Seeking Church

We are still struggling with finding a church to call home. I feel like I need to write about this for myself to clarify my thoughts about it. Our family has been attending a Missionary church in a nearby little town. We have all been really enjoying it. As hubby puts it, if I were to make a check list of everything I was looking for in a church, this place has it all. But...something doesn't feel quite right to either of us and we can't quite put a finger on what that is. I told him that I think that is because it is not where God wants us to stay. I feel like God is taking us on a journey. Perhaps finding a church home is more about the process than the final outcome. I believe that we can worship God anywhere and in many ways. This has been forcing me to really think about what I feel is important to me in a church home.
Here is what I have come up with at this time:

• God is present.
• The BIBLE is taught. Members are striving to know the bible and live it out in their lives.
• I am challenged by the teaching.
• My children are taught from the bible, reinforcing what I teach at home.
• My (older) children are challenged to grow spiritually.
• Each of us is able to form strong connections with fellow believers who can uphold each other.

These seem to be the most important things to me. On a secondary level, I would love to find a place with a good group of homeschoolers. I am weary of being the strange, lone, homeschooling family. I would love for my children to interact with other homeschooled children. I realize that I can join a homeschool support group to fill this need, but I would not like to add one more commitment to my schedule. I would rather my focus be on church life. Also, I would love to find a church where our family's creative talents could be used and fostered. Our's is a family of artists. I love the graphic/digital arts and photography, my oldest draws exceptionally well and is a great photographer, my second daughter also draws and is especially talented with tiny clay sculpture and claymation. The rest are still fairly young, but I already a see artistry beginning to bloom in them. Since it is my prayer that they learn how to use these God-given talents for Him, where better to nurture these skills outside the home than at church?

We are planning to visit a new church this Sunday. This is always a challenge with a large family to try and figure out where everyone needs to go. It is also a bit unsettling for us all. It takes us out of our comfort zone and that is not fun. I pray that it is not upsetting to our children. I realize how hard it is for them to show up as the outsider. It is not easy as an adult either.

Satan's meeting (read even if you're busy)

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said, "We can't keep Christians from going to church." "We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth." "We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their savior." "Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.""So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, but steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ." "This is what I want you to do", said the devil:"Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.

"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow."

"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles."

"Keep them from spending time with their children."

"As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice."

"Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive."

"To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblicalmusic constantly."

"This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.""Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers."

"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day."

"Invade their driving moments with billboards."

"Flood their mail boxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs,sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products , services and false hopes."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives."

"Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night." "Give them headaches too!"

"If they don't give theirhusbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere."

"That willfragment their families quickly!"

"Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas."

"Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection and power over sin and death."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive."

"Have them return from their recreation exhausted."

"Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation."

"Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead."

"Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences."

"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus." "Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."

"It will work!"

"It will work!"

It was quite a plan! The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get more busy and more rushed, going here and there. Having little time for their God or their families. Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives.I guess the question is, has the devil been successful at his scheme?

You be the judge!

Does "busy" mean:

B-eing

U-nder

S-atan's

Y-oke?

No one living in this present age can deny that there is a grain of truth to this little story. Busy-ness plagues most of us. Life is just very full. We live in an age where we are constantly bombarded with noise and information. It takes great effort to unplug from it all and give our minds a break. We have to consciously turn off all the noise and distractions and oftentimes remove ourselves to a quiet, solitary place. Even 2000 years ago, Jesus found that He needed to do this.

"Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got
up, left the house, went to a solitary place and He prayed" Mark
1:35

I try very hard to do this each day, but it take great effort and often something happens to mess this up. Either I oversleep or one of the children has needs early in the morning.

Jesus also talks about "pruning" in the bible.

1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts
off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear
fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean
because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in
you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can
you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5"I am the vine; you are the
branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart
from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a
branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into
the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask
whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that
you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John
15:1-8

If a grapevine or a fruit tree is left unpruned it produces fruit on all of its branches, but because its energy, nutrients and resources are spread around to more areas, the fruit is smaller and not as good. If the vine or tree is pruned, the plant's energy is focused on fewer fruits and they are bigger and better. We, too, are like this. If we are busy with too many things, our energy is spread out too thin and we cannot devote enough to any one thing to do it well. If there is too much going on in our lives, it just becomes busy-ness and we begin to just go through the motions without doing anything with excellence.

So, the question is, what needs to be pruned away in my life? That is pretty tough. For myself, I could pretty easily prune away the television. The rest of my family would balk at this (especially my hubby) and we do spend a certain amount of family time together enjoying certain shows. For myself, I rarely just spend time sitting in front of the TV. I think I could even eliminate it more, though.

I also think I need to evaluate my personal hobbies, activities, and even school lessons for the kids. Even though most of these things have value and are "good" things, if there are too many, they put a strain on our lives. I think it is important to look to God to prioritize all of our activities. HE is the master gardener and knows which branches in us need pruning. Sometimes the pruning can be painful, but in the end it is worth it to produce good and godly fruit.

I am seeking God to prune me. Show me what things need to drop from my life and my time.

"I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences. " Eph. 4:2-3 The Message

I want to RUN on the road God called me to travel. But there are many days I feel like I am doing it in "fits and starts" as the verse above mentions. I want to be steady and disciplined, but am not always. I suppose I get bogged down if I lose my focus on God. If my eyes are on Him, I can travel forth sure and steady. I do not need to go looking for what I should be doing, He will bring what He wants me to do before me as I travel this road. I need to remember this.