Treating God as God

8/18/12
A few thoughts on...

Hosea 14:3
       We will never again say
       'Our gods' to what our 
       hands have made, for in 
       you the fatherless find compassion.

'Our gods' our hands have made - what I spend time with; creative time, relationship-building, loving time. What I invest my life in.
                     Turning in times of pain & distress to these things. Seeking advice or comfort when confused, love when I'm needy, direction when I'm aimless. Sacrificing for these things.

Ministry fail. You lose all your points.

"I'm sorry... I really didn't keep good records for my work last month," I muttered to the committee, feeling at first ashamed, then relieved when no one seemed to think this a yelling matter.

Amidst the sounds of understanding from the committee members, one joked, "Well we may have to fire you now."

I laughed, feeling like a weight had dropped off of me at their response. But the other committee members grew serious in an instant.

Not funny.

Knowing Christ in Quiet

“Do you know what a quiet time is?” the 5-day club teacher asked the kids. One spoke up with certainty; “when you're asleep.”
It was probably true, for this boy, that the only “quiet time” of day was when he slept. That was most certainly the only “quiet time” of day for his mother!

The disciples, ironically, might have given the same answer about quietude. Everywhere they traveled with Jesus, someone had a question or a problem for Him to solve. Many times, it was the disciples themselves who had questions. They were confused and sometimes frustrated by Jesus and His answers.

Overcoming

Life is not always very much fun, especially the life of a believer in Christ.  That might sound hopeless, but it's actually a declaration of hope in the nature of God. If God hadn't been willing to go to war with Satan for our souls, we would be in a heck of a spot. Quite literally, a heck of a spot... one of our own doing.

Oswald Chambers once said that "life without war is impossible, either in nature or in grace". Nature is at war because of the fall into sin, but the fight of grace in our lives is based in Christ. God's gift of His Son, which we'll be celebrating in full force 21 days from now, gave us hope for the future. But it didn't come without a cost.

If the Christian life is to be anything like Christ's, it is to be set apart and holy for God's use, however painful His usage is.

Well. A new opportunity and call has presented itself this spring.

Over the past three summers, I've been training and teaching with Child Evangelism Fellowship to spread the gospel to kids in western Wisconsin. This year I won’t be training to teach kids… I’ll be helping train their teachers!

The last post of quotes :)

T: What was Cain's punishment?
C: He wouldn't have a home and when he planted a seed it would have less on it.

C: Sin is when you do something not respecting God.

T: How can you help teachers in India?
C (who wasn't paying attention): By listening very carefully.

C: Deceiving means not doing something you're supposed to do.

C (after hearing how Jesus died): Hey, that reminds me of Narnia, when Aslan died for that boy Edmund.

(Later we realized that an altar - like in our Bible story - was like the Stone Table. So cool how the kids put it together.)

T: You know what a quiet time is?
C: When you're asleep.

One boy's prayer request: "That we'll see each other again"

T: What's heaven like?
C: A big place with lots of angels in it!

T: What did Hannah name her baby?
C: Jesus?

************************************************************************

Christian Youth in Action

For the last two weeks, the team has been at training camp, learning how to teach 5-day clubs!

It was an amazing time of relationship building (as we're so fond of saying, not relationships between the genders - not those kind of relationships), a lot of mental and spiritual learning, and some fighting in the spiritual realms.

I really believe there were demons fighting us this year - whether it was trouble focusing or injuries and sickness, the kids were struggling to complete their learning... it was kind of abnormal. But... we had people asking God on our behalf back home and we spent some time each day asking Him ourselves. He blessed those two weeks of camp more than I can say!

During the second week as we taught practice clubs in the area, 22 children accepted Christ as their savior. 22 more received counseling for salvation assurance. It was awesome!

I was a 1/2 team leader - 1/2 student, which made life interesting at camp. But I'm really enjoying being an intern.

It's cool to see how the CEF leaders come to decisions and what they have to work through during CYIA training. It's also cool to see how they begin each day with prayer, and pray each time they meet together, usually sharing scripture too. I want to have a life like that, that is so full of Christ that in every circumstance His power is the first outlet I plug into! *

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer (http://nationaldayofprayer.org/).

Who and what are you praying for?

Jesus said that prayer was very powerful (Matthew 21:22, Mark 9:14-29, Luke 18:1, John 16:24), but sometimes Christians feel awkward about it. We can send emails and talk on the phone with friends that we can't see... we can talk out loud to ourselves... but it's hard to talk to someone who's present that we totally can't see!

But if the power of God is "unleashed" by prayer - that's not the right word; I hope you know what I mean - shouldn't Christians be constantly in prayer?

Paul said we should. He said he prayed for his fellow believers whenever he thought of them (Romans 1:9-10, 1 Thess. 1:2, 2 Timothy 1:3). How often do I just think of others and forget to pray?

God can work without our prayers - that's what I mean about "unleashed" being the wrong word - but often He chooses to wait until we seek His face and ask.

I got to share the ministry with one of my youth leaders today. :) We had a nice long talk, and she prayed for me. Her encouragement meant a lot to me, but her prayer was even more powerful. She can help me - and has more than she probably realized - but God can help me so much more. Aren't prayers the greatest encouragement of all??

"I urge you, brothers... to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me" - Romans 15:30.

And please, let me join with you in your ministries and trials through prayer!!

To Do's

So tomorrow, I have a lot of things I have to do... and I'm having to put off "work stuff" again. :[

It's making me nervous to put off my CEF work for so long - I want to have it done in good time and not have to worry about it when things get really crazy; i.e., in June. So now's the time to finish the skits and organizer and learn the stories... but right now I'm caught up with school!

Oh, please pray that I won't waste my time; that I will do what needs to be done and I won't get "cut off" in the race!

and...
Soli Deo Gloria

Gospel seminar

Tomorrow was going to be a day for upper elementary kids to learn the Wordless Book over at my house... however, I never heard back from the kids I invited, except one who wouldn't have been able to make it. :(

I feel kind of let down. I really thought this would work out, but when I started throwing up today it was apparent that the seminar wouldn't get off the ground.

Hmm.

I really thought I was meant to do this... but maybe not now. Maybe sometime in the future when God brings kids into my life who would really benefit by this. Maybe none of the kids I talked to need help sharing their faith!

I just don't know.

Anyway, the migraine's mostly gone. Just a little queasiness left.

Today I had to cancel a meeting with someone to share about the internship; I hope that gets off the ground too! It was a pretty miserable day, but the shots I got helped. Now if they'll just knock me out for a few hours. I can barely type! :)

TWLOHA Day

If you see people around you with "LOVE" on their arms, it's probably because today is National "To Write Love on Her Arms" day.

TWLOHA is an organization that helps people escape the traps of self-injury and self-hate, because God never created us to hurt ourselves or despise the beauty He's created. Today is a day to remind the hurting people that God loves them and we are praying for them!

And today, I wrote love on my arm, to remember that God made me and loves me more than I can imagine.

Remember that today!

First letter, first support

Wow.

I am in utter aMAZEment!

I've only sent out my initial support letter. There will be at least two more sent out during the summer, but after only one support letter...

almost half of my support money is covered! Over $1,000!! Plus I know of several people who will be praying for God's will over the next few months. A lot more people than I expected.

And I completely didn't expect God to work in this way... never mind that fast!!

Shame on me for thinking that God's people wouldn't give to help me to this ministry! I have a lot to learn.

...will that be a theme this summer?