HOPE

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight".

Proverbs 3:5-6

Nothing turns out just like we would think or plan sometimes when we dream, that's how it turned out with me. As I fought against God, trying to do it my way I stayed stuck in my pain and misery and addiction which worsened with time. By the time I was 19 yrs. old I was strung out, engaged and just miscarried twins when my real father finally found me.

He looked at me and took me into his arms and told me he had been looking for me this whole time, even hired a investigator. took me in his arms and told me he loved me. as we talked and he heard the shambles of my life he wept, apologizing for not being there. There was joy in my heart but at the same time pain, I was angry, wondering why it took him so long to find me, why i had to go threw so much. He looked at me and asked if I was done and would I like to come down and meet my family. so I packed a suitcase and left with him to Minnesota.

There I met my grandparents, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles cousins and more, who were so excited to meet me. yet in the midst of all this love and joy and celebration of my homecoming, I had to hide in my room there and cry, I still felt so alone, so lost. I met the family I had dreamed about all my life and still I was broken and empty.

After returning to Washington my downward spiral continued, through two failed marriages and worsened drug addiction having my son and finally losing custody of him, losing my property, my belongings and almost loosing myself in the next 12 years. by the time I was 30 there was nothing left, and I blamed God, and at the same time reached out to him for the first time in my life. This lead to a spiritual experience that I couldn't ignore any longer, God was there and he loved me, so like my biological father I reached out to god with both hands and hung on.

The last 9 years have been a roller coaster of hope healing and grace. Where the Lord showed me how much he loves me each and everyday, and so does my daddy. During this time I realized not the painful memory of my past but the tools I got from each circumstance that happened during my life and how to use it today to further his kingdom, to help the lost like I once was. To be his hands and feet.

When I accepted the lord in my life and allowed him in my heart a funny thing happened, the gut wrenching black painful emptiness disappeared, was healed and filled with God's consuming love and grace. I wasn't alone any longer, I was loved, accepted and whole.

Today I am blessed to help in a recovery discipleship ministry, to use the tools I learned the hard way during the circumstances of my life before I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. sometimes being given the chance to live or lives over again might seem tempting at first, but when you stop to look at the tools you picked up during your journey, I'll bet you end up smiling at the lessons many more times than cringing at the missteps. And in the end, its truly the journey and not the destination. It's the dream not just the coming true. It's who we are now not just who we will become.

QUESTION;

On life's journey we have many ups and downs. What is the best thing so far that has happened on yours? what is the worst?

dream

It has been said that what we truly want in life is found, not at the destination, but in what we experience on the journey there.

as a child I dreamed of the father I didn't know. growing up in a abusive home my real father that I had made up in my head as I knew nothing about him was growing in leaps and bounds. he was my white knight, my hero, who saved me from my painful existence at home.

He would drive up to the house , rescue me from my evil stepfather, beating him up and scooping me up and drive away to a new glorious rich life, filled with love, understanding and safety. I would meet my other family who would welcome me with open arms, showering me with more love and attention. And all this would heal my heart and fill that empty pain filled space in my gut.

As I grew older the dream expanded, getting more detailed, yet here I was empty, abused and broken with no sign of hope that my hero would show up. by the time I was thirteen I broke down and told someone how I was being tortured by my stepfather, he was thrown in jail and removed from my life forever. My dream was wavering, and I had solved the abusive parent myself. I began to think he wasn't coming, maybe he didn't care, maybe my other family didn't want to know me.

My broken life a shambles little did I see past the anger, and pain from my past that I was masking with drug addiction that my bitterness was growing, and in that I learned how to survive. I used every painful stumble to grow as a person even in the face of total spiritual, mental and physical breakdown. I felt abandoned by my fathers, both spiritual and biological. I could not see a end to my misery and suffering and felt I could not go on. But then I had no knowledge of God's plan for my life, or even who he was.

but I was about to see, everything. not in my time, not my way but soon it would be revealed

check back for the next lesson to find out how.

ADVENTURE
Remember a time when everything went wrong in your life, only to later discover that it was the path toward something very right.

Shine

An old Serbian proverb advises, "Be humble, for you are made of the earth. Be noble, for you are made of the stars." It doesn't take much to accept the first part, but believing the second part is a challenge. Could it ever be true that we contain even just a sprinkle of the sparkle of heaven?

