"By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace." (Hebrews 11:31)

I love how God will use us despite our backgrounds, mistakes, or circumstances, and that He can use any of those things to draw people to Himself. He doesn't have to use any of us, but He chooses to because He loves us.

Take the harlot Rahab in Joshua 2. She brought the spies into her home and then hid them from the king and helped them to escape. God could have stopped there but He didn't because He wanted so much more for Rahab's life. She had heard the stories of all God had done for the nation of Israel,and she believed. Rahab knew that she wanted their God to be her God. And so God saved her life physically (by letting her escaped the city of Jerich0) as well as eternally. But God is so awesome and the story doesn't stop there. Rahab goes on to be grafted into the nation of Israel and ultimately is part of the genealogy of Christ. Did God have to do that? No, but He did because He loved her, and He loves us too.

My prayer is that I would be willing to be used by God no matter how big or how small, the opportunity may seem. Please pray for those of us serving here in King's LYnn, that we would be living by faith and looking for opportunities from the Lord to reach the lost here.

Carleigh

This week I have been looking back on my past. I was wishing that some things could have worked out differently. Why do things change? I found myself dwelling in the past, and in things that cannot be changed.

As I was praying about what to blog, the Lord lead me to Philippians 3:3-14

"For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Wow! What powerful verses! We are the circumcision. We are to be living a life that is cut off from the world and cut off from sin. The rite of circumcision was God's way
of requiring the Jewish people to become physically different because of their relationship with Him. We are to have no confidence in the flesh.

Personally, I have always struggled with confidence. When I was in elementary school, a teacher told my parents "Madison has no self-confidence." I thought it was a curse, but now I see it as a blessing from God. Low self confidence has made it so much easier for me to have confidence in Jesus Christ! (Proverbs 3:26)

If you have walked with Jesus for any time, you can point to ways in which your spiritual circumcision results in proof that you are different than you originally were.

"In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not done by the hands of men, but with the circumcision done by Christ." Col 2:11

Paul gives us a glance back on his life as Saul. By worldly standards, Saul had all his ducks in a row. I love how he shares his pedigree, so to speak. Concerning the law, Saul was blameless. Saul did not realize he needed a Saviour, until he was on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9)

Each one of us who know Jesus as Saviour, has been on that road. The scales having been removed from our eyes, we recognized Him, the One and Only. But it’s funny how often we can think we don’t need a Saviour in our day to day circumstances. This is where I believe that our spiritual circumcision is so profound. Often, we rely on ourselves, on our past, on our pedigree to get us through. We need only follow Paul’s example of counting all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

Without Jesus, our lives look put together on the outside, but they are falling apart on the inside. With Jesus, we can walk with one foot in the world at times. Trying to live our lives for ourselves AND Him.

I'm sure that Paul hated the fact that he persecuted fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I'm sure that if He could have changed that, He would have. What I love about Paul is that he KNEW who he was IN Christ. Forgiven. Paul was forgiven by the blood of Jesus, and he lived without a guilty conscience. His righteousness from God through faith!

Living in the past can keeps us from our future.
Like Saul, we have to move on. We are forgiven our sins past, present, and future. We have to move forward from our pasts, to our future in Jesus. To know Him!

Sometimes that means sharing in His sufferings. That’s the hard part. I am sure that it was hard for Saul, becoming Paul. Imagine having to come to grips with the fact that nothing in you is worth holding on to. It’s easy to say, but that’s where the rubber meets the road and I realized it is what God is saying to me.

I said I had been dwelling on the past, wishing some things had turned out differently. The thing is, change is hard. This kind of growth is hard and sometimes painful. Giving up me for Him… is stretching me and frankly, sometimes it hurts.

This circumcision done by Christ in me, has made me want to cry out at times. It has made me want to throw myself on the floor and kick and scream at times. Yet I feel His Presence and Know He is with me and I surrender my plan for His, my life for His, over and over again. My parents tell me I am growing up in Him and that they are proud of me. Sometimes I wonder what He thinks. Does He tire of my battle with my flesh?

He hasn’t changed my name, but He wants me changed. He wants me to understand that there is no good thing in me apart from Him. I can look back all I want, with longing even… but apart from Him I am just Madison Proffit, living in Kings Lynn. In Him, I am Madison Proffit, daughter of the Most High God, called to Kings Lynn, England to be His witness, whom He has chosen, to do good works which He prepared in advance for me to do!

