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What are you afraid of? Spiders? Snakes? Heights? Fire? Water? The Dark? Public Speaking? People?
What are you afraid of? Death? Life? Dying? Losing? Poor health? Losing your job? Divorce? Death of Spouse? Death of child? Economic meltdown? Tyranny? Anarchy? Pain?
What keeps you up at night? What causes your heart to skip a beat? What are you afraid of?
I will tell you my fears, if you will tell me yours?
At first I was disturbed by this book and these words from Mother Teresa , Where is my faith?" she wrote. "Even deep down… there is nothing but emptiness and darkness... If there be God — please forgive me." Eight years later, she was still looking to reclaim her lost faith. "Such deep longing for God… Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal," she said.
The more I read about her, the more I believe that her doubt was the deepest expression of her faih and humlity! I think of the words of the centurion who had the courage to ask Jesus to heal his daughter but humbly admitted, "I believe but help my unbelief."
Oh, God, I believe but help my unbelief! Help my desire and search for you to be so authentic that I admit that I have times I just don't understand your ways or your thoughts, times that I hear your call and cannot believe it for myself but bring my doubt in complete humility to You.
I do so agree with Beth Moore's subtitle for her newest Bible study fccusing on the book of Esther! At least two groups of women are studying it at Indian Creek Community Church and there are not many things I enjoy more than a good Bible study with a bunch of girlfriends! The living Word goes down better with the sweetness of women digesting it together! (And of course it helps if there is chocolate and other sweets present!)
I am also delighting in the fact that my daughter, Kristen is sitting at the feet of Jesus with Beth Moore, me and other women! What joy to see her take His Word to heart and impliment it in her own life! With His wisdom guiding her I am confident in her life! I am so glad that I can trust her to a Sovereign God who loves her, too!
Anyway back to Esther, what a story of humility, obedience and daring character! I love the freshness of the study! If you think you have studied Esther until you have nothing to learn, look again! This is a fresh perspective that goes far past, for such a time as this!
I want to get the movie that depicts the story of Esther's One Night With a King.
What a risk! What an opportunity! What courage!
Two weeks in India back-to-back with two weeks in China, February used to be the month Gary and I stole away somewhere together to rest and regenerate. However, not this year! This year we both scheduled amazing international trips that accidentally overlapped! I joined a team led by a friend who I had taken to India for the first time four years ago. And the highlight, I experienced India with my daughter, partnering with her to encourage women! And Gary departed for China the day I returned. So we have been away from each other for 26 days! I am fairly certain that that is a record in our nearly 30 years of marriage!
But he is almost headed home! He has less than 12 hours left in Hong Kong and then he boards a plane for San Franciso to Houston to KCI. HALLELUJAH!!! I am ready to be reunited!
I just finished writing the Go Deeper for the worship folder for this week's message of the Justice Journey series, Reach Out. As I was writing it I received a twitter from Gary reporting that he was headed to Victoria's Peak, the highest spot in Hong Kong to compose the companion message for this Sunday!
What an inspiring perch from which to write about Reaching Out to a world of injustice to bring light and hope and justice! I can't wait to hear it! And to see the man who will deliver it in person! To think he is there thousands of miles away and a half a day ahead creating what God will deliver on Sunday!
In the meantime I thought I would give you a sneak peak at the Go Deeper. I would love your feedback.
READY Read Micah 6:8 (New International Version and New Living Translation)
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
8 No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.
To do justly…the New International Version says to do what is right…who defines what is right these days? What does it look like for you to “to what is right”? What happens when you “love mercy”? And, oh my, what does your humble walk look like with God?
SET Who are we to say what is good?
I remember being involved in a Beth Moore study, Jesus the One and Only. I had just traveled to India once and was contemplating returning. Beth had shot the video for the series and taught in a church in India. On her last day there she had gone to a medical clinic and experienced the multitude of people desperate for care waiting in long lines. The new mental picture it gave her of Jesus healing the multitudes was incredible! However she said that as she was standing there she was overwhelmed with the thought that the very next day she would be leaving India and would be transported from this poverty-stricken people and land of billons to her comfortable home where she wants for nothing. The irony, injustice and contrast was more than she could handle! She broke down and wept and began to cry out to God, “Why? How can that be, God? How is that fair? I can leave here tomorrow but they, they will never leave this place or their plight in life!! How is that fair or just? I don’t get it!”
