Devotional

Good morning Awakening!

These past few months has been crazy for me. From the many errands, church plant, sermon preps, lesson plans, church planning, meetings, and many other misc. little things which add up that needs to get done, it may feel like constantly playing the game of catch-up. But you know what, I am joyful!

In Nehemiah 8:9-10, it says, 9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. 10 Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The context of Nehemiah is that the Israelites whom were under the oppression of the Babylonians, are now under the governance of the Persian empire. The king allows Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple walls. After the rebuilding, the Jewish people observed the law of Moses and they were reminded of this in verse 9-10. They were told not to weep. They had been in oppression for far too long. This was a joyous day because Jerusalem was destroyed, and now it is erect once again. However this does not mean that they were suddenly free from Persian rule. The people are reminded, “…for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

How many of us just get overwhelmed by the things that are in life? How many of us get caught up in playing catchup and are burdened? How many of us feel as if time is just too little? Can we at all times say that the “joy of the Lord is our strength”? WOW. No matter what life throws at us, the JOY of the LORD should be our strength.

-Jed

God’s Leading

From Awakening Church to you,

Too often we try to schedule everything; Our time, our plans, our dreams, our future, our goals etc. We always have something in mind for our lives. Not only for our lives, but this also at times creep into the church. We think that we can always just do things our way, that all of the outcome of an event lies in our efforts. I’m not saying that we should do nothing, but too often we think we are everything, and that pushes God out of the picture.

Romans 8:14 says, “14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

This means that when our leading comes together with God’s leading, His leading then overrides ours. This is the person that is a son or a daughter of God. The one that allows God’s hand to take their wheel. The matter of fact is, we are too scared to allow someone brand new that we are unsure of to take the wheel from us. We want to be in control of our lives, we want to know where we are going, we want to stay on the path that we are used to. Even if it means that this path leads us to death. It’s scary to allow someone that you have never seen lead your life before, suddenly lead your life. That’s what happens when you give your life to Jesus. When we are in fact sons/daughters of God, then the Spirit is the one that takes charge. We head in another direction, we allow Him to invade us, to work in our hearts, to change our minds, and to stir our spirits. Even though we may be fearful at first, Jesus wants to let us know that when we give over our control, He knows our life better than we know our own.

As Awakening is preparing for History, we want to understand that we can plan so many things beforehand, but we will still never be at rest. We will never be fully prepared. God is the one that is taking control of this event in His own way and He will do what He pleases. He will stir hearts, He will change minds, He will give new perspectives, He will produce hope. We are just there as His servants.

For our church, this the passage that we have been standing upon.

Luke 9:23-24, “²³ And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. If I were to put the Christian life into abbreviations, I would say, “dts”, which means, “Dying To Self”. It is a dying to self all day, every day, allowing God to look much bigger in us and through us. Jesus died for our sins, giving us victory, and when we die to our own flesh through Christ, we let the living God reign in our lives. So as History is coming up soon in just two Friday’s, December 5th, 2014, Awakening will be “Dying To Self”, and letting the Lord reign in this church and in this event!

Excited for what is to come!!!

In Christ,

jed

Preparing for History

Hello from Awakening Church!
God has been preparing the church greatly for the event History coming up. Again, the reason why the event is called History, is because it is short for His Story (God’s that is). The theme that we have for History is called Nobody Left Behind. This has the idea that we don’t want anyone near the community of Flushing, or anyone in this world to feel as if they are left out. We want to let the world know, that Jesus has a great life to offer for every person, and anyone that decides to come to Him will be introduced into His huge spiritual family. I believe that all people on this earth are looking for somebody to lead their lives. In biblical terms, we are all looking for a “shepherd” to lead us as sheep. Many times, we model after those that are our favorite actors, actresses, musicians, those that are rich, make it big, and those that set the trends in our world. We all are people that naturally look for someone to lead us, whomever we are. But for us as imperfect people who idolize others and follow those that are imperfect, what we are doing is adding on more of their imperfections to our imperfections. Who wants to do that? We want to follow after someone that can remove our imperfections, take away our sins, change our character, give us a healthier mindset, and provide us with all of the good things that God promises. We need to follow somebody that is perfect. That is only found in Jesus. If we follow any human in this world, we will die. People all die. When we follow Jesus, we live. Who we follow results in where we end up. That means that I would rather follow somebody that is eternal, so that where I will end up is right alongside Jesus.

Now I believe that as we are preparing for History, we want to keep these things in mind. We don’t want anyone to be left behind, but that for all to come to know the greatness of Christ in them. Everyone is invited to His kingdom. God wants you as you are, He wants to work in you, He wants to let you know that you are wanted, He wants to turn your life around, He wants to heal your family, your relationships, and your brokenness, and most of all, God takes pleasure in being your guide! Will you let Him, One that knows what’s best for you, lead you? This is not about politics, doing righteousness things, and following a set of rules. What this is really about, is really knowing Jesus personally. That WILL change you! Then the outcome of knowing Jesus is following after Him, when you experience His life in you.

During this time, the church has been praying for History. This is the most important thing. We believe that there is power in prayer. We have been praying for the event, the hands working during this event, and all those that are going to come to this event. Every single week during prayer meetings and in all of our gatherings, we have been praying for God to take the lead. If we do this on our own, we know that it wouldn’t glorify God. If we are the one running things, then we are leaving God’s power out of it. We don’t want that. What we do want, is for God to move in History, the way that he wants History to be run. When we allow God to be in charge of History, and to let Him empower our church, then we know that amazing things will happen in History. We want History to be a success in God’s eyes.

No matter what happens during those days of History at Awakening, God will be the One that is glorified. We can be sure of this!

In Christ,

jed

History: Nobody Left Behind

Updates from Awakening Church,

At Awakening Church, we are excited for this upcoming event called HISTORY. HISTORY meaning HIS/God’s story, is the story of hope that we want to give to all people. We have been praying for each of our friends, our relatives, the strangers that we meet every day in our walks of life, and for those that are around our community in Flushing NY. This event led by not Awakening Church but God is meant for life change. Anyone is welcome to HISTORY because God desires all to be a part of His Kingdom. The poor, the rich, the hipsters, the Gothic, the depressed, the drug addicts, the ones with ripped jeans, those with tattoos, all are welcome to join us. We believe as Awakening Church that God wants to give life in full to all people. He truly wants to AWAKEN hearts. Until HISTORY comes, we will be a church that keeps on praying, because we know that we cannot do anything on our own, and if we do things on our own, it wouldn’t be pleasing to God. It’s only in God that anything can actually be considered a success. The theme for HISTORY is called Nobody Left Behind.

The idea behind Nobody Left Behind is that there are so many people in this world that have no direction and feel as if they are alone. In this world, people fight for their own survival, try to make a place for themselves and figure out what their purpose is here on this earth. Sadly, they wouldn’t be able to find a purpose that would satisfy their inward desire for life in full. This searching for a place leads us to find God. Only He can give us our place here on this earth, satisfy our inward desire for life, and give us our true identity. We don’t want anyone that comes to History to feel depressed, lost, chained to sin, and feel out of place. We don’t want anyone left behind, but for everyone to have the opportunity to be FOUND

Dates:

Friday,  December 5
Friday, December 12
Friday, December 19
Friday, December 26 of 2014
Friday, January 1, 2015

Love,

jed