Are You Out of Focus??

At Christmas time our focus often shifts to our frantic schedules of buying gifts, finding the perfect tree and getting it decorated, baking cookies, attending parties, getting pictures made with Santa, moving that blasted Elf on the Shelf every night, getting ready for Christmas Musicals and traveling to see loved ones.  It can be quite stressful in many ways and to the ones who’ve lost loved ones during the year or won’t be able to go home for Christmas, it can get quite depressing.  With a world so focused on “wants” and “getting more stuff” we can sometimes forget about the whole reason we celebrate to begin with.  

Just like the Grinch discovered, Christmas will come without packages and bows, without parties, decorations or feasts because Christmas isn’t about those things at all.  Christmas is about a Savior, sent to us as a little baby.  The only perfect gift ever given.  And, there were no twinkle lights, Christmas trees or packages with bows.  No one sang Christmas carols or drank hot chocolate or ate sugar cookies.  Mary & Joseph didn’t spend it with their families.  They spent it in a barn with the live stock.  But Christmas came….in a precious child, laid in an animal’s feeding trough and wrapped in a cloth.  What we celebrate at Christmas, what we need to focus on, is the fact that God loved each and every one of us so much, that He sent His only, beloved Son here to take all the sins of mankind, our sins, to the cross to pay the price for them…..so we, you and I, wouldn’t have to.  He sent Him in the most humble way.  

The way we celebrate these days couldn’t possibly we considered humble.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE all the decorating, lights, presents, cookies, parties and all that goes with it!  I LOVE to celebrate and I think if you don’t at least put up a wreath and a nativity for Christmas, well...you might possibly be related to the Grinch after-all.  It’s a GOOD thing to celebrate the awesome gift of Jesus!!  Go all out if you can!  But, in the midst of it all, don’t lose the reason for the season my friends.  Don’t let the stress of the holiday madness get to you.   Don’t let who you do or don’t get to spend Christmas with define your celebration.  

And one last thing….a challenge.  I challenge you to do at least one good thing for someone else every day until Jan. 1 (and then make it your New Year’s resolution!).  It can be big or small, but whatever it is, do it with a BIG smile on your face.  Do it with JOY!  Do it whether anyone sees it or not!  Because Love is always the perfect gift!!

What in the world....

Sometimes I wonder what this world is coming to.  I look around and see so much pain, so many people hurt and broken, so much hate and destruction.  I see people so empty that they will try anything to fill that void they have inside.  No drug, no cause, no person, no thing, no good work, no pleasure, no revenge, no amount of money will ever, EVER fill that void.  You cannot fill a God-shaped hole with a world-shaped peg.  No amount of pounding will make it fit.  In the end you're just left empty and cold.  What’s wrong with this world?  It is full of empty, cold people running from one thing to the next desperately trying to figure out how to fill that hungry, aching void inside of themselves.  They're frantic, terrified of not finding what they need to fill it up before it’s too late.  Sometimes they think they've found it, filling it up temporarily with fame, fortune, even rage or love, but it all drains out like water through a sieve and they're left cold, empty and alone...again.  I've seen some that have gotten to a point where they simply can't try anymore. Numbing their pain with drugs or alcohol. They've given up.  I saw many of those on the streets of New York City, shadows of their former selves, alone, disgraced, wishing for death, the light nearly gone from their eyes.  I've seen some filled with the fire of rage, standing on street corners screaming for their causes.  It fills them up for a brief time until the flames they spew at others, consume them instead.  There is but one thing in all the universe that can fill that empty void inside of every human.  It is the acceptance of a tiny baby, born in Bethlehem, who grew up to bring the good news of a Savior, who took all of our sins...yours and mine...and nailed them to a cross.  He is the answer.  He is what you’ve been searching for.  He is the one and only thing that will drive away the darkness in your soul and fill it up with His glorious light...forever.  All you have to do is ask! He is the only one who can complete you. His name, the one you've been looking for all your life to make you whole...is Jesus.  

