JOY

"You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."

Psalm 45:6-7



I can remember when my great grandmother would stand at the door at the crack of down and say these words "this is the day that the Lord has made, let us REJOICE and be glad in it". To this very day those words are at the very core of my being and I remember them often (almost every morning), that my day and life for that matter is made complete in Christ Jesus and that His joy is my strength.

As I think on things above as the word directs me to, I come to realize that life is to be joyous and that the Holy Spirit does lift me as I call on him to be the "oil of joy" in my life. Recently, I have been rethinking what the calling is in my life and how I am first and foremost "called" to be a disciple of Jesus and to live on "mission" as he did. So, I am living this life in Christ continually dying to self in whatever context I find myself, home, family, friends, job (whirlpool headquarters), church life/ministies, etc...

So, as I was driving to work this morning, giving thanks to God for everything in my life when I had this overwhelming sense of joy that I was on my way to work...now I know that may sound funny to some of you, but really, I was overwhelmed with a sense of joy that I was actually living on mission and that God has placed me in a vocation that allows me to earn a living for my family, and also at the same time hopefully help to expand the Kingdom of God amongst the people I rub shoulders with daily and to me that is not drudgery one bit. At one point in time I looked at my "calling" as the institution of the church and that my ministry was within the 4 walls of it, I boxed it and wrapped it neatly with all the bells and whistles and said this is what it should look like. But as God so graciously does, He has been showing me my narrow mindedness and allowing me to see a bit from His eyes, where there's a world out there that may never make it within the 4 walls of the church, so to speak, and may never have the opportunity to come face to face with someone trying to live out Christ, Christ cruicified through the ever increasing power of the Holy Spirit to the point that people actually notice that there is something strangely different about you and that the love and joy we carry with us in "whatever context" (whirlpool) we find are selves, we are and will LIVE ON MISSION as Jesus did.
We must continue to Love God and Love People and allow the JOY of the Lord to be our strength always!

Decisions...

So last night after we got home from another long day, after we put Olivia down for bed, I started to look through some of the books that I have looking for some resouces for an upcoming class I'll be teaching on spiritual gifts and on my search I found a book called Day by Day: Compilations by Tozer, so I thought I would go through this book in the morning for some devo time.
This mornings words of Tozer struck me, so I thought I would share (nice of me, I know)...

II Cor. 6:1
1As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain

Here is the synopsis of Tozer's words. Basically that there are many people in our world in even in our churches that think that they are going to get to heaven by osmosis!! There are some people out there who think that God is just going to look past all there junk and all there sin, cause he is a good God (which He is) and let them slide on in to heaven. This kind of thinking is ludicrous.
We are given a choice and we must choose to walk with and accept redemption through Christ, a decision is to be made, and by the grace of God who calls us into relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit we choose life!! Life in Christ, and death to ourselves as our Lord has showed us with His time on this earth.

I will leave you with this...

ACTS 3:19-23
19Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. 21He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.'[a]

People's Soul's Do Crave

So last night was the kick off night for the young adult life group held at the Overflow Warehouse (this is the back space behind our leased spot at the mall). We had some people in and out of the office that night, pretty typical, but then about 15 min. before we were to get started another person walked through the door with her bible in hand, a new face that I had not yet met.
She sat down at one of the high tops and began to tell her story about how God's has been drawing her for sometime and some of the events leading up to her coming to our Sunday morning celebration at the theatre. Basically that morning from the moment she walked into the theatre she "felt the presence" of God in her and she told us that she cried the entire service. It never ceases to amaze me how God works, that morning I was sharing on community life and how we are to be "Known by our love". God's timing is always perfect. She shared how that morning she didn't want to go but her mom insisted that she went with her, and she said that she was glad she did.
So last night was a great night overall, and it was amazing to see continually how God is working in the hearts and lives of people in St.Joe/Benton Harbor region and beyond, and how we conintue to "journey together, as we learn to passionately follow Jesus and joyfully serve others."

Soul Cravings

Tonight we kick off our young adult life group with a book study on Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus. This is a great book for those who maybe on the "fringe" of finding God in their lives. We will look at Intimacy, Destiny, Meaning and Mulitiplying (our words) and what those things look like in our lives as God created us. What are we destined for. At Overflow we believe that as God draws and calls people into relationship with him, they can begin to walk in the good works that were prepared beforehand (Eph 2:10).

Back from a LONG........ Vacation

OK.  So I am finally back from a long vacation from the blog world.  I feel good and well rested. Sometimes you just need a break from things, you know what I mean? There's been a good bit going on in my life and I guess that's the main reason I haven't blog anything in over 3 months! Time is hard to come by when you are working 40 + hrs a week and also doing about 15 hrs a week with the church and plus I do have a wife and a little one (with one on the way in about a week, very excited about that!!)  Don't worry pics will be coming as soon as she arrives. Well I have a lot to write about but not enough time (there is that word again) tonight to write it all, so I thought I would send this along for you all to check out.  CLICK HERE.