One of the Coolest Men I Ever Knew

Can the simple word “hi” change someone’s life? Yes it can.

This weekend the Grace Church family was deeply sadden to learn of the passing of Roy Wall, a founding member of our church and dear friend to countless people in the community. Roy was the pristine gentleman, with a kind smile, firm handshake, genuine interest in others and a love for all things UNC Tar Heels. There was honestly not a Sunday that went by when Roy and I were present in which we didn’t shake hands, say “hi” and exchange a barb or two about ACC sports (I being a rabid NC State fan… yes, his was the easier of the conversations).

That was my reality for almost 22 years. On Sunday morning Roy would walk in, extend his hand, say “hi there young fellow…” and then a short conversation would ensue. The conversations were rarely deep, the conversations were rarely long, the conversations rarely mentioned anything other than sports… but they were always genuine.

The best part about my interactions with Roy was that I grew to love these conversations as a teenager. As small as they were, these conversations simply conveyed that an adult (other than my parents and youth pastors who, let’s face it, had to love me) cared. He cared enough to ask me what I thought about his favorite team. He cared enough to share a story or two. He cared enough to congratulate me on the rare occasion when NC State did emerge victorious. And it was a care that I looked forward to every Sunday morning from age 12 until age 33.

I find it remarkable that in an age and society that is constantly conveying that image, radical-ness, loudness, hipness, edginess, extremeness and slickness are all what defines “being cool,” it was a simple southern gentleman who I found among the coolest of all. As a youth pastor, I’ve heard so many adults say that they don’t know how to relate to teens, don’t know how to reach the next generation, don’t know how to connect with kids. Take a simple lesson from our dear, late Roy Wall. Just say “hi.” It has the power to change a life. Roy, after all, changed mine.

Thank you Roy,
Jeremy Gwaltney
Staff Pastor
Grace Church of Chapel Hill

News from Sierra Leone

Daniel Ege is a young man from Grace Church who is spending 6+ months with our ministry partner, Dahan Sheref, in Sierra Leone.

Daniel has been serving, learning, and growing in an amazing way. Below is part of an email update that Daniel sent yesterday. Hope your heart is touched with gratitude and an openness to serve others as God opens doors.

_________________

Yesterday, Dahan and I were heading out for our morning
meetings, and Dahan stopped the car to ask how our neighbor was doing.

This simple act led to our rushing a lady and her family to the hospital, upon which Dahan used his contacts and money to pay for her hospitalization and meds.

The diagnosis: acute gastritis, which from his reaction is cheap to fix with treatment. Yet if God didn’t put her in Dahan’s path, she might have been left to die.

Summer Bucket List

I noticed yesterday that my mind natively creates a list of things I want to do during the summer before it passes away. Here’s that list:

1) take my sons to a Durham Bulls game
2) memorize James 1
3) camp in our new backyard, smores and all.
4) visit all of the public playgrounds in Durham that we haven’t been to yet.
5) attend a “Mouse Rat” concert.
6) be the Master of Ceremonies at an awesome summer youth camp.
7) meet our new neighbors.
take Elizabeth on a creative date each week.
9) begin writing a book about my adventures at schools called, “What You Can’t Talk About in Class”.
10) take family to Emerald Pointe for the first time.
11) go to “Great Wolf Lodge” like last summer.
12) teach Jilas to swim.

What’s your summer bucket list?

Wrestling with GRACE!

I received this email below recently and loved the story of grace. I asked this person to share her email, because I think so many of us could relate to “wrestling with grace.” I hope that her story inspires you and frees you!

___________________________________

I started listening to your sermon on “Questions for God: What is the purpose of my life?” (I’m sure you know the one…the philosophical one that seems totally bizarre at first) tonight at 7pm and just now finished wrestling with it enough to not be upset (thank God I don’t have school tomorrow!).  If you don’t want to read on, that is completely fine, it’s super long. But my world went from completely confused & angry to “Oh my goodness…I’ve been doing it all wrong” in a 6 hr time span!

I got done listening to that sermon and I thought “Oh great. Now what am I supposed to do? I’m frustrated, I’m terribly confused, I’m scared, I’m angry with God, I’m angry with Kendrick (forgive me…) for shaking my relationship with God and tearing apart everything I thought I knew…”  I felt completely hopeless… like I had nothing to offer….that I was just one in a billion people on earth and he doesn’t really care about me or what I’ve done. He just doesn’t want me to screw up his name.”