Jesus was a bundle of contradictions, so it's not that surprising that anyone following him ends up caught in the web of his paradoxes, or are we? We are led to believe we are mere dirt and spit brought to life, and in the very next breath we are the image of God, encompassing every ounce of his glory and beauty. no pressure there! Sometimes it's hard to figure out where the balance is. Am I to worthless to go on or to worthwhile to give up? I believe Jesus showed up just to prove the latter.

He even played the game himself for a while. As Philippians says, he was the one " who , being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing..... being in human likeness" (2:6-7). The maker of the stars stepped down to the earth to show us what we're made of; a touch of heaven and a whole lot of earth. He was willing to stoop to our level to show us the heights we could attain.

Jesus Christ is our ideal model for humility in obedience and service. Our thoughts, attitudes, and actions are to be patterned after Christ. His willingness to humbly obey his father is a great example for us. As we take an honest moral inventory of our life, we must humbly admit our faults so we can begin to change our destructive patterns. If we follow Jesus Christ in humility, learning to admit our failures without hesitation, nothing will be able to stop our growth and recovery.


Maybe then it isn't such a contradiction after all. God molded an Adam from the dust of the ground, the earth he already poured his love into and then in one divine kiss, breathed the life of heaven into his soul. We are as much of a creation of what is above as we are of what is beneath us. We have feet of clay and a soul made to soar the skies.

Obedience to God's program is one of the requirements for spiritual growth. But how can we lead a clean, innocent life like he wants us to? We have already admitted that we are powerless over our addictions and circumstances. God not only asks us to live a Godly life , he also provides us the power to do it. He works in us, giving us the desire and ability to obey him. As we get to know God by reading the bible and spending time with him in prayer, he can transform us from the inside out so we can shine brightly before him.

A quirky old country song lamented, "It's hard to be humble when your perfect in every way." Good for a laugh, but luckily, we're daily given reminders of just how far we have to go so that we may resist really ever believing we are that wonderful. At the same time, God lets us keep our starry eyed hearts set on him and the promise of what can be. We remain children of the living God, a noble people with a marvelous inheritance waiting, even while plodding the dusty roads before us.

Question
Humanity and divinity mingled was the gift of Jesus to the world. How can you manifest that combination in your own life to the glory of God and good of others around you?

Honor

In the movie "To kill a mocking bird", Gregory Peck patiently tried to explain to his daughter scout, why people hate. She'd already seen it all around her: a strange boy who had condemned himself to a hermit's life for not being the same as everyone else, and a poor boy at school whose only crime seemed to be being poor. Then, looming over all of them, the innocent man already hung for nothing more than being someone no one else wanted around. Someone they feared because they could not understand ~ and hate became the easiest way out.

Somehow in his gentle explanation, Peck's character managed to sum up life's pursuit in much the same way that Jesus did two thousand years earlier: "Do to others as you would have them do to you". It was as simple and as complicated as that. Even we who are not children listening on someones knee know that it's much easier said than done. But when all is said and done, it really is the truth of life, the embodiment of what Micah says when he declares what God requires of us: " To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" (6:8).

Who can forget that incredible courtroom scene ~ a place where hate collided with the truth and Atticus Finch was in the fight of his life? As a simple lawyer, he knew the not so simple truth. When it would have been easier to walk away, easier to let hate take over all reason and go back home, away from all these unreasonable souls consumed by their own prejudices, he did the right thing. He stayed and he fought for a friend. He fought for innocence lost and for the innocence found again. Maybe deep down he knew that what he helped others find in themselves meant that he, too, could keep it alive in himself.

There are no easy answers. And even in the movies, there isn't always a happy ending. Being true to his word, Atticus found, didn't guarantee happiness. It didn't even guarantee fairness. Yet it was still a lesson worth teaching his daughter, his neighbor, his enemies, his friends. He said it was a sin to kill a mockingbird because mockingbirds just go busily about their lives and do nothing to hurt us. God gives the same warning when it comes to all people. Let go of the hurt and the "eye for an eye". ...Love is all you need after all. And love can cover a multitude of sins.

God's greatest commandment was to Love, in love is forgiveness, healing and hope. In love we find our desire to do what we know is right in our "Knower" in our soul, God's will in our lives, hearts and all our ways. As we grow closer to the Lord in relationship it is his gentle nudge to our spirit that helps us over come our old reactions, habits and hangups. thus allowing those areas in our lives that has kept us tied to pain and sin be finally freed and healed by him. Teaching us his grace and mercy so then we can be more graceful and mercy giving with others.


CHALLENGE :

Sometimes doing the right thing is the hardest thing. Write about a time in your life in which you made that honorable choice with the Lords leading and how it healed and or transformed you leading to more grace for others and yourself.

