Bulletins - Lebanon United Methodist - Dinwiddie, Va

- - Bible Trivia
    Loading...
Father I Adore You
Come, Sinners, to the Gospel Feast
- - 1 Corinthians 1:2–3ESV
What is your Vision of yourself?
Physical: we often look at ourselves when we think of our vision...
Spiritual: what about your relationship with God? What is that vision like? Do you see yourself as a child of God. That is safe and secure in His embrace.
When I first except Jesus ... peace , joy, closeness. I want to be like the saints that I read in the Bible. Peter & Paul... do the things that they did be like them.
I wanted above all to please God. You have heard me often say it when I die I want to hear Jesus say to me. "Well done good..."
That is my vision. Your vision will look different.
Having this vision is one thing living it out is another.
Sometimes that vision fades... Satan lures away to other pursuits, Don't maintain our relationship with Jesus...
Sometimes we need to ask ourselves, "Am I doing everything I can to live out the vision God has given me?” If the answer is no, why not? Is it the distance you stand from God. Or is it the thought that you are somehow not worthy to be called a child of God.
Oswalt Chambers says "Thank God for the sight of all you have never yet been." That gives us hope. If you do not like where you are in relation to God, remember that there is more to come for we are not there yet by any means.
Valleys of Life: We all experience them. At times it seems that we are in them more times than not. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will live up to the your spiritual vision God has given of yourself, in which your faith sustains you even in your dark's hour.
In those dark days most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the blows which must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the God vision we have been given. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to have the vision "Batter'd to shape and use" by God? (Oswald Chambers)
My experience from several weeks ago... Depressed, Want to turn my back on everything. I was in a valley. It did not feel good. I wanted to turn back. I wanted out.
I reached out to Jeannette but she was not much better off than I was.
I thought about retiring and just go live on my hill in the valley.
I know that was wrong because God has work for me to do here.
I paced the floor. I just could not see which way to go. The world was heavy and I could not bare the weight.
I wish could say that in that moment I got down on my knees and prayed and turn my trouble over to Jesus right then and there, but I did not.
Rather I kept trying to shake this feeling in my own strength. Out of desperation I forced myself to go to church to make myself do something. Perhaps it was the change of location I finally said to God I can't do this.
That can be hard to say can't it. "I can't do this". With every ounce of your being you want to be able to handle all the problems that come at you.
If we only but remember we are not alone even when we think we are. Even in the valleys of life when life is hard, we are not alone.
So there are I was moping around the church, a ship with out a ruder, trying to coop with life when God sent an angel to lift me up out of my despair. That angel was over six feet tall and goes by the name of Danny Herald.
Danny probably was not aware of his angelic presence but he certainly was a messenger from God for me. After his visit I was able to move on.

There are times when we do know what God's purpose is for us. We can see the vision of what God created us to be; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual reality in our lives depends upon us, not upon God.

If we prefer to lolly gag on the thought of our vision and live in its memory, we will be of no use actually in the ordinary stuff of which human life is made up.
We have to live in reliance on what we saw in the vision... (restate my vision).
The vision is to serve as sign post, that points the way to making the vision a reality in our lives. We can not stand an marvel at sign post and never move on our way to our destination. Rather as we move through life experiences with its ups and downs we are shaped by them into the vision God has given us.
It is in those downs or valleys of life, that batterings we experience help to shape us the most. Perhaps it is because when we are in the valleys of life we are less dependent on our own abilities and are more willing to reach out to God in our desperation.

In the valley of my despair the other week God heard my cry and gave me what I needed, Angel Danny.

It was a painful experience. Yet it has help me to actualize my vision of who God wants me to be.
I have change some things in my life as a result of this experience. Is that not what such experiences are for. I know that has been the case for me, if I choose to learn from them. In in choosing to do so I move closer to fulfilling God's inspired vision for my life.
I wish I could say that I have arrived, that my vision is a full reality, but God is not finished with me yet. There are little rebellious parts of me, little "I am" yet to be shrivelled up in God's indignation, for there can be only one God only one "I Am That I Am" and you and I are not Him.
Is it not penetrating to realize that God knows where we live, and the kennels we crawl into! He will hunt us up like a lightning flash.
Lovingly bring us back onto the path He has envisioned and shared with us. None of us know ourselves the way God does. We may think that we are hiding from God, like Adam and Eve, but he calls out to us, where art thou. Do we dare to respond and allow God to lovingly correct our mistakes, or do we stay hidden in the filth of our lives that we have created.

We can dare not, for when accept Jesus as our Lord, our lives are not are own, but have been bought for a price by the blood of Jesus Christ. It is his blood that covers our sin and emboldens us to crawl out from the dark places of our lives, yet once again. It is because of Jesus that you are called blessed, that you have been consecrated, a child of God. It is because of Jesus that you are made holy in the sight of God, that you are of sacred worth.

When we come to the Lord's table we come not as the sinful but as the redeemed. When we share in the body and blood of Christ, we remind each other, that we may have failed at living out the vision God has given us, but we serve a redeeming savior, who forgives and does not give up on us continually drawing us to himself.

So we can read the letter that was first meant for a church in Cornith, Greece this way.

To the church of God that is in Dinwiddie, to those who have been blessed, consecrated, and hallowed in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As the blessed, consecrated, hallowed saints of God we can live out the vision that we first held when we came to know Jesus.
Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
O Lord, Hear My Prayer
Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow
There Is a Fountain
I Come With Joy
Let Us Break Bread Together

1 Corinthians 1:2–3ESV

What is your Vision of yourself?