I wrestled with this for hours and hours.  And then something came over me.  I realized that this is the WHOLE POINT!  To get off my high horse and realize that I DON’T have anything to offer. There is NOTHING I can prove.  I DON’T have anything unique to offer God.  He DOESN’T need me.  He DOESN’T care about what I’ve done…..BUT….He does have something to offer me.  And I sure need him.  And I care about what he’s done in my life.  Everything was all about me and proving to him that I was worthy.  But he doesn’t care about that b/c what good is it doing him?  When I turned it around I was overwhelmed by an incredible sense of humility.

I realized …this is what it’s all about, right?!?! Realizing that I don’t need to prove anything or take certain actions.  I’ve been doing it wrong my whole life! I’ve been trying to show him that I’m good, and just, and yes I screw up but I ask for forgiveness, and I help others, and I try to do good, and blah blah blah….who cares, right? That is ALL about me and trying to prove that I am worthy, when in fact, I AM NOT! And he knows that, and yet is willing to let me have it anyway?  I DON’T deserve to know him. I DON’T deserve his love or grace or forgiveness.  I DON’T deserve his kingdom.  And yet, HE ALLOWS ME TO FREELY HAVE IT?!?! And why would he NOT do it for his own glory? Who else is he going to do it for? Us sinners down on earth who betray him and lie to him and reject him?  And if he didn’t love himself the most or glorify himself the most, then why would we?  We follow God’s lead. So if he loves himself the most, then WE love him the most.  If he glorifies himself the most, then WE glorify him the most.

If he loved Coach K more than he loved himself, then WE would all love coach K more than him…and we would want to be like coach K instead of him…and we would all want to spend eternity in K-ville instead of heaven. While that would be the next best option [ :-) ], God doesn’t trick us like that! He’s not being selfish; he’s acting as an example for us! We love as he loves, glorify as he glorifies, etc. And he has to be worried about me screwing up his name. Not because he’s selfish, but because when I tamper with his name, I’m ruining other people’s chances at knowing him and getting satisfaction through him. So because he protects his name, he’s actually doing ME a favor and protecting me from other people! WOW!  I dont’ know if I am completely on target here…but my world has just been rocked…..

God at work in Amsterdam

Below is an email that I received recently from a ministry partner in Amsterdam. Christina serves with Scarlet Cord – a ministry to sex trafficked girls. I thought her story was very encouraging. Enjoy.

Hi Kendrick

Yesterday was the Easter action with the Scarlet Cord and it was amazing. Part of it for me was really impacted by the sermon on mercy from last Sunday and I have a pretty cool story to share about it.

So the volunteers hand out about 500 gifts for the actions and this year we gave out blooming daffodil bulbs and bags of chocolate eggs. There’s a group in the afternoon of about 5 pairs and a group in the evening of about the same.

It’s common for the volunteers to struggle with the anger towards the clients and the men who walk around the red light district. Some men walk there day and night around and around and some groups of guys will tease and make fun of the girls to show off for each other and there’s a general sense that, wish a bit of cash in his pocket, this is a man’s kingdom where he rules and can do as he pleases. It’s ‘the customer is always right’ to an extreme. There’s a righteous anger of course, but for me that can very quickly turn into a spiteful, hateful, revenge seeking attitude where I would want to see them humiliated and rejected. But I try to follow the example of the SC director and of Jesus who both have compassion and grace for these guys. I can too when I’m home praying for them, but when my feet are in those alleyways it’s much harder.

In the afternoon me and my friend Melana, with baskets full of flowers in our Easter best, went to this area that is this really dark and narrow web of alleys and windows and some turn into long hallways lined with windows. It was there that we had a long conversation with one Romanian girl that was so good, we hurried back to the office for a Romanian bible and brought it back to her. We talked some more and she was starting to cry but we were interrupted by a guy who just came and stood between the three of us! I said, not to him, but to the girls something about this guy being a creep. That was wrong of me, I should have said directly to him not to bother us. Right away as we walked back I told Melana it was wrong of me and I told her about your sermon and how we are to show mercy to the most undeserving people. I was just so angry because we’d attracted so much attention and comments that afternoon and I was seething and at the same time REALLY wanting to put into practice the message of mercy. We went back and prayed for a long time and gave it to God.

