From the Darkside of the Light

“When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.” – Jonah  3:10 (NLT)
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Sometimes it is hard to really grasp what God is trying to say to us, isn’t it?  We live our live in the moment, as we should, and it just seems that finding Him at work is almost impossible at times. All to often we talk so much about the Love of God that we forget about His wrath, His judgement and His reactive spirit.

It took me a great deal of time to realize this but every time I see God at work in one of those three fashions, I am seeing Him work in Love. God reveals His love to us in so many ways  and we will never be able to comprehend them.

In the instance of the passage above, God had just told the Ninevites that he was going to destroy them. At first he was, but when they repented, He relented His Judgement. In our lives, there may be those moments in which we feel as though we are getting hit way more with the bad things of this world than the Good. Many would even say, it often seems as though He is letting more of the bad happen then the good.

I don’t agree with this assessment, because we live in a fallen world and because of that one fact, we will always have to face the consequences of a world that has turned it’s back on God.

Don't get me wrong, there are still a faithful few but the world we, as believers, claim to love so much has turned its focus away from the one who created it. To be completely honest, I don't really think that it’s really a fair gesture that we have to deal with these consequences, but it’s reality, so what are you going to do, right?

We can’t change what’s happened in the past but we can change will happen in the days to come. God used a very dark message to bring a heavenly outcome in the history of Nineveh. The King’s willingness to bring His city into a repentant mind set changed a dark and gloomy future into something bright and beautiful. He can do that in your life today if you let Him.   

Today, I believe I share a calling that few have been given. It’s a call to speak of the repentant heart. As I begin to embrace this calling those that read my content will see a change in venue, so to speak. I will begin to speak from the dark side of the light. For the longest time It was my passion, my desire to share content that is both simple and positively encouraging but times have changed and God has placed this passion upon my heart.

I believe that you will begin to see a darker side to what I post. In the midst of this dark tone, I also feel that there be an encouraging flair to what I share. Just as the Prophets of Old spoke through lamenting, cautionary thoughts and bold warnings, it has been placed upon my heart to do the same.

This is only the beginning and I truly hope you will join in as we journey together into a bright and beautiful future. 

Stay Tuned,  

Blessings in Christ and Thanks again for visiting us at "The Gathering Room."

"Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord." 45.3.20

M.J. Elliott

A Journey with ACTS 2:14-16

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.

- Acts 2:14-16 NLT

This is what we’ve all been waiting for, the explanation; The answers to many of the questions that have been spurring in our thoughts. Peter being the brave man he has now become stands, addresses the crowd with a fire no one had ever seen before. This is where we see him break out of the cocoon, so to speak. As something that becomes a typical thing with Peter, he starts off with what could be called a joke today saying ‘these guys aren’t drunk, it’s only nine in the morning.’ Then once he get their attention, Boom the hammer comes down, ‘NO, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.’

What a sight to see, I imagine with the first statement he got a few laughs or crooked smiles, only to blast those listening to him with a powerful statement that one would not commonly hear from a fisherman. I’m sure that felt like a smack in the face to some of those that were laughing. The metamorphosis has begun, Peter is beginning to spread out his wings and take up the mantle passed on to him by Jesus. Peter would be the rock that would bring everyone together and take Christianity to the next level.

This has always struck a chord with me, because I’ve always wanted to be the person that takes something to the next level, whether it be a ministry I’m serving in, a project I’m working on, what I do for a day job now or something else.  I’ve always had that desire to do this and honestly have not had much of an opportunity, until recently.  This passage reminds me that there are those who build and there are those who prepare. Peter was a builder and Jesus is a preparer. He prepared the way for the church to begin and Peter, among others, were the ones that built it.

6/29/16 10:05pm

Revised 8/10/16

Blessings in Christ and Thanks again for visiting us at "The Gathering Room."

"Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord." 45.3.20 M.J. Elliott

A Journey with ACTS 2:5-13

Greetings Readers,

Here is the next Segment of my Journey with Acts. It is interesting to think about the things that come to mind when I read these verses. On the surface it may seem like the word of God is just a book, but these words have true meaning and a true impact. I hope you enjoy this segment, I really got more out of it that I anticipated. As always please feel free to share your thoughts on this post.

