Roots Deep Scribe

From the Heart, we pump true life into the the body.

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Rolling In The Deep @ Convention

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Hope In The Midst

Hopelessness, powerlessness, anger, frustration, disillusionment - these are the just some of the emotions that pervade the psyche of those of us that witness senseless tragedy. Betrayal, infidelity, abuse, the persecution of those who have committed no crime, the unexpected death of loved ones, the massacre of dozens of innocent people, sadly we are in not short supply of situations that make us question the limit we once had for the human capacity for evil. For those who believe in God and for those who don’t, questions (and sometimes accusations) naturally arise – and the reasonably conclusive question that seems to summarize the thought is this:

Does God care? And many times people either have a preconceived answer or refuse to even ask the question for the sake of legalistic reverence. But the Lord God is clear, we are to bring our petitions to Him (John 16:24, Philippians 4:6) and that includes the questions we have that might intimidate the average person. God does not fear our questions, His confidence is not shaken by the gravity of the circumstances that befall us, He is God, by nature He is holy – separate from us, bigger than us, better than us. While this is true the questions remain: why do we suffer? Why do bad things happen? Does God even care? These questions have plagued humanity since the beginning of sophisticated thought. I do not have the intellectual arrogance to assume I can bring an ultimate resolution to these questions that are beyond me (and frankly, I believe, beyond humanity). What I can do is offer thoughts that have brought me comfort and a perspective from which I believe a community should respond to tragedy. Job is a character and book in the Bible that many in Christian and mainstream culture have used as an illustration explaining the unjust suffering at the hand of an Almighty God thinking that somewhere in this book God is giving us the answer to this question that has vexed philosophers, theologians, artists and laymen for millennia. There is just one problem: He doesn’t offer an answer. With study, the book of Job offers a solution – NOT an answer – far more frustrating and inspiring… Throughout the book of Job, Job is suffering and grieving the loss of his wealth, the death of his children and the rejection of his wife, all the while being unfairly accused by his “ friends” Job understandably is emotional. He accuses God several times, Job says, “He destroys the blameless… He tears me in His wrath, and He hates me; He gnashes His teeth at me…God lives, who has taken away my justice. And the Almighty, who had made my soul bitter.” (Job 9:22, 16:9, 27:2). God then shows up after Job challenges God one last time and God proceeds to ask Job questions no human being could answer. After seeing the immensity of God and the complexity of His creation Job recants, but God says something interesting to the friends who had accused Job, “you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has” (42:7). If God is good and just this can’t be true, with the types of things that Job said. What is God saying then? The Lord is approving of the process Job went through when these tragedies befell him. The conclusion we must draw is that God is not offended when we react emotionally to circumstance – in fact He expects it. God offers no answer as to why He allowed this to happen to Job, He simply asks us to trust His eternal omniscient perspective in these matters that are beyond us. This may not soothe the burning questions inside our hearts, but it isn’t meant to. God desires us to draw near to Him with our hearts and our questions. Only in the Lord can we find hope in the midst of tragedy. As a community, how then do we respond? Not with cynicism or logic or emotion, but trust, sincerity and compassion. If there are those who hurt, we are called to pray and help in any way we can. We must not attempt to understand why, that is a fool’s errand. If we attempt to offer reason where there is none we will only succeed in alienating those we genuinely want to help. If it’s a profile picture, or a hashtag, or a prayer, or a pledge as someone who has experienced deep personal tragedy I can personally say, everything helps. God is sovereign, He is good and He works all things together for those who love Him (Romans 8:28). Pray for all. Pray the Kingdom come. Until then we must hope against all hope and God is the only one who can enable that. Let us fix our eyes on the One who suffered so that we would not grow weary or lose heart (Hebrews 12:2-3). Grace & Peace, Roots Deep Scribe

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Community in Communion

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God is a God of destination. He doesn't care about obstacles. We're moving forward in Jesus name.

Pastor Vincent Ochoa

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Belonging

"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” Romans 15:7 We’ve all felt out of place at some point in our lives and it’s in those critical moments many either choose Christ or something else to alleviate their sense of alienation. Humans are designed to be interdependent and in relationship with each other. However, with a constant fear of rejection or inability to measure up to the world’s standard of acceptance and a list of negative experiences, interacting with others can be intimidating. As members of the body of Christ, we are called to reach out and welcome others. You would be surprised at the amount of people who hunger for a sense of belonging and genuine friendships on your campuses. Everyone wants to feel as though they belong. Adolescence is very defining and pivotal. No matter the façade someone may put up, we are all vulnerable and we struggle with insecurities. An assessment of the people around us testifies to this fact — the obvious emergence of stereotypes and different people groups shows us how much we desire to belong. The people we associate ourselves with impact us greater than we presume, Paul even warns us in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’” But, can you imagine how decisive it can be and how beautiful it could be for someone to fall into the right crowd and be in the company of people who pursue God — regardless of whether or not that person is a Christian? So I encourage you to keep your eyes and your hearts open and always listen to His still, small voice. Walk through the hallways with full awareness of God’s desire to reconcile everything and everyone to Himself. Look out for the one person who may be on the brink of choosing life or death and invite them into community. It doesn’t matter if they believe in God or not—allow them to have a glimpse of the His Kingdom. You may be the most important thing that will happen to them because you have Jesus, you know Jesus, and they can encounter Him through you. We exist to bring great glory to God and He delights when we extend an invitation to the marginalized, the voiceless, and the alienated. Love, G

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Kingdom Fable

Once upon a time at the beginning there is a King, entirely self-sufficient, having no need of anyone or anything. Yet still He desired to give of Himself to those His lesser. So it was He spoke and it became. The grand art of all that is began here at His Word. Waves of color out His mouth, massive formations of rock from His commands, the systems of physics & laws of nature set into motion by the Primary Action and the big bang of His booming voice. So it was the King created punctuating His masterpiece with His favorite: His son & daughter, it was for them He created the perfect ecosystem to sustain them.

