I read this article this morning, it was to good not to share with you. This is a great follow up to our Doubt series we just finished!
Posted by Jud Wilhite:
Remember “Where’s Waldo?” He is a funny looking character with his hat and striped shirt.
Martin Handford is an illustrator who created Waldo, as John Ortberg writes in “God is Closer Than You Think.” He wanted to draw scenes of crowds and as an afterthought the Waldo idea grew where kids had to find Waldo in the crowd. Over 40 million Waldo books have been sold in 28 countries. Waldo is right there on every page, but sometimes you have to look for him, and sometimes you look right at him and don’t realize it.
There are times when we suffer and feel like we are playing a spiritual “Where’s Waldo” game. We keep looking for God, but don’t see Him. We wonder: “Why is it when I pray I don’t always sense God is answering?” “Why do I not always feel his presence in my life? Am I doing something wrong?” “Why is this happening to me?”
Sometimes we look and look and we can’t seem to find God in our trials and we don’t understand. But as you turn to the Bible you see that God is there, on every page of our lives as well. He is there, even in the pain and the hurt and the difficulty. When we can’t make sense of it, when we are looking for God like Waldo and we can’t see him, James says to ask for wisdom.
James 1:5 (NIV): If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
In the sport of boxing, the main event is the big fight, the moment where everything is on the line. But for most of us, we are oblivious to the truth that in every temptation we face, there’s a lot at stake as well. When face to face with temptation, the choice feels insignificant sometimes. There are times when it feels like no one will notice, or it’s not really a big deal. But in looking at the temptations Jesus faced, we realize just how much is at stake—not only in His life, with the temptations that were before Him—but in our lives as well, with the ones we face every day.
Bottom Line: In every single temptation you face, there is always more at risk than you think.
Each one of us faces a battle within, a battle that may go unseen by those around, but inside there is major brawl. It’s a battle with temptation. And depending on the temptation and its hold on your life, it may be a battle that seems impossible to win. In this series, We will take a look at the temptations Jesus faced in the desert, and identifies the driving forces behind the temptations we all face every day. Because once you realize what the pull is behind the temptation, you can find the confidence to follow Jesus’ example and respond as He did.
This weekend I had the pleasure of attending The Revolve Tour with 25 of DC’s JHi and HS girls, moms and leaders. The Revolve Tour is a dynamic conference filled with speakers, drama and music just for junior high and high school girls. This year’s theme “4 Real” allowed us to focus on who God is for real and the real us, as He sees us, as He created us.
In our world image is everything. The faces on magazine covers, on TV and in movies have been stretched, tweaked, touched up, re-colored, you name it, just to make them “perfect”. Even the people whose images we see in the media can’t live up to the standards they themselves set.
God made each of us uniquely beautiful, in His image. Who are we to mess with that? This weekend at Revolve we had the chance to see that God loves us just the way we are, after all, He’s the one that gave us our hair, our noses, our hips, or even made us a little “fluffy” as Yvette Nicole Brown put it. If God loves us just as we are, there is no reason we cannot love ourselves just as we are. The way I see it, that’s just another way we can honor Him.
I know this conference deeply impacted each and every one of us in a unique and personal way. I also know that many bonds were formed or strengthened over discussion, charades, chocolate covered pretzels and in a cold arena huddled under blankets.
My hope is that the lessons and the bonds that we took away from Revolve deepen and thrive.
When we look in the mirror I hope we will all see what God has fearfully and wonderfully made, unique and beautiful.
Cassie Fowble
This is the first in a series of posts about the Revolve tour this year.
I read a great article on forgiveness this morning. I thought I would pass it along to you!
I had an awkward moment several years ago on our staff retreat. Our female children’s minister forgot to lock the bathroom door and I caught her sitting on the toilet. You should have heard her scream. But that wasn’t the most awkward moment. The real awkwardness came during one of our team discussions. I made a statement that came out the wrong way and was not well received by our lead pastor. Nothing was said about it at the time, but it evidently struck a nerve.
A few months later when discussing a related topic with him, my comment made back at the retreat came up. I was floored. I had no idea that my words had been so offensive. Ironically, the whole situation created anger and resentment in me: I was mad at him for being mad at me. Eventually, we talked things through and made amends, but the experience left me with a different perspective on forgiveness. I had seen the other side of forgiveness.
Unresolved conflict festers. Like a wound without treatment, it doesn’t heal properly. When hurt, anger, or resentment comes creeping into our relationships, we must deal with it quickly. Colossians 3:13 says, “Bear with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
Lingering bitterness not only damages our horizontal relationships, it hinders our relationship with God. That’s why it is so important to handle conflict with grace. In the same way that God is quick to forgive us, so we should be quick to forgive others.
As ministers, we work so closely with people that it is impossible not to experience a few rough edges. Conflict can arise with other staff, volunteers, parents, and even students. Sometimes we’ll be the ones who do the hurting, and other times we’ll be on the receiving end. Whatever the situation, be the first one to make a move.
Seek reconciliation.
Be a peacemaker.
And humbly live the forgiveness we have received from Christ.
Bottom Line: Faith grows when you learn how to view doubt through both what you know and what you’ve been through.
So what do you do when a doubt is too big? How do you handle a doubt that you just can’t seem to move past? You look back. You draw on the things you do know, the things that God has shown you. The things you have learned about Him in the past, both through information and experience. And you hang on to those things you do know, even when you’re left with questions about the things you don’t.
Scripture: Psalms 13:1-2 & 5-6 Psalms 71:16-17
Once we are able to see what God has done and is doing through both our experience and our knowledge, we are better equipped to manage the doubt.
You know those nagging questions that seem to linger in the back of your mind? The ones you hesitate to ever speak out loud, admit you have, or let anyone else know you think? Questions like: “Does God hear me when I pray?” “Does He have a plan for my life?” “Does God really have everything under control?” Questions and doubts can be unsettling if they are left unsaid. We begin to think we are alone in our doubts, and often our doubts only grow until they paralyze our faith. But when we learn to admit our doubts openly, we learn that we are not the only ones—that everyone deals with it. And when we learn to live with doubt in a healthy way, doubt can be a tool that strengthens our faith.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever doubted God. Everyone got their hands up? That’s because it’s human nature to doubt. It’s just in us to ask questions and to reevaluate. A lot of times doubt gets a bad wrap because of its ability to make us negative, and because we think once we start to entertain it our entire system of belief will collapse. But doubt, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. When used in the proper way, doubt helps us formulate an authentic and personal faith. That’s why it’s important to learn to express our doubts to others and to deal with them in the context of Christian community, so that God can work with our doubts to help strengthen our faith.
It’s easy to think that God’s kingdom is just about Him and us. It’s easy to forget that we are part of something bigger, something more vast that just our relationship with Him. We are part of His kingdom both someday, and now. We are a part of His mission to restore things that are broken, whether that’s in our own lives or in the lives of those around us, or those half way around the world. And when we live with a future kingdom in mind we can start to make it a more present reality.
Bottom Line: The kingdom of God is not only something we experience and hope for someday; it is something we participate in now.
Parents we watched this video on Sunday. It was the end of our "Upside Down" series about the kingdom of God. We ended the series by asking this question. If we have been invited to join God in His Kingdom...then in what small and large ways are you participating?
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