Isaiah 65:17-25 Devotional

Hey Vinewood,

We have another very encouraging devotional on Isaiah 65:17-25 by one of our church members. We hope this devotional will bring you hope, peace, and an assurance of your faith in Jesus Christ, during these difficult and confusing times!

Love Y'all!

- Vinewood CFC Berkeley

Heard It Through The Grapevine : Episode 9 "Spiritual and Emotional Health of the Church"

We are so excited to have our very own Sik-Lam Wong, a former Deacon at Vinewood CFC Berkeley, join us for episode 9 of our podcast. This week we will be discussing the question...

"How do you gauge the spiritual and / or emotional health of the church, and how can we as lay people be more attentive to that?"

We hope you enjoyed our first season of our podcast "Heard It Through The Grapevine". If you want to check out any of our other episodes from our first season please go to our YouTube playlist.

Heard It Through The Grapevine: Episode 8 "The Great Commission and Evangelism During SHP"

Hey Vinewood,

This week on Episode 8 we wanted to welcome Andrew Ong the Ministry Resident at Christ Church East Bay. We will be addressing a very practical question...

"How do we continue to fulfill the great commission and evangelism during this time of sheltering in place? "

We hope you enjoy this podcast.

If you have more questions please submit them here https://forms.gle/VgKrzvTgmBnWpahh9

Heard It Through The Grapevine : Episode 7 "Christian Dating"

We are so happy to welcome back Pastor Helicon Kuan, the Associate English Pastor at CFC San Jose for episode 7 of our podcast. This week we will be talking about "Christian Dating", specifically ...

"How can we best biblically encourage those in the church who are dating towards marriage? How do I know if he or she is the one I am suppose to marry? We hope you enjoy this podcast.

If you have more questions please submit them here https://forms.gle/VgKrzvTgmBnWpahh9

Heard It Through The Grapevine : Episode 6 "Navigating Family Life During Shelter-in-Place"

This week, we have the awesome privilege of having Pastor Eddie Cheng, the English Pastor at Contra Costa Gospel Church in Walnut Creek, joining us for episode 6 of our podcast. We will be sharing our thoughts about the struggles of Family Life especially during this time of Shelter in Place. The question is...

"Family Life: How can we be godly spouses, parents, children, and siblings especially during shelter in place?" We hope you enjoy this podcast.

If you have more questions please submit them here https://forms.gle/VgKrzvTgmBnWpahh9

Heard It Through The Grapevine: [BONUS EPISODE] "Vinewood Pastors Processing the Death of George Floyd"

Hello Vinewood Family,

We wanted to have an extra podcast specifically dedicated to our thoughts, emotions, and response to the death of George Floyd. We hope this episode would give you some clarity as we process and possibly help you process and find ways to biblical support the black community.

If you have more questions or want to reach out to Pastor Dennis or Minister Chris please submit them here. https://forms.gle/VgKrzvTgmBnWpahh9

Heard It Through The Grapevine : Episode 5 "TOXIC People"

This week, it is an awesome privilege to have Pastor Matty Blevins the English Pastor at Japanese Christian Church of Walnut Creek joining us for episode 5 of our podcast. We will be addressing this idea of "Toxic People" and the question asked is...

"In a culture where it is much more commonplace to avoid, ignore, or forget "toxic" people, what are some practical ways we can instead love them?"

We hope you enjoy this podcast. If you have more questions please submit them here https://forms.gle/VgKrzvTgmBnWpahh9

Heard It Through The Grapevine: Episode 4 "Christian Response to Racism"

We are so happy that Pastor Helicon Kuan, the Associate English Pastor at CFC San Jose can join us for episode 4 of our podcast. This week we will be scratching the surface on the question...

"Being a Christian Asian, what should be the Christian response to racism toward Asians especially now during Covid-19?" We hope you enjoy this podcast.

If you have more questions please submit them here https://forms.gle/VgKrzvTgmBnWpahh9

Heard It Through The Grapevine: Episode 2 "Encourage One Another During Shelter-In-Place"

We are super excited to have Pastor Joshua Lee, the English Pastor at CFC Hayward, joining us and answering the questions...

"What are some dangerous habits for our souls that we can fall into during this time of Covid-19/Shelter in Place?" and "What are some top things we could be doing to encourage one another in the Body of Christ during this time?"

We hope you enjoy our second podcast. If you have more questions please submit them here https://forms.gle/VgKrzvTgmBnWpahh9

Love Y'all!

Vinewood CFC

Heard It Through The Grapevine: Episode 1 "Should we do communion and baptism online during shelter-in-place?"

