dont waste your singleness

DON’T WASTE YOUR SINGLENESS

From my experience singles have three mindsets (predominantly): 1.) They are zealous in their singleness because it allows them to do what they want when they want to do it. 2.) They are mindless in their singleness. It is what it is. 3.) They are hyper vigilant on getting married, and typically this only further frustrates their attempts towards their goals.

I started with the gospel and gospel based liberty because it corrects all three of these. If we are making much of our singleness (for the better or for the worse) it becomes harder to make much of Christ. If we are mindless in any portion of our lives, it is more difficult to live for Christ, and therefore less satisfying.

Paul offers three benefits of being single when it comes to serving Christ. The first is that singleness is spared the suffering that can accompany marriage relationships. Living with a fellows Christian is still living with a recovering sinner, we can hurt each other. Inside of marriage we also have to feel the pain of losing a loved one or burying a child. Paul says, “Those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that” (1 Cor 7:28). Single people, you have less to lose, so risk for the gospel comes at less of a price. Risk more.

Secondly, Paul points out the temporary nature of earthly things: “This is what I mean brothers, the appointed time has grown very short…” (1 Cor 7:29). He goes on to say that those who are married should live as if they are not, those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing. What Paul is pointing out is not pessimism, but perspective. In heaven we will be so enraptured by the person of Christ that our earthly relations and affections will simply prove…insignificant. Single people, because your heart is free from spouses and children, it is easier for eternal things to weight chiefly on your hearts. Married folks, you aren’t given a hall pass, but you are given the joyful burden of loving your family with all your heart, while loving Christ even more.

Lastly, Paul calls singles to live carelessly for the Lord: “I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord” (1 Cor 7:32). Paul counters this with the married man being concerned with his own family. Paul isn’t saying we shouldn’t be concerned with our families, but he is pointing out the freedom single people have in their relational responsibilities. I have to deal with my corporate responsibility towards Christ, and my local, and Biblical, responsibility to my family. Singles can live with passion, time, and more energy for the things of Christ because they are free from the responsibility of family. Your singleness shouldn’t be marked by trivial and empty things “because you have the time.” It should be marked by the unique opportunity you have to make much of Christ with the whole of your time and person.

Your position as single is a gift. And it is unique. You don’t need anything more than Christ to serve Christ. So stop sitting, stop wasting, and start using your singleness to the glory of God and the expansion of his church.

Just a note in closing, those who are married need not preach the “niceness” of marriage. God has wired men and women to be attracted towards each other. Our singles know that. What we need to do instead is preach Christ through our marriage. Ultimately this is the sustainable and attractive portion of marriage. It is also a view of marriage framed in worship, not cultural norms. We don’t want people to marry because they can, we want people to marry because marriage is innately worship filled and evangelistic, and it offers a natural place to birth and raise more Christians (also evangelistic).(I didnt write this.)

Meredith Andrews Teaches You To Cook Vegetable Soup

Vertical Church Band - Strong God (Live Performance Video)

Meredith Andrews with Vertical Church Band - "Open Up The Heavens"

who are you putting your trust in?

In today society we see people putting their trust in all kind of thing. people putting their trust in job their money their spouse  their politicians even in movie stars athlete and rock stars. they think that these thing will solves all our problem but guess what  folks   people  will fail you  including that i mention above.you cannot guarantee  your job will last and money cannot solve all your problem Leader will disapointed you and so will your spouse. why because they are human they are not perfect and they cannot solve all your problems. The Bible says in Psalms 146:3 Put not your trust in princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help. verse 4 His breath goes forth, he return to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish. so who do we put out our Trust in? God. He is the one that will meet your every need in time of trouble. He can be trusted his promise never fail and he surely wont break them as human does. So tell me who are you trusting  today?

