Even when God is silent - John 1:14

This is a message about those times in life when God is silent. Perhaps you are in a place in your life (or know someone else who is) where you are begging God to say something. You want God to speak into your life, yet it feels like God is not responding. This video is for you.

In this video I point out a few things that I will elaborate on here:

1st - I say that sometimes it is better to live things out than to say things. Another way of saying this is that "It is better to walk the walk, than to talk the talk." A great example in your everyday life for this would most certainly be an apology. Think for a moment about something in your life that you are constantly needing to apologize for, do you think that after a while your words become less than enough? It is certainly better to live out your amends by changing your actions for the better.  However, Jesus does a LOT more for us than just living out an apology.

The thing that Jesus communicates to us by becoming flesh instead of "just saying it" is the degree to which God loves us, and the lengths to which God will go to prove that love. 

2nd - I want to actually list the scriptures that I reference in the video. They are:

John 1:14 - And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

John 8:8 - And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. (The context here is there was a woman who was caught in adultery and the men asked Jesus if they should stone her, he responded "he who is without sin cast the first stone" then we have verse 8 where Jesus became silent again. He said what he said, and trusted that it would have the desired result. He did not need to say anything more.)

Matthew 27:14 - But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. (Jesus standing silently before Pontius Pilate, which has a great significance in teaching us that Jesus is not reduced simply to his teaching because even here where he gives Pilate "no answer" Pilate was in awe of Jesus)

I hope you enjoy it. God bless you. If you have any questions or would like any guidance on your personal walk with God please feel free to reach out. 

Humility to Lead - Sermon on Philippians 2:1-11 - Pastor Jacob Fields

A Walking Tour of Hong Kong's Central District with Firsthand Story of the start of the Umbrella Movement Protests.

In March of 2016, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong and Beijing. As a part of the trip, the group I was with learned about the tensions between the Hong Kong people and the Chinese Government. Specifically through the acting out of those tensions through the Occupy protests in 2012 and the Umbrella Movement that began in 2014. 

One way in which we learned about this historic protest conflict was via a walking tour of the Central District in which the events were described to us firsthand by a protester who was there when it all started and remained part of the Umbrella movement through the end of the occupation of the Central District.

Issac was kind enough to allow me to film his description of things. This video is a compilation of clips from different areas of focus during the Occupy Central with Love and Peace protests. The video is less than 20 minutes long and contains gems of information from beginning to end. If you are wanting to get a sense of what happened, good luck finding another video like this one. 

The Power of YouTube - Comfort in suffering and Advancing the Gospel

Friends,

Thanks for taking time out of your day to click through to this blog post. Some of you have read my recent post about starting a YouTube Channel in November of 15. I am still in the midst of learning how to make better videos, but I wanted to share with you how humbled I am by the power of YouTube already.

At the end of November, I made a video where I spent a few minutes talking about my wife and I's experience of having a miscarriage in 2012. In the video I speak about what happened and my perspective as a pastor, about God in the midst of suffering. 

The number of views is still not anything to write home about, but where the views come from and the impact it is having invigorate my desire to make these videos and grow the channel even more.

Over the last month more than 50% of the views on this video have come from either YouTube or Google Search. Think for a minute who would be searching for keywords like miscarriage, grief, and God? 

One of these individuals who came across this video was from England, he and his wife had recently suffered a miscarriage. Though he had never believed in God, he began to wonder if there were in fact a God and if that God was punishing him. God used the video to meet this man in the midst of his suffering. The man has now decided to start following Jesus. 

Others have expressed through comments, conversations, and direct messages how they found comfort in the message. As I said before, the project is still very young and I have a long way to go in learning to make better videos. But it is humbling to see that God is at work through it and through me in this way. 

Please, take a minute to watch the video. Click through to view a couple others as well. If any of my videos would be helpful someone you know... especially if you know someone who has suffered from a lost pregnancy. Please send them a link to the video.