Love your Neighbor – Pray

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Love your neighbor PrayI tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. John 5.19

One of the first things Jesus always did was looking at the father and seeing through that what he had planned. Jesus went many times away to pray. Prayer was his intimate time with the father. It was the times when he got refilled and just refreshed by having time with his father. Another reason I believe he did that for, was to really see how the father sees each person he gets in touch with.  Just think at the different people Jesus got in touch with. Some of them were seen as rejects of society and were not really loved, but he showed them a love they never saw just by being with them. Others were well respected people and they felt his love as well.

When we have Gods heart for people we see them different. We start to see the whole person not just a little piece. We also create a deeper love in our heart for that person if they are on our mind more often. And caring about someone is really key to show hope!

So lets start today and pray for your immediate neighbors.

  1. Ask God in your prayer to help you see them the way he sees them
  2. Pray for wisdom on how to pray for them
  3. Ask God for inside on how to pray for healing and restoration they might need.
  4. Ask God how you can become a great friend to them and how you can show his love to them.

Hey our friend

What a week in San Francisco. Almost every day was full of rain, which in some way is not nice, but in a drought area it’s a blessing. We had some great time reconnecting with everyone and being able to spend time. We also had a great start with the students.

Please join us this week in praying for people that are sick and had to go to the hospital. We had a few people here in our neighborhood like that and I am sure there are some in your area too!!

Thank you for praying and remember to pray for your neighbors! Prayer changes the world!!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor – Your Motives

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love-your-neighbor-what-is-your-motiveWhat are our motives to love our neighbor? Is it coming out of a feeling we have to do it to be good Christians or to do the right thing? Is it coming from getting benefits out for ourselves? These are just 2 examples, but there could be many reasons that motivate us, good and bad.

It is important to assess the reason why we want to do something, because through it we can see more of our heart and true motivations. Of course, we all would find something that we don’t necessarily like in us. When we look at the life time of Jesus we notice as well that people had motivations to do certain things. That is one reason why he was upset with the strict religious group of that time who put many rules and regulations on everyone which in the process made the people do things out of fear and not out of love. When we look at Jesus on the other side we notice that the things He did came out of love and relationship. He had a true relationship with his disciples and also a true love for them. He did not try to sell them something or manipulate them into a certain direction. The disciples wanted to follow Him and be friends because He was real and they felt inspired to live the way Jesus does. Of course, His heart was always that people truly find the truth and the Father, but He didn’t push it. That truth is the same for when you connect with your neighbors. Become a true friend with them. Don’t build a friendship just to evangelize. Build a friendship because you really care about them and want to get to know them better. True friendships open the door for honest conversation and ways to share your faith, but the friendship has to be honest first!!

So here are a few things to ponder on:

  1. What is your motivation?
  2. Do you have a love for your neighbors? if not ask God to give you love for them!!
  3. What does it mean to you being a true friend? Discuss this with 2 other people you know. Doesn’t have to be Christian friends.

Hey our friend

We hope your new year is going really great so far!! Today (Monday) the north beach DTS Students will officially start working with us. The first week can be sometimes challenging since everything is new and different.  Pray for a good start in the neighborhood for them and time of growth to get a heart for their own communities. This Friday we will also have the first Haeusser Hangout for the New Year which is awesome!! We really look forward to connect with everyone from that wonderful group! Haeusser is our name but also the German word for houses, and since it is multiple ones you should start one at your house too!!

Have a wonderful week and remember that God placed amazing gifts in you!!

Markus and Jen

 

Love your Neighbor 2017

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lynFor the year 2017 we plan to write a lot on this blog, how you can show the love of God in your community and neighborhood through the way you live your life. So get ready for it!!

We want to make this also interactive so we need to hear back from you about which areas we should talk about. We touched this topic before in the last few years, but we believe that it is key for seeing changes in our communities. What about if each Christian lives the great commission by showing to neighbors and coworkers the love of God trough their own life! It will create a change and it will give people a true picture of who God really is. It will also empower you to grow in your faith since you live your life more intentional. We want to look at all of this through the life of Jesus and through different sermons he preached. Next week we will start with what motivates you. So get ready!!