Word does hurt

Word does hurt

June 12, 2011 at 9:08pm

PublicFriendsFriends except AcquaintancesOnly MeCustomClose FriendsFamilySee all lists...Welland, Ontario AreaAcquaintancesGo Back

 Do you remember the saying stick and stone you may break my bone but name will never hurt me. well I was told this when I was in high school. But guess what folks its a lied. word does hurt and it takes time to get over it. people dont realize it that word can really affect you especially if they are hurtful. Like being call stupid dum and many others this is call verbal abuse. a counselor had told my friend once that its better to be hit  because physical will heal in time but word especially cruel words take time to heal.In the Bible it says that there is power and life in the tongue Proverb 18:21  so we carry power in what we say whether its positive or negative. Parents teacher pastor has opportunity to encourage and build people up or destroy them by their word. and so do we. Let me ask you how do we speak to our loves one friends and people that we meet every day? Something to think about

LikeShow more reactions

CommentShare

prayer is weapon

prayer is a weapon

ANNETTE HUNEAULT·THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016

Just a couple days ago i watch the war rooms and I learn a lot through out this movie. one of the thing that I learn is that we cannot change a person no matter hard how we try. Its God’ s job to do the changing and our job is to pray trust and love as Miss Clara told Elizabeth in the movie concerning her husband. We must place the person in His hand whoever it may be spouse, children friends. Pray for them speak well of them and just trust God to do the work.

another thing i learn from the movie is about Prayer. how is our prayer life like. is it cold lukewarm or Hot? if its cold or lukewarm we must do do something about that or else will not get anywhere Prayer is powerful weapon to use againt the enemy We must learn how to use it .There are things that are worth fighting for in prayer for example our country, our leaders our school, and our family our church the list goes on.its time for us christian to rise and take our postion and prayed like we never have.God is waiting for us. what will our answer be. I now i be one of them that will be praying for my friends, family and other issue that facing us in this world. what about You?

My friend Debbie

(This is a hard post for me to write, since I am also guilty. I hope you hear my heart in it.)

I’ve been convicted in the last several years: We, (I), need to quit with the cliques in church.

We need Saturday detention — together — on Sunday — the whole lot of us.

There’s plenty of speculation right now about why so many people are fed up with Church and the institution of it. I don’t know all the answers or all the reasons. But I’ve known many people who have felt out of place, unwelcome, under-valued, or stuck back in high school when it comes to the Church, popularity, and social politics. They’ve tried church–tried to come back–tried to re-engage, and they’ve not found the Church a very hospitable community. They’re over it.

This is tragic.

I don’t quite know how to solve this, except that I must take some ownership. All of us probably should.

There’s that line in “You’ve Got Mail” where Tom Hanks tells Meg Ryan, when he’s trying to befriend her after he put her out of business, “It wasn’t personal. It was business.” She responds, “What does that mean? All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. It was personal to me. What’s so wrong with being personal, anyway?”

Just like Joe Fox, we have, maybe unintentionally, maybe out of selfishness or ignorance, or maybe out of habit or our own insecurities, or maybe in our flesh and envy and fear, we have excluded. Maybe it wasn’t personal. Maybe it was. But if you have come to church and felt on the outskirts, have felt unwelcomed or unincluded, I’m so sorry.

I was the kid in youth group growing up that had many friends. I walked into that building and felt like I owned it (or it owned me). And yet, even with all my confidence, I still sometimes felt anxiety walking into the youth center.

Even with all my confidence today, as a grown up, as a worship leader and someone ‘up front,’ I still feel, (often), vulnerable and anxious going to church. This is partly my introvertedness. But also because I worry I might forget someone’s name, or I might say something strange, or I fear the awkwardness.

But what a difference it makes when someone approaches me and hugs me! When someone walks up to me and welcomes me. It makes me feel noticed, and seen — like he’s glad I’m here and she’s happy to see me.