WONDER

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so they say. But sometimes the most beautiful things in the world can't even be seen.

With all the splendor that surrounds creation, it's mesmerizing to think that what we see is barely scratching the surface. For beauty is, in fact , way more than skin deep. God, the Master Designer, uses the seen and the unseen to dazzle us from afar and to plant His beautiful works both without and within. Simone Weil wrote, " the soul's natural inclination to love beauty is the trap God most frequently uses in order to win it and open it to the breath on high."

God is not only the Creator of all things, but also Giver of the gift that enables us to recognize beauty. His trap is a circle of love ~ enticing, beguiling, and enchanting. As the poet wrote, " Love drew the circle that took us in." God takes us in for our own good and sets us before all the glories of Heaven and earth. Jesus declared that "eye had not seen and ear had not heard" the amazing things God has in store for those who love him. If not even Solomon in all his splendor could match the glory of the swaying lilies of the field, how much more must be the splendor God has in store for those with eyes to see? Just imagine what could be waiting while you breathe deep and take in whats here right now.

When the bible declares that the mountains will sing and the rocks will cry out the message of God's love, it's mearly another picture of the length, the height, the breadth, and the depth that God will go to lure us out of our suffocating shells and awake us to the wonder of what he has made. He promises beauty even from the ashes. Ecclesiastes assures us that "he has made everything beautiful in his time," and that " he has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the begining to end" (3:11).

Heaven truely is found in every grain of sand and every wildflower, because God's love and his hands have made every one of them. If he can't make us see it with the obvious, he'll set it before us with the miraculous.

It really is a beautiful sight..

Question:

How has God trapped you in his love?
What can you do to draw others into that circle?

REJOICE

" THOUGH THE OLIVE CROP FAILS AND THE FEILDS PRODUCE NO FOOD , THOUGH THERE ARE NO SHEEP IN THE PEN AND NO CATTLE IN THE STALLS, I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD. I WILL BE JOYFUL IN GOD MY SAVIOR.

HABAKKUK 3:17,18

All of us face unexpected challenges as we go through our lives. Things don't always turn out the way we expected them to. Darknessfalls, clouds gather, and shadows come, but our faith and confidence in God need never be shaken. And when we face difficult times and trials, he will be with us to make a way where there seems to be no way.

Have you ever felt that God was a million miles away and wasn't even listening to the cry of your heart? Have you ever poured out your heart to God , desperate for an answer but the answer didn't come? I think all of us have experianced this at some point in our lives. Does it mean that God has forgotten us? Does his silence mean that he doesn't care? nope, the bible tells us he will never leave or forsake us (hebrews13:5) and that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think ( Ephesians 3:20) ! Our solutions to our problems are limited to what we can ask or think. God's solutions are above all that we could ever ask or think, Isaiah (55:8-9)tells us that his thoughts and his ways are far above ours.

So what do we do when we are going through a difficult time yet? Habakkuk 3:18 says " yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be happy in the God of my salvation." We are suppose to exsult, to find great joy in the Lord and rejoice in the God of our salvation! Why? Because everything is perfect in our lives? Not necessarily . I heard someone say once that we don't have to deny the reality of our situation, weather it's physical, finantual, spiritual or emotional; we just don't have to accept it as the finality. In other words we need to see our situations throught the eyes of faith. Remember God has the final word. Circomstances may be telling you that you are finished and you have run out of options. But God has promised in his word that he will make a roadway in the wilderness and a river in the desert.( Isaiah 43:19) When we exsaust our own resources, God is about to show us that he is not limited to our ideas and solutions.

Luke 1:37 tells us that " nothing is impossible with God," So if your going through a difficult situation right now, don't allow the enemy to come in to your life and steal your song. Make a choice to bless the Lord. Make a choice to exsult him, even in the midst of a difficult circomstances, because God is working in ways you cannot see! So lets lift our voices and worship him, lets lift our voices and sing to him, and praise him with all our hearts because he is an awesome God and worthy to be praised. and remember, sometimes the most intense praise comes in the midst of the most intense pain.

QUESTION:

What difficult situations has God brought you through?and who and what did he use to do it? How were you able to bless the Lord even in the midst of your pain?

