Back to Blogging

It's been a long time. I guess there are many excuses...not inspired, spiritual drained, self-pity, and the list goes on and on. But I'm back. I will be making a point to blog at least once a week...maybe more. So what's been going on since my last blog? I guess you could say I've been in a spiritual funk. Lots of things have attributed to this state of being. God is teaching me reliance on Him is the only way to overcome and have victory! So I hope this encourages you today to step back and allow God to take control. Here are my thoughts...actually written by Dr. Charles Stanley.

The Spirit-Filled Life
1 John 2:3-6
There was a time when I was so disheartened that it made me wonder whether I should remain in the ministry. How could I tell people that Jesus would give them peace and joy when I felt discouraged by my own failure to be godly? I understood what "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22-23) meant but was never sure which of those qualities, if any, would be apparent in me from day to day.
God let me stew in my anxiety until I was fully committed to finding out if His Word was true or not. I encountered my answer in a biography of Hudson Taylor, the founder of China Inland Missions. For a long time he, too, felt that his efforts fell short of the Lord's expectations. Then Taylor discovered that God wanted believers to take His promises literally. So when Jesus said to abide in Him, He meant that His followers were to stop striving and struggling. Instead they were to trust Him to subdue their flesh.
As a child, I was taught that a person got saved and then went to work for God. You did the best you could to act godly, think right, and speak wisely. When your best wasn't good enough, well, you tried harder. Such an impossible expectation was wearing me out. This idea of letting Jesus Christ work through me sounded both biblical and liberating.
A grape branch doesn't bear fruit because of its determined efforts to get sunshine; rather, it simply abides in the vine, and fruit appears. The vine does all the work. In the same way, believers are to be in union with their Savior so that spiritual fruit can grow in their life.

God has continually used great men and women of faith to encourage and strengthen me...Dr. Charles Stanley, C.S. Lewis, Joe Alain, Neal Green, John Temple, Max Lucado, David Jeremiah, Tracey McFearin, Kenny Crow, Lucille O'Neal and you can probably include your name to the list. But I'm not looking for encouragement today. God is taking care of that. I'm looking for you to share your struggles and how God has revealed Himself to you through them. Let's be encouragers to each other as we serve together, worship together and walk this path together. It's then that we truly experience "Worship That Inspires"!

On a side note, it has been great to see God moving and lives changing in our worship at Hebron Baptist Church. Let's keep praying for His Spirit to move and for inspired worship as we meet each week.