Control your Response

In my day to day, there are many things I can't control. I can't control traffic on my commute to Atlanta. I can't control there being no parking spaces in the student deck. I can't control the weather when it's pouring down rain and I have to walk to class. These are all trivial things compared to life events we can't control. We can't control cancer, and how it rips families apart. We can't control being laid off and losing income. We can't control a down economy. We can't control adversity towards our faith. We can't control other peoples  actions, even though we often wish we could.

However, there is one thing we always have control over, our Response. Every time something negative happens in our life we choose how to respond.  We often feel hopeless and without choice but this is not true. We can choose our response. I encourage you to respond with a sense of hope. When we feel life is raining down one trying time after another we have to choose to look at our life from a perspective of hope. It is not easy. It is not the popular path. However, when we choose to look at our lives from a perspective of hope our situation changes.

In 2 Timothy Paul's writes " and of this gospel I was appointed a herald, an apostle, and a teacher and that is why I am suffering as I am, but I am not ashamed." Paul, one of the most influential men of faith known to the world was in prison. Held captive because of his faith. He chose to look at his life
From a perspective of hope. Hope in The Lord and remain Faithful.

Spilt coffee and a skinned knee

 I have a routine. I wake up around 6:45am. Get ready for church and go on my way. I make a coffee run every sunday morning. I go to the same place and have the same order every time. Sunday morning coffee is part of my routine. It is expected. I know what time I need to leave my house. I know, approximately, the average time it takes to get through the drive thru. I know that my order will be 4.73$ for four large coffees. Three black and one with three creams and three sugars. I leave my coffee spot and know how long it will take me to get to church. My routine is set, I trust it and it does not change. I park in the same spot every sunday.  I get out of the truck carry the coffees in my left hand and my bible and journal in my right. I walk up the stairs, through the same doors. I hand out three coffees to three of the most committed and hard working people that I know. This is my routine, I trust it and it does not change.

Today there was a break in my routine. I woke up on time. Got ready on time. Got my coffee on time. Got to church on time. When I got out of the truck this morning it was raining. I carried my coffees, bible, and journal up to the church. As I was going up the stairs there was a steady stream of water coming off the rough so in haste to stay dry I hurried up the stairs. This is where it happened. As I was hurrying up the stairs I tripped. I kicked the top stair and fell flat on my face. My four coffees flew through the air. The bottoms of the cups broke open. Coffee was on me, on my bible, on my journal, and all of the white front doors of the church. Not to mention the puddle four coffees made on the porch. As I lay dazed and confused about what happen, I look up. No one saw what happened. Slightly embarrassed I walk through the front doors. Searching for paper towels I begin to clean up my mess. Sneaking through the front door with my four busted cups. Wiping off the front doors and cleaning up the puddle, I felt a little sting on my knee. I rolled up my pants leg and I noticed I had skinned my knee.

Now spilt coffee and a skinned knee does not stop the world from turning. However, I learned something today. When what we expect out of life doesn't happen, we must choose to press forward. Regardless of the bumps, bruises, and skinned knees we must press forward.

God has a great plan for our lives. A plan that is an adventure. We expect the moments of joy and glamor, but what will we do when the shimmer and shine of greatness wears off. It is very easy to look at our situations, the ones with spilt coffee and skinned knees, and decide that it is not worth it to press on. It is not worth it to endure anymore pain. However, a life of adventure with the lord is a life worth living. If we can endure the bumps and bruises and trust that God will guard the good deposit he has given us. We will make it through.

We can not assess our lives by the wounds that we take, to the spirit or the body. We have to judge our lives according to our obedience to Gods plan and our relationship with him. Our place on this earth is temporary. Our wounds are not permanent. For those who believe in Christ, our eternal resting place is at his right hand.

Grace and Peace.

Seasons

In life there are so many seasons. Some of these times are warm like spring. The air is filled with the smell of blooming flowers. Grass is green and the world around us seems to prosper. People are making vacation plans and life seems to be magical. Then there are seasons of winter. Like the snow we recently experienced there is cold. Life seems to slow down. The days are short and the nights are cold.  We experience these seasons in our spiritual life. Well I know I have. Sometimes it seems we are so connected. Growing quickly and prospering like the spring. Other times it seems that our spiritual growth is slow and our connection is non existent. God has been teaching me about this lately. Even in the seasons of winter in our spiritual life God is as near to us as he is in the times we feel we are prospering. Every season, even the cold ones, has a purpose. We don't know the purpose in the beginning and sometimes we don't find out in the end. What I do know is that God is trying to work in us. This work will be done to completion in order to mold us into his image. Persevere through the winter for our vindication will rise like the noonday sun. Be strong and courageous for he is with us always.

Out to Sea

Putting my story in words has always been difficult for me. I have lived in Cartersville now for six and a half months now and it feels like a blur. God has done so much in a relatively short period of time. To tell the story of how I got here I have to share with you the wise words of an old dead guy. 

