Understanding God: Beauty

Understanding God: Beauty: After publishing my first book I took a couple weeks off writing and went to the Mountains of Tennessee for a vacation and my daughter’s ...

New Online Bible Study Starting on August 25th, 2014!!

Join our free online Bible Study as we study the book Emerging Faith by Ricky Maye. This will be a six week class that is run as a live discussion group on this Facebook event page on Monday evenings at 8:00 pm EST starting on August 25th and running through September 29, 2014. Class will be held as a discussion format which can be openly accessed any time, so you can participate even if you can’t make the live class. This study will explore our beliefs, God’s love, and our journey in faith. All are welcome to join! https://www.facebook.com/events/906793392669754/906793396003087/?notif_t=like

You May Not Get A Second Chance to Offer A First Welcome

I am on vacation! YAY! I am so happy to be spending some great quality time with my family. I am also excited about the opportunity to worship in a new place and meet some new people. I show up about 15 minutes before worship starts and am greeted by two people. Once they find out that I am from out of town and am only visiting their enthusiasm to get to know me fades. My family gest seated and notices that about 70 people filter into the sanctuary. Not one turns to offer a smile, a good morning or a handshake. They file in like they are on a conveyor belt taking their seats and sitting quietly waiting for the service to start. Service begins with some great worship music. I anticipate that a time will come soon to greet one another. NOTHING. The message begins. The message ends. Everyone gets up and leaves. What happened?!!  I gather my family and leave. I don't remember much about the sermon, other than it had a theme based around the fourth of July. The only thing I remember is how I felt....like an outsider. Not really welcomed. I know that if I would have moved to this area I would not have come back to this church again based on how I felt there. This made me wonder, how many times this happens in other churches. How many opportunities do we miss to welcome "outsiders" to be part of our church community and to experience God's love? Are we doing everything we can to extend the hand of friendship and fellowship to newcomers? Or are we missing a great opportunity?

Finding Gratitude in The Darkness

A few months back, I had the fortunate opportunity to find the silver lining on a dark cloud that was hanging over me and come to a better understanding of what gratitude brings to our life. On a trip to visit my father, I had the rather unfortunate luck of blowing a tire driving on I75. It was a Sunday afternoon and we were about 5 miles from the next exit to get assistance. My husband, who has a bad back, was unable to change our tire, so I proceeded to call our insurance company for assistance. They told me that they would send someone out and to expect a call from emergency road services in approximately 30 minutes to get our location. As we sat and waited for our call we noticed our van was beginning to overheating. So we turned it off and opened the windows to let some of the hot "fresh" Florida air circulate through our van. My 6 month old was fast asleep in the backseat and was oblivious to what was going on. My fourteen year old started complaining about being bored and hot. I was waiting....waiting....waiting for that call so we could be on our way again. Ten minutes after my initial call to my insurance company, I received a call from emergency road services. They said they should be there in about 45 minutes. Wonderful ...... Sitting around waiting, I decided to instigate a little game of I spy with my 14 year old. At first he was not very interested, but after awhile he started getting into it and it helped to pass the time. About 25 minutes later the tow truck pulled up and a very nice young man assisted us with putting our spare tire on. He advised us that we needed to get a new tire as soon as possible as our spare was rather old and probably would not get us the 35 miles we needed to get back home. He suggested we try a Walmart the next exit down. We got back on the road and made our way to Walmart. We pulled up to their service station at 5:04 pm. When we approached the counter we were told by the clerk that they closed 4 minutes ago and that they could not help us with our situation. My husband explained that we just blew a tire and that we were 35 miles from home and could not make it home on our spare. The clerk again repeated that they closed 4 minutes ago and they could not help. As we began to walk away the manager of the department who overheard our exchange came over and told us they could could not reopen a bay, but that she would send someone out to change the tire for us in the parking lot. She told us to give them about a half hour and it should be done. A mere 20 minutes later we were paged saying that our van was ready. 90 minutes after our initial blow out we were back on the road and headed home. When I look at this scenario I can view it from two mind frames. The first is the negative: we blew a tire, it cost us $80 to fix, it took us 2 hours to drive 35 miles, it was hot and our van was overheating..........The second is to look at all of the blessings: our insurance company reacted quickly and covered (with no cost to us) to have our spare tire put on , the gentleman who put our tire on was very nice despite the fact that it was hot out and our spare gave him some difficulty, Walmart helped us despite the fact that they had every right to decline to help us (believe me I never thought I would say that I got EXCELLENT service from them), and the simple fact that we could have gotten seriously hurt when the tire blew out at the speed we were driving, yet we were fine. Although life may not be perfect and things happen that upset or frustrate us it is important to realize that despite our difficulties God is with us. We may not understand what is happening to us at the time, but many times there are hidden blessings in what we are experiencing, that gratitude can help us see. By viewing this situation from a stance of gratitude rather than frustration and anger, I felt more at peace and was able to feel God's presence with me. The darkness is where my frustration, anger, pain, control and anxiety dwell. If I allow that darkness to overtake me it clouds my perception of my circumstances and distances me from God's amazing gift of grace and peace. By partaking in the light of gratitude the darkness can no longer dwell in my heart robbing me of the great gift of my heavenly Father's presence and love.