Blessings in Christ,

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Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?  Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” - Acts 2:5-13 NLT

Again we are bombarded with tons of names that really make it hard to figure out what this passage is really trying to get across to the reader. Sometimes it can be rather inconvenient to have to decipher passages like this, there is always something that tends to get lost in the content. Here, I believe there are two things that are usually overlooked in this passage.

First of all, take a moment and block out everything but the first few lines, keys words here are ‘God-fearing Jews from every nation’ and ‘everyone heard their own language being spoken.’ Sounds like something spectacular doesn’t it, all those languages at once being spoken would usually cause mass chaos, but it didn’t every person heard their own language and I imagine is was pretty clear. Think about that, and add in all the names we just blocked out. When you do that there are at least 15 different cities or towns listed and that doesn’t even include the ones Luke left out.  It is simply amazing see that all these different people could hear the same voice speaking and hear it clearly.

Secondly, there are the words ‘we hear them declaring the wonders of God...Amazed and perplexed they was each other what does this mean?’ That is something for the reader to take to heart. The Pentecost was something so amazing that people were left practically speechless; in the midst of speaking. Is that even possible and when has that ever happened? How can you be both speechless and speaking at the same time?

Yes, I realize there were those that were looking on and then there were those that were doing these things, but the spirit of God had come down on everyone there that followed the ways of Jesus. However, from my perspective, in reading these verses everyone was 'amazed and perplexed' at what was going on, everyone.The truth is that you can’t be really speechless and speak at the same time, it's literally impossible. Well, God does the impossible, doesn’t he?

Think about this when something comes along that may seem impossible to you, Trust that God can take that impossible task and give you the tools you will need to accomplish it.

Written 6/29/16

Revised 7/25/16

Blessings in Christ and Thanks again for visiting us at "The Gathering Room."

"Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord." 45.3.20

M.J. Elliott

A Cautionary Note

Greetings Readers, 

A few weeks ago I said I would post some more about whats been happening in my heart over the past few months and to be honest, the reason it's not been posted is is because I'm not ready to share that just yet, something has been telling me to hold off for now. Why? I'm not sure but I promise it will come, in God's Timing.

For now, I will be sharing more of what on my heart, as I'm sure you all know there is a lot of stuff going on in this world and while I'd like to pretend that it's not been effecting me, the truth is that it has been weighing very heavily on my heart.  If you have been keeping up with me on my facebook page your beginning to see more direct quotes from myself about the world around us. The reality is that this world that we all claim to love so much is falling apart right before our eyes. 

I've held off for quite sometime about sharing my heart on this and the Lord is periodically placing some pretty straight forward statements in my thoughts that I simply cannot ignore.  My intention is to bring all of these thoughts together in one post, so I will not go into them in this post, but believe me when I say that post will come. To be honest I don't really know when it will come but it's brewing pretty hard upon my heart, which usually means I will wake up sometime in the next few weeks in the middle of the night compelled to finish it. I'm praying every night for it to come and the wait is killing me, but I hold back because I know the Lord has a specific plan in mind.

There are times in life when we must hold our tongue and there are times with the spirit of God will compel our hearts to speak. It is our duty to know the difference and to trust in God's plan for our lives. The time for what I feel to be a prophetic word will come when He brings it to the forefront of my wondering mind. 

Stay tuned.

Blessings in Christ and Thanks again for visiting us at "The Gathering Room."

"Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord." 45.3.20

M.J. Elliott

A Journey with ACTS 2:1-4

Greetings Readers, 

Here is the first Segment of Chapter 2 on my Journey with Acts. This marks the beginning of an awakening in History and there is so much more to gain from taking a deeper look into what I've been reading. My eyes are open and I can't wait to see what comes next. Please feel free to share your thoughts our this post with someone else.

Blessings, 

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When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongue as the Spirit enabled them.

Acts 2:1-4 NLT

Being together in one place is quite an accomplishment, in spite of everything the disciples and the other followers were going through.  They were being chased all over the city of Jerusalem and even further. Thinking about this certainly makes me wonder a few things about how the disciples and the group that followed them. How bad were things at that point? How many of those that came together had already lost a loved one to the tyranny of Rome? What really drove the believers together? 

