Tag: Ablaze

Mary Did You Know?

Deana4 Comments


Our Christmas sermon was on a song written by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene called “Mary did you know?” Mark apparently wrote it as a poem for his church one Christmas and Buddy put it to music several years later. It’s one of Pastor’s favorite songs.

Pastor pondered the questions in that song and asked a few more taking his references from Luke 1:26-37

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[c] the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

Two things jumped out for pastor and he wanted to relay them to us. Did Mary really know what it meant to be “highly favored?” and did she really believe that “Nothing is impossible with God?”

When we think of what it means to be “Highly Favored” we think of wealth, health and prosperity, don’t we. Do we think of her reality though? Pastor pointed out some things I’d never thought of.

1. She was a young child herself suddenly with child – and not her fiance’s how would she explain that?
2. Her fiance was planning to quietly divorce her.
3. The leaders of her church and community had authority to stone her to death if they chose.
4. An angel took care of Joseph – this much we know.
5. She traveled for days to Bethlehem and gave birth in a stable
6. They had to flee for their lives soon after

There’s also the rest – she watched her son die. And other things.

Highly favored – at least for Mary doesn’t sound good when compared to our own limited perceptions. She was favored – she gave birth to the Messiah – to Christ. She was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and conceived the Christ Child. With Favor came great responsibility. And yet nothing is impossible with God. She did learn that. But favor does not mean cushie life. Does it?

I thought that was an interesting message for Christmas. I had someone make that statement about me once – calling me “favored of God.” – I’m not so sure I like that now.

I have some new readers – so let me explain that a little bit. I don’t typically make it a habit to talk about myself as much as I have been lately. God is doing a work that I do not know how to explain fully. Part of my personal testimony includes being born in a home for unwed mothers, growing up in all kinds of disfunction and such, being kicked out of church as a child because of my parent’s divorce, being raised by my mom who made less than 10K a year, and other things.

Knowing that I get to facilitate Bible studies now? Blows my mind. Seriously. It surprizes others too who knew me when. (Trust me) I am the woman who busted the binding on my Bible during my very first Precepts (Kay Arthur) class taught by my pastor’s wife 13 years ago and here I am – certified to teach it if I want, facilitating Beth Moore Studies as well as others, teaching Sunday School for women, and serving as a missionary in my own denomination (Ablaze).

I’m not doing any of those things because I’m so great and so smart – trust me. I am a scardy cat coward who cannot believe God actually wants to use me most days. I used to do them to seek his favor – but I’ve learned that Christ already did that for me. I do those things today, out of obediance to God. This path I’m on? Was not my choosing at first.

I’m learning to follow his voice even when it doesn’t make sense. I take the classes today that he tells me to. God has had a lot to teach me in the last few years. Including what I will and will not do as a teacher. (see older posts on Matthew 23).
I’ve argued with him a lot. I know what His word says about teachers, and leaders and it scares me. That’s a lot of responsiblity – I don’t want to let him down. And true to form when I tell him that – I’m reminded that “nothing is impossible with God” and that HE won’t let me down.

So for 2008 – it’s a year of getting over myself yet again – and focusing on him.

I don’t have the right – to write this blog – to teach – to lead – to speak – I am a fellow traveler who gets to share and journey with others.

What a kick that is.

God worked miracles in my life this year as far as courage goes. I took some huge risks following God. Major steps of courage. I chaired a community egg hunt at our mission start – which was a total flop by the way, I planned for 750 and 2,000 showed up, over ran us and beat eachother up over candy filled eggs. I turbo hosted a comedy concert for Chonda Pierce with several other helpers and it sold out. I’ve hostessed some other Christian events as a runner and met some speakers I get to learn from now. I went to a Speak Up class in Mich taught by Carol Kent (by myself mind you with no security blanket come with me friends.), I joined a comedy association and actually speak with some of the comics so that I can learn, I went for and got my Precept teachers certification. I reached out to people in the faith who are farther along than I am and asked them questions – I asked for and found mentors, I’ve gathered materials, I’ve laid myself down as a student whenever possible.

Why am I sharing these things with you? Because 15 years ago I shook in church. 15 years ago, I couldn’t put two words together in front of a crowd. A lot has changed in 15 years.

