You might have noticed that these days we rarely update the photo gallery on our www.teamolomouc.com website.
If you’re looking for new photo material from our activities, please check out our Czech website photo gallery:
http://krizovatkaolomouc.cz/galerie/
Thanks!
Team Olomouc
The last two weeks we have talked about timidity and laziness being two reasons why we don’t serve as we should. This week we are going to be discussing pride. I believe that the two previously mentioned reasons could also be forms of pride. We are timid because we don’t want to look stupid. That is pride. We are lazy because we believe that our leisure is more important than serving someone else. That is self-centered and prideful. When we don’t serve because we think we have already done enough, we are puffing up ourselves and our works beyond the needs of others.
I believe, if we look closely we will see that many times we serve so that others can see us. We choose to serve in ways that we know we will do well not for the benefit of others, but so that we can feel good about ourselves. We can look back and say “See what a good job I did.” We try to find ways to slip into conversations the service that we have done or are planning on doing. We tend to rate services on a scale of really big service to small service, then we value others’ service based on that scale. Therefore, someone who volunteers at a homeless shelter every week is valued more highly than the person who daily sends encouraging e-mails. This rating system is based on pride. We want to see which service is the most highly rated for the least amount of work (maybe that is laziness, too).
We have been fooled by this worldly standard of service. We overlook those who are giving their last two mites, while trying to make sure that everyone is looking at us while we throw in our few coins. In the reading this week it says “The flesh whines against service, but screams against hidden service.” This brings us to this week’s assignment. I want all of us to try to serve people in a way that others won’t find out about it. It may take some creativity, but I think that if we try we can do it. Maybe someone will find out what you did, and if that happens there is nothing you can do about it. But the point of this exercise is to change our mindset from seeking approval and praise from others to serving in order to become more Godly.
This week we are going to look at all of the ways that we saw to serve last week and determine why we did some of the things and not the others. I know that there are so many avenues of service out there that we can not possibly serve in every opportunity. But why do we choose some service over others? Are we more likely to serve people who look like us, who seem nice, who we already know? The answer for me is yes. I sometimes tend to serve people who I think I could serve more easily. To be honest, some times I also want to serve in a way that requires me only to do a big one-time service and get it over with. I don’t want to do the small seemingly insignificant continual acts of service- the types of service that call us to make ourselves uncomfortable for the comfort of others on a regular basis.
‘Wouldn’t it be grand if Christ’s call to the life and to finding our mission involved a one-time decision followed by ceaseless joy and success? Paul’s life provides evidence that following Jesus is a tumultuous road.
Okay,so we’ve made a decision and chosen the life. We’ve rejected non-discipleship Christianity and made a firm, lifelong commitment to follow Jesus. Yet we must still live it out daily in the middle of temptation, weakness, illness,opposition, and the appearance of failure. Everyday we must again say, ‘Yes, Jesus, I’ll follow you today. I’ll resist heading out on my own just because I don’t like the results you gave me yesterday. I won’t bail out even though others are abandoning ship like rats. And I’ll follow you today even though I feel I’ve misunderstood your mission for me and that’s why I’m depressed.’
Choosing the life involves both attitude and action, and the battle is waged as we live out the life each day.’
Bill Hull The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ, p. 127
Do we choose discipleship even when it requires us to get out of a comfort zone and do something we wouldn’t normally do?
Every day this week I want us to go out of our way to serve in a manner that is unnatural to us. When we get together to talk about this, it may surprise us to hear about the things that are unnatural to others. A lot of times, we tend to think that what is natural to us should be natural to others. God had gifted all of us differently and our natural ways of service is just one of those many gifts. Please keep a list of the different ways you serve this week. It doesn’t have to be a long explanation of what you did, just a brief summary to share with everyone. To help us think about different ways of service I have attached a section from Foster’s Celebration of Discipline in which he discusses ’service in the marketplace.’
So, this week your tasks if you choose to accept them are:
* Pray daily for opportunities to serve
* At least once a day serve in a way that comes a little unnaturally for you.
* Keep a list of the ways you served
This week will be our final week of team study and focus on the spiritual discipline of fasting. I pray it has been a good study and practice for each of you over the last 8 weeks. My hope is that, like with all of our spiritual discipline studies, you take what you have learned and keep applying it to your life in some way. Maybe there will be times in the future when you feel compelled by God to fast and spend some time in prayer or meditation in a more focused way with Him. Hopefully you’ll feel stronger and better prepared during those times because of this study we have gone through together. Also, and more importantly, hopefully you feel closer to God now because you have not only studied fasting further but you have participated in it and experienced it with Him. I think that’s something important that we should always be striving for. There is obviously even more about this discipline that we could study. I, personally, feel we have taken some good steps in the right direction. I have learned more about the importance of fasting, and why we do it, and I feel more connected with God because of it. I pray the same is true for you.
This week please choose the fast most appropriate, challenging, and beneficial for you and your time with God. It was meant to be a 40 hour fast this week. I know not everyone is at the same place in their study. Whatever you choose, please commit to it in prayer and thought before beginning it so that you can help guard yourself from temptation and weakness with the help of God. Preparation before time mentally, physically and spiritually, as we have learned, plays a large part in how well you do during your fast and how focused you are on God. As always, please be careful and take the necessary precautions to have a safe and healthy fast.
