Rejoicing to Know Him by Alesha Sinks

“And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.” Nehemiah 8:12

They understood. They rejoiced!

And so often I hear the word of God and I groan.

God wants me to be relentless in pursuing Him. God wants me to put the needs of others ahead of my own. God wants me to give the first of my money with a cheerful heart. God wants me to serve others with humility.

Yet they rejoiced.

They read commands like give the first and the best of all your increase and do not exact interest from your brothers and they rejoiced. They rejoiced.

But I so often read the commands and sigh. And then Nehemiah 8:12 and I wonder what’s wrong with me. They rejoiced at the reading of the law and I find myself stressed when I think about making time to pick up His Word. And I wonder why?

But as I look closer, it becomes clear that they didn’t rejoice at a list of rules.

They rejoiced to know God.

And I think that’s where I get off track.
I turn God into a to do list and a list to check off and a measuring stick to see how tall I stand when really it was supposed to be a relationship.

They rejoiced to know God, and I am taking the knowing of God and turning it into a list of rules. And rules and religion never made anyone rejoice.

But knowledge of a good and loving God brings great joy!

When I read the rules and the challenges of God’s Word and see God’s character through them, that brings joy. Because the rules and the lessons of the Bible aren’t a measuring stick so much as they are laser pointer, always focused on Jesus.

So day by day I’m reordering my mind...it’s not a book to read and obey, it’s a relationship to partake in and be transformed by.

Remind yourself who God is today

Nehemiah 1:5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Staying focused on your priorities is a very important part of leadership. If you are a leader, you are busy. Your calendar gets full fast, you have many to do lists, you are ambitious, and you want to accomplish great things…you are a leader! With this drive in my own life, I have many things going on all at once and this is why I love my smart phone. It helps me schedule, send email, listen to podcasts, make notes, and the million other apps I love to use including social media. The biggest help on the phone is the reminder. I often fill my calendar full and tend to forget the little details so I have the calendar alert me of my next appointments and my priorities. I find myself looking at my calendar often so I can see how I should spend my time next and what to make a priority. This helps me focus. This will help you. 

Just as I look to my calendar to remind myself of my priorities, I must also look to God’s Word and spend time praying to remind myself of His plan. This can be hard when there are long to do lists, people to get back to, projects to finish and the million other urgent things pressing on me for the day; but I find myself actually leading better if I stay focused and putting my priorities first. Just because something is urgent and pressing doesn’t necessarily mean it is the most important thing at that moment. Nehemiah just received the urgent information about Israel and how the walls where broken. He could have done a million things to just start the process to fix the situation, but we see Him praying and reminding Himself of who God is. 

I don’t want to lose sight of God in my life for the “urgent” things that consume my day. I tend to be so caught up in a situation that it consumes me, and I try to get things done. Although this can be helpful at times, God want us to make sure we have perspective. To base our life on His Word and promises (2 Pet 1:3-4) so that way we can prioritize the way we spend our time. I have to be reminded often of what really is important. I don’t want to lose sight that their is a God who made the Heavens. That nothing is impossible with Him. That He calls me to do great things for His kingdom and has good plans for me. That He keeps His covenants and is faithful. That He is for me and loves me. And that He loves you. 

I find the most important part of my day as a leader is not spending my time on the urgent matters of the day or even checking my to do list off BUT the part where I spend time with God. When I am able to do this, I am reminded of His truth and He helps me focus on my priorities, my time, and my life. When I remind myself of who He is and His love for me, it helps me. When I can spend time with Him, I find myself handling whatever pressing issue that comes up for the day a lot more graciously because I have persecutive. His perspective. I even go back through the day reminding myself that this great and amazing God is with me. This helps me lead better. This will help you lead better. I must continually remind myself of who God is. When do you remind yourself of who God is?

Mission looks like what? by Cameron Barber

I think that there might be some confusion about what a church plant looks like, or what mission is today.  I would like to share some things we are learning as we go along.

The first is the notion of a product.  When you think of church, what comes to your mind?  Is it four walls, pews, chairs, sound system, worship band, and pulpit?  Is it some kind of house church?  Whatever picture comes into your head, it is a physical product that took years of hard work, prayer, and God moving in a certain way, to get to that point.  Was this the only way that Jesus meant to build His church?  

