So much has happened in our house church since I last blogged! We have experienced tremendous growth both personally and in numbers - so much so that in January we will be branching out and forming a new house church group! That is very exciting to us as it is evident to us that this is Gods hand moving the hearts of His church! We are seeing so much fruit coming through the relationships we have grown with one another since we ventured into this "Journey"!
Currently we are in the middle of a study in Spiritual Warfare and how we are to use our weapons that God gave us! We are recognizing strongholds that we may have in our lives and learning how to give it up to Jesus. This Saturday we meet at Scott and Tammie's house again for a last lesson in Spiritual Warfare before we meet for our Large Group gathering on the 28th at Lake side Church in Cambridge where we will kick off our new study in Grace!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Spiritual Birth - Born Again or Saved?
This week we met at Zack's home and it was a treat to be welcomed by his family in such a warm and inviting environment! For dinner we had a variety of hot dishes, warm soup and bread and of course dessert that followed! After dinner together, we prepared our hearts with worship and prayers.
Sondra then gathered the kids for a special teaching time as the rest of us sat down for a discussion on this month's topic of Spiritual Birth: Adopted, or Just “Saved”? We asked the question How do people qualify with God? In Job 25:4 we read How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? I think hearing that scripture was difficult for us to hear. How can we of human nature who is easily swayed by sin in this fallen world come into the presence of a perfect God? We looked into Davids hopeful words in the Old Testament in 2 Samuel 22:4 which said I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. These words showed Gods continued mercy and love for us even before Jesus opened His Kingdom to us. Before Jesus came and walked this Earth; people did not have the gift of Gods Holy Spirit to walk with but God's desire was for us to walk closer to Him as our Father in His Kingdom! Jesus stated in Matthew 11:11 I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. What that was saying was that John was a greatest man to live on this earth before Jesus but those of us now who are born again of Gods Holy Spirit will be even greater then John because of the Holy Spirit who lives within us! We are closer to God then anyone ever was in the days before Jesus saved us! That was comforting to think about but then why we wonder, is this life so hard at times? Jesus warned us that our days would be turbulent and our battles are not always of this world! but to take heart because as He said in Matthew 24:13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
God's words gave us understanding and hope and it felt so good to study His book in such an intimate setting with His people who all have different gifting to use together in the body!
We completed our discussion and moved on to personal ministry and prayer time before we departed for the evening.
Sondra then gathered the kids for a special teaching time as the rest of us sat down for a discussion on this month's topic of Spiritual Birth: Adopted, or Just “Saved”? We asked the question How do people qualify with God? In Job 25:4 we read How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? I think hearing that scripture was difficult for us to hear. How can we of human nature who is easily swayed by sin in this fallen world come into the presence of a perfect God? We looked into Davids hopeful words in the Old Testament in 2 Samuel 22:4 which said I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. These words showed Gods continued mercy and love for us even before Jesus opened His Kingdom to us. Before Jesus came and walked this Earth; people did not have the gift of Gods Holy Spirit to walk with but God's desire was for us to walk closer to Him as our Father in His Kingdom! Jesus stated in Matthew 11:11 I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. What that was saying was that John was a greatest man to live on this earth before Jesus but those of us now who are born again of Gods Holy Spirit will be even greater then John because of the Holy Spirit who lives within us! We are closer to God then anyone ever was in the days before Jesus saved us! That was comforting to think about but then why we wonder, is this life so hard at times? Jesus warned us that our days would be turbulent and our battles are not always of this world! but to take heart because as He said in Matthew 24:13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
God's words gave us understanding and hope and it felt so good to study His book in such an intimate setting with His people who all have different gifting to use together in the body!
We completed our discussion and moved on to personal ministry and prayer time before we departed for the evening.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
How Can Prayer Move The Hand Of God?
Our church has been diving deep into the discussion of prayer and asking the question... Are some people's prayers more amplified then others? We looked to the Bible for our answers and concluded that checking our motives as we pray is very important. In James 4:3 he writes You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. We also learned that the Holy Spirit led prayer life will help us to see our needs in a whole new light. When we love God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength, our deepest desires change in our hearts; they're desires that God has placed in our hearts and it is His desire to give them to us as Psalms 37:4 says Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
I believe that this discussion left us with an enhanced understanding of how our prayers really do move the hand of God but more importantly, move our hearts closer to Him which leads us into a more intimate relationship with our Father in Heaven!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Just Keep Hanging On!
The day awoke my spirit with the glorious sunshine streaming from the heavens into my Eastern window. As Scott and I stepped outside, we were welcomed by a breeze that tickled our ears as if to whisper for us to enjoy Gods creation and worship amongst it.
Our plan had been changed this weekend for our Church meeting and we decided to meet on Sunday morning rather then our regular meeting day and time on Saturday nights. As it turned out, Mark was the only attendee this morning so we decided to spend our church meeting out on the boat where God drew us out into earlier this morning! Once we settled into the quietest corner we could find on the lake; we dropped anchor and pulled out our Bibles to discuss…
Who is asking?
How does Jesus describe our position w/God? Matt. 7:7-11
Are we in the position of the “righteous” in James 5:16? Why or why not?
What impact does agreement in asking have in Matt. 18;19?
And Who was asking in Matt. 15:21-28 How did she overcome the problem?
We went deep into the discussion of how our heavenly Father wants for us to be in a relationship with Him through our prayers and he wants us to trust Him with our needs. As a Father we are aware that our ways are not His ways so our prayers may not be answered in the way we think but that we need to grow in trusting Him and lean not on our own understanding. We went further into discussion of how God shapes us through adversity and walks with us through it! This is difficult as all of us know but it comforts me to know that we are not alone going through it!
