First one being that we’ve made a pricing change. Effective immediately, we will be giving everyone our early bird rate regardless if you register now, or the day of.

However, remember we are buying lunch for everyone and we need that headcount to help our friends at Chick-Fil-A plan lunch.

Oh yea, and if you have a friend who can’t make the morning, have them come at 3:30PM. We want to have a party that day and that means we want to pack the Sanctuary.

Our faith is not to be limited to attending an hour service on Sundays. Rather you are called to be a disciple who has surrendered every day of your entire life to following hard after the Lord. As we walk with the Lord His Word instructs us to, “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” (Eph 6:10-11) We are to be strong not in our flesh or human strength rather we are to depend fully upon the power of the Holy Spirit. It takes strength from the grace of God to glorify Christ and not to fall into the schemes of the devil who’s enticing lies and pleasures of the world has lured many Christians unaware onto the broad road of destruction.

Only by the strength of the Lord will we stand against Satan’s cunning lies that have saturated the western church. The lie we can become a Christian without having to change our lives or have it cost us anything. The lie we do not have to change our obsession for the American dream of education, career, and worldly comforts to follow God’s will. The lie our busy schedules filled with basketball games, tee times, or birthday parties takes precedent over worship services. The priority of selfish spending on ipads, smart phones, or fashionable clothes rather than sponsoring an orphan or supporting a missionary. The rational it is ok to date non-Christians, have sex with your boyfriend as long as you love him, or get buzzed socially or for business. The fears which paralyze us from sharing the gospel, “If I share the gospel it will put a strain on my friendship or they will think I’m weird.”

But our Lord’s words are clear, “Not everyone who says to Me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” (Matt 7:21) There are many who are deceived in the church. What about you? Are you certain you are in the faith, have you examined yourself? How has the grace of God changed your life? In which ways are you living for heaven?

I give you great hope that God will strengthen you to be a true follower of Christ in finding your total satisfaction through an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. In Christ you receive new life and a new heart that is obsessed in a passionate pursuit of loving Jesus Christ supremely. Cry out for the Lord to change you, renounce striving and trusting in yourself. Believe the promises in His Word and Christ’s work in your life.

His grace alone,
Kyle Shimazaki

Often times our Christianity becomes all about doing the right things: be loving, forgiving, have integrity, or don’t gossip. Obviously there is a place for these but before we ever DO the right thing for God we must first BE right with God. Religion tells us what we need to do but the Bible declares what God has already done for us. And so before you ever set out to live your life you must first learn to receive your life from Christ. God’s blessing, power, and life are only received through a growing relationship with Him.

Jesus illustrates ripe fruit comes from the ongoing development of life which is only found through it’s relationship with the vine. “Abide” literally means to remain, endure, and to continue to be present. Only when the branch is connected, fastened, and attached to the vine can it be nurtured and grow. Everything that the branch needs for life and fruitfulness is found in the vine so its one duty is to be connected to the vine.

In the same way Jesus Christ is the vine and we are the branches He is the very source of spiritual life and personal holiness. This brings us to the very core value of what it means to be a Christian. Christianity is not about doing religious things it is about growing from spiritual life. As you abide in Christ His life, power, strength and grace will flow into you.

To abide in Christ is to depend upon, to rely upon, and be connected to Jesus as your source of life. You must daily commune with Jesus by trusting in Him for strength, depending upon Him for your holiness, and being filled with spiritual life. Draw near to the Lord and believe that He will become your holiness and change your life.

First of all it is critical we have the right perspective on evangelism; it is completely God’s work, not ours. Too often I am far too focused on Kyle. I need to get my eyes off Kyle by seeing less of myself and more of God. I need to realize God is so much bigger than my inadequacies: He will change my heart; He will give me courage; and He will speak through me. After listening to Moses’ excuses the Lord said, “Who made man’s mouth? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to say.” God does not need great intellect, talent, or personality; He uses the foolish to shame the wise. All God needs is a willing spirit and He will work and He will multiply your gifts even as He did with the few loaves and two fish. Think less of yourself and more highly of God.

Secondly, take practical steps as you share the gospel. Begin by praying daily for God to change your heart: “Lord give me a burden for the lost.” Next remember Rome was not built in a day. We are not asking you to start off preaching at a crusade or street witnessing rather begin with what you can handle and allow God to build you up from there, whether it be praying for someone’s salvation, asking a person to church, or just handing them a gospel tract. If you do not see much fruit at first do not be discouraged. God has only called you to sow gospel seeds, not to make converts. In His time He will bring the harvest.

Lastly, minister out of the power and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses.” God has given you the Holy Spirit to empower you for ministry. Grow in sensitivity and discernment of the Holy Spirit and you will begin to see through people’s expressions how the Spirit is working in them.

Be patient and don’t be too hard on yourself. There have been many times I have wanted to share with someone but ended up walking right past them out of fear. Just keep an open heart and in no time you will lead your first person to Christ!

Jesus has risen from the grave and I am reminded of how our Lord is a God of resurrection power. He is able to bring new life to areas which seem hopeless or dead within my life. But rather than living with a strong conviction or incredible faith in God’s power we often subconsciously determine when it is too late even for God to intervene.

