Morning Is Breaking

They sat in stunned silence. Once there had been so much hope and excitement, but now only paralyzing disbelief and despair. The dream that had seemed so attainable now lay shattered. They had given up everything for it, but it was gone, and all their sacrifice was for nothing. Worst of all, He was gone, and they felt utterly alone in a world that didn't care.

This is how I imagine the disciples felt the day after Jesus was crucified. Everything they had hoped for, a wonderful new day of glory and deliverance for Israel, dissolved as He suffered and died. Now He lay in a tomb. Obviously it was over. The dream had turned to dust.

Often as I travel, I encounter people who, like the disciples, are mired in discouragement. After 20 years of giving their best to the company, they receive a layoff notice. The kids are grown and gone, and so is the love they committed to so long ago. Divorce seems to be the only solution. The lab report comes back with the shocking diagnosis of a life-threatening disease. A young graduate’s dream of a fulfilling career becomes a nightmare as the rejection letters from prospective employers pile up.

How can we hold onto hope in the face of discouragement? I’d like to share three important actions I take when all seems lost and I’m tempted to give up. (Yes, pastors can get discouraged too!)

I find the most important way to pull out of discouragement is to focus on the answer, not my questions. When everything is falling apart, our mind is full of questions. Why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this? Will it ever end? Will things ever be good again? Focusing on our questions only intensifies despair because we may never figure out the answers.

I focus on The Answer instead. God’s word contains a promise for every situation. I find a few promises for my situation to anchor my hope to. Then when I’m tempted to look for answers to those endless questions that crowd my mind, I focus on His promises (The Answer) instead. As I do this repeatedly, peace and encouragement fill my heart.

Secondly, I remember that no matter how strong the feelings of discouragement are, they are subject to change. When we feel down, it’s easy to give in to the temptation to live by how we feel. The truth is that circumstances don’t dictate our feelings. We actively determine our feelings by how we respond to circumstances. Psalm 42:5 reminds me to take charge of my feelings: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him.”

Finally, I choose to maintain an attitude of thanksgiving. I remember times God has come through for me. I review prophetic words of encouragement I’ve received. Each evening I jot down three ways the Lord has blessed me that day. As my gratitude grows, my discouragement shrinks, and life becomes “doable” again.

The disciples felt hopeless that day after Christ was crucified. However, as morning was breaking the next day, their discouragement turned into incredible joy as they saw their risen Savior! Abba God promises us in Psalm 30:5b, “Weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Your morning is coming! It may even be that your morning is breaking today!

Please join us this Sunday for our services at 9:30 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. We have two special guest speakers, Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM, at 9:30 and Andrew Byrd at 11:30.

Family Matters

Every year I log hundreds of thousands of miles as I travel the globe, but there is one trip I always look forward to with great anticipation. Although the destination, Kauai, is gorgeous, what makes this trip so special are my priceless traveling companions, my family. You see, every year my entire family travels with me to Kauai for our family vacation..

As I sit here on the balcony of our timeshare, gazing at the pristine beach and crystal-blue surf, I feel the warm air with a slight breeze. My mind travels back years ago before Sue and I were married. We made the decision to order our life priorities under God’s direction: the Lord first, then our marriage, then our children and family, and last our ministry and careers.

We haven’t always done it perfectly, but we stuck to that commitment because we know that family matters. Long before we were taking family vacations to Hawaii, we started the habit of spending time together as a family. We established routines such as a family devotional time, family meals and a family council where we discussed important decisions we needed to make as a family.

We created a tradition of family rituals around holidays, birthdays and special events like graduations. We made small happenings special, like celebrating a winning soccer game by going out for ice cream. We realized that our relationships would not survive and thrive just on quality time; they needed quantity time as well. We found ways to make time with each of our children through one-on-one “date times,” selecting different children to accompany us on errands and making use of car time for special conversations.

You can tell what people value by what they make time for. Today our four children are grown, three are married and two are parents, making us proud grandparents of our grandson, Justice, and our granddaughter, Annabelle. We still make time together a priority, gathering one night a week for a family meal, sharing pictures and catching each other up on the latest news. We continue our family traditions on holidays and celebrations, and we rally around and mutually support each other in challenging times.

Today I am so blessed as I watch our children choose priorities that make their families matter. I am reminded that family was originally God’s idea. He created us to live, grow and find our identity and purpose in the context of family. He reminds us that He is always thinking of us. In fact, He tells us that His thoughts of us are as numerous as the sands of the sea (Psalm 139:17-18). How’s that for establishing a priority?

Abba God’s family matters to Him, and He has invited all of us to become members.  “See what a great love the Father has towards us, that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are! We have received the Spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (1 John 3:1; Romans 8:15b–16). So never forget that God has a family where you matter!

Please join us this Sunday at 9:30 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. We will have special guest speakers at each service.

