Roller Coaster

Hey Readers,


I have to say that it has been way to long since I have posted something on this site.  It has been just over a month since my last post, and it has truly been an eventful one. It almost as if we have been stuck on this never ending roller coaster of life and it has been interesting to say the least.  However, I believe that the roller coaster is finally nearing a softer spot on the track, if you know what I mean.


I am hopeful that I will be getting back in the swing of things with the posting of this Blog.  I really don't know what to share with this blog but how about I just start with saying GOD IS GOOD AL THE TIME and ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD.  Boy does that bring back memories, memories are good, memories that are bad, and memories that are simply neutral.  Those memories remind me just how much God has played a part in my life and help me realize that I haven't just been on a roller coaster the past few months but every day of my life.


I am beginning to believe that this is simply what life is, a long roller coaster adventure that takes us on several different types of terrain.  There is the mountainous terrain that we encounter when we face many struggles or events at once, there is the desert terrain that we encounter when we feel there is nothing more we can take, there is the   wooded terrain that we encounter when we have no Idea where we are going, there is the under water terrain that we encounter when we feel like everything is closing in on us, there is the beautiful hilly terrain where we feel that there will be some struggles we will have to face but have the confidence to face them, and finally there is the flat green terrain in which everything seems peachy and it's almost as though we won't have to worry about anything at all, I'll bet we all long for that type of terrain :-).


I wonder if most of us even know which terrain we are on right now.  I have to say I feel that Traci and I are just leaving the under water terrain and entering into the wooded terrain with the hilly terrain on the horizon in a way that we see glimpses that disappear soon after we see them.  I believe that many of you all are at this point as well and It is not a completely bad thing. It is at this point on our roller coasters that we have to rely completely on someone else to direct the path our roller coaster is taking. It's almost as though we see the the change of terrain coming but we just can't get there, isn't it? 


We all deal with this in our lives at some point, but you know it is at that point in which we have to put our trust into someone who can see a bigger picture that we can.  It is the point in which we place our hope in God, as I am learning more about each and every day.  I won't keep you any longer so to end for now I will simply say, Life truly is a roller coaster and regardless of what terrain we are all on right now,  "There is a Hand above, simply waiting to guide us through it."

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Reflections; What Love is this?

Hey Readers,

 I have been really seeking the Lord the past month though and HE is really showing both my wife and I just how amazing he truly is.  God is showing me just how important the gift of Love truly is and I thought I knew that already :-). I guess there is so much more than I will ever e able to grasp, but that's ok, it just gives me something more to strive for :-).

"This is what real love is; It is not our love for God; it is God's love for us in sending HIS Son to be the way to take away our sins" 1 Jn 4:10

I have gone through most of my life earnestly working to improve my love for God, which is important, but love is so much more. When we begin to realize that it is not our love for God that opens the floodgates of heaven (so to speak) so that we may enter, but God's love towards us that opened them.  When that realization popped into my head, I became overwhelmed in the presence of God.   What I learned from that realization was this, we cannot earn our way into the arms of the savior, he has to open them up for us to come in.  The funny part is that they have always been opened. I have to say I believe that today we have this strange believe that we have to earn our way into HIS arms, when in reality it is only because of HIS love that we can love others.

Loving God as HE loves us is the key to loving others. We have lost sight of this.

True Growth, True Grace and the True Gift

Hey Readers,

The following devotional blog is one that I'm hoping will speak to you.  More and more each day the verses in this passage speak greatly to me. I hope to use this one later down the road but we will have to wait and see what the Lord wants to do with it.

"But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted. When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father" John 15:7-8 NLT

I have to say this is an interesting passage, verses 7- 10 are placed in the midst of Jesus' sermon I am the vine you are the branches.  It is important that we realize and understand that.  When we look at these four verses we can easily misunderstand the purpose behind them.  For the longest time I thought that verse 7 simply meant that God would give me everything I wanted if I just asked him.  I was wrong.  There is so much that we can grasp from this passage.

You see, all I was looking at was the second part of verse 7, "you may ask anything

 you want and it will be granted".  The connection was never made to the first part of that verse or its surrounding verses. The most important part of this passage does not refer to getting all that we desire, it refers to the challenge of remaining in HIM.  Life is full of its ups and downs; I know I've faced many of the downs even in the past two weeks. There have been some ups but sometimes it is going to seem like there are many more downs that ups. This is just part of life. The thing we need to remember is that while things seem to be heading the wrong way, God knows the outcome and he promises that it is wonderful, but only if we apply the first part of verse 7 to our lives "But if you remain in me and my words remain in you".

