#RealitySF

[isaidalison]

If holiness and the awful power and majesty of God were present in this least auspicious of all events, this birth of a peasant’s child, then there is no place or time so lowly and earthbound but that holiness can be present there too. And this means that we are never safe, that there is no place where we can hide from God, no place where we are safe from his power to break in two and recreate the human heart, because it is just where he seems most helpless that he is most strong, and just where we least expect him that he come most fully. For those who believe in God, it means, this birth, that God himself is never safe from us, and maybe that is the dark side of Christmas, the terror of the silence. He comes in such a way that we can always turn him down, as we could crack the baby’s skull like an eggshell or nail him up when he gets to big for that.

Frederick Buechner

A convicting moment in reflecting Jesus as an infant on Christmas: to be born onto this earth, as a vulnerable baby in a manger.  How overwhelming it is to realize that God has no bounds in His love for us. 

[bachnwill]

Easter Celebrations. #RealitySF #sfopera (at San Francisco Opera)

[fireholdingfire]

Praise The Lord this grateful day, roll like fog into The City by the Bay! IN SAN FRANCISCO AS IT IS IN HEAVEN #realitysf #church #christian #pray #worship #grateful #ThyKingdomCome #ThyWillBeDone #Jesus #TheLord is our only #Sanctuary http://realitysf.com

[eternallytheirmemory]

You cannot speak truth without love. You cannot speak love without truth.

RealitySF

[omgafluffyunicorn]

Holy Father, There is nothing I have that You have not given me. All I have and am belong to You, bought with the blood of Jesus. To spend everything on myself, and to give without sacrifice, is the way of the world that You cannot abide. But generosity is the way of those who call Christ their Lord; who love Him with free hearts and serve Him with renewed minds; who withstand the delusion of riches that chokes the word; whose hearts in heaven, and not on earth. I am determined to increase in generosity until it can be said that there is no needy person among us. I am determined to be trustworthy with such a little thing as money that You may trust me with true riches. Above all, I am determined to be generous because You, Father, are generous. It is the delight of Your daughters and sons to share Your traits, and to show what You are like to all the world.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. We bring nothing into this world, and we take nothing out of it. We who call Jesus Lord devote ourselves to resisting greed, which plunges the human heart into ruin, and pierces it with many griefs. We are determined to practice generosity with free hearts, fixing our hope on God and not the uncertainty of wealth. We desire to be rich in good deeds and willing to share all that we have, laying up for ourselves treasure that will not decay but will shine in the age to come.

[libertymadison]

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Brunch with @nnenau in the kitchen #paintedladies @realitysf crew #realitysf (at Painted Ladies)

[lkam]

Abide - Life With God Series

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

Metaphors: we live by metaphors. The vines are a great metaphor that Jesus uses. If you're cut off from the vine, then you are cut off from the goodness of God. Without that attachment we will never truly live. Jesus wants us to change the vine we live by.

Light & Love & Life > happens outside of us.

By staying connected to God we become fruitful. God is a wonderful gardener. He wants new fruit for every season. He also cuts back fruitfulness. Pruned for better fruit. It teaches us discipline. Obedience > The greatest joy you will ever experience is through obedience to God. Reliance on God and obedience to His will means everlasting joy.

“Abide in Me” Galatians 5:22-23, Fruit of the Spirit of God (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self Control)

“There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.” John 15:13

[yesdarlingido]

Notice the significance of the new birth for Christian social identity. Christians do not come into their social world from outside seeking either to accommodate to their new home (like second generation immigrants would), shape it in the image of the one they have left behind (like colonizers would), or establish a little haven in the strange new world reminiscent of the old (as resident aliens would). They are not outsiders who either seek to become insiders or maintain strenuously the status of outsiders. Christians are the insiders who have diverted from their culture by being born again. They are by definition those who are not what they used to be, those who do not live like they used to live. Christian difference is therefore not an insertion of something new into the old from outside, but a bursting out of the new precisely within the proper space of the old. Christians are in an important sense insiders. As those who are a part of the environment from which they have diverted by having been born again and whose difference is therefore internal to that environment. Christians ask, “Which beliefs and practices of the culture that is ours must we reject now that our self has been reconstituted by new birth? Which can we retain? What must we reshape to reflect better the values of God’s new creation?

