So to follow up with last weeks blog, how did you start with being more incarnational in your community?

When we read over the verse in Mark 12.30 -31 we notice that there are 3 things Jesus is saying. First of all he is saying love God! Yes that is the key thing to all of it. Secondly he is saying love your neighbor, that is something we talked about for the last 9 months. But then he is saying one more thing on how we should love our neighbor? We should love him as ourselves. So to be able to truly love our neighbors we have to love ourselves.

Recently I heard a really good message on that topic from our Pastor. He was talking about how we can only truly love others if we also know how loved we are. Sometimes we think it is prideful if we say good things about ourselves, but the reality is its actually admitting to what God is saying about us. Think about the story of the prodigal son especially towards the end. The son comes home and the father tells him to leave and never come back. No of course not, we all know that he he runs towards him, puts a robe over his pig smelling body and hugs him. So even if we mess up and have failures in our lives God still loves us. So if he does we need to do that too! When we accept that love from him and live in it and start seeing ourselves the way God sees us and also love ourselves, we will even leave a greater impact on others. We show them through our faults and failures that we can still love ourselves because our father loves us. And what greater thing do we have to offer to people then the love of Jesus and that they are truly loved.

So with all this writing we want to encourage you to look at your own life and see where you talk bad about yourself or where you don’t like yourself. Ask God to help you to love yourself. It will make a huge difference for you, but also for your neighbors.

Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week! Last Sunday Jen and I were preaching on finances and trusting God in every area of our life at a church in the bay area. It was a wonderful time. We also had a community night at the YWAM Base in the Tenderloin which was a real encouragement too. Its always nice seeing our family. Speaking about family, next week family from Germany is coming to visit!! I am so excited!!

Don’t forget this week to start asking God how he sees you and how you can love yourself more!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

We still miss our beloved neighbors and we pray that your love for your neighbors increased.

When we moved to our hill we learned about green parrots who live here. This is not their natural environment at all but in some way, they ended up here. With that being the case over the years they adapted to the area. They started to eat the things they could find here and started to live on the different trees. I’m sure they were not the same as in their own environment but they adjusted. But while adjusting they still stayed true to who they are. They are still loudly talking to each other and hang out in their big group.

As the parrots did it we can do it too. When we moved to our area we really got to know people and adjusted to the life in that area. TO get to know people we had to be interested in what they are interested about. As an example, before we moved to our place I didn’t know much about keeping areas historic, but being here I learned a lot about that. With that, we were able to understand our neighbors better, connect and actually help out with some of the things people care about here. But then we did not change Markus and Jen and their love for Jesus. So whenever we do something and are involved in something we hope that it reflects to every one we get in touch with.

When we look at Jesus we notice that he always adjusted to the place he was in. It didn’t matter if it was with the rich, the poor, the powerful or the religious leaders. He always connected with them, but he always stayed true to who He is.

We want to challenge you to be incarnational in your community and reflect Jesus through your life.

Hey our friend

How was your week? We hope fantastic!!!! We had a really full week here in San Francisco filled with art, meetings, baby sitting and a Haeusser hangout just to name a few of them. But we noticed even if the week is full there is time that we can spend with each other and with God. We just have to be more intentional about how we use our time. Look at your schedule and see how you can use your time more intentional.

So start looking at your neighborhood and start to figure out how you can fit in better!!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen