Unpacking Alaska

Posted on July 23, 2012 by LauraMac

The suitcases are empty, but I continue to unpack the insights and teachings God gave during my one-week on mission in Alaska.  Along with eight other women, I was blessed to serve with Alaska Missions during their annual Salmon Frenzy on the Kenai Peninsula.  The residents flock to the beach to dip net salmon and we are there to serve them and their children and share the love of Jesus.

This was my second Salmon Frenzy experience, as well as my second mission trip ever.  God sent me on mission to Alaska, I believe, so I could learn how to live on mission in “Jerusalem” (a.k.a. Siloam Springs, Arkansas).

Every chapter I read this morning in my Bible seemed to include a truth that God was stirring up my heart to receive –all related to this trip.  (I have a “Seven Times Seven” Bible reading plan I put together for myself a few years ago. I (try to) read seven chapters each day.  Might do a blog post on that soon and share my bookmarks.)

1. Exodus 12 – God is giving instructions to the Israelites for leaving Egypt.  Their response should be the same as ours when God says “go:”

“…Then the people bowed down and worshiped.  The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.” Exodus 12:27b-28

Worship and obedience.  A good way to live.

2.  We go, but He saves.

“…Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.”
I Samuel 14:6

My job is to obey and then to trust the results to Him.

3.  When flights are cancelled and flexibility is called for and people are tired, He is our refuge.

“Let the righteous rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him; let all the upright in heart praise him!” Psalm 64:10

I am counted righteous and upright only because of Jesus.  This compels my heart to respond in praise!

4.  Keep on keeping on….

“Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path.” Proverbs 23:19

My body may give out, but my heart must stay focused!

5.  I have been complacent in my “Jerusalem” life. I must LIVE on mission here, as I WENT on mission there.

“You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me…” Isaiah 32:9a

Ouch!

6.  In Luke 10, Jesus sent out 72 followers to share the gospel.  They “returned with joy” because of a successful mission trip.  Jesus reminded them (and me) not to rejoice in successful results, but to:

“…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:20

The diamond ring is my salvation.  Getting to serve Jesus here…that’s the box.

7.  My ultimate cause to rejoice is that I am saved, but there is also great blessing in doing what we were created to do.

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

My heart is full, as I resolve to LIVE on mission.  Amazing that the trip was as much for me, as for the people I served in Alaska.

PS  Two years ago this week, I attended the Wellspring Women’s Conference in Little Rock.  During that conference, God said to me, “You have prayed for missions. You have given to missions.  It’s time for you to GO on mission!”  I said, “Yes, sir!” and that was the seed that grew to two Heart Life Women’s Ministry Mission trips to Alaska.  This weekend marks the second anniversary of my first Wellspring experience.  Amazingly, the theme is “Live Sent.”  More amazingly, I return this year as the conference keynote speaker.  Needless to say, I covet and shamelessly beg for your prayers.

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Wellspring 2012: Live Sent

Posted on May 21, 2012 by LauraMac

Two years ago, I was blessed to attend Wellspring for the very first time.  It was there that I clearly heard God say, “You have prayed for missions, you have given to missions.  It’s now time for you to GO on mission.”

That was the beginning of the series of events that took me to Alaska with nine other women last summer to serve during Salmon Frenzy.  (We are returning again this summer!)

In 2011, I was blessed to return to Wellspring and teach four breakout sessions (two topics, each taught twice.)

This summer, I’m honored and excited to return to Wellspring for the third time –I will be teaching three breakout sessions and will also be the keynote speaker for the two large group meetings. Please pray for me as I continue to prepare.

I would love to have my friends join me in presence, in prayer, or BOTH!

You can get more details here:  http://www.absc.org/images/Calendar/wellspringposterfinal.pdf

Hope to see you in Little Rock, July 27-28, 2012!

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Barnabas: Son of Encouragement

Posted on May 8, 2012 by LauraMac

“…Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement),
sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.”
Acts 4:36a-37

Barnabas is one of what I like to call “B” characters in the Bible.  (His name even begins with B!) You rarely see him in the limelight, but the few occurrences display a life of great character, commitment to Christ, and selflessness.  His name even means encouragement – so appropriate, as his life certainly encourages and challenges us.

In this passage, we note that Barnabas was an encouragement to the body of believers by sacrificially giving something of value to bless others.  Acts 4:32 introduces a discussion of unity:  “All the believers were one in heart and mind.” The beliefs that we hold in our hearts and minds should work their way out into actions and attitudes that change our behavior and affect our relationships.  Clearly, that was the case with Barnabas.  He not only embraced a sense of unity with the body of Christ in his heart and mind, but he allowed those beliefs to influence his behavior.

It is one thing for us to say we love others and quite another to live that love out loud.  Perhaps the biggest take away for us from this passage is that encouraging others requires an element of sacrifice.

God what do you want me to sacrifice today – time, treasure, talent?  Enable me, O God, to see that I am a steward, not an owner, of my bank account, my calendar, and the spiritual gifts You have provided.  Who do you want me to bless today with these gifts?  Encourage me, as I am blessed to encourage others.

