GENEROSITY

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Greetings!  I pray that this finds you doing well.  It is good to be back at the keyboard today.

This past Friday into Tuesday was action packed. 

Beth and I are in the middle of pursuing a new opportunity of ministry in partnership with some dear friends and colleagues from the Twinsburg, Ohio area.  We would covet your prayers as we continue to listen to the Lord and craft the plan.  We are believing that GOD has opened this door and believing it could provide an impact that we have been praying about for some time. 

We then journeyed over to PA to visit a new friend, a pioneer in the field of helping others find FREEDOM from destructive behaviors.  His name is Kris McFadden.  Remember that name.  GOD has anointed him for ministry.  If you want to check out his work, click here. 

https://www.paatc.org/

He is retooling TEEN CHALLENGE PA into a model that I believe will be revolutionary.  Pray for Kris and his team.

Then we journeyed down toward Philly to be with some friends and their kids.  And while there we were blessed to worship with our friends from ValleyPoint Church in Glen Mills PA.  https://valleypointchurch.com

The Lord under the leadership of Pastor Eric has birthed a congregation that embodies servant leadership and generosity.  They are a growing and giving gathering.  And this past week Pastor Eric opened a new series of teaching around generosity.  He even called it the THEOLOGY of GENEROSITY; leaning on the definition of THEOLOGY as, “the study of the NATURE of GOD”.

So, this past Sunday was the FIRST of several teachings designed for the congregation to “study the NATURE” of GOD when it came to GENEROSITY.  And his passage for last Sunday was from 2 Corinthians 8.  This passage is an encouragement to that church to emulate the giving of the more than generous Macedonians.  But the passages I want us to focus quickly on today are these:

2 Corinthians 8:7-9 (ERV)

…You are rich in everything—in faith, in speaking ability, in knowledge, in the willingness to help, and in the love you learned from us. So now we want you to be rich in this work of giving too.

8 I am not ordering you to give, but I want to see how real your love is by comparing you with others who have been so ready and willing to help. 9 You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know that he gave up his heavenly riches for you. He gave up everything so that you could be richly blessed.

In this passage Paul was exhorting the Corinthians to examine the generous nature of the Macedonians and do the same; encouraging them to look at their own “treasures and talents” and find ways to SHARE them and to GIVE them.  But I want you to home in on is VERSE 9 today. 

Paul reminds us HOW GENEROUS our Lord is.  John 3:16 reminds us that GOD gave.  And we see time and time again the GENEROUS nature of JESUS; giving rather than receiving, serving rather than being served.

Therefore, today I ask you a few simple questions.  

What are you "rich in"? 

And do you have the “nature of generosity?”  

Are you willing to "share"?

I would hope so. 

GOD does.  Jesus did. 

remember this—if you give little, you will get little. A farmer who plants just a few seeds will get only a small crop, but if he plants much, he will reap much. – 2 Corinthians 9:6 (LB).

Be generous!

I love you all!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE

LIVE PURPOSEFULLY

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Some days in preparing the OFH I am listening to the Lord for a little inspiration or thinking back to the day prior to seek a lesson. And today, thanks to FACEBOOK I have this wonderful little nugget to share with all of you, courtesy of one the finest ladies I know, Ms. Marisa Maxey.  Thanks, Marisa, for today’s inspiration!

Marisa writes:

“Thank you all for the birthday wishes! Today was such a great day full of so many blessings. I so enjoy the Facebook wishes, texts, and calls - I love each and every one!

It has been an emotional week, but I’ll start off my 36th year with a lesson from the late Curtis Landis that I was reminded of yesterday.

Curtis was an amazing man, he not only blessed me with a best friend but a whole other family that I love like my own. They have always welcomed me with open arms even to the point of saving me a spot at the family dinner table each Thanksgiving. All because of the love Curtis and Carolyn instill into their kids, grandkids and all who know them.

As their Pastor stated at Curtis’s viewing - “The greatest sermons are not given behind a podium, they are given by those who live what they believe.”

Curtis’s life was a true testimony to that. I’m just one of many people God used him to bless over his 80 years of life.

His son Craig spoke such kind and wise words of his father, but one thing he mentioned stuck with me the most.

He said, “Dad always had a purpose for everything. He would say, ‘now the reason the trash bags are here is because’....and he’d always tell us why.”

Curtis lived a purpose driven life. Everything had a purpose. What I know from following Jesus, is that when you know the purpose of everything you do or have, you’ll always have more than enough.

What an amazing moment for Curtis to meet Jesus and be told - “Well done good and faithful servant.”

So today, I lived super purposefully in his honor and I hope to continue to do that every day.

I spent most of the day just me and Jesus, out in nature, in complete gratitude of the life I’ve been given. I’m thankful for the new found spark to continue to live as purposefully as possible until I meet Him one day.

And I challenge you to do the same -

1. Find purpose in all you do and in all you have.

2. Look for the good in every day.

3. Spend as much time as you can with Jesus.

4. Love God and love others.

5. Leave every person you encounter a little better off than you found them.

Do these things and watch your life and the lives of those around you change.

If you search for good you will find favor.

Proverbs 11:27

                                                                   Marisa Maxey 5.21.2019

I love you all!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE

Pastor GDelaney

FIGHT

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

 

Sorry I missed you yesterday.  Spent the day in Highland County where GOD and his ‘church’ are most certainly ENGAGING the FIGHT!

 

Sunday, my Pastor, Mark Brooks EXHORTED, and I mean EXHORTED the gathering to FIGHT!  Noting that far too often we are a passive lot, choosing to avoid rather than advance.  And while he didn’t quite wrap his talk in the time allotted, the POINT was clear!  We are in A FIGHT and it is being waged on a stage that we often “don’t see”.

this fight is against tyrants, against authorities, against supernatural powers and demon princes that slither in the darkness of this world, and against wicked spiritual armies that lurk – Ephesians 6:12 (V).

 

I found Mark’s exhortation timely. Why?

Late last week another 20 folks were lost in a 24-hour period to fentanyl overdose in our area.

Because of the constant assault experienced by many of the ministries I serve and engage who are doing their best to keep things like this from happening but are taxed and underfunded.

 

Friends, I see this “underworld” in action almost every day.  The average age of first engagement for human trafficking victims and drug experimentation is 13 years old.  And it is often done through the seemingly benign portal of the smartphone.

Today 190 people will succumb to their addiction in the U.S. by paying the ultimate price.  Today a 150-billion-dollar industry buying and selling PEOPLE like merchandise hums in the shadows.

Not to mention the LIE that is being crafted and the web that is being weaved to lure us all, especially kids, to the fraud that is “medical” marijuana.

 

Deception is everywhere.

 

The enemy takes our hurts and introduces counterfeit pain relief and relationships to soothe.  He twists our traumas and weaponizes them against us resulting in …uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community…Galatians 5:21 (MSG)

 

Neither Paul nor Mark are OVERSTATING the challenge we are in!  It is REAL and it is RELENTLESS.  But WE CAN CONQUER IT!! Remember friends, …no weapon (physical or spiritual) turned against you will succeed.  You WILL silence every voice raised up to accuse you.  These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord…Isaiah 54:17 (NLT)

 

We must fight!

I know I must.  If I don’t, old behaviors, bad decisions, temptations, and sin set up camp in my heart and mind quickly and intensely.

You too?

Today, can I encourage you, encourage us, to “keep fighting”?  To armor up. (Ephesians 6:10-17) And, “Take God at His Word – because winning the battle doesn't require physical brawn, but spiritual brains!” (Okoro)

 

 

 

 

I love you all!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE