God's Provision --AMPliFy Bible Study/Discipleship Group

I often sit back in awe and quite frankly a feeling of "face-palm-duh" when I see the coming together of God's plan on His timing from completely unrelated sources.

AMPliFy Bible Study/Discipleship Group started on a wing and a prayer, OK, LOTS of prayer, in the fall of 2011. The first thing I noticed was some of the kids either did not have bibles or had bibles that were so difficult to read they could not understand them. As a matter of fact, so difficult to read that I couldn't even read and explain them. My preference is the New Living Translation Life Application Study Bible. They cost an average of $25.00-$65.00 apiece. I needed at least four and did not have the means to get them.

 James 4:2, "...yet ye have not, because ye ask not."

I mentioned it on Facebook and within a day I was asked to pick up a check that would cover 4 of them. I was so excited!

 Matthew 6:8^, ....for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Today I received an email asking for my physical address because an author who had written a book on grief from a Christian perspective wanted to send me a couple for any need I might have of them. It just so happened I have a wonderful young woman in my life who is dealing with a tragic loss right now. The offer came totally unexpected. I didn't even know the author had written a book on grief although she is more than qualified to have done so. Before the need was even fully known God had arranged the provision.

"Face-Palm-Duh" anyone? I am not saying that God is a wish granting Genie. Certainly I am not saying that the unanswered prayers of others  mean they are doing something wrong and I am doing something right. I have many as yet unanswered prayers right now myself. I am here to TESTIFY!

God doesn't do things like this because I am so great or AMPliFy is so great; He does these things because HE is so great and His faithfulness extends beyond my small ability to humanly comprehend. I have no idea what God is going to do next. How do I even begin to figure that out when He is making provision before the need is actually presented? How exciting is THAT?!

Is God making provision in your life? Leave some comments and share the goodness!

Blessings, y'all!

Robin

Coming Full Circle

Man! I just LOVE teenagers and 20-somethings! Lot's of folks have called me crazy for the teenager part, but I cannot deny it or even pretend it is something it's not.  And I love every minute of it.

For around 5 or 6 years I have been involved in the local high school band as a volunteer and my church's youth group. Through these decisions I come in contact with many, many teenagers plus the occasional 20-something. In 2011 the Lord led me to begin a small discipleship/bible study group. As much as I love teenagers I thought I had lost my mind. Huge consistent responsibility, and  I had never stepped out in a formal way like this to actually teach in a small setting. I do not consider teaching to be one of my gifts. Discipleship, however, IS, and I have been discipling teens for a very long time. And so AMPliFy was born.

I believe discipleship isn't about sitting down with the bible and learning. I believe it is time spent and invested in relationship. It's coffee at Starbucks, hanging at my house cooking together or watching movies. It's extending  invitation after invitation to just be together even though I know I may get rejected some. It's about responding YES to the last minute phone call for a ride needed when I can, a quick hug at school when the day isn't going well, and shutting up and listening when a teen just wants to talk. 

Bear with me as I jump around a bit....

A few months ago I was invited to attend a small, college aged group called Captivate. I politely declined the first few times [ I am 43, although I don't think the group leader has NOTICED haha ] but the group leader [an awesome 20-something himself!] was very persistent. Finally I reminded him that I was not the right age for this group and he assured me that neither he nor the group cared. He just wanted me to come. So I went. And kept going. Eventually I felt like the Captivate was a good fit for a couple of my AMPliFy kids so I took them one Tuesday evening. They loved it and kept going back on their own. 

Individual prayer is often given at Captivate and one of the AMPliFy kids, whom I have known for 4yrs now, came straight to me to pray for me at prayer time. His prayer was simple, powerful and sincere. I know that the Lord heard it and answered it. He was so bold and it really wowed me. My investment of time, teaching, discipling  and prayer came back around to me in a powerful and definitely unexpected way. Talk about coming full circle!

If I had felt like teenagers were less than I because their number of days has been shorter then I would have missed out on so much joy and just so much GOD in the last several years. I am so grateful to the Lord for this calling on my life and His equipping to walk it out.

1 Timothy 4:12

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹² Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. 

Blessings, y'all! 

Robin

Things Change

It is always sad to close a chapter in your life, because it means that things change: However, it is good to move at the will of God~Pastor Bobby Thompson, [Former District Superintendent West Fla Assemblies of God, Current Pastor, Elevation Life Church.]

The above quote is from a man I barely know, whom I have only met a handful of times in the last 3 weeks. Even though he tweeted it many months ago I could have posted it word for word myself as a commentary on my own life in the last few weeks.

A chapter in my own life closed in November 2011 but really, the beginnings of the closure go back to around 2009...My husband told me at that time that he felt as though our season at our church had come to a close. My beloved church where we all got saved, we all thrived in the presence of God, saw miracles, friends became family, leadership skills and spiritual gifts were developed, and we were taught how to love people unconditionally, that serving others was so much more rewarding than serving ourselves, and God's love, mercy and grace endure forever. This was our church home for 11 years under the leadership of 2 wonderful and anointed pastors. I could not even wrap my mind around what my husband was saying. So we waited.

My husband extended grace to me in the form of time. He gave me as much as I needed. No pressure, no criticism, no rush, just time to pray, time to assess my own "hearing," from God and time to discern. He knew he was right but did not force the issue. I thought he COULD be right but I was much too emotionally entangled in our church to see or hear clearly.

And so time passed..and his patience did not wane. Some doors closed, some doors opened. People I loved left and people I came to love eventually arrived on the scene. And still Bill waited, lovingly firm in his assessment and unwaveringly loving towards my difficulty in seeing things the same.

Finally in mid-November 2011 I came into agreement with him, our children had felt the same way for a while already. I was the last holdout, evidently. What changed?

Well.....I guess the answer to that is ME. Our church is and was a wonderful church with wonderful people in it. There are opportunities to minister and give of yourself, ample times to receive ministry, the praise and worship is lovely, the pastor and his wife loving and fun to be around....In particular, I have to say the pastor has been very good to me and my family and I love him and his wife very much.

But no matter how much I love the people at the church I knew it was God's will as soon as I came into agreement with Bill. I felt relief, sadness, excitement, and unified with my husband for the first time in a really long time. We began to pray and ask God where we were to go, what were we to do? We've never "looked" for a church before. Heck we weren't looking for a church when we found this one. I went to a play there and God ambushed me. My daughter got saved on the spot, then me, then Bill and our son after that....So we were clueless. 

The hardest part was telling my best friend. We had founded and shared leadership of many ministries in the church and I knew it would be so hard. And it was. She cried, I cried, but she told me it was the right decision and that she knew it deep inside. She had been my mentor, best friend, sister and confidante for 11 years and while we knew that our place of worship was not what tied us together, it was still difficult to imagine not worshiping the Lord in the same body of Christ.

Through a lot of prayer Bill and I agreed that there were 2 churches that we felt the Lord presented to us as His options and we are attending both as we wait to hear from God. Both are wonderful and filled with wonderful people. Now it's up to God as we walk in obedience.

It is sad to close this chapter in our lives. It is good to move at the will of God knowing that we left when we were all in agreement as a family. We left fully in the will of God, not angry or offended at anyone or anything, excited at what God is leading us through and to. Being in the will of God outweighs any sorrow, fear, or sadness at departing our first real home church. It also means that even if we don't know where we're going, God does, and that's all that matters.  

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

 ¹ For everything there is a season,
      a time for every activity under heaven.

Blessings, y'all!

Robin