Our Story, Gods Glory

Greetings Everyone, 

I have been quite busy the last few months, learning more and more about how we are all called to live our Story for Gods Glory. Incidentally the name of this post is also the title to a sermon series I have been working on this summer. I am not planning on into details on this series in this post but needless to say its been a wonderful learning experience :-). 

I have to share a few of the things I've learned though because that's just who God made me. Truthfully, I feel like I'm beginning to see a deeper relationship forming between myself and God as well as between myself and my family :-).

God has revealed some pretty wonderful things to us and all I can say is we are BLESSED to have a God who chooses the perfect timing in all HIS revelations to HIS followers. 

Most recently, I have been looking at the book of Philemon in a completely new light. Typically, when I've read this short book in the past I've simply seen a letter Paul writes to Philemon with regard to a salve named Onesimus who ran a way and is now being sent back home. The reality I am seeing is so much more though...

For me it is as though it has become a wonderful illustration of Gods love for us and I believe I have been forever changed because of this new and deeper understanding. I wont preach to you all in this post but I would like to challenge you to look deeper into the book of Philemon over the next few days.

It's a very short read with only 25 verses and for me those 25 verses have become a great example of a story that was lived for Gods Glory.

I will share my findings in another post entitled "Philemon Revealed" as well as my sermon notes from this series Our Story, God's Glory" when the time is right. 

  Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you... (2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E

The Battle and The Strategy

Hello Readers, 

I read a word last night that I had never seen before as I was reading my daughter to sleep. It was the word "cacophony." How many of you have ever read this word before?

To be truthful I read the same paragraph 4 or 5 times thinking to myself "what in the world could this word mean?" Was it meant to be catastrophe instead of cacophony? That would have made sense in my mind, so I went with it.

Well, today I googled "define cacophony" and it came up with several options for synonyms and a definition that made more since than the word catastrophe. One word to define cacophony could be the word "disharmony."   Now that makes complete since to me...

Here is the quote I am talking about...

"Listen to the love song that I am continually singing to you. I take great delight in you.. .I rejoice over you with singing. The voices of the world are a cacophony of chaos, pulling you this way and that. Don't listen to those voices; challenge them with My Word.Learn to take minibreaks from the world, finding a place to be still in MY PRESENCE and listen to MY VOICE."- Jesus Calling

You can't tell me the first time you read this quote that you understand it all, but when the unknown is understood it changes the quote completely. At least I think so...

While thinking about this quote I was reminded of my post "The Puzzle" last month, but I won't go into that one again at the moment. It seems that there is something else that we are being taught through this. Something that is vital for us all to understand, The Battle Field.

We all know that there is an ongoing battle between good and evil taking place at this very moment and that there are times in our lives where good wins over evil and then other times when evil wins over good. It's part of the circle of life so to speak. The message this quote delivers, at least as far as I understand it, is what we need to know in order to assist in winning The Battle Field.

It is a reminder that Jesus is continually by our side and that he takes great delight in us, but it is also reminding us that the world can be a huge distraction to us and that it will pull us in every direction it can, to drive us off the battle field. In the end we are given a challenge (or a strategy) to help us remain. "challenge them with My Word... rest in My Presence... listen to My Voice...

We must continually seek out time to rest in the presence of God and to listen to his voice. As the beginning of the quote states the presence of God is already there, we just need to seek it out. Yes, it's true that sometimes we aren't sure what's what and if God truly is speaking to us, but that where being in THE WORD and in HIS PRESENCE will teach us how to hear HIS VOICE. It's not easy by any means but if we are to stay the course and fight the battle we are all in (whether we know it or not) we must make the time to do these things....

Who's with me?

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you... (2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E

Reflections; The Journey- March 2014

Thought I'd share the newest article I wrote for my churches newsletter. I think I have more to say on this topic but this should be good for now :-)

Greetings in Christ and Welcome to “The Journey,”

The other day I received a facebook message from one of the children I worked with a few years ago and she asked me the following question, “How would you explain God’s grace?” What a powerful question to ask. I began to think about this question and it took me several days to respond to it.


How many times do we say a word like grace in the midst of a conversation without thinking about the meaning behind it? I know I do it all the time. As I thought about how I would explain grace, I began searching for different definitions and found some really good ones, but none of them were my personal definition of the word.


With that in mind, I sat in silence thinking about God’s Grace. Finally the question came to mind, can you really define the word grace in the spiritual sense? My answer was the following, “The definition lies in the experiences that we have of God’s grace.” I kept thinking about this and came to the same conclusion.


God’s Grace is something that touches the deepest part of our spirit; it fills the hole of longing within our very souls and fuels our desire to be a representation of God’s awe inspiring love.


In the end, I discovered that the only way we can truly define God’s grace is by sharing the experiences we have with God and how that experience has changed our life with others. So here is my word for this month, take a look at your experiences with God’s Grace and share at least one experience with another. 


Continue the Journey,      

Matthew J. Elliott
Director of Family Ministries 

Relections; Family ON Mission

Hey everyone, 

This is another article I've written recently, thought I'd posted for you guys here as well......

My family and I attended a conference with the 3DM ministry team mid-January. While there, one of the main topics of discussion was family and the role that family plays in ministry.
   
     One thing in particular was the concept of “Family ON Mission.” This concept is similar to what I shared on Christmas Eve when I spoke about precious moments we can have as families. Basically what I believe this concept shows us is that every family is called to a certain mission or purpose in life. While each family member may have different passions and desires in life there is always some type of task that God has brought them together to live out in their life together.

        I believe in my family it is to “remain in HIS love” (Jn 15:9). In everything we do, whether we are at home watching TV, at church together, out shopping, or at the park with our daughter; we are called to make every effort to live out this mission. It is God’s purpose for our lives.

