Sometimes you just need to be rescued…

Isn’t it true though?  I know many of us have felt that way at sometime or another. ‘I just want to be rescued!’ ‘I need someone to save me!’ "’I can’t do it by myself!’ But yet we still work and work.  We try so hard to do it on our own, then we simply just can’t take it, and we can’t do it anymore by ourselves no matter how hard we try. 
I love this verse from the book of Romans (10:9-10) in Message Bible:
      “That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"
That’s it?  Is that really all it takes? Yes!  When we call out for help we can be rescued, we can have our knight and shining armor come into save us, when we just surrender our hearts to Christ, he’s there to save us.

I love being able to share Christian Drama to anyone I come in contact with!  Anytime I have the chance to share…I am totally on board!  I feel so blessed to have been involved in OCU's Good News Players, as we were able spread the words of Christ through drama through out several cities and states. Traveling to different churches all over sharing our ministry and being able to pray with the people we had met.
It’s simply amazing that there’s pretty much a skit out there that most everyone can relate to--in good times and in bad ones. Sometimes we just need to laugh and sometimes we just need to cry. I love being able to portray different people through drama--whether it be a teen girl with struggles, an overworked mom, a southern coffee shop waitress, a housewife or a business woman who doesn't know the princess she really is. Each character I portray has a story to tell of their life and the trials and tribulations that they face. It's an awesome feeling when somebody can relate to something that I have performed, by myself or with friends.
Sometimes we just need to know we are loved and know that we can be rescued.  Each one of the characters that I interpret has been rescued from loneliness, heartache, fear, sadness, and anger.  Sometimes we just let things build up so much that we don’t even realize we’ve completely isolated ourselves from everyone around us.  It’s when we realize we can’t do it all on our own and that we need help, it’s then that our rescuer comes to save us.  He’s been there all the time, we just have been so preoccupied doing it on our own, we don’t always see that God is always with us.  He will never leave us!

After performing and sharing a drama called “Lifeboat,” there are many lessons we can actually learn from this skit.  We learn that though we may seem small, God can have bigger plans for us if we just accept Him.  Just when we may want to give up, there is always something else we can do or someone else we can help.  Just like the lifeboat was there to save the two girls when they needed it.  When they reached out  for help, there was a lifeboat to rescue them.  Jesus is our “lifeboat.”  He’s there to rescue us from out sin.  All we have to do is admit we’re sinners, believe in that Jesus came to rescue us and confess and tell people how Christ changed out lives.  Answering to our calling and living our lives for Christ full of love and ministering to those who haven’t heard is better than sitting all alone in a lifeboat by ourselves waiting to be rescued, when all we have to do is reach out just like we were reached out to and we can do so much more!

Challenge:
Who can you reach out to this week?  Who can you help see God’s everlasting love and promise?  What can you do to share with this person?

Tami and Shelli performing “Lifeboat” at The Beacon! A dramatization about needing to step out and reach out to others no matter how small we are or may seem! Even if we are a small group of people we can do a WHOLE LOT! And, show a lot of LOVE along the way!

Romans 10:9-10 -- If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. (New  Living Translation)

Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year!

Well, it’s that time again!  It’s Christmas time and time to start a brand new year!  As we say good-bye to another year gone by we said a warm wintery Hello to the new year 2011!  Wow! To think about everything that has happened in this century so far and how much we have learned in the past 10 years! 
The memories we have made with old friends and even new ones that we may have just met this year.  We’ve accomplished goals and maybe even created new ones.  We’ve started new careers and made new plans for ourselves.  I’ve had many friends who have become engaged and have been recently married and some who have had their first child.
Though being approximatly 2,000 miles away from those college and post college friends  that I left behind in Indiana, it’s great knowing that I can stay in contact with them over the phone/Facebook/email.  Even though looking at pictures of everyone sometimes brings me to tears as I think about all the good times we’ve had, and how much I miss them!
Even thinking about the new friendships I have made with the friends that I’ve been blessed with working on this new church planting ministry.  We’ve been able to reach so many different people through music and drama and just by being able to create relationships around us and spread the good news about how wonderful a relationship with Christ is!  I look forward to the many adventures we have together through what God has plan for our lives.  It’s going to be such a great adventure!
Starting new career paths is always a scary thing to do.  But starting a business with MaryKay has been a huge challenge for me!  But it as been extremely worthwhile for me every step of the day.  It’s allowing me to get out there and meet new people and try new things.  I’ve met so many new friends that I have been blessed to work with through this new business endeavor.  They have helped me overcome my fears and accomplish my goals.  I am so blessed to be about to work with these wonderful people that I can call friends! 
I could not have accomplished anything with out the love of God with me!  He is always there in my good days and my bad ones.  When I am feeling lonely, I can run to his arms and just feel comforted.  Whether I am in my quiet time or worshiping in our Sunday service.  For as Philippians 4:13 says, for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.  And God gives me daily strength to make it through each and everyday.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  And as I look at this verse over and over again I am reminded that God knows what is best for me, he knows where my career path leads and he knows who that “future husband” is for me.  So as I continue to study God’s word and dig deeper into the scriptures and live out the word of God by telling people, performing dramas or maybe just by helping people.  I can be assured that I am still growing and learning more day by day.

Called to Worship

I was reading my daily devotion from a Rebecca St. James book one day and it was just an amazing way of stating how we are called into worshiping God.  She states, "that God does not call us to be robots.  He gave us a choice."  God wants us to be joyful as we worship Him.  He wants to see smiles upon our faces and loving hearts.  Every time we worship God we are in awe of everything that he has done in our lives, he gives us the desire to raise our hands and praise his name!  When we focus on God, and take our eyes off of  ourselves we can truly worship our Wonderful maker! :)  Rebecca St. James puts it an amazing way, she says that whether we "lead or participate in worship, none of us are called to be a star -- God has called us to be servants." 

                                         

As we worship God with all our hearts we are desiring that personal relationship with Him.  We want to be able to give him everything we have and will be, because "he is all I want, he is everything," I love that way the song "Everything" states that Christ is all that we desire! :)  We want to be able to feel the extravagant love of Christ and be able to share his love with everyone around us. 

I've done a skit, titled 'Best Friends' about two little girls one of them a shy new girl, Mallory, and the other a hyperactive girl, Tami.  When the Mallory is sitting by herself talking to nobody, Tami, who has lived in the town her whole life comes up to talk to her.  She talks about how she does so much playing and reading her Children's Bible everyday! Her excitement is so high and full of joy that her new friend, Mallory, is now very intriged by this excitement, and now wants to know more about this sudden joy and burst of energy, that comes from this hyperactive new friend of hers.  When we share Christ with those around us, he is with us, in a smile, touch or voice, he is there to help us meet those needs of others. 

"Your love is extravagant, Your friendship, it is intimate, I feel I'm moving to the rhythm of Your grace, Your fragrance is intoxicating in the secret place, Cause Your love is extravagant..."  (Your Love is Extrabagant by Casting Crowns)