They were happy, free, pure. Then the Evil met them in their home and poisoned the King’s loved ones. The prince & princess seemed to be stricken with amnesia as the poison of their rebellion flowed through their veins for they had forgotten that were created royalty. From nobility to peasants, from riches to rags, from freedom to bondage. The poison had become so ingrained in the prince & princess that it intertwined itself into their genetic code. They had become so deceived by the poison in their blood, the curse within them they had believed the King to be a fairytale or a wicked tyrant. So it was that the children had forgotten who their King was & who they were.

Once the King saw what had become of His beloved children, He didn’t do what was expected of one so righteous or what the Evil had hoped. Instead of wiping out His creation as He proved He could – for they had become tainted and grotesque – and as they deserved, He found another way. The King became as they. He wrapped Himself in their curse and sacrificed Himself as to free His beloved subjects. So that those who are humble enough and willing might rid themselves of the poison they were born with. He walked among His own workmanship and allowed Himself to be murdered so that we could be free. Such is the love of our King Jesus.

Though we read the tale of our King Jesus as a tale, from a time far past, it is no fable. Jesus died for us. Jesus gave us our freedom from sin in His death and freedom from death in His resurrection. Though maybe as a result from some of the symptoms this poison in us produces we are willfully blind to the truth of our King. Jesus in His life, death & resurrection invites us back to our rightful place as princes & princesses in his Kingdom. Let us remember we “are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Let us as a community take our place in our King’s heart & home.

Grace & Peace, Roots Deep Scribe

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Team

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Interns (Serrena is joking with her face)

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"You have to understand who you are so you can understand why you do the things you do when God asks you"

Davina Alvarez

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"Jesus + nothing = Everything

Pastor Chris Scoz

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Home

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"All Were Together"

And the Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone” This is one of the first observations God – our Creator – makes about us as a species. Thus he creates woman as a help to man, a partner, someone in whom he sees himself, a counterpart. There is something within us that yearns to see ourselves in someone else. We want to be known; we want to be identified with. The tendency of our culture seems to run contrary to this typical human desire. Our individualistic culture tells us to pursue our desires at the cost of anything that gets in our way: relationships, morals, even family all for the sake of success. The environment our culture produces is one of isolation. But because we think our goals are our primary purpose we miss the entire point. We were created for community. Think about it. The times in your life when you were most happy, most content, most fulfilled, were you by yourself? Or were you with a group of friends who seemed to understand you? If you were honest, it was probably the latter. We believe at Roots Deep that the church is meant to be that community we were all destined for – a family that understands, accepts & loves us – only to send us to help & heal the broken communities of the world. According to scripture that is what the church was always meant to be, and that’s our goal. I leave you with the scripture we believe supports that. When you read it imagine your community, sitting around a table, laughing, enjoying without tensions or jealousies, just trust & love, what Jesus wants for us. Grace & Peace Roots Deep Scribe “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:42-47

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Youth Ministry Is Youth Ministering

Josue Silva

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Vision for the future.

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In Transition

The process of changing from one state or condition to another. That’s what transition means. As young adults and youth “transition” is an inevitable part of our lives. We change schools, homes, friends, height, weight, styles, crushes, favorites, we are in a constant & (at sometimes) chaotic state of change. It’s part of the life that we’ve been gifted. For some of us transition is a reminder of the fact that: the control we have of our lives is an illusion. Not in some mystical way, but in an obvious way. There are many things in our life that we do not control. And in some way this illusion of control we think we have seems to give us some type of misguided comfort. And transition rips us of that comfort and reminds us of our fragility, as if saying “You must not lie to yourself, it does no good”. For others transition can be a reset, another chance at life, an opportunity. Like the Sun rises every day giving every person on the planet another day, we transition from what was, to what is, from darkest night, to bright morning, from yesterday to today. These favored few grab transition by the reins and ride it into the next season of their lives with hope in their eyes and triumph on the horizon. Why do I say this? Because we here, in Roots Deep, are in transition. In scripture as people underwent transition it seemed to be an indicator as to where they would ultimately find themselves in the plan of God. Two groups who underwent massive transition: Moses & the Israelites and Peter & the Apostles. Moses & The Israelites complained, questioned & disobeyed God, who had only delivered them miraculously, throughout their transition and subsequently found themselves out of the fulfillment of God’s promise. Peter & The Apostles, on the other hand, though scared for their lives (under the serious threat of murder) trusted in Jesus. They prayed at every serious decision & event and followed the seemingly tumultuous flow of an immense transition. They, in turn, changed the course of history. So this I ask you, how will you handle your transition? Will you question God with anger & fear like the Israelites? Or will you do your best to pray & just trust the word Jesus gave you even though sometimes it feels like you have no idea what you’re doing - like the Apostles? Roots Deep & whoever else is reading this you may not know this, but how you answer that question can change the course of history. Grace & Peace, Roots Deep Scribe