Jars and Jug: God’s Promise to Provide

Jars and Jug: God’s Promise to Provide

by Wilson Hutchinson

On Fridays, I’ve been teaching Bible for the Family Center kids, via Zoom. Each week I teach them one of God’s names, and share stories that illustrate His Name.

For our class on May 22nd, I decided to teach them Jehovah Jireh: The Lord who Provides. As I was praying and thinking about which stories to tell them, the story of Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath came to mind. Earlier that day, Becky had texted Chef Mike, Sara, and me with some disappointing news. “Please pray for God to provide in his feeding of the 5000 way,” she concluded.

Usually I teach the Bible class from my room, but I needed to shop for 5000 Pies before teaching. I was running out of time, so I quickly gathered up my teaching materials, thinking that I might have to teach from the Training Center.

On my way to Restaurant Depot, I pulled up 1 Kings 17 on an audio Bible to re-familiarize myself with the story. As I listened, I thought, I should send this story to Becky to encourage her. I realized suddenly that I would be teaching on God’s provision from the place where our church has been providing food for families who’ve been struggling financially because of the COVID crisis. “Wow, this is totally God,” I thought. By the time I started loading my car with food, I realized I wouldn’t even have another option. I said out loud, “Thank You God! You’re speaking.”

Our Family Center Bible Class starts at 3:00 pm and I was a few minutes late. We played a game and then I taught about God’s provision. As I finished the story of the Widow of Zarephath, Emily Kazim raised her hand. She explained to the kids that our church has a restaurant called 5000 Pies, and she knew it’s been tough for us financially. “Wilson, I had no idea that you would be teaching this story today, and you didn’t know this, but last week, as I was praying for 5000 Pies, God gave me this same story.”

So immediately I said, “God is speaking to us right now! I’m the manager at 5000 Pies. It’s been a tough season for us. We’re okay, but we barely have enough. Usually I teach you guys from my room, but today I ran out of time, and so I had to teach you guys from here at the Training Center. This is really significant, because 5000 Pies is right next door. When I’m finished, I’ll walk two doors down, right into 5000 Pies. God is telling us that He’s going to provide for us. We just have to give our first to Him, and trust and obey. And He’ll do the rest! He’s going to take care of us!”

Two days pass. It’s Sunday morning. I decide to pull up the COVID Intercession Team spreadsheet to see what I’m supposed to be praying for. (We have a prayer cycle with two people praying for FOL every day of the week.) A comment from Daniel Groot catches my eye. Amazed by what I’m seeing, I realize that he had typed the comment on Friday, May 22nd, at 3:40 pm, just minutes before I started to teach the kids. Daniel wrote: “I see this image of the Widow at Zarapheth’s jars, continuing to overflow as she provides for herself, her household, and Elijah. I pray that our neighbors, as they receive provision from the Lord, understand it is from Him and learn that he is their provider as well.”

So, I call Daniel, and he tells me that he usually prays with Alice Becerra, but they couldn’t coordinate their schedules on Friday, so he had to pray alone. He was really tired and didn’t feel like praying, but he decided to pray anyway. He told me, “This is such a good reminder for me. Prayer really is partnership with God!”

At the end of my time with the kids on Friday, I had asked them to close their eyes and pray: “God, how do you want to provide for me and my family?” I said, “The biggest, most important way God speaks to us is through His Bible, but just like God popped this exact same story into Ms. Emily’s mind as she was praying, sometimes God speaks to us in our thoughts, or with pictures that we see in our mind. Most of the thoughts up here are just my own thoughts. And bad thoughts don’t come from God. But some thoughts are from God.”

Once they had opened their eyes, I asked if God had shared anything with them. A 4th grade boy raised his hand. “I saw this. It was Jesus, but he was standing in front of our front door so that no robbers could get in.”

Three days pass. I share this story with Nayelli, and she says, “That’s interesting, because I had the same vision. I shared it with Caroline [who leads the COVID intercession team].” Three weeks earlier, Nayelli wrote that during her morning time with God she heard the first half of John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy,” but then she got an image of God standing at each of our doors, protecting us by not allowing the thief to come in. She saw the thief go from house to house, but at each one, the Lord was standing. She knew that His protection was not only for FOL core families, but also for a wider circle of West Long Beach families, whom we serve and love evangelistically.

