The Moken

I would like to tell you about an interesting group of people who live the islands of Southeast Asia. These people are known as the Moken. Many surrounding cultures that have had encounters
with the Moken have given them the nickname “the gypsies fo the sea” due to the Moken’s nomadic lifestyle which involves moving from island to island and depending heavily on ocean
life for survival.
The Moken where among a very small group of Southeast Asian coastal inhabitants that survived the devastating tsunamis of 2004. They have such a deep connection to the ocean that they could read the behavior of the water long before the tsunamis arrived, thus giving them plenty of time to move to higher ground before the tsunamis struck the islands.
A very interesting fact about their language is that is does not contain any word for want.
Language exists to communicate ideas. The fact they have no word for “want” is evidence that the Moken live without any idea or notion of “want.”
To us Americans who are constantly surround by friends and companies telling us we need this or we don’t have that, it’s hard to image a life without a word for want or desire. Our lives are
even so enveloped in desire that it initally seems sad to us to not have desire. Now, obviouly the Moken have simple desires like the desire to survive/live, to eat, etc. But they have no way of communicating it because it’s not as important to them as it would be to you or me.
Where am I gong with this? New Years Day is the time of year when our focus makes a complete one-eighty. Instead of having a midset of generosity as we often do during the holidays,
we begin to focus on our desires and resolutions.
Our focus becomes centered on us and our own improvement.
Even though it is good to improve one’s self (and I encourage you to do so), let’s not forget the needs of others. What if we forgot our desires or even how communicate them because our focus was centered on the needs of others.

Let’s learn to not be in “wantoness”.

Pastor Steve

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” – Luke 6:38

Discovery Dreams 21 day fast.

We are collectively asking God for blessing, provision, and favor as Discovery Church Dreams for an amazing future.
Our 21 day Daniel fast will begin Sunday night, January 26th, at mid-night and go through Sunday, February 16th, with a Celebration Breakfast at 10:00 AM.

Many friends have ask me for a “shopping” list or “menu” for a resource.

So I will do my best from here to update us on our informal shopping guidelines.

The concept of a Daniel fast comes from Daniel 1:8-14, “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, ‘I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.’

Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ‘Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.’ So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.”

Here are some simple informal menu helps for the 21 day Daniel fast.

SOME INITIAL GUIDELINES FOR DANIEL FAST:
(Foods We May Eat)
Whole Grains: Brown Rice, Oats, Barley
Legumes: Dried Beans, Pinto Beans, Split Peas, Lentils, Black Eyed Peas
Fruits: Apples, Apricots, Bananas, Blackberries, Blueberries, Boysenberries, Cantaloupe, Cherries, Cranberries, Oats, Figs, Grapefruit, Grapes, Guava, Honeydew Melon, Kiwi, Lemons, Limes, Mangoes, Nectarines, Papayas, Peaches, Pears, Pineapples, Plums, Prunes, Raisins, Raspberries, Strawberries, Tangelos, Tangerines, Watermelon

Vegetables: Artichokes, Asparagus, Beets, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Chili Peppers, Corn, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Garlic, Gingerroot, Kale, Leeks, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Mustard Greens, Okra, Onions, Parsley, Potatoes, Radishes, Rutabagas, Scallions, Spinach, Sprouts, Squashes, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes, Turnips, Watercress, Yams, Zucchini Seeds, Nuts, Sprouts

Liquids: Spring Water, Distilled Water, 100% All-Natural Fruit Juices, 100% All Natural Vegetable Juices

(Foods to Avoid)
All “fast” food – hahahaha ( no really).
Meat
White Rice
Fried Foods
Caffeine (are you kidding me?) 😡
Carbonated Beverages
Foods Containing Preservatives or Additives
Refined Sugar
Sugar Substitutes
White Flour and All Products Using It
Margarine, Shortening, High Fat Products

Please do not risk your health to go on this fast. Consult your doctor with specific question regarding an extended fast.

