What is the Church?

It's taken years for me to write this post.  I have been in the middle of church strife, and on the fringe of it, and I've grown up in the church.  Most of my childhood church life was one way, traditional.  One day my idea of what church was...was changed.  It was the day I walked through the doors of LifeChurch.tv  -Stillwater campus.  That day I knew I was home.

How did I know that this was my church?  Because the moment I stepped foot in the door, I was was greeted and was received like a part of a family.  I was a stranger but that didn't matter.  I was welcomed.  I know what that feels like be on the outside looking in.  It was a warm engaging feeling of belonging.  It was fellowship.  It was home and I belonged there.  

Since then...every Sunday Kingdom builders are born there.  I belong.

The idea of us being Kingdom builders is not new, it's the philosophy that built the New Testament church.  Mark 1 states... "Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 'The time has come,' he said. "The kingdom of God is near.  Repent and believe the good news!"  Jesus modeled the gospel by making the claim..."I am your King."  

Next verse..."As Jesus walked..."  

Jesus took the gospel outside the tent meetings and the tabernacle and took it to the community of fisherman and tax collectors, the downcast, the oppressed, the rich, the poor.  He built the New Testament church with a devoted twelve.  He loved them enough to share the good news of salvation.  He gave of Himself because the beach front community needed to know.  They were crying out out for a Savior.  They needed Jesus and Jesus took the church to them.

Jesus is the Church and if we have Jesus Christ in our hearts, then we are the church.  We are kingdom builders of Jesus' church.  My church view has changed over the years about who and what the church is.  Church is a community that comes from fellowship with God and with other believers.  And that's what the fellowship of believers, making a community of truth based like minded believers looks like.  I realize that I am just one in the sea of believers, but we are all the church, inside and outside those building walls.  The actual community in which we live is crying out to be saved.  So we must, as the Great Commission states, go!  We must be the church that people are needing.  Our neighborhoods needs a Savior.

"Church arise...shake yourself from the dust....God is calling us to go!" Leeland

Will you be the one to tell them?

P.S. Mitch Hildebrant...this post was for you!

When Shadows Come

Coping with life's shadows

Maybe you are having a rough week.  Perhaps your life circumstances are rough all the time.  How do we get out of these seasons of one crisis to another or continuous desert moments?  

 How do you cope?

When we are overshadowed with life we look to the shadow of the cross.  We look to the One who conquered all.

The disciples knew of desperate times.  They had traveled with Jesus for three years.  They had watched him heal and heard him teach.  They fished, prayed and rested with him.  They had some intense times of fellowship.  They were a band of brothers.  They worshiped together; they grew in the faith together, and they experienced God's word in living color.  As they went through adversity they had community.  

When life brought the shadow of the cross, they faltered.  One denied, one took his life, and they mourned the death of a dear friend.  In spite of their desperate outlook, they had fellowship through community.  

When you are in the throes of life's shadows, 

you need the community that you find in Christian friendships.

God has ways of reminding us that we are not alone.  God loves to shine through His people to pray, to give comfort, to lean on, to let you know that He's got this crisis just like He had the last one.  God's grace appears through the kindness of a dear friend who brings you a meal or a chocolate cupcake.  In the hands who give you a Kleenex in the surgery waiting room, and through the nurse who touches your arm in the hallway and whispers "It's going to be ok".  He shines in His people who have built community in your fellowship.  He shines in the confident prayers of the saints and reveals His faithfulness. 

There are many pieces to this tapestry that He is weaving with your life threads.  As He weaves the shadows with His shine, we have community as we receive His peace as our source of strength.  No matter what comes...you know that God is holding you.   The faith of community weaves into your shadowed life.  As we mix and mingle, share and care, and see and feel, we can know that God is in each and every stitch.  

We see with the eyes of our heart.

When the disciples reached a desperate desert moment, they had each other.  Their hearts must have exploded with grief as they mourned their loss.  It was a bleak Friday.  Joy was overshadowed by dashed hopes and hearts.  But yet, they stuck together as they kept reaching, kept seeking, kept praying.  They didn't forsake the assembly of believers.  They encouraged, comforted, cried and communed together.

They were the church.

I love it when Jesus shows up.  The first thing he does when he sees their sad faces? He took away their fear.  "My peace is with you", Jesus said.  Peace drives out fear every time.  Hearts that were overshadowed with fear now illuminated His peace. There was no place for doubt and grief.  The believers conquered their desperation together. They looked to the One who conquered and rested in the fact that their risen Savior was alive and true.  

When life’s shadows slip in and leave you with fear and doubt, look to the One who gives peace and comfort.  Lean on your fellowship of community.  Rest and trust that God will show up and help you see Him shine with the eyes of your heart.  The shadows will soon disappear as He is revealed.      

"Give Me Your Little"

A Tiny Mustard Seed

Here's a glimpse behind the radio DJ curtain.  My life is very messy medically right now in the middle of this faith journey.  And in saying that I know there are people who are suffering way more than I can imagine.  I am not complaining...but in our family, for years, medical situations are my portion.  


Today my husband goes into his tenth surgery in seventeen years.  You may not know that he is cancer survivor.  God is good and has brought him through a small army of medical issues.  But still today there are problems with health and quality of life.  It has been a long, hard and complicated trust walk, but I sit here today to tell you I am blessed.  


We continue to have problems yes, with most of the details of this life, but that just gives me reassurance that I will need God and I have His promise of my faith in the unseen things at work will be more than enough.  


The more of God's portions that I am allowed to endure the more I enjoy one on one fellowship with our Creator.  


The more I understand that God is at work with each pain and pill, the less I rely on my own understanding.  My life verse when this all hit our lives is ...

Proverbs 3: 5- 6  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."  

When things don't make sense, like cancer, surgery after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, year after year of pains, and watching the health of a loved one decline, then I have have to acknowledge that this is my portion from God, and through it all He directs and protects, as I trust Him all the more.


The more I cling to Him the less of a grip I have on my own strength.  God tells me constantly to be brave.  


My husband has a "white book" in which he writes all the important decisions that need to be made, "if anything were to ever happen to him", in other words if he meets Jesus before me.  He updates it usually every time he has to go under the knife.  The other day he updated it and as I read it, I fell apart.  As my heart-felt tears streamed down my face.....these words escaped.....


God I can't do this alone...I whispered 


"Do you trust me still?  I am in control.  I want you to be brave."


I can't be brave anymore.  I my faith is so small.  


"I will give you more..."


As I was face to face with my own mortality and that of my husband, God was challenging me to give Him more of my trust.  I felt so small and weak at that moment of surrender.


"I am enough.  I am your portion.  Look to me...You are not alone.  Give me your little.  I will make more." Again I have all I need.  A little bit of faith is all it takes to be brave once again.


That's when peace hit my heart.     


That's all I have God... just a little.  My tear-soaked hands held my heavy heart as I sighed "I do" once again.


God's peace, His rest, His perfect will are enough.  Thank you all for your prayers.  It means so much and I can feel them.  I know God is with us always and He will not forsake His own.  I have the tiny faith in the One who carries our hearts.  


What tough time are you dealing with?  How can I pray for you?