Reach out

Now for the application to the last couple posts about obedience..... Recently we made a move of sorts in order to come back into obedience. When we had purchased our home here to Lehigh Acres, we did so in the hopes of being a light to the community out here. We thought God might have some plans for a church plant in Lehigh, but while we were waiting on further direction from the Lord we had to continue in fellowship. The choice for where seemed obvious that we would attend the same kind of church we planned on affiliating with. However, in order to stay in fellowship, we were traveling about an hour south for church (Estero). As to why we were going so far away........ When you have been with one kind of church for the whole time you have been saved, it is very difficult to break away, even though it is just a 'name'. Sometimes there is a false sense of security in the name, rather than the God we serve.
Yet each time we were asked where we went to church, we would invite folks to church in Estero, but there was no interest in going so far away. Due to the fact we were only hosting a home fellowship in Lehig once a week, this was just not enough to get plugged into for many folks. During the time we were attending the church in Estero, we were encouraged to get plugged in somewhere. It was a dilemma of sorts due to the fact that we knew our involvement there was just temporary. When our purpose and vision was unclear for Lehigh, we decided to listen to the folks telling us to get plugged in. We continued praying but due to circumstances beyond our control we began to doubt God's ministry in Lehigh....... Our doubt lead us to believe we should just get plugged into something that is established (Estero). We did just that the next time someone asked for our help, yet all the while we were doing this, there was no peace. The more time and energy we placed into getting plugged into our current fellowship was taking away from the ministry God had already placed on our hearts for Lehigh.
After a couple months of clarity, we began to feel the Lord calling us back to Lehigh. We shared our excitement and hearts with the folks in our current fellowship. Some were very encouraging and excited with us at what the Lord was doing!
After a lot of prayer, we have come to be apart of a church here in Lehigh that shares our passion to reach the lost. It is an intimate fellowship where everybody knows your name. They strive, through much prayer, to reach out and getting to know the people in this town. There are so many reasons why people will not step foot inside the doors of a church, so this is the reason why they chose to go to them. Sometimes this means going door to door and other times it means hosting events at local parks. The idea is to be available to the people we meet and to let them know how much Jesus loves and cares for them. We have been apart of 2 of their community outreaches. In each one, God clearly made appointments with some people who did not know Him. Others that did know Him embraced what we were doing and were very encouraging to chat with. Something we heard over and over again was the fact that people really are looking for a church but are at a loss when it comes to finding the right fit. It was such a blessing to have the opportunity to meet people where they are at, pray with them or just love on them.
The most awesome part was the fact that I am not the only one thrilled to get to do this. Our kids were richly blessed while getting the privilege to bless others. One thing I saw in them was that you can not raise children with evangelistic or servants hearts unless they are given the role models to see faith in action. No scripts, no do overs, but priceless opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus. To leave God's fingerprints in the places unseen. We are all just so privileged to become apart of something bigger than ourselves that God is doing to lead people to Himself. Fruit born due to a labor of love is one that lasts for eternity.
Being a child, my eldest saw a need that us adults didn't see at the last outreach. She asked, "What about the kids? Can we give them something tangible to show them Jesus?" Our pastor was very supportive and told her to think about how we could meet that need. At first, she just wanted to give the kids some candy, but after we talked about it she saw a more eternal need. Giving candy is sweet but eternity with Christ is even sweeter. We looked up how to make salvation bracelets. Her enthusiasm lead to ask if she could do this with her own money. In support of her ideas a few of the ladies at church helped pitch in with supplies as well. Both the girls ended up handing them out and diligently sowing seeds alongside the adults.
Afterward, all the folks without heat exhaustion came on over to the house for some pool time and fellowship! There is nothing better than spending some quality time with our church family!

