-- In His Strength: May 2010 www.superfluousbanter.org

In His Strength

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength --- Philippians 4:13

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

It's Tough Being a Woman....week 4

God ordained the timing

God has told His people from the time of Moses that He'd protect them and fight their battles for them as long as they worshipped Him only.

...feel the frustration and irony that the one who raised Esther can hardly reach Esther. The aides buzzed around her like bees swarming their queen and probably enbdeed up aideing her isolation more than her person. Not everyone who protects us and works hard to please helps us. Esther had become a dangerously buffered and pampered queen.

At our times of grates crisis and chaos, who wants to be told that we'd feel better if we looved better. (emotional trap of Esther)

Changing her appewarance had seemingly changed everything for Esther.

The thought seems reasonable that our way of getting ahead should work for anyone.

Sometimes we think a relationship would improve or an opportunity would arise if the person of our concern would do something about his or her lacking appearance. ...........if the injured heart that covered itself in sacloth isn't treated, it will manifest its pain elsewhere. Most of our problems are a world deeper than appearances.

The favor and sovereign plan of God changed everything for Esther, not appearances.

God alone chose a Jewish orphan girl.

Strength comes from muscle, and muscle develops with a workout. This is as true spiritually as physically.

If people around us helped us avoid every possible unpleasantry, fixed every hangnail, and anesthetized ever headache for us, we'd quuit learning how to deal with difficulty. We'd forget how to cope and we'd crush under the least inconvenience.
What we don't use, we lose.

Esther's superficial life was about to be shattered and a woman much deeper than her skin was about to be unearthed.

We like Esther are the warrior princesses of God

Oskar Schindler, who, despite many flaws, emerged as a hero by saving the lives of over one thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust.

We tend to detach from sights and situations that make us feel badly about ourselves, especially when we feel powerless.

Sometimes we fear that fighting for what is right will kill us. To stand by and do nothing out of self-preservation is to be dead already.

...shaking the passivity out of her
(my desire, to be more active about decisions in my life and less passive)

...staying out of the king's presence was no less dangerous than entering it

"Esther, what if you were born for this very moment?"

You are royalty. You are in the most liuteral sense possible the daughter of the universe's King.

For now, the kingdom of God on this earth resides in you.

Right now you are erpresenting teh King on official business in another land, bu you are no less royal than the Queen of England would be if she visited the White House.

...you also have been placed in your speere of influence, regardlesss of the size you perceive it to be, "for such a time as this".

God determined hte times set before us and the exact places that we should live. You see, even your current location is part of the set-up for your kingdom destiny.

None of our purposes wsill be fulfilled easily. All of tehm will require the most difficult decisions we think we can make. Decisions that we may feel will practically kill us. Then God does something miraculous and we become something we're not.

...when all was said and done, I'd sit on that side of glory having much rather fulfilled my calling than served myself all the way to meaninglessness. I had to accept that I was not called to an easy life. I was called to a purposeful life.

What if this very thing, this very decision, is the most important piece of the puzzle comprising my purpose.

God would accomplish His will and do what He intended.

Beloved, in times of greatest struggle when yoiu make the Godward decision over convenience, earthly comfort, or carnal pleasures, you too have come to a critical moment in teh filfillment of your destiny. A defining moment. A war is being waged over your head in teh unseen realm, and a great cloud of witnesses is cheering you on. You have no idea what's at stake.

We simply have no idea what God will do with even the most reluctant life. Some leap to their destinies, some lag and loom. Yet, God persists.

A splintered people became as one timber

Esther came to what many would call her "defining moment". Sometimes our most important moments come hand-in-hand with our willingness to reveal that we aren't really who we've seemed to be.

....God allowed hardship and consequence to press against me from both sides until a decision had to be made and part of me had to die.

(Live victorious or Live defeated)

failure to decide i9s to decide on failure

Xerxes' scepter was in the had of God

"Miracle of The Moment" SCC

Monday, May 17, 2010

It's Tough Being a Woman....week 3

Instead of going ahead and feeling the pain, processing it before God, and letting Him heal us, sometimes we opt for a trade-in

...one woman overtaken by the love of Christ can reach past her limited vision

God has the tenacious love to stick with me and help this chronic weakling grow stronger.

...willing to let God show us where meanness originates, and let Him tend to us in that area of brokenness

Trust that time is God's alone to give

Satan has a limmited leash where believers are concerned, his most powerful tactics are psychological. Though he can't posess our minds, he profoundly and destructively influences our thoughts. He would love nothing better than to see me forfeit my joy...by taunting me to futile speculations. (Rom. 1:21
We must catch the Enemy in the act and call it what it is, and keep him from what he wants. David...pledged himself to fear no evil

The Diaspora Jews did not know if God was with them or not

Haman alludes to the Jews in vague terms, making them anonymous, indefinite, and depersonalized. It is easier to kill an abstraction than a person. God call us by name. Satan and his hordes see us as numbers. (tattoos of Jews in Hitler's death camps)

One of Satan's primary agenda's, not to let us enjoy the rest Christ has given us. (Matt. 9:36)

God never takes His eyes off us or off the clock ticking over us.

John 10:10

Our enemy seeks to steal our lives and everything of value to us. (me, my dreams)

The beautifully frustrating part of Satan's insatiable bloodlust is that ultimately he cannot have what he wants. In reality, he cannot destroy even one of us who belongs to God through Christ Jesus. Satan is bereft of the power he wants most.

Satan can't win and you can't lose.