Why are there no pictures this time?   Photos of church are great, and God has blessed this church plant.  But, there are things that happen that are not on film, or even part of what happens in Sunday service.  These things are the very essence of what church planting, and mission is all about.

Through working at a job outside of the church, I have been able to have many great conversations, made connections, and been able to share the Gospel with people who would not be caught dead inside the four walls of any church building.  Because of the nature of this job I get to talk with one person, for an entire day.  I don’t always get to share the Gospel, but there are times that the Lord opens a door and softens someone’s heart to let me speak truth into their life.  

There are certainly incredible things that God does during church gatherings, but I have seen God do much more that cannot be expressed in pictures.  Things like, conversations with homosexuals, or with young men that have turned their back on God.  This is the very Spirit of God in motion.

Our weekly service is not very big, around 10 on a good night, but the sowing of seed is what is really exciting.  Think of a church plant like that.  It’s not taking a root bulb, or a small tree and putting it in the ground.  It’s digging a hole, planting a seed, covering it, and watering, watering, watering, watering.....

I’m telling you this to get the message out there that the mission field is outside your front door!  Jesus said that He would build His church, and the gates of Hell would not prevail against it.  He wants us to take ground, get dangerous, and love like there is no tomorrow.  Because for those without Christ, that is exactly the case.  You don’t need to be skilled in music, have a degree, or even go through a “How to” program in evangelism.  You need a spirit that is willing to submit to whatever God wants, because if enough of us submit to Him, the world will shake!   

THE GLORY OF INCONVENIENCE by Pilgrim Benham

 I didn’t sign up for this.  When I first got involved in ministry, in serving God for His glory and fame in the world through the local church, I forgot one crucial element of ministry: people.  What is it, more than anything else, which causes distractions and problems in a church?  People.  Who gets offended or causes division?  People.  Who are the sources of constant woes and heartache and turmoil?  People!  It seems that when I thought about ‘ministry’, I was thinking about the glory of my gifting : how well I could communicate, how I could explain Biblical truth, how hard I could work or serve or how talented I was as a musician, writer, or athlete.  What I had missed was what ministry was all about: people!

Ministers who focus on the glory of their gifting miss out on one of the greatest blessings of serving Christ: the glory of inconvenience.  Think of what Jesus’s public ministry looked like.  He was constantly pulled away from the task God had given Him by needy people.  What most of us fail to realize is that this was the task God had given Him!  Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost.  His ultimate purpose was to lay down His life as the sacrifice for our sins, to save us.  This mission played out by saving people from temporal pain, suffering, demonic possession, ignorance, and hunger.  Jesus said in John 17:4, “I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave me to do”.  Jesus prayed this before even going to the cross.  Jesus was referring to the pre-cross ministry of teaching, healing, forgiving, and ministering to people’s needs.  And it brought God glory because peppered through His ministry was the glory of inconvenience.

Inevitably as a Christ-follower and fellow minister of the gospel of grace, you will face inconvenience.  Though we certainly are inconvenienced by common hassles like spending our time, money, energies, efforts, talents, and goals for Christ, the most prevalent difficulty is: people!  People require grace, love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.  People need our longsuffering, discipline, explanation, instruction, rebukes, attention, sympathy, and listening ears.  We get frustrated when someone interrupts our schedule, our goals, or our comfort.  The reality is that these people are not interruptions or inconveniences to ministry; they are the ministry!

Pastor Don McClure recently mentioned that when we feel people are “in the way” we fail to realize that God doesn’t see them as that. People are the way. So people aren’t getting in the way of something you have to do, they are the way, the focus, the priority, the reason we do what we do.

Paul explained the glory of inconvenience in 2 Corinthians 11.  Among the difficulties and disturbances he faced, he was constantly moving, facing trouble in every neighborhood he ventured into, losing sleep, going without meals, heat, and even his dry cleaning!  He was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and imprisoned.  Moreover, he was constantly concerned for the people God had brought into his life.  His final analysis is that though we are weak in Him, “yet by God’s power we will live with Him to serve you” (2 Corinthians 13:4).  May that be our prayer no matter how difficult the glory of inconvenience becomes—that we are, by God’s power, living with Him to serve others.

This means war by Alesha Sinks

I fall into the trap daily, hourly…the trap of my own mind.
Thoughts creep in and I listen, somehow thinking that what ever my mind comes up with is worth listening to.

