Bloggers,
Do you know the purpose for your life? Is God the "CEO" of your life today? Has He always been the "CEO" since you gave your life to Jesus and buried with Him into His death where His blood washed away your sins and raised in the newness of life clothed in heavenly dwelling? Will He still be the "CEO" of your life tomorrow and for eternity? I certainly hope so! Really! I wished I had the simple, "A to Z's Guide To Living The Lord's Will". Alot of us may be stuck in a rut now that we're not progressing toward spiritual maturity. If you're eager to begin, today, to growing deeper into the spiritual realm of God, you just have to surrender your will to God! I didn't say it would be easy but it will be painful! You're holding on to something that seems to fulfill your craving for something... It's only temporary! Here are a couple of things I recommend each of you to do:
1. Ask God to help you find His purpose for your life and to do His will.
2. Do a "relationship prayer" which means a moment-by-moment conversation with God.
3. Commit it all to God - it's either you're to commit your all or you don't. There's no middle ground. You're either on one side or the other.
4. Devote yourselves to serving the Lord.
5. Examine how you worship God (daily and on Sundays) - I am personally struggling to learn how we, as a family of God, can raise our hearts to God as true worshippers!
6. Focus on the relationships in your life - key memories are with those close to you. Treat them as you want them to treat you.
7. Go deeper with a Christian friend - read Ephesians 3:14ff.
8. Heal broken relationships - didn't Jesus command us to love our neighbors?
9. Keep God's Word in your mind - take His Word and hide it in your heart. The Word of the Lord is the wellspring of your life!
10. Laugh more this year! Celebrate a joyous celebration - of victory and even defeat!
11. Make Bible study a constant habit! I don't care if someone close to you won't be there for Bible study! It's not about them, it's about YOU! This is another weak area of the Lord's ministry at Fairfax. We're looking for debate, producing quarrels, expressing our differences, not learning to live and living to learn!
12. "Nip temptation in the bud!" Temptation is one of the "greatest spiritual killers" out there! They're actually "serial killers" moving from one Christian subject to another in the speed of light. Similar to #11, a Christian friend tells another Christian friend he/she doesn't feel like going to bible study, then immediately the same "temptation poison" invaded his/her soul and he/she will do likewise! Powerful ammo Satan has!
13. Open your heart to God's surgical maneuvers - Now this is interesting! When you become a follower of Christ, God starts a surgical procedure on you as He forms your heart into His image. Pain is often a sign that Jesus has His surgical knife on your heart. Although it might hurt for awhile, ultimately, it is a part of God shaping your heart. Take stock of the pain and trials in your life right now and allow God to use them to transform you. Transformation is and will always be painful! That's one important Christian aspect that many Christians fail to do: continuing change!
14. Pitch in and help out at church - if you're seeing something that needs to be done within the Lord's church, get involved. Don't wait for others to do it. Perhaps, God is calling you to serve Him!
15. Search for your God-given SHAPE! Find out what God has given you to serve Him.
16. Test your God-given SHAPE!
17. Understanding God's global plan - just has Christ came into the world to save sinners, He ask that we go into the world and show Jesus to our friends, families and co-workers.
18. eXpress the good news in your action and words! Talk is El Cheapo! Capisce?! We're to be doers of the Word, not only hearers of the Word! Respect your leaders! Open your hearts to God's call to carry out His good news within your community!
19. Yield your rights to help lead a person to Christ - If you only lead people to Christ on your terms, you aren’t living up to your biblical responsibility. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul tells us that we must forfeit even what we consider rights so others might come to know Christ. Take a look at the list of people in your life that need a life-changing relationship with God. What will you have to give up to see them make that commitment?
20. Zzzz…zzzz…get some rest! - Worshipping, building relationships, growing spiritually, serving and sharing your faith requires a rested soul!
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We're going to make some changes this Fall to allow God to work in our life and the lives of others. You may notice that I have been sending out FDM Updates via email but since it's taking up alot of my time and energy, I have decided to eliminate that from my weekly agenda because the website (www.fxcc.org/deaf) has all the information and is (almost) always updated! If you do not take the time to visit our website, you're not keeping yourselves up-to-date of the events at the church. Though, the information may appear to remain unchanged, you're still informed of the current events. So I will be sending Cario the updates to add to the website. I have learned that some of you do not read my FDM updates and were, after arriving the church building, surprised to learn of the changes of plans, etc. It does show that both the website and FDM updates have not been read.
In addition to the changes, we have decided that the Winter newsletter will be the last "printed" newsletter in effort to save $ and trees as well as time. We're going to devote our time and energy to a more "visual" news which will be on the website such as verse of the week in ASL, testimonials, short clip of the services and people, Q&A's, news & future events in ASL and more. We're trying to provide for the church and our community in the best, visual way as possible. If you have any suggestions, add a comment to this.. Thanks!
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This weekend is Deaf Band of Brothers (Deaf Men's Retreat)!!! It will be our first deaf men's retreat and we're excited.. Our speaker remains "classified" and we're really anxious to have him here!! There are great topics relating to the "Band of Brothers" theme!! We'll have a blast for God!
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Today, I had a wonderful conversation with a dear brother in Christ of mine over lunch. We talked about alot of things surrounding the deaf work here in the D.C. area. We talked about the all the positive(s) and negative(s) comments made toward the deaf work at Fairfax. The negative comments reflected on the church as a whole. In effort to tackle the "negatives" (though, problems/negatives should be our "friend" in effort to help us "mature"), we asked several questions:
When a person gives negativity toward the Lord's church, we want to help them turn their "negative" response to a more "positive" understanding:
1. We asked what that "person" can do for the Lord among His people?
2. Are they seeking to "please themselves" rather than seeking a church that "pleases God"?
3. Could they be rushing to "judge" others? (Not everyone expresses their spiritual fire in an outward manner! Some or more of them express it from the very core of their heart in a quiet way.)
4. Have they taken their time to "examine" all that's going on to determine if it's Scriptural?
5. Have they made an "appointment" with a minister or elder asking questions and seeking answers to their puzzling concerns in how we give God the glory?
6. What's the "age-identity" of the church (young professionals, married, elderly, college, etc.)?
7. Are they "comparing" from the previous church (worship) they attended from the worship we give to God? (instrumental church, emotional church, equally "age-identity" group, etc.)? Each church is unique in its own group. There's no perfect church, no matter its size! This is similar to when a spouse of yours passed on from this life and you marry another spouse. Then you tell your "new spouse" that your "beloved, deceased spouse" did not (....) (behave, do, react, speak) this way. Well, the "new spouse" is "not" the same as the "beloved, deceased spouse. Each spouse is "unique" as his/her own. Of course, it's easy to compare but dangerous because they provide you a "stumbling block"! Read the story about the "wineskins" in the gospel.
If you've visited Fairfax once or twice, you may not really know us and we do not know you! Give us time to get to know you and take time to get to know us.
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Now, as for "worship", we're praying that the Lord will provide each of you the heart of a "true worshipper" to worship God in Spirit and Truth! Be praying for us as we lead the Lord's children at Fairfax and within our community to God that each of us are able to respond by coming forward to give God the glory!
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