Friday, February 24, 2006

Perseverance

In Romans 5, this is what it says,

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

I have been learning so much about endurance, or perseverance as another translation puts it. But I am struck by this phrase "more than that"... It says that we have received access to God by faith and we rejoice in the hope of His glory. Okay, follow me here... because then it says "more than that (the hope of the glory of God) we rejoice in our sufferings." More than rejoicing in the the hope of God's glory, they rejoice in suffering! That is unbelievable to me. I am in the midst of physical suffering right now and honestly find it hard to say that I "rejoice" in it, let alone rejoicing in it more than in God's glory. If I stopped reading there, I think I would not know how to respond, but I am thankful that it goes on and kind of explains why.

To produce endurance, character, and hope... God is so much more concerned with my heart and my development than I could ever imagine.

Lord, please give me YOUR perspective of this suffering and pain. Use it for YOUR purposes and to change me. Pin It

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Prayer Thoughts

One hard thing we've encountered in ministry is in prayer. It seems to be the most often forgotten part of what we do... ironic. We talked today about how we can inject the DNA of prayer into our movement. Here's what we came up with:

-Instead of resorting to asking our students to 'do' more, we want to ask them how God is moving through their prayer times.
-Ask students we meet with how we can pray for them & then pray with them.
-Pray with students throughout the week
-Spend a lot of time during discipleship praying
-Help them to see it's not a duty but is an ongoing conversation
-Weekly emails about prayer
-Forward barb francis prayer emails
-Index card calendar - pray for one thing a day, praying scripture they can pray outloud
-Model it!
-Take a week and let ministry ONLY be prayer
-Have students take steps of faith that are beyond them that would put them in a place to pray
-Invite students to campus prayer time, do a 24-7 prayer.

Any other thoughts? Pin It

Praying Is Like Sunbathing

I saw this quote on another blog and loved it. Let me know what you think!

I like this quote by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Any thoughts?

By PETE BELL
Sun Newspaper Online

Dr Rowan Williams said many people had difficulty praying and felt it was a matter of “generally getting your act together” and finding acceptable things to say.

But they should compare the experience to lying on the beach or under a sun lamp, he said.

He explained: “When you’re lying on the beach or under the lamp, something is happening, something that has nothing to do with how you feel or how hard you’re trying.

“You’re not going to get a better tan by screwing up your eyes and
concentrating. You give the time, and that’s it.

“All you have to do is turn up. And then things change, at their own pace. You simply have to be there where the light can get at you.” Pin It

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Thoughts On Time

Today I was sitting in church and this question popped in my head:
Are there so many demands on our time within the church building that we don't have enough time to love on people outside it's walls?

I so want my life to count for something greater than itself and I want to invest myself in others. Time always seems to be the biggest drawback. Isn't it ironic that we talk so much within the church about service and spend so much time 'doing' within the church that we fail to function AS the church? Lord God, help me to use my time to love people and serve people. Pin It

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Christmas Pictures


Brian and I chillin' behind a tree. Actually we're posing for our Christmas pictures. Oh, the things you'll do for the sake of letting people into your life. Posted by Picasa Pin It

Monday, February 06, 2006

My Brain Needs A Rest

My mind is spinning right now with thoughts of what I am doing and why I do what I do and even how I do what I do. "It's so much more fun to be light in darkness then to be light in light." I read this in a book called "The Organic Church" by Neil Cole. I read this and felt so challenged and encouraged. How can I practically take that thought and live it out in my daily life? How can the rubber meet the road? My job life is so unique that it can seem as though I don't have the hours in the day to really be about living in the lives of lost people who are my peers. I desperately want to be light in the darkness... Lord, lead me!

I need to give my brain a rest for a few seconds. Pin It