He is my Strength and my Life

What a difference GOD makes in my life!

What a difference HE makes in how I see and understand things.

What a difference HE makes in how I react (or don’t react) to the circumstances.

What a difference HE makes in how I can have “Acceptance with Joy and Hope” in spite of any of life’s circumstances that threaten to overwhelm me and wear me out.

I had been experiencing feelings of such exhaustion and of being overwhelmed by all that requires my attention and doing each day. But I hadn’t been able to grasp why, for weeks, I was feeling so terrible because I have handled this much responsibility and more in the past.

Finally, last week, I had had quite enough of feeling that way. Desperate, I made up my mind and refused to allow the earthly things waiting to be done to posses my thoughts, time, and energy first thing in the morning and instead went back to having my conversations with God. It was then I realized my greatest problem was that I had foolishly allowed my special morning hours with Him to be replaced by doing the earthly tasks. Ugh! In an attempt to get a head start on all my responsibilities (so maybe at the end of the day I wouldn’t feel like I still had so much left to do) I had let go of doing the most important thing. Oh, that was a huge mistake! But at the same time, it has been a wonderful lesson.

I had become completely lost and overwhelmed in the “daily-ness” of life because I wasn’t allowing myself to be filled by Him every morning. I realized how crucial that has been for me to live a victorious and strong life each day. I am certainly not a “Super Woman”. My strength comes from a SUPER GOD! Without Him daily infusing me and without having a daily, intimate connection with Him, I am useless; I am a walking dead person. I was crushing under the weights of daily life and responsibilities. He proved to me how weak I really am without Him.

He absolutely IS my Life Line.

He absolutely IS my Strength.

He absolutely IS my All in all.

He absolutely IS my Abundant Life.

He allowed me to see so clearly that I can try to carry more weight physically, but that without being in constant, intimate, and spiritual connection with Him it will never go well. The weights will surely crush and defeat me.

I love you, O LORD, my Strength.

The LORD is my Fortress and my Deliverer.

My God, my Rock, in whom I take refuge;

My Shield and the Horn of my salvation,

My Stronghold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X43XXpItGk0

His Footprints in the Sand

The words of fears, sorrows, or doubts are from my heart many times throughout my life. 

The words of promise are from Jesus' heart.

GLORY to Him!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG2ZLWeh3ks

Hungry--Desperate, Exhausted, Dying of Thirst

The demands and responsibilities of daily life continue to relentlessly drain me. I feel like I am shriveling up. I have had to give and pour out much more than what has been poured back in. I desperately long for intimate times with the Lord—He is the One who can fill me back up. So this morning I cry out to Him with this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96i_NIKPwmM

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
so my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, the living God…

Waiting for Him to fill and restore me…

Cardboard Testimonies

A friend of mine sent me an email with the following video. I was moved to tears by the honesty of every individual to admit their desperate need for God's love, power, grace, and work in their lives and their praise in what He has done in their hearts and lives. This is the story of every single one of us. We all need Him.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ

His Grace Flows Down and Covers Us

As I asked the Lord for His presence and His grace to cover me today, this song came to my mind:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

Amazing love, now flowing down

From hands and feet that were nailed to the tree

His grace flows down and covers me

It covers me, it covers me, it covers me

His grace flows down and covers me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyrSL5sKMk0

Thank you, Jesus, that your grace covers us. I desperately need your grace today and every day.

