Author: thefreedomhouseministries

Trust and Obey and Keep on Trusting and Obeying

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Wendy Anne Clark, (c) 2018

We have learned and are learning so much on this Grand Adventure.  The primary lesson God seems to be teaching us (in great detail, over and over again)–and all those who are entering into community with us here through the House Church–is total dependence on God for ALL things:  for provision of all earthy needs, for the right timing, for connecting to the right people, for wisdom, for guidance to the NEXT step, for the ability to wait on the LORD, and for the ability wait well.

Through His Word, God has been teaching us, and these are the things He has been emphasizing:

Resist panning and coming up with ideas on your own.  Resist pushing ahead to try to make things happen in your time and your way.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take,”  Proverbs 3:5-6, NLT.

Resist looking at people through the eyes of the world and instead, strain to see them as God sees them and to give ALL people that you encounter God’s love and acceptance.

“The Lord isn’t really being slow about His promise, as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent,” 2 Peter 3:9,  NLT.

Resist believing in only what you can see with your eyes or have experienced in the past.

“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see,” Hebrews 11: 1, NLT.

God is doing a new thing , and He is in no way bound by what you know, have already experienced, or can even imagine.

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43:19, NIV.

“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 . . . ,” Ephesians 3:20, NIV.

Resist trying to figure it all out:

How the provision will come, trust that He will provide.

“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:19, NASB.

How what He is having us do today relates to what is coming tomorrow, trust that He will show us in due time.

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself . . .”  Matthew 6:34.

How the seeds we are planting will look when they come to full maturity, just keep tilling the soil and planting the seeds, and trust that in due time we will reap a harvest.  We can count on it because we are relying, not on our own abilities, but on the Lord of the Harvest.

“And He was saying to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest,'” Luke 10:2, NASB.

If it seems that I have been reflecting on this same thought for some time now, it is because we have been exploring dependence on God in progressive stages, in ever-expanding circles.  We have seen those around us–who meet with us to study the Bible, to pray together, to stretch out arms to God, and to fix our eyes on Jesus–we have seen that they also are being stretched to continue to learn what it means to totally depend on God for all things.  As a group of Christ followers, we have come to believe that God is preparing us all for something that is coming.  He is laying the groundwork for something that He is going to do and that we don’t yet have the eyes to see.

Stay tuned.

 

 

A Stumbling Body

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by Wendy Anne Clark

I was thinking this morning about how my sister when she was in Germany years ago, told of how she was often embarrassed by other Americans.  It reminded me of when my husband and I were in Jamaica and were embarrassed by another American couple because of the way they mistreated the wait staff.  Like my sister, we felt that as Americans, the things other Americans were doing reflected on us and who we are.

There is something about identifying with a group of people that is risky.  Once we identify with them, they represent us, and we represent them, whether any of us intend to or not.

And so it is with the word “Christian.”  Throughout history many have identified themselves as “Christians.”  Some have done so deceptively for political or personal gain.  Hitler is one who falls into this category, calling himself a “Christian” while those closest to him say he was a committed Atheist.  He labeled himself a “Christian” to identify himself with other Christians and bring credibility to his philosophies, but not to align himself with the person of Jesus Christ.

Often the word “Christian” is tainted by true believers, followers of Christ who are redeemed but not yet perfected.  They stand up and identify with us and with Christ himself and then sadly bring embarrassment to us all by falling in public ways—ways we cannot easily explain or ignore.  And yet Christ has chosen to call all Believers his “body.” We are “the Body of Christ.”  He has chosen to identify with us as embarrassing as we might be.

The picture that comes to my mind is that of an awkward body, picking its nose and scratching in public, belching rudely, and stumbling around with no coordination.  It pushes itself boldly into a room shouting, “Here I am, the Body of Christ,” and we look up, embarrassed and squawk, “Yes, that’s me.  I’m a part of that body.”  Yikes.

