Camp is Going Great!

It’s midnight. I’m exhausted. We had another amazing day at camp. This year our theme is “Be still and know that I am God…” or “Shut Up! Listen I am God!” Anyway more on that when I have time. Our daily thoughts have been covering the four great G’s about God. God is Great, God is Glorious, God is Good and tomorrow God is Gracious.

But tonight…absolutely inspiring. Long story short. Four of our students received the baptism of the Holy Spirit for the first time. To see these kids crying out and praying to God is nothing short of a miracle.

More to come after some sleep.

Royal Tailor Band – June 24th @7:30PM

ROYAL TAILOR WILL BE IN CONCERT

When: Wednesday, 24th @7:30PM.

Location: Soul Care House at 4848 Seminole Dr, San Diego, CA 92115.

This concert is dedicated to raising awareness about the Soul Care Project which serves women affected by domestic violence and homelessness. It’s going to be awesome. Refuge Youth participated in renovating some of the rooms at the shelter earlier this year. You can see pictures of that here. We are going to have our house band OnePraise open and we are selling tickets.

So go out to their website and listen to some of their songs. http://www.myspace.com/royaltailorband

Tickets – Call 619-253-6266 or kmoehlenpah@mac.com

• Tickets in advance $10/person
• Group discount 10+ $9/person
• At the Door $12/person

Royal Tailor Flier

June 14th @ 6PM – Night of Praise and Worship

House Red & Revolution Band

House Red and RevolutionBand On June 14th at our 6pm service we will be having a night of praise & worship with House Red & special guest Revolution Band from Christian Life Assembly in Canada! Revolution is a young generation of musicians and worshippers with a vision and passion to create music that brings people, young and old, closer to God. Get all your friends together and make sure you come early for this epic night of praise and worship!

Location: Christian City Church – 3800 Mykonos Ln. San Diego, CA 92130

We will probably meet at the church office around 5PM so we can leave at 5:15PM.

Whose Story is it Anyway?

They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings — and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.

Revelations 17:14

I read this verse today and several things really jumped out at me that I thought I would share. Often I find myself focusing on the wrong things as I read the Bible. It’s so easy to read verses and say, “How does this relate to my story?”

This verse doesn’t let you do that. Take a look.  There is a group warring against the Lamb, but Jesus will triumph and then there is another group following Jesus. Stop right there. Who’s the main character? Who is the hero? Who is this story about? Jesus, the Lord of lords and the King of kings, now that’s pretty important information.

Here’s my point. If we don’t correctly figure out who the story is about we may find ourselves in a heap of trouble. Look at the verse again. Who’s with Jesus? His called, chosen and faithful followers. Let me make my point very clear. There is only one lead role. Why is that important? Because most of us by our actions seem confused on this point. I don’t know about you but many days I run around acting like I’m the leading man in my story. Here’s the scary part of that misperception. If I believe I’m the leading man, and there is only one leading man, then I’m not in the Jesus follower group. I’m in group warring against Jesus. Not Good!

We must understand our place in the story. We are the supporting actors, the background vocalists whose job is to give honor to, focus attention on, and compliment the main character, Jesus Christ. Now get this straight that’s a huge deal. We have been called and chosen to understand this great truth and just like the Scripture says “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” If we truly understand this and live our lives in this manner. I dare say, things will make a lot more sense.

Have you ever been disappointed in how something turned out? Ever had a prayer that wasn’t answered? Do you find yourself frustrated with situations wondering where is God? Maybe it’s because you are reading the script wrong. Check to see if you are reading the lines of the leading character or one of the supporting roles. Chances are that you are like me and we’ve been trying to play God and doing a very bad job of it. So join me in this mantra, “It’s not about me!”

And that’s the probably the best news you are ever going to hear!

On Duty – June 13th, 2009 @ 9AM

On Duty

It’s On Duty time. On the morning of June 13th @9AM we will once again be doing some community service for a few of our neighbors in Poway.  So gather your lawn equipment and meet me at my house (Pastor Sam’s). We are going to tackle Jane’s house and Jim’s house again since it has been 8 months. If you want to read about the story from last time click here. This event is open to all so let’s do good.

The event has now come and gone! Next opportunity will be July 11th. If you want to see a few pictures check out my facebook album here.