Obedience part 2

The next chapter of the book talks about how God can take damaged dreams, if we allow Him to, and use what we have, to create something amazing. First we look at Naomi & Ruth. The description given regarding Naomi is “A women who forgot her dreams” A short synopsis of what has occurred here is that Naomi has recently lost her husband and 2 sons, leaving she and her 2 daughter-in-laws widowed. Naomi knew that in order to survive she needed to go back to her homeland in Judah. Since both of her sons married Moabite women, Naomi knew they would not be well received amongst their family/people. So she encouraged her daughter-in-laws to go back to their parent’s homes where they would be taken care of. In seeing God’s hand of provisions and protection on the family that they married into, each of them pleaded to go with her. However, Naomi insisted they go back to their own people. In Ruth 1:13 she even says that “it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me!” Knowing why they wanted to come, she gives no reason to stay because of God. One of the girls, Orpha was quite grieved about it, but did as Naomi said and went back to her family. Ruth, however, did not give up her loyalty to her mother-in-law and made a pledge to Naomi here. And Ruth said, Urge me not to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. (Ruth 1:16-17)

In verse 18 you see that Naomi was not happy with the arrangement but instead just decided not to talk about it anymore. If you read ahead to verse 20, you’ll see that Naomi is writhing with bitterness for the loss that she is suffering. Despite the fact that her daughter in law is also mourning her own loss, Ruth pushes that aside to look after her mother-in-law. After they arrive in Bethlehem, word begins to spread about why they came back. Ruth pays no attention to this and just gets to the business of caring for the two of them by gleaning in a nearby field. The owner of the field, Boaz, took notice of Ruth and after hearing her story of tragedy and commitment he watches after her. Due to these factors and her dedicated work ethic, she earned favor among the field hands and the field owner. She was even given special permission to eat and drink where other gleaners were not allowed to. (Ruth 2:8-16) When she comes back home with portions of grain that proved the favor she had found you begin to see a glimmer of hope in Naomi’s eye (Ruth 2:19-20) While it may seem a coincidence that Ruth would just so happen to glean amongst one of Naomi’s relatives, with God there are no coincidences. Naomi’s despair was extinguished through Ruth’s obedience. That obedience produced a miracle of god’s provision and redemption when Boaz accepted the responsibility as kinsman redeemer in chapters 3 & 4.

Now let’s go to 1 Kings 17 where it speaks of God’s provision for Elijah during the drought. Everywhere God told Elijah to go in order to provide for him, he was immediately obedient to go. In verse 8 he told Elijah to go to the city of Zarapath where a widow would provide food for him. Once he arrived he spotted the widow gathering wood. He asked her to give him some water and once she was on her way to do this, he mentioned bringing some bread as well (v10-11). In her despair she answers in verse 12 “As the Lord your God lives, I have not a loaf baked but only a handful of meal in the jar and a little oil in the bottle. See, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it--and die.”

Did you catch that? This was going to be her last meal. There was no hope in her eyes, only the shadow of death in her near future. Could God have been mistaken sending Elijah to this woman who had nothing? So then…. “¹³Elijah said to her, Fear not; go and do as you have said. But make me a little cake of [it] first and bring it to me, and afterward prepare some for yourself and your son. ¹⁴For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: The jar of meal shall not waste away or the bottle of oil fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth. ¹⁵She did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶The jar of meal was not spent nor did the bottle of oil fail, according to the word which the Lord spoke through Elijah.

God did not NEED the widow’s help to feed Elijah. However, the widow needed to feed Elijah in order to restore her hope. Through her obedience, she was able to participate in a miracle. Each morning when she opened up her cupboard it was a reminder that God had not forgotten them.

Sometimes when we have broken dream or a difficult trial we tend to think that God has forgotten us. Yet the focus on our circumstances only takes the finite (us and our immediate surroundings) into account where as God’s plan incorporates so many other people. Some who may never see eternity but need to be given and opportunity of eternal restoration. His plans are not only about us but how we can witness of Him to those around us. We are given the privilege to be used to redeem what has been broken if our eyes are on Him.

I love the amplified version of these verses.

Hebrews 13: 5 Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] 6 So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified]. What can man do to me?

Everyday we get opportunities to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit in the big things and the little things. By these acts of obedience, we could have opportunities to play apart in eternally miraculous happenings the Lord has planned! We could be used to restore someone's faith that has been broken by the circumstances not of their choosing! If we realized that our lives were about more than just our immediate situations, but about an eternally infinite God reaching out and meeting people where they are at? Would our checkbooks and calendars appear to have different priorities that their current state?

We were placed on this earth for HIS good pleasure. By remembering and living this in our every day, we are fulfilled beyond anything we could ever manufacture ourselves.

