Giving Encouragement in Life's Challenges

These are Facebook personal messages to Kelsi I sent August 30, 2013

• Friday
• 

  7:23am

  Gini Walker

  My heart hurt when I read your post...sleeplessness and deep fatigue are enemies of ours. I'm praying for you Kelsi...knowing the issues you are struggling with. As only God can, I pray He will enter your circumstances to give you wisdom and peace. Dad and I love you deeply. Hugs and Love, Mom
• 

  8:08am

  Gini Walker

  I've been thinking about our conversation yesterday when you picked up L. & K. about long range goals...Kelsi - there is nothing wrong with making long range plans, as in your position at NCUMC. You don't have to be there to implement them - perhaps someone else will be called by God to do that...and all the better for them! To have those plans already in place. It reminds me of dad's favorite phrase he learned years ago "Be here now". You aren't deceiving anyone because you are making plans for the future of the ministry you now lead. Until God moves you in another direction, be it another week, another month, six months, year or whatever, He has called you to the place you are now. So, put yourself into it all the way with all the enthusiasm, joy, fun, creativity you can. IT WON'T BE WASTED. Then, when HE is ready to move you else where, once again HE will empower you with the same enthusiasm, joy and creativity HE gifted you with where you are. My 4 years of college, preparing for teaching and all the classes I took for my credential were not wasted just because I left teaching early on. Those years and experiences are a part of who God has made me to be today. It sorta reminds me of letting the car idle. Much easier to start than a cold engine. You can be "on the block" ready to sprint when the ready, set, GO signal is given. Until then, keep doing "your stretches", stay in HIS word and trust HIM with your future. He knows all about what's going on with Trinity, you & Brian and NCUMC. You don't have to figure it out. That's HIS job. Know, dear heart, that dad and I are here to support you in your needs. We are SO grateful that we have been given the gift of close proximity. xo Mom
• 

  8:15am

  Kelsi Sousa Walker

  Thank you for those words. I really needed to hear them. Thank you. Thanks for your support, love and time invested into me and the kids. You truly are such a blessing. I love you to the moon and back

THE WORKINGS OF GRACE

"When God is involved, anything can happen. The One who directed that stone in between Goliath's eyes and split the Red Sea down the middle and leveled that wall around Jericho and brought His Son out of the tomb, takes a delight in mixing up the odds as He alters the obvious and bypasses the inevitable."
- Chuck Swindoll, Living Insights

GRACE AND MY HIGH PRIEST

Jesus the Great High Priest

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,^[a] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Religion Minus The God Stuff vs Grace

This is my second time to comment on our newspaper (OC Register) section FAITH & VALUES, Aug. 26, 2013. Side by side are articles regarding personal "faith journey" experiences. The one which caught my eye and I read first was Religion, Minus The God Stuff. The individual is Sari Schreiber. Though Judaism is central to her identity, there was a teaching of the faith that she just couldn't accept: GOD. Then she had what she called an 'ah-ha' moment - the University Synagogue's philosophy of godliness is that God is in the good deeds we do as positive energy in the world and since she doesn't believe in God, this definition of positive energy was, as she put it: 'Oh, I can deal with that.'
This is part of a growing movement in Judaism that preserves Jewish ritual and tradition but does not require belief in a supernatural God. I (Gini) felt SO SAD when I read this. Then, I read the article next to it - PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM about singer-songwriter Sam Phillips, and her take on GRACE. Ahhhhh, I thought (Gini) - one of my favorite words. But, actually, this also left me feeling a bit sad as well. Only one time in almost an entire page was GOD mentioned. "Grace has something to do with patience, with waiting - on other people, on your best intentions or your gut, and on God." So, after reading this I wondered if there is a grace other than God's. I went to Webster: 1a unmerited divine assistance given man for his regeneration or sanctification and 3a disposition to or an act or instance of kindness or clemency. All of this took me back to one of my favorite books: In The Grip of Grace by Max Lucado. He writes "Does God really love us forever? Not just on Easter Sunday when our shoes are shined and our hair is fixed. We want to know how does God feel about me when I mess up, fail or fall short? When I snap at anything that moves; when my thoughts are gutter-level; when my tongue is sharp enough to slice a rock. How does HE feel about me then? In The Grip...reminds me that the God who first made me is strong enough to sustain me. I would like to introduce Sari Schreiber to HIM. This star-breather, this Shalom, This Holy, Holy, Holy One who raises my head and knows my thoughts before I do is so amazing. Hope some day she will open her heart to HIM.

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BUILD YOUR KINGDOM HERE

Song - BUILD YOUR KINGDOM HERE
Come, set your rule and reign in our hearts again
Increase in us, we pray.  Unveil why we're made.
Come, set our hearts ablaze with hope,
Like wildfire in our very souls.
Holy Spirit, come invade us, now.
We are your church.  We need your pow'r in us.

We seek your kingdom first.  We hunger and we thirst.
Refuse to waste our lives, for you're our joy and prize.
To see the captive hearts release, the hurt, the sick, the poor at peace.
We lay down our lives for heaven's cause.
We are your church.  We pray, revive this earth.

Unleash your kingdom's pow'r reaching out near and far.
No force of hell can stop your beauty changing hearts.
You made us for much more than this.
Awake the kingdom seed in us.  Fill us with the strength and love of Christ
We are your church.  We are the hope on earth.

Build your kingdom here.  Let the darkness fear,
Show your mighty hand, heal our streets and land.
Set your church on fire.  Win this nation back.
Change the atmosphere.  Build your kingdom here.
  -Rend Collective Experiment