Pianos, Seeds, Dolls and Figurines.......

So many times we pray and we have an expectation. We send up a few words, we talk to the Lord about our burning desire, our passion for this prayer request, we pray fervently, we wait and 15 minutes later (yes I am being facetious but only partially) or 3 weeks or 3 months, the fervor dies out. Sometimes we wonder what happened. We make excuses. We eventually forget about it. So much so that often we forget we prayed. (and doesn't that imply that we also forget to be grateful?)

How many seeds of prayer do you have planted that have not happened---YET? Just like any seed in the dirt you can leave it to the birds of the air, the ground animals the elements or you can nurture it, water it, care for it and reap a harvest from it.

I hear a lot of Christians say, when they don't get a quick answer to their prayers, that God said, "NO". Did he? Where is the scripture for that? I do know that if you do not receive about what you pray about then you may be praying “amiss”. BUT, even when Israel prayed against God’s direct wishes and they cried out for a king, God asked them to reconsider but He still granted their prayers. Isn't that what free will is about? We are not marionettes on a string. Christianity is having a relationship with Christ.

When I was a fairly new Christian I wanted a piano. I asked God for one. That was it, simple. I wanted my kids to learn to read music. I wanted to be able to play it etc. No big warfare, just a simple, “God please bring me a piano.”

Two years later a friend was moving and she asked me if I wanted a piano. She brought it over. It was an antique, upright, oak, cast iron insides (read that HEAVY) piano. I started saving money to get it tuned up. The problem was that a week later I got the approval to start my Masters in Durant. I started packing everything I owned, getting rid of this and that. I realized God loved me and he would always hear and answer my prayers but did I really want to play the piano? Did I really want a piano to be responsible for? Did I really want to spend all that money for tuning and lessons? (Did I even have all that money?) Not really. Did I even have enough room in the truck? No. So I had to find someone who wanted a piano.

I did not think that through when I prayed. It was a whim and yet God answered my prayer. God will answer YOUR prayers. It might not be today but He will answer. 

When Jenny was little they started making Precious Moments. She loved them. They were limited editions and expensive for this single mom. I got her one, someone else bought her the one of the puppies in the cart. I bought her another. Someone got her the doll and so on. She never had many. They were the only valuable “thing” she ever had.

We got an antique shelf to put them on. It fit in a corner. She loved it. Then one night when we had a small earthquake. It fell and they all broke. She was upset but very Jen-like. I was upset, I cried out to God. I could not replace these. This was not right and so on. God, I need to replace these.

I prayed out of compassion for my daughter. I prayed with fervor. I prayed through tears of loss. Through hurt for her. Sounds kinda goofy but these represented the sacrifice one will make for their child. They represented a lot of emotionally-tied things. She never got another one. Every time I am in a store and see them I think about how much she loved them.

I didn't really expect Him to any replace them anymore. She is grown. She has children of her own. Her oldest is getting married. It is past the season I am sure…..

BUT GOD…..

Yesterday someone gave me 2 HUGE tubs of Precious Moments’ dolls, figurines, etc. still in the boxes. Perfect mint condition. Abundantly above what I could ask or even think—much less hope for. The lady who gave them to me was probably not even born when Jenny’s fell and broke.

BUT GOD…..

Intercession and prayer are more than we expect. Once you set things in motion the heavenlies are at work to bring it to pass.

What does this have to do with intercession?

This IS intercession. 

Come Fly With Me.....

I was sitting in an airport. I have traveled a fair amount so this is not an unusual thing. I love to travel so I cannot decide if God called me to be a missionary because He knew I would love to travel or if I love to travel because I am called to be a missionary. Really doesn’t matter though I think it is the latter.

My normal routine is to get off the plane, walk for an hour or so, find a place to eat, get on the internet (if I can and in some airports I cannot), play catch up and use that to “people-watch”. I love to watch people. I use those observations to pray for the different ones God shows me. Just a favorite pastime of mine. And again, I don’t know if I love to sit and people watch because I like to pray or if my heart is moved to pray because of what I see when I people watch. Unimportant I suppose but just some of the things that make me wonder. This day I saw so many odd things in such a short time I was a little overwhelmed.

I headed to the sushi place but when I got in line I felt the Lord tell me to go to McDonald’s. Now McDonalds is not my favorite by a long shot and I AM in Japan so sushi sounded perfect to me but I got out of line and headed to Mickey D’s. Filet of fish is always my order so I stood in line watching how differently things are done here. Very polite. No crowding. VERY fast. Everything a little different. There was a Japanese family sitting next to me (same table even—I AM in Japan).

The husband and the 2 boys were about done eating and the mom had just started. The dad was an angry man but that is not really unusual either. The oldest son said something to the dad and the dad threw the phone at him, chewed him out—the kid had that slow heat that creeps up someone’s neck when they are embarrassed and it is turning to rage. I was praying for the whole family. The mom tried to defuse, the dad was having none of it, threw a fit and stomped off. The boys cleaned up the dad’s mess and followed the mom--who was still trying to eat—chase after the dad.

