welcome to the hike!

Working out the call!

I currently living in Millersburg or as God whispered in me ear four years ago in PA, "the land of my Fathers!" MILLERS - burg! OK! The best way to describe my life of late, is simply "Pastor-at-Large" I live "outside the box" of our usual expectation of life, family, employment and even culture. I live, breathe, and weave around a four county area as a local missionary and have learned of so many supportive faith communities. I meet people who contact me where they are in their 'hike 'o life."

The hats I wear are that of Life Coach, Writer, Speaker, Retreat Facilitator, Pastoral Supply, Prayer Counselor and well, whatever God calls on me to do (I actually get paid to do all of these things, which is awesome, unless you are helping me with my books!) I also work to "tent-make my mission work" as a church secretary for a sweet fellowship pastored by one of my favorite seminary prof's.

So what do I want to be when I grow up? Stay tuned! The goals are big and staying solvent month by month is a huge victory, but as I see my own heart and others hearts change and grow in my daily walk, I realize, I am not working for treasures on earth....I have direct deposit above. Guess that's a pretty sweet ride! Lacing up my hiking boots...on the hike o' life!























Monday, March 21, 2011

Proper fear and a new cell phone!

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
   and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
 For through wisdom your days will be many,
   and years will be added to your life. Proverbs 9: 10-11


As I am reading through the book of Deuteronomy in my daily devotions, God, through Moses, keeps reminding the Israelites (and us) that we need to fear Him.

I soon will be beginning a Bible Study with a group of women using Francis Chen's Basic series http://basicseries.com/ that starts with the topic of properly fearing God.  (I think most of us, myself included have a lot to learn about what this really means!)

Like the proverb says, fearing God is the beginning of wisdom.

What is also amazing me about the instructions of the book of Deuteronomy are the instructions on  WHO NOT TO FEAR.

We are not supposed to fear false prophets.  They will come and they will try to scare you or make you question what God has already told you in His word, but DO NOT FEAR THEM for what they say is not true and what they predict will not come to pass.

We are not supposed to fear any armies that might oppose us or rise up against us.  It may seem on paper like they are gonna wipe us out, BUT DO NOT FEAR THEM for God said that He is going with us to conquer them.

FEAR MUST BE PROPERLY PLACED!

 FEAR GOD, nor men!

So as I am trying to walk spiritually and live out what I am writing, I had this little incident with my cell phone last week.  My wonderful (almost new) smart phone lost half the video display screen.

I did nothing to it.

It was in my jeans pocket and was fine, and then suddenly, it wasn't fine.

I immediately began to FEAR! 

OH NO! 

The phone was half working, the audio still worked and I could make and receive phone calls, but I could only read half of any messages, emails and app's.  You see I didn't have insurance and I FEARED the warranty had expired.

Right after I got off work that evening, I went to a local service provider.  The attendant was kind, but took one look at the phone while he was helping another customer and told me, "IT GOT TOO HOT".  "If you don't have insurance you will probably have to buy a new phone."

GRRRRR.  I knew that it didn't get too hot, but  I FEARED that is what they would choose to believe.   I FEARED that I  didn't have any hope in getting a customer service rep to understand what really had happened.

As most of you know, my funds are carefully budgeted these days and I hate to admit it, but I really contemplated the ethics of adding insurance since my phone was still working, so at least later if anything else went wrong, I would have the option of insurance.

I FEARED the future. 

For several days, I wrestled with what to do and on the morning when I had a doctors appointment in the neighborhood of the phone service provider's main store, I was told that a friend was offering to buy me a new phone!

WHAT?  I WAS COVERED!

I still wasn't happy about my phone, because I knew that nothing unusual had happened to it.  BUT MY FEAR about facing the phone provider was at least diminished because I knew if they didn't have any way of helping me - I had funds to take care of it.

You won't believe what happened next..........

As I walked into the store, the customer service attendant asked to see my phone and she immediately told me, "Miss, I have new phone for you, this is a rare occurrence, they have extended the warranty for this  specific situation, so sorry you had to make this extra trip!" 

Something in my phone that I couldn't see, she could and within 15 minutes she had transferred all my data.




In this I learned some valuable lessons. 

There is a reason why THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM. 


We need to ONLY FEAR GOD and work ONLY on positioning ourselves before HIM and then all other things do fall in place!

I WILL NOT FEAR THE PHONE COMPANY

I WILL NOT FEAR LIES  
I WILL NOT FEAR MEN


I WILL STAND IN AWE AND FEAR OF THE HOLY GOD MY CREATOR who taught me a simple and beautiful lesson through my red smart phone and a friend with a humble and generous heart.  Their kindness reminded me that once I FEAR GOD ALONE :

HE WILL COVER ME AND BE WITH ME IN ALL OTHER SITUATIONS!

Thank you Lord, for humbling us to realize those lies we want to believe are just that lies.  Thank you for teaching each day in the situations of daily living, AMEN.  It IS WELL WITH MY SOUL - and it is also OK with my cell phone as well!  PRAISE GOD!

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