Our Journey Our Mission

I have been reading Purpose Driven Life - It is my 4th or 5th time through in 8 years - I love this book - I get so much out of it every time I do this. It is a 40 day journey - that I can stretch into 60, but that is besides the point.

Today is day 36 on my journey and it talks about our Mission... So here is my entry:

God gave us a ministry and a mission -
Our ministry is service to believers -
Our mission in service to unbelievers.


Paul says in Acts 20:24 -
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

Have I not know this was my mission? Yes, I have. My ministry is so in my comfort zone - it is easy to serve, share, speak with other believers about what Christ is doing, has done and will do in me.
My Mission is so far out of my comfort zone. This is where fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) sets in - confidence disappears, the boat starts to rock, the waves are splashing down on me - beating me - what will you say, what if they reject you - isn't that our biggest fear and hindrance - REJECTION - but we can't take it personally - they are not rejecting us - they are rejecting Jesus ... Oh Jesus, help me to keep my focus upon you - let me keep pushing through, perserving - moving forward - let my confidence be set on you in you - let me testify to others about your love and mercy. Let me share with the lost of your grace and how you saved me -one who is so undeserving - one who lived her life so far from you - one who should not be living but you gave me life!

I spoke of RESPONSIBILITY the other day. I have a responsibility to you Father - I have a responsibility to share with other Christians, but I also have a specific assignment from you to share with unbelievers. My mission is to introduce people to you my Father, so that they to can love you, be a part of your family, become more like you, serve you and tell others of you.

Jesus says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" - Matthew 28:19,20

Jesus tells us here that WE are to go out and make disciples - no just pastors and missionaries, but WE ALL of US. He also tells us to teach them - not just get them in the door and leave them to figure it out on their own - but to give them a personal guided tour - so they can then go out and make disciples (this is something so many churches are lacking - I will NOT go on). My favorite part in the scripture is that He tells us He will be with us ALWAYS - How many times have I forgot this and ran and got back in the boat my comfort zone. I must remember he is ALWAYS with me - ALWAYS - He is my confidence - I will set my eyes on Him - for he did not set me up to fall or fail - but to stand tall and move forward in Him!

Again Jesus tells us, "GO into all the world and preach the good news to all creation" Mark 16:15

He tells us that, "repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." - Luke 24:47

Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." - John 20:21

Lastly he tells us ...
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." - Acts 8:1

These verses clearly tell me what my/our mission is - we are so NOT to sit back and let others do ... we are the others - we are to be doers, no merely hearers - we have the Holy Spirit and our assignment - Our playing field is HUGE!

To ignore this would be disobedience!
Ezekiel 3:18 (NCV) says it best ...
You must warn them so they may live. If you don't speak out to warn the wicked to stop their evil ways, they will die in their sin. But I will hold you responsible for their death.

OUCH!

This makes it very clear - no question on what my responsibility is! To go out and do the work of Father, representing Him ALWAYS. So this makes GOD in a sense my employer and this gives me the employee the confidence that he will give me, guide me and teach me all His ways - for success is our goal - Success in reaching all His people to the ends of this earth.

The great thing is we can share God right where we are at. Just ask, "God, who have you put in my life for me to tell about Jesus?"

Don't waste the life God has given you ..."anyone who lets himself be distracted from the work I plan for him is not fit for the Kingdom of God" - Luke 9:62 (LB)

I tell God often, "less of me more of you - none of me all of you." I must leave my plans for my life behind and line up with the plans that God has set before me, "Father, I want your will not mine"
I must learn to pray, "God, help me do what you are blessing" NOT "God bless what I want to do."

We must do as Romans 6:13b says, "but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness."

So in closing I want to leave you with this - First a must read, Purpose Driven Life if you have not already read it - and if you have - read it again - The story Rick Warren tells of his father who is dying of cancer and his last thing that he says was ... "Save One More For Jesus"

That is what we need to make as our mission "Save One More For Jesus"

Jesus gave his life for you and me on the cross so that we might live - How wrong is it for us not to share His story, His Love, His Sacrifice with others through our own testimony?

It's Time to Take Responsibility

Yes, this is my second Blog today - Had lots of insight this morning!

We have so many choices in our lives - so why not choose PEACE?
Why not choose to NOT live angry, tired, frustrated, worried lives?

Worrying does not change a thing - it only adds stress, weakness and makes me tired and moody - not so fun to be around! So don't use up all your emotional energy trying to fix something that only God can fix!

In John 14:27 Jesus says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

Peace I leave with you - not as the world gives - To have peace in Jesus is to have peace in all circumstances - not just peace in the world when all is going well in or life - but peace when we are going through the most difficult times in our life - Peace that only Jesus can give. I had to really ponder on this - and I realized while I am a very peaceful person - I do not have peace in one major area of my life - that is my self image. I grew up seeing myself as frumpy, dumpy and lumpy - I was called names - Clarence the crossed eyed lion for one - Piggy was another - Jell-o butt was another - always picked last on teams - and no I am not throwing a pity party just telling you this is where my self image was created as a child - things that I have never put to rest. To this day I still struggle with my appearance - I do feel beautiful and I know in God's eyes I am - and that is what matters - but I have no peace - I fight constantly with my weight - only to hear people say - I don't know why you look fine - looking and feeling to different things - what people see, I do not - I still see the frumpy girl in school - This is where I have no peace - and I must say it makes Satan happy - well I have some information for you Satan not any more. This morning I learned or will be learning a very valuable lesson - I have to take RESPONSIBILITY for where I am at. I have peace in so many areas of my life, but I have no peace with self image, diet and exercise - I need to take RESPONSIBILITY of where I am at - I don't exercise or eat right. It is my RESPONSIBILITY - If I look at everything else I have overcome - If I look at all I have worked through and faced truth about - I am RESPONSIBLE for ME - I need to light a fire under my feet and get busy. I can do something about this - Only I can change me with God's help of course - All I am doing is keeping myself down. I need to quit feeling sorry for myself and do something about it. I must make decisions for myself. I need to quit living in the "chair" and wishing (my clothes fit right, my body was fit) and making no progress at all.

