Parables, Planting, and Produce

Good midnight to you my lovely reader. I was about to call it a night when suddenly a snippet of God's Word snatched my attention away from ZzZzZ's.

I was thinking about the message Pastor gave Sunday. Part 1 on Parables (Mark 4 is where I am but it is also in Matthew 13).
If you pay close attention to Mark 4:11 Jesus says that us followers, believers, are permitted to understand the secret of the Kingdom of God. But that He used parables for when he spoke to outsiders. I know this was to fulfill the Scriptures as He says. I find it interesting.  I will definitely be praying and studying up on this series. Feel free to comment with your take on this. And don't forget to read all of chapter 4 by the way!
-Meghan Weyerbacher

Sharing, Living & Loving Together

My mom used to talk about stewardship a lot. It was something that I agreed with in theory and knew was right, but never had the discipline to really do. This has all changed now that I am truly in love with Jesus. I feel born again all over again. It all started a couple years ago when a real revival broke out in church and I saw people crave real meaningful, Christ - centered relationships. It was during these 2 years of soul searching and turn around that I saw what my heart always believed to be true. That real love doesn't have to calculate to care. It just comes natural, like breathing. Love became an action to many. And so as I was reading the scriptures tonight, I had flashbacks of the beginnings of the new life we live. The one where dreams are bigger and go further than what color you paint your base boards, or how much the government is taking from your paycheck. The dream of wanting to look back on your life and know that you lived as many breaths as you could not trying to fulfill your own desires or every whim, but that you may have actually helped someone else live.

2 Corinthians 8:10-15
Living Bible (TLB)
10 "I want to suggest that you finish what you started to do a year ago, for you were not only the first to propose this idea, but the first to begin doing something about it. 11 Having started the ball rolling so enthusiastically, you should carry this project through to completion just as gladly, giving whatever you can out of whatever you have. Let your enthusiastic idea at the start be equalled by your realistic action now. 12 If you are really eager to give, then it isn’t important how much you have to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you haven’t. 13 Of course, I don’t mean that those who receive your gifts should have an easy time of it at your expense, 14 but you should divide with them. Right now you have plenty and can help them; then at some other time they can share with you when you need it. In this way, each will have as much as he needs. 15 Do you remember what the Scriptures say about this? “He that gathered much had nothing left over, and he that gathered little had enough.” So you also should share with those in need."

As I came to these scriptures tonight I was reminded of how we are to follow Christ's pattern. I have been blessed with so many real down-to-earth friends and family who are followers of Christ and who truly emulate what the picture of a whole, loving family ( the Kingdom Family,  the Bride of Christ which is the Church ) looks like.

We have had folks give us cars, let us live in their house, feed us, fill up our tanks, give us their kids toys, pass on clothes, and more. I just wanted to take a moment to praise God for putting such folks in my life. I never deserved any of it but know it was God all along showing me He cares; using these people as a vessel and I pray they are blessed ten fold in return.  I pray if Matt and I get opportunities to bless that we will be obedient and generous as so many examples in my life have been.

Meghan W.

Give Him Your Day Before It Even Begins

The days that I tend to dread (the random, unforseen issues of life that sneak up and try to wrap their bones fingers around my throat kind of days)......can have 2 outcomes.

1. If I give in to the overwhelming feeling of not knowing what to do and fuel the fire with words of doubt & worry: The outcome is nasty. It is life-draining. And it sucks the life out of those around me because misery loves company and it wants everyone else to worry with it.

2. If I take what I know to be true, AND in my acceptance of knowing there's only so much I can do, but that God is the Living River that never runs dry: The outcome is Hope. Thanksgiving. Dependence on Him. There has never been a time when I cried out to Jesus for help and He gave me a stone. Nope. He has always given me more than what I needed, quite frankly. Casting my cares upon Him really is the Truth of the matter.

He has shown me that life may not ever get easier, but that it is my learning to trust in Him that is what He wants.

I am His bride and He is my groom and after I said I Do, He has had to peel back layer upon layer of "issues" within me, so He can replace them with more of Him. How He loves me I won't understand fully until I see Him face to face. But this one thing I do know right now, when He said He wants to give us Life more abundantly....and on Earth as it is in Heaven.... (2 different scriptures),
I have found a hidden treasure in these messages: Life IS Him. He IS Life.

If two are madly in love...they are pursuing each other. They can't get enough of one another. This is an analogy of course because our relationship with the King is not that of a sensual romance novel.  The point is, when you seek Him in the day you will find Him. He was there waiting for you. When you go out at night and seek Him, you will find Him. He knew you were coming. When you want to start seeing Him in the lessor off folks, you will find Him. He'd always been there, waiting for you to respond. When you long to give and live every single breathing second to and for Him...you start seeing His omnipresence more and more. It is like a veil has been lifted and the scales on your eyes fall off one by one as you live and grow closer to Him each day. Oh how Glorious (not easy) it is when He answers the prayer of "Lord, let me see the world as you see it."

Meghan W.