I am blessed to help my church. Do you ever think about it like that? We are blessed to walk along side of the Lord and help Him in His work. Its never about us, and of course that is not natural in the world. But I do ask you to try to take a step back from your ministries, and take a look at the call the Lord has put on you to be where you are today. Some where in the mix we start to think “I” and “I’ and sometimes “we”, but we are only helpers, all called to different areas, and asked to do different things. If I become overwhelmed in service it almost always means that I have taken first place and my thinking is about me. OUCH!! That hurts… Glad its all about HIM and not about me!
GOD has allowed me to help with a group from my church to reach out to the neighborhood, through a block party. Amazing how when I let HIM do HIS job, things fall in place. Things planned are food (of course), games, bouncing-moon walk, dunk tank, live music, puppet show, and prizes!!! imagine doing all this for the community, and advertising it for “FREE” . Yes that is what we did! Praying that the community will see Jesus in us, and will be touched by the acts of random kindness, and will want to know our Jesus. Praying for a bridge to be built between our church and the community. Would love to have your prayers for this. Are you involved in your church? Do you know that you are blessed to join HIM in HIS work?
ponderings of a princess... 
I need to remember this more often. We attend a church were most folks are expected to serve in one service and worship in another. So every Sunday we lead Sunday school with the 3 year old during first service and attend second service. I just wish the kids didn’t tire me out so much.
Temptation. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13.
The meaning of the word temptation in the English dictionary is that temptation is an enticement to do evil. Now, temptations can come to us in many ways, usually when we are at our lowest, when we are discouraged or downcast. Temptation can be evil thoughts of any kind; also they can come in the form of the symptoms of sickness to make us disbelieve that God can get us well again. We have all been there, yes, in unbelief, but we must not believe any other word other than what God has said in the Holy Scriptures.
Do you remember how Jesus defeated satan in the wilderness, by speaking the Word of God? He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Don’t forget Jesus was very weak and hungry; He was at His lowest, that is when satan comes to you saying, “it is hopeless, you are finished, it is all over.” My friend the devil is a liar. David the shepherd boy said, “God delivered me from the paw of the lion, and the paw of the bear, surely He will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine
(Goliath).” Surely God will deliver you from your problem, so, shout it out,
“SURELY GOD WILL DELIVER ME.”
Jesus said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.”
Now God has provided us a way out of all our problems, if it be temptations of wicked thoughts, or symptoms of some sickness, which the Bible says comes to all mankind, and that way is through faith in His Word, and what Christ has accomplished for us at Calvary.
The Bible tells us that the great tempter is the devil. Do you remember how he deceived Eve in the garden? Eve said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of tree’s of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it lest you die, and the serpent said unto the woman, “ Ye shall not surely die.” Genesis ch 3: 3, 4. By listening to the serpent instead of God, it brought sin and eventually death.
So it is with temptation to do evil, the tempter will say, “it is only a small sin, every one else does it,” but the Bible says, “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” we must resist all temptations to do evil. And it is the same with the symptoms of some devastating disease that comes upon you, it must be resisted. The devil will bring evil reports to you from the mouths of men, to get you to doubt God’s Word, so that he can kill, steal and destroy your life. Again I say he is a liar, the Bible says “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers us out of them all.” Psalm 34:19 “With long life will I satisfy him. and show him my salvation.” Psalm 91:16. B15
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely. and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Psalm 112:7. Proverbs 1:33.
EVANGELIST BILLY BOLITHO
http://www.evangelistbillybolitho.blogspot.com
I am blessed to serve in a church that blesses me.
God has given me a perfect opportunity to serve and SERVE him mightily.
This is so timely since I am going into a ministry staff mtg tonight.
Thank you princess for the awesome reminder.
Love you girl
In Florida during the winter I teach an adult SS class. it is a large class of about 50 people – I love to teach. Mama works with the children and helps w/ my adult class. Here in Michigan mama works with the nursery children and I watch! :o) We also do volunteer work here on the camp.
I have to remind myself of this very frequently. It seems in our church that 10% of the people are doing all the work. Whenever we have something you can count on a particular group of us to be there. It is easy to get so busy that you loose sight of who you are doing it for. Awhile back I had to decide where my focus was and concentrate on that so that I did not get burned out. I work in our children’s ministry, the music ministry, and community outreach when we have special events. There were some things that I just had to let go.
I love coming here to hear your wisdom in God. Wow, this is so true and so good to be reminded. We are His helpers, and we are blessed and privileged to serve. Thank you.
Will be praying for you for your church’s outreach. Sounds so great! Have fun! And may Jesus bless your community through this.
i wish TRF had you here to serve with 😉
im just sayin’
I was just thinking today how i don’t want God to come with me, I want to go with God. Does that make any sense?
Luv Ya !!!
Tam- it means the world to me that you think that…love you so much!
Praise- it makes perfect sense to me 🙂 I love you!
At one point in time I was sure all I was doing was for the Lord. When I realized I was like a little girl dressing up in her Sunday best and twirling around in front of Daddy saying, “Look at me! See how pretty I am!” – I began to reevaluate it all. It was about me, and not what HE had asked of me.
ooo….it’s hard even now to realize my motivation was not His.
I like what Scott said – I want to go with God – I want to be sure it’s Him I’m hearing and not my own voice, trying to find significance.
It is a privilege to serve, a blessing, when it’s from the Lord. Amen.
Love you, Darla, very much.
hee hee hee…
HR Puff ‘n Stuff…loved it!!
We’re so old!
Another home run!!! 🙂 I love spending time with Him and allowing Him to bring the people and circumstances in which to serve. It’s a wonderful thing to just wait for Him and then be obedient to go. I will be praying for that bridge…what a gift your community has in store! Love you!
**HR PUFF’N STUFF is your friend when things get rough** hahaha
Love you too Michele! shhhhhh on the old stuff 😉
Debs-this is our job here on earth…the perspective that it isn’t about us now thats the hard part. 🙂
Billy – I don’t have a problem with what you commented..I just wonder if you think anything else, as I have seen your comment on lots of blogs..thanks for stopping..do you read the blogs or just copy and paste your comment? just wondering…
Yes, I serve. YES, I feel blessed to serve!
Sheepishly, I admit, there are times I get too big for my britches. Thankfully, God always knocks me off my pedastal. The fall hurts, but it’s so worth it in the end. There are times that I am humbled to tears that God uses me. Then, unfortunately, there are times I wonder….why wouldn’t He use ME? Yea. It’s that icky pride thing. He’s been showing me a thing or two lately. I am humbled. Once again. Prayerfully…for the last time.
Have I told you lately……I love you???
Heather- I ♥ you too