Wendesday night at our Prayer Night, God spoke through me the words from Psalm 34:8

Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

The word was given as a reminder that we need to continually “taste” of His goodness and love for us. Tasting, for most of us, involves us eating foods we like. Whether it’s Mexican, Italian, seafood, desserts, whatever, we will always gravitate to what we enjoy or are used to. I know some people that will only eat at a certain type of restaurant. They become familiar with it and enjoy the taste.

The word that God spoke on Wednesday was to taste and see that HE is good. The word “taste” and the word “see” are action words. They require us to do something. God is saying to His people, start tasting more of Him than relying on the old and familiar ways of your past. The new wine that God is pouring out on His people will require us to “drink”. God doesn’t force feed His people. Luke 5:37-38 says…

³⁷ And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. ³⁸ No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

Are you trying to taking what God is doing today and hold it under the microscope of yesterday? God’s goodness and actions cannot be limited to what we think He should do and even what we are comfortable with. Those old ways will burst under the pressure of the new. We must “taste and see” of His goodness everyday. Stop trying to figure out God. Stop trying to tell Him what He can or cannot do. Don’t limit His power with your hangups or religious ideas. Stop telling Him how and when to minister.

God is telling His people to really tap into Him. Don’t just tell stories of how He did great things in the past, experience Him now, so you can tell testimonies of what He is doing today! If all you do is complain about church, Christians, life, family, job….maybe you aren’t truly tasting His goodness today? You are probably living off of the old wine and it’s time to start tapping into the new.

Are you TASTING of Him?

MR

Posted: May 20th, 2011 under Leadership, Life Stuff.
Comments: none

April 7
Southwest delay on our layover in Chicago which caused us all to get $100 vouchers. We ended up being pretty rushed once in San Diego and chowed down on In-N-Out. Once we got into Mexico both our van and Lucas’s van got pulled over by the Mexico board patrol.  Paul met us and took us to the best authentic mexico food and it was delicious. We then got to our camp and saw Ramon and Ps Nikko. Had a great time of prayer over Ramon and we got excited about the ministry getting ready to happen this week. Had a great time of worship and reflection as a group.

April 8
Finished a house in record time (6hrs). We had the whole team of BCM helping us and our team was large. It rained for about 20 mins and then the weather was perfect. Our travel to the site took us over to a different part of Mexico. Apparently these people were relocated here after they had a big mudslide that ruined their first area. We built this house for a young mother and her 2 sons and 1 daughter. She made us some soup and it was very good. We went and bought the family some house warming gifts as well as candy for all the neighborhood kids. So far we have had nothing but Mexican food. Go figure. (Although it’s been the best we could ever have.)  Shower time was also quite an experience. These dudes from our church are crazy. BTW- On the way to the job site we encountered a police checkpoint complete with police driving after a car trying to escape the checkpoint. These police carry large machine guns. Pretty crazy. I also found that driving in Mexico is almost like playing a video game. It was crazy and very funny. I’m pretty sure this is the most unruly traffic there is.

April 9
Started our 2nd house build but today was much different than the first. No where near the help, power tools or great location.  We literally had to walk through the lady’s old house to get to the job site. Paul was our contractor today and he had a small amount of tools to work with.  But he had patience with us . Bob Sanders (the owner of Baja Christian Ministries) came today and gave us his new book. Great man of God that loves evangelism. We worked our butts off today. Literally were finishing up right before sunset. The family of this house accepted Christ before we finished. We also found out that the extended family of the first house, from the day before, got saved because they were blown away by the love of God. Awesome!! As we drove back to the camp we found out it was packed with people coming to visit the church (our camp is also a church). We had to park around back and I drove over some rod sticking out of the ground and popped the tire. We will fix it tomorrow. Great day though we are beat. Two houses in two days is alot!

April 10
First we had to fix the tire. Found our the “rod” I drove over was actually a rock with a very pointy tip…would have never saw it. ugh! Fixed the tire with help from Alex (from Lucas’s church). Today we went out to evangelize in the streets. Had an amazing time of worship and prayer with the group. Felt good since we all missed our own church services. Some people got delievered and we felt a real strong anointing of Gods power. We met up with Ramon and Guadalupe (Ramon’s soon to be wife) and Pastor Nikko. We went door to door and invited people to the local soccer field. About 70 people showed up and gave their life to Christ after testimonies by Lucas, Erica, Laura, Mike, Jody, Sulu, John, Will and Matt. My dad also fainted during the altar call from dehydration. Talk about mood killer .  We gave out purple books and bibles to them. The purple books are great foundation building books. While we prayed for healings,  people got healed of diabetes, leg problems, pain in her back and cancer. Also prayed for a girl that had trouble speaking clearly. She was prophecied that she would speak to nations. We then prayed for a lady that was demon possessed. She had wanted to be free of the oppression. I could see the demon through her eyes. We prayed and then went in hear house to have her get rid of the idols in her house. The idols were something she had since she was 9 years old. Once we got rid and broke them, you could see a change in her. She had been free and was so  happy. We then prayed over a lady in a wheel chair who was progressively getting worse with disease. We prayed and she felt warm feelings and healing. She was told that the healing would continue until she was totally healed. Her family was very happy.  We then went to dinner at a chicken restaurant, which had some very tasty chicken. I also bought 3 spongebob piantas from a street vendor for $5. I later found out I paid too much but hey…nothings too expensive for my kiddies! Now we are chilling at the camp the rest of the night. Great great day and trip!

MR

Posted: April 12th, 2011 under Culture/Society, Life Stuff, Trips.
Comments: none

Last Sunday, I had a woman come to church asking for “Mark”. She had only visited our church a few weeks ago (invited by a friend) and we never got a chance to meet. Infact, I’m not sure she even knew my name. But on Saturday night she had a dream.

In her dream God told her to go back to SouthView and ask to speak to “Mark”. So she did. On Sunday morning, as I’m getting ready to fire up the worship team and get this service started, Mike, our head usher comes to tell me this lady wants to speak to me. First thought was, what does she want to sell me or how much money is she going to ask for. A typical reply in this day and age when a pastor is “sought out” by someone who is not a regular in our church.

As I talked to her, she told me she needed to come today and speak to me…she didn’t have a word for me, but literally thought I had something to tell her. Whoa….God didn’t give me a “heads up” on this one. So I told her, let’s talk after the service.

After the service was over, here was this lady that wanted to know why God told her to come today. As I talked and prayed over her, immediately God spoke to me the words to speak to her. In fact it was exactly what she was going through as well as an encouragement that she had found the church and spiritual family she had been looking for. She started crying and I truly believe was blown away at the length at which God went to show her how much He loves her. Talk about LOVE…

I’m still a little blown away by it all. That God would put me on a stranger’s heart so that I could be a vessel that He would use to show her love. It’s a perfect example of John 12:32

³² “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

God used me and our church, to prove Himself to this woman and bring her closer to Him. He knew her secrets of pain and loneliness in her heart. He heard and showed her where to go to get encouragement. Sunday’s service was off the wall, amazing. God was all over the service, including the 5 minutes before we started, when this lady came to seek more of God from a servant like me.

I’m blessed and extremely humbled that He uses me. I can’t imagine living a life where this doesn’t happen all the time.
MR

Posted: March 8th, 2011 under Church info, Leadership, Life Stuff.
Comments: none

Check out this POST.

I’m excited. It’s amazing how God plants you somewhere with a future purpose in mind. I believe this city is going to experience a huge outpouring of God’s favor and anointing. It’s because of godly churches and families that have prayed and helped each other. It’s because of our passion to see people changed for the better. For people to experience God’s glory. Now God is bringing the people to US!! What an honor to be one of the churches here to be part of this.

This is a time for the church to prepare to be the hope that people are looking for. This town will be growing quickly, but we must rise up to the challenge to be the love to those that are coming. God let your glory and power fall on us!

This is an exciting time and an exciting area to be living in!