One More Day Until Our Newest Bible Study Starts!

Only one more day until our latest online bible study starts! This bible study features the book Unglued by Lysa Terkeurst and will explore how our emotions effect our communication with others as well as our behaviors. Our class will run for 6 weeks starting tomorrow night, July 2, 2014, at 7:00 pm EST. We will meet on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/742458152485548/  and hold an open forum discussion of the first two chapters of the book at that time. If you would like to check out our class please sign up for the event at the link above and visit our page below to get our first week's assignments http://ignitedbible.wix.com/ignitedonline#!unglued/mainPage The first couple of chapters of the book can be accessed there for free as well as our first week's bible study questions. If you like the class order your book and come back again the following week! If you can't make our live class still feel free to participate as our discussion is an open discussion and can be accessed at any time.

Understanding God: Listen to God's Voice

Understanding God: Listen to God's Voice: I often read a book to my son called Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can you?. Its all about the many different sounds Mr. Brown can make from a soft whi...

Are you a Follower or Just a Believer?

The journey of living one's life as a Christian is an ongoing process. In its early stages, we are called to learn and accept certain beliefs pertaining to God, Jesus and our self. This is accomplished by reading the Bible, attending church, participating in small group study, self reflection and prayer. The more we invest in this journey the stronger our relationship with God grows. Being a Christian sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? If that was all there was to it, it would be easy to walk with Jesus. However, without acting on that faith, our journey becomes pointless and we become stagnant and incapable of moving further along on our spiritual path.

As we evolve in our faith, action becomes necessary to continue to progress. Action or inaction defines whether we are just believers of the word or if we are followers of Jesus. Action is not easy. Sometimes God calls us to do things we may be uncomfortable with, don't know how to do, or are afraid to do. This is why many people in the church, who are good people, get stuck in the belief only mode of our faith. Action is hard. Action is scary. Action takes energy. Action believes that through our faith, we can accomplish what God has called us to do. Action helps to strengthen our faith, deepen our understanding of what the Bible teaches us, and develop us into followers of Jesus. Action requires a deeper commitment to God and our beliefs. Without action our faith cannot truly be alive, since we are in fact not really living out our faith. In essence, our faith is dead or nonexistent to the outside world. Faith is like the scientific concept of potential energy. It provides us with many opportunities and holds the exponential possibility of great things. Action is what releases that potential energy, turning faith into greatness and glorifying God. It allows our faith to flow so that the outside world can see it and experience it.

Are you a follower or just a believer? Do you have enough faith to trust in God and what you have come to believe and be moved to action?

Understanding God: You are Separated from God Only by the Walls you B...

Understanding God: You are Separated from God Only by the Walls you B...: God wants to be close to all of us.  All he asks of us is to believe in him and repent. John 3:16-17 ERV  Yes, God loved the world so much ...

