Archive for October, 2009

I found a blog tonight from a young woman who went to the Galilean Home on a Mission Trip for a week. Can you believe that someone chose a site right next to our hometown for their chosen Mission Trip? It just goes to show that you can be on a Mission right in your back door or far away. It’s a blessing either way! This particular link to her blog is a “Top Ten Things” list of what she learned on the trip. Check it out!

It’s pretty funny! It’s especially funny when you live here and know Exactly what she is talking about!

If you would like to join us on our Mission trip to the Galilean Home this Saturday, please contact Rana Thompson for details. I know that our work will be behind the scenes, but we will also be allowing the workers more time to take care of all the people they do on a daily basis without having to worry about the chores they still have left to do. So, get with Rana for the info, come with us, and prepare to be blessed! Maybe you will come back with your own “Top Ten” list!

Hey guys check out the new preview video

http://www.youtube.com/hillsidesmvideos#p/f/0/YCs4xOb3XP8

Just click to view.  See ya tomorrow night!

This morning, as I began to write in my journal, I read the one I wrote yesterday. It stated this, “God, Help me overcome my insecurities. John 16:33 ‘But take heart; I have overcome the world.’”

Sometimes we are so insecure in who we are or what we think we cannot accomplish, unavailability is stamped on our foreheads.  Instead of being a vessel to work through, our insecurities cause us to be unavailable to God and the works He wants to do through us.  I’m realizing how I’ve made myself unavailable to God because of how insecure I have been.  I recognize that I need to take up all my fears and throw them in God’s hands, and through that, I can overcome anything that is put before me – His spirit gives me strength. I encourage you to make yourself available to God, overcome those things you feel have taken rule in your life, because He has already overcome the world.

Link to: One Step Away song by Jason Upton from youtube 

     At times, we as Christians believe that we are so far from God or that God is up in Heaven and just looking down at us from a distance. Jesus says we are the sons and daughters of God. Jesus is so concerned with our lives and our problems, I don’t think we have any idea. He calls us to relationship with the Father, and we often times just take it for granted and never involve Him in our lives. God wants to be involved in everything in our lives. He’s not just up in Heaven looking down at you. He himself is in you and all around you. He’s one step away.

      As you go through your day, ask him what He sees, what He hears, what He’s saying. Ask him what He thinks about things, what’s on his mind, what He feels, and tell him those things about you. God has deep emotions just as you do, and “relationship” is not only sitting in a room once a day in prayer, although that helps your relationship. It’s caring about what’s going on with your Father and him caring about your life. Relationship walks with God. God is so close, you should never feel alone. He’s there with you in every situation, when you’re hurting, when you’re sad, when you’re happy, when you cry, when you’re alone, when you’re in a crowd. When you smile, He smiles with you. Do you understand that the GOD who created the stars and the moon is walking with you? So, why not involve him in those moments, and everything will become easier to go through. Remember, that He’s only One Step Away— involve him in your life.

Philippians 3:13
“but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are ahead”

Have you ever found yourself looking back at the Christian walk and saying if I could just pray the way I used to, or if I could just fast the way I used to, or if I could just be free from sin the way I used to, then everything would be ok? It’s almost like we long to be the Christian we used to be. Jesus makes it very clear to never leave your first love, but does that mean we have to spend our whole lives trying to get back to where we used to be. I see this mentality in so many Christians and even in my own life.

In Philippians, Paul says this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reach for those things which are ahead. We serve a progressive God! He doesn’t want us to make a U-Turn and be the person we used to be. He wants us to reach forward and strive for what is ahead, not for what is behind.

Maybe you’re in a low place, and you are longing to be the Christian you were at one time. I challenge you—do not long to be what you used to be, but long to be what God has in store for you. As Christians, we grow through adversity and learn the character God desires to see within us. God didn’t bring us through the valley so we would go back through it, striving to be what we used to be. He brought us through the valley to teach, mature and grow us.

I challenge you to let go of what is behind and reach for what is ahead! You’re not at the end of your journey. You’re just on the horizon of your new day! Let your last work be greater than your first works. Reach Forward!!

The best laid plans are made….the best made plans are laid….no, that’s not it. How does that saying go? I am not sure how that saying is supposed to go. In my life, it seems that the best laid plans are Unmade. At least that’s how it goes if I am the one making the plans.

