08.18.2006

Matthew 21:21
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. 22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

Mark 5:36, 9:24
Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe."
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

Luke 12:28
…If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!

Hello everyone,

How are you all? I hope that things are well, as always, and that the Lord has been teaching you and growing you. For me, a lot of things went on this week and I missed a lot of other things this week…And it all came back to kick me in the hide today. Well, really, the Lord kicked me in the hide today vicariously through a friend of mine.
Most of you know that I’ve been doing support (fund) raising in order for me to get started with college ministry. The school year starts the 30th of this month, and because I am almost literally unable to do so, I am waiting another month to start on campus to do more support raising. Now, there are many things I ought to praise the Lord for; this is an awesome thing to wait another month. But the thing I focus on is “I don’t care, I want to start NOW.” And more than that is the fact I don’t think I’ve been in a place where I’ve totally believed that God is going to provide.
Okay. Ouch- big time.
It’s like I’m trying to take complete ownership of something that’s not mine to take, and then going at it upon my own power to add insult to injury.
Mega-ouch.

So, this is where I am right now, like one of those disciples whom Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” I think of the story of Abraham and his son Isaac- that's the kind of faith I want. It’s hard, but I know the Lord is going to pull me to Himself and help me rely on Him. He is still incredibly good.
Since I’m unsure of what else to share right now, here’s a song that came to mind. It's my prayer for you and myself, that we would have the faith that we are called to have and to trust the Lord.


Can you count all the things that I'm worried about
By the lines in my brow, I want to trust but don't know how
To rest and be still, to abandon myself to your will
And I can't figure out what my time in this world is about

And this time I don't have an answer
But don't think that I haven't tried
I still have the heart of a seeker
But I need the faith of a child
I need the faith of a child

I know Christ waits for me on the other side
of this life, But I, I wanna know why I'm alive
Cause I wonder from the path so far
Would it be easier, easier to be where you are

And this time I don't have an answer
But don't think that I haven't tried
I still have the heart of a seeker
But I need the faith of a child
I need the faith of a child

I wanna know what the truth is
and I don't care if its costly
I know there must be a reason
even if it cannot be known by me

And this time I don't have an answer
But don't think that I haven't tried
I still have the heart of a seeker
But I need the faith of a child
I need the faith of a child

--O.C. Supertones

In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne

08.12.2006

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."

Matthew 11:28
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

See also: OT Scripture regarding the Sabbath.

Hello all!

First- there are a few added individuals. This is Yvonne, and the email before you is 'The Weekly Thing.' The purpose of this weekly email is to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ, as the Lord wills. If you do not want to recieve it, just let me know and I can take you off of the list.
Second- I feel I ought to note, however unimportant it may be do so, that much of the Scripture references that I use are looked up (in context as well) via Biblegateway.com. It's very handy. I recommend it.

Recently, I've been reading a book called Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditatios on Art, Faith, and Mystery by Gregory Wolfe. It's primarily about Christian faith in relationship to art/writing and post-modernity, and Wolfe brings up something in one of the short chapters that got me thinking... That is, the concept of silence. Silence, by definition, is the "condition or quailty of being still; the abscence of sound, stillness." Wolfe talks about silence as something sacred; pure; a moment unmarred by human intervention/sound... granted, while he was talking more directly about the creative process, I think there's a good bit of thought to offer to the population at large.
The past two or three weeks have left me with relatively little silence. I have utilized the vocal chords God gave me more in these weeks than I think I had in whole month of May (or any month for that matter). I've been somehow plugged into music, plugged into conversations, plugged into every Sound Outlet available to me. Because my bedroom is currently still out-of-order, I have been sleeping in an office humming loudly with computers so even my sleep has been without silence. Things are also constantly rattling around in my mind about college ministry and support raising and moving to Philadelphia. You would think that I would be going crazy at this point with so much "noise." But is this experience uncommon for most of us? I think that, most of the time, we don't really even notice how noisy our daily lives tend to be... The switch is always turned on and the volume is usually on full blast to the point that it seems abnormal to be in the midst of silence. It usually means something is wrong.
However, silence can be such a wonderful and powerful thing. In some ways I would want to picture the God of the universe pulling us aside and saying, "Shut up and worship me. Be quiet and listen to me." Sure that might seem a bit gruff but 1) God is God and 2) if Jesus can overturn tables and use a whip to chase out men selling things in the temple, I think God could tell us to Shut Up if He wanted to. Sometimes, it's the only way we'll get quiet right away. But there's more.
A common contemporary worship song opens with "You're calling me to lay aside the worries of my day; to quite down my busy mind and find a hiding place." While songs aren't Scripture, there's a whole lot to think about when those words come out of our mouths. We're called to set our worries, our busy-ness, our selves aside. All the thoughts that bounce around like crazy in our heads are to be quieted. Every now and then (more often than not!), we need to find a mental/physical quiet place to praise God for who He is.

