Rough day?? Here's a dose inspiration...

"I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength." ~Philippians 4:13

"For I know the plans I have you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not disaster, to give you a future and a hope." ~Jeremiah 29:11

"God can do anything, you know-far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!" ~ Ephesians 3:20 (Msg)

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Unstoppable...

As the new series "One Prayer" kicked off this past weekend, I have to say that it re-ignited me. We truly serve an Unstoppable God, with Unstoppable Love and He has called us to be an unstoppable church to have an unstoppable impact on our community and our world. We truly have a great challenge set before us as we are God's "connector's". I loved the point that Bryan made in his statement that said "The mission of God has a church, the church is the people of God". And as we reviewed all that God has done through the AV campus building, I was in total tears as my heart was so blessed as we had (and still have)the opportunity to see God's church fulfilling His mission.

I love the challenge with this series for each Tuesday to be a day of fasting and prayer. I read an article yesterday about fasting and it was so great...it simply said, "You can have prayer without fasting, but you cannot have fasting without prayer". How simply, yet profoundly true is that?!?! When we fast, we are called into total humbleness, obedience and praise for the God we love and serve. Yesteday's fast blessed my heart as Hannah decided she also wanted to fast and as I asked her what she felt called to fast from she simply stated she wanted to fast from sweets because she knew that would be the greatest challenge for her. Talk about blessing my heart. We fasted together yesterday, but most importantly, we took the time to pray together, what an awesome teachable moment...and not just for Hannah, for the both of us. A child like faith is amazing and I cannot wait to see how God continues to move throughout this next month!

As I was reading this morning, I received one of my favorite devotionals and the scripture confirmed all that we are as Christ's church.

"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody...written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" ~ 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 (NIV)

Talk about huge! Our impact is huge! We are a letter...a letter from God. Your a letter, I'm a letter. God has written a message on our hearts and has mailed us to the world! People read His letter through our actions, through our words, through the way we live our lives and represent the Kingdom of God. What will they read in our letters?? Will they read of a loving Savior, who died on the cross for each of us, who loves unconditionally, whose love is constant and never ending? Or will they read a conficting story? What will they read in your letter?

My one prayer this week:

God I want to represent You well today and forever. Help me to use my words as a well trained ambassador. I pray that I will be a living love letter to those I meet every day. I pray that You will blast away the boxes that we put You in. Thank You for being an Unstoppable God, with Unstoppable Love. Thank You for putting Your church together and filling us with an energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out. Use us as Your unstoppable church to be an unstoppable force of your love that changes the earth and to rock the gates hell from here to eternity.
In Your Precious Son Jesus' Name, Amen