Where is Zarephath

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Dreams

I have been privileged to be made aware of this newly founded happening called Finding Zarephath.  I understand that the vision for this endeavor was birthed by a (divinely inspired) dream.  A dream that revealed the need for a place of safety, a place of rest, a place of God’s continued provision.  A place of serving and being served.  A place of life and resurrection, of miracles and revelation.  A place of respite for battle weary Christian women who have been serving in various capacities in ministry.

Probably the main reason for my opportunity to pen this piece is that I too, had a dream. The parallels of my dream to Zarephath are extraordinary.

My dream was situated in what appeared to be a congregation of Christian people gathered in what was recognizable as a church like setting.  Instead of the traditional service accoutrements most of us are familiar with, the people were up out of their seats ministering to one another from a heart of sincere caring and concern.  A man came and sat beside me.  From his loving demeanor and caring and thoughtful presence, I experienced a euphoric sensation of joy and peace that truly “passed all understanding”.  My thoughts were, “Is this the way it is in heaven”?  “Is this what God intended for us to experience when He commanded us to love one another”?  Now months later, though muffled by time, I can still recall the comfort to my soul.  This elevated elation was taking place throughout the congregation.

Since the night of the dream, I have pondered its meaning.  I think I understand now what was happening.

Unraveling the Dream – A call to Love

Scripture speaks to us in numerous places about how important it is to hear what the Son has said in these last times.  Jesus said if we just hear and don’t DO, it is a recipe for failure (Matt.7:24-27).

As Bible believing followers of Christ, we understand that God IS love and we humans are created in His image.  We are commanded to love as He loves (sacrificially); Him first and foremost and each other in the same manner (Matt.22:36-40).  All the law God has put forth for mankind hangs (depends) on those two precepts (v 40).  Carrying one another’s burden’s fulfills the “LAW” of Christ (Gal.6:2).

When Jesus says, “I AM the way, the truth and the life”, what do we think He meant?  Throughout the Bible, from the beginning forward,  and in these last days by the Son, we hear God saying that MY WAY is to love (sacrificially).

Our (mankind) way is often to serve God by doing something that seems to us to be worthy of His approval (see Isaiah 58 and Rev. 2:1-5) but is missing the most important ingredient.  I believe with all my being that the Son is loudly calling out for us to hear Him in these last times:

“MY WAY IS SACRIFICIAL LOVE, NOT DUTIFUL SERVICE”

 The Lord is diligent in His desire that we hear Him.  Not easy to process but yet it IS the Word of God, if any worthwhile endeavor in His name is not flowing first out of a heart full of love for Him and for other people, it will count for NOTHING! (1 Cor. 13:1-3).  Paul said that in Christ Jesus, the only thing that matters is “faith activated and expressed and working through love” (Gal. 5:6).

To repeat for emphasis:   GOD’S WAY IS LOVE—–NOTHING ELSE WILL COUNT FOR ANYTHING

I believe that when we focus on just doing what the Son has said to do and actually do it, we receive the power to function as children of God (John 1:12).  It is a power that changes us into the image of Christ (2 Cor.3:18). The transforming power to change us into the image of Christ is the power of love, and the power of love is the power of God.

According to Ephesians 3:16-19, when we are “rooted and grounded in love” we will be so strengthened in our inner man (heart) that we will “experience” first hand for ourselves, the awesome power of God (Eph.3:16-19). 

When we have found that place, I submit to you, I believe we have found Zarephath!

 

Michael J Gibbs is the founder of Dawning Light Ministries.  A Christian for over sixty years, Michael resides in Colorado Springs, Co. with his wife of forty-eight years, Sue. They have a son and a daughter and four grandsons.  They all share a love for Jesus and the great outdoors.  Michael can be reached at mike@newlifeadvisorygroup.com

 

Love Better

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Selling Love

Image result for chicken nugget bouquet

It’s February already and inevitably the stores will have their Valentine’s Day displays everywhere, commercials for jewelry and chocolate and cards will flood the radio and TV.  Even my social media feeds have been full of bouquets – from flowers, to chocolate, to cookies, to chicken nuggets and bacon wrapped sausages… what?!?

The world is going to try to sell us love and apparently when the flowers and chocolates get old, we’ll create new ways, after all, nothing says I love you like a chicken nugget bouquet, right?  Don’t hear that wrong, there is nothing wrong with choosing to show your love and appreciation with any one or all of these things, but as we drown in the noise of what love is supposed to be according to the commercials, and the stress of making sure we make it special, I would just like to use our weekly check-in time to encourage you to stop, silence the noise, and focus on what your heart is needing, wanting, probably even desperately crying out for.

Commandment

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength… Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 (NIV).

