Lakeview Christian Center will be having service tomorrow, Saturday, at First Assembly of God. There will be prayer at 9:00a and service at 10:00a.
The Sunday service is canceled this weekend.
When I get overly focused on the details of my own life, and I am absorbed into my immediate surroundings, the inevitable happens….I see through the lens of me, and God is only in my peripheral view. My circumstances soon overwhelm me. What then? I must take the focus off of self. God reminds me of this daily, and sends dead guys like Mr. Spurgeon to help me apply.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Watering Others“He that watereth shall be watered also himself.”
–Proverbs 11:25We are here taught the great lesson, that to get, we must give; that to accumulate, we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy, we must make others happy; and that in order to become spiritually vigorous, we must seek the spiritual good of others. In watering others, we are ourselves watered. How? Our efforts to be useful, bring out our powers for usefulness. We have latent talents and dormant faculties, which are brought to light by exercise. Our strength for labour is hidden even from ourselves, until we venture forth to fight the Lord’s battles, or to climb the mountains of difficulty. We do not know what tender sympathies we possess until we try to dry the widow’s tears, and soothe the orphan’s grief. We often find in attempting to teach others, that we gain instruction for ourselves.
Oh, what gracious lessons some of us have learned at sick beds! We went to teach the Scriptures, we came away blushing that we knew so little of them. In our converse with poor saints, we are taught the way of God more perfectly for ourselves and get a deeper insight into divine truth. So that watering others makes us humble. We discover how much grace there is where we had not looked for it; and how much the poor saint may outstrip us in knowledge.
Our own comfort is also increased by our working for others. We endeavour to cheer them, and the consolation gladdens our own heart. Like the two men in the snow; one chafed the other’s limbs to keep him from dying, and in so doing kept his own blood in circulation, and saved his own life. The poor widow of Sarepta gave from her scanty store a supply for the prophet’s wants, and from that day she never again knew what want was. Give then, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and running over.
This is from Matt’s post on the Guys Blog from yesterday, August 18, 2008. I was just going to link it, but it is worth reading twice (and it makes my post look wordy).
The plan is to make this (”Gratitude for…”) a blog series. One of the points I made in passing last night at The Pivot, as we studied Philippians 4:1-3, was a contextual note about the relationship between Paul’s exhortation to unity in the first three verses and Paul’s encouragement to be thankful ‘in everything’. We considered the fact that it would be more difficult to wake up angry at people if we rolled out of bed calling to mind how many experiences we have - this morning - of the faithfulness and undeserved kindness of God.
So I roll out of bed this morning thinking about the kindness of God in my family being a part of Lakeview Christian Center, but obviously that starts to bring pictures to mind - faces of friends, pastors, covenant group leaders, worship team members, certain places in various rooms where God’s Spirit met me in times of singing or prayer or hearing His Word. All that said, my intention would be to make this a series, but I realize right now this will be a frustrating series because I won’t be able to put it ALL in here! In one sense I hope that many blog posts - whether they bear this series title or not - are part of an overflow of gratitude for the many kindnessness of God in my life and my family.
God led our family to move to New Orleans for no other reason than to join this local church. The first 4 years of our marriage (1996-2000) were marked by struggle as it relates to the local church - the overwhelming reason for that being my pride. I had a major role in blowing up the first church that I was a part of. In retrospect I don’t think that at the age of 20 I was ready to have a major voice in the leadership of the local church. I said many things then that were shameful and injurious to the gospel, the other leaders (notably members of my own family), and the little flock in Plattenville, LA. I rarely drive past that church (we have to pass it to visit my in-laws) without feeling sorrow for that season. The church has never recovered.