Shocked by the miracle story of the jar and jug, this same 4th grade boy had asked, “How full were they? Were they, like, full?”

“The Bible doesn’t actually tell us how full they were,” I answered, “but it does say that until it rained, they always had enough.”

FOL Statement on Race and Unity

Statement on Race and Unity

In John’s Gospel, the apostle defines “the world” as human society defiantly organizing itself without God. The kings of the earth rebel against God, rejecting his Word and his ways. Today, the consequences of societies attempting to live independently from the Living God are evident, but God continues to love people and empowers us to be light in the darkness.

Fountain of Life Covenant Church condemns racism and oppression. Where racism divides, demeans, and kills, Jesus unites, honors, and heals. World history is replete with cultural oppression and leaders brutally enforcing divided societies at the expense of others. Jesus teaches that it must not be so among us. Because Christians do not live in scarcity or fear, we have the resources to love and serve each other. The Scriptures warn against embracing the values of the world.

The FOL church family deeply mourns the loss of Black lives at the hands of racism, abuse of power, and violence. We affirm that every person is made in the image of God (Genesis 1 and 2). Therefore we stand in faith with those who are vulnerable, captive, and in need of liberation (Luke 4:16-21). We not only denounce the concepts of racial supremacy and class superiority, but we sacrificially follow Jesus into service for a more just and caring world.

The Scriptures do not discriminate according to race, ethnicity, or social class. In fact, Jesus broke down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile when he died on the cross, creating one new humanity. The first Gentile convert was the Ethiopian eunuch, a Black man from Africa (see Acts 8). Luke, the author of Luke-Acts, writes himself a cameo in Acts 13, appearing as Lucius of Cyrene, a Black man from Northern Africa. Many of the great fathers of the church, including Athanasius and Augustine, were Africans.

For the past thirteen years, Jesus has been working in FOL to reconcile many nations into one beautiful body. We have followed the Holy Spirit into serving a generation of children in our attempt to level the education playing field. Five years ago, God helped us to establish a social enterprise, 5000 Pies, to provide vocational and economic options for our neighbors. Today, we are ready to follow Jesus wherever He goes (Revelation 14:4).

It is our prayer that we are known for our love: listening first and speaking second (Ephesians 4:29); mourning with those who suffer (Romans 12:15); and joining them in acting for justice on their behalf (Luke 11:42). Please join Fountain of Life Covenant Church as we follow Jesus, the One who will return like a thief in the night and make all things new (Revelation 21:5).

Living Life in West Long Beach

Silverado Park, Long Beach

Living Life in West Long Beach
by Carol Sato  
 (This article was written on March 7, 2020, a few days before our daily lives changed as a result of COVID-19. Carol, known as “Mom” at Fountain of Life, still goes for walks, but maintains an appropriate social distance.)


Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. John 15:13-18 (ESV)
 
Silverado Park is my track. It’s my outdoor gym. It’s my space to exercise and to be enriched by the sunshine, beautiful flowers, interesting plants, the clouds, and the fresh air of the morning. In God’s sovereignty, it’s also my training ground and mission field.
 
Since 2002, this training ground has provided opportunities to experience God’s continued faithfulness and steadfast love. As I have walked, prayed, enjoyed the squirrels and my surroundings, God has helped me to connect with people as I have said, “hello,” interacted with folks, and prayed for some who shared specific needs or ailments. I refer to these steps of faith as my God-given “walking ministry.”
 
Recognizing the fruitfulness of experiencing God in the context of my local park, I began to see my daily walks as a mission field where God’s continued faithfulness and steadfast love are expressed to others through me.
 
Last year in mid-December, while walking by the tennis courts, I saw Pastor John drive by. As we finished greeting one another with smiles and waves, I realized that a young woman, whom I’ll call Maria, was walking at my pace. I have seen her walking around the park many times. I had never spoken to her but, on that day, it seemed like God wanted Maria to experience his love and care.
 
“Hi, I’m Carol. I’ve seen you many times. What is your name?” We began to talk and she felt comfortable sharing her story. Maria was 7 years old when she experienced a stroke. This resulted in a need to relearn everything that she had learned up to that point in her life.
 
She expressed her desire to learn how to read. It was a priority for her because she wanted to read with her own young child. I promised that I would ask my friends to see if there was a way that we can help her achieve her goal.
 
