Joy

Today I am over sadness. We see too many things these days about drama, and bad things, and hurting and suffering. But I want you to know something; Life in the Lord is supposed to be abundant! It is written ‘I have come that you may life and have it more abundantly.’ (John 10:10)

I think we spend too much time dwelling on the suffering. We almost wallow in it. I see so many people saying ‘the Lord doesn’t promise this, or that…’ But I just read a tweet from Beth Moore saying we need to look at what the Lord does promise. I am quoting her here –

“In an effort to steer away from a health & wealth, hip & cool prosperity gospel, we spend copious amounts of time finishing this sentence: “Jesus never promised us...” OK then, what DID He promise His followers this side of heaven? Life... *Abundant *Gifted *Effective *Empowered

*ABUNDANT: (Jn 10:10) Your life is meant to be full. Meaningful. Fed by an effervescent wellspring of Living Water.

*GIFTED: (1 Cor 12/Rom 12/1 Pet 4) You are profoundly gifted by God. You are not the 1 exception.

*EFFECTIVE: (Jn  15) You’re meant to bear an immense amount of fruit.

*EMPOWERED: (Acts 1:8/ 2 Cor 10:3-5/Eph 3:20/6:10) I’m talking about divinely empowered. YOU. In fact, supernatural power is meant to be so characteristic of our lives that a form of godliness lacking power should be suspect to us. (2 Tim 3:5) *Abundant *Gifted *Effective *Empowered

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So, no, Jesus never promised us a health & wealth, hip & cool prosperity-gospel-life but He did indeed call us to life abundant, gifted, effective & empowered. That, friends, may not be the promise of a happy, rich, fun, exciting life but make no mistake. That’s a dang good life.”

I say yes and amen to all of this. The song ‘I’m trading my sorrows’ was in my head all day yesterday. And I think it’s time to have a new outlook on life. Think of the people we meet or talk with. How are we a light or a city on a hill when we are constantly criticizing, judging, saying how we would do it differently, or quite frankly – looking at the specks in other people’s eyes instead of the planks in our own?

So – lets begin our days with days with praise and thankfulness. Let’s dive into our relationship with God and see what he has for us. Let’s give him the hurts and ask for joy. Let’s trade our sorrows for the joy of the Lord.

Psalm 30:5 b ‘Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.‘

Philemon 1:7 ‘Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.’

Isaiah 12:6 ‘Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.’

Nehemiah 8:10 ‘Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”’

Psalm 110:4 ‘enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.’

Ecclesiastes 9:7 ‘Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.’

Romans 15:13 ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’

And I want to say – when the God of hope fills you with all joy and peace – think of what kind of person you could be for him - running the race he has marked out for you – confident he will complete the work he began in you. Let go and trust. See what joy awaits in this life with God. (Hebrews 12:1-2; Philippians 1:6)

Your night will become like the noonday

Today, sitting in church I was convicted about something… The pastor, Wil, was preaching about pain. As he was describing different types of pain, he talked about a young girl from Vietnam. He explained her journey of floating away from her country on a raft with her mother; a mother dealing with psychological issues due to the death of her husband and other children who died leaving on a raft. As he continued to recount her story, the trials she went through were horrendous. She suffered multiple abuse at the hands of men in her family that were kept quiet – as per her culture. And to top it off, this is recent, and she is just now attending college.

This triggered the reason I started Noonday Collection. I was sitting (safely I should say,) in my comfortable seat at an incredible conference, The If Gathering. I was able to pay for my flight, lodging and travel expenses.  I say this because, as I was sitting comfortably, I heard the story of a young Filipino girl who had been tricked by a ‘friend’ to go to the big city to make money to support her family. She in turn was sold into cybersex slavery – as a child. She spent the next 7 years of her life at the hands of evil men and women. Thank the Lord – she was saved out of it due to an incredible organization called IJM (International Justice Mission.) We were able to watch a video of this beautiful young lady – now in college, beaming at her new life. She was saved from that life, introduced to Jesus, now lives in safety and is attending college due to the funding of people who support groups like IJM.

This entire scene interrupted my soul. I sat there thinking ‘I have to do something. Anything.’ At that moment, they gave us an opportunity to join in partnership with them. I did. But I kept thinking, couldn’t there be more. How hard is it for us to write a check to people and let them go do the work?

