under the shadow of our steeple

Does Anybody Hear Her? Can anybody see?

Recently I made a video slide show for a friend who got her self into a really bad spot in life and was "drowning" so to speak. she made some serious mistakes and was now paying for them dearly. the song i used was called "does any body hear her" by Casting Crowns. One of the lines is.

Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?Or does anybody even know she's going down today? Under the shadow of our steeple, With all the lost and lonely people. Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me. Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?

She came home after her time away and asked for help to get back where she needed to be, to be forgiven by her family, friends and most importantly God. Much to my dismay there were very few who jumped at the chance to help this woman regain her life or even acknowledge her anymore. It was like an old testement ostersizing of a leper. One of the other lines that i really liked from the song was:

If judgment looms under every steeple. If lofty glances from lofty people, Can't see past her scarlet letter then we've never even met her.

One of the main foundations of Chrisitanity is Forgivness. God will only forgive us if we forgive others. "Judge not, lest ye be judged." This person is in a fragile state and needs reassurance and kindness. Granted she hurt some people but when asked how many times should i forgive my brother God said "seventy seven times seven times" I think He would be appauled at the state of "some of" our churches. We are all called to make disciples, love our neighbors and be exibits of Christ in our lives. I highly doubt if a woman in this position came to Him and repented, trying to change and asked for understanding that He would ignore her and walk away.

Now not everone is cut out for exuberant sympathy or care giving but at the very least we are to be kind. If someone has wronged you or one of your friends you have every right to be upset, even maybe a bit angry but we are not to hold onto that. You don't have to like them, go for coffee or hang out but you do have to forgive. If the person is making an effort we need to accept that and pray for them and do whatever we can to help. To turn your back on someone in need is to be the opposite of Christ and we know who that is. No one is not worthy of compassion. Jesus took in tax collectors, killers and prostitutes and helped them to be what God wanted them to be, to live a life for Christ is to strive to be like Him. We can't to that by talking behind backs, making snide remarks, being unforgiving, unkind, cold hearted or indifferent. God is an all or nothing kind of guy. He expects our very best all the time no matter what.

If someone comes to you or your church and they are repentent, and seeking to be changed and need help it is our DUTY as Christians to help them in what ever way we are able, even if the only thing we can do is say a kind word and tell them you will pray for them. Let us build up our nation to be a Godly one by starting in our own churches! Far to often good people make bad desitions and without our help and understanding they will remain lost. God wants us all, we are all sinners and no sin is greater than any other. goosip, slander, cursing, infidelity, murder and down right cold heartedness are all equal sins in Gods eyes. Not one person is sinless. not one person more valuable in His eyes. Every single person on the face of the earth that repents, askes for forgivness, believes and tries to change is accepted by our Father, and should be accepted by us as well.

God is good, Thank you Father for accepting me with all my faults, for helping me to turn from my sinful ways, and for forgiving me as i try to forgive others. Without your guidance and love we would all be lost sheep looking for our shepard. I thank you that you used your servants to find me when i wasn't sure how to find you.

Praising His glorious name,

Leanne

PRAISE THE LORD

Tonight was by far the best night of my life. My two wonderful (most of the time) teens accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour. My daughter told me she had some questions that she thought she would like to ask our pastor. We went over and visited for quite some time and she up and asked how she could know it was real, how she could be sure God was real, how she could be sure the bible was real. by the time he was done talking she was a blubbering mess. She said i think i want to be in "the family". We all bowed are heads and pastor lead her in the salvation prayer. He, his wife, myself and two of our closest friends were all weeping. my daughter then said "hey guess what? i am now adopted too." (to our friend that was adopted...twice *smile*) She said she was adopted into the family of God . when we got home and she was telling her brother what she had done he said that he had said the prayer and asked God into his heart at Promise Keepers (a mens retreat) a month ago and never thought about mentioning it, I told him in the bible it says to confess with your mouth you are a believer, so off we drove to the pastor again. (he is a very open man and doesn't ever mind to much our continual pop ins) He told my son it wasn't a done deal until he signed on the dotted line and to do that he must confess so my son, right in the same chair my daughter had sat an hour before told us all that he was a son of God and was a believer, that he had confessed his sin and asked Christ into his life. WOW what an absolute blessing. Praise the Lord. God said " Rejoice with me for I have found my lost sheep" what a day to rejoice! 2 for the price of one... literally. Thank you Father for giving your son so that we could all live. I was telling my kids in jest that tonight my prayers would be simple because i didn't have to pray for their salvation and they both asked me to make sure i still kept praying for them. They both told me they were sorry for the way they had been acting latley (things have been ruff esspecially with my son) and told me that they would be praying God help them to be a little more like Him.

