Monday Moment

It gets better all the time, listening to my husband preach that is. I know that sounds like the right thing for a wife to say, and maybe it is, but if it wasn't true I'd find a something else nice to say. Bottom line is, he kills it week after week after week! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I've never known him to go into Sunday morning unprepared and without passion for what he's preaching. It comes from the Holy Spirit's anointing, of course, and a strong belief in the scripture he handles so carefully and accurately. After 30 plus years, I'm still grateful to sit under that teaching. I owe so much of my own growth in the Word to hearing Eddie preach for so long.

That's one blessing I know better than to take for granted. 

Having said that, yesterday was no exception as we studied from Phil 1:20-26. 

Studying Paul's philosophy of life shows me just how far I have to go in being kingdom minded and less self focused. Paul's preference was to die but he was willing to live. Most of us are willing to die but we'd rather live. Paul was consumed with Christ. And he was determined that as long as he was here on earth, he was going to be about fruitful labor. I made myself a note in my notes that that's what I want to want for myself. I want to be consumed with Christ. I want to be about things that make a difference for the kingdom. I want to give it everything I've got until God calls me home and not get caught up in the petty things of life or even the ministry things that we can so easily make about ourselves. 

The question we were left with was, what is your philosophy? We were given this statement to fill in the blanks...

          For me to live is _________. 

          For me to die is _________. 

If we put anything in the first blank other than Christ, then in the second blank we can go ahead and put loss. Because to live for anything else, power, career, family, etc., will lead to loss. Only Christ will give us gain. 

Rise happened at 6:00 and the Spirit was powerful. I can't ever say enough about those who lead that worship. Last night Jake, Morgan, Cale and Jackson led and I was left with "how do they do that?". I know it's Spirit empowered and giftedness. I'm just always amazed at these young ones and their heart and soul. They do more than sing and lead music, they worship and the leading follows. 

My man brought another killer message from John 21. He pointed out so many things in that passage I had never thought of and I saw the practicality and love of Jesus in a brand new way. Jesus always gets us on our level whatever that may be. We looked at Peter's influence, good and bad, and warned of being careful of how we lead others. 

It was a great day to be in God's house with His people. 

Monday Moment

Joy in adversity. Adversity is the thief in chapter one of Philippians that attempts to steal our joy. Eddie asks a question that would cause all of us to stop and think about...what do we see when we look through the windows of life? 

Paul was looking through the window of prison, chained to a soldier, yet he saw a prospect, an opportunity to advance the gospel. 

We can use adversity as an opportunity for encouragement even in our hurt and when we are under pressure. God uses those times and we must learn how to stand under the pressure. How we respond is a witness to others. 

We also had a great night at Rise! Keiffer shared musically as well as a word of testimony of how God has shown Himself faithful through the struggle of the last month. John Leopard brought a great word from Matthew 8 on how Jesus came down the mountain to the crowd and the clean made the unclean clean. When the people stepped back from the leper, Jesus leaned in. Like the leper, our only hope is Jesus and the only requirement is that we surrender. Beautiful words from Jesus..."I am willing". 

How thankful I am for some of our senior adults who come every single Rise service and love on and encourage our young leaders! You have no idea what a blessing that is as you build them up in the faith. May your tribe increase!

Monday Moment

For week 3 of our study in Philippians, we focused on prayer. Wherever we fall on a scale in terms of how our prayer life is, I'm sure we would all say it could be better. We could all pray more or more often, be more purposeful and intentional and it could probably be more about others than self.

Therefore, the message from Philippians 1:9-11 was impactful. 

We looked at the way in which the apostle Paul prayed and his focus in prayer as well as the goal of his prayer. 

It was definitely a prayer for the church at Philippi, but we can learn from it and apply it to our church as well. 

We know from Paul's life that they could lock him up but they couldn't shut him up or shut up his prayers. 

We know it's important for us to be blameless, not perfect, but that there's nothing in our life that causes others to stumble whether in coming to Christ or in taking their next step. 

Eddie shared a great illustration with his old weight lifting glove to show how the Holy Spirit in us is what makes us useful and purposeful and gives us worth. And yes, like our fingers in the glove, the Holy Spirit should stick out in our life. 

It was a great night at our Rise service. Great crowd for Labor Day weekend and our college students away. There's no way worship is better anywhere else, if so, I wouldn't be able to stand it. Every week I'm covered in glory bumps as the Spirit is overwhelming! Our pastor preached a powerful word on how to stand in the midst of persecution even if no one stands with you. But we know Jesus is always with us to offer peace and power.