Sometimes We Have to Face Our Fears
by : Perry Noble

God taught me yet another lesson through my little girl during the recent snow storm we had here in the upstate - There are times when He will place us right in the middle of what we fear the most to prove to us HIS power and also to show us that, many times, what we are fearing should not be feared at all.
Let me explain…
Lucretia got Charisse dressed the morning after it snowed and I took her outside. She had a very confused look on her face while I tried to explain to her it was snow.
We stepped out in the yard and I put her down in the snow…she FREAKED OUT! Seriously, it was a complete meltdown…she was scared out of her mind because I had placed her in an environment with which she was not familiar…and it made her VERY uncomfortable.
SO…I scooped her up and gave her a huge hug, told her it would be alright and then walked around in the snow holding her.
She was fine as long as I held her…so…I decided to try to put her down again…and she began freaking out before her feet ever touched the ground!
I tried reasoning with her. I explained to her that the snow would not hurt her. I told her I would be right there with her…but none of that brought her any level of comfort…she didn’t want to get in the snow.
After about 10 minutes I decided that she had to get over her fears. (I didn’t want us to have the kid that pee’d her pants every time i snowed and refused to go outside!) I knew the snow would not hurt her…I knew I would be right there with her…and I knew the ONLY way for her to get past this was to face her fear head on.
SO…I put her down in the snow, took five steps and then turned around and looked at her.
Yes, she cried. Yes, my heart was hurting to see her cry…but I told her, “Charisse, walk to daddy.” She proceeded to hold out her arms to me…but me picking her up would not have helped her get past something that didn’t need to hold her captive.
So…I said once again, “Charisse, walk to daddy–there is nothing to be afraid of.”
All of a sudden she stopped crying, she literally just cut it off. (Isn’t it funny how kids can do that?) And then she took a step…then another…then another until she finally made it to me (to which I DID pick her up and give her a big hug.)
Afterwards she looked at me and said, “down!” (Which means please put me down!) I said, “do you want to play in the snow?” And she nodded her head yes!
For the rest of the morning she and I played in the snow and had a blast…we built a snowman, I pulled Lucretia and her on the sled…it was awesome! What once held her captive was now something she rejoiced in!BUT…it would not have been possible had I not, as her father, been willing to place her in an environment that forced her to overcome a fear that had no place having any control over her life.
I think the Lord does the same thing for HIS children.
So many times I have found myself held captive by fear…the ungodly kind. The kind of fear that paralyzes…thoughts like…
“What if I am single for the rest of my life?”
“What if I try this tithing thing and go broke?”
“What if something happens to me and I cannot provide for my family?”
“What if I go on this mission trip and something bad happens to me?”
“What if I write this blog post and people take shots at me?”
“What if I preach this sermon and people get mad and leave?”
“What if I make this highly unpopular leadership decision and cause a great degree of uncomfortability?”
You see where I am going, right? We’ve all allowed fear (the wrong kind) to control us to the point to where we beg God to pick us up and make all of the bad stuff go away.
BUT…I believe that many times Jesus puts us right in the middle of the situation we fear the most to prove His power, His faithfulness and to remind us that we are to fear HIM above anyone and anything.
I have learned that when a situation keeps reoccuring in my life that causes me fear and makes me uncomfortable…it is my Heavenly Father placing me in the middle of that fear to help me overcome it. AND…He will keep doing so until I choose to trust Him rather than fear my circumstances.
He’s faithful…and if you are fearful just remember…He’s right there, drawing you to Himself and trying to teach you that by keeping your eyes on Him…there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of.

**************************************************************************
In life, and especially though our spiritual life, this absolutely repeats itself. Just when we believe in our hearts that we kinda have this "God thing" figured out, we realize all to often' that we are nothing in comparison to God and his plan. Sometimes these seasons of revelation, are blips in time. Others are major events that will speak directly to our heart............that is, if we are willing to be open to God's pleasure........willing to be uncomfortable........willing to surrender. Stepping out in faith is essential for any leader, and for anyone wanting to share the message of Jesus. That initial step may seem insurmountable, but the act of following God's will and call for yourself, will SET YOU FREE. The church, now more than ever, has to follow what breaks God's heart. When we are placed in a situation that is unfamiliar and uncomfortable, remember that you must embrace change, act on faith and live for what's on God's heart.

Crazy Love!!

We have our latest series under way....Crazy Love. Pastor Ashley started us down the road to understanding God's Love for us. Any comments on our theme song? Better keep text-voting to her cell, if you have a fav!

I have a great set planned for us this week and I hope you all enjoy it. There is a new song for us, probably at the end of the service. It is titled "No Other Name" by Todd Fields. He is an awesome worhship leader at Northpoint Community Church in Atlanta, Ga.

www.northpoint.org

Here are the songs:

Trust
Meet with Me
Amazing Love
No Other Name

Set up will be Friday night at 6pm.
Practice will be Sunday morning at 8am.

All for now.

Hey everyone,

"30 Days to Live" is now in the books and what a series!!! Great info to help us with the Life change we need to grow closer to Christ each day. Our next series is titled "Crazy Love" and it is going to be another great series that you will not want to miss.

Band Info and songs for 2/01

• Beautiful One
• Psalm 40
• All Who Are Thirsty
• More than Ever (at end of service)

Let's do one of our new songs at 10:40 to kick the service off. (How bout "No Other Name")

Set up will be Friday night at 6pm and lets get together at 8am Sunday morning for practice.

Danny's band, "Playback" will be at Chapz on Friday night also, so we are taking a continent of RLers to catch dinner there and watch the band.

Good evening all!

