Teamwork, Soccer, and the Church

Last Sunday, I had a great afternoon playing soccer on a team with our boys.  I was so impressed by how well they worked together as a team.  How they passed the balls and recognized the skill of other kids who had a greater ability to score.  But other times they passed to those who needed help learning to play and sharing the ball even knowing the kid receiving the pass would not have the ability to keep it. Sometimes they even passed it to me and soccer it not one of my strengths.

                Teamwork in ministry is so important because we have many people with many different gifts and at different parts of their walk.  Sometimes we are tempted to do everything by ourselves because we do not know we can trust others or if others are ready to be given a chance.  It is Just like when I saw the older boys pass the ball off to younger, newer, and less skilled players.  Inwardly my competitive side did not want to see the younger kids given the ball.  But, I know for the game to continue to be fun and competitive these boys need to get their time to practice and develop.  In the end we had a great game everybody had lots of fun and my team still won (probably not because of my contribution)!  I bet the next game will better and I will be better because I was given a chance.

Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

                This scripture and this ideas is one of my favorite subjects from the New Testament; the Church Body and us working together to accomplish God's plans.  I like how the model that God gave us for the Church is one of interdependence.  As a mission ministry we can benefit from these same part of the body that Paul talks about.  It is exciting for me to get to know all the people I work with and see how they fit to make our ministry stronger and better.  I am better too when I recognize where my gifting and skills end and other need to fill in my weaknesses.  And I also need to give others a chance to put there gift to work and watch their skills develop. 

I pray… God help me recognize my strengths and gifts and help me to serve, but also help me recognize my weakness and the strengths in others so we can serve better together.  Lord give me the desire to pass off ministry when I lack the skill to continue forward and to those who need to fully develop in to the body part you have for them.  Help us to work the best together to accomplish the ministry you have laid out for us to accomplish.  AMEN

Celebrating Adam 8th birthday in our new home in Honduras!

The Power of Attitude!

Philippians 4:8

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

                In the letter to the Philippians, Paul spends a lot of time talking about attitude.  I believe his reason for taking this time sharing about this subject is this: he realizes that attitude can blind our eyes to reality.  I believe that the feeling we experience when we judge our life experiences can be skewed by our attitude, and it affects how we see the direction of our life.  And our enemy wants us to miss out on the opportunity to thank our God for the good he has placed in our life.

                As we learn from following the life of Paul, through the book of Acts he did not have the easiest life.  We see: he was unjustly jailed, he had falling out with friends, and ministry partners desert him.  He had his share of bad experiences, but he also had an incredible ministry. He brought the Church to much of the known world!  I believe he had been witness to the bad attitudes and misdirected focus, he had to make this same choice every day and had to watch people he cared lose this battle and leave the ministry.   Look at these 2 passages of scripture: (an example of partner to deserter)

Colossians 4:14 - Luke, the beloved doctor, sends his greetings, and so does Demas.

2 Timothy 4:10a - Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to Thessalonica.

                I know that in many times in my life and ministry I have missed the joys of service by focusing on my negative experience.  I felt I was treated unjustly or my effort was disregarded, but these small irritations stole the joy from the majority of my life and the blessing I was witnessing.   In reality I have been blessed over and above by the opportunities to serve and by the lives I have touched and by the people who have blessed my family. 

                Every day I have opportunities to miss out on the joy of life.  Or to express praise to my God for the many blessing.  Today I am choosing to “Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise!”

PRAISE!  This week we welcomed 4 new boys to the Ranch, brothers ages 4-13!

Learning to LISTEN!

     In language school, you would think the hardest thing to do would be to learn all of the new vocabulary.   I am realizing that the vocabulary alone does not help on it’s own.  More importantly, you need to learn to listen for the new language.   I know much more vocabulary then I can hear in conversation.  I know the words, but I am unable to pick them out in a string of words spoken to me or a slight cold changes easy to understand words into something sounding garbled.

     As I was sitting studying for class, I began to think about this reality process.  We know so much about God’s language through studying his word, sitting through many sermons, Sunday school classes, retreats, and so on and so on.  We have learned to recognize God’s word on paper, and given out in sermons.  But, what about listening to God as we go about real life?  Have we tuned our ears to hear God speak to us?

     I came to Honduras because God spoke to my heart about his desire for me to be here ministering.  But, I did not hear God speak to me about it before October 2012.  I am not sure I was taking time to actively listen.  In October, I had stepped away from my normal life to serve in Honduras short term.  I had left my distractions behind.  I am certain God had been preparing me for this ministry for sometime, but I was too focused on my native language (my wants, my fears, my goals and aspirations), to be aware of God speaking his words into my life.

     The real trick to understanding language is to learn to focus on new sounds and filter them out of the noises that surround us.  Do sometimes we let God’s voice become background noise and allow our native language to take our focus?  In the sheep pen there is lots of bleating and other noises, are we focusing on the right voice and ready to follow?

     We learn to listen by listening.  I live in a country that speaks Spanish.  I hear it everywhere I go.  But I only listen when I take time to focus on the words filling the air around me, I have 38 years of practice at filtering out all but English.  I am learning Spanish, but I will only understand when I train my ears to respond to the spoken word.

John 10:24-27

 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, ²⁶ but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

 The Bible helps us practice listening to God ‘s language without some of the noise in life to distract us. This is why we study his word to learn and to recognize the sounds of God!  In this passage Jesus says his works are speaking to the people testifying to who he is.  But the Jewish people could not filter it out of their native language (their hopes, dreams goals and personal aspirations for the messiah).  They knew the vocabulary but did not know how to listen.

It is my goal to take more time to learn to listen to God’s voice.  To practice separating his voice from the noises that fill the air and my mind.  Please take time to listen and learn to respond with me to God's voice, and then take one step at a time walking in obedience.

One of my kids favorite books is With You all the Way  by Max Lucado.  It is a great kids story about listening for God's voice.