Apart from Christ, our efforts unfruitful. Therefore without Christ at the wheel in our lives, sure we can ask for things from him but that doesn't mean we will get it. We must let HIM work in our lives first. We must let HIM take up those burdens that we often carry and surrender our lives to HIS will. As our lives our given over to HIS will it does not mean we will always be fruitful or that we will always get what we want here on earth, it only means that one day God will fulfill the desires of our hearts, as it says in Psalm 37 (this is another topic entirely).

Remember this; our purpose in life is not to get all that we ever wanted but to embrace a life that strives to remain in HIM and to let HIS words remain in us.  I say this means that our only purpose in life is to remain in the love of God. As long as that is our true motivation all we will ever need is to grow in the grace that God gave us through the gift of HIS son who died for us because of the love HE has for HIS father.

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you   (2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Reflections; The Light Load

Hey Readers,

Here is another devotional blog, I read this and it really spoke to my heart, again :-).

"Accept my teachings and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives. The burden that I ask you to accept is easy; the load I give you to carry is light."  Matthew 11:29-30

What ever is placed upon my heart I can give freely to God and not worry about it any more, I however must leave it before him and not pick it back up again, which tends to get harder as the days go on, but Gods love for us is so much more that the worries of the day and we cannot let those worries keep us from the promises that God has given us. A time will come when we will ask ourselves "is this really happening, God why, what do I do with this, whats the next step" and it will be OK, because God is in control, we need not ask those questions if we fully rely on God and let his hand guide us.

God is so big that if we were to place upon him all the worries of the word that every person had, he would still have plenty of room to double or even triple that, God is so big that the worries of this world are easy for him to carry, when our burdens weigh us down, all we have to do is give them to God. and his burden still will remain light.

Remember Gods Got his Hand on you, Never let Go, step out of the fear, and let God take your heavy burdens upon himself and make them light again...

I hope you all got something out of this, I know I sure did :-)

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Reflections; Infinite Love

Hey Readers,


Hey Every one it has been quite a long and busy few weeks, sorry I haven't been updating these for you.  Here is another one of my simpler Devotional Blogs. Hope you learn something.....


"For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" John 3:16

God loves us all more than we will ever be able to fathom. He blesses us with glimpses of this love through our experiences and in our relationships, but to wrap our minds around this love will only be possible once we are with Him in heaven. What is so mind boggling to me is that no matter what we do here on earth His love will always remain and always grow. 


There is so much more He wants to offer every one of us if we let Him. Love is what I like to call infinite, we may feel as though we have ultimately reached the limit at times but there is always room to make more. God gave up the thing he loved most so we could be forgiven and have that everlasting life; this is infinite love. It doesn't stop there, however. 


Even after the sacrifice of His son, we still sin and He still forgives us when we ask Him to. This tells me that His love for us grows stronger every day. What a thought to base our life upon. What a love He has for us.

Here's some questions to consider...

How much of this action of Love do we truly embrace in our lives?
Are there areas in our lives in which we fall short of this action of Love?


More to come in the days ahead, still hoping to get back in the swing of this, I really do enjoy it all :-)

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Revising the Vision

Hey Readers, 


Over the next few weeks I will be posting some of my older devotional blogs, not sure why but I felt I needed to post them all. These postings will not be published again on Facebook, however I will continue to post the new ones when God Brings them to me. I am hoping this will help me keep better track of what God has blessed me with so that eventually I can put all of them into a devotional book for publishing one day.


In light of this, the blog site Enjoying Life Daily: God's Promises Anew will be merged into The Gathering Room and then will be deleted for Good. With it being the first blog I ever created it will take time.  Please feel free to read the old ones and the news ones. There is still a lot we all can learn from these devotional's and I am sure I will even learn some things myself through this process.  In the future I hope to go back to posting a devotional blog on The Gathering Room once a week and to apply some of the new methods I am learning to what I write. With God's blessing it will happen :-)


Hope that this will make it easier for you all to keep up with what God brings me to give to you and look forward to seeking where God takes this little dream of mine in the future.  I have already posted some of my older devotional blogs, they all have the word Reflections in front of the title, to make it easier for you all.