In closing I leave you with a final quote and excerpt from a book I am reading:

“Instead of merely asking God to bless your kids, meet your needs and fulfill your personal goals, seek God for how your family can bless others, meet others’ needs, and help fulfill God’s goals. Rather than praying, ‘Lord please bless our plans’, find and follow after God’s plans – because God’s plans are already blessed”

The Mission Minded Family

Ann Dunagan

Way cool stuff that the Lord has been showing us! It is incredibly encouraging to see things a bit less from our limited viewpoint to see God's amazing tapestry pieced together using broken but willing vessels!

Obedience part 1

I have been doing a bi-weekly small group biblestudy with some awesome ladies whom I first met when we moved into the Cape. We have been going through the book ‘The Five Dreams of every Woman’ by Sharon Jaynes. While each chapter has been very thought provoking and challenging, I wanted to share a couple of the latest chapters. Let’s just say they encouraged me along the path God has called us to so the scriptures we studied were very encouraging & powerful.

This chapter’s focus was about Sarai (Genesis 16). It was entitled “A Woman Who Interfered with God’s Dream.” This part of Sarai’s life was utilized to expose how taking matters into our own hands, thereby taking them out of the Lord’s, can change the course of HIS- story. When God is not moving at OUR pace and we see things through our jaded viewpoint, we can make a colossal mess by fixing something that God is doing. The effects of this one sin of Sarai’s, is felt among us today. It is the reason why there is a war between the descendants of Ishmael (Muslims) and the descendants of Isaac (Jews). Each one claiming the promise given to Abrahm by God to the ‘first born’ as their promise. Taking matters into our own hands was the part of her story of what not to do…….

Now we learn of another situation where one stayed loyal to the Lord while others devised their own plans. Exodus 24 is when Moses went up on the mountain to wait on the Lord. He was up on the mountain for 6 days before God appeared (Exodus 24:16). I am not sure about you but knowing my flesh, if I waited for the Lord for this much time I would have been having some serious doubts about if I was on the right mountain, if I was no longer worthy, ect…… However, Moses knew if He came down the mountain without direction he could never ‘fake’ his way into the promise land. He needed to wait.

On the 7^th day God appeared to Him and they were up there for 40 days (Exodus 24:18). Can you imagine 40 days of alone time with the Lord? That would be an amazing experience! Yet as we read in Exodus 32:19, when he came down, he is met with people who have already given up God for something tangible. God took too long, so the people replaced him. Yet when they were confronted with their sin, the blame shifting began and repentance was not present. (Exodus 32:20-24)

So many times, when the Lord tarries and we do not give Him the time to answer our request we do the same thing. We run ahead and FIX our eyes on something to replace the void. We may even replace it with something good but there is a big difference in a good thing verses a God thing. When we are called to account of that replacement, the heart attitude determines the consequences of what happens next. God is a jealous God. For the unrepentant hearts of those stuck in idolatry the results were death (Exodus 32:26-28). The unrepentant sin stained everyone in the camp.

As we can see from the situations above God’s timing was not according to the finite and present time but according to the eternal perspective. 2Peter 3:8-9 says ⁸Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. ⁹The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people's conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.

There were so many awesome scriptures posted about waiting on Him and His plan so I am just going to post them all. I used the amplified version which is a bit wordy for some.

Psalm 5:3 In the morning You hear my voice, O Lord; in the morning I prepare [a prayer, a sacrifice] for You and watch and wait [for You to speak to my heart].

Psalm 37:7 Be still and rest in the Lord; wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him; fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.

Proverbs 20:22 Do not say, I will repay evil; wait [expectantly] for the Lord, and He will rescue you.

Isaiah 30:18 And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]!

Isaiah 40:27-31 Why, O Jacob, do you say, and declare, O Israel, My way and my lot are hidden from the Lord, and my right is passed over without regard from my God? 28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding. 29He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. 30Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted; 31But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.

Isaiah 64:4 For from of old no one has heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who works and shows Himself active on behalf of him who [earnestly] waits for Him.

God Keeps His promises

Psalm 33:10-11 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nought; He makes the thoughts and plans of the peoples of no effect. 11The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of His heart through all generations.

Psalm 138:8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever--forsake not the works of Your own hands.

Psalm 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.

The closing thought of the study was simply:

If you are waiting on God to fulfill His plans for your life, just remember: He does NOT need our interference. He simply requires our obedience. Commit to wait on God’s leading, direction, wisdom and provision for your life.

In the next post I will share some biblical examples of the blessings that occur, not only to us but to the people we get the privilege to come alongside, when allowing Him to lead!