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Acts 4:29 – Praying for Boldness, not Protection

Posted on April 27, 2012 by LauraMac

Peter and John were hauled before the powerful Sanhedrin religious authority.  They were threatened and then commanded to stop speaking of Jesus before being released.  The power wielded by this religious body would lead many of us to pray for protection if we were in the shoes of Peter and John.  Let’s look at what they prayed instead:

“Now, Lord, consider their threats
and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.”
Acts 4:29

Boldness, not protection was their request.  As we consider living lives of purpose – carrying the message of Jesus Christ to our world–we often pray for protection for ourselves or for others who go out.  A prayer of protection is a prayer that focuses on ourselves, a desire to serve God only as long as it’s safe to do so.  A prayer of boldness comes from a heart that is set firmly on God, a heart that is less concerned with my safety or my reputation and more concerned with making Him known. 

A pray for boldness is a risky prayer.  I’m ready to set aside a life of playing it safe.  I want to be bold.  In my 21st century-western world culture, it may not be my life that is at risk, but my reputation.  Am I willing to be labeled a “Jesus freak,” as I trade in protection for boldness in my desire to live for Him? 

Here’s the thing about prayer:  God always answers.  It didn’t take long for Peter and John to see their prayer answered:

“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and spoke the word of God boldly.” 
Acts 4:31 (emphasis added)

Are you ready to pray for boldness?

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Acts 4: If You’ve Been with Jesus, It Shows!

Posted on April 20, 2012 by LauraMac

Our Heart Life Ministry will be going back to Alaska this summer to serve on our second mission trip.  I’ve asked my fellow team members to be reading through the book of Acts to prepare our hearts for this trip.  Camping out in Acts has my heart stirred with anticipation for our trip, but also with gratefulness for the early believers and amazement at what happens when the Holy Spirit leads and we follow.  I’ll be making several posts in the days and weeks to come, sharing the nuggets I’m digging up as I camp out in Acts.  Come look at what God has left here for us!

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”  Acts 4:13

Is it evident to others that I have been with Jesus?  Do people look on and say, “She’s just an ordinary, unschooled girl,” so from where does her courage and conviction come? Perhaps the more ordinary and the more unschooled we are, the greater the glory that goes to Jesus when He uses us to do extraordinary and courageous acts for Him and through Him.  What could be more extraordinary and courageous than sharing the gospel?

Moses’ face was radiant when He had been with God –so much so that he had to wear a veil! (Exodus 34:29-35)  Is my heart and face radiant with the joy of Jesus?  Is it evident to others that I have spent time with Him today?  Have I been I the Word today?  Am I leaning onto God as my source of strength –asking Him for a courageous assignment for today?

Lord, bring someone into my path today that needs to hear the gospel.  Use this ordinary girl to speak with truth and boldness and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Set Your Heart, Set Your Mind

Posted on March 21, 2012 by LauraMac

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ,
set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Colossians 3:1-2

Do you know the biggest difference between a thermostat and a thermometer?
A thermostat has the power to change its surroundings.  A thermometer is impotent.  It only reflects the temperature, but can do nothing to change it.

As a woman who desperately wants to live for the Lord in all things, it is vital that I set my heart and set my mind on things above – not on earthly things.  We have to get vertical.  We must ask God to give us His perspective on the people, events, and circumstances that claim our time, deplete our resources, and challenge our attitudes.

Our hearts and minds tell much about us.  That which holds our love and consumes our thought life is what sits on the throne of our life.  Is my heart and mind set on Jesus?

We even use phrases like “she has her heart set on it” or “he has his mind set on it” to communicate resolve, determination, and commitment.  It suggests that the thought will be followed by an action.  The setting of the heart and mind is not passive.

Our feet may be on earth, but our hearts and minds must be set on heaven. Where is God calling you and me to set our hearts and minds on Him?  Have I lapsed into a horizontal look at the people and events in my life?  Would you join with me in asking God to allow you to look at others through His eyes, to give you His love for people in your sphere of influence– to consume your thought life and your heart life today?

Are you ready to be a thermostat?

Photo attributions:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/10-thermostat-tips-save-money.html
http://w.sublimation.com/basic-outdoor-thermometers

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On the Field Plays off the Field: The Play of the Week

Posted on February 5, 2012 by LauraMac

They go from strength to strength,
 till each appears before God in Zion.
Psalm 84:7

If you’re a football fan, you know the thrill and excitement of the “big play” – the one that makes the “Play of the Week” on the evening news, the snapshot that is plastered across the sports page on Sunday, and fuels conversation around the coffee pot on Monday morning.

In life we sometimes are blessed to score a “big play” in our Christian walk.  Those mountain top experiences are exhilarating.  God reveals a great truth, we obey His direction, and experience the thrill of being used in the life of another human being.  Surely, sharing the gospel and then praying with someone to receive Christ is the “winning touchdown play” in the Super Bowl of life.  Maybe your big play is seeing a relationship restored because you followed God (and swallowed your pride) by picking up the phone.  Or you’ve seen your marriage turned around because you obeyed God and decided to “go first” with saying what needed to be said.

