Teaching

Godʻs Heart

Amenal is our final stop before Santiago! Over the flat 14 miles we walk with the Higgins family from Oregon. It’s here that I learn that Ron, the father and patriarch of the family, offers business consulting to entrepreneurs in Kenya as part of his ministry.

Camino, Teaching

One Anothers

It’s a long walking day of 17.4 miles from Palas de Rei to Arzua, but at least it’s downhill. I meet two women friends along the way from Hong Kong who frequently travel together and go on hikes. They mention some amazing nature hikes in Hong Kong.

Camino, Teaching

Reflection Sunday

We’ve now walked 87 miles going back six days when our Camino de Santiago started in Ponferrada to our current town of Palas de Rei. We are so close to Santiago now with overnight stops in Arzua and Amenal, 17.4 miles and 14.4 miles, respectively before walking our final stretch into Santiago.

Camino, Teaching

Wisdom

We say good-bye to the beautiful river town of Portomarin through rows of trees on a dirt road. Some of the memorable moments include visiting a blind man stamping pilgrim passports in an old chapel, a rose grafted into a Christmas tree.

Camino, Teaching

Obedience

Ah, we move on more crowded roads today from Sarria to Portomarin. “Crowded” is relative as this isn’t like Times Square or Kalakaua Avenue, but still less contemplative time. As we’re now past the half-way mark of our camino, I’m feeling nostalgic.

Camino, Teaching

Obedience

This week we continue to walk downhill from Triacastela to Sarria. This is an important segment to enjoy the last of the truly solitary contemplative times on our camino as the road becomes crowded starting in Sarria.

Camino, Teaching

Best in People

This week we walk downhill (yay!) from O’Cebreiro to Triacastela. It is here that we read James 2: 1-13. Do not show favoritism. (v. 1-4)

Camino, Teaching

Family Bank

This week we walk from Villafranca del Bierzo uphill to the steepest elevation on our camino to O’Cebreiro, a village on the top of the Galician mountains. It is here that we read James 1: 19-27. Be a good listener. Be slow to anger. (v. 19)

Camino, Teaching

Faith

“I need more faith.” Sometimes this is the cry of our heart when we struggle to make sense of our world. As we begin to walk from Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierzo, James 1: 1-18 gives us seven ways to strengthen our faith:

Camino, Teaching

Family

We begin a new 11-week series called the “James Camino”. It’s based on a significant God-led time in my life when I traveled the Camino de Santiago in 2016. I sought to hear God’s voice and embarked on a time of solitude and prayer as I walked 127 miles from Ponferrada, Spain to Santiago de Compostela.

Fasting, Teaching

Reflection Sunday

It’s the perfect time to pause and reflect on our journey to-date, now that we’ve gone through the spiritual disciplines of Fasting, Sabbath, Solitude, and Prayer. My strong encouragement is to keep going. You’re not going to easily adopt any of these Practices on the first-go.

Fasting, Teaching

Standing With the Poor

In Week 4 of the Practice of Fasting we face the reality of our world in which there are far too many people who do not have enough food to survive. The average family of four in the US spends $1,500 a year on food that will be thrown away which represents 40% of our food.

Fasting, Teaching

Amplifying Prayers

In Week 3 of the Practice of Fasting we reviewed how Fasting amplifies our prayers. First, Fasting amplifies our ability to hear God (Acts 13: 1-13). Second, Fasting amplifies our voice to God (Jonah 3: 5, 10).

Fasting, Teaching

Growing in Holiness

In Week 2 of the Practice of Fasting we unpacked another important reason to fast, to grow in holiness. Fasting helps to wean us off the “pleasure principle” – to be happy and content even when we don’t get what we want.

Fasting, Teaching

Offering Ourselves

In Week 1 we start by realizing that the ancient practice of Fasting has been a part of the early Christian and pre-Jesus life, going back over 2,000 years. In fact, the Eastern traditions continue to practice fasting today and it’s more Western Christianity that has lost the prevalence in its traditions.

Prayer, Teaching

Reflection Sunday

Over the past four weeks we reviewed four types of prayer, in progression: talking to God, talking with God, listening to God, and being with God. In talking to God (Week 1) we see how the Lord’s Prayer (from Luke 11: 2-4) is the way Jesus taught us to pray.

Prayer, Teaching

Being With God

Contemplative Prayer is wordless prayer. When you imagine what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 3:18, you can begin to appreciate how to behold the LORD’s glory. Beholding the LORD’s glory involves contemplating God’s beauty, goodness, and love pouring out toward you.

Prayer, Teaching

Listenting to God

Followers of Jesus know his voice. As followers we know that the voice we hear from Jesus always aligns with scripture and grows our relationship with Jesus. When we pray to Jesus we deeply surrender to listen and obey rather than to just ask to give us whatever we desire.

Prayer, Teaching

Talking With God

Immediately following the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11: 2-4 which is Jesus’ response to his disciples’ request to teach them to pray, Jesus draws attention through a rabbinic form of teaching called “how much more.”

Prayer, Teaching

Talking to God

Over these next four weeks of the Prayer Practice we will be unpacking “Prayer: the medium through which we communicate and commune with God” through four movements – talking to God, talking with God, listening to God, and being with God.

Solitude, Teaching

God

Coming fresh off a full day of healing many who were sick and driving out many demons Jesus got up early the next morning to pray in a solitary place (Greek word: eremos). Jesus modeled the spiritual discipline of Solitude.

Solitude, Teaching

Enemy

In Week 3 of The Solitude Practice we take hold of Matthew 4: 1-11 in a new light: the eremos (quiet place) where Jesus often spent time in solitude is a place of strength, not weakness.

Solitude, Teaching

Self

In Week 2 of The Solitude Practice we are focusing on how to manage common feelings of pain (exhaustion, worry, sadness, anger, shame, to name a few) that often bubbles up in us in the quiet.

Solitude, Teaching

Quiet Place

This week we begin The Solitude Practice through June 9th. I’m very excited about this because it dovetails so well with The Sabbath Practice that we just went through.

Sabbath, Teaching

Reflection

We spent time this week reflecting as a community on the Practice of the Sabbath. Chris Rhoades and Pastor Dave discussed this on the couch and Kalyn Kim and Grant Maeshiro joined.

Sabbath, Teaching

Worship

This week’s lesson on the Sabbath Practice is about the Sabbath as worship -- the most important movement of them all.

Sabbath, Teaching

Delight

This week’s lesson on the Sabbath Practice is about the Sabbath as delight -- a conscious choice to focus on what is “very good” on earth. Amidst the ugliness and darkness that can seep into everyday life we choose to find the joy.

Sabbath, Teaching

Rest

This week’s lesson on the Sabbath Practice is about the Sabbath as resistance -- Resistance to the “New Egypt” that is our Western world’s system stoking our “restlessness,” defined by a constant yearning for more.

Sabbath, Teaching

Stop

Why We’re Doing This. Quite simply, I personally have felt for some time that it’s time to stop “doing church,” and instead to “be the church.” This means to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and to do what Jesus did. It’s a lifestyle and process of spiritual formation. Jesus’ message is so much bigger and profound than the sin management that modern church has focused upon.

I AM, Teaching

I am the Vine

Vines require pruning to fulfill their full potential. In the same way, there are likely areas in your life that require pruning to fulfill God’s full potential. What can you prune from your packed life? In addition, branches must stay connected to the vine to thrive and survive.

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