Why I Am No Longer Choosing To Serve At My Church

When God reveals the details of how he wants me to serve is my response a simple "Yes, Lord."? Or do I first consider who, what, where, how and to what extent
I am currently comfortable and adequately equipped to serve? I may not like the assignment God has for me. I may not even like those whom I serve. I may look foolish, stupid or even crazy. Do I say "Lord, I'm sorry but I can't do THAT! People might think I'm judging them. I would look like a hypocrite!" I don't have enough time. It's too far to drive. I don't have enough gas money. I'm driving on a spare tire. I have a health condition. Those people made their beds, now they can lay in them. They don't even want help, they're just looking for a handout. I don't have a sitter. And besides I wouldn't even know where to begin. If these or other excuses are true barriers then I must take these needs to the Lord in prayer. And He is faithful! On the other hand, am I just using them to justify not serving? If I am His servant, I have surrendered my right to choose who, when, where, how and to what extent I will serve. A servant is completely available and utterly vulnerable. The truly awesome part is that there is freedom in this! When I surrender and become His servant I no longer have to fret over how I will manage to find enough time, money, resources, etc to do X, Y and Z because the servant owns nothing. Even my time isn't my own. My responsibility is simply to obey and make good use of what my master has given me. And we serve a very wise and benevolent master. So I am no longer choosing to serve in my church. Rather I am Christ's servant and He is my master. And I urge you, ask yourself "Have I merely made a choice to serve or have I surrendered my entire life to Jesus?" And then act accordingly.

Come Holy Spirit and Guard Our Hearts, Our Minds and Our Time

The kids and I go to the Wehrenberg Theaters Summer Series freebie every week. Week 1 we saw Winnie the Pooh, which we all loved. Week 2 was The Smurfs which the kids thought was great but I was sadly disappointed. I don't remember there being so much focus on the sorcery and magic when I was a kid watching the saturday am cartoon. Plus, I was disgusted with the fact that they seemed to go out of their way to use as many foul and vulgar phrases as possible by replacing the foul word with Smurf. Definately not a movie I care to see again or would ever own. Last week the movie was Happy Feet 2. I honestly didn't care for this one much either. I felt like Happy Feet had an environmentalist agenda and in the 2nd one it was even more apparent. The poor penguins were trapped and at risk of starving to death. At one point there were some people on a boat and they tried to save them but to no avail. So in the end the penguins and other animals work together and save themselves. It seems to me the message we are sending our kids is "You don't need God. If people would just follow the example of the animals and work together we can save ourselves." Sometimes I think people actually make an idol out of the animals and nature. Also there is a side storyline about 2 krill named Will and Bill. They have gotten away from the rest of the krill and are becoming lonely. At this point one of them makes a suggestion that they only need each other and that they could adopt. The other one says something to the effect of "We're just friends. No hanky panky." And eventually they "separate" and the one who suggested that they adopt is heart broken. They eventually meet up again and rejoin the other krill. It just seems to me that the point here is to tug at the heart strings of children and parents with the goal of softening hearts toward the practice of homosexuality. We are like the frog that will stay in the pot and boil itself to death if you gradually turn up the burner. I am going to be praying and asking the Holy Spirit to guide our choices in viewing material and how we spend our time. And this week we are opting to go to the zoo with my oldest daughter instead of The Summer Series. I would love to get feedback on my first blog post since I accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior.