The Chronicles of Melinda

Last week in Spiked we taught the kids hot to C.H.A.T. with their “dad” (God)
C - Confess your sins
H - Honor God
A - Ask him for what you need
T - Thank Him. 

So I’ve been making it a point to C.H.A.T. with my Father this week.  Well just yesterday I spent my entire morning commute to work C.H.A.T.ting with Him.  Well when I got home I received something in the mail that lifted an element of worry (Yeah -I know.  Matthew 6:25-34 tells us not to worry….but I was) that I had prayed about in my C.H.A.T. that morning
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It was that instant.  We talk about being patient when we are asking God to move in our lives so that we don’t get frustrated and give up on Him and go our own way.  So I had no immediate expectation for anything to happen any time soon.  As soon as I opened it I said “WOW God!  You are so awesome!”.  How’s that for a prayer testimony?

Call this my public service announcement.  But yesterday some of you got my “decapitating a skunk” Twitter.

Well - said skunk tested positive for rabies (hence the purpose of decapitating….done AFTER the skunk was deceased I might add).

Last week we tested a fox, which also came back positive.

Now this is no big “surprise”….rabies has been around Durham County for longer than I’ve been employed here.  But for some reason when we bring it to your attention it makes everyone panic.

No need to panic - just make sure your pets stay current on rabies vaccinations at ALL times.  Did you know that being current could be a matter of life and death for your pet if your pet comes into contact with a rabid animal.  State law mandates that a current animal only get a rebooster within 72 hours.  But an unvaccinated animal is sentenced to up to 6 months of isolation or death if they have contact with a rabid or suspected rabid animal.  So it’s no joke.

Hey- if you’re bored- come see me at Animal Control.  For $10.00 we’ll vaccinate your pet on any Tuesday or Thursday between 10:00AM and 12:00PM and 2:00PM and 4:00PM. So come say hey…and get your pet a life saving vaccination all at the same time.

(Author Unknown)

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with bright light and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man He had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This, the man did, day after day.

For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down with his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.

Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man’s weary mind: “You’ve been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn’t budged. Why kill yourself over this? You’re never going to move it” —thus, giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.

“Why kill myself over this?” he thought. “I’ll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort and that’ll be good enough.” And that’s just what he planned to do— until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. “Lord” he said, “I’ve labored long and hard in Your service, putting all my strength to do that which You’ve asked. Yet, after all this time, I haven’t even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What’s wrong? Why am I failing?”

The Lord responded compassionately,

“My friend, when I asked you to serve Me— you accepted. I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength— which you’ve done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me— with your strength spent, thinking that you’ve failed. But is that really so?”

“Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscular. Your back sinew is mighty. Your hands are callused from the constant pressure;and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you’ve grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven’t moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you’ve done. I, my friend, will now move the rock.”

At times, when we hear from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants. What God ACTUALLY wants is just simple OBEDIENCE and FAITH IN HIM. By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but know that it’s still God who moves the mountains.

P.U.S.H. = Pray Until Something Happens!
When everything seems to go wrong, just P.U.S.H. …
When the job gets you down, P.U.S.H. …
When people don’t react the way you think they should, P.U.S.H. …
When your money looks funny and the bills are due, P.U.S.H. …
When people just don’t understand you, just P.U.S.H.

Well I accidentally saw a commercial for this new show (I don’t pay commercials too much mind…but it caught my attention).  So I searched it out to dvr to record it so I could check it out.  Now I’m hooked.  It’s a show based in San Fernando California.  It’s all re-enactments of real vehicle repossession situations.  The most extreme are the ones they put on the show. 

The repo team is a family opearted business that is hired to snatch up cars up for repossession.  They stake the cars out - wait for the right moment when they find ’em and just hook up the cars and snatch ‘em.  There’s always the owner coming out raising cain claiming not to know they are behind on payments.  (Come on…you KNOW if you haven’t paid your bills). 

