How often have you heard people say that Jesus was a good man who did good things in a loving and kind way but he wasn’t God?   That is precisely what Jesus’ detractors said about Him nearly 2,000 years ago.    It is still vitally important that people connect the power of  His actions to His unity with God.  He showed His power so that we might believe.

Increasingly, it seems, we live in a world that really isn’t very interested in truth.  Many people have a bias against Jesus and His followers that colors their perception and they aren’t remotely interested in contemplating any other options.  When I encounter such animosity to Christ, my gut reaction is to just clam up and ignore them … or maybe get in an argument with them!   Jesus example in this passage really provides us with a better example of how to behave –  actually, a loving example.  He does not argue.  He does not ignore.  Jesus gives them one last chance by going on the record.  Yes, I am the King of the Jews.  His responsibility was to tell the truth in a loving, winsome way.  The listeners’ responsibility is to accept the truth.  While we can never make people believe,  we should never ignore an opportunity to go on the record.  

To the casual reader, John 6:53ff sounds almost like it could be a scenario for a gory book or TV series.  Those who heard Jesus say these things, as well as many people since, find the whole reference rather odd, if not downright unsettling.  Of course, they seldom bother to do a background check on the historical events that would cause Jesus to make such a bold statement.  The Jews listening to him (vs. 52) should have quickly connected those historical dots.  After all, one of the greatest examples of continued care for the people of God manifested itself during the wilderness wanderings of their own Hebrew nation.  For 40 years, manna (bread) miraculously fell from heaven every day to sustain God’s people.  That bread provided not just for their daily needs but also, because they were alive and strong, for their spiritual needs, as they were now physically able to follow God’s leadership and exit the wilderness for the promised land.  It was a vivid picture of God’s care for His people and a shadow of what would come year’s later when the Messiah (Christ) would sustain His people with his broken body and shed blood.  Eating His flesh and blood alludes to communion, the covenant meal that Christians partake of every week as they gather together to memorialize the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ.  The broken bread represents Christ’s broken body – the wine represents his spilled blood.  That weekly time of repentance, remembrance and renewal provides spiritual sustenance and spiritual union with both the Father and the Son.  It is a way to keep us all – the church, Christ and the Father – connected in a life giving union.  Consequently, it always surprises me to run into people who think this covenant meal is optional.  Jesus Himself said in vs. 53:  Unless you eat the flesh (bread) and the blood (wine) you have no life in you.  (It is reminiscent of another verse:  Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you.)  Jesus’ statement provides a rather compelling reason to faithfully present ourselves together each week, as the body of Christ, to feed on Christ.  It is we can live  … forever.  

1.)  Jesus was alive and standing in front of the disciples.  It should not have been such a surprise since He had predicted that He would rise from the dead on the third day.  Still, they were startled, frightened and amazed thinking He might be a ghost.

2.) Jesus expected His disciples to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name to all nations.  While none of the disciples would have had any problem with repentance and forgiveness to their Jewish kindred, the idea of salvation for all the ethnic nations of the world was  a ground breaking thought.  It should not have been such a surprise since it had been prophesied by Amos and others.  Even so, that message would not really sink in until much later (Acts 10) when Peter meet Cornelius through the direct intervention of the Lord.  

While it is easy for us to look at these historical figures and wonder why they did not pay better attention … I can’t help but wonder if we ever are guilty of the same thing – Being around the words of Jesus but yet not really paying attention to them.  Or, even worse yet, picking and choosing the words we want to hear and ignoring the rest.  Our goal with every message from Christ is to read it, hear it, pick it apart, ingest it, follow it, do it and remember it.  

GRS

GRS

If you are expecting all 366 messages from Jesus in this year’s daily Bible reading to make you feel warm and fuzzy, maybe it is just as well that you loose that notion early in the year.  Today’s section from John 15 certainly has a cationary tone about it that will make many people feel uncomfortable.  After all, even suggesting that a lax follower of Christ might be picked up, thrown into the fire and burned is not something that most of us want to hear.  Yet, we would do well to remember that while Jesus may say things we don’t want to hear, they are always the things that are the most beneficial to us – things we really need to hear and understand.  Of course, the point of today’s passage is to stay connected to Jesus so you have no fear of ever being separated from Him – Remain in me and I will remain in you.  Just as vines flourish and thrive by drawing their strength from the stalk, so too do the followers of Jesus flourish and thrive by drawing their strength from Christ and His message of salvation.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  Listening to the words of Jesus – meditating on them so they dwell in us – that is the best way to stay connected to Jesus.  How else can we be His disciples if we do not know Him?  Whether His message is happy, hopeful or a stern reminder, if it comes from Jesus, you can be certain it is a message worth storing away in your heart.  

