Monday, July 28, 2008

Good Monday Morning!



How are you today? I hope you can read the picture beside this text; it's from Psalm 16, verses 5-6. God is GOOD, my dear friend. We've been singing a new song at church based on this Scripture - the boundaries of my life have fallen in pleasant places. My heart is FULL of that content feeling today - Praise God. :) He won the victory this weekend in our banking trial; my banking contact is going to close out the account today, and we move on. God is GOOD. What a relief!

So! What have you been hearing from God lately??? Did you get a chance to go to church yesterday??? Or perhaps listen to a sermon? What is God saying to YOU? (Blogger's not cooperating right now, so no cute little icon for sharing today! :D)

Our new sermon series at church is on servanthood. The pastor wasn't there - we're pretty sure this is his week to be in NYC, seeing some Broadway shows with his lovely wife :D - so one of the others, Bruce, spoke. Basically, his theme was that servanthood isn't about US. We do it because of the character of our Master. It's not a slave-owner relationship. And God WANTS us to get to the point where he no longer calls us servant - to the point where we KNOW what He wants done, and we do it without being told - and He calls us His friend. We're adopted into His family - our servanthood is our way of saying THANK YOU.

Pastor Bruce used the following Scripture to close out his sermon:

Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' "

--Luke 17:7-10

Now, seriously. How often have you heard this passage mentioned ANY TIME in a sermon??? We like to feel ENTITLED - in fact, we've got a couple of generations coming along that feel entitled to anything they want, just because they want it, seems to me! But this passage certainly NEGATES that!!!! There's certainly a reward COMING, but our time here on Earth is to be spent SERVING. Not BEING SERVED.

Woah. Some serious re-thinking is going on in MY head, and I bet maybe yours, too. If you'd like to hear the whole sermon, please CLICK HERE - and keep checking until they post the sermon for JULY 27. :D

OK, dear ones. I'm going to fly now - I have a class to get ready for. :) I hope and pray you've been counting your blessings, and using them to encourage yourself in your walk. God LOVES you, SOOOOOOOOOOO much. He is just waiting for you to look out your window and see that butterfly, or savor your delicious lunch, or enjoy touching your loved ones. Each and every thing you enjoy has been put there by the Father for you to be able to enjoy. He just wants YOU.

LEAVE ME A COMMENT!! :D I'm lonely! :D

1 comment:

Ginny said...

Praise the Lord for the victory in the banking trial.

Pastor Tom's message last night was about the ministry of the home. What stood out to me - something I know by experience, but was not preached in our former church - is that personal ministries change depending on where we are in life and THAT'S OK! Phil brought that up on the way home, and I told him that women refer to it as "seasons."

It's wonderful to be affirmed, instead of being made to feel guilty over everything!