We need to realign our identity to be based on our relationship with God instead of on our own accomplishments and the recognition we receive from people. Our identity is determined by the way we define our success, so we need to make sure that we are defining our success by what God finds as a success.
When we get our identity from our accomplishments and recognition we end up in an emotional storm of preoccupation with vanity; we most naturally see our accomplishments as very small and unimportant, causing us to feel rejected and neglected by people.
We must define our success as being ones who are loved and chosen by God and who love God in return. This is what determines our personal worth. We are to be anchored in this truth as the basis of our success and worth rather than in our accomplishments, recognition, or possessions.
In ministry when we work towards what we think God wants and actually work towards what we want, we are working for the wrong reason. We have to work to figure out how I can be less to serve Him more, to prevent burnout from happening. Burnout does not come from working hard but from working with a wrong spirit. When we work for success we get burned out. When we work from success our spirit is strengthened (Col. 1:10). We will love Jesus much better with less “emotional traffic” inside our heart and mind. There is freedom from working in His spirit rather than our own.
~!*Lord you give me freedom, help me walk in it.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The #1st Commandment... not an option, by the way
God gave us a first commandment, and in these latter days it seems that people view that as an option. Well I guess it is an option for non believers and lovers of Christ; however, for the ones that claim to love and know God, it is not a option because you can't love God and not follow His word and seek to obey Him.
He wants us to love Him like He loves us. God's ultimate eternal purpose for creation is to provide for Himself a family, that includes faithful children (much like we as parents desire) and provide for His Son Jesus a worthy Bride. We are God's children, so we have power to His throne, and we are Chirst's bride, so we have the power of His heart!
We are all given the choice to love God, it is voluntary, but we aren't given the choice of obedience, for one day we will be held accountable of our obedience before God the Father and Jesus the Son. As Jesus' bride, He is praying ans interceding for us, but He can't make us love Him or obey Him.
There are too many definatins of love these days. My husband often uses the expression, I love fish tacos and I love my wife, to explain how the word love is so meaningless in todays culture. We have to LOVE God on His terms. Jesus desricbes loving God by being deeply rooted in a spirit of obedience (Jn 14:21) It takes obedience to the Lord to not stray from loving Him. There is no such thing as loving God without seeking to obey His word and spirit.
We should measure our spiritual maturity by how much of the beautitudes we walk out in our daily lives. We should measure our ministry by the extent to which those we minister to live out these vaules, not by the number of people who reiceve our ministry.
~!*Lord help me live out your word in my life. Show me how to love you and love others on your terms, not mine. Shape my heart to be like yours. Use me Lord, make me your own.
He wants us to love Him like He loves us. God's ultimate eternal purpose for creation is to provide for Himself a family, that includes faithful children (much like we as parents desire) and provide for His Son Jesus a worthy Bride. We are God's children, so we have power to His throne, and we are Chirst's bride, so we have the power of His heart!
We are all given the choice to love God, it is voluntary, but we aren't given the choice of obedience, for one day we will be held accountable of our obedience before God the Father and Jesus the Son. As Jesus' bride, He is praying ans interceding for us, but He can't make us love Him or obey Him.
There are too many definatins of love these days. My husband often uses the expression, I love fish tacos and I love my wife, to explain how the word love is so meaningless in todays culture. We have to LOVE God on His terms. Jesus desricbes loving God by being deeply rooted in a spirit of obedience (Jn 14:21) It takes obedience to the Lord to not stray from loving Him. There is no such thing as loving God without seeking to obey His word and spirit.
We should measure our spiritual maturity by how much of the beautitudes we walk out in our daily lives. We should measure our ministry by the extent to which those we minister to live out these vaules, not by the number of people who reiceve our ministry.
~!*Lord help me live out your word in my life. Show me how to love you and love others on your terms, not mine. Shape my heart to be like yours. Use me Lord, make me your own.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
*Fruit of the Spirit
"The fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control" Galatians 5:22-23
For some reason I find myself trying hard to produce these traits, and I've failing at them. What I came to realize is that a peach tree does not strive to produce peaches, does it? It by nature, creates peaches.
That is how God works the fruit of the Spirit into us, producing what we were meant to produce for Him with His help. We don't need to struggle to produce what Gos desires to do in us. We just need to depend on our Father for our source of nourishment, reading His word, letting us transform our lives, and have confidence in that He will bring about good fruit in our lives. "For it is God who is at work in you," says Philippians 2:13.
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:4-5
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control" Galatians 5:22-23
For some reason I find myself trying hard to produce these traits, and I've failing at them. What I came to realize is that a peach tree does not strive to produce peaches, does it? It by nature, creates peaches.
