When God doesn't seem fair

As we go into the book of Habakkuk, we see a picture of impending negative circumstances coming upon Habakkuk's people. Habakkuk's name means to embrace or wrestle. Which do you do when things go bad in life? Do you reach for God and hold on tight? Do you wrestle with Him about it all? Habakkuk teaches us how to be secure enough in our prayers to bring our raw emotions and questions to God. He also shows us the distinction between bitter cynicism and believing confrontation: One is a denial that refuses to believe and embrace God. The other is a holy wrestling match that refuses to let go no matter what. Habakkuk tackles tough questions while holding tightly to His God. We can learn much from his kind of faith. I will spend the next three weeks exploring the story of Habakkuk. Join me here and on weekends @ NCC to take the journey.

OUR NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH GREEN VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH

That's right! After months of prayer, discussion, and planning, we are entering into a partnership with Green Valley Baptist Church.
Listen to last weekend's vision message here

Why?
To make an even greater difference in Las Vegas for the Kingdom of God. Satan wants churches to compete with each other, God wants churches to complete each other. The Elders and staff of both fellowships believe God is leading us into this partnership.

What will it look like?
We will still have our same leaders, same place of worship, same style of worship, but the two fellowships (NCC & Green Valley) will synergize human and financial resources in order to reach more people for Christ.

When do we begin this partnership?
In October, we begin a six month intense phase of working together in view of a permanent joining of the two fellowships in April of next year. During the initial six month period, either can withdraw respectfully. At the end of the six months (April), the two fellowships will become one church meeting at two locations expressing different styles of worship but one vision to reach more people for Christ.
What does becoming one with Green Valley mean practically for me?
It does not mean that you have to go somewhere else to worship. It does not mean that your church is going to radically change. It does not mean you have to become a baptist. It does mean that we become an answer to Jesus' prayer in John 17:20-23 (NCV) "I pray for these followers, but I am also praying for all those who will believe in me because of their teaching. Father, I pray that they can be one. As you are in me and I am in you, I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me. I have given these people the glory that you gave me so that they can be one, just as you and I are one. 23 I will be in them and you will be in me so that they will be completely one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you loved them just as much as you loved me.

This really is the bottom line, "then the world will know". Pastor Rob of Green Valley & I want more and more people to know God's saving love is available to them. We feel we are better at making that message known together.

Got questions or comments? Post them here. I will respond and others can see the dialogue.

My prayers...

For the church:

I pray that we will be one. Totally unified recognizing that we have one enemy, one heart and one purpose. I pray that we will be faithful. I pray that we trust in our head (Jesus) and work our tails off to serve Him. I pray that we will burn with a holy fire that is produced by His Holy Spirit.

And my personal One prayer is for my son Sam to grow to know and be used mightily of the Lord to bring many to Him.

Chrus

My will/Thy will?

This weekend we heard a message about God's ONE Prayer becoming our ONE prayer. It reminds me of this scripture

Psalms 37:4 (NIV) Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Someone once said, "If all you want is to want what God wants, then what you want is probably what God wants". Think about that. To have my desires become his desires...to love the things that He loves...to care about what He cares about...this is what it means to delight yourself in Him. When you do this, your selfish and often destructive desires are transformed into His disires-He gives you the desires that are enmeshed with His desires. In fact, they are His desires.

In this transformed heart environment, we pray YOUR will be done, YOUR kingdom come. If we were to be honest, some of our prayers are more like MY will be done, MY kingdom come. God knows what is best for us, in fact, he knows what is perfect for us. If we can surrender our hearts and minds He will show us.

Romans 12:2 (NLT) Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

Go to God without an agenda today and just rest in His presence. Seek to know His heart. Desire to know HIS will for you. Believe that His will is good, pleasing, and yes PERFECT!

Don't forget to join us for Wednesday Night Live every Wednesday @ 6:30 pm for prayer & fasting. Start fasting on tonight, and we will share a meal Wednesday night.

my twenty minutes...

Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

What a great scripture to meditate with for a long distracted twenty minutes! Our challenge was to meditate on God for twenty minutes each day until Wednesday. Let me tell you about today:

00: - 04
I'm sitting out back in the garden by the pool relaxing and all is well when I hear the garbage truck out front, "Darn I forgot to put out the trash!"
04:-06
running to put out trash!
06:-10
Being still until I realize the I need to water some shrubs but quickly redirected my mind toward God
10:-14
started thinking about the church after a couple of minutes and caught myself praying about it-not really a bad thing just not truly meditating on God
14:-17 focused meditation until I realized just how many airplanes go by my house and got a little annoyed by it
17:-20 spent the next few minutes laughing at myself and hoping other are doing better than me...
in all I still was able to hear something through the prophet Isaiah...

I'll try again tomorrow

Protect Unity

I don't know who it will be today that I will need to be gentle and humble with but it will be someone. There is always someone. It is all too easy to be harsh or prideful when someone rubs the wrong way(by the way that someone could be me!). God says to use a soft answer...to overlook a fault...to make every effort to protect unity. To humble ourselves and consider others as better than ourselves. This is a Spirit-produced virtue. The flesh reacts opposite. The flesh and spirit are in opposition to each other and only the Holy Spirit can bring about true unity. I yeild today to God's Spirit. Help me to be completely humble and gentle and make every effort to protect the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Spirit filled church

Sometimes I hear people speak about Spirit-filled churches. They usually describe things like music, someone speaking in tongues, or some other experience having to do with public displays of this or that. While I do not deny this is a way to describe spirit-filled worship, I would like to present another way of thinking about it.

As you pull in the parking lot someone shows you kindness and gives up a parking spot to you. Someone else sees you park and walks over to greet you and hands you a cold bottle of water showing hospitality. Next one of your friends gives you a big hug and reports that she has been faithfully praying for you this past week. A well-prepared children's worker checks in your kids where a gifted-teacher will teach today's focus truth while kids have fun. For the next hour your children are loved in practical ways and are introduced to Jesus.

Meanwhile you are in the audtorium worshipping God with others who have come for that same purpose. Challenging Truth is presented in engaging and creative ways. Love for God is expressed as people give offerings of grattitude so others can be reached for Christ. God's Spirit convicts you that you need to make changed in order to become more like Jesus. You surrender to God's promptings.

You leave the experience changed, uplifted, and inspired to go out and live differently this week. You are choosing to be filled by God's Spirit and you intentionally choose to touch others all week long until you recieve a recharge at church next week at your Spitit-filled church.

See you tonight @ 6:30 pm for a time of filling and renewal. Chilcare provided. Today's fasting focus is "Lord make us full of Your Holy Spirit". Bring food for or pot-luck dinner right after our prayer time.