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Reflections; Love and Loving

Hey Readers,

This is one that really hits home :-), Hope you all enjoy it

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" John 15:12 
Loving one another? I wonder what the world would be like if more people loved as Christ does. I think the world would be a better place to live if more people loved like Christ did. I have often said my ministry motto is simply "Love them crazy just like Jesus" This concept has been burning in my heart more and more with every day I am blessed with.

As I write this I am reminded of several scripture verses that speak of loving others, this tells me that loving others is quite important to our walk in Christ. In fact I feel that it is one of the most important actions we are blessed with the ability to do. I believe that we are all called to love one another as Christ has loved us. It can be hard sometimes, but with the strength of the Lord guiding our every step it is always possible.

Our relationship with Christ is not based off of taking the easy way out. We are told in the scriptures that we will face trials. There will always be twists and turns we have to go through in our lives, it can be submitting to authority, working though our problems, meeting the challenges placed before us, facing our past, embracing our future, or even finding the strength to live in the present.

It is what we do when we are faced with those situations that matter most. With all my heart I believe that IN ALL THINGS GOD HAS CALLED US TO LOVE AS WE ARE LOVED.

We need to be faithful to loving one another in every aspect of our lives. Our motivation in life must follow these four steps.

LOVING GOD
LOVING OUR SPOUSE (if you have one of course)
LOVING OUR FAMILY
LOVING OTHERS

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Reflections; Confess and Believe

Hey Readers,

This one is was one of my first ones, it's shorter but I think it still has merit :-)

"If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9

Jesus truly is our Lord and He wants to give us all the blessings of life HE can. Occasionally we can forget that we are called to live life believing in HIM with all our hearts. When the world around us tells us we are doing something that doesn't coincide with its view, we often conform to that belief to keep ourselves from standing out. What is interesting is that our life isn't suppose to be one that blends in, it is suppose to be something more. Jesus sure didn't blend in did he? Just like Jesus, we are meant to stand out and be an example that others can stand by and look to.

Take time in your life to confess openly 'Jesus is Lord' and believe with all your heart what you have just spoken. I guarantee your life will begin to change for the better and that your heart will feel so much better because of it. We have a calling to be set apart so lets simply embrace it.

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Reflections; Freedom and love

Hey Readers,

Just thought I would add some of my older devotional blogs, here is the first one :-). Hope you enjoy it.

"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed" John 8:38

We can have freedom in Christ. We can trust that because He sacrificed himself, the door was opened for the rest of us to be set free from the sin of this world. If we are willing to repent and ask for it, forgiveness will be given without a second thought given. God is always right there waiting for us to ask for Him to step in and clean us up. Of course we will have to face the consequences for our sins, but they are forgiven and then they are forgotten. If this is the case, why do we often take a step back when we are asked to seek forgiveness? Is it because we are afraid of what we may have to face? Is it because we feel guilty or ashamed to seek it? Trust that God will take care of you.

"Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." Matthew 22:37-38

Loving God takes a lot more than simply saying a few words that sound nice. It takes a lifetime commitment and a life long journey of striving to give God everything. We must truly desire to give him all our heart, all our soul and all our mind. Sure we can sing "Lord I Give you my heart, I give you my soul" but without the life long commitment to back it up, whatever we sing or speak is meaningless. If we live life only loving God with just our heart or just our soul and mind, we open the door for material things to take a step forward and force God to take a side step back. We need to live for Him with every breath we take. We need to honor Him in everything in our lives. We need to surrender it all to the desires of His heart and not the desires of our own. They will line up in time :-).

When we give it all to Him, I believe we begin to love Him more and more every moment we are awake. Loving God is the adventure of a lifetime. He can lead you to places you would never even imagine he could lead you to. Embrace His love with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind and you'll see what He can do...

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Hold on to your Hope

Hey readers, 

I know it has been forever, but I've been kind of busy :-), I need to focus more on writing these things for people to read. I am hoping now that things are starting to slow down I can get that focus back :-). Hope you guys enjoy this one.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope that we profess, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:23-24 NIV)

 What does it mean to hold unswervingly to something? Would you say that another way to say that part of our verse like this “Let us grab on as tight as we possibly can?” I believe so.

Hope is a very important characteristic to have in our lives.  Even the scriptures say that Hope, faith and Love are the only things that will ever remain. Granted Love will always be the greatest but hope is right up there with it. That tells me that hope is a vital part of our Christian walk.

