God Size Dreams/advent

Today we continue to celebrate Advent. Advent means coming and is a time of year that we anticipate the coming of the baby Jesus – our Savior. At the time of the first Christmas season, the Jewish people had been in advent for hundreds of years. They had been anticipating the coming of their long promised Messiah. Many had given up hope. Have you ever been there? You have prayed in faith. You have lived in anticipation of His answer, but it doesn’t seem to be happening so over time you give up hope. 

Galations 4:4 says: But then the right time came. God sent His son. A woman gave birth to him. 

Jesus came at the right time. Not a minute before, not a minute after. It is the same way with our prayers. He will answer our prayers at the right time – not a minute before or after.

I've been thinking and praying a lot about our church and its future. As I do, I find myself dwelling on what seems to be a huge task. It is overwhelming.  As I continue to pray about it God has impressed upon me over and over that we simply need to have faith. Faith is the persuasion or convincing of the mind that something is true. It is my heart convincing my mind that the impossible is possible with God.

Matthew 9:29 says, "According to your faith, let it be done to you." This is the key for our church. He will grow our church according to our faith. It has nothing to do with how many we have here now. It has nothing to do with how much money we do or don't have. What it comes down to is how much do we want it; how much faith do we have that it will happen and are we willing to put action to our faith? Faith is like a muscle. What happens to a muscle that is never used?(it gets weak) So what do you do to strengthen a muscle? (you use it) So as individuals and as a church we need to be exercising our faith if we want to rebuild our church. God has His ways of strengthening our faith and that is what we are going to look at today.

First, God gives you a dream. Let's pull over and park here. Tell me about your dreams for our church. These are definitely God sized dreams. We can't achieve them on our own. They require that we have faith in Him to fulfill those dreams. As a church, the first thing we need to do is spend time in prayer asking God to reveal to us His dream for our church. We are here for a purpose. God will reveal that purpose to us if we care enough to seek Him. Ephesians 3:20 says: God is able to do far more than we could ever ask for or imagine. He does everything by His power that is working in us.

Next, we need to claim it. No matter how big the dream is He has for us; no matter how unobtainable it seems, if God gives us the dream, we will be able to see it fulfilled if we just have faith in Him! Mark 9:23 says, "Everything is possible for the person who has faith." Here is God's message for today, "Salisbury, First Church of the Nazarene, you get to choose how much I bless your church. If you believe, I will do it! If you believe, I will bless!" James 1:5-8 says: If any of you need wisdom, ask God for it. He will give it to you. God gives freely to everyone. He doesn't find fault. But when you ask, you must believe. You must not doubt. People who doubt are like waves of the sea. The wind blows and tosses them around. A man like that should't expect to receive anything from the Lord. He can't make up his mind. He can never decide what to do.

Perhaps the hardest part of dreaming big with God is the waiting! What happens when we have to wait for God's promises? Often we either give up or like Abraham and Sarah we take matters into our own hands. As we look around the world today, I think we can all agree that taking matters into our own hands can have serious long term affects. Habakkuk 2:3 says: (the message) This vision(dream) is a witness to what's coming. It aches for the coming - it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time.

We may run into difficult times as we go down this journey of building our church, but God's message is clear - Hang on! Don't give up! But we must also be prepared because if we dream big with God, if we claim His dream for us as a church, Satan will fight us. When we start dreaming big with God, we become a threat and Satan will fight. But if we hold onto our faith we will not just survive, we will thrive!

I would like to share the words to a song I learned one year in vacation Bible school. God brought this song into my life during a very trying time and it was what helped me get through. I believe its words, its message is exactly what we need right now for our church.

It seems like there's so much to hope for, so many dreams I wish they all could come true. When I think about your ways Lord, it gives me so much faith in all that You do.

Faith to see beyond what I can see. Faith to know that You will do great things. I will trust you Lord, I'll always believe. As I hold onto my faith, Jesus You are holding onto me.

You see, this is exactly what I propose we need - this kind of faith. The kind of faith that stays focused on the dream God gives us. The kind of faith that sees past our lack of workers, our lack of money our lack of whatever obstacles Satan will undoubtedly throw our way and simply know that God will do great things in our church if we just stay focused on Him. Will you trust Him today? Will you believe? Will you hold onto the faith and allow Him to hold onto you?

