Preparing for Sunday...Devotions

I hope you have all found some time to enjoy the weather, birthdays, Father's Day, vacations, more time with kids, and other blessings for which the summer provides time. I also hope you have had at least some time to read Matthew 5. :)

Daily devotions might be the best way to continue preparing for our time together on Sunday. This will allow each of us a chance to focus on a little bit each day, through reading, reflection, and prayer, to spend time alone with God around the Word in The Sermon on the Mount. So, I will post passages on the blog to read, thoughts to consider, and questions to contemplate. If we each complete one devotion a day, our discussion on Sunday should be rich and enlightening.

Devotions will all be in one post that you can come back to for each day, print and read at your convenience, or take in however is most convenient for you.

I pray that we will all approach this with diligence.

Blessings,

James

This Is Me, Where are You?

This is me! Where are you? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems as though our group in its entirety, may be reaching a new level of understanding. An understanding of what God May want for us in each of our lives. It is kind of weird to think that this ragtag group of believers could possibly be the best example of what a small group is supposed to accomplish. Not only accomplish but also strive for. I'm not bragging by any means because I truly believe that God has put the work in here not us, but every other group that I hear about really struggles to find the connection that we have as well as the desire to grow as a group. Why is that do you all think? Its not like God isn't working in their lives or groups. Its definately not like those other groups are busier than we are. So whats the difference? Why is our group thriving in Gods desire for us and other groups are not? Of course I'm not suggesting that personally, representatives of the other groups are not in step with God, I'm just wondering why other groups struggle to connect.

I have so much going on in my head right now that I can't really even figure out what to think. Going back to a year ago or more now, it seems as though God has not only revealed an insane amount of information to me spiritually but also on a physical level as well. I couldn't even begin to tell you all of the examples. So I don't think that I will even try. But I do think a lot of it has to do with actually using the Holy Spirit to help me obey the Holy Spirit. Funny huh? It kind of seems like a "Catch 22" doesn't it? But it is actually much simpler than many believers or non-believers alike would think. Total submission to Gods will is not something that we can just one day know how to do, but to have the "desire" to allow Him to teach us how to submit our lives to Him is something that we can actually choose to just have. Do we want to submit to His will for our lives or don't we? I think that our group, (and I'm quite certain in its entirety) has made that choice to submit to Him and deny our own desires. Wow! That is quite possibly one of the most beautiful things that I have ever witnessed.

This is me! Is it possible that because of that complete submission to Him that He has put me at the front edge of a blessing on my life that may be on the level of bible times. It seems as though His blessings are beginning to reach into other levels of perception that could only be from Him. This may seem a little radical but I'm quite certain that He has great plans to perfect through me. I did not say for me, and I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to be perfectly fine with that fact. Even going back to my Dad's death, some would ask, how can you consider that a blessing? Because God blessed me with the knowledge of knowing where my Dad stood in his faith. Which I had no real knowledge of prior to our group meetings with him. God, teach me to obey your Spirit! I obeyed, He blessed!

Some days I am beginning to wonder how dangerous this full submission really is. I mean, I could comprehend the danger of obeying His Spirit when He said Africa. I knew what that trip really could mean for my family but I obeyed, He blessed! But now I can't quite see what is in front of me anymore and that seems a little more dangerous to me. Not scary anymore, just dangerous. Seminary? Really? Now that just seems a little ridiculous if you ask me. Personally I would have been fine having to brush up on some 7th grade algebra to help my children in a few years but, graduate school? And seminary at that! That is where I'm having a little more difficulty comprehending, BUT, I will obey after more prayer if need be and He will BLESS through that submission.

From God, through me, for Him, he is resonating His presence into others' lives and hearts. I'm not saying that just because my buddy came to church today. Because honestly there were many prayers and discussions from other believers that came into play on that one. But I feel that He(God) and I are working together with other hearts in mind (my mind specifically) for the first time in the history of Chris Heydenburg. Christ has always been focused on hearts. Yeah sure, I have always been pretty thoughtful, maybe, but was not ever really concerned for His church. The hearts of His future church as well as His present church. Which James posted beautifully on last week about "More and Better Disciples".

The last blog I posted was a little difficult for me to write. Painful on both ends. I write this one with great anticipation of what is to come. As Phil said today we are called to more, much more. Sure,
we will stumble, make bad choices, or even allow some foot entanglement, but He will teach us! Jesus, teach me how to obey Your Spirit and submit my life to You!