MR

Posted: March 2nd, 2011 under Culture/Society, Life Stuff.
Comments: none

Downloading some thoughts in my head…

-I’m constantly amazed when new people show up at our church. Not that I don’t think our church is “da bomb”, but with out advertising or a giant sign on a main road, people still find out about us. How? From our AMAZING group of people that go out and love on others in the community. They show God’s love and in return people want to check out what God is doing at SVCC. So the best way to advertise?….Just live a godly life and let HIM drawn them in (John 12:32)

-Just celebrated 2 years of SouthView!! I cannot believe it’s been 2 years already. Time flies when you are having fun…and I can tell you it’s truly been fun.

-Just did a baptism in our service yesterday (thank you to Ps John from LifeHouse church for use of the baptismal). We baptized 3 young people. Can I say that I get excited to see young people give their lives to Christ!! Our church SHOUTED and CHEERED each time they came out of the water. I got chills at the sound of people rejoicing over another one’s commitment. I can’t wait to see how God designs and builds our youth group. I’m meeting with 2 teens tonight for coffee (amazing that they would want to meet with an old dude like me?!). My heart burns for this generation. – God, please bring your heart, vision and people to our church to help raise up this next generation!!

-My baby Payton is getting big fast. I’m blessed with 4 beautiful kids. Is it a lot of work- Yes! Do they wear on your nerves sometimes – Yes! But we have such a fun family and I enjoy every moment of it. Older, wiser people have told me to enjoy these times because they go fast. I plan to do that. I know there will be different hurdles to go over as they get older (can somebody please help me when my 3 girls all become teenagers!!) but I know as I keep God centered in my family, we will be blessed. It’s also a huge help to have both sets of grandparents (and aunts and uncle) here to help raise them as well. It takes them as well as a church family to raise up good kids. If you don’t have family close by, I highly suggest you get some church family to connect to. This is huge in keeping your kids out of trouble. I love having all sorts of family (spiritual and physical) surrounding my kids (even at school)….you can’t run or hide….hahahah (evil scientist laugh). Seriously…”family” is so important.

-This full time pastor gig has taken some getting used to, but I LOVE my job! Although it comes with some messy days (not everybodies’ problems are fun to deal with) but the good out weighs the bad. I love meeting with people and hearing how their life is going. Everyone has a purpose and a plan. Some of us need help understanding it…

-….which leads me to the Life Group I’m overseeing for the men – CHAZOWN. I’m excited about this one…it will really help men discover their vision and calling in their life. I suggest EVERY man attends. In fact, I’ll split the group in two if it gets too big. We’ll meet more than one night if we have to. That’s how important it is to find your purpose (Proverbs 29:18). And MEN, this means more than knowing what kind of job you like….I’m talking about your PURPOSE! Don’t miss this (Tuesday nights at the church at 7pm – starts 1/25)

-YouVersion.com is a GREAT way to build a daily bible reading plan for your devotional time. And it will kindly “remind” you if you forget (SVCCers know my experience from Sunday! :)

-All you Spring Hillians need to check out WindFarm Cafe, across from Starbucks. Great place to hang, study, get coffee, eat and it’s run by a great group of people that are starting a church. Click on this link and if you click on “Visit WindFarm Cafe right now”, you can see a live feed of the place. Very cool, yet a great way to spy on friends. Anyway, check out the place…a great alternative to Starbucks.

-What is quicker?…The time it takes for 4 kids to destroy a house or the time it takes for my wife to find something she likes at Forever 21? ….Equal tie! (btw – have you noticed the scripture verse on the bottom of Forever 21 bags?…hmmm sneaky)

-Is it possible to have a better group of Elders at a church than what we now have? Leon Hunt, David Belt, Andy Rampulla….man, that’s like a superhero power team. I’m blessed to have these guys work with me to help lead this amazing church. And I’m still working on Leon and him getting that tattoo on his forehead…not sure Jeanene will let that happen tho.

Life is good, God is good…

M

Posted: January 17th, 2011 under Church info, Family, Life Stuff.
Comments: none