HOPE IN THE CITY is a charity gallery and fashion runway event organized by Mosaic. The 3rd annual show features a gallery of over 20 local and professional artists and a runway fashion show of 22 established and up-and-coming designers showcasing their designs to encourage the unleashing of creativity and talent to create good in the world. All proceeds benefit local LA service organizations.

Host Jeanne Mai (from the Style Network’s “How Do I Look”) will bring you an exciting evening of fashion, art, and mingling.

Enjoy live music, DJ, and our marketplace.

Date: March 24th

Location: (the gorgeous) Vibiana 210 S. Main St. Los Angeles, CA 90012
Downtown LA

BUY TICKETS HERE!

Doug Greene (officer on the left)

Doug Greene is a hero. There are lots of other everyday heroes just like him. Women and men who serve as police officers willingly put their lives on the line to protect and serve the rest of us in their community.

It is easy to take police officers for granted. I have several friends who serve as police officers (thanks to Robert, Keith, Eric, just to name a few!), but Doug helped me understand the reality of the risk they take. When he left our paid staff at Mosaic to begin his training at the  San Antonio police academy, he said something I will never forget. During his farewell lunch, he thanked us for investing in his life and for demonstrating a healthy community, one that is both loving and willing to have the hard conversations. He went on to say something that brought us all to tears: “Now I know I know how to lay my life down for others.”

Special thanks to Doug and to all of the police officers who willingly risk their lives to rescue others!

SIGN UP FOR THE TELESEMINAR HERE.

Paul was born and raised in a village carved out of the jungle in Dutch New Guinea, where his parents were missionaries. With a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in educational leadership, Richardson is part of a group creating a network of state-of-the-art Christian schools in some of the most impoverished environments on earth. Richardson lives in southeast Asia with his wife, Cyndi, and their three children.

Paul served as an elder at Mosaic before moving back to Southeast Asia.  His father Don Richardson is the author of “Peace Child.”

In his memoir, A Certain Risk: Living Your Faith at the Edge, Paul will inspire you to engage the complexities of your world with creative solutions—with creativity that comes straight from the heart of the Creator. Drawing on stories from his life as a change specialist in the world’s largest Muslim country, Richardson explores what causes you to be pinned down under personal apathy and disappointment, and he helps you seek the Spirit-fueled life that can set you free.

A new series through the book of Ecclesiastes at Mosaic begins this Sunday!

Listen in at www.mosaic.org/podcast!

One of the speakers is Steve Saccone, one of the catalysts at Mosaic, the author of Relational Intelligence, and a good friend of mine!

These 6 minute videos will be shown tomorrow on March 3rd, so be sure to register today.  Register for free here!

You can listen to an interview I did with Steve on Relational Intelligence here.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

Here are some of the best quotes:

“Failure removes the inessentials.” - J.K. Rowling

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” - J.K. Rowling

“The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.” - J.K. Rowling

“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” - Plutarch

“If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change.”  - J.K. Rowling

“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.” - J.K. Rowling

“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.” - Seneca

For the entire transcript, go here.

When have you seen failure as a benefit?

When have you seen the power of imagination?

Watching The Colbert Report awhile back, I was disappointed when a well-known and popular Christian leader was asked by Stephen to explain why Christians seem to obey some parts of the Bible and not others. Citing the Levitical laws, Colbert asked about stoning homosexuals and disobedient children, and I think he even brought up the prohibition against wearing clothing made of two types of fabric.

Rather than answering the question, the pastor made a joke which could have been perceived as an unwillingness to answer the question. (To be fair, it could be that he went on to answer the question only to have the answer edited out of the broadcast).

The simple answer: The law is the basis of the Old Covenant but it isn’t binding on Christians in the New Covenant except where specifically renewed.

In other words, God’s grace and love should be paramount. He is the Judge of all, not us. Too often, Christians wear t-shirts with two different types of fabrics which seem to shout judgment and condemnation about some things we find in Scriptures while ignoring other issues.

So many people throw out all of God’s Word because some of it doesn’t make sense at first glance. Other times, people use the Bible to push their own agenda rather than allowing the text to mean what the author intended for it to mean.

For the “Preaching and Communication” class I am teaching at Golden Gate Seminary, I have chosen How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth as one of the textbooks. I have always appreciated this book for the way it helps us understand how to interpret and apply the Scriptures to our lives.

Here are some of the principles:

Humility is essential in preaching and applying the Scriptures.

Life transformation comes through the application of the Scriptures not information about it.

Understanding the types of literary genres is essential to understanding the meaning of the text.

For the letters in the New Testament, whenever we share particulars (specific life situations) with the first-century setting, God’s Word to us is the same as his Word to them.

God is the hero of all biblical narratives. The biblical narratives are descriptive rather than prescriptive.

We need to use the Scriptures to interpret Scripture.

We need to try to determine how the original hearers would have identified the story.

Wisdom is the ability to make godly choices in life.

If you would like a complete overview of How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, send me an email at eric@mosaic.org with “Reading the Bible” in the subject line.