Here is my challenge to you - This week I want you to be in prayer for our church. I want you specifically to pray that God will give you His dream for our church. Come prepared next week. I am going to have a poster board to hang up for us to write the dreams God reveals to us. That way we have something to look at, to pray over, to help keep us focused.

Quiet Moments with God

Day 4: Proverbs 4:17, 23

They do evil just as easily as they eat food. They hurt others as easily as they drink wine.

Above everything else, guard your heart. It is where your life comes from.

So many verses in this chapter spoke to me, but these were the two that the Holy Spirit kept bringing me back to over and over.

As I read verse 17 over and over, I could not help but ask myself, "Linda, do you do good just as easily as you eat food? Do you love others as easily as you drink sweet tea (since I don't drink wine!)  This was very convicting. I want to say absolutely yes I do, but the reality is I often fail. Sometimes, more than I want to admit, I have to work really hard at doing good and loving others. My first instincts are not always those that would be pleasing to God. I have to work hard at not giving into first instincts. I don't want to give in and I don't want it to be so hard. I want to be so close to God that His ways are my first instincts.

Then it dawned on me (ha dawned on me, right, love how the Holy Spirit connects seemingly unconnected thoughts!) that if I want His ways to be my first instincts that verse 23 gives me the formula - guard my heart. It is where my life comes from. Guarding it means to protect it. Protect it from the things that will rip it away or slowly tear it away from God. Protect it from the evil of this world, from the darkness of this world. I need to protect it from things that are seemingly good but take my focus away from God and the things that He wants for me.

Quiet Moments With God

Day 3: Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend  on your own understanding. In all your ways remember Him. Then He will make your paths smooth and straight.

I like how it reads in the Message:

Trust God from the bottom of your heart. don't try to figure everything out on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track.

It goes on to say: Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!

"Trust God from the bottom of your heart."  This is not just a trusting God when it makes sense. This is trusting God with every part of you. Knowing without hesitation that He will be there, He will protect you, strengthen you, take care of you. That He is all you need!

"Don't try to figure everything out on your own."  Even the easy stuff He wants us to bring to Him. We often mess things up because we try to figure things out on our own first and only turn to God when we have made such a mess of things we don't have any idea what to do to fix it. God wants to be the first one we turn to with the good, bad and the ugly!

"Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track."  As written in the first translation, I always read this and said to myself, "I must be doing something wrong because my path is not smooth or straight." But really that is not what this verse is saying. Thus I like the way the Message says it, Listen for His voice and He will keep you on track! It won't always be easy, in fact the closer we get to His return we can count on it not being easy at all, but when we listen for His voice and follow its leading, we will stay on the track that leads us straight to Heaven!

So, I have the head knowledge. Now to apply it to my heart. To Run to God in everything first before I panic, before I have a melt down. This is my work in progress!

Quiet Moments With God

Day 2: Proverbs 2

Scripture: Proverbs 2: 1-6

My son, accept my words. Store up my commands inside you. Let your ears listen to wisdom. Apply your heart to understanding. Call out for the ability to be wise. Cry out for understanding. Look for it as you would search for silver. Search for it as you would search for hidden treasure. Then you will understand how to have respect for the Lord. You will find out how to know God. The Lord gives wisdom. Knowledge and understanding come from his mouth.

Observation/Application:  One of my favorite verses is Jeremiah 29: 13 When you look for Me with all your heart, you will find me.

Proverbs 2:1-6, I believe helps clarify exactly what Jeremiah 29:13 is talking about. The key here is looking for Him with your whole heart. It's not just a "I've lost me shoe" type searching. No, it is a "I've got a treasure map to the world's largest, most valuable treasure and the first person who finds it gets to keep it all to themselves with no taxes" type searching! These verses promise if I seek Him like that I will find out how to know God! More than anything in this world, that is my hearts desire - to know God. I feel like I have only barely scratched the surface of Him. I want to know Him more. I want to know Him so deeply that I don't think I just do what I know God would do.