Procrastination, Your Comfort Zone and God's Will For You

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God is calling you and has a job for you to do. You approach Him, listen with your heart to what it is He has for you to do, only to be left to wonder if you understood correctly. What He is asking is in complete conflict with what you believe you should be doing or are capable of doing. You begin to question what His calling is for you and drag your feet. You want to move forward and trust that He knows what is best for you, but can't seem to get motivated to step out of your comfort zone. Why can't you take the plunge and move forward?

1. You are afraid of failure or success – Many times fear can stop a person dead in our tracks from pursuing what God has for them to do. It can make them question if they have understood him correctly and doubt their ability to carry out his plan for them. Sometimes you face fear with the idea that if you succeed you may need to make more permanent changes to your life that fall outside of your comfort zone and could possibly alter your life significantly from what you have grown accustomed to.
2. God's calling seems too overwhelming to you – You look at what he is asking you to accomplish and you become overwhelmed. You don't know where to start and all the steps you need to take complete the task successfully. The enormity of the call feels like it is well above what you can handle.
3. You don't like what you are being asked to do – Although God does not force anyone to do anything and he gives a person free will to make their own decisions, he does try to steer each person down a path he has chosen for them. It is natural to not want to do what you are asked to do, especially if it something that contradicts what you had chosen for yourself.
4. You don't understand the purpose behind your calling and you lack motivation and focus – You may not feel inspired or excited about what God has for you initially. It becomes very difficult to become motivated to work towards your calling when you can't understand the reason or purpose behind what you are doing. It is difficult to blindly accept something without having the foresight as to why you are doing what you are doing.
5. You don't want to attempt fulfill God's calling unless you know you can do it perfectly – For those of you who are perfectionists and are control freaks it is very difficult to attempt what God is asking you to do if you feel you may not be able to complete it to His standards. You are driven for the end result and not focusing on the journey to accomplish what God has for you.

How can me move past these thoughts and move forward with God's calling for us? By realizing that in life you do not truly have control over anything other than your emotions and your own actions. God does not expect you to be perfect, as it is in your imperfection you feel the need to draw closer to Him. He wants you to trust that, although you may not understand why He wants you to do something, that He has your best interest at heart and would never ask you to do something that He did not think you were fully capable of doing or that would hurt you. You do not need to have fear or to feel inadequate or incapable, for through Him all things are possible (Matthew 19:26) and He will be with you in all that He asks you to do.

***Note- Thank you to author Sue Fitzmaurice for this great graphic on procrastination which has provided inspiration for this blog entry.

Transforming Prayer Time

Many times, when we think of prayer, we think about a list of things that we want resolved or fixed in our life or the lives of those closest to us. It is a solemn and somber time to approach God and when addressed this way each and every time we pray, it eventually becomes a ritual or routine. As our prayer ritual develops, we find we spend less and less time praying. This happens because we learn how to get our needs out faster and the feeling and emotion that we may have initially felt when we first began to pray dwindles. How can we rekindle the spark and freshness in our prayer life and relationship with God?

1)      Share happiness and joy with God – God wants to know and be a part of everything that is important to you. That includes the things that make you happy and bring you great joy. By getting in the habit of sharing the positive things with God, not only do we shake our prayer routine up, but we are able to draw closer to Him just by the fact that we are sharing a different aspect of ourselves with Him.

2)      Express the more difficult emotions – God wants to know about the things that are in the deepest recesses of our hearts. Not only does he want to know about those things that we want resolved, but he wants to know exactly how we feel about those things, even when it is bad, ugly or we are wrong. I was once very afraid to express anger and frustration to God. I felt that I had no right to tell him that I felt what was happening to me was unfair or that I was upset about it. I falsely believed that the things that happened to me were as a result of behavior that I had done previously and that I was now being punished for. I did not feel it was my right to question authority. As I changed how I prayed, I ventured out and began to express emotions such as anger and frustration. What I found was that it was a very liberating experience and that God listened patiently to my tirades without judgment. He let me vent my feelings, which gave me a sense that I was indeed being heard and that I did not need to hide anything from him. Expressing those feelings openly to Him helped me to draw even closer to Him and my prayer life was impacted immensely and transformed forever.