 

Love Assessment

We are called to love.  First God and then others as ourselves.   You know that, you’ve heard it, read it, probably repeated it to other people.  But, do you live in it?  Does it live in you?  Is it your reality?  Specifically, the hardest part, loving yourself?  What do you think of yourself as you sit here today?  Do you smile at who you are becoming, do you cry at who you have been?  Do you look back on your younger self, whether she is 7, 17 or 70 with grace and mercy or with condemnation and embarrassment.  Or do you not look back at all?

Can I challenge you in that for a moment?  The way you love yourself will directly impact the way you can love God and others.  Your ability to see how lovely you are, how adored and precious and smart and wanted and desired you are, is necessary to love God fully and to love others well.  When our love flows out of the unhealthy space of striving and earning and coming through, it is tainted with expectations, conditions, and demands.  Me too. 

Love Her. Love Better.

Let’s do it better this year.  Let’s allow God to speak of what He sees in us, of His love for us, and then let’s brave the memory and revisit our younger selves.  Can we look back on her with mercy and grace, with understanding, and empathy, and speak life to her.  She is beautiful, she is loved, she is a child of the King.  She is light and joy and hope.  She is wanted and needed.  She is seen.

Love Better!

Image result for free images love yourself

 

 

Fully Alive

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Fully Alive

Awakening

I watched a flash-mob marriage proposal on facebook yesterday, and my heart pounded and my eyes teared up.  A few months ago, I watched a video ad for some exciting vacation destination with a Bungalow over the turquoise water surrounded by coral and fish, and my heart cried out for that kind of beauty and rest and adventure.  A couple years ago I watched the making of the “This is Me” song from The Greatest Showman and I wanted to stand up and dance and sing along, actually, I think I did.  These things moved me, they stirred something inside of me.  Each of them echoed off a different part of me that has been tamped down, quieted, suppressed.  Too many days, the flash-mobs are lacking and the cries of the struggles of the people that I love are loud.  Too many days, the dreams of bungalows and coral reefs and turquoise waters drift away and the tide of financial concerns, duties and responsibilities roll in.  Far too many days, “This is me” sounds more like a quiet apology that a proud declaration.  Anybody else? 

A Different View

I can, and I have in the past, looked at those things and myself and quieted them with the words of selfish, or unreasonable, or too much; but what if those things that cause our hearts to quicken aren’t the result of selfishness or unreal expectation.  What if they are just a glimpse into the world and life we were made for, the Eden that our soul was made to live in.  If I take a moment to think of the world God created for us, before the fall, a life of acceptance of each other, a partnership with and enjoyment of nature, an easy conversational intimacy with God, the joy of work without toil and life of adventure without pain , then… is it any wonder that the glimpses of beauty and peace, joy and laughter, strength and hope call out to my heart?  Jesus came to offer us life and life to the full.  What does that mean?  I think these little things offer us glimpses.  They stir our hearts to re-awaken what living is supposed to feel like, but not so that we run off and chase the things, but so that we recognize the places we need more life and places we are called to offer life.

 

Fully Alive

What if you moved and breathed and loved and lived from the heart of someone who, not only, was fully alive, but aware of the power of being fully alive.  Who knew that your very presence could breathe life into those around you, that your energy entering a room, could spark energy in those present, that your joy brought joy, and your hope brought hope, and that when your love filled a room, no heart could remain untouched.  Oh my beautiful friend, you do, you have all of it inside of you, Jesus has given you His hope, His joy, His love, His life – keep chasing Him and embrace it.

 

 

 

“Look out ’cause here I come 
And I’m marching on to the beat I drum
I’m not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me.” – The Greatest Showman, This Is Me

The Loudest Voice

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“When you start to feel like things should have been better this year, remember the mountains and valleys that got you here. They are not accidents, and those moments weren’t in vain. You are not the same. You have grown and you are growing. You are breathing, you are living, you are wrapped in endless, boundless grace. And things will get better. There is more to you than yesterday.” 

— Morgan Harper Nichols

A New Year

Three Weeks…  21 days… Where has it gone?   Just a short time ago, we relished in the last days of December, hopefully working a little less, spending time with family, enjoying the peacefulness of the last days of the year.  Reflecting on the year past and the one about to begin.  And on some level we made commitments, maybe in the form of traditional New Years Resolutions, maybe just quietly in our thoughts… some things need to change, some things can be better.

I made those commitments.  And yet, here we are, three weeks into a new year, and at least for me, the old routine was louder than the new changes.  The numbers on the scale haven’t changed much, I have yet to make it to the gym, my weekly activity report on my phone condemns me, January is already over budget, and I’m not sure my family would attest to any substantial change in my patience or intentionality.

