Slowing Down...

How would you characterize your Worship?

Reading Revelation 4 and 5 this week.  How do YOU worship the Creator? Why do you worship Him? Do you worship Him?????  I love Barry Applewhite's probing question for us as we looked at the Laodicean church: What is your life really about - are you just shuffling from one choice-enabled-by-money to the next? Read the question again; Are you just shuffling from one choice-enabled-by-money to the next? What do we really worship.  I confess I resemble the Laodicean church far more than I care to admit!  Worshiping Him takes time; void of distraction, of that thing, those things that so easily entangle and muddle our thoughts.  So this is for me (maybe for you) right now, right here: The words of Revelation Song by Kari Jobe. 

Worthy is the, Lamb who was slain
Holy, Holy, is He
Sing a new song, to him who sits on
Heaven's mercy seat
[2X]

Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come
With all creation I sing
Praise to the King of Kings
You are my everything
And I will adore You

Clothed in rainbows, of living color
Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder
Blessing and honor, strength and glory and power be
to You the only wise King

Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come
With all creation I sing
Praise to the King of Kings
You are my everything
And I will adore You

Filled with wonder, awestruck wonder
At the mention of your name
Jesus your name is power
Breath, and living water
Such a marvelous mystery
Yeah...

Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come, yeah
With all creation I sing
Praise to the King of Kings
You are my everything
And I will adore You
[3X]
[ Revelation Song Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

Worship Him Today!

Blessings to you for sharing your Worship of Him through your service to His "little creations" today

Wonder

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty....

Be prepared this week to worship Him..."Filled with wonder, awestruck wonder, at the mention of your name."  STOP! - rewind.  Awestruck Wonder!  What strikes awe in you about God, about His character, presence, creation?  Here's a thought; I had a teacher tell me once why she loved teaching Kindergartners.  "Have you have ever looked at a kindergartner's knuckles?" she asked me.  A 5 yr old enters kindergarten with a bunch of fatty tissue surrounding their knuckles and leaves the year with fully defined knuckles - WONDER! His wonder envelopes us - do you see it regularly or rarely?  As you serve his "creations" this weekend - the children loaned to us on Sunday morning - worship God by giving yourself fully to them and thus to Him.  One way to do this is to be prepared. I encourage you to read your lesson in advance.  Let the truth of the scripture wash over you this week so the Spirit can maximize the time in and thru you in the presence of our children on Sunday mornings - I pray our children see Christ in you in unmistakable ways that draws them inexplicably to our Father.

Little Drips...lots of time...lasting Impressions

Drip, Drip, Drip. Put an object under a dripping faucet and eventually
an impression is made. At any given moment, in a single snapshot of
time, there can appear to be no impression at all; no movement from
one state to the next. It's only over a series of snapshots, over
Time, that the indentations become visible. The steady diet of drips
and sometimes gushes of water DO make lasting impressions! How true of
the discipleship process with our children. Do you know that the
average Christian child gets one hour of discipleship each week -
1/168 (one hour out of the 168 available!) In many cases YOU are the 1
hour.  I encourage you today in your walk with Lord and service to Him
that you are making impressions - indentations in the spiritual
formation of the little ones He gives to you on Sundays. I pray He
gives you glimpses of Himself this week as you minister on Sunday.

Shepherding in the way he should go....

More from the Prodigal God;  The Father knew (knows) those who need to GO and find him.  Proverbs 22:6 says we should "train up a child in the way he should go..." The Father knew the younger son needed to go in order to find Him.  How true for us as parents.  My own experience says I want all my children to stay. That shepherding one of my flock one way should be the same road to shepherding the rest.  Oh how I wish it were so! But He has created some to go and others to stay.  Holding onto to those meant to go inhibits, maybe even stunts their faith journey.  Oh for the wisdom of Solomon to be ever-present with us in guiding us to steward the gift of His children.

Vomit

Back from a little hiatus - so...re-freshed learnings for me from The Revelation of Jesus Christ  chapter 3. The Laodician church arrests me, causing me to pause and take stock of my "temperature."  So in the vain of "you might be a redneck if..." here are a few things to ponder from Francis Chan's "Crazy Love:"

You might be a Lukewarm Christian if:
- You choose what is popular over what is right
- You give money to charity as long as it doesn't impinge on your standard of living
- You don't want to be saved from you sin, but from the penalty of your sin
- You rarely share your faith with your friends, co-workers or neighbors
- You are moved by stories about people who do radical things, but do not act
- You guage your morality or goodness according to secular standards
- You Love God, but not with all your heart, soul and strength
- You love others but do not seek to love others as much as you love yourself
- You serve others but with limits on how far you'll go with your time, energy and money
- You think about life on earth more than eternity in heaven
- You do whatever is necessary to keep yourself from feeling guilty
- You continually play it safe being slaves to the god (little g) of control
- You probably drink less and swear less than the average person but aren't really very different from the typical unbeliever

And the one that pierces me the deepest - You do NOT live by faith, structuring your lives so you never have to!

Food for thought - not for the faint of heart.  Thanks and blessings to each of our Promiseland Volunteers for joining me and our families in our faith journeys. I pray your time with God is rich this week and that your love for Him flows to the precious ones in your care.

Avocados....

...I can't stand them. Green slimy, mushy; I guess its a texture thing.   But, I found out recently that its takes seven years on average for an Avocado plant to produce it's fruit.  That's a lot of tender care for a long time for the "fruit" of the Avocado farmer's labor to pay off.  Application...you know where I'm going...

To the Harvest

 Dear Fellow Farmer;

Interesting greeting I know. Have you read, re-read John 15 lately?  Fascinating implications about the vineyard (or the farm).   Sowing seed in the field implies that there will be “fruit” at some point in the future.   Jesus said that “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”  The reference of course was both to himself and to us.  It seems to me generational teaching, passing on the faith form one fruitful branch to the next is, in itself, dying. The very system God created to re-produce the body of Christ - the faithfulness of of mums, dads, grandmas and granddads “dying to self” to pass on the “sayings of old” (read Psalm 78) is being sup ”planted” by the bright shiny allures of the ever changing landscape of the marketplace (put whatever you want here: facebook, ipod, tv, shopping, eating, sports, etc).   So what am I saying?   THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for plowing, planting, watering (no P word) and pruning in the fields of our children’s hearts.  I love children because the soil of their heart is fertile and ready to receive the seed of the Good News of Jesus Christ...

To the Harvest!