  1. Ask yourself the question how you can start living more intentional.
  2. Look at your life and see where you are a good example and which areas need improvement!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful start into this new week. Today (Monday) our new DTS Students are arriving. They will have an introduction week and will start working with us in North Beach next week. Pray for a good start for them as well as wisdom in choosing with which ministry to work with for their school. Thank you for being on our team also in this new year through Prayer and your financial support!! You are a blessing!

Have a wonderful week

Markus and Jen

 

A new Start

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“Tomorrow is the first blanka-new-start page of a 365day book. Write a good one!” Brad Paisley

Today, or depending when you read this, we started into a New Year. A new year can also mean a new start. Last week we talked about to leave old things behind to start new. I like the quote from Brad Paisley at the beginning of the Blog, it’s a great way to live our life. I think sometimes we just live life, not thinking about the purpose and why we do what we do. We need to start asking ourselves what do we want to write in our book on a daily basis. Do we want it to say went to work, came home, worked some more, watched the news, played a video game, went to bed. Or do you want it to say spend time with God this morning and got a new perspective for the day, went to work and was able to show love to a coworker, drove home and worshipped God in the car, came home had intentional time with my family, helped my neighbor with bringing in the groceries, spend time praying for my community, read my bible together with my family and spend time in His presence together as a family and reflect on the day, went to sleep.

What do you want to be written in your book? Ask yourself that question daily. If your book would be daily like the first example I think a lot of people would put it down and get bored, but with the second option they would stay engaged. So I think in order to have a fresh start, we should have the Father involved in every part of our life. So how do you want your year/ life to look like? Its your choice!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week digesting all the good food from Christmas. First of all we want to wish you a blessed and happy New Year. May it be the best year so far!! We are now in Pennsylvania with our family. Please keep San Francisco in your Prayers while we are gone! Thank you for standing with us!! You are truly a blessing!

Have a great week!
Markus and Jen

Leave the old behind

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leave-the-old-behindA few months ago we went to a local beach in San Francisco and ran into a big Jewish Celebration there, the new year celebration Rosh Hashana. Many people stood together at the beach worshipped God and the Rabbi shared a message about the Celebration. In that message he encouraged people to throw all their sins into the ocean to have a fresh start into the new year with no leftover baggage from the old year. So all the people at the event walked down to the ocean and threw bread as a symbol for their sin into the ocean.

This is a beautiful picture of what Jesus wants for us too. He wants us to give our sins to Him by repenting for them so we can live a life of freedom. He already paid for them so don’t carry that burden around with you. Let this year end by dropping off all that baggage at Jesus feet.

Here are some easy steps to do that:

  1. Think about what sin you are still carrying around and write it out on a piece of paper.
  2. Pray and ask God to reveal things you missed and then write those on the paper
  3. Start going down the list one by one and use the following steps. First ask for forgiveness. Second spend a moment to receive his forgiveness. Third cut of any condemnation that you feel and give it to Jesus. Fourth declare what you want to do from now on. Example: if you lied declare that you will now with His help speak the truth. Fifth Rebuke the enemy. Tell him that he has no more power over you in Jesus name.
  4. Take the piece of paper and burn it as a statement that its really gone, of course burn it in a safe place!

It might take some time to do that depending on the length of your list but its worthy to leave everything in the old that you don’t need.

Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week celebrating Christmas. WE had a big meal with friends (neighbors) at our house. It was a lot of fun and we ate way too much food! Please pray for lonely people in this season since the holidays are an especially hard time for people that have no one! This week we will leave for Pennsylvania to spend time with family there.

Thank you for praying with us and supporting us financially in this past year. We don’t take it for granted and are thankful for you every day!! You are such a blessing!!

Have a great week and a good New Years Eve celebration!
Markus and Jen