Sojourners In A Strange Land

I was raised in a small Northern California community outside of Sacramento.  My family had a farm and their main crop was eggs – so we raised chickens for our livelihood.  It was really a small family farm, not like some of the big commercial farms you see today.  My mom and dad and my brothers were pretty much the workers on the farm.  I can’t remember any time that we had a hired hand on the farm.  If we did go on a short vacation to our cabin in the mountains, one of my dad’s friends who had a turkey ranch would come take care of our chickens and livestock and then we’d do the same for him on his farm.

On our farm, we did not have a need for migrant workers, but several of the farms around us did.  Especially the farms that had harvest times – especially in the tomato fields and rice patties in our area.  So in my elementary school we often had children of migrant farm workers come to school for a few months out of the year.  I always felt sorry for them, because they weren’t with us long enough to get to know us.  Some of the kids in school were even kind of mean to them because they looked different, dressed different and usually they were even one or two grades behind, so some kids called them stupid.

When I told my mom about how mean the kids were to the “visiting” kids, she (as she often did) pulled out her Bible and read...“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him/her wrong.  You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt:  I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)  

Then she explained to me that these “visiting” kids’ parents worked on farms and they had to go where there was work so they could feed their family.  Because of moving around so much, it was hard for their kids to keep up with their studies like those of us who had parents who worked in one place.   So, she said, God wants you to help them and encourage your friends to help them feel welcomed in your school.

Now I live in a neighborhood full of people who might be considered “strangers sojourning” in our land.  People who are here on job assignments from countries and lands far off.  They are much better off than the migrant workers from my childhood, but many of them feel lonely and out of touch.  Our native languages are different, our cultures are different, some dress different than we do, but I always remember – “you shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself.”  Whether in the grocery store, the bank, or walking down the sidewalk let’s greet all with enthusiasm and respect, because we have all been or will be “sojourners in a strange land.” 

Blessings,

Pastor Linda

Think Spring

My wife Jackie, bought a decoration that said ‘Think Spring’ and it is the first thing we see when we walk through our front door.

 In Seattle, meteorologists tell us we have only had four days without rain since November, so yes, we are ready to think spring. On Sunday we had a spring day. Day five on the count-down for nice days this winter. The birds were singing at dawn. I had not heard them sing with so much gusto! Maybe Seasonal Affective Disorder affects song birds too. The day was just rejuvenating for all of our community. I like to think we all need renewal or springtime in our soul. Artists, authors, CEO's, grade school children, athletes, marrieds and singles. Springtime is not only a phenomena of nature, it is a state-of-mind. So let’s think newness, sunshine, realistic optimism, and enjoy the beauty that we are surrounded by. Let’s think spring.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim

#Together

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.  But anyone who does not love does not know God,  for God is love. 1 John 4:7-8 (NLT)

This week I have the privilege of kicking off a series of messages for Sunday mornings.  It is called #Together!

I was born in this church.  My dad's assistant Jane Bishop, who is now in heaven, had a dream that my mom and dad would have a baby that would be a great blessing.  (Talk about pressure being put on a baby) My mom Jackie, prayed about it and God opened her mind to the possibility of me.  My dad joked that he always wanted 10,000 kids so he was already sold on the idea.  When my mom was in labor with me I refused a quick easy child birth, so my dad drove my mom up to the church property and drove fast on the bumpy dirt road so they could go back to the hospital.   It worked - and I was born. Emily Boyce, Pastor Linda’s mother, was watching my big sister Elise and my big brother Roman. And my parents named me after her, Rebecca Emily White.

When I was a baby, all of the church meetings were in our home. When people held hands in a circle, I crawled into the middle because I could feel the prayers. When the church had a board meeting at our house, I thought the Board of Directors would enjoy passing around my guinea pig and my brother’s turtle so they wouldn't get bored. 

When I was in Junior High, I was BORN AGAIN in the church.  I went to SPU and one of my professors came to preach at our church. I was blessed to marry my sweetheart, Ben McCary, who also was born in the church and I met him in the nursery.  When I was in kindergarten I would help with the babies. I helped teach Sunday school with my mom.  I was blessed with a scholarship to Princeton Seminary where I was able to get my Masters of Divinity while attending a conservative Baptist inner-city African-American church. 