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Christ, the Lord.” ~ Luke 2:8-11

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” ~ John 3:17

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” ~ Romans 15:13

To write or not to write....there is no question.

We've been doing a study in Sunday School that has really gotten my wheels turning in terms of writing.  I really, truly want to be a writer, and not just any writer....I want to be successful.  I know that God has given me the ability to express myself through the written word.  I've enjoyed writing my entire life.  I find comfort in words.  I think it's because if you have taken the time to actually write something down, then you must have really thought it through and it must sincerely come from your heart.  It's a bit like singing, which I also love.  Julie Andrews, one of my favorite things, once said that "Singing is opening up your heart and pouring out your soul." and I think writing can be the same.  When God puts something on my heart, it's as if the words type themselves.  I can't stop until they're all out.  I think that I don't write as much as I should because I allow so many other things to get in the way.  Right now the writing comes in spurts.  A poem here, a short story there, an occasional blog post, but  I want to do more.  I want to write every day, but I don't.  Sometimes it feels impossible and I think I should just give it up.  Why bother.  I'll never be a successful writer.  No one in the publishing world even knows I exist.  I've sent stories off to publishers and been rejected every time.  But then I read one day that Agatha Christie was consistently rejected for five years.  J.K. Rowling was rejected twelve times and was told to "get a day job"!  C.S. Lewis' stories were rejected for years!  Beatrix Potter's "A Tale of Peter Rabbit" was rejected so many times that she finally decided to self-publish it.  It went on to sell 44 million copies.  Those are just a few!  So, maybe my name will never be in the company of these famous writers, but I'm not going to give up.  I have an idea I'm going to be starting on soon, and I feel really good about it!  So do me a favor....pray for me.  You know that old song, "I Just Feel Like Something Good is About to Happen", that's how I feel about my next project.  One thing I know for certain after this bible study I just finished....the ultimate in faith is thanking God in ADVANCE for what you've asked Him to do.  It's not denial of reality.  It's facing the facts, with hope!

Hebrews 11:1 - "Now Faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see."


http://www.literaryrejections.com/best-sellers-initially-rejected/

Who's Your Daddy...

The word "Abba" is mentioned 3 times in scripture.  In Mark 14:36, Jesus cries out to God, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.  Take this cup away from me, nevertheless, not my will, but thine."  Paul wrote in Romans 8:15, "You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father."  Once again in Galatians 4:6, Paul wrote, "Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out Abba Father."  

When looking up the meaning of the word Abba, here's what I found;

"In Scripture there are many different names used to describe God. While all the names of God are important in many ways, the name “Abba Father” is one of the most significant names of God in understanding how He relates to people. The word Abba is an Aramaic word that would most closely be translated as “Daddy.” It was a common term that young children would use to address their fathers, like "Dada" or "Papa" is used today. It signifies the close, intimate relationship of a father to his child, as well as the childlike trust that a young child puts in his daddy."

Often we focus only on the fact that God is God, and lose sight of that fact that He is also our Father....our Daddy.  It is, of course, important to remember that He is the Creator of all things, the One who hung every star in its place, however, we cannot let that keep us from having an intimate relationship with Him.  "Abba, Father" has a double meaning.  The affectionate, intimate, Abba, expresses a child-like love, as well as trust and comfort.  The more formal, Father, conveys an understanding of our relationship to God the Almighty Creator.  When the two are combined, it encompasses our emotional attachment and intelligent comprehension of our heavenly Father.  

Many people believe that God is uninterested in us, that He simply watches us from a distance and isn't concerned about our individual lives.  But God has told us over and over in scripture just how much He loves us and wants a personal relationship with us.  

