Anxious? To be or not!

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 

(Mat 6:27) KJV

How "powerful" am I really?  Sometimes i find myself thinking I'm pretty powerful.  That is a mistake!  Not that i have no talents, skills of abilities but I forget who they come from and who makes them effective.  

It's hard to keep in mind, when we are doing good stuff, that it is all totally dependent upon Him - totally - utterly - of Him.

I was once advised to; "Pray as though it all depended upon God and to work as though it all depended upon me."  Not good advise!  I now "Pray because it all depends upon God and I work (or try to) in utter dependence upon Him."

I can't help but think of Saul (later to be known as Paul).  He was "the man" (or at least one of them) in the Jewish religious institutions.  He knew god, the Law, the traditions and by his own statement he was "the man."  All that talent and training and effort--etc. and he still went the wrong way.

I think, that among other issues, Saul depended upon Saul a lot.  I think it was something he dealt with through out his life and ministry.  This is common to most of us and yet we need to pray for a sensitivity to it or accept the thorn that reminds us of it.

As i consider this passage from Matthew and the issue of anxiety I am mindful of what James wrote:

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.   (Jas 4:1-3)

Now if our lusts can cause such distress among us surely they will cause the same within us.  I can't help but consider that this is a great source of anxiety within the individual believers life.  

What if, in affliction I struggle with praying for God will to be done and/or my relief/comfort/rescue/etc.   I struggle with the fact that God is glorified in my weakness - even in my affliction and yet I want it to be over.  This conflict just adds to the anxiety i experience.

It's the, "not my will but thine," conundrum.  I get anxious concerning His will and my will being - well - different.  It's not easy!  Certainly I do not face the same cup Christ faced but our "cups" are always BIG to us.  

But, there is one thing I find comfort in even in the cunnundrum!

Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 
(Luk 22:42-43)

Two things here.  First, Jesus did not hesitate to take His concern to His Father.  He quite clearly asks for this "cup" to be removed.  So I take that to mean I may do the same.  It also means I need to be willing to pray the whole prayer with one addition --- that we may have missed.

I will also pray for God's strengthening whether by the appearance of an angel, the presence of an angel, direct from God or through the Word and the Spirit (not to leave out the Body).  

Father,
You know my anxiety and fretfulness in the current circumstances.  You know I want You to make them go away.  You know my weakness - my fleshiness - my self-centeredness.  You know much more of my struggle than even I do.

I want to run from the circumstance but I fear that I would be running from You as well.  That I do not want to do.  I have been there and done that and I know it is not good.

I would ask for Your strengthening and Your comfort.  I would also ask You to show me You in all this.  The enemies assail my heart and torment my head and I need to hear You more clearly.

I am sadly afraid - but I take comfort in my Savior's prayer and His surrender to You will for us.  I want very much to do the same but my feet feel frozen and I grow anxious - very anxious.  I want to ask You to "help my unbelief," for I can't pretend there is no unblief in my mind and heart.  I believe - help my unbelief!!!

Help get the word out?!?!

Can you help?

This Sept. we will be starting what we hope will be a unique and valuable Bible Study.  We call it Us & Him.  Below you will find some information about our position.

We hope that the Lord will bring the unconverted, the uncomfortable and the unsatisfied who are interested in the Christian faith and want to learn and understand what the faith truly is.

We plan for the study to be on Tuesday evenings from 7:00-8:30 and "brown-bagging" dinner will be fine.  Right now we're looking for a place to meet in Greensboro but if push comes to shove we'll start out at Caribou Coffee (my "office").

Please pass this on!  I can be contacted at      ms@tc2v1.com      if there are any questions.
Your prayers and help will be greatly appreciated ---
And --- No, we're not starting a new "church" -

Us and Him, a Bible Study

The purpose of “Us and Him” is to glorify God and offer the curious, confused and committed the opportunity to study the Christian faith in a safe and biblically sound setting.

There are so many prejudiced views and confused perspective of the Christian faith that we felt called to offer an opportunity for believers and non-believers to become better informed of what the Word of God teaches about the foundations and priorities of the faith.

Our approach is that all that is most appalling in the history of the Church is, though not excusable, understandable in light of Scripture.  We believe that the priority of each believer and hence the Body of Christ is not to change the world but to be changed by the Word and the Spirit.  We believe that the battle between what Scripture calls the flesh and the Spirit is the key battle the believer has to fight.  We also believe that the world and the devil have been very successful in distracting believers from this critical confrontation by getting them to direct their efforts toward establishing a kingdom which is only His to establish.

Though we are aware of the disturbing issues and debates that mark American culture and even the church, our focus will be upon what has been and always will be fundamental to the Christian faith:  the believer, the beliefs and the one believed in.  For us it is about “Us and Him,” not “Us and Them.”

We are called and thereby re-created to be “light.”  Light by its very nature changes its environment.  We are not called nor re-created to be fire.  The fire which will purge is His to employ not ours.  It is the nurturing (living growth) of our new nature that is critical to the effect our “light” can and will have and it is by God’s Word and Spirit that our new nature is nurtured.

Doctrinally we are Reformed, believing that this perspective offers the clearest and most complete understanding of the Scriptures as well as the duties and obligations of God’s people, corporately and individually. While we are very aware that doctrinal differences can often lead to ugly disputes, we believe that Reformed doctrine requires us to be people who engage in conversations that help everyone involved grow in their love for and service to God and their fellow human beings.”

 Mat 22:36-40  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"  (37)  And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  (38)  This is the great and first commandment.  (39)  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  (40) On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

To love God is not easy, He’s really really big.  Certainly He has put a love for Himself into the hearts of believers.  But that love needs to grow in its depth and breadth.  Only through the Word and the Spirit can it do so.  This love for God is also what the other commandment depends upon for fruition.  We believe that without a love for God there is only a love for self to the exclusion of love for anyone else.

 In view of this, every session will aim at gleaning the “how” of loving God.