Please join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM or 2 PM when we will continue our current series “The Keys to Prosperity.” My message this week is “The Grace of Giving.”

Pastor Che

Prosperity: Beyond a Blessing

There is actually an exclusive club that you don't want to belong to. It's the “Busted Lottery Winners Club,” and unfortunately it has a lot of members. The statistics vary, but in general, around 50% of winners run through their entire windfall in under 5 years. Follow-up studies of people who acquire sudden wealth indicate a 90% probability that all that wealth is gone by the 3rd generation. That means that even if they had multiple millions, nothing will be left for their grandchildren to inherit.

Why do so many winners go broke? Two reasons appear most common. They lack financial savvy in how to handle money and they often spend lavishly on themselves, family and friends without any long-term planning. They have become very prosperous, but there is no purpose in what they do with their prosperity. They are susceptible to pressure from family and friends and are often seduced into ill-advised investments and outright scams.

Some of them even call winning the lottery “a curse,” and wish they had torn up their ticket. Many get divorced, alienated from family or friends, involved in drugs, and some even commit suicide. Their prosperity obviously did not bring them happiness.

Prosperity is Father God's idea, and from our creation He intended that we would prosper and be blessed (Genesis 1:27–28). But His prosperity has a larger purpose than simply blessing us. He wants to prosper us so we can be a blessing to others. He wants us to partner with Him in establishing His kingdom here on earth. This is His purpose for us, and it gives meaning to everything we do, including how we handle our personal prosperity.

If we will see beyond prosperity as simply a personal blessing, we can enter into an exciting life that is much larger and more rewarding than accumulating stuff could ever be. We can help establish God's kingdom by supporting the spread of the gospel through sending missionaries, planting churches, establishing training centers, even going on short-term mission trips ourselves.

We can use our prosperity to implement God's will on earth by caring for the sick, the poor, the destitute and homeless. We can feed and educate orphans, build schools and universities, construct homes for the homeless, teach people skills and trades and help them start businesses, erect and staff medical clinics and provide disaster relief when needed.

Father God promises us that if we will partner with Him in establishing His kingdom and justice here on the Earth, He will make sure that we have a constant supply of everything we need (Matthew 6:33). We can see that not only does God want to prosper us, but that our prosperity is absolutely essential if we are to fulfill our God ordained purpose here on earth. He wants to continually bless us, so that we can be a blessing to others. This is life with purpose. This is life with meaning.

Please join us this Sunday at 9:00 a.m. or 11:00 AM when I will be speaking on “Breaking the Spirit of Poverty,” part of our current series, “Keys to Prosperity.” Our weekly healing service is at 2 PM.

Pastor Che

The Poverty Pit

I'd like to introduce you to several couples. You may even recognize one or more of them.

You'd never guess by the way they talk that Michael and Michelle Mizer are both successful professionals. Michael can tell you where to get the best deal on just about anything, and he always knows which gas station has the cheapest prices. Michelle knows which restaurants have the two-for-one specials, where to get off-season bargains, and which stores have double coupon days. They live frugally and seem proud of it.

Frank and Frances Fierful can't seem to save enough for a rainy day. Although they have a stable, comfortable income, they are constantly aware that “life can change in an instant.” All too often they are hounded by thoughts of “what if.” What if we have a catastrophic accident, what if our business goes bust, what if the stock market crashes again?

Randy and René Rashunal like quality and can afford it, but seem to have difficulty enjoying it. When complimented on his new top-of-the-line leather briefcase, Randy shrugs it off by saying, “I'll get years more wear out of this than I would from a lower quality one, so it's actually a cost-effective purchase.” Renée is quick to explain to a friend that their annual Hawaiian vacation is really done on a shoestring budget because Randy's parents have a timeshare and they use their frequent flyer miles.

Then there's Peter and Pat Poore. They've been struggling ever since the economic downturn in 2008. Peter lost his job and hasn't been able to find comparable employment, so he's doing odd jobs. Pat’s hours were cut, but since she has the stable income, she feels stuck in her current position. Actually, even before the recession Peter and Pat were just making ends meet. Financial hardship has been an ongoing problem in their lives.

