Mannaword

What a strange title! Yes, but what a precious word. Having allowed, by invitation, the Lord Jesus to live within, then He is always “with.” We are never alone, never isolated, never left out. Now you see why this word is precious.  The Lord’s words, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt.28:20b – NIV 2011) in Matthew are very clear.

When He originally said these words, He was speaking in reference to what is generally called “the great commission.”  He was letting the Apostles know He had all authority (as the risen King) and as they went (not so much a command but an instruction of action that is to govern our goings and comings of life), they were to understand He would empower their obedience to share. His authority and His presence with us is an undeniable power far beyond  human capacity. Now all our “goings” become a “with” and in the “with” they are empowered for what He has said for us to be busy doing – making disciples, baptizing them, teaching them obedience – all this encased in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He never leaves us alone, and He never fails to empower obedience in us. When disobedience occurs, then we have chosen (which He will always allow) to do what He has not chosen. He still stays “with.” We are in covenant and so He is with each one of us for the long haul. Simply put – “with.”

Such love and mercy is beyond my mind’s capability. Yet, I trust. He is “with” me – He is “with” you always. Precious – “with.”

Tonight I am teaching our mid-week service at Church of the Resurrection and I am teaching from Galatians 5. Pastor Lou Giordano (Sr. Pastor) taught a very fine lesson on that passage last week, and I kept seeing things as he went along, and so have chosen to go through it once more and end it with an understanding of the fruit of the Spirit the Lord gave me some years ago.

Romans 10:4 “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” This is fully explained in Galatians 5 where it is made very clear that anything we add to Christ eliminates Christ. In other words, not even something added that God gave in another covenant’s time will work now. Christ has done everything and is everything for us. Nothing we do, or someone else does is to be added to us. He alone is enough.

He has given through the Holy Spirit, all that is needed, righteousness, gifts, fruit, even transformation of mind through the Word and fellowship in the Holy Spirit. One quote my pastor gave was “The Law requires what the Spirit does.” Awesome thought. So tonight we will work with the fact that He is enough and when we walk in the Spirit we will not satisfy the desires of the flesh. These matters will take a bit of time to sink in to our hearts and minds, but the reward of trusting Christ fully is the result.

I just read an excellent post from a fellow blogger that I want to share. Dorcas is ordained through the Assembly of God and is rich in her understanding of the placement of women in the church. Here she is reviewing a book for a publishing house.

I thought my readers might enjoy reading her post. Go to:

http://pastoretteponderings.blogspot.com/

I have changed my theme and put a “header” up from some of my photo’s taken a few years ago. A home near where I lived at the time was awash with such and when the owner noticed me out near the road taking some photographs, he welcomed me into the total yard to click at will. It was beautiful. So I share some of them with you today.

I have a few daffodils blooming and the tulips are nice and green, showing promise of blooms a few weeks away. Well, after all, I do live in Central NY and we have not been  clear of snow for many days and could still have more (shhhh…). So, a few things blooming is wonderful.

Just a brief blog to say Thank you to those of you who have read and followed the conference posts and have let me know you appreciated them. That encourages me. The number of comments on a post in no way reflects the # of folk reading and receiving. You bless me and encourage me.

Our Saturday evening session included not only the worship and the teaching but also a lengthy time of body ministry. So this person was way too tired to continue to post. So I will catch up this Monday morning.

Pictured here are some more of our worship team: Mike and Tina Hook + Tim Stogsdill. Not shown in any of my photos is my husband, Joe. (It is very fine with him not to be seen in the photo’s). He was our bass player for the week-end and our electronic “techie.” Do not know what we would do without him! He is God’s gift to all of us.

On Saturday evening after the worship, Iris taught and we worked with what difference does the knowledge of grace make in our understanding of prayer. Included was an examination of our thought processes about prayer, which is intended to be “communication” with our Lord. How have we formalized it into a “law” expression, instead of an expression of relationship? We looked at this in light of the work of Christ: He has forgiven our sins (2,000) years ago; We are pleasing to God because of the person of Christ – no our own works; His has given us all things for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3) etc… It was interesting to see and to sense the internal processing of all of us. The Lord is so good.

Then we began to pray for one another in light of the good promises of God, instead of our “apparent need.” whether that was for healing or for other items. The praying and rejoicing and receiving went on for several hours. The Lord is so very good in every way and His presence was very warm and heavy among us.

On Sunday morning after a lengthy worship, Lauren taught Grace – The Difference – Worship/The Lord’s Supper. She covered both items, again in the light of Grace and the provisions of the Lord for us that are already in place. It was, once again, a very thought provoking session where we examined our thoughts and customs in the light of revealed New Covenant truth, not returning to the “Ole pitiful-unworthy me thoughts,” but celebration thoughts because of all that our Lord Jesus has accomplished on our behalf – receiving and in thankfulness – rejoicing and remembering He is coming again. Then we shared communion in HIs presence – counting on all His promises.

What a wonderful week-end. Thank you for all who entered it with us in prayer as well as all who were there. We are so grateful for all the Lord accomplished. It was a wonderful Winter Conference!

Rev. Lauren Godfrey taught this morning (after worship with Tonia) presenting us with an understanding of the difference between the “facts” of our lives and the “truth” of God’s word. The facts are circumstantial and often are not what the Word says at all.

She worked with how we choose to perceive our situations determines whether or not we can work with faith in the mix of our lives and all the change and obvious difficulties we are called to live with and in. It was a joy to watch this fine teacher work with how faith works and our responses to our circumstances.

It was an excellent lesson and really appropriate in this theme.

She then invited Rev. Mike and Rev. Tina Hook (Assembly of God missionaries to Scotland ) to join her. She interview them about the various challenges they have and have had in accepting the call of God to become missionaries. They were precious and open in sharing with us their call and their “sharable” trials. We were all enriched and blessed by their sharing.

After some worship, we dismissed for a delicious lunch and to our rooms for rest. Everyone, that is except the Board of Directors who spent about an hour praying and working together. I am so blessed to have such a godly, Holy Spirit  filled Board. Thank you Lord Jesus, for all.

Good Morning All. These are some quick shots of our session in Winter Conference last evening. Tonia Thornton led us (as she will each session) in worship from the piano. What awesome worship! Folk have come to be with the Lord, to hear Him and to enjoy Him as we allow the daily items of our lives to be in the background and we just enjoy His presence and the presence of one another in Him.

I was the speaker and spoken on Grace – The Difference (our theme). The lesson was to review what we have been learning and then to take some conscious steps to implement that into our lives. We have been totally forgiven, totally received, totally enveloped into the fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We please Him because of Jesus Christ in us and are free to live in Him. We worked with the fact that the creation was so the Lord could have fellowship with us. That creates an “us.” The fellowship we have been given is the fellowship of the Trinity and we belong to one another in that fellowship.

Since He will never leave me nor forsake me, I am always in His presence and He always hears my prayers. Now do I just sit with this information and feel good, or do I honor His position, His person, His Word, His instructions by beginning to adapt my life to these truths ? We are here to learn to implement them.

We worked with adjusting (allowing the transformation) of our thoughts and our words. This contains no legalism – just opportunity to walk deeply with the “us,” and counting His work for us as sufficient.

The Lord then showed us that He wants us to “see” some things that taking advantage of the “us” will empower. 1 Corinthians 2:9 reads, “However, as it is written: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ the things God has prepared for those who love him — these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.” We noted that the revelation is already present through the Holy Spirit and it has been given to “us.”

With prayer and some worship in thanksgiving, we dismissed to the food and fellowship time.

Lauren (lady above with guitar) is speaking this morning in an interactive session. More on that later in the day. Bless you.