PRAISE GOD!!!

"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass ... Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him."

"All the believers were together and had everything in common."

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you..."

For the 11 months I have lived in North Augusta, I have been praying for a church service like we had this morning. I must give all praise and glory to JESUS CHRIST who heard my cry last night (or my weeping!) and answered my prayer. My prayer partner and I have been praying every week that our focus at our church would be Christ centered and that we would allow the Holy Spirit to move in mighty ways. I felt a sense of brokenness as I was trying to go to sleep last night. I knew God would not allow me to sleep until I voiced my thoughts and my pleas. I begged for the Holy Spirit to be so obvious that we as a church body have no choice but to worship and praise Jesus. I prayed that nothing would stand in the way of us CORPORATELY worshiping God together (i.e. time restraints, song choice, OURSELVES, etc.)

As we were singing this morning I could sense a different attitude coming from the congregation. It was an attitude of openness and acceptance. Not for the Community Band, but for the Holy Spirit!! I was able to feed off of different people than normal this week, which was awesome! Then, we played/sang Savior King. This is one of our favorite songs and the congregation normally responds pretty well to it. We sang it during the offertory, which is the part of the service where everyone sits down. I looked out in the crowd during the first chorus and noticed one person standing. Then as the song progressed others started to stand. Again, this is not abnormal, but the countenance on faces was different. WE WERE HAVING CHURCH!!!!! I looked around and I saw more people than EVER before lifting their hands and glorifying GOD! They were everywhere! Not just the normal few who always do! Not only were hands lifted, but people were moving around, swaying, smiling, crying, and GENUINELY WORSHIPING JESUS! I was completely in awe of God in that moment; so much so that I could do nothing but stop singing, raise my hands, and pray, thanking God for moving.

The coolest part, and call me crazy if you will, but I truly believe that God allowed time to stand still during all of this. We aim to finish our set by 9:55 in order to give the pastor ample time for his sermon and so we can out of the service and in Sunday School by 10:30. When we started Savior King I looked at the clock and it was 9:52. Now, if you know anything about Hillsong's music you know that nothing they do is under 5 minutes! Savior King is literally like 8 minutes long. Well, when I saw the clock I was kind of like "dang, we're gonna be late getting off the stage." There was no way we could do that song in 3 minutes. And we definitely DID NOT! We actually went longer than we practiced it because the Holy Spirit was moving! People were responding! When we finished the song and went to sit down, I kid you not, the clock said exactly 9:55! Coincidence? No, God!

I have never seen a Community service go like that before. It encouraged me and brought me again to a place of complete amazement and awe of who God is! Today was a taste of what I have been so desperately craving and hungering for! Genuine corporate worship with other believers who are completely in love with Jesus!! I am fervently praying that it continues and that we continue to allow the Holy Spirit to move! Wow, today was a good day!

"Saviour King"

And now the weak say I have strength
By the spirit of power that raised Christ from the dead
And now the poor stand and confess
That my portion is Him and I'm more than blessed

Let now our hearts burn with a flame
A fire consuming all for your Son's holy name
And with the heavens we declare
You are our king

We love you Lord, we worship you
You are our God, you alone are good

You asked your Son to carry this
The heavy cross our weight of sin

I love you Lord, I worship You
Hope which was lost, now stands renewed
I give my life to honor this
The love of Christ, the savior king

Let now your church shine as the bride
That you soar in your heart as you offered up your life
Let now the lost be welcomed home
By the saved and redeemed those adopted as your own

I give my life to honor this
The love of Christ, the savior king

Power of Scripture

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." - Romans 1:16

I have been challenged lately through sermons, conversations, studying Scripture, and prayer to understand the power of Scripture and how important it is to know. One thing that I have begun praying daily is that God's Word would transform me! His word is life changing, but I have to be open and accepting of that change.

I was listening to my former pastor, Perry, and his sermon a few weeks ago really challenged me. He was preaching on Acts 16. In the chapter, Paul and Silas are in prison. They had been stripped and beaten and were confined to a small space. (Makes my suffering seem very minuscule) Now, I can guarantee you that my first thought would NOT be thanking God and praising Him. But, Scripture says that they were singing songs, worshiping, and praising God in their jail cell! Wow! Perry said "sometimes God uses our pain and suffering to set other people free." That hit me right square in the face! We, and by we I mean I, am way too focused on myself. When I am hurting, I am all I can think about. When I am suffering, I tend to care only about fixing it for myself. It seriously makes me sick! Why do I not search for purpose in my rotten situations like I do in the easy and happy ones? Because Paul and Silas were completely focused on worshiping God for WHO He is and not just WHAT He does, God shook things up a bit and ended up setting every person free in the jail! Would this have happened if Paul and Silas hadn't gone through all the suffering and torture for that short time? Probably not! And even more than that, one of the guards gave his heart to Jesus! This is the power of the gospel!