-  Do not let your hearts be troubled

- Trust in me

-I am going to prepare a place for you with plenty of room for all

- I will come back and take you with me

Even with such encouragement, Thomas was still unsettled, prompting a final piece of advice for him and all Christians:

I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  

There are lots of things in this life that we do not know, cannot fathom or even remotely understand.  We may feel discouraged, alone and unsure about the future.  Yet, if we put our complete trust in Jesus, we will find a direct path to God the Father.  Such assurance is found no where else or in no one else.   Jesus and Jesus only, is the way to the Father.  There were many things that Thomas did not know … there are many things we don’t know.  But Jesus, revealed to human kind in flesh and blood, as well as the written word, is a savior we can know with complete certainty and it makes all the difference in this world and the next.

GRS

Jesus the Good Shepherd  … it has long been a popular mental and artistic image.  What could be better than for Jesus to know His sheep in the same intimate way that He knows His Heavenly Father?  That we would be included in this familial circle is mind boggling, to say the least.  It suggests a complete intimacy unobstructed by any barriers.  It would not be enough to say that our Good Shepherd can read us like an open book,  we would have to add that He understands the life-paper upon which are lives are written as well as the way in which everything in our being is bound together and placed on the shelf of life.  That can be very comforting.  It can also be very alarming given the fact that our Good Shepherd even knows all the little details in the footnotes of our life that we may have worked so hard to hide from the rest of the world.  He knows … and still lays down His life for His sheep.  That is something to think about all day long.  GRS

If you really want to have a year that is happy on the deepest of levels, I would urge you to follow the daily Bible reading guide that I have prepared for you.  Compared to the normal, lengthy read I usually suggest, this year’s daily installment will seem quite short.  Any one can find the time to read a few verses each day.  Still, as they say, the best things often come in small packages and our daily reading packages are the best because they come directly from Jesus Christ Himself.  Since we call ourselves Christians, it is imperative that we stay focused on Christ and His directions for life so we can live like Christians.  How else will we know who we are and what we are to do with our lives unless we stay in tune with our role model, Christ Jesus our Lord?

January 1, 2012 - Our first verse for 2012 is one of the most familiar verses in the word –  John 3:16 & 17.  It is about the only verse known well enough to everyone that I can count on audience participation when reciting it aloud in church. Still, the part where voices are loudest is always the first part: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  (Although I don’t use the KJV of the Bible to preach, this verse just seems to automatically come out that way.)  When contemplating Christ and what made Him tick you have to begin and end with love.  Christ’s life, ministry, sacrifice and rule all spring from the deep love of both God the Father and Jesus Christ the son.  How do we know that?  Because He told us with these propehtic words during the early days of ministry.  I guess you could say that John 3:16 & 17 is rather like a Mission’s Statement about the family business – Salvation Prompted by Love.

Because this verse is such a familiar one, the challenge will be to read and ponder it in a way that seems fresh.  While I am never big ontampering with holy texts, repeat this to yourself several times today as you ponder the verse:  For God so loved (your name) that He gave His only begotten Son that if (your name) believed in Him, (your name) should not perish but have ever lasting life.  For God sent not His son into the world to condemn (your name) but that (your name) might have ever lasting life.  

DON’T FORGET:  Each day’s verse will be posted on this web site at 12:01 AM, so you will always be able to find it here.  Additionally, we have provided a button on the first page you can use to sign up for daily delievery of your verse straight to your email account. 