Some one once told me that ‘without hope there is no faith and without faith it is impossible to love.’ I never really understood what they meant when they said that but in recent years I am learning what she meant when she told me that.  It was my mother who told me that. I believe what she meant was that the three form a continuous circle in our lives.  It starts with a slight nudge of the heart that say’s “There is something more out there.” Then that nudge begins to grow and we begin to believe that there is something more and after that, the nudge is so big that we can’t help but form an attachment to it.  This is where we begin to love. Finally, because of that love, we find our selves hoping for even more, believing that more exists and ultimately that belief give us the ability to love even more.

So, hope is the start of it all, once we have hope and begin to hold on to that hope, we begin to learn and grow deeper in Faith and in Love for the God we serve.  God has promised us many things; all he wants us to do is believe that he can provide what he has promised. Along the way we are challenged to encourage one another in love and in good deeds, by doing this we open the door wide open for God to move in our hearts and help us grow.  He loves it when we encourage others and those we encourage like it too, whether they admit it or not J.

Our lives can be full of despair and trials of many shapes and sizes but when we hold on to that hope God promised us, we will get through them and be better off because of it.

I pray the lord will bring me more of these in the days ahead, and I pray that God will renew yet again my passion for writing as he is already :-) 

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Seek HIS Face

Hey Readers,


So, this is not the post "the struggle" but I'm going to write it next. I was doing my devotions yesterday and this one kind of spoke to me for some reason. I wanted to share what I wrote after reading this verse with you. Who knows it may touch someone :-).

"When You said 'Seek My face', my heart said to You, 'Your face, Lord, I will seek'" Psalm 27:8 NKJV

Let's look at the context of this passage. The author of this Psalm is pleading with God, asking HIM to have mercy on him. The author has a very strong desire to seek God and to seek HIS beautiful face and longs to be taught the ways of the Lord.  How amazing is the dedication of this man, all he wants is to know God and to see HIS face.

This poses a few questions in my mind. What does seeking HIS face actually look like? Is it something we can see in others or something that is hidden and out of sight? Others would ask "Should seeking HIS face be the only purpose we have in life? Why is it so important to seek God?  Well I hope to answer these questions. Some may not agree but, this is how I see it.

I've always told people one thing when they ask me 'What does seeking HIS face actually look like?' and it's simply this 'Seeking Gods heart should be the motivation of every thing we do in life.' Trust me it will make since in a minute :-). I believe that when the scripture says seek HIS face it means seek HIS heart. Still confused, think about it this way, would you say God looks at us with eyes on HIS face or the eyes of his heart. Exactly, God looks at us with the eyes of HIS heart :-) so that we may be enlightened, so that we may see the hope he has called us to, and so we may see the riches of HIS grace. (Ephesians 1:18).

Wow!! I got a little side tracked there, lets me continue...

When we focus on God, that focus intertwines its self with our passions.  We begin to see them show up when we least expect it and we begin a molding process that intertwines the passions our hear with the passions of Gods.  It is simply something amazing to think about isn't it? 

God created each of us with passions and throughout our lives He molds those passions after HIS own heart. However, we can't simply sit back and wait for God to move. We have to take steps towards letting HIM mold us as we seek HIS face and HIS calling upon our lives.  How do we do that? We do that by taking a good look at our hearts and "Finding who We are" as  Kutless would say.  

We must ask God, who is the spirit of truth, 'in what area of my life do I need to seek your face more?" We must say to HIM as the Psalmist did "Your face, Lord, I will seek" and mean it with our whole heart. We must make time every day (and I struggle with this still) to be in HIS word, to pray for HIS guidance, to seek a place in which we can wholeheartedly call on HIM and we need to  give HIM our praises.

God is a God who wants nothing more than to let us see HIS heart when we look at HIS face and we should be people who want nothing more than for others to see the heart of a Godly man or woman when they see our faces.

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

God's Consuming Fire

Hey readers,

This is a Post from my other blog that I thought I would re-post for you all to read.  I am probably going to post more from this sight over the next few months.  I am also still waiting to post the story behind "compelled" just hang on, all will be explained soon. Hope you find something in this post for YOU :-) ...


Scripture states in Hebrews 12:28-9 in the NKJV...

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire."

