Bethel Church Feedssecret power
By Amber | August 5, 2008
I started reading a book by Dwight L. Moody recently entitled Secret Power. There’s a quote by the author on the cover that goes along well with what I’ve been learning about Christian life from studying Colossians recently (you’ll have to stay tuned to read about that in a later post):
If we work … to some definite purpose, we must have this power from on high. Without this power, our work will be drudgery. With it, it becomes a joyful task, a refreshing service.
This power, if you couldn’t guess, is the power of the Holy Spirit filling God’s people to minister in His strength. In his epistles, Paul is constantly pointing to God Himself as the source of Paul’s ability to serve God. In 1 TImothy 1:12, he puts it like this:
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.
In taking on this new role as GROW Groups Communications Coordinator, I have experienced this power and strengthening in a way that I rarely have before.
In a previous post I mentioned the curriculum I’m working on for core discipleship. I had created an outline of the modules and was tasked with outlining each lesson within the modules along with lesson objectives. I had two weeks to finish.
The first week I spent a lot of time on the first two modules with their lessons and objectives, about three hours each. That left me with one week to complete the remaining 16 modules!
I prayed a lot, and asked others to pray for me, too. Then I sat down and planned out my week, hoping to put in nearly double my usual time of 10 hours per week. I was also hoping that I could get each module’s lesson titles and objectives done in one hour rather than three.
Sunday went by. I hadn’t had a chance to work on it at all. Monday went by. Same thing. I was beginning to be a little nervous. Tuesday was my last day of working at my previous employer, SIGN. That day, one of my co-workers, who is also a youth pastor at a church in Prosser, lent me a book on Christian doctrine that proved to be immensely useful in fulfilling my task.
I later realized that God didn’t let me start working until Tuesday because I needed that book. Tuesday night I sat down, and in three hours I had 9 modules complete with lesson titles and objectives! The next night I finished the remaining 8 modules in another three hours. Finally, on Friday I typed them all up and finalized them. God, by the filling of His Holy Spirit, had empowered and provided amazingly and abundantly beyond what I had asked or imagined!
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missionary envy
By Amber | July 28, 2008
I have a secret to confess: I’ve always been a little jealous of missionaries. What’s to envy, you ask? The prayer support. Whenever I get a prayer letter from a missionary friend, I think, why doesn’t somebody pray for me like this? Sure, my parents pray for me, and my grandmother has faithfully prayed for me every day of my life. But I’m talking about specific prayer for specific things in my life. And not just for a week or a month, but ongoing, continual coverage.
So that’s why I was interested when I read this blog post by Reid Smith. In talking about ways for small group leaders to care for their own growth, he says:
“Ask a few people to pray for you and your family regularly. Make a point to give them an update and share specific things to pray about at the beginning, middle, and end of your group experience. You and your group are a target for the enemy and prayer coverage is an absolute must.” (emphasis added)
As we gear up for a new season of GROW groups, I encourage you to find some people you can trust to be faithful in praying for you and your family. Get your own prayer support. And give your own prayer updates. Remember that we are on the same mission as those missionaries we pray for, so we need to be as deliberate in carrying out our mission as they are.
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