TapIn

I am convinced of one thing this morning...

We as Christians, both individually (and pretty much the Church as a whole), have not even scratched the surface of the power that is available to us and in us.  

I got trumped by the adversary recently and I failed to share with my church family the pain I am presently experiencing (in my Mother's heart) over my son. He is truly in a serious crisis (and life-threatening)  situation.  But, for a moment, I believed that people were tired of hearing about his plight... so I didn't mention anything; I just put on my smile and did the Sunday morning church thing.

I got a lot out of church; the message was strong and the fellowship sweet, but oh how I missed the point of corporate worship!

Reluctantly, after church, I posted a vague prayer request on a private prayer facebook group that our church has.  I was pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of love from my friends in Christ! Dear ones, responded! Almost immediately showing that they truly cared and were interested! 

This morning, in my quiet time with God's Word, I stumbled on this letter written by Paul to the non-Jews (aka Gentile; aka me) believers in Ephesus!

A letter to every non-Jew believer... (from the letter to the Ephesian Gentile Church; chapter 3)

8 Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles (that's us; pretty much every believer I know!) about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. ; 9 I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning 10 God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. ; 11 This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.; 12 Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. 13 So please don’t lose heart because of my trials here. I am suffering for you, so you should feel honored. 14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

This hit me, hard! Not only was I not 'tapping in' I was denying my church family the privilege to 'tap in' on behalf of my son, too!

All this has got me to thinking how essential corporate prayer and worship is. People (aka believers) are peculiar. We arrive at church, ready for 'worship' (or at least we should arrive that way). But people don't want it to take too long; they want to get in and get out in a timely fashion.

The early church (and churches in third world countries, and even many of the 'hoods' of America today-I'm speaking from my own personal experience!) don't 'worship' like that. They truly hunger and thirst for corporate Worship, Prayer, and Fellowship, no matter how long it takes!

Yes it is true, I got trumped by the devil! But I get it now! I want to "TapIn" to the Power of Christ in Me (only using the capital "M" because of Christ in me) :)

#biblefor21

20But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.; 21So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. ; 22Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.

Beck's Jesus Club

The Bible tells us that a simple childlike faith pleases God... I have been thinking about that a lot lately!

During Christmas vacation this year, I threw a small surprise birthday for our daughter while we were in Arizona (where she and her hubby live).

I had spent some time 'liking' and secretly inviting her close friends to the occasion.  We all met at a restaurant (her favorite) and had a very pleasant evening!

During the course of the evening, my hubby and I got to sit next to one of our daughter's friends little boy (7 year old, Beck).  This child was delightful, to say the least!  We learned that both sets of his grandparents are all missionaries in Guam!  

Most importantly, Beck shared with us about a club he has started with his friends; namely the Jesus Club! 

Once a week he gathers some friends together and they pray for people.  He has had them commit to this and initiated them into his 'club' for this purpose!  He gives each sincere participant a little Jesus pin to wear.  They then go out into their little worlds with the intent of telling people about Jesus and how He loves them.

When they gather again for a 'club' meeting, they then pray, again for people.

Needless to say, I recognized the simple genius in this sweet little guys heart!  I was blown away by his intentional diligence...

Well, dinner was then served, gifts were opened, and relaxing conversation was taking place with the birthday girl...

Next thing I knew, little Beck had positioned himself standing right behind my shoulder.  He sheepishly semi-whispered in my ear "I've been thinking, would YOU like to be in my Jesus club?"

I turned and looked into his sweet face, I explained that I live in Kansas, and asked how could I participate, since he lives in Arizona?  But then I thought, "why not?" his mother and I were now "friends" on facebook, I could certainly keep him posted on the Kansas extension of his sweet club!  And Mommy agreed!

He then said, "well, normally I do like for people to attend a meeting and get their pin..."

Then his little eyes sparkled and he said, "actually I have a BIG pin that I've been saving for  a special purpose" maybe YOU should get that pin, since you are the first adult in my club"!

Now fast forward a few weeks... I came home from our vacation inducted as the first adult AND the Kansas ambassador of Beck's Jesus Club!  I teach an older elementary Sunday school class, and have shared Beck's story and his club with kids in my class.  These kids (ages 9-12) were so excited and literally blown away that a 'little' kid (7 years old) thought of this idea, and they hadn't!  Since that time, we have started our own club and now one of my SS students is even beginning HER own extension within her circle of influence, namely her home-school friends!  Beck's Jesus club is growing even in Kansas!