Brenda and I have been amazed to see what God has done in our lives over the years through fasting and prayer. We can only imagine what He has in store for us over the next few weeks and the year ahead, not only for our family, but for your family and our church.

I am really looking forward to this year’s 21 days of fasting for Discovery.

Let me know if you are joining us this year and see Discovery’s facebook page or this blog as we get closer to the fast for updates.

Fasting for Discovery’s Dreams
Pastor Steve and Brenda

Starting January 5th we begin a new series for our new community of faith to start out the new year.

Join us Sunday’s at 10:00 or on one of our adventures somewhere.

One of the buzz words of our day is the word “sustainable”. “Sustainable communities”, “Sustainable living”, “Sustainable environments”….

I am in the business of relationships and people, so I wanted to touch on a topic that I call “Sustainable relationships”.

Billy Graham’s wife Ruth used to say that “a good marriage is made up of two forgivers”. I like that because it gives us an option.

It gives us the option to not “bail” on the people in our lives. Yes, some relationships and some people are toxic and we should have the right to release them out of our lives .

As 1 John 2:19 states; “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”

I like what Dave Blunt is quoted as saying; “If you continue to do right things, eventually what’s wrong and whose wrong will eventually leave your life.”

But conversely I see an infirmity in our culture of what I call a lack of sustainable relationships …. A disease so rampant that keeps people, good people from staying in community together.

The old prophet in Amos 3:3 ask the question I am asking in 2014? “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”

Jesus, as well as my camping propane stove have a few things to say about how to “hang in there” with people through out your life.

I like how Ashely Denton speaks to this issue. “Consider how an propane stove teaches something about abiding in Christ. If you think about it, a stove apart from it’s fuel source no longer functions according to it’s purpose.

One halmark of Jesus Christ’s lifestyle before his crucifixion and resurrection was the way he invited his disciples into close association with him. He chose a few to invest in. He knew that the best way to form a following of loyal disciples was to live with them in close-knit community. His actions show us that his mission was multiplication, and this would only happen if his disciples could learn to abide in the Father as he related to the Heavenly Father.

Jesus’ Disciples lived with him, learned how to serve, watched how to worship, perceived the proper posture for prayer, and developed a pattern of persistent proclamation of the Gospel by remaining close to him. They developed a habit of resilience to run their race by observing how Jesus ran his race passionately to the cross.

HOW JESUS CONDUCTED HIS RELATIONSHIPS
The Greek word for abide is: μείνατε (meinate). It is a word you would use to describe the palatable closeness you could observe between two really good friends. This abiding is exactly what we see when we read the eye-witness accounts of how Jesus conducted his life with the disciples in the Gospels.

BELONGING TO CHRIST…AS WELL AS THOSE HE LOVES
Here are a few other passages to help us grasp the meaning and importance of abiding in Christ:

but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. (John 10:38)

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Romans 8:9)

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. (1 John 2:24)

DRIFTERS?
The opposite of abiding is to fade or disconnect from relationship. How easy it is in our walk with God to fade away, to chase the next shiny distraction. Yet in leaving the path of shoulder-to-shoulder closeness with Christ, we miss out on the good stuff of friendship with him.”

DISCOVERY CHURCH APPLICATIONS?
Ministry in the outdoors has a special way of using time in the outside the walls of the church building to expose where we have drifted away from the path with Jesus. Jesus knew this would be a temptation, so he retreated with his disciples quite often because he felt the need to be alone with them:
“Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. “(John 11:54)

We all need to get alone with Jesus for some one-on-one time. In solitude we are shown again the incomparable joys of close relationship with God, and we are confronted by our frequent disloyalty to him. When we take the time to look at our tendency to drift away from the path will we begin to experience the fresh breeze of grace that comes through repentance.

ABIDE
Take some time to examine your relationships.
Spend some time in repentance for any ways you have faded away or avoided closeness with Jesus because of sin or laziness, etc.