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

ELEVATE ~ Helping All God's Children Reach for the Son

ELEVATE ~ Helping All God's Children Reach for the Son, is Shadow Mountain Community Church's newest ministry for children with disabilties and other special needs. A division of Mountain High Children's Ministries, it had been the church's idea for over a year now to get this mew ministry up and running, and today was finally our first trial run. We will hold one more next week before our official start date in June. This week we were scheduled to have four to six children, and we only had two. Next week we hope to have more, with the intent of one day having a full classroom. Today we had young elementary students. It will eventually serve children from ages four to eighteen.
Last year about this time I had arrived early to church one Sunday morning to see the church activities being flashed up on the screen just before service started. My mother caught the slide before I did, and she told me about the special needs ministry that was looking for volunteers. The following Sunday as the slides were being shown before service and during announcements, the same slide flashed on the screen and this time I spotted it.
Now don't ask me what the sermon was about that particular Sunday, my mind was on other things; like "where could God be going with this?". I mean, all this trouble finding a job and He gives me exactly what I want only teaching on Sunday mornings?
Though I was excited through the first couple of staff meetings, (I took notes like a crazy woman), after staff meeting one evening a few weeks ago I started having my doubts when we discussed the mornings routine. "Maybe this isn't what I thought it would be". But I quickly shook that outta my head. Something compelled me to go forward. Today was our first day and I have to say I really....really enjoyed it! It went by so fast let's just see if I can remember it all. Ha!
Only two children came for our initial 'ramp-up' or first trial run prior to the kick-off in June. We fully expected a few more. Our morning consisted of twenty minutes of each activity, music, game/puzzle time, story, gross motor time, snack,.... oh what else am I forgetting. For some activities we transitioned to another room right next door. Our story for today was on the creation, and how God created us because He loves us so much. It was great to hear one child whom ansered when you asked her a question about the story. The fact that she understood was precious. And to hear them shake their instruments at music time or get into the words or the music was great.
One activity was rolling, bouncing or tossing a giant rubber ball, basically a ball that is normally used for pilates. Children seemed to enjoy this. The young boy I teamed up with would point to who he wanted the ball to go to next, and smile. At one point he gave me a thumbs up.
A bit more happenedc this morning , but these were the parts worth writing about. I already cannot wait to see what next Sunday brings. You can bet I will post it here.

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Friday, May 14, 2010

It's Tough Being A Woman...week 2

When the seemingly unshakeable shakes, wer're twice as shaken
(she said this in reference to when vulnerability breaks a tough exterior, but I looked at it through my own situation of leaving Montana. I thought I never would, I thought I saw things coming together.....instead I felt they were falling apart.)

God sometimes allows our confusion to coax us into further study of the entire word.

The book of Esther will seem to pick the scabs off some of the wounds our culture has inflicted on us, but....GOd will also use it to clean those wounds so they can heal

Those of us who know Jesus personally live under Divine rule where all us girls get to be princesses

He (God) sees sees something much deeper than her physical desirability

Many of the Jews had all but forgotten God in their daily disciplines, but He had not forgotten them. GOd would soon prove He had never taken his hand off of them. They may have forgotten their identity, but He hadn't.

One of GOd's purposes in this Journey (of Esther I presume) is to help us recapture both our identity and identification as His children.....so that we can be influential.

GOd used Wsther's anonimity, bu only as a means toward a far-from-anonymous end.

Heb. 2:11 Christ is not ashamed of us.

....the kind of King who gives a woman dignity instead of taking it. A King whose commans are always for our good and whose ways are always toward our wholeness

When was the last time it was your turn? You know the feeling I am talking about: when you're next. You've dreaqmed about it (future) You've longed for it (dreams) You've dreaded it (what might not be) You've run from it (Mt. back to Ca.)
(when IS it my turn. I'm seeing others dreams a reality.....)

Heb. 6:10-12
.....through faith and patience we will inherit the promises of God

Sometimes the Providence of God can be defined as times when God trumps your perfectly good plan with one of His own...then seems to dissappear from it. Take heart beloved, He's right there and He's there right!

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It's Tough Being A Woman... week 1

Bible Study - Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman
(I wasn't going to post about this but...... something compells me to)

Thsi is my second Beth Moore study, my first being a study on David: A Man After God's own Heart, and I have even heard her speak in person. I love Love LOVE what God speaks through her! In the beginning, trying to decide what study to do at our church and my mother had pretty much decided for us, lol! I can't remember now which one I wanted to do, but I am SO glad we did Beth's. It was slow at first, but by week four I was all into it!

HIGHLIGHTS

Intro:
God's name isnt in it (book of Esther), but the hand of God is all over it
The book of Esther offers tremendous hope
Providence of God ~ God conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny
He's in the mundane and trivial. To God, nothing happens by chance

Week 1:
Not so much our story as God's story. It becomes ours as He writes us into it.
Esther was more than just a pretty face
Let God tend to your insecurities
(not finding a job just yet, not living in my own place, friends living in different states, frustrated with health)
Stay open to all the ways God wants to speak to you about becoming more secure in your world
(I've had to repent for not allowign God to speak freely, and not just the ways in which I think He sould)
...moments in your own life that seemed unconnected to anything God was doing at the time, but ended up crucial in your own story
...even negative moments of decision, encounter, or action can become treacherous steppingstones to a grand Kingdom destiny.
He is never more present than when God seems strangely absent
Sometimes, there in the hiddeness, God builds a woman she'd never otherwise become
Brought up by Mordecai, her cousin (thought this was ironic being that I have lived with my cousin for almost a year now)

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