Why Should We Read Our Bible?

Jeremiah 33:3

New Living Translation

Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to COME.

This Bible verse just popped in my head as I sat down to write a quick blog.

I highly recommend reading your Bible daily.  Finding time alone... away from everyone else but Jesus.  Listen, ask, seek, wait.  Sometimes there is no order to that.  Sometimes it is just one of those. 

Be careful.  It might make you throw a pillow at the bottom of your bed, on the floor, and drop to your knees in excitement of what He reveals. (Usually when I put the pillow down it is in surrender mode, today is praise!!)

It might make you jump up and down in your kitchen yelling "Woooooo hooooo, Jesus!" while making eggs  (PS add some rosemary to your omelet with some onions and tomatoes, it is amazing).

It might make you shake your booty and blare Hillsong and sing from the top of your lungs to Jesus Christ.

Can't stop smiling!  It is a new day, for sure.  

(Ridgepoint (My USA home church) is still doing their 49 day Reading Plan. It isn't too late to get into the Facebook Group and start reading!)

Abide in Me

I couldn't sleep very well last night.  I felt like God wanted to talk to me, but when I asked Him what was up as I lay in bed, I heard nothing.  Nothing like a talking to a brick wall.  Nothing.  I tossed and turned in bed and kept asking Him to help me focus and hear.  Nothing.  Eventually, after a while, I finally just passed out.   I had a tough week last week with emotions of being here.  Normal surrender things.  My newest "It's not fair, God" is that I have to live here without a single person of my choice being here with me.  Alone.  The devil loves to whisper "it's not fair" to us to make us believe we should be able to have everything we want.  I am not talking about material things.  Like can I get an expiration date on milk and eggs, so I don't get sick from either of them? :)  I try smelling the milk but it actually smells bad to begin with to me and Luke said if the eggs don't float in water they are fine.  I usually just toss both b/c I don't want to deal with either one.  Oh, can I have a Wal-Mart?  And, the list could go on this week, really...

I woke up this morning and took my coffee out on the front porch with a notebook.  I wrote the date and time at the top.  I put my feet up and said, "Let's talk.  What do I need to do, Lord?"

Abide in Me.

Okayyy.  What does that even look like here?? 
     Am I your number 1?  Am I enough? 

Tough questions, God.  Glad He already knows the answers and is making me search ME.  I know He doesn't have to search me, but this is how He will show me what isn't pleasing to Him.

I know the verses in John, I just spent the last month really pulling it apart during my personal Bible time, but I took out my Bible and read chapter 15.  I stopped at the verse "For apart from me you can do nothing."  I boxed it.  It was already previously highlighted. Hmmmm, nothing.

And, so I said a prayer and asked God to show me in Google search.  I came to this website and read the abiding articles:   http://wondrouscross.wordpress.com/category/abiding/   Check them out.

Jesus even said in John 5:19  The Son can do nothing by Himself.

I can make up as many rules and guidelines as I want, but it doesn't matter how hard I "try." If I am not abiding in Him, then I cannot do it.  I will fail.  I can't bear fruit without walking with the Spirit. 

My part is to submit my life to God.  I can do nothing.  Literally nothing apart from Him. 

I got to church this morning and Pastor Ivan was preaching from John 15:1-17.  Of course you are.  Of course.   Pastor asked if any of this was speaking to anyone,  I didn't say a word.  I was a little shocked, I must admit. 

I do not have it figured out, but I do know I need to quit trying so hard to figure this life out and living it for myself... but remain in Him to do His will.

FIGHT Ministries May FreeT-Shirt

If you subscribe to our prayer emails, then you received this already.  If you aren't subscribed, get on it.  www.fightministries.org/serve. I will not be posting these as I write them, but I felt like this one was a big deal and wanted to explain some things.  After you read, stop.  Actually throw prayers up <3

Dear Prayer Warriors,
The FIGHT team has been searching the surrounding areas for a building for several months now. This past week we have found a building in a great location with a lot of potential for our growing church, along with great opportunities for a community/prevention center. The lower level of the establishment has a lot of room to hold church/VBS. There is enough room on this property to make basketball courts and develop an area for kids…to just be kids, safely. We are asking you to lift up prayers for this possible location of our ministry. The landlord is very set on her price. In seeking the Spirit, we do not feel that her price is right. There is a lot of work to be done on the building. We have negotiated a lower price by telling her that we will fix the broken tile floors, paint the buildings, clean it out, and do multiple repairs. It has been vacant for 2 years and was a bread bakery, store, and an apartment(s).

We are seeking Him for discernment if this is the place to rent and for working in the hearts of the landlords to come down even more on the price. We ask that you also pray for God to show us clearly that if this is not the place, that He will reveal that. If this is the place, then we know He will prompt hearts to give to our vision and rent this building at their price.  Our Lord says that if we keep asking, we will receive what we ask for in Matthew 7:7.  If there is one thing God wants for all of us, it is that we do His will to bring Him glory.

Thanks for being a special part of this ministry by gathering with us in prayer!

In Christ,
The FIGHT Team
 

FIGHT Ministries is running a promotion for the month of May to gain supporters for ministry costs.  Any person that makes a donation for the month of May will receive a free t-shirt.  You can choose to set up a reoccurring gift that would allow FIGHT to depend on your continued support monthly to run the ministry, or you can do a one-time donation.  If your church would like to play our video to help raise awareness or get more information, please feel free to email me at Phyllis@fightministries.org for more details.