Miroslav Volf, Soft Difference

[omgafluffyunicorn]

RealitySF’s 2016 Easter set list

O Praise the Name - Hillsong

In Christ Alone - Stuart Townend

How Great Thou Art - hymn (link to Lauren Daigle’s acoustic version)

Jesus Paid It All - Kristian Stanfill

Stronger - Hillsong

All Glory Be to Christ - Kings Kaleidoscope

King of My Heart - John Mark McMillan, Sarah McMillan

[jennybchalkin-blog]

bathroom signs at Reality SF

[lifewithoutthespectacular]

Happy Easter! #realitysf #thankgodforjesus #sf #operahouse #easter

[yesdarlingido]

[Talking about sin] What I and most other believers understand by the word I’m not saying to you has got very little to do with yummy transgression. For us, it refers to something much more like the human tendency, the human propensity to f*** up. Or let’s add one more word: the human propensity to f*** things up, because what we’re talking about here is not just our tendency to lurch and stumble and screw up by accident, our passive role as agents of entropy. It’s our active inclination to break stuff, “stuff ” here including moods, promises, relationships we care about, and our own well-being and other people’s, as well as material objects whose high gloss positively seems to invite a big fat scratch. Now, I hope, we’re on common ground. In the end, almost everyone recognizes this as one of the truths about themselves.

Francis Spufford, Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense

[tonykim]

The Christmas story, as re-enacted by the children at my church here in San Francisco.

[jeremiahandhannah]

Serve the City

Today two churches, including the one Hannah and I started attending, Reality, joined together with city organizations to go into the TenderLoin (a.k.a "TL"). This part of San Francisco is arguably the most dangerous district of the city. There are more shootings, drug deals and any other shady business you can think of there than anywhere else. We went there, to the residence (and homeless people who occupy the streets of the TL), to shine for Jesus.

Over 1,000 people from two churches hit the streets to offer services including: free hair cuts, dog washes, foot washing, mani/pedis, medical/vision/dental care, clothes and more. My team's job was to find people, invite them to take advantage of the free services, love on them, listen to their stories, and share the Gospel with them. No problem right?

What a spiritually oppressive area the TL is. It reminds me of an area in downtown Vancouver known as the East Side, which is filled with poverty, prostitution, drugs, violence and hopelessness.  When I was on internship working at a church in North Vancouver, once a week I would go to the East Side to assist a lady by the name of Street Mom. She would hand out food to a few hundred people each night.

Anyways, needless to say, the TL is a place that needs the light of Jesus. I had many short conversations with people but one longer conversation sticks out as the highlight of my time.

In the midst of crowded streets I noticed a woman standing just in front of me. I asked her if she knew what was going on and told her about some of the free ­­services. She said she needed the free legal council but what she really needed was a meal. I asked her if I could treat her and of course she said yes. On the way to the café on the corner across the street, we made our introductions; her name was Amanda.

After ordering a bagel and cream cheese, we sat down and Amanda told me her story. Without going into all the details suffice to say that Amanda has struggled through substance abuse, she’s lived through physical abuse and has survived a life of prostitution.

I felt led to open my Bible and read a scripture to her. I opened up to a chapter in Luke and read the story of Jesus healing a crippled woman who was demon possessed. Jesus was teaching in the synagogue and he looked at his woman, told her she was healed, touched her and healed her.

My heart broke as the truth of Jesus’ words and actions hit me; Jesus looked at the woman. He noticed her. Her, this outcast of society. Jesus noticed her. I told Amanda that Jesus noticed her too. I was able to pray for Amanda and then she had to leave.

I can’t begin to tell you how this conversation impacted me. Here was a woman who has experienced so much pain and brokenness and yet was so optimistic about life and knew that God is good despite her circumstances.

To watch a quick video about this Serve the City event watch this video http://vimeo.com/70575902 ­

[jennybchalkin-blog]

adoption awareness