DARE

I will heal their waywardness and love them freely
Hosea 14:4

When God asked His prophet Hosea to marry the local loose woman, the groom must have thought someone was off his rocker. Spend your lifetime convincing the world you are the messenger of God's word of morality, justice, and truth~ and then he asks you to... what?! It's probably, at least at its core , on of the funniest stories in the bible. Leave it to God to drive someone crazy to prove a point. Not to mention imagining this whole story from Gomer's point of view: One day you're the scourge of the town, and the next day you're walking down the aisle with the village preacherman.

Makes you wonder if anyone knew what was going on that day. But something amazing usually does happen when you let go and let God do what ever he wants.

So Gomer marries Hosea, and they have a few children with depressing names, and life sort of goes on for the odd couple. Until Gomer's old life beckons and that age old temptation returns. Perhaps she couldn't really believe she could be loved. Or that she was worth being loved, Or maybe she believed she wasn't good enough to live like someone who was loved.

Whatever her reasons, she strayed. And Hosea came home, but instead of kicking her back to the streets, he just said over and over again, "How can I ever leave you? How could I ever not love you?" Hosea's heart may have been crushed by her betrayal, but his love was indestructible. God, it seems, must have looked down and said "See, do you get it yet? Anyone? this is what i have been saying all along"

You can almost imagine him chuckle when he first dreams up the absurd plot. If you can prove to one of your creation that the love they have for each other is a mere sliver of the love you have for them maybe.... just maybe... they'de start to understand, that boundless, fathomless ocean that is God's locve seems limited only by our inability to accept it. It's just to wild for words.

Charlie Chaplin, the old time actor and film director, was no stranger to absurdities himself when he declared, "Life is a tragedy when seen close up, but a comedy in a long shot." Almost everything's funny when your not in the middle of it. So the farther you walk away from something that breaks your heart, the closer you come to realizing that you are surrounded by a love so unreal, it would take a miracle to make you believe it.

Hosea got a close up view, in fact he got the leading role in God's attempt to show the world his love. No matter how far you go, the script reads, there is absolutly nothing you can do to shake him. Many have tried, including Gomer who put on one of history's strongest performances. but so far no one has succeeded.

QUESTION:
Have you ever tried to run away from love? it is when we are most unsure of ourselves that we doubt the love of others. What are ways you can remind yourself of God's constant love and presence in your life?

RECEIVE

On the old hit show “Trading Spaces” friendly neighbors give a lackluster room in their homes over to each other and a couple of opinionated designers, and trust them to deliver a totally new look to it. They’re hoping that somehow, miraculously, the designer assigned to their home will have the same taste they do. In the most captivating episodes, that usually isn’t the case .

The intriguing part is watching the shocked couple with the new, not~ to~ their~ liking room trying to graciously thank their neighbor friends, the designers, and the show host for something you know is coming down as soon as the production truck pulls away. It’s hard to cultivate a grateful response when disappointment is clouding the way. Most of the time, as someone watching from afar, you have to say, “Well, it’s better than you had before, give it a chance.”

When Jesus traded his own space in heaven for the chance to make something new of the dying old world before him, it was hard to find even one grateful party. Everyone was sitting around waiting for a warrior Messiah ~ someone with a room with a view of the promised land. They expected him to arrive and, in one broad stroke, vanquish their enemies and make everything right again.

Instead they got the Prince of Peace, who to be sure was ready to do some rearranging. Trouble was, he was more interested in their hearts than their land. And apparently the only enemy he was interested in vanquishing was the unbelievable baggage of expectations and demands everyone seemed to be carrying around with them ~ both for him and for their own lives. what no one expected was that all the change he left behind would be so beautiful. By the time they discovered it, he wasn’t around to thank ~ in person anyways, we had done away with him because he didn’t operate or move as we wanted him to.

As Joni Mitchell sang “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.” Sometimes the best gifts come in unexpected packages. If your willing to be patient and wait to discover what might not be obvious at first, you may find that every day, every moment, every person you meet is a gift to your life. And they all come from the ultimate giver of all good things.

Question:

It truly is better to give than to receive, but a grateful receiver can be a gift back to the giver. Think of the gifts God has given you and your response to those gifts. What were they? Cultivate your own grateful heart and share.

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Love

When Paul wrote about the three great things remaining ~faith , hope, and love~ he wasn't kidding about the greatest of these being love. Love is the thread that runs through the entire story of God's attachment to his people. He has written His name on our hearts and refuses to take no for an answer.

Pascal said " the heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of." God is the best proof of that. His heart is consumed, not by logic, nor reason, nor by rules, but by passion. When it comes to love, He's ready to do anything in the name of it. The first Christmas morning was only the beginning of the incredible lengths He was willing to go. And if God truly is love, Jesus was the walking, breathing, in our faces proof of that, He started the party two thousand years ago and still hasn't stopped inviting everyone to come.