Kenny Liles at the Gathering Sunday, May 24th@6PM

Kenny is BACK! Sadly for one night only. He is going to be sharing with us in worship, word and I bet a few stories from his trip to Kenya. So make sure you are there!

Just because its COOL…

I saw this and just had to share. This dude’s got skills…

Unwritten/Worship Event May 17th, 2009

I am so excited about this weekend’s the combining of Unwritten and the Worship Event OnePraise.

Here’s the 411:

• Where: Midland Elementary School – 13910 Midland Rd. Poway, CA 92064
• When: Sunday Night, May 17th from 6-7:30PM
• What: A worship event where the combined bands of OnePraise and Refuge will cover songs by the Desperation Band, Hillsong United, Kim Walker and more. It will be a high energy, creative, upward focused worship event that you won’t want to miss.
• Who: You, Your Friends, Visitor’s welcome!
• Cost: Free

Let Mercy Fall On Me

Eph 2:3-5 (NIV) …Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.

A good way to understand the meaning of mercy is to see how it relates to grace:

Mercy is like a judge finding you guilty, but then withholding any punishment. Grace is getting something you could never have imagined. An inexplicable gift. It’s like the same judge awarding you $10,000,000.00, after finding you guilty!

1. Mercy–not getting what you do deserve / withheld punishment
2. Grace–getting what you don’t deserve / unmerited favor

When We See Just How Far God Will Go…

• Think of how much mercy God has given us. We’ve miraculously avoided accidents we deserved due to reckless, inattentive, even drunk driving. And so on. God’s angels must be working overtime administering His mercy.

Job 33:27-30 (NIV) …”I sinned and perverted what was right, but I did not get what I deserved. He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light of life.” God does all these things to a man–twice, even three times–to turn back his soul from the pit, that the light of life may shine on him.”

Heb 4:16 (Phi) Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence, that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need.

Ps 103:8,10-14 (NIV) The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love… He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgression from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

I know in my own life I really have struggled trying to understand God’s grace and mercy. I could not comprehend that someone would care so much for me and forgive me of my sins. I just had a conversation with someone this past weekend and they were beating their selves up for everything they had done in the past. Their relationship and walk with God is suffering because they do not feel worthy. No, we may not deserve it, and we may not understand it but God is a great and merciful God. I thank God every day for his Grace and Mercy he has poured on my life. The Bible tells us that God’s mercy is new every morning. “Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lamentations 3:23) I don’t know where I would be without his unconditional Grace and Mercy.

Who’s Shaping Who?

We must intentionally choose to be shaped by God’s Presence or we will be unintentionally shaped by our surroundings.

@powaypastor (via Twitter )

May 7, 2009

I was reading in John Bevere’s book Drawing Near this morning for small group and the above statement hit me. He says that psychology tell us that the relationships we’ve had over the last five years will shape our personality. Paul definitely agrees with this statement in his book to the Corinthians where he said, “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’” (1 Cor. 15:33) I love the context of this Scripture because Paul is responding to something else about “the resurrection” but astutely understands that the reason they are having questions is because of who they were hanging around with. Basically when you hang out with people they influence you. I think we can all agree with this statement. Conversations, Books, TV shows, Music, are all relationships that influence our thinking and feelings. This also goes in the positive direction as well. “He who walks with wise men will be wise.” (Prov. 13:20)

Here’s where Bevere really blew my mind.

What about David? He was alone in the wilderness when, ‘Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him’ (1 Sam 22:2). Wow, what  a crowd to spend more than ten years with! The discontented, distressed, and in debt! They’re angry, uptight, and more than likely rude and insensitive. Do they mold David’s personality? No! Why? Because David spent so much time in God’s presence that he maintained a princely bearing, and consequently forged them into great leaders of renown for many generations!

John Bevere

Drawing Near, pg. 55

His illustration really struck me David so clearly understood what was most important. I remember one story during these years with the motley crew they wanted to kill him and the Scripture says David encouraged himself in the Lord. What really spoke to me was the absolute necessity for each of us to maintain our individual relationship with God. We must never be content to disconnect from our quiet times or personal devotions. There is no substitute for daily reading the Scripture, prayer and just seeking God’s Spirit’s guidance in our lives.