All of this is to say is that I, like every other child who grows up in a church has a deep desire for unity, teamwork, and an authentic love of Christ.  It hurts kids when adults suffer a divisive spirit.  When egos take over in the church kids are discouraged in their faith and want out. 

Come this week and hear how the Bible shows us that God designed the church to run smoothly through the love of Jesus Christ.

One Ditch At A Time

When I was in high school, I went to work part time for a contractor who built luxury homes in the Tacoma area. I was excited to learn the trade of building and even bought a really nice tool belt, framing hammer and square. I showed up to the job site on my first day- ready and eager!  As I approached the contractor, he did something that completely caught me off guard. He handed me a shovel and said, “You’ll need your gloves...”  Suddenly, my first day went from genuine eagerness, to a bit of fear as I knew a shovel and gloves meant I wasn’t going to be building much of anything that day.

He instructed me to dig a ditch. A large one. He said it was for drainage and it needed to be 8ft long, by 3ft wide, by 3ft deep. At this point, I had to look around and make sure I wasn’t working at a cemetery! Was I digging my own grave out here?!?

Upon giving me the instructions, he left to another job site. Suddenly, I was all alone. Just me and my shovel. I began the long and painful task of digging the ditch. It was hard work!  A few hours later the contractor returned to look at my progress. He offered some “atta-boy” sentiments, which was nice, but I was really wanting to be done with this job!

Later, I finished the huge ditch, got into my car and drove home dirty, exhausted and hoping I didn’t make a huge mistake taking this job. Well...it wasn’t a mistake at all.

The next day, he had me come back to the same site, except there were no shovels. It was a day spent learning the basics of home construction! The contractor told me that while the ditch was indeed for drainage and very important to the house, he had me do that job just to see how well I would follow his instructions. Those listening skills my parents had taught me as a boy had paid off!!

In the book of 2 Kings, there is a story of people who were instructed to dig ditches. A lot of them! The reason for the ditches was quite simple: Listen to what God was telling them to do, then do it in a trusting way and see what happens. The Bible actually has quite a lot to say about faith and action. Psalm 37 tells us to “trust in the Lord and DO good...”

I hope you’ll join me this Sunday, as we explore this story of ditches and trusting God in 2 Kings 3. This will be a conclusion of our series on Trust and I hope that if you’ve heard any of these messages, you’ve grown in your understanding of trust and faith. It’s never something we will perfect. No one does. This is a long journey of progression toward growth and maturity. The key is in not giving up. God is with us and He’s always good and faithful to prove Himself trustworthy!

Grace and Peace.

Pastor Rex

Hurry Up and Wait

In the military, they have a saying “hurry up and wait.” That’s because there is a lot of waiting when you serve in the military - and because the military is serious business so they hurry to the points, then they wait.  So it is with life.  We rush to the hospital to wait and wait and wait for a child to be born.  We wait for those we love to pass on to heaven because it is the right thing to do.  We rush to the doctor and we wait in the waiting room.  We rush to fill all the forms out for a new job, a new house, a new car, a loan, a refinance, a college application and we wait.

 Last week, one of my hero’s – (even though he is younger than I am, he is still my hero) – Matthew Barnett  sent me a note.  He has a spiritual gift of prophecy and from time to time I get these odd notes from him.  One time he commented on my Facebook page “you need to be the first one to the conference you are speaking at and the last one to leave and visit with as many people as possible”.  I received his word and wow! what a blessing that conference turned out to be.  This week, he left a note for me that said, “You need to preach on Psalm 37”.  I have only spent a few times with him so I cannot say I know him well.  I think I know his dad better.  But I do consider him a friend – especially after watching God work so mightily through his life at the Dream Center.  I don’t know if he sent that note to  a lot of people or just to me, but after his comments about the conference I took his note literally and I am preaching on Trust so it is Psalm 37 this week.   As many of you may already know – this is a powerful passage and it is one of the “Trust in the Lord and Wait upon the Lord” passages.