Grown ups get too bogged down and have a tendency to overthink things.  Our rationalizing (too much reasoning in our minds) sometimes (often) keeps us from simply trusting. Simply trusting in the Lord for many, many things... the right words to say...

Faith is what pleases the Lord.  We don't save people, God saves people.  But for some unknown reason He chooses to use unworthy yet willing people to spread His love and His word and His simple message of eternal life.

So for today, just rest in the fact the Jesus loves You!  And be a light in this dark world!

The Ephesians 1:2

The Ephesians 1:2: Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
21 Days of Grace for the Pace #Biblefor21

axolotl

Interesting word I learned about in today's reading of Our Daily Bread.  http://odb.org/2016/01/16/desiring-growth/
Axolotl... a tadpole found in Mexico that never grows past the tadpole stage.
 It reminded me of a big lesson I have learned:
I grew up trying so very hard to be perfect, knowing full well that I would never obtain the flawless perfection I was striving for.  My human'ness' always seemed to get the best of me.  All my efforts were in vain, and deep down inside, I knew it.
All this futile effort was because of a single word in the Bible, being taken out of context.                    In Matthew 5:48 one reads "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (KJV).  My upbringing was in a religious practice that really stressed trying to live this verse; literally to try and become like God.

I have learned that there are two major problems with this practice.
A.The word PERFECT used in Matthew 5:48 has an original meaning in the Greek language as "growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity"
This is not the same meaning as our English word for which we interpret as flawless                             (see http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/perfect)

B. Lucifer fell because He wanted to be God.  This story is documented in Isaiah 14.  Lucifer was created by God as an angel.  With specific characteristics and purpose.  But God also gave the angels (as well as his creation; man) freedom to choose.  This is because God is gracious and doesn't want to force one to follow Him.
Lucifer became prideful and actually boasted that he wanted to be God.  Which caused God to have to throw him from heaven, which is why he was the first fallen angel and nearly 1/3 of the heavenly host followed him to damnation (aka demons).
The idea that a person could become perfect is in direct relation to the fall of Lucifer. 

All this to say that when a human soul receives Jesus Christ as Savior, we become born again (see John 3).  Literally babes in Christ.  We need to learn to live God's way.  Through bible study and prayer and accountability, we start growing just as an infant does.  A baby drinks milk before he can eat, but then he learns to eat.  A baby need to be carried until he learns to walk. A baby cries to express himself until he learns to talk, etc...
This is normal.  A baby progresses past the infant stage and spends years growing into maturity.  If a child never progressed; just like the Mexican axolotl remains in tadpole stage for life, this is not normal.
It is natural for a Christian to grow spiritually.  One who remains in the infant stage of their walk with God is not truly fulfilling the ideal life that God has planned for them.  They are stunting their own growth by refusing to grow up.

Refuge: Our Daily Bread

New Year Better Me

Today is December 31, 2015.  I am always a little more reflective at the end of a year.  I look back a bit, but mostly am giddy with anticipation for the new year.  2015 was a good year for us.  In ministry, I feel as though I have hit my stride (finally).  Four years ago, when I began working at the church as Administrative Assistant and my husband was hired as Pastor, I was truly clueless as to my role there.  Church life and pastoral care can be demanding and constant.  And I truly have a new found appreciation for Admins!  Their job (especially at a church) is never ending... (aka text messages while you are on vacation, asking about something to do with your job?)!  And Sundays, well, don't even get me started... (I am learning to serve in grace and with a smile!)
Fast forward to 2015, I finally have a routine and healthy expectations of myself and what tasks I can truly manage on my plate. Ministry is hard.  Anyone who ministers, knows that.  It's not for the faint of heart. Working with your spouse can be hard, too.  My husband and I are alike in some instances (the important things, like our faith) and polar opposites in others (i.e. free spirit vs. nerd; refer to Dave Ramsey for more info!) .  But God knew this.  He orchestrated everything in our lives for this time and this place that He has called us to.  We are becoming better people and partners.
My only goals for the new year are to learn to linger longer with the Lord, to serve my husband and church better, and to not burnout.  I have a lot of great ideas of what this new year could bring, but I am learning that I must turn my plans over to the Lord (before I initiate them)!
So here we are, 2016 is a matter of hours away.  No time like the present to start practicing lingering longer with the Lord!
Blessings, and Happy Hew Year!
Peace,
A

