Posted by genepensiero on January 6th, 2009 in nonsense, positive post tuesday

it’s tuesday.

today’s post is for a couple of strangers. i don’t know their names. i don’t think i’ll ever know their names.

until maybe next year…

see, we have a couple of large pomegranate trees in our front yard. come autumn they were full of those large, robust, nearly-impossible-to-eat fruit.

when we moved into our house this spring our landlords told us that many people would be traveling down the road (at like 60 miles an hour…) and would see our trees and do one of three things:

thing number 1 - keep on driving. who wants to spend 45 minutes eating a piece of fruit? (i do. they’re delectable!)

thing number 2 - idle up slowly, set the car to park (or neutral for experienced wheel-men), slink out of the seat and thieve as many of our softball-sized beauties as their arms and accomplices could hold.

thing number 3 - stop the car. walk to the door. knock. and (with as much sadness, sincerity and genteel in their eyes as possible) ask if they could pick a few.

today’s post is for those couple of people who took the time to ask for pomegranates this season. we said yes to all of them.

i mean, who could say no to someone asking for a piece of fruit?

of course, one of those guys practically cleaned us out, but without a ladder even he couldn’t deprive us of boxes and boxes of pomegranates.

boxes.

and boxes.

in a way i could thank the folks that took the easier route of pilfering some property they happened to be driving past…but, i’m not going to thank them. they took the cowards way out.

so, to you few who came and knocked on my door to ask for some fruit: well done! you stored up some integrity with those antioxidants.

and, had any of you rifled through my mail box to find my name, rather than help yourself to my identity, you’d now be able to check the wide wide world of web for this tuesday accolade.

it’s tuesday.

be positive!

3 Comments

Posted by genepensiero on January 5th, 2009 in bibling, ministry, prayer

The story is told of a group of visitors to Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. They wanted to meet the great English preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and see the sanctuary, his office, and the education rooms. Spurgeon himself guided their tour, but they were surprised when he said, “Let me show you the boiler room.”

They followed him to that lowly space and were even more astonished to find 50 people there, on their knees. The assembly was praying for the church’s ministry, the staff, their community, and the world.

Why choose such an inauspicious place for prayer? As the power-center for heating the entire building, the boiler room symbolized for them the source of power in ministry—prayer! A major component of that church’s impact was the effectual and fervent prayer of humble people meeting in a shabby, out-of-the-way room.

last night we kicked off our first ‘event’ of 2009 @ calvary hanford. we’re calling it Even 1. you can find a fuller description on the website, but here are the basics…

when Jesus went to the garden of gethsemene to pray on the evening before His crucifixion, He asked His disciples to pray for Him, for themselves, for what was going to happen in the future.

we know the story. they fell asleep.

a bunch of times.

Jesus found them and said this to Peter:

could you not watch with Me one hour?
Matthew 26:40

hours before His horrific crucifixion, the Lord showed grace to His disciples, suggesting that just one ‘hour’ of prayer would have been immensely helpful to Him and to Peter.

the Lord put that verse on our heart a few months ago and we started thinking about what it could mean for our church.

then we realized that when you look in the Bible you find that it’s not just about one ‘hour’ of prayer…you find something very precious.

in Nehemiah, one man praying opened the door for God’s people to return from captivity. in fact, just one quick prayer was enough for Nehemiah to lead that venture with boldness and confidence.

in Daniel, one man praying led to the sharing of the Gospel with Darius, the pagan king.

one group of Christians praying led to the release of Peter from prison.

one city praying stayed God’s judgement on Nineveh and began a revival.

the more we thought about prayer the more we wanted to make more time to do it! we have a weekly prayer meeting on saturday nights, but as we start a new year we want to begin with more prayer. lots more.

Even 1 is a week-long set of prayer meetings, just 1 hour at a time. we’ve been collecting hundreds of prayer requests and we’ll be praying for lots of other things.

we want to pray for you. if you have a request, a report, or anything you’d like us to pray for, here’s what you can do:

- email me: gene@genepensiero.com

- leave a comment on this post with your request

- send me an @ message or direct message on twitter (twitter.com/genepensiero)

- call it in: 559-582-5532

it doesn’t matter if we know you or not. we still want to pray for you.

prayer does amazing things. it works. it is necessary. it is wonderful.

last night’s meeting was fantastic and we’re quite excited to go to the Lord again tonight and throughout the week.

confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
James 5:16

maranatha

3 Comments

Posted by genepensiero on January 4th, 2009 in blogging, what has your blog been saying

click it to make it big

it’s sunday.

i want to see what your blog has been saying.

find out here.

post about it.

come on back and leave us a link in the comments.

maranatha

2 Comments

Posted by genepensiero on January 2nd, 2009 in bibling, check it out

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welcome to 2009.

lots of things are happening out there, but none so exciting as the Biblical prophecies that we are seeing come true before our very eyes.

on wednesday we heard about just 10 of the signs that we are living in the last days prophesied in the Old and New Testaments.

see for yourself:

 

 Top 10 Signs We're Living In The Last Days: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

- Read The Transcript -

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Posted by genepensiero on January 1st, 2009 in nonsense, video

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i just think we need to start our new year off right…

doooh….do Do DOOH WAAAAAHHHH!

