I had posted a picture on Facebook of an
ant carrying a stick (way over his weight). I woke up Sunday
morning and I heard this scripture in my mind:
And such as do
wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people
that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
Daniel 11:32
A person in the Bible that reminds me of an ant is Samson. Samson got his strength and power from God, but then he let the enemy take his power. The enemy cut off his hair and plucked out his eyes.
“Ants can
carry items 10 - 50 times their own body weight. Ants are small but they are
very strong for their size. if you were that strong you could lift an
automobile. The ants carry or drag heavy loads for food back to their nests.
The food may be parts of plants or bits of dead animals.”
Go to the ant,
you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer
or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at
harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from
your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to
rest-- and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed
man. Proverbs 6: 6-11
Like Samson lost his eyesight, there are
many people I meet today that don't have a vision. They live from paycheck to
paycheck or from struggle to struggle. A vision or a plan of what God wants
them to do in life. I was listening to Paul Crouch the founder of TBN about how
he started seeing lights pop up in a vision and those were television stations.
I was praying about a church the Lord wants me to belong to, and I heard him say, "I've not called you to a rich man's church." I believe it's because my husband and I left our church of five years to go to an outreach branch they started close to downtown. We were attending it for four years to work with more people in need and crisis in outreaches. (Yet you dishonored that poor man. Don't the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? James 2:6)
Billy Graham was talking about how being "poor in spirit" is being humble in spirit and as Jesus said he did not come on earth to minister to the righteous, but minister to those who need a physician. Our teens said the crowd was very rough, we went back to our Westside church. I've not had a peace about continuing to stay at my old church, especially since now my children are grown. (On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark 2:17)
It's nice when we have a calling on our life is to determine exactly what that calling is and where God's will lead us. I woke up one morning and the Lord said, "I currently have you on a detour road."
I was praying about a church the Lord wants me to belong to, and I heard him say, "I've not called you to a rich man's church." I believe it's because my husband and I left our church of five years to go to an outreach branch they started close to downtown. We were attending it for four years to work with more people in need and crisis in outreaches. (Yet you dishonored that poor man. Don't the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? James 2:6)
Billy Graham was talking about how being "poor in spirit" is being humble in spirit and as Jesus said he did not come on earth to minister to the righteous, but minister to those who need a physician. Our teens said the crowd was very rough, we went back to our Westside church. I've not had a peace about continuing to stay at my old church, especially since now my children are grown. (On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark 2:17)
It's nice when we have a calling on our life is to determine exactly what that calling is and where God's will lead us. I woke up one morning and the Lord said, "I currently have you on a detour road."
Anyway, until I find exactly the inner
city type church the Lord wants me to minister at, I went to a church in my
neighborhood and I felt lead to share a word with a couple who was sitting next
to me. Turned out they were newly engaged and planning to blend a
family, and it was just a blessing being used of God even at church.
There were a couple of times I was visiting East 91 Street Christian church
single parents group and complete strangers would come up and ask me questions
about the church while I was only visiting, and the same way with Indian Creek
singles group and now my youngest daughter attends there. I lead worship
for three years at Zionsville Presbyterian church single's group, and my niece met her husband
after a divorce through a social I brought her to.
I think of that scripture “whatever you
do – do for the glory of God.” I am seeking to be a blessing at church
and I am not seeking my own glory, but God to be gloried in my life. We
are the only Jesus that many people meet and I realize that in working around
40 international students each day at a university. I like what I
heard recently when Eric Liddle was training for the Olympics (the movie
Chariots of Fire). His sister condemned him for running so much he said,
“Sis I feel God’s pleasure when I run.”
I’ve had many different people condemn
me about many things I do or don’t do. (Do not judge,
and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37)
I feel God’s pleasure when I help
widows, I feel God’s pleasure when I go visit my friend who had cancer, I feel
God’s pleasure when I sit down with a divorced woman and encourage her that God
brought a great Christian man into my life through his grace to help me raise
my four children. I can feel God’s pleasure in relaxing and enjoying life,
and I am God’s child and his banner over me is love.
Sometimes, I don’t feel anything at all
and that is when I take life by faith. I give my
feelings over to God to just follow and obey his word. The more I
get into the word of God, the more I realize how God’s word divides between my
soul and spirit.
For the word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
I have a whole new set of ballplayers in my life now as far as people I associate with are no longer the same people I was with as far as married couples or my husband's friends. Sometimes, we switch out ballplayers in life according to the vision that God gives us.
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. Proverbs 29:18
The 1924 Summer Olympics were hosted by the city of Paris. A devout Christian, Liddell refused to run in a heat held on Sunday (the Christian Sabbath) and was forced to withdraw from the 100-metres race, his best event. The schedule had been published several months earlier, and his decision was made well before the Games. Liddell spent the intervening months training for the 400 metres, though his best pre-Olympics time of 49.6 seconds, set in winning the 1924 AAA championship 440 yards,[ was modest by international standards. When the day of the Olympic 400 metres race came, Liddell went to the starting blocks, where an American Olympic Team masseur slipped a piece of paper into his hand with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30: "Those who honor me I will honor."
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