Strength 101

By Lisa Lashbrook

This Week’s Verse: Nehemiah 8:11 “for the joy of the LORD is your strength." (NIV)

What are you passionate about? What makes you joyful? When was the last time you did something you enjoyed? In your ministry, what gives you the greatest joy in the Lord?

Are you passionate about teaching, serving, leading, children, bookkeeping, maintenance, praying, tithing, encouraging or communicating? The list goes on and on. Your strength will be where YOU are at your BEST and that JOY will bring such strength in the Lord and will reflect in all areas of your life.

When you find the activity and passion that you feel strong about, it will lead to performance and action!

When I was in high school, I was a teacher’s aide my junior and senior year. I thought I wanted to be an elementary teacher. God had another idea and lead me into personnel management. My career was coordinating, training and teaching course curriculum to 300 to 700 staff. I would get extreme satisfaction thinking about going into a classroom and providing staff with information that would help them with their careers. I would prepare and try to be creative in my delivery to make a subject exciting! Often times I would have a hands-on activity to help demonstrate the objectives. I wanted learning to be fun!

In my personal life over the years, I have taught different ladies bible study groups, communicated information while volunteering at a Pregnancy Life Center, been a VBS Director and VBS leader, and I am currently leading the Side by Side Sunday School class at 8:30 am. As a mother we are always teaching our children and grandchildren. This is the most rewarding!

Ask yourself this S.I.G.N.:

S = Success. Do you feel effective in your passion and service?

I = Instinct. Do you look forward to this service?

G= Growth. How do you feel while you carry out this service?

N= Needs. How do you feel after – invigorated?

How often do you express your strength? Is it only on Sunday? Wednesday? Every day? I hope you love your strength as much as I love mine! If you are not sure about your strength area in life, check out the website www.stronglifetest.com and discover your top 2 life skills.

Dear Lord, thank you for helping me find my spiritual strength. Thank you for making each of us unique so that we may serve you in many ways. Lead those who don’t know you towards you and help those that do know you to discover their strengths in You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Applications: Look for opportunities to express your passion with others and share the joy!

Power Verses:

Psalm 28:7 “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.” (NIV)

Psalm 18:32 “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” (NIV)

1 Corinthians 14:12 “And the same is true for you. Since you are so eager to have the special abilities the Spirit gives, seek those that will strengthen the whole church.” (NLT)

Rummage Giveaway

By Bethany Lashbrook

This Week’s Verse: Matthew 25:40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (NLT)

Devotion:

I like definitions. So, I chose to look up the title of this week’s devotion. To rummage, according to the Mirriam-Webster dictionary, means to discover by searching or to examine minutely and completely. Giveaway means the act of giving something away free.

This Saturday, October 2, First Christian Church in Marshall is hosting its second annual rummage giveaway. It is designed to help those who could use some extra clothing, children’s items, or household items to make it through the winter.

The response is overwhelming. Donations are piled up in the hallways. Volunteers spend countless hours preparing. And as those who come to the giveaway line up, the joy is incomprehensible.

Although this act is selfless in nature, the term rummage and giveaway put together remind me of the most selfless act ever in history. Jesus.

Jesus gave away his life for us. And, he chose to do it for free. Because of him, we can lay our sins at the cross and ask for forgiveness. He bore our sins for FREE. How amazing is that?

And we must rummage to find him. We must discover Jesus in our lives. Yes, he is there from the beginning. But, he gives us the free will to find him, to follow, and to listen for his words. We must examine minutely and completely his word and relate it to our life.

As the date approaches for this year’s rummage giveaway, pray with me for those who enter our church to find the one free gift that Christ paid for all – our salvation in the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Dear Father, we thank you for the ministry of believers who have chose to give sacrificially and selflessly. We ask for those who enter the church to be blessed beyond our own human awareness. We thank you in advance for those lives that you will touch. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Application: If you find yourself in need, please come to the rummage giveaway on Saturday. If you find yourself in need of giving, please pray for all those involved with this event. If you would like to give your time, an extra pair of hands is always helpful!

Power Verses:

John 19:29-30 "a jug of wine was standing by. Someone put a sponge soaked with the wine on a javelin and lifted it to his mouth. After he took the wine, Jesus said, "It's done...complete." Bowing his head, he offered up his spirit." (MSG)

Galatians 6:14 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (NIV)

Hebrews 12:2 “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (NKJV)

Ministry: Hold On Loosely

by Kathy Lay

This Week's Verse: Mark 6:30-31, “The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught. Then Jesus said, ‘Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.’ He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.”(NLT)

Devotion:
I can recall very few times when I’ve been too busy to eat (ha!) but otherwise I can relate to what the disciples are experiencing in this week’s verse. And many of you can too.

In Mark 6:7, Jesus sends the disciples out two by two to minister to people. In verse 13 we find out that not only did they tell people to turn from their sins, but they also cast out many demons and healed the sick, anointing them with olive oil. All in all, a very successful season of ministry!