GRS

Beginning January 1, 2012 and continuing through the rest of the year, we will concentrate on one Biblical message Direct From Jesus every single day.  Some of the passages will be long but most are fairly short.  All, however, will contain something extremely important for disciples of Christ to know and ponder.  For the person who has trouble managing the long reads we have traditionally done, this new format ought to be quite easy to follow as most passage are just 1 -3 verses in length.  This should be particularly helpful to families looking for something to use in their daily devotions that are child friendly.  Even the longer passages (10-12 verses) are not so long that they could not be easily handled by nearly every reader.  The verse for the day will always be available on the website, as well as being posted on our Facebook page and in the church bulletin.

For those who want a longer read, I suggest that you buy The Greatest Words Ever Spoken by Steven K. Scott.  Using his book as a guide,  we will be printing a daily reading order (1-2 pages a day that also include the verse of the day) that will take you straight through the entire book.  In 519 pages, Scott categorizes over 1,900 statements of Jesus in more than 200 topics.

As the cover states, it contains everything Jesus said about you, your life and everything else!  Independent of our yearly read, this book is a great resource for every Christian.  Given the many daily life topics covered in the book, I can see it also being used independent of our read when issues, problems, temptations and questions come up in life.  After all, when problems arise, the first question we ought to ask our selves is What would Jesus advise me to do?  With both a scripture and topic index, this reference guide can provide a lot of guidance to Christians at any stage in their spiritual journey.

The easiest place to get a copy of  The Greatest Words Ever Spoken is through Amazon.  The hardcover version, shown here, lists for $15.50.  Paper back is $10.87.  There is even a Kindle Edition for $13.99, which would allow readers with a Kindle, iPad or Smart Phones to have constant access to this topical resource.  If you order now, you have plenty of time to get it before Christmas.  

This is a very manageable daily read that is sure to bring you great blessings.

Pastor Gene

While this photo may not look all that impressive – after all, it’s just a few bags of groceries and my family has plenty of food in the refrigerator and food in the pantry.  Yet to families who do not have that same type of good fortune, any bag of groceries is, literally, a God send.  In fact, under the direction of the AFCC Youth Groups, our congregation has undertaken Project Turkey Leg as a way of sending God’s blessings to needy families in our community.  Working with My Safe Harbor, The Strong Families Institute and the Anaheim GRIP program to identify 100 needy families in our immediate area, AFCC is assembling a big box of staple items, complete with a whole turkey, for every family on the list!  Because everything has to be finished in the next few days, there is a steady stream of people stopping by the church office with either a bag of items needed for each basket or a financial donation to cover the cost of the turkeys.   Of course, that special turkey fund got off to a good start through the efforts of the AFCC youth group as each individual teen personally committed to raise $100 on their own.  In addition to that, the youth, under the direction of Hank and all the youth sponsors, have also had other fund raisers to make sure they can come through with full baskets for each family.  All that makes the photo much more than bags of groceries – it is a testament of God’s love at work through His people.  I am certainly proud of everyone’s effort and generosity on this project and know that it will make a difference in the lives of 100 families in our immediate neighborhood.   

For the second time, FeliCia was a worker at the Enrichment Fair.  Here is her story.

 A Little over a year ago, my daughter and I attended the Revolution Enrichment Fair put on by AFCC at her school in Anaheim   After meeting the friendly blue-shirted volunteers at all the booths, we decided, while driving home in the car, to come and visit the church someday.  Before we actually got home, however, we ran into a store to buy a couple of things.  All of a sudden, we found ourselves in the midst of more blue shirts!  Several church volunteers had gone to the same place to shop as well.  They immediately remembered us and we remembered them.  The following Sunday we came to the church, liked the message and felt right at home. One of the main reasons we continued to come back was how welcoming the congregation was when we were new.

FeliCia and her daughter not only feel at home, they are busy finding ways to make new people feel at home at AFCC.  In fact, FeliCia is heading up our next BIG Project – The Neighborhood Clothing Exchange.  You can read about that in the announcement section of this site.  While I am not sure if she will be wearing a blue shirt or not, she will be there and most happy to answer any question you might have about Anaheim First Christian Church.  

