WHAT ARE YOU FOCUSING ON?

Photo provided by Amy Jennifer Bryd 

The Lord gave me an new perspective on Psalm 19

this year.  As I was traveling to speak to a group of

ladies it seemed the Lord put this on my heart to share

with them..  I even questioned it but the more I have 

thought about it the more I see that it is true.  

We as Christians, whether in our personal 

lives, our jobs or our church relationships, we often 

view things based on all the good that is going on.

We seldom look at the bad and think about it being 

good for us.  At least, I personally don't often view

it as so. 

This year our church went through some major storms. 

Literally, many of our members had their homes and 

cars damaged severely by two storms that swept through 

the area.  We began some projects at our church that 

seemed to come to a stand still for a long period of time 

and we had several families within our church that 

had some major medical issues going on within 

their family.  It seemed week after week like things

were getting more and more difficult and you 

could sense a discouragement.    

In the midst of all the stings and pain and suffering 

I felt the Lord wanted us to focus on the honey and not

the sting.  Keep focusing on His glory and not the 

despair going on.  Sure we all need to encourage,

love and support each other through the storms but

we are not to loose our focus on the harvest of the 

honey  Our pastor began to use this phrase,
"Glancing at our problems and gazing
our our God"! 

You see, you can't have honey without the bees!
And we surely had a swarm of bees stinging.

The Lord gave our pastor a vision!
A vision that we would have a big
footprint on our world.

Where there is no vision, the people perish:

Proverbs 29:18

It took months of having hope and faith

that the Lord was going to bring us through the

sting and we would find the honey.  

We have truly found that more to be desired

than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also

than the honey, and the honeycomb.  

The last few months we have had a continual flow

of salvation's and baptism and nearly every Sunday

someone new is being baptized and becoming a 

part of our big family.  

Would we have chosen to have the storms?  Certainly not,

but if we were being tested and tried to see if we would

focus on the pain of the sting or if we would look past the

pain and focus on the cross, then I would say, the 

focus was where it needed to be and now we are finding

something so much sweeter than the honey and even the

honeycomb.  

Our children's ministry is growing, the ladies ministry 

is growing, the missions outreach is growing 

and more importantly we are spiritually 

growing together into one body that is focused

on taking the gospel of Christ and placing a 

giant print on our world.  It all starts with baby 

steps in our own community and not stopping but

moving outward with a focus on God's 

plan, not our own.

May we keep looking past our own sufferings and
looking for the blessed hope that the Lord
has promised.  

Where there is no vision the people perish!

We have a vision and the Lord is opening doors,
sending people and paving the way for this little
church to be a shining light into the the vast world
we live in. 

Our parking lot still isn't paved but their have been

far greater paths paved over the last few months 

than the physical eye can see.  The paths of
people saved,  baptized and the church growth.
This year we have seen the blog expand
and go into forty-eight countries with  28,395 hits.
We are able to share Jesus Christ
with an average of fifty people each day.
May we continue to glance at our problems,
and gaze at our Savior.

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the 

dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, 

through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

Make you perfect in every good work to do 

his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing 

in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be 

glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Hebrews 13:20