Too often we leave the job of hospitality, of friendliness and inclusiveness, to someone else(many times the already overextended pastor). Just like high school, we walk into church and sit with our same friends in our same section. On the patio we approach the people we know, the people we are closest with, because we want to hear about their week, about what’s been happening with their family, about their job or what-have-you. Mid-week we meet up with a small group at a park or coffee shop or lunch date, “let’s just keep it us so we can really talk.” We assign people to groups, we divide by difference and common interests. At MOPS or bible study, we would rather pull up another chair at our friend’s table than sit down with all the singletons at the newbie table. Many times we have “community groups” and we don’t want new people to join because a new person will “mess up the dynamics.”

The excuse many of us Christians make (when we are aware of our actions) is that “even Jesus himself had a close, inner circle.” We argue that we can’t be close friends with everyone. We only have so much time to go around, and we hardly spend time with our best friends, let alone have the time to meet so many new friends, new people.

Those things are true.

But we are to befriend the outcast too. And if we are honest with ourselves, sometimes we simply don’t want to. It takes energy and effort to befriend new people. It takes risk. And we are about our wants. We want to sit with our clique, the friends that make us feel loved. We want to go out to lunch with people we like, people we prefer. We want to spend our time our way.

Some people are desperate for community. They are searching for friendship, and they have come to the church, the place where we should be the most friendly, where they should be most welcome. They’ve come half-way. They’ve done their part in trying something new, being vulnerable, walking into an unknown. Now it is time for us to do our part and say, “You are welcome in this place.”

Our cliques, be it intentional or unintentional, are a contradictory representation of the inclusiveness, warmth, sacrificial love of Jesus. He said we should put the needs of others above our own, and we should do to others what we would wish for ourselves. We wouldn’t want to be excluded. It’s a cruddy feeling. So why do we do it to others?

There are a lot of hurt feelings in the church. People who sit alone. People who wonder if they stopped coming if anyone would even notice. People in the ‘out’ crowd observing from afar people in the ‘in’ crowd. There’s an awareness of the ‘cool group’ and the ‘not as cool group.’ There are people who have no where to go on Easter and no one inviting them to lunch and no one commenting how cute they look. There are people who stand on the patio after service and nobody talks to them. There are people whose children are not welcomed, aren’t played with, aren’t invited to birthday parties and playgroups.

There are outsiders right in front of our noses. We don’t even see them.

This week, what if we sat in a different place during service, next to a person who is sitting alone? What if we scanned the patio after church to see if anyone needed a friend, or to search for someone we didn’t know, and we courageously approached them, reached out our hand, and introduced ourselves? What if we crossed cliques–walked over to someone in ‘the other group’ and started chatting about March Madness or spring break or the weather, even? What if we sent an email to a group of people for a playdate and we included the people we never include? What if we sat at a table with a bunch of people we don’t know? What if we each carried our weight in being hospitable? How different would our churches be?

Let’s be different. Let’s be known for our friendliness. Let’s be more inclusive than the little league moms and the PTA parents. Let’s open up our garages, share hot dogs, host BBQs, greet people with grace, ask for phone numbers, send emails, and be hospitable toeveryone.

I think we can do better. What do you think?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

