07.28.2006

Psalm 100
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 46:10
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

Col 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone is doing well. This past week has been a little all over the place for me, having gone back and forth between discouragement and encouragement. It's been kinda crazy.
Also during this past week, I'd like to share something that I would not recommend for anyone on the planet to ever do. I've been trying to do all that I can to work and prepare for ministry, up to the point of not settling down and spending some quiet time with the Lord. From the moment of waking up each morning, the voice in my head called Myself said, "I have to get this, this, and this done and I need to start right away." Woah- no good! And I sit back and wonder why I've been feeling discouraged? Looking at it now, it seems like a no-brainer.
But, I know I'm not the only one to be suddenly found in the sticky situation of being overly focused on everything but God. There's a lot going on in the world, both privately and publicly. There's work that does need to be done, and there are things that we are responsible for. Even now as I'm typing the Weekly, I'm thinking in the back of my head: "I need to call persons X, Y, and Z today, and then run to places A, B, and C." It's times like these that I want to tell myself to sit down and be quiet. Ever get like that? Ever get to a point where you're running around like a chicken that's frantic about the sky falling?
Unfortunately, it's not that uncommon to get so wrapped up into busy-ness that God is left looking at His proverbial watch, wondering when we're going to sit down with Him. I'm reminded of the story of when Jesus went to visit Mary and Martha, from Luke 10. I'm sure you know the story. Martha's bustling around in the kitchen while Mary is sitting with Jesus. But I needn't go into too much detail about the story... it would seem as though everyone and their mom goes back to this story when talking about busy-ness. What gets me is Jesus' response to Martha when she asks Him to tell Mary to help her.

"...you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed."

I'm worried and upset about a lot of things. I'm running around, wondering how in the world this ministry thing is going to work out. I'm wondering when my ceiling in my bedroom is going to be fixed and when I won't have to work in the basement anymore. And then of course there are the little things that rattle on in the background... I seem to be missing the point, however, in knowing that only one thing is needed. We all seem to miss the point at one moment or another... We just need to stop, sit down, and spend some time with the Lord who gives us life. More than that, to just stop and be thankful; to praise God for all things. I think that when we start buzzing around and worrying about everything that needs to be done, we tend to lose that focus and act as though life is all about what WE do. The things we do in our day are things that are really given to us from God to steward. To spend time with God every day is to give something back that He gave us in the first place... think of it this way: It's said that we're to give a tenth of all we have to God (or, indirectly through the church). Would that then include giving a tenth of our time to God, every day?
I'll let that question sit... not only for you, but also for myself.

I pray that we can be a people that spends time building our relationship with God... not just every now and then, but every day. I pray that His spirit would teach us to be thankful in all circumstances, and for all things. May we learn to pray not only for ourselves, but that we be especially mindful of others and the things that go on in the world. I ask that the Lord refine us and help us to set aside quiet time with Him, that we do not neglect our Father even in the midst of busy-ness. I also ask that He give us the tools we need to be good stewards of our responsibilities, looking to Him for guidance always.

In love and in Him,
your sister,
Yvonne

07.22.2006

Psalm 133:1
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

John 17:22,23
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Romans 15:5,6
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello everyone,

Before I start, two things:
1) Sorry about not writing last week's email. Through the busy-ness of going into the last week of new staff training, I wasn't able to send out my email. While the rest of this summer will likely be very busy for me, I have all intention to continue writing the Weekly.
2) Hello NST friends! I mentioned briefly to most - if not all - of you that there's this weekly encouragement email I do... well, this is it! Basically, this is my attempt to encourage (and sometimes challenge) brothers and sisters in Christ on a weekly basis. And, if the Lord sees fitting, He'll use something I say to encourage someone out there. That's it. It can also be found online at http://weeklything.blogspot.com/. If you don't want to get an email every week, just let me know and I'll take you off the list.

Okay, now with that aside... as somewhat mentioned above, I missed last week's email because I was going into my final week of training for college ministry. Last night, I came home. It's kind of funny and strange being at home now, for a number of reasons. First of all, there aren't the thirty people buzzing around, the folks I've bonded with over the past five weeks. Second of all, I had to sleep on the floor of my dad's office because there is a hole in the ceiling of my bedroom - all of my things are in every place but my room. That's a little disorienting... among other things. Yet despite these things, I know I'll settle and things will get back to normal once more. But I digress.

There are a lot of things that I learned at my training, too many things to even think about summarizing in such a way that satisfies full explanation. That'd be crazy. So, instead I will focus on what is on the forefront of my mind: community. Most of you have heard me go on about the importance of community and unity, but I don't think these kinds of things can be said enough.
While the situation I just came out of is a rather unusual one, the sense of community we've reached is not necessarily outside the bounds of average life. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to be united. You and I cannot do this Christian thing alone. We were never meant to. Think back to the Garden of Eden: God had said after observing little lonely Adam, "It is not good for Man to be alone." There is a part of us (or at least me) that stubbornly fights against this, saying, "No, I can do it by myself. I don't need the help of others." In case you haven't noticed, there's just a wee bit hint of pride in that. Being the Animal Planet geek I am, to think that we can get along fine as Christians by ourselves kind of makes me think of a baby water buffalo wandering off by itself. Not only is it easier to take down by predators because it doesn't have the protection of the herd, it's probably also clueless about its own vulnerability. Likewise, once we stubbornly try to go it our own, we're open to be attack and clueless about our vulnerability.
Physically, we need fellow Christians nearby for a number of reasons. They can look out for us when we're struggling and call us out when we're sinning. They see and know our behaviors. No one really likes to be called out on something, but we all desperately need it. Spiritually, to be connected with a body of believers (most likely a church) means that we have the opportunity to be taught the Word of God and what it means to walk with Christ. We can be blessed- but we can also be a blessing to others! This also emphasizes on the importance of not just giving all the time, and not just taking all the time. We need an even balance of taking in what we learn and pouring it out onto others: to have community. People help one another, look out for one another, and take care of one another. For us it doesn't mean flowers and sunshine all the time, and there will be some disagreements from time to time. But the spirit of unity will say that although those differences are present, it is a choice to love and care for the other person even when there is a disagreement/difference.
I suppose you could say that being a Community Christian (as opposed to a Lone Ranger Christian) gives us the opportunity to reflect the relationship of the God-head. While the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three personages and have basically different "jobs" as it were, we can still confidently say that God is God, "three in one." God is unified as one. We can never fully attain this kind of unity, but we can do all that we can to strive for it. It also gives us the opportunity to pour out our love and our gifts onto others, and in turn have them pour their love and their gifts onto us. Why would I think this is important? Well, I would wager to say that it gives glory to the Lord... and that's good enough reason in and of itself.

I pray that each of us would strive to be unified with the brothers and sisters around us, knowing well that any encouragement and rebuke is meant for our betterment. I also pray for those of us that have the tendency to try to be a community unto ourselves, that we would see the importance of being a part of the Body. I also ask that if we have the tendency to stick only to our Christian communities, that we would learn to break free and step out onto the water so that others may see our faith. I ask that the Spirit would help us all to be unified, and that slander or gossip would be fought against because it has no place in our lives... that we would actively seek reconciliation where needed. I pray that we each can be changed more and more into the likeness of Christ, always seeking to be refined to bring the Father glory.

In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne

07.09.2006

James 1:22
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Philippians 2:12, 13
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Colossians 1:9-14
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Hello everyone!

Wow, there has been so much going on here with my training that it would take a novel for me to go on about the things I’ve been learning about. And although I tend to be long-winded in my Weeklies, I could write forever on my classes thus far. But let’s put that aside and come back around to something I mentioned in brief last week.

In my last email, I kind of breezed over this metaphor involving a sift and how the number of wires makes a big difference in how garbage is sifted out. At that time I spoke about how a sift with only one half of it threaded with wires was useless. I'd like to touch more on the aspect of a sifter with very few wires being fairly ineffective in the context of maturing in our faith. If you've been getting these emails or if you've been talking to me long enough, you know that I put a pretty heavy emphasis on spiritual growth. Indeed, I encourage every one of us - brothers and sisters, young and old - to be continually seeking growth. In this idea of a sifter, the growth is measured by the amount of wires you have. The more spiritually mature, the more wires and the less garbage that would tend to get through, right? For instance, when I first became a Christian, I used to shake back and forth whenever confronted by non-Christian family members. Although it is hard at times still, I am now (five years later) more rooted and solid in my stance with Christ as our salvation.

To be "spiritually mature" in any sense seems like this mysterious and non-objective state of being, but I really do think that it is a process that we all go through. While Christ through the Holy Spirit is continually working through us, in some respects it can be a choice to be mature. For example, infants have a natural growth process that they must go through but as they get older they also have to learn to work and operate in the human world. If I want to be a better speller, I need to learn how to spell and continue to practice spelling to be an even better speller. If I want to sing, I have to sing and practice singing to be even better. These things don't always come naturally to us. As with being a "mature Christian," it doesn't necessarily come natural to us, but we must continually be learning about and professing what it is that we believe. Because I believe that there is no higher earthly authority than the Bible, I would say that reading, studying, and practicing the Bible is extremely important. Reading to get off on the right foot; studying to understand and go beyond leisure reading; practicing to live it and go far beyond what we call "head-knowledge." There's a lot of stuff you can know about the Bible, but that doesn't necessarily define maturity. I could know about the theories of music, but if I don't put action to it, what does it mean? On the flipside, if I just have the action without the know-how, then how in the world can I invite others in to understanding what I believe?
I encourage each of you (and in hopes, you would encourage me) to be very thoughtful of your walk and relationship with Christ. Are we actively seeking to learn how to have a deeper relationship with Christ? Do we seek to understand, or do we just take things at face-value?

I pray that each of us would not only grow more into mature Christians, I also pray that we would vocalize our faith and our understanding of our faith with others. I pray that the Lord would bring us to use the facilities around us to grow, learn, and share as we age as believers. I also ask that we would put it in our hearts and minds to want to stretch ourselves in order to grow, that our lives would not be spiritually stagnant. I pray that the Holy Spirit would continually refine us more and more into the image of Christ, and unify us under His name.

In love and in Him,
your sister,

Yvonne