Our readings this week will come from scripture and from one short (3 page) chapter in the book “God’s Chosen Fast” by Arthur Wallis. We should ask ourselves why we would ever really choose to fast. When we do it, why do we do it? Do we truly do it for God? Is our focus around God, what He can do in our lives, and giving Him all of the glory? Is it sometimes only on what we can get out of it or what we want God to do for us? Do we only consider what we need in our own lives for ourselves? Please read the chapter titled “Fasting unto God.” Also read the following scriptures: All of Zechariah 7 and all of Isaiah 58. God has a lot to say here about where our hearts should be and what our goals should be when we fast.
In your journal this final week please write about how your fast went this week. How well were you able to keep a good focus? Also, what did you think of the readings this week and how did they affect you and your time of fasting and prayer? What, from this study, will you take with you and apply to other areas of your life? What questions do you still have about fasting and what would you still like to learn about it or experience from it in the future?
May God bless you and your time of fasting!
So, I know the video that’s attached at the link’s a little cheesy, but I like the emphasis it makes on speaking positive words and truths into your life. As a natural pessimist, I appreciate the invitation. May hearing and saying positive things create us into more positive beings…
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=20442020
Prayer is the most tangible place where heaven and earth meet. When we pray, we open ourselves up to the transforming power of God and allow Him to fill us with His love and might. God uses the time that we give Him in prayer to shape us into the image of Jesus. The position of our hearts as we call Him Lord opens the path for us to learn about prayer.
Developing an awareness of His presence is the key to praying continually. At our core we must understand that we never leave His presence. If we develop a tangible sense of His presence, then the intangible idea of praying without ceasing, of consistently and persistently being in prayer becomes concrete. There is nowhere we go, no words we utter, no actions we undertake, no breath we inhale that is not touched by the presence of God. If we open our eyes to His presence and truly understand how near He is, our hearts learn to pray with the gentle rhythm of friends who walk and talk together day after day.
Cassandra Martin
“Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue; God’s voice is its most essential part. Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine.” Andrew Murray
“Prayer is the heart of our relationship with Christ Jesus, and the foundation on which any lasting work of the Kingdom must be built. For it is through prayer and meditation we commune with our Saviour and King, enabling us to partake of His life; opening our spiritual eyes and understanding. Then as we study the Word, and work in the Kingdom His Spirit goes before us having set things into motion ahead of time through prayer.
Without establishing a healthy prayer life the fullness of Christ life within us can never be realized. It is essential in order for His life and love to flourish within us, and necessary for our spiritual growth and development; it’s importance in the life of a believer cannot be stressed enough… It is in waiting upon the Lord where the oil of anointing is poured over us, enabling us to minister truly from our spirit, by His Spirit.
Most Christians pray prayers of supplication or petition, asking God for something specific. Often they are the †please help me/us, and please bless me/us†type, but it seems few actually cultivate heartfelt Spirit led prayer as a regular part of their lives.
Once you have experienced the depths of the presence of Christ Jesus, nothing else compares to it’s sweetness and yet it’s power. It only leaves you hungering for more of Him as everything else here pales in comparison. Prayer is that which brings us into the secret place of the Most High God!
You weep for them, cry out, plead in travail for them as the Holy Spirit reveals what He wants you to pray for in their lives. Sometimes there are no words.
There is always personal sacrifice involved; in this type of prayer you are effectively relinquishing a part of your heart and life for them unto the Lord, as you seek His will fulfilled and His life expressed, in and through their lives..
And yet there is a joy and blessing knowing the Lord will move on their behalf! (Sometimes you get to see it, but not always ). It is an honor to share the Lords heart for someone.
Our sincere prayers brought in a spirit of praise and thanksgiving move the heart of God.” - from blog site “Faith Walk”
The greatest ministry any Christian can have is the ministry of intercession. It is this ministry that can turn the heart of a nation. The great soldiers of Christ throughout the ages have won great battles on their knees. It is on our knees that we see His hands stretched out for a lost and dying world. It is on our knees that we see the power available to us by a resurrected Christ. Samuel Chadwick said, “There is no power like that of prevailing prayer….It turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God.”
We need a host of men and women who will stand in the gap and pray in the harvest. This is not a glamorous ministry. The one who prays for the multitudes will never be known by men. He will be known well by the Father.
The Necessity for Prayer and Awakening - Part II Sammy Tippit Ministries http://sammytippit.org/revival-and-purity/the-necessity-for-prayer-and-
And here’s just a random movie quote prayer. I like it because it reminds me to be more sincere and humble in my thanksgiving.
“Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we’re about to eat, amen.â€
Jimmy Stewart as Charlie Anderson in Shenandoah
“We are to pray for each other! We are to lift each other up in prayer and ask God to shape and change our lives for His glory. Our prayers for each other are more than opportunities to ask Him to heal the sick or comfort the hurting. They are opportunities for us to proclaim His faithfulness, to celebrate His closeness, to honor His holiness, and to worship Him as worthy. Prayer is a dramatic statement that we believe God is active and working in the lives of those around us. Prayer proclaims that God is in control no matter what the circumstances appear to be. When we pray together and for each other, we unite our hearts in declaring that we belong to God and that we live by Him and through Him and for Him.” Cassandra Martin
“For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29: 11-13