What if Our Bibles Were Taken Away?

Have you ever stopped and just reflected on God's Word.  The Power it carry's.  The Privilege it is to be able to open it up and read the incredible promises from our God who breathed life into each page.  We have friends that are serving as Missionaries in a foreign country and they have to hide their Bibles for fear of their very life.  The people they witness to and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ have to be careful who they talk to about their faith for fear of their lives.  Yet, they are willing to take that risk because they understand the urgency to spread God's Word and the Power it gives the Believer.

You are probably thinking, wow!  I need to pray for those Missionaries.  They must have it rough.  Yes, they do!  Yes, prayer is always, always needed!  However, think about this.  We live in a Country founded upon God's principal's and Christian values, yet, we are so far from that now.  As Christians, our voice has become so small that we have allowed prayer to be taken out of schools.  We have watched as the Ten Commandments (the very laws given to Moses directly from God) have been ordered, by law, to be taken down from courthouses.  We are not allowed to pray before Graduations or football games.  Teachers can be fired from their job by just mentioning the Bible or Jesus Christ. 

Friends, we are not very far away from becoming like those countries where the very building we congregate to worship will be obsolete.  Where Bibles will be confiscated if seen in public.  Where the very mention of Jesus Christ could land someone in jail or be killed.  It's hard to think that could actually happen.  But did you ever think that the aforementioned things could happen?  Satan is out to kill, steal, and destroy.  He wants to make a mockery out of our Savior and wants to silence our Faith so no one else will come to know Christ.  God's Word tells us that this very thing is coming.  In Jude, verses 17-21, "But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.  They said to you, 'In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.'  These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.  But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.  Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life."

I will be the first to admit that I take God's Word for granted.  I serve in Ministry where everyday God allows me the opportunity to witness or minister to someone.  Yet, I fall short on hiding His very Word in my heart.  I tend to let the busyness of this world get the best of me.  I even use the excuse that as I get older, it's hard for me to memorize scripture.  Truth is, I barely even try.  How many of you can say the same or even have other excuses.  Bottom line is this:  As individuals, We are free to open God's Word and read it!  We are free to go out publicly and proclaim His name!  We are free to Worship corporately as Believers!  But for how long?

I imagine if you were to ask those in other Countries that are having to meet in secret to talk about God's Word, if they memorize scripture, I'm pretty sure the answer would be, Yes!  I'm sure they memorize and hide His word deep in their hearts not knowing when their written Word will be taken from them.  Living in a poverty stricken area, I can relate to this as I watch those that have nothing, and I mean nothing, be given the opportunity to get free stuff.  They take and take and take like there's no tomorrow.  Not because they are greedy.  But because they don't know when or if they will get those items again.  It is a survival technique.  Isn't that how we should be with God's Word?  Shouldn't we be taking in all we can get?  Shouldn't our desire be to hide His Word in our heart, the very Word He Breathed into life for us?  The very promises our entire Faith hinges on? 

I challenge you as I challenge myself, memorize His Word.  Ask God to give you the capacity to retain it and the wisdom to understand it.  There are verses that I learned as a child, that even today God brings to mind when I need them or when someone else needs to hear it.  It's amazing how He allows my mind to pull scripture from a place hidden long ago in the deep places of my heart.

I love opening God's Word.  I love the beautiful promises within the pages that He has given to those who follow after Him.  His Word never gets old and never is outdated.  It is relevant to past, present and future.  We can learn from it, find any answer to any problem in our life, and revel in the victory that is to come!  What JOY fills my soul to think about eternity with my Lord and Savior!

Blessings!  Have a JOY filled day!

Angie Burkeen

Singing Praises of JOY

I really enjoy praising God through song!  There is something that just wells up inside me when I listen to or sing songs that lift up the name of Jesus or give praise and honor to our Savior.  Psalms 95:1-2 says, "Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.  Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song."  I will never forget one particular Sunday morning during a worship service at our home church of White House First Baptist, the choir sang a special song during the middle of the service.  It was a song called, "Move Mountain Move." This song gives declaration to moving the obstacles within our lives that keep us from the sweet communion with God that we need.  Things such as: addictions, financial struggles, marital problems, abuse, lack of self worth, etc.  I was singing in the choir that morning and when the music began and we started proclaiming the words of the song, we literally saw mountains move!  It started a Revival within our church right then.  People got out of their seats, walked to the alter and let go of sins and baggage they had been holding on to for a long time.  It was amazing!  I had never been part of a worship service that incredible.  God's overwhelming presence enveloped everyone that morning and the JOY of the Lord overflowed within the congregation!

