Heart of Worship from SURVIVING Student Ministry

Good morning, everyone! I am sure that you have all hear me talk about my husband, Jimmy, about a thousand times on here. Jimmy is an amazing man and an amazing youth minister who just happens to write two blogs--one for ministry and one for entertainment. Today, I want to share with you a link to his recent post on worship. It's called Heart of Worship.

I don't know about you, but working with teenagers we often hear complaints. "I like this but I don't like that." or "Why do we have to do things this way? Why can't we do them my way?" You name it and we (and probably you) have heard it.

A not great trend we have been noticing is that this extends to church. Jimmy's post deals with having a heart of worship no matter what the worship style but talking about what worship really is. I encourage you to read his post and to leave him a comment. It would really encourage him and it might even encourage you!

READ Heart of Worship NOW

More Resources:
Jimmy's Ministry Blog: SURVIVING Student Ministry
Jimmy's Movie Blog: the 365 Blog Challenge
Jimmy's Blogger Profile
Our Church Website

Tangled Web of Emotions

I don't know about you, but for me today was one of those days when my emotions took me on a whirlwind ride. I was happy. I was sad. I cried and cried and cried some more. It started early in the morning and lasted all day. I was an emotional wreck and there seemed nothing that I could do about it.

I wanted to share with you this little clip of Patsy Clairmont. She is one of the funniest Christian speakers I know and I relate to her. She speaks in a way that I can understand and that touches my heart. In this clip she talks a little about emotions. I wanted to find the full clip but wasn't able to, but if you want to hear more you can always check out her book I Second that Emotion.

Anyway, the most important point she makes is that God created us to have all these different emotions and He accepts us no matter our emotional state. God wraps His arms around me on days like today when I can't stop crying because we had another unsuccessful month of trying to get pregnant and all hope seems lost. He rejoices with me when I am over joyed with a great personally victory and He is there with me at every emotional stop in between. Nothing I can do will surprise Him. There is no emotion I can have that His own Son did not experience (although I know Jesus handled all his without sinning!).

Prayer for today:
Thank you, God, for creating me with the full range of emotions. Thank you for being there with me as I go through these emotions. Please help me to share my joys with others and allow others to build me up when my emotions are not so good. Most of all, God, help me to cast all my cares and emotions on You.  Amen.

Birthdays

December is a month of birthdays in our circle of friends and acquaintances. My birthday was the 4th, my husband's the 5th, Dustin's the 1st, Rebeccah's the 13th, Shelby's the 19th, and most importantly Jesus' on the 25th! There are five or six others that I don't even have the time to mention, but you get the picture. It seems like everyday we have something or someone new to celebrate. For some of us, like Nicholas and Noriah, we celebrate new milestones as they turn 2. For others like Aunt Steiny we celebrate a full life as she turns 70 on the 29th. I was thinking about this today and one particular verse came to my mind...

"The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. 'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in Him.'" Lamentations 3:22-24 ESV

Especially in December I can find myself getting so caught up in what I am doing, what I want to do, what I still have to do, and the next thing to celebrate that I lose track of the things that really matter. I should be celebrating the Christ of Christmas everyday because His love and His mercies are new EVERY morning. They are perfect and without end. It's no wonder that we are commanded to, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thess. 5:16-18 ESV)

So admist this season of rejoicing and celebrating don't forget to enjoy the gifts of God's unfailing love which is new every morning and to rejoice always for this is the will of God.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Strawberry Festival