 As I drove to work for an appointment this morning there was some construction. I let someone merge into my lane and the person behind me started to make all kinds of gestures.  Some of them were clearly not favorable.  She was not cheering me on for my act of kindness, which slowed us down for maybe 3 seconds.  She kept pointing to the man sitting next to her.  I (and my 135 pound dog Gus, who takes these kind of threats more seriously than I) looked at her and the man setting next to her and he shrugged his shoulders in timidity.  She kept yelling at me – I could not hear her, but it looked like she was going to bust a blood vessel back there.

 I would like to say this is a ‘one-in-a-million’ occurrence in our world, but we have all had experiences similar to this – right? Our whole community needs to learn to Rest in the Lord, Wait on the Lord, Trust in the Lord.  Well, it turns out that Psalm 37 has some fresh, innovative, practical solutions for all the pent-up restlessness in each of us.  As we all know, trusting God and waiting on God and resting in God is much easier to say than to do.  Psalm 37 is a birds-eye view from the mountain-top of our little world and shows how we  need God’s perspective to really develop that inner peace, strength and poise in order to act rightly in following God. Won’t you join me this weekend as we are all blessed by an encouraging Biblical message right from God to each of us?

 Your friend for the rest of my life,

 Pastor Tim White

Becoming Trustworthy One Bike Ride At A Time

I love the hit show, “Stranger Things”. Have you seen it? Great acting, storyline, suspense, mystery and most of all- the setting. Stranger Things takes place in a very familiar time for me. The 80’s!

The story is about a group of boys on a desperate search for their lost friend and if you’re familiar with the characters, you know they spend a lot of time riding their bikes through their neighborhood.

When I think of growing up in the 80’s, I think of riding my BMX bike all over town. It’s how I spent my Saturdays and summers. I also have vivid memories of being out too late, or not coming home on time and being in trouble with my parents. They would talk to me about how freedom and responsibility came with being trustworthy. I learned some hard lessons back then about becoming a trustworthy kid, by simply listening to what instructions my parents gave me and following through on them.

When it comes to trust, we spend a lot of time and energy trying to figure out if God is trustworthy, but have we ever thought...”Does God trust me?”  “Is he looking to find me trustworthy?” These are important questions.

In the book of Numbers, God says this about Moses: “of all my house, he is the one I trust.”. It would appear that God is looking to trust us...

When we see our faith in God through the lens of relationship, I think we understand that trust is a two-way road. Just as it is in all of our human relationships. God tells us in scripture that He can be trusted, but in order for our relationship with God to be fully alive, we need to show ourselves trustworthy to Him. And by striving to be trustworthy, I don’t mean perfect. Grace is central to a healthy relationship with God. Always has been...always will be.

You see, I believe with every ounce of my being that God has great plans for your life. A calling, if you will, to do great things with Him in this world- because you were created with immense purpose!  The question is...are we living in a way to that honors God and shows that we can handle his blessing and favor, even when life gets difficult? Are we listening to His instructions and following through on them? When we do, I know that God sees us has his beloved children who can be trusted.

This Sunday, we’ll be exploring this question of trustworthiness more and I if you’re seeking a deeper, more adventurous relationship with Jesus, I’d love for you to join me on Sunday!

Grace and Peace.

Rex

Trust: Discovering Healthy Faith and Relationships

I am very excited about the new series we begin this weekend.  I can’t think of another topic more important for our church family than developing Trust.  It is essential in building a healthy congregation and healthy families.  Real communication and collaboration is impossible without the two-way conversation that comes with Godly trust.

Last week, it was Fernando Fox’s birthday. He is one of many amazing kids growing up in our church.  He is “one-in-a-million,” so much so, that his Sunday school teachers turn into his biggest fans.  He has a great sense of humor and an amazing imagination. His parents, David and Rosanna Fox, are doing a wonderful job of raising this masterpiece of a boy.  I think you could credit his sensational big brother, Andres, with helping in this project also.  As I was praying for him and the other kids growing up in our church, I was moved to tears asking God to help us learn more about trusting in a Biblical way. 

As you know, we live in a society which tends toward being cynical and pessimistic – learning to be suspicious and to rush-to-judgement of situations and people. We learn this through a survival response to the deep hurts in our lives.  If someone goes through a divorce, they often become really good at breaking off relationships and refusing to allow them back in their life.