Well, this imagery would not leave me. I cannot forget the face of this beautiful young lady that was so indescribably abused and subjected to things many of us can never imagine. She was tricked into this because of the dire need in her village. Many of the people starve, are forced to sell their children-or orphan them. They live in shacks or huts with dirt floors, no running water and barely any food.

The hope found was that she was rescued.

As I was walking around during the break – to recover from this turmoil of my heart – I went shopping at the vendors to clear my head😊… And I noticed that everything being sold was going to support something. One group funded missions and adoptions. One group funded a ministry to counter racial intolerance. Another was fare trade items that were made by people in other countries. And that struck a cord with me.

I have often thought, we need Christian coffee shops with fare trade items being sold. A gathering place that brings consumers back to the place of giving – out of our extravagance – just a wee bit of money toward something that was bigger than us – doing good for those who have nothing.

I heard of Noonday Collections at my first ‘If Gathering.’ I loved the bag they gave us made by ‘artisans’ in other countries. This company has been on and off my mind since then.

Fast-forward a week, I was back home and at a Starbucks reading my ‘Magnolia’ magazine. I knew it was going to be great because New York was on the front of it… I came to an article about an amazing entrepreneur that started a business to support the adoption of her son. I, who have a touch of an entrepreneur personality, always loves articles about those that defy odds and go do it – whatever ‘it’ is. The article was talking about the fact that she began the business by selling handmade artifacts from Africa and other places. It started with a ‘trunk show’ of these items at her house. This one simple activity then produced an idea. Across the world, a couple in Uganda (both artists) had been house sitting for missionaries trying to make ends meet. They had 3 children and were barley making. And, as God does, he created an opportunity for a divine appointment. He got the lady going through the adoption together with couple and boom…Out came a company that provides meaningful jobs to men and women who would otherwise be another statistic in a small village, in a country that we know nothing about.

The article about the entrepreneur turned out to be Jessica Honegger – the founder of Noonday Collections.

Well, as you can imagine me… when I read this, I knew that I needed to do this. I knew beyond a shadow of doubt, that I would buy jewelry, purses, scarves and other accessories. Why not buy the ones that give people an opportunity? The couple in Uganda now have around 100 employs under them. And it doesn’t stop there. There are artisans in many countries. Peru, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Guatemala and India, just to name a few. And the most exciting part to me is the ‘Story Line collection’ from East Asia. The jewelry, which is 10k gold, is made by women that are found and rescued out of brothels. This is a safe, meaningful job – paying money – introducing them to Jesus and hope. All through jewelry.

What is my conviction? That Noonday is truly and important opportunity worthy of telling others about. People want to know how to make a difference- and this is an incredibly easy way to do it - and make $ doing it.

I am amazed that something so simple can help people out of conditions that are unimaginable. I ask you to not only pray for this company, but the others that are going out there and freeing people from the unimaginable. Here are a few…

IJM (International Justice Mission)

Star Fish Project

A21 (Christine Caine)

 Isaiah 58:10: "If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the no

Rain

"Go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming!".

1 Kings 18:41

Have you ever felt like you are on the cusp of something? It’s like you’ve been in a desert waiting for the drink of water to renew your soul.

Sometimes life hands us desert times - times we are in the holding ground. Times that we feel without hope, answers, calling, or movement. Sometimes we seem to be in a torrid of movement only to realize we’ve not quite arrived.

I love the stories of Elijah. He was a man of God. A prophet taken up in a windstorm. He defeated the priests of baal and outran a horse.

Elijah means ‘Yaweh is my God.’ This says to me, that the one true God of the Hebrews, yaweh, is the one who he relies on, trusts and believes in. He couldn’t have had a better name.

But did you know that even Elijah was afraid…of a woman? (But that’s a story for another time -1 Kings 19.)

One of my favorite verses is James 5:17 ‘Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!’ (NET)

Let’s break this apart.

1.       Elijah was human. (The obvious is stated here.)

2.       Elijah was just like us.

a.       Ok – what can this mean? Is he better than us? No. Does he stumble like us? Yes. Does he fear like us? Yes.

3.       What did he do? He prayed earnestly.

a.       Earnestly means: with sincere and intense conviction; seriously.

b.       The definition of earnest – the root word – is: serious in intention, purpose, or effort; sincerely zealous.

c.       He sincerely, with intent, purpose and effort, zealously prayed for it not to rain for 3 ½ years.