Music and words can have a powerful impact on people!  Working with kids and teens, we are constantly challenging them to make sure the music they listen to is pleasing to God.  Good or bad, music speaks to our head and our hearts.   

I love what the Psalmist David says in Psalms 28:7, "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.  My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."  Part of having true JOY leads to an overpowering urge to worship through praise.  Giving God the honor and esteem He so deserves.  Exalting God and rejoicing with hands lifted high and hearts wide open!  As Jesus rode into Jerusalem in his last days, before taking our shame on the cross, and came to the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began JOYFULLY to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen.  They were singing praises to the King of Kings!  The Pharisees asked Jesus to make them be quiet.  Jesus' reply was, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." (Luke 19:40)  If we fail to praise the very one who gives us JOY, we miss the incredible blessing of peace in our life.  We open the door for distrust and unbelief.  We start trying to take back the things in our life that cause us to pull away from God.

There have been so many times in my life where I get so desperate and try to take control and make things happen on my own.  Those times are very exhausting and usually don't end well!  Yet, more times than I would like to admit, I do this.  It's in these times that God reminds me of one of my favorite passages of Scripture, "I am the vine, you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5  As long as I stay connected with my Father and allow Him to have control, the JOY that can only come from Him will allow me to move any mountain that comes my way!

My encouragement to you is to give your whole heart to God.  Allow Him to permeate your entire life and His JOY will give you strength to move obstacles you never thought or even realized you were clutching so tightly.  Matthew 17:20 says, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you."

I will end this Blog with the song Move Mountain Move.  I pray God speaks to your heart through the words of this song  and if there are obstacles, big or small, give them to Him once and for all.  Allow His JOY to overflow from your life and prove victorious to conquer any mountain!

 

Much Joy!

Angie Burkeen

Finding JOY in Our Journey

I'm not big on flying in an airplane.  Although to ease my mind, others tell me, "Don't worry, it's much safer to fly than to drive a car!"  Good and true advice!  But I still can't seem to wrap my brain around how this huge piece of aluminum can stay in the air.  It just doesn't make sense!

My husband, my daughter and I, just got back from an amazing trip to sunny Southern California where we had the privilege of speaking at a church.  I am overwhelmed at how God blesses us and puts the most intricate details in place.  The church we spoke at just happened to be 60 miles from where my sister and brother-in-law live.  Coincidence - I don't think so!  First of all, I have never traveled west of Missouri, but have always wanted to, and second, I never dreamed I would get the chance to visit my sister while they are living in California.  But God is so good!

I was very excited about the trip, and the weeks and days leading up to it, I thought of all of the things I'd like to do and see while there.  But as soon as I boarded the plane, my excitement turned to anxiety and fear.  All of these thoughts started flooding my mind.  All of the "what if's?"  Anything and everything that could go wrong with plane came to mind.  Isn't that silly?  As I tried to distill those thoughts it made me start thinking about how all of the "what if's" affect our daily lives.  How many times have you found yourself saying, "What if I'm not qualified enough?"  "What if I'm not smart enough?"  What if I'm not pretty enough?"  How about, "What if I'm not worthy enough to be used by God?"  All of these "what if's" can paralyze us into believing the worst things about ourselves and can keep us from doing extraordinary things that God has planned for us.

But God, with His divine mercy and grace can give us JOY for our journey.  As a child, I learned a church song that now cracks me up when I sing it, but it so relates to finding that JOY.  These are the words:
     Give me umption in my gumption, help me function, function, function.
     Give me umption in my gumption I pray.
     Give me umption in my gumption, help me function, function, function.
     Help me function till the break of day!

