Community is vital to our faith. The early church stressed the importance of community, hence why we go to church. One of the many things that FUSE is great at is community. After each service, the Refinery is filled with crowds of people interacting with each other. Not just leaving but staying and grabbing coffee together. Plus, if you decide to wander into a Denny’s at 10pm on a Sunday night you will be met with a place filled with FUSErs. I love how FUSE is living out community. It does not matter if it’s at the Refinery or Denny’s.
Acts 2:46 says, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
I want to challenge you to stick around after a service this Sunday. Grab a friend and grab some grub at the deli. Come early and hang out. Do not miss the opportunity of doing life together.
Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”
Thanks for making FUSE a place of authentic community. See you early this Sunday.
Jay Kranda
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This is an email I sent to Justin late last night. I'm not sure I've even signed up for the FUSE text option so I won't know if it goes out. So, just in case, I'm posting it to the blog. Here's the text in case you're like me:
Are you around to send out a FUSE text for me tomorrow am? If so, I was thinking of something like this:
I hope to see you at FUSE tonight! I’m really looking forward to sharing with you some challenges for the new year. As always, FUSE will be a great celebration tonight. See you @ 4:30, 6:30 or 8:30.
Blessings,
Doug
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If you had 2008 to live over again, you’d probably want to do something differently. The reason we think that way is because we fail. We make mistakes. Sometimes you give life your best shot and you still come up short. Sometimes you study for the test and you still fail. Sometimes you work really hard in your job and you still get laid off. And sometimes you try to improve a relationship but it just doesn't make any progress.
The fact is you're going to fail quite often in life. It's not a matter of IF you will fail because you WILL fail many times. Nobody's perfect. We all make mistakes. You're going to have setbacks. You're going to have problems. You're going to have defeats and losses.
An important truth for you to know is that God is very interested in your future. God’s saying to forget about what's happened before. He says don't think about the past. It's over.
Catch This: God is far more interested in your future than He is in your past.
Some of you think God is fixated on your past and that all He wants to do is remind you of the things you've done wrong. You're wrong! God isn't interested in your past. He's interested in your future. That's where you're going to spend the rest of your life. God says to forget about the former things and look at the new thing I'm going to do.
“What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
Remember that God specializes in new beginnings. It’s called being born again. It means the chance to start over. God says, “I don’t want you to turn over a new leaf. I’m going to give you a whole new life.”
Are you ready for a fresh start in 2009?
Pray this prayer: “Dear God, only You can fully know the hurt in my heart. You’ve seen me stumble. You’ve watched me fall. You’ve watched me fail. You know the areas of my life that I’m ashamed of. You know where I’ve hurt others even when I didn’t know I was doing it. Father, You also know how I’ve been hurt by other people. Today, as I begin the New Year I ask You to give me a fresh start. First I accept responsibility for my part of the problems in my life. I’m going to stop making excuses. Forgive me for not listening to You. Forgive me for thinking that I knew better. Help me to learn from my experiences. Today I want to act in faith. In this simple prayer, I open up my life to You. I ask You, Jesus Christ, to be my Savior. I ask You to forgive me and to guide me from here on out. Help me to focus on You and Your word. I want to trust You to give me the power to start over and to do the right thing from here on out. Come into my life and be in charge. In Jesus’ name, I pray.”
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Merry Christmas FUSE,
It's about 1am on Christmas morning... I just got home from speaking at the 11pm service. I spoke at both the 9 and the 11 and I saw several FUSE folks. On the way home from church I was telling my wife that one of the highlights of my 2008 year has been FUSE. The leaders, the volunteers, the energy, the creativty, the passion and compassion... and the fun.
I'm very excited for what 2009 holds for our church, for FUSE... and for you!
You are loved! Merry Christmas,
Doug
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Last night was so special!!! My heart is so full.
It was a gift to me to be able to give especially because I am in a difficult situation myself. God says in His word that "when I am weak, then I am strong" and this was a profound truth in my life last night. I needed to get my eyes off my crisis and on loving others.
Last night we were divided in two lines, one for the church volunteers so we could greet and love on the homeless people and the other for the people who were receiving the free backpacks. One big lesson learned- so many of us are truly so close to being homeless. I heard it said that we are "one paycheck away from homelessness." The divine appointment I had yesterday was a reminder of that. Some of the people we dealt with had the characteristics and "looks" we would expect from a person in this situation.
I was mingling and greeting everyone and since I speak Spanish I built a rapport with the Spanish speakers. One of the Spanish speakers was from my country. He was so clean cut and polite that I thought he was from my church so I said “come to this side of the line with our church", he said no I am homeless I live in a shelter. I thought he was telling me some kind of a joke. He just did not fit my "stereotype". I took an interest in his story and asked him how this happened. I learned from "Edwin" that he has a college degree, double major and has never done drugs. However, due to some poor financial choices plus loosing two jobs (visual arts teacher, Sears employee) and not having family around, he simply became one more homeless statistic. I took him aside and challenge him to not give up in pursuing God's purpose for his life and told him how close I am to be in his same shoes but how much God has protected me because I allow Him to reign in my trials.