A more difficult way of living is the Christ-like way. That is holding no grudges, lovingly asserting our understanding of what is true, and simply loving the whole world like Christ would. Admittedly, this is the much harder way. It means leaves ourselves open to criticism, judge-mentalism, gossip and to enemies who have no interest in our welfare.

I choose to trust God.  I choose not to wallow in self-pity or exaggeration. I choose to communicate as best I can.  I also choose not to be a door mat, but to speak the truth in love and humility.

This week I am going to start our series, “Trust – Discovering Healthy Faith and Relationships” by showing us the New Testament concept of Trust as the fulfillment of the profound concept of Trust found in the Old Testament.  One of my Rabbi friends once had a long discussion with me about the differences and I learned so much.  I believe that we cannot understand the New Testament Christ-like Trust without understanding the rich meaning of our Old Testament heritage. If God can allow me to communicate how to trust the Father and the Son, then I believe each of us will be better for the time we have spent exploring this critical concept of Trust.  It is going to heal a lot of our wounds and make us a healthier church family.  Please join me as we kick off this new series.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White

The One Who Does Impossible

A teenage girl lays on her bed praying...begging God to help her parents stop the fighting and yelling. Her days are filled with worry that they will divorce and her family will be torn apart. She prays- unsure her words are getting past the ceiling of her bedroom. Her prayers come from a real and deep place of desperation, but she’s never met the One who does impossible, so she has no idea what to expect. Who knows what will happen?

A successful man who is well respected within his church and known as a man of great faith prays for someone who is very sick. His prayer is confident and loud as he boldly states...”I CLAIM healing over you!” and then walks away without giving any more thought to his prayer. Will his extreme confidence move God to heal? Who knows what will happen?

A busy, single mother of 2 young children sits exhausted on her couch after finally getting the kids to bed and the house picked up. No energy to even see what’s new on Netflix. She sits in her exhausted state and begins to think about the bills that are piling up. Some surprise medical costs have her very worried about keeping up with the rent, so she begins to pray. She needs a financial miracle! As she prays, her voice trembles a bit with emotion. She’s scared about her future, but also knows that God has never before left her high and dry. She prays from a place of tension where there are the real questions of “what if?”, but also with confidence, because the One who does impossible has always been good. Who knows what will happen?

In Matthew 11, John the Baptist is in real trouble and he sends his followers to Jesus with this question: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”. Jesus’s answer is powerful, fascinating and very important for all of us today who are in need of a miracle!

Would you join me with Sunday as we look honestly into the tension of both expecting our miracle and wondering what happens if it doesn’t come?  The One who does impossible is so good and our miracle might be right around the corner! I look forward to seeking, learning and growing with you on Sunday.

Grace and Peace.

Pastor Rex

Ask! Seek! Knock!

This next Sunday I will again be preaching on New Year – New Miracles, only now I am led to share how the Bible teaches us to step out in faith.  Next week Pastor Rex will be teaching from Matthew 11 on the passage where Jesus tells the disciples of John the Baptist to “go, and tell John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”  Matthew 11:4  He is helping us to see how to not get trapped in the ‘Name It and Claim It’ theology.  We want people to look at our lives and see Jesus working.  It will be a great conclusion to the series on miracles.  But this week, before Pastor Rex’s dramatic conclusion on Super bowl weekend, I will be preaching on a message that will set up his message;  our role is stepping out in faith if we want to see God work.  Thus the words of Jesus in the sermon on the mount;  Ask – Seek – Knock.  When Jesus healed someone he would say, “do you want to get well?”  That is a miraculous question! Our act of faith plays into the formula for amazing miracles.  Can you imagine a relationship with God where we expect, through magical thinking, that God did everything and we did nothing?  We could live a life in defiance of obeying God, treating God as just a force that did what we told him to.  I would pray, “God make me lose all the weight I need to lose and to be in amazing shape”, and then I walk in front of a mirror and see a perfect body.  That would be weird wouldn’t it? Instead God says, “I will help you but you have to eat less and exercise more.  And it’s going to take a while.”

I pray that we will learn the power of Mountain moving faith.