From there we moved to Longview where my pride continued to grow and I became increasingly hostile to the doctrines of grace … until the Lord began to open my eyes to passages like Romans 5:12-19 and Romans 9 and Ephesians 2. Grace went into high gear sometime around 1999. I attended a Sovereign Grace Leadership Conference with friends, pastors that I had known from Lakeview. I keenly remember trying to sing song after song and being unable to do anything but just weep. Hallelujah What a Savior, I Bow Down, and O the Glory of the Cross, rich as they were in the very themes that God had been using to humble me and birth in me a renewed wonder at His grace, these were the kinds of songs I wanted to raise my family to sing. In the months immediately following we began to sense God stirring us to move back to New Orleans to join Lakeview.
We sold the house and moved in August of 2000 and what an understatement to say how much this church has meant to us. Sermons, friendships, ministry times, School of the Word classes, being visited while in the hospital (first with Hunter, age 2, then Ellie’s more intense episode last month), weeping with friends at funerals, shouting as people from our Alpha table came up from the waters of baptism beaming with joy.
In later posts I’d like to put a face on the local church that God has used to strengthen and shape us. For now my heart is full of gratefulness that inspite of the things I’ve done not only before being brought to salvation but more painfully after - the hurt that I actively inflicted on His church - He has led us nevertheless to green pastures where we are being nourished and cared for by people that doubtlessly will be long-remembered as primary means of God’s grace to us.
Aiden Erik Schmaltz is born! He is 5 pounds, 13 ounces. Congratulations Erik and Erin!!!
I know you’re dying to know what it is. We’re always looking for it. But it’s found in the most unlikely of places.
The world’s answer is pretty clear. It’s got a huge hook in my own heart’s sinful desires. Run after whatever would make me happy, at whatever cost to those around me. Find what fulfills me, and do it.
Carolyn Mahaney talks through her response to someone asking her “What do you do on the side?” She shares from the perspective of a homemaker, but think about how this plays out in your own life. Where do you feel “entitled” to things you desire. Are you working all day and feel like you “deserve” to just come home and indulge in laziness because you worked so hard? Or not have to talk to your family? Do you see your hard work and your serving and your laying down your life as just sacrifice, and then on the side you get to pursue what really fulfills you? Rest after work. Hanging out at a coffee shop after serving at Alpha. Which is really the secret to fulfillment?
Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:39 that “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” This may need to turn our world upside-down today if we’re going to really believe Him. And we can be sure that we will find life as we “lose” our own.
The following is from Elisabeth Elliot:
When personal relationships break down, it is a sure sign that there is some rift in one’s relationship with God. The deeper the rift, the broader will be the effect on the human level. Rebellion against our Creator and Redeemer–against the One who designed us and gives us the breath of life and loves us every minute of every day–is not only unreasonable but outrageous. The sense of outrage will reveal itself in our treatment of others.
We “get at” God by getting at those He has made, especially those whom his providence has placed close to us. We cannot bear the image of God in them, for we cannot bear the ineradicability of that image in our own being. It is a constant reminder of our own sin, which is the violation of the divine image. Without the consciousness of a legitimate claim on our lives, we could not know sin.
To recognize and submit to that claim is to return to peace and fellowship.“If we claim to be sharing in his life while we walk in the dark, our words and our lives are a lie; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, then we share together a common life, and we are being cleansed from every sin by the blood of Jesus His Son” (l Jn 1:6,7 NEB).
This devotion from Charles Spurgeon reminded me to be thankful for affliction… especially during the times that I absent-mindedly refuse Him.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon: Morning and Evening
The Bands of Love
“I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.”
–Hosea 11:4
Our heavenly Father often draws us with the cords of love; but ah! how backward we are to run towards Him! How slowly do we respond to His gentle impulses! He draws us to exercise a more simple faith in Him; but we have not yet attained to Abraham’s confidence; we do not leave our worldly cares with God, but, like Martha, we cumber ourselves with much serving. Our meagre faith brings leanness into our souls; we do not open our mouths wide, though God has promised to fill them. Does He not this evening draw us to trust Him? Can we not hear Him say, “Come, My child, and trust Me. The veil is rent; enter into My presence, and approach boldly to the throne of My grace. I am worthy of thy fullest confidence, cast thy cares on Me. Shake thyself from the dust of thy cares, and put on thy beautiful garments of joy.” But, alas! though called with tones of love to the blessed exercise of this comforting grace, we will not come. At another time He draws us to closer communion with Himself.
