Tag Archives: Hope

Ready for an Adventure?

Right in front of me on top of my desk is a wedding invitation for my brother and his future wife with the words “Our Adventure begins”. I love that way of looking at life. When we think of Adventure we think of new experiences, exploring something, but also taking risks. With a great adventure, you never know what comes next. But most of the time we would have some kind of guide who can lead us on this adventure. As an example, if you go White River rafting you probably will go with someone who is experienced and not just by yourself in your own little rubber boat.

Life as a follower of Jesus is an Adventure, but the great thing about that is that we also have a guide with us. God leads us along the way and is always with us. He knows totally what’s best for us along the way of that adventure. I was recently reading through the books of 1. Kings and you can see different outcomes when the kings went on their Adventure with God or without him. When they went with him He was guiding them along the way, gave them the right perspective and also the courage to do the right thing. If they walked by themselves, usually things didn’t work out well for them.

So going on an adventure always requires a good guide and God wants to be that guide for each one of us. Yes, Adventures can be challenging and sometimes scary, but with the right guide at your side things will work out better. Because you know He’s got things! Going down that White River and seeing the waves left and right can really bring fear, but with the guide in the front of the boat giving instructions and leading, it can be a lot of fun.

We want to encourage you to let God guide you in your Adventure. You will have an exciting journey ahead, but also someone who is with you when things don’t look as good.

Hey our friend

Labor Day is here and also the time of our last big barbecue for this year. Its sad that it is the last one for this season, but in the same way we are really excited to spend time with our neighbor friends. Make sure to invite some new people to your barbecue it is always exciting!!

But sadly life can’t be just barbecues; sometimes we also have to do office work. But we got a lot of stuff done this week. And it feels good too when you can see immediate results.

We hope you had a good week too and want to wish you an amazing one for this coming one! Let God guide you into your own Adventure with Him!!

God bless you

Markus and Jen

Peter

Over the last few months we looked at different people from the bible from time to time. Today we want to write about Peter, the friend of Jesus.

Peter used to be a fisherman before Jesus called him to be a disciple. A fisherman was a normal job but when Jesus called him to be a disciple that was a huge honor and upgrade for him. So first of all Jesus honored Peter by offering him that position. During their time together Peter grew in his faith also through stepping out in it and failing. One time he walked on the water, but then second guessed himself and what Jesus said, and began to sink, but Jesus pulled him out. But after all he took a step of faith in that situation and that takes a lot of courage. Later on he called Jesus the son of God which earned him credit from Jesus and also showed how he hears clearly from God. But just one chapter later he gets rebuked by Jesus because he did not listen to God. Again Peter was a normal guy with issues like all of us.

When we come towards the end of Jesus life Jesus told Peter how he would deny him in front of the people before the rooster would crow, but Peter strongly disagreed. But Jesus was right as soon as he was caught Peter denied him. But that moment changed something in Peters life. He broke down crying. Probably he realized even more that without trusting in Gods ability and not his own he would be lost. After Jesus rose from the dead, him and Peter had a conversation, in which Jesus spoke out his full trust in Peter. He said it 3 times that he trusts him and that he would build his Community (in the Jewish bible its called community not church) on him. Jesus rebuilds something in Peter by speaking out his full support to him not based on Peters achievements but based on how Jesus believed in him.

When we read further in the New Testament we see how that word came true and how he build his church on him. When we look at the church today we notice that all of us in the church are a bit like Peter ourselves. We are not perfect people; we have our problems and issues like Peter. But God still decided to choose us to build his Kingdom. He chooses imperfect people to bring change to an imperfect world. He takes us by the hand and walks with us like Jesus walked with Peter. He believes in us and wants to help us grow and succeed. So let us all take the hand of Jesus and let him guide us in our journey.

Hey our friend

What’s new in your life? Are you enjoying your summer?

Last week i (Markus) celebrated my 41st birthday and it was awesome!! Jen took me a to toy train museum the sunday before. On the day off, we went on a hike with the encouragment group and i got blessed with some amazing picninc food. At night we went out for a meat dinner which was amazing!! I made a little album if you want to see some pictures click on this link:

We also had some wonderful times with our neighbor friends. God really blessed us with friends that just live across the street! Its amazing!! Let him gift you with the same thing! Trust me its a blessing!!

Let the example of Peter show you in all our strength and weaknesses, in all our failures and successes, God wants to work with us!

