Rest….how does THAT word fit into all the Christmas busyness? Do you ever find yourself longing for the days when someone was telling you it was nap time?

To take a break and rest is something that few of us do in the midst of the Christmas season or anytime for that matter. A rest. Truly our souls are desperately crying out for a rest!  Does rest only happen when we find time to take a vacation?

The reason that our souls are crying out for rest is that it is God’s heart as well, to give us rest and peace. It is God’s desire and will to give us that much-needed rest.  In Hebrews 4 we read that as God desired to give people a rest but they could not get it! They just could not take time to rest. I think God was talking about something more than a nap or vacation. I think He was talking about an attitude of heart, mind and soul. Discovering a way to rest in God as well as finding time for our bodies to rest.

I loved this quote “Christ’s “rest” is not a “rest” from work, but in work, “not the rest of inactivity but of the harmonious working of all the faculties and affections—of will, heart, imagination, conscience—because each has found in God the ideal sphere for its satisfaction and development” J. Patrick

I have asked God for that type of rest, a rest of trust and peace in who and what He is and in His deep love for me. It doesn’t come with inactivity but in peace. A dear friend of mine posted on her Facebook wall

“You don’t have to attend every argument you are invited to”.

I found that nugget after an interesting experience that morning and could not agree with it more.

I found myself on the freeway in a lane of traffic that had to end and merge into a lane that was exiting. As I merged (yes, with my signal light blinking) the woman in the vehicle behind me began screaming and pointing not nice things in my direction. I realized at that moment I did not have to allow let her anger to invade my car. I chose to live in peace and rest that only God can give at times of tension and not react to her. I have no idea what was going on in her life to make her that upset when a car had to move in front of her in traffic, but it didn’t have to invade the peace and rest God was trying to bring me. I felt bad for her.

The kind of ‘rest’ God is trying to bring to humanity is a supernatural peace that invades our panic.

That is why He sent the Prince of Peace into this chaotic world so long ago so that His creation could  experience peace and rest. Peace from all the craziness and busyness.

Rest from all the stuff that would like to reduce us to walking worry and confusion. A peace in God that is truly supernatural and cannot be experienced in this life without Him.

May you find the true source of peace and rest this Holiday Season in Supernatural ways!

We are very significant to God yet  there are times of sifting… 

Matthew 3:11-12

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Sifting is a significant time in the process of vital effective life that   becomes essential for the removal of  the parts of our life which are no longer necessary so that the most life-giving parts can be revealed.

The process of sifting or threshing Wheat was performed generally by spreading the sheaves on the threshing-floor and causing oxen and cattle to tread repeatedly over them.  Or on occasion flails or sticks were used for this purpose. There was also a “threshing instrument” which was drawn over the corn all with the intent of  pounding the grains to loosen the outer shell to reveal the inner edible core of the grain.

When the grain was threshed, it was winnowed by being thrown up against the wind, and afterwards tossed with wooden scoops .  This part of the process meant that anything loose would fly off in the wind and only the weightiest part of the grain would be left. The shovel and the fan for winnowing are mentioned in Ps 35:5; Job 21:18; Isa 17:13. The refuse of straw and chaff was then burned up, since it was no longer of any value. Freed from impurities, the grain was then laid up in granaries till used.

I don’t know about you but I can identify with the wheat a little too much. I too have felt over the last few years like I have been walked on by more than a few oxen…some pretty weighty ones at that! At times it has felt very similar to a thorough pounding from the ‘threshing instuments’. I can also thoroughly identify by not only the sense of being pummeled  but of being thrown to the wind in a sort of free-falling. Many times wondering if will there be any ground to land on at all.

For the grain, it waits for a time when it will be used along with others who have gone through this same process. For those who had survived the sifting now have a richer taste and the essence of what they are has been revealed.

I believe we have all been in some form of a sifting process the last several years and for many people I know that pounding has been severe. Many have described the free falling feeling as they have been ‘tossed in the wind’. One person described it like standing on the edge of a diving board several feet in the air and hoping there is water in the pool.

But in all of this sifting process there is the promise from the One who hold our life in His hand…

Isaiah 27:12-13

 At that time God will thresh

from the River Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt,

And you, people of Israel,

will be selected grain by grain.

 This is a promise that each of us is significant, each of us is of incredible value. He knows what each of us can handle and we are not going to go through this process forever, there is an end!

