Wow It has a been a while since I have done this…and it used to be at a
different Blog But life is different now! In case you didn’t get the
memo we moved and started at a church as it’s Senior Pastor Three months
ago today! And what a Joy it has been. One of the blessings I have
had is being a aprt of a Ladies Sunday School class where we have been
Working through Beth Moore’s Believing God Series!. It has been a true
challenge! This mornign I was working on Day one Of session three. It
is all focused On Believing God can do what He says He will do. Her
main point is that God from the very beginning has done Miracles!
Miracles is what God does to show his glory! Among other things.
However if you think about even the simplest of things like answered
prayer IS a miracle. That’s what God does. I hav sat under the
preaching of a pastor who had the audacity to say that God NO LONGER
perdormed miracles today. I TOTALLy disagree. Why? Because I have
experienced a REAL LIFE Miracle! When i was in college..My freshamn
year to be exact I was at our regional tournament for Basket
ball…(ahem I was a cheerleader) We were leaving what was now
Philadelphia Biblical University when all of a sudden in Allentown PA we
all decided we wanted Ice cream. It was about 11 AM and we stopped off
for some food! Well within minutes something happened. Our school 15
passenger van burst into flames. Miraculously No one was in it.
Another five miles down the road and it could been a HUGE catastrophy.
As people started tryign to convince us that our van was REALLy on fire
we ran to see all of our stuff ablaze…..BUT ALL of our stuff wwas
sitting inte parking lot….None of it touched by flames and not even a
hint slelled of smoke! We began to ask who saved LAL of our stuff ? No
one knew No one saw anything….Even a paper award that sat on the dash
board of one of the players sat unscathed on top of all the bags and
pillows. As we watched the firemen trying to get the flames under
control Stunned by all that had happened we each knew that something
special had happened! Now what you may try to explain away you can’t.
You weren’t there. You didn’t experience it. I am not one of those
emotional people who overspiritualixe Every little thing. I know beyond
the shadow of a doubt that I along with teammates experienced
something that not many poeple do. A HUGE miracle. Not just one BUT
two. If you are one of those people who Believes miracles are not
performed by God today i challenge you to talk to a missionary . Ask
them if they have see a miracle. Something so amazing it takes your
breath away. I have heard many stories! I know Miracles still happen
today…Just imagine what would happen if you really start to BELIEVE
that God can do what He says He will do!
Category: My Walk Monday
My Walk Monday
Prayer – Chapter 5
4 Things from Chapter 5
I know I know I said I wouldn’t do this sort of thing BUT chapter 5 is loaded!
So here it goes. I’ll TRY to keep it short LOL!
1. An Excellent Explanation pg 58
In a telling comment Jesus also said, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” He could not mean that prayer in unnecessary for his own life beliedthat. He could only mean that we need not strive to convince God to care; the Father cares more than we can know.
2.A fresh perspective for me personally:
We don not pray to tell God what He does not know, nor to remind Him of things He has forgotten. He already cares for the things we pray about…..He has simply been waiting for us to care about them with Him. When we pray, we stand by God and look with Him toward those people and problems.
3. An ancient definition rediscovered:
Prayer is keeping company with God.
4. A disagreement:
Job who gave the most irreverent speeches in the Bible , emerges as a hero in the endthe spiritual leader of his censured friends.
Ahem..here’s where I get on my little soap box for the rest of the post!
Job by no means in mind is a hero. I wouldn’t call him a hero by any means.I challenge you to re-read Job chapters 38-41. God is ticked at Job for numerous things..Such as pride arrogance and putting himself (Job) on a god-like pedestal. If yoiu disagree with me. look at Genesis 2 and three and re-read the account of the fall of man. NO ONE is innocent and Job claims. He is not blameless. Don’t get me wrong Job handles himself well in the first few chapters of Job but as the book goes on you see a man emerge who is different that he who was so grieved at the beginning. I guess in my mind a hero is someone who would have stood up and said God has a reason and I will trust him..With oiut “tooting his own horn” so to speak.
Job falls down before God and admits he was wrong in attitude and understanding. God doesn’t give Job his things back and more because he was a good and righteous man BUT because he Prayed for his friends. who got in “Bigger” trouble with God.
My walk Monday
REVISITING MINISTRY IN MARRIAGE AND MOTHERHOOD!
Life at it’s best :Being yourself
When to be yourself
~When it involves your testimony!
Galatians 1.10
If idon’t seek to please God I am going to give up serving the Lord
Jeremiah 17.5-8
to get to choose to be a growing forest or a desert
2 Corinthians 10.7a and 12
would God be pleased with my motives and actions
and
do I live by God’s expectations or my own
AND
are you trying to meet other peoples expectations?