Extrabiblical Experience

There is a growing trend among some Christian friends that God's Word can be personalized and rewritten for us specifically.  I am leary of this practice and teaching.
Having grown up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and being taught that Joseph Smith had a vision of God and was gifted in writing a new document, I now realize heresy when I see it.  (Most of the Book of Mormon, is an elaboration of old testament history with a story that includes America?) "A heresy is a deviation from the truth". (https://carm.org/heresies).
In all of the deviation schemes of the adversary (aka satan), there is usually an element of truth.  BUT, one must not accept the truth mingled in with the lie. Satan even tried to pull this one on Jesus, himself.  But Jesus recognized this and put a stop to it.  (I am referring to Matthew 4; the tempting of Jesus).
God's Word is complete, in and of itself.  There is no 'higher knowledge' (aka gnosticism) that belongs in the Christian life.
Jesus Christ is the Word of God, the practice of personalizing the bible is a dangerous one. Yes, the bible has depth and meaning for individual believers, but it must be studied in context, as it was originally written.  It pains me to see Christians being led astray, seeking something higher than the Word of God.  The Bible is life-changing and truly all we need.

The Rhythm of Life....

Spending time at the beach (or the shore as they say on the east coast), brings a lot of things to a head.  There are the months of anticipation, coupled with the hours of packing, rushing, traveling, driving, unpacking and then the moment you've been anticipating is finally there.  The "aaaahhhh" as your feet hit the sand and the sea breeze smacks you right in the face, its rather glorious!
I've long been puzzled by the term "ebb and flow" of the waves.  When I first heard that term years ago, I was looking for something melodic or rhythmic, but waves mostly seem sporadic and unpredictable to me.  Sure, they are reliable, you always know when they are coming (or that they are coming), but they aren't 'by the clock', they dance to their own rhythm as if they have their own drumbeat.
When I think about that it reminds me of life, in a way.  We all seem to march to our own drumbeat.  Each individual is as unique as the thumbprint God placed on our hearts and lives and thumbs.  We start out in life rather disorderly and clumsy, but it seems that the older one gets, the more solidified the rhythm becomes.  I am fifty now, the big five-oh! And at this point in my life, I realize that if I haven't grown up yet, there isn't much hope of doing any more of that.  I do not see myself as fifty.  I see myself as the awkward yet sturdy woman that I've become charging through the peaks and valleys of my life.  For the first half of my life, I thought that I flew it solo.  I did not become a Christian until the age of twenty five. Its amazing that I survived that long, but thankfully the Lord had a plan (and He is still working it out in me today)!
At fifty, I am more confident and comfortable in my own skin.  I wasn't always like that.  I recently had someone comment that they see me as a strong and confident woman.  It really surprised me, as that is not how I see myself; strong, yes, but confident? no!  But I guess I really am.  I've been smacked around by life my fair share and remarkably it didn't make me calloused but drew me more to the Lord.  The bumps and bruises and scars that I carry are all battle wounds that Jesus and I fought together.
And slowly over the years, I have been finding my rhythm.  When we first moved to Kansas (my husband and I refer to it as our mission field), I was bored and unmotivated.  Jobs for a woman who wasn't into agriculture were not easy to come by.  I stumbled into a little yarn shop one day that offered to teach me to knit for free!  Now I had tried knitting numerous years ago, or better to say, that my dear Grandmother had tried to teach me!  But I was impatient and awkward and would knit stitches so tight that it became unbearable to continue.  So I quit.  But there was something inside me that was determined to learn this mysterious art of intertwining yarn.  So I started to go for lessons.  I can't tell you how many times I tried to knit, unraveled yarn, and tried again!  It became such a scene that even my husband asked me if I was ever going to finish the dishcloth I was working on!  But I knew that I had to get it right, I had to find my rhythm.  My teacher (bless her soul) said sometimes undoing what we do helps us to learn, so I took that advice and kept knitting rows, unraveling them, and then knitting again.  And Voila, I actually finished the dishcloth!  It was a glorious moment in my life!  I hung in there, I didn't quit, and wouldn't you know, I actually found my rhythm!
It's no different in the grand scheme of things, over time, we do find our rhythm!  Granted no one else on this green earth hears our drummer, but us and the Lord!  But hanging in there and not giving up really makes a difference and sooner or later you actually figure out who you are, what you were created for and why!
And I actually really enjoy knitting!  It's something I especially like to do at the beach...