Here's my reflection from this particular passage of scripture: We each have different things that we will have to face in our lives and may be facing even today. Sometimes it may feel like we are losing everything that matters to us. There are several different situations that can make us feel this way and many times it leads to a great discouragement that begins to destroy the things that are important to us.

I cannot count the times that I have personally let the things of this world take control and have had to face the consequences that follow. I am never going to be perfect and I hate to say this, but neither will you :-). We will have to work through these things many times during our time here on this earth. One thing though, we must remember that those times we have only come for a season, and that while they may come many times throughout our lives, what we have here on earth is only a prelude to what God has in store for us in heaven.

One final word, remember that God is your consuming fire and that no matter what waters may come to blow your fire out, He has promised you something great and that HIS fire will never fade.





Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

"Compelled" part 1

Dear Readers,


Finally the time has come and I can post part 1 of my sermon "Compelled".  I have waited so long for this because Traci and I have been searching for about 6 or 7 months now and we have finally found it.  However that is a post for another time and it will be titled "The Struggle". I will write that this next week and post it for you to read.


With that said I have been looking forward sharing this part of "Compelled" for some time now.  Again these are only my sermon notes and not what was spoken completely.

I have a very personal message to share with you all today. It is a message that compelled my heart to change, to trust in the unknown, to depend on the Lord completely and to give up any doubt I had in my mind about “The Struggle” we have been facing these past few months. Don’t start freaking out though it wasn't a bad one. 

The message I have for you is a message that I pray will have the same effect on all of you as it did on me.

This message is so important that I even have notes for you to take home with you.

This is a message in which we can learn four lessons that compel us to change.

God divine power instills upon us who believe, the calling He has placed upon each of us, he has called us to live a life that is humble, hopeful, healthy, and holy. God compels us all to grow in our faith.

How do we embrace a life that is humble?

There are so many things that we can do in our own lives that we can do to help us get to a point of A HUMBLE SPIRIT.  It is not easy by any means and it will be a life long journey of learning but in the end it will be worth it.

In our daily lives,

ARK- acts of random kindness

Encouraging others even when we feel they don’t deserve it

Loving those that are deemed unlovable

Submitting to authority even when we know they are wrong

Look at the scripture again; here is a simple example,

⁵ For this very reason make every effort to add to your faith goodness;and to goodness, knowledge;⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. ⁸ For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NIV 2011)

Because God loves us HE compels us to establish these things in our life and when we do, we begin to let the fruits of the spirit grow in our hearts, and we will begin to embrace the humble spirit.

What are those?

Love, Joy, Piece, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and self control

Yes they are almost identical to what has been mentioned in our passage for today...

Again I hope you enjoyed this little piece of the sermon the Lord gave me to share with as many people as I could. I will be posting "The Struggle" that lead to this sermon soon, but in the mean time I might be posting other interesting blogs for you to read :-).


Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

"Compelled" part 2

Readers, 


I know I said I would post this a little bit faster than I have, and I am sorry for that but it's been a bit busy :-)  In any case, here is part 2 of my sermon "Compelled"  I will try to post part 1 and the introduction by the end of the week. Remember though these are only my notes and not the actual sermon :-) Hope you find something from God in this :-)

How do we embrace a life that is hopeful?

This is an important matter in everyone’s life; if we don’t have a hopeful attitude then we will never experience the blessings God sets before us.

He has so much to offer us; because He does we are compelled to embrace A HOPEFUL ATTITUDE.

In our daily lives,

Stepping out on faith and trusting in what God has to offer us

Encouraging ourselves to build a foundation in the word

Praising God when things don’t go the way we want them to.

Letting go of the desires of our youth and embracing the desires of God

Look at the scripture again; here is a simple example,

³ By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. ⁴ And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.⁸ For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NLT)

You see God has blessed us with some amazing promises, and he did so out of love for us. We are called to embrace those promises and trust that HE knows the outcome is in our best interest.

If we look in Peter’s 1^st letter we get a deeper understanding of this…

“¹⁰ God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. ¹¹ Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.” (1 Peter 4:10-11, NLT)

Don’t let the world around you keep you from embracing a Hopeful attitude, it will only limit what God can do with your life.

Again I hope you enjoyed this little piece of the sermon the Lord gave me to share with as many people as I could. Again, I will be posting part 1 soon, but I will more than likely post other interesting things for you to read in the mean time :-)


Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Seek Who? How?