3)      Learn to laugh with God – God has a sense of humor. This can be witnessed through some His creations on this earth as well as some of the things we experience in our life. His timing is uncanny and can break the cycle of tension, fear, or anxiety. However, this can only happen when we open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts and are receptive to it.

4)      Pray multiple times daily – I know most of us view this as very difficult to accomplish, with busy work and family schedules. However, if we redefine what prayer actually is we may be able to accomplish this easier. Prayer is a discussion with God and has no set time limit or format. It can be a simple “thank you” for a blessing God has given us or a statement like “God please help me get through this situation.” If we treat praying like a continuous open conversation with God, we will find that praying multiple times daily can be done. This in turn will enhance our relationship with Him as well as our spiritual well-being.

5)      Don’t be afraid to try new things – As stated above, there is no right or wrong way to pray. We need to experiment and try new things until we find something that is comfortable and works for us as individuals. God’s is just happy to have contact with and to share our lives with us.

6)      Realize that you will get what you put into prayer – We reap what we sow. If we go about prayer in a ritualistic and routine manner, it will become more about fulfilling an obligation rather than crafting a personal relationship with God. We need to cherish the time we spend with God and deeply invest in our relationship with Him.

By learning to develop new approaches to prayer, you not only reignite the spark in your relationship with God, but can find deeper meaning and purpose in your own life.

Understanding God: What is faith?

Understanding God: What is faith?: Faith is defined as strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. Let me t...

How Pride Can Hurt Your Walk with God and Achieving Goals

God wants us to take responsibility and great care of what he has entrusted us with. This can be seen through the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:14-30. Those who use what is given to them to its fullest potential will be greatly rewarded.  Those who waste or do nothing with what is given to them will ultimately suffer the consequences.  Taking pride and finding meaning in what we are entrusted with can be a significant motivating factor in achieving great things. What happens, though when our pride gets out of control and actually inhibits what we are trying to accomplish and our relationship with God?

To understand this better it is helpful to distinguish between taking pride in something and having a prideful attitude. Taking pride in something means that we are staking a personal investment in our work and what we are involved in. We have a strong desire to do good works and feel a sense of accomplishment when our investments of time and talents accomplish goals and create positive outcomes. This is the type of pride that God wants us to partake in. He wants us to invest ourselves fully in what he has designed for us. A prideful attitude, on the other hand, does not take pride in what has been accomplished, but holds pride in oneself and one’s individual abilities. This type of pride can lead to arrogance and a self-serving behavior rather than a God-serving attitude. This type of pride can create barriers to accomplishing what God has designed for each of us and ultimately our relationship with Him. We begin to feel like we don’t need God and that we are good enough to manage things on our own.

I can attest to this feeling of pride as I was once there. I had been working in the insurance industry for almost 10 years at the time. During that time I had accumulated numerous sales and service awards and was at the top of my game. I began to develop an attitude of pride in myself and what a good sales person I was, rather taking pride in the work that I was doing. I had begun to look for another job, as I was tired of my current one, and I went on an interview with an employment agency. My interviewer told me that my credentials were impressive, which of course boosted my pride, even further, but that she had some concerns about me personally. She told me that I projected an attitude of arrogance and superiority and that I needed to tone it down if I wanted to get a job with any of their employers. I left the interview stunned as though someone had slapped me in the face. What exactly had I become? Something certainly that was not what God wanted me to be.

The whole experience forced me to look at my behavior, examine what had happened and why I ended up being where I was. After much introspection and soul searching, I determined that in my ride to glory, I stopped including God in what I was doing. I had begun to rely on myself and not him for guidance and inspiration.  I had become a prideful, self-absorbed, and a one dimensional person. I would love to say that after that revelation that everything changed for me immediately and I transformed my thinking. However, it took a few more years and losing a high paying job as well as many of my material possessions for my behavior and its consequences to really sink in and make sense.