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer 29:11

I want to live with both feet on His path for my life. I want to press into Him and know Him and be found in Him! Yet as I write this fear creeps into my mind, of what will happen next.

Pray for me here, pray for all of us serving here in Kings Lynn. That we would see past our light and momentary circumstances and Live for Jesus while we can. Pray for the people in Kings Lynn to seek Him while He can be found.

“Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” Jer 29:12

For those of you who find yourselves in the same place that I am, even though I don’t know you by name, I will be praying for you. For those of you who don’t know Jesus as Lord and Saviour, my heart breaks for you. I pray that in His Word, read on this page, you will encounter Him and surrender your life to Him, He is worth it!

“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jer 29:13

We have been talking for a while about starting a ministry to support Church plants and missionaries, and on Friday we started taking steps to make that happen. After our young adult study on Friday, we were talking about the vision behind and ministry, and how to make it all happen. We believe supporting missionaries is one of the most vital parts of the church, as we, like I am sure you, take Matthew 28:19-20 very seriously.

We know from having moved across the world, that often times the most stressful things for a missionary is the finances, and we wanted to be able to be a blessing to people or churches that are struggling in that area. For us the most encouraging verse regarding this subject is definitely Matthew 6:26 which says: "Look at the bird of the air, they neither sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?" We want to encourage missionaries in the promise that God will supply all their needs.

We have decided to call this ministry Speiro, which is the Greek word for sow, as is found in the verse in Matthew mentioned earlier. The verse in Matthew can be taken two very different ways whether you are looking at it from a missionary's point of view, or from a believers point of view. If we are at home, supporting missionaries around the world, we can read this verse as having the opportunity to supply the needs of missionaries, and this can be seen as sowing into the Kingdom of Heaven. Someone involved in missionary work can read this as being able to focus on the task given them, and not having to worry about the sowing or reaping or gathering into barns in the financial sense.

The way this ministry works is we, as a church, make handmade journals and jewelry and sell them, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to missionaries and church plants. As things start to come together, we will continue to update you on the growth of this ministry, as well as opportunities for you to get involved. Below is some pictures of a few of the journals we have started. Please be praying for this ministry, that it would be used by God to bless people around the world. If you have any ideas, please feel free to share them with us!

Front cover (one of many designs)


Back cover


Hand saddle stitched pages

If you're my friend on Facebook, you may recognize this as my "theme song." It was written by a student at the School of Worship in Costa Mesa, CA and so perfectly sums up where we all need to be with Jesus. The Lord laid it on my heart to do this song, but I didn't feel like He was leading me towards a specific verse for it. On Fridays, we have our Youth Night and we started doing a study of Joshua. There was one verse that jumped off the page at me:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."-Joshua 1:9.

The end of the verse is what I love most. It says "Don't be Terrified". That's not just scared, but terrified! Joshua was in a position where he had reason to be terrified. God says "Don't be terrified" and then He says that He will be with us wherever we go. What a promise to hold on to. When we are in valleys, God with us! When we are in darkness, God with us! Whether we know it or not, God is always with us! How comforting that is. No matter what the world will throw at us or where in the world we are, we have Jesus to rest in. When we need strength, we find it at His feet. When we are weak, He is strong. Best of all, when we are faithless, He still loves us! He is the perfect match for us. These past few weeks have been really hard on me, but God is faithful!

So here's my question.... Is all that's in you Blessing Jesus? Or are you holding a little something back? No matter how small that little something is, Jesus wants it. Surrender all to Him, and He will take you places you couldn't even imagine.

Here's a quick sum up of what I wanted to share...

1.Emmanuel, God with us, He is the “WITH US” God. No matter where we are, no matter who we are, and no matter how we are doing.

2.Is all of you Blessing Jesus? Are you giving Jesus your 100% or just 99%?

I pray that whoever reads this would really search their heart in prayer to see if there's something that they are holding back. Jesus is so worth leaving everything for and giving everything to. He is our comfort, our Shelter, and our Provider. I challenge you to surrender all to Jesus and see the amazing things he does with you and through you. It will blow you away!

“Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.” “May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance.”-2 Thessalonians 3:1-3 and 2 Thessalonians 3:5