Oh no you didn't......Oh yes....I DID!

I'm going out on a limb.  I'm just gonna walk right out there to the tip of it.  Scott & I have been on a church staff for about 26 years now.  We've been around the block.  This isn't our first rodeo, as they say.  So when I say what I'm gonna say, I say it having had years of first hand, front line experience.  When something happens at church that you personally dislike or don't agree with and then you get angry and decide to quit everything and leave, who do you think you are hurting?  You aren't hurting the person or people you disagreed with.  They probably don't know or possibly don't care.  You ARE hurting yourself.  You ARE hurting God's church.  You ARE hurting your church family.  I know all about getting "fed up".  I know all about being "talked about".  I know all about being "the last man standing".  I know all about "disagreeable people".  Been there.  Done that.  Bought a million T-shirts.  If you quit now....you are letting satan win.  Plain and simple.  There, I said it....yep, I walked right out there on the very tip of that fragile limb and said it.  Let me tell you what I'm gonna do.  I'm NOT letting satan win!!  I'm NOT quitting!!  I REFUSE to let satan have his way.  I CHOOSE to forgive anyone who has hurt me.  I CHOOSE to let it go and give it to GOD.  He is the only one who has any business carrying that burden.  He is the ONLY one who has any business judging the hearts of others.  Not you, not me....God.  God sees the master plan and He holds the future in His hands.  He knows what tomorrow holds.  He already knew about what we are going through right now, and He is busy working in and through it my friends.  It's not your job to walk away when the going gets tough.  It's your job to stand up WITH God and go about His work more fervently than ever!  If you throw it all down and walk away, you are essentially throwing it down at God's feet and walking away from the work He asked YOU to do.  God works ALL things for good.  We HAD to go through EVERY bit of this in order for GOD'S plan to come about.  All of it, the good parts and the bad parts.  He's not just working in one person's life here....He is working in ALL our lives, weaving it all into a beautiful tapestry, one thread at a time.  You and I have no right to judge how or why He's doing it the way He is!  Listen, the only thing God is concerned about right now is whether or not YOU are gonna fulfill your part!  We've got to stop pointing at the splinter in our brother's and sister's eyes and get the plank out of our OWN!  What are you doing?  Where are you going?  Stop....Listen to God....and get back on track.  Stop letting satan pull you away from God's work.  Satan is having a party right now.  He thinks he's winning.  What he doesn't know is that Pastor Chuck & Raquel are doing God's will!  They are going to go to Brazil and they are going to win thousands to Christ!  They are going to change village after village.  They are going because GOD has called them to go and He used circumstances in their lives to show them the direction He wanted them to go!  It had nothing to do with you, with me, or with anyone else!  It is what GOD wanted to happen.  Who are we to question His actions or how He did it??  It had to be this way because that is how GOD wanted it to be.  Scott and I have actually been in a situation like this before.  We were "the last ones standing" on a staff in Tampa, Florida many years ago.  It wasn't easy.  As a matter of fact, it was one of the most difficult times in our lives!  Our boys were very small and I didn't work outside the home.  Scott was NEVER home because he was doing practically every job in the church.  It was very hard and I remember wondering why God would put us, and that church, through such a difficult time.  Perhaps it was to prepare us for this?  Who knows.  My beloved friends, you have got to get your focus back on what is important to God, and that is doing HIS work.  It's not gossiping about what's happened.  It's not seeking revenge on anyone you feel is responsible for our situation.  It's not holding grudges and despising your fellow church members.  It's not quitting and walking away.  You have no right to say that you can't stay in a place as long as this person or that person is there.  How are you any better than anyone else?  How is your sin any better than someone else's sin?  To God it's all the same.  He loves every single one of us lowly, dirty, unworthy, unwilling, whiny, sinners.  He looks at us through Jesus' blood and to Him, we are ALL His beloved children!  Now, I feel that tiny tip of a limb I've walked out on shaking a bit and it may be close to breaking so I'll step back now.  But know this, I love this church, and I'm not backing down to satan.  Even if that means I offend someone by saying so.  So let's get our eyes back on Jesus, pick up what we've thrown down, and get back to God's work.  It's not a sin to be angry.  But allowing anger to cause you to sin is a different story.  Carrying around grudges and anger towards someone is like taking poison and expecting it to kill the other person.  It only hurts you.  I challenge you this very minute, right where you are, to CHOOSE to forgive the ones who have hurt you or made you angry, no matter what they've done.  Forgiving them doesn't let them off the hook, it's not YOUR hook my friend.  It's God's.

Proverbs 24:10
If you faint in the day of advesity, your strength is small.

James 1:2-4
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

2 Chronicles 15:7
But you, take courage!  Do not let you hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.

1 Peter 4:12-13
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.

To Love & to Be Loved...

More frequently than not, my morning reading hits circumstances in my life right on the nose.  This morning it hit these circumstances right in the face.  Our church has been, and continues to go through, some very rough times.  Though I don't always understand why or how these things happen, I do know that God does allow circumstances to happen in our lives, good and bad, in order to help us grow into what He wants us to be.  It's our choice whether we allow God to mold and shape us through these circumstances.  We can choose to become bitter and hard and ignore what God has planned.  We do have free will to resist.  I fully admit to trying to do it my way many times, but it never turns out like I've planned.  Being a computer geek, I often turn to my computer and Google to help me find specific bible verses to deal with certain situations.  I type in, What does the Bible say about this.... What does the Bible say about that... and up pops the verses I was trying to find.  Today, at a loss for how to cope, I typed in, "What does the bible say about coming together.", and I was taken to 1 John 4:7-21.  I sometimes find a scripture that has so many commas in it that I lose the main point.  Does that ever happen to you?  I mean I know it's hiding in there somewhere in that beautiful King James verse, but for the life of me cannot separate it all out into something my brain can comprehend.  It's at those times that I turn to The Message.  It's a translation that speaks in modern day language, and although some may think it's not quite a accurate, it does hit the nail on the head 99.9% of the time.  Pay close attention to verses 11-12 and 20-21.  Those hit these circumstances we face right on the nose.  So here it is below.  I'll let it finish up this blog post because, I couldn't say it better myself.
Blessings.

1 John 4:7-21
The Message

God Is Love

7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

To Love, to Be Loved

17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.