To quote a friend of mine; “if a person disagrees with you, it doesn’t mean they hate you.” – Shawn Miller
Are your relationships with family and friends as close as you desire? Why or why not?
How might your relationships with friends, family, etc. be transformed by attending to your relationship with God?
Do you desire the close kind of relationship with Christ that the disciples had with Jesus? What is stopping you from stepping into this depth of closeness of Jesus? What is holding you back?

Loving God, Connecting People, Discovering Christ.

Pastor Steve

THE COLOR OF CHRISTMAS
Pastor Steve Lummer

RED: The Color of Christmas
“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18

A DECLARATION WE ALL KNOW – “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

1. WHY RED IS THE COLOR OF CHRISTMAS.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Matthew 26:28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Seven tangible places Jesus sacrificed
1. Gethsemane 2. The Stripes on his back 3. The crown of thorns
4. His pierced hands 5. His pierced feet 6. His pierced side 7. his bruised body.

2. GETTING INTENTIONAL ABOUT GOD’S INTENTIONS.
1 John 4:7-21 – Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

3. THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS WHEN YOU LIVE IN GOD’S INTENTION
Romans 8:28-38 – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ….36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

WHEN WE BLEED WE BLESS.
“Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.” Matthew 9:12 (message)
I just love the impact of some people that change history by their acts of courage.

The brave actions of one man ended the gruesome Coliseum games in ancient Rome for good. For his peaceful protest against barbarianism, Telemachus paid with his life. During the reign of the Roman Empire, Romans attended gladiatorial games at the Coliseum for entertainment. There gladiators would fight criminals, prisoners and vicious animals until death.

Telemachus was a monk. Telemachus was a little simple man who enjoyed living in the out back of beyond, places full of the wonders of God’s creation, a hermit. He was quite content and had no reason to want to do anything else, his life was devoted to prayer. But one day, he felt that God was telling him to go to Rome. He hated Rome. He enjoyed his monastic lifestyle, absent of the hustle and bustle of city life. But God needed him in Rome. So Telemachus left his reclusive lifestyle to obey God.

He entered the streets of Rome on January 1, 404 AD. Immediately, he was overwhelmed by the artwork and monumental architecture, and was also disgusted by the way man worshipped himself in that city.

He got caught up in a crowd of people and was almost involuntarily led into the Colosseum. As he sat in the there, he was shocked by the spectacle of bloodletting and sadism that was meant to entertain the masses. Humans massacring and butchering one another. He could not believe what he saw. As soon as the violence started, he stood up and screamed out, “In the name of Christ, stop this!” His voice carried well in the acoustic masterpiece. Everybody heard him. He ran down the stairs and into the center of the arena, all along repeating his plea, “In the name of Christ, stop this!” People laughed. Someone yelled from the stands, “Kill him! Run him through!” A gladiator threw him out of his way and then sent a spear right through Telemachus. The stadium fell silent. Telemachus, doubled over with the spear in his gut, blood spilling on the ground, dying, said one last time, “In the name of Christ, stop this!” A small old man, lifeless, blood soaked – dead – at the foot of a gladiator. His selfless act changing the course of history.
Silence. Then one man stood and walked out. Then another, and another, until the thousands and thousands of people in the Colosseum had left. But this was not the end. Although there were other factors, the death of Telemachus solidified the opposition to the gladiatorial battles. Emperor Honorius was so moved by Telemachus’ actions, he issued an edict, banning the gruesome gladiatorial battles. The Colosseum had witnessed it’s last fight. Telemachus was designated as a saint for his heroic stance for humanity and truth.
He had done more for God as well as humanity in those few minutes – impacting the lives of many than he had achieved all those years living in a cave out the back of beyond. It’s time for us too, to get out of our caves and yell to this world – IN THE NAME OF CHRIST, STOP THIS!!!

There is a big difference between living INTENTIONAL and living ACCIDENTAL.