For our very first episode we are excited to have Pastor Chen Guang, our Chinese Minister at CFC Berkeley, join us in answering the question...

" If it is true that a church is not a church if it doesn’t perform the sacraments of communion and baptism, what does that mean for us today, when we aren’t able to? Should we try to continue these practices? Can we continue them? What is cfc’s stance on it?”

We hope you enjoy the podcast. If you have more questions please submit them here https://forms.gle/VgKrzvTgmBnWpahh9

Heard It Through The Grapevine (2020)

Hi Vinewood Family,

During this time of "Shelter in Place", Pastor Dennis and I wanted to encourage all of you and offer some clarity and hope for all of you during this time by hosting a weekly podcast answering questions that you may have about faith, life, and theological topics that impact our day to day way of doing church now that we are sheltering in place. Some examples of questions we will be answer are, "Should we still do communion and baptism during shelter in place?" , "Is online church a replacement for the in person gathering of the church?", And addressing your feelings and emotions during this time like loneliness, depression, and consumerism.

Please submit your questions here https://forms.gle/VgKrzvTgmBnWpahh9

We look forward to seeing your questions and answering them. Love Ya'll!

Mark 10: 23-31 Devotional Blog - Deacon Richard

Promise of Blessings in This Life and Eternally

This is a remarkable passage, following the episode of a rich young ruler who rejected Jesus’ call to follow him.  The same story is also told by Matthew [Matt 19: 23-30].  Shortly after the rich man had left, Jesus tells his disciples ‘How hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’  He then gives the illustration of a camel going through the eye of a needle.  The disciples are perplexed, to say the least.  They wonder out loud, ‘Who then can be saved?’  Jesus’ reply is basically that it is only by God’s doing that a person can be saved.  He says, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God.  All things are possible with God.’

     Peter then says that he [and the others] had left everything in order to follow Jesus.  Matthew adds to this:  ‘What then will there be for us?’  Peter seems to need assurance that his having left all his former life behind was not in vain.  Jesus then answers:  ‘no one who has left home… [or many relatives and earthly goods] for my sake and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age… and in the age to come, eternal life.’   This is a remarkable promise!

     Let’s break down what Jesus is talking about.  Without a doubt, Jesus is quite aware of the amount of sacrifice that his disciples have made in order to follow him.  And he is aware of those in our present time who have done the same.  So, what is Jesus telling us in this passage?  I believe he is saying that the rewards of being his disciple outweigh by far the things we may have to give up in order to truly follow him.  It is true that being his disciple may mean being rejected [for some a milder degree, but for others a much greater degree] by family, even one’s own parents or siblings.  Jesus may call some of us to leave our familiar surroundings in order to serve him in a place far from what we call home.  He may call us to give up our previous form of livelihood [i.e. ‘fields’] so that we may be free to advance his priorities.  Matthew is a good example.  He left the lucrative business of tax collection to become a disciple. 

     What about the promise of receiving ‘a hundred times as much’ in this life?  What does Jesus mean by this statement?  We have seen that there is a ‘cost’ to being a disciple of his.  But here we are given a promise of much reward, which starts in this life and goes on to a never-ending reward in the next.  Let’s look more closely at this promise.  From the moment we decide to follow Jesus and accept him for who he is [Lord of all], we become part of his church.  We have joined the family of God.  John puts it this way:  ‘… to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.’ [John 1: 12].  And now we have joined a new family, his church!  And so we now have a great number of new brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, etc.  This is true of the local body that we have joined [Vinewood], but even more we are now part of the entire body of believers around the globe.  We need to have a greater awareness of this fact.  No matter where we end up, we ought to feel right ‘at home’ wherever people are gathered in his name.

     In conclusion, let’s rejoice daily in the promises Jesus has given here.  We are not in the least lacking of anything of real value compared to the riches we have in Christ.  Even when facing persecution or trial, we have the greatest treasure of all which is Christ himself.  Within a short time of our choice to follow him, we begin to enjoy the blessing of being in his family.  And we have the assurance that after this life, we will enjoy the eternal blessing of being in His kingdom in heaven. 

     During this time of uncertainty, let’s increase our focus on knowing Christ better and growing in our spiritual walks.  We may feel the staying-at-home mode is boring or even oppressive.  Some are faced with the uncertainty of loss of job, or having to change a job.  These are very real consequences of the current pandemic.  However, God’s call remains the same no matter what our situation.  He calls us to be his people and therefore to represent him whatever our location or circumstances.  This must be the first priority in our lives.  All else is secondary.  As the family of God, may we spur each other on to live our lives dynamically for his kingdom.

 

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