Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Following God & Moving

Warning: This is going to be a long one...
I first want to share a portion of a devotional to preface my post...

Pleasing God, Pleasing Others
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. --Galatians 1:10

At times you will have to make a choice between pleasing God and pleasing those around you, for God's ways are not man's ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). As important as it is to strive for good relations with others, it is even more important to maintain a steadfast and obedient relationship with Christ. Disobeying God to keep peace with other people is never wise. Peace with God is always paramount.
Jesus warned that obeying Him might cause division in your relationships (Matt. 10:35-36). When you follow Jesus' Lordship, your family may misunderstand, or even oppose you, yet your obedience to God reflects your identity as His child. Jesus said that those who obey His will are His brothers and sisters (Luke 8:21). God does not intend to divide the home, but He places obedience before domestic harmony.
It is important to get alone in quietness with God so that you understand what pleases Him. The world's thinking will mislead you more easily when you are not clear about what God desires. Determine that you will please your Lord regardless of the opinions of others.
(Devo taken out of the Experiencing God devotional)

As an update, we just want to share what is going on in our family's life right now. God has us in the middle of another transition to moving back to Alabama. You are probably wondering the same thing that crossed our minds, why so soon? Well, we may never fully understand all the reasoning's to that question, but we do know that God has called us to be faithful to HIM and we fully know that HE is calling us to move on. So even though this has been a short stay in ministry here in Arkansas, we are willing to follow Him whenever and where ever and just pray that He takes care of the details along the way. It is hard on both Clay and I to see that people may take this personally because the last thing we want is to cause dissension, however we pray that God gives all comfort and understanding where needed and the same peace that He has blessed us with in this transition.
We are excited to see what He has in store for our family as Clay has accepted the position of Music and Youth Minister. This will be a full load on Clay especially as he seeks to continue his education as well, so we ask for your prayers in that area. With God all things are possible! Also please pray that these next couple weeks go smoothly and over all are pleasing to our Lord and Savior. There is a lot of packing to do and a short time to do it. We have already experienced Satan trying to discourage us in following the Lord, which shows us that God is up to something awesome. And once again we can't tell you what an honor it is that HE would allow us to be a part of it. God is so good and faithful in spite of ourselves! May He alone be glorified through our lives!!!
~Please pray for us~

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