I think I’m right, because everywhere I look the world is screaming the same message…Follow your heart.

And every time, somewhere down the path of following my heart, I find myself desperately broken and totally lost. Because my heart isn’t worth following. Your heart isn’t worth following.

Somewhere along the way, our pride has tricked us into thinking that our earthbound, temporary view of things is strong enough to guide us correctly through life and into eternity.

But you don’t have to look hard to find God saying something very different.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV)

And we think this life is a game to win or lose without any real consequences, when we’re really on a battle field, fighting for our very lives.

The battle isn’t good people and bad people.
The battle isn’t us against them.
The battle isn’t you verses the world.
The battle is you fighting you. The battle is fought in our minds and the battle is won and lost over who we will choose to follow…ourselves or God.

“Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind…” 1 Peter 4:1a (NKJV)

Our mindset is armor, and this is war.

What mindset will you choose?
What voices will you decide to listen to?
What truth will you follow?

This life isn’t a game board, it’s a battle ground.
And you can’t expect to win a battle without armor.
And you can’t expect to win a war without a plan.

I battle in my mind a lot. I think we all do. And our enemy knows exactly what thoughts to put into our hearts and minds to derail us.
But we aren’t fighting this battle on our own.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” Romans 12:2a (NKJV)

Our hearts might be deceitful, but we have access to truth. The world might be shouting lies at us everyday, but we have unlimited access to the Source of Truth.

We have the ability to renew our minds.
We have the ability to arm ourselves with a right mindset.
We have the ability to put on a perspective based on truth.
Will we?

Will we turn to the Truth for a right perspective?
Will we read God’s Word to learn truth?
Will we meditate on the Bible to consistently refresh and reset our minds?
Will we use the armor we’ve been given?

Because our mindset is armor, and this is war.

Be blessed
Alesha

You Can Pray

Nehemiah 1:4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

BURDEN: A duty or misfortune that causes hardship, anxiety, or grief. A load, especially a heavy one

Nehemiah had known all of his life that the city of his father was in ruins. The Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem’s walls, gates and temple in 586 B.C. (2 Kings 25:1-21). There was a little glimpse of hope throughout the years as 50,000 Jews had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the city. Sadly, the temple took twenty years alone to build because Gentiles had hindered the work (Ezra 1-6), and the city and walls were still ruined. Nehemiah was going about his normal life as  the cupbearer for King Artaxerxes in the year 444BC, nowhere near Jerusalem even though He was a Jew. That was when he sparked a conversation with his brother who was with some men of Judah and received some news that wrecked his ordinary day.

Although Nehemiah may have known about the situation before, he never HEARD about it. It never really gripped his heart and caused him to be anxious. He was familiar with the situation, the status quo, and life as usual, but on this ordinary day God changed the way he viewed the situation so he could be burdened by it. When God gives you fresh revelation, it is for a reason even when you may not know how to process it; and for Nehemiah, this revelation caused him to pray.

I can relate to Nehemiah because often as a leader, I plan my day, but then have to deal with unexpected crisis. Things come up all the time that you cannot anticipate or prepare for, and it is a great responsibility to lead though these times as well. The weight of a leader is great and often times we can get crippled when we think about all the things we can’t plan for, but God has given us a tool for every situation. He gives us prayer. We must continue to live our lives not in fear, but in the truth that no matter what comes our way, we can pray. 

Often, our hearts are heavy and we feel worthless because the load of information is too much for us to bear because we feel like we can’t do anything to relieve the heavy load. We must remember that we can pray. God lets us HEAR and SEE certain situations for a reason. The Bible declares that we were meant to be alive at this moment and have specific tasks to accomplish to bring God glory. If you see a problem, often times that may be God giving you the burden to actually do something about the problem. As God’s beloved children, He desires for us to pray about these burdens and cast our cares upon Him for He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). It may take some tears, mourning, fasting and even days for you to process some of your burdens, but God doesn’t want to crush us with these helpless situations. Rather, He wants us to draw near to Him through prayer and allow Him to be God as only He can be. God may have recently given you some new insight, news, or burden that may have crushed your ordinary day, and you still may not know exactly what you can do about it. Nehemiah show us that you can start with prayer.

