What a weekend I have had. Saturday night in Charlotte at Elevation Church and all day Sunday at NewSpring Columbia...I'm not sure I (or anyone) could find two churches more in the middle of a movement of God.
Tonight as I sat listening to Pastor Perry's sermon for the second time today, something just hit me. It seems like over the past week God has been bombarding me over and over with the same message, and I finally had to say, "Okay, God, okay...I get it!" Isn't it wonderful that we have a God who won't give up on us understanding the truth we need to hear, know, and believe? I've talked in my blogs a bit this week about how important it is to realize that we are CHOSEN and LOVED by God. That message has sneaked into every single one of my quiet times and church services this week...I think the Lord is trying to tell me something!
Let's start with Elevation Church last night. My friend Lisa and I drove to Charlotte to the Matthews Campus of Elevation to hear Pastor Steven Furtick preach and be a part of the worship experience we have heard so much about. We got there, and to our surprise we were told that Pastor Christine Caine from Hillsong United would be preaching. We were a little disappointed to not hear Steven, but we had both heard Christine preach before and knew how fabulous she is. And let me tell you...she brought the HEAT. She preached a message called "Embrace Your Place" and spoke about how every person has an important role in the collective body of the church. Using 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, she reminded us that while there isn't always a "position" for everyone in the church, there is always a place.
Now, I LOVE a good quote. So, I'm going to share two with you before I let you know how I processed Christine's message. She talks a mile a minute, so these probably aren't verbatim, but they're close. First, she said, "God is preparing you for what He has already prepared for you." Take that in for a minute. Whatever season we may be in our lives, God is preparing us for something unbelievable that he prepared before we were even created. What?! Isn't that amazing? I don't know about you, but for me, it's incredible comfort to know that even in my "dry" seasons, where I feel inadequate, unsuccessful, replaceable, unloved, and a fount of other distresses, that I am EXACTLY where God has planned for me to be. All I have to do is embrace my place and put my faith in God. There is no questioning it...He "will make [our] paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6). That's good.
Secondly, she said, "You often have to go to a place you don't want to be to get where God wants you to be...Jesus had a place to go to before He got to the right hand of the Father." DANG. If that doesn't make you say amen, I don't know what will. I mean, think for a second where Jesus had to go before he made it to where He is now. He had to hang on a cross - broken, beaten, bruised, and bleeding. He was taunted and humiliated. Do you think He wanted to be there? If there was easier option that would have led to the same result, would he still have chosen the cross? Take that and apply it to your life. Yes, you may be in a place right now that you don't want to be. Guess what? Wherever it is, it's nothing compared to the place Jesus Christ went for us. Embrace your place. Wherever you are, the Lord is using that place right now to get you to the place he has prepared for you.
Now, I started my blog tonight talking about how God has been putting the same message of "I am chosen and loved" on my heart over and over again this week. It was no different with Christine's message. Knowing that I play an integral part in God's plan only solidifies my belief that I am chosen and loved. Whether I'm acting in KidSpring, leading a small group at FUSE*, stacking chairs after a service, or washing the windows during a conference, my place in the church is important. We are all one body. "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it" (1 Corinthians 12:26). No matter what it is that I am doing, God handpicked me to do it. I am chosen, and so are you.
Now, I could probably talk for days about what the Lord did at NewSpring Church today. It was GOOD. Pastor P preached on how to "get past your past." Using 1 Samuel 17:4-16 (the story of David and Goliath), he reminded us that once we are in Christ the snapshots of regret from our past that haunt us are things we did, not who we are. Something I glossed over when I was reading Radiant this week was a bit that said something along the lines of "the only person who can define you is the one who created you." That piece of text flashed in my head today when Perry said, "Do NOT let the voice of the enemy tell you who you are...when you become obsessed with the voice of the enemy, you can't even hear the voice of God anymore." I don't know about you, but for me, that pretty much has to be something I remind myself of daily. God is the only person who can define us, and once we are in Christ, our regrets, our baggage, our mistakes, and our insecurities are nonexistent. God doesn't look at us and see our dents...he looks at us and sees perfection. Knowing that is living in freedom. Period.
Perry had us write down three things that are true about us if we are in Christ, and I want to share those with you.
