1. Sorry for the hiatus... technology can be so fickle.
2. Getting back on track... this week we're talking about Hagar & Ishmael.
If you haven't read it, check out Genesis 16. Click here to read it on Bible Gateway.
When it comes right down to it, Ishmael's story is a testament to how terrible we are at this game (the following God and obeying what He says game). God promises Abram descendants. So many, in fact, that they will outnumber the stars in the sky and the sand on the shore. He created the universe... so why couldn't He make a nation out of an old man and his barren wife? But rather than waiting and allowing God to fulfill His promise in His own time and His own way, they get impatient. They begin to doubt Him. Hello!! Did they miss the part where He created the universe?!?
So often we take action when God just wants us to be still and wait on Him. We rush into things, plowing through our own way, when God had it all planned out. He's hard at work, delicately chiseling bit by bit to make a way for us and we come running up with our sledge hammer, bash it all in and busting our way through. Like a bull in a China shop.
Makes me wonder what all we miss out on by forcing things before their time.
Be still & wait.
Xx
10.22.2014
10.01.2014
you make me sick...
When it comes down to it, Noah was a guy willing to do something incredibly crazy just because God asked him to. God is real and what you decide to do about that is your choice, but you need to make a choice. We so often forget how short life can be until we're faced with the threat of it ending... Don't waste another minute just going through the motions. As far as God is concerned, lukewarm faith is disgusting.
"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth!"
Revelation 3:15,16
Don't wait until you've had a near-death experience to truly surrender to God, because not all of us are lucky enough to survive.
9.25.2014
a: awesome-sauce brenneman
q: If Dave and Abby had a baby, what should they name it?
Umm, anyway... In the story of Cain and Abel, God was pleased with Abel's offering because he brought his best. In a fit of jealous rage, Cain kills his brother. Was he really that surprised that the Creator of the universe was not impressed with his leftovers? (C'mon son.)
In Sunday school, I challenged everyone to consider what their talents were, what they can bring to God. Many said they didn't know what they were good at, perhaps that's because you were put on the spot... but maybe it's something else. Maybe more of us are like the last servant in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 (check it out here or get out your Bible).
God created Cain with the skill to work the land, just as God creates each of us with a specific set of skills. He is like the man in the parable, entrusting his valuables to his servants while he is awhile. Are we going to take what God has given us and use it according to his purpose so it can be multiplied or will we be like the last servant and be too scared to do anything but hide it in the ground?
Consider someone like our old friend Dave (Brenneman... you know, that guy who used to pastorally assist at our church... the one with freakish, Goliath-esque height and a cheery disposition... yeah, that guy). What if Dave never responded to God's calling to become a pastor? Rumor has it, he doesn't much like talking in front of people... I can't imagine that one with a fear of public speaking would be all that good at or comfortable with speaking publicly. Yet he did and I know my life is certainly changed for it. There are very few other people who exemplify the joy and kindness of Christ as authentically as he does and the overall genuineness and passion of his faith is inspiring. But think if he had been too scared like the last slave, all the insight he shared with us in his sermons would only get passed on to Abby and digging a hole to bury his talent in would have been torture for his back. None of us would have ever had the opportunity to see the love of Christ lived out the way he does it so I know I, for one, am glad Dave's not a sissy.
Our willingness to surrender our less than perfect selves, allows God to do incredible things in and through us.
We don't have to be the best or even all that good... we might even be terrible, but when we give God our best, He does His best in us.
Xx
Umm, anyway... In the story of Cain and Abel, God was pleased with Abel's offering because he brought his best. In a fit of jealous rage, Cain kills his brother. Was he really that surprised that the Creator of the universe was not impressed with his leftovers? (C'mon son.)
In Sunday school, I challenged everyone to consider what their talents were, what they can bring to God. Many said they didn't know what they were good at, perhaps that's because you were put on the spot... but maybe it's something else. Maybe more of us are like the last servant in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 (check it out here or get out your Bible).
God created Cain with the skill to work the land, just as God creates each of us with a specific set of skills. He is like the man in the parable, entrusting his valuables to his servants while he is awhile. Are we going to take what God has given us and use it according to his purpose so it can be multiplied or will we be like the last servant and be too scared to do anything but hide it in the ground?
Consider someone like our old friend Dave (Brenneman... you know, that guy who used to pastorally assist at our church... the one with freakish, Goliath-esque height and a cheery disposition... yeah, that guy). What if Dave never responded to God's calling to become a pastor? Rumor has it, he doesn't much like talking in front of people... I can't imagine that one with a fear of public speaking would be all that good at or comfortable with speaking publicly. Yet he did and I know my life is certainly changed for it. There are very few other people who exemplify the joy and kindness of Christ as authentically as he does and the overall genuineness and passion of his faith is inspiring. But think if he had been too scared like the last slave, all the insight he shared with us in his sermons would only get passed on to Abby and digging a hole to bury his talent in would have been torture for his back. None of us would have ever had the opportunity to see the love of Christ lived out the way he does it so I know I, for one, am glad Dave's not a sissy.
Our willingness to surrender our less than perfect selves, allows God to do incredible things in and through us.
We don't have to be the best or even all that good... we might even be terrible, but when we give God our best, He does His best in us.
Xx
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