The boy who didn’t know his age BY JASON SANCHEZ

I’m getting old!  Well, at-least it seems that way.  I just turned 35 years old.  Most people know when their birthday is, especially children.  My 4 year old is already anticipating her birthday coming in March.  She has things planned out and talks about it frequently.  It’s not very often that you come across a child that doesn’t know their birthday or how old they are, especially if they are 11.  However, I talked with one the other night at our fall festival.  It was actually one of our children, Juan.

Our children were very exciting about going to the fall festival at the church and of course, getting a ton of candy.  The church was packed and everyone was having a great time.  Towards the end of the night, it came time for musical chairs.  They broke it up by age group.  I was in charge of starting and stopping the music and Juan was right by my side helping me.  At one point he turned to me and asked how many years he was.  I didn’t understand what he was wanting, to which he asked again…how old am I?  He had been patiently waiting his turn for musical chairs, but didn’t know when to go because he didn’t know how old he was.  When I told this young man that he was 11 and it was his turn to play, it was as if I told him he won a million pesos.  Smiles and joy filled his face as he ran to the chairs.

I am so thankful for and treasure those little moments, like that night with Juan.  It reminds me of the importance of what we are doing and gives me  the desire to want to love on and minister to these children all the more.

2 Year Celebration Video

Happy New Year from Redemption Church! We just celebrated our TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY as a church on Sunday, and it was awesome. God has done wonderful things in our community here in Delray Beach in 2014—restoring families, rebuilding lives, and pouring His peace and grace into people as they have given their lives to Jesus!

On Sunday, we showed THIS VIDEO which shows story after story of lives that have been impacted by Jesus through Redemption Church during the last year. It is incredible to see the real people who have met Jesus and grown spiritually through the ministry here. As you watch, remember to give thanks and praise to JESUS for all He has done!

As we enter into a new year, Jesus is alive and doing great things, and our prayer is that you will continue to seek Him and that you will experience His love and grace in your life this coming year as never before. Happy New Year!

Staying connected to the Lord by David Baldwin

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. —John 15:5

A lamp’s purpose for being created is to shine light. In order to shine its light the lamp must remain connected to its power source: the electrical outlet. However, when unplugged it is impossible for a lamp to generates its own power to accomplish its purpose to shine light.

You are no different. God designed you for certain purposes which require His wisdom and His power in order to function as designed. Jesus said, "apart from me you can do nothing," meaning you can’t shine any of His light onto this world when you are unplugged from Him. This is extremely important to grasp because the evil one knows your power source and he is doing everything possible "every" day to keep you unplugged from the Lord. To help elude his deceptions it is crucial to be in the Word every day, stay prayerful, listening to the Spirit and wrap all this up by putting God’s Truth into action.

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. —Matthew 5:14-16

Takeaways:

To be God’s light to the world you must remain plugged into Him.

The Lord takes great joy when you remain plugged into Him. The evil one takes great joy when you remain unplugged from Him. It is your choice to see who receives the greatest joy.

Always remember “every" day the evil one is doing everything he can to keep you unplugged from the Lord.

Reflection:

What are you purposefully doing every day to stay plugged into God?

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." —John 8:12

We are not the Savior of the world by Travis Sinks

Although it’s an obvious statement, it’s still a relief to say, because we are naturally bent towards trying to be our own or others' "saviors”.

So as a wonderful reminder:

I am not the Savior.

You are not the Savior.

We are not the Savior.

It’s always been this way. Jesus told His disciples that they were meant to be salt and light. To have His light in them and to let that light be shown for all to see:

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:13-16

We are salt, that make people thirsty for Jesus.

We are light, that illuminates the path to Jesus. 

We are an example, that people would see our good works and see how Jesus can change a person.

If only the people in our lives knew of the goodness of God, they would come to us as these men came to Philip in John 12:21 and would have only one request: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” For He is all we need.

And I confirm:

I wish to see Jesus, for He is all I need.

Although Jesus is truly all we need, we all still have a messiah complex: a desire to be that thing, or that person, that someone else needs. But this isn’t what we were meant to be. We need the power of God in our lives, and as do others. So rather than trying to be a functional savior in the lives of others, we need to point them towards the same source of power that we ourselves need. Nothing else will do. Nothing else can replace that.

So remember, next time you see someone reaching out and looking to you to be their functional “savior”:

The next time you find yourself enjoying being someone’s crutch, when they actually need Jesus’ healing:

Point them to Jesus.

Because we are not the Savior.