LikeShow more reactions

CommentShare

My testimony

My parents were raise in quebec. My mom was born in Bouchette  and My dad was born in Papineauville Quebec. My parents moved  in port colborne where they raised seven children. we would of being nine but my mom lost two. I believe i will see them in Heaven one day. My parents were bothe cathoiic. We went went to a catholic french school and attended church every sunday. my dad work at union carbide  in welland for many years before it closed down. My mom stayed home  and took care of us kids. I dont know how she did it . She  had to disiipline us when we  were misbehaing and let me tellyou  i deserve it. i was no angel. My dad also did the discipline. and there was no time that the discipline was call for. i remember my mom slapping me accross the head for not having my booth  on right. one thing  we were missing as  a familly is the love and affection  from our parents. there was no hugging or hugs or i love you. And that as a child I long for that. But Later in years i thought about it and   i told my self   may be the reason my parent didnt show affection is probally because theydidnt  get it themselves.so how can they give  love to me when they ddint receive from their own parents. I never held againts them.i also remmeber there was a lot put down by my brothers. Like your stupid you are retard just to name a few. and  when these words are repeated over and over again you actually started to believe it. and I did. and this affected me throughouut my life. And I  can remember when I was about eight  i was molested by a stanger who pick me and my brother up.  and werent told about staying from stranger. and i dont remember if I even told my parents about that. And thing i remember  is when were put into a fforster home> the reason wny is  because the house we lived was not livable. and my dad build made shift tent outside and that where we slieep. But someone report it and we were taken away to a foster home. i could remember crying as they took us away. one of the foster home we live in was not a good one. i remember the foster dad took me for a ride  in a wooded area and he was going to molest me. but i told him to stop. now when were return to our parents  i never said anything  to them until later on. we could of charge him but i waited to long. but not all foster home was bad. I remember me and my sister were taken to a couple who werre  chrisitan. I  remember having devotion and going to church.This was the first time I heard about Jesus. But it was not the end. i remember going to high school a friend of mine  invited me to a bible study in port colborne.  it was the Pentecostal church. and that night I receive Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.I started to attented a bible study  in welland at copuple by the name O f norma  and stuart. they  called home  Hupomone. a creek word for patient. eventually i moved there much to the diasporval of my parents. I guess I was serching for the Love i ddint receive. They rented a building on niagara street here in welland and they called Maranatha.Let mme tell you what it was like to live there. they were not bad but very legalisitc. we didnt have no tv  had to have a chaperon to visit my parents. had to go to praying meeting if we missed it  we were in trouble. and attend church. now i remember when i was sick  and i decided to stayed home so they send someone to get me  sick or not to church. Then one night we were in the praying meeting and my mom called and told me that my dad  was in the hospital he had massive heart attack. I had to beg  them to get me at the hosptiaal. Norma took me  my mom and brother at the hospital. therre were met by  other member of the family. It was too late my dad died. later on my brother told me that Norma had told him that my dad died because they didnt receive christ in their life. that really hurt me. i didnt believe for one minute that he would do that.  so there was a funeral that i had to go. what  bother me is I never had the change to say ito my dad i love him or say goodbye to him. i live with guilt for a long time. so i was getting  ready to prepare to go to the  funeral but again they were saying that i coudlnt  because i was to serve at a coffee house on friday. But i went to my dad funeral that was more important to me.after the funeral i decided to leave the place once and for all. so i moved to port colborne with Mom.But God wasnt finish with me with yet. i atttended a life skill program in Port colborne  and that where i met my friend  Debbie she a mentor to me now. and she invited me to a Bible stutdy ain Fort erie. it was a home ministry.At first i was aprehenisve cause i thought It would be like the other place. But it wasnt. They rented a bullding to statrted a church. Now where i receive  a lot of my healing from the hurts that i being carrying. and i i statrted to get involved with the church, I taught sunday school nursery did cleaning the church deacon just to name a few. i was also involved in dancing interpretation which i loved to do. we perform in different church. we also did a play call the champion. i play a demon.t at the church is where i met my future husband previously   i did date  others but it didnt work out. I never dream that I wiould be dating or even getting married. because i dint think I was pretty. But this guy did. and so we got engaged and got married on November 9 1996. i was so looking forward to started  a family. . But just nine month after we were married  a call from the police changed all that.My Husband that I loved and cherish and was hoping to grow old with was facing serious charged. iThe charge wwas involving chidlren. I just coudnt believe it i ask why  why? sadly I found out everything in a newpaper not from him . eventually I letg him because I was told if I stayed i could be charge as a accompleice. and so I did. he did time for it. in the mean time  i went on with my life and moved to canalview home. i went to four sauare church before  it went to a home and then i stop. and for     almost  five years I tdidnt fellowship. and i knnnnnow that was wrong. what was stopping me from going back to church was fear. and let me tellyou  fear can cripple if you dont deal with. and so finally i call the 100 Huntely talk to a councellor and redicate my life to jesus. and then i went and try out freedomin christ church and i have been since. I thank God for the work  he did in my life and for what he going to do in the future.