AN INSIDE LOOK

Hi!
It's been quite a while since I've written on my blog.  Life has it's seasons, doesn't it? In this season of our lives God has my husband and I starting a church (also called planting a church).  I'm writing this today as the planting pastor's wife.

God has been at work preparing us for this work over the last 15 years.  In fact it has been in his plan even before we were born. About 45 years ago God led a small group of pastors together to pray for the Fox Valley of WI. One of those pastors happened to be the father of a pastor that the Lord brought into our lives right before we got married. A pastor who has prayed for us, along with his wife, every day for the past 15 years! Those prayers helped guide us in our relationship with the Lord and at the proper time God then moved our family to the Fox Valley (to read the full story of a bigger plan click here).  It has been amazing to see God recently reveal this bigger plan to us!

God has walked us through many valleys that have opened our eyes to our utter dependence on Him in all things. When He shared His plan with us to plant this church, God promised to provide all that will be needed.  In the midst of this journey he has also reminded us to always remember that our allegiance is to Christ and not to the task, and to never let the work of our hands become more important than our relationship with him. Christ is our most important relationship. Every other relationship flows from it.

Relationships are very important to my husband.  As we have stepped out in faith to begin this church, we have had to raise funds in order to get it started.  It has been one of his least favorite things to do.  He never wants to hurt a relationship by asking for financial support.  He has stepped into it though trusting God, and God has been faithful! In May he began to work part-time doing construction and part-time church planting. While it has been good to have 2 days/week to focus on planting the church it has also been hard as his time and mind have had to be divided.  So we have been praying everyday for God to provide a transition into full-time church planting.

During our process of discerning if this was the will of God to plant this church we had other offers from churches to come work for them.  As we discussed our options I said to my husband, "I will go to these other churches if that's where Jesus is leading us, but the question that is heavy on my heart is 'What about all the people HERE?' "  To which my husband replied, "I've been feeling the same thing". God has given us a love for the people here and a desire to care for them spiritually!

This past Sunday our radio alarm went off and at that very moment a man giving a message said, "IF YOU ARE IN THE WILL OF GOD, GOD WILL PROVIDE, AND HE PROVIDES THROUGH PEOPLE".

We need people! What a reassuring word from God to us that he will provide as he said he would. God's focus is always on people, and so that's where our focus is also. In order to love the people well and shepherd their souls, we need to raise support. God has put before us a God-sized vision and it can only be accomplished through His power and through God working through the help of other people! We can't do this alone. God is allowing us and everyone who supports Village Community Church, an opportunity to be a part of a plan that is bigger than ourselves! What a thrill! We are so excited!

Our goal has been for my husband to begin focusing his heart and mind full-time on church planting and building relationships (which he loves) by SEPTEMBER 2016. God has provided many material goods and financial support already! In order to reach our 3 year goals, support needs to continue to be raised. If you would like to help make this possible and be a part of something bigger, please click here. This will take you to the church website for more info on ways to give.

Thank you so much for your part in God's plan to build his kingdom! Thank you also from our hearts to yours!!

All donations are tax deductible.

DON'T HOLD BACK

I came across this passage as I was flipping through my notebook/journal and God reminded me of something Jesus had spoken to my heart concerning it a while back.  Take a look at it with me.

Mark 10:46-52(NIV)

Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight

46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

What I want to encourage you with today is short and simple:

If Jesus is your treasure, NEVER contain your excitement and passion and joy over him because of what others may think. Bartimaeus didn't.  They tried to quiet him but his excitement over Jesus was greater.  You see, when you truly know who Jesus is and you have an encounter with Him, it is impossible to contain yourself!  You are never the same! Bartimaeus was never the same again! 

PEOPLE NEED TO SEE THAT IN YOU!  SHARE YOUR EXCITEMENT. SHARE YOUR PASSION FOR JESUS.  IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT OTHERS THINK!

REFRESHMENT IN THE NEW

I am so thankful for a new life and a new name in Christ!  These are not just words, but a newness I have actually experienced!  Anyone who really knows me can tell you that I am definitely not the same person I used to be!

If you are reading this today and are not in the family of God through Christ's saving work on the cross, and through faith and belief that he is the only one who can save you from the wages of your sin, which is death eternal; my prayer is for God to do his redemptive work in your soul and give you a new name that I may see you someday in eternity. 

If you are in Christ, we continually need encouragement as God works in us and through us.  So, whether you are in Christ or not, I came across some words in my journal that God spoke to my heart in 2012 and I believe someone else may need to hear these words today.  Please apply them to yourself and your life.  I am going to share them and trust God to use them in whatever way he chooses, wherever you are at in life.

Here they are:

FREEDOM IS THE ANSWER TO EVERY ACHING SOUL.  LIVE LIFE TODAY IN THE FREEDOM YOU ALREADY POSSESS.  EVERY CHILD OF GOD POSSESSES FREEDOM IN CHRIST.  CHRIST HAS SET YOU FREE FROM THE POWER OF SIN AND DEATH THROUGH HIS WORK ON THE CROSS.  THAT'S WHERE YOU NEED TO START- HIS WORK ON THE CROSS.  FROM THERE YOU CAN MOVE TO HIS SANCTIFYING WORK IN YOUR HEART.

IT IS LIKE THIS...THE LORD LIVES AND BREATHES INSIDE YOUR BODY.  HE, IN HIS CHARACTER, CANNOT CONTINUE TO DWELL ALONG WITH THE FILTH, AND SIN, AND EVIL THAT STILL LIES WITHIN YOU.  SO HE BEGINS A SANCTIFICATION PROCESS OF CLEANING UP THE SPACE WHERE HE DWELLS.  HIS WORK IS NEVER DONE.  HE IS ALWAYS WORKING.  YOUR FREEDOM FROM AREAS HE'S CLEANED BRINGS HIM GLORY!

CHRIST CONTINUES TO BE YOUR HIGH PRIEST CONSTANTLY PRAYING FOR YOU AS HIS NAME IS NOW WRITTEN ON YOU.  HE IS AT WORK TO GIVE YOU YOUR NEW NAME.  THERE WILL BE NO MORE HANGING YOUR HEAD IN SHAME, BUT WALKING PROUDLY IN THE CONFIDENT ASSURANCE THAT YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD.  YOU ARE AN HEIR TO THE THRONE, ONE WHO CHRIST HAS REDEEMED BECAUSE YOU ARE LOVED, CHERISHED, PRECIOUS, THE APPLE OF HIS EYE, AND HE NOW LOOKS AT YOU THROUGH CHRIST HIS SON. 

THAT IS A PROMISE YOU CAN APPLY TO YOUR LIFE!

If you are reading this and want what you have just read, ASK GOD FOR IT!

In the love of Christ I write this to YOU.

STANDING FIRM

There was a time in my life about 6 years ago when all I wanted in life was freedom.  I remember saying over and over "I just want to be free".  I didn't want to be trapped in the prison I realized I was living in and had been my whole life.  I didn't want to feel the pain rising up unexpectedly whenever someone would unknowingly push on my open wounds that had been sitting unhealed and stacked up for years.  I wondered if insecurity would plague me for the rest of my life. Big fears, little fears, and inconspicuous fears were driving all my decisions.  All these things were affecting every relationship I had.  I was living in a prison, I felt trapped, and longed so much to get out from behind those prison bars and live my life free from wounds controlling me, insecurity ruling me, and fears driving me.  I pleaded with God to bring me freedom!  I pursued after it with everything I had.

What I didn't understand until recently is that from the moment I was saved through Christ, I walked from being a slave to sin, the law, and my old master, the devil, into complete freedom and a new master, Jesus Christ.  I've had the freedom all along not to live under Satan's lies.

What God has shown me is a deeper understanding through Romans 6 and Galations  chapters 3-5, that I am no longer a slave to sin and the law, but under grace.  God revealed to me that I've been going back and forth in different areas of my life from living under grace to living under the law.  As I continued to read the Word of God along with my personal experiences, God graciously showed me that before belonging to Christ, I was a slave to sin and the law, and Satan was my master.  There was no getting out from that slavery on my own. (As I tell this story picture yourself as a slave when slavery was legal).  I was doomed to die there, as a slave, to my own sin and the law.  Someone else would have to come and pay a high price for me in order to free me.  The only one who could pay a high enough price that would allow me to go free, was Jesus.

I didn't go to Jesus.  He came to me.  Through suffering and dying on the cross, taking upon himself my sins and God's wrath for those sins, and rising again, he came to me in my slavery.  He put out his hand to me and said " Come with me.  I have just bought you with a high price and you are free from ever being a slave to your current master again."  In that moment as I stepped from death and despair into hope and new life, I was free!  In that very moment, I was a son, and held all the rights to being a co-heir with Christ.  All these years I've had the freedom to stand firm and not be burdened by the yoke of slavery, but I didn't fully understand it.  I have been giving Satan permission (when he has no authority because of my position in Christ) to bind me, over and over again like his slave.

Satan is a liar.  He will keep putting his lies on you and weigh them down on your chest until you can hardly breathe...telling you that you have to walk around with shame and guilt for sins you've already repented of, or try to keep you under law alone.  As you believe those lies they fix themselves like a very heavy metal harness around the back of your neck and lay over your chest.  You then begin walking around slouched over from the weight of it and dragged around by the chains attached, as if you were still a slave.  But you're free!  Christ declared you to be! 

I have come to recently ask myself, "Why, am I... a free woman...still slouched over at times with chains around me, allowing myself to be treated...by my old master...like the slave I once was, but am no more?"  Christ, my new Master keeps telling me,  "Stand up tall.  Take off that harness.  It was put on Me so that you can now walk away from your old master with no chains attached to you and experience God's limitless grace on you."  Paul in the book of Galations chapter 5, says this to the Christians in Galatia as they struggled with falling back under the law: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

This is the new covenant that Christ is inviting me and you to walk in every day if we belong to Him.  When Satan tries to pull on those chains and says "come this way," don't give him permission.  He can only bind you if you give him permission.  If you stand firm in the freedom Christ has already given you and tell Satan "no" those chains will fall right to the ground, because they are no longer wrapped around you.  He can pull all he wants, but all he will get is the chain that you have stepped out of into complete and total freedom through Jesus.

Know the word of God and stand firm in what it says.  If we don't know who we are fully in Christ we provide Satan cracks in which to hook his chains.

Don't give Satan the power he has no right to possess!!!!!!

God Bless you and I hope my journeys and struggles and things learned will help you in the glorious name of Christ.

GLASS BLOWING

Many times you’ve heard of God shaping his child like the potter shapes the clay.   Right?  I’d like to help you see it through another light.  As my husband I were going through some very difficult times in our life God spoke to my heart and helped me to see  what He was doing in our lives within the analogy of blowing glass.

When a glass vase is formed there needs to be a glass blower, right?  It’s not going to take form on it’s own.  It needs the glass blower to be in control of making, shaping, and blowing the glass into just the right shape and design he wants that glass to take.  Right?  So it is with God and his child.  God showed me that He is the Glass Blower and we, his children, are the glass.  When I looked into the actual process of glass blowing and how it was done I was amazed at the similarities as to how God shapes his child.  I’d like to share with you and invite you into this process.

Here’s what the host of the video I was watching said about glass blowing “ Glass blowing is full of beauty, function, and inspiration.  There's suspense, tension, and danger in the glass blowing process, after all they are working with fire.  There's craftsmanship like you've never seen.  All of that to make a beautiful piece of art and yet so fragile, with one wrong move it could shatter and break.”

Now when I heard that, I saw those words written all over God’s transformation/sanctification process.  The time when he takes us through a whole new birthing process, and creates a new person.  God’s process, although it doesn’t feel good is also full of beauty, function, and inspiration.  God's process is going to produce a child that displays His beauty, that child is going to have learned how to function with in that beauty, and God is going to use it as inspiration to and for others.  Maybe some of you have gone through this process or are going through it now.  If that’s the case you can attest to the fact that this process is not fun.  It’s hard and it is filled with suspense, tension, and danger while you’re in the fire.  God's craftsmanship in our lives is like nothing we’ve ever seen!  And He takes us through all of that because He loves us and it’s necessary in order to make us into a beautiful piece of art that will bear the image of Christ and bring God glory.

The glass blowing process is done and made in what is called the “hot shop”. The working temp of the furnace is 2100 degrees F.  That is really really hot! Do you ever feel God turning up the temp. and the flames getting really hot in your own life?  God may have you in the “hot shop”.  Just as that glass needs to be formed and worked on in the “hot shop” God puts you and I in the “hot shop”.  Sometimes we’re in that hot shop for 13 years.  Like my husband and I.  It’s up to God how long you need to be in the “hot shop”.  Joseph (in the bible) was in the “hot shop” for 13 years being shaped and molded before he was birthed into the new person God wanted him to be.  Listen, if God is turning up the heat in your life he’s in the middle of a very important process and it’s important for us to work with God.

Glass blowers also have another furnace called the “Glory hole” or “reheating drum” that is 2250 degrees F- used to make larger pieces and to work at them a long time.  I had to laugh a little when I heard this because I have been in the “glory hole”!  God has taken me, the glass, and put me right in that “glory hole” and has had to work on me a long time.  Have you?  There might be someone listening right now that feels like “how long is this going to go on...can’t i ever get a break...”  I want you to hear right now that if God has put you in that “glory hole” it’s because he’s working on you and shaping you and that’s where the work is going to be done that will bring glory to God!  You can bet when you come out of that hole, all that went on in that hole was part of God making the glass that will bring him glory.  That’s where God gets all the glory!  I’m assuming they call it the "glory hole" because it’s the place where the long hard work has to be done on the glass in order to create the glory in the piece that the blower wants in the end.

Then if the glass blower wants color on the piece he takes colored chunks and rolls the heated glass over them and reheats the glass again in the drum.  For me God said “Ok Marsha, now I want to add some chunks of humility, more love, more compassion, understanding of others, understanding of yourself and your own sin, repentance, and more truth and faith.”  And he rolled me into those chunks and reheated me again, back into the “glory hole”.

Glass blowers have to use many different tools, along with blowing, to shape the glass, and the heat from the glory hole allows them to shape the vessel that they want.  The heat from our own “glory hole” is necessary to allow God to shape our vessel the way it needs to be for our good and God’s glory.

There are many tools for different things the blower may need to use:
One tool helps to shape the glass so they can get the core of the glass hot and it blows out evenly.
One is an old wet newspaper that allows them to shape the glass with their hand. 
One allows them to cut and one to grab the glass. 
One is just a standard tweezers to pick at stuff.

God too, uses many different tools on us.Take a look: 
He has effective tools he uses to shape us and get at our core. 
He has the right tool that will allow him to shape us with his loving hand. 
He has tools he uses when he needs to grab and cut something out of us or our lives...such as impurities, sin, strongholds, bondage, prison bars. 
And just a standard tweezers to pick out things that need to be removed. 
These tools can look a little different in each individual life.

After the glass piece is shaped and finished it's still relatively hot. About 1000 degrees.  The glass blower can't just leave it out on the table b/c of thermal shock it would crack.  So they carry it and put it in what is called a Kneeler that keeps it at 900 degrees to cool down slowly for 12 hrs or over night.  This process is called ‘a kneeling’-taking a high temp to a low temp slowly to relieve all the stresses related to the heat.  After the glass is cooled off you're left with a beautiful piece of art. 

The video pointed out that the process is very captivating, and when you look at a piece of blown glass you have much more appreciation for it because now you know how much it's gone through to be made.

After we’ve been in the “hot shop”, in an out of the “glory hole", shaped and formed, worked on with God’s hands and tools, He continues to tenderly care for us.  As we are still hot from all the fire and the temperature of the “glory hole”, he doesn’t leave us alone to experience thermal shock and crack.  He tenderly picks us up and carries us to the kneeler where he helps us to go from that high temp we were just in, slowly to a low temp so that we can relieve all the stresses that were on us due to the heat.  Through this process we will see God for who He really is, see his attributes clearly, feel his tender love for us, and KNEEL in great awe and reverence, and humility to the Everlasting Father.

We will marvel at how he took a once balled up slab of glass and tenderly and lovingly took it through the “hot shop”, never once leaving our side.  The glass blower, we’ve seen, has to be very attentive to the glass not leaving it for a moment.  You can be sure that your loving Father has never left you for a moment!

Once you’re cooled, you and others will see a beautiful piece of art crafted by the very hand of God, displaying the glory of the Creator.  We won’t reach full beauty until we see Jesus face to face and our sanctification is complete, but if we belong to God through his son Jesus Christ, we can watch God make our vessel more beautiful and new as time goes on.

Rest Assured!

True Rest

Friends, this is so real and so true that I have to share it. I have lived it and am experiencing true Rest! It is terrible to live under the burden of pretense and artificiality. Be free from it! 

Please read these words from A.W. Tozer :

"There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression. The fear of being found out gnaws like rodents within their hearts. ...To all the victims of the gnawing disease Jesus says, "You...must become as little children" (Matthew 18:3) For little children do not compare; they receive direct enjoyment from what they have without relating it to something else or someone else. Only as they get older and sin begins to stir in hearts do envy and jealousy appear...and it never leaves them until Jesus sets them free.

Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel at Jesus' feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness. Then we will not care what people think of us so long as God is pleased. Then what we are will be everything; what we appear will take its place far down the scale of interest for us. Apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed.

The heart of the world is breaking under this load of pride and pretense. There is no release from our burden apart from the meekness of Christ. Good, keen reasoning may help slightly, but so strong is the vice that if we push it down one place, it will come up somewhere else. To men and women everywhere Jesus says, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. It will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the strong Son of God Himself. He calls it "My yoke," and He walks at one end while we walk at the other.

"Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5)

"Come unto me, all you that labour 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 you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11: 28-30)

LOCKED IN AND PROTECTED

Good Morning!

This morning my heart is filled with the word of God and I want to share with you what I'm reading.  It needs no other words from me.  These words hold so much power and I pray that the Holy Spirit will pour them over your heart and mind, and that you will feel the love of Jesus for you the way I am feeling it as I read it this morning!

( highlighting is done by me; the words of Jesus are in red)

10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. ² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” ⁶ Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd  lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷ The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
¹⁹ The Jews who heard these words were again divided. ²⁰ Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”
²¹ But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

²² Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³ and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. ²⁴ The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
²⁵ Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, ²⁶ but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”