My heart broke for that boy. It took everything I had not to say something, to intervene and yet I have been in an abusive relationship. It would not have helped. At one time anger—that red rage that takes over your actions controlled my life. It would not have helped. So I did the one thing I knew would benefit all of them. I prayed. I prayed for the boy NOT to grow up abusive like his dad. I prayed for the family to get saved. I prayed for the dad to come to his senses. I prayed.

As soon as they left I started to eat and realized there were 2 groups of Americans a few tables away. They were all from different areas of the south. One group was 6 young 20’s, the other was a family of 5. The husband of the family talked in total animation to the youngsters. They discussed so much: travels, food, airports, activities, prices of things and so on…..As I listened I realized they were doing what so many Americans do when they travel. They were putting down thing after thing in Japan. I was embarrassed. Nothing was good enough. They were loud and mocking about the country they were visiting. Apparently everything is better in the US which makes me wonder why they came to Japan for a vacation.

I knew the Lord had me here for a reason—after all I gave up sushi for this. So I listened. One of the 6 came back from getting a soda refill and one of the girls in the group asked him if they charged him full price for it (of course they did—apparently they haven’t traveled much). His comment was “I have got to get out of this dump and get too a real country.”

Dump? Did he even bother to look around at the beauty of this country? Did he miss the gentle, polite people who live here? Did he notice the delicate beauty of all the art? 

Did he use one of their world-famous toilets for Pete’s sake?

panel on Japanese electronic toilet

As I sat and wondered how they missed the beauty of Japan I heard the Lord talk to me about the world He created. People complain about everything. Christians complain. Have you noticed the beauty surrounding you? Have you seen the delicate beauty of the flowers blooming in the spring? The intricacy of the seasons? The rushing mountain streams? The expanse of sky when you top a hill? The delicacy of the white clouds hanging in the blue sky? How about that gentle feeling of the rain when he falls? The smell of fresh cut grass?

We are in this world and not supposed to act like everyone else but allow ourselves to be transformed by the word. Does the “world” hear you complaining about everything? Do you sound JUST like the world? Do you cause people to wonder if you are REALLY a Christian and if so why did you bother since you are so miserable?

Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

What does this have to do with intercession?

Go on a “complaining” fast. Watch how it changes your outlook and attitude. Use that change to intercede for the ones who are still in negative mode. Pray the positive, declarative, informative word of God not the whiny, complaining begging that does no good but makes you feel like you did something.

It is time to step into our callings intercessors……

Why Did You Get Married????

How is your marriage? Are you at odds with each other or do you support and encourage each other? Have you fallen into the trap that marriage is to make you feel good about yourself? Do you task your spouse with the responsibility of making you happy? Do you treat your spouse with less respect than your boss? Your close friends? Your mom/dad?

Marriage is a covenantal union designed to enhance and strengthen the capacity of both partners to carry out God’s plan in their lives.

Malachi 2:13-14 (NIV)

Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.

Strongholds show up in marriages when the partners no longer realize that marriage is a covenant. How about you? Some people have no idea what a 

covenant even is!

If you are having marital problems revisit the definition of a covenant:

cov·e·nant

Noun: an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or 

not do something specified.

Law: an incidental clause in such an agreement.

Ecclesiastical: a solemn agreement between the members of a church to act 

together in harmony with the precepts of the gospel.

Bible: the conditional promises made to humanity by God, as revealed in Scripture.The agreement between God and the ancient Israelites, in which God 

promised to protect them if they kept His law and were faithful to Him.

In summary: Biblical covenants are spiritually binding legal arrangements that God makes between Himself and His people. Covenants have 5 main ingredients:

1. the rulership of God
2. the alignment established by God
3. the boundaries of the covenant that God has laid out
4. the blessings and curses that are attacked to the rules
5. the long-term inheritance of a covenant

The things I hear the most when there are marital problems are the “Gifts of accusation and suspicion”. Guess what? Those are not from God!

Marital conflicts are a spiritual issue.

Ephesians 6:10-13 ¹⁰ Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.  

Your spouse is not your enemy. We need to realign our thoughts in keeping with God’s viewpoint of a covenantal marriage. When we do adhere to God's definition and viewpoint of marriage, death and destruction invade the marriage….the result is NOT the reason we got married.

Marriage is a covenant not a social contract. It is not based according to our viewpoint, our emotions, our feelings at the moment. It is based on God’s rules for covenantal relationship. God should be the one ruling in each marriage—not Satan. Simple choice actually.

What does this have to do with intercession?

He is coming for a Bride. He told us to be faithful in little so He could give us much. Are you faithful in your marriage covenant? 

Let’s concentrate on praying for marriages. It will bring healing to hearts, strengthen the body of Christ and open the way for His return to a faithful house!

Are You Learning Anything????

Do you ever wonder how you learned something? For instance, how did you learn to walk? Whether you remember or not, someone taught you. Did you have a favorite teacher? Ever have an “aha” moment? Remember who was teaching you when that happened?

I have a love of books and reading. I learned that from my mom. I have no memory of learning that love from her. I did though. I know she read to me a lot because I do remember trying to imitate her. She taught me by example. She read (and still does) voraciously!

