KSOM Update

Tabernacle Family,

I wanted to take a moment to let you know all God is doing in our spring semester at the Kairos School of Ministry. This semester, we have seen 11 students make the decision to answer the call and step into learning about who their identity in the kingdom is as we learn to Serve, Grow and Go. Through our KSOM growth environments, the students are growing deeper in teaching, experience, and community with each other. It’s an amazing thing to see. Just this past week, the KSOM Worship Track students led worship at the Tuesday Night Young Adult Service. For some of them, it was their first time being a part of a corporate church service and they did great!

Each week, they have the privilege to hear from our own Tabernacle leaders and then apply what they’re learning in practical ways to serve the church. If you happen to see one of the students, please encourage them! We truly believe the anointing on the next generation here at The Tabernacle is being accelerated in this season through the Youth, Young Adults, and School of Ministry.

Please keep them in prayer over the next few months of the spring semester and be on the lookout for these world changers!

Mike Wulf

Young Adult Ministry and KSOM Director

Live Righteously

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34).

I have been giving considerable thought about the fractured condition of our national and local communities, and whether there is a pathway that will take us out of our situation. As a nation we have demonstrated such arrogance for God’s ways, as we worship in our pantheon which includes the gods of materialism, pleasure, education, etc. What can I do?

Like many, I can easily provide an over simplified analysis of the situations; point my finger at individuals who in my assessment are contributors to the problems, and offer suggestions that will cause us to return to “normal.” However, is a return to “normal” what we really need?

My reading brought me into Isaiah and Micah, which is directed toward a people who had abandoned God, and their unique covenant calling and purpose, to indulge in practices and lifestyles of the surrounding pagan nations. They now faced strong neighboring nations who acted without mercy toward its conquests.

Israel / Judah dismissed God’s passionate love for them, ignoring His call to repent, choosing to pursue their lives of pleasure and comfort, which involved in idolatrous worship. They wanted all their “rights and benefits,” but ignored their responsibilities to their God, deliverer, protector, and provider.

They continued in their deception, believing their actions and decisions would bear no consequences. Finally God spoke through His true prophets concerning their perversion of God’s truth and ways. Micah refers to them as though who abhor justice, pervert equity, violence, accept bribes, and prophets who prophecy for money. Meanwhile, they said “is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.”

Through Isaiah, God said “enough” with your passionless religious exercises. “I will not listen to your pleas; I will hide my eyes from you.” Their life was drastically changed as they were conquered by Babylon. Solomon’s Temple, which was a figure of pride for them, was destroyed.

BUT God, in the midst of the pending crisis, still offered to receive them if they would return to Him. In Jeremiah 29, God speaks of His plans for their welfare, future and hope, while telling them how to live in that foreign land and that He had not forgotten them.

The Good News! God always has a remnant that remains true to Him. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, He instructs those called by His name to humble themselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways,. THEN He will hear from Heaven, and will forgive our sin and heal our land.

The call is to all who are called by His Name! We must lead the way for our families, church, community and nation by allowing Him to change us to be true witnesses of our King and His Kingdom. The world does not have a desire for more dead religion and empty promises: it has that in abundance, but it longs for hope and answers to their unrest. Even if they don’t recognize it, nor would they initially acknowledge it, they long to know the living God and His Kingdom.

May our lives be a clear and distinct manifestation of His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven!

Blessings,

Pastor Allen Baun

Combating Cultural Truths

Tabernacle Family,

We are living in a generation where truth is conceptual. It has been reduced to a matter of opinion, rather than an absolute. Our children are growing up in a world where they are bombarded by images that have been altered, facts that are one-sided, opinions that are considered truth, and people and fads telling them where to put their allegiance. The increasingly technological and social media-influenced generation that has been created makes it nearly impossible to know and identify truth. I am convinced that it is imperative to teach truth and how to identify it, especially to our children; now more than ever.

What is truth? How can you know what truth really is? How do we identify truth? These seem like loaded questions to answer. For months now I have been asking God to show me the truth; help me to recognize what His truth really is. The answer is simple - Jesus is the truth. And Jesus being the Word is the truth! When we measure facts and opinions against the word, does it hold weight? The word of God is our measuring stick to the truth. In John 17:17, Jesus said: “Sanctify them by truth, your word is truth.”

Dive in and search for truth. God said when we seek him we will find him. One of the other ways Jesus told us to identify truth is in the word. John 16:13 “But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.” Look to and lean on Holy Spirit's guidance in seeking the truth. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit's guidance are God-given ways to recognize the truth for ourselves and most importantly to teach them to our children. This next generation needs to know the truth more than ever before. Right now, they are drowning in and believing what I call “cultural truths,” that will never set them free. Speak, teach, and walk out the truth, because His truth will always set us free.

In His Name,

Pastor Jenn Cupicha

Children's Pastor