Displaying 1 - 7 of 69 entries

Churchy Churches!

  • Posted on September 3, 2010 at 2:48 pm

We are told that whenever two or more of us get together, be it by appointment, or chance meeting, Christ is with us. What if we honestly asked the question, why does Jesus want to be there with us? Would that change our thoughts about fellowship? Rather than feeling alone because we are no longer in the system, or have some form of regular “churchy”  fellowship, maybe we would begin to discover that we in fact have more fellowship than we realize. My family has been out of church for a year and a half. We really have no plans to ever go back to a standard churchy form of worship.
 
Church is not a place you go. I first realized this a couple years ago while we were driving, I had one of my little ones say, as passing a church..”Look Mama, that is where Jesus lives!”

It just hit me! What were we teaching our children about Christ?

WE are the church, NOT the building.

 The community around you should be your fellowship. This is how reaching out should be. If I lived in Norfolk,Connecticut..Then I belong to the church of Norfolk Connecticut. If I live in New York City, then I should belong to the church of NYC.  I am not talking about building either. I am talking about people. We should meet other people in our community and share meals, break bread, and worship together. I suppose it is much easier to just join a club, or church. Church was never intended to be the way it is now. Just study church History and you’d be surprised at how things have changed. Not for the better either.
People need to be told what to do. Evidently, if someone has a baby, they would not be able to figure it out on their own, to chime in, and bring a meal, or offer a helping hand. Same goes for the elderly. People need to be instructed that the elderly may need a friendly greeting, or small gift of encouragement.  People also need to know what the bible says, and what it means!  This is why they need a pastor to tell them, and read to them. Evidently, being filled with the holy spirit is simply NOT enough. This is a reason why the pastors themselves  need to go to seminary, in order to be taught what the bible truly means themselves.
See the pattern?

People(adults) like to be told what to think, and what to do. Most will spend their whole lives thriving on it!!! Who needs critical thinking skills, if we have someone always  there , telling us what to think, pray about, wear, listen too,talk about, etc.
I am not going to get into why I think most people are this way. Although I do have a few thoughts about that. Given it has taken me decades to figure out that I am fully capable, as a spirit filled believer, to think for myself, pray about what the spirit leads me to pray about. Meet occasionally with other ladies to pray. I am also fully capable to look around me and just KNOW who is hurting, and who may benefit from a smile, a gift, a meal, or a conversation.

What if we all decided to soften our hearts and learn to be sensitive to those around us…
 

 The Lord always seems to bring other believers into our lives. There is no motive, or ongoing mission. It just happens, Organically. Nothing is forced.  It feels so good to rest in him….

The second thing I was thinking about,  is that we are warned in Galatians 5 to not allow ourselves to be entangled with a yolk of bondage. As we all know the yolk Paul is talking about is religious obligation.  If you can go to some form of organized meeting and it does not find a place in you to bring you under bondage or obligation then your liberty allows you to hang out and enjoy what it is you attended the meeting for. .

BUT,

If  you find yourself immediately falling back into old forms of performance or the pressure to act a certain way so that you will fit in, or be accepted.  ~Muster up all the courage you can and get out of there! You are not yet free from the bondage of religious performance.

In the modern church, goals are set for winning a neighborhood, winning a city, winning a country or winning the world, whereas in the early church the goal seemed to have been to follow Jesus. That has been very freeing for me, as I’ve focused my attention on knowing Father’s heart and learning to live in his love daily. I believe that will have greater value in drawing people to Jesus than the impersonal methods we employ that may bring them to salvation, but then leaves them in an immature state never really able to receive Christ’s love.   It is truly something to think about…

Kitty snapshots

  • Posted on at 12:01 am

As I blogged about a couple weeks ago. We got 2 new kittens. They are brothers. The kids named them, Tom & Jerry! The names that I had picked out were Expresso & Smoky! Of course the kids won!

Jerry and Shadow

TOM Sleeping!

Protected: Are you UN-helpful?

  • Posted on September 2, 2010 at 12:01 am

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Is your Church Toxic?

