Fully Loving, Fully Living

I am reading a book that is good so far. It is titled Love Does by Bob Goff. So far what I have enjoyed about Bob is that he doesn't limit God in loving people through himself. I love this! I think Jesus desires for us to love everyone! I am only on chapter nine but so far so good!

So last night I was thinking about what I could post on Facebook that could show the love of Jesus. I have been reading the gospels and I love how Jesus ministered to everyone. When people didn't come to Him, He went to the people. What better place to do that then on Facebook? Last night I posted, "Hello Facebook Friends...so how is life going? Is there anything that I can pray about for you? Let me know :)"  I am so excited about the responses that I received on my wall and in my message box! God opened another door of ministry for me!

I can get into the hearts and homes of many people in Facebook that I might not be able to touch personally just due to logistics. Please pray with me that God answers the prayers of these people who asked. I am praying until I hear differently from each one. May Jesus meet them where they are at and thank You Jesus that I get to be involved in some small way. God is good!

In Pastor Jason's message on Sunday, he talked about God recruiting you. What will you do to contribute? Pray and ask God what you can do to love fully and to live fully! You see, I am nobody, but with God it doesn't matter who I am. It just matters that God is with me! I am excited to see what God is going to do with this exciting new adventure. I know it is going to be BIG!

Fully Loving and Living,

Shanin

Act On It!

29 Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. 31 So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them.
Mark 1:29-31

Jesus healed Peter's Mother-in-law. The next verse is important...And she served them. Peter's mom-in-law didn't sit and think, "I had better wait and see if I am really healed..." She didn't think that she should rest in case she had a relapse. She got up and served them! She took her healing and then used it. She served Jesus...probably in a practical way like getting them lunch.

Whenever the Lord heals you, you need to act on it! We need to take advantage of that healing and serve Him! We need to be thankful to the Lord! Rejoice! But whatever you do, do not let the devil talk you out of your healing! Take that healing and see where God will use you.

Excited to Serve the One Who Heals,

Shanin

You Are Called!

11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

14 The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

16 The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” Judges 6:11-16 NIV

Gideon was hiding down in the winepress to thresh his grain. He was hiding. He was hiding when the angel of the Lord appeared and called him mighty warrior. Obviously Gideon didn’t feel like a mighty warrior, remember he was hiding! When the angel of the Lord started conversing with him, Gideon had questions! Why, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Did He bring us of Egypt to hand deliver us to the Midanites? Gideon felt deserted, abandoned by God. He felt let down and now he was threshing his grain in this deep pit at night time, so that he wouldn’t be discovered and have the food taken from him. Then this angel of the Lord appears to him and calls him, mighty warrior? Gideon was questioning God.

Have you ever questioned God? I have. I remember praying for rent money when we first moved to Burley. At the time I felt deserted. Where were all of my close Oregon friends? I felt like it was a case of, out of sight out of mind. I remember praying to the Lord and telling Him, “God, You did not call us to Burley to die. My rent is due in 8 days and we have no way of paying it. Remember God, we are here in Burley, Idaho where you called us!”  God was so patient with me. I would remind Him of the widow that prayed insistently, never giving up. Guess what? No matter how I felt God never left me.  He was right there providing for me and loving me. He would tell me, “I did call you to Burley.”

I love the Lord’s response to Gideon! “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” Basically God told Gideon to forget about his insecurities and go as you are. God would be with Gideon.

Even then Gideon questioned God again and reminded God that not only was his family the weakest family but he, himself was the least of his family!  

God didn’t say, well okay Gideon, you’re right, you are excused, I picked the wrong guy. No he just reaffirmed His call to Gideon! He told Gideon that He would go with him and that Gideon would kill all of the Midianites!

See, we are not the only one in history to feel alone and abandoned! Jesus promised us that He would never leave us or forsake us. Why did He promise that? Jesus knew that we would feel alone, or deserted sometimes. Remember God will go with us when he assigns us to do something! He loves us.

This week in service Pastor Jason spoke to us about Faith. Faith is when you grab hold of things as if they are, when they are not. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert, one of Satan’s tactics was, if You are really the Son God…Jesus never responded to that question! We need not to go there with, “Who am I?” When the devil taunts us and asks us, “Who are you?” We need to respond with God’s Word! It doesn’t matter who I am it matters Who I serve!