I was teaching my girls in Sunday School about King Josiah this past Sunday. He became King of Judah when he was only 8 years old. The nation had become so focused on idolatry and had fallen so far away from God. Josiah wanted to point the people back to God and after 18 years of his reign, he asked a servant to go to the temple and get some things. His servant found a book, the book of the Law, and brought it back and read it to Josiah. He had never heard this before and he became very angry that nobody (including him) was following God's law. IMMEDIATELY he changed and challenged his people to change. God's Word changes lives!!!!

I hope this will encourage you to not only study Scripture, but to let it transform you! God's Word is powerful, and I for one, am tired of watering down its message and treating it as just another good book.

Lucky Me!

My very small faith was completely rocked one night in my room when I was reading a passage in Exodus. I was offering up every reason why I was not worthy and equipped enough to go on my first overseas mission trip. Two words out of the passage hit me so hard..."NOW GO!" It was almost as if God was saying, yeah Michelle I know all your excuses and I'm hearing what you're saying....NOW GO! Well, I went to Moldova. And, for some strange reason I keep going. I can't imagine living my life and not continuing to return to Moldova each summer. And I just think, it was all because of that first small step of obedience when God said NOW GO!

My life has been forever changed and affected by my involvement in missions. The most amazing thing to me is to think about how God works in our lives in such a different way, yet still we are called to accomplish His same purpose...to be salt and light to the world! Very recently I have been tremendously humbled by the fact that I have 6 very close friends who have surrendered their lives to ministry and missions and are actively seeking opportunity after opportunity to be obedient to their call. I just want to take the time to explain a little bit about them because I, for one, am so proud of them and excited about the stories that I have already heard about their work for the Kingdom!!

I met Jessica my sophomore year of college when she came in as a freshman. She was on my Joyful Sound team. I remember immediately thinking that I could possibly be the most unintelligent person on the planet after having one conversation with her! She would say all these big words that I had no clue what they meant! As I was getting to know her, I could clearly see that she was eventually going to be pursuing some form of missions. Over her four years of college I saw her grow into this amazing, Godly woman passionately pursuing her dream of using her gift of language to reach people for Christ. After she graduated she spent a year in Iraq teaching. Every newsletter and email I read from her always produced some tears. I could literally see how God was shaping her for her future and her career in missions. One thing I will never forget is talking to her on the phone one day. I asked her how things were going over there and her response was insanely awesome! She said, "Michelle, all I know is that God has absolutely ruined me to any other life but this!" Now, she is training in Texas and is preparing to move to Paris. She is inspiring!

The very first one-on-one conversation I had with Jeff consisted of the usual small talk (learning interesting things about each other), but then we began talking about his interest in the Journeyman Program through the IMB. Immediately, I knew we could be friends! I saw something in him that night, not really knowing much about him, that I can't say about a lot of people involved in missions. I saw someone who was genuine and someone who was desperate to see lost people come to Christ. The more I got to know Jeff the more visible it was that his love for Jesus and His people was the driving force behind his actions and conversations. His commitment to serving the Lord for two years in Dar, Tanzania has been solid from the very beginning of the application process (even when he had no idea where he would be placed). I have seen him grow into an amazing man of God. God has blessed Jeff with the ability to relate so well to all types of people and has given him a heart and a love for all people. I can certainly testify that he is faithful to his Lord, his family, and his friends. In Tanzania he will be doing what he loves to do...love on people, and through building relationships with them, introduce them to the One who truly changes us!

I met Setnick my freshman year in college. One thing that will forever be true about him is that he never meets a stranger! I remember meeting him and thinking "Woah!" We got to know each other and we quickly became close friends. It was because of him that I was able to meet so many people my freshman year! He takes care of people and he loves people! God has gifted Setnick with one of the most amazing voices I have ever heard. A couple of summers ago when I was in Moldova I would listen to Setnick on my Ipod more than anyone else! He has encouraged me more than most anyone I know over the 6 years that I have known him. After he graduated from college he began seeking opporutnities to serve in ministry. He found out about Living Proof/Primary focus, was accepted, and will be traveling with this ministry for the next year. He will not only have the opporunity to encourage fellow believers and worship with different bodies on Sundays, but his team will be in many different elementary schools on the west coast performing assemblies and teaching children about having good character! This is a Christian ministry going into public schools, where Christ can't even be mentioned! It excites me that he is doing this because he is using his amazing gift! I'm serious, my world would be lost without Setnick's voice and his heart!