Beth said that she instantly heard God in her spirit reply with a question for her, “Who are YOU, to say what is good?”
That question has been reverberating in my ears during this Justice Journey series and my recent trip to India. Who am I to say what is good? We visited a small village only an hour and a half from the city of Salem, a city of over a million people where we stayed for five days. The village was comprised of only about 200 people. The church had been established some twenty years ago and was pastored by a young man, the son of the founding pastor; and his mother, the wife of the founding pastor. It was a small building with no furniture and an open doorway, clean swept and inviting but the epitome of simple.
We had traveled on our last day in India to tour the village and see a skill center where the India Gospel League trained women to weave on a manual loom and men on a power loom. Our van stopped in front of the church and next to a woman squatting in the dirt grinding corn with a stone pedestal in a stone bowl while her curious toddler watched wearing only her smile. As we walked around the village, looking at the simplest of homes IGL had built for some of the families and the first water well, we collected an entourage of curious villagers, mostly women and children.
They wanted to touch us and have their pictures taken. We were humbled and delighted to interact. One of the greatest joys of these trips is to connect with the people in their own culture, habitats and everyday surroundings. They are curious to interact with us and there is a small but significant exchange and connection that we are both better having experienced. As we climbed into the van to travel a few miles further into the village, a woman rushed to the doorway and begged to tell her story. She had walked 3 kilometers to the village because she had heard that we were going to be there and she wanted to ask if we would please pray for her family. Her husband and some of her family do not know Christ.
We were humbled and amazed at her heart, her faith and her desperate need for the community of prayer and agreement. We were touched and honored to join our hearts with hers in agreement with the scripture, wherever two or three are gathered there His is!
We drove away moved by God’s presence and faith in the life of this woman His follower. We ventured on to the place where the larger power loom was housed as well as the real “power room” for the village and the believers in the area. Beside of the facility where the power loom provided income for the people by producing work for the villagers to weave material for silk sarees, we met a couple who have lived in the area for 30 years and have been praying for the church and people to find their way back to God and experience Him. For 30 years they have lived there and been praying! We were received into their “home” which was a one room hut with a curtain doorway. They were the most gracious of hosts with chairs and 7up for our convenience. As the man and his wife greeted and served us, she could not stop smiling. When we asked why she was so happy, she said that she had great joy because foreigners had come to her home! We were blown away! Humbled! Who were we?
I, too, was haunted by the realization that the next day I would be transported out of there and back to the land of plenty (and plenty of waste) perplexed at the contrast! How do we bridge the gap? How do we make a difference here? How do we help? Where do we start?
I guess I hear God saying, Start where you are. I don’t need another Beth Moore. I have one, thank you. But what about being you! Be who I made you to be! I don’t already have one of those and I won’t!
Look at the needs around you. Is there someone in close proximity to you, a family member or neighbor who is in need? It could be spiritual need (we all are there), financial need, emotional need…Can God use you to meet it? Will you act justly to those around you?
Is there a social injustice or cause that sparks your interest? Is there something that you cannot stop thinking about? Can you contribute to a cause above and beyond your tithe? What about sponsoring a child in India, China or Mexico? How do you love mercy?
GO How do you walk humbly? Try this!
I was studying the Psalms last winter. The portion we were studying was called the Psalms of Ascent. They were the collection of songs that the people sang as they traveled up to the city of Jerusalem. The writer of the study, Stepping Up, said that she believed that the way up in our spiritual walk starts with an actual descent. She said that in order to go up, we must go down. She challenged us to start each morning of the 10 week study on our faces, literally, before God. Not just kneeling down but laying prostrate, FLAT, with our faces on the floor. I found it to be a most humbling experience and a whole different perspective. Nothing to distract me but the rug in my face as I focused each morning on His presence before starting my day and my list of needs and requests. So I challenge you to try it this week. As soon as your feet fit the floor, hit the deck and ask God how you can walk act justly this week? Ask Him how you can express mercy and love this week to those in your realm of influence? Experience a new perspective on your world and God from face down on the floor before Him? What would He ask you to consider doing for Him? Are you willing to visit a third world country? Is He asking you to contribute to the cause of advancing the Good News of Jesus Christ in a world of injustice? Where? How? Ask. And then be still on your face and listen for His answer.
I would LOVE to hear about your facedown experience! Comment below.
Memory verse Micah 6:8 of course, any version.
