Christmas Day 4_2

Christmas Retreat : The Birth of Jesus, Fellowship, Prayer

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On December 19, 2021, Gratia Church continued its Christmas Retreat and members and Bible Study students from all these regions are gathering in the mountains of Lake Tahoe to enjoy God’s Word, fellowship, and prayer together.  

Day 2 of this graceful retreat featured the opening services, Sunday service, and multiple Bible Studies.  The opening services was delivered by Pastor Nancy who spoke about spiritual blindness and the importance of opening our eyes and heart to Jesus Christ. 

Pastor Walker and Julia Tzeng did several Bible Studies on Matthew 1-3.  Pastor Walker’s message on Matthew 1 was also the Sunday service and focused on the birth of Jesus as the coming of infinite eternal God into our limited and finite world.  Jesus is Immanuel, God with us.  Pastor Julia message on Matthew 2 emphasized this fallen world in which Jesus came.  Whereas many want to just leave this fallen world, Jesus came to save this world with amazing love and grace.  

Following a full day of Bible Studies, the retreat featured fellowship games where the members to celebrate in laughter and joy.  Also, in between Bible Studies, were plenty of time to take walks, sit in fellowship, and have meals.  Through these times, members could speak deeply about faith and understand a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

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Gratia Family Celebrates Thanksgiving with Students

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On November 25, 2021, Gratia Church family celebrated Thanksgiving with Bible study students who were not able to go home for Thanksgiving. Moses and Levi both said it was their first ever Thanksgiving celebration, since they do not celebrate Thanksgiving in their home countries. Other members of Gratia celebrated Thanksgiving with their families. Gratia members are so thankful for God’s grace upon the church in this year.

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Thanksgiving Retreat Overflowing in Grace, Gratitude

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On November 20, 2021, Gratia held a Thanksgiving mini-retreat that was overflowing in grace and gratitude to God. The mini-retreat Bible Studies were led by Pastor Walker Tzeng who preached two messages on Joseph from Genesis 37-50. Through the stories of Joseph, Pastor Tzeng emphasized important aspects of faith such as purity, receiving the love of God, focusing on the Word, and receiving the dream of the Kingdom of God.

The mini-retreat also featured time of praise and prayer. Following the Bible Studies, students had breaking bread to reflect on the message.  Members testified overflowing grace of God through the Thanksgiving retreat.  After the retreat, some members had further fellowship by going to the San Francisco beach together.

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From the Cave of Adullam to the Kingdom

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In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about the people that joined David in the Cave of Adullam when he was at rock bottom in his life. They were the 400 who were distressed, in debt, and discontented ones. They were people who shared in his suffering and served together. It was a suffering that only the ones that were there could understand. Church is this kind of place – not a place of elite people gathering, but the suffering ones who serve together. From this Cave of Adullam, a genuine, true, authentic heart for God’s Kingdom came.

In suffering, there are two paths we can take. The path of Saul was to become inexplicably jealous over worldly things and have crazy irrational anxiety. This is what Satan causes us to do. The path of David was to live a life of reconciliation and redemption. David tried to reconciled with Saul despite Saul trying to kill him. David also lived a live redeeming the nation of Israel to the glory of God’s Kingdom. Jesus Christ also lived a life of reconciliation and redemption. Christianity teaches us that true suffering in Christ is what actually gives us stability in our hearts to move forward, away from the inexplicable anxiety of the world.

Finally, we also see some biblical parallelism in 2 Samuel 22:1-3, where David refers to the Lord as my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. It was David’s time in the rock of the Cave of Adullam, where he truly met the Lord. While the Cave of Adullam could be viewed as the stronghold base where he started for the Kingdom, it was really the Lord who was the rock for the whole time. Truly, there is hidden beauty in the rock of the Cave of Adullam, because that is the place we can meet the Lord.

May we be the ones who suffer and serve together for God’s Kingdom and let the Lord be the rock that ultimately strengthens our lives.

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Monday Group Bible Study

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Gratia church held a Monday group Bible study on October 25 and they studied Romans 8. There were two newcomers who joined it along with regular attendees and the sharing after the Bible study was very touching and graceful.

“ This Bible study is really deep and touched me so much. When I think about the comparison mind governed by the flesh versus the mind governed by the spirit, it hits me how I am living. I obey God in order to get things from God versus I obey God to get God and to delight and resemble him in love is a huge difference. I want to find back my original relationship with God by reflecting this message.” shared Alice.

We pray that all members can continue to grow deeper in the Word of God and experience God’s grace every moment.

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Gratia Graceful Joint Retreat with Berkeley Students

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Gratia church and Berkeley students had a very graceful joint retreat on October 9. They studied Genesis 6-9, the story of Noah. There were two Bible studies in the morning and had an outdoor fellowship in the afternoon.