God, the giver of good gifts, loves Maria and heard her heart’s cry. Even before her need became a prayer request, he prepared, called, and provided a retired teacher with expertise in helping adults to read. Carolyn, Keva Green’s mother, is God’s good gift of grace to Maria and her family.
 
With Maria’s parent’s approval, Carolyn began working with Maria in February. For Carolyn who gives as well as receives and for Maria who receives, it has been an awesome, joyful experience. [They hope to resume their meetings when they are able.] God’s love is being poured out through Carolyn to Maria and her family. We are praying that they will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
 
Under the Lord’s authority and jurisdiction, my training ground and mission field take on greater meaning as I see the Lord of the harvest working to make himself known at Silverado Park.
 
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Water Walkers

Water Walkers
by Pastor Dan Palomino

I don’t think there is a single person on this globe except, perhaps, those who are unable to process reality, who do not know about the pandemic we are in at present. We are constantly bombarded with news about COVID-19. We wake up to it, we see it throughout the day either by watching the news on TV or getting notifications on our phones, and it’s pretty much the last thing we hear or read about before going to sleep.

Thankfully I’m not dreaming about it. Although, in a roundabout sort of way, I am. I have had a dream a couple of nights this week where I had a “normal” encounter with a person from whom I did not have to stand 6 feet away. In another dream (it’s a bit fuzzy now) I think I dreamt of going to a ballgame with my son. I was dreaming about normal life. When I woke up, I felt maybe what we’re actually experiencing in the midst of this pandemic, is the actual dream. Then, of course, I realize that it’s not.

Recently, in my role as chaplain, I was preparing to share a reflection with my hospice team, so I read an article in the LA Times. The article was about ways to be able to get a good night’s sleep and how important this is for maintaining a healthy immune system. One hint is, don’t watch the news too much and especially don’t read any news within 90 minutes of going to bed. Unfortunately, I read this within a half-hour of going to bed. Consequently, I didn’t sleep very well.

Being bombarded with all this news about the corona virus makes me think of the time Jesus walks on the water and Peter calls out to him: “’Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ [Jesus] said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me’” (Matthew 14:28-30).

Of course, Jesus does. Then he asks Peter, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (v. 31) Matthew doesn’t tell us what Peter’s answer was. Perhaps he had no answer. Maybe he just felt ashamed even though he was the only one of the Twelve with the boldness to actually get out of the boat and take Jesus at his word.

But he got distracted with the wind and the waves around him. He lost his focus on the Lord standing before him, the Lord who was with him. The Lord who is with us even as we can easily be distracted by the wind and every wave of news that hits us from all sides. Just as Jesus is in the boat with us (Mark 4), he is on the water with us. We need to keep our eyes on HIM. Yes, we will be aware of the storm around us. We can’t completely ignore it. Nor should we. But our primary focus must be on the Lord.

As we have heard many times from Pastor John (including the last couple of Sundays and in our Wednesday night Digital Discipleship sessions), stay in the Word. Go deeper in the Word. In our first Mobile Life Group, one of our main takeaways from Psalm 1 is to be that tree firmly planted by streams of water by “delighting” in the law of the Lord (His Word) and “meditating” on his law “day and night.”

We are fighting the spread of this pandemic for a time by “social distancing,” or as one of our sisters prefers to call it, “social solidarity.” We must fight the onslaught of reporting of the pandemic by focusing on Jesus and his Word, getting into the Word so that the Word gets into us for all time. Fill your heart and mind with the Word of the Lord, not with the news of COVID-19. May we all be water walkers who are not filled with doubt because of what we see around us but who stay on the water because of WHO we see before us, standing with us.

Links from Digital Discipleship 4/1

Pastor John mentioned several links and action items tonight (4/1/20) during Digital Discipleship.

  • Wednesday Witness, 4/6/20 Training: If you would like to take part in the 4/6/20 training, sign up here: bit.ly/FOLWedWitness
  • FOL Fight Club: If you would like to join the FOL Fight Club to help you find a partner to help you in the fight against unbelief, click here to sign up: bit.ly/FightUnbelief
  • Fighting Unbelief Resource: If you would like to read the Fighting Unbelief Resource, click here: bit.ly/FOL_FightUnbelief