I went out again in the evening and this time a man, who had been hanging around behind me and my colleague as we talked to a woman, approached us when we were done and asked us what we’re doing. Usually men that approach us think we’ve got some sort of multiple girl thing going on (everything is in the context of sex) and normally I ignore them. This time I started to tell him about Jesus, thinking he’d just run off. But he didn’t and after my first sentence I felt such a compassion for him. As I spoke his eyes got wide and watery and he looked like a little kid. I started to get choked up and I told him the entire gospel and how Jesus can make him totally clean so he can approach God and that this isn’t the right place for him and on and on. The Holy Spirit just took over and at one point I thought ‘when is this going to stop?’ and he just listened. He said a genuine thanks and we parted.

It made such an impact on me. I don’t see it as a personal victory or something, but God in His grace gave me the chance to glimpse into someone and see them as He does. I’m so glad I heard the message you preached about mercy because I right away put it in this context and God helped me to be merciful. I hope this changes things and that I can see more men on those streets the way God does.

Thanks for the message and for your prayers!

Christina

No time to Read? Think again!

I am completing a 10 month master’s program in June. At that time I will have read over 40 books for the program, each averaging 250+ pages for a total of over 10,000 pages. Now if you would have told me that before I signed up I would have laughed and said, no way! I am a slow reader, so the mountain of reading would have intimidated me. But, I am glad to say, I read it all. In fact, I read several other book as well for pleasure and personal interests.

I like to read, but this past year has made me a reader. Before I would justify that I just didn’t have the time to read much. So I would average several books a year, but would have several gaps of non-reading times. Many people when I ask, “how much do you read’ answer only a couple of books in a year. I found that true especially for men.

One of the required books by John Piper had an exhortation to pastors to be readers. He confessed he also is a slow reader, so I paid close attention. He related a secret he learned and began to practice years ago; to tackle reading don’t try to read a lot at once, instead read for short periods of time every day.

Twenty minutes a day for a slow reader will get you through 12 1/2 pages. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? But if you do so every day, six days a week you will read 3900 pages a year. That’s fifteen 250 page books! Far more than a one or two which is fairly normal.

Why read? You will grow! God gave us a mind to use to learn and grow in both knowledge and wisdom. Reading is one of the best ways to exercise your brain. You discover more about yourself, others, the world God made, and you will see the hand of God in ways you haven’t before.

Give your self a personal growth exercise and read just 20 minutes. Watch and see yourself bloom!

Jim

Mercy Series – April 2011

Celebrating 30 years of ministry and pressing on.

It is hard to believe, but tomorrow marks 30 years since I was ordained into the ministry. Certainly not where I expected to be when I was a teenager looking out at the world seeking to find my place. God had other plans for me when he snatched me from the depths of darkness at age 18. Together Phyllis and I have been on an adventure with God, not always following Him perfectly, but our hearts have been to serve His purposes with our lives. In the course of these 30 years we have experienced an abundance of the grace of God working in us and through us. By that grace we have grown and are excited about the impact we can make in this next season of ministry.

Some reflections on 30 years of ministry –

*  I’m thankful for the churches I served the first 10 years of my ministry. They endured my lack of experience mixed with a ton of zeal and greatly encouraged me.

*  God does far more than I ever asked or imagined.

*  Teamwork brings greater impact than a person’s ministry by itself.

*  The most important aspect of ministry is just showing up…faithfulness.

*  Ministry is truly a calling. It’s not a profession or a job. As someone recently said, “There are better paying ways to be make a living and be unappreciated.” Pastors are not in it for the money or fame or to be liked.

*  Family comes first and deserves the best of my life, not leftovers. I did not always live this way and at times it hurt my wife    and kids. Thankfully they are forgiving and we’ve been able to move past those hurts.

*  It’s all about people. Ministry is about helping and coaching people to know God and grow relationally.

*  People changed by God’s grace are beautiful to behold.

*  Serving in a church that appreciates you is a gift from God. I feel that here at Grace Church and have for these 22 years. I hea plenty of horror stories of pastors and their wives who are dying from a lack of encouragement and lack of appreciation. We’re blessed!

* The greatest thing a church can do for its pastors is follow their leadership. When people resist God given changes the burden on pastors is greatly increased. Again, we are blessed at Grace Church for the way people love leaders who lead.

* The best is yet to come! I’m excited for the next season of my life and ministry. I believe God has more to do in us and through us to advance his mission on the earth. I am so glad to be serving a church that stands ready to move forward in all Gods has for us.