If that’s how we feel sometimes, what does it all seem like to Jesus?  That body is such a poor reflection of who he is.  It’s puzzling that the God of the universe would allow himself to be represented by such a rag-tag band of followers.  More puzzling even that he would label us his “bride” and talk of us as having incredible value.

Yet, in the struggle that is involved in getting it all together–in becoming a coordinated, functioning body–something begins to happen.  The body lurches to its feet, hobbling along, desperately struggling to stand up straight and to make that one foot step evenly in front of the other, struggling to get a fluid motion, an efficient stride.  The body gradually straightens out, getting stronger and more coordinated and begins to pick up the pace, and suddenly the body is finally really getting somewhere.

That’s what Jesus Christ has in mind for his Body of Believers.  He brings us together in a seemingly random, mismatched way, and we struggle together for true connection and coordination.  But in order for that coordination to happen, all parts must learn how to surrender to Christ as the Head of the Body—Christ as the brains of the operation.–surrender and surrender completely.

© 2012 Wendy Anne Clark, first published for wendyclarkministries.com

 

The House

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Casual Church

Saturdays at 6 PM

Meeting at The Coffee House, 620 N. Main Street, Hailey, ID

Simple Worship
Relevant Teaching
Open Discussion
Weekly Communion

Free Dinner at 5:30 PM.
All ages are welcome to join us, but we have no childcare available at the time.

 

Now Is the Time

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Here’s a page in  a devotional that I flipped to “randomly” today.  It is so fitting that I have to share:

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the acceptable year of our Lord.
Isaiah 61: 1a-2b NKJ

God’s timing is perfect!  When He speaks, the time to respond in obedience is now.  We often act as if we have all the time in the world to obey Him, but history doesn’t wait on our commitments.  There is no such thing as postponing a decision with God.  Either we obey, or we disobey.  It is either faith or unbelief, obedience or disobedience.

When God announces that now is the acceptable time, what you do next is critical.  How often people have been unprepared when a word came to them from the Lord.  God said, “Now is the time for you to respond to Me,” and their response was, “but I’m not ready.  I have some things I need to do first.  I’m too busy!” (Matthew 8:21). God’s timing is always perfect.  He knows you, and He is fully aware of your circumstances.  He knows all that He has built into your life until now, and He extends His invitation knowing that His resources are more than adequate for any assignment He gives you.

That is why Scripture tells us God is concerned with our hearts.  If we do not keep our hearts in love with Jesus, our disobedience when God speaks could affect the lives of others.  When God speaks, it is always out of the context of Eternity.  We don’t have to know all the implications of what He is asking.  We just have to know that it is a word from Almighty God.  “Now” is always the acceptable time to respond to the Lord!

Blackaby, Henry T.  and Richard Blackaby.
Experiencing God Day by Day.
B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2006.  Page 65.

My Thoughts . . .

As recently as last August, Roy and I had no idea that we would be moving to Idaho–ever.  Family members asked us if relocating was a possibility, and we both said, “No.”  We couldn’t see it ever happening–unless there was some “ministry-related reason.”  Here we are, less than a year later, getting ready to move to begin a ministry in Southern Idaho.  

How we got from point A to point B involves a lot of little steps along the way, but the major highlights are these: We began the year, as a family, with prayer and fasting, and God said, “Drop your nets and go!”  There have been times when we’ve considered whether we need more preparation or planning, but we keep hearing God say, “Go!” and to trust Him with the details.  God has been telling us that if we want to see Him do big things, that is going to require big change from us–a big response from us–not going about business as usual.  God is going to do something new, and it is going to require that we live in a new way.

God has given us a vision for big and exciting things.  We don’t know how they will all come about, how long it will take to see them come to fruition, or what we will be doing from now until that point, but we don’t need to know all the particulars.  He is telling us to keep moving forward and focus on taking the next step–to allow Him to be the lamp that lights our path, just a few steps ahead each day.  We’ve been asked if that is scary, and it could be if we were counting on ourselves to make things happen,  but we have risked our futures on the prompting of God and His power to see this dream become a reality, and risking everything on God is really no risk at all.

Wendy Clark