They’ve got this big guy - Matt.  Reminds you of Stone Cold.  He’s the beef of the operation - you know the guy who steps in when somebody threatens or starts to get physical.  The big guns!  He loves to scrap.  His thing “Anytime you wanna try me…all you gotta do is come at me!”  Sometimes he’s over the edge…been fired and rehired a few times for crossing the line.  (That’s the soap opera of the show).  Then there’s Sonia, the owner’s sister.  She’s like a big bull dog - I wouldn’t mess with her.  LOL!   When the car owners get unruly-sometimes they get pepper sprayed.  Now we aren’t just talking about lower class folks getting stupid over their cars….we’re talkin’ rich folks, too.  (And boy do THEY get rowdy!)  The team gets guns pulled on them, things thrown at them…it’s often total chaos.  But in the end…they seem to always get their car (truck, motorcycle, boat, forklift, you name it!)

Anyway- check it out.  Operation REPO!

Friday evening we hosted a slumber party lock in for ten 10 year old girls in the Spiked youth room.  Umm…how about they did not sleep much.  But it was fun. 

Did get to listen to Pastor Jamie give a very awesome and touching message at a memorial service for a young man I did not know, but who’s mom I am acquaitned with at NHC.  While I didn’t know him….the message and the love sure did stir some emotion. 

Saturday after the big clean up we ran around and did some errands.  And then wouldn’t you know it - Taira was not feeling well.  Guess she relapsed after all that rowdy running around.

Late Saturday afternoon I was able to go riding with a new horsey connection.  And guess what….in three hours of riding I discoverred that she’s a true blue christian.  She’s currently living in Hillsborough, but trying to sell her house so she can go back to her homestead in Georgia.  She told me a great story about how she has been wanting to go home but because of an unsafe situation she had to get away from whenever she consulted God she knew she couldn’t go.  Then one day…God gave her the go ahead and now she’s ready to go back home.  And in her very cool town apparently Christian is THE way to be.  Everyone talks about God and how He’s blessed their day and wearing christian t-shirts is the norm.  (You know - the ones like I got at Wal-Mart that Jamie and Dougie tease me about having bought every christian t-shirt from the rack when I got saved).  Wouldn’t it be nice if it was that way everywhere?  Sounds like she’s got her own little slice of Heaven on earth waiting for her back at home.  We probably spent a good hour talking about God during our riding.  It was very nice to share God’s gift of horses and the awesome day with a fellow christian.

Sunday was up and at ‘em for a late start to NHC (recuperating from the lock in I guess).  But we were off and running.  After Spiked service we headed to lunch with some cool youth peeps…talked about some Student Ministry Vision…and God gave me a sign that it’s ready to go to the next level.  Yeah this is one of those things where the “God told me to do card comes in!”  I didn’t get the “God told me to tell you He wants you to…” card from someone else.  Just the straight up sign that…it’s time to step up the game and God wants to take me to a whole nubba lebbel!  Stay tuned.

Anyway after lunch we headed home for a few hours for FUSION…and got a LOT done around the yard.  Drug the riding area, took down some corral panels and drug out the area it was in, too.  Put up a temporaray fence to give horses access to the “greener grass on the other side”, cleaned stalls, then hit FUSION and got pumped up at NHC.

Now you would think I would have been too pooped to pop after all that.  Did I come home and feed horses and go to bed?  No!  I fed the horses, moved a few more corral panels and then decided to rearrange my bedroom.  Estimated Time to Bed - - - 2:00AM.   GOOD MORNING!

P.S. Random thought…Am in need of a queen sized mattress and boxspring….keep yer eyes peeled.

And I got to see lots of my peeps I don’t get to see because we attend different services.  I think it’s safe to say that a good time was had by all!

Sometimes I just have to laugh. I’ve been doing a lot of “spiritual digging” lately. Picking the brains of other christians both who I know personally, spent a little time in some books and on-line. Some of the things I have seen and some of the things I have read have made me laugh. But man…it almost makes me cry, too. There are so many christians out there who bring that stereotype to reality to the point that they really are defeating God’s purpose by misusing their faith. It can be comical at times…it’s spoofed all over youtube. And perhaps that’s why it makes you want to cry. Those spoofs are the very seed the devil has planted by using the spiritual pride of others to turn those most open to influence so far in the other direction that the Kingdom of God will be less full than intended.