That is how God works the fruit of the Spirit into us, producing what we were meant to produce for Him with His help. We don't need to struggle to produce what Gos desires to do in us. We just need to depend on our Father for our source of nourishment, reading His word, letting us transform our lives, and have confidence in that He will bring about good fruit in our lives. "For it is God who is at work in you," says Philippians 2:13.
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:4-5
Saturday, July 17, 2010
{Self Control}
July 17th 2010
I'm reading "Confident Parenting" by Jim Burns and happened to also do a study on self control today focusing on taming the tongue. It seems that God has placed these in my life at the same time for a reason. In efforts of my parenting and ministry, I have make a change in this area. In the book I am reminded how the Bible says that we carry on the past sins ans struggles of the earlier generations (Exodus 34:6-7). Jim talks about our lives not being w/o struggles and pain bit that, "in life we wither choose the pain of discipline or the pain of regret." Today I want to choose the pain of discipline, like the runner in Hebrews 12:1-3. I want to run the race of life towards God throwing off everything that hinders my goal and prize, and vow to raise my children the same way. Now I can't control what my children do in life, but I can control what I teach them and show them in living a Christian Lifestyle. I am choosing to be the "transtional generation" as Jim calls it. I grew up in a very verbally abusive home and I can see horrible past family patterns creeping into the way I parent. This vow of discipline calls me to tame my tonuge, which is a VERY hard thing for me to do. I want my children to feel loved and respected by their mother, not punished, put down, be littled until there is nothing left of them. On another view point towards ministry, I can see myself being critical and judgemnetal of people when I don't mean to be. I want only good fruit to come out of my month and life.
... Pray for me in my efforts
I'm reading "Confident Parenting" by Jim Burns and happened to also do a study on self control today focusing on taming the tongue. It seems that God has placed these in my life at the same time for a reason. In efforts of my parenting and ministry, I have make a change in this area. In the book I am reminded how the Bible says that we carry on the past sins ans struggles of the earlier generations (Exodus 34:6-7). Jim talks about our lives not being w/o struggles and pain bit that, "in life we wither choose the pain of discipline or the pain of regret." Today I want to choose the pain of discipline, like the runner in Hebrews 12:1-3. I want to run the race of life towards God throwing off everything that hinders my goal and prize, and vow to raise my children the same way. Now I can't control what my children do in life, but I can control what I teach them and show them in living a Christian Lifestyle. I am choosing to be the "transtional generation" as Jim calls it. I grew up in a very verbally abusive home and I can see horrible past family patterns creeping into the way I parent. This vow of discipline calls me to tame my tonuge, which is a VERY hard thing for me to do. I want my children to feel loved and respected by their mother, not punished, put down, be littled until there is nothing left of them. On another view point towards ministry, I can see myself being critical and judgemnetal of people when I don't mean to be. I want only good fruit to come out of my month and life.
... Pray for me in my efforts
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Can we go swimming?
Can we go swimming? I hear it all day every day! We have a community pool in our neighborhood and the girls LOVE it! On Mondays the pool is closed, and they can't understand this since they are only 3 1/2 and 2. We we great enjoy spending time at the pool together.
I can be anything I want when I grow up!
We teach this to our kids, that they can be anything they want when they grow up, a doctor, a lawyer, or even president. It seems funny that we never seem to encourage the work of the hardest job out there as something our kids could achieve, I'm talking about a pastor. I read a article today that got my thinking, if we (Christians) taught our children like the Jewish teach theirs, all of our children would grow up desiring to know more about God and to teach His word... what a better world that would be.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
My Baby Turned 2
So this past week our youngest turned 2, and it broke my heart. She isn't a baby anymore! She talks up a storm, gets into everything every chance she gets, plays dead when you catch her doing something she shouldn't, loves her blankie, and cupie, don't like it mama, and loves all over you. I love her beyond belief and wonder how God is going to use her in His kingdom. She is something special! Thank you Lord for my Gift.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Complete... the Jenk's House is DONE Stage 2!
Complete... the House is DONE, well not quite. We have signed paperwork, the loan has been funded, and boxes have been moved, but we are far from complete. This process has left me with many things I still need to get. We cut corners a lot in the buliding process, and while we thought we were saving money... and we were, we still didn't think about the part where we would still have to buy these items (much less of course, but still requires money.) As usual there are things coming out of the wood works that I didn't budget for, so the term, "if you don't have cash to buy it, then you don't need it" doesn't apply here on the need factor. However we will be waiting to get the cash before getting our rugs of all sorts, mini blinds, garage door openers, and fence. Still excited where God has taken us in the past 5 years. Glory to God!
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