Quiet Moments with God

Day 1: Proverbs 1

Scripture:

Proverbs 1: 32-33

Childish people go down the wrong path. They will die. Foolish people are satisfied with the way they live. The will be destroyed. But those who listen to me will live in safety. The will not worry. The won't  be afraid of getting hurt.

Observation: These verses offer a wonderful promise from God. As with all promises, there is a condition. It is the "if you... then I will..." pattern that is so often present in the Bible.

If you are childish you will go down the wrong path. Your soul will die apart from God and be in Hell for eternity.

But the good news is:
If you listen to God, you will live in safety. Why because your soul belongs to the creator of this world!

God takes care of His children. In this day and age, I can't think of a better reality to live in. As the world darkens around me, I don't have to be afraid. No matter what the world throws my way, I am in the safe hand of God.

As I sit here typing this, I am listening to the baby birds sing right outside my front door. They are sitting high in their nest that sits about two feet from my front door. They don't have jobs, cars, clothes, refridgerators, walmart for birds. None of these conveniences we have yet they sing. How much more should we His children made in His likeness do the same!

Application: As I read over and over these verses, I hear God saying to me, "Linda, are you listening to Me? Are you striving daily to live in the way I have instructed? Then why are you worried. You see, I know God will take care of me. My heart reminds me of this all the time, but sometimes, a lot lately my mind gets stuck on the stress of all that is going on around me. This was just another reminder to me to keep focused on Him not on the circumstances around me.

God Size Faith

I've been thinking and praying a lot about our church and its future. As I have been thinking about our future, I find myself dwelling on what seems to be a huge, impossible task. It is overwhelming. Anyone else feel overwhelmed at the thought of trying to grow our church? As I continue to pray about it God has impressed upon me over and over that it is a matter of faith. So my first question for you today is, what is faith? Faith is the persuasion of the mind that something is true.

Matthew 9:29 says, "According to your faith, let it be done to you." I think this is the key for our church. He will grow our church according to or faith. It has nothing to do with how many we have here now. It has nothing to do with how much money we do or don't have. What it comes down to is how much do we want it; how much faith do we have that it will happen? Faith is like a muscle. What happens to a muscle that is never used?(it gets weak) So what do you do to strengthen a muscle? (you use it) So as individuals and as a church we need to be exercising our faith if we want to rebuild our church. God has His ways of strengthening our faith and that is what we are going to look at today.

First, God gives you a dream. Let's pull over and park here. Tell me about your dreams for our church. These are definitely God sized dreams. We can't achieve them on our own. They require that we have faith in Him to fulfill those dreams. As a church, the first thing we need to do is spend time in prayer asking God to reveal to us His dream for our church. We are here for a purpose. God will reveal that purpose to us if we care enough to seek Him. Ephesians 3:20 says: God is able to do far more than we could ever ask for or imagine. He does everything by His power that is working in us.

Next, we need to claim it. No matter how big the dream is He has for us; no matter how unobtainable it seems, if God gives us the dream, we will be able to see it fulfilled if we just have faith in Him! Mark 9:23 says, "Everything is possible for the person who has faith." Here is God's message for today, "Monroe, First Church of the Nazarene, you get to choose how much I bless your church. If you believe, I will do it! If you believe, I will bless!" James 1:5-8 says: If any of you need wisdom, ask God for it. He will give it to you. God gives freely to everyone. He doesn't find fault. But when you ask, you must believe. You must not doubt. People who doubt are like waves of the sea. The wind blows and tosses them around. A man like that should't expect to receive anything from the Lord. He can't make up his mind. He can never decide what to do.

Perhaps the hardest part of dreaming big with God is the waiting! What happens when we have to wait for God's promises? Often we either give up or like Abraham and Sarah we take matters into our own hands. As we look around the world today, I think we can all agree that taking matters into our own hands can have serious long term affects. Habakkuk 2:3 says: (the message) This vision(dream) is a witness to what's coming. It aches for the coming - it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time.

We may run into difficult times as we go down this journey of building our church, but God's message is clear - Hang on! Don't give up! 1 Peter 1 6-7 : I know how great this makes you feel even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, its your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. Rest assured, if we dream big with God, if we claim His dream for us as a church, Satan will fight us. As long as we continue the way we are, just existing, we are not a threat to Satan. When we start dreaming big with God, we become a threat and he will fight. But if we hold onto our faith we will not just survive, we will thrive!