We learn a lot subconsciously. Movies, TV, magazines—we learn by what is presented to us, what is modeled. When I was a child it was “cool” to smoke. I knew it was “cool” because everyone who was “cool” smoked. Actors, singers, people on TV, in movies, at concerts, people I admired. Did someone I know teach me? No, but I learned. I also learned to quit—a slightly different process.

What are you learning? As we “age” in Christ often we become more and more like the world. How about you? 

Habakkuk 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;

Psalm 101:3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

This is a season where people are falling away. It is also a season where the Church is being divided between the sheep and the goats. People are becoming weary in well doing and walking away from anything hard. Intercessors are not walking in the integrity they once did.

There is so little consistency in Christianity that seeing the hurt hearts gasp at the love of Christ when you tell someone you have been praying for them is heart wrenching. 

This is a season where people are falling away. It is also a season where the Church is being divided between the sheep and the goats. People are becoming weary in well doing and walking away from anything hard. 

Intercessors are not walking in the integrity they once did.

There is so little consistency in Christianity that seeing the hurt hearts gasp at the love of Christ when you tell someone you have been praying for them is heart wrenching.

Who is teaching you?

• The world?
• The movies?
• The Holy Spirit?
• Have you compromised your walk?

It is time to pray. Start with yourself. Purify your heart. Clear out any areas of compromise. Energize your tiredness. Renew your enthusiasm. 

Don't let the enemy pick off the body of Christ. The Lord is coming back for a Bride.

Revelation 19:6-8

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like a roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the acts of righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

Are you ready to be given “linen bright and clean to wear”?

It is the season to press in. Bring yourself back to your first love. Get a hunger for righteousness. Pray for the body. It is wounded, bleeding and needing restoration. 

"What's The Point"? Pastor Sally McCarley

Don’t Ya Love It When People Tell You How Wrong You Are?

You know the kind, nothing you do is right. They may be blatant about it, rude even.  But probably bold, letting you know you do not measure up to their standards. Or they may be more subtle, knit picking you to death, small, seemingly unimportant things that apparently grind on them and they need you to change. Talk this way. Act this way. If you say anything you are “moody, emotional”. I have had both used on me. How about you?

How does that work in everyday life?

The thing is you need to know is who you are in Christ. Who does He say you are? Nothing else really matters. Those little “irritants” to others may be things that need refining but are not a reflection on your value as a Christian. Paul addresses these problems within the church and therefore offering a guideline for your life.

Paul went through the same things.

1 Corinthians 1:26-2:8 (NIV)

²⁶ Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him. ³⁰ It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

2 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ² For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

The church stands corrected.

The Corinthians are worried about potential impending splits and Paul tells them to go back to the simplicity of the cross. Christ chose very simple things to glorify the Father. Do not complicate the simplicity of the cross.

Paul starts in I Corinthians 1:26 letting us know it doesn't matter how wise we are, how influential we are, or how wealthy we are—it is all fruitless.  Verse 31 of that same chapter lets us know that if we are going to boast we need to boast in the Lord.

Missionaries go into a lot of new areas. So do you. Work. School. Shopping. Friends’ homes. Intercession. When you go into a place the culture has to change to the word not the word to the culture. This is such a hard concept.

The church has tried to do it the other way for centuries. The church tries to appeal to the “sensibilities” and “traditions” of the local area. Did Jesus do that or did He show the purity of truth? Culture becomes more important than Christ. Don’t market the gospel for profit, just present the truth and watch it stand on its own. Don’t shove truth down people’s throats.  Live the love of Christ and let that love draw men. Present the gospel, pray, plant seed, water or cultivate and let the people decide. Let the love of Christ draw them.

Do not coerce them.

Do not ­manipulate.

Do not try to convince.

Present the Gospel and get out of the way.

Psalm 1

¹ Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

You are not responsible to get people saved—so often we think “getting someone saved” is an act. It isn't, it is a process. Otherwise it would be like throwing a packet of seeds out in the yard and minutes later having a well cultivated fruit/veggie producing garden—not happening. Anyone who has ever gardened will tell you this is so not happening!

Bringing salvation is a process, a journey that many are involved in.

John 6:37 (NIV)

³⁷ All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

Keep the message of Christ in the forefront of you thought processes, your actions, your words. When people look at you they should see Christ—they should smell the fragrance of life. Your job is not to razzle-dazzle people, not to mesmerize them. They should not be looking at a show about the Christian walk but looking at the fruit. You should not be presenting a show but exhibiting the fruit in your life.

 Jeremiah 9:24 (NIV)

²⁴ but let the one who boasts boast about this:
    that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, 
    justice and righteousness on earth,
    for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.

The purpose of life is to bring people to Christ not entertain them. You may be able to put on a good show but how is the meat of your presentation?

What does all this have to do with intercession? We need to get back to the purity of the cross. We need to pray the distractions of personal agendas and "taught" methodologies along with intelligentsia and the pride of life be ripped away so the clarity of the cross can shine the love of Christ and draw men unto Him. 

Time to pray......

Pastor Sally McCarley "What Was Your Favorite Part Of The Day"?