First, in Christ, I am completely forgiven. PRAISE GOD. Ephesians 1:7 says, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace..." Even knowing that, those regrets come flooding back into our minds more often than we would like them to, and we have to remind ourselves of the truth. That regret...that sin...whatever it is...is under the blood of Jesus Christ. Perry made a comment tonight that stuck with me pretty hard. He said, "If you don't let your past die, it won't let you live." Do not forget, "...if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here" (2 Corinthians 5:17)! Once we are in Christ, there is nothing we can do to achieve forgiveness or lose forgiveness. We simply receive it. Every time. What a God we serve.
Secondly, in Christ, I am chosen and valuable. Now, when Perry said this, I nearly fell out of my seat. This is just about word for word what God has put on my heart all week. I actually almost laughed out loud at how ridiculously perfect God's plan is. He knew this was going to be something I was working through, and he put me in place at NewSpring Church on this day to hear this message to affirm what I've been processing. It's absolutely astounding to me that a God as great as ours would care so much about me. Now, in my last post I talked a lot about how valuable we are to God. I mean, he paid a price for us greater than any gold or silver...how could we not be absolutely irreplaceable? What I found particularly amazing about Perry's word today was the reminder of the fact that God knew about our sins before He created us, yet He created us anyway. What?! I mean, not only did He create us knowing how bad we'd mess up, he created us knowing the price He would have to pay for us. "...He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight...in love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will" (Ephesians 1:4-5). Before the creation of the world, He chose each one of us to be holy and blameless in his sight. He predestined us to be His children. You know, the value of something is determined by the price someone is willing to pay for it, and we will fight for the things we perceive to be valuable. Considering the price God paid and the fight He continues to battle for us, there is no way we can ignore how utterly treasured, valued, and loved we each are.
Finally, in Christ, I am unconditionally loved. Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." There is NOTHING that we could do to lose the love of God once we are in Christ. NOTHING. No haunting past regret or present slip of judgment. Nothing. He is our father. We are his children. He loves us unconditionally. We are irreplaceable. We each have a vital role in His plan. We have been CHOSEN. We are LOVED.
Praise God tonight for these truths. Praise God that we can live in freedom knowing that there is nothing in our past, present, or future that can separate us from the love of God.
Tonight as I sat listening to Pastor Perry's sermon for the second time today, something just hit me. It seems like over the past week God has been bombarding me over and over with the same message, and I finally had to say, "Okay, God, okay...I get it!" Isn't it wonderful that we have a God who won't give up on us understanding the truth we need to hear, know, and believe? I've talked in my blogs a bit this week about how important it is to realize that we are CHOSEN and LOVED by God. That message has sneaked into every single one of my quiet times and church services this week...I think the Lord is trying to tell me something!
Let's start with Elevation Church last night. My friend Lisa and I drove to Charlotte to the Matthews Campus of Elevation to hear Pastor Steven Furtick preach and be a part of the worship experience we have heard so much about. We got there, and to our surprise we were told that Pastor Christine Caine from Hillsong United would be preaching. We were a little disappointed to not hear Steven, but we had both heard Christine preach before and knew how fabulous she is. And let me tell you...she brought the HEAT. She preached a message called "Embrace Your Place" and spoke about how every person has an important role in the collective body of the church. Using 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, she reminded us that while there isn't always a "position" for everyone in the church, there is always a place.
Now, I LOVE a good quote. So, I'm going to share two with you before I let you know how I processed Christine's message. She talks a mile a minute, so these probably aren't verbatim, but they're close. First, she said, "God is preparing you for what He has already prepared for you." Take that in for a minute. Whatever season we may be in our lives, God is preparing us for something unbelievable that he prepared before we were even created. What?! Isn't that amazing? I don't know about you, but for me, it's incredible comfort to know that even in my "dry" seasons, where I feel inadequate, unsuccessful, replaceable, unloved, and a fount of other distresses, that I am EXACTLY where God has planned for me to be. All I have to do is embrace my place and put my faith in God. There is no questioning it...He "will make [our] paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6). That's good.
