Faith Filled Friday

Reach Giveaway Package Winner: Elizabeth Beam

Each week at our student leaders meeting (picture above) we ask students to share stories of how they've seen the Lord at work in them, through them or around them in the lives of others. It's helpful in so many ways to hear the stories. It helps us re-focus our eyes on what God is doing, reminding us it's not about us, ignites vision and excitement hearing about how He's working, and aligns our heart to His more. Perhaps that is why Paul tells us in Philemon 6, "I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ."  Truly when people are taking steps of faith we get a bigger picture of God. When I hear stories I try to write them in a little journal so we can look back at the end of the semester and year remembering what God has done. 

Joanna is one of the girls I disciple (the girl in the middle). I just love her, she has a passion for the Lord and making Him known. She is a sophomore and wants to be a medical missionary. This last week after asking her how she has seen the Lord working she told me a pretty amazing story. 

She was walking to campus but had taken a different route than she normally does. As she was walking the Lord impressed her to stop and turn around. She did and decided to walk another way to campus. On her way she saw two guys praying in the middle of downtown on the sidewalk so she walked up to them and started praying silently with them. After the guy praying was done she said "Amen" with them, startling them a bit. They began talking and she found out the guy who was praying was planting a church in Denver (Praise God! Did you know we just passed a law in this election making us the first state to legalize marajuana and are the 5th unchurched city in America. We need some serious prayers here friends). 

She continued talking and asked if she could pray for the guy too. As she was praying she believed the Lord told her the guys name was Roman, had 3 kids and was going through a divorce. So she took a step of faith and started praying for him by that name and praying for his wife, children and the divorce. After she was done praying the guy asked how she and the church planter knew each other, assuming they did. She explained they didn't and he was stunned and asked, "How did you know all that then?" All she could say, was, "I don't know. God."

Isn't God awesome! He knows the persons name across from you and is so intimately involved in the details of their life. And yet He involves us, broken and flawed people in His eternal work in peoples lives. How generous can you get!? 

Side note: I tell another one of Joanna's cool stories in our new book Reach; How to Use Your Social Media Influence for the Glory of God. So might as well head on over and get your copy. ;) After all, it's not even $5 and it will help you impact eternity for Jesus.

Mark 6 talks about how Jesus had sent the disciples off to get into spiritual conversations and when they came back they are telling Jesus these same type of stories. Could you imagine what their stories were? Oh I bet they were pretty cool. Can you sense the excitement they must have had telling Jesus about what happened. I can almost hear them now, "And then... and you'll never believe this... and then..." with arms flailing.  

Here, check it out. 
"The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them." Mark 6:30-33

And then it goes on to make some pretty crazy points. For instance there were so many people they were serving they didn't have time to eat. Wow! Talk about laying down your rights and what you think you're entitled to. 

And then sweet Jesus does the thing most needed after they've been giving so much. He doesn't let them get burnt out. He pulls them away, He calls them to Himself, the One who says, Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. (Mt 11:28) But then beautifully, He doesn't let them stay there forever. He puts them to work again. Or maybe a better way to say it, He allows them to partner with Him in reaching people for all eternity again. He gives them yet another opportunity to store up treasure in heaven instead of sitting passively, inaction. People ran on foot and beat them to the other side of the lake. I've read in one of my commentaries that for some people it was 15-20 miles! Running!  What a relentless pursuit. Oh Lord, help us pursue You will such passion and determination. Help us prioritize You and the things You desire for us to give ourselves to. Help us be available and willing to yield our own agenda to be about your business. 

PS Thank you so much for your support with the book. Both Angi and I have been so encouraged by you, your support and the feedback we've been getting from it. Check out some reviews and the awesome bloggers who reviewed it for the blog tour. Launch day was awesome and we made the #1 amazon ranking for missions, #2 for evangelism and #3 for ministry. Pretty awesome!! 

We would still really appreciate your help and support. Day 1 was great but has been waning since them. We really want social media to be a means God is made known and glorified and think the book helps people know how to do that. So will you help us get the word out?
Here's some ways you can spread the word. And will you grab a copy and perhaps bless a friend or family member with a copy?

Thanks sweet friends!

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I'm linked up with the beautiful ladies at Fellowship Fridays, Nebraska Graceful, Reflection of Him,Spiritual Sunday, Heart Reflected, The Better Mom, Create with Joy. 

Faith Filled Friday Blog Link Up

We exist to glorify God, to display His heart and character. And I just love how we are all uniquely built to do that. So every Friday I want to give you, uniquely designed by God, an opportunity to link up your thoughts on God, art, baking, photography, parenting, marriage, homeschooling, writing or blogging and more if they tie into or display the the Lord somehow. 

So go ahead and link up below by clicking the link below and following the prompts. Please just let your readers know by including a link at the bottom of your post (or somewhere on your side bar) or put my button code (found on my side bar or the Faith Filled Friday Tab) so they can find these other great people glorifying God and we can continue to grow as a community.Thanks! 

And in effort to encourage others in their writing by faith, please take a minute to comment on the post linked up before you.