What are you passing on?

I am a Navy brat. We moved to Lemoore because of my dad’s orders to NAS Lemoore. My parents have been redeployed and are now living in Florida. It’s been 5 years since they lived here and living away from my family has not been my favorite thing.

 

During a recent substantially long visit, I noticed many things about both of my parents that I had not realized before. There were little gestures or sounds that I had missed during our time apart. Taking notice of these habits, I was shocked to see some of those same tendencies in myself. I know, I know! There are a dozen clichés out there about being the product of our parents and becoming just like your mother that flashed through my head.

 

I know that I picked up my work ethic, my creativity, and my ability to listen from my parents. I suppose I just hadn’t noticed how many other things they had passed on to me. Now, my husband and I are passing certain things on to our children. Some things are on accident and others are with specific intentionality.

 

In scripture, I recently read Judges 2 about an entire generation that did not pass on the story of their faith in God to the next generation. I have been wondering about this since I read that passage. I wonder what kept their story from being heard. Maybe it wasn’t articulated well. Maybe the outside culture was louder and more convincing than the message of their parents. Maybe the parents were afraid of controlling their children’s beliefs so they watered down their passion and faith. Maybe the generation before had stopped living their faith in their real lives and allowed it to become predominantly ceremonial. Maybe they hadn’t figured out how to include their own children in the process when the miracles didn’t happen for them. The maybes are endless. Maybe we are doing the same.

 

I do not want to miss passing on the fire of my faith to those younger than me - either in age or in belief. God gave EVERYTHING to make sure the way to Him was possible for us. He gave His Son to die. In order to make sure people know, most of the time, we just have to have some conversations.

 

You may not have children or your children may be grown. You may not have a good relationship with your children or you may be a “child” yourself! But we are all called to raise

up the next generation. Part of knowing how to show love, and your love of Jesus, to someone

means you may need to know who that someone is. A conversation, with the understanding of acceptance and love, goes much further than those that are shrouded in person-less agenda.

 

Here is some of the data collected by Barna Group regarding Generation Z. Gen Z is the generation of young people currently in middle school, high school and young adulthood.

 

·  Teens 13-18 years old are twice as likely as adults to say they are atheist (13% vs 6%)

·  About half of Gen Z is non-white

·  Half say that happiness is their ultimate goal in life. For 43%, happiness equals financial success

·  More than half of teens use screen media 4+ hours per day on average. One-quarter of them look at screens on average 8+ hours per day

·  One-third are being bullied online

 

This is just the most basic snapshot. If you want to pass on something important to someone, you may want to consider getting to know that someone.

 

I hope I pass on more than my laugh to my little ones. I am praying daily that they catch more than even our value of hard work. My prayer is that they, and their generation, fall in love with Jesus in a way that is real and life-changing.

 

Be a part of making disciples in this generation! Get to know a person younger than yourself and pass on one of the most important gifts you can ever give: the story of why you believe.

 

 

Candace Cortez is Executive Pastor at Koinonia Church in Hanford, CA. She can be reached at candace@kchanford.com or 559-582-1528.

Ask, Seek, Knock

I recently went to a conference where one of the speakers said something that left me pondering. She pointed out that where our minds go, the rest of us is sure to follow. 

I began to think about our world today and the rise in mental health issues among our generation. Everywhere we turn, we hear news about the woes of our economy. Evidence of political and social unrest is splashed across social media platforms. Inflation is rising. Politicians are lying, etc. It is no wonder that we are seeing more reports of mental health cases in this generation than in any generation before. The current conditions of our world are scary and painful.

 

When our minds are constantly fixated on everything wrong with our society, it’s easy for us to begin to view life through a lens of pain. When we’re focused on the pain, we begin to lose trust and find ourselves suspicious of everyone and everything. Anger and fear are natural emotional responses to pain. When we operate out of those emotions, we tend to make choices that lead us to feel shame. Before we know it, we are caught in this cycle:

 

Suspicion Fear Anger Shame back to Suspicion

 

In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Jesus instructs us to posture ourselves to ask, seek and knock. But sometimes, especially when I’m tired, triggered or stressed, I find myself positioned to “know, assume, and defend” rather than ask, seek, and knock.

 

Recently, I was feeling stressed about balancing all of my house-wife-mom duties with my work duties. I began to feel resentful toward my husband because he didn’t seem to notice how stressed I was feeling. I just knew that he should know about how overwhelmed I was, even though I hadn’t told him. I assumed he just didn’t care.  Man, oh man, did I get defensive. I got angry at him and I erupted all of my thoughts like a volcano! Of course, after that, I felt ashamed. Thankfully, my husband was very gracious to me. Once he heard how I was feeling, he rearranged his schedule to help me. He was willing to “ask, seek and knock” while I “knew, assumed and defended”. At that moment, I was reminded to examine the lens I'm choosing to see my circumstances through. Am I seeing through a lens of pain or a lens of hope? I had to remind myself of 2 key truths:

 

1. Jesus Christ died to set me free. Galatians 5:1 says, “Christ has set us free! This means we are really free. Now hold on to your freedom and don’t ever become slaves of the law again.”  This means that my hope is not bound to my circumstances. My hope rests firmly on God. God put my husband and me together to be teammates. I’m not alone in my struggles and neither are you. God is not surprised by anything that is happening in our world today. We have not been called to be saviors. It isn't our job to carry it all on our shoulders. Jesus is our savior and He wants to carry our burdens.

2. God created me to be brave. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7) We don’t have to make decisions in haste or in response to our emotions. He is in control of all things. He is calling us to be bold in our faith and to trust that we are not in this life alone.