“We learned about Fall of Adam and how sin spread in Cain and see results in the time of Noah. How is history? It is divided; a fallen history of sin in the world and a righteous history of God building the Kingdom of God. We learn the history of God through Noah how God judges the evilness of the world but He continues the history through the righteous ones. There’s time for judgment and all evil will be judged precisely, sin always has its limit. The God of love is also God of justice, in love, there is justice and evilness is not just forgiven but judged.” said pastor Walker in the Bible study.

Students received lots of grace through the time of retreat and held the sharing time one by one and prayed for each other. After lunch, they hiked a short trail near Berkeley and members were able to get to know each other deeply through talking and sharing their life.

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Gratia Continues on Teaching and Evangelism

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Gratia church had graceful individual and group Bible studies. Ivan, Kellie and Bill had individual Bible studies with pastor Walker and Julia. Each of them continues to learn the Sermon on the Mount, Galatians and Romans and every time they receive lots of grace and deepen their understanding on the Word of God.

In the late afternoon, there was group Bible study with regular students and studied Romans 6. Afterward, they shared their struggles in their sins honestly and openly and prayed for each other.

Pastor Walker and Julia went out for the campus evangelism in the afternoon and made  appointments who wants to join the Bible study this week. They want to continue on teaching and evangelism and pray that God can let them grow in His grace.

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Gratia Holds Dedication Service at New Location

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On September 26, 2021, Gratia Church held a dedication service for its new location where it will hold Wednesday Service, Friday Prayer Meeting, Bible studies, and other fellowship activities. Gratia will continue to hold Sunday service at its chapel location which was previously dedicated, but held a special Sunday service for this day.

In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about rebuilding which was the situation of Nehemiah and the Israelite nation.  In the same way, we are relocation and building a new location after a pandemic.  All of us are also rebuilding our lives after the pandemic.  

What we see from Nehemiah is concern after hearing about the devastation from his brothers that came back from Jerusalem.  Nehemiah could have easily ignored it being around the grand palace, but he had a deep concern.   For us, nothing will ever change if we don’t begin with concern for this fallen world and the restoration of God’s Kingdom.  

Also, Nehemiah had conviction for God’s greatness, who is higher than even the kings of the world.  In the face of God’s greatness, he humbly confessed his own sinfulness.  This is the honesty of Nehemiah that it wasn’t someone else’s sin, but it is all of our sin.  He didn’t try to blame anyone, but owned up to the problem.

In the final part of Nehemiah’s prayer, we see the confidence he has in God’s promise that God will do what He has already said.  At the same time, Nehemiah was personally committed to God using him to complete His work.  He didn’t pray for someone else to do it, but he prayed for himself to be used by God. May this prayer of Nehemiah strengthen us and may Gratia Church be a place of great prayer.

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Matthew 4 – Come & Follow Me

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In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng explained how the historic first four disciples of Jesus were insignificant people evangelized in an insignificant place. Their story didn’t start out in a great way of the world, but it was this insignificant story that showed God’s amazing grace in their lives. In the same way, we ust not judge a book by its and instead see how God works through faith rather than human power.

The disciples showed their faith by leaving immediately everything of their lives. This may seem foolish, when the world tells us to live reasonably and methodically. While living that way may be smart, but there is one clear way that it isn’t always smart. And that is especially when things are at the beginning and missing opportunities because we overlook things. Instead, we should see that the Kingdom of God starts from a mustard seed and follow it. The disciples left their entire personal life worldview and embraced Jesus. In the same way, we should leave our personal life worldview and embrace what the Word of God teaches us.

Finally, Jesus not only changes our worldview, but he transforms our lives. The disciples went from fisherman to fishers of men, in only three years of time with Jesus. The Word of God surely becomes flesh in our lives and we transform. As a fruit of love, we should get a new net and boat, meaning the Word of God and serving at church.

Like these disciples, may we go immediately, change our worldviews, and transform in God’s glory.

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The Three Temptations

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In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng explained each of the three temptations that Jesus experienced and related it to our lives. The first temptation is the temptation of material, visible, physical things. We demand our physical needs are solved before believing in God. Rather, we should know that we need things beyond the physical, and to see the spiritual needs in the Word of God.

The second temptation was the temptation of the mind and control, to live a relationship with God on our own terms how we want to control it and what favors us. However, we do not go to God on the basis of what we think, but we go to God for who He is and that is what a relationship with God is. Therefore, we do not test God, but just simply be in a relationship of faith with him.

The final temptation was the temptation of our dreams and visions in life. The world tempts us by giving us opportunities in the world, to follow the world ways instead of God. In this way, our spiritual direction is drawn to the world. Instead, Jesus overcame the temptation by submitting to God completely. More than pursuing our own dreams, it’s having faith that God knows us better than ourselves and will allow us to fulfill a great glory in His dream of the Kingdom.

May we all be people of faith, surrendering to God completely just like our Lord Jesus Christ.

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