Are you working in Gods field?

Due to travel for my job, I am often away from home and my home church. 
While searching for a home away from home church, I visited a nearby Baptist church service this morning.


The first thing I noted was the large sanctuary which looked even larger due to the sparse attendance of a handful of  senior citizens. It has been a very long time since I was the youngest person in the church service!


The 2nd thing I noticed was a lack of warmth and friendliness. Perhaps I am spoiled by the warmth of my home church Hillcrest Baptist. In fact, warmth was the first thing I felt when I was a newcomer to Hillcrest. http://www.hillcrestaustin.org
Or perhaps it is a difference between Texas and California. Whatever, I can't say I felt particularly welcome and even felt the need to ask someone if I could enter the sanctuary as the doors were firmly closed 5 minutes before the service was to begin.


It makes me sad to see a centrally located church in such need of members. I could more understand it if the church building was located in a rural area. The one event they had was the senior lunch later in the week. 


What happened to the families? Where are the children, the teens and the young and old singles? 


After the lackluster group singing and the 10 minute message from the pastor, I was happy to leave and head over to the Farmers Market. Not one person welcomed me, thanked me for coming or asked me to return. Never fear, I will be attending elsewhere my next Sunday in California.


Matthew 9:37, 38 Then He ( Jesus) said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field" 


Never before have I felt this message more than I did today. I see a need for workers for Christ in my hometown, but at least I know of several churches who are ministering to the surrounding neighborhoods. I see such a need here in the town I "live" in when I am in California. 


Could this be why God has me here? I know God has a plan. Am I here to help bring the Word of God to Claremont or perhaps just that one person God wants brought into the fold? 


Are you are worker? What are you called to do for Him?


Dear Lord, please send workers into the harvest. Please lead me to where you want me to worship when away from home and open my eyes to the opportunities you put before me daily to work in the harvest. Thank you Lord

Trusting my Pilot

I love to travel. I enjoy seeing new places and experiencing new things. I am currently looking forward to visiting friends in both England and New Zealand next year. I also travel a lot for my job. In fact, I am on the road these days more than I am at home.

I think nothing  of hopping on a plane and placing my faith in the skill of the pilots and ground crew to bring me down safely. I have flown in all kinds of planes, from a huge double decker plane to a tiny 6 seat Island Hopper, and never have I entertained the thought that the Pilot would not land me safe and sound on the ground.

We all give our lives over to total strangers on planes, buses, boats and ferries every day, so why is it so difficult for us to place our faith in our our Heavenly Father, who created us and gave his Son for us,  to pilot our lives?

Paul wrote " I know the One in whom I have put my trust and I am sure that Christ is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to Him." 2 Timothy 1:12

I think we all should strive to be like Paul, and and put our trust in Jesus. don't you?

Dear Lord in Heaven, thank you for for loving me though  I am stubborn and not always very lovable.
Help me to trust you in everything in my life. I place my faith in you as my Pilot.
Amen

Belonging

Good Morning!
 I woke up this morning @ 4:00 am. I am so not a morning person! After tossing and turning for about 45 minutes, I finally decided to get up and go spend sometime with my Heavenly father. I may be tired today, but I feel so refreshed!
So pour a cup of freshly ground coffee and pull up a chair and lets chat a bit before we head out to start our days.. shall we?

I was thinking this morning how everyone yearns to belong. To belong to a family or a team or a group of friends.
Remember the old TV show Cheers? How when Norm came into the bar, everyone yelled NORM! He belonged. They might have been a group of mis-fits, but Norm belonged. I remember we used to call different places our " Cheers" we all wanted to walk in to a place where everyone knew our name.

I believe we have that desire to belong comes from our yearning to be a part of the Family of God. We want and need that fellowship with Him.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1)

God will lavish you with His love, if you will only let him. I can't count many times I have felt Lavished with love from any human in my life, but when i think about all God has done for me, I realize, God has truly lavished His love on me. After all, He gave His only son Jesus, to die for my sins that I  would have life everlasting. now that is some kind of great love!