*Home Church Conference* September 2008

If you live in the Colorado Springs area, I have some VERY exciting news for you! There is going to be an organic home church conference taking place in September. The information is as follows:

-----Original Message-----
From: Milt
milt45@stellarbusiness.com
Subject: Organic Church Conference in Colorado Springs!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Colorado Springs and the Eastern Slope,

Please let me introduce myself. My name is Milt Rodriguez and I work in a church planting ministry with Frank Viola, Gary Welter, and Alan Levine. We go to different areas of this country (and others) to plant first century style organic house churches. We have all been in organic church life as non leaders and have experience in planting brand new groups as well as helping established groups. We usually travel in pairs whenever possible and the churches that we plant are best described in an article written by Frank Viola that you can read here:

http://www.housechurchresource.org/what_is_organic_church.html

These are not copies of the institutional church in a living room! Nor are they glorified Bible studies, support groups, cell groups, or bless me clubs. These are communities of believers who have made Jesus Christ the Center, Head, and Life of their lives and their gatherings. The believers learn to draw from Him as their source of life and then share that life with one another and the world. This takes place over a period of time with the help of a church planter.

After an overwhelmingly positive response, we have decided to go ahead and put on a mini-conference on organic church in your area. Don't let the word "conference" throw you. I am referring to informal and interactive meetings conducted in a living room!

The subject matter will be the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. We will specifically be speaking about God's eternal purpose, Jesus Christ being the foundation of the Church, a deeper revelation of Christ and the Church, and some practical help for those who want to move forward in an "organic" way.

The main goal for these meetings will be to plant one (or more) organic church(es) in the Colorado Springs area (or other areas of Colorado).

If God has been stirring your heart about these matters, we would love to have you come and even invite others. The conference is free but we would like to ask you to help with the following:

1) Please let us know if you are coming and how many will be with you.

2) If you haven't already, please read the book called "Reimagining Church" by Frank Viola. You can order at a discount here: http://www.reimaginingchurch.org

3) Please bring folding chairs if you have them.

4) On Saturday, we will be having two meals together. We are going to do this "pot-luck" style. We ask that each household bring two dishes to share; one for lunch, one for dinner. For more information on this, please contact Jan Durkin at: (719) 219-6908.

Here are the details of our weekend:

Dates

September 26th - 28th 2008

Meeting Times

Friday, Sept. 26^th
Session 1 -- 7:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 27^th
Session 2 -- 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Lunch
Session 3 -- 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Dinner
Session 4 -- 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 28

Session 5 -- 9:30 a.m. - ?

Conference location

(email Mary Ann at mabsmailbox@earthlink.net for the information)

Also, we will be bringing several folks with us to help. If you live in the city and would like to help house these people, please let us know.

If you have any questions about the purpose and content of the conference, please contact me at: milt@stellarbusiness.com or (970) 856-6492.

Hope to see you all there!

P.S. If you wish to help defray our travel expenses, an offering basket will be available.

Your brother in Christ,
Milt Rodriguez
The Rebuilders
http://www.therebuilders.org
(970) 856-6492

My Heart's Cry This Week

Over the past weeks, daily life has seemed to just completely consume me. Just managing through each day and all that I am responsible for doing has taken all my time and almost all my strength. Add on top of all my daily responsibilities trying to figure out how to best handle my health issues in the more natural ways I prefer, and it has been downright overwhelming. This week, all of a sudden, I realized with frustration, “Where have my intimate times with my Lord gone?” The spirit within me is crying out to be filled by spiritual things; I feel extremely parched and dying of thirst for things of God. It is so easy to become consumed with earthly life. I’m not suggesting that we cannot find, see, or experience God in mundane, everyday life; we absolutely can. But it is too easy to let daily life become more powerful in our mind, body, and soul than the spiritual things that God is offering.

As I listened to this song a few days ago, it became my heart’s cry to the Lord for the week. I cry out to Him to reawaken me so that the spiritual things from Him, once again, become more powerful and of greater force in my life than my earthly circumstances. If I am exhausted and overwhelmed I want it to be due to the spiritual not due to the earthly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yngKB7pykaA

Right along with that song, I also offered up my thanks to Him for giving me another day. I thank Him for another day of breath and life, for the privilege to be a mom and a wife, for the ability to take care of my home and family and to enjoy being together with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RV09uJc90U

Crying out to Him for renewal and refreshing waters…