These are all great things to wonder about but the reality is that much of the answers to these questions are not found in scripture. The answers are left up to us to imagine. Most of the time I enjoy using a bit of imagination but in this case I’ve always really wanted to know. The fact that scripture says ‘suddenly a violent wind came and filled the house’ and ‘they saw what seemed like tongues of fire that separated’ has always sparked my imagination. Honestly, I’ve watch movies about this passage just to see how someone else would imagine what happened that day.

We know that it had to be pretty amazing but to imagine that day or to wonder about how they all got together has always been a mystery.  This mystery often reminds me just how amazing God’s power truly is. God was with the believers every step of the way, from the beginning when the few were called until the ascension when there were many and even to pentecost when they all seems to do the impossible and become part of the most important aspects of the Christian heritage. 

The amazing thing about all of this is this; God is with us today just as he was for all the believers. Remember that the next time you begin to doubt God’s amazing power. 

6/29/16 9:15pm

Revised 7/14/16

Blessings in Christ and Thanks again for visiting us at "The Gathering Room."

"Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord." 45.3.20

M.J. Elliott

A Vision Changed

Greetings Dear Readers, 

It feels like it has been a long time since I last wrote a post like this, but I've got the motivation today so I'm going for it. Lets see where it takes me.

First off, I have to admit something to you all. I've been struggling as of late. I know, I know, you struggling, unheard of, I don't believe it. Well, it's true and it's okay to believe it. :-). Its been an interesting month and a lot has happened in our lives since my last family update back in February. I won't bore you with all the details, so lets just say if you want the details just ask and I'll share them in another post.

Lets, get to the point. We are awaiting the birth of our 3rd child in a few months, I've been promoted, our kids have been learning and growing, our ministry website has began to build a following and God has been changing our hearts.  That about sums it all up so lets move on to the motivation behind this post.

Secondly, The struggle I've been working through has been one of identity. Yes, it's true, I've been searching deep with in, longing for God to show me who I am today, I've been searching for a new voice so to speak. I've been wondering what am I passionate about now that my spirit has changed. The time that my family and I have been here in California has given me an entirely new perspective on life, but where has all this change been leading?

To be honest, I still don't really know. To be completely upfront, I had given up on trying to figure it all out. However, I have experienced a few things recently that have given me motivation to begin the search again. I will bring you the details of these experiences in a post I will share later this week but for now I want to leave you with a new vision that I believe God has given me. It is posted on my updated author page on Facebook, but here it is for you today.

"Live your life to the fullest, embracing each refreshing moment that comes from the Lord. Be free to share God's encouraging love with any and all who will accept it and use what God has shown you as the vessel to do so."

Blessings in Christ and Thanks again for visiting us at "The Gathering Room."

"Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord." 45.3.20

M.J. Elliott

A Journey with ACTS 1:23-26

Greetings Everyone,

Here is the next segment of my Journey with ACTS. I know I haven't been here for a while, so we are going to be making up for lost time. This is the last few verses of Chapter 1 on our Journey. Look for Chapter 2 coming soon.

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“So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they all prayed, “O Lord, you know every heart. Show us which of these men you have chosen as an apostle to replace Judas in this ministry, for he has deserted us and gone where he belongs.” Then they cast lots, and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with the other eleven.” - Acts 1:23-26 NLT

They Nominated two men and then they prayed. My question is why didn’t they pray from the beginning? Did they feel like they knew everything they needed to know before choosing the candidates through prayer? If that’s not enough they then proceed to cast lots. It almost seems like they are running the show on their own. Whatever happened to waiting on God when it came to making big choices for our future?

That’s the problem in today’s world as well.  We tend to forget that God doesn’t work on our time. He works on His time. God’s timing really is perfect and if we mess with that, everything we’ve worked for would have fallen apart. We need to make sure we are, indeed, waiting on God but we also need to be aware of the conscious effort that needed as we grow in God.

Sometimes God has something planned for us and we just need be patient and wait upon Him. In the midst of it all through,we must remember that if concerns and worries to the doctor things may just turn out a bit differently that you might think, but in a good way. Make it a point to actively seek God.

6/29/16

Blessings in Christ and thanks again for visiting us at "The Gathering Room,"

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

M. J. Elliott