Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week. We saw God deepening relationships we have and also bring along new ones. We also celebrated my (Markus) Birthday last Saturday and went to a drag race which was awesome (here is a link to the photo album). I also felt really loved since many of my friends wrote or called me for it. Thank you that meant a lot to me.

Are you living by your limits or by His

Over the last year I was reading a lot of books about different ministry leaders and missionaries. One thing that stuck out to me is that they didn’t put limits on what God can do. Many times we try to figure out things or take on projects based on our capacity and strength. But the thing is, if you do that with God projects, you don’t need God to show up since you will be able to achieve it. When you look as an example at Moses and the task He gave him you see that it took some serious faith and trusting that God will show up. He had no way to get Israel through the water without God. But God showed up and split the sea. Or Noah, everybody thought he was crazy to build a ship in the middle of the country. But God showed up again and saved his family through it. But all of them had to take a step of faith that required them to believe that God has no limitations. We want to challenge you to think about the areas in your life where you put limits on God. Pray about it and ask God why you put those limits there and ask Him to help you breaking them. Ask God what he wants you to do if there are no limitations. God wants to do great things through your life, Let Him!!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey friends

During the last week Jens’ Mom and sister came out for a visit. It was really good seeing them again. We also spoke to a local small group about getting involved into the work we are doing in North Beach. Pray that God will speak to people in the small group about what they can do to impact the community. Thanks for all your Prayers. Oh and I am excited for this Saturday which is also my (Markus) birthday. My wonderful friends bought me tickets to go to a drag race. Yeah!!

 Are you taking Authority?

This morning in worship God gave me a picture of how we are and what authority we have. Think about a King in the prime time of Kings and the authority he had. When he said something it was done for him. If he told someone to conquer another Kingdom or to bring him dinner, it didn’t matter what it was, it got done.  He took his authority and made things happen.  But then if you would have been the Son of the King and you would ask for something to be done that your father asked you to make sure it gets done, people would listen to you since you are the son of the King and since you carry his authority.  If he would have been the same person with the same giftings, but he would have not the title of a King son nobody would have listened to him.

So now if you look at God and His Kingdom you will see that He literally has authority over everything. So nothing in this world can stand against Him. And God called us sons and daugthers of Him. So that means if He calls us to do something nothing can stop us, because we have the authority from our father. I mean literally nothing can stop us besides the fear in our life. The enemy can’t,  demonic powers can’t, people can’t, so literally no one can stop us. But how do we receive that authority to fight that fear? Only through faith. And faith is believing that God is at work through the things we are doing in His name even if we don’t see the results right away. We have to believe that God called us. And no matter if you know the clear calling for your life or not, we all have the calling Jesus gave us go and make disciples. A little story from here to make you think.

Charles was a man I met at local meeting of Christian business man. Every week he invited another man who didn’t know Jesus to the meeting and to church. Many times he got rejected from the man since he didn’t want to go. Charles didn’t stop. He spend time with the man and invested in him with no seen success but he kept using the Authority God has given him. That went on for a long time. Charles never gave up. 3 months ago Charles passed away. 2 days later when the man found out that he died He understood what Charles was sharing with Him about Jesus and Gods Kingdom and he knew that Charles went to heaven. The man gave his life to Jesus and changed. The thing is, Charles never saw the outcome on earth of using the authority God has given him, but it didn’t mean nothing happened.

We are at the end of this blog and I want to leave you with this: If we step up and replace the fear in our life with faith nothing can stop us. Use the authority God has given you!!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hello our friend

San Francisco was blessed last week through a team from Washington. A good friend of mine let a group of youth to San Francisco to help out at the boys and girls club and run a summer day camp at a church in Hunters Point. It was great working together with them to see more hope coming into the lives of many children in our city. Please keep praying that the work they started will keep moving forward.

We are Family

Jesus wont ask you in heaven how many people prayed the sinners prayer. But He will ask you, how many people did you disciple and be family to them.

When I think about family I think first of the family we are born in. But then second I think about our church family. So how many of us are actually seeing it as a family. I think many times people go to church and consume but then leave. I believe that is not family. If we are a part of a church we need to connect with people and invest in people. As an example if you prayed for someone to receive Jesus and they do so, that doesn’t mean its done. That means its starting. If you don’t walk alongside new Christians, many of them will give up their faith after a while and then it will be way harder to win them back.  Jesus called us to make disciples not converts. And how do you make disciples? If you walk alongside with people. If you are there when they need you and if you pray for them. Let them be a part of your life. Many people never experienced a true family where they are truly loved. But that is what we the church are called to give them. Just imagine this, you are going to church and you can share everything that is going on in your life with everyone and they will celebrate with you in your successes and encourage you in your failures. A place where you can be totally who you are and you are accepted. But to create a place like this we all have to do our part. We cant always expect others to come to us first, but we have to take the first step. So next time you go to church invest in people and become a family to them. Love on them and be real with them. You will see that when you do that you will get more back then you could have ever asked for. Remember these are your brothers and sisters and not competition

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

Wow we had a crazy and wonderful week. On top of the normal weekly ministry times and tasks we had a team from China with us. They joined us in praying over our neighborhood and they also learned how they can impact the business community more with Jesus. One of the team members just became a Christian and prayed for the first time. It was a powerful testimony of the faithfulness of our father. We also had an old friend of ours come by for a visit which was amazing. During the weekend 2 couples which are good friends of ours got married. To get to both of the weddings involved a lot of driving since one of them was in Santa Barbara, but it was totally worth the drive seeing them start their lives together before God. And weddings are always a lot of fun too.

This week we will have a team from Washington that will help out at the boys and girls club to bless them. Please keep them and the people we reach out to in your prayers this week. Pray for salvations and bigger breakthroughs in their lives. Also pray for an extra boos of energy for me and Jen. Thanks friend.

5 Billion people missing

When I woke up this morning I was spending some one on one time with God which is always wonderful and refreshing. He started to speak to me about His children and how he loves each one of them. When He started to share about that it made me think about how well I do in loving His children? God’s heart is to see all his children come back to Him. It’s not his heart to judge any of them without Jesus as a middleman.  Through Jesus all He sees is freedom since Jesus took on all of our and there sin to the cross and brought redemption. So how can we have a part in that plan to bring those children back to their father? Let’s look at the 3 examples Jesus gives in Luke 15. First he talks about 100 sheep and one of them got lost. He lets the 99 stay in safety in the open country just to search all night for the lost one. The same happened in the next parable with the coin. The woman in the story doesn’t give up till she found the missing coin. And then the famous story of the prodigal son. The son dishonors the family, spends all his inheritance and brings shame on himself as well as the family. What is the fathers reaction when he comes home? He runs towards him, hugs him and puts beautiful clothing on him and throws a party since he is so happy that his son is back.

We see in all 3 of those stories that it takes an action of either searching or going towards them. So our job is to find the people that don’t know Him and bring the good news to them. But it is important to not judge them because we see something wrong in their life, no but we have to show them that they are missed in the Kingdom. If a person truly feels that they are missed and loved they get a feeling of belonging, and that is what God wants to give them, a belonging to His Kingdom. And it talks about in Romans 2.4 that His kindness leads people to repentance. So think about ways how you can help 6 of your neighbors , coworkers, friends etc. experience God in this way. By doing this you bring more of Heaven to Earth and that is a really good thing.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen