Circumstances!!!!!

Morningstar something wonderful happened to me few day ago. When it was over, I wasn’t afraid any longer about what God might require of me. Instead, I became fearful of what I might miss out on if I wasn’t willing to obey God in whatever He asked. I switched (I believe through a merciful gift from God), from fearing God’s required obedience to fearing my lack of obedience. I don’t know if it is possible describe the impact that has made on my relationship with God.Just recently God has reminded me of His goodness in a way that surprised me. In the last few weeks I have struggled through a particular circumstance. The specifics are not as important as what I am learning. I felt as if I was on a forced journey; on a path which I did not choose and which I did not want to take. That path lead me to a point of profound sorrow; almost a grieving (including tears, etc). At one point, I prayed for God to rescue me. Almost immediately, I felt an answer. God was lovingly allowing me to feel His sorrow in what is a very sorrowful situation. I understood He is much more mournful about this problem than I am. In His goodness, He allowed me to feel a little bit of what He feels. I sensed His goodness, a gift from Him, even though I was deeply sad. How extraordinary. I pray that all of us will continue to discover more deeply how wonderfully good God is, in all circumstances.........Jason Wilson

Making mistakes

Morningstar making mistakes is a part of our nature. Only God is perfect, only Jesus was able to walk this Earth without ever messing up. We are all flawed, we have all made mistakes and will continue to make them. It’s because of our imperfection that we need God. We don’t stop making mistakes the moment we put our faith in Him. How we handle these situations, ultimately will form who we are.

These mistakes are a key part of our journey with God and test our character or even our faith. A mentor once told me, “It is not about how you fall down, it’s about how you get back up.” Often times it is tempting to give up, but that is when we need to remember God’s forgiveness and love. He will never allow anything to stand between us. So when will fall down, what matters is how we get back up.

The hardest lesson I’ve had to learn was how to recover from my mistakes. It took a while to understand how to do this, until I looked to David as an example. The Bible says, “David is a man after God’s own heart” even though he still made mistakes. David is a great example of how to handle mistakes with humility. After every mistake we see him make, he recognizes them, calls them out and begs for forgiveness. We need to realize that what we have just done is not who we are nor does it define us. Once we take our mistakes to God, we can start to grow from that experience. We have already been forgiven by His love and grace. Learn from David and and the way he handled his mistakes.

Christian walk?

We need the Church for encouragement  we try to walk the Christian walk. Satan will try to use our bodies to discourage us from being a part of the Church, but we need to rely on God’s strength to do what we can to be a part of the Church.

However, we can’t just expect the Church to come to us. Yes, the Church does have a duty to minister to the sick, but we have to remember that we too are a part of the Church. We, too, have a duty to encourage others. We need to make phone calls, send emails, send cards, and visit others when we can. If you can never get out of the house, think about hosting a Bible Study. Do whatever you can to fellowship with and encourage other believers. This is one of your duties as a Christian.

I am guilty of pulling away for the Church when I am going through a rough time with my health, but I am also guilty of being angry at the Church for not meeting my needs when I am going through a rough time with my health. The truth is that I cannot pull away and expect the Church to come to me. I have to engage the Church in one way or another. I also have to be willing to communicate what my needs to the Church is. The Church cannot possibly know what my needs are if I am sitting at home feeling sorry for myself.

Christians with disabilities and/or chronic illness need the church, but they also need to be the Church. We need to be encouraging one another to be in relationship with God. We need to remind each other that God is our strength. When our bodies are weak, God is strong. This is the message that Christians with disabilities and/or chronic illness need to be proclaiming to the Church, and then we need to live out our message. Satan just loves it when we allow our bodies to keep us from serving God, thus we need to keep pressing on to be the Church. Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute we need to rely on God’s strength to overcome the challenges of our bodies in order to serve God’s Kingdom. And, when our bodies our weak we need to lean on the Body of Christ to get the encouragement we need to keep pressing on..........Jason Wilson

Do you love me ?

Morningstar the most important question that Jesus Christ could ask anyone is, "Do you love Me?"  He is more concerned about the answer to that question than anything else.

      In Mark 12 Jesus answered a very simple question put to Him by a certain scribe who asked, "What is the greatest commandment?"  Jesus answered,  "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  And love your neighbor as you love yourself."

      What is the greatest commandment?  Love God.  What is the most important question that Jesus could ask of us?  Do you love Me?

      Because this is true, we need to examine ourselves to determine whether we truly love Jesus.  We Christians all say we love Jesus.  We talk about loving God.  We sing songs about loving God -- "Thy Loving Kindness Is Better Than Life," "I Love You Lord" and others.  We say we love God, but do we really love God?............

How do we keep our YOUTH AND ADULTS in our church?

Morningstar I have a question? ‘How do we keep our YOUTH AND ADULTS in our church?’ and to some my response is the question, ‘were they ever a part?’  The fact that we have removed them from the ‘church’ could be a huge factor in what is now happening.  Consider this, in the last decades there has been more age appropriate ministry then ever before in history.  In this decade we have less young adults in many denominations than ever, and the retention stats are depressingly low in some circles.

  We have removed an age out of the church for a period of time, given them close community, given them discipleship, let them ask the hard questions, loved them unconditionally, and made them aware that they need to live out their faith.  We involve them in ministry, send them on mission trips, teach them about the Bible, and spend an incredible amount of time investing into them personally.  We have taught them that this is what Church is all about.  Living it out.

The only problem is that the church model they have been taught about is not the church model that many are trying to get them to transition to.  In fact for most they don’t even understand how they can live out what they have learned in a ‘regular’ church setting. Is one right and one wrong?  Perhaps, but likely just different.  It is almost like we have churches in churches, and it is awkward and painful at times to go to a new church.  Even many of those leading these sub-churches don’t want to be part of the ‘regular’ church.  Go ask some youth and young adult pastors about this in secret. Even most of them don’t want to be there.  Sadly, if they don’t neither will those they lead.

Is there an easy solution?  Not at all.  I think it is a combination of a lot of things but there are some practical things we can do.  As an example, the next time your youth ministry is going to help at a youth fundraising event, why not get each youth to bring a parent or guardian.  We must move to some of the reasons at the core of this and realize parents must be involved (when possible) with the spiritual formation of their children.  Truly successful youth and church ministry must focus on the family and be inter-generational.  So instead of asking why did they leave, ask how do we stop excluding them.Morningstar tell me what you think?...Jason Wilson