With a joy so deep in my soul,
Leanne

Youth Outreach

When I think of a youth ministry I think of a group of adults doing everything in their power to bring our youth to Christ. In order to do that I believe that NO youth should be excluded from that. It is all too often (not just with youth) that people are un-willing to witness and lead people who are a bit "different" or have a "past" to Christ. It is the really wayward kids we need to be reaching. Everyone always says that outreach starts at home with our mothers, children, siblings. Our church is our family and it is a very extended one at that. Every person in the entire world is our relative in God’s eyes and therefore deserving of the same respect.
We are called to be fishers of men. God didn’t say "hey go out and fish for only people you would like to be around, only fish for those that are clean and proper and act accordingly." If that were the case we wouldn’t need outreach at all. If you jump down a teens throat and tell them they can’t be doing this or that they will leave, Get them in and let God sort them out. If someone had told me when i was seeking "you can’t smoke and you can’t swear and you can’t do this and you can’t do that" I would have NEVER, come back to church and I am not a teen. But with a little open mindedness and compassion and seeing first hand how a true Christian lived their lives I came around and gradually am becoming more and more like what God wants me to be. God is working out all the kinks with me; it is not people telling me I am doing everything wrong that works. The best witness is a life lived for Christ. I believe we should be patient and kind and nurturing, sneaking in the great lessons every new Christian needs in a non threatening manner. Letting the kids know that some things are not appropriate with out being too judgemental. Remember that God tells us not to judge unless we want to be judged ourselves. We need to grow our churches and our youth groups but are we are doing everthing we can to ensure that happens? I think God would be disappointed in some of us that we are not doing EVERYHTING in our power to get as many youth to come to Him as we can. What makes one youth’s salvation more important than another’s? Their attendance at church? It is the ones that don’t attend church that really need us. It is the un-saved that need us most. We need to still nurture and help the ones that attend regularly but not spreading the word of our Lord to every single person that will listen is undermining God’s command for us. I pray that in the future we are all a bit more eager to make sure that the word of God is not reserved for those who have already heard it. There is a wonderful church in the states that is doing amazing outreach to young adults that would never have the opportunity to hear God's word. They are going to the punk and metal shows and preaching the word. They are getting down into the gritty underbelly of the lost and pulling people, quite literally, from the fire. we could all use alittle of there compassion ( even if we aren't all tattooed and pierced)
Click the picture below to see a video of this amazing group of individuals in action

God exceptes everyone who is willing to change their lives for Him, believe and repent. Even the ones that are messy, unkempt and raw around the edges. I implore you to take a good look around your community, at the youth that you cross the street to avoid and try to turn your head from them while thinking of them as God's lost sheep. They are going to die and you could save them! "Come to me and I will make you fishers of men"

EXTINCTION...

I was recently sitting in the car waiting for a friend as she picked up her little ones from daycare. I sat and watched a group of 20 or so little tykes all playing in the confines of a little fenced in playground. They ranged in age but the majority were between 2-3 years old. at first i thought of how cute they were and then i was struck with sadness. Here in this fenced area being cared for and fed by strangers were our future. Not unlike the endangered animals in a zoo our children are also endangered.

The values and morals of our youth are in jeopardy. I did some research online and was looking for news articles involving youth. In 2008 the top ten headlines involving our kids were related to school shootings, drunk driving and kids being arrested for a variety of offences from trafficking narcotics, videotaping teens beating another teen, and gang violence. I searched then for top headlines from the the 40's and 50's, the articles involving youth were scarce the ones i did come across involved sports, the occasional rowdy crowd loitering around, screaming trying to glimpse a famous musician and one or two in regards to truancy levels.

