TFPC EM NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 15, 2025

Faith Forward: Embracing Tension

Today January 15, 2025

Good morning and welcome to your mid-week!

We don’t get a lot of information about the disciples Nathanael, Philip, and Thomas from the biblical text. What the bible does show is that Nathanael had skepticism and bias, Philip had a misunderstanding of the truth, and Thomas had doubt.

At worse, we could label them as a racist, conspiracy theorist, and pessimist. And yet, despite these traits, Jesus started a faith relationship with them all.

From this context, when Jesus tells us in John 13:34-35

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you…”

It hits differently. When Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:10

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

It hits differently.

I think all of us like the Mr. ‘Salvation’ Jesus; the Mr. ‘Eternal life’ Jesus; the Mr. ‘Resurrection’ Jesus. But Jesus is also the Mr. ‘Make us in to one nation’ Jesus; the Mr. ‘Make us into one family’ Jesus; the Mr. ‘Make us into one body’ Jesus.

And, as Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:21a

“The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!”

Jesus both loves us and unites us. Meaning, to be his follower, we need to do the same. We cannot pick and choose. This is not a this or that religion. It is a this and that religion.

Meaning, Christianity is about having uncomfortable relationship. There will Nathanael’s and Philip’s and Thomas’s. There will be times of skepticism, misunderstanding, and doubt.

But, it is in those moments of tension that serve as opportunities to grow. To show the same patience and grace and encouragement and love that Jesus showed all of us.

For, at one time, all of us were Nathanael, Philip, and Thomas. And, just as Jesus transformed them, so he transformed us.

God’s blessing upon you as you mediate on embracing faith relationships and the challenges to doing so, and I look forward to worshipping with you this Sunday.

- Rev. Frank Kim

Youtube link from last Sunday’s worship: HERE

Cell Group Discussion: HERE

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Announcements

• Jan 19 (Sun) – EM Ladies Lunch & Tea, 12:30pm

• Jan 25 (Sat) – Small Group Leaders Brunch @ Pastor Frank’s

• Jan 26 (Sun) – YMF Small Group

• Jan 26 (Sun) – PV Small Group

• Feb 1 (Sat) – YP Small Group Lunch

• Feb 2 (Sun) – EM Membership Class – 1pm

• Feb 7-9 (Fri-Sun) – Spring Revival @ EM Chapel

• Feb 15 (Sat) - Men’s Bible Study, 5pm @ the Hong’s

• Feb 21 (Fri) – Women’s Bible Study

• Requesting of Offering Contribution Receipt for 2024

  For tax purposes, if you wish your Offering Contribution Receipt for 2024 please fill out the little yellow ‘Offering Contribution Summary Request’ form and turn it into the finance office.

• Relief Fund for LA Wildfire Victims

  The church leadership (Session) is organizing a relief fund to support victims of the LA wildfires, which will run until January 26. The funds will be distributed through the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (P.D.A.) ministry. We encourage everyone’s active participation in this urgent relief effort. (For designated donations, please note "LA Wildfire.")

• Hannah & Barnabas Fellowship Membership Applications

  (Registration: 1/12–1/26)

  The Hannah and Barnabas fellowships for adults in their 50s–60s are accepting membership applications for 2025.

  Registration: Church lobby

Finance Office Announcement

For Online Offering (found HERE) please make sure to select 'English Ministry' and to scroll down and type in where you would want your offering to go in the 'Note / memo' area.  

TFPC EM NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 9, 2025

Faith Forward: Our Invitation

Today January 9, 2025

Over the years, we’ve journeyed together through themes like "Faith Forward: A Story of Unstoppable Faith" and “Faith Forward: A Story of Resonating Faith.” We have been reminded of the faith of the Old Testament and the early church—a faith that continues to inspire us today.

These themes have prepared us for 2025: a year where our individual faith stories come together as one collective narrative in "Your Faith. My Faith. Our Story." This vision invites us to unite our faith journeys into a shared testimony of God’s work in and through us.

This vision is inspired by the invitation of Jesus. As Jesus said to Peter and Andrew in Matthew 4:19:

“Come, follow me…”

Reflecting on Jesus’ invitation to “follow me,” we are reminded that this call isn’t just for individual faith. It’s an invitation to weave our faith stories together into one powerful testimony.

So, will you accept the invitation to follow Jesus this year—not just in your personal faith but by helping to create our collective story of faith?

Let’s move beyond “your faith” and “my faith” to engage in and commit to being part of this beautiful, shared narrative together.

For that is what this vision is all about.