This was overwhelming for me and it reminded me how quickly we can all be on “the other side of the line.” I was wondering if that would be me this year, I opened up my bible when I got home and coincidentally the page that came up was “So never worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
May God continue to help us make Godly choices and provide what we need each day! Come with us next time you will be blessed.
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The blog comments were broken for a little bit (sorry,) and I got a few e-mails asking for details ... so here goes ...
After the 4:30 and 6:30 FUSE services we'll be stuffing the backpacks, inside the Refinery building where we hold FUSE.
All you need to do is show up at the 4:30 or 6:30 service to help stuff them, we'll explain everything in the service.
Then a group (which you can join if you'd like) ... lead by Pastor Chris will be driving up to LA sometime before the 8:30 service (so if you go to the 8:30 service go to the 4:30 or 6:30 this week.)
Bring whatever you can to help fill them, we'll pack as many as we can, we can never have too much!
Thanks for your help!
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Tuesday night marked our first ever FUSE Volunteer Christmas Party and
we had a blast! We celebrated serving God together in FUSE at a hip,
new restaurant called BoneHeads where the food was as delicious as the conversations!
Since working hard every Sunday night prevents us from sharing many of
life's stories with each other, we want to have quarterly get-togethers
with our FUSE staff and volunteers to facilitate deeper level of
relationship. We also want our volunteers to know how much we love and
appreciate them!
Top 10 Highlights:
- Pastor Doug had us all laughing so hard we were crying
- Tina's laugh could be heard above everyone else's
- Jana gave us all chocolate covered candy apples from Rock Mountain Chocolate Factory
- Nathan's tech crew's sweaters
- Jay's smile
- Jody trying to eat with chopsticks...barbarian
- Rosie showed up!
- Lisa B crashing the party and what was going through her mind as she was getting ready to
- Jon's clip-on goatee...nevermind, it was real
- Taffy
If you'd like to be a part of our FUSE Volunteer Team, please email Tina at tinalreed@gmail.com.
Blessings,
Chris Reed
FUSE Pastor
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It's not too late to get involved in helping a single parent family. We still have plenty of opportunities for you and your family or small group to bless another family in need.
If you would like to help please send an email to Jana Sarti at JanaS@saddleback.net and she will connect you with an opportunity.
Below is a list of needs that have been identified from our FUSE members. Please select a gift number from below (as you will see they are grouped by family) and respond to me so I know it is taken care of. If you respond to me and that need has already been met, I will let you know that and you can select another need still available.
Then if you will bring the item with you to FUSE this week (meet me at the info booth outside of the theatre before or after a service) we will distribute these items to the families in need on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
Thank you so much! It is an honor to partner with you and watch God use your family to bless another family.
Merry Christmas and may you receive so much more in return!
Jana Sarti
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We're off to a great start --- this weekend we had over 300 items donated for our Backpacks for the Homeless!
Food Items: Water Bottle, Snacks (Raisins, Nuts, Candy), Hot Chocolate, Cookies, Gift Certificates to McDonald's or Starbucks, etc...
Clothing Items: Sweatshirt, T-Shirt, Underwear, Socks, Jacket, Rain Poncho, Warm Hat, etc...
Personal Care Items: Toothbrush, Toothpaste, Breath Mints, Lotion, Soap, Shampoo, Wash Cloth, Comb, Brush, Chapstick, etc...
Miscellaneous Items: Stationary & Stamps, Radio, Book, Magazine, Watch, First Aid Kit, Phone Card, etc...
I know it's raining right now, but we're accepting more donations all week at the Refiery, just pop by during 'office hours' and drop off some more stuff.
We'll be preparing backpacks during the Dec. 21st FUSE service which is going to be amazing ...
Having a hard time thinking of what to get? Well below is a list of about 100 items of the 300 total last night --- take a look --- get some ideas --- and lets really show the love of FUSE.
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If you're signed up for Doug's weekly e-mail then you already know --- but as a reminder ...
This Sunday I would like to ask you to bring something to contribute to what we call "homeless backpacks".
On the last Sunday (21st) before Christmas there is a group of people who will go to the inner-city of LA and hand out backpacks to those living on the street.
It's an amazing sight and Pastor Chris and my wife and a few others are going to take a group from FUSE up there. If you want to go I'll tell you more about it this weekend.
But, for this weekend, would you consider contributing to these backpacks? We have 100 to fill! See the list below and bring whatever you can --- you can't bring too much.
Before and after our services on the 21st, we will be filling these backpacks.
So starting tomorrow night @ FUSE here's what to bring!
Food Items: Water Bottle, Snacks (Raisins, Nuts, Candy), Hot Chocolate, Cookies, Gift Certificates to McDonald's or Starbucks, etc...
Clothing Items: Sweatshirt, T-Shirt, Underwear, Socks, Jacket, Rain Poncho, Warm Hat, etc...
Personal Care Items: Toothbrush, Toothpaste, Breath Mints, Lotion, Soap, Shampoo, Wash Cloth, Comb, Brush, Chapstick, etc...
Miscellaneous Items: Stationary & Stamps, Radio, Book, Magazine, Watch, First Aid Kit, Phone Card, etc...
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