I pray that each of us will find the significance of silence, that we would rest in the presence of our Lord without being noisy about it... that we would be quiet more often than not. I ask that the Spirit would help us to quiet our minds and our hearts so that we can commune with God and KNOW Him. I also pray that we would continually be refined, becoming more and more like Christ every day... and that we would turn around and praise Him for what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do.

In love and in Him,
your sister,
Yvonne

08.05.2006

Jeremiah 29:11-13
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

John 14:1
"Do not let your hearts me troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."

Hello everyone,

How are you all doing? I hope that all is well, and that our Lord is continually teaching you and working through you.
Before I go on into my regular spiel, I thought I would touch on something that's going on in the world. As you undoubtedly know, there's a lot of crazy stuff happening between Israel and Lebanon right now. There's always something going on in the world, and there are always wars going on... But I just wanted to ask that if you haven't already prayed for the two nations, I ask that you would do so. Pray for Israel, pray for Lebanon, and pray for whoever else gets involved. I don't mean pray just that they would stop fighting, but pray that the way of Christ may be made known and that He would use our brothers and sisters there to help all of those in need.

Thanks.

This week, as I was reading through Matthew and had been comparing it to the other Gospels (study bibles are so handy with that!), I came across Mark 5, and a verse (36) that stuck out to me was when Jesus says to the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe." Now the context is that Jesus wanted the man with the sick girl to believe that He could heal her. But it's a verse that just strikes a chord in such a way that I need to cling to it. As I step out into college ministry, there are so many things that I could be afraid of... In fact, there are a lot of things I could be afraid of without even going into ministry. That's just just the way life is - I'm sure it's nothing new to most of you. Whether it's with graduating and needing to get a job, or going through classes, or getting into a brand new relationship (or struggling in one), or dealing with sickness, or dealing with family issues, or money's getting tight.... So on and so forth.
here's a commercial for something or other that basically says "Life comes at you fast." It's true. There are a lot of things in life that just come at us and tempt us to quake in our boots. And yet there's Jesus, saying to the man who has just been told his daughter was dead: Do not be afraid, but instead believe. Believe that Jesus can, and will, take care of you. I really needed to hear that in the beginning of this week, and I'm finding that at the end of the week, it's still something I need to hold onto--tightly. If Christ is God, and if God is the God of all things, then certainly He is more than able to take care of us. What usually gets in the way is our own human ideas of what we think we need.... and it's then that we ought to read Matthew 6:25-34 to set things into perspective. Do we believe God is going to take care of us? We all struggle with this question...
Later in Mark (9:24), a man says to Jesus, "... help me overcome my unbelief!"
I think we could all do with crying out like that.

I pray that each one of us learn to cry out like that... That, although God knows it, we would ask for Him to help us believe. I pray that He would continually be working in our hearts, and that we would come to hold onto His amazing faithfulness. I ask that the Holy Spirit be working and refining each of us, molding us into dedicated sons and daughters that want to be instruments of the Father's glory. I also ask that we be conscious of the fact that the Lord is us, holding onto us and teaching us to hold onto Him through the difficulties in life that cause our faith to quake. May we learn to rely on and trust our Lord more and more every day.

In love and in Him,
your sister,
Yvonne