God’s blessing upon you as you meditate on the invitation of Jesus, and I look forward to worshipping with you this Sunday

- Rev. Frank Kim

Youtube link from last Sunday’s worship: HERE

Cell Group Discussion: HERE

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Announcements

• Jan 11 (Sat) – Saturday Early Morning Prayer New Year Service

• Jan 11 (Sat) – YP Small Group

• Jan 19 (Sun) – EM Ladies Tea, 12:45pm

• Jan 25 (Sat) – Small Group Leaders Brunch @ Pastor Frank’s

• Jan 26 (Sun) – YMF Small Group

• Feb 7-9 (Fri-Sun) – Spring Revival @ EM Chapel

• Feb 21 (Fri) – Women’s Bible Study

• 2025 Deacons’ Retreat

  The 2025 Deacons’ Retreat will be held on Friday, January 17, and Saturday, January 18, at the Duranno Center. All serving deacons are required to attend.

  Schedule:

  Friday, January 17: 7:00 PM

  Saturday, January 18: 7:30 AM

• Church Parking Guidelines

  Parking spaces designated for new members and families with young children are reserved exclusively for their use. The Education Center basement parking is currently available. Please leave ground-level parking near the sanctuary for seniors and families with young children.

• Update of Registered Member Contact Information

  If your address or contact information has changed since registering as a church member, please ensure it is updated with the Pastor Frank

• Audio and Praise Team Volunteers Needed!

  Those interested please fill out an application found in the back and give it to Esther

• Education Volunteers Needed!

  The Ministry of Education is recruiting teachers and volunteers who are dedicated to faith education for the next generation. Specifically, men for Youth Ministry and more volunteers in general for Children’s Ministry. For more details, please contact the department pastors or the church office. (Pre-K, Elementary, Youth)

Finance Office Announcement

For Online Offering (found HERE) please make sure to select 'English Ministry' and to scroll down and type in where you would want your offering to go in the 'Note / memo' area.  

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TFPC EM NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 1, 2025

Our New Year Anchor

Today January 1, 2025

Happy New Year and welcome to your mid-week!

This New Year, just like last year, promises to hold so many surprises. In the midst of such uncertainty God gives us his promises through Jesus Christ - promises of heaven, eternity, and the resurrection. The bible tells us that, in light of the ups and downs of this world, these promises in Christ should be

our anchor.

Why put our hope in the promises of Christ? Because, God has shown himself to be faithful to keep his promises. The three big ones: His word, His Spirit, and the coming Messiah.

God promised that his word would endure. Despite attempts to suppress it and outlaw it and destroy it, it has endured and continues to do so.

God promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Since Acts 2 the Holy Spirit continues to indwell in believers, continuing to convict us of sin, guide and teach us, empower our witness, intercede on behalf of us in prayer, comfort us and encourage us, and produce the Godly fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

God promised us the Messiah. Despite the statistical miracle for one man to fulfill all the prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament, God sent us one that did.

Promises made. Promises kept.

And the bible tells us that his faithfulness to keep his promises should do two things. It should remind us that God does not lie, and it should be an encouragement to us as we await the fulfillment of his future promises.

In the midst of the ups and downs and surprises that every year brings, it is that anchor that we should hold on to as we enter this New Year.

God’s blessing upon you as you meditate on our anchor in Christ and the New Year, and I look forward to worshipping with you this Sunday.

- Rev. Frank Kim

Youtube link from last Sunday’s worship: HERE

Cell Group Discussion: HERE

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Announcements

• Jan 11 (Sat) – Saturday Early Morning Prayer New Year Service

• Jan 11 (Sat) – YP Small Group

• Jan 19 (Sun) – EM Ladies Tea, 12:45pm

• February 21 (Fri) – Women’s Bible Study

• Audio and Praise Team Volunteers Needed!

  Those interested please fill out an application found in the back and give it to Esther

• Education Volunteers Needed!

  The Ministry of Education is recruiting teachers and volunteers who are dedicated to faith education for the next generation. For more details, please contact the department pastors or the church office. (Pre-K, Elementary, Youth)

Finance Office Announcement

For Online Offering (found HERE) please make sure to select 'English Ministry' and to scroll down and type in where you would want your offering to go in the 'Note / memo' area.  

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TFPC EM NEWSLETTER - DECEMBER 26, 2024

Family Reunion

Today December 26, 2024

Merry Christmas and welcome to your mid-week!

The nativity scene is a reminder of many things.

It reminds us of God’s faithfulness in fulfilling His promises

It reminds us of the humility of Christ

It reminds us of the hope that entered a dark and broken world that first Christmas night, a hope that still shines today, offering peace and joy to all who believe

And it also reminds us of

the family reunion God invites us to.

