Archive for the ‘God’ Category

Catching Waves by Francis Chan

These Francis Chan quotes are pumping me up!

“We’re not making waves,” says Chan, an avid surfer, “we’re just catching them.”

“I equate it to surfing. Sometimes I’m out in the ocean and there are no sets coming in. I really don’t want to paddle in, so I’ll pray, “God, give me one nice set, one good wave to take me back to shore.” I pray because I can’t make a wave and I can’t ask my friends to go further out and splash to create a wave. We’re powerless. That’s what I feel like in church. We think we can make waves, but in reality we’re totally dependent on the Spirit.”

Check out http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/communitylife/discipleship/catchingwaves.html?start=1.  It’s where I got them from.

Posted by Eddie Smith on May 19th, 2010 No Comments

Matthew West – You Are Everything

This song gets me going!

Posted by Eddie Smith on May 16th, 2010 No Comments

The New Testament in 30 Days

On March 1, 2010 I am going to attempt to start reading the New Testament in 30 days.  This challenge and curriculum was founded and implemented by Elevation Church out of Charlotte, NC earlier this year.

Click here to download the resources to help you do it too.

Posted by Eddie Smith on February 21st, 2010 No Comments

Third Day – Revelation

What we need daily is a revelation from God!

Posted by Eddie Smith on February 17th, 2010 No Comments

Kim Walker – How He Loves Us

One of Martha Marie’s new favorite songs and artist.

Posted by Eddie Smith on February 16th, 2010 1 Comment

Sidewalk Prophets – The Words I Would Say

Be strong in the Lord and never give up hope!

Posted by Eddie Smith on February 15th, 2010 No Comments

Immanuel: God With Us!

Posted by Eddie Smith on February 12th, 2010 No Comments

Ask. Listen. Act.

God is not a fan of being contained in a box.  We will never be able to fathom or figure Him out.  He doesn’t like to be limited to formulas.

I find comfort in formulas, systems, and predictable situations.  I found a formula I like in God however that brings me comfort and security.  It’s not a formula that limits Him.  It’s a formula that brings promise and maximizes my potential in God.  It is a formula that Perry Noble talks about all the time.  The formula is, “Listen to God and do what he says.”

Judges 1:1-3 breaks this down for us.

1 After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, “Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?”

2 The LORD answered, “Judah is to go; I have given the land into their hands.”

3 Then the men of Judah said to the Simeonites their brothers, “Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours.” So the Simeonites went with them.

  1. The Israelites asked God
  2. God answered
  3. Then men of Judah acted

When we believe that God will answer our prayer, He will…100% of the time.  It may not always be what we want, but it will be what is best for us and His Kingdom.

I know when I ask God what He wants, do what He says, and then act on it, I can never fail!

Posted by Eddie Smith on February 2nd, 2010 No Comments

Overspiritualization

supernatural

We can easily become frustrated as we overspiritualize life.  Our finite, human abilites are limited to the natural (physical, social, emotional, intellectual, relational, financial, schedule) roles He has given us.  God is the One that plays the role of super (miracles, divine revelation, forgiveness, healing, peace) in supernatural.  When we do our part to respond to His grace with faith, we allow Him to do His and we no longer put the weight of the super on our shoulders.  Then we can find spirituality in everything and not have to overspiritualize things on our side, but rest in knowing that God has it all under control.

Posted by Eddie Smith on May 21st, 2009 No Comments

Leap Year

On February 29 every 4 years we make up the loss of a full day to maintain lunisolar calendars.  Read more about leap year on Wikipedia.

I believe that Joshua 10:12-13 is why we have leap year so that God can display His glory and majesty while breaking His own rules of science.  He can do that and anything He wants because He is God!

Joshua 10:12-13 (New International Version)

12On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:
       “O sun, stand still over Gibeon,
       O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”

 13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on [a]its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.

Joshua may have had his science wrong, but his heart was pure.  He probably thought that the earth was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth.  He asked God to do a ridiculous thing that defied His laws of nature (AKA a miracle).

We have asked the sun to stand still in many ways in the past few years for our:

  1. Family

    We will officially adopt our son on June 9, 2009! There were several miracles that took place in order for this to be possible.  We were told at 1 time that he would possibly not make it out of the hospital alive before he came into our care.  He was once on 6 medicines and way underweight.  He is now healthy, on zero medicines, and is on track for his weight with no complications. We were even told once that it would be impossible to adopt him.  God made the sun stand still in so many ways and He gets glory for it!

  2. Health

    Miracle after miracle took place in the revealing, the diagnosis, the correction, and healing of Martha Marie’s brain and gall bladder surgeries in 2008!Many of you helped us beg God to make the sun stand still through prayer, volunteering, child care, meals, financial giving, and encouragement and we can never thank you enough!

  3. Ministry

    We have felt a calling to church planting in the past year or so.  We don’t know what that means yet, but we have spent the past 2 years preparing for it through books, blogs, attending church services, conferences, and the things I am learning at my current employment.I currently do not have plans to leave Southern Wesleyan University or our current church (First Wesleyan Church, Greenville).  I am however asking God to make the sun stand still and do something absolutely ridiculous through our personal ministry to the least of these.  I am not satisfied until our family can make a difference for others in the name of Jesus so that people can walk from life to death.  This will probably mean bivocational ministry (working my full time job while doing ministry).  Our current church wants to start a new service of some type.  This may be where this mentality of planting ends up, even if it does not result in a church plant.  It may just mean planting a new service.

    In February, Martha Marie began directing Caroline’s Promisein South Carolina.  There are 143 million orphans worldwide.  Caroline’s Promise exists to educate and make people aware of how they can make a difference in the life of one of them. 

    The problem is not that there are 143 million orphans.  That is the outcome of a variety of circumstances.  The problem is that some good people are doing nothing about it.  Thank you for those that have supported orphans through your prayers, giving, volunteering, and/or attending the fundraising banquet in April.  The banquet was fully underwritten by your generous giving and $9,000 was raised in addition on the night of the banquet to help orphans worldwide.

    Several years ago, Martha Marie felt the calling to pursue playing the guitar.  She felt like a fish out of water not knowing what to do about a good quality guitar and not knowing how to play.  After brain surgery, life will never be the same for us.  Life is much more purposeful now.  It was go time.  We asked the sun to stand still to provide a guitar and lessons.  God sent an angel  (you know who you are) to provide lessons and help us find the guitar she needed.  Just 9 months later after starting lessons, our pastor invited Martha Marie way outside of her comfort zone to start playing guitar and leading a few songs each Sunday morning as a worship leader in our church. 

If times are dark for you now or the storm is unbearable, ask God to make the sun stand still so you can march to freedom because of what Christ did on the cross for you to claim redemption for His plan for your life.

If times are peachy and tribulations are not in sight, take advantage of the opportunity to be on the offense and destroy the enemy’s (Satan) plans by asking the sun to stand still so you can march to victory.

Posted by Eddie Smith on May 3rd, 2009 No Comments

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