Greatly Encouraged...

I'm thinking of writing up a petition to give to the church, requesting that we have Evangelistic Meetings every day of the week, all year long. Any one care to sign? =)

Ok, seriously...the Evangelistic Meetings were exactly what I needed right now. I'm having a hard time picking out which one was my favorite message, because every single one of them was so challenging and encouraging. God taught me a lot this week. He showed me that I still have a lot to change and alot of growing up to do. Those of you who weren't able to make it every night, I truly feel sorry for you. You really missed out. (though you can fix that by getting the recordings... ;)

I don't want this week to be one that just fades into all the other services and meetings I've been to in my life. I want the decisions I made to stick. I want to remember what God taught me and I want my life to change. I have a little bit of time right now before my math class and I feel like writing up what God showed me this week and some of the things that really stood out to me in each service. So... here goes...

SUNDAY- John 15
I found it rather interesting that Mark Kittrell spoke about being spiritually pruned since our family had spent all of Sat. pruning our orchard and I had been thinking about writing up a post talking about the similarities of Gods pruning in our lives. Coincidental? I think not. God’s working is amazing. I needed to hear that message. I needed to be reminded that struggles are for our good. Mark Kittrell said that God prunes us for two reasons. 1. Because we aren’t bearing fruit at all. 2. Because He wants more. I don’t know that I’ve ever thought of it in that second way before. I mean, I know that God prunes us in an effort to change us, but sometimes God brings trials, convictions, etc. into our lives even when we seriously feel that we’re doing everything right. Sometimes we feel like we’re failing God despite the fact that we’re seeking Him! I’ve been here before. I’ve had thoughts like “If I’m truly desiring God why am I still struggling? Why do I feel like I still need to change something? Why am I always going up and down? Why can’t I just stay victorious for a long period of time? Etc.” Yep…I’ve definitely been there before. Yet, something Mark Kittrell said has been stuck in my mind. “God isn’t a God who allows us to get comfortable and then lets us stay there. He always wants us to grow and to give Him more. Praise God for struggles! They prove He is still working!” I can’t say that this exactly makes me love the times of struggle, but it does encourage me to keep going. God isn’t trying to be cruel. He simply wants us to see that we need Him to continue the work in us that He Himself started to do.

MONDAY- Luke 9:57-62
At the beginning of the service Kittrell said that we should pray "God, whatever you want me to do, I will obey. etc." and then the service would be guaranteed to be a success. (I think this would be a good thing to pray every day. Then our lives would be guaranteed to be a success. ;) In his message he talked about those who wanted to follow Christ but weren't willing to give up their comforts. They weren't willing to follow Him despite the obstacles. They wanted to follow Him BUT they had to do such and such first. It was as if they were telling God "Don't worry. EVENTUALLY I will get to it, but first just let me do things my way." I do that. Sadly...I do it quite often. For the past week I had really been struggling with just letting God have control. The Christian life can be so hard at times. The battle can be so fierce. The fight can be so tiring. So to be honest...I was enjoying just coasting. (Even though I was miserable at the same time.) On Monday God spoke to me and encouraged me to keep going. To keep growing. The invitation was given and they played the song, "I Surrender All" and that was the end of it for me. I made a decision about surrendering. Not necessarily about the future....though that’s certainly a part of it!....this decision was more about surrendering in the little, daily things. I've had enough of my pride, my self, etc. I gave God back the control and made a decision to follow His will in the future...and in today. No matter where He leads me. I want to follow on HIS terms... NOT mine. I'm so thankful for God's faithfulness and patience with me. He is such a good God and it feels so good to be back in fellowship with Him. Just for the record though...You can keep praying for me. ;) Satan doesn't like it when we make decisions for the Lord and he will do everything in his power to keep us from sticking to them.

TUESDAY- Philippians 2:1-11
"Humility is not when a man thinks meanly of himself….its when he doesn’t think of himself at all." Ouch. "Look at everyone else as if they are superior to you." Ouch again. A lot of times when I'm with people that are younger than me or people who are newer Christians, I look at them as if I'm talking to them because its a ministry or because they can learn something from me. (Yes...I know...completely ridiculous!) It totally changes your perspective when you start looking at them as if you can learn something from them! No matter who they are. Christ was a spirit and He was EQUAL with God. He, of all people could have been proud of His standing and of who He was. He could have done it without sinning. He was on the same level as God. The heaven and earth could not contain Him! He however chose to be confined to the form of mans body. He emptied himself of all selfish desires to bring himself the glory He deserved and chose to be put under the subjection of puny, sinful man. He chose to put man above Himself and think of MAN as His superior. Wow! That is so incredible! When its put that way its hard to believe that we even try to take the glory for things in our life. We've done nothing compared to what Christ did. I laughed at Corrie Ten Booms comment of “Young man, when Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments in the road and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him?” She continued, “If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in his glory, I give him all the praise and all the honor.” I laughed at that thought of a donkey taking the glory, but its rather sad that I have to admit that I've been so stupid as to do just that. I liked Kittrells illustration of the Football coach at the building they visited. He is the face everyone sees, but behind the scenes there are MANY people carrying out the different tasks who are really the ones making things happen. (Scheduling, Cleaning uniforms, Recording Videos, etc.) Yet only the coach is seen. Our lives as Christians should be doing the same thing. We should be portraying Christ.

WEDNESDAY- Joshua 1:1-9
If we want to fight God's battles and win, we have to fight God's battles..Gods way.
Gods Battle Strategy for Success
1. We must have His Presence- The walls of Jericho are not going to fall by just going through the motions. We must have the presence of God in our lives if we ever want to have any victory.
2. We must have courage to do what is right- Obey God’s Word. Don't turn to the left or right. Don't take God's Word and twist it to say what you want it to say. Take a stand. The Romans didn’t have armor for their back, because they weren’t ever expecting to turn back! God doesn’t expect us to turn back… or charge forward either, for that matter. He simply calls us to stand our ground and then let Him fight our battles for us.
3. We must have His Word- How much QUALITY time are you spending in God’s Word? Study it, mediate on it and use it! "Then shalt thou make thy way prosperous and then shalt thou have good success." There is only one offensive weapon in the armor of God and that’s the Word.
4. We must have confidence in God- Remember that God is on our side. He has promised to go with us wherever we go. Seriously…what do we have to be afraid of? Don’t start looking at your failures. Don’t start looking at the world around you. Don’t be depressed by the seeming lack of fruit in your life. Look at each day with a renewed confidence that with God on your side, nothing can permanently stand in your way. "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest." What a great reminder!

Anyways...the services were an incredible spiritual boost for me and I thoroughly enjoyed Mark Kittrells messages. I don't know about you, but I'm just glad that when he was young he didn't didn't make that phone call to the basketball coach, but instead followed God's will for his life. I've been reminded to keep going. Keep growing. And to keep surrendering. Its worth it.

“Dear Christian, look in the back of your Bible… WE WIN!!!!”

Chrystal