I would like to share the words to a song I learned one year in vacation Bible school. God brought this song into my life during a very trying time and it was what helped me get through. I believe its words, its message is exactly what we need right now for our church.

It seems like there's so much to hope for, so many dreams I wish they all could come true. When I think about your ways Lord, it gives me so much faith in all that You do.

Faith to see beyond what I can see. Faith to know that You will do great things. I will trust you Lord, I'll always believe. As I hold onto my faith, Jesus You are holding onto me.

You see, this is exactly what I propose we need - this kind of faith. The kind of faith that stays focused on the dream God gives us. The kind of faith that sees past our lack of workers, our lack of money our lack of whatever obstacles Satan will undoubtedly throw our way and simply know that God will do great things in our church if we just stay focused on Him. Will you trust Him today? Will you believe? Will you hold onto the faith and allow Him to hold onto you?

Here is my challenge to you - This week I want you to be in prayer for our church. I want you specifically to pray that God will give you His dream for our church. Come prepared next week. I am going to have a poster board to hang up for us to write the dreams God reveals to us. That way we have something to look at, to pray over, to help keep us focused.

With yesterday having been Mother's Day, I got to thinking about Proverbs 31. You know the chapter. The one that outlines this perfect wife and mother who seems to be super woman. She takes care of her home, she takes care of her children, she takes care of her husband, she makes money, she makes everything from hand - blah, blah, blah, blah

This leaves me again with the question, why is it in the Bible. God surely had something He wanted me to learn from it. At first thought I guess it was to see how far I am from the Proverbs 31 woman. This led me to ask myself what the does the Proverbs 31 woman look like today?

As I began searching the internet for an answer to this question I came across the following website: http://avirtuouswoman.org/10-virtues-of-the-proverbs-31-woman/

What initially got my attention was at the very beginning of the article. Here is the very simple statement that helped me to begin to feel like being a Proverbs 31 woman might actually be obtainable. "Being a Proverbs 31 woman is not about being “perfect.” It’s about living life with purpose, diligence, forgiveness, and repentance." 

Well Praise the Lord, cuz Lord knows I am far from perfect! 
I then got to thinking about how a lot of what is said in the Bible is written with the culture in mind. If King Lemuel were writing this today, it would look much different. So below is the Proverbs 31 woman, 2015 style...

10 Who can find a wife of good character? She is priceless.

11-12 She respects her husband, is trusted by her husband and seeks the good of her husband. 

13She works hard to take care of her family. Her focus is on her family. She uses her time wisely.

14She takes care of her body and helps her family do the same. She spends her money wisely realizing it is actually God's money entrusted to her and her husband.

15She creates a loving home that nourishes her family and builds them up. She is a servant just as Jesus was a servant. 

She does everything as if doing it for the Lord without complaining. She takes joy in taking care of her family. She focuses her mind on God and leads her family to do the same. She is compassionate to all she comes into contact with. Her family loves her and know how much she loves them. Her husband is proud to claim her as his wife. She possesses an inner beauty that can only come from God. She respects God and models that respect to all around her.

See now that I can strive to achieve!

As I begin this post, I will admit that yesterday's Sunday School lesson lacked spiritual meat. I was really disappointed. Maybe the problem isn't with the lessons themselves as much as it is that I just want more. Any way, as I studied the lesson I began praying and searching. Whenever I read the Bible I try to focus on why did God lead me to read this passage.

I love to watch the program NCIS New Orleans. In this show, one of the characters will give assignments to his team and then dismiss them with the directions to "go learn something." This is my attitude when I read the Bible; I want to learn something.

The passage we read in Sunday School is found in Daniel 9. It is Daniel's prayer to God concerning his people and their exile in Babylon. He pleads for forgiveness. The thing in, Daniel had not turned his back on God. In fact, Daniel had been thrown in the lion's den because he would not stop praying to God. He repeatedly worshiped God and would not apologize for it.

As I read over and over this prayer, realizing Daniel was taking on the sin of his people, much like Jesus did, I came to realize that this is not just Daniel's prayer. In fact, with just a little rewording, I propose that this prayer is very relevant to what we are going through in the United States. So, below is my modern day interpretation of Daniel's prayer. It is the prayer that I plan to fervently pray daily for the United States.