St. Patrick – Apostle to Ireland – he was the real deal!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Amazing how much is made of this day with most people not knowing anything about this amazing minister of the Gospel. As I read about him I am struck at how Christ-centered and Gospel-centered he lived his life and ministry. He was by all definitions a 5th century apostle to Ireland. God performed signs and miracles through him. He had a keen prophetic gift through which God spoke to him and others clearly. He trained over 1000 pastors, planted over 700 churches, and saw roughly a quarter of Ireland converted in his 30 some years of ministry there. And he was not sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church and was never sainted by them. Pretty amazing.

To get a feel for his devotion to Christ and how he lived out his faith, here is his most famous poem. Enjoy and celebrate a real model of Christ. Notice his prayer includes the very things he encountered as he evangelized Ireland’s pagan culture.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through the belief in the threeness,

Through confession of the oneness

Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today

Through the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism,

Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,

Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,

Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today

Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,

In obedience of angels,

In the service of archangels,

In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,

In prayers of patriarchs,

In predictions of prophets,

In preaching of apostles,

In faith of confessors,

In innocence of holy virgins,

In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today

Through the strength of heaven:

Light of sun,

Radiance of moon,

Splendor of fire,

Speed of lightning,

Swiftness of wind,

Depth of sea,

Stability of earth,

Firmness of rock.

I arise today

Through God’s strength to pilot me:

God’s might to uphold me,

God’s wisdom to guide me,

God’s eye to look before me,

God’s ear to hear me,

God’s word to speak for me,

God’s hand to guard me,

God’s way to lie before me,

God’s shield to protect me,

God’s host to save me

From snares of devils,

From temptations of vices,

From everyone who shall wish me ill,

Afar and anear,

Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,

Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,

Against incantations of false prophets,

Against black laws of pagandom

Against false laws of heretics,

Against craft of idolatry,

Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,

Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.

Christ to shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the threeness,

Through confession of the oneness,

Of the Creator of Creation.

Unshaken – the Right Perspective Sermon Notes

UNSHAKABLE – THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE
Philippians 2
Jeremy Gwaltney
March 13, 2011

I. INTRODUCTION

a. Disneyland

b. Attitude changes your experience

c. Today:
• Look at our Passage
• Look at Jesus’ Attitude in Suffering
• Look at God’s Response to Jesus’ Attitude

d. Prayer

II. WHERE PAUL IS GOING

a. Paul is working to tell the Philippians how their lives and attitudes must be changed in the Gospel.

b. Section begins in Philippians 1:27-30 where Paul says…

29For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. – Philippians 1:29-30

c. Sections reaches its key point in Philippians 2:14-15 where Paul says…

14Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 15that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, — Philippians 2:14-15

d. The sections has a beginning premise and ending conclusion.

e. Beginning premise – what can your conflict experience look like (Phil 2:1-3):
• Peaceful
• Loving
• Affectionate
• Joyful
• Lacking rivalry
• Lacking hatred
• Full of the Holy Spirit
• Encouraging
• Unified
• Giving of Significance

f. Ending conclusion – this is what it looks like to shine as lights in conflict (i.e. to be unshakable) (Phil 2:12-18):
• Obedient
• No grumbling
• No questioning
• Blameless of guilt
• A dependence and richness in the Word of God
• Fulfillment
• Rewarding

g. To me, this looks impossible.
• Me in trial…

h. What in the link?
• Philippians 2:4-11 – where Paul discusses the attitude of Christ that can change our experience of conflict and trial.

i. What does this attitude look like?

III. FOUR CHARACTERISTICS OF JESUS’ ATTITUDE IN TRIAL

a. Read Philippians 2:1-11

4Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:4-11

b. #1 – Jesus Was Motivated by His Father’s Interests or Happiness:

4Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus… to the glory of God the Father – Philippians 2:4-5, 11b

• The rest of the passage, Philippians 2:5-11 is a demonstration of how to do Philippians 2:4
• “This” in verse 5 refers to Phil. 2:4

• Paul is going to demonstrate that Jesus’ motivation for enduring hardship was the interests of God the Father.

• How does Jesus increase glory and happiness of a happy God?
1. More worshippers!