• He knows us by name. Isaiah 43:2 says, "Fear not for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; You are mine."  
• He knew us before we were born and He thinks about us all the time.  Psalm 139:13-18 says, "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother's womb...You were there when I was being formed...You saw me before I was born...How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly!  I can't even count how many times a day your thoughts turn toward me.  And when I wake in the morning, you are still thinking of me!"  
• His love for us will never end.  Jeremiah 31:3 says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love."  
• We are His beloved children.  1 John 3:1 says, "How great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we might be called the children of God." 
• Nothing can ever separate us from His love. Romans 8:38-39 says, "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, not height, nor depth, nor any created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus." 
• Finally, lets not forget that the God of the Universe, loved us so much that He gave us His only Son to die on the cross to save us!  That's a love so deep I cannot fathom it!  1 John 3:16 says, "This is how we know what love is, because He laid down His life for us." 

Have you ever considered what all this means?  It means that you are the beloved child of the One who has ALL authority in Heaven and on Earth.  Our "Daddy' is the King of Kings!  What can we ever want that He cannot give us?  What can we ever need that He cannot provide?  He loves you, even if you don't love Him!  Jesus didn't die for just a select few, He died for ALL of humanity...ALL...Even the ones who don't believe in Him.  The choice is yours, and it's very simple. Romans 10:9 puts it as simply as it can be said, "If you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved!" 
Revelation 3:20 says, "Look!  I stand at the door and knock, and if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in...". 

So let's wrap this up shall we?  

• God loves you with an everlasting love that nothing can ever take away.
• God knows you intimately, inside and out, and cares about every detail of your life.
• The one who has ALL authority in Heaven and on Earth, knows your name and wants a personal relationship with you.  You just have to let Him in. 

Bottom Line....

The King of Kings is your Daddy!

---

"What Does It Mean That God Is Our Abba Father?" GotQuestions.org. GotQuestions.org, n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2014.

"Looking Unto Jesus - Abba, Father." Looking Unto Jesus - Abba, Father. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2014.

Hear my Heart....

This post has been sitting in my "drafts" since last winter.  I had written it on my iPad, copied and pasted it here for later editing, and then forgot about it.  I do that sometimes.  Anyway, I rediscovered it today, and I think it has a pretty good message so I'm posting it sans editing.  I hope it hits home for someone out there.  Oh, and I still need to learn this song.  :)  Amy



