SNOW DAY THOUGHTS

    We are currently snowed in under 25 inches here in the Washington Metro area. One of our Deaconess' asked how we would be spending our Sunday as everything is closed. Well, I have a few bibles and I have a computer. While my son digs me out, I'll have a service online!

    I watched everyone bemoaning the fact that nobody will be moving anywhere unless they have a plow attached to their car for the next few days. A scripture came to mind. Philippians 4:11-13 {AMP}: Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want [ to my ICOG family, remember we were warned my Pastor several weeks ago to prepare so we wouldn't be in want], for I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am. 12) I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough tospare or going without and being in want. 13) I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who  infuses inner strength into me; I am self sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].

    Learning how to adapt and be content in circumstances means that you have been through circumstances. Going through circumstances causes us to become amazingly resilient. Through God's grace and mercy, we toughen as He takes us through. 1 Thess. 5:16 commands us to REJOICE evermore and verse 18 again commands us to GIVE THANKS in everything. So as you dig out your cars, give thanks. There is someone who wishes they could dig their car out or wishes they had a car to dig out. As you cuddle up to your annoying family members, give thanks. Someone lost a loved one and wishes they had one more time to cuddle. As you gripe because you are stuck in the house, remember the homeless who wish they had a house to be confined to.

   One more thought. A friend and I were in conversation this week and she commented on the fact that the snow was a good thing because the "air needed a good cleansing to remove the viruses" Trust God that what He allows in the natural, he also performs in the spiritual.  Are we willing to cause a spiritual blizzard in prayer so that the viruses of the enemy can be destroyed?!!!

GOD'S DIET PLAN

This month's blog is a bit late due to the fact our church has just come out of a 21-day fast and time of consecration. This was a wonderful time of drawing closer to God and hearing clearly from Him without the distractions of internet,TV and phone, as well as doing the Daniel Fast for food. At the conclusion of the fast, we were all commenting on how good everyone actually looked. According to scripture in Daniel 1:15, when Daniel and his friends completed their 10 day diet plan, they actually looked finer than those who had eaten the king's dainties. One question that kept popping up was "How much weight did you lose?" As always in the natural there is a spiritual side to this question that I want to pose to you. In Hebrews 12:1{AMP}, we are told to  "... strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us." In this scripture we see that we are told to "strip off and throw aside". There is no thought given to beg Jesus to come and do this for us, the onus is on us!  As one of our ministers marveled that she had lost all of her baby weight, so we too must lose all of our "baby weight" in the spirit. Hebrews. 6:1 declares "Therefore let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity..." As we move forward in 2010, we are expecting God to do awesome things.  Do not go back to the familiar things  that beset us and weighed us down and made us ineffective as saints of the most high God. Maintain the spiritual diet and exercise plan that God has laid out for us as we press toward the mark (Phil. 3:12). Cast off the doubt, the low self esteem, the pity party the blame games.  God's diet plan is this: Ezekiel 3:3 "And he said to me Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you (the word of God) and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth." Dress yourself in the best (Romans 13:14) and begin (or continue) the exercise plan of God (John 9:4). Hallelujah!

THE CLOCK IS TICKING!!!

   As a single person, some interesting things have been said to  me down through the years. Some were of great comfort and others were of great puzzlement at  the time.  I find that as singles, (and even married people) we hunger for a personal "word from the Lord" for direction for our lives. While there is nothing wrong with this, often times we get out of place in our seeking. Some years ago, a word was given to me regarding marriage. At the time I received it, I took it to mean one thing. However, often times when the Lord gives us a word, His interpretation and ours vary widely. This is the difference between merely hearing and gaining an understanding of what we hear.  Because I took the word and ran with the definition of marriage I thought God meant, my thinking was off for many years. This caused me to misplace my affections on the wrong things and miss what God really intended for me to be seeking after. When this word didn't manifest like I wanted (or at least like I thought I wanted), I became depressed and confused. Often, when this happens, we tend to label the person giving the word as false, or perhaps the word just wasn't for us. However, whenever a word is given to us, it is our OWN responsibility to "try the spirits..." (1 John 4:1) Now, knowing that God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33), I had to retrace my steps and found out that the marriage God intended for me was of a spiritual one, not a natural one.

    As a woman, I've often used the statement "my biological clock is ticking". But as a saint of the most high God, we should be asking "What about my spiritual clock?" Am I on the time line to birth the thing that God has impregnated me with? (Men, if you are reading, this applies to you also in the spirit). Have I run after my own interpretation of a word and found out that's not what God had intended, thereby throwing my destiny off by weeks, years...? I had to reevaluate the word I had been given and have God shine the light of the Holy Spirit upon it so that the truth could be revealed. Now I'm happily married to the call that God has placed on my life and operate fully and happily in it.

Check your clock!! Will you "spring forward" with God or "fall back"?