Lord, you are a great and wonderful God. You keep the covenant you made with all those who love you and obey your commands. You show them your love.
(okay, let's pull over and park! This does not say He shows love to all. It doesn't say He makes all rich. What it does say is that if I love Him and walk in His righteousness, He will love me! Praise the Lord - who could ask for more!)
We have sinned and done what is wrong. We have been evil. We have refused to obey you. We have turned away from your commands and laws. We haven't listened to Your leaders, Your Words, or Your Holy Spirit. We are the people of the United States. All of us are Americans, no matter where we live. But we weren't faithful to you. Lord, we and our leaders, our pastors, our churches and people are covered in shame. We have sinned against you.
You are the Lord our God. You show us your tender love. You forgive us. But we have turned against you. You are the Lord our God. But we haven't obeyed you. We haven't kept the laws you gave us through your Holy Spirit, your written Word, your leaders. All the people of America have broken your law and turned away from it. We have refused to obey you.
We have paid the consequences of our disobedience. We have received nothing but trouble and it is our own fault, yet we continue to blame others and to blame you. You are the Lord our God. But we haven't asked for your favor. We haven't turned away from our sins. We've refused to pay attention to the laws you gave us. In fact, we are guilty of changing those laws to meet our own selfish needs. You always do what is right. But we have not obeyed you and then question why you have left us.
Lord, you made a name for yourself once in our fine country. But we have sinned. We have turned away from You. Forgive us, Lord. Hear my prayers. Pay attention to the appeals I make to you. Listen to us, Lord. We don't deserve your favor. We don't deserve your blessings but Lord, I ask that you would lavish them on us again even though we don't deserve them because you love us.
Lord, please listen! Please forgive! Please hear our prayers. Take action, Lord, and bring this nation to its knees before you in repentance. Bring a revival in this nation such as we have never seen. Do it for your glory!Amen!

If you are reading this, I give you a challenge. The same challenge I gave myself.
Remember that we are God's public relations agents. Our job is to make Him look good. How are you doing? When people see you do they see God? Begin each day asking God to help you be the best public relations agent for Him that you can be.

Now Go! Learn something and reflect Him well!

Psalm 51:1-17 NIV

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

This is David's prayer after the prophet Nathan confronted him about his sin with Bathsheba. As I  studied this passage for my Sunday School lesson this week, I was struck by a few thoughts.

1. In  the New Testament David was called "A friend of God." Now think about this~ he had just had an affair. Fathered a child as a result of this affair.  Then in an effort to cover it up, had her husband killed. So why was he considered a friend of God. I think the answer can be found in this prayer from Psalm 51. David could have responded to Nathan in anger. He could have had him put in jail or killed but instead he repented. He could have made excuses, but instead he simply repented. He took responsibility for his sin and repented of it. We don't have to be perfect to be a friend of God, we simply need to desire to be His!

2. In verse 4, David says that he has sinned against God and only God. This confused me at first because his sin involved Bathsheba and Uriah. But in this verse David is admitting to God and telling us that  sin is not simply a violation of the law. It is disrespect for God Himself. I don't know what that does to you, but that convicts me. It ignites a fire, a passion in me to seek Him more fervently so as to not disrespect Him again. In verse 4 we also see very clearly that authentic confession is prepared to accept the responsibility  for the just consequences of our sin.

3. As we see in David's prayer, there is hope. We may have been born in sin, but we don't have to be held captive by it. The wisdom David spoke of in verse 6 is available to each and every one of else if only we ask. He wants a deeper relationship with us. He doesn't want to simply forgive us of our sins. He wants us to be single-mindedly, whole-heartedly devoted to Him and living in His ways. This is an inward transformation that changes our hearts. It calls us to a relationship of total devotion. One where we allow Him to change our hearts, to change our desires, to change our will until it matches His! When we allow Him to do this, it will affect how we think, how we act, how we talk and our attitudes. You see being changed from the inside out will affect our outward appearance.

This is what I want - to be cleansed by Him. To be transformed from the inside out into His image and then to inspire others to have the same passion!