Cascade Church Portland

Abraham::Sin Again

When I was a kid I had this weird thing about eating lunches at school. I couldn't do it. The way my lunch sat in my bag it almost always got smashed, the cheese got soft and melty or one side of the sandwich got wet from something cold in the lunch bag. Those were all deal breakers for me and then the bad sandwich experiences got in my head and I couldn't trust a normal looking sandwich. 

This became a thing. 

Sandwiches were eventually ruled out so my Mom got more and more creative and I had a stretch of bringing bean dip and tortilla chips to school for lunch. That wasn't a real sustainable lunch choice so my Mom finally caved and brought in the big guns. 

We purchased Lunchables. 

This was a game changer and launched me into a whole new lunch experience. Lunchables were the caviar and champagne of school lunches and while I was consistently reminded that they cost too much for us, it was a decision borne out of desperation and fears that I would starve otherwise. 

Ultimately even this plan failed. I couldn't keep doing Lunchables everyday, but the idea of making my Mom's life more difficult by shooting down yet another idea was too to bear. So I did what any enterprising kid would do. I started hiding them under my bed. 
(If you're worried about decaying food in my room, apparently you aren't familiar with the shelf life of a Lunchable. They will outlive us all) 

I didn't want to be pretending to eat and hiding the old Lunchables, but I felt stuck in a hopeless situation. Every time I did it I felt guilty for this misuse of my family's money, but I just couldn't stop doing it. 

This did not end well. My Mom found my preteen hoarders collection and I was busted. I was forced to do what many  kids in Christian families do when they break their parent's trust. I wrote a paper on dishonesty using the Bible as my textbook. 

I share that story because it helps me see the ways that we devise our own impractical solutions to issues that we face. These solutions lead us down a limited path that doesn't show much foresight, and we feel stuck in a problem that started as the answer to our original problem. 

This Sunday we'll be looking at the story of Abraham and uncovering some insights into patterns of harmful behavior and the solutions that we sometimes talk ourselves into. I hope you'll join us and leave feeling ready to face your week without stuffing Lunchables under your bed ;)

Abraham::Counting Stars

There is usually a profound space between believing or being promised something great in the future and actually seeing it happen. While we can spend an awful lot of time talking about the moments when wait for great news of hope and the moments when we have received that hope, but what about the in between? This is a message about the the in between times. The moments we doubt that the good thing on the horizon will ever get close enough to touch. The moments when we are sure that God has forgotten about us and our preferred future has been lost. 

Partnering with Cascade

This week we share with you our journey from not existing one year ago to being a growing new church today. This message is absolutely an invitation to financially partner with Cascade. We are aware that money is not the end all and be all of church engagement and support, but it is an area that we want to invite you to journey with us. The reason being that we see a lot of potential in our little church and where we currently have grown to is the result of a small percentage of regular attenders contributing. That begs the question, where could we be if half of our regular attenders financially partnered with us regularly. 

Abraham:: The Lie

Early on in the story of Genesis Abraham is called and confirmed by God and faces a decision. 

How far do you trust in the voice and direction of God? 

Abraham knows that God is going to lead him. He knows God has promised to make him into a great nation. Abraham knows that he has God's incredible blessing, through which all the world will be blessed. Abraham has been promised a specific land to be the location of this promised nation. 

Abraham is forced with a hard decision when he enters into a challenging place after all of these confirmations. Should he work a cunning plan to protect himself or should he trust that God will protect him? If you've ever been faced with a difficult decision in your journey after God, this may ring true for you as well. When do we trust God and when do we take control of the situation to help God's plan along. We invite you to join us in this conversation. 

Abraham:: The Call

Most of life is facing some degree of the unknown.

We don't know how our boss or co-worker will respond to the hard conversation we need to have. 

We don't know if the big risk we feel in our gut will result in horrific failure. 

We don't know if our plan for the errands we have today will actually work out as planned or if one will have to drop. 

We don't know when and how we will die. 

It got real there at the end, didn't it? This message is all about the unknown. Come listen and join us in this conversation.

Relate:: Relational Shalom

Our world is known and experienced through relationships. Our relationship with God, others and our relationship with ourselves are the foundational blocks for all of life and experiences. When any one of these relationships is strained or confused we experience a lack of peace in our world. This lack of peace can lead us down paths of shame, guilt, blame and self-destructive tendencies. 

This week we'll be looking at the concept of Shalom, a peaceful thriving for all people, and how we can both receive and share this kind of peace with all our relationships. 

Relate:: Relation to Self

As we dive deeper into our discussion of relationships, this week's message encourages us to consider our relationship with ourselves. Many of follow destructive patterns when it comes to the way we treat ourselves. Sometimes we relate to ourselves much like a relative we don't see often:  we are constantly seeing ourselves at a fixed point in our lives. Are you focused on a time in your life when you were younger? More reckless? More distant from God? Or are you relating to yourself much like the friend who keeps a record: are you making a list of past mistakes, keeping score, and reminding yourself of how much you've screwed up? Or maybe you're relating to yourself in a another way: you treat yourself like a high intensity coach, holding yourself to the highest, impossible standards. These are just a few examples of the ways we sometimes fall short of a healthy relationship with one's self. A discussion of relationships is incomplete without considering how we can ultimately reflect God's love for us through a healthy relationship with ourselves. If one or more of these is descriptive of the way you are currently operating, I invite you to consider an alternative.

Relate:: The Image of God

We have all been made in the image of God. Each person we encounter is also an image-bearer of God,  equally worthy of respect--our needs and agendas equally important. With this knowledge, this week's message challenges us to dive into relationship with others in a spirit of oneness, actively working against the habit "othering." 

This week's message helps us to consider the practice of negotiating reality and how we can embrace others as the image of God. I invite you to consider how you, through an attitude of reaching across cultural barriers and preconceived ideas, fit into the discussion. How is God calling you into relationship?

Relate:: The God of Love

I have struggled mightily with the concept of loving God with all my heart, soul and mind. That standard feels impossibly high and I was obsessed with how often I fell short of it. That has led me for many years to wrestle with the concept of loving God and experiencing a new way of understanding what that could look like. 

I invite you to listen about the expansive God of the universe and the intimate God of our daily lives. Hear how this seemingly different Gods are one and how that God goes before us with love and grace that we are welcomed to receive. 

Relate:: The Three Relationships

Jesus was asked by the Pharisees what the greatest commandment in all the Law was. It was a test. To be able to reduce all the volumes of law to one greatest commandment is a seemingly impossible task. And yet Jesus is able to put into context every law and regulation that had defined the Israelite people. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. 

We believe these three relationships, with God, with our neighbors and with ourselves are the three primary relationships on which all of our understanding of the world we live in is built on. 

Come hear about how the love from God creates our identity and our ability to love ourself, to love others and can't help butbe directed back to God.