 

When we remember these truths our cycle changes from:

Suspicion, Fear, Anger, Shame

to:

Fascination, Peace, Love, Self-control

 

These truths take us from “know, assume, defend” to “ask, seek, knock”. 

 

 Marina Guzman is Children’s Ministry Director at Koinonia Church in Hanford, CA. She can be reached at marina@kchanford.com or 559-582-1528.

Generation Church

When I was youth pastor, the name of the ministry was called Generation Church. Generation Church was a model for youth ministry indicating that we were meant to minister to a generation, not just to young people. The logic for this was sound.

 

Then and now, junior high school, high school and college students do not look very different in the way the world targets them. For example, music, TV, movies, social media, and fashion are all marketed very similarly. Their goal is to catch a generation, not just a demographic. You may notice that junior high kids and high school kids listen to some of the same music, watch the same shows, videos, and movies. Not exactly the same, but similar. They dress alike and find trends to follow that each demographic finds appealing. When a company is able to appeal to all three demographics, they have reached a generation. Their likelihood of being profitable grows.

 

The Bible has a lot to say about generations. One of my favorite verses comes from Acts 13:36, “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers...” It doesn’t say that David served his family or just his friends. It says that he served the purposes of God in his own generation.

 

Sometimes, we get stuck with the idea that we are meant to just talk to the people in front of us. The truth is, we have a voice that has the potential to span generations.

 

·  Each generation must experience God for themselves.

God has a great call for you and for me. If we don’t think about it beyond our own relationship with God, it will be lost. We need a view for more than just our personal relationship with God and an idea that what we do is meant to serve and love others.

 

·  Faith is to be passed on to the next generation.

The faith that you and I have was never meant to be for just one person, but for generations. Think back to the disciples who were with Jesus and the early Christians who started what we now know as the church. Their faith was meant to serve their generation and inspire others to do the same.

 

·  Training our families takes time.

The most natural place to pass on your faith and beliefs is within your family. This doesn’t happen overnight. Most of us don’t realize that the most meaningful things we were shown by our family was not in words, but in actions. It is through a series of opportunities, where faith is shown and tested, that we pass on our faith. Then, those around us, and those we love, witness it. Training families takes time.

 

         ·  Abraham was chosen because he would train his kids.

God looked into the heart of Abraham and understood who he was. He knew Abraham would make sure that the next generation was blessed by his generation. That would only happen if he served his generation well and made sure that they understood the faith that he had.

 

God looks at us, and has chosen us because he knows we have the ability to train those coming after us. God is a good God and He has a lot for us to do. However, we must remember that we are not here for the service of ourselves, but for God. We are here for Him. He wants us to love others in such a way that is infectious to this generation and those to come.

 

 

Rene Solis is Director of Koinonia School of Ministry, a ministry of Koinonia Church in Hanford, CA. He can be reached at ksm@kcfchurch.org or by calling 559-582-1528.

Worship in the Ashes

I’m currently doing a bible reading plan, guiding me to read through the Bible in a year. I’ve been in the same plan for 2 years. Don’t judge me. It’s essentially my backup plan when I’m not sure where to start reading. I go back to my bible plan and pick right back up.

 

Right now, the plan has me in the book of Numbers. Sometimes it’s challenging to understand what God is teaching me through the more historical or informational passages.

 

Recently, God has been using a particular story to set the stage for my next area of growth. Numbers 16 reveals a challenging story of conflict. The men chosen to be the leaders of the temple rose up in anger against Moses and Aaron. There were 250 men total. The Lord instructed each of the 250 to carry censers (containers for incense) and make a presentation before the Lord. He would reveal to them all who were given His approval to lead.

 

In the process, the Lord brings fire and destroys the entire group. Then, the Lord instructs Eleazar, Aaron’s son, to remove the censers from the charred remains, for the censers are holy. This is the image that is stuck in my mind - the charred remains of those destroyed by the Lord’s fire. The 250 men who were destroyed were likely friends, co-workers in the temple, and neighbors within their traveling party. What an incredibly heavy and sorrowful task.

 

When I read this story, I was reminded of some of the friendships I’ve lost over the past

couple of years of trial in our community. There are people who were in my life and aren’t anymore for a number of different reasons.

 

All of this creates an area of loss for me, personally. While I have been simultaneously working out forgiveness and repentance of these issues, the pain is very real. In this situation, I imagine it being a pretty brutal request to have to sift through the remains for the items intended for worship.

 

I believe that is what God is asking us to do. What remains from your seasons of loss that the Lord wants you to turn into praise? God uses all things for good and for His glory. Paul even writes about “counting it all joy” for trials that produce perseverance. Can you imagine being joyful over being fired, rejected, abandoned, harassed, abused, neglected, passed over, or having too little to get by?

 

This is how I know we serve a God who is not of this world. He calls us to do things, and experience life, in a way that is totally upside down and seemingly unreasonable. He wants us to wade through the difficult things to find the verses for our next heart song. He allows us to be pressed because He understands how it refines us and focuses us towards Him. He does not long for our harm. His understanding of what is good is greater than ours.

 

Are you in a season of picking up the pieces? Has your heart been broken? Has your hope for a certain future been dashed? Have you lost a friend or family member, literally or relationally? Has your trust in someone or something been destroyed? God has something for you in that loss. God holds the source of resurrection, and there is hope for even those portions of your life being made new because of who you serve!

 

I am so thrilled to follow a God who puts the tools for worship in the ashes of my broken dreams. He is God, Lord of all, even your loss.

 

 

Candace Cortez is Executive Pastor at Koinonia Church in Hanford, CA. She can be reached at candace@kchanford.com or 559-582-1528.