Monthly Archives: July 2014

Who’s It About?

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I think this word is for me. Maybe it is also for you?

debbestillandlisten's avatarDebBe Still and Listen

I have been trying to work through a certain situation in my life and I have to say it has been painstakingly slow and difficult to make any forward progress.   Honestly, I feel like I am getting nowhere real fast and my patience is wearing thin?  I literally could scream out of frustration and I mean really, really loud, but I don’t want to hurt your ears so I won’t.  I can’t tell you how many times I have brought this very issue to prayer and there still is no resolution.

So, I thought God and I had to have a heart to heart.

“I’m like okay, God it is really okay with me if you step in and do something, NOW!!! ”

Then I heard this small little voice deep in my spirit say,

“Maybe this storm is about you, Deb?”

Ooo, Ouch!  I have been so caught up in how I want God to fix the other…

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“I KNOW MY OWN” – What is my response?

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The confession at the end of this piece just needs to be shared. Pray it forth!

meetingintheclouds's avatarMEETING IN THE CLOUDS

I know My ownnesting guillemots 1The guillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the auk family. The small arctic seabird lives on the rocky cliffs of northern coastal regions, breeding on narrow cliff ledges in dense colonies that vary in size from some hundred pairs to hundreds of thousands of pairs.

nesting guillemotsBecause of the crowded conditions, hundreds of females lay their pear shaped eggs side by side on a narrow ledge, in long rows. The eggs all look alike, and yet the mother bird can identify her own eggs. Studies show that even when the eggs are moved, the mother knows her egg so well, that she will find it and return it to its original location.

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Now That’s Discipline!

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

 

You don’t just happen into excellence. You don’t just make expert level at anything by accident.

Paul the apostle wrote, “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.” I Cor. 9:25-27

 

According to the verses above, the idea of expertise requiring careful discipline extends to matters spiritual every bit as much as it extends to athletics or music. Why then do we so often sit back and think we shall attain spiritual maturity by some fluke of nature or providence?

Understand me here I am not speaking of salvation. Salvation is  achieved only by simple faith but salvation and spiritual maturity are about as far apart as Jasmine Choi and a fourth grader who just got her starter flute.

Our call is not just to Heaven. Our call is to become fully developed followers of Christ who know the authority of Christ and how to use it.

Now, Even this work of disciplining ourselves is not done alone. Jesus saved us and He matures us, but maturity requires us to cooperate with what the Spirit brings into our lives.. It requires us to face life’s challenges as training opportunities rather than as curses. It calls us to  respond according to the Scripture in the midst of our circumstances, whatever they might be.

So let me ask,,, What training opportunities do you have before you right now? How does the Spirit of God want you to cooperate with Him in those opportunities to grow your own spirituality?

Thirsty Or Just Empty?

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37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. “John 7:37-39

John 737

“A lot of people are empty but they are not thirsty. Emptiness drives us to complain. Thirstiness drives us to drink.”

Dr. J. David Arnett

So let me ask which are you?

#100happydays Day 48

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Praise HandsThe more we express our gratitude to God for our blessings,
     the more he will bring to our mind other blessings. The more
     we are aware of to be grateful for, the happier we become.
                                                                            – Ezra Taft Benson
______________________________________________

Humility Quote 6

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UU 1

“no personal resolve or effort, however sincere and earnest, can cast out the devil of pride. When Satan casts out Satan, it is only to enter afresh in a mightier, more hidden power. Nothing can avail but this, that the new nature in divine humility be revealed in power to take the place of the old, to become as truly our very nature as that ever was….It is only by the indwelling of Christ in His divine humility that we become truly humble.” Andrew Murray, Humility pg. 30

 

 

Share Your World 2014 Week 29

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share-your-world2

This post was created for Cee’s Share Your World Challenge. So when you finish here please take a hop, skip or jump over to her page and check out her answers and those of her contributors.

Share Your World – 2014 Week 29

THE QUESTIONS!!!!

Have you ever been in a submarine?  If you haven’t, would you want to?

I have never been in a submarine. I might consider touring one if it was above water and if all hands promised that it would stay above water for the duration of my visit.

Are you a listener or talker?

I can be both depending on the situation. I do a lot of listening, though, and I have tried hard to train myself not to insinuate my two cents into a session where someone is pouring their heart out to me.

Do you prefer crunchy peanut butter or smooth peanut butter?   Anything with your peanut butter? 

I like crunchy peanut butter and I really like spaghetti sauce with with my peanut butter. If the spaghetti has hamburg in it the peanut butter does not need to be crunchy. I see those looks.Don’t be a hater! 🙂 

Have you ever been drunk?

I have never been drunk and for that I am very thankful.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

 I am so grateful for a great weekend with C.cada, our artists collaborative. Here are some photos of current projects we are working on.

I am really looking forward to bringing communion out to the people at the GVNA this week. These are such heart-warming services!

Humility Quote 5

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“We may find professors and ministers, evangelists and workers, missionaries and teachers in whom the gifts of the Spirit are many and manifest, and who are the channels of blessings to multitudes, but of whom, when the testing time comes, or closer intercourse gives fuller knowledge, it is only too painfully manifest that the grace of humility as an abiding characteristic, is scarce to be seen. All tends to confirm the lesson that humility is one of the chief and the highest graces, one of the most difficult of attainment, one to which our first and chiefest efforts ought to be directed, one that only comes in power when the fullness of the Spirit makes us partakers of the indwelling Christ and He lives within us.” Andrew Murray, Humility pg. 28, 29