Pray about what you are supposed to do.  Maybe you are supposed to talk about what FIGHT is doing in the DR to the circle of influence God has placed around you.  You know contacts, I do not.  It is no surprise to God that you live where you live,  you work where you work, you workout where you workout, you church it where you church it, your kids have baseball at the field they have baseball.  Influence and knowledge, use it for the Kingdom.  Maybe you are supposed to pray for us daily.  Maybe you are supposed to give.  Pray about it.  None of those are more important than the rest.  What is important is that you LISTEN to what God says to do/say. He has a perfect plan on how He is going to fund this ministry and you may know the man that will donate 100,000 dollars to set this on fire and purchase this huge building and some property for barrio balls.  Do I think that that is crazy, no way?  Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is ABLE to do IMMEASURABLY more than all we ask or IMAGINE, according to HIS power that is at work within us...   bam.  I'm pretty sure Paul meant to write BAM! at the end of that verse.

I write this as a person that has followed the Lord alllll the way here.  As a person who does not have a stable income with a paid job.  Who always has food to eat and my bills get paid monthly BECAUSE HE provides it every single time.  Love HIM!  And, love you guys!    He can do anything.

www.fightministries.org

Visit our Facebook page for the video:  https://www.facebook.com/fightministries

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FIGHT Ministries

--> Little recap of life lately:

The last few months we have been developing FIGHT Ministries from the ground up.  Every detail is laid out on the table and prayed over.  Luke Ostberg leads us as a team of 5. He is from my home church, RidgePoint in Winter Haven, Florida.  I was telling my home pastors this week, I have absolute confidence in Him seeking the Spirit for decisions and knowing the importance of sitting around meetings, daily, discerning what the Spirit is telling all of us.  I do not take that quality lightly, especially if I am supposed to be following.  Charles Stanley says he wont move unless his Spirit team is on the same page, amen to that.  I have been saying this since God sent more people on the ground in the DR: life isn’t as easy when you have to discern decisions with others.  God y yo!  Ya!  For many years.  That’s it.  Now, I am learning what it means to discern as a team.  God has designed each of us differently and we all have our opinions on how things should go.  All of those thoughts and ideas are fashioned into one. 

So, Naomi heads up our community outreach, Kathy is our media specialist, Trevor is head of our mission teams, and I am the administrative part.  Most of our week consists of meetings and community outreach. Community outreach includes going to families homes from church to just build relationships, surveying local barrios on living arrangements, needs, conditions, children’s welfare; more or less educating ourselves on exactly what is around us and what we are dealing with out in the barrios.  The biggest misconception is that we are in paradise, that this area of the DR is the wrong area to be in for what we are “doing,” some have said.  Seeing a mentally handicapped girl in the barrio pregnant (again) without having a place to call for abuse is so heart-wrenching.   It is hidden in pockets of this beautiful area.  We are slowly uncovering those secrets. 

Sunday is always set aside to go out to Barrio Blanco to play with the barrio kids in the afternoon.  This area is a portion of Jarabacoa that is saturated with “high-risk” kids.  Some of the kids attend our church, the others are we are building relationships with for now.  At times, we have parents out there playing volleyball and baseball, too.  One week we counted 56 people.  It was insane.  They count on us being there to just have fun.  We aren’t giving handouts or trying to fix problems right now.  We go with the love of Christ… and lots of kisses and hugs!  I remember the first week out there we were all called the Americanos.  Now, they know us by name and we know them all by name and who is in whose family.  It is crazy what just spending time with them can do.  If one of the team members isn’t there, they know it, and want to know where they are.  If their sister isn’t there, we notice.  They care.  And, they know we care.

Okay, so this is what we have figure out with the Spirit leading us.  We have some key families in our church that we have identified and targeted to “pour into” relationally.  We all have basic needs and we are ready to help these core families.  Trevor and Luke are doing some repairs on a house soon because water is coming in when it rains and soaks the bed.  Right now we are helping these families build a stronger foundation to model it to other families, too  We do not want to be heroes to anyone.  We are the same as they are and give glory to God in all we do.  We want to work alongside the community in developing safe environments for kids.  We want to build with the identity of Christ cemented in our kids and with education.  These families are great partnerships.  They are perfectly placed in different barrios by God and are influential people in their neighborhood.  It is ridiculous how they are positioned like that to be mentors in their communities and help us develop relationships among the people there.  They are each growing in Christ and will be the main support system as we develop a community/prevention center. 

This week Kathy, Naomi, and I are starting to make jewelry with some of the ladies.  We are teaching them a small trade to earn some income in a healthy way to help their husbands support the family.  We had a very generous donor from upstate NY give me a donation and God told me I was giving it up to FIGHT as soon as I got the email. The human in me wants to save that kind of money for emergencies because I live month to month on donations, but Christ in me tells me that I am just a steward of His money, for His purpose, and His glory.   So we waited and prayed on it for weeks and we purchased supplies last week with some of the money.  We are really excited to start this part of the ministry.  And, whatever else God has in store for us.

Join us in prayer as we have found a potential building.  The landlord will not come down more on the price, but we will see what God works out.

Much love from the Dominican!