Where are you? I know that most of you have a lot to say right now. In fact, I know of a couple of you, that know what I am alking about specifically. What has God been teaching you? Have you all surrendered? Are any of you having difficulty surrendering? Trust me, You can't! But He can teach you how if you ask. I think that this blog needs to be lit up! It is absolutely beautful to be involved with a group of believers that are in step with God. Lets take it to the next level of revelation. Lets follow hard after what His next step is, through us,  for Him. WHERE ARE YOU??????????? Jesus, teach me how to obey Your Spirit!

Revelation

My "not a fan." bracelet has afforded me a couple of opportunities to share my heart with people. Inspired by my wife (who put it this way first), when I was asked today, "what's that all about? Not a fan of what?"
I replied, "Jesus." And I let it hang there for a minute.
"Ah, not a fan. A believer."
"Not exactly. It's more than that..." The conversations that followed with two of my brothers and one of their friends were good. I can't tell you that I was speaking with immense clarity or powerful conviction. I fumbled through quite a bit. I was able to break the ice on a topic that has been concerning me for a while, though. My family is full of fans. I am afraid that when they meet Jesus he will tell them, "I never knew you." So, I need to really introduce them.

Only, it's not just them. God has laid on my heart for years now to be involved in the second half of our church's mission..."better disciples" or as Phil puts it, "those who know Jesus ought to know him better." When I think of the people who know Jesus, who believe in him, but who are strangers to him...when I think of all the people who may someday come face to face with Christ only to hear, "away from me evildoers," it breaks my heart...and I want to do something about it...no, more than that...I honestly feel like God wants me to do something about it. I feel this welcome conviction.

I don't know what is next for me. I do know I need to get my priorities in line so this mission is in its proper place in my life. I cannot treat it as an interest any longer. It is my purpose.

No reserves.
No retreats.
No regrets.

Prayer Requests and Praises for May 6

We praise God that Danee's sister Becky has a new job! We pray that God be with Becky as she has decided to move in with Timmy. Pray that God give James and Danee words of wisdom and love.

We pray that God heal Casey's body and make her feel better. We pray that God give the doctors wisdom and the knowledge to make her well again. We also need to lift up Steve and Casey at this time of decision. We know that this must be difficult and we pray that God rain down his peace and comfort on them. We pray especially for Micah, Malachi and Ephraim as they go through this transition.

We want to lift up a co-worker of Jill, Wendy. She was only 27 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to the hospital with high blood pressure. They had to take her baby boy by cesarean because Wendy's liver shut down. He was only 2 pounds 4 ounces and 15 inches long. He is breathing on his own. Praise God! Wendy has not seen him as she is still very sick. We pray that God bring healing on her body and strength for her  and her baby to keep getting better every day.

We want to lift up a co-worker of Chris, Peter. He is a non-believer and is against church. He doesn't understand why this is the only religion to believe in. He does believe in God. He called Chris on his way to the airport and asked to pray with him. We pray that God and His Holy Spirit give Chris the words to say while he talks with Peter. We know that he is already working on that as he has talked to him. We pray that while Chris is talking that God open Peter's heart and soften it so he can learn more about Christ.

We pray that God give our group direction for this summer. We pray that He give us the tools that we need to do whatever he asks us to do. We pray that God stretch us and teach us how to be fully devoted followers.

Prayer Requests and Praises for April 29th

Prayer Requests

David's friend from high school, Kevin, came to church. Pray that God will help guide his steps and help him feel a sense of belonging in our church.

Steve, Casey, their family and the families in Africa as New Tribes is closing in their base in Africa. We pray for  guidance, peace and direction. We also pray for the families they will leaving as they are emotionally hurting for them. We pray that this transition, whatever it may be, go as smoothly as it can for them. We pray that God watch over the families in this time of change and that they hold onto the Good News that the Cretsinger's have brought them.


Praises

James will be going to Spring Arbor to talk with the Dean of Education to talk about his passion and experiences and possible see if there is a place for him to teach. God is so good and has given James a sense of peace for whatever the outcome is.

Jessica is done with the LPN program! Praise that she has these coming months to enjoy her family and get ready for the baby.


Question from Not a Fan

If you were to die today what would people at work, your friends and family say about you? Is what everyone says the same?

A True Movement of God

Throughout the entirety of my life I have been a believer. I have been a believer in the fact that Christ had died to redeem my debt that I could not repay. I have been a believer that Christ was the Son of God and only through Him could I come to the Father. I went to church nearly every Sunday, I read the Bible from time to time, and I always thought that I was in good shape ( spiritually speaking). Of course I would have my times of a lessened spiritual awareness as well as heightened spiritual awareness, but at no time in my life would I have ever thought that I would have been at the center of a movement of God. At no time would I have thought that I would have been able to really hear Him speak to me or let alone work through me.

