Sunday Lesson from 10-1-06

Antonio and I had an awesome weekend. Friday night we had a baby shower, Saturday we went to the Memphis/TN football game, and Sunday we went to church. I will have to take some pictures of all the things we got at the baby shower and post them later this week, but I wanted to post the message from Sunday at church.

My parents were down for the weekend and they went to church with Antonio and I. As I may or may not have posted earlier, Antonio and I go to a less traditional church. Our church has more of an inner city ministry that we do and we love it. However, it is not for everyone. My mom and dad have only been to church with us a few times, and it has always been for a special occassion at church(those tendto be very crazy for a new comer to take in), so I was glad they got to see a more "normal" day in our church. Anyway, hopefully they enjoyed it and saw why Antonio and I love it there so much!

Pastor Craig preached Sunday about "Preparing for Rain". His sermons are always so awesome and this one was no exception. The main point of the sermon revolved around the following story. There were two farmers that needed it to rain in order for their crops to grow. However, farmer #1 prayed for rain and then he went out to the fields and prepared the soil and seed because he BELIEVED that God would send the rain. Farmer #2 prayed for rain, but never really had the faith that rain would come, so he just sat back and did nothing to his fields.

So, which farmer are you??

James 2:17-18 "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do."

Faith does not excuse action, it requires it!
True faith takes action.
Act and trust that your prayers will be answered.
Real faith requires people to trust God's promises.

Mark 11:20-24 "In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from teh roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered." "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

We are like the fig tree (cursed) too if we are 'a fruit tree with no fruit'.

Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Seek after God and NEVER give up.
Faith has nothing to do with feelings.
We underestimate our power and strength.
God wants only our VERY BEST!!
We may need to be blinded in order to give our very best. Sometimes we second guess our full potential.

How will my life demonstrate that I am prepared/preparing for the rain?

Once again I probably did not do this lesson any justice, but I definitely got so much out of it. Pastor Craig used a few videos that tied into the sermon that really were inspiring and brought the meaning home. I know that God has been speaking to me lately about really being obedient to him. It is something that I am trying to really work on by spending more time in my devotionals (not because I think I am SUPPOSED to, but because I WANT to), surrounding myself with Christians, spending more time in the day praying and worshipping(I guess I did this a little anyway, but didn't think about it. I like to turn on K-Love loud in my car and sing, sing, sing.), etc.

Like I said earlier, I will try to blog later this week about the baby shower we had Friday night after I take some pictures of all the goodies we got.

Please keep Antonio and I in your thoughts and prayers because we only have 4 weeks from today until my due date! I am going to the doctor Wednesday and she is going to check me for the first time so we will get to see if I am progressing at all right now. I promise to keep everyone updated on baby news!