Lazarus, Martha’s brother, was terminally ill and despite the doctor’s bleak prognosis and his failing health which teetered on the brink of life, Martha had a tremendous faith in Jesus’ ability to fully restore her brother to health. But even as powerful as Martha’s faith was it had its limitations. The moment Lazarus took his last breath his life slipped out of him and with it Martha’s faith in Jesus’ ability to heal her deceased brother. Death was Martha’s threshold or limit of faith resulting in hopelessness and despair.

But when is it too late when we serve a God who can command Lazarus to come forth from the grave after four days? When is it too late for God to work in your life? How do you react when you hear:
“I don’t think this is gong to work out,”
“Unfortunately we are not able to accept you at this time,”
“It just fell through,”
“I’m sorry but you will never get better.”

I have been learning to trust in God when I do not understand or when life brings disappointments because they cannot thwart the plans God has for my life. God can resurrect to life opportunities or relationships which had previously failed or had been hopeless in man’s eyes.

In the end when things do not work out how I expected, it only means my plan or timing was not the best and God has another plan far superior. The Bible says, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Ps 84:11.

What areas of your life are filled with disappointment and hopelessness? Ask for God’s resurrection life to fill you with hope and victory over the difficulties you are going through.

For many months now the Holy Spirit has placed a single message upon my heart. It is the message of the “cross”. I have been asking the Lord to unpack this incredible message and reveal all of its glory to me. God by His grace has only just begun to give me a slight glimpse of all that is to be know of the wonderful cross.

An amazing reality that scripture declares is we have been crucified with Christ. Crucifixion was the form of execution used to put our Lord Jesus to death. When we are born again we share in Christ’s death on the cross, that is we are brought into relationship with the cross, we identify with His death. It was our old nature that was mastered and dominated by sin that found its death on the cross. When we associate with Christ’s death by being crucified with Christ we die to death. That is to say that we die to our sinful nature which breeds corruption, we die to a Christ-less eternity.

Because the very core of our souls were tainted, stained, and saturated with sin, nothing short of something as radical as a crucifixion could remedy our depraved condition.

There is no hope in self-reformation, self-righteousness, or self-improvement, the only solution is to crucify our sinful self and find a whole new life in Christ. Now whenever death is mentioned in scripture, it is always followed with a message of life.

Because the cross brings your lifeless days to an end by crucifying your corrupted nature, you are called to cease from striving in the flesh. You have died to the law of works, to self-righteousness, to religious legalism; YOU are DEAD! Your only duty is to draw near to Christ Jesus and rest in your new life in Christ. This is not something that you develop, earn, work for, or create yourself. Resurrection life is something that only Christ can bestow upon you. Experience and be penetrated by the resurrection life that Christ imparts to you!

How wondrous the cross of Christ is, for it is there that I died to everything that kept me from Heaven and intimacy with my Lord, my Jesus. Cry out for God’s grace to minister to your heart the words of this hymn, “The Wonderful Cross” written by Isaac Watts.

All who gather here by grace draw near and bless Your name
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all
O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live
O the wonderful cross

Grow in the grace of God,
Kyle Shimazaki

When Jesus is enough, we will see revival.

The apostle Paul did not live for religion nor programs, rather a relentless pursuit of an intimate relationship drove his life. For he realized that Jesus Christ does all things well. In the same way God has proven His faithfulness to me and has worked in my life exceeding abundantly beyond what I could ever think or imagine.

I have seen how He has ignited a passion deep within my heart for His glory, where nothing else will satisfy me. Riches, materialism, academics, relationships, or personal reputation do not move me. Rather, there is a burning desire within me to run hard after God. How can I say that? The only way I can explain it is the grace of God has refocused me upon Jesus Christ, and has placed a relentless appetite for divine relationship within my heart and is daily drawing me closer to Him.

It is my desire that you would become the people of God. Where your entire being is yielded in one holy purpose, as the cry of your heart becomes, “Your name and Your renown are the desires of our souls.” – Isaiah 26:8. God is calling you to return to your first love, to have that romance for Him rekindled. What it will take is for you to first cease from having an affair with the world. It is where you longer go through your religious motions on Sunday but then value the world on Monday.

It is God’s desire to use you in a wonderful way, He wants to empower you, and bring forth great fruit from your life. But the one thing he must first have is your heart. So you need to ask yourself a very simple question, “Will I surrender my life to God?” And the moment that you do is the moment He will fill you with His life, and you will experience the transforming love of God in a way like you never have before.

“Lord, I thank You for Your faithfulness to meet with me. Empty me of myself, and I ask You to fill me with the life of Jesus Christ. It’s my desire that You burn away what is not of You. Draw me closer to You and make me more like Jesus. I love You.”

