Ruined for the Ordinary

In my Perspectives Course (www.perspectives.org) there were several people who gave their testimonies of what Perspectives taught them. One college girl said, “This class will ruin you.” The leader took that phrase a little further by saying, “This class will ruin you for the ordinary.” I found myself excited to ask the Lord for this, but also very scared.

I have always enjoyed doing things that were exciting, thrilling and adventuresome. Yet I also have grown to enjoy a predictable life with much routine. This statement reminded me how much I desire to be a part of things that are out of the ordinary. But, that same week I had to wrestle with giving up stability as I define it: a Pottery Barn home with room for everyone, a good school that my kids can stay at until they graduate, a car that works, a job that is reliable and a community for me to participate in.

You see I have given up the right to control my life. I believe that God is much more capable in organizing the experiences that I have and the environment that my family is to be raised. With having given up the control of my life, are times when the realization comes that I am holding too tightly to a dream, a hope, a wish. My prayer became, “Lord, ruin me for the ordinary.” I want to look back on my life and my family’s life and see exciting adventures. But with that my life will probably not look like what I define as stable. I have prayed that the Lord would make me okay with that.

Two sites to check out if you are interested in being "ruined for the ordinary.



www.perspectives.com
www.wreckedfortheordinary.com

Saved by Trash

Today the pastor in our church told the best story of someone finding Jesus: (This is told from the Pastor's point of view)

"Today we are welcoming new members. There is one member that you need to hear the story of how he ended up here. Doug Shoemaker is a sanitation worker. Someone had thrown away a CD that had one of my sermons on it. Doug found it while working, amidst the trash. He took it home; he listened to it and decided that he needed to come to Village Bible to hear more. My question is, 'Who threw away a sermon of mine? (lots of laughter) I just want you to know that what man intended for evil, God intended for good! (and the best part) Don't forget that God is in the details, and no detail goes without His notice."

How cool is that story. A sanitation worker would find a discarded sermon on a CD, take it home, listen to it and become a follower of Christ. Our God is so much bigger than we can imagine. This encourages me at a time in my life when I can't see how God is going to fulfill His promise to us.

Yet as our pastor is saying throughout his new series on God's promises, "Are you promise level living, or feelings level living?" Do you base the evaluation of your life on your feelings or on the promises of God

Strategies of Warfare-

Today in church our pastor spoke about the strategies Satan uses in warfare against the mind of the Christian. He introduced his frist startegy by explaining that Satan has a target; he uses a specific weapon to hit that target; he has a purpose for hitting that target; God has given us a defense against the weapons of Satan. I was fascinated by the word picture Pastor Mike used to describe this strategy.

Satan's target is our mind. He desire to attack our mind because it is the center of our communication with God. "If Satan can capture the tool you use to communicate with God, he can keep us from knowing God's will (See Romans 12:2)." He also wants to gain control of our minds because it is the center of the control of our life. "If Satan can fill our mind with lies that go unchallenged, over time he can twist our thinking, and thus our wrong thinking will taint our living."

Because our minds are Satan's number 1 target God exhorts us to protect our mind. (See 2 Cor. 10:4-5; Eph 4:17-23, 1 Peter 1:13)

Having had a hard time connecting with a specific church lately, it has been a few months since I have attended church. I felt that I needed to make this a priority again. Upon hearing part 1 of Pastor Mike's sermon a warning flag went up in my mind, "What lies have crept into my life because I haven't been sitting under the teaching of another?" Even though I am a leader of a Bible study and spend a significant amount of time in preparing for these which has me in the Word a lot...what has crept into my thinking that I don't even know about because no one is teaching me?

Probably the number one lie was that it was OK. We were still doing OK. Our family is OK. Ministry is OK. I think that lie has handicapped me from jumping into a church. And the lie I was believing about this church was that I didn't know anyone. God convicted my heart by saying, "Go regularly and then you will know people and will grow to love these people and this church."

So I leave you with the question, "Do you know what lies have crept into your mind that you are believing and that are tainting the way you live your life?"