\u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.\u201d Matthew 4:17<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week I had the opportunity to spend the week in Redding, CA and attend a class on fundraising.\u00a0\u00a0As some of you may know, in addition to serving at Living Waters, I also have my own ministry, which operates as a Non-Profit organization.\u00a0\u00a0I love the ministry and calling The Lord has allowed me to steward for the last 8 years\u2026 but if I am completely honest there is a part of it that I have always hated. Fundraising. I don\u2019t think that I am unique in this.\u00a0\u00a0In fact the entire class, full of ministry workers and missionaries from around the world all confessed the same thing; we all HATED this part of our work.\u00a0\u00a0What struck me as I sat through the 40+ hours of training was an ever present sense of foreboding that begin to become louder and louder in my spirit.\u00a0\u00a0So much so, that the voice of condemnation and accusation became almost more audible than the instruction:\u00a0\u201cDrew, you are a massive failure.\u00a0\u00a0You have done a terrible job.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Now, for clarity, the reason I felt so condemned was not about fundraising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think one of the most universal human experiences is \u201cmissing the mark\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Whether that be in something measurable and morally neutral like failing a test or not achieving a goal, or something more morally and spiritually consequential like sin, there isn\u2019t one of us that hasn\u2019t experienced the feeling of shame, disappointment or weariness that falling short provides.\u00a0\u00a0When our falling short is overtly and obviously sin, it is pretty clear that repentance is needed.\u00a0\u00a0However, this week, in a fundraising class of all things, the Lord spoke to my heart about a more subtle tactic of the enemy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Years ago I came across a quote that was quite convicting. John Wesley (1703 \u2013 1791) was a pastor, theologian, evangelist, and founder of the Methodist Church. In a conversation with his mother, he asked her for a working definition of \u201csin\u201d. Her response was incredibly compelling.\u00a0\u00a0She said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u201c<\/em>Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things\u2026that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n When something in our life has these symptoms, we have a problem.\u00a0\u00a0The enemy will do anything and everything to rob us, diminish us, and destroy us.\u00a0\u00a0Any open door or foothold, he will exploit.\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes years can go by and we not even notice the erosive effects.\u00a0\u00a0Without going into any detail, I came to realize that I needed to repent.\u00a0\u00a0Not of anything that we might define scripturally as \u201csin\u201d, but definitely behavior and beliefs that has \u201cobscured my sense of God\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But here is the good news.\u00a0\u00a0I can repent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the years I have heard repentance described many different ways, but the one I like the best and want to give to you today as an encouragement or instruction: to come to our senses and withdraw from the path and direction we are on, turn to face The Father and pursue Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.\u201d Matthew 4:17 Last week I had the opportunity to spend the week in Redding, CA and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":697,"featured_media":929571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":170,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-929555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-and-ministry","category-encouragement",""],"blockli_fields":{"post_type":"","post_action":"","post_type_icon":"","background_image":""},"bb_bookmark":{"bookmark_id":0,"is_bookmarked":false,"bookmark_date":0},"app_bookmark":{"bookmark_id":0,"is_bookmarked":false,"bookmark_date":0},"comments_count":"0","content_native":[{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.\u201d Matthew 4:17<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"\u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.\u201d Matthew 4:17"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" Last week I had the opportunity to spend the week in Redding, CA and attend a class on fundraising. As some of you may know, in addition to serving at Living Waters, I also have my own ministry, which operates as a Non-Profit organization. I love the ministry and calling The Lord has allowed me to steward for the last 8 years\u2026 but if I am completely honest there is a part of it that I have always hated. Fundraising. I don\u2019t think that I am unique in this. In fact the entire class, full of ministry workers and missionaries from around the world all confessed the same thing; we all HATED this part of our work. What struck me as I sat through the 40+ hours of training was an ever present sense of foreboding that begin to become louder and louder in my spirit. So much so, that the voice of condemnation and accusation became almost more audible than the instruction: \u201cDrew, you are a massive failure. You have done a terrible job.\u201d<\/em> Now, for clarity, the reason I felt so condemned was not about fundraising.