Isaiah 28:28-29:1

On the other hand, wheat is threshed and milled, but still not endlessly.

The farmer knows how to treat each kind of grain.

 He’s learned it all from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

who knows everything about when and how and where. The Message

Or as it says in the New Living Bible…

Isaiah 28:28-29:1

Grain for bread is easily crushed,

so he doesn’t keep on pounding it.

He threshes it under the wheels of a cart,

but he doesn’t pulverize it.

 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is a wonderful teacher,

and he gives the farmer great wisdom. NLT

I am so glad to know I won’t be pulverized!! Even though it might feel like it at times. This is a promise that His hand is never off me no matter how much this sifting process makes me feel alone like there is nothing to hold onto,  He is there.

Isaiah 43:2-4

 When you go through deep waters,

I will be with you.

When you go through rivers of difficulty,

you will not drown.

When you walk through the fire of oppression,

you will not be burned up;

the flames will not consume you.

 For I am the Lord, your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom;

I gave Ethiopia* and Seba in your place.

 Others were given in exchange for you.

I traded their lives for yours

because you are precious to me.

You are honored, and I love you. NLT

Isaiah 43:5-7

 “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.

I will gather you and your children from east and west.

I will say to the north and south,

‘Bring my sons and daughters back to Israel

from the distant corners of the earth.

 Bring all who claim me as their God,

for I have made them for my glory.

It was I who created them.’” NLT

We are significant to God and sifting is an essential aspect of living with the Holy Spirit and with Fire…he is always burning up chaff and separating the past from us to allow us to be more fruitful for the future. John the Baptist recognized this fact when he said this about Jesus…

Matthew 3:11-12

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

So we can expect sifting from time to time in our life as we live with a loving God who is also going to baptize or immerse us with the ‘Holy Spirit and with fire.’ This just goes with the territory as he looks for something to burn off in my life…I am glad to know that He has promised that I will not be burned.

Oh, I can hear the oxen now…

That word future means posterity – something passed on to your descendants…I thought about what has been passed on to me both through my Grandmother and my mother… as it says in Timothy …a living faith.

In my Grandmother I received her passionate love and trust in God. She suffered from migraines all her life so she would sit at her kitchen table and pray for 5 hours every morning until the headaches subsided. She was a woman who prayed and loved God and I know I am who I am because of those prayers.

In my Mom I received many things but two stand out the most and these two items left in her room are evidence of these gifts…A hug would make my day magnet…My mother loved people and saw every person as a future friend. Although she was confined to a wheelchair the last ten years of her life, she reached out to everyone and did not wait for them to come to her. She called them to her and hugged them, which immediately said “I want you to be close” “You are important!”

Second this little guy (a laughing Santa)….She gave me the gift of laughter. When my father passed away leaving her with two young children she would always say “if we don’t laugh we will cry” so she found ways all the time to bring laughter into our lives in every way she could. Many nights we would go to bed listening to her giggle as she watched a TV show or found something else funny in her world. What a legacy she left because the fragrance of her life still lingering in mine.

Each of us by how we live…leaves a fragrance lingering, something that is passed on to those around you.  If we chose to live honestly and upright before God have an eternal, life-giving effect on the lives of those around us

We can celebrate the lives of those who gave us life and  remember that our lives can have eternal impact to the lives of those around us and that we each leave a fragrance.

2 Cor 2:14 Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. THE MESSAGE

2 Cor 2:14  Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. NKJV

Listening to the Red Flags – Christina Williams                                                                              As Rahab hung a red cord in her window it put  her in the vulnerable position to wait on God as the walls crumbled  around her believing that she would be protected, because she was a woman who had learned to act on the red flags of caution. We will explore the ways God seeks to protect us today by giving each person an ability to hear or feel a red flag. What do we do with those small voices of caution? By the end of your time at Unmasked you will learn to find protection in listening to the Red Flags.

Becoming a Safe Place – Shirley Bridwell                                                                                                       What does it mean to be ‘a safe place’  for others? And how do I grow and develop into that safe place where others can find in me a refuge from the storms of life? We will discuss the answers to these questions and share Biblical and practical principles that will help each of us develop into that “safe place” so desperately needed in today’s society!