After we wound down our discussion, we spent the remaining afternoon in fellowship as we took turns pulling the boys (including Mark) on the inner tube.
It was fun watching them enjoy the thrill of being whipped around the water with tight turns and tossed into the air following turbulent wakes! A symbol of how we feel sometimes when life throws us into a tailspin of pain and trials! Mark and the boy’s put faith and trust in Scott that he wouldn’t put them in harms way and continued to hang on through all the bumps and turns. That’s just how God our Father wants us to handle our turbulent situations; with child like faith and trust. He’ll get us through it – just keep hanging on!!
Our plan had been changed this weekend for our Church meeting and we decided to meet on Sunday morning rather then our regular meeting day and time on Saturday nights. As it turned out, Mark was the only attendee this morning so we decided to spend our church meeting out on the boat where God drew us out into earlier this morning! Once we settled into the quietest corner we could find on the lake; we dropped anchor and pulled out our Bibles to discuss…
Who is asking?
How does Jesus describe our position w/God? Matt. 7:7-11
Are we in the position of the “righteous” in James 5:16? Why or why not?
What impact does agreement in asking have in Matt. 18;19?
And Who was asking in Matt. 15:21-28 How did she overcome the problem?
We went deep into the discussion of how our heavenly Father wants for us to be in a relationship with Him through our prayers and he wants us to trust Him with our needs. As a Father we are aware that our ways are not His ways so our prayers may not be answered in the way we think but that we need to grow in trusting Him and lean not on our own understanding. We went further into discussion of how God shapes us through adversity and walks with us through it! This is difficult as all of us know but it comforts me to know that we are not alone going through it!
After we wound down our discussion, we spent the remaining afternoon in fellowship as we took turns pulling the boys (including Mark) on the inner tube.
It was fun watching them enjoy the thrill of being whipped around the water with tight turns and tossed into the air following turbulent wakes! A symbol of how we feel sometimes when life throws us into a tailspin of pain and trials! Mark and the boy’s put faith and trust in Scott that he wouldn’t put them in harms way and continued to hang on through all the bumps and turns. That’s just how God our Father wants us to handle our turbulent situations; with child like faith and trust. He’ll get us through it – just keep hanging on!!Saturday, June 6, 2009
Everybody is worth dying for...what does this mean?
The long awaited rain brought life back into our withered lawns today just as Jesus quenches our thirsty souls as we gathered together in His name. I am beginning to sense that we have grown beyond the gates of our "nicely painted pickett fences" and are stepping into a deeper understanding of who we are.
We began our evening sharing our week's worth of victories and set backs and all the in -betweens before we gathered to worship our King. The words in the music of 'Trading our Sorrows" seemed to melt away the world and all it's turmoil and soften our hearts in preperation of the evening studies.
We focused on the first core value of our church which is Everybody is worth dying for. We went into the Bible verse which supports this in John 3:16 which says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believes in Him shall not parish but have ever lasting life.
What does this mean for us? We discussed this deeper and realized that Jesus' answer was clearly "yes"! What does that say for us and how we live our lives? What sort of value does our lives have to the eyes of Christ who knows what sins our hearts carry! It holds our lives accountable to eachother and to Christ who choose to lay down his life so that we could have life as God intended it! In Matthew 10:38-39 it says And who ever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
We began our evening sharing our week's worth of victories and set backs and all the in -betweens before we gathered to worship our King. The words in the music of 'Trading our Sorrows" seemed to melt away the world and all it's turmoil and soften our hearts in preperation of the evening studies.
We focused on the first core value of our church which is Everybody is worth dying for. We went into the Bible verse which supports this in John 3:16 which says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believes in Him shall not parish but have ever lasting life.
What does this mean for us? We discussed this deeper and realized that Jesus' answer was clearly "yes"! What does that say for us and how we live our lives? What sort of value does our lives have to the eyes of Christ who knows what sins our hearts carry! It holds our lives accountable to eachother and to Christ who choose to lay down his life so that we could have life as God intended it! In Matthew 10:38-39 it says And who ever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Meeting highlight of May 23!
At our last Saturday's house meeting, we gathered after dinner to ponder on the scriptures led by Mark Myher. We focused on the topic of "STRESS" and how Jesus understood this consuming emotion that can come in and like a thief, overtake our minds and darken His Light.
Jesus asks that we invite Him in to lift this burden from our souls. We do this by taking heed to His instructions and applying them to our lives daily. We listened to the words of Jesus Himself in Matthew 11:28-30 which says Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Today in our world, we are facing many challenges that effect how we respond to our families and towards one another as our problems and burdens become the focus of our attention. We were never created to live that way so why is this such a struggle for us? We went into further discussion on how God has worked with us through difficult situations and saw us through. after sharing our lives experiences, we were encouraged by the reminder that Jesus is reaching out His hand in truth from His Word and through the works He does through our lives. What a gift we have in one another whom Christ dwells within to walk with in this journey each week!
Jesus asks that we invite Him in to lift this burden from our souls. We do this by taking heed to His instructions and applying them to our lives daily. We listened to the words of Jesus Himself in Matthew 11:28-30 which says Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Today in our world, we are facing many challenges that effect how we respond to our families and towards one another as our problems and burdens become the focus of our attention. We were never created to live that way so why is this such a struggle for us? We went into further discussion on how God has worked with us through difficult situations and saw us through. after sharing our lives experiences, we were encouraged by the reminder that Jesus is reaching out His hand in truth from His Word and through the works He does through our lives. What a gift we have in one another whom Christ dwells within to walk with in this journey each week!
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