It is finally here. Today begins the Sunshine (formerly known as Leadership Retreat) Mens Gathering. I feel this is a success even prior to its commencement. I am eager to hear what our Elders have to say about where we are and where they see us going. I look forward to seeing ones not usually involved in such discussions getting an opportunity to participate. I (and others) have been praying for God's presence among us, that more than anything else, faith will grow among the members of our congregation, for we are limited but God is limitless.
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Here is a great link to save in your Favorites folder - The Christian Standard. The current lead article is entitled, Is the Church Getting Too Involved in Politics? Darrel Rowland. Check it out.
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Another quote:
Christianity is not collection of truths to be believed, of laws to be obeyed. Christianity is a person. Christianity is Christ. Oscar Romero
When I think of Christian beliefs, I am thinking of them on two dimensions. One is simply what it is that is believed. The second has to do with the degree of impact that belief has on the whole of the believer's life. For instance, I believe that I would be better off if I stopped drinking pop. However, my belief is not sufficient to rally the discipline necessary to overcome the desire and habit of drinking another Pepsi. The prime issue for me is not so much a matter of information as it is integrity. I pray that God would guide me toward integrity.
Friday, October 06, 2006
The time is at hand.
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3 comments:
The call to excellence...I was very encouraged by our elders speaches and I pray that the people of our congregation will live up to that standard. But for me, honestly...honestly, I feel inadequate to even call myself a good Christian. To be excellent seems for me unatainable. I've read that with God all things are possible, but my faith doesn't always allow me to try the impossible or even the very difficult. So first, I'll ask you to pray for a real faith for our congregation, and then I'll ask you to please pray for our congregation to strive for the excellence that our elders spoke of and not be limited by our doubts and complacency.
Even though I'll not be leaving my name, please pray for my family and me...I am very discouraged and feel that I am to inadequate even to attend Sunshine, let alone move towards excellence. But, I'll probably see you tomorrow...God Bless and thank you for your prayers.
One of the drawbacks of our recent history in CofC's is that we have put such an emphasis on ourselves (thinking right, worshipping right, living right), we have lost sight of the greatest aspect of Christianity - the power of God. We can truly lean on God to increase our weak faith, encourage our weak hearts, and steer us toward His will. We can truly cast all our fears, anxieties, and failures on Him, He welcomes it, and touches us in capacities that we could never manage with our best efforts and disciplines. The gospel REALLY IS good news.
Faith comes not just from wanting to have faith, but to ask God for it. This statement from the bible comes to my mind: "I believe. Help me with my unbelief."
We all have troubles (burdens) and we need to take them to the cross and leave them there. That's the hard part. We tend to want to take our troubles to God and show them to Him and ask for mercy, but then we pack them all up and take them back with us. We have to make up our minds to let go of the problems and let God take over. Do we honestly think we can fix our own problems ourselves? Do we really want to? I don't want to! It's so very hard to believe in God when you can't see Him and you can't touch Him. Good grief, we can't even see Him taking our burdens away. We have to start actually visualizing Him taking all of our troubles away from us and carrying them on His back all the way to the cross and then putting those same troubles to death.
Sometimes it's like we're listening to a great story from a great book and we find ourselves getting all caught up in the story and we start to believe what we're being told, when all of the sudden, we find ourselves doubting the very things we've been told because we honestly think it's just too good to be true. How can I deal with something invisible? How can I actually let go of my problems and invisibly give them to a being that is also invisible? How can I really know that this invisible being is going to take on all these problems and fix my life? We get so use to go to doctors (someone we can see and touch) to fix our problems, that we can't see beyond the physical.
There is something SO much bigger than us out there! This belief I have, I like to refer to as "hope". When I was just starting out in the area of faith in God and His ability, I had to start out with hope. I still have this hope but now faith has been added to it and the two work hand in hand quite magically.
I started out like this:
"I hope there is a God, a Jesus, a heaven, etc. If these things do not exist, why am I here? I can choose to give my problems to God or I can keep on feeling this way and be all alone. If I don't come to God, where else can I go? There is nothing left after God. It's only Him!"
You see, I have a great desire to have a Father who will always be there for me. Therefore I chose to believe it because I wanted it sooo badly. I know there is someone who created everything that there is, and I just want to know that this same being loves me. All I had to do was ask Him and then He showed me. I've asked Him to prove to me that He is really there, and He proved Himself to me. He wants us to believe and so when we ask, it will be given to us.
Ask Him to empower you with what it takes to believe in Him the way He wants you to believe in Him. Ask Him to give you this faith to go along with the hope you have that He really is who the bible says He is and He really did, does and will do the things that He says.
I don't know who you are, but I do know that you matter to me and you matter a heck of alot of the one who created you for His own good pleasure. Don't believe Satan's lies and tricks that he loves to play on all of us. He loves to make us feel down and awful and less than we really are. He knows without a doubt that we are children of the King and he can't stand that. We have something to be happy about because of the very fact that we ARE princes and princesses! We are precious in His sight. Don't you forget that! You are loved and you belong!
Love,
Jennifer
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