Readers,


It's been a while since I've posted a devotional blog so I thought I'd better get back in the game :-).


"And you will seek and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found in you, and bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations..." Jer. 29:13-14a


When we think of Jeremiah chapter 29 the verse we typically think of is verse 11 "For I know the plans I have for you...", but I think that we have missed the point behind that verse.  Sure God knows the plans he has for us and they are good but how do we find them? Verse 12 say we must call upon HIM, pray to HIM, and he will listen. In verses 13 and 14a an even deeper statement. I would write it a little like this "Seek me my dear child and you will find me, search for me with all heart and you will find me."


This is where the message lies, sure we can take verse 11 and hold on to that but the peace that 11 speaks of will never come if we are not applying the other verses to our lives on a daily basis. How many times in life have we found our selves searching for answers and never finding them? Typically, well at least for me, we begin to over analyze the questions on our hearts and it makes us  over think everything and worry way to much. 


Because of how much we over analyse the situations we are faced with, in the end we find our selves with 20 more questions, no answers, and a brain that just won't quit thinking.  Where does that leave us; with a very bad headache that simply won't go away and a restless nights sleep that we could have done without :-). So the question comes to mind, where did we go wrong?  It's another simple answer, without realizing it we often begin searching for the answers in the wrong places.  We take what verse 11 states, repeat it over and over and over again, and seek our answers in every place but to one place we should be looking, in the arms of God.  


It states we must seek HIM, not something else. It states we must find HIM, not something else. It states we must search for HIM, not something else and it states we must do these things WITH ALL OUR HEART.  (3 HIMS, 1 HEART, interesting isn't it).  So the next question that I think of is how do we get past our analytical approach to solving our life's issues? Simple, "take it to the LORD in prayer" as the song What a Friend in We have in Jesus states :-).  Let us take a chance and look to that once place we tend to over look first with everything we face. Let us go to God, give it all to HIM who is able, then simply wait. Even if our answer doesn't come as fast as we'd like it to, it will come.  All we have to do is SEEK HIM, FIND HIM, and SEARCH for HIM with ALL OUR HEART...


Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

"Compelled" part 3

Readers,


This is the third part of a sermon I gave in my church recently.  It was such a powerful sermon for my life that I felt I should share it with as many people as I could :-).  Again this is not the actual sermon, just the sermon notes  I wrote to give me a base line to start from. I hope it intrigues you enough to come back and look at other postings of mine.  

How do we embrace a life that is healthy?

This does not only speak of spiritual health but also of physical health. Both of these things are very important. God compels us to embrace both A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP and to live A HEALTY LIFE.

In our daily life,

Choosing to do things that will help us grow spiritually and keep healthy.

Reaching out beyond that which we know into the things we don’t know, (that are godly)

Keeping a healthy lifestyle, going to bed on time, eating right, etc

Choosing to get into the word

Choosing to live in the world and not of the world

Look at the scripture again; here is a simple example,

 ⁸ The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. (NLT)

You see, the more we work towards building that foundation for a healthy relationship with Christ the more we will grow in knowledge of who he is and what he calls us to.

The more we work towards building a healthy life is the more energy we will have to serve God and to serve others.  So in the end God compels us to A HEALTHY LIFE and A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP so we can grow in HIM.

Again I hope you enjoyed this little piece of the sermon the Lord gave me to share with as many people as I could. I will be posting part 2 soon, but I will more than likely post other interesting things for you to read in the mean time :-)

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

HIS Merciful Sacrifice

^"But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life." Jude 1:20-21

A few years ago someone pointed this passage out to me and asked 'what do you think this passage is saying to us'? At that time I wasn't ultimately sure but I believe that I have a better understanding of this passage today. Lets take it block by block so to speak (or write). 

But you, refers to us as Christians.  As Christian believers we are called to build ourselves up in the most holy faith.  Holy faith refers to, the relationship we are meant to have and share with Christ, this is the relationship we should hold to or stand by. We are called to devote ourselves to learning more about our faith and to develop a deep relationship with Christ and to pray in the Holy Spirit. Praying in the spirit, refers to devoting time in our lives to communicate with God through the Holy Spirit by consistently living a life of prayer and worship.  How do we do that simple, taking time to do so. When we do this we are working to keep ourselves in God's Love. This is self explanatory :-)

Next we come to the latter part of our passage, when we work to keep ourselves in Gods love we open our hearts to receive HIS mercy. HIS mercy is HIS love.  Gods mercy brings us out of the worst of situations and prepares us for what is to come in the days ahead.  It is that mercy that is the basis of everything that God has done for us.  HIS merciful sacrifice is what paved the way for the eternal life that the end of this passage speaks about.  The purpose of this sacrifice was to give us that eternal life.