I know we are in full summer mode when the first wave of AFCC young people (Jr. High) and sponsors head off to church camp.  In just a couple weeks, a large group of Juniors  will take their turn at camp, to be quickly followed by an equally large number of  High Schoolers.  Whenever possible, I like to join the campers, parents, staff and sponsors in the parking for a prayer circle before each group leaves.  While we have been having circles like that in the AFCC parking lot for several generations, it really is more than just a symbolic gesture.  Each camp trip is the culmination of months of careful planning.  In almost every case, our staff, sponsors, parents and young people have had to make all sorts of plans and effort to go to camp.  Families have sacrificed to raise their portion of the costs while the congregation, collectively and individually, have done the same exact thing.  All that effort is willingly made because we know that a week of special study and fellowship in a camp environment can make a vital and lasting contribution to the spiritual life of a young person.  While we send them off with loads of best wishes for a great time, our main hope and prayer is that it will also be a life changing time they will remember forever.

GRS

It’s always a trick:  Keeping all the loose ends of life tied up and in place.  While that is true for our personal lives, it is also true for the church.  There never seems to be enough time to do all the things we need to do!    If we aren’t careful, we can concentrate on one area of our ministry while letting other areas dangle.  Maybe it is because of that very reason that I am particularly fond of those church events which allow us to multi-task on our mission, making it possible for us to tie up several ministry “ends” at once.  A perfect example of this topic would be our recent Revolution, an enrichment fair for children and parents in our immediate neighborhood.

While you won’t find any scriptural directive for the church to go ye out therefore and lash together poles, there is plenty of motivation for the church to interact with their community in such as way as to be salt and light. With nearly 30 different enrichment booths being built and peopled with AFCC’ers showcasing their talents in athletics, art, music, science, math and, yes, pole lashing, every one of the 450 attendees could find at least one thing that caught their attention – something that stimulated their interests.  Of course, we do have some ulterior motives for the event. Studies show that children who have at least one outside interest (whether it be athletics, art, music, science, math or pole lashing) are more likely to both do better in school and less likely to get involved in a neighborhood gang. Obviously, we would like to see all our neighborhood children do well in life.   And, if show casing our hobbies and interests can help facilitate that process, then we are happy to oblige.  However, I can’t help but believe that the added visual impact of seeing roughly 100 christians of all ages and gender working together to provide an enrichment fair, also sends a strong positive message of Christ’s love.  Unfortunately, not every attendee gets to see that sort of multi-ethnic, multi-generational cooperation on a consistent basis.  We can preach about it all we want in our auditorium but it is just as effective, if not more so, to demonstrate it in a neighborhood parking lot.  Of course, knowing Christ is the very best way of all to enrich one’s life to the fullest possible extent.  That fact is bound up in all we do at AFCC … even when tying up loose ends.

Pastor Gene

April 25:       1 Chronicles 22

April 26:       1 Kings 3:1-15; 4: 20 – 28

April 27:       1 Kings 6

April 28:       2 Chronicles 5 – 7

April 29:       1 Kings 11: 1-13

April 30:       1 Kings 11:14

<strong>Excerpted from <em>Discover God’s Story </em>by Jim Eichenberger © 2010 Standard Publishing.  Used by permission.</strong>

February’s sermons are structured around the theme of Boldly Following God: A Look At the Spiritual Intentionality of Jesus. During the month we will look at the various ways that Jesus, beginning at age 12, began to show His bold, spiritual intentionality.

6 – Growing Up With God  LK 2:41-52, 3:21 &22

13 – Taking Aim at Satan MT 4:1-11: Temptation in the Wilderness

20 – On the Record with the Religious Establishment: JN 2:13-21 & LK 4: 16-30

Face to Face with The Christ: Jesus Embraces His Mission, is the theme of  my sermons for the months of March and April. We will see the mission of Christ take shape and crystalize as he comes face to face with various individuals and institutions over the corse of His ministry.

Sermons in this series will be:

March 6  – Nicodemus Meets The Christ JN 3:1-21

13 – A Samaritan Woman Meets the Christ JN 4:4-30, 39-42

20 – Peter, James and John Meet the Christ MT 16:21-17:13

27 – Martha Meets the Christ JN 11: 1-45

April 3 – The Disciples Meet the Christ – JN 14:1-3

10 – A Thief Meets the Christ, LK 23:32-43

17 –  Palm Sunday – The Holy City Meets the Christ LK 19:28-44:

24 –  Easter – Mary Magdalene Meets the Christ JN 20:1-18

While I invite you to listen to them through this site, you are always welcome to join us at the 10:30 AM service for a live taping session!