• Here’s a shocker for you: We are going to find out that the Father and Son’s end motivation was to increase there own happiness.
1. “not only for your interests…”

• How did they do this?

c. #2 – Jesus Willingly Made Himself Nothing (Denied His Rights) in Suffering:

6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. – Philippians 2:5-7

• “Form of God”
1. Same in essence, distinct in person

• “A thing to be grasped”
1. As God he had all the rights, privileges and riches of heaven.
2. But he chose not to use that as his right or advantage in order to get out of what had to be done for the salvation of humanity.
3. What did he do?

• “He made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant”
1. “servant” = slave

d. #3 – Jesus Willingly Humbled Himself to the Point of a Criminal’s Death

8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. – Philippians 2:8

• Hendricksen points out the severity of Jesus’ humiliation:

1. Obedience: The burden of the Law, instead of the favor of the Law
a. Hendricksen: While still in heaven no burden of guilt rested upon him. But at his incarnation he took this burden upon himself and began to carry is away. – p. 107

2. Poverty: The poverty of a carpenter’s son, instead of the riches of heaven
a. Hendricksen: So poor was he that he was constantly borrowing: a place of birth (and what a place!), a house to sleep in, a boat to preach from, an animal to ride on, a room to institute the Lord’s Super, and finally a tomb to be buried in. Moreover, he took upon himself a debt, a very heavy debt. His debt, voluntarily assumed, was the heaviest that was incurred by anyone. On so deeply in debt is surely poor! – p. 108

3. A Criminal’s Death: The suffering and shame of the death on the cross, instead of the pain-free existences of a heavenly reality
a. Crucifixion was for the worst of the worst – especially rebellious slaves.
b. The complete rejection of fellowship with the Father, instead of the face-to-face intimacy he had eternally enjoyed.

e. #4 – Jesus Allowed the Results of His Suffering to be Determined by God the Father:

8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9Therefore God… — Philippians 2:8-9a

• Notice that upon mentioning the death of Christ, Paul does not go into what happens next from Jesus’ perspective.
• Rather, he says “Therefore, God…”
• The force is that Jesus entered trial, suffered and died and then left the results of his obedience and faithfulness in trial up to God the Father.

IV. GOD’S RESPONSE TO JESUS’ ATTITUDE IN SUFFERING

a. #1 – God Vindicates Jesus’ Trial:

9Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name… — Philippians 2:9

• God vindicates Jesus!
• Its interesting, Jesus in this passage does two actions:
1. He makes himself nothing
2. He humbles himself
• The Father also does two actions:
1. He highly exalts
2. He bestows a name
• The force of the text is that God is rewarding Jesus in exact proportion to the measure of His trial.
• There is NO action that Jesus did in enduring the Cross that God the Father does not vindicate him for!

b. #2 – God the Father and Jesus both Increased there Glory (their interests) by Exalting the Other (the other’s Interests):

10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:10-11

• What was the purpose of God exalting Jesus?
1. Every knee bow, every tongue confess = Jesus is glorified

• What was the purpose of Jesus humbling himself?
1. The glory of God the Father.

• Notice how this works:
1. The Goal (chief motivation) of Jesus was his Father’s interests (to glorify God the Father). The result, Jesus is glorified (his happiness increases).
2. The Goal (chief motivation) of God the Father was Jesus’ interest (be exalted and given a name). The result, God the Father is glorified (his happiness is increased).

• Therefore, God the Father and God the Son are fulfilling Philippians 2:4

• The ultimate increase in their glory (happiness/interest) is found in increasing the glory (or happiness/interests) of the other.

• Notice also, who is shining as lights? God and the Son! (Phil. 2:15)

• This is where the Unshakable Perspective Comes In – it Adopts the Attitude of Christ.

V. THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE

a. The Unshakable Perspective (the Attitude of Christ): God will vindicate me because God is seeking His highest glory. Therefore, my job is to posture myself in such a way that allows God to achieve maximum glory.

b. The Power: The trial ceases to become about you, and becomes about the glory of God!

c. When we focus on the glory of God, we increase our happiness, we experience the power of the Holy Spirit, and we shine as lights because God will vindicate us.

d. The attitude motivates us to do what Jesus did:
• To focus on the interests of God
• To empty ourselves of our perceived rights
• To take the humble road
• To trust God with the outcome.