Grow in the grace of God,
Kyle Shimazaki

In reading the account of the birth of the church in Acts, my attention was drawn to the reality of the Holy Spirit’s work. It was in God’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the believing disciples that sprang the church to life. The Holy Spirit was the very dynamic that empowered the early church to impact the world with the life-changing message of the resurrected Christ. Without a program devised by the ingenuity of man, nor the use of modern technology, the disciples were able to ignite a movement for the glory of Jesus Christ through God’s provision of the Holy Spirit. In studying the book of Acts, I see the power which resided within the disciples that relentlessly drove them to make known the resurrection to all, allowed them to witness an uncontrollable increase of converts and caused a passion for Jesus to blaze up within their hearts. I am asking with all my heart, “God I want this. I want this dynamic in my life.

God’s strategy today has not changed. He intends His church to be empowered by the energy of the Holy Spirit. The means by which God began the church at Pentecost is the same resource that He intends us to draw from till the day we are raptured. If you draw from the flesh, self-resource, or your natural abilities you will never be greatly used of the Lord or experience His anointing in abundance. Christ will only be greatly magnified in our lives when we are first emptied of ourselves and are then filled with the Spirit of God. “He (Holy Spirit) will glorify Me (Jesus), for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” John 16:14

Beloved if you are feeling as if you are just going through your religious motions with no life or dynamic or if you feel as if you have lost your first love for Christ, realize that today God is desiring to fill your cup to overflowing. He is waiting for you to simply yield to Him so He may release torrents of living water upon your life to revitalize you. In humility would you respond to our Lord’s invitation?

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 7:37-38

Grow in the grace of God,
Kyle Shimazaki

We are all committed with resolve to become something and many are willing to go to great lengths in order to attain that goal. Some have placed themselves under the unforgiving academic pressures of undergrad followed by many more years in med school to become a doctor. For others it is countless hours of practice on the court in hopes of winning the tournament and still for others it is striving to fit in as they have made social popularity their goal. Pause for a moment and evaluate your own heart; ask, “What have I set my heart upon to go hard after?” Does your goal have eternal worth or is it something less that will fade in the fire (I Cor 3:13) when you stand before God?

Paul was not a man who lived for the pleasures of this world while at the same time trying to please the Lord. Often times this paradox typifies our life; we act spiritual on Sunday, but Monday through Friday we live secular, worshiping the gods of money, grades, materialism, and pleasure. Unlike us, Paul was a man with a singular desire to press hard after Jesus without making any single day more unique than the other. For Paul, each day was consecrated, set apart to obey and live for the Lord. Paul was committed, focused, and locked onto pursuing the very glory and presence of Christ. Paul’s holy obsession was to be completely emptied of his flesh in order that the life of Christ would fully consume him.

Restlessness fills my heart at times when God flares up my passion to go hard after Him. The one thing that brings me comfort and hope in my pursuit of God is when I realize that it is the Lord who is working in my life to transform my carnal desires into those that bring glory to Him (Phil 2:13). Maybe today this passion is completely foreign to you, or you have lost your first love a great while ago, or discouragement has dominated your life from continual failure. The reality is that it IS possible for you to have this motivation in your life because success does not depend on you, it is dependent upon God. You are not responsible to cultivate a heart for God; He desires to do that work within you. God is saying to you:

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezek 36:26)

God is willing to work in you for His glory, but your responsibility is to surrender your heart to Him. He is simply asking you to take down the idols from within your heart. His love is immaculate and His desire for your life is revival.

Grow in the grace of God,
Kyle Shimazaki

The heart of our Savior is to raise up faithful servants, who by His grace will serve Him. Notice the work that God is doing: “I will raise up” “I will build”. It is critical to realize God’s work and not for us to confuse it with ours. God is the One who will raise you up, who will build you up, who will equip you, and who will work through you. God is the primary laborer, which means that we are called to trust, expect, and wait for Him to work as we rest in Jesus Christ. “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Phil 2:12) God is seeking to pour out His Spirit upon those who desire to see Jesus Christ glorified. Yet our God who jealously seeks to be glorified will not tolerate the sin of self-glorification or other self-centered and carnal ambitions. Our Lord is passionate about using the Christian who is seeking the heart and soul of God, who is consumed by the love of Christ, and who is driven for all to experience the glory of God. He is the one whom God will anoint. Do you have this heart? Is it your passion to know the glory of God, to enter into the near presence of God and to live each day with the substantial reality of Him in your life? If God has tapped your heart with this passion, cease from striving in the flesh and wait with confidence knowing that He will pour out His anointing upon your life and that He will raise you up for a great work. As you are reading this you may realize that the glory of God has left your life. You are going through the motions: you own a Bible; you attend service; and because of your faith you are going to Heaven. But the reality and realization of the near presence of God in your life is gone: there is no joy; there is no passion; there are no indications of His life within you. You must right now get on your knees and ask God to give you His heart to release a revival within your soul. Your confidence must not be in your ability nor of the flesh but rather in the Holy Spirit to breathe spiritual life into your existence. How wonderful it is to live a life surrendered to Jesus, being emptied that He may consume you. I have come to find satisfaction in dying to myself so that He may then raise me up and be glorified through my life. I pray that you will find the same satisfaction in Him as well.

Grow in the grace of God,
Kyle Shimazaki