Today, 20 years later, I still continue to work in the insurance industry. Although I don’t receive as many awards as I used to , I feel more  happy and in tune with God. I don’t feel the need to constantly one up myself or other people. I am content with where I am in my career and am able to focus on the work in front of me and glorifying God in that work.  I no longer feel the need to dwell in the presence of my prior prideful self, but find comfort in taking pride in fulfilling God’s will for me.

Understanding God: Do we have free will?

Understanding God: Do we have free will?: Free will is something that has always been a confusing thing to me. I face the question if God knows everything you will do before you ...

Denying My Own Blessings

 I want my mom's creativity and patience. I want my dad's ability to create things out of nothing. I want my son's natural born ability with music and fearlessness in promoting what he believes in. I want to move into a better home like my neighbor. I want, I want, I want......but what do I already have? I never really viewed my wanting as jealousy, but it is. I am envious over what these people in my life have that I don't. Funny how the devil uses a thing like jealousy to help us forget how truly blessed we are. We don't realize that with the wonderful blessings we receive also comes a series of burdens. My blessings and burdens are my own. Who am I to think that I deserve someone else's blessings or to think that I am capable of carrying the burdens that they may carry? I have been given what I have been given because that is what I can handle. God designed us and knows what we can and should realize in our life. We need to respect this and stop trying to compare ourselves to others. We are each unique and a perfect creation in God's sight. We need to realize this and begin living a life of gratitude rather than a life plagued with jealousy.

Unsticking the Labels We Attach to Ourselves

In the video above several great ideas are shown for removing labels from jars. With a little bit of work the labels are gone and the jar is shiny and new looking. Wouldn't it be wonderful if removing the labels we attach to ourselves were as easy to get rid of? Many times in life when things go wrong we tend to view our situations as an extension of who we are. Bad things wouldn't happen if we were wiser, better at managing our money or kinder to other people. When we are in the midst of difficulty, especially the kind that gets worse the  harder we try to fix it, we tend to fall into the trap of labeling ourselves as stupid, incapable, not worthy.....the list goes on and on. These labels then can become self-prophesies that can inhibit our progress and our spiritual walk with God. However, the truth is, we are none of those things we want to label ourselves as. We are in fact children of God who are in a difficult situation and in need of His tender love and guidance. If we seek his love and mercy we can find peace among the chaos  and difficulties in our lives.

God doesn't want us to go about our life on our own. He wants to be involved and to help us along the path he has for us.



Join our newest online bible study on the book Unglued starting July 2nd, 2014!

Pause and Think About What You Really Want

I work in an office filled with woman. A typical day is filled with complaining followed by gossiping, which is then followed by more complaining. Snide remarks are made behind  each other's backs with each questioning the intelligence and importance of the another in the office. Feelings are hurt and resentment is harbored. It is one big, sick, dysfunctional mess. Some sit back and take all of the frustration and hurt in only to explode when they can't take the craziness anymore. Others explode at the drop of hat sputtering nasty and hurtful comments. As this goes on in the background I sit in my cubicle, typing away doing my work quietly, wondering if a manager will come out and try to diffuse the situation at hand.....but no one does. As the day goes on I speak with several of my coworkers on various work related projects and feel the incessant tug to be drawn into the drama that defines our office environment. Sometimes it becomes difficult to separate myself from what is happening. I find myself spewing garbage, which I immediately regret and feel bad for. I begin to wonder if retreating to my cubicle permanently and putting up a do not disturb sign might be the best way to avoid all of the chaos and the temptation to join in.

Work is stressful, as is life. How many times do we let our environment and circumstances suck us into positions and behaviors that we really don't want to participate in? Instead of being pushed to do things in the heat of the moment, maybe we need to pause and think about what we really want. In thinking about my work the last thing I want is to get sucked into drama and be part of it. I also don't want to be in an environment that is hostile and uncomfortable for people. Honestly I believe that if most of the people who were affected by this awful situation, really thought about it, they would want the same thing, a peaceful and comfortable environment to work in. So then if that is what we really want, then why don't we make it that way?

