Hey our friend

We want to start this off by saying how thankful we are for you. You are such a blessing to us and the ministry here. May God bless you richly. We hope you had a wonderful week. We had great moments in all areas of the ministry and are thankfull on how God is guiding us forward. Please keep our thanksgiving meal in your prayers.

We also want to ask you to pray about to join our monthly or one time gift support team. We lost a few supporters over the last few months and want to see if you would like to start partnering with God and us in the ministry we are doing here. Pray about it. You can click on this link for more info on how to support us. Thank you for considering us. It means a lot to us. May God bless you richly.

A day of Thanks

This week we will celebrate on of the big holidays with lots of Turkey, family and friends. With that special day coming up, I want to look a bit more at the impact of ungratefulness at the example of Israel. As thankfulness carries blessings I believe it is also true that ungratefulness carries curses and moves us away from God. When you look at Israel and the many years they were connected with God you can see over and over again how they were ungrateful.   Many times in the desert they complained about the situation they were in instead of thanking God for freeing them out of Slavery. They focused many times on the momentary short lived circumstance (walking through the desert and not having the good food of Egypt) instead of being thankful for what God has done for them. And every time they did that they end up slipping into sin and start walking away from God. But when they were thankful they were drawn closer to God.

 When you are ungrateful you have your focus on lack instead of God. But on the other hand, when you are thankful your focus is on the One that has everything you need.

But why is that? Because their focus changed. When you are ungrateful you have your focus on lack instead of God. That opens the door to all kind of things like trying to be happy through things you should not do. But on the other hand, when you are thankful your focus is on the One that has everything you need.

We want to challenge you this week with this little exercise. Find each of those days things you are thankful for in that topic: Day 1 friends, Day 2 things you have, day 3 the good things God did in your life (gave you a job, kept you safe etc.), Day 4 family, day 5 your church and the people in there. After you are done with that start looking into other areas in your life you are thankful for. Start every day of your week by thinking about 5 things you are thankful for.

Have a blessed week and happy Thanksgiving.

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. John 5.24

We had a good but also challenging week here in San Francisco. A few weeks ago a good friend and the first person that came to our coffee shop work passed away. We had a memorial service for Him last Saturday and I (Markus) was sharing about his life and talked about John 5.24 “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. It left a lot of the people thinking about their own lives. I ended the message with a challenge to reach out to lonely people that are living around them. It was a moving and emotional time. Please pray for his family in this season. This week we are planning for our thanksgiving meal which we will have next Thursday and also teach the students. Pray for fruitful times.

Thank you so much for all your prayers. We really appreciate you.

We also want to ask you to pray about to join our monthly or one time gift support team. We lost a few supporters over the last few months and want to see if you would like to start partnering with God and us in the ministry we are doing here. Pray about it. You can click on this link for more info on how to support us. Thank you for considering us. It means a lot to us. May God bless you richly.

Obey

Many times I walked through San Francisco and I saw people with Tshirts and Hats that said the word obey. I wonder what the designer of the clothing line had in mind for the people to obey. For Christians it means to obey God and walk in what he calls us to do on a daily base. I think sometimes it can be easy to think that we obeyed God by doing something in our life (reaching out to a person, doing ministry at church, going in full time missions etc.), but the truth is it needs to be an everyday thing. As an example if God called you to reach the people that live next to you and you invite them over for one dinner but then never meet or share with them again, that is not real obedience. But if you ask God on a daily base how you are able to reach them and bring them closer to Him that is true obedience. Walking out daily what God calls us to do is true obedience.  And again it doesn’t count to say I obeyed God at one point, it needs to be daily. It’s a challenge, but it is important to do since it makes us able to live our life to the fullest.  Ask God to show you areas where you haven’t obeyed him and ask for forgiveness in those. Then ask Him to help you obey Him daily. One thing that is important to remember in the area of obedience: God wants the best for us every day!!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

We had a great week here in San Francisco with lots of hospitality, time with the boys and girls club and meetings at the coffee shop. This Saturday we will have a memorial service for a friend from the neighborhood and I Markus will give a short message there. Please pray that God gives me the right words that will comfort but also encourage people to find Jesus as there personal savior. Thank you for all your prayers!!

We also want to ask you to pray about to join our monthly or one time gift support team. We lost a few supporters over the last few months and want to see if you would like to start partnering with God and us in the ministry we are doing here. Pray about it. You can click on this link for more info on how to support us. Thank you for considering us. It means a lot to us. May God bless you richly.

Do you live your life right now?

Over the years I had many conversations with people that were doing things they didn’t like. But the interesting thing was that they kept doing them just to make money to be able to retire someday and then do what they really want to do. I believe all of us go through seasons in our life where we don’t like what we do and I think that is normal. Even as Christians that follow God on a daily basis we will have days like that, just remember the Martyrs in the bible. But God called us to live our life with a purpose. God has a plan for our lives and it is not just to make money to someday retire to then maybe do what he calls us to do. No he wants us to follow his lead on a daily base. Jesus called each one of us to go into the world and make disciples. Are we living that call on a daily base? I’m not saying with that stop saving up for retirement or quit your job and become a missionary. But what I’m saying is that It is always important to check our motives on why we are doing things. Often we make life decisions based on fear or on a way of life that we see daily around us. But that should not be the reason for a decision. Instead ask yourself are you living your life for His glory, for your Glory or just for survival? Ask yourself that question and also if you need to make adjustments to your life. I promise you one thing, if you live your life for His Glory you will not die someday and say I wasted my life. I know this is a thought provoking blog, but it’s important for each of us to think about those things.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey friend

We hope you had a great week. We had a sad and on the otherside fruitful week. Our first friend from the neighborhood passed away this week after a 1 year battle with cancer. It was a sad moment but I was able to visit Him before he passed. Please keep his family in your prayers. Thursday and Friday we were teaching in our DTS on the topic of Relationship. It was a great time spending time with the students. Please pray that God keeps moving in the heart of the students in this area since relationships with God and people are the most important thing in life. Then on Sunday we did an outreach with our church to a bart station in the city to love on people there by writing them cards, giving them candy and roses and praying for some of them. It was awesome.

God wants to go deeper and heal

When I think about last week and teaching in class about relationship I remembered again how God brought deeper and deeper healing in my own life. But the thing is God only goes as deep as you can handle at a time as well only as far as you want to go. So sometimes you started receive healing in an area of your life but then realize later that other things in this area still are wounded. That doesn’t mean God doesn’t want to heal you, no it just means God wants to bring even deeper healing in this area. Many times it will go through those 3 steps. Revelation of the root that caused the hurt. 2^nd bring the area before God and walk in forgiveness towards whoever caused the wound. 3^rd Go to the place with God and ask him to bring a deeper healing and believe that he will. A good book on one of the areas that often causes hurt is called The bait of Satan from John bevere and it deals a lot with offense. I recommend everyone to read it since it gave me personally even deeper revelation of how to find deeper freedom.  God deeper with God and become through that more the person he made you to be and have a deeper relationship with your father in heaven.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen