We hope you had a wonderful week. This is our last week in Germany. Our time was awesome. It was great to see friends, supporters, and speak in different churches and groups. God was really at work in encouraging people. We are so thankful for that. Please pray for our last few days that we have a few more great conversations and then also a good restart in San Francisco.
A new workout swim against the tide
For this week we have a video blog with the topic swim against the tide. Be encouraged and challenged.
We hope you are having a wonderful start into this great week. We are enjoying our time in Germany with meeting friends, supporters, family and speaking in groups, churches and info nights. Pray for Gods encouragement for every person that comes and that we see. Thanks for all your prayers.
Are your investments paying off?
One of my friends in the city is an investment advisor and he advises people on how to invest there money so they will do ok when they retire someday. Then they have to make choices in what to invest which can be a hard one as well. It is always smart to think ahead in that area. But nobody can guarantee you 100% for sure that your investment will actually Pay off by the time you retire since so many things affects the world economy. Those made me think of us as Christians. Where are we putting our investments? Are we investing in the Kingdom of God, means are we doing what God is calling us to do with our life, resources gifts and talents he gave us? I feel many times it is so easy to live our life thinking about what we need and what we would like to have in our life here on earth but not think about eternity. We invest our time and resources in things that will eventually go away. I think that is one of the reasons why we have so many people that commit suicide or are depressed and worried because it didn’t pay off. In the bible it talks in Matthew 6:19-21 about how we need to think about where we invest in. Jesus guarantees us that everything we invest the Kingdom of Heaven will be a good investment.
Ask yourself the question how much of your time, resources and gifting’s god gave you are you investing for your own gain and how much do you invest for the gain of Gods Kingdom here on earth? So lets all think how we can invest more of our life into the Kingdom of God. And I’m not saying with that lets all become Pastors or church leaders. Yes some of us are called to do that. But the majority of us is called, as an example to bring Gods Kingdom to people that are living around us, working with us or are doing sports with us, through our resources and giftings. Also through the way we think. If we always have Gods Kingdom in our forehead we will think about and do things that bring His Kingdom to earth. If we have thoughts for our own good in our forehead or do things in fear, we will live life just investing in our own good and not the good for others. Switch your mindset and actions to think Gods Kingdom, through that you are investing your life into the Kingdom and through that you make investments that will pay off.
We are still in Germany having information nights, meeting with small groups, friends and supporters. Pray that God will encourage every single person we get in touch with. Last week we celebrated the biggest German Holiday the Unification of East and West. It was awesome day which got even better since Jen was able to shake the hand of the German President.
Presence
For many of us live is busy on a daily base. Between work, meetings, church, ministry and hobbies our schedule can fill up even more. So at the end of the day most of us are tired and exhausted. But how do you get refreshed? Spend time in God’s presence. Many would say that this would be an extra activity and would just add to the craziness of their day but I disagree. When we look through the lives of different people in the bible we find that the opposite is true. Look at Moses, when he spends time with God on the mountain he came back radiant. Look at David and his life. When he spends time in God’s presence he got refreshed (Psalm 23). Also look at Jesus, he spend time with his father and got refreshed. Even a short time before he was crucified he spends time with his father and got perspective in his presence. So the truth is that the extra hour spend in God’s presence is actually a time of refreshment and restrengthening. If you think about it God has the answer to all of our questions, he is the one who brings hope and he is the ultimate healer to just give you a few examples. So in his presence all those things are available. But how do you spend time in his presence? Honestly there is not just one way. Sometimes it is great to just spend some time in worship, other times it is good to just be still and let Him refresh you. Again there is not one way but many ways to be in His presence, the significant thing is to be in it. But I promise you out of my own experience that every minute you spend with Him you will not regret and it will actually refill you.
We hope you are having an absolutely fantastic week. Our week will be one of the busier ones with different groups we speak at and an information night. Please keep us in your Prayers that we are sensitive to Gods guidance in all those events. Thanks for all your Prayers!!
Church Family
When we look at the bible and how it often describes family we see a place of safety, growth, discipleship and community. But we also see a place of challenge, conflict and disagreement. When we look at the first church in Acts we see the same things. I believe that this picture of family needs to be translated into our church life. When we look at church history we see many times that churches split and started fighting each other because of disagreements in theology. Today we see many people switch their church because they got hurt or offended by someone or disagree with something. But that is not a family, that is more an attitude of getting the best out for ourselves without caring about others. Most of those people will keep switching churches because they will always find something they disagree with. I believe that we need a change of mind. The bible talks about to forgive the one that hurt you and to figure things out with each other. It doesn’t talk about to just leave and give up. If we all start working together in our church community and go with the attitude of love we will show the world the unity of believers that the bible talks about. It will change the way people look at the church if we love each other and speak good about each other.
Let this be a challenge to all of us and let Jesus help us to do it!
This week we are enjoying a wonderful time with our family in Switzerland. It is so nice spending time with family and it makes it more special when you haven’t seen some of them for over 3 years. Please keep praying for the ministry in North Beach while we are gone that God keeps moving in the hearts of all our friends there!! Thank you
A new approach to Advertise
When I look at Jesus and his ministry, I see His way of reaching people was going to them. Look at the advertisement industry today and you will see the same approach. They will get their message to you through every channel they get and they also keep reinventing themselves to keep the message relevant to you. It seems the advertisement industry learned more from Jesus as we the church did. So why is our approach as a church more that people need to come to us instead of using the approach Jesus used? Or why are we still using ways that were used 100 years ago instead of learning how this new generation can be reached. I think that is one of the reasons why we have a decline in many churches today. We expect people to come to a place where they maybe don’t know anyone where everything is different to them. When we meet people where they are at we find them in a place where they are comfortable and through that feel more open to share and connect. And I don’t talk about that we have to change the gospel, because the gospel is as relevant and true as it always was, is and will be. No I’m talking about that we need to think about ways on how we can bring it to people to where they are at. In countries like china Christians are actively out there to bring the good news to others and what we see there is a growing church. We need to come back to an active response to the gospel. When we look at the parable of the lost sheep we see the approach of the shepherd and how he went out into the dark to find the lost sheep. This needs to be our approach. Let’s be out there to bring hope to the lost. Look back at the series we wrote a few weeks ago to get some good tips on how to reach out to others and then do it. How great will it be when someday in heaven people come up to you and say, You are the reason that I’m here today. So let’s get active so we can see that happen!!
Have a blessed week
Markus and Jen