He was love, is love, and oozes love. Love tinges his every decision, his every move. He dined and danced with the rebels and losers and didn't care what the neighbors thought. When everyone wanted to stone the woman caught in her guilt, Jesus dropped the stones and let love speak the verdict.

Opening his door to anyone who knocked, he was the only one who took in any story they told. It didn't matter. Like he said, the sick were healed, and he didn't come to let the saints feel even better about themselves. He came looking for the lost, broken sinners who never even knew they had gold~engraved invitations to the party, let alone the right to RSVP. All we needed was love and he knew it. Of course he knew it. It was his plan all along.

When all the party poopers stood outside and watched through the windows, shouting their lists of all the rules he was breaking, he partied on. They really thought he needed to learn. They really thought he didn't know. They assumed he was breaking God's laws when was the one who carved them in the stone in the first place.

He knew the rules, he knew the laws. And he also knew ~ actually, He made it so ~ That the greatest law of all was love.

In the end love conquers all. Love even trumps Justice. Amazing grace, they call it, and its a grace He's extended to all his creation every day since the world first began. It's a stupendous, magnificent, beautiful thing ~ this thing called GOD'S LOVE. And it is indeed, amazing

Question~
If love truly is the greatest gift of all, how are you sharing it in your own life, with God and those around you?

hebrews 4:14-16

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the Heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confessions.
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet with out sin.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.

Titus

Paul wrote the letter to Titus, a young pastor on a Island of Crete. Titus faced two primary problems in his church. On the one hand, some claimed that immoral living was alright because God's grace was sufficient for forgiveness. On the other hand, there were those who claimed that acceptance by God came through obeying God's laws. Paul encouraged Titus to confront both groups for undermining God's gracious gift of forgiveness in Christ.
Paul solved Titus's duel problem by reminding him of the importance of God's grace. When we discover the amazing grace God has bestowed on us, we will feel an incredible sense of gratitude. This will motivate us to delight in obeying God's will for our life, not to live immorally because our forgiveness is guaranteed. God is not a harsh taskmaster whose favor depends on our slavish obedience to his rules. He is a gracious Father who offers us a relationship with him, both now and through eternity. We can live a Godly life out of gratitude to God because he loves us and forgives us.
The fact that God is gracious and forgiving is essential to recovery. We already know that we are powerless against sin and dependency. We have all failed many times over. We don't need to be afraid to admit our sins and failures to our gracious God. He will forgive us and help us start over again. Because God is gracious, we can continue our honest, self examination without fear. God will never write us offfor our failures and mistakes. God accepts us just as we are.

We have so many updates for all of you this week!

Saturday 21st
Chosen Generation revival
music,food and fun! our band will be playing there so come on down. its at 221st meridian in graham by the graham hay market.

Wednesday 25th
Music in the park
in Shelton, WA. at the post office park on second and railroad. come on down to sing and fellowship with us, our band will be playing there.

The new house
on corner of first and pine.
Funding and prayer is needed. asbestos was found and work has been stopped until we can have it removed; the cost is going to be $4,000.00. please keep this in prayer that God supplies the money as this is a expense we cannot afford at this time. Or if God places it on your heart to donate please contact Gethsemane ministries.

Facebook video
we uploaded a new video of one of the concrete jobs our guys recently finished, go check it out!

next church w out walls! and more...

Tomorrow night the 11th of August and again on the 25th is another church with out walls family! we hope to see you there! we will be on second and railroad at the post office park in Shelton Washington. sharing praises for the lord and spiritual unity in Christ.

Also we have been blessed with another house for the ministry, but it has a lot of work needed.If you have time, resources or just prayer come on down to share and encourage as we renovate it for housing for the recovery men's ministry. It is located across from Pro-build down town Shelton on first and pine.

We also have someone to keep our blogs and facebook resources updated. so as to keep everyone in the loop! We will be sharing fun, work, and life here as well as a encouraging word from the lord.We thank you for your patience as we get it up and moving!

Mrs. mimi
for pastor Brian Hellenthal

Looking forward to summer

Hey check this out,

We are looking forward to putting on a series of concerts this summer. It is a joint effort to reach out to the community of Shelton and surroundin areas. Teaming up with other churches in the area we are going to be playing music at Post Office Park through out the season. the event is to be called a "Church without Walls please come and join the excitement." We will post more soon. God bless.