Oasis Madrid

One day, a man named Mr. Tung went to the doctor because he suspected that his brain had some problems. The doctor carefully went through all the check-ups and spoke to Mr. Tung after getting the reports, “Well, Mr. Tung, the situation is…hm…you see…there are two brains in your head, one is the left brain and the other is the right brain. And, see, um…In your left brain, there is nothing right, and in your right brain, there is nothing left.”

[Note to reader: this is where you’re supposed to laugh. Please oblige.]

Okay, enough tomfoolery. Let’s get to the matter at hand: We’re in the middle of a series called “Body Parts”. The aim of the series is summed up in the words of the apostle Paul when he writes in Romans 6: “…offer the parts of your body to God as instruments of righteousness.”

So far in this series we’ve noted that God is described in the Bible with metaphors that are bodily in nature. We’ve looked at God’s heart for us, God’s hands, and God’s arms. We’ve looked at the person of Jesus as a literal representation of what God’s body parts are like and we’ve looked at how Jesus used his body parts to change people. Since we’re all on a journey to become more like Christ, we do well to ask: “In what ways can my body parts be like God’s?” By doing as such, we will become more Christ-like. That’s why we’re endeavoring these months to “offer the parts of our body to God…”

In this teaching, we’ll look at the first half of offering to God our mind. If you’ve been following this series, you’ll note that we’ve taken one session per “part”. But, as we thought about offering to God our mind, we said: “That will be tough to do in one session, because some people associate the mind with logic, while others associate the mind with creativity.” So, we decided in this instance to take two sessions to cover the mind (to “please” both kinds of people, so to speak). One session is for the left brain (the more logical, rational side), and the other session is for the right brain (the more artistic, irrational side).

So, in this teaching, we’re looking at the left brain.

I want to stress from the outset that we will not be talking primarily about “how to get smarter.” Rather, we’ll be focusing on a more important matter: wisdom, insight and understanding.

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Jesus is a remarkable figure. If we were to open the Bible right now and read the account of Jesus’ life, and if we were to write down words to describe Jesus as we did so, we would come up with an incredible list. We’d write words like: magnetic, excitable, passionate, emotional, affectionate, impartial, selfless, gracious, strong, courageous, humble, gentle, radical, unpredictable, tender, compassionate, and loving. What’s even more remarkable: not a single item on the list would be negative.

Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if we were all more like Jesus. Just think: there would be no lying, no cheating, no stealing, no hypocrisy, no lust, no hatred, no war. Our lives would be so different! That’s why, if I could have just one wish granted, I would wish that we could all be more like Jesus.

Now: lest you think this wish far-fetched, let me take you to God’s wishing well, to a place where even time finds its birth.

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We’re now at the end of the first full week of Lent. Troy explained last week what Lent was, but just to recap, Lent is the 40 day period before Easter Sunday, where throughout the centuries Christians all over the world set aside this time to prepare for Easter–to really dig into the meaning of Christ’s death and His resurrection.

During Lent, we confess sin and we commit ourselves to renewal–to living more like Jesus. To being more like Jesus.

As part of being more like Jesus, we’re spending the services up until Easter Sunday looking at how Jesus prayed, specifically, at what has come to be known as “The Lord’s Prayer,” or if you come from a Catholic background, the “Our Father.” Because it’s Jesus’ prayer, Christians all over the world, and all throughout history, have said these words–so, with this prayer we are praying how Jesus taught us to, and we are connected with the whole church–something so much bigger than ourselves or our little community here.

Troy then went on to talk about the intimacy that Jesus shows, just in the first line of the prayer. Rather than some distant untouchable far off greeting, he simply says, “Father.” And then he goes on to say “in heaven,” not like the far away idea of Heaven, but “the heavens”–the atmosphere all round. It actually means in the space all around us. In the very first line of the prayer, Jesus says that God is our father and that he is right here with us.

Our Father, who art in heaven

And then Jesus goes on to pray these lines,

Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven Read more »

“A Christ-centered community that helps people follow Jesus.”

If you’ve been around for at least a few weeks, looked at our website, or asked someone what Oasis Madrid is all about, chances are that you’ve heard this phrase. Or at least I hope you’ve heard it. In case you haven’t, here it is again: Oasis Madrid is a Christ-centered community that helps people follow Jesus. These words weren’t thrown together casually or just because they sounded good—this is what we believe that we are called to be as a Church. This is why we are here. To be a Christ-centered community that helps people follow Jesus. Read more »

For the past several months at our Oasis Services, we have been doing a series of talks called “body parts,” centering on this theme verse in Romans 6: “…offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” So each service we’ve looked at different parts of the body—heart, sex parts, hands, feet, arms, and last time we started on a 2-part set about the brain. Now the reason we split the brain up into two services is that the brain does so much, and does so many different things, that we couldn’t really fit it into one talk. Read more »

When we were talking about the “body parts” series and Troy asked me if I would do the teaching on hands, I started reading through the gospels to look at what Jesus did with His hands, and what I found was pretty amazing. Jesus used his hands a lot—sometimes in ordinary ways and sometimes in very extraordinary—even miraculous—ways. One thing that stuck out to me over and over is that whenever the Bible mentions that Jesus touches someone, something amazing happens. Read more »

I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine. This is my cactus, Jeremy. Isn’t it cute? Last year, my friends Matt and Em gave it to me for my birthday (by the way, it was their idea to name it Jeremy, but i thought it fit, so I kept it). I have to admit, I’ve been really proud of how well I’ve taken care of this cactus—I usually forget plants about 2 weeks after I get them. But look at Jeremy! He’s still going strong, and the flowers haven’t faded a bit! To be honest, I usually don’t like cactus—they hurt when you touch them. But the flowers made up for that because they’re pretty. Read more »