Closing This Door to Open Another

Hello to all the readers we have had in the past 5+ years. We are not only beginning a new chapter in our ministry, but a new book, so to speak. The blog will be archived so that it can still be accessed, but our focus is now on one blog, with a different theme, and an updated message. Click on the picture below to read our first post from the new blog and, if you would like to follow us there, that would be wonderful. Thank you all for making our little ministry blog a part of your reading material.

Series: Highways & Hedges~ Is God Leading You Down a Narrow Street?

Or, is HE sending you out into the great unknown?

Some Christians call themselves followers, disciples or apostles. Others call themselves missionaries, emissaries, or ambassadors. Still others refer to themselves as just plain messengers. No matter how you refer to yourself, the bottom line is that we are called to go out and be witnesses for Him throughout the world.

So, where is God leading you? Can you look out your window, and see people walking by on the sidewalk, or do you have to drive several miles just to see your nearest neighbor? No matter where you are ~ in whatever capacity is your walk with God ~ He will have someone there that you need to speak to, encourage, or help in some way. There will someone that the Holy Spirit is wooing, and you are given the honor of being a part of it. He uses what  is unknown to us to  build our faith.  

God will work with your personality; He will not ask you to do something that you are not equipped to do. But, He will keep expanding our envelope, and putting us outside our comfort zone. That’s one way we can know something is from God-if it makes us uncomfortable. If we stay within that safety zone of comfort, we cannot grow, and if we cannot grow, then we are essentially unteachable. If we are unteachable, then God can’t use us.

So look around your small town, your city block, or your country lane, and see where God is sending you. It might be outside of your comfort zone. If it is, then go with confidence that the situation will be used to help you grow and mature,so as to broaden your horizons and prepare you for the journey ahead.

The

next part

of your journey

starts here!

Series: Highways & Hedges~Here Am I, Send Me

Are you willing to go where God wants to take you?

A person doesn’t necessarily have to pack a suitcase in order to be willing to “go into the highways and hedges” to compel the people to come in. In fact, a lot of us can just go next door, or across the street. In our experience so far these past 5 years, we have seen many more willing to go to the jungles of Africa before they would offer Christ to their neighbor.

The best example of willingness to “go” is Isaiah. “Here am I-send me.” God wants to send us where the seed needs to be planted. And, while we are there, we might harvest a seed someone planted years before. We don’t see a wheat crop in the middle of the interstate. Where He is asking us to go may be a little off the beaten track. It may not be Africa-it might be a group of teenagers that hang out under the bleachers at the Friday night high school football  game.It might be old man who fought in the war or lost his wife to cancer, and turned to a bottle, that no one else will approach.

Our great commission, as commanded by Jesus, is to go out from Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) We know Jerusalem is where God lived-in the temple-and now we are the temple in which He lives, so the spreading of the Gospel has to start within ourselves. We must know it by knowing Him, in order to share it with others.

Next comes Judea. Those who are non-believers in our households, our family and friends, coworkers and neighbors. Venturing into Samaria, we will meet those people who have tried “religion” and didn’t like it, yet profess a “knowing’ of God. And, if we happen upon a woman by a well, we know we will be well received. (A little pun, there, to make you smile.)

And, lastly, we get to “the uttermost parts of the world.” It can mean Africa, but it doesn’t have to be that far away geographically. And, it doesn’t mean that is somewhere that hasn’t heard the Gospel. It is those places where the Gospel has been rejected, for whatever reason, causing that place to be “off limits” by others who are still in Jerusalem or Judea. Like under the bleachers on a Friday night, or visiting someone who has been through a terrible ordeal. Or, it could be someone who was not “raised in church” and simply hasn’t heard about the Lord from someone on a personal level. The scenarios are as many as there are people in the world.

Does God want you to “go” for Him? Absolutely! Do you have to pack a suitcase to do it? Not necessarily!

Series: In the Potting Shed~God's Dirt

We are God’s dirt~the soil for His garden. We know that Adam started out immortal but, after the fall, God told Adam that he came from dust, and would one day return to the dust. (Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7) But, we are also likened to the potter’s clay, molded into shape by the skillful hands of the Maker. (But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8)

The key to being dirt in a pot, as opposed to the dirt of the ground, is that God has chosen us, taking us out of the ground, and putting us into a pot, where we can grow the seed of His choosing, under His supervision. The same seed can be sown in the dirt of the ground~outside, unprotected and undernourished. Without someone to take care of it, that seed might soon die, leaving the ground bare. Or, a seed from the enemy can come in and take root in the dirt that holds the Godly seed, causing turmoil in the person’s life as he or she grows. (But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. Matt. 13:25)

It is the Maker who fashions the clay, sows the seed, putting it in His protected place, watering and nourishing it, until it matures into a healthy plant. Then, He transplants it into a place of His choosing, so it can continue to grow, bear fruit, and drop seed into the fertile ground in which it grows, to bring up the next generation Godly seed.

So, we are all God’s dirt. But, whose seed is taking root in you? We are also God’s clay. Are you letting Him mold you into what He wants you to be? And, we are also seed that grows, bears fruit, and sows more seed. Which stage of the seed’s life are you in? Or, has the enemy planted a counterfeit seed in you, that you are not aware of?

A garden really lives

only insofar as it is an expression of faith,

the embodiment

of a hope

and a song of praise.

- Russell Page, The Education of a Gardener, 1962

Series: In the Potting Shed~Godly Seed

What seed has God planted in you, that He wants you to nurture in a protected environment, until it is ready to be planted outside?

Scripture is full of analogies of seed, gardens, vineyards, and other agricultural metaphors. Has God given you a seed? An idea? A dream? A vision? A desire of your heart? In the very first stages of growth, when the seed erupts from the ground, it’ is difficult to see what the mature plant will be. This is when it must be protected the most. Frost, heavy rain, or too much sun can wipe out its existence before it has a chance to get established. So, while the root system and the next set of leaves develop, protect the seed you have been given with faith and patience, until you see the next stage of growth.

You might find that some of the seed are meant to be short-term goals; they mature in just a few weeks, giving you fruit in the same year you planted it. Other seed might be long-term, taking years to mature and bear fruit. In Scripture, the righteous are described as trees, particularly oaks ~for strength and stamina, and palms ~for uprightness and honesty.   

Regardless of what kind of seed you are nurturing, give it the best care possible, because God will use it to carry out a work that He has been preparing you for all along. You will learn faith and obedience through a squash seed, and you will learn patience and perseverance through an acorn.

And you will learn that you are worthy of your calling, by keeping your face looking to the One who first planted the seed in you.