Worry is Like a Rocking Chair
You might be rocking away, and it might feel like you're getting somewhere; but in the end, you are exactly where you started.
With the state of the economy and the unemployment rate, it's easy to worry.
Most of us remember the first time we heard officially on the news that our economy is in a recession. But did you know that the next morning, the birds still woke up and sang? They didn't fall off their branches in unbelief and start flying around here and there worrying, stopping their song.
No, the little birds sang and the big birds sang, and it was like a beautiful symphony.
You might be thinking, "Joel, that's great, birds singing and all; but come on, our economy is in a crisis."
Listen to what Jesus says, "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure to his stature or to the span of his life? And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will he not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?
Do Not Worry
Therefore, do not worry and be anxious, saying, "What are we going to eat? Or "What are we going to have to drink? Or, what are we going to have to wear? But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things taken together will be given to you. So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own." (Matthew 6:26-30, Amplified)
Friends, nothing is new under the sun. They might not have had economists back then with the term "recession", but there have been many who've gone before us that worried about what to eat, drink, wear, where to live, where to send their kids, how to pay for this or that; but God lovingly reminds us that He takes care of the flowers in the field and the birds in the air. How much more valuable are we to Him?
Jesus made it so clear about worrying. How many more days to our life will we added by worrying? Are you going to grow taller? Are you going to grow smarter? Are your problems going to disappear? Worrying does us no good! But what does us good is when we magnify God and not our problems. The Bible even says, "Do not fret, it only leads to evil."
So what are we to do? Trust God, and just like the birds, praise Him. Keep that song of praise in your heart. When the praises go up, the blessings come down. His joy is our strength through the hard times. When you spend your time worrying, you're not putting your faith out there.
Worry says, "I'm not going to get a job. I'm never going to get my retirement back."
But Scripture says to put on the garment of praise.
The garment of praise says, "Father, I thank you for the victories you've already brought me. Thank you for the favor. Thank you that you're turning my situation around."
One thing I've learned is that you can't worry and praise at the same time.
You can't say, "I know You're on the throne, and You're good all the time. You always cause me to triumph. You make a way when there seems to be no way," and then worry and think, "I don't know how this is going to turn around."
Supernatural things will happen when we praise. Supernatural things do not happen when we worry. Worry does nothing but rob your joy.
You might feel like worrying is getting you somewhere, but it does nothing but zap your strength. We need our energy for the battles in life, and we need the knowledge of who God is during these difficulties to keep singing.
Suddenly, God can change your situation around like Paul and Silas when they were in prison. In the midnight hour, they were set free. But was it from them crying, fretting and wringing their hands, being in despair and complaining? No, they were praising God and the prison door went wide open.
No matter what the news report says about how many points the Dow Jones is down, each day, wake up with great faith and keep your joy and praise God.
And don't forget to enlarge your vision. You can't do that when you're worrying. You might have lost a lot in the stock market, but God can cause you to make back everything you lost, plus more. There is no limit to what God can do. But what does limit Him is when we don't believe, and we allow worry to rob our joy and faith.
This is what Scripture says in Jeremiah 33:11, "'…Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures forever. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before.' says the Lord."
God Will Cause Two Things, Reversal and Restoration.
That means when you wake up, praise God. Believe Him for restoration in your retirement and savings. Believe God for restoration in that business you lost. There is nothing too difficult for God to do. Everything that was stolen can be restored in your life. God always gives us double for our trouble, and He likes to outdo Himself. The question is do you believe He will?
Keep your hopes up. Don't let worry have any room in your heart today.
Keep a song in your heart. And when you wake up in the morning and hear the birds singing, let it remind you to praise God during these difficult economic times. He has the whole world in His hands. In fact, He has you in the palm of His Hand. Nothing is a surprise to Him. If you will stay full of hope and praise, God will show Himself strong in your life, and you will not be disappointed!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
How to Start A Ministry/Mission
Today more than any other time in history, there has been a great Spiritual awakening, renewal or movement. People can sense things are happening and those things are moving ahead rapidly. Many people have asked how to start a ministry as they want to be a part of something. Believers globally are beginning to realize that we all have been called to do something and desire to get involved in some level or other but often times are not sure what exactly to do.
Enclosed is a brief checklist of things that you should consider while you are moving forward:
1) Know, not just Believe that you have been called: Make sure that you are called and to which field that you have been called. This is something to pray about as you begin the process and you can begin the process while praying. Certainly, pray that God gives you confirmation, the ability, and the where with all to carry out what you believe that you have been called to do. Are you being called to start a ministry totally independent and on your own or are you being called to start a ministry and work with an organization which depending on the organization and often times resources, will help you get started.
2) Preparation: After deciding which organization that you are going to affiliate yourself with, the next step is to make sure that you are prepared. Scripture tells us that my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and vision. This lets us know that while vision is important in the scheme of things it is also important to have the education and training behind you. Some ministry opportunities take months while others may take years. in addition to education there is a need for mentorship. Mentorship is an important part of the process. mentorship offers Godly advice and prayer support for you. The other part of the educational process is on the job training or Internship experience. Internship gives valuable experience but it also lets people know that you are willing to follow through. Everyone will follow through when thing are going well, but God wants to know when things seem to be falling apart on the outside and that you are indeed trusting Him.
3) Legal Considerations: Besides the normal legal consideration like having a church or organization charter if you are going to go with an established ministry, there are the costs of articles of incorporation, which either will give you a legal entity to work from. In addition to legal status there may be further legal considerations from anywhere from meeting certain fire codes, depending on the ministry, to state licenses which may have to be applied for. If you work with and existing ministry under a charter, that ministry will be able to help you further in this area and other areas that you may not know about.
4) Building a Support Team: Behind all good and stable ministries is a team of people willing and called to pray for your ministry. This is a step like many of these steps that take time to build. The larger the number of your prayer partners, the larger your outreach will be. It is where the battles begin. It is where the Spiritual warfare is done. Your prayer support team is as important, if not more important than the rest of these steps.
5) Funding: Funding is a major concern to all that are in ministry. One would like to think that the funds will just be there when needed, but funding is much like finding people that are willing to pray for you ministry. It is difficult to go forward without prayer or funding. Although there are a few ministries that have taken off quickly, the majority struggle with how to raise enough funds to match the need, especially if that ministry is attempting to raise funds for projects like feeding the hungry or helping provide shelter. These are costs above your cost of operation and should be looked at closely.
6) Test Your Ministry: A final word about getting started. As you decide to go forward be aware that often times you may feel led, the time may not be right even though there seem to be doors that are open to you today. Doors do not always stay open and some ministries are designed by God even to be open, but for a short period of time. Not to cast doubt, but often times before one starts in ministry we instead are to just pray. This leads us back to step one. It is important to have in place enough of these steps in order to be able to test your ministry as Paul wrote.
7) Work in Unity: Realize that you are a work in progress and although you should stand in faith, you are not complete although at times you may feel that you are. You a part of the body and need to learn to work with the body. Scripture tells us that we can do all things through Christ. That is a true statement but how we define Christ makes the difference whether we are on the right track or not. Many believers define Christ as just Jesus. Those that do look at Him as an external force as he is out there. The other interpretation is that Jesus is the head, but we are the body. He was the light and the salt of the earth, no doubt, but so are we. In that understanding comes the anointing, but with the anointing comes responsibility and maturity of knowing that we are responsible for the outcomes. He died in order to give us the tools, but it takes time in order to learn to use the tools.
It is also important to remember that in Paul's case, it took twelve years from the time of His conversion on the road to Damascus to the actual time that he started in his ministry. This may sound discouraging as we all want to be good firemen or women and put out the great fire, but God in His wisdom not only desires that you go forward, but at the same time does not want you to fall on your face. Learn to reach out and ask questions, but also learn to trust that the reason what is in front of you is placed there because God put it there.
