Joy

I woke up this morning (way too early) thinking about joy. In spite of the doom and gloom in our world today, in spite of the physical struggles, the financial turmoil, and the upside down times we are living in, joy should fill our hearts! Sound crazy?

In Isaiah 40:31 God promises that if we wait on Him, He will provide strength and endurance.
In John 10:10 Jesus tells us that He came to give us life to max.
In Philippians 4:4 Paul tells us to always be joyful in the Lord and to rejoice always.
In James 1:2 James tells us to that trouble is an opportunity for Joy

I believe that there is a difference between joy and happiness. To me, joy is a heart condition and happiness is an emotion. I can have a joyful spirit as I cry in pain. I can be joyful in the midst of crisis. Happiness comes and goes, but joy is much deeper and lasts forever. I will choose joy over happiness because true joy comes from my relationship with our God who loves me and cares for me. He has a plan, even in crisis, and His plan is always best for me even when it doesn't seem like it at the time.

I think that's the key to the series we are doing right now. The answer to uncertainty is finding joy in Christ. You can be happy for a time without Him, but you will have joy forever with Him. Do you choose happiness or joy?

Praying in Faith

In my devotions Tuesday, God was showing me a habit that I've picked up. I don't know where it came from, but it is really annoying. It demonstrates a lack of faith on my part. You may have this habit too. For many, I'm sure that it's not a habit, but an actual definition of their level of faith. I sure hope it's not an indicator of my level of faith. As a wise man once said, "I believe, help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24). Actually, this man was the father of a boy that needed help. I'm sure he was afraid for his son.

The habit? Hedging my bets in my prayer life. I noticed that in some of my prayers that require God to act, I tack on "if it's your will." How rediculous is that! Is there any question what God's will is when it comes to people making a decision for Him, or growing in Him? Of course not! Is there any question what God's will is when a child is fighting for his life? Of course not.

You say wait a minute on that last one, children die in spite of the prayers offered on their behalf. Yes, that's true. I am making a distinction here between God's will and God's plan. For example, the Bible says that God doesn't want anyone to perish, but have eternal life. That is God's will. Does that mean that no one dies without a relationship with Him? Unfortunately, no! God does; however, provide a way, a plan, for the gift of eternal life to be offered to all who wish to receive it.

In my prayers I need to give God the opportunity to say no. I think so many prayers go unanswered because we don't ask in faith. We don't really expect God to do anything. We need to leave it up to God whether He will say yes, no, or wait. We need to stop hedging our bets. We need to simply ask God to act, to intervene, to go big. Our prayers, my prayers, need to simply be ones of unbridled faith. Like, "God please heal Josh", not "If it's your will, please heal Josh."

We only know God's plans that have been revealed to us through the Bible. So we don't know what God's plan is in every situation. We need to simply ask, and wait to see what He does. His plans aren't our plans, though they sometimes correspond. So, I'm focusing on breaking myself of this habit. I'm asking God for His help. I'm asking, and I'm not hedging my bets. I'm sure it's His will that I ask in faith!

God Is So Good - Part 2

God is so good! We have a home team just for new believers. We currently have 19 people signed up for the next class starting this week (not including leaders). This is only the second time we have offered the class. The class focuses on giving new believers tools so that they can grow in Christ and grow in relationship with Him and other believers. After looking at tons of material we finally wrote our own. By late summer our goal is to re-create the material as a video based curriculum.

God Is So Good!

I want to thank the many who have been praying for Josh, the little boy with leukemia who has been struggling for survival. He made it through the weekend and is doing a little better! Praise God! Today was pretty awesome too. Dave and I took a pile of cards to Josh that kids at church made. His parents were doing pretty good, all things considered. Josh is down to 40% oxygen, which means that he has begun brathing on his own. They are going to begin feeding him through a feeding tube so that his system can begin working again. He's not out of the woods, but he is making progress! You can keep up with changes at www.joshinfo.com

Palm Valley Church Rocks!

There were so many volunteers it was awesome! The services (4 of them) were off the hook! Not just the main service, but the kids areas as well. Greg really brought home the Gospel message talking about Light (Jesus). The tech guys would say that there were a lot of problems, but the lighting and camera effects I saw were great! Michael wasn't there to see all of his hard work come to fruition, but it was great (he'll have to watch the video). Twelve people that we know of accepted Christ. One of the stories was particularly amazing and a true Christmas miracle. And all that was just Christmas eve weekend!

Christmas was amazing! I love that we begin Christmas in our family with prayer and reading the Christmas story from Luke 2. Then we celebrate God's gift to us by giving gifts to each other. This we set a pretty low dollar limit so that we can contribute more inthe spring to our building fund at the church. I loved the creativity required to give great gifts and stay within the budget. I'm usually the biggest offender when we set limits, but I love giving gifts to my family. I actually stayed within budget this year, and Santa did too! Even though there wasn't a lot of cash spent, there sure were a lot of gifts! The creativity was great, and it was a lot of fun stuff, not just practical things.

I hope that you had a great Christmas celebrating God's gift of Light through Christ Jesus.