A great temptation of majority cultures is to think they are superior. The more people involved in a population, a cause, or a belief system, the more power over the minority they wield. It is human nature to become arrogant, proud, and complacent. Assumptions are made by the majority culture that they are preferable to minority cultures simply because they have the greater numbers. It is a fallacy. It is dangerous. And according to the Apostle Paul in Romans, we must remember to never let being in the majority lead to thinking we are better than others.
Becoming a Christian guarantees that you will never be alone. Faith in Jesus gives us instant relationship with God. And faith in Jesus gives us an instant community of brothers and sisters in Christ. This means a lot in a world described by the United States Attorney General as having an “epidemic of loneliness.” And it means a lot when we feel as if we are the only Christian at any given time in our life. Romans reminds us of this truth once again. We are taught that God always has a “remnant” of faithful believers in Jesus.
Romans 10:21 is a deeply profound and relevant verse. It is profound in the fact that the God of the Universe has his arms open to sinners all day long. In other words, continually for all time God wants to help people find their home in the arms of God. It is relevant today because according to the Surgeon General of the United States we are in an “Epidemic of Loneliness.” People are searching for meaning in a world filled with fear, anxiety, loneliness, political fighting, and social media nastiness. God patiently loving a “disobedient and contrary people” is beautiful. And it is a powerful example to us as Christians, and The Rock as a church.
I’m so thankful someone told me about Jesus. It was actually a number of people, in various ways, telling me about Jesus in writing, from a stage, and in person. Each of them was used by God. And each of them had beautiful feet… wait, what??? That is how the Bible gives honor to people who announced the good news of Jesus in Romans.
Easter Sunday in upon us! Let’s celebrate together this Sunday at 9:00 am. Invite your family, friends, and neighbors. Come early to enjoy coffee and donuts. And come ready to worship and celebrate our risen Lord Jesus!
One of Toyota’s marketing campaigns demonstrates how easy it is to buy a car by having a big “easy” button. The premise of the campaign is to play on people’s desire for things to be easy. There is enough things in our world that are hard! Let’s have something that is easy! The Apostle Paul suggests that obtaining Jesus’s righteousness is easy. Why? Because Jesus has done everything for us, in our place, to obtain the righteousness that we need to stand before God - it does not get any easier than having it done for us. But not everyone accepts easy righteousness.
Hi, my name is Heather Buchta, and I have been part of the Rock Covenant Church since 2004. I love Jesus, writing books, and obstacle course racing. Many times, non-racing friends will ask, “Why don’t you go on American Ninja Warrior?” It always tickles my heart that friends believe in me like that. However, there is a trick that most of us normal folks miss. ANW competitors are so talented at obstacles that they make it look effortless. You see them on television swinging like a weightless monkey, but most of us on the same course would be a sack of slippery potatoes. You don’t see their hours off screen, and the all-consuming training. They are, what I call, “next level.” Our pastor Curt Beeson reminds me of those athletes, but in a spiritual way.
The title of this post seems like a weird statement. “God is Free to Act.” Our first response may be, of course God is free to act. God can do what He wants! And you would be correct. That is actually Paul’s point in Romans 9 - God can do whatever He pleases! But many Christians would say God is not totally free. God is restricted. God is confined by one important factor. God is not free to act when it comes to human free-will. Free-will trumps God’s activity according to some Bible-believing, well-meaning, Jesus-loving Christians. This is a tricky issue. An issue that has caused division in the church over the centuries. And we must confront these two seemingly opposing points of view this week in our Romans series!
The Bible is sometimes hard to understand. The Bible sometimes confronts us with topics that confuse and, even, anger us. The Bible sometimes brings up more questions than it answers! Does this make God unjust? Does this mean we should give up understanding God? Does this mean “the word of God has failed?” (Rom. 9:6) The answer to each of these is an emphatic, “NO!” But is does mean that in order to attempt to understand an infinite God revealed to us, we must wade into the deep end of the pool. We must bravely enter into areas of the Bible that challenge us. This Sunday in Romans 9:6-13 is one of those areas!
People reject Jesus for many different reasons. Some reasons make sense. Some reasons are surprising. Some reasons are unexpected. The nation of Israel rejected Jesus. The ones who God had been grooming, teaching, and promising the Messiah throughout the Old Testament rejected Jesus. Unexpected. The same is true with people today. Some who we would think have every reason to follow Jesus, reject him.
This Super Bowl Sunday we will meet at 9:00 am
We will have a normal worship service with worship, fellowship, and kid’s activities. Come early for coffee and donuts!
Put in your calendars and set your alarms!
There are times when Christians need to reflect, worship, praise, and pray! This Sunday we will focus on God through communion & worship. We will “address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Ephesians 5:19) this Sunday. As is our usual practice on Communion Sunday we will eat with one another after church.
Last Sunday we considered Romans 8:28, one of the most loved verses in the Bible. This Sunday we move on to Romans 8:29-30, some of the most misunderstood (and therefore hated) verses in the Bible. People love the idea of God working everything for the good in v. 28(with good reason!). But people struggle with the concepts of foreknowledge and predestination in v. 29. If not understood properly, these theological concepts make it seem like God is unloving and unfair. This could not be further from the truth!
Navigating our way though life’s difficulties and challenges is hard. We can come up with different solutions and strategies to help, but sometimes we simply land on trusting in whatever gets us through. Settling for “whatever gets us through” can lead to superficial solutions. Solutions such as escaping in entertainment, distracting ourselves with busyness, or even destructive behaviors designed to mask our pain. These solutions ultimately do not help. They don’t give us direction. And they end up being hopeless. Thankfully, God offers us better help to navigate life.
Think of an event or trip in your life that you looked forward to going so much you couldn’t get it out of your mind. It was so exciting you could not help talking about going. It was so anticipated that even your worst days were made better by imagining you were there. As each month, week, and day drew closer your excitement built. There was an eagerness to go that made you practice patience. This is a part of life for things we look forward to doing. And this has everything to do with glory.
Happy New Year! There will be Sunday Service on New Year’s Day at 4:30 pm. No Sunday School - it will be a Family Worship Service.
Merry Christmas! The Rock Christmas Eve plan has evolved. The Harbor Covenant Church is holding their first ever Christmas Eve Service and have invited The Rock to join! We have tried to foster a relationship and do ministry events together with The Harbor so this is the perfect opportunity! If you are planning to go to church on Christmas Eve join us at The Harbor. If you planned on going to Peninsula Community Church for Christmas Eve Paul will be there leading worship and you are more than welcome to go to PCC.
Christmas Eve at The Harbor - 6:00 pm at 54th Elementary School (5501 Eileen Ave., Los Angeles 90043)
Christmas Eve at PCC - 5:00 pm at Peninsula Community Church (5640 Crestridge Rd. RPV 90275)
SPECIAL NOTE: NO SUNDAY SERVICE ON CHRISTMAS DAY.
Are you a Christmas package shaker? A snooper? An early opener? It is hard to be patient waiting for Christmas! And not just for the kids! Part of the Christmas joy is the anticipation and waiting for the big day. God’s design for our spiritual lives involves anticipation and waiting as well. Ancient Israel was longing for and waiting for their Messiah. The Romans to which Paul was writing in the 1st century were instructed to patiently wait for Jesus. And we practice waiting for Jesus during the Advent season. God wants us to long for Jesus, to anticipate heaven, and to live life patiently in the process.
