A Stone's Throw

Wow, what an awesome day at FP Carthage on Mother’s Day 2010!  We had two great services with two baptisms and four baby/child dedications.  Very cool stuff, indeed.  One of the baptisms was unplanned…the second in about a month.  We had another spur of the moment baptism on Easter Sunday and another yesterday! I think it is really cool to see God moving in the hearts of people so strongly that they disregard their own personal plans for the day, “what will people think of me,” etc., and simply respond to the moving of the Spirit of God.  Reminds me of a group of men that Jesus called out to be his first disciples early on in his ministry. The Bible talks of their reckless abandonment in Matthew 4:18-22

The Calling of the First Disciples

¹⁸As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” ²⁰At once they left their nets and followed him.

²¹Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, ²²and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Monday is for Missions. . .

I have talked previously about my friend from high school, Matt, that is works for Convoy of Hope in Springfield, MO.  He is currently in Haiti on a exploratory trip for his Convoy of Hope interns going to serve later this summer in July.  Check out this video of him talking about the “capital C” Church “getting it done” in Haiti after the devastating earthquake this spring.

Forest Park is also going to Haiti this summer. Check out more info. here on our website. You can also email our missions pastor, Brock Cummins-brock@fpbc.net for more information about our missions trips this year.

Wow, what an awesome day at Forest Park Carthage yesterday!  We had a ton of new faces at both of our services.  We also got a ton of people signed up for LifeGroups! Exciting things are happening here in Carthage!

Monday is for Missions…

• Keep praying for Haiti.  FP has had over 60 people interested in going on relief trips to Haiti.  We have raised well over $1000 to go to Haiti.
• FP has a group in Kenya this week.  Pray for them as they minister in His name at the Mattaw Children’s Village
• We just had a group get back from Fort Worth, TX yesterday that were working in the inner city with a church downtown.

Too good of a post to pass up on this Monday afternoon…Enjoy!  This is from Matt Wilkie’s blog this week.  Powerful!!

A few months ago, I got my own Haitian mudpie. It sits on my desk. This gift from our Haiti director,Kevin Rose, has reminded me to pray for the poorest people in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

On Tuesday, like every other “normal” day in Haiti, people in the poorest areas of the country were eating these for lunch. Some ate them for breakfast that morning and dinner the night before as well. They’re made of dried yellow dirt, vegetable oil and salt.

I’m going to type that again…they’re made of dried yellow dirt, vegetable oil and salt. They’re real mudpies. People eat them.

Then an earthquake hit.

I’m still processing things…but I for now, I wanted to mention the mudpies.

around the world with Jesus » Blog Archive » Mudpies for lunch Tuesday, and then….

Go ahead and sing along the old Bangles song with me!  Don’t you just love the 80s?  They don’t make cheesy goodness like that anymore!  Who knew that Prince, or “The Artist formerly know as,” or simply “The Artist” wrote that gem of a song?

Ok, to the heart of the post . . . It seems as though I am really, really busy, but I can’t seem to get ANYTHING done!  Do you ever feel that way?  We had a great staff meeting yesterday morning, but the day seemed to get away and before I knew it, it was time for Life Group at our house.

We had an AWESOME Life Group.  I absolutely love hanging out with our new found friends and study the Bible and hang out together!  We are really starting to gel and “click,” which is really cool.  We are studying “Discovering God’s Will”–an Andy Stanley/Northpoint study.  Man, what a great study so far.  Some highlight statements that really spoke to me from this week:

“The problem with knowing God’s will is not God’s unwillingness to speak; the problem is our unwillingness to follow through. Discovering God’s Will by Andy Stanley & Reggie Joiner, 21

“God does not give us direction for our consideration; He gives us His direction for participation.”

“God is more interested in your discovering Him than His will.”

“In the process of trying to know His will, we get to know Him.”

The message was built around Proverbs 3:5-6–

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

I think this verse is very appropriate for my Tuesday that I had today . . .

Have you ever noticed how we seem to tell God “how it’s going to be?”  You know the deal.  We basically expect God to get on board with what we are doing.  When He does something we don’t want, weren’t expecting, or makes us uncomfortable; and we get all bent out of shape.  We tend to work harder, plan more thoroughly…work YOUR plan and ask God to bless YOUR plans.

God doesn’t work that way!  He wants us to wait on Him.  He wants more than anything a relationship with us that is real and personal.  He wants us to be so close to Him, that of course we would know what to do in order to do His will.

I am learning that the more plans I put together, the more they will not go so hot.  When I seek God and work on my relationship with Him, then I set to planning. . . that is when the my plans will become His plans.  When I am so atuned to His heart, that His heart becomes mine.

When things are seeming to “go your way.”  Maybe it is a perspective change?  Maybe it is a change in who is making the plans.  As Experiencing God says, “God is always at work around you.”  You need to find out what He is doing and do it.