4.       And it did not rain for 31/2 years.

Now that we know he is not different from us, or greater than us, I believe the key to the answered prayer is that it was earnestly – sincerely – with intent and purpose – prayed.

                He was praying God’s will.

As a prophet, Elijah was called to speak God’s word to his people, and to those in charge of his people. We find this particular story of Elijah beginning in 1 Kings 17. Ahab is ruling over Israel, God’s people. He marries Jezebel, and together they bow down in worship of Baal and build a temple to Baal. As verse 33 states, he did more to provoke the anger of the Lord than any other king of Israel.

We pick up here with Elijah’s words. 1Kings 17:1 ‘Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!” (There are incredible miracles in chapter 17, but we are going to skip on over the chapter 18 to continue.) Basically, fast forward 3 years to the end of a horrific drought. Chapter 18:1 ‘Later on, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to King Ahab. Tell him that I will soon send rain!” ² So Elijah went to appear before Ahab.’

Elijah goes and encounters Ahab in chapter 18, which presents another incredible miracle – where there is no question of who God is… and then we move to verse 41.

Two things to look at now…

1.       God sends Elijah – as we are told very plainly in 1 Kings Chapter 18, verse 1.

2.       Elijah goes.

So let’s read the rest of the story together picking up at verse 41.

1 Kings 18: ⁴¹ Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming!”

⁴² So Ahab went to eat and drink.’

Let’s stop here a second. Ahab was evil in the Lord’s eyes, but at this moment he knows that it’s time to listen to God’s prophet. We need to keep and ear open to when God uses people to speak into our lives. Pray for discernment.

Now I honestly have an excitement in my soul reading this entire passage.

The very next part of verse 42 says….’But Elijah…’ Let’s look.

 ‘But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees.

⁴³ Then he said to his servant, “Go and look out toward the sea.”

The servant went and looked, then returned to Elijah and said, “I didn’t see anything.”

Seven times Elijah told him to go and look. ⁴⁴ Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.”

Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him, ‘Climb into your chariot and go back home. If you don’t hurry, the rain will stop you!’”

⁴⁵ And soon the sky was black with clouds. A heavy wind brought a terrific rainstorm, and Ahab left quickly for Jezreel.⁴⁶ Then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt^[g] and ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.

Ok. I have chills. Here is the truth of the matter. God performed a HUGE miracle right before this. I bet Elijah could be walking in confidence that God listened and came through. But what did Elijah do after he delivered his message to Ahab?

He prayed. He bent down into a humble posture and went to the Lord praying for the very thing God told him was about to happen. He prayed with expectancy and confidence – so much so he sent his servant to look for what he was expecting. And all it took to know the answer was a tiny cloud the size of a fist.

With that, he announced the rain, and ran really fast – back (I’m picturing how fast Edward Cullen ran…)

There is so much for us to model in our walk.

1.       Obedience.

2.       Confidence God will do what he says.

3.       Praying God’s will. This takes faith. This also takes spending regular time with God by getting in his word, prayer and fellowshipping with those trusted friends who walk with God.

4.       Praying for God to bring it to pass and keeping your eyes open to the signs that ‘its’ coming. If he calls you to something, he will open doors. He will set up divine appointments. He will provide what you need or who you need to accomplish the task. Your job is to bathe it in prayer and stay in the word.

As he starts moving you toward the task, start praying for everything you can think of. Pray for vision. Pray for strategies to implement. Pray for the people he will add to the equation to help you accomplish the task. Pray for funds. Pray for support. Pray for godly friends. Pray whatever comes to mind.

I just read several verses that reminded me of the importance of prayer for the vision he gives you. Even as the vision or task approaches, don’t get so caught up in the details that you forget to put God at the helm… He is the one who told you what to do.

Elijah got down on his knees and prayed till he knew it was time to run!  (Imagine what kind of power the holy spirit could give you to ‘run’ with his task in his timing.)

The important thing to remember is that it is his task. God visioned, God given and God implemented.

Keep your focus on the creator and stay teachable and humble. It’s time to see God do great things!

Scripture:

James 4:2 ‘You do not have because you do not ask.’

Matthew 7:7 ‘Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.’

Acts 10:2 ‘And he prayed to God regularly.’