I am a dreamer, a guy who often times will have really stupid off the cuff type of dreams. The kind of dreams that when you are actually dreaming, you know that you are dreaming. So for someone like me to say that God has spoken to me through my dreams someone might say that it was just simply that, a dream. These weren't just dreams, they were reality for me at the time. 

Dream 1) 

This dream was really not something that I thought would affect me. You see, for some reason I actually forgot about this dream until last night in church. I'm still trying to figure that one out. Why a dream this significant would hit me over a year later, but as it stands I remember it as clear as day now. I was standing somewhere where the sun had set and the backdrop of the sunset was so beautiful. Every color you can think of! So as I was being enamored with this beauty I was able to focus on a man standing about a hundred yards away from me. Suddenly I realized that all of the beauty from what I originally thought was the sun was really radiating from this man. I focused more on him and realized that it was Jesus, only He was walking away from me. As if He knew when I finally realized that it was Him was when He turned to me waving His arms said " Come To Me". Then He turned and started walking away again. I remember now waking up feeling like I just saw Jesus. It seemed as though time stood still and Holy Crap! I just saw Jesus!

Some time passed as I obviously seemed to forget that I saw Jesus. It began to fade as the importance of "my life" began to creep back into the days and weeks that passed. Now that I look back on it it seems almost unfathomable that I could have been that dead to Him, but I was.

Dream 2)

This one is and has been very difficult to talk about until now. Not because of anything but the sheer beauty in it, not that the first one wasn't beautiful. I was actually sleeping in my dream and was awakened by a strange commotion in the family room. The light was on as well so I thought something was wrong. So I grabbed my gun, chambered a round and started to proceed down the hall. When I was able to see what the commotion was I could have died then and there. In my family room were two large men and my sweet Lillian with a gun to her head. I instantly dropped my gun, and began to plead with them to let her go. I remember not being able to figure out why they were there in the first place. Robbery maybe and Lilly woke up, I don't know. Anyway, I offered to leave Lilly and the rest of my family so they could take anything they wanted. I tried to reason with them. Then the man with the gun glanced at the picture of Jesus  that we have on the wall. He looked back at me as if he had just realized that we were "Christians" and said to me, " I will give back your daughter to you alive and we will leave here if you tell me that He is not your Savior". I want you to denounce that man as God is what he asked me to do.

I began weeping! I only could do one thing. I started to explain to my daughter that I could not do that. I tried to comfort her in her last moments of life. She was crying but in a way that I knew she understood what was about to happen. As time passed so slowly we  talked about how in only moments she will be sitting with Jesus and laughing joyfully and soon I will be with her as I could have only assumed. But, as I began to pray for her in a way that only God could have inspired in me, I woke up. In my bed I was physically crying. Crying for my daughter that I still believed was not with me anymore. My pillow was wet with tears of pain that I have never felt in my entire life even to this day. It was minutes before I finally realized that I still had my Lilly-billy. I could not for the life of me understand what just happened to me. It was so terrible that I absolutely felt no happiness for at least the time it took for God to clarify the dream to me. 

At first I thought that it was a dream that proved to Christ how faithful I would be to him, nope! Then I thought it was a dream to show that maybe I needed to step up my efforts for Him, NOPE! God showed me that night, I think beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I already had Him in my heart, and He was showing me how He already had the highest importance in my life and, I had to know that not Him. It was me that couldn't grasp where my heart had been this entire time. My whole life He had already dwelt in my heart and changed it but I could not grasp that He had already done that for me. It wasn't that I had to change my heart, it was done for me. He let me know that night that I was ready to begin His work. He let me know that night that I was already able to do His work. He let me know that night that it was time for me to listen to the Holy Spirit and obey. I was Abraham and Lilly was Isaac and I was willing to sacrifice my daughter to glorify God. God showed me that night that he was going to begin a blessing through me that is now beginning to show His mighty power. 

So I begin reading, and reading, and reading, and reading. Every single book that I read connects with the next and the next and the next. The scripture connects with a book that connects with a message from Phil that connects with a message from Billy Graham and so on and so on and so on. RIDICULOUS! It got so bad ( or rather amazing) that I would turn on a random speaker from a christian t v station and I would tell Melissa that I bet this connects with that. So I began to read and listen and listen and listen. It is an amazing thing when you begin to hear Gods voice. Many times I would feel Him move me. Many times I could hear His Spirit speak to me and I would listen and I would obey. The more I would listen the more I would hear, the more I would obey the more things He would tell me. CRAZY!

So six months ago or so I started to get these thoughts. I would call them daydreams but I would still be doing whatever it was that I was doing. I would find myself preparing my dads eulogy. I would maybe be actually giving my dads eulogy. No matter what it was it had to do with my dads funeral. As They happened I would try to just push them out as bad thoughts or stupid random events. They didn't seem very crucial to me at the time. Out of nowhere one day though I felt the Holy Spirit tell me that I was supposed to start a small group with my brothers and especially my dad. It seemed strange but as the feeling grew I realized that my family never talked about the very thing that was the most important, our faith. I asked Melissa what she thought and she said it sounded kinda fun.

My dad said NO! Well not actually no but he was not sure that he wanted to. He would think about it. I went to my mom to ask her what she thought and she very wisely said, " pray for him, all you can do is pray for him". So for three weeks I prayed for my dad and my brother and my brother in law. So I confidently went back to my dad and he said yes. I wasn't sure why I felt such an urgency for my dad especially because I still had not connected all the daydreams to this yet. They were still weird random thoughts to me. They quickly became more than random.

After I felt Africa calling me I was really feeling this complete desire to grow. More importantly the desire to follow Christ in everything I would do. It was as if He and I were completely connected, as I believe we were created to be. Well I was experiencing it for the first time. Shortly before my trip I felt a little more fear for my dad. A few more daydreams, which I now believe was the Holy Spirit preparing me for this period in my life. As I was really gearing up to leave and I went to my parents to say goodbye, I felt an emotion with my dad that I have never felt before. My dad was always a lips kisser with our family and I don't know if I was insecure or if it just became a habit but I always went for the cheek. Well that night before I went to Africa I kissed my dad on the lips for the first time in ten years maybe. I don't know why either. I had brief thoughts that I may not see him again. 

To head home after the most life changing experience of my young life you can imagine how excited I was to come home. I asked Melissa how my folks were, and she thought that my dad was doing better. I was able to have one more small group with him. Discussion question: If you were to die tomorrow, what would you be thankful for and what would you regret? That was what we discussed per our Crazy Love Study Guide.

My dad said that he was so thankful that he was learning how to follow Christ and not just say it. He was thankful that the small group was changing his heart. He was thankful for a lot. He had no regrets! None. I think that my dad was in the best spot spiritually that he had ever been. God was and had prepared his heart and spirit for his death on March 30th. The most fascinating part of it all was that on my way up north the day before, I had had the strongest Holy Spirit prompting yet, another eulogy for my dads funeral. Still could not connect the dots because I was not supposed to. And on the day of, I believe at the exact time of my dad's death I read a passage from the Bonhoeffer biography that I was reading, completely magnifying how beautiful Christ' defeat over death truly was. I read it at least five times and could not understand why it meant so much to me. 

Through this experience, I found out that from one conversation I had with someone I know, about a book  I was reading on my front porch after randomly coming home from work early one day, I unknowingly stopped him from doing the same thing that my dad did. I was home early and didn't know why. I was reading on my porch swing and didn't know why. He came to my house in the middle of the day and I didn't know why. We talked about Christ in my life and what He meant to me and I didn't know why. It was when I called him to tell him about my dad's death that he told me why. God had a new plan for him and it wasn't death that day for him. If God had wanted anyone to intercede for my dad than surely it would have happened. 

Our days our numbered in the book of life from before we are born. God new of this day long ago and because he knew of it He also knew how to fulfill it the way that He saw fit. I believe that it is through extreme pain and questions that seeds begin to sprout up. I believe that many who were at the funeral felt the hand of God work in that building. I believe that it was through this event of pain and sorrow that the magnificence of God is being fulfilled. I believe that it gives more reason than ever to depend upon His redemption and His glory. If someone cannot see God's hand in this event well than they just don't have their eyes open. I don't claim to be righteous, I don't claim to be Christlike, but what I do claim and will forever claim is that I choose to trust Him. No matter what the cost to me. I know in my heart that He has started a fire in me that cannot be suppressed, He has moved me as I had asked Him to shortly after the second dream. I have for the first time in my life, experienced a movement of God! 

Keep Praying

This has been a trying month for our families. Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to the Heydenburgs this week and into next as they cope with their loss. We pray that they are able to celebrate the resurrection and what it means for them this year as they know Al is in his resurrected body alongside Jesus in Glory.

We are playing a special song on Easter Sunday (perhaps - depending on the number of baptisms in each service) that has really resonated with me the past couple of days in light of the Heydenburgs' suffering and the other requests we have right now.

Each family in our group is either working through either physical, emotional, or spiritual difficulty. Between ailments, losses, or suffering loved ones we can all lean on the same kind of prayer. I hope we all find peace and a sense of God's renewing power through the words of this song.

God bless you guys.

With Love,