Going the Distance

This past week, my wife, Sue, and I, have been celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary with a second honeymoon cruise in the Greek islands. Being alone together, we've been able to look back over our marriage and reminisce about the good times and challenges. In retrospect, we realize that we made some important decisions and established some early habits that enabled us to keep going the distance as a married couple.

The groundwork for a resilient marriage began well before our wedding day. Sue and I were fortunate to attend a church with a strong premarital counseling course that focused on practical issues that grounded us when romance alone might have kept us star-crossed lovers. We were encouraged to discuss our personal values and the influence of our cultural and family backgrounds as well as our visions for the future and the destiny we felt called to. This also included discussions about attitudes to finances, child rearing and how realistic our expectations were in regard to marriage.

Probably the single most important understanding we gained during that time was that marriage, as God intended it, is a covenant, an irrevocable commitment between husband and wife for life. Sue and I prayerfully made the decision that we would embrace our wedding vows as a covenant and that divorce would never be an option.

Early in our marriage, we established maintenance habits that we stuck with even in challenging times when we were tempted to pull back. Some of the most important were having a date night each week, praying and reading Scripture together daily, regular sexual intimacy and commitment to transparency by participating in a monthly marriage accountability group with other pastors. This practice kept us honest, and when we hit a particularly rough spot, we were able to recognize that we needed help and then seek marital counseling from a Christian professional.

Over the years, we have learned that two can never become one, only three can. That is, a man and a woman can never truly become one, unless they each willingly and wholeheartedly submit to a third-party, to Jesus Christ. Sue and I have found that as we each freely put ourselves under obedience to the Lord, we will lovingly lay down our lives for one another in mutual submission.

Personally, I begin each day by asking the Holy Spirit to fill me afresh, for I know that only His love working in me can transform me into the servant-leader He calls me to be. Instead of monitoring Sue’s behaviors, I focus on my heart and my actions, readily asking for and extending forgiveness when we have misunderstandings. These are the attitudes and practices that keep our marriage fresh and vital and allow us to keep going the distance.

I realize that many of you reading this are not currently married, but as Christians, we are all the Bride of Christ. In Ephesians 5:21-33, the relationship of a man and woman in marriage is compared to our union with Christ. When we said “yes” to Christ, we entered into a covenantal relationship with Him, an irrevocable commitment.

We maintain our commitment by daily spending time with the Lord in prayer and meditation on Scripture, desiring deepening intimacy with Him. When we lose focus and drift from Him, we keep short accounts by reconnecting as soon as we discover the breach. And we enjoy the Lord by inviting Him into every area and activity of our lives. These are all important keys to help us keep going the distance in our relationship with Him.

We invite you to our 9:30 AM or 11:30 AM service this Sunday. Pastor Karl Malouff will be giving the message. His sermon is entitled, “Choose Life.”

The Other Unalienable Rights

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!

As we celebrate the founding of our great country with picnics, barbecues and fireworks, we commemorate the date that the Continental Congress approved the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. Many of us can quote the most famous part of that document which begins in the second paragraph. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Just what is an unalienable right? Thomas Jefferson wanted to make sure it was abundantly clear that the Creator God has given every human absolute rights that cannot be taken away or denied by any government. Therefore they are permanent rights just as the Creator who gave them is permanent.

We are all familiar with the three famous unalienable rights contained in the Declaration of Independence: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. But did you know that God has given us other unalienable rights? He makes the following unalienable rights available to anyone who will receive them.

The right to be loved and cherished by God. “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

The right to receive God's grace, His unmerited favor.  “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we who are in Him may receive mercy and find grace to help in times of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

The right to the guidance of God's Holy Spirit.  “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit Whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things I have said to you.” (John 14:26)

The right to be righteous and in right standing with God.  “For our sake God made Jesus Christ who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthian 5:21)

The right to contain the character of God.  “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The right of citizenship in God's kingdom.  “Blessed are those who are humble in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

The right to health and personal wholeness.  “The Lord God forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.” (Psalm 103:3)

The right to be adopted into God's forever family.  “See how great a love Abba God has given to us, that we should be called the children of God, and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)

The right to have all your needs provided.  “God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

The right to have the wisdom of God.  “Who can know the Lord's thoughts? Who knows enough to instruct Him? But we have been given the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)

This weekend as we celebrate our country’s independence and the freedoms that are ours, let's take time to remember the other unalienable rights that God has given to us. He promises us in John 1:12: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

If you have never received Christ, say “yes” to Him right now, and step into all your unalienable rights!

Please join us this Sunday at 9:30 AM or 11:30 AM. My son, Pastor Gabriel Ahn will be speaking, and his message is entitled, “Coming into Your Convergence.”

I want to take this opportunity to invite all of you to our annual Fourth of July picnic on Sunday, July 6 from 11:30 AM until 3 PM on the lawn adjacent to Ambassador Auditorium. Come enjoy delicious barbecue, a classic car show and special treats and surprises for the kids. Tickets available for purchase after both services on Sunday.

Pastor Che