Every day does not come with touchdown moments.  And, if they did, they would cease to be special or remarkable.  Big plays are labeled big because they are also rare.  Day to day life is more of a ground game.  One play at a time, moving the ball forward – gaining ground, losing ground – but determined to forge ahead.  When we are faithful to do our job one day (or one play) at a time, we are ready for the big play that often comes when we least expect it.  Victory comes from being faithful in lots and lots of small plays and sometimes one big play. We move forward from “strength to strength,” as the Psalmist wisely said.

Perhaps we need to start viewing the day to day – strength to strength – as the real success stories.  When we lean into His strength and obediently follow where He leads, that is real victory.  Rather than waiting for the “big play” or the “big day,” we can experience victory every day, as we trust Him—one strength, one day, one play at a time.

(Photo Attribution: December 3, 2010 – Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images North America)

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Back to Bethel

Posted on January 23, 2012 by LauraMac

There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.  Genesis 35:7

Bethel was a significant place for Jacob. Up until that first encounter, God had been the God of his grandfather and his father, but perhaps not Jacob’s God.  Bethel would always be the place where Jacob received his own personal revelation.

Fast forward a couple of wives, a quiver full of kids, and a whole bunch of livestock later:  Bethel seems a long time ago.  There is no indication that Jacob made a deliberate decision to leave God behind.  He just got busy with life.  Sound familiar?

Like Jacob, we can look back over our shoulder and remember significant places, times, or events where we, too, had an encounter with God.  Just remembering that mountain-top experience may stir up a longing for a new revelation or a new word from God.  Like Jacob, rather than pushing forward to a new place, what we really might need to do is go back.  “When stuck, go in reverse” may have spiritual, as well as physical application to life.   Where do you and I need to go back?  What truth or revelation is already hidden in our hearts and minds that simply needs re-examined and a fresh re-commitment?

Have you forgotten to pray?  Is the Bible growing dusty?  Have you found sleeping in trumps fellowship with others on Sunday mornings?  Have you forgotten the blessing of really loving others sacrificially?

Are you stuck somewhere you really don’t want to be?  Try going in reverse.  Go back to Bethel.

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One Goal for 2012

Posted on January 5, 2012 by LauraMac

“So we make it our goal to please him…”  II Corinthians 5:9

Google the word “goal” and you will be rewarded with 144,000,000 hits.  Amazon yields 41,071 options when “goal” is typed into the search box (at the time of this writing, that is).  Entire seminars, workshops, and classes have been devoted to teaching us how to set and attain goals.  We categorize them (physical, financial, personal, mental, academic, vocational) and we schedule them (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly).  We wear ourselves out trying to keep them.

What if we could set all this planning, categorizing, and scheduling aside and sum it all up in just one goal — one goal that captures every category.  One goal that ensures victory on every list and for every day.  It is possible.  The answer, like that for every question life asks is found in the Bible:  “…we make it our goal to please him…”

God is not just the God of Sunday morning and Wednesday night Bible study.  He is not only the God of the crisis.  He is also the God of day to day life – paying the bills, disciplining the children, honoring my husband, maintaining healthy relationships, and even cleaning out the closet!  Every answer we need is addressed either specifically or in principle in the Word of God.  I’m convinced of it. As we ask Him:

  • Should I buy this?
  • Should I eat this?
  • Should I watch this?

I’m convinced that His Holy Spirit gives us the answer we need.  That answer, when obeyed, will not only honor Him, but bless us abundantly.  Why not join me in making just one goal for 2012?

Lord, I want to make it my chief goal –and indeed my only goal – to please you.  Show me TODAY what will please you—what decision, action, or attitude will bring you glory.  Who do you want me to bless, what do you want to me to give away, how should I spend my waking hours of this day?  Bless me, O God, and make me a blessing to others –all with the chief goal of pleasing you.

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Giving Thanks

Posted on November 24, 2011 by LauraMac

“We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts…Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things.”                                                                                 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Lord, I am grateful for many daily things –

  • A husband who takes my hand and prays with me and for me before he leaves each day.
  • The daily learning of new things (or re-learning of things long forgotten) with my children.
  • Laughter – the sharp wit of my husband and children and the delight of making them laugh, too.
  • Children that are growing in You – becoming more of who they are and who you created them to be.
  • Tremendous friends – to care for and be cared by.  To serve with, cry with, and pray with.
  • A home – where I can plant, arrange, rest, read, and open the door in welcome.
  • Extended family – who know me best and love me still.
  • Siloam Springs – the buckle on the Bible belt, where the heaviest traffic time is Sunday morning.
  • My Bible.
  • My coffee pot.
  • Facebook – especially now that adult children travel far and wide.

All these daily “small” things are actually big things.  Perhaps it is the thinking and writing them down and praying through them –like dusting a little vase on the shelf that is always there, but so familiar it is overlooked – that lets me remember and renew my gratefulness.  The small things are the big things!

Thank you, God, for this good life – a life of love and learning, a life that I pray is not squandered but daily devoted to bringing more glory to You.

“…Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Ephesians 5:19b-20

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