Conflicting Voices

And in the silence, as the voice of accusation comes, I find myself quick to agree.  I’m a failure.  I can’t change.  I will never be the friend/mom/wife I’m supposed to be.  I will always be overweight, out of shape, broke, and distracted.  I can spiral in the failure, I can allow the accusations to be the loudest voice I hear, but then I take a moment to sit still, to engage in a conversation with my God and he reminds me…

He reminds me that He thinks I am fantastic.  He reminds me that He delights in me.  That every failure is not wasted, as long as I fail forward.  That He looks at me and sees all the things He created me to be and do and that He cheers loudly when I succeed, and cheers me on even louder when I fail, because He knows I will learn and do it differently next time.  And I underestimate that all the time.  I forget how absolutely incredibly much Jesus loves me.  I forget that He sees in me sunshine and delight, joy and hope, love and grace, beauty and strength, playfulness and intelligence, and so much more.

 

Making a Choice

So today, I chose to send the voice of accusation back where it belongs.  That is not my voice, that is not my Fathers’ voice, that is the voice of the one who fears me and what I could become if I stopped listening to him.  Today I choose to allow God’s voice to be the loudest voice, to allow His Truth to be the only truth that matters, to refuse to be defined by my failure, but rather to get back up and do it again.  So, I’m adjusting those resolutions and commitments.  I still want to accomplish them, they are good things, but I’m adding a new one, a better one, to the very top of the list;  This year I choose to live in the space where God’s voice is the loudest voice and His truth is the loudest truth.  I know I need more of that.  I know I need more of Him.  And I pray this for you too, may you be reminded daily of His delight in you and may His voice be the loudest voice in your life too.

 

Seeking Direction

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And then we prayed

And then we prayed.  A group of 9 ladies, ranging in age from 21-80, ranging in experience from weekly volunteer, ministry lead, church staff, and pastor’s wife, ranging in their season from contentment to needing a change, ranging vastly in their church history, church experience, wounding and healing.  We gathered together and asked God to speak… words of wisdom for moving forward, name inspiration, mission/vision clarification, financial provision and above all for a clear yes or no on pursuing the foundation of a new ministry.

The words that God spoke in that prayer meeting were so affirming… over and over as each woman shared the scriptures and pictures she received we heard a clear message… Go.  We got some direction to feel and name and heart and character.  Who we wanted to be and who we didn’t want to be.  The most memorable moment, as we were gathered sipping on some wine, snacking on some food and discussing what God had spoken, was when one of our young ladies shared the scripture she felt God had spoken… Eccl. 9:7 “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.”  A heartfelt  joy pierced us… we were on track.

Finances began to be discussed, finding financial supporters so that services and support can be made available at minimal cost or even free.  And God showed up, first in the committed giving of the initial circle and then in larger commitments as the vision and mission was shared with others around us.  We are still building this, but in April 2019, God had confirmed and made a way for a new ministry to be born.

We had one more milestone to reach… finding a name.

Taking Shape…

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The Dream

In November of 2018, one of our ladies had a dream.  We were organizing a retreat, but it wasn’t the usual women’s retreat or youth retreat, or even staff retreat we had all been part of in the past…  This was different.  We were focused and solemn and determined.  They need this, they need hope, they need life, they need to remember that Jesus has something special for them.  It was a retreat specifically designed for women who actively serve in ministry.  Staff women, volunteer leads, pastor’s wives, missionaries.  Women who spend their lives serving others, were coming to a place where nothing was expected of them.  Where their own encounter with Jesus, time set apart was offered.

The dream stayed with us.  Throughout the day, the week, even the month.  It took shape, solidified in form, and began to whisper of visions and missions and names.  We started talking about it over lunch and coffee, in group chats and one on one messages.  We began to call it Speak Life… that was our goal to speak life over women who spend all day offering life to others and often forget to stop and find their own.

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The Origin Story…

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Awakening…

In the fall of 2018 a group of women committed to the ministry of the church came together to discuss the challenges we each face.  Some were paid staff, some were volunteer staff, some worked full-time in the world and volunteered for their local church.  We all faced challenges.  

The biggest challenge for all of us, we recognized, was the attack on our identity and our value. Church Staff felt isolated in the Christian bubble, overwhelmed by the needs of the people they serve, and unable to fully share their frustrations at the risk of discouraging others.  Non-church staff felt less than, unheard, and unconsidered in the daily church administration, which affected their ministry, but they were unable to be present in the daily.

What all of us were feeling was undervalued, overworked, and tired.  All of us had hearts that were fully in line with the vision and mission of our respective ministries, but the constraints of time, lack of focus on self-care, and fear kept us silent and lonely.

Forming the Circle…

During this season, a core group of women committed to caring for each other, offering a safe space, and being more intentional in the pursuit of walking with each other.  Whether that meant encouraging, challenging, grieving along side, or celebrating, the key was regular intentional check-ins.  As usual when people come together beautiful things began to happen, and hard things began to happen.  Over the course of the following months a number of the women experienced an end to the ministries that had driven the need for the original conversation.  Some roles changed, some resigned ministry positions, some stepped out of volunteer positions, some stepped more into ministry.  In each of those transitions, there was so much room for the enemy to continue to speak the lies over each of us, but the beautiful intentional encouragement and support we had committed to, proved a lifeline in a season of transition.

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