I heard a song this morning that I had actually downloaded quite a while back with the intention of learning it so I could sing it at church.  But then, I got severe laryngitis, and before I could recover from that we all got the Flu, and then separately battled Bronchitis and Pneumonia.  I have been unable to sing much since the last performance of The Living Christmas Tree!  I've been a little bit paranoid, knowing that viruses can permanently damage, even paralyze vocal chords.  I've done a little singing, very carefully, in choir and praise team recently, but my full range and voice have yet to completely return.  I do feel it improving from week to week so I am quite certain it will fully return....soon I hope!  It is very hard, for someone who sings all the way to work every morning, to suddenly just sit there silently and listen to songs I normally enjoy singing along with.  As a matter of fact, it is often insanely annoying!  Singing is not something that has ever come easily for me for various reasons, mostly my severe allergies & honestly... fear.  I have always envied people who seem to be able to do it without any effort.  When I first start singing for the day, I sound a bit like a rusty old truck trying to start.  I have to warm up a while to get rid of the "cobwebs".  At any rate, difficult or not, I love to sing.  Being able to sing was, when I was in school, pretty much the ONLY thing that made me feel was special about me.  I wasn't pretty.  I wasn't outgoing.  I wasn't a genius.  I wasn't great a sports.  But, I could sing.  It gave me an identity and made me feel special during my teenage years when I really needed it the most.  Please don't think I'm saying that I think I am some phenomenal singer.  Not at all.  But I can carry a tune and get a song across to people without a lot of displeasure on their part, so I know it's not half bad at least, and I enjoy it immensely.  Because of my own childhood experiences, it has always been very important to me to help my kids find that "thing" that they were "really good at".  It has always been part of my prayers for the boys that they would find "it" and that God would give them the opportunities to use "it" for His glory.  Along with having a personal relationship with Christ, which is essential, it's also important for kids to feel special in some way, especially when navigating the rough days of their teens.  I think a lot of times we forget how hard it was when we were that age trying to "fit in", be accepted by our peers, and be successful in our social circle.  However, when we were kids, we could at least leave that pressure at school.  We could leave and go home and not think about it again until the next day back at school.  These days, the pressures are 24/7.  They cannot "leave it at the schoolyard".  With the internet, email, social media, cell phones and texting, that pressure goes where they go.  It never stops.  In Jr. High I was skinny, had frizzy hair, bad skin, crooked teeth and was painfully shy.  I was a perfect target for teasing, but as much as I was teased in Jr. High back then, I can only imagine how it would be amplified these days. I don't think I could have handled it 24/7.  I remember my only goal being to get through the day without being noticed, to be as invisible as possible, and I was pretty good at it most days.  Once I entered High School, and the miracle of hot rollers and flat irons were invented, I became a little more confident in my appearance, although not much, but I also discovered I had a voice.  I'm not sure what might have happened to me had I not discovered that voice, but I do know that discovering it changed me forever, for the better.  The name of the song I listened to this morning, the one I was going to learn, is called "Hear My Heart", and basically the message is this....I may be going through a really hard time right now.  I may be feeling very down and don't understand why it's happening. I may not even know what or how to pray about the situation so God....Hear my Heart.  This blog post has more than one message.  The first one is, it's very important for your kids to find that thing that makes them feel special.   It's essential that we as parents help them to discover what that special thing is, support them in it, and let them know you believe in them.  My parents and family members did that, and it really made a difference.  The second one is, in your teens, you can think that there is nothing special about you at all, that your world will never be happy, that no one will ever love you and nothing will ever change...but you are wrong.  God has given everyone a talent and/or gift, and we all discover them at different times in our lives.  Keep exploring, keep trying, keep going and one day you will discover it and I bet you will realize it's been there all along!  The third is, when you are at your wits end and you don't even know how to pray about the situation, simply ask God to "Hear your Heart".  He hears the groanings of our hearts when we cannot even utter a word in prayer.  He knows us by heart and He never, ever leaves us.  I could not have navigated my teen years without knowing that He loved me, even when it seemed like no one else did.  He heard my heart.  

Stress...

Stress is not about what happens to us.  It's about how we react to what happens to us, and our reaction... is a choice.  You can choose to react negatively, get angry, pitch a fit, or you can choose to react calmly with the understanding that it is only temporary, and it will eventually pass.  The way we as Christians react to situations or to others who have made us angry or just plain gotten on our nerves and stressed us out, says more about our walk with Christ than any words we could speak.  Simply put, "actions speak louder than words".  Any Dr. will tell you, stress is a killer.  It causes high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, cancer.  I believe the secret to handling any kind of stress is in keeping a constant, open dialog with God.  1 Thessalonians 5:17 says "pray without ceasing."  I remember hearing a pastor quote that verse when I was much younger and thinking to myself, "Yeah, right.  There's no way I could pray all the time."  But what that actually means is, keep the dialog open during your daily life.  Talk to God like He's sitting in the seat beside you... He IS with you always.  It was hard at first, but now it's second nature.  I whisper little prayers all throughout the day.  I thank Him for victories and happy moments. I praise Him for the beauty I see around me.  I seek His comfort when I'm upset or angry.  I ask Him for help.  Just that simple act in a moment of anxiety, stress, anger, or panic of whispering to God, "oh help" releases a hundred pounds of stress from my shoulders because I know He IS my help.

Psalm 54:4 - "Surely God is my help.  The Lord is the One who sustains me."

Psalm 121:2 - "My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth."

Ray of Sunshine or Little Gray Cloud?