For, in the birth of the Prince of Peace, we had Mary and Joseph, Shepherds, and Magi coming to see the newborn king. We had good Jews, bad Jews, and Gentiles coming to see the newborn king.

And all those groups were welcomed.

What’s more is that the act to reconcile those groups together just foreshadows the great family reunion we will have in heaven, where the great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language will be at the wedding feast of the Lamb.

What an amazing family reunion because of the humility and self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

But his act of reconciliation also reminds us that, as Christ followers, we need to be agents of reconciliation as well. We need to be peacemakers. We need to reconcile relationships, extend the same grace we received, invite others to join the family of God, and to proclaim the good news of great joy that the angels proclaimed to the shepherds.

If we think about it…

We all know people like the shepherds

We all know people like the Magi

We all know people like Joseph and Mary

And, as Christ did for us, so we need to do for them.

That family reunion is the hope and challenge that the nativity scene reminds us of each Christmas. And so,

Merry Christmas!

God’s blessing upon you as you meditate on the nativity scene and the family reunion that it represents and challenges us to show, and I look forward to worshipping with you this Sunday.

- Rev. Frank Kim

Youtube link from last Sunday’s worship: HERE

Cell Group Discussion: HERE

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Announcements

• Ordination Service for Elders & Deacons

  The ordination service for the newly elected officers from the recent congregational meeting will be held during the 2nd service next Sunday, December 29. Please pray for the new servants of the gospel and the church as they are commissioned to their roles.

• Jan 11 (Sat) – Saturday Early Morning Prayer New Year Service

• Jan 11 (Sat) – YP Small Group

• Jan 19 (Sun) – EM Ladies Tea, 12:45pm

• February 21 (Fri) – Women’s Bible Study

• Audio and Praise Team Volunteers Needed!

  Those interested please fill out an application found in the back and give it to Esther

• Education Volunteers Needed!

  The Ministry of Education is recruiting teachers and volunteers who are dedicated to faith education for the next generation. For more details, please contact the department pastors or the church office. (Pre-K, Elementary, Youth)

Finance Office Announcement

For Online Offering (found HERE) please make sure to select 'English Ministry' and to scroll down and type in where you would want your offering to go in the 'Note / memo' area.  

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TFPC EM NEWSLETTER - DECEMBER 18, 2024

Peacemakers

Today December 18, 2024

Welcome to your mid-week!

At the heart of the battle of the flesh is the question of what do we truly need. Do we need to satisfy our desires? Do we need to satisfy our desire

to be in control

to be respected

to be recognized

to be rewarded

to see judgment done on those we view as guilty?

Do we need to satisfy our desire

to keep our position

to keep our possessions

to keep our birthright

to be loved the way we want to be loved?

Is that what we need OR are our desires just the symptoms of our need for God?

This is the question that Apostle James gives us in his letter to the church. And God’s response shows us his answer. For, God is not like Santa Clause - he who gives us our desires if we are good -

No.

What God does is see our true need and step into the battle raging within us to give us peace. This is the reason we celebrate Christmas. It is God’s plan put into action to bring peace to all of mankind through his son, Jesus Christ.

For those of us who have experienced God’s peace—who understand that fulfilling our desires never brings lasting peace, but that true peace is found only in Christ—it is His example of humility and self-sacrifice that we must emulate as we strive to be His peacemakers.

For, as Jesus said:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

God’s blessing upon you as you meditate on ‘our desires’ vs ‘our need for God’, and I look forward to worshipping with you this Sunday.

- Rev. Frank Kim

Youtube link from last Sunday’s worship: HERE

Cell Group Discussion: HERE

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Announcements

• Dec 18 (Wed) - YP Small Group

• TFPC Christmas Concert

  Celebrate the birth of baby Jesus with joyful praise at the TFPC Christmas Concert, featuring a united choir and performances by children from the Education Ministry. The concert will be held on Friday, December 20, at 7:30 PM in the main sanctuary. We encourage everyone to join in this festive event.

• Dec 25 (Wed) – Christmas Service, 10:30am

• Audio and Praise Team Volunteers Needed!

  Those interested please fill out an application found in the back and give it to Esther

• Education Volunteers Needed!

  The Ministry of Education is recruiting teachers and volunteers who are dedicated to faith education for the next generation. For more details, please contact the department pastors or the church office. (Pre-K, Elementary, Youth)

Finance Office Announcement

For Online Offering (found HERE) please make sure to select 'English Ministry' and to scroll down and type in where you would want your offering to go in the 'Note / memo' area.  

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