30 Days to Live has been spectacular. God is "stretching" me in a HUGE way over the past few weeks! When you begin to look at life as just a fleeting moment, or "a vapor" as Craig has been speaking, and you really focus in on what God wants for your life, you realize truly what is important. Relationships.......with family and friends.................and most importantly, with God through Jesus, become GINORMUS. We must be making the most of all of the relationships currently in our life, as well as those the we need to make, and truly MUST make, with those who do not know Jesus. Keep the faith and KNOW that you are the DIFFERENCE!


Friday night set up and BAND practice 01/23/2009
*6pm set up
*7pm test and tune
*7:15pm first chords

We will work on our 3 new songs and the set for Sunday 1/25
*Songs for Sunday

1. We Praise You Lord(capo 3/Bb)
2. Love the Lord(G)
3. In the Secret(G)
4. I Give it All to You (Rich's song)D/G
5. Trust (with slow intro, verse and chorus)(G)

*songs 4 and 5 will be at the end of the service
*Call to worship song Promptly at 10:40am Sunday (instrumental Real Life)

I love you guys and THANK YOU for all that you do!

Sunday Jan. 04, 2009

Sunday night random thoughts:

*30 Days to Live.........WOW! What a great message and a great start on our series for January.
Here are the key points:

1. Turn "Whens/Thens" into "Nows"
2. Turn "Intentions" into "Actions"
3. Turn your whole heart to Jesus

Today's message was very powerful and extremely inspiring. Let's all make it a point to share this series and our church with a friend!

*Worship.......Wow again!!!!!! Here's the Set list for today:

1. Come, Now is the Time to Worship
2. Fields of Grace
3. Everlasting
4. More Love, More Power

-Today was one of the most awesome experiences. I am not sure that I have an explanation for you on why it was so awesome for me, but it was amazing! During "Everlasting", the church participation was like a cup overflowing!! You guys were singing your hearts out and I was loving it. God is truly AWESOME!

Thanks everyone and have a great evening!

Hey Gang, I hope everyone had a wonderful CHRISTmas!!

I wanted to put down some reflections that are on my heart from Sunday morning. I hope that you all had the opportunity to be at Real LIfe with us this weekend (www.forreallife.com). If not, we celebrated our successes for 2008 and talked about Change for 2009, give Vanessa a shout if you want to hear the message. As I look back at the morning and the message, I get so excited about 2009 and the possibilites for us as a group of people serving God! We have been given an amazing opportunity(and responsibility) to reach out to people in our communities, and to share with them a message of Jesus.

**Here are a couple of thoughts on our opportunity/responsibility:

What are you doing to get out of your spiritual comfort zone?

• Are you reading: the bible, books, blogs, etc? Are you searching for knowledge to make you better? Remember, it is going to "Cost" you to go to the next level!! We have to get out of our comfort zone to move forward in our spiritual life.

Once out of your comfort zone, are you open to and willing to change?

• Are you ok with putting your personal likes and dislikes asside in order for another person to get a glimpse of God and what a realtionship with Him could be like? As followers of Christ, we must be willing to look at things through the eyes of person who does not know Jesus. We have to be intentional about providing an atmosphere where people can check out the temperature of water, before having to jump in.

Exponential Growth Factor!

• I touched on this a little on Sunday. When we take things on our shoulders and "get things done" on our hard work and effort, we can grow Christs kingdom, only as big as we are able to keep things from falling thru the cracks. When we try to keep working hard on our own and trust and consult God on for the things that are seemingly going wrong, we still can see some kingdom growth. But I think what God has been trying to get us to see is that we have to put His desires first and foremost. We have to let Him use us, instead of Us using Him for our wants and wishes. In order to experience this "Exponential Growth Factor", we have to surrender our wants, desires and wishes to Him. Put Him First always! If we, as a church, can figure this out......."hold on to you fork" as Perry Noble would say!!! There is some great stuff coming our way!

Hey, that's all for now, but remember this Sunday starts "30 days to Live". You do not want to miss this! This series will be a great step in the direction of change for 2009!! See ya there.

Hey All,

It is a glorious Thursday morning and this is my first ever "Blog". I have read blogs from many different people about many different topics. I have to say, that the whole blog experience has been very enlightening for me. When I first learned of this "blog" thing, I really didn't get it. Why would I want to sit around and read random thoughts from someone else's mind? I have enough problems dealing with the thoughts of my own mind sometimes! But, as I have been able to learn over the past year, when you think that you have something, or anything for that matter, figured out, that is really when the world can come crashing in and let you know how small you really are. So as I have been re-focusing my heart this past year to be open to new and different ways to be taught, I have embraced the "Blog" in a major way. I have been challenged by the blogs that I follow in a major way. I am able to hear the heart and passion that others have for their cause, AND it helps me to process my own thoughts and grow and dream and LIVE for what makes my heart on fire! Any and all of you who know me, realize that passion is for Jesus and sharing His message to PEOPLE. Real People who are living among us who need to know CHRIST Loves them AND that no matter how screwed up things are in their life.........HE wants them and cares for them more than anything in the world! He wants their brokenness, their hurt, their pain, their incompleteness, their disease, their addiction, their sexual preference, their bills and debts, their broken marriages, their divorces, AND their desire to be in control........................................He doesn't need you, He wants you!!! Is this blog going to change your life? Maybe not. Will it challenge you to think differently than you have done in the past and ask you to get uncomfortable? Probably so. Guys, we have to share our All-Loving Jesus with those that don't know, don't care, don't want to know, in a manner that speaks to them and in a way other churches and people aren't. We have to be different. We have to think different. We have to act different.

I watched a video this morning that touched me in a big way! We all have our problems like I listed above, but God wants us to use the heart and the talents He has given us to share a relationship with someone so that they may come to know Him.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8616c1559ab4221b3910

I hope you enjoyed my first blog and come back for more..............
Loren