It is easy to get tempted by our emotions to lash out in retaliation against someone who we feel has hurt us. However, engaging in such behavior not only hurts the other individual, but makes us face the crushing weight of regret and ultimately puts up barriers in our relationship with God. In the heat of the moment it is best to step back and cool off before responding to our hurt. We need to find a quiet and calm place to let God speak to us and to find a way to express ourselves honestly, but in a godly manner. If all of us could do this in my office we would find that calm and peaceful place to work at that we all desire.

I can't change anyone else, but I can change me. I don't have to hide in my cubicle, but I don't have to participate in the drama either. I am pausing to think about what I really want and am going to do what I can to try to make our office a more peaceful and calm place to work in.

Feelings Do Not Have To Dictate our Reactions

"Remember, feelings are indicators, not dictators. They can indicate there is a situation I need to deal with, but they shouldn’t dictate how I react. I have a choice." Lysa TerKeurst

Today we have a choice. We can let our emotions dictate our actions or we can chose to let God dictate our actions. Our emotions should help us determine the things we need to pay attention to and deal with to remain healthy mentally, emotionally and spiritually. They should not, however, control our life and our reactions to other people and circumstances.





I don't know how many of you remember the Calgon commercial above - I know I am showing my age, but just go with it. This is a classic example of how things can go wrong really fast and how frustrating it can become. How can we hold it all together and calm down? A nice bath would be relaxing, however if you are anything like me it is next to impossible to have 30 seconds in the bathroom alone, much less 30 minutes to take a bath and decompress. Not only that, even if we could take a bath and relax a little bit, we still would need to deal with everything that drove us their in the first place. How can we find peace?  TO BE CONTINUED.......

Tune in July 2nd, 2014 at 7pm EST to our new online bible study course based on the book Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions to learn our individual reaction patterns and how we can overcome those patterns to find peace and harmony in our relationships and environment.

https://www.facebook.com/events/742458152485548/

Sneak Peak - July 2nd, 2014 Online Bible Study

Check out our free preview of our upcoming online bible study: Unglued- Making Wise Decisions In The Midst of Raw Emotions. Live online classes start on July  2nd, 2014 at 7:00 pm EST and will run for 6 weeks through August 6th, 2014. Join the class by signing up on our Facebook event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/742458152485548/)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxghXIcekIHGdG5lRVBGWlNBWHc/edit?usp=sharing

http://www.ungluedbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/UngluedChapters1-2.pdf

Encouraging Engagement In Churches

Is your church an exciting place to be? Are most members engaged in fellowship and church activities? Or are your members attendees rather than active participants? No need to worry you can reignite that spark and regain that excitement that will encourage your members to be an active part of their church. Ignited Online Bible Studies is currently working on a  5 week series that will help engage your members and help make your church an exciting place to be. These lessons are not meant to bog participants down with reading. They will be more geared towards discussion which will focus on a specific concept and bible verse and how it can inspire all participants to make changes, get excited and get involved. View one of our sample discussion lessons below.

ENCOURAGING ENGAGEMENT

Hebrews 10:24-25

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Encouraging others to participate in service is a vital part of making a church healthy and engaged with its members and community.  How can we encourage others to participate in church activities?

1)      How do you view the participation of our church members in various activities? Do you think most of our members participate at various activities or just the same few people?

2)      What do you view as the primary reason for this level of participation?

3)      What activities might encourage more members to participate?

4)      How can we encourage others to get involved and get excited about what is going on at the church?

 For more information on this series or to request information on how your church can set up an online study for this series please send an email to ignitedbible@gmail.com or post a comment below with your contact information.

New Online Bible Class July 2nd- August 6th, 2014

 

How to Join This Online Bible Study

• Get a copy of the book Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions by Lysa Terkeurst from Christian Books, Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
• Visit us on Facebook to access meeting information and additional resources for our online class- click here 
• Join our class event to access the class and our weekly discussions! - click here