Understandable then, that when the disciples meet up again with Jesus as shown in verse 30, they are emotionally stoked about what they’d been able to do. I can just see them trying to talk over each other with stories of the incredible work they’d been doing. And with so many people coming and going all around them, they no doubt attracted larger crowds with their enthusiasm. I wonder if the disciples were thinking, “We can do even more work here among these people! What are we waiting for?”

But Jesus doesn’t send them out again—at least not yet. “Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest,” he tells them.

Rest? But Lord, we have so much to do! Who has time to rest when there’s VBS planning, camp registering and packing, song practicing, Sunday school preparing, and church cleaning to do?

In our ministries—Spirit-driven, God-ordained, kingdom-vital ministries—we will have busy seasons. We may thrive on them at times, while at other times we may feel completely wrung out. But regardless of whether we feel the need to or not, we must listen when we hear Jesus asking us to rest and spend time with Him.

If we don’t, that’s like saying, “Jesus, you understand why I can’t be in the Word today of ALL days, right? Today’s the big event I’m doing for you!” Or maybe it’s like saying, “I have to be at the shelter at 6 a.m. to serve your people breakfast, Lord. I’ll catch ya later.” Or even saying, “Lord, I have to get this devotional finished. I’ll pray later.” (Ouch.)

An esteemed worship leader (I think her name is Missy Milbourn or something like that) was once talking with me about the demands of ministry. She shared what helps her keep things in proper perspective. “We need to hold loosely to our ministries, but hold tightly to Jesus.” After all, which do we love more?

As we minister, we must heed Jesus’ promptings and go rest with Him. There we’ll find solace from the frenetic pace, even if we may not want to at first. And we’ll be reminded that He’s the one who sustains us as we carry out His work.

Lord, help us always to hold loosely enough to our ministries to spend time and rest with you. Thank you for grace when we do run ahead or rely on our own abilities. Become our greatest desire. In Jesus’ Name.

Application:
If you aren’t currently serving in a ministry, you’re missing out on a blessing. Consider areas you could serve (VBS is fast approaching!). If you do have a ministry (or multiple ministries!) is it difficult for you to slow down sometimes and just rest with Jesus? If so, mark a specific time each day to do this and commit to keeping it until it becomes a habit.

Power Verses:
2 Corinthians 3:5-6, “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”(NIV)
2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”(NIV)
Acts 8:21, “You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.”(NIV)

What Kind of Tool?

by Kathy Lay

This Week’s Verse: Isaiah 10:15, “Can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it? Is the saw greater than the person who saws? Can a whip strike unless a hand is moving it? Can a cane walk by itself?” (NLT)

Devotion:
With that unmistakable hint of autumn in the air, my husband was eager to get in some target practice in anticipation of bow hunting season’s opening day. Through our patio screen I could hear the “whizzzz…THUMP” of the arrows speeding their way through the air and finding the target.

Still, something was a little off. The arrow’s entry wasn’t as clean or precise as Shane would’ve liked.

It turned out that the bow—sitting idle since last winter—needed some fine-tuning. So off we went to see Big Joe, bow tuner extraordinaire.

Let me tell ya, Big Joe ain’t called Big Joe for nothing. And that poor bow was man-handled and tweaked and tuned within Big Joe’s big hands and with his big bow-adjusting implements until it reached the state of being perfectly tuned. Shane’s test shots then showed small, perfect holes, the sign of true, accurate shots.

Shane hadn’t changed his technique or style of shooting; it was the same. But the instrument required some pressure and adjusting before it could properly carry out its master’s will and hit the mark.

How like us! Apart from our Master, we can do nothing worthwhile. If He sees us struggling or missing the target, He fine-tunes us, bringing us to the level of performance He wills. Then He uses us as He sees fit.

This week’s verse takes place within the context of a warning to the king of Assyria. The Lord used him to humble the children of God. But then the king boasts and brags about his destructive prowess. God doesn’t let that go unanswered and poses the questions in the verse (through Isaiah) to illustrate that people are merely tools in the hands of God. It’s His power and skill that enables the tool to do the meaningful work it does.

The tool box is open. God looks through his menagerie of every imaginable instrument. He has a special job in mind and His eye finally settles on you, little sweet you, among all the others. Allow His big hands to wrap around you and guide you to hit the mark.

Father, how we praise you that you’ve designed each of us to be used for Your glory. Open us to feel the love in your big hands as you fine-tune us to do our designated jobs. And help us to always realize that apart from You, we can do nothing. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Application:
What kind of tool are you? In what areas is God using you to bring His light? Are you going through a period of “tuning up” and are you yielding? Look forward to the result of the adjustment and claim the excellence for the Lord’s glory.

Power Verses:
Romans 9:21, “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?”(NIV)
Ephesians 4:11-13, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”(NIV)