We have been sitting on the doorstep of God’s house, and He bids us advance into the banqueting hall and sup with Him, but we decline the honour. There are secret rooms not yet opened to us; Jesus invites us to enter them, but we hold back. Shame on our cold hearts! We are but poor lovers of our sweet Lord Jesus, not fit to be His servants, much less to be His brides, and yet He hath exalted us to be bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, married to Him by a glorious marriage-covenant. Herein is love! But it is love which takes no denial. If we obey not the gentle drawings of His love, He will send affliction to drive us into closer intimacy with Himself. Have us nearer He will. What foolish children we are to refuse those bands of love, and so bring upon our backs that scourge of small cords, which Jesus knows how to use!
Here’s an excerpt from Carolyn McCulley’s forthcoming book, Radical Womanhood. She discusses women’s rights and a letter from Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams.
Carolyn Mahaney, in the midst of a moving their home, she shared this experience of fighting for believing truth:
In the midst of all this packing and unpacking I’ve found myself thinking, “When I get through this move, then I can get back to more important things.”
This is not the first time I’ve succumbed to such faulty thinking. Throughout my career as a homemaker I’ve been tempted to look past the duties of the day to the more “important,” “significant,” or “exciting” work of tomorrow.
“When the baby sleeps through the night, then I can begin to…”
“When the children are a little older I’ll have more time to….”
“When this sports season is over than I can turn my attention to….”
“If they ever graduate from high school, then I can finally….”But there are no holding patterns in God’s kingdom. As homemakers [or college students, or full-time employees, or daughter], we are not simply circling the skies of life, waiting for God from His control tower to call us to real kingdom work. No, we’re doing that important work today. As Dorothy Patterson observes: “preparation and care of the family shelter are important enough for God himself to assign that responsibility” (e.g. Titus 2:3-5, Pr. 31).
If God himself has assigned me the task of caring for my home, then I don’t want to half-heartedly perform the duties of today, reserving my best efforts for “tomorrow.” Rather, I want to follow the advice of missionary Jim Elliot: “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation that you believe to be the will of God.” I want to unpack boxes and scrub my new bathtub and run errands for the new home and take my son to the soccer scrimmage for the glory of the One who saved me and who, by His grace, called me to this wonderful work.
You may not be able to identify with the task of full-time homemaking and mothering, but we each are tempted to think our current season and task a dull one. One keeping us from the “real kingdom work.” Maybe you are the opposite of this example, and you feel like your single years or your full-time job are keeping you from the great joy and fulfillment of the calling as a wife and mother - a season which, in your mind, you’ll really begin to live the life God has for you. Today is the day to “live to the hilt” and this situation you find yourself in (sharing the Gospel, studying for a test, serving someone in your covenant group, washing your laundry, babysitting for a friend or sibling) is the very situation to “be all there.”
I love this part: “…we are not simply circling the skies of life, waiting for God from His control tower to call us to real kingdom work. No, we’re doing that important work today.”
“Tomorrow” (or “yesterday” for that matter) doesn’t hold the better life. Christ is in this moment, today, in this place. And in Him are all things, and all things are for Him, even the balancing of our checkbooks.
I read this on Justin Taylor’s website, Between Two Worlds, and all I can say is WOW. I am not finished listening to the messages, and I have a feeling that I will be without words when both have been heard. I did not want to wait to post this for I feel that such a time as this, when the fight on this side of heaven only increases, we must beg to see Jesus as BEAUTIFUL. So here is Justin’s post for the Resolved Conference. So listen, and beg of the Lord that this be fuel to fight, and fight well!