Monday, March 19, 2007

Wedding crashers



I am so glad my friends have spaced out their weddings through the years. It's a great way to stay in touch with people and keep seeing them. This is the normal crew. Courtney is normally there as well as Jacob. Jacob wasn't at this one, but Courtney was, she just isn't pictured. Then there's the rest of us! And the beautiful bride is Shannon. She's a girl I discipled in college and we became good friends.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Pondering

I went to my sister's church this morning. It's a pentacostal church. My first time there. My second time at a Pentacostal church; interesting. They had a guest speaker this morning who stressed twice that he was a "Pentacostal" preacher and everyone cheered. That really bothered me. Honestly, it bothers me when people do that no matter what denomination they are. I'm just tired of denominations.

With all the traveling I've done all over the world and the many cultural churches I've darkened the doorsteps of, I haven't witnessed denominations like I do here.

It got me thinking of the Acts 2 church and the other churches I've seen. You know, they don't have denominations, why do we?

I look at the beleivers in Africa, India, China, Cambodia, etc. They don't know or care about those little doctrinal issues. I have to wonder, how important are they really? In the light of things that are much more important, where do they fall? I imagine them falling in importance somewhere near the importance of the color carpet in the santuary. Just not really.

And I know that some of you will greatly disagree with this and quite frankly I don't care. I don't want to know either. All I can see are the hindrances denominations bring and the walls that have been put up because of them and it puts a bad taste in my mouth.

Why is it when I'm having dinner with other believers and this is our firts encounter, they ask what type of church I go to? Like we're different. As you soon as you let others know, there's automatically a barrier to an intimate relationship. It's true.

I've loved the churches I've attended. I think in the future I'm going to be more careful on this subject. Let's all just refer to ourselves as Christ followers or believers, not as Baptists, Pentacostals, Presbyterians, etc. Who cares anyway?

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Psalm 40

[I read this Psalm this morning and could identify with it in so many ways.  This speaks of my heart and what God is doing.  Read carefully, it could change your life!]
 
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to out god.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
 
Blessed is the man
who makes the Lord his trust,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods.
Many, O Lord my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare.
 
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but my ears you have pierced;
burnt offerings and sin offerings
you did not require.
Then i said, "Here I am, I have come-
it is written about me in the scroll.
I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my  heart."
 
I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips,
as you know, O Lord.
I do not hide your righteousness i my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and
salvation.
I do no conceal your love and your truth
from the great assembly.
 
do not withhold your mercy from me,
O Lord;
may your love and your truth always
protect me.
For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken, and I
cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me.
 
Be pleased, O Lord, to save me;
O Lord, come quickly to help me.
May all who seek to take my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.
May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!"
be appalled at their own shame.
But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always
say,
"The lord be exalted!"
 
Yet I am poor and needy;
may the lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.
 
Psalm 40

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Loving who God made me

I have just returned from Orlando, FL where I underwent some training before I head overseas.  I cannot describe to you the rollercoaster of emotions that I experienced.  I went into last week with expectations that were not met.  What happened exceeded my expectations and more!
 
I had a meeting with my Member Care guy on Tuesday.  I had no idea what we were going to talk about, but I do know that we did not talk about member care!  The Holy Spirit was leading him that afternoon and he confronted me and challenged me on my way of thinking and some of my habits.  I had never met the guy before and still I could not believe how on target he was.  I even asked how he knew all of what he said.  At that time I felt I was being attacked and resented him for it, I mean who did he think he was?  As I sat there in his office overcome with emotion and the tears rolling, all I could think of was how much of a mess I was and what was I thinking spending the next two years wanting to tell others of Jesus' love in a far off land?  How was I ever going to that?
 
Did you catch the "I"?
 
I came back to my room after some other meetings that afternoon where I discovered that I'm still a mess an dmoving forward into an even deeper mess.  There was one of my roommates that I had just met for the first time the night before.  She innocently asked me about a book I was reading.  My own response surprised when I answered with a shaky voice.  Why was I so emotional?  This wasn't like me.  But I had been shedding tears all day.  She insisted that we sit down and talk.  I told her everything, from October and on, from high school and on.  (You betcha, this was a long convo!)  And she so graciously sat there and listened to all of it.  I'm sure she couldn't understand half of what I was saying through all of the crying, but she tried her best! 
 
Thursday brought about another very important meeting.  Throughout the whoel week we had been discussing some assessments we had done about our personalities, our gifts, our learning types/structures, our preferences, what we like to delegate to others, our leadership styles, etc.  I knew what it was going to say.  My interpretation of my personality, gifts, leadership style, etc. was harsh.  It wasn't feminine and never has been.  My personality type is an ISTJ: Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging.  Only 5% of the population has this personality type and about 95% of that 5% are men!  I am definitely a minority.  Needlesstosay, i was not looking forward to the outcome of all of this; I had heard it all before!
 
Again, I was surprised!  As the ladies gathered all of my assessments together and processed them we came to some wonderful conflusions!  The whole point of this is that you see what your best contribution is for the team that you're apart of.  After much discussion and talking through some questions we came up with three major contributions that I can have to any team as well as to life in general.  One, is a Life Coach, which I love!  This encorporates my passions and deep into my heart.  Second, is a Project Designer: Vision Implementation.  This encorporates my gifts and abilities/skills.  And lastly is a Creative Planner.  I am still discovering this one as it's new in my life, but it basically means to build bridges in forming relationships in creative ways. 
 
I went into this meeting hating my personality and my gifts and left knowing hope and finally seeing and hearing what God and everyone else have been telling me my whole: "You are wondefully made and for a purpose.  You are unique!"  You're right, I'm not like most people, I'm not like most women.  I'm me and I'm finally glad about that! 
 
I feel like this revelation in my life is what will usher me into the next part of my life and that is to allow people to truly know who I am.  Before, I knew who I was but wasn't proud of it.  Now, come and see!
 
God is so good and so faithful.  At the end of this week all I could see and hear was God telling me, "This is it Kathryn!  You've got it!"  Finally:)