  • Posted on September 1, 2010 at 12:00 am
Healthy
Unhealthy or Abusive
A place of blessing and refuge for those in need. A place people want to go. Lives are blessed.
A place of slavery. A place people want to leave. Lives are embittered.
Benevolent leadership genuinely concerned about the welfare of those it leads. Malevolent leadership concerned about control over those it leads.
Leadership concerned about loyalty to the people.
Leadership concerned about the loyalty of the people.
Devotes the system to meet the needs of the people.
Exploits the legitimate needs of people for its own ends.
Leadership builds up the people.
Leadership tears down the people.
Healthy structure established for order and taking care of the people. Whole structure works for the good of all.
Unhealthy structure established to control the people. “In” groups, rivalries, favoritism, rewards and punishments to ensure loyalty to the leadership and system.
Leadership is secure, welcomes outsiders.
Leadership is paranoid, afraid of outsiders and disloyal members.
Contributions made willingly
Contributions made under compulsion.
The good of all is what matters.
The system and one’s position in it are what matters.
The system serves the people.
The people serve the system.
Leaders serve the people.
Leaders control the people.
Hardships related to the task at hand.
Hardships arbitrary, inflicted by the leadership
Negative aspects of system discussed and corrected for the good of the people. People who identify problems are put in a position to address these needs for the good of all.
Negative aspects of system silenced. People who identify problems are viewed as a threat. They are marginalized, stigmatized and cast out of the system..
Welcomes helpful changes.
Resists changes.
Prayers of thanksgiving and praise.
Prayers of anguish and pain.
God leads people to go there.
God leads people to leave there.

Community/Friendships~The loss art 5 of 5

  • Posted on August 31, 2010 at 12:01 am

This is the last installment of this series.

I wanted to add a conclusion on, outgrowing friendships.

 As stated, friendships and community is important, but what about the people that the Lord places in our lives, only for a season.

One person I talked with, said that, there is simply no need for community any more because we have all the connection that we can possible want on-line. This, and we have cell phones, and texting now. We are so plugged in, that we do not have that “inner desire” for human contact, and face to face community.
Hmmm, I slept on that one, and it really does make a whole lot of sense.
 Listening to the average person who has, and partakes in all these things….I can see where one would feel completely exhausted by the time they hit the sack.

Apparently, some folks wake up by the sound of their cell phone ringing, no, not the alarm, but being ringing at the crack of dawn…

GOOD MORNING!!

They hop in the shower, come out to find that they missed 3 calls and a couple of text messages. They return them on their way to school, or work.
During their work, they have an open window of social networks open. They run outside or in the bathroom for a quick phone call. They leave work, or school, a friend wants to have coffee..but there is no time.

They go through a drive through to order up dinner, returning 2 more missed cell phone calls, trying to text one back at the red light.

Come home, listen to the kids talk about their day….walk over to the PC, or better yet, head in their bedroom with their laptop, check email, which is soooooo old fashion now adays! lol Log onto a social network, read about the lives and headers of their 100+ friends. Send out a few wall posts, glance over their personal messages that they have received during the day, but there is no time to answer them or reply to them because the little window on the social networking site keeps popping up with numerous friends wanting to chat.

Wanna Chat?

Then.. just as you are considering to write a blog, you hear that dreadful sound..what is that sound???? Oh, it is the HOME PHONE!! OMGOSH, why is that old thing bothering me?

Doesn’t whoever is trying to call me, have my email, or better yet, aren’t they one of my friends on my social network?

What is a girl to do?
Well, for me…I UNPLUGGED! I needed a time to just do one thing, and one thing only. Lately, that one thing has been blogging, as I try to deprogram everything else.

This started plugging away at me a couple months ago.  I started thinking about my friends. How is it that I have about 6 IRL friends, and over 20 on-line, whom I never met?

I do not want IRL opportunities to pass me by any longer.

Shaking head no!

When you come to this realization, that you talk more to people whom you have never met, then the community all around you..then there is a slight problem.
Maybe some people are loving these new distant friendships..but not me.

The next issues, regarding community and friendships, that were brought up in a recent discussion were..

Is it possible to outgrow a friendship?

My answer is YES!

Being a believer, I do believe that the Lord places “seasonal friendships” in our paths.

Whether it be, a confidaunt’ that you desperately need at a particular time in your life, or a seasonal friend that is more of a guardian angel…

These friendships are real, and they do happen..but they also cease…
But what about friends that you just out grow, one person asked me…

 
1.~What about the co-worker that you  always had lunch with?  Maybe she  quits and you really have nothing in common with her anymore, but she is still calling you to get together for lunch?

OR,

2. What about the co-worker that got pregnant and quit her job to be a full time mommy. Maybe you are forever single, and feel as if you have no common interest anymore..
What do you do?

 

You get the picture…

 
For  me, if a friendship is a seasonal one, it will just dissolve naturally. (And YES, I think seasonal friendships are VERY hard to handle!)

I find, in most situations, You will never have to tell someone that the friendship was seasonal..  That would be awkard. Right?

It will just happen, organically.

 

Other reasons why some friendships may cease, may be, but not limited too:

1. You just do not have anything at all in common anymore.

 2. Your friend moves away.

3. Your co-worker left the job. 

4.  You just need a break from the drama…

But all in all…For every door that closes…a new one is sure to open!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

For every door that closes, a new one opens...

ABC QUIZ!

  • Posted on August 30, 2010 at 12:01 am

I realize this is the second quiz in the past couple weeks, but I thought this one would be kinda cute to do. I do not recall where it came from. I copied and pasted the rules a while back. If you blog it, please comment, so I can go check out yours. Enjoy!

Where do I go online GAME? 

 A- AMTC blog & Amazon Books

B-Bali for kids blog
C-Craigs list forum
D-
E-Ebay
F- it use to be facebook, now it is Free lapbooks blog
G-Google.com
H-Healthcare blog
I-I use to believe blog
J-
K-
L-
M-MSN News blog & Mandy Montage’s blog
N-Netflix Movies
O-Our Plain and Simple Life
P-Paypal.com
Q-
R-
S-Swanson blog
T-Twitter & Tammys Recipes
U-Under much Grace blog
V-
W-Weather channel & Watch Dog
X-
Y-youtube & my own blog & yahoo email
Z-

 I will have to wait and finish it when I find more places that I like to go!

How about you?

Community~ The Loss Art~Part 4 of 5

  • Posted on August 29, 2010 at 12:01 am

Regarding today’s “lack of” community/friendship. I have found there are 3 groups of people. We all fall into one of these groups it appears.

1. Don’t Bother Me, and I won’t bother you!

This group of people like their privacy. They generally move out to the county or mountains, for this reason alone.

They have a few close friends from child-hood, or maybe college, that they managed to keep in touch with through snail mail through-out the years, and now since technology has  taken  over the world, they do speak slightly more often, as the puter, and cell, will forever remain close by. Or will it? And if it doesn’t, what then?

 They will remain friends till death due them part. This is all they need!  Do not ask them to get together during the week for coffee or tea, and forget about that danish or bagel! And most definitely, do not invite them over your house for a BBQ on the weekends.

~As they are too busy with work & life, and if they are Christians, then they  also have church obligations to attend too. Throw in the children if they have any, and when none of these things are shouting out for their attention..they just want to be left alone in the privacy of their home, with no intruders knocking on the door, or pestering them to come over.

Intruders? Is that what people have been belittled down too? Whether you are a believer or not, what about Loving your neighbor?  What about Hospitality? Are those Loss Arts too?

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:2

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 1 Peter 4:9

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Romans 12:13

 

I know that everyone does not naturally have the gift of Hospitality, and I fully realize that just because the bible says something, does not mean that we need to do it by our “own” means. That would be impossible to try to accomplish by ourself, and if we did, we would surely become a legalist faster then ever.

If this is the case tough, what is it about Christ that we are not getting, that is allowing us to shun everyone that is not in our click, and never invite others into our lives? Sure, we have all been hurt, some more then others, but is this reason enough to give up and throw in the towel on humanity? Evidently, most folks seem to think so.

NEXT:

2. If your family, that is fine, come on over..If I have known you for a veryyyyyy long time, and you are like-minded, come on over. Other wise, LEAVE ME ALONE!  But…God Bless you, and Have a nice day too!

These folks are so wrapped up in their own cocoons, that they will hate you, but you’d never know it, because they will agree with you, that you need to hook up real soon, but you never actually do.

 They will bless, and curse you, with their charming words of mannerism.  This gives a whole new meaning to; “Out of the mouth, the heart speaks”

Next:

3. ~The Needys~ People who only contact you when they NEED something from you. Haven’t we all had one, or more of these type of friends?  You don’t hear from them for weeks and months on end. But you eventually get that call out of the blue….NOT to find out how things are…but ONLY to ask  you for something. They do not “really” want to know how you have been, it is just their good manners to ask. If you have the gift of discernment, you know what I am talking about here. You can feel it!

 These type of people need to learn to love people, and use things, instead of using people, and loving things. 

Lastly:

4. OK, so maybe their are 4 groups of people..

People who are simply looking for fellowship. Fellowship that is TRUE, and REAL,  is not judge-mental,controlling, or religious. People who will NOT  place their religion, ABOVE relationships. People that will just accept you as you are, and love you regardless. People that will grow with you, not against you.

Doesn’t that sound GREAT?

 

So, are you a number 1,2,3 or 4?