When people see you coming, what is the first thought they have?  Is it, "Oh great, can't wait to hear what's got her riled up today." or "Well, here comes Mr. Sunshine (NOT)." or how about, "Here comes the latest gossip, whether I want to hear it or not."  We're all guilty of having a bad attitude sometimes.  We all get down, and we all get upset occasionally.  But when we let that dominate our personality, when we turn our thoughts inward and constantly think about what's wrong with our lives, we end up sad, depressed and lonely.  No one wants to be around someone who is always fussing about things, always complaining.  The best thing to do when you start feeling this way is to go and do something nice for someone else.  Proverbs 17:22 says, "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."  I've been around people that made me feel like my bones were drying up while they complained, hahaha!  Ephesians 4:29 says, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."  Are we "giving grace" to those who hear what we have to say?  I know I fail at this frequently.  I'm not saying we can't talk to our friends about our troubles sometimes.  We all need someone to talk to, who can give us good advice when we're having a problem.  But, when it becomes the ONLY thing we talk about, we need to stop and re-evaluate our focus.  I see it in little children at school all the time.  Several times this year I've been in the mail room/nurse's office, on a day the nurse is out, when a child has come in crying with a small cut on their knee.  All they can think about is the cut and the blood and the stinging pain.  But, if you talk to them, and give them a little something to smile or giggle about as you clean the cut and put a band-aid on, they start to forget about the cut, dry their tears and end up leaving with a smile.  I'm not quite there yet, but that's the kind of person I want to be.  The kind of person that people see coming and think, "Oh good, here comes my friend who makes me feel good inside and makes me smile."  There are always going to be days where you have to look for the good.  But as the saying goes, "there is always, always, always something to be thankful for!"  You can either be a ray of sunshine or a little gray cloud.

1 Peter 4:8-10
"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.  Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.  As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's grace."

Mother's Day Reflections...

I've been extraordinarily lucky. When I was born I had 6 grandmothers!  I had Great Grandmother Beulah Helton, Great Grandmother Daisy Lee Pitts, Great Grandmother Lily Hartman, Great Grandmother Lona Mae Harper, Grandmother Mary Helton & Grandmother Mae Nell Hartman and of course, my Mom.  The only one I don't remember is my Great Grandmother Lily Hartman. She died when I was a baby, but I was always told how much she loved me. The rest I have wonderful, rich memories of.  From Great Grandmother Beulah Helton I learned gentleness.  From Great Grandmother Daisy Pitts I learned graciousness.  From Great Grandmother Lona Mae Harper I learned joyfulness. From Grandmother Mae Nell Hartman I learned determination. From Grandmother Mary Helton I learned compassion, and from my Mom I learned perseverance.  From all of them I learned unconditional love, fortitude, patience, ingenuity, creativeness, thoughtfulness, confidence, honesty, loyalty, a love of music and nature, I guess a bit of stubbornness, hope and most importantly faith in God.  I can't imagine why God chose to bless me with so many wonderful women to help raise me, unless perhaps He knew I was gonna need a lot of help to be molded into what He had planned, but I am overjoyed that He did!  Without them, I wouldn't be the person I am today.  I can only hope that I have made them all proud and that one day my children, grandchildren, and hopefully great grandchildren will remember me and the positive things I taught them.  More than anything else, I hope I teach them about God's unconditional love for each of them, because that is eternal.  Happy Mother's Day! 

If You Died Today, Do You Know Where You'd Go?

