Moving Is Good [post 59]

Ice Melt

Moving is good, any kind of moving. Looking back at the last few years I would say I was waiting. Waiting for something but not sure what it was. God was with us as a church and just to offer a time of intimate worship was very satisfying most of the time. We were growing in our love for each other. But...


The other day I had a thought. It has been like going swimming at a family owned swimming pool outside Attalla called Lake Rhea. Cold mountain water came down all year long into this creek. The family had built a large pool with a fishing lake on down stream. The water from the creek flowed into the pool, then the pond and on down stream.You could have a picnic, a family reunion (we did many times), use the main building to get something to eat or dance to the jukebox. You could come early and leave late.


The thing that connected the other day was that the water coming into the pool was set to match the outflow. In a closed system, like a pool in your back yard, the water just recirculates. But in a pool that is spring feed you had to let the overflow out or else it overflowed!


I can see now that God put the plug back into our church 'pool' a couple of years ago. It has been like filling up a backyard pool with a garden hose. It takes days to fill up a 30,000 gallon pool. The water has been rising for many months now and it's causing the landscape to change because the pool is full again. Like having a heavy spring rain, there is so much water that it has over flowed the walls and looks like a creek flowing. It looks like Lake Rhea. I like it. "Stuff is a-moving again."

Casual Talk About Our Church History [post 58]

I've been cleaning up a corner of my church office and used it for the next installment of our church history.

Why The Vineyard? Part 1 by Christy Wimber [post 57]

http://www.yorbalindavineyard.com/article/why-the-vineyard/

What can I say about this article? Oh, WOW! Christy was part of the Friends church that John and Carol Wimber first joined. She is John's daughter-in-law and is senior pastor of the Yorba Linda Vineyard. You have got to read this. And then go on to read Part 2.
http://www.yorbalindavineyard.com/article/why-the-vineyard-2--remember-who-you-are/
It's current and it's our beginning all talked about in one place. Enjoy like a box of chocolates!

jim

One of A.J.'s Great Videos of GVC Worship [post 56]

Tour of the Great Hall & A Little History [post 55]

Jim gives a little history and around-the-room tour at Facebook.

Todds visits James 2:17-18 [post 54]

This is a very important piece of scripture because it relates to the exercising of our faith. Let’s take a look:


17- If faith has no works, it is dead. How true. If we turn that into anything else, it makes perfect sense. Let’s say, if “labor without accomplishment is wasted labor” or “love without affection is never felt’’. You get the point. Our faith is the confident expectation of what we believe in. But if we truly believe it, and we confidently expect it, shouldn’t we walk in that expectation? Shouldn’t there be evidence in our lives of what we say we believe?


18- I will show you my faith by my works. Jesus said that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Then He said we would be known by our fruits. Either way, good or bad, a tree should produce fruit. Remember, Jesus also told us that a tree that didn’t produce fruit at all wasn’t worthy of the ground it used and should be cut down and thrown into the fire. Faith is the very base of our relationship with God, and if it is real, it will produce fruit. If it is empty, it is useless.


Let us exercise our faith, maybe it will get stronger…

-Todd Bagley

Editor's Note: Todd teaches a 4pm Sundays Worship and In-Depth Bible Study at Gadsden Vineyard. Come on by and sit in.

Todd visits Romans 12:1-2 [post53]

Let's look at Romans 12:1-2 today:


In v.1 when he mentions that our bodies should be a living and holy sacrifice, I'm scratching my head. So let’s break it down. In this sentence there are two things noted about our bodies as a sacrifice:


1) Living – When he says living, he isn’t just talking about us being alive and drawing breath as men. He’s referring to being alive in Him. If we look at 1 Corinthians 3:16, we see that we are a temple of God, and the Spirit dwells in us. We are living because the Spirit is alive in us.
2) Holy – To be holy is to be sanctified. We are sanctified only through our faith in Jesus and the power of His blood.
Notice that both of these things require Him, and cannot be achieved on our own. So how do we “present” ourselves as a sacrifice, acceptable unto God? By submitting ourselves to Him. That is worship, right? It’s giving ourselves into complete submission with all reverence and servitude to Someone greater.


In v.2, he gives some good guidance here. Do not be conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of your mind. Again, we have two things of significance:


1) Not conformed to the world – We are not to be like the world. The world is the sin that we were born into. However, we tend to want to fit into that, because it’s what we know. It’s so often very comfortable and feeds our flesh. But in Romans 8:29, we see that we were predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. And as Jesus said, you can’t serve two masters…
2) That leads us to the transforming part. Remember that little thing about denying ourselves and taking up our cross daily? That’s where this comes from. In the laying down of our old selves, the denial of our flesh and earthly minds, we can take on the mind of Christ. We can become more like Him, which is the ultimate goal. Remember, Jesus said that we are to be perfect like our God who is perfect. That only comes through our denial of ourselves and submitting to Him. In this process, transformation is taking place. Our minds are being renewed to its original state, prior to sin.


If we can do this, we are living instruments of worship.

-Todd Bagley

Editor's Note: Todd teaches a 4pm Sundays Worship and In-Depth Bible Study at Gadsden Vineyard. Come on by and sit in.

The Beginning of the Vineyard Movement [post 52]

Kenn Guliksen is an amazing church planter. He would go to a beach and start an oil painting of the scene. Before long he would be having many conversations about his painting. He would mention that he was doing a beach bible study and people would start coming. Once he had four different bible studies going he would start a beach worship service. A church would form and he would go paint somewhere else and do it again.


Each time he reworked how the church plant functioned he would change the name of the church. Kenn was in the process of doing this and felt lead to start one in Hollywood. He asked the LORD for a new name and was led to  Isaiah 27:2-3: 

2 In that day, "A vineyard of wine, sing of it!
3 "I, the LORD, am its keeper ; I water it every moment. So that no one will damage it, I guard it night and day. NASB

Kenn and Joanie Guliksen

Back in the early 1990s John Wimber was interacting with a group of Christians in the Kansas City area that moved in prophecy. They had all agreed that the Vineyard movement was about intimacy and compassion. Looking back I would agree with them. That's always been at the heart of the movement. We are only a part of the universal body of Christ but Intimacy and Compassion is a big part of our spiritual DNA.

- Jim Bentley