God is giving me more of a passion to reach out to the neighbors
and share my time and Jesus with them. He is
bringing discipline into my devotional time and showing me
my selfishness and dealing with it. He is showing me that I
don’t have to be in control, that I can trust Him and
He has His plan in all that. He is showing me that I need to
have his goals and write them down; not just lists of things
to get done but have a center focus on Christ and His goal.
God has been reinforcing truths I’ve known about my
purpose and goals. He’s been bringing me back to that
center in Him and calling me to greater discipline. Unlike
in the past, the discipline is a non-religious, guilt-free,
balanced one – not for the sake of fulfilling a duty.
Finding and maintaining balance in life is always an issue
for me – not to be driven but purposeful ;focusing on
the important versus the urgent.
He has increased my desire for Him, to know Him more intimately
and personally and convicting me of my lack of discipline to
do those things which would lead me to this deeper relationship.
Prioritizing my time and energies so that I have more time
with Him to seek His face and listen to Him.
God has connected me, my spouse and son to the body. He has
shown me how valuable and precious each member is. We are able
to see God's presence and His authority in each of our lives
and it brings strength and faith and unity and love. There
is a real love – a sense of family – even belonging.
This is not something I have been able to experience before.
It’s been visible but never
so tangible – personal – it’s
what every member needs. It has made church home to me.
I have a renewed awareness of the need and desire to be propelled
into a more purpose driven life! Processing a lot of things.
Recognizing and letting go. Letting in hope for a fruitful
future. Great accountability partner!! Excited to share with
the family of Christ. Exposure of a need for more of a burden
for the lost through my team.
He has helped me develop a more organized life in Him. I have
also developed a more consistent time in Him.
Recently, Jesus has shown me how I let fear paralyze me in
many areas of my life. I came to realize that this fear was
rooted in pride. I was particularly stricken in relation to
my desire to paint pictures, which is a desire I have possessed
my entire life. I was terrified of a blank canvas. I was afraid
of making a mistake. I realized and admitted to myself that
I will make mistakes – to expect to – because I
am not perfect. Now the fear has lost its power.
I will make mistakes, and it’s alright if I do! I have
also come to realize that in Christ there is always hope because
God has promised to cause all things to work together for my
good because I love Him and am called according to His purpose.
God is transforming my life through His Greenhouse.
More realization that everything is in Him alone.
Through His Greenhouse God has taught me to submit to Him
in greater obedience. When faced with fear and uncertainty,
He
gave me
the grace to submit to Him and obey His leading. This resulted
in His outpouring of blessings in ways I never imagined and
deepened my trust in His faithfulness and a greater experience
of His love.
During His Greenhouse, God has shown me the importance
of fasting and intercessory prayer. Also, He has shown
me how important
each person is in the body of Christ. I realize the vital need
for each person to fulfill what God has called them to do.
Inductive Bible study has opened the Scriptures to me in
a new way. I’ve seen things that I’ve never seen
before in passages that I’ve read a hundred times.
Also God has helped me to pass along to my children the conviction
of needing daily time with God. I’ve wondered in the
past why it was so hard to get my children interested in daily
devotional time, but once it became a habit and a conviction
inside of me, it was the most natural thing in the world to
pass that along to my children.
His Greenhouse has been awesome for me. God has really worked
in my life. First of all was the way God convicted me when
we
did the negative thought patterns study. My two worst areas
were fear and worry. I knew I had problems in those areas,
but I had never confronted them before. But then, there I was;
face to face with reality. I reread the passages in those
two areas and read the antidotal Bible verses. I used to worry
about worrying (yeah, it was that bad), but now I am at ease.
If I start thinking about what will happen two months down
the road, I just hand it to God. God has also given me courage
to step outside my comfort zone and to step toward Him without
fear.
The other part of His Greenhouse that was really beneficial
in my own life was the study on revival. I better understand
what
revival is, and what must happen first in order for revival
to come. I have been praying for revival at my high school
and now I am more burdened for my school, but more prepared.
I know better now what needs to be done. Even though I have
left my high school, I’m still praying for revival.
A Story
Have you ever had a project that seemed to start out small
and then grew larger as time went by? Like the time my father
wanted to put up a basketball hoop and it turned into a whole
new backyard patio. Or when we wanted to add a fireplace and
it turned into a two-story addition to the house. Well let
me tell you about an experience I had recently.
I had seen an advertisement in the local newspaper a few months
ago that sounded interesting: Greenhouse Kit for Sale! Build
Your Greenhouse in just a few weeks. Grow your own Plants for
fun and Profit. All instructions included, Great Return for
Small Investment! Easy Enough for Anyone to Build!!
I thought about it for a while and decided to give it a try,
so I sent off for the Greenhouse Kit. I’m somewhat of
a handyman and after all, everyone likes plants. They would
look nice around my own house and I could give some to the
people around me. How much effort could it take?
A few weeks later, my kit arrived in the mail. The package
wasn’t too large, only about half an inch thick, so I
thought – this won’t be too hard. When I opened
the package, I found that this wasn’t the instructions
at all; it was just the OUTLINE of the instructions. To get
the full instructions, I would have to attend an all-day session
at the local hardware store. Okay, I did seem to remember something
in the ad about a training session or two.
Over the next week, I kept getting repeated notices about
the time of the upcoming session. They seemed particularly
concerned that I be there precisely when the store opened on
Saturday. I decided I had better arrive when they asked.
I went to a room at the back of the store where I met a number
of other people who also wanted to build Greenhouses. We spent
some time discussing general construction techniques and talked
for a while about the One who wrote the instruction manual.
It was clear that knowing Him was a key to building a proper
Greenhouse.
It seems that there is an 800 number you can easily reach
for help with your Greenhouse anytime you need it. Evidently
many people have neglected to use this number. Amazingly, most
people think it has been disconnected, although I have no reason
why they think that. The instruction book clearly states the
number is in fine working order. In fact, it mentions it repeatedly,
so it should not be hard to miss. We were certainly glad to
find out it was available to us.
After we talked about the 800 number, we began to look a little
more closely at the instructions. I realized I had misjudged
the size of the project just a wee bit. Instead of half an
inch, the full instruction manual was over six inches thick
and that was just for the first part of the building. There
were various other building supplies that would be required
as well. This was going to take significantly more effort that
I had realized. As part of the project, we would also need
to meet with other builders to be sure we understood the instructions.
We were each paired up with another builder to help us stay
on schedule and not make mistakes.
Given the size of the project, we would need to watch our
time closely, so we spent a while talking about project schedules,
priorities, and how to manage our time. This information would
come in handy throughout the project.
The first meeting ended later that day and I hauled all the
materials out. Good thing I brought my truck! I wondered a
little about what I was getting into. Despite the fact that
this was much more work than I had bargained for, I was still
excited about building the Greenhouse and started working on
it during the next few weeks.
I knew when the next meeting was coming because I started
receiving flyers in the mail about it. They still wanted us
there by opening time on Saturday and threatened to lock the
doors on anyone who was late. I suppose I could have asked
them to refund my registration fee if they locked me out, but
come to think of it, I didn’t pay any registration fee.
By the time of the next meeting, I had completed some work
on my Greenhouse. Things were beginning to take shape, although
I hadn’t finished all of the instructions. Funny thing
about this Greenhouse – most Greenhouses have to be entirely
complete and finished before you can grow any plants at all.
With this Greenhouse, you start growing the plants and fruit
trees even while you are working on the building. It was nice
to see a few things sprouting up here and there.
The second meeting started much like the first one with everyone
together. We talked about our Greenhouses and what we knew
of the One who had created the Design. Later in the morning,
we talked for some time about the correct way to read blueprints
and instructions. Many people misread the instructions, so
they end up with an unusable Greenhouse, or one that wasn’t
as strong as it could be. Not satisfied with damaging their
own building, some of these people go around telling others
to make the same mistakes.
We saw the importance of taking the time to read and observe
before building. In order to teach us about better observation,
the instructor passed around a bunch of fish. We had to sit
there and look at those fish for what seemed like hours and
hours, then tell people what we saw. It took a while, but by
the time we finished, we knew a lot more about the fish than
we thought was possible at first.
When the day was over, I had another stack of instructions,
almost as thick as the first one. This Greenhouse building
was definitely a lot of work.
Well, several more weeks went by – I kept working on
my Greenhouse, some parts were coming along nicely, other parts
not so well. It was challenging to get everything done and
difficult to arrange the time necessary. According to the instructions,
there were some optional, add-on rooms you could build with
a little more effort. However, I didn’t get to most of
the optional features.
We were still working on our buildings when those flyers in
the mail started again. It was time for the next meeting and
that hardware store was still insistent that we arrive at opening
time. By this time, all of the builders were getting to know
each other a little bit better. We shared the bond of going
through similar struggles and successes in making our Greenhouses.
We talked again about properly understanding the instructions.
We realized we couldn’t just make up things when we didn’t
understand, although that appears to be a common practice among
some builders. Instead of changing their Greenhouse to fit
the instructions, they change the instructions to fit the Greenhouse
they want to build. Then they congratulate themselves on following
the instructions. Needless to say, the results are not pretty.
To build a proper Greenhouse, you have to understand the Original
Design – What was the Original Designer’s intention – How
did his Greenhouse look? How did it work? Unless you do that,
your own Greenhouse will be weak and the plants you grow will
not do as well.
We picked up the remaining instructions and building materials
at the end of the meeting. Then it was on to the final stretch
to complete our Greenhouses.
So that’s the history so far. Now we come to today.
How is my Greenhouse coming along? I must confess, there are
parts of the instructions that I have yet to read. A portion
of my Greenhouse remains uncompleted. Yet as I said before,
with this unique Greenhouse, the plants begin to grow even
while you are working on the building. I can definitely see
an improvement in my Greenhouse plants. Some of the plants
are for my own house, some are for other friends and strangers
around me.
Building my Greenhouse is hard work at times. Actually, I
have had an older Greenhouse for quite some time. Mainly, I
have been working on improvements to the structure. It requires
time and effort to make those improvements. As with most things
of value, they don’t just happen by themselves. The quality
of the finished product is mostly a reflection of the quality
of the effort. Some parts of my Greenhouse are in excellent
shape. Some parts are clearly in need of more work. Perhaps
I will take another course at the hardware store some day.
As I consider this effort, I realize that it wasn’t
really a project to build a Greenhouse at all. The goal was
not to finish some specific task within a few months and then
just sit back and enjoy the accomplishment. Instead, it was
to teach me how to be a better Greenhouse builder from now
on. Even if I finish all of the instructions with this project,
the requirements won’t end there; the Master Builder
expects me to continue on. My Greenhouse will always be “under
construction”. Come to think of it, this project really
is bigger than I realized.