I am, unashamedly, a Christian.  I attend a Southern Baptist Church, but that is not what defines me as a Christian.  What makes me a Christian isn't being born into a Christian family.  It isn't what I do, how I act, where I was born, or where I live.  Being a good person, helping others, giving, caring, loving, believing there is a God, doesn't make me a Christian and won't get me into heaven when I die.  Even the demons believe in God.  The only thing that defines me as a Christian and will assure that I will go to heaven when I die, is believing that Jesus died for me on the cross so that my debt could be forgiven.  He took my place.  My sentence was the death penalty, but He stepped in and took it for me.  He died in my place because He loves me that much.  Accepting that precious gift given to me by the One who hung every star in place, God himself, is all I have to do to assure my place in Heaven. I've seen a lot of people try to prove that this is all false.  Their scientific minds, needing proof of everything they see, cannot seem to grasp that there could be an intelligent being who created our universe, much less one who cares about each of us as individuals.  The only thing I know to say to someone who believes that there is no God is, "For your sake, I hope you're right."  The problem is, you won't know until you're dead...and that will be too late.  I choose to believe, and if I'm wrong I loose nothing, but if I'm right, I gain EVERYTHING.  You are not promised tomorrow.  You are not even promised your next breath.  Please don't turn down this precious gift.  You may not get another chance.

John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Don't know how to accept this gift from God?  Just pray -

"Dear God I know I'm a sinner, I know I am not where I want to be, and I want your forgiveness! I believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for my sins. 
Please wash me clean from all sin, shame, and guilt, come into my life Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. I ask this in your name Jesus. Amen!" 

For more info go here -->  http://peacewithgod.jesus.net

To React or Reply? That is the question....

I have little notes taped all around my computer and desk.  For example, on the edges of my monitor I have “interruption=opportunity”, “Suck in, Tuck in, and Smile!” and “Just Keep Smiling!”.  On my file cabinet I have “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. ~ Mother Theresa” and “But as for me, I will sing about your power.  Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love.  For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress. ~ Psalm 59:16”  And,  right next to me I have “One kind word can change someone's entire day.”  The trouble is, one unkind word can also ruin it.  Ever have one of those days?  I’m having one right now.  Sometimes, when you are distracted, trying to solve several problems at once, you don’t always pay close attention to the way your words or actions are perceived.  Sometimes you can unintentionally be seemingly short with someone and not even realize you’ve done it.  I’m not the rude sort.  I care about people’s feelings deeply. I dislike confrontation immensely and generally try to avoid it when at all possible. So when communication goes wrong, and someone thinks that I have insulted or been rude to them, it really upsets me.  I guess what bothers me most is that someone who knows me, could think I would actually act that way, on purpose.  In my Sunday School class this past week our teacher said something that really stuck (one of many things).  He said when faced with an accusation or a false perception we need to reply….not react.  It really made a lot of sense and honestly, I did already know this.  I mean you can’t be a Minister’s Wife for 26 years and not understand the value of well thought out replies to criticism.  I guess I just hadn’t thought about it in a while.  You see, to “react” to the situation is not always the best idea.  Reactions are often instant, not completely thought through and can escalate the problem.  When you stop, try to understand where the other person is coming from, and then "reply" in a respectful way, it can completely change the situation for the better.  You have to lay aside the blame game.  You have to lay aside making excuses and really look at why the other person feels the way they do.  It’s terribly hard to be calm and kind when someone is being difficult.  But then, I look back at my favorite quote by my desk, “Leave everything you do, every place you go, everything you touch a little better for your having been there. ~ Julie Andrews” and I think, ok…how do I turn this situation around so that I leave it, and the person involved, feeling even better than before.  That is my ultimate goal.  I don’t always succeed and that bothers me.  But, I try very hard, and in the end I guess that’s what counts, to leave more happiness than distress at the end of the day.  

So, the newest addition to the words of wisdom surrounding my desk….

Proverbs 15:1 “A gentle response defuses anger, but a sharp tongue kindles a temper-fire.”

Blessings,
Amy

Time to Restore

I wrote this post on the way to Tennessee last weekend.  This Sunday our lesson was pretty much along the same lines.  I don't think that was an accident, I think it was God speaking.

