I'm not sure where this post will go...so hang on it could go anywhere!  A lot has been happening at our church lately, and it's really rather exciting.  We just recently brought on board an associate pastor.  We are a small church (at least right now anyway) and so subsequently aren't able to pay our senior pastor enough for him to live on (especially since he has a large family) so he also has a good paying full time job outside of our church.  This however makes it difficult for him to serve effectively...he just doesn't have the time.  Thus the need for an associate pastor...now I won't go into all the details of our church's financial situation and how their salaries were figured and all that - but it was very much a step of faith for us, but I truly feel that the Lord is going to bless our church and work in mighty ways because of the decision to bring this associate pastor on staff.

Anyway this leads me to what I had in mind to write about - which was that this past weekend the two pastors went on a retreat to pray and seek God's will as to where He wants them to lead us, and what God's vision for our church is.  They left on Friday 8/8/08...which is significant as the number 8 represents New Beginning...just as the number 7 represents completion or perfection.  A group of us also gathered to pray on Friday night - asking God to make clear to the pastors His vision, his desire, his will for where we are to go....and to ask for our own hearts and minds to be prepared and made willing to follow and be obedient to whatever He asks of us.   I think a lot of us have been faced with the reality of our  flesh as an obstacle to truly allowing God to work in and thru us lately - and I have posted about that in several posts recently in regards to my own flesh.  Oh I want so much for the impurities to be removed to be able to stand before him holy and ready to do whatever it is he asks.    To come to a place where fear is gone and complete trust is present. 

This morning in Sunday school (Genesis 26) was about Isaac and Abimelech...where Isaac basically repeated the same sin his father Abraham had years before...saying that Rebecca was his sister instead of his wife.  It boiled down to the same thing - Fear.  And the thing that stood out to me from this lesson was that Fear leads to Compromise which leads to Sin.... or you could look at it in the positive aspect - Trust leads to steadfastness which leads to Holiness!  So what do we do with the fear?  Well we need to deal with it, confess it, repent from it - choose to trust God...wait on Him...and the blessing will come.  Staying in our fear will only lead to sin.  And as it says in 2 TImothy 1:7  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  And if God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, you know who it's coming from...so this is when we need to put into practice James 4:7 and 8 - Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

How many times have I given in to my fears?  How many times have I compromised? Sigh... I have always been a fearful person it seems and I sure that compromise has unfortunately been like "second nature" (UGH!), but I am learning to trust Him more and more these days and I pray that I will more readily recognize the tendency for compromise and truly reject the idea of compromise as an option. 

God has brought us thru SO much over these last few years...a journey into the unknown, a place separated from many friends and loved ones, plunged into an enviornment that was not only unfamiliar but not always family friendly, a journey that brought about financial struggles - a time of emotional, spiritual and physical trials. How can I even think of not trusting him with everything - knowing all that he has done for us...not only with our very survival on this "incredible journey"...but knowing that he has done the ultimate thing for me by giving his life for mine...the very least he deserves is my trust...

But  now, here we are in 2008...and I am sensing that God is really about to stir things up even more...and I was just reminded of this passage in Isaiah 43:18 and 19:

     "Forget the former things;
       do not dwell on the past.

       See, I am doing a new thing!
       Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
       I am making a way in the desert
       and streams in the wasteland.

 Help me to be ready for it...to not dwell on the past, to be smack dab in the middle of the new thing you are doing...that you would make a way in the desert for me...that streams of living water would wash thru my wastelands...making them alive and fresh and indeed new.   You are God and you alone are able and I surrender to your ways!