All in all this is a very valuable passage for us to remember.  From the beginning it teaches us that we are called to devote ourselves to a life that is pleasing to the Loving God who is all merciful to us.  We have a chance to embrace a life that is built on nothing less than our love for God.  When we embrace this life and wholeheartedly surrender to HIM we receive our ticket to eternal life, our ticket to Salvation...

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

The Harvest

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

Jesus once said these words to his followers and I believe that he is saying those same words to us today.  There is such a need for the workers of the field in the harvest of world we live in today. Many are gifted but few stand up to take on the responsibility.

We are all a part of something bigger than ourselves and it is time that we stand up for what we were created for. This particular verse sparks a question in my heart. Why is there such a need for people to stand up and work the field?  I believe that the answer is simple, we are called to stand up because deep down we know the harvest will always be incomplete with out that deeper love guiding each of our lives.  Stellar Kart puts it beautifully don't they.

I believe with all my heart that we are called to be a part of something bigger than all our lives, we are called to something holy.  Until we embrace that holiness in our lives the harvest will always be incomplete.  Peter wrote that we were to "Love each other deeply with all our hearts" 1 Peter 1:25b and yes I have posted this verse before but it is so relevant to our hearts and to our lives.

We as Gods adopted family need to stand up and work the fields of harvest all over the world and more importantly in our very own communities and churches.  However, we must be careful because if we lead and have not been led ourselves. Yes, we are called to lead but we are also called to be led :-). 

Simply put, Love God, Love Others, Lead others, be led by others, embrace the harvest and be the harvest :-)

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

"Compelled" part 4

Hey Readers,

This is part of my sermon from Sunday, I'm going to post it through out the next two weeks one part at a time backwards :-). Just because :-) This is only the notes not the sermon so if you want the whole sermon you will just have to wait :-) or ask, LOL.

Here you go...

How do we embrace a holy life?

This is the ultimate purpose for all of our lives; we are called to be something holy as the song states by Stellar Kart.  We are incomplete with out Holiness in our lives and deep down we all know it.  A life without holiness will never be enough in Gods eyes.

In our daily lives,

Putting in to practice on a regular basis all that we have talked about today.

Working hard to wholeheartedly prove to God that we love and adore him with all our hearts

Loving others as Christ loves us.

Look at our passage again; here is a simple example.

10 So, dear brothers and sisters,[c] work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things and you will never fall away? 11 Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (NLT)

It is important that we realize that we are apart of something bigger than ourselves, than all our lives. We all have a deep hunger unbeknown to us with in us that pulls our hearts into a deeper love, it our purpose to hunger like this, so it is our desire to embrace it.

Listen again to the words of our brother Peter.

22 Now that your obedience to the truth has purified your souls, you can have true love for your Christian brothers and sisters. So love each other deeply with all your heart.[a] 23 You have been born again, and this new life did not come from something that dies, but from something that cannot die. You were born again through God’s living message that continues forever.24 The Scripture says,
    “All people are like the grass,
       and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
    The grass dies and the flowers fall,
 25 but the word of the Lord will live forever.” — Isaiah 40:6–8
And this is the word that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:22-25, NCV)

Even in the passage from 1st peter 4 say’s in verses 7-8

 “7 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. 8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.” (NLT)

You see, we are compelled by the love of God to embrace these four things A HUMBLE SPIRIT, A HOPEFUL ATTITUDE, A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP, and A HOLY LIFE.  God loves us all so much that he has opened the door for us to fall even more in love with with , to step out of our personal bubbles and to embrace a life that encompasses all four thing things we have talked about.

It is not a matter of what we want in our lives because deep down we want what God compels us to embrace whether we know it our not. Who are we to say “I don’t think so”, or “Call somebody else”, or “I am not worthy”

None of us are, that is why God compels us to continually seek HIS Promises, HIS plan, and HIS calling upon our lives.

Hope you enjoyed this glimpse, hopefully I can post more things like this, it's a new day in The Gathering Room. :-)

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you

(2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.