Secondly, she said, "You often have to go to a place you don't want to be to get where God wants you to be...Jesus had a place to go to before He got to the right hand of the Father." DANG. If that doesn't make you say amen, I don't know what will. I mean, think for a second where Jesus had to go before he made it to where He is now. He had to hang on a cross - broken, beaten, bruised, and bleeding. He was taunted and humiliated. Do you think He wanted to be there? If there was easier option that would have led to the same result, would he still have chosen the cross? Take that and apply it to your life. Yes, you may be in a place right now that you don't want to be. Guess what? Wherever it is, it's nothing compared to the place Jesus Christ went for us. Embrace your place. Wherever you are, the Lord is using that place right now to get you to the place he has prepared for you.
Now, I started my blog tonight talking about how God has been putting the same message of "I am chosen and loved" on my heart over and over again this week. It was no different with Christine's message. Knowing that I play an integral part in God's plan only solidifies my belief that I am chosen and loved. Whether I'm acting in KidSpring, leading a small group at FUSE*, stacking chairs after a service, or washing the windows during a conference, my place in the church is important. We are all one body. "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it" (1 Corinthians 12:26). No matter what it is that I am doing, God handpicked me to do it. I am chosen, and so are you.
Now, I could probably talk for days about what the Lord did at NewSpring Church today. It was GOOD. Pastor P preached on how to "get past your past." Using 1 Samuel 17:4-16 (the story of David and Goliath), he reminded us that once we are in Christ the snapshots of regret from our past that haunt us are things we did, not who we are. Something I glossed over when I was reading Radiant this week was a bit that said something along the lines of "the only person who can define you is the one who created you." That piece of text flashed in my head today when Perry said, "Do NOT let the voice of the enemy tell you who you are...when you become obsessed with the voice of the enemy, you can't even hear the voice of God anymore." I don't know about you, but for me, that pretty much has to be something I remind myself of daily. God is the only person who can define us, and once we are in Christ, our regrets, our baggage, our mistakes, and our insecurities are nonexistent. God doesn't look at us and see our dents...he looks at us and sees perfection. Knowing that is living in freedom. Period.
Perry had us write down three things that are true about us if we are in Christ, and I want to share those with you.
First, in Christ, I am completely forgiven. PRAISE GOD. Ephesians 1:7 says, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace..." Even knowing that, those regrets come flooding back into our minds more often than we would like them to, and we have to remind ourselves of the truth. That regret...that sin...whatever it is...is under the blood of Jesus Christ. Perry made a comment tonight that stuck with me pretty hard. He said, "If you don't let your past die, it won't let you live." Do not forget, "...if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here" (2 Corinthians 5:17)! Once we are in Christ, there is nothing we can do to achieve forgiveness or lose forgiveness. We simply receive it. Every time. What a God we serve.
Secondly, in Christ, I am chosen and valuable. Now, when Perry said this, I nearly fell out of my seat. This is just about word for word what God has put on my heart all week. I actually almost laughed out loud at how ridiculously perfect God's plan is. He knew this was going to be something I was working through, and he put me in place at NewSpring Church on this day to hear this message to affirm what I've been processing. It's absolutely astounding to me that a God as great as ours would care so much about me. Now, in my last post I talked a lot about how valuable we are to God. I mean, he paid a price for us greater than any gold or silver...how could we not be absolutely irreplaceable? What I found particularly amazing about Perry's word today was the reminder of the fact that God knew about our sins before He created us, yet He created us anyway. What?! I mean, not only did He create us knowing how bad we'd mess up, he created us knowing the price He would have to pay for us. "...He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight...in love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will" (Ephesians 1:4-5). Before the creation of the world, He chose each one of us to be holy and blameless in his sight. He predestined us to be His children. You know, the value of something is determined by the price someone is willing to pay for it, and we will fight for the things we perceive to be valuable. Considering the price God paid and the fight He continues to battle for us, there is no way we can ignore how utterly treasured, valued, and loved we each are.
Finally, in Christ, I am unconditionally loved. Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." There is NOTHING that we could do to lose the love of God once we are in Christ. NOTHING. No haunting past regret or present slip of judgment. Nothing. He is our father. We are his children. He loves us unconditionally. We are irreplaceable. We each have a vital role in His plan. We have been CHOSEN. We are LOVED.
Praise God tonight for these truths. Praise God that we can live in freedom knowing that there is nothing in our past, present, or future that can separate us from the love of God.
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