Get Out of the Way

At South Shore, we are going through an in depth, powerful series on the Holy Spirit. I have not been here for much of the series, but the weeks I have been here have both encouraged and challenged me in my walk with Christ. By the way, that is what solid, biblical teaching is supposed to do.

I have been thinking a lot about Christians' responses to the Holy Spirit and the conversations that stir up when He is talked about. I realized that we (myself being the foremost) love to dissect the teachings of the Holy Spirit. We love to analyze who He is and what He does in our lives. We get so fired up when we realize the power that He gives us. And then we go out and argue about how He gives us that power.

In many churches around today, if you mention tongues, healing, prophecy or any of the 'dynamic' gifts, people start grabbing their pitchforks and torches. It's almost like we are afraid of what God will do if we give the Holy Spirit too much room.

Let me say here that this post doesn't really have much to do with those specific gifts. The point I want to get across is that, as Pastor Frank said this past weekend, we spend so much time arguing over how the Holy Spirit works and how He empowers us; all the while we spend no time actually tapping into that power.

A thought hit me this past weekend; Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 that true worshippers must worship him in "Spirit and in truth." Way too many believers only worship Jesus halfway; either they worship all in Spirit or they worship all in truth. What wrong with that you ask? Well if you only worship in Spirit, there is no truth. You will do what you want and become like the people of Israel in the book of Judges who did what was right in their own eyes. If you worship in only truth, you'll be boring, have no power and God will be more of an intellectual pursuit than anything else.

Some of us are afraid to tap into the Holy Spirit's power because we are afraid of the change that we know He will bring. Others are afraid to study truth because we know it will make us uncomfortable and it may change the way we do things.

But can you imagine how much stronger your relationship with God will become if your worship (your life) flowed out of the truth of the Gospel and manifested itself with the power given to us by the Holy Spirit? Here's my challenge to you: seriously ask the Holy Spirit to change your heart on this. I have had to do this so many times. We let what we have been taught and/or experienced our whole lives influence the way we worship. Let the Word and the Spirit lead you to proper worship. Let it happen, and try not to freak out when it does!

I'm not saying let's get crazy and change everything we believe; I'm saying let's let God be God for once in our lives. Stop trying to fit Him into a mold. Because the truth is, He wants to do something amazing through us and we are too busy getting in the way.

How Did I Get Here?

Did you ever sit back and wonder "how did I get here?" There are only a few times in my life that I have done this. Most of these were the times in my life that I really let go of the controls of my life and trusted God to guide me. After all, He said that He would in Proverbs 3:5-6. I have to tell you that letting God take control is not always easy. This post is just a reflection on how God brought me to SSCC in Sarasota Florida. I hope that it will be an encouragement to you in your journey with the Lord.

Back in August of 2013, God began to stir in mine and Jenna's hearts a desire to move back to the U.S. After living in Spanish Wells, Bahamas for only the past year and a half we wanted to be sure this was of God (and wasn't just indigestion). So we began to pray; hard! We knew that God would have to speak clearly before we made any decisions. We both wanted to have a job in place before we just packed up everything and switched countries.

However, as He usually does, God asked us to step out in faith and move before we knew where He would place us. That was not an easy decision to make or to explain. Telling our family, friends and church that we would be moving but weren't sure where yet, didn't exactly win the popular vote as you can imagine. But we knew that this was God speaking and refused to be swayed any other direction.

My resume went out and job offers came in. I never realized how many churches were without a youth pastor at any given time. As pastors and search committees contacted us, we began to see the importance of really waiting on the Lord during this process. Of course there were opportuni
ties that looked really good and made complete sense, but they weren't God's plan and we knew it. We would not allow ourselves to settle for anything but the Lord's will.

A church in Georgia popped on the radar around September and we began to think that was where the Lord would have us go. We fell in love with the pastor, his wife and the search committee and really began to see ourselves doing ministry there long-term. We checked out apartments in the area and continued to pray with and for the pastor and the flock he was leading. We felt pretty sure that God was leading us here, but there was still something inside us that just wasn't sure.

Somewhere in early November, I was contacted by South Shore Community Church in Sarasota Florida. Instantly something drew me to this church, but I felt like we were so close to confirming that the Lord had us in Georgia. We felt like our first priority was to them. We kept saying "God's ways are not our ways" but I don't think we fully grasped what that meant.

That is until early January when we had our first interview via Skype with the elders at SSCC. There was not a single doubt that God had us to minister with this church family after sharing our hearts and hearing theirs over the course of this interview. Even more confirmation came from the Holy Spirit after we got the privilege of talking with some of the youth leaders and parents via Skype about a week later.

Talking with Pastor Frank through e-mail and having him confirm that God was leading them the same direction was so awesome I can't even explain it to you. Before we knew it, we were offered the position and were on our way to visit our new church family. The first night there; meeting the youth and leaders settled it for us. And so, here we are!

I feel like I just explained in a few paragraphs, a process that I could write an entire book about. As I sit in the conference room at SSCC and think about all of this, I realize that God is faithful to direct our paths! We say it all the time and we write it on coffee mugs and t-shirts, but I don't think we realize the brevity of that statement. Almighty God steps into my tiny, insignificant life, orchestrates every detail to bring Him glory and extends unspeakable joy to me. Even when our plans are great, His are better! They just are.

I don't know where you find yourself today, but I know that God is faithful. Whatever situation you are in, whatever plans you have to make, He is faithful to guide your paths. All you have to do is ask Him to do that and keep your eyes on Him. We like to ask God to direct our paths as long as we get to steer the wheel; that doesn't make any sense. How about actually trusting Him; even when you think it makes no sense? I promise you that He promises to be faithful (His promises are way better than mine).

So pray and ask Him to direct your paths, and them let Him do it!