I was in the grocery store today and saw those little, colorful horoscope scrolls that they sell. I remembered how I used to buy those a lot when I was a teenager. I would buy those scrolls, read the newspaper and magazine jibberish about horoscopes , and once I even called one of those hotlines to ask a question. As a young teenage girl, I could not wait to find out what my future held. Naturally, none of those things actually predicted anything. It’s not that I really thought they could, but I was so anxious to know what God had planned for me that I think I looked in everything but Him to find out.

It’s normal for a young person to dream about what the future holds for them. You want to know who you will marry, what your wedding will be like, where will you live, what job will you have…oh, and will that cute guy ask me out this weekend? Those are all very valid questions, of course. Well, at least they are valid questions for a girl. I have never been a young guy, but I suppose maybe they may wonder about that cute girl , that hot ride they want, careers, and sports scholarships?

The funny thing is that now I can look back on a book I have now read and say, “oh so that’s how the story went.” Not that I am finished writing my story, mind you. I just know how that part of it goes now….the parts I used to wonder so much about as a young girl.

I would try to think of  my children’s names; would I have a boy? a girl? one or two? I played those games to figure out my husband’s name. Walter was never a choice in those games, lol! It was always some name that was on the latest TV show or Ken (as in Ken & Barbie).  So, it seems that God’s actual plan was different than my own plans and I love Him for always guiding me outside of my own box. I love Him for not keeping me within my own limitations of what I thought life had to be.

Today, I don’t wonder about the future in the same way. When I wonder now, I ask God what He has for me. He doesn’t always answer me right away, but I know He is the only one who can answer that question. It doesn’t mean I don’t get anxious about it, but I know He is in charge of whatever the answer is. I won’t find it in the bottom of a cereal box or the back of a newspaper. There is only one Book that I can use to guide me and it is His Word. More than I wonder exactly how things will play out for me and now my little girls, I just pray that I get every chance to fulfill the Plan…whatever that Plan may be.

When I started Local Missions, I made all sorts  of plans. It is helpful to have a calendar made out when working with a Team and I made a calendar out with various mission events. In the past year, I learned that the best missions were the ones that God placed in front of me rather than the ones I placed in front of me. Any work you can do to help someone is wonderful, but a work that God gives you to help someone will reach farther than anything you could actually plan. Most of the items I had planned in the last few months have not come to pass for various reasons. However, when those fell through then God put something right in my lap that I knew was the right direction to go. When I was able to coordinate an event that was His plan rather than my plan, blessings came in abundance. What I have learned is that if I am patient to watch for God’s direction, then He will always lead us and He will do it in His timing.Once I truly know what God’s direction is, THEN I can start planning how to coordinate it.

This doesn’t just apply to planning missions or any ministry. It applies to every step of our life. When you are young, it is hard to not feel like you need to plan every step. It is hard to not be anxious about knowing if your dreams are going to come true. I can’t promise you that your dreams will come true. I can promise you that if you commit your life to the Lord , be patient, and watch for His direction that His plan will come true and it will be better than any thing you ever imagined.

I have heard Pastor Aaron’s story of coming to Higher Praise as the Youth Pastor. I don’t think that was actually in his original plans. It was in God’s plan though and I think we all know he wouldn’t trade it for anything he ever thought of doing now.

Don’t be anxious about your future. He holds your future. Don’t try to make things happen while being impatient for Him to direct you. If you do, then you are limiting your possibilities. It’s exciting to be looking ahead at your whole life, but it’s even more exciting to be looking ahead at a life that He has planned for you!

In his heart a man plans his course,
but the LORD determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9

I was walking down the hill on Lindsey’s campus the other day. It had been raining all day, my arms were full of books, and my purse was falling off my shoulder. I suddenly remembered that I am beyond clumsy, so I slowed down, and placed my feet carefully as I made my way down the hill to my car.

I was reminded of how easy it is to slip up in our walks with God sometimes. We don’t long to sin, or love to sin, but sometimes we do. As we walk with God, we have seasons where we have to carefully place our feet. Slippery situations that we have to be careful about how we place our feet. Our arms are full of things and schedules, sometimes church related, school, work, relationships.