When Not to be yourself
~ When it involves your tongue
Ephesians 4.29
let no corrupt word come out of your mouth
James 3.5-10
out of the same mouth comes blessings and curses
~ when it involves our temperament
Ephesians 4.32
BE KIND one to another and Jesus Christ
My Walk Monday
Ministry in Marriage and motherhood- I think one of the major things forgotten is that a wife must also be called into ministry. All throughout seminary and Bible College and now even in real life (LOL) I think one thing MANY people forget is that the wife should be called into ministry too! So many times pastors and their wives have their two separate lives. There is no support She has her career and he has his. There is no team work!
One of the most enjoyable things for me is to work in ministry right alongside my husband. We have worked in Awana together we have taught youth group together and we have EVEN taught 5 and 6 year old Sunday school class together. I think that if a guy believes he is called into ministry but his wife isn’t being called into ministry he needs to re-evaluate becaus as I was taught in this class his house is not in order. On such big decisions the husband and wife need to be in one accord and in agreement with each other that this is the road theat they should go down.
I am not going to sugar coat it and it is not an easy job to be a pastor’s wife but if you are called dragging your feet because of fear is much worse than saying yes! It’s tortureous trust me I know. I bucked against it for 4 or5 years. Every pastor’s family I had met was a disaster! I sawe the stress and I saw how the kids turned out and I vowed I wasn’t going to put myself through that. Then I met my husband. He didn’t change my mind his family did. Not by words but by action. They love and even liked each other. They respected each other and still had a lot of fun too!
If college walls could talk Pastor’s kids would never want their parents to visit. (or at least the ones I knew my first two years of college!) I guess my biggest thing thoughout my journey to be where God has placed me today is to absorb everything I can. Being a pastor’s wife is tough stuff so anything anyone can pass on is advice well taken! Though you must be careful! Prayer is needed when any advice is concerned! People have very good intentions BUT some advice may not be helpful in your current situation so always remember to go to the Great Counselor Himself with every other piece of earthly advice you get!
Revisiting Ministry in Marriage and Motherhood
Ministry in Marriage and Motherhood was a class i took at the Bible College where my husband attended seminary. I loved this class and the professor. What a blessing both the instructor and the class was to me. For some unknown reason I found the notebook laying on the foot of our bed this morning . I opened it up and realized after just a few short moments of reading that I again was being blessed by this material.
It was only a few short weeks ago that this topic came up with a friend of mine who was taking this class. She is about 3 1/2 years younger than I and well I guess I can share that our friendship has been a downward spiral for some time.
Anyway through a conversation with her she began telling me that she begged her husband to allow her to take the class. He initially told her no because “she could teach the class” Finally he broke and gave his blessing so when I asked her if she was learning anything she said NO…I was shock and she got an ear full. though it was not specifically at her I shared how I was So opinionated when I began the class and by the end I knew and fully understood that EVERYONE will have a different Philosophy of Ministry in Marriage and motherhood.
I have not arrived BY ANY MEANS. I have a lot more growing and learning. I love to learn. i struggle a lot when i don’t I hope I always have a learning spirit. There is something oh so refreshing about meeting a person in their 50’s or 60’s or even older who still has a desire. i find I can learn and glean so much from that person.
To think that a person who is in their mid twenties thinks that they have arrived and have it all figured out without ever experiencing full time ministry, teenagers, the death of a spouse, and so much more boggles my mind. I will never have it all figured out because I have not experienced everything there is to experience. And LORD I don’t want to Start experiencing everything there is to experience either..(LOL)
So for the next few months as I review this oh so important material I will share those things that has blessed me again.
Until next time HAVE A GREAT MONDAY!
My Walk Monday
As of late hubby and I have had a new outlook on all of our experiences! With family, friends, and even churches. The last few months have been tough to say the least. We try to keep our heads screwed on straight! But things happen. So what is our new outlook you might ask. Well It’s just this everything is a lesson. Either it’s a good learning experience or a bad learning experience. We have learned how to do things…OR most often how not to do things. History repeats iself. Just look where our nation is right now and look how we got here. It very similar to what happened during the great depression!
WELL this weekend was just one of those sorts of weekends. We visited my parents! My parents profess to be believers..HOWEVER to hear the excuses about why we can’t go to church OR the reasons why they do certain things is amazing. That is where I have always differed from my parents!. my parents look at Christianity as a duty Something they HAVE to do. Christianity is my life, my everything. Without my faith in Jesus Christ my life is worthless. Everything I do is rooted in that! It’s two very different views of what the Christian life looks like.
It was a very good warning for Hubby and I to keep our faith fresh! It’s avery hard thing to do…but It is my prayer that we communicate to our children the way a Christian life should be led and enjoyed..Istead of it being an after thought!