I was sitting discussing this subject with a christian friend not long ago. We were trying to decipher when to differentiate when God is actually telling us something or when we are letting our own thoughts and desires dictate our actions and words and use God as an “excuse” for them or to make them more “credible” so to speak by saying he told us to say or do something. We were discussing how many christians abuse the “God told me card” attempting to use it to their own advantage to get a point across or cause a reaction. It’s the “God told me” freaks (sorry if I offend) that add to that negative christian stereotype that put a bad taste in the mouths of those who still need to accept and build a relationship with God. I’m not talking about our pastors and leaders…I’m just talking about our every day christian brothers and sisters who take things overboard trying to manipulate others around them.

It was a good discussion…but neither of us really knew the answer to it. So I got to browsing around for some answers and found some pretty funny stuff about it (hence Youtube) and some pretty serious stuff. I read a lot of blog posts on the issue (seems to be a soapbox for a lot of christions. But I found some interesting stuff on the “God told me” card. Check this out:

The phrase, “God told me to tell you,” is perhaps one of the most overused, misused, and abused phrases in the Christian world. Other phrases such as “God gave me a vision for you . . .,” “I have a prophecy about you . . .,” or “I have a message from the Lord for you . . .,” are equally popular misused ones. These are a few of the phrases used by many zealous pastors and often church members to control or mislead others. The truth is the persons using them are not deliberately misleading or trying to control. They honestly believe that their “visions” or “messages” are from the Lord, when in reality they are a result of a toxic faith and misguided understanding of how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of individuals.

One article I found was about the subject of lying. But it had this to say on the subject:

Another form of lying takes place among “professing Christians.” You may say, “God told me to tell you this”; yet what you say contradicts the Bible. God never told you to tell them that at all. It was your own emotions, prompted by Satan. You may say, “God told me to tell you to close your business, to go here or there, to divorce your wife, or to leave your husband. God told me to tell you not to go to a certain (born-again) church or Bible study.” Lies, lies, and God hates it. “God told me to tell you, they don’t know what they’re talking about.” All are lies and forms of deceiving people, and God hates it all.

Here’s part of one of my favorite posts on the subject by a guy named Lance:

Does God speak to His people today? I believe so.

And I hope what I’m about to say does not come across as unspiritual, but here goes:

Lord, speak to us through your Word. Reveal to us what is hidden from plain sight. Keep us from putting a religious face on selfish desires. Rebuke us when we play the “God told me” card to get our way. Teach us what Abraham had to learn the hard way—that when You have made a declaration, You do not need our help in bringing it to pass.

Well…what do YOU think? I think it’s best summed up like this:

1 Corinthians 4:3-5

But no- really! I have no real excuse for not blogging in the past 10 days other than sheer laziness. Okay- well I won’t say I have been too lazy to blog so much as just too busy. Busy living a little. Hey - I have friends, family, love, my horses, a job, a roof over my head and am just enjoying a little bit of peace and happiness. But here I am now…blogging on a friday. I’ve been doing the same ol’ basics of every day life - eating (probably too much), sleeping (probably too little), working (but at least I have a job), playing (when time permits) and serving (at NHC).

Speaking of serving - I hope you’ll be at FUSION this Sunday. It’s going to be an awesomely motivational event for ALL of the serving volunteers. It is said to be the place to be THIS Sunday from 5:00PM to 7:00PM at NHC. Food, fellowship, fun, worship, message and motivation! BE THERE! Need some more motivation to check it out….check out posts about FUSION on Dave’s Blog, Leahs Blog (and HERE) and Jamie’s Blog. And make sure you register HERE (if you haven’t already clicked on the word FUSION and done it!).

Oh - look what time it is. Okay I PROMISE I will blog again later…but I have an engagement at NHC I have got to get out the door for in 4 minutes so I gotta cut this overdue blog short.

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• @Dougbug24 You know you missed it! 09:26:36 PM November 23, 2009 from web in reply to Dougbug24