God bless you

Markus and Jen

How can Jesus shine through you? Billy Graham

Someday you will hear that Billy graham is dead. Don’t believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have just gone into the presence of god! Billy graham

how can jesus sthine through you Billy GrahamLast week Billy Graham passed away or in his words changed his address at the age of 99. I want to dedicate this video blog entry to him since he is a great example how Jesus can shine through us! Be challenged by Billy Graham and how he brought the gospel to many people and follow his example by stepping into the calling God has for you!!

Hey our friend

How was your week? Ours was awesome! We had the opportunity to visit a church in Redding together as a team. It was a very refreshing time. I was also able to connect with a friend who is working on planting another church in our area. Its amazing to see how God is working!! We feel so blessed to be part of that! Don’t forget to pray for your community and neighborhood. Let God lead you on how! It makes a huge difference for the area as well as for you!!

Remember this week!! God has a calling on your life step into it! And if you try to find it, this is the Foundation of it Matthew 28.16-20!

God bless you

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor one last one

Love your neighbor One last oneSo this is the last blog of the year and on our series Love your Neighbor. But that doesn’t mean its done. No now it starts for some of us and for some of us it keeps going. When Jesus gave the command to love our neighbor He did not put a time limit on it. No this is something we are called to for the rest of our lives. Just think if the disciples would have stopped loving their neighbor what would have happened. The world would probably look different today.

God wants to partner with each one of us in transforming this world. Yes he could do it himself, no problem, but in relationship you want to partner with the other person. So we have to do our part. And we often ask God the question what should I do when we already received the answer Love your neighbor! SO what about if we make this all our theme for the year 2018. The world will start to look different. Our communities start to look more hopeful and we start having a stronger bound which holds us together. The crime rates will go down because we watch out for our neighbor, but not just that by loving our neighbor we can help prevent crime by helping people make better choices.

SO instead of putting our trust in politics, money or whatever we look for to bring change, let’s love our neighbor and bring the love of Jesus and with that change. With that we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year

 Hey our friend

Christmas is here and might be already gone by the time you read this blog. We probably already ate our wonderful Christmas dinner with neighbors and had a wonderful time. Our last week before Christmas was busy like usual, but we had time to spend time with friends from the community for a lunch or have a potluck with our church small group. What a blessing it is. Now we are starting to plan for the new year and all things ahead. Jen and I have a tradition to pray at the end of the year for words for the new year. We also look back at the ones we got for the last year and see how God moved through them and how they came to pass. We want to encourage you to pray for your new year and let God give you words for your new year.

Merry Christmas!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor Time to look back

Love your neighbor Time to look backNow its almost been a year since God put it on our heart to write for a full year on the topic love your neighbor. We really hope you got encouraged, challenged and empowered through reading through the different ones.

Starting with your motives and why you want to love your neighbor to prayer and also dealing with things that might hold you back in loving your neighbor. We talked about the importance of your giftings and how you can help others. Encouragment and community also were a big thing especially in being interdependent with your neighbors. We talked about how small things can make a difference and different ways on how you can have people over through hospitality. One week reminded us of the most important thing, love! We also touched challenges with time and how to fix that. And then of course we talked about the importance of showing the love you have for Jesus  through the way you live your life.

This was just touching a few of the points we talked about. If you didn’t get a chance to read them all they are all saved under the category Love your neighbor. But more important than reading them is to let them become a part of your life. Let the things they talk about inspire you to bring hope and change to the place you live. Be one of the lights that Jesus talks about in Matthew 5.14-16 to your neighbors. Make that area shine and stick out so people can see the love of God in a new way. Its so simple that each one of us can do it. So if you haven’t started, today is a perfect day for it!! And one thing that really helps is if you surround yourself with a group of people that want to join you in their own areas so you can encourage each other! It really helps!

 Hey our friend

Wow Christmas is only 1 week away. That is crazy to believe but in some way its easy to believe since we had so many Christmas parties we attended. As more you are connected with your community as more you are a part of things that are going on. We also had a day of baking to bless neighbors with a card and a home baked specialty. It was something so simple, but it brought so much joy to so many. I also had my last mentoring meetup for this year. Its amazing to see how a young person can grow if you invest some of your time and love. Also through that he became part of our family! Maybe there is someone in your neighborhood that needs a mentor or an encourager. You should find them and do it!

Remember that loving your neighbor is easy, you just have to do it!

We wish you a early merry Christmas!

Markus and Jen