I'm not real sure what an umption or a gumption is, but I still understand the message.  Only through emptying ourselves out and letting God fill us with His JOY and peace can we accomplish all He has for us.  We can't do anything without Him.  Philippians 4:13 reads, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."  Psalm 29:11 says, "The Lord gives strength to His people, the Lord blesses His people with peace."

Finding JOY in our journey means relying on the peace He gives us while doing those things that we may not like or want to do but is necessary in order to get where God wants us to be.  It means clearing our mind of all of the lies that Satan tries to sell us.  All of those "what if's" and clinging to our Father's sweet promise that He will never leave us or forsake us.

As I sat on the plane that beautiful sunny day and began emptying my mind and letting God fill me with thoughts of His peace and love, I began to focus on the beauty I saw as I looked out into the depths of His creation.  I realized that flying was part of the journey to get me where I needed to be.  As the plane carried us across the U.S.,  I praised God for His incredible blessings and basked in His presence as His calming peace filled me with JOY on my journey!

Much JOY,

Angie Burkeen
Club 180 Ministry
503 Main Street
Cumberland,  KY  40823
www.club180ministry.com

Joy Lived Out

This morning I opened my Facebook to catch up on everyone's life (because you know, that's how one finds out what is going on in other's lives!).   The first status that popped up on my page was something that changed my entire day.  I pray it has changed me forever!  We have friends that are serving in Ghana, Africa as Missionaries.  They moved there three years ago to help feed the orphans, share the Gospel, and disciple those that come to know Jesus Christ.  Reid and Robin Beebe, along with their five boys responded to the call to leave their home in Knoxville and travel across the globe to reach people for Christ where the things we consider everyday luxuries are a rare commodity.

As I read Robin's post this morning, my heart was wrenched as I began to think of how I live my faith out.  Do I exemplify JOY when circumstances arise?    Robin has hard days, like all of us do.  We all go through trials.  Some are for just a fleeting moment, but some are trials that can be dragged out and seem to last a lifetime.  Some people deal with health issues that affect them the rest of their life.  But the circumstances and conditions that Robin and her family face everyday are so much more difficult than what most of us will ever have to experience.  True JOY is lived out in her life and it shows.  The transparency of how in her circumstances she struggles, shows true JOY and she continually depends on God to renew her Spirit.  I pray the JOY I have for what Christ has done for me shines brightly for others to see.  I want to share with you Robin's post from Facebook and I pray it has an effect on you as it did me.  JOY is a choice!  It is an active response to every situation we experience: hard times and good times.  Do others see JOY in you?  Here's her post:

·         Lately I have been struggling to be joyful in our circumstance. I have taken off small bites of self-pity and then chewed on it for periods of time. I have allowed challenging circumstances to "get the best of me." Having illness plague our family continually (three sick right now - malaria, intestinal bugs, high fevers, severe coughs have plagued us for about 6-8 weeks with only a small reprieve of everyone being healthy - last night we propped Franklin up on a cot in our room so he could breathe through his coughing), having one thing after another broken in our home, having car problems that can not seem to be fixed, rising costs of daily needs, communication challenges, not to mention water, electricity and internet, and honestly missing my family and friends has deterred my thankfulness.

Why is that?

Well, the Truth is that I have allowed it to happen. (Can't you hear the self-pity seeping out? Ugh!) I told Reid I felt like a ball bouncing on a hard surface. My "bounce-back" used to be so much stronger. I was resilient. Now the ball hits the surface and then bounces to a slow roll, then a stop. Reid's returning analogy was that of a boxer in a fight. Every hit takes more of the fight and life out of him until he is barely standing. We are not recovering from the hard hits of life here as well as we used to. I'm tired. Weary.

Some have told us we need to REST. We are trying to do that. We actually tried to take a few days as a family thanks to a Christmas gift. However, two were sick the day we arrived, and we came home a day early because three were running fevers. Ugh!

I'm SELFISH.

Ugh! I've been craving ease of life. Comfort. I don't like things daily feeling unrelentlessly so "hard." (They are HARD because I am choosing to look at our circumstances instead of the goodness of Christ.)

Yep, I'm SELFISH.

YUCK!