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Last week I had the opportunity to spend the week in Redding, CA and attend a class on fundraising. As some of you may know, in addition to serving at Living Waters, I also have my own ministry, which operates as a Non-Profit organization. I love the ministry and calling The Lord has allowed me to steward for the last 8 years\u2026 but if I am completely honest there is a part of it that I have always hated. Fundraising. I don\u2019t think that I am unique in this. In fact the entire class, full of ministry workers and missionaries from around the world all confessed the same thing; we all HATED this part of our work. What struck me as I sat through the 40+ hours of training was an ever present sense of foreboding that begin to become louder and louder in my spirit. So much so, that the voice of condemnation and accusation became almost more audible than the instruction: \u201cDrew, you are a massive failure. You have done a terrible job.\u201d<\/em> Now, for clarity, the reason I felt so condemned was not about fundraising."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" I think one of the most universal human experiences is \u201cmissing the mark\u201d. Whether that be in something measurable and morally neutral like failing a test or not achieving a goal, or something more morally and spiritually consequential like sin, there isn\u2019t one of us that hasn\u2019t experienced the feeling of shame, disappointment or weariness that falling short provides. When our falling short is overtly and obviously sin, it is pretty clear that repentance is needed. However, this week, in a fundraising class of all things, the Lord spoke to my heart about a more subtle tactic of the enemy. <\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"I think one of the most universal human experiences is \u201cmissing the mark\u201d. Whether that be in something measurable and morally neutral like failing a test or not achieving a goal, or something more morally and spiritually consequential like sin, there isn\u2019t one of us that hasn\u2019t experienced the feeling of shame, disappointment or weariness that falling short provides. When our falling short is overtly and obviously sin, it is pretty clear that repentance is needed. However, this week, in a fundraising class of all things, the Lord spoke to my heart about a more subtle tactic of the enemy. "}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" Years ago I came across a quote that was quite convicting. John Wesley (1703 - 1791) was a pastor, theologian, evangelist, and founder of the Methodist Church. In a conversation with his mother, he asked her for a working definition of \u201csin\u201d. Her response was incredibly compelling. She said:<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Years ago I came across a quote that was quite convicting. John Wesley (1703 - 1791) was a pastor, theologian, evangelist, and founder of the Methodist Church. In a conversation with his mother, he asked her for a working definition of \u201csin\u201d. Her response was incredibly compelling. She said:"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" \u201c<\/em>Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things\u2026that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.\u201d <\/em><\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":" \u201c<\/em>Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things\u2026that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.\u201d <\/em>"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" When something in our life has these symptoms, we have a problem. The enemy will do anything and everything to rob us, diminish us, and destroy us. Any open door or foothold, he will exploit. Sometimes years can go by and we not even notice the erosive effects. Without going into any detail, I came to realize that I needed to repent. Not of anything that we might define scripturally as \u201csin\u201d, but definitely behavior and beliefs that has \u201cobscured my sense of God\u201d. But here is the good news. I can repent. <\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"When something in our life has these symptoms, we have a problem. The enemy will do anything and everything to rob us, diminish us, and destroy us. Any open door or foothold, he will exploit. Sometimes years can go by and we not even notice the erosive effects. Without going into any detail, I came to realize that I needed to repent. Not of anything that we might define scripturally as \u201csin\u201d, but definitely behavior and beliefs that has \u201cobscured my sense of God\u201d. But here is the good news. I can repent. "}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" Over the years I have heard repentance described many different ways, but the one I like the best and want to give to you today as an encouragement or instruction: to come to our senses and withdraw from the path and direction we are on, turn to face The Father and pursue Him.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Over the years I have heard repentance described many different ways, but the one I like the best and want to give to you today as an encouragement or instruction: to come to our senses and withdraw from the path and direction we are on, turn to face The Father and pursue Him."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}}],"app_access":{"can_access":true,"restrict_message":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/697"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}