Time to Restore

I'm a computer tech.  One of the chief complaints I hear from people is that their computer is "running slow".  You see, after a while your computer can get so bogged down with unimportant things like old files you've downloaded, documents you created and no longer need, old programs you installed, and junk files, that it just can't work efficiently or properly. Sometimes you even have a virus you accidentally downloaded, or a corrupt file causing problems.  Sometimes you even download what you think is a helpful program that ends up being a Trojan horse, delivering malware to your computer which can cause serious security issues. The way to fix these issues varies from running anti-virus software, to physically searching for and deleting the bad files, reinstalling the files that have become corrupted, cleaning up the registry, updating the drivers and sometimes the only thing you can do is to just restore the whole system back to the factory settings.  In other words, start over from the beginning, wipe it clean.  With a clean start their computers usually work just like new, happily humming along, speedy & efficient, getting the job done.
People are a lot like computers. We can get all bogged down with daily struggles.  We get sick. We get slow. We stop doing the job God put us here to do in an efficient manner because we can't see past the clutter of junk we fill our lives with.  Things we thought we needed, that we thought were important, that we thought were good, but turned out to be a Trojan horse filled with disappointment and misery.  It's time to get rid of all those junk files, viruses & malware.  In other words, it's time to lay down your differences, forget what's not really important to the Kingdom of God, lay aside selfishness, throw off the warm blanket of ambivalence, forgive, & WAKE UP, it's time for a FULL SYSTEM RESTORE!!  What we've been doing is no longer working.  Beating a dead horse does you no good.  It's still gonna lay there and be dead. It is time to come together as God's children and make a new plan.  It doesn't matter if you've never done it that way before!  Imagine what the world would be like if no one ever tried anything new. We've been sleeping.  Lulled to sleep by satan's sweet song of complacency....comfortable.  Our church should be full! But it's not. You want to know why?  Brace yourself...it's because we....don't....care.    We don't care!!!  If we DID care, if we DID forgive, if we DID serve, if we DID make a new plan, if we DID love, if we DID wake up.....our church couldn't hold all the people!  So, let's put in that restore cd.  Let's get back to the beginning.  Let's start off in a new direction, with purpose, with love, AWAKE & ready to serve and ready to do whatever it takes to bring people to Jesus in 2014.  WHATEVER IT TAKES, whether we've ever done it that way or not.  Are ya with me?

If you are, then right now decide a place you want to plug in and get started. What's your gift? What's your talent? What's something you enjoy? What's something God has been speaking to you about?  WAKE UP, GET UP, AND DO IT!!

Need ideas??
A/V ministry needs camera operators - training provided
Adult Choir needs singers - 18 and up - we REALLY need men!
Nursery - we need reliable, loving care givers - grandmas & grandpas welcome!
Children - we need energetic people, 18 & up willing to work with our children.
Helping Hands - anyone willing to help with odd jobs at church members homes.  These are those who cannot help themselves & whom we are commanded to take care of.
Welcome Center - we need people who love to smile & welcome people in the Welcome Center, and other key locations.
Coffee Ministry - we need people to help prepare the coffee & greet people at the coffee center.
Prayer Warriors - we need everyone to be prayer warriors, but also need a special group who are willing to pray for the requests brought forward on Sunday mornings, and at other specified times.
Ushers - we need men to be ushers on Sundays. Training provided!
Homebound Ministry - we need people willing to go visit those who are homebound during the day on a regular basis.
Hospital Visits - we need people to visit members when they are in the hospital.
Couple Care - we need older, experienced couples to mentor younger or recently married couples, especially those who reach out for help.
VBS - we are always in need of VBS Workers, every kind of job. Volunteer ahead of time!
Youth - we always need volunteers for the Youth Ministry. Come hang out with them, chaperone events, bring snacks, just be there for them. Be a mentor! You're never too old!
Sanctuary - we need volunteers to pick up old bulletins, straighten the hymn books, make sure the pencils are sharp & there's plenty of envelopes.
Write cards- birthdays, anniversaries, illnesses, loss of loved ones, encouragement....there's a million reasons to send someone a card or note to show them someone cares.

It's time to reboot, restore, and get busy for God!
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1 Peter 4:10
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace.

Philippians 2:1-11
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Col 3:23:
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.