SCC Pastors' Blog

I coached YMCA basketball for a few years while I was in High School.  Two of the years we won the championship.  It wasn’t because of my coaching, I had the three best players in the league!  Several of the games they would get so far ahead, so quickly that I told them they had to make five passes before shooting just to take up more time!  They were so good that I think we could have gone without practice all year and still won every game.  So my goal was to make practice meaningful.

One of the things I did was to work through drills at the beginning of practice then end practice with a scrimmage.  To keep score, rather than count each basket, you only got a point if the team used one of the skills we practiced before the scrimmage.  So for instance if I had them practice left handed lay-ups in a drill, when they scrimmaged they would score a point for each left handed lay-up they made.  Like most people they lived for the scrimmage and hated the drills, but as the season went on, I could see that they took the drills more seriously, knowing they count when we played at the end of each practice.

On Sunday I gave you all homework.  I wanted you to practice telling someone “Three Stories That Matter” – God’s Story, My Story (My – being you own) and Your Story (yours – being someone you know).  Many of you are like the players I coached, very talented people, but just like my team, practice made good players even better.  I know that if you work at telling these stories in a clear, concise, and compelling way, come time to share others – you’ll be ready to make a difference in the life of someone you love!

Ok I have to admit it I forgot I preached last Sunday.  I have been down in L.A., Lakewood to be exact, helping my Mom transition into her Alzheimer’s Care Facility.  It’s a nice place as these places go, but in the end my Mom is having a hard adjustment, therefore it’s been hard on me and the rest of my family as well.  I tell you this simply because I think it’s the reason for my forgetfulness. 

Then I think of our friend Bob Andrew, and of course the tragic events in Haiti and, well, you get the picture.  Life can come at us in waves, and truthfully, I have experienced the most depth of trust in God and the worst examples of faith in this past week.  I feel manic spiritually, one moment in sync, the next disobedient.

One thing I’ve learned is that God isn’t leaving me, it’s always me leaving Him.  So it makes this passage from last Sunday all the more poignant in my journey to stay close to Him.

“His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—… Acts 17:27

God’s purpose … I love that thought — but when you realize the desired outcome from our Creator’s purpose is that we find Him, well, I am left speechless at such a concept. I’d love for us to meditate a few moments of our busy lives this week and consider a God who loves you enough to orchestrate history so that we might “feel our way toward Him” and actually, “find Him”.  Then perhaps when we find Him we might work vigorously to keep that line of communication open and ongoing. 

I hope the depth of God’s love on such a grand scale as history will warm your gizzards as the storms line up this weekend.

Love being your pastor and sharing my life with you,

dan

Several people asked me to burn them copies of the Poly House video. It’s a great story and got us thinking about doing a similar project here in town. It is also a good reminder for us to pray for our college students who are out in the field making a difference for Jesus.

How about in your corner of the world? If you or someone you know is making a mark for Jesus where they live, let us know — we’d love to share the story with others!
Noah

PS – We have a YouTube channel where you can view other recent SCC videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SierraCommunity

The Book of Acts is full of “historic moments.” These were events in which the decisions and actions of people like the Apostle Paul literally changed the course of history. The results of those decisions are still rippling through our lives to this day.

Consider this: Paul had been determined to carry the news about Jesus to the people of present-day Eastern Turkey, Georgia, and possibly Azerbaijan. But in obedience to a vision he sees while in the town of Troas (Acts 16), he changed direction and went west to northern Greece instead . . . and the rest, as they say, is history.

But here’s the question: Do you think Paul and his companions knew they were doing something historic or do you think it all seemed like another “normal” day in the life of a missionary? Do you think Lois & Eunice ever dreamed that Timothy would play such a significant role in the spread of Christianity while they were raising him? (2 Timothy 1:5)

My point is that our actions and decisions matter because they start chain reactions that ripple through time. So make each day, each decision count . . . some of them may turn out to be historic!

Blessings, Pastor John

Off and running!   All told there are more than 100 people who have gotten Chronological Daily Bibles at Sierra.  As the year goes on we (the pastors) will be sharing our thoughts.  You can check for our updates at http://blog.sierracommunitychurch.org/ . 

But what about you?  What is God teaching you as you read?  What questions or insights do you have?  What do you think of having an online board where we can all share our thoughts and ask questions as we read this year?  If you think that is something you’d be interested in, let me know (noah@sierracommunitychurch.org) and I’ll  see if that is something Dave can set up!

As I read this morning, two things struck out: one, the poetic nature of Genesis one.  I could hear it (I read it out loud), and felt the rhythm.  There is more than just information about what God was up to as He worked.  If you’re interested in reading more about the author’s intent of Genesis chapter one, I highly recommend reading “The Lost World of Genesis One” by John Walton.  It is a short read and sure to challenge your Genesis paradigm!

Two, “the curse of knowledge” – the idea that because something is familiar, you’re apt not to look closely when you see it again.  There are verses and stories in the Bible that as soon as I start reading them, in my head I’m going “blah, blah…”, like a tape going off in my head, telling me that I already know this stuff.  I caught myself doing that this morning about half-way through chapter two. 

So I stopped reading for minute and asked God to help me.  I asked that He’d allow me to enter into the story anew, to be aware of what He wants me to see today.  Right now.  It really helped, I got some new insight!  Happy reading!

P.S. I wrote 1/1/10 today… It didn’t look right.  Weird stuff – welcome to a new year…

Noah Largent