Run to Him

by Amy Pasinski

March 16, 2013, during worship Sunday morning.  Pastor Aimee began to sing,
   
"I am running after, running after, running after You.  I am running to You, running to You,
     running to You."

This is the picture of what God showed me by His Spirit. 

There appeared a great multitude of people.  They were all different ages and races.  Each person was carrying a huge pack on their backs.  These were some serious backpacks.  Imagine the kind of pack you would take into the woods camping, or something someone in the military would carry.  They were large and filled completely.  The packs were so big that the posture of each person was hunched over.  The weight of the packs would not allow them to stand up straight.  I saw Jesus far, far, off in the distance.  I saw the radiating light of His glory.  His eyes shown bright.  At that moment the people began to see Him.  They caught a glimpse of His eyes.  The people began to walk toward Him.  They tried to move faster and slowly tried to jog His way.  What they carried on their backs was limiting their ability to quickly get to Him.  All of a sudden their desire to get to Him outweighed the need to carry the pack.  They finally decided, and simultaneously realized, they didn't need to carry them anymore!  Together the people started to rip the packs off of their backs so they could sprint to Him.  They realized they just needed to get to Him.

Matthew 11:28-30 NLT
    "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you.  Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."

God wants to take off the pack you are carrying and give you rest.  When we fix our eyes on Him and allow Him to carry the burden for us, we will find rest.  The pack may remain full, full of worry, sickness, fear, hurt, brokenness, shame, hopelessness, etc.  If we can make a purposed decision to take off the pack and place it at His feet, He will give us rest!  When we fix our eyes on God and run to Him, we give Him permission to carry our burden.  We are not meant to carry it.  He paid the price so we wouldn't have to.  As we seek Him and find Him, we discover that He has lightened our packs.  God takes the burden and He fills us up with Peace.  Rest.  Joy.  Love.  Purpose.  Wisdom.  Hope.  New Vision.  New Dreams. 
Can we make a decision today to remove the pack that we carry, place it at His feet, and run to Jesus?  He wants to fill you with hope.

Psalm 55:22 NKJ
    "Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.

Come, Like a Child

by Enid Mojica-McGinnis

Matthew 21:15-16
And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that Jesus did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,
“Do you hear what these children are saying?” They asked Jesus.
“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,
“‘From the lips of children and infants
you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?” 

He calls forth this type of spontaneous praise, children praise, the spirit of true praise and worship. In Spirit and in Truth. (I think of the AT&T commercials with children spontaneously speaking. The pleasure we take in that.)

Matthew 9:33
And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

Mark 2:12
The paralyzed man got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

We are the mouths of babes, when we spontaneously worship The Lord, the song of the redeemed.  This is the Perfected praise; man would see it as pathetic, but to The Lord says this is perfected praise. Man would lay out a plan with intellectual means to Build a Tower of Babel. The Lord would desire the tongue of babel from His children. 

"The worship of the redeemed."
Isaiah 51:11
Those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

I believe we are seeing things, amazing things that we've never seen before! See! The things of The Spirit! An open heaven visible, tangible! So much so that it would overtake us and cause us to spontaneously speak and sing out in notes and songs we never knew were in us. Lord give us eyes to see that will cause us to say things in the natural that are not in the dictionary or within our human language capacity but a catapulting forth, the language of heaven. Set forth Tongues of Fire that will reside above our heads! A new song, a Song of the Spirit which is seen. Involuntary movement and sounds will come forth from a people of praise, a people of worship, true worship. Spontaneous worship. That child within us is coming forth, springing up, overtaken by gladness and joy, with the true babel.  Not the Tower of Babel made by man, but the true child will bring forth praise. "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel" The Redeemed! The children! The song of the redeemed! Let the children come unto me and forbid them not! Let them sing forth the song of the redeemed! The sound of heaven! 
The Lord would say sing oh daughters of Zion! He will joy over our singing! 



Zephaniah 3:14-17
Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel;
be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy:
the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee:
thou shalt not see evil any more.
In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not:
and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. (Raised hands as a child to the father) 
The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty;
he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy;
he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

He takes pleasure and opens heaven to see His children spring forth with surrendered hands, spontaneous praise...to see His daughters pour forth true unhindered worship, to hear the sound of Heaven coming forth from Earthen vessels!! Heaven on Earth!!! 

Revelation 3:22, 4:1. 
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ...after this I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.
And the voice I first heard speaking to me say come up here! ...at once I was in the Spirit! Spontaneous worship! 
 

True Connection





By Erin Paolercio

So, I've got this word "connection" on my mind.  Webster defines the word "connect" to join, link, or fasten together; unite or bind.  That's a simple, straightforward definition. Yet, this definition alone doesn't quite cut it for me.  There's more to this word, so I decided to go deeper with it.

As women, we by our very nature long for connection.  We desire this to the core.  Our beautiful Creator must have had a great purpose in mind when He placed this longing within us.  We weren't made to be alone, to walk alone.  We were made for more....we were made for connection.

The most beautiful sense of connection I can picture is the kind that brings oneness, especially the true oneness with the heart of Jesus...wow!  Connection with His heart is what I long for more than anything.  I never feel more complete than when I am resting, walking....living from that place of connection with Him.

What about the hearts all around me?  My husband, my children, my family and friends?  What about my church and community?  What about this prayer Jesus prayed that His body would be one, like He was with His Father? (John 17).  Think about it, Jesus, the Son of God, prayed for this! He prayed for connection among His people, for the church yet to come....us!

Sometimes it's so much easier to stay in that place of quiet oneness with The Lord (the ultimate place to be), and yet miss the cry of His heart for true connection with others around us, especially within His body, His family of believers.  Let me reiterate from before, we all long for connection, it's how He made us!  How beautiful it is to tap deeper into connection with those we are closest to?  I think of the book The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman.  I love this book!  I love the one for kids too! I love learning what makes my man and my little men tick, but more so, what makes them feel loved and connected! It's awesome.  Now, family comes first, absolutely.  What about God's family?

What if I were to seek out God's "love language," if you will?  What makes His heart sing?  My worship?  Yes.  My devotion?  Absolutely.  My connection with the family of God?  Deeply so.  There is a Greek word that speaks of true fellowship throughout the New Testament.  The word is "koinonia," which signifies fellowship with God and bonding with other believers.  In John’s first epistle, he tells us how this bond comes about. He writes, “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship (koinonia) with us; and truly our fellowship (koinonia) is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3).  Koinonia also carries the meaning of being bonded for a united purpose.  How cool is that?  Not only are we created for connection, but it carries a purpose.  Jesus prayed for this oneness among us, "so that the world may believe You sent me." (John 17:21).  A little further He said in verse 23, "that the world will know You sent me, and loved them, even as You have loved me."  The Author of love Himself then becomes the greatest Gift of love to us, to the world.  How does that speak for your own love language? Just a thought.

Koinonia.  Connection.  Oneness.  We were made for this!  Why, because we were made for love...the Father's love, straight from His heart.  We were given the ability to express this to one another.  In a culture that is dying, the prayer of Jesus remains for His church.  If I were to give my own Message Bible version it might read like this, "I want you all to get together, connect, have real fellowship with Me and with each other.  Don't hold back because the world needs to see this.  It is their window into my heart, how I can draw them closer to Me. For your own sakes and for the world, be one."

Back to the start, connection.  A simple word, carrying incredible depth of meaning.  For me, my prayer is that as women, we reach even further for connection with our God, within our homes and within our church.  I believe that the church united is what will ultimately transform communities, town and cities.  Let's connect, in the koinonia sense...bonded for the purposes held within the very heart of Jesus to know Him, and make Him known!!