It's been a minute. Circles

I know it's been a while sense anything has been posted so I thought it would be good to start something. 

At church we have been reading through the books of Judges and Acts. Two radical books in the bible. So I'm going to try to post a few thoughts from these books. 

Circles. 

Judges Ch 13. 

Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord ’s sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines, who oppressed them for forty years. (Judges 13:1 NLT) 

This is a common scripture you will read throughout Judges. I ask the question as to why or maybe how long will the followers of God walk in this circle. The circle = doing evil in Gods sight -> bondage -> crying for help from God -> God rescues. 

You would think that after several times walking in this circle they would get it. But then I remember how many times I fall short of obedience. How often I can walk in the circle of the same temptation. How many times have I cried out to God for salvation. 

I guess I am not that different👎. 

 So here's the beauty of this seemingly depressive scripture, God's mercy! God's grace! God comes to the rescue every time they turn back to Him. Every time they or we cry out, which is repentance, God comes to the recuse. 👍.

 I don't think it's wise to continue to walk in the same circle. I want to grow into walking a path of growth and moving forward not walking in circles. I get to dizzy. 

Here's one more thought from Ch. 13. 

The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife and said, “Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son. (Judges 13:3 NLT)

When her son was born, she named him Samson. And the Lord blessed him as he grew up. (Judges 13:24 NLT)

Notice that God gave direction and Manoah and his wife took action. They had to do their part. If you know what I mean. 

This is crucial to understand as we listen and hear from God. As we partner with His plan we move from circles to paths that lead to freedom. 

Happy Christmas

 

may you be blessed with the joy of good food

remembering its never too cold for ice cream!

 

may you avoid the Christmas skimming

and have your coffee hot and steaming!

 

may your celebrating be filled with

peppermint, eggnog, coffee, ice cream!

(all together would be interesting)

 

may you find the worlds best cup of coffee

and please tell me about it!

 

may you find a clear direction

for 2013! 

 

may you find the time to give personal gifts

because that's what God gave us!

 

may you find peace with God

through Jesus!

 

may you and your family have peace

understanding we can disagree and still love!

 

may this crazy dark world see your light!

 

 

 

SteveNikki

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Sunday rewind

We kicked of a new series yesterday called Presence. Here are a few thoughts from Sunday.

• God's Presence in your life + your presences in some one's life = Christmas.
• Christmas is a celebration of presence! Without presence there is no celebration.
• God's presence brings presents into our life.
• His presence claims our panic and brings Joy.
• We read the story of the shepherds Luke 2:8-10
• God's presence brings Joy because (v10)
• He makes it personal (I bring you! v10)
• He brings good news
• For all people

Respond by embracing God's presence and sharing Gods presence.

Make your Christmas more Joyful!

• Make it personal - the gifts you give make them personal. Spend time with friends and family!
• Make a commitment to share Good News only. Lets silent the bad news. (at least for this season) 
• Connect with someone outside your normal friends and family.

The Woodland High Advance Choir was a great  highlight!

I will try to add some audio of the gathering soon! 

Keep on Keeping on!

Do you ever get tired? Do you ever just want to quit? Life seems like it always going uphill. And when the down hill comes it only reveals more uphills. What do you do when life is like this? A friend of mine gave me some great wisdom for riding a bike uphill, "Just keep pedaling!"
I think this is good wisdom for life. Sometimes we just have to keep on keeping on. As I was reading the bible the other day I came across the story were Jesus was asking God for some much needed relief. You can read it in Luke 22:41-
After reading this story I had a few thoughts if you feel like your constantly going uphill.

Jesus went about a stones throw beyond - if your constantly in a struggle try unplugging for awhile. Remove yourself even if its for a few minutes. Find a quiet place! Not just in your mind but really a quiet place. Hide in the closet at work for a few minutes. And if someone opens the door jump out and walk away. (Just thinking about someone doing that makes me laugh) How about this turn off your cell phone! Dont log unto facebook, twitter, or whatever. Unplug for a moment

He prayed - While you are unplugged from the struggles plug into the one the has strength. Pray. The bible teaches us not to worry about anything but rather pray about everything. Re-connect to God through prayer. Try this in the closet and now you have a prayer closet!

Jesus asked for relief but wanted the mission to move forward. Not my will (what I want) but your will be done (God's mission) Remember the mission. The why in the what you are doing. If you are just serving your selfish desires you will live very ill. We all need something bigger to connect to. Gods mission, what He wants is where we need to be. What has God told us to do. Well keep on that!