        Each and every family has something similar that God has given them as a mission and purpose for their lives. As a church, we also have a calling as a church “Family ON Mission.” It is our task both as families and church families to seek God’s guidance to know what our Mission is. So the question is, are you willing to ask HIM?

More to come…

Blessings in Christ,
                                           Matt, Director of Family Ministries

Reflections; The Journey- Parable of the Barren Fig

Here is an article that I wrote for my Church Newsletter, I thought I would post it here for you guys as well...

From The Journey,

Greetings in Christ and Welcome to “The Journey,”

     I read a scripture the other day that really made me think, it’s about the “The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree.” It’s found in Luke 13:6-9 and Jesus shares it in the midst of pleading with the people to repent and believe.  

      Simply put, a man plants a fig tree in his vineyard, after three years it bears no figs, the man tells his gardener to cut it down but the gardener asks the man to leave it one more year so he can give it some special attention and says ‘if it still bears no figs after another year then you can cut it down.’  

     Interesting parable, isn’t it? As I thought about this parable, the word ‘caretaker’ kept coming to mind. It took me a while to process these two things, but here is what I received. The Man is God, Jesus is the gardener/caretaker, and the fig tree is man.  


     You see, Jesus is constantly taking care of us, interceding with God on our behalf, asking for more time to mold us into the fruit bearing ‘Fig tree’ God created each of us to be.  We are called to repent and believe in God. When we choose not to accept this we ‘bear no fruit.’ I believe the same concept applies to our great calling to ‘go forth and make disciples.’ 


     So my question for you this month is “Are you bearing the fruit God has called you to bear or is Jesus interceding with God asking for one more year?”

Continue the Journey,      
                                                 Matt, Director of Family Ministries 

The Puzzle

Hello Everyone, 

It's been about a month since I last posted something and right now Momma and Leyla are sleeping in the Living room so I thought I'd take the opportunity to write a post. We'll see if I get it done before they wake up :-).

Last night will I was following up with some good friends on facebook, I commented on a post about searching for Gods will and a 10,000 piece puzzle. The comment helped me make a spiritual connection between God's will, our lives and a puzzle. I'm sure people have done this before but I thought I'd share with you all my revelation...

The status post was about how sometimes finding Gods will is like trying to finish a 10,000 piece puzzle while blind folded. At first I was laughing but after a while it seems as though it was really something I needed to pay attention to so I did and I responded with what I thought God wanted me to write for this particular person but in reality it was something I needed to hear as well, thus why I am now bringing you what God has brought me :-)...

Truthfully finding Gods will is never really that simple and there are specific things that we need to work through before we can actually find Gods will. I know in my life there have been several occasions in which this was true. It was only when I found contenment in my own life did the eyes of my heart open up to Gods will for my family and I and why we are where we are at in life today. But let me keep on track here...

Finding Gods will can often feel like a 10,000 piece puzzle; We work hard to find one particular piece of the puzzle and it always seems like it's not even there when in reality it is we just can't see it right then. It seems like there is something about human nature that just seems to block out whats right there in front of us and nothing we do seems to work.

I know for me when I work on puzzles with my wife, I'm sitting there searching for that one piece that I just can't move forward without finding; out of the blue Traci says try looking at a different part of the puzzle for a second or two. Reluctantly I drop what I'm doing and focus on a different part of the puzzle and end up connecting more pieces of the picture together then I ever would have keeping my focus on that one piece. 

Usually once I've connected those other pieces, that one piece that I'd probably still be looking for is found (typically by Traci) in the midst of everything else and is the link to finishing the rest of the puzzle.

It is interesting to think about this in the spiritual context, (at least for me) if the puzzle is Gods will and the puzzle pieces are the steps we have to take in order to find Gods will for our lives, then maybe we aren't meant to see that part of Gods will yet and we need to be patient live our lives faithfully putting together the bigger picture. In the end, Gods will is still consistently being revealed to us through our faithfulness to seek HIM in our hearts and eventually that one missing piece will come to us in the most unexpected way. 

So here's my challenge for you, take time in the next few days to ask God, am I focusing to much on finding that one particular piece to the puzzle? If the answer is yes, then try looking at another part of the puzzle, maybe in the end that will lead to the answer you seek... 

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you... (2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E

Joy in the City

Hello Again, 

I wrote this article for the Church Newsletter for January, and should be posting a fresh new article in the coming days for you all. But for now let me know your thoughts on this one...

There is a story in Acts chapter 8 that has been on my mind lately and I thought I’d share it with you all this month. It is an interesting tale to say the least but it has a powerful message that I believe is an encouragement to us.

It begins with “a great wave of persecution…sweeping over the church in Jerusalem...” Acts 8:1b. The Believers were forced out of the city into the regions of Judea and Samaria and a Man named Saul traveled around with on goal in mind, destroy this new church.

Interestingly enough where ever the believers scattered, people heard the news about Jesus and the life he lived. 
One man named Phillip whom many considered the first evangelist was forced into the city of Samaria and his story is the one I’ve been thinking about lately.

He confidently shared the good news with the people in Samaria and they listened in awe of the stories he was teaching. He performed miracles, healed the sick and drove out many evil spirits. In the end, “there was great Joy in that city,” Acts 8:8.

This one verse made me think, is our church making this kind of impact on the City we live in? The New Testament church impacted people where ever they went no matter what they were going through, Lives were continually transformed and multitudes were saved on a daily basis.

Here is another question, is this a trend most churches set today? I believe that 2014 is the year we will show that we will be a church that brings great joy to this city. What do you think? 

Stay tuned for some more about what God has given me to share with you...

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you... (2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E