Duty

http://instagram.com/p/qXP5dHFlj0/During the recent BIC General Conference I declined from being a delegate (once every 10 years is enough for me!).  However I was willing to help out in some capacity... my volunteerism landed on the ears of the children's pastor who was in need of nursery workers.  Having recently returned from a 'Grandma tour' with my own little ones, I gleefully accepted!
Spending time with the wee ones during conference reminded me of what was going on in the next building with the delegates and conference attendees.  A lot of the personalities and conflicts are the same whether I was attending conference or working in the nursery!
Allow me to illustrate... first there were the workers themselves; a nice mixture of 'older and wiser' mixed with the 'young and eager'... I was greeted by the children's pastor who was excited that I had volunteered and ready to tell me everything I needed to know to be an informed nursery worker.
Then there was the seasoned vet, a grandma herself, who also has a job driving a school bus for special needs kids.  She was a dynamo, let me tell you!  She had a pun for everything and a story to back it up!  What fun!  Kind of like a children's missionary!  She truly had a heart for kids and Jesus!
Then there were the various interns and the regular mom with her teenage daughter.  The interns were fun and the kids loved them (they could actually get down on the floor and play!).  The mom and daughter duo were quiet and probably just trying to figure out what had happened to cause them to say 'yes' the day they were asked to help out in the nursery for a session!
 So there we were, the team that was brought together for this special occasion (granted, not all were there the entire time)!  Next were the children (and their parents, lets not forget the parents)!  Each parent had there own style from Nine West diapers bags to eco friendly everything under the sun to I make everything from scratch, including my children!  It was interesting, to say the least... there was A LOT of crying (I call it separation anxiety) as the parents each tried (in vain) to ease there child into this foreign land called "the makeshift nursery".  Some of the Dads were noticeably tender and almost coddling... which was surprising to me.  The moms, who were more seasoned at separation anxiety from there children, were more apt to 'rip the band-aid off' and just make a run for it when their toddler wasn't looking!
Then there were the children themselves, those sweet little sinners!  Angelic faces, so trusting and tear stained... but quickly it was realized these kids would play with everything in the room and then look for something more to explore.  It was during play time that their true selves would come to light.  Each child is the center of their own universe, not considering for a minute, that the other children in the room were just as much the center of THEIR own universe, too!  Our selfishness is innate, we can't help it... and apparently we don't really ever learn how to squelch it, we only think we do!
I still remember the personalities that were prevalent at General Conference 2012, each person showing their true colors and leaning as they spoke into the microphone.  Having never attended a BIC conference before and new to the BIC in general, I was really amazed at just how boorish some of the microphone speakers were.  I don't doubt their passion, but I quickly realized how difficult being a moderator would be in that setting!
As my husband would share insights from General Conference 2014 with me each evening, I realized that it was pretty much the same scenario (making me reaffirm how glad I was to be in the nursery, this time).
So I've been thinking about 'the church' mainly the people of the church.  God must shake His beloved head a lot.  We are so opinionated and mixed up, at times.  Pushing agendas when we could be promoting Jesus.  Not trusting each other, when we should be showing people the God whom you can trust.  It makes me sad to hear the stories of some of the 'microphone speakers' at General Conference.  Why can't we trust each other and especially the leadership that God has called?  It's no different than trying to convince a toddler to trust a nursery worker who is willingly there to lead them, isn't it?  I mean in the grand scheme of things, those with a heart to be where God places them should be trusted to do what only God can enable them to do, right?
Now I realize that those attending General Conference are 'hopefully' all believers... but I am still sensitive to the fact that words are l-o-n-g remembered and unless they are prayerfully spoken can have a lasting effect.
It seems difficult for some to accept change.  Whether you are a toddler being left in the nursery or an adult having to deal with changes in leadership within an organization.  Just as sometimes a toddler cries, solely to be heard (I actually watched a little girl keep moving herself around the room, while crying so someone would look at her),  it is my opinion that some adults are merely seeking an audience as well.  Even negative attention soothes the cranky beast...
It also seems difficult for some to accept differences in each other and here is where the similarities die between toddlers and homogenized adults.  Children are more than willing to accept differences in each other and look for the similar in which to relish in; just watch children in any given nursery...  But not so with so many adults who find it their sole duty in life to segregate and judge others because of a lack of similar background or heritage.  This kind of thinking stinks and makes for drawing lines. To me, this kind of thinking is not what Jesus had in mind for His church.  Jesus was the master at bringing together an odd lot of folk and teaching them that their differences come from and are to glorify Him.  He took a bunch of unschooled fishermen and pious religious folk to change history and document HIS story!  I am thankful for that.
Being a Christian is not about legacy... we all have a sordid past when you get right down to it.  Being a Christian is about redemption, and lets never forget that.