And we fall. We slip up. We mess up.

Aren’t you glad Christ forgives? He gives us the strength, and his guiding hand to help us. He’s here…. take his hand… the slope may be slippery. But He’s with you.

“Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

     I read this quote in Baxter’s coffee shop in Somerset, and it has made me think ever since. We have made Christianity out to be so difficult and complex, or about whether we do this or don’t do that. The basis of your Christian life should be that you are formed by God to be like Jesus Christ in thought, character, nature, attitude, faith, and action. Jesus was God in the flesh, having the nature of God. When I look at the life of Jesus, I see a man unhindered by anything around him.  Walking from place to place, every thought, word, and deed was controlled by love for his Father and for those around him. We have a tendency to think of sin as just saying cuss words and drinking alcohol. When in reality, sin is anything that is unlike God. If you just walk through life with the attitude of showing everyone around you love and love toward God, striving to keep God in your thoughts always, then you won’t have to try to manage your sin life. You won’t want to lose your temper and yell at your mom, dad, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, kids or anyone else you come in contact with because it goes against God’s nature and doesn’t show love. You won’t want to have sex with the person you’re with before you’re married because you will understand it hinders your ability to truly love that person. It leads to unfathered children and shows love for no one  but yourself. You won’t want to cuss at people because it doesn’t show love, thus hindering your relationship with God. Being a Christian is not managing your sin life and just not doing sin. It’s about being in Love with God and not doing anything that would hurt your relationship with him and doing anything you can to strengthen your relationship with him. If you are “saved”, you are the child of God, and He wants you to inherit his nature of Love just like a son on Earth would inherit from his father. God is perfect in love, and He wants that for you because He wants what’s best for his children. Anything that is unlike him hinders what’s best for you.

            You are able to come before God only because Jesus paid the sacrifice and not because of yourself.  He is your hope in everything, but God wants you to Love Him, and true Love does anything to not hurt your relationship with him. Love also forgives, and if you find yourself not looking like Christ, then realize that He forgives and gives help if you just ask. When you mess up, ask for forgiveness. Push the delete button on that sin and continue on striving to conform your life to Christ’s, using prayer as your hope and peace. He will help you just because you ask, and He longs for you to live the best life you can and that’s one that looks like Christ’s.

Romans 13:10 – “Love does no wrong to anyone, so love satisfies all of God’s requirements.”

I just wanted say thank you to everyone who joined us last night for Hillside. I truly believe we are in a special season. Remember CHOOSE this day whom you will serve!

As I was leaving Columbia on Tuesday to go to Campbellsville, a state trooper fell in behind me.  I was hoping he was only going a short distance and would turn off.  Not the case.  He followed me all the way into C’ville.  I’m not a huge speed demon.  However, I do like to drive around 60-62 mph on good roads.  Since I didn’t want to press my luck, I set my cruise control on 56 mph.  I figured if I set it exactly on 55, he would know I was performing for him. haha.   

I was reminded of something that happened to me over a year ago at a conference I was attending in North Carolina.  During one of the classes, we were to write down something in regards to “pushing past the limits” (or something to that effect).  I thought about speeding.  When are you breaking the law?  When you get caught or when you go past the posted speed limit?  After leaving the conference, I made my way home after I had set my cruise control on the speed limit (much to my dislike).  

Do we do this with God?  Do we try to “push it to the edge”, hoping not to get caught?  And, then when we do, there’s usually a price to pay.  (Ask some of our pastors here at HPC about those tickets).  What if we obeyed the laws of the land and the laws of God?  Would we have to suffer the consequences because we had “gone too far”?  Just like when that state trooper was behind me, watching me, I behaved better.  Isn’t God right behind or beside us always, watching what we do?  Do we try to behave better for Him? 

Not only is God watching our actions, He is looking at our hearts.  Hebrews 4: “ ¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”  So, the next time you think about speeding (yes, Aaron), think about the consequences that might be awaiting you.  The next time you’re invited to a party where you know alcohol or drugs may be involved, think about what could happen that could possibly affect you down the road.  We may not be aware of those things when we’re just going “a few miles over the limit”.  It’s only when it becomes greater, do we feel the impact.