Jesus told His disciples that He would build His Church! He is doing it still today! What fun to celebrate with Indian Creek Gardner's Pre-Launch service Sunday night at Wheatridge Middle School in Gardner where 80+ showed up to celebrate God's call. It reminded me of the baby stages of Indian Creek! Campus Pastor Ben Stears poured out his heart for the people gathered there ready to GO WHERE God says GO! Exactly the call of the very first disciples!
The last thing Jesus told them (and you know we always save the best and most important things we have to say to our loved ones until the very last) was to go and teach all nations! I am so glad that God is allowing us to partner around the corner in Gardner as well as around the world in India and China!
How lucky I am to have so much to lose! This phrase has captivated me since I saw it on MSN this morning. Is it about sacrifice or just life? I am reminded of former President Kennedy's famous words, I regret that I have but one life to give for my country! And then I climbed on the eliptical while Luke was on the exercise bike and Rachel was running on the treadmill while we watched a DVD a friend loaned me, Hillsong's United, With Hearts As One.
What motivating and passionate music! Thousands of people jumping and singing their hearts out all over the world in all different languages but in ONE voice with ONE heart praising ONE God! Hallelujah!
What do we do with what we have been entrusted! We can't sing praise to the Almighty Creator and ignore His precious creation!
Last year I was in India when Storling presented the Underground and I so regretted missing it! This year Gary is in China but I was able to attend tonight and wow! What an incredible, impactful and moving presentation! Charles Briscoe, praying pastor of Kansas City was on hand to introduce the powerful message in the form of beautifully choregraphed dance!
I don't think I have ever seen something so fluent in movement and message!
We are all His children! And He so longs for us to love each other and get along!
John 13:35
Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
Romans 13:8
Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.
1 Thessalonians 3:12
And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.
1 Thessalonians 4:9
But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God himself has taught you to love one another.
1 John 2:7
Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before.
1 John 3:11
This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
1 John 3:23
And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.
1 John 4:7
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
2 John 1:5
I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning.
2 John 1:6
Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.
Women leaders training women leaders all for the glory of God and the reproduction of leaders to help women find their way back to God. Women with a Mission is serious about producing leaders who encourage women to find their way back to God. Their goal is to train 50, 000 women by 2010 and they are well on their way. They do this through conferences locally, regionally, statewide and nationally all over India and Sri Lanka.
Prati Stephens, wife of Samuel Stephens and co-founder of Women with a Mission is passionate about challenging women to reach their full potential for Jesus Christ and the glory of God and the advancement of His Kingdom—helping other women find their way back to God. She travels extensively encouraging and urging women to engage in the battle. Indian Creek has partnered with Women With a Mission in sending more than 25 women from several different churches to engage in this effort to help women of India and Sri Lanka dare to believe that there is a God who loves them and longs for relationship with them. Ordinary women from the United States have dared to believe that they could make a difference in the lives of other women just like them half a world away. Indian Creek has sent nine teams who have encouraged thousands of women to find their way back to a God who created them as special and for the purpose of relationship with Him!
Last September a team of five women led by Judy Sturman went to northeastern India and stood on the border of Pakistan and India where the volatile battle between those countries was displayed. The tension and potential for destruction was evident and the urgency very real.
Last week I traveled with another team led by Valorie Wilson engaged in the very real and even more urgent spiritual battle of helping women find their way to God. We traveled in southern India this time leading and helping to facilitate five conferences where women were urged and encouraged to engage in the battle by investing their lives for Jesus Christ in His Body, the Church! Women were amazed to hear that they could be of use to God to help others find their way back to God! Some had never heard or dreamed that they had a vital part to play! Indian Creek Community Church is making a difference in the lives of women in Olathe and around the world by helping them find their way back to a God who created them for the purpose of a loving relationship with Himself! I love it and am so glad! It is a joy to be a part of a church that is helping people find their way back to God: locally, nationally and globally! Since 2001 Indian Creek Community Church has partnered with India Gospel League in training and encouraging women to find their way back to God through these conferences. Every time I go I am humbled and amazed at the passion and desire to advance His Kingdom. Prati Stephens urges women to seek out other women who are far from God and tell their own transformation story so that they might believe that they are made for more than this world as well. She assures them that they are not just ordinary women but extraordinary women who are daughters of an extraordinary God who loves them and longs for a relationship with them that is more than Idol worship—a personal relationship with the One true and living God and women respond. Women commit to help at least TWO women a month EVERY month find their way back to God!
