Now I would probably have been like....guys, go away. I want to mourn my friend and just be alone for a while.

But the Bible said that Jesus had COMPASSION. Instead he healed the sick and took time to be with them, and he ended up feeding 5,000 people which is one of the famous miracles in the Bible.

I think that the Lord really wants to show us that sometimes we need to postpone what we want to do so we can be apart of something we need to do.

After the 5,000 were feed. Jesus immediately sent the boat on and dismissed the crowd. And after he dismissed the crowd, he went up to a solitary place alone and prayed. This was what he wanted to do in the first place.

God may call you do or go somewhere, and then in the mist of the calling, ask you to do something more immediate in your surroundings. Don't be so blinded by your calling that you don't see the miracle that God wants you to be apart of here.

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This Thusday I get to be apart of putting on a special JUICE day at the OM office. What is JUICE you say?

It stands for (Joyful Unified Irresistible Community Experience).

We have four of them every year and they are designed to provide enviroments for our local OM team to experience meanignful community. Therefore, we try to have a time where people in the office can take a break from the busy everyday work and enjoy each other's company while learning something new about their co-workers.

This JUICE is special because we will 9 different African field leaders running the majority of this one. So we will get to hear about all of the work that is being done in Africa and how the OMUSA office has had a helping hand in that. The countries that will be represented are:
Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Malawi. Our Sub-Saharan Africa Trek Team and Lake Tanganyika Team will also be represented.

Praise God for the work that is being done in Africa, and please pray for fiances to help the Zambia team to finish buidling their bigger missionary training school. They desire to see a school that will house and sned out 500 African missionaries every year. The current school is too small :) What a great problem to have.

posted by David

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Many of us probably have a red-letter edition of the Bible sitting on a shelf. It makes it easy for us to find the words of Jesus and to obey all that He commanded. But recently I was encouraged to "green letter" the Bible, or highlight in green (or whatever color you fancy) the actions of Jesus. I began doing this with the book of Luke and it has been a challenging and insightful task. It has helped me to focus on what Jesus did and see how I can incorporate those things into my life. In my pursuit of "Christ-likeness," I want to not only do what Jesus said, but also do I saw Him do (John 5:19-20). Below are some things I've "green-lettered."

1. Jesus sat with religious men, sinners, AND His disciples (what a mix!).

2. Jesus was baptized.

3. Jesus fasted.

4. Jesus told parables (16 times just in the book of Luke! Maybe we need to become better story-tellers!).

5. He healed the sick.

6. He cast out demons.

7. He withdrew from the crowds/was alone to pray.

8 .He made disciples.

9. He spoke about the Kingdom of God!

10. He sent out workers.

I pray that together we will strive, through His strength, to do all that we see God doing! As we live out the ways of Jesus, I know that nations, communities, households, and individuals will be radically transformed!

Posted by Wendi

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I often think about how I pray and realize how often I treat God in my prayers as if he is my earthly Dad or a best friend. The danger is that I can tend to "humanize" God a little to much. I forget that he is my creator and knows better than Iever will. 

Psalm 139:1 "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me." 

God is never fooled by my justifications or excuses and yet he still loves and cares. He is patient with my pride and selfishenss, but sometimes I have to answer for it.

Just remember that if King David, the adulterer/murder could still take comfort that God knows and love him, than we can too.

Our all-knowning God is all for us, so why not seek Him and trust Him more?

Dear God,
Thank you for your patience with me and for your unconditional love. Remind me that because you know my heart and everything about me...that it just makes sense to trust in your leading. Help me to be obeident to your words even when they don't make sense to me. 

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In our TOAG group, we are constantly wrestling with how, as followers of Jesus,we can be catalysts for transforming individuals, hearts, families, and communities. Proclaiming the Good News can be a challenge, particularly when working with refugees, because they often have limited English skills due to many challenges they face here in the U.S. However, we know that God is gracious and that He desires for this Clarkston refugee community to be changed by His love and grace. Many of the refugees have fled from places where they have never heard of the truth about Jesus and have experienced extreme trauma and loss. But I believe that by His Grace He has brought them here so they can hear the Truth. So as we have wrestled with this, we have all agreed on one thing: prayer is the key. God hears our prayers and responds (1 John 5:14-15). We want all of our friends, families, and churches to be begging for God to pour out His Spirit in Clarkston. Would you join us in praying?

-Pray as Jesus taught us to pray. God, Your will be done on earth (in Clarkston) as it is in heaven!

-There are many believers among different ethnic groups. There are Arabic, Nepali, Burmese, Kirundi, Amharic, Tigrinya speakers who love Jesus. Pray they'd develop a passion to reach their own people.

-Pray that those working in this community would continue to obediently sow seeds and that yes, they would reap a harvest, too!

Posted by: Wendi :)

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For those of you who have not heard. OM has started a grass roots movement called

THE FREEDOM CLIMB.

Women from across the globe will begin their ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania on January 11, 2012, the National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the U.S.  Climbers will be raising awareness, prayers, and finances for women and children being oppressed, enslaved, exploited and trafficked.  The Freedom Climb goal for 2012 is to affect the lives of 10,000 women through projects that break the cycles of poverty, shame, slavery, and despair.  These projects include micro-loans, education, skills training, and protection from exploitation.

Here is the website where you can get involved. www.thefreedomclimb.net

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Matthew 9:17

"Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

In ancient times goatskins were used to hold wine.  As the fresh grape juice fermented, the wine would expand, adn the new wineskin would stretch.  But a used skin, already stretched, would break.  Jesus brings a newness that cannot be confined within the old forms.

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www.churchhats.biz

In case you were looking for a great place to get a church hat. I found it :)

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JUDAS - Realized that he had sined and felt guilty but never repented.

John 12:12-19
Judas was being caled out by Jesus as his betrayer.

Matthew 2:14-16
Judas went to the preists to plan Jesus's  betrayal

Matthew 27:3
Judas hangs himself realizing his guilt.

PETER - Realized that he had sined and felt broken and humbled and repented.

John 3:36
Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him three times. 

Matthew 26:31
Peter protests and says he will never deny Jesus, but Jesus is like...yeah you will.

Matthew 26:69
Here is the detail account of Peter denying Jesus three times.

Luke 22:28-34
Jesus prayed for Peter's faith

HERE IS THE TAKEAWAY:

When you come to Jesus...are you coming just feeling guilty or are you coming to Him broken and humbled, realizing that there is nothing you can humanly do?

There must be a realization that only the Holy Spirit can change us. We have to stop trying to prove ourselves and let go of our pride that we so often hang onto in our relationship with Christ. There seems to be a feeling of superiority in our identitiy in Christ which is the opposite of what He teaches. We have to humble ourseves with the reality of our constant sin, but with the saving knowlege of God's grace and mercy that we don't deserve. Agape Love.

My challenge to you is to pray about who you relate to more. Judas who feels guilty but not broken in his sin. Or Peter who acknowledges his feelings, but comes broken and humbled before God because of his sin.

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Click here to view this photo book larger

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Do you think that maybe this is the reason it is so difficult to believe in a love that is unconditional?

John 15:14-15
"You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. But remember the root command: Love one another."

2 Corinthians 5:14-15
"Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own."

Phillippians 2:5
"Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion."

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When you look in the mirror and think about your inadequacies or your vanities than you've already missed it. Your focus needs to remain in the word of God. The more you spend time with God, the more you will reflect His likeness. Thank about Moses...when he spent time with God on the mountain, his face reflected God's glory so much so...that he had to wear a veil when he came down among the people because they couldn't look at him.
As we stare in the face of God, we become like what we see...it's a transformation.
Let God be your confidence and the one who affirms you. Your trust and companion.
Let your inward gaze be upon God.

Then...our attitude will not be focused on what we aren't but on what God is in us.

Psalm 17:15 "As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness."

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Coping with Driver Stress:
You're late for your yoga class and you know your yoga power is only supposed to be used for good, but you're about two seconds away from strangling this jerk with your yoga mat. And maybe if this woman who is stopped at the light would look up from putting on her makeup she'd see the LIGHT HAS TURNED GREEN. How do you cope? Verbal abuse: "You can GO now, lady!"

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DEFINITELY
- goes off occasionally for no reason at all.

PREFERABLY
- features multiple noises such as honk and simultaneous siren.
- automatically stops after about a minute, raising hopes in the neighborhood that the disturbance is over, then starts up again.

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