Keeping up with the "Challenge"...but why?

This New Testament CHALLENGE has been aptly named.  It has been a true challenge in every sense of the word.  It is a challenge to keep going...to stay committed to reading one chapter a day and check off that list.  A challenge to be more like this man that I am becoming more and more familiar with in these 4 gospels.  A challenge to think about what all this means to me and how I am living today.   

I hope that everyone who is reading this and doing this challenge realizes that this challenge is so much more than a daily commitment of your time.  The bigger part of this "challenge" is that YOU WILL BE CHANGED and even at my "young" age, change is hard.  Change the way you are looking at everything you do...letting God search your heart for anything that is not of Him. 

As a church family, Pastor Paul has asked us to pray this week about our service schedules and how to adjust them to best glorify God at Asbury United Methodist.  I have been spending my time this week in Ephesians and specifically praying from Ephesians 3:14-21...that Asbury have inner strength that is rooted in Christ Jesus and that He is dwelling in all our hearts as we consider these decisions.  That we all may exercise a new orientation toward others, that we may all grasp the dimensions of God's love for us all and that we may all personally and fully experience God's power.  When you think of this decision in light of God and what He has done for us, who He is and what He wants me to become, I'm not sure what time I worship Him on Sunday morning really matters.  I pray that whatever the outcome that we can all move forward and be at peace. 

I was reading Matthew 7:7 with my three year old this week:  ⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  Noah's response was "Mommy, can I knock?"  I said "Yes you can!  Do you know how you knock on God's door?  All you have to do is pray...when you say DEAR GOD, you are knocking on His door and He will ALWAYS open it for you!"  What an image...my God will always open the door and welcome me into His presence....all I have to do is "knock". 

I leave you with a song from VBS two years ago:)

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxcDK0Vp28w&feature=related

YOUR LIFE WILL CHANGE

From the page to your heart
God's Word is where you are
Read it now and your life will change
It is surprising, exciting
Each and every day
Read it now and your life will CHANGE!

Betsy