This week at the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home (where I work) things are very hectic. We are in the midst of preparing for one of our three festival fundraisers. Strawberry Festival is on Saturday, June 5th, this year and it is always an all day affair. We have craft venders, a quilt auction, craft auction, food, and campus tours. It is fun but completely and utterly exhausting!
Strawberry Festival is the oldest of the three festivals MBCH holds each year. When it first started 120 years ago, it was the main source of income for the Baptist Orphans Home (now MBCH). It all started when the orphans grew, harvested, and sold their own strawberries in order to keep the home open. Over the years it has changed and evolved. However, in the last 25 years the festival has changed very little. It has stopped adapting to current trends and is stuck in the rut of tradition. As a result, the festivals have become less and less effective in their post of providing major funding for the operation of MBCH. In fact, there were no major changes allowed until last year. I just wonder if it’s too little to late.
Sadly, many of us have a “festival” mentality. As baby Christians we established a pattern of provision for our walk with Christ. We knew what we needed to reach our spiritual goals and we worked hard to meet those goals. As we continued to grow, we would change and adapt our strategy to keep things current and effective. However, just like the festival, many of us get comfortable and stop keeping tabs on the things we are doing and their effectiveness and we get ourselves into a spiritual rut. While we are in this rut, we do the minimum to keep our Christian walk afloat but we never really are as good as we could be. Eventually we will tank if we don’t get out of this rut. Will we learn to grow and change again or will it be to little to late? I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Get out of your rut and start reaching your potential!

When Life Throws You a Curve

It was Sunday afternoon. The stress had been mounting. Then the pain started…and Jimmy’s back went out. This hasn’t happened in the past four years, but when it happens it is horrible! When his back goes out Jimmy can’t do anything without pain. Sitting causes pain. Standing causes pain. Laying down causes pain. Reclining in his chair causes pain. Going to the bathroom…well you get the picture.

As a result, I was put in charge of leading youth last night. Trust managing twenty-five teens virtually on your own is not at the top of my “Fun Things to Do” list. Truth be told, I got so stressed out about it that I felt physically ill by the time 7:00 rolled around, and I had a bad attitude about it all afternoon. I wished that two of our most experienced college helpers weren’t out of town for a funeral. I wished Jimmy was well enough to go with me. I wished that the adult who sometimes fills in for us didn’t have to be in prayer meeting last night. In short, I was really selfish and whiny about the whole situation.

Then God got my attention. He brought to my mind one of the verses I memorized a long, long time ago. “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.” (Phil. 2:14-16) Okay, God. I get it. I feel convicted. I have been doing exactly what this verse tells me not to do. Plus, my attitude is keeping me from being a shining light, a representation of You, to the people around me. All they see is a grouch with a frown on her face. If they knew I was a Christian I am sure that they wouldn’t want to be one! What a shame.
But God didn’t stop there…

After convicting my sinful attitude and actions, God reminded me of another memory verse. “And me know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified he also glorified.” (Rom. 8:28-20) I couldn’t believe it! God took the time to encourage me and to remind me of His promises even though I had messed up! Even if we don’t get to go to the Cardinals’ sluggie game on Friday or go on our anniversary trip to see our friends in Arkansas, God has it all under control and He is working it together for good. Why? He predestined it! It is our destiny. God knows the beginning, middle, and end or our story. Nothing escapes Him. He has called us through it and justified us in it. In the end, He will get all the glory from the good outcome He will bring to us. Yes, we may not see the good that will come from these momentary troubles until many years later, but rest assured…God ALWAYS keeps His promises.

So when life throws you a curve, STOP complaining and START looking forward to the good that will come!

A Test of Patience

Right now, I REALLY want to throw my computer against the wall. There are, however, a few essential flaws to this plan. Number One, this isn't my computer (it belongs to my school, oops). Number Two, how is that going to help me get my assignment done. Hmm maybe I better think about this again.

I don't know about you, but I find patience to be one of the hardest fruits of the Spirit to apply to my life. I get angry when other people aren't patient with me, but do I really put in the effort to show patience to others? Honestly the answer is "No". I don't spend enough time practicing patience. I hurry from one thing to the next and stress about traffic and the time it takes the computer to render my 3D objects that I need to turn in so I can get out of here.


I wonder how my life would be different if I were a more patient person?

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22 & 23