What’s Next To Do?06082013If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them —John 13:17Be determined to know more than others. If you yourself do not cut the lines that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send you out to sea. Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and your eyes will be opened. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself— begin to have spiritual discernment.When you know that you should do something and you do it, immediately you know more. Examine where you have become sluggish, where you began losing interest spiritually, and you will find that it goes back to a point where you did not do something you knew you should do. You did not do it because there seemed to be no immediate call to do it. But now you have no insight or discernment, and at a time of crisis you are spiritually distracted instead of spiritually self-controlled. It is a dangerous thing to refuse to continue learning and knowing more.The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind in which you create your own opportunities to sacrifice yourself, and your zeal and enthusiasm are mistaken for discernment. It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12:1-2. It is much better to fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than it is to perform great acts of self-sacrifice. “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice . . .” (1 Samuel 15:22). Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been. “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know . . .” (John 7:17).

It is these words, along with a strong leading from the Holy spirit, that got me to cut my ties from the dock and set sail on the swelling tides of the Adventure God has for my life. It was the evening of June 8th of 2013 that I read what Oswald Chambers had to say. Little did I know in less than 24 hours these words would be apart of radically changing my life. The next morning John Orr began to preach his final sermon as a pastor of crossroads church. I have known John since I was a child. Our friendship grew while I was in high school as he was the high school pastor. When I graduated and went of to college John and I lost touch. In saying this I was very excited to hear him preach. As John begins to preach he starts sharing his story and how God has put a calling on his life to be a part of a church replant in Bartow County. At this point in his message I was very excited for John and was interested in helping out where I could. 

These next few minutes radically changed my life and brought me to the trail head of my spiritual destiny. As John continued to speak he transitioned from telling his story to sharing some words of an old dead guy. The words he shared were the exact ones I have shared with you today. It was in those few moments I felt the Holy spirit move inside of me like I never had before. In those few moments I felt the call on my life to move to Bartow County and join him in his adventures at The Stone Church. As much as I felt confirmed about my calling I was nearly speechless. I went to talk to John after the service and told him I was proud and excited for him. He said you need to come up and be apart.I wanted right then and there to share my heart with him but the words were not there.

This all happened at an amazing time in my life. Within the next three or four days I left the country to spend ten days in China. God taught me so much in China. As he taught me, the pull on my heart for Bartow County grew. It was all I prayed and talked about. When we landed at the airport in the middle of the night, after a twenty plus hours plane ride, I knew my next step.

I contacted John and set up a lunch with him. We planned to meet at redneck Gourmet in Senoia. The restaurant is about twenty minutes from my parents home in newnan. The whole ride there I felt my heart beating in my throat and there was a knot in my stomach. Not because I was nervous to meet with John but I knew my adventure with God was about to begin. We sat down together and began the normal conversations old friends have. John asked me about pretty much everything going on in my life, and then came the question. What next? Over the next few minutes I told John, in more detail, exactly what I have shared with you today. His reaction was better than I could have imagined. He told me he'd love to have me.

I began to look for a place to live in Bartow County. At the end of the summer I found a small rental home in an old mill community in Cartersville. I moved in a few weeks before my first semester of my senior year at Georgia State University and here we are today. 

I believe God has a wonderful adventure planned for all of us. It will take every ounce of bravery and courage you can muster. However, walking with the Lord on a grand adventure is a life worth living. 

A Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

            I am writing you to tell you about what is going on in this stage of my life and to ask you to become part of my story. In August of 2013 I answered the call on my life to move to Bartow County to be part of a church re-plant. Our goal in this re-plant has been to reclaim some resources for the kingdom and to breathe new life into a church family that has experienced the tough process of a failing church. Over the past few months our team and our new church family have gone through a complete restoration process. We have gone from healing broken relationships and hearts to a complete renovation of our building.

             My specific role at The Stone Church is Designer of Connections. This role means I will be responsible for creating relationships with all guests who attend our church, community outreach events, and helping fulfill any other rolls needed. As our church is still in the beginning stages of growth, we are not yet financially capable of supporting the staff needed to complete the task necessary to fulfill our needs as a young growing church. This is where I need your help. As my role is currently that of a volunteer, I have taken a job at a local restaurant as a waiter to support myself financially. As my hours committed to the church are increasing, while being a full time student, the hours available to work are decreasing.

I am completely confident that this is where God wants me and I trust in his provision. That is why I am asking that you pray about this opportunity to become a part of my story and help support me financially. If you pray and God leads you to support me you can make checks payable to The Stone Church. In the memo space write Shane Harper. You can also give online at thestonechurch.tv or at my blog partofthestone.blogspot.com . Any amount that you can give, reoccurring or not, will help me continue my journey

Sincerely,

Shane D. Harper