A friend once told me she stopped going to church when the ladies in her Sunday School class tried to explain to her that she should put God first, before even her children.  While I understand my friends feelings,  I get what they were trying to tell her, though they may not have communicated it well. Jesus gave his life for us, shouldn't we put him foremost in our lives? We can best love our children and family members by putting God first in our lives. the rest all works out to His plan.

But I digress............

Finally, brethren, farewell. Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. (2 Corinthians 13:11, RSV)

The Greek word "adelphoi" the word translated in the New Testament to mean " brethren" actually means "siblings" brothers and sisters of a common parent.

I find it sad that so many are seeking what God gives so freely. Love, Salvation, Belonging.
Don't you? God can heal the broken heart, He can fill the empty spaces in our souls, and all we have to do is ask him. I am so glad we are a family and I belong!

Dear Father, thank you for loving me so lavishly. Help me to feel your love in my day to day walk. Please help me to be able to see farther than my own little life so I can feel your awesome presence. Please help others to see your love through me
Thank you,  Amen

Are you focusing on what you are fighting or Who you are fighting for?

I could feel the Holy Spirit today @ Hillcrest Baptist Church Austin, from the first song to the last prayer.

Pastor Tom started teaching on David today, but what got me was this;  little teen David was facing a giant. A giant that an entire army was terrified of!  Yet without fear, and even more, with absolute conviction, David stepped forward and said to Goliath .......1 Samuel 17: 45 " You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord All Mighty" 

wow! David was confident. David knew he had God on his side and you know why? Because David didn't lose sight of Who he was fighting for.  David wasn't fighting for his ego, or for his own petty desires, David knew without a doubt he was fighting with God and for God.

David then went so far as to tell Goliath he was going to kill him. I can see it now, this little teen boy informs a ginat who has been terrorizong an army of seasoned fighters that he, David will kill him? i just bet Goliath was sneering and laughing at this kid who dared to oppose him, but 1 Samuel 17:46b, 47... David says " and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. all those gathered here will know that it is NOT by sword or spear, that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lords"

When is the last time you faced something difficult with this much confidence and faith in God ?

I saw a cartoon my friend Tony Viby, posted on Facebook today. It showed a man who prayed for Gods protection then  was hit by one rock and he began with an angry face asking " Why me God, Why didn't you protect me?"
Then the cartoon showed Jesus standing large in front of the man blocking a rain of rocks and Jesus turns to the man saying " Did I miss one, I am sorry, are you all right? "

How many times have we done the same? We expect nothing bad to ever happen to us as Christians yet we don't reply on Jesus  or thank Him for the love and protection He gives us. we take over and then wonder why things don't go according to our plan.

I have been fretting over my job. I am having to travel more than was agreed to in my interview and am now gone more than I am home.  I fear I will soon be asked to re-locate to S. California and leave my home in Texas. I don't want to. I have been sick with fear and anger.  Today Pastor Tom said many of us have become so focused on what we are fighting that we have lost sight of Who we are fighting for.

Think about that a minute. Have you become so focused on fighting job loss, or financial struggles, or illness or family problems, that you have lost sight of Who you are supposed to be fighting for?

Hebrews 13:5. Jesus promises " I will never leave you nor forsake you" . so if you feel far from God, who is the one who moved?

I know in this struggle I have been going through, I have felt further and further from Him, and it was all me. I was trying to control my life instead of trusting God.  I can't begin to describe the weight that left my shoulders when I gave that worry to God today with tears running down my cheeks and a smile on my face.

And you know what is absolutely awesome about it all? God doesn't expect us to be big and strong. He can use us as we are. David didn't fight Goliath with armor and a sword. He went out armed with a shepherds slingshot and it was enough. God gives us the tools we need if we only trust Him.

Hillsong  - Mighty to Save
Savior
He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever
Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave


So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender 


I love that song! don't you?