Sunday's Update - July 25, 2010

Updates:

• Thank the Lord, Trent is safely back home in Alaska!
• Christin finishes her training on August 4 and will then be a permanent resident of Jacksonville, Arkansas.

Praise Reports:

• Gabriel celebrated his third birthday last week.
• Christin was able to come home for the weekend and it was wonderful to see her at church! Quadraphonics sang together for the first time in a long while.
• Julie has started her new job as a hospice nurse and is loving it!

Prayer Requests:

• Vanessa's mother is in the hospital with a staff infection in her leg.
• Clayton, an elderly citizen of Sulphur Springs, is nearing the end of his life and longing to rest with God.
• Pray traveling mercies for Shirley as she stays in Oregon and returns next week. Also for her sister Ruby and brother-in-law Paul as Paul goes through major surgery on a blocked carotid artery.
• Trent's youngest son, Donovan, has a high white blood cell count and a low red blood cell count. Pray that the doctors will discover the problem and he will be healed.
• Trent's wife Emily is recovering from surgery, pray for her health and well-being.

Cleanup Crew:

• On August 1 our helpful cleaners will be the Young family!

Sermon Notes:

1 Samuel 14:1-23

We focused on verses 4-11. The armor bearer says, "Do what is in your heart." What exactly was Jonathan's course of action?

1. He determined what his desire was.

2. He sought confirmation from God on his own terms.
3. God guided and rewarded him. 

Where does Jonathan get the guts to dictate like this to God? He puts out a fleece, so to speak, and God gives him an answer. But instead of asking for a sign, Jonathan gives God a sign (Matthew 16:4)! God wants us to put legs on our faith like Jonathan. God can speak into our hearts and give us righteous desires, but he wants us to put those desires into action and be bold with humble arrogance. 

We can see ourselves as a combination of a mind/soul and a heart/spirit. We can see this separation exemplified in passages like Psalm 103:1 where David speaks to his soul. Our soul is like a rebellious toddler we must train to be submissive to God, even if our spirits our fully His. Romans 8:6 speaks of the mind controlled by the spirit being life. Our minds function like computers, only able to work with input and output. We must be 'computer programmers'.   

So how do we reconcile the idea that we pray and have faith for the desires of our heart with Jeremiah 17:9? In the context of this verse Jeremiah is speaking to a rebellious and self-righteous Israel (verse 1 - "Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts." and verse 5 - "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD."). He is witnessing and convicting those who are disconnected from God. But we have been transformed by the renewal of our minds, that by testing we may discern what is the will of God (Romans 12:2). 

Luke 24:24-25 "How slow of heart to believe...." The Gospel is foolishness to our minds. If we try to rationalize our faith it will make no sense. And it's not supposed to (1 Corinthians 1:18)! We must be like little children and believe the Truth with our hearts even when our minds rebel. 

Mark 16:12-14 "Unbelief and hardness of heart...." The Apostles' rational minds hardened their believing hearts.  

We, like the early Christians, must be willing to do the unthinkable and look like fools to the world. As little children, we must see the unseen and believe the unbelievable.