Tuesday, February 27, 2007

A day of hanging out with community.


A Saturday hang out option!

Longing for some community?

Let us plan your Saturday for you! Come to it all. Or pick and choose!

10:30am-Main St. Café for Brunch 150 Elm St.

4pm-AMAZING GRACE Movie at Century 12 Redwood City
557 E. Bayshore Blvd., Redwood City, CA 94063

6:15 Dinner at Amelia’s Mexican Restaurant (one block south of Jefferson on Broadway). Lots of other food options around there, too. Sushi,
pizza, icecream, Greek food, and smoothies.


8pm THE Deep at Tony and Wendy’s House-prayer, communion, and Bible teaching.

Bring cash to cover your movie and dinner.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Adultery this Sunday

This Sunday we will discuss ADULTERY in our worship gatherings at PCC. It should be an eye-opening time. Hope to see you there!

Interesting thought: Don’t think you can’t commit adultery if you’re not married because if you define adultery as sexual intimacy with someone who is not your spouse, then you can actually commit adultery on your future mate through sexual intimacy before marriage. It’s the same as adultery!

Coming up:

Every Sunday night hang out: Pizza, Burritos, Ice cream. Downtown RWC.

Saturday March 3rd Franklin St. Café brunch 10:30am, 6pm showing of Amazing Grace Century 20 RWC
And The Deep 8pm at our home!

Saturday March 10th Fundraiser for upcoming YA events. Crab Fest and auction at Menlo College 5:30pm.
You can earn money toward a retreat or Mission Italy (date TBA)

Sunday March 18th Actors’ Group meets at PCC’s Choir room! 12:30-2:30. Improv, monologs, and scene work.

Saturday March 31st Fundraiser for upcoming YA events. Daddy Daughter Dance at PCC. For more info email Kehau at tropicalblossom529@yahoo.com

Monday, February 19, 2007

Cool Quote

A cool quote I heard someone say on the radio:

"Sometimes training for greatness comes when we refrain from bitterness for not being promptly rewarded for our righteousness."


I identified with this. How easy it is to become bitter when I feel like am doing all the right things but struggle to see the results that I WANT. How selfish, but I can see that God still wants my obedience regardless and that I will be truly great in his eyes if I continue to stay faithful and gracious!

Monday, February 12, 2007

FAITH FIRST


I walked into C-Dental X-ray Clinic. I had been there many times before for numerous jaw and bite X-rays. I was prepared to spend the next hour being reminded that all my dental work is far from being finished. I was not happy on the inside and I knew it was showing on the outside. The secretary greeted me and took my name and then made a face that foreshadowed some bad news. "Oh, I am sorry Mr. Gapastione. I have a note that we misquoted you on the phone. The price will actually be $100 more than we thought."

$540? I was ticked. I was ticked because not only is that a huge chunk of cash that insurance doesn't cover a dime, this unexpected hit wasn't good for our budget. This was hard to swallow, but what could I do I needed this work done and I had no choice. I paid and started the procedures. I was feeling so low and discouraged. During the whole experience I was feeling even guilty. I wanted to be conversational with the lab techs and "let my light shine," but I let my feelings dictate my actions. I walked out of there feeling as if I had failed, as if God had given me this opportunity to choose joy regardless of my circumstances, but instead I sulked thinking back to last week where I spent five endless hours in a gnarly head gear that also purposed to find some more reason for me to WAIT and dish out more cash for the thorn in my side (See ridiculous picture below).



That's when I was reminded, again, of an important spiritual concept that it seems God is teaching me.

Faith first.
Hope Follows.

My carnal nature leads me to doubt, discouragement, and hopelessness. When posed with difficult situations, or seemingly frustrating circumstances my first response is to doubt, be filled with discouragement or anger, and withdraw.

But I believe this phrase was spoken into my mind. by God: Faith first hope will follow. When I consciously choose to respond in faith, I usually find myself being hopeful.

To respond in faith means that I must claim God's words and promises when my own thinking can't see past the challenge.

For instance: My flesh says: My life is very challenging with these dental/mouth issues! My faith first response says: God will work this out and make it good.

My flesh says: I have a month to wait until my next appt? That seems like forever. Instead my faith first response is: I will cling to Jesus and have hope as the anchor to my soul.

When necessary and unavoidable medical or emergency bills seems inevitably to increase while our budget cuts in half, my faith first response will say,"God will provide all I need according to the glorious riches of Christ."

and HOPE WILL FOLLOW.


I think what I have just described is again one of the fundamental truths of Christianity. God will give us all we need to live a Godly life. We can choose the joy of the Lord as our Strength. Our beliefs will produce behavior. It's like one of those old school little "Bible Promise books." Even though I have written them off as cheesy, I really shouldn't judge it just by it's cover (I never have seen one that looks "cool.")what matters is that it uses scripture to bring hope by clearly communicating God's promises to us.

He will never leave us or forsake us. We can/must take that truth into every situation and believe it so that we be hopeful and joyful people. The contrary and only other option is that if we don't, nothing but hopelessness and despair will grip our lives.



THIS SATURDAY NIGHT IS THE DEEP 8PM 2/17/07-Our home.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

On prayer

It is so good to be home! I was in Denver for 6 days and five nights. Not quite a week, but it was long as I was taking an intensive theology course for our Covenant denomination. Although, I did have some great time of connecting with friends, resting, and even saw two great movies (Pursuit of Happyness and Pan's labyrinth-both thumbs up) it was hard for me to be away that long because I miss my wife terribly. This week marked my last travel trip away from home for awhile. Next time I travel I'll have a wife and child to miss and come home to. With all that said I am so glad to be home and back within our community. I did have a great time of learning, too. One cool experience that I had was with a former professor of mine from North Park University. Scot McKnight, a man who I have always respected and admired, has written a lot of books, is a New Testament Scholar, and speaks Hebrew as if it were really easy. He was teaching a workshop and I was able to start a great dialog on prayer theology (which is one of my top passions) with him that you can now read on his blog---which I highly recommend:

JESUS CREED


Look for his posting: "To whom to we pray.



THIS SUNDAY
PCC ACTORS' GROUP 12:30PM

YOUNG ADULTS DINNER AT ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK AFTER SUNDAY AT 6

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Another reason why I love community.

(Cool announcement at the bottom)

We have a really great community at PCC. I seriously love being able to be with God's people. Last week eight of us went to see Shane and Shane in Berkeley and had a great time worshipping and celebrating! On the way home I was so filled because we decided to use that time to pray. It was such a redemptive time for me to realize how the choice to be intentional can bless me and others! We had forty five minutes of driving and the time was so well spent. When we pray for others we care for others. Not only does our praying for others SHOW that we care, but I also believe God grows our heart to care for them, too. It's hard to remain emotionally distant from those we pray for. When we arrived back at the PCC parking lot I wanted to hug each and every person in the van because while we were praying I was reminded of how valuable and awesome each person was!




--- FOR YOUNG ADULT SINGLES ---

THE FALLON FELLAS wanted to put something together for all the Young Adult singles in our community.

When: Friday February 9th at 7:30 pm.
Where: 617 Fallon Ave, San Mateo 94401
What: Dinner, hang out, prayer
Dress: Semi-Formal
Activities: TBA

Please RSVP by this Thursday, Feb 8th if you plan to join to jmurphy375@comcast.net.

Jeff, Frankie, Alex, David, Ben, and Zeke