There Has To Be More!  Patti Helzer                                                                                                                   Are you surrounded by walls? Fortified walls – armed with fear; armed by lies, unforgiveness – walls that are keeping you in bondage to your past? Have you wondered if you could be free from  the painful things of your past? If you have had that same heart cry, “There has to be more to my life than pain, suffering, fear and sorrow.”, than please come join us and discover your path to freedom!

How to Rebuild Your Life When You Have Lost Everything   Sandra Bond                              What have you lost? Have you lost a husband, a child, a close relationship?  Have you been abandoned, lost your home or your job?  Have you been abused in any way (verbally, sexually, physically)? Most of us would have to admit that we spend our lives doing everything we can to avoid suffering and/or loss in today’s modern world.  The truth is we cannot live without loss.  If you’ve suffered loss of any kind, join me as I share with you the steps God gave me to rebuild my life starting with NOTHING . . . after I had lost EVERYTHING! Learn how to overcome and be victorious!

Forbidden Fruit     Judi Mack                                                                                                                                Have you ever wanted something that was not yours to have?  Went after something that you knew was not right and yet still went down that road? Have you ever found youself in a place that made you ask ‘how in the world did I get here? How do I get out? How do I not go there again?’  Find the answers you are looking for and more as we explore the tranforming of your mind and the renewing of your life. Looking at a journey of God’s redemptive work from walking deceit to living in truth.

Through It All   Shiloah Stone                                                                                                                                      Through life, we all go through some real issues, that bring real hurt…and also leave us with some real questions: Why is life so hard? When is this trial going to end? When am I going to have answers? Why would God allow me to go through this?…Regardless of the season or trial that we are going through, we can be confident in our Lord to carry us through. From start to finish, beginning to end, our God will carry us through it all!!!

Redeemed Destiny  Cherie Francis-Boegeman                                                                                            Sometimes we lose our way in life……… Sometimes we lose our way in an effort to alleviate pain……..When we come to our senses, we realize there was such a different life we could have had……..We may feel disqualified by others or even by ourselves due to shame.  In this session you will be inspired to recall how God made you unique,  what were some of your God given childhood dreams and   where did you go astray.  You will begin the process of identifying how specifically do you walk back to the path of your God given destiny.

Is There A Target On My Back?  Jolene Belsbey                                                                                                Do you ever feel like you have been targeted for the tough times in life? Everyone goes through hard times, some more than others, but God can use these times to produce great things in us. When Rahab was a child do you think she dreamed of being a prostitute? Do you think she looked forward to being used and looked down upon? Life situations and decisions led her there but one day she made a decision that would change her life. She put her trust and faith in God. Join me as we look at what times of trial produce in us. Discover what stormy times reveal about your inner self.

“I am so sorry to hear that you are getting grief on this issue (Women in Ministry) and that it has caused you any concern. It never ceases to amaze me the way the enemy will try to take people out of the ministry and obedience to the Lord.
No matter what you can try to prove through scripture the best defense is obedience! You did not do this for fame or money (one is fleeting as Jesus displayed for us and the other is  sometimes non-existent)…but in pure simple obedience to God and that is what matters.
I have lots of information on this subject. What particular verse do you want to begin with?
For now think about the scripture in Matt. 28:18, the Great Commission, does it have a gender qualification on it? No! The laborers are few and the harvest great! We can all be the answer to the Lord’s prayer when He asked the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers,  by obeying what He tells us to do!
I think it is sad how people will try to talk you out of obedience and what I tell people like that is ‘ do you want it on your conscience that when I stand before God and have to say ‘I had to obey what you told me that I could do’, not what Jesus has called me to? No of course not!  So we each need to live in such a way that someday we can hear Him say “Well done my faithful servant!”
I love you dear lady and I want to see you come into all the fullness of what God can do through your life!
It is an honor to help in any way I can!”
Lots of Love,
Christina

Longing for …

A safe place to talk about  real issues in your life

People who will understand

Redemption and Hope for your future

Have you ever sat in a room listening to people discuss their needs and know that the subject you really wanted to discuss would never come up but you needed answers?

The theme Unmasked is a result of many months of prayer and conversation as the E2E teams in both Canada and the U.S. discussed the deep needs we are seeing in Women’s lives all around us. As a team, we came to the realize that we needed to create a place where women could truly be themselves and come away filled with hope for their future. We also realized that our own stories were worth telling and revealing the process of  redemption available to every woman.  We saw that we really had first hand incredible stories of what God had done in our lives.