We have a choice. We can follow what we have been called to do or we can do what we “feel” like we can do. He will go with us! Some of us will say, “But I don’t know what God wants me to do.” Well I have the answer for that! Read your bible and pray every day. Even when you don’t feel like it! Share your faith with others. When you do these things you will renew your mind! We condition our bodies with exercise because we want to stay healthy, it is just important, if not more, to condition your Spirit. Have accountability in your life with someone.  Do not conform to the world! Let God transform you. We also need some healing in our lives. God will show us that as we renew our mind by spending time in prayer and with the Word.

So please do not live your life by how you feel but live life in what you have been called! I am excited to see what God is going to do in Burley, Idaho. He is with us! He has promised great things and I am going to grab ahold of everything that God has promised!

Shanin

Ministry Out of the Norm

2 And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. ² Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. ³ Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. ⁴ And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.

⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
⁶ And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
⁸ But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? ¹⁰ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, ¹¹ “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” ¹² Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” Mark 2:1-12

I love this portion of the Word because I have been at this very place in Capernaum. I remember standing in the now White Synagogue that was built on the top of the very synagogue that Jesus preached in Capernaum. The White Synagogue no longer has the ceiling but I stood there thinking about Jesus standing in the same place! It was an amazing time of reflection.

So according to this passage Jesus was preaching to a full and overflowing house. There was no more room! Let me tell you of a personal experience that I had while growing up. My mom could share the love of Jesus to anyone and everyone who would listen. I am sure that she was offensive to some. When I was about nine years old my mom started a prayer meeting. We lived in a tiny farming community called Powell Butte, Oregon. The nearest town was eight miles away. My mom spread the word that she was starting this prayer meeting. None of the people out of the church we attended came to the bible study slash prayer meeting. I remember the apartment above the double car garage being full and overflowing. I remember sitting in the closet during worship literally! My mom's little word of mouth prayer meeting grew to over 150 people. Did I mention that most of these people were not the typical church goers? They were the hippies of the 70's that gathered together and worshipped the Lord and the Lord's presence would show up because they were seeking Him! I remember the Fire Marshal coming out and telling my mom that not another person would be allowed to come because of the fire danger, so she moved the meeting outside in the summer so that if more wanted to come that they could. I remember the police coming and checking my mom out because they thought that there must be some sort of illegal activity going on with all of "those hippies" coming. My mom loved each and everyone. She told them the truth in love. The Word of God was preached and awesome worship was done in harmony. I saw many supernatural things happen during those meetings. God moved.

Back to the bible...it says in vs. 2 that Jesus preached the word to the crowd and people came! People were so desperate that when they couldn't get the paralytic to Him they tore a part the roof to get their friend to Jesus. Talk about friends and desperation. They went to drastic measures to help their friend. Now that is good friends! Jesus told the man that his sins were forgiven. The scribes who were witnessing all of this were being critical in their hearts and Jesus knew it! So he addressed their critisims in vs. 9 and 10. Jesus then turned around and healed the paralized man.

I love verse 12, ¹² Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” And ALL were amazed and glorified God.

We are coming to a time where there are hungry people. People who are searching for the truth. They may not be looking in traditional avenues or in traditional ways but there is a need for people to meet and bring the truth to them! Some are so desperate that they are searching in the wrong places and in wrong ways but we need to be willing to overlook somethings and not be so easily offended that we miss opportunities of ministry.

I am so thankful that I got to witness first hand ministry not in the traditional setting. Let me tell you, I heard my mom being criticized by others who were in ministry! Did she quit? No. She knew that these young people needed Jesus even if they were not the ordinary. She loved each and everyone! I heard my mom called names like, witch and heard the rumors that she must be practicing witch craft by other Christians. Shoot, even the police came out to check it out because why else would there be 150 or more people out in the middle of no where?  I knew better because I was there observing Jesus ministering first hand! Things like deliverance, healing and discipling were happening all around. My mom was not "seeker friendly" but she was genuine. She did not sugar coat anything, lol, but she loved them and shared the Word of God.

So be willing to share the Word of God anywhere and everywhere. Do not be critical in your heart. Jesus can and will detect it! If you do get criticized, get over it and do not get hung up on it because that will just get in the way of ministry. Jesus is big. He didn't let the critics stop Him or His ministry. When people saw miracles happening there was no way to deny it. When God moves, He moves. Just make sure that you don't miss it when He does because it doesn't fit inside your box :)

Excited about what is going to happen!

Shanin