 For example:

 Last week Washington Cathedral was packed with people who were celebrating the life of Suzette Dalpez.  I have been her pastor for over 20 years.  Just before she died she still had a smile on her face and twinkles in her eyes.  She was the love of Steve Dalpez and they led two TLCs.  For 19 years these TLCs have been feeding homeless teenagers in our community.  It all takes place above and beyond their normal tithes and offerings and it’s just the way these wonderful people lived their lives.  Steve showed me where Suzette had her quiet times in her home doing her daily devotion.  Just a short time before Suzette passed she was at a church Christmas party and after the party she was carrying chairs (which Steve and Suzette got San Michelle Winery to donate to the church).  She was twinkling and loving Steve to the moment she passed to heaven.  Her faith was mountain moving and all her family wanted to report what they had heard and seen in the way Suzette acted out her loving obedience to the way of Jesus Christ.

 Another example:

 Last Saturday night one of my best friends in the world passed on to heaven. Rod Halvorson was just a great man.  He had just read all the way through the Bible before being diagnosed with liver cancer.  Rod was always one of the biggest encouragements in my life.  We would go to the movies together or watch games together and it was always a party.  His eyes twinkled and, like his twin brother Randy, he was a handsome man.  I watched how he ran his business and worked so honestly and forthrightly with his employees.  When I got out of the hospital one time after a massive pulmonary embolism, he told me he was going to kick my butt if I ever went to the hospital again without telling him.  He and Randy are the longest surviving patients with Duchene’s Muscular Dystrophy. Rod had the most generous heart for children and for those whose life was spent in a wheel chair.  He asked me to take him to the tent city village that we are watching after –and we planned on going to a movie together but both were not to be. Like Suzette, Rod always had a twinkle in his eyes. Right up until he walked into heaven holding the hand of Jesus, he was loving everyone around him.  Go and tell about what you have seen and heard in the lives of Rod Halvorson and Suzette Dalpez.  They loved greatly, they dreamed big.  With the power of faith God worked the impossible through their lives.  The way they thought, prayed, worked, and dreamed was faith in Jesus Christ. 

 This is what we are going to learn this week.  Mountain moving faith.  Not just talk or magical thinking, but action. Ask, Seek, Knock.

 Would you join me this weekend for this life changing message?

Pastor Tim

God, Are You Listening?

Have you ever felt like maybe God lost your prayer somewhere along the line, or he forgot to get back to you?  I know I have.

One instance I remember is right after my mom had her second and very severe stroke.  She became paralyzed on her left side and she could barely shift her body from the bed to a wheel chair, let alone stand or walk.  I prayed for her to be healed (the whole church prayed for her to be healed). 

I remember telling her I knew God was going to heal her and that she just needed to keep working on her physical therapy and she would be able to move again.  I remember being her coach at physical therapy encouraging her to do her exercises and that all the pain and effort would be worth it.  I wanted so much for her to be healed that I have to say in retrospect I was almost obnoxious. 

It was a very difficult time for me because I wanted my mom back whole and well.  I knew God wanted that, too.  It didn’t sink in that maybe he had a different plan on how that might happen.  One day I was watching a television movie on PBS and it was a story of a family trying to do whatever they could to heal their daughter of leukemia.  As the movie was concluding and nothing was working the daughter looked at her pleadingly and said something like “I just want to spend the time I have left loving and enjoying being with you and daddy.”  It was like God hit me upside the head with a 2X4.  I felt he was saying to me “Stop trying so hard to fix something that is totally out of your control…leave that to me.  Just enjoy every moment you have with your mom.”

From that moment on that is exactly what I did.  Mom was only with us for about 4 months after that and then she was completely healed – as she went home to be with her Savior.  But in those 4 months we had some of the best times.  We walked around the neighborhood looking at all the beautiful trees, flowers, birds and butterflies (well I walked and pushed her in her wheelchair).  We reminisced about all the things we had done together – we laughed, we cried, we hugged.  It was some of the sweetest memories I have to this day.  I praise God for the time we had together. (It was more than 15 years ago, but I still tear up even writing this.)

God’s answer to me was so different than I thought it would be, but it was so amazingly good.

P.S. This Sunday, Pastor Tim is coming back from an anniversary trip to Hawaii with Pastor Jackie.  He’s going to share a message God has laid on his heart entitled “Unanswered Prayer?”  It is going to be a message I would not want to miss.  How about you?

Pastor Linda Skinner