VI. APPLICATION

a. Sickness or Disease
• Is healing your right, or are you seeking God’s glory through both healing and endurance?

b. Conflict with another Christian
• Have you examined the conflict with the unshakable perspective?
• Are you willing to humble yourself for the sake of peace?
• This is what Paul commands Euodia and Syntyche
• “agree” is the same word for “attitude” in Phil. 2:5

c. Relationships – Wife, Husband
• Do you serve your spouse by actually placing their interests ahead of your with no strings attached?
• Paul will later compare the same actions of Jesus in Phil. 2:4-11 as Jesus serving his bride, the church.
• Husbands do we do this?
• Happy wife = happy husband!

d. Example of Dad

VII. GRACE AND RED BAG

a. What Paul commands here is an impossible thing, that is why he begins the passage with “participation in the Spirit” (2:1) and ends it with Phil. 2:13

13for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. – Philippians 2:13

b. Gordon Fee – “We are not called upon simply to “imitate God” by what we do, but to have the very mind, the mind of Christ, developed in us…”

c. That’s an impossible task unless the Grace of God is at work in us.

d. Let’s ask for God to work in us to will and do his good pleasure amidst the trial of life.

e. Red Bag:
• There might be someone here who wants to experience the peace, joy, love, affection and fulfillment Jesus offers us in trial, but you aren’t sure that you even know who Jesus really is or if you have a relationship with him.
• You can’t have this peace, joy, love, affection, and fulfillment unless you know the one who gives us the unshakable attitude to experience these things.
• RED BAG

f. Pray

Philippians 1 Proclamation – Unshaken!

We began our new series, Unshaken, this past Sunday. We explored Philippians 1:6, “I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ.” As a way to help us come to grips with this I summarized what God is wanting us to know and  believe about him with the following declaration. Let it become like steel in your back and the very confidence of your life. This is the truth of his word that makes us unshakable!

God is not finished with me yet.

I know that what he started he will complete.

By his grace I will do all I can to see his good work continue in me.

I won’t give in to sin, I won’t give up to fear.

I will press forward in the power of Christ.

I will not be shaken.

News from Freedom Firm

Below is an update sent out from Freedom Firm written by our own, Devon Flaherty.

A few years ago, I stood in my bathroom in front of the mirror, brushing my teeth for bed, and I said to my husband (through the foam and around the brush), “If I spent a lifetime in freeing slaves and were to rescue only one, it would be worth it.” From that remote scene in the United States, I was able to come all the way around the world to India, to Ooty, and to volunteer with five other women with Freedom Firm. There was a lot that changed on the way: the facts lined up in my head as I researched; a college friend and his wife and family moved to India to join staff; I had another child, my husband started nursing school; my church, Grace Church of Chapel Hill, NC, starting supporting Freedom Firm. And then I caught word that Grace’s radar was out and they were gathering a team to go. To go. To go. To actually do something on the ground (beyond the marches and prayer walks) for trafficked women.

I am very grateful to Freedom Firm for having me to volunteer and for using our team to continue forward with the liberation and rehabilitation of these wonderful women. The staff kept thanking me, but I also was thankful. To be able to move from an idea, a bleeding heart, in our sometimes very isolated and theoretical lives to the mist-touched mountains where women actually string beads to slowly extricate themselves from their bondage, where workers have sacrificed much and gained more to toil in the ripe fields of human souls: it is almost too much to thank.

I am back stateside now, probably for quite some time. The smell of masala has exuded its last from my pores, the foreign bugs worked their way out of my intestines. There are kids to drop at school, pick up, a three-year-old to potty train. I think of Ooty at night, when I would wake in our boarding house to silence and pitch blackness, when even the honking seemed to have ceased down the mountainside. The altitude sickness was giving me moments of random insomnia, which I look back on now with wistfulness. In those moments, with the clicking of an old house and the steady breathing of my teammate, the day would come together with a prayer and steady mind, undistracted by a street full of saris and attempting to eat rice with my hand. All the moments of the journey—for that is really what it was—are seen strung like pearls on a necklace of exquisite beauty and even some curiosity. I can still see this necklace, take it out and wear it and hope that it inspires.

That we may continue to work, wherever we are, toward liberty and love for everyone, and that we too may be ready and able to sacrifice for it.

Thanks from our team to the hospitable and amazing staff of Freedom Firm for a lesson in redemption. And may you be blessed with resources and strength to continue with your vital work.

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Devon worked with Ruhamah in November, 2010, for a week. She came with five other women from Grace Church of Chapel Hill, NC, for the long trek to and fro, bringing supplies and working on sales, marketing, and design for the jewelry-making enterprise.