Friday, November 14, 2014

ELEVATION NORTH has NEWS for YOU!


WHAT TIME IS IT?  The minutes are ticking away, and with Thanksgiving just around the corner, there is so much to be done!  And never enough time to do it in!  Or so it seems.  With all that has been a part of our lives these past weeks and months, God is ever reminding me that He will always provide the exact amount of time to accomplish ALL that HE wants us to do!  Most likely not everything on MY list – but HIS list!  There are times when He strengthens me as I “burn the midnight oil” – and there are times when He pushes me down the hall and into my bed!  Lesson learned:  schedules and lists are changeable … and my rested body is a much better vessel for God to use the next day.  God can more easily show His glory through a “rested me” than a “frazzled, frustrated me!”

What time is it?  It’s time to listen to God’s idea to thumb through hundreds of penned manuscripts from years ago and share something that resonates in my heart that He gave me back then.  Sometimes the intensity of recent days can leave my mind reeling.  So God, I give in.  You show me how to condense this writing from another time in my life and make it relevant for where we are in this place! 

What time is it?  It’s almost time to enjoy a bounteous Thanksgiving feast with family and friends … but first, it’s time to drink in.  It’s time to drink that precious spiritual water that flows from God’s Word.  And with God’s idea, I am going back in time to share what one of God’s chosen vessels challenged us with nearly twenty years ago at a conference in Grand Rapids. Michigan.  With God’s anointing on his lips, our evening speaker said. “It is time for God’s glory to be shown!”  Rev. John DeVries, President of Mission 21 in India, shared some challenging thoughts that I want to share with you!  He stated that if we look around us, we’re quickly reminded that every decade since the 1950’s, the natural disasters in our world have doubled.  That, in itself, brings heartache and discouragement and fear.  Challenge:  we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus – not on the devil!  Talking about circumstance and worship, DeVries said, “We don’t worship – or put God to the test – because things are so bad … but because the Father is so great!  God is standing there waiting for us to come to Him and say, ‘Daddy, we need You to fix things on our street.  We told everyone You could, because You’re so great!’”  What if … just what if … we would pray like that – because after all, we do believe it, right?  Or do we really?  If we do, then we need to act on it!  Our speaker continued to share that God’s instructions always come with a touch of irrationality.  After all, who else would have thought of spitting on the ground, making mud with the saliva, and then using it to heal the blind man’s eyes?  (John 9:1-7)  God doesn’t fit human logic!  God also doesn’t need spiritual marketing!  He wants His church to move by His Spirit, so the world will see that it is God’s church!  DeVries made the bold, but true statement that we in America don’t pray like we should.  We don’t pray like the Christians in persecuted nations around the world.  They pray in a deeper dimension of faithfulness, commitment, fervency, and expectancy.  And what we need to know is that when we pray – God works – and things change, people change, we change!  We don’t need big plans and strategies – we need to pray! 

What time is it?  It’s time to pray in our community, to realize that we are living stones for one purpose – to be cemented together in spiritual houses,  God’s glory will shine through us into our community!  Suddenly we will see lives changed and transformed.  We will see His wonders.  We can pray like those in persecuted countries, if we just will!  What time is it?  It’s time to start saying, “My Dad can fix it!  Let’s go tell Him.  Let’s let everybody on the street know how great He is!”

What time is it?  It’s time to go to the people!  Do we think just inviting someone to come to church or to come to God will fix it?  Dr. DeVries reminded us that Jesus didn’t invite us to Heaven, He came to earth to us!  He wore our flesh, our clothes.  He expects us to do the same; not to invite the people, but to go to them.  We must flip open the door, and let the gospel flow.  God will do the work if we focus and not flounder!  Lesson, re-stamped upon my heart:  “One of the greatest temptations of the devil is to tell us we are called to do the good God hasn’t called us to do, so we will be so busy – that we won’t have the time to do what God has called us to do”  God’s blueprint!  We need it before we can begin – our day, our work, our plans!  I challenge you as I was challenged:  “Go with power.  Go with dignity.  Make your spiritual walk continuous, not an eventContinuous ministry in prayer!  Become a living stone – build a new house of prayer!”

What time is it?  It’s time!  Time to be a vessel built into a spiritual house – that shines forth the glory of God!


REMEMBER . . .

“As you come to Him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him –
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,
offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.’”
~ I Peter 2:4-6


Serving Christ Joyfully . . .


Pastor Doug and Debbie







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