Enclosed is a brief checklist of things that you should consider while you are moving forward:
1) Know, not just Believe that you have been called: Make sure that you are called and to which field that you have been called. This is something to pray about as you begin the process and you can begin the process while praying. Certainly, pray that God gives you confirmation, the ability, and the where with all to carry out what you believe that you have been called to do. Are you being called to start a ministry totally independent and on your own or are you being called to start a ministry and work with an organization which depending on the organization and often times resources, will help you get started.
2) Preparation: After deciding which organization that you are going to affiliate yourself with, the next step is to make sure that you are prepared. Scripture tells us that my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and vision. This lets us know that while vision is important in the scheme of things it is also important to have the education and training behind you. Some ministry opportunities take months while others may take years. in addition to education there is a need for mentorship. Mentorship is an important part of the process. mentorship offers Godly advice and prayer support for you. The other part of the educational process is on the job training or Internship experience. Internship gives valuable experience but it also lets people know that you are willing to follow through. Everyone will follow through when thing are going well, but God wants to know when things seem to be falling apart on the outside and that you are indeed trusting Him.
3) Legal Considerations: Besides the normal legal consideration like having a church or organization charter if you are going to go with an established ministry, there are the costs of articles of incorporation, which either will give you a legal entity to work from. In addition to legal status there may be further legal considerations from anywhere from meeting certain fire codes, depending on the ministry, to state licenses which may have to be applied for. If you work with and existing ministry under a charter, that ministry will be able to help you further in this area and other areas that you may not know about.
4) Building a Support Team: Behind all good and stable ministries is a team of people willing and called to pray for your ministry. This is a step like many of these steps that take time to build. The larger the number of your prayer partners, the larger your outreach will be. It is where the battles begin. It is where the Spiritual warfare is done. Your prayer support team is as important, if not more important than the rest of these steps.
5) Funding: Funding is a major concern to all that are in ministry. One would like to think that the funds will just be there when needed, but funding is much like finding people that are willing to pray for you ministry. It is difficult to go forward without prayer or funding. Although there are a few ministries that have taken off quickly, the majority struggle with how to raise enough funds to match the need, especially if that ministry is attempting to raise funds for projects like feeding the hungry or helping provide shelter. These are costs above your cost of operation and should be looked at closely.
6) Test Your Ministry: A final word about getting started. As you decide to go forward be aware that often times you may feel led, the time may not be right even though there seem to be doors that are open to you today. Doors do not always stay open and some ministries are designed by God even to be open, but for a short period of time. Not to cast doubt, but often times before one starts in ministry we instead are to just pray. This leads us back to step one. It is important to have in place enough of these steps in order to be able to test your ministry as Paul wrote.
7) Work in Unity: Realize that you are a work in progress and although you should stand in faith, you are not complete although at times you may feel that you are. You a part of the body and need to learn to work with the body. Scripture tells us that we can do all things through Christ. That is a true statement but how we define Christ makes the difference whether we are on the right track or not. Many believers define Christ as just Jesus. Those that do look at Him as an external force as he is out there. The other interpretation is that Jesus is the head, but we are the body. He was the light and the salt of the earth, no doubt, but so are we. In that understanding comes the anointing, but with the anointing comes responsibility and maturity of knowing that we are responsible for the outcomes. He died in order to give us the tools, but it takes time in order to learn to use the tools.
It is also important to remember that in Paul's case, it took twelve years from the time of His conversion on the road to Damascus to the actual time that he started in his ministry. This may sound discouraging as we all want to be good firemen or women and put out the great fire, but God in His wisdom not only desires that you go forward, but at the same time does not want you to fall on your face. Learn to reach out and ask questions, but also learn to trust that the reason what is in front of you is placed there because God put it there.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
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