Notice Jesus spoke these things. Not my will but yours be done. Think about what comes out your mouth. Do you speak more about the struggle than the mission? Do you speak more negative mess then positive words. Make sure your speech lines up with your belief which equals salvation BTW

Jesus gets up and moves toward the cross - Who said this is going to be easy, sissy walk. The cool thing is the angels came to minister to Him. This only happened after He was willing to move forward. Keep pedaling

Just keep pedaling - Just keep on Keeping on! The ones that make it to the end shall be saved. I want to be counted as one that finished the race before me. God will send you supernatural strength as long as you are connected to Him!

     

Unleash

I'm currently reading Unleash by Perry Noble. (Along with a few other books)
I have been following Pastor Perry for a few years now and at first I didn't know what to think. He is very straight forward, funny and very real. Needless to say the work he does for the kingdom of God is very effective.

I was excited to hear about his book and wondered if he could bring the same style (from the stage) translate it to the pages of a book. After reading it I believe he did.
A few things I really enjoyed. The stories. I could really relate to the Jr high dances. I too went and did not dance. I guess I was too cool.
I also have taken a lot from Perrys short sayings like; “God created us on purpose, with a purpose, and for a purpose.”
“If our view of God is small and manageable and normal then we will have a small view of what He wants to do in and through us.”

Unleash tackles the issue we all fight, normalcy. Why live a normal, average, run of the mill life. We serve a Big God with Big plans. I believe God wants us to live unleashed.

Read this Book.

unleahbook.com

Spiritual Battles

The more I read the more I learn. The less I read the more I depend on others opinions. This is very true when it comes to understanding the Holy Scriptures and church life.

Church life can be crazy sometimes there are soooooo many opinions about everything. What you should do and what you should not do. How you should act and how you should __________(fill in the blank).
One topic I hear a lot of opinions about is spiritual warfare. It seems some church goers want to be fighting all the time. "Im just fighting the Devil" (church lady voice). "Im in a Spiritual battle right now." What do we mean when we say these things? Are we in a MMA fight, octagon cage with a demon or worse the devil himself. And if that is the case why in the world would you want to be there. I like to fight but dang not on those terms. And yes I do believe there is an enemy of our soul that wants nothing more than to take me out. And I do know we wrestle not against flesh, well you know the rest.
The less I read the more I depend on others opinions. So this is what I read the other day...
You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. (Ephesians 2:2 NLT)
Well that's interesting.
The devil works in the heart of those who refuse to obey God. With the help of the Spirit this is what I see in this Holy Scripture.
The battle I face most of the time is simply obeying God. And when I choose not to, it's as if I'm inviting the spirit of darkness into the octagon ring of my heart. "spiritual warfare"
My warfare happens everyday. It's the battle against my jacked up desires. It's the battle against my selfishness. It's the battle against my lack of compassion and so on. And yes the enemy of my soul plays a role in helping me see things. But I have a good plan to defeat this and win. I strap on two gloves for the battle. One is called obedience the other endurance. Maybe the battle you are facing is to be obedient or disobedient?
Maybe your battle can be won with just being obedient to God every day!

Ding, Ding, Ding... Round 1.

Shallow thoughts for deep people

Something I want to share with the StockbridgeAssembly family.

Each Sunday we have the opportunity for two very important things to happen.

1. We have the opportunity to be empowered and empower others. We get to experience the idea of community worship and hearing the word together. We also get the opportunity to be obedient in our giving and pray for each other. Each one of these experiences are empowering.

2. We have the opportunity to engage the unbeliever or not-really-a-believer. We have the honor of pointing others to the life change Jesus brings. We get to love others with a love that is engaging. It is very important that our church engage the unbeliever. Remembering that we were once on the outside.

I believe in empowering the believer and engaging the nonbelievers!  We need to believe this and hold it close to our hearts. Here are a few things you can do to help create and empowering and engaging atmosphere when you attend.

• Bring the presences of the Living God in with you! This is a gathering or an assembly not a service.
• Pray that you will receive what God has for you and pray that others would come to know Him through Jesus.
• Remove all external distractions. Turn all communication devise to silent. If you use your phone to read the bible great just turn the sound off.
• Amening the preacher or highfiveing your neighbor may be a part of the gathering. You talking to your neighbor about lunch or the latest gossip probably not a good idea.
• If you have a young beautiful child - we have a nursery that your child will love!
• Limit you movement during the gathering. Use the bathroom before the gathering starts. You don’t want to be a distraction to others around you by moving around during worship or the preaching. If you have to leave and return, sit in the back until the gathering is over.
• Embrace the importance of what is happening on any given Sunday. Someone's life may change for all eternity or someone may get the answer to what they have been praying for or someone may be challenged to shift their selfish life.

You play an important part in each and every gathering. Thank you for journeying with us as we follow Christ.

Pastor SH