Kindness Challenge & #21 Days

The Kindness Challenge

&

#21 Days

I'm participating in two challenges simultaneously. The Kindness Challenge is a 14 day event. 14 acts of kindness in a 14 day period. Actually, if you follow the instructions, it will be MORE than 14 acts of kindness, because some of the acts are multiple in nature. Here's my progress so far:

The Woman at the Well

"Well" (cc) Neil, via Flikr

Don't you just love God's Word? I am so blessed to attend a church where the ministers listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit and teach from scriptures I've read and heard hundreds of times before -- but from a new perspective.

Take the Woman at the Well, for instance. I always connected with this story from a sense of being ashamed of the mistakes I've made in my life. If I had met Jesus at the well, what would he have told me about my life? Maybe I haven't had five husbands, but are my "sins" any smaller or greater than hers?

Sunday night I was given a new way to look at this story. What if... instead of pointing out the woman's sins, Jesus was actually pointing out her need?

By Thy Words

 

Words (c) ninasauresrex via Flickr.com

"For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." 

~Matthew 12:37

A small passage of scripture, but so packed with meaning! What was Jesus saying here? First, we need to look at this in context. Jesus had just performed an exorcism, casting a devil out of a man who was blind and dumb. The man was healed, and instantly, we see the two types of people spring into action:  the believers begin praising God and calling Jesus the son of David; the Pharisees begin talking among themselves saying he cast out the devil because he is, in fact, the devil.

Waiting for Isaac

Katrina, Courtesy of NASA

Have you ever seen those Christians who, like Nancy Kerrigan, ask "Why me?" When disaster strikes? Something inside me wants to ask, "Who would you rather this had happened to?"

I understand the questioning. There have been times in my life that it seemed I was hit simultaneously on all fronts with problems, disasters and heartache. And I will also be honest and admit that there have been times when I have wondered why. Not that I believed God brought these problems into my life, I know He's a good God and that anything evil doesn't come from Him. But I would wonder why He allowed them. I would give Him my best Nancy Kerrigan prayer through my tears and ask "Why me?" as if I thought someone else was more deserving of sorrow and pain and struggle than I was. 

Take No Thought

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking though can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to  morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knowest that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."~Matthew 6: 25-34

Take no thought... It's important to realize what Jesus is saying here. He isn't telling us not to think ahead, he isn't telling us not to plan for the future. The word "thought" in this passage is the Greek word merimnaō which means to be anxious about, or worry. What Jesus is telling us is that God has my back, he's watching over me, he will provide for me, he is my Jehovah Jireh.

I See Rain, Lots and Lots of Rain

(Laughing in the Rain (c) Greything via Creative Commons @ Flickr.com)

Walking by faith. It's sometimes easier said than done. I love my church. Have I said that lately? I don't go to one of those "feel good" kind of churches that perks you up so that you can have a good attitude for a week and then come back for a refill when the feeling wears off.

We have some light messages, but the vast majority of them are designed to convict you and point you in the direction of living more Christ-like and less narcissistic and selfish. The lessons are also heavily centered on responsibility -- personal responsibility for your circumstances, and responsibility as a steward for everything you have dominion over, which would be... well, everything if I read the creation story right.

Roaring Like a Lion

(Roar (c) iam_photography flickr.com Creative Commons License)

My God's not dead, He's surely alive

He's living on the inside, roaring like a lion.

Catchy tune, but some questionable lyrics. 

I has been my pleasure since Friday night to attend the Supernatural Lifestyle Conference with Kevin Dedmon. There is one more session in a couple of hours at the Fellowship of Christians here in Russellville, Arkansas.

I had never heard of Kevin Dedmon before, and I don't attend FOC regularly. But, they frequently host some extraordinary events, and this is another one of them. I haven't noticed a single thing Kevin Dedmon has said that doesn't line up with God's Word. If I had, I wouldn't have attended every session. 

This definitely is not one of those conferences where you sit back in comfortable anonymity, take notes, and get educated. This is experiential, hands on, in your face training in spiritual warfare.