Although only Peter and Pat are living in actual poverty, all four couples are in what I call “the poverty pit.” They are living their lives under the influence of a spirit of poverty. None of them understand God's perspective on prosperity and the truth of His promises to abundantly bless them.

All of them are focused on their own efforts to gain security by living modestly and strictly controlling their finances. Without realizing it, they are trusting in their ideas and persuasions about how to have financial security instead of believing God's words and promises. In effect they are worshiping poverty, for they are giving the fear of it control over much of their lives.

The spirit of poverty seeks to deceive those in the poverty pit by encouraging them to focus on finances as the source of their security, and to trust in their own ability to accumulate and protect their prosperity. They're all so caught up in this pursuit that they can't even enjoy the prosperity they do have!

The only way out of the poverty pit is to know and believe that Father God wants each of us to prosper. This prosperity includes both spiritual and material blessing. Philippians 4:19 assures us that: “God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Proverbs 10:22 promises: “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and He adds no trouble to it.” Jesus echoed this when He said: “I am come that you might have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:10b)

Father God wants us to focus on Him as our provider and the source of our security. Only He gives us the wisdom that brings lasting prosperity.

Please join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM. We are beginning a new series, “The Keys to Prosperity,” and I will be speaking on “Prosperity and Righteousness.” Don't forget our afternoon healing service now begins at 2:00 PM.

Pastor Che

Fact Faith Feeling

Back in the early 70s when I first became a Christian, Campus Crusade put out a little booklet called “The 4 Spiritual Laws.” It was designed to explain the plan of God's salvation in simple terms that anyone could understand. One graphic that was really powerful for me displayed a train with an engine, a car and a caboose labeled in order: Fact-Faith-Feeling.

The booklet explained that God's word and His promises are always the Truth. They are Fact whether we believe them or not, and no matter how we feel about them. Faith results when we are persuaded of the truth and choose to put our trust in God's promises. It is wonderful when we have powerful feelings that accompany our decisions of faith, but this doesn't always happen. We can never base the truth of a situation on how we feel about it. Truth is always based on the Fact of God's word.

Most Christians understand and accept the Fact-Faith-Feeling paradigm as it applies to forgiveness of sin and acceptance of Christ as Savior and Lord. However, when it comes to divine healing, we often get the cars on the train out of order.

Many people put Feeling first. They may not realize it, but they are operating by the principle of “seeing is believing.” If they don't immediately feel a change, they think that nothing has happened and that they are not healed. This is in direct contradiction to God's word that instructs us, “for we live by believing (faith) and not by seeing.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) In fact, faith is defined as “the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Another common mistake people make is putting Faith first. They try to work up enough faith to strongly believe so that healing will happen. They fall into a type of magical thinking that if they simply say something, like quoting a Scripture enough, they can make it happen. Their faith becomes a performance they do to move God to do something He hasn't already done (i.e., to heal them).

They have the order backward. They fail to understand that faith can only appropriate what God has already done. Faith begins by accepting God's word as Fact above anything else. Faith ignores Feeling and chooses to trust in God's word and promises alone. Actually, God's promises are so powerful that even a tiny amount of faith (i.e., the size of a mustard seed) is enough to activate them.

Mark 11:23-24 instructs us to believe that we receive what we ask in prayer, regardless of what we see or feel, and we will have it. God assures us that by the stripes of Jesus we were healed (i.e., an accomplished Fact). As we focus on this Fact of God's word, Faith builds within us and through faith we know it is true no matter how we feel.

This type of steadfast faith will always produce results, but often we get pulled in two directions at one time. We strongly hope God's promise of healing is true, but we feel no change and fear that nothing has happened. The book of James tells us that when we do this, we are like a wave being tossed back and forth. We have not made a firm decision to believe and release our faith, and therefore nothing happens.

To avoid this wavering, we must keep the train in order. God's Fact is first. It is the Truth we base our Faith upon. Our Feelings can vary moment to moment and we need to ignore them when they don't line up with God's Fact. If we keep our train in order, healing will result!

Please join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM when we will have a special guest speaker, Andy Comiskey. Please note that our afternoon healing service will now begin at 2 PM. Don't forget to turn your clock back as we go off daylight savings time this weekend!

Pastor Che