This saddens my heart. Since the days of stay at home moms, bread winning men, and God in our schools has passed on, it has made way to divorces, single parents having to work, feminism and the need for over crowed daycare facilities. This has transformed our teens futures in to a bleak reminence of social morality.

our mothers instead of marching there kids back to the store they stole from and demanding the owner make them work it off are now covering up for them and making excuses so they don't have to deal with it right before there shift starts.
instead of taking pride in preparing a meal and eating as a family we are ordering out and watching TV. pushing the ever important conversation out the window to make way for more reality TV, instead of taking interest in our families we choose to watch someone elses on the screen.

Juvenile detention facilities are reaching there max and new ones are being constructed as we speak to house all our misguided and neglected youth. Just as the Siberian Tiger is pushed to extinction due to our over consumption of the worlds natural habitats our teens are being pushed to self destructive extinction due to our under consumption of all the things we are meant to be doing. Our youth need to be heard, fed, talked to, nurtured, disciplined and loved. God said

• "Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul." - Proverbs 29:17


• " Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged." - Colossians 3:21


• "The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction." - Proverbs 16:21


• "Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." - Proverbs 3:3


• "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.' And he worshiped the LORD there." - 1 Samuel 1:27-28


• "children are a gift of the Lord..." Ps. 127:1-5


• "poverty and shame will come to him who neglects discipline" - Prov. 13:18


• "discipline your son while there is hope, and do not desire his death" - Prov. 19:18


• "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." - Prov. 22:6


• "fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." - Eph. 6:4

Everyone always says i wish kids came with an instruction manual... well guess what? they did... It is called the Bible, it was given to us as an instruction manual to life. There are many more references in the Bible pertaining to child rearing, being good wives and husbands, how to live each day for our Saviour and most importantly how to get to be saved! If you haven't read it you should, all the answers to lifes toughest questions can be found there.

Lets get our world back on track and save our youth from the devastating effects of extinction! pick up the BOOK today it WILL save your childs life!!!!

with many prayers for our future,

Leanne

Church... or something like it!

~ I had the pleasure of meeting a new couple this week who are searching for God, answers and a church. I invited the couple to attend a service at my church so they could see if they liked it. I was asked to give a small testimony at this study (where we met) and much to my own surprise found my self talking about how important church was to me. i have always been the one to tell people " I am a firm believer that you don't need church to be a Christian" which you don't as long as you don't forsake the meeting together in His name. Well until i started talking and sharing i didn't realize just how important my church was to me.

I started to talk about how i was saved at an Alpha Meeting some 6 years ago and how since then i had been nurtured and cared for spiritually by some members of our congregation. How the Sunday Services helped to keep my focus on Him not me during the following week. How my church was an extended family. They are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Some feel like parents and grand-parents, imparting wisdom, others like wacky younger siblings whom i try to mother, but all in all they are my family. God says that when we come to Him and accept Jesus as our saviour the Holy Spirit comes to reside in us making us part of the family. Nickey Gumbel - who does the Alpha videos - says when we are "saved" we are adopted by God and into His family of infinite believers. Wow, i have a big family!

So while you may not NEED church to be a Christian i would have to say that being a Christian would not be the same without it. God wanted us to gather together in His name, to worship, praise and teach. A building does not a church make. whether you are in a house, an old victorian church, a modern warehouse style building, a school gym or as in the picture above shows an inflatable church for mobile services (*smile*) it is not the building that matters. God is in it if we are. A church is any group of believers whose purpose is to love, teach, comfort, make disciples and spread the gospel, and i would not want to make this journey without the love, support and guidance of my church family.

Father, I praise your name and thank you earnestly for adopting me into your family. For gifting me with a body of believers that i can call on. Thank you for the support of other Christians. Please put it on my heart Lord to BE the example i have SEEN, to others who are searching for a family or may be just signing the adoption papers now. I pray your blessing on all my family in all the world today and always. In Jesus name, Amen

Praising his name

Leanne