NCFC|VA EC

Rejoicing In It All

1 Peter 4:12-13
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

While we wish life was full of smiley faces, hearts, and high fives all the time, we know its definition would be incomplete without the frowns, tears, and hopelessness in the mix.  In this fallen world, suffering is real and unavoidable.  Peter tell us to expect it because if it hasn’t come yet, it’s coming.  And if it has come already, it probably will come again.  Depressing?  Only if we stop there.  Amazingly, our gracious Father grants an overcoming joy to those who love Him in humility.  So we rejoice in it all, trusting in our faithful Creator.  His Word is unfailing.

We had an opportunity to rejoice in response to the good times and the hard times this past Saturday.  First, we celebrated Jenny’s birthday.  Meet Jenny Kim.  She is my co-leader for our Oikos and she is amazing.  Her passion, dedication, and leadership has been so vital to the development of our group.  I could not lead the group effectively without her.  Her birthday was Friday but, of course, we celebrated with her at Oikos.  It was her birthday but she still cooked us a delicious dinner.  By the way, she is a great cook.  We rejoiced and blessed her and blessed God.  It was a great time of fellowship and rejoicing for God’s faithfulness and goodness in our sister’s life.

After dinner and celebration, we had our time of going into the Word and discussion.  1 Peter 4:12-19 was the focus.  Suffering can be such a hard thing to talk about but the Spirit was freeing us from fear that night.  Hearts were open for sure.  Let me tell you, the Church is beautiful.  When God’s Word and the Holy Spirit comes upon the people of God gathered together, it is so, so beautiful.  Pains from suffering were shared but it didn’t stop there.  The Holy Spirit flowing out from the Word of God beckoned us to look at the Cross and we did. Though there was deep pain and hurt, the joy of the Lord filled our hearts.  Rejoicing followed.  Our God is good.

Here are some photos of our Oikos as I promised. The other guys couldn’t make it so I happened to be the only guy there.  It was fine though.  You all know that I am more than enough man to make up for the imbalance. =p  JK (No, I’m not. HAHA!).  Anyway, here are some of the lovely ladies of our Oikos.

The Purpose of the Church

The theme of this Fall semester has been Church as Community as Family.  We have been exploring what exactly the Church is according to the Bible.  We’ve been tackling important questions like “Do we need to go to Church?”, “What/Who is it for?”, “What is the purpose?”, and more.

It’s been wonderful as we have been allowing the New Testament to guide us in our mission to BE the Church God so desires.  We are aiming to be a community that is more than just people gathering as if it is just a club.  We aim to be a community that loves one another deeply.  More than just having a good time and feeling good together, we want to develop much depth in our relationships.  And when depth is formed in relationships that involves dealing with pain, disappointment, hardships, and, of course, sin.  But the love we depend on is the love of Christ.  And the love of Christ conquers all.  So we continue to gather together asking for the Spirit to fill us and our gracious Father has.  I definitely see us growing together in Christ, trust increasing, grace increasing, love increasing.  It’s a beautiful thing.

That’s only half of it, too.  In our commitment to Church, we have also been appropriately placing our focus on the Great Commission.  The threat of focusing inward and being in a bubble is so dangerous so we are desperately remembering the call God has given His Church.  In the beginning of the fall semester and even earlier this past summer, God has been growing my heart for not just Virginia campus but the communities around the church location in Sterling.  Amazingly enough, after bringing it up to different people within our Oikos, basically everyone has been thinking the same thing.  So this past Oikos meeting, we prayed, brainstormed, and shared different ideas on how we can reach out to the community around us as a group.  God is definitely stirring something up!

I came across a few video clips of Francis Chan speaking on the Purpose of Church.  They are very relevant to our theme this semester and Francis Chan does a wonderful job communicating biblical truth on the purpose of Church.  So when you find the time, I encourage you to watch them!

Sincerely,
Eric

A Little Somethin', Somethin'

This past Oikos Meeting, Mike wonderfully shared his intentions to design and build a unique website for our church.  I am especially excited to see that happen in the upcoming weeks/months.  In the meantime, I figured why not come up with a little somethin’ for our Oikos.  Somethin’ simple but useful in connecting us even more.  With all the web space out there, it’s about time we claim some space for ourselves!  Plus, I LOVE blogs.  Once Mike completes the website, we will move over to that!

If I may be Captain Obvious for a moment (I realize more and more that I take up this role unknowingly at times so I apologize if you were a victim), as you can see, ‘to the left - to the left (c)Beyonce, I have put up 1) This week’s Oikos information and the 2) Upcoming Schedule.   I will continually update that information so feel free to always come check this blog if you desire to come stalk us.  Be careful though, Jenny is a mouse killer so we might be able to utilize her in our self-defense if you try some monkey business (Just kidding, says Captain Obvious).

As for posts, we will use it to announce special news and events, giving you more details.  We will also use it to post pictures of our Oikos (so bring your cameras from now on!), relevant articles, useful resources, and any other fun and interesting stuff.  Most importantly, I believe we will find a blog valuable in tracking our progress as a gospel community of Christ.  I envision us a year from now being able to look back and see how the amazing grace of God has been working in our lives as we fight the good fight together.  I thank Him in advance.

For now, our only semi-group picture (missing so many!):

[Taken after eating at Ray’s Hellburger in the Summer]

This is just the beginning so practice your smiles.

1 Peter 2:9-10
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Sincerely,
Eric

P.S. If you have any suggestions or want to contribute, feel free to let me know!