Thursday, February 23, 2006

Hey there everyone…this is an untitled post, as technology is not co-operating with me today and I am bound and determined to get this post up...I hope your weeks are all going well! This was orginally going to be a comment to everyone in my comment box, but then it started to shape up to be a post. I’ve been thinking a lot on that checklist this week and the worship music from Sunday has permeated my soul and has continually come into my head throughout the days…it’s brought such peace and a filling of His Holy Spirit throughout this week.

I think what I’ve got out of my thinking so far this week is that things don’t and probably won’t change overnight, and it’ll probably happen in baby steps, but that’s okay! Our pastor made a comment on Sunday which has stayed with me this week…he said that a lot of times we put everything into boxes…our family time box, our work box, our friend box, our God box, etc. and that in the church during Christ’s time, God was just in every aspect of life. That got me thinking, especially about “Every week I take at least one full day as a “personal Sabbath” to restore my energy”…if I’m able to put aside a whole day and get some good time with God during that day to pray and be with him, but it also includes time with my family, tobogganning, going bike riding, going for a walk, etc., isn’t that still a time of rest, and also enjoying the blessings which he’s bestowed upon me? I still have a lot of thinking and praying to do on this one!

“God’s will and purpose is the determining factor as to how I spend my time.” I’m trying to do this more than I was, and am finding that some of the things I was chosing to spend my time on aren’t nearly as important as they were before…I am assuming I’m going to continue to see changes in this area as I become more purposeful in doing this on a daily, hourly, every minute and every second basis!

“In a typical week I involve others in helping me be the person God is calling me to be and to do the things God asks of me.” Someone said to me last night that they did eventually come to the realization of knowing that it’s okay to call upon others when you need that help to become the person God wants you to be. I’m really struggling with this one…I always let my friends know that I’m there for them, whenever they need me and that they can come to me anytime they need to…but in the same sense, I’m always “scared” that I’m going to be a bother to someone or be known as someone who’s pestering people with their problems and burdens, so I tend to keeps things to myself and inside, which I know is the wrong thing to do…but once you have done something so long, it’s a really long and hard process to reverse!

I’m going to be working on all five aspects of the list, but I’m going to focus on a handful of them for the time-being and take it in smaller steps, as for me, it won’t be so overwhelming! I’m going to sign-off with a scripture passage I read yesterday…I’m reading through a one-year Bible plan which has you reading from 7 different parts of the bible…one part for each week…I’m a little behind and in catch-up mode, but I’m getting so much out of it, which is a really good thing. I won’t probably be posting again until Monday, as we are leaving tomorrow to go and see my parents…we haven’t seen them since Christmas (which is a long time for us) and we are going to be enjoying a weekend with my parents and my sister, who is also travelling up…it will be full of family time and a weekend which will hopefully be free of stress, especially free of the everyday demands of life and hopefully a weekend full of rest, relaxation and a time to re-energize…I hope you’ll all have a very blessed weekend full of Christ’s love and protection…I’ll be back next week!

Romans 12 (The Message)
Place Your Life Before God


So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder.

4 comments:

Kc said...

Okay first, great new look! Technology may not be coorperating but it certainly appears to be trying! ;-)

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Your comment post put my published artiles to shame! ;-)

Great message and I love those last two paragraphs.

audrey` said...

I admire your determination very much.

Keep it up, Sister :)

M. C. Pearson said...

Looks great...God bless!

Jenny said...

Wow! Thanks for posting that passage from The Message. It's like getting a whole different perspective on the passage I've read so many times. ;-) Have a wonderful trip!