| Agape News, Notes & Devotionals for 07/09/08 |
|
|
|
| Written by Pastor Chip | |
| Wednesday, 09 July 2008 | |
|
AGAPE NEWS, NOTES & DEVOTIONAL 07/09/08 ============================================================================ AGAPE BIRTHDAY AND ANNIVERSARIES HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO... Tina Gohar (7-11), Pat Hastings (7-12), John Stagg (7-12), Linda Matson (7-12), Sande Smith (7-12), Cyndy Hammond (7-12) and Gretchen Peck (7-14)!!! **************************************************************************************** ON THE MOVE------->>>>>>>>>>>>> Sister Joy Heila, and Paul & Dodsley Slusarczyk, are moving!!!!!! AND THEY NEED YOUR HELP!!! <<<<<<<<-------- Joy is moving from T-Burg to the Conifer Apts; Paul & Dods are moving from Interlaken to Ovid. Joy needs help now with packing, and sometime over the next few day finishing her move. If you can help with packing or moving, please contact Joy directly to set up a time (
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
; 387-5269) The Slusarczyks will be moving this upcoming weekend (Sat 12th-Mon 14th) and would really appreciate some assistance. If you can help, call them ASAP at 607-339-1940. THIS IS A CHANCE TO "WALK THE TALK" AND HELP PEOPLE IN NEED!!!! Please give them a call and some time if you are able! Thanks , Agape!!!!!!!!!! ***************************************************************************************** ****** Sunday Preview ****** We welcome you to join us for our 8:30am early service and/or our 10am Contemporary Worship Service!!! Bring a loved one! - Church Board Meeting - 4:45 ***************************************************************************************** DEVOTIONAL - by: Karen Ehman Answer Envy "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV) "How wonderful!!!" I exclaimed! "I am so happy for you!" This was my response to the breaking news that friends of ours from North Carolina had sold their house after it had been on the market for twenty days. To them it had been a long twenty days. Houses are normally snatched up quickly in their neck of the woods. In our shaky Michigan economy, however, it takes a bit longer. In fact, on the day she announced that her home now sported a sold sign, we turned another page on our calendar marking how long our house had been for sale. Not twenty days, but twenty months to be exact. Although I was genuinely thrilled for her, I was also a tad green with jealousy. I refer to it as answer envy. It is that "poor me" mentality that creeps into my heart when God answers someone else's prayers more quickly than mine. Or when He responds with a "yes" when my answer seems to be a "no" or at least a "not right now." I've had my fair share of answer envy outbreaks over the years and at all stages of life. As a child, I was envious of the kids who came from two-parent homes while I resided in a family torn apart by divorce. No matter how hard I folded my little hands and prayed to God, He just didn't make my daddy come back to us. In high school, it was other girls' good looks, cute clothes or even cute boyfriends that I longed for. Instead, I was granted average looks and donned department store blue-light-special fashions. And, as sports editor of our school paper, although I was every guy's pal, I was usually nobody's gal. In college, I envied those whose prayers for a night in shining armor, complete with sparkly diamond ring, were answered while I remained single. Once married, I struggled with miscarriage and dashed dreams of motherhood. So, for five long years, I slapped a smile on my face to mask my broken heart and attended yet another pale pink or baby blue church shower. Over the years I have discovered that the cure for answer envy is not always easy because I must play an active role in my own healing. What I need is a shift in perspective. When I "call to God" as encouraged in today's verse, I must trust that He will keep His word. He will tell me "great and unsearchable things" that I do not know. Sometimes those things are the answers to my request. However, do you know what those great and unsearchable things more often are? They are the reasons He seems not to be answering my original request! So, instead of only begging God to "sell my house" or "take away my pain" or "fix my kid," I need also to ask myself some questions. Questions like, "What is my Creator trying to teach me that I might never learn if He were to suddenly pluck me out of this situation?" Or, "What character qualities is He trying to grow in me? Patience, trust, compassion, contentment?" Not available in quick microwave form, the cure for answer envy must be cultivated moment by moment. We must believe that God will answer. He will clearly say "yes", "no", or "not right now." He is able, ready and willing to answer our prayers--here is the catch--as He sees fit and to grow us to be more like His Son in the process. So, our "for sale" sign has remained and I continue my stay in God's waiting room. However, I now know this to be true: I must not merely seek the answer to my prayer. Instead, I must seek a deeper relationship with the answer Giver. Power Verses: Psalm 38:15, "I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God." (NIV) |
|
| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 July 2008 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|