NEW TWIST ON AN OLD SONG

    "I will trust in the Lord, I will trust in the Lord, I will trust in the Lord till I die..." As I was driving home on a very tedious road one night, I began to sing  to stay awake. This was the song I began to sing. Most of us know this song, as it's an old revival standard. However, as the endless miles stretched before me, the Lord revealed a new meaning to the words I was singing. The song says I will trust in the Lord till I die. Now most of us take that phrase to mean we'll trust God until we close our eyes for the final time. However, God began to speak to me on a different meaning. In this day and time, God desires that His kingdom be advanced. In order to do that He must have a completely transformed Church. I believe that individually and collectively, He is calling us to death. Colossians 3 is a chapter on dying. Most specifically vs. 5. In the Amplified it reads: "So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members (those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry the deifying of self and other created things instead of God)."The chapter continues with the remedy of transformation.
    In order for the Church to be transformed, we must die. As we sing about trusting the Lord until we die, I wonder if we have grasped that what He is calling for is for us to die TODAY to some things. Will we trust God  as He throws us back on the Potter's wheel and begins to remold us and destroy the flaws in our character that are a detriment to His Kingdom advancing. Will we die to the petty issues that we surround our selves with and also to the excuses that keep us ineffective as Kingdom building saints? Will we trust Him as He nails all of our dross to Calvary's cross and molds us and shapes us into the image of Him that He so desires. When the Potter has to remake His creation, oft times He must apply heat. It isn't comfortable, but will we trust God and "Be still and know that He is God" (Ps. 46:10)?  The squeezing of the clay is never a pretty sight. The clay becomes malformed, unrecognizable, as He molds and reforms us.
     Often we don't realize what hanging on to things that should die costs us in the Kingdom. We hang on to friends whom God told us to leave... it cost us (Ask Abram). We hang on to habits that sap our energies... it costs us. We hang on to looking at our gifts through the excuse of its imperfections and its costing us and the Kingdom.
    Will we trust God as He calls us to death?

ARE YOU READY TO SOAR?

I recently returned from a vacation to Tennesee. I often go there just for one reason. The mountains. I love the mountains. As I'm driving towards my destination, often I can feel tension and stress leave me just thinking about the gorgeous heavenly views I will soon be surrounded by. As  is often the case for a mountain morning, the clouds are low lying and numerous. On this trip, they were also gray. As I looked out of my window, it seemed like it was going to be a gloomy day. Often as Christians, we too look out of the windows of our lives and see many gray clouds. We can't seem to see anything but the clouds. The clouds dampen our spirits and our outlook. We become depressed and saddened and wonder where the sun is. However, there is an interesting fact about the sun. If you were to board an airplane and fly to an altitude of about 40,000 feet or so, you would find that the sun is still shining. This is a natural truth that has a spiritual truth as well. When we look out on our lives and can see only clouds, we should be reminded of Isaiah 40:31: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
   Funny thing about eagles. When eagles get hurt, they fly UP to the sun to allow the healing properties of the sun to heal them.  As saints of the most high God, we too must learn to soar. We must learn to soar above the clouds of our lives in order to see that the Son is still shining. We must rise to new heights and allow the healing in His wings to touch, renew and restore our wings. We must leave the lower elevations that the enemy would have us remain in and rise in faith to Christ.

FREEDOM...REALLY?

I asked the following question of a few of my single friends the other day:

"Are you taking advantage of your freedom or is your freedom taking advantage of you". I got responses relating to horizontal relationships (man-woman). To say I am disappointed in the answers is mild. As singles,we are constantly told that we have the uniqueness of freedom. Freedom to come and go as we please, when we want, freedom to spend our income as we wish, etc. But scripture speaks of freedom from several aspects. (1) That we have been freed from sin through the shedding of Christ's blood on Calvary. (2) That our freedom is not to be used maliciously (3) That we are to STAND in our liberty. So as a single, how does God expect me to utilize the freedom that I have been given? Knowing that I am a blood washed, born again, spirit filled believer, I am convinced that my freedom is to be spent pursuing Godliness and Holiness. This means that in my singleness, I am to use the gifts and talents, monies and time that I have not in pursuit of flesh tickling, time wasting pursuits, but rather in the furtherance of His Kingdom. To allow my freedom to take advantage of me means that I've lapsed in the "running with patience the race that is set before me."(Heb.12:1) because I've gotten off track by pursuing what God never called me to pursue. Please understand what I"m saying. I'm not in anyway knocking leisure, but when leisure leads, lackadaisical soon follows. I need to use this time that I have to spend in prayer, listening, seeking opportunities to minister to others without the restraints that the married life has. I think we should take the focus off of the SINGLES in Singles ministry and refocus on the MINISTRY of Singles ministry.

A CHANGE IN DIRECTION

Up until now this has been a lighthearted blog, just something I did for fun. However some things have been violently shaken up in my little world since my last post many months ago. I have come to realize that I am many things. First and foremost, I AM A CHRISTIAN. While this is not a popular thing to be in this day and age, I realize that I don't and haven't cared for a very long time. I will continue to stand as a Christian fully and completely and without apologies. The second thing that I acknowledge is that I am a woman. I accept that (as if I had a choice in the matter) and embrace it. What I will not do is try and conform myself to some standard set by the world as to what and who that really means. These realizations have caused no little consternation within me but also have released a flood of defiance. So should you encounter me in your daily activities, know first that I am about advancing the Kingdom of God first and foremost, attempting to seek and save those who are lost.Everything else comes after that mission is attempted to be met on a daily basis. BOLDNESS is my desire.