I must take RESPONSIBILITY for ME! Stop living for people and start living for GOD - I need to be physically and mentally Fit to do the things in which He is going to call me to do! I must always live before an Audience of One! For our body is God's temple and it needs to be treated as such!

I have a work out buddy - Father - He is my workout buddy - I can get up every morning and work out with Him. Then He and I can sit down with a cup of coffee and spend some time together in His word - Learning all that He has to Teach me - It's time to dig deep and preserve, it's time to get out of the chair and take RESPONSIBILITY for my diet and my exercise - no one is going to do it for me - but I have a great partner to help do it!!

What is Goodness???

Well this morning when I got up and after letting the dogs out and feeding them and then making my coffee - I got to sit down for some quiet time with Father. Yesterday, I was in 2 Peter 1:1-11 but really was focusing on vs 6 about godliness. This morning Father had me read and write out vs 5-11 which read like this ... (out of the NIV)

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to you 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, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For 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. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Their is so much in these verses that it will take me several Blogs to get through it all - so while yesterday I thought I was going to blog about godliness, Father led me to start at the beginning ...

What does it mean to make every effort? It means making a serious attempt, work hard at, to do whatever you have to do to get it. What are we making every effort for? To add to our faith. We already have faith in God, in Christ, in His word, His works - But here we are being told to make every effort to add to our faith - these character building qualities of:

Goodness;Knowledge; Self-Control; Perseverance; Godliness; Brotherly Kindness and Love
(Kind of reminds me of Galatians 5:22-23 - But the Fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Against such things their is no law.)

So lets look at each one individually ...

What is Goodness? It is a favorable character or tendency - kind, profitable; excellent; lifting or appropriate; morally right -
We know what good is - we not only need to do good and bring out the goodness in ourselves, but we need to bring out the goodness in others also. This is where we often quote, "Do unto others"...and Matthew 7:12 says it best, "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you ...". Jesus tells us how to live a good life and if we follow His guidance how much simpler and easier life would be even through the most difficult trials of our lives - John 15:5 explains it out, "5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." What kind of fruit will we bear if we remain in Christ - GOOD Fruit!

Following Christ is not a chore that some who don't believe make it out to be. Being good is not a bad thing, its not a hard thing - It's a God thing - its a choice. Being good is putting your best foot forward, being good is being kind - helping others who can't help themselves. Being good is seeing the good in others and bringing goodness out in them. So we need to make every effort every day to add to our faith goodness - Let people see the goodness in you - Let Jesus shine through you to the point when people see you or hang out with you they experience the Jesus in you!! Less off me, more of Jesus - None of me, all of Jesus!

Steppin Out and Stepping Up

My cry is to change me from the inside out ...

Hebrews 6:1 says, Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity...

I know the basics, the essentials, the importance of faith, that you are not saved by good deeds or works. I know the meaning of baptism and spiritual gifts. I know about the resurrection - the facts. Now it is time to move on, move forward.

My cry is to change me from the inside out ...

I am ready to take my elementary teachings and move forward fully for you Lord to fulfill your purpose.

Acts 2:42-47 describes our church (Gateway Church of Blue Springs) to a tee - it is what we strive for, work towards. Vs. 47 (b) says, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

I am way to comfortable - it is time to be like Peter and get out of the boat - get out of my comfort zone - to keep my eyes on Jesus even during the uncomfortable situations - I need to stop running back to the boat and jumping in - I need to forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead, pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13-14).

We studied Matthew 9:35-38 yesterday in Church.
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field".

Several things have stuck out to me - first we are to look like Jesus, act like Jesus - what was Jesus doing? He was teaching and preaching, He was full of compassion on the people. When I read sheep without a shepherd I had to do some digging. In Ezekiel 34 the leaders (shepherds) are criticized for taking care of themselves (they became to comfortable) and not the people (sheep). In vs 4 it says: You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. Further on in 34 it tells of Jesus the Messiah coming and taking care of his people.

Jesus tells us to feed His sheep. Don't become so comfortable in your walk in your relationship that you are not tending his sheep. Is their someone at your work that you could take to lunch and share your story with? Can you make a meal for a family? Get on your knees in prayer for someone? Give a mom and dad a date night by watching their kids? Sit with the elderly? My personal favorite give someone your shoes?

As it says in Matthew 9:38 Ask the Lord of the harvest...

As the Lord to show you who you need to speak to or to place people in your life who need him. Know that where God guides he provides.

As Scott Phillips said the worse thing someone could say is, "No".
But knowing that someone does not know Jesus and could be going to Hell if they don't come to know Him is worth stepping out of the boat - for the no you think you may get could turn into a yes - so plant seeds, water the fields - love on people and by all means get out of the boat and share what Jesus is doing and has done in your life with others.