An Amazing Gift

Wow, tonight was such an amazing night in ministry! My heart is aching tonight, but not in a sad or negative way, but rather out of absolute love and admiration for Father God. I am so thrilled at what God has in store for Everfree, Fundamentals, and BCC! After a time of transition, without a youth pastor, it is time to move on and move up! I believe we will have the worship center completely packed with kids by mid-October, I love the perspective PT gave us tonight about not just thinking or believing but EXPECTING that God will move! Praise the Lord! I am so excited!

We memorized Ephesians 3:20 for the series we're starting and as I did my devo's today I did some cross-referencing on the verse. This is what I came up with:

2 Corinthians 9:8-15. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: 'He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.' Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"

So it's kind of long but that's ok! The part which struck me was that Paul says, "men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confessions of the gospel of Christ" That, my friends, is truly a gift. When we are obedient to God's calling we are doing His will. When we do His will we're sharing the truth and expanding the kingdom, which is bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In turn people will praise God for the obedience you have lived in because it was through you which they found Jesus. I can't speak for you but I know for sure that if I knew someone became a Christian because of me and they praise God for my obedience, their heart going out to me in their prayers, I definitely see that as an amazing gift! At one point in culinary school I had a friend who had a heart problem and one day in class she had an "episode". Hahah, I'm sorry but when I hear or say "episode" I think of someone with boughts of diarrhea or something, hahahah! Ok that's gross so back to subject! Anyway she had an attack of whatever this problem was and she was all weak and had to sit down all of a sudden. I felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to go over and pray for her so I did. I found out soon after that the people around us thought it was weird and I'm sure they thought I was a little crazy, but that didn't stop me from ministering. It wasn't until a year later when I talked to this friend while we were making a wedding cake together that when I prayed for her that time, she was blessed so much and she told me how much of an example it set for her. She wanted that light, she wanted Jesus! So this passage blessed me today. It reminded me of this story, that when we're obedient to the Lord that others really do praise God for our obedience.

On a funny note I managed to go running at Wildwood today without snapping any branches or twigs in my face while I ran through the woods. On my way to my car I stepped on a branch and it flew up and whacked me in the leg and left a long, branch-shaped welt. Yes it was an adventure.