We are so delighted that this has come together and look forward to hearing and seeing what God will do in all our lives as we discover places that God desires to bring strength and full redemption. (Plus, we also have some fun planned and great gifts as well) We know you won’t want to miss this day with us!

We pray that this will be a time of great hope in your life as we look to what our loving, miraculous God can do in the lives on women surrendered to Him!

Frances was born in 1922 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Santo and Coradina Lupo.  In 1948 she married her sweetheart, Carl Poleto.  Together they perfected their fish and chips recipe and opened their own restaurant.  After Carl’s early death from a heart attack when Frances was 40, Frances moved her two young children to Los Angeles and supported them by working as an IBM keypunch operator. She worked for thirty years in that industry and after retirement she enjoyed art, music and dance. Leaving behind some beautiful paper toile paintings that she loved to make for her family. In 1980 she moved back to Canada to be close to her daughter and new grandchildren in Calgary, Alberta, spending time in Toronto until the passing of her mother and then also joining her daughter and family in White Rock, BC in 1991. Frances returned to California in 2002 until her passing.

Frances loved people and made new friends everywhere she went. She served in her church as a greeter, volunteered at care homes, and loved the seniors’ events at Brookhurst Community Center, especially the dances that allowed her to wear fun costumes and greet everyone with kisses. She was a sweet, generous woman with a smile for everyone.  She never met a baby she didn’t want to kiss and cuddle. She loved to sparkle. Sequins, jewelry, and glittering fingernails–she sported them all at the same time.  She loved baseball games, fish and chips, and gangster movies.

She was her grandkids’ biggest fan and sat in the front row at every one of her grandson’s concerts as long as she was able.  When she wasn’t at concerts or dances, she could be found cheering on her favorite teams, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Anaheim Ducks, or taking in the sights and sounds with her family at the Happiest Place on Earth. She was honored to be made an Honorary Citizen of Disneyland in September of 2010.

Frances is survived by sister Betty Capotosto; daughter Christina Williams (Grady)  of Anaheim, California; son Richard Poleto (Patrice) of Simi Valley, California; grandchildren Christopher Williams (Sharone), Carina Greer (Paul), and Anthony Poleto; and great-grandchildren Mason and Ezra Greer.
She will be deeply missed and lovingly remembered by all who knew her.” We invite you to join us in celebrating our dearly loved Frances and to celebrate her life and cherish her memory.

Memorial Service held Saturday, February 5th at 10:00 A.M. at Crescent South Baptist Church, 622 North Gilbert Street, Anaheim, CA with reception following. The graveside service is at 11:00 A.M. Saturday, August 13th, Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery, 305 Erskine, Toronto Canada with a luncheon following.

In lieu of flowers, tax deductible donations can be made to the Frances Poleto Memorial Fund at www.elevatedtoexcellence.org.

This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, THE MESSAGE

Can anyone really understand sacrificial love? I truly believe that God gives us opportunities to experience it every day and that we are presented us with situations in which we need to make a consciences decision to live sacrificially. It is what we do with these opportunities that reveal the reality of a relationship with the living God.

Daily sacrificial love requires a relationship with God to give it sustaining energy. Anyone can do a random act of kindness or have an occasional unselfish thought.  We are born self centered creatures so it becomes responding actively to others with God’s strength and grace on a daily basis that breaks that bondage in our lives.

Over the past eight years I have been a care-giver to my Mom who is presently 88 years old. In the past year she has suffered a stroke and several heart attacks and is presently in our home on Hospice.  I am her fulltime caregiver which has given me a deep gratitude and appreciation for the wonderful people who do what I am doing for people that are not their family members.  Care giving becomes a daily opportunity for sacrifice in my life.It means that no matter how tired I am or how much I want to do something it takes a back seat to the needs of my Mom. Really a staggering concept! I have to think about someone else more than myself!

1 John 3:16 lets us know that this very thing was done for us to reveal the genuine quality of love Christ has for us. This love would be an abstract thought to us  if we had only heard about it, but something sacrificial was done to make it a tangible reality to us.  Christ sacrificed His life  for me. Why would I ever think that to give my life fully to Him and to chose each day to be like Jesus would involve anything other than opportunities to sacrificially serve others? The two are inseparable. To truly live a life of love like Jesus I must learn every day how to sacrifice my needs and reveal the love of Christ to those that Jesus loves so much. He revealed that love to me and now I have the opportunity with His help to reveal it to others.