I went to college with Dustin and we really got to know each other my senior year when we were on the same JS team. I always knew him as the music ed. major with the really awesome voice and the really nice curly hair! But, I quickly grew to love him deeply as my brother and friend. I would always secretly hope that he would give an intro at each concert because everytime he would I would learn something new about Christ! Dustin's love for the Lord is so obvious. I never doubted for a moment that he would be involved in ministry somehow after college. One thing that I see in Dustin that I don't see in a lot of people is excitement about the Gospel! When he talks about Jesus I always see excitement and joy. God has given Dustin a passion for music and for leading others in worship. He has also opened a door for him to be involved with Life Action for the next year. He will be able to travel around the country and share about Jesus through testimony and music. What an awesome opportunity! He is also the musical director of his group. I have always respected his leadership and I know he is doing an amazing job at leading his team, as well as leading other believers in worship!

I have known Lori for a few years now. We also were in JS together. She is one of the most fun people to be around and I always have such an amazing time when I'm with her! Her parents are missionaries in Thailand and it is always so much fun hearing stories. Lori does such an awesome job at making everyone around her feel good about themselves. I never not have a good time when I'm with her. She has always been very open about her desire to be involved in missions and she is also going to be doing Journeyman. She will be ministering to an unreached people group in Peru! She has the amazing ability to talk to anyone and meet people right where they are. Her passion and love for Jesus and making Him known is awesome! She is very passionate about what she does and I'm so excited about her opportunity! I honestly think that out of everyone I know, there is not one person other than Lori who is more perfect for this assignment!

Richard was my youth pastor in high school. He came to our church at a time when I was very far away from the Lord. I had lost a lot of respect and trust for anyone who claimed to be a minister of the gospel. Richard was persistant and never gave up on me eventually coming back to youth group. I appreciate both him and his wife for putting up with me during that time and for allowing me to trust them. I was able to go with Richard and Jennifer to Moldova for the first time in 2004. It was very obvious that God had done something huge in both of their lives during that trip and that they experienced something life-changing. I was fortunate enough to go again the next summer with them and it was after that summer they announced that God had been dealing with them and had called them to move to Moldova to be full-time missionaries! They have served there two years and are currently back in the States on furlow. They will be having their second child while they are here as well! Over the two years that they have lived in Moldova I have seen God transform their hearts and minds and prepare them for a lifetime of ministry and church planting! I have watched them learn another language and build relationships with amazing people. Obviously, my heart beats for Moldovan people so I am always so interested to know what's going on with them!

When I stop and think about the people in my life who I am so close to being involved with missions, I am just so grateful that God is allowing me to be a part of this! I feel so lucky to know these people and am forever changed by their hearts, their love, and their ministry. Since I have been living in a place where I'm not constantly surrounded by close friends, God has revealed so many things about my relationships with my friends. It is such a blessing to be able to pray for and encourage family and friends! I will argue to the grave with anyone that my family and friends are the greatest people in the world! I want to ask you to pray for these people that I have mentioned. These people who are desperately needing peace, patience, comfort, renewal, mercy, excitement, love, and perserverence. Join me in praying for them and other missionaries around the world daily!

third time's the charm...

So, the blogging world and I seem to have a love/hate relationship. This is my third attempt at a blog. My first venture into this realm of streaming thoughts actually lasted a couple of years. Oh xanga. Thou art not missed! I, then, tried to establish a live journal. Yeah, that lasted one "test" blog. So, why am attempting this again? Well, I read several different people's blogs daily and I must say, they write some good stuff. Now, the stuff I write will not compare by any means, but it has encouraged me to use what God is teaching me and to expose that to a certain degree. When I go back and read my old xanga posts I would say about 85% of my blogs on there were nothing but me ranting about how horrible something in my life is at that moment. And, while it is easy to write about that and seek "comment comfort," I have more important things to share with the world...like how Jesus is completely rocking my world, turing it upside down, shaking it up, and still holding everything perfectly together! I won't lie and say I will never write anything negative or share about when I'm having a hard time. But, God has given some sick talent to a lot of people who have thought up this whole internet thing and I intend to use whatever means necessary to share about how good He was, is, and always will be! (Hebrews 13:8)

So bear with me as I learn my way around. I'm not the most "techie" person so it will take me a while to learn how to do the cool stuff!