Susan Emery, September 25

Breaking Bread Together

"And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." (Acts 2:42)

Feast or Famine?

"Your Words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart." Jeremiah 15:16

(When your words showed up, I ate them—
   swallowed them whole. What a feast! The Message)

Chapter 9 - A filleted heart...

God's Word is awesome... it always find a way to correct and encourage. It will bring rebuke, but never leaves us there. It always offers hope and guidance. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Word; it is His voice, hence why we call it His word.

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

I love how Wayne Cordeiro says that the Word of God fillets our heart, what a good way to put it. Digging into the Word can be uncomfortable at times and that is a good thing, that means it is working in our lives. Much like physical medication brings physical healing; the (spiritual) Word of God brings healing to our souls. When you need a powerful dose of healing a Dr. will give you a shot of medication. Like a Dr. - God will give us a shot through His Word. He will cut through our flesh in order to deliver His healing Word to our soul. A shot can be painful, but it is necessary in order to bring the cure. God's cure for our failures... His healing Word. Let's dig in!

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

Be blessed... your brother in the Lord.

Mike Bibeau

Gabe Sanchez, Sept. 15th

His Word my Daily Bread

My Prayer "Search me , O God, and know my heart. Try me and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in your everlasting way! Psalms 139:23-24

Chaper 8 was a real eye opener for me. To sum it all up the chaper is about being fed daily by reading God's word and approaching Him daily for "Fresh Bread". Jesus declares "I am the bread of life, He who comes to me will never go hungry". It amazes me how easy it is for me to feed my hungry stomach, but what about my hungry heart or mind? God's word gives us wisdom and incarnation, where his word bleeds out of us. Why is that so hard to do, especially daily? We live in a fast pace world that never stops and our personal lives tends to get the best out of us leavimg us with no room for God's word. I don't know about you but diving into the word of God daily suddenly becomes hard to do. This chapter reminds me how important it is to dive into God's word daily. We tend to drift away so easily and gradually float away from God and hearing, reading and understanding His word. Jesus said to go to Him for daily bread for a reason. He knows how our bodies work, and what our body needs daily. Heck He created us! Just as our bodies need fresh food daily, we need  a fresh word from our Heavenly Father to feed our minds and our hearts. Pastor Wayne explains how wisdom is built layer by layer, it's like a muscle and one does not build a muscle over night. True wisdom comes from the word of God, so why am I not seeking God daily? Not once or twice a week, but daily! At times there are a few weeks where I am reading his word daily for a several weeks. Wow at the time I do notice the difference on how I feel so fresh by reading God's word. His word teaches me on how to apprach certain situations and trials that come into my life. But then a week or two weeks go by where diving into His word becomes a side thing to do and gets lost in time. There is so much to discover in God's word. Daily is when my God wants me to hear Him so I continue to pray Psalms 139.

Great word from Jason (Jay) Ganes this week

I asked Jay for permission to post this and he gladly accepted.  So good to see all that God is up to in our personal lives.  One thing is clear, that when we witness transformation in someone's life, it bears witness of our Transformer, Jesus Christ.  Amen?!

Jason Ganes wrote:

Good evening,

I was reading through 1 Corinthians 13 tonight and thought I would share some thoughts with you all.
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have,
and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Reading this reminds me to live out love, in everything and everywhere.  The Bible tells us here that we can basically be the best person on earth, have the strongest Godly values and faith to move mountains but if we do not live out these gifts with love, it is in vain.  I feel this is a great challenge for us to be humble in the gifts the Lord has blessed us with.  We can be a prayer warrior or prophecy over others or speak in tongues, but if we turn around and be jerks to our wives and kids, all the giftings are for not.  Have a great rest of the week and remember to love, as hard as it may be at times, at all times.  God is our provider and the provision of love comes from Him.  He is faithful, it's our job to trust. 
Love you guys.

In Christ,

David Piper-September 10th

Chapter 11-Delighting in God’s Word

This chapter really hit home to me.  When I read about the 20 leaders (over-seeing 22 million people!) of the house church movement enduring 13 hours train rides, risking torture and prison for just believing in Christ it struck me in a few different ways…

First thought 22 million! Wow!  What awesome growth within the Church and that was just under these 20 leaders.

Second thought was how much we take for granted our freedoms to worship and having easy access to bibles, and much more.  How many people (with total access to many great churches) in our country call themselves Christians yet find convenient reasons not to attend church (except maybe on special holidays), or take no time at all to spend with God.  In our culture, I believe one of the enemy’s greatest weapons against us is our pride in how busy our schedules are.  I can remember telling myself, “Nobody quite understands how busy my schedule is!”  It was easy to convince myself that at some point I will make time for the important things like loved ones and maybe even God!  Then, another day passes and nothing changes… hit rewind and play.  It becomes easy to justify why you can’t help a neighbor, volunteer for something, attend church… it’s because of my busy schedule!  The one thing that saved me is that I have always felt Christ for most of my life.  I drifted but never quite lost the pull of the Spirit to get me to return.  Thank God!  Then I compared this to these 20 leaders… they had the time.  Eighteen of twenty had spent time in prison (some still had the scars of being shackled) for having Faith in an unseen Messiah.  The end result is such a passion for God and a desire to know him better that they gladly risked going back to prison for a bible study!  Maybe we could all use a little prison time in order to memorize scripture!   OK, a little extreme but the only way to know more of Christ is to spend time in the word.

This bought me to my next thought.  I realized an odd parallel to these 20 leaders in my own life.  The stronger their walk became, the more influence God gave them… the more influence God gave them, the more they suffered persecution… the more they suffered persecution, the more they sought God and their relationship with God grew.  I believe this to be true not just for myself, but for a lot of Christians.  When you give yourself to Christ and you begin to grow in your walk, the more influence God will give you.  This will arouse the attention of the enemy… (in our case it may not be our government but the unseen enemy).  As God equips you and you begin to influence others and lead them to Christ the enemy will try and stop it.  It may not be quite as obvious as what these leaders went through but any weakness will be exploited to discourage, frustrate or distract you and stop your calling.  It is only by pressing in and seeking God, deepening our relationship with him and armoring ourselves with Christ can we not only withstand the attacks but begin to push back and regain ground.

This chapter renewed in me the importance to remember in prayer, all the brothers and sisters in Christ, in other parts of the world, that are daring to push back and break strongholds. 

Awesome article from Worship Pastor Aaron Keyes

Heya Team,

I was reading this blog from Aaron Keyes, a worship leader I greatly admire and respect, and found it to be incredibly honest, real and enlightening.  Our words have power and we always need to be careful to say things that build and lift up.  Let's be harp carriers and not spear throwers!
http://aaronkeyes.com/2011/08/harps-or-spears/