My husband and I watched a movie this morning called Pilgrim’s Progress which was an allegory for our spiritual journey and the many ways we can be distracted along the way. I found myself greatly encouraged in being reminded of my Father’s promise He will never leave me nor forsake me.
As the battle wages against us daily we need to be continually strengthened to stand strong and face our purpose without fears and doubts.
Psalm 18:32 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect
I have a theory and one day when I am mature enough I hope to live it out. I want to wear a bubble suit made of joy! A suit no evil can penetrate. Sometimes I think in His infinite wisdom my heavenly Father allows my heart to be laid low. Without this inside knowledge I cannot relate to another’s pain. If it were up to me I would stay inside my joy bubble and bounce along as high as the atmosphere would allow me, drawing nearer to the heavens.
Psalm 45:7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.
Everyone has a twin in the world and most people are referring to someone who looks “just like them” but I am far more intrigued with the inner twin. If you know even a small bit about astrology, I was born in the month of the sign for Gemini. I have never known too much about what that meant other than the usual references given for the “type” of personality I may have because of a month I was born in.
This has always been a bit strange to my thinking especially since most of the human race are very individual. It seems like some kind of hoax to put us “monthly born” into the same small box of definition. Is it any wonder we want to escape from this definition of a fallen world? An example of this behavior is how some of our human specimens are looking for the biggest spotlight they can find in “fame”. If you don’t believe me, just look for the latest headlines for those lacking self-definition?
Let’s get back to the inner twin though. The person you want to be and yet don’t always manage to be. I want to be nice 100% of my life but that just isn’t where I am living. I live in that space where I continually look at who I want to be, with the happy face as a permanent fixture. Looking back at me however is someone who can be gritting the teeth sometimes just to be cordial.
Congregations come together for day of prayer and a special gift
Article Launched: 08/30/2008 08:23:55 AM PDT /Vacaville Reporter News
Members of The Father’s House and New Hope Christian Fellowship gather for prayer and to present a $130,000 donation to New Hope’s building fund. (Courtesy photos)
Anyone driving by Vaca Valley and Allison parkways last Sunday morning might have thought a flash mob was converging on the construction site of New Hope Christian Fellowship’s building-in-progress.
Cars were backed up all the way to Interstate 505, as a couple of thousand people streamed onto the Vacaville site. They sang a few songs, prayed a few prayers and left – the whole thing took about 20 minutes.
But when it was over, the New Hope congregation had, well, new hope – a result not only of the prayers but also of a $130,000 donation to its building fund that came from the people of The Father’s House.
“It was brief but amazing – brief and amazing,” said New Hope’s Pastor Ben Randall.
“We love doing this kind of stuff and being generous,” Pastor Dave Patterson said of his congregation at The Father’s House. “It was an amazing time. Hopefully, they were very encouraged and will get their building completed.”
New Hope and The Father’s House are independent, non-denominational Christian churches that were formed in Vacaville in the 1990s. Both Randall and Patterson are active in the Vacaville Christian Ministerial Association. For the past few years, they also have been meeting for weekly prayer with three or four other local pastors.
A few weeks ago, Randall asked the ministers to pray for New Hope’s building project: a 20,000-square-foot ministry center on 7 acres at the south end of Allison Parkway that is supposed to be complete in November.
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In addition to praying with Randall that day, Patterson said he would ask some of his church members to come to the site and pray over it. They agreed to meet around noon last Sunday.
Patterson brought up the plan during a regular staff meeting at his church. He also posed a question: What would be a tangible way to help New Hope?
Someone suggested turning over the offerings from a weekend’s worth of services. The staff liked that plan. Then someone else suggested having the entire church present the gift.
Project “High Noon at New Hope” was born.
Patterson told the congregation about it. “We asked them to give generously, and they did,” he said of the 2,300 worshipers who attended the three services last weekend. “We were hoping it would be our largest weekend offering ever, and it was. That was cool.”
Worshipers at the Saturday night and early Sunday morning services were invited to meet at New Hope at noon. Those attending the 11 a.m. service had a brief time of worship, then hopped in their cars for the short drive.
There were so many of them that traffic briefly came to a standstill.
Randall and his congregation, meanwhile, were overwhelmed when they saw the cars lining up on Allison Drive and throngs of people swarming into their parking lot.
“There were so many of them,” Randall said. “There were our people and people from The Father’s House. In the midst of August, in the heat of the day, they came together and prayed for us. There were at least a couple thousand people and they were still coming. It was wonderful to see.”
But Randall was rendered speechless when Patterson presented the check.
“It isn’t the money, although certainly no one can deny the blessing the money brings,” Randall said. “It’s that the heart of the family – our family – at The Father’s House is incredible. I was moved beyond expression. I had a real difficult time speaking, to say the least.”
This isn’t the first time that a Vacaville congregation has helped out another church financially. Nine years ago, the Vaca Valley Christian Life Center (now known as The Mission) gave $15,000 to help Valley Church purchase a piece of property fronting its rural Vacaville home. Perhaps not so surprising, The Mission’s Pastor Dave Crone and Valley’s Pastor Raleigh Galgan are among the ministers who pray regularly with Randall and Patterson.
It may seem unusual that Christians from different denominations and churches would pray for or support each other, but Randall says the early church did just that, as evidenced by biblical accounts. “In the Book of Acts, you see people who prayed for each other,” he said. “This should clearly define that the church is not made up of individual small clubs, but of a single body of believers.”
I had an email touch my heart this morning. A friend of mine lost a dear friend to violence. His name was Matt Garcia, age 22 and he had been shot. I have no words of wisdom. I don’t always understand the “whys” in life and death. My friend shared Matt’s one and only blog written days before his death. It seemed appropriate to share this young man’s words of wisdom.
From Wednesday, August 27, 2008 —MY LIFE, Current mood: blessed, Catagory: Goals, Plans, Hopes
Well I should be in bed but I thought to myself, I have never wrote a blog in my entire myspace life and I been having this “principal in my head”. I will keep it short and straight to the point. I been thinking about my life and it is not complete but it is getting there. I thought about the things I have accomplished over the years it has truly been a blessing. It just shows people when you put your mind to something you can make it happen. I still haven’t accomplished everything, but I am working towards it and I believe if it is God’s Will, it will happen. All of us have goals but they are all different, hold on let me take that back, they could be the same but with different agendas. I just see the potential in our generation to make things happen. Some other people in past generations, and sometimes in my case our generation don’t feel that way but let’s prove them wrong. That is what drives me proving people wrong when they think I CAN’T but then, I keep making things happen. It feels good but at the same time you wonder why these people can’t stand you or like you. There are people that don’t support anything you ever do but if you prove to them you can, they can still hate, but “Who looks Stupid”? Exactly!!! But this is one of those things I learned and wanted to share with my friends on myspace. Everyday we learn something new. Take life as a test and shoot for a better score each day. It doesn’t have to be an “A” the next day, but let’s hope it improves. Hope you can use this one day when you feel the way I feel right now!!!!
God Bless
08/27/2008
Matt Garcia
His MySpace: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.Confirm&friendID=14804380
Labor day has come and gone and for once we did no labor of any kind. As the hours count down and it’s time to go back to work I wonder about all the people who had no down time to enjoy a holiday. As I enjoy being well rested I will keep in mind to have compassion for those who are tired and weary.