May God give me His grace this day to seize all the opportunities to live like Jesus and reveal God’s incredible love to those He puts in my path.

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” NIV

Have you ever been in a dark room and had someone turn a light on quickly? My response is usually to yell to turn the light off!

Jesus did just that! Jesus came into a dark world and turned on the Light! John 3 tells us that the determining factor in our relationship with God is our response to the Light.

I could not get away from this verse this morning, it really spoke to me that my response to the Light needs to be an ongoing deliberate activity of choosing to come to the light with my life. The word in the Greek here ‘poieo’ means to abide, to produce, to exercise. It gives me the idea that there is something I have to do on a daily basis.

When I heard the words ‘to exercise’ I thought of my personal response to exercise. I have often said, “I wish exercise was like one particular sin, if I just thought about it I had done it!”.  I can think about exercise a lot!

I realize that if I am going to live by the light I need to actively do it if I am going to reap the full benefit of living in a relationship with God. Too often it is easy to justify the ‘hidden’ in darkness things in our lives. We can either get bound up with pride or in justifying why we have the darkness in our life. Either way it is not the way people in a relationship with God are called to live.

I need to chose each day to bring my darkness into the Light of God and His word, so that it may be seen plainly before God (and man) what my life is about. Will it be hard? Absolutely! But I hope I won’t scream too loudly as God turns on the Light in every room of my heart and life!

Where is the ‘on’ switch?

I realized that when you speak about our necessity to repent of any bitterness and hardness in our hearts and to release forgiveness to a person who offends or hurts us, it brings up many questions. Do I have to be reconciled with them only to have them hurt me again? What about what they did to me? Will there not be any consequences to them? Do they get away free?

If there was ever anyone who could have harbored unforgiveness to the people who had wronged him it was Joseph. He had been betrayed by those closest to him, his family, to the point where they had sent him off to be a slave and wrote him off for dead. (By the way, it is the people who are closest to you that will hurt you the most, because they have a deeper place in your heart)

But years later, when from the position of blessing God had given him, he had provided for them, they came to him in fear leveraging the dying words of their Dad to secure their safety. Which reveals that as kind as Joseph had been, they still lived with the guilt of what they had done and been robbed of peace and security.  (Genesis 50)  It is interesting that when Joseph was faced with what every offended person wishes would happen to those who have wronged them, what his response is. I have played out scenarios’ where those who have deeply hurt me would come to me in pure repentance and I would be in a place where they needed what I was or had and I could make their lives miserable by my response. God sets Joseph up to have the perfect revenge; he could have sentenced all of them to slavery at the very moment or exacted any punishment on them he wanted. God put him in a place of such power he could have had complete revenge and justice on his enemies! Few of us, if any will have that perfect of an opportunity to see what our response would be! Joseph’s was an interesting response and showed that a great work had been done in his heart by God.

He wept!

He didn’t gloat, he didn’t rejoice, he didn’t say “I told you so”. He wept! This shows that he had allowed God to do in his heart exactly what Christ is asking us to let Him do in our heart.

Mark 11:25-26

“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”* NKJV

Matt 6:14-15

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. NKJV

Matt 18:35

“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”* NKJV

He is asking us to allow Him to change our hearts to have a heart of forgiveness and leave the reconciliation (Joseph did not go after his brothers to be reconciled, he let God work that into their hearts) and the consequences to God.

We have a God of justice who knows how to work in the hearts of each one of us to bring us to repentance. It is not our job! We have enough work just dealing with our own heart before God. You can see that Joseph had learned to see that God can and will redeem everything if we let Him and not harbor bitterness in our hearts for those who have offended us. (Hebrews 12:15)

Joseph had grown to know God through his trials and offense in complete trust. He was sure that he served both a God of mercy and justice. Otherwise he could not have had the response he did and then comfort them with the reality of what they did and what God was able to do with it in his own life and the lives of others.

Gen 50:20-21

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. NLT

Who knows in what ways God will use our hurts and offenses to the comfort and even the  salvation of many lives if we will forgive our offenders from our heart.

I am asking God to help me trust Him in the same way and to help me forgive those who have hurt me, then leave the consequences and the reconciliation to Him. That is what God does best isn’t it? Reconciling us to Himself and others.