God and I have come a long way from the days where I was more interested in cloning myself into those I admired, rather than being me. The old me wound up setting my dress on fire as a result. You’d think I would have learned from that, but.. it took a few more years and a few big failures, before that message really sunk in. I don’t want to be the next Kay Arthur or Ken Davis, Beth Moore, or Chonda Pierce nor do I even want to be my with me mentors like Lisa Lessing, Joy Moss, Zeal Beal and Velma Campbell – real life women who have been kind enough to teach me and share with me along the way and be my friend – I just want to learn from them. All of them.

I went three years without a teacher – or mentor of any kind. God brought me to himself, loved on me, and revealed to me his word. I was stripped of all would be idols and learned to desire him alone. Then and only then did he bring new people into my life.

I’ve been writing about some of them because these are the people I get to learn from right now. – with intention and with blessing and with humilty and thankfulness.

I want to honor God with my life like they do theirs, what ever that means. I want to be open to His call on my life – and not my limited vision as I have in the past.

I haven’t taken the time to fast and pray yet for the new year, but I will. I have no clue where he wants me – or what he wants me to do – except the next right thing directly in front of me. Somehow, I know that he will get me where he wants me to be.

I am the Lord’s servant. May it be with me, as he says.

Blessings to you my friends, both old and new. And thank you for walking this path with me. May the Lord our God bless and keep you this new year.

Confident Beauty

Deana1 Comment

I haven’t been blogging here lately. It’s not that I haven’t been writing because I have. I’ve just been spending most of my writing time, somewhere else.

In promising myself, and Mamma T, to not be a parrot, I find myself blogging more about my feelings and thoughts and opinions these days. That’s not a bad thing really. It’s still awkard and strained for me. My thoughts and feelings in black and white trail off at times and my blogs seem like incomplete paragraphs and ideas. I am my own worst critic when it comes to that.

I just found out today that a friend of mine is no longer blogging. Sad really. I loved her blogs. She wasn’t super frequent in her writing, but when she wrote it was poetic. She always quoted these really cool authors, some I’d heard of like CS Lewis and other that I’d yet to discover. I feel especially bad in that her last blog was dated Feb 28 and well, I just read it today. Have I really been that far out of the loop? Apparently so. I’m going to miss that heart. I wonder what new things she plans on tackling. I bet they’ll be great.

As for me… my pole dancing blog on myspace (I’m against it btw) was an interesting hit of sorts. Over 50 readers in one day.

Our mission starts were on the news last night. I’m not thrilled with the angle they took, or the fact that my hair was a friz ball (I knew I should have curled it.). They opened with Jonathan talking about “And we wonder how a God who is loving and just could allow something like this to happen to us.” That quote was a good half way through his sermon on grief. Good heavens, that wasn’t what we were wondering at all.

The news made good in the end though – we were there to worship God no matter what, because after all stuff is just stuff.

Why do we worship God, even when bad things happen? Joyce Myers puts it well, “A confident woman knows that she is loved. She does not fear being unloved, because she knows first and foremost that God loves her unconditionally. To be whole and complete, we need to know that we are loved. Receiving the free gift of God’s unconditional love is the beginning of our healing, and the foundation for our new life in Christ.”

Being secure..
Our team – Ablaze Live, brought our trailer of gear to Lord of Life on Sunday, we set up, and we worshipped with them. Why?

Hebrews 12

Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our
Faith
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and(A) sin which clings so closely, and(B)
let us run(C) with endurance the race that is(D) set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,(E) who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising(F) the shame, and(G)
is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Added – 4/15 – Never did answer why… we worshipped together in unity as one team rather than two, because we are secure in God’s love for us. We look to Jesus as the author and protector of our faith and we found a way to lay down all that weighed us down (sorrow over the loss of stuff, competition between churches, hurt feelings over district approving and funding one over the other and whatnot) and we put our focus where is belonged. On God.

If They Laugh

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George Burns once said “If they laugh, it’s funny.” and you know what? He’s right. Although I will admit sometimes getting to laughing is the hardest part.

We’ve had a rough week to say the least, but by Saturday night we were laughing. So either we’ve totally lost it as a team OR we found our place on the light side of circumstance.

First, our home church get’s robbed and we lose some music gear, then we found out that we lost our lease this week at Liberty Elementary. That’s where our Saturday night mission church meets. Maybe “lost” isn’t the right word, it’s more like our lease expired last week (death by paperwork neglect) and our fearless leader was in Cancun, blissfully unaware of our predicament. Until we called him after services to welcome him home. Poor guy.A worship team minus gear and no place to worship? At first we envisioned a pathetic throw back to the old Salvation Army Days, wrapped in coats, standing in front of “our” building, clapping our tamborines. Telling people that Jesus Loved them. Ha. Ha. Besides that – Jen and I have 10,000 (yes that’s TEN THOUSAND) Easter Eggs to fill for an egg hunt for 500 people (or at least that’s how many came last year) and no home to hunt at.. What are we going to do? Walk through the neighborhood and egg houses? Okay so that was lame.

As luck (and great negotiating skills) would have it, Jeff was able to talk the school into “one more night” and we had tonight. Telling the team about our prediciment went better than expected. He and I just found out on Friday and with pastor out of the country, we had no idea how to tell the team. I expected fretting, and disappoinment or worry. What we got, suprised us both. Everyone was happy, excited and laughing about it. We were making jokes about the missing paperwork, and all. Even the Egg Hunt took on new joy – we are open to bigger possibilites now. We can have it any where we want. Woooo Whooo. Set up and tear down of our gear went well, we made it just fine without our second sound board and we even said goodbye to Don the janitor. So long and thanks for all the fish Don.

Even telling pastor, “houston we have a problem” went well. We did it as a group, on our cell phone outside of the school after we loaded our trailor of gear. Receiving bad news by a bunch of laughing people – who probably lost it in some sense or another went down better than if we’d been upset I’m sure. Even if it was his first night back in the country.

We have no idea where we are going, if we’ll be able to get one more three month extension like we asked for- or what, but we do know this..We kept our laughter – and we kept our friendships and because of that – we’ll keep on keepin’ on.

We’re a team – following God and laughing along the way, and we can’t go wrong with that.

The LORD Calls Samuel

Deana2 Comments

The LORD Calls Samuel

The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of
the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. Again the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD : The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” And the LORD said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them. Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’ ”

Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.” Samuel answered, “Here I am.” “What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes.” The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD.


The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel
through his word.

I’m studying Samuel right now. It’s an interesting study, looking back at the Old Testament. It starts with Eli, and high priest and ends with King David. It’s all about leadership. I’m calling it the Good, the bad and the Ugly. I’m really more of a Jonah than a Samuel. I hate conflict, my face turns red, I look like I’m going to cry, and I sound angry when in reality, I’m just snotfaced scared and nothing more, especially if the person I’m disagreeing with, is someone I admire and whose approval means a lot to me.

If taking on the Characteristics of Samuel is what is required of being a leader, God and I have a lot of work to do.

Samuel is the son of Hannah. Hannah was barren and cried out to God with such passion and fever that Eli thought she was drunk. She wasn’t, but she was hurting. She wanted a baby, and she promised God if he gave her one, she’d dedicate him back to the Lord. He did and so did she. She gave her son, Samuel, to Eli to raise as a priest.

Samuel grows up, and Eli’s own sons do all kinds of things against God and even though Eli rebukes his own sons, they don’t listen so God eventually replaces Eli. Guess who’s job it is to tell him? Yep. Samuel. Poor kid – God speaks to him for the first time, and it’s a message to his mentor of “You blew it, and you’re being replaced, with me.” Yuck.

Can you imagine, being alone in your room and hearing God call out to you? God doesn’t do that to me, thankfully. If he did, I’d think I was crazy. God choses to speak to my heart through nature, people, and his Word. Even worse though with this young man Samuel, is God not only called out to him, he had a message that would force Samuel to confront his mentor. I for one think, if God wants to speak to me, that is be good news, rather than this. Couldn’t God have started out with a nice greeting? You know, something “Hey Samuel, how ya doing? I remember when your mother asked for you. She was so joyous when she had you.” Something simple and happy. But no, that’s not what God did. Which probably explains why God is God, and I am not.

But that’s not what God did.

God uses Samuel to deliver a lot of hard to hear messages. It’s Samuel that get’s replaced for a King (Saul), it’s Samuel that confronts Saul, and it’s Samuel that annoints King David when he’s still a shepherd.

Samuel gets to do a lot of unfun things. I don’t want to be a Samuel. I’m too much of a people pleaser for that. But still, I can learn a lot from Samuel.

  1. He told the truth in love
  2. He was more afraid of God than he was his mentors
  3. He never abandoned those he loved – including Isreal. Even after they replaced him with a King, he still stayed close by to pray for and support.

Neat kind of Guy Samuel.

I’m not there. I hide the truth through acquiescence more often than not, I’m more afraid of my mentors than I am God, I’d rather run away and leave, than stay and confront and work through.

I’m not Samuel, but I can learn from him.