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Posted by genepensiero on December 31st, 2008 in check it out, ministry, missions

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you can extend the Christmas season for a little while longer.

(rss readers, come watch the video)

give to Gospel For Asia.

One Hundred Percent of your donation goes directly to what you designate.

you can make a difference.

one dollar can make a difference.

maranatha.

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Posted by genepensiero on December 30th, 2008 in ministry, positive post tuesday

it’s tuesday.

i’m not sure if i’ve positively identified our volunteers @ calvary hanford before, so today’s post is for them.

i know what some of you are thinking: ‘can’t you just look through your other positive posts?’

to you i say: yes, i COULD do that, but i’m not going to. if you want to undertake that project, feel free.

i know what some others of you are thinking: ‘aren’t volunteers just people who come a little early on sunday mornings to eat free donuts and drink free coffee?’

to you i say: no. not at all. if that is what your volunteers do, then you haven’t given them enough work.

we’re a mid-sized church. we’re not huge. we’re not small. we’re right where God wants us to be.

but, for a church our size, i’m happy to say that we have a very small staff.

i think this is beneficial for a couple of reasons. first, it keeps our staff busy. a busy church staff is a very, very good thing.

second, it gives lots of people a chance to volunteer. and, @ calvary hanford, we have unbelievable volunteers. tons of them. people who do all sorts of important jobs, from greeting (a more…traditional church volunteer position) to scrubbing toilets during the week.

we have people who teach our kids on sundays and wednesdays and people who vacuum our campus on their days off. we have people who lead worship (for free) and people who mop our kitchen floor.

we have volunteers that cut our grass and pick up leaves and we have volunteers that manage and work our bookstore before and after services.

our volunteers change trash bags. they move stacks of chairs. they pour the coffee. they go get the donuts. they come in on their lunch hour to help with our cafe outreach to the high school. they get on ladders and they get on their hands and knees to get the job done.

they come early.

they stay late.

they do it all for their Lord and to improve the ministry of our church. they make it possible for us to do the things we can do.

we don’t have a position for every aspect of what we do.

we don’t have a payroll of dozens of people.

we don’t have a fancy title for people.

and still, for over 20 years the Lord has been faithful to move in His people’s hearts and stir them up to serve in important (if not always prestigious) ways.

our volunteers blow my mind. and they are the best in the business.

thanks to everyone who helps out once a week, once a month, once a year or just once.

maranatha.

2 Comments

Posted by genepensiero on December 29th, 2008 in bibling, know what you believe

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Jesus Is Extravagant.

whether speaking of His grace or His mercy, His sacrifice or His many gifts to us, His activity in our past or His plan for the future, all of it is extraordinary, abundant and humbling.

i want to take a little more time here and there to highlight our Savior’s wonderful extravagance.

today, being inspired by some thoughts from my church’s verse-by-verse study through Colossians, i’d like to speak on Christ’s extravagant grace.

it is His grace that brings us unmerited value and worth in the eyes of God. it is His grace that extends to us what is deserved only by Him.

here are a few words from my dad’s transcript yesterday:

that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful
in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Colossians 1:10

“Worthy” is a word I can stumble over. In so many ways I am not “worthy” of the name ‘Christian.’ But that is not how Paul is using the word.

Remember, he is not talking about earning or deserving God’s will. He’s describing God filling you.

The word “worthy” here means worth as much. He’s saying that your “walk” is worth as much as that of the Lord’s when He was here.

Jesus’ grace, given to us, is extravagant. not just covering sin, but transforming us into individuals who are of glorious value to Himself and His Father.

God. Is. Good.

blessings.

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Posted by genepensiero on December 28th, 2008 in blogging, what has your blog been saying

click to enlarge

it’s sunday.

it’s been a light week as far as posting goes, but there’s still some value in seeing what the internet databases have been noticing about JIE.

i’d like to see what your blog has been saying.

so go here…

…post your wordle…

…let us know in the comments.

(and have a great sunday)

maranatha.

No Comments

Posted by genepensiero on December 27th, 2008 in blogging

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ok…so it has been a few days since my last post. this conflicts with my usual never-more-than-36-hours-between-posts policy. for that, I am sorry.

the truth is, if you didn’t know, it’s been the week of Christmas and i’ve been enjoying friends, family, church, food, driving and sleeping in.

those elements, mingled with a lack of internet access at home, has produced a gap in posting.

i’m not sad, but I hope you’re not sad either. come sunday we’ll be back to daily posts about all the regular stuff.

so there you go. even now i’m scratching out this entry as I stand in line @ Target, where kelly and I got some screamin’ deals on 50 percent off Christmas decor.

I hope you had a great Christmas and I hope you come back to read again.

blessings and maranatha.

2 Comments