I MUST BE AN OVERCOMER AND RISE ABOVE THIS! Ugh!

S.O.S. - FRESH PERSPECTIVE NEEDED!!!

S.O.S. - CORRECT PERSPECTIVE NEEDED!!!

As a Christmas gift, Bekah Ochs made us a video shadowing everything the Lord has done over the past three months. It was astounding to see it all! Lately, I have struggled to remember the BIG picture and have been swallowed up by the little things that discourage me. WHY AM I LIKE THAT?

This morning I have been given the Lord's perspective as God has used multiple means to speak to my sinful heart. (It's God's kindness that leads us to repentance, but it is ugly to see my sin up close!) A few hours ago, I awoke for my quiet time complete with my morning cup of coffee. As I opened the sugar, ants scurried to hide. So began the morning routine of many days... Picking around the tiny, little creatures, I heaped the ant-laden sugar into my cup. Seeing them reminded me of this poem from our mission training which penetrated my heart:

ANTS IN THE SUGAR BOWL
By Elizabeth Givens
So send I you
To ants in the sugar bowl,
To things that fly, creep and crawl into the house,
To uncertain water, sporadic electricity.
To long hours, sweltering heat, exhausting days,
To uncomfortable vehicles, crowded jeeps, smelly buses.
To noisy early, early mornings,
To rice, rice and more rice.
To poverty you didn’t believe existed,
To masses of people like you have never seen,
To know and work with people who have never known comfort,
So send I you, and I expect you to adjust.
So send I you
To people who will give to you from their poverty,
To friends who will embarrass you with their generosity,
To pastors who will entertain you from their lack, with beauty.
To hungry, receptive, questioning people who want to know God,
To study, to teach, to learn from your study and teaching,
To prove your own motives, values and beliefs,
To learn about yourself and the culture that has reared you,
To know God and to understand more deeply dependence on Him,
So send I you.
Are you going? I’ll go with you all the way.

HOW TRUE THIS POEM HAS BEEN SEEN IN OUR LIVES HERE!

God has sent us here. In His love, God "expects me to adjust" to these hard circumstances because His word commands me to "have JOY ALWAYS." (1 Thessalonians 5:16). I am to "rejoice in ALL CIRCUMSTANCES." (1 Thessalonians 5:18) "For this is the WILL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS FOR YOU."

God has led me, as the poem indicates,
"To prove your own motives, values and beliefs,
To learn about yourself and the culture that has reared you,
To know God and to understand more deeply dependence on Him..."

God is refining me. And it isn't pretty!

After reading through 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 this morning, I read this post on Facebook from a friend and fellow missionary, Johnbull Omorefe.

"Paul knew he would be imprisoned In Jerusalem. Although his friends pleaded with him to not go there, he knew he had to because God wanted him to. No one enjoys pain, but a faithful disciple wants above all else to please God. Our desire to please God should overshadow our desire to avoid hardship and suffering. When we really want to do God's will, we must accept all that comes with it - even the pain. Then we can say with Paul, "God's will be done."

And so, I am still growing and learning to be a faithful disciple. My desire is to be "kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls me (you) faithful; He will surely do it."

As Mason challenged me last week when he was sick on his birthday, "I must count it all JOY when I encounter these trials knowing that the testing of my faith will yield endurance, and that endurance will have it's perfect result. I will be perfect and complete...lacking in nothing."

So, I am trusting Jesus to help me and lead me. I have a long way to go...but my faithful, loving, merciful God will be with me every step of the way.

Please pray for our friends serving in Ghana, Africa.  Pray God gives their entire family a time of rest and good health.  Joy is overflowing in their lives as they trust God and display a transparency of their circumstances and all that God is doing. 

Much Joy,

Angie Burkeen

The Joy of God's Creation!

Today is a beautiful day!  We woke up this morning to pristine white snow-capped mountains and about three inches here in the valley of our little town in Eastern Kentucky.  What an incredible way to start a new year.  There's just something about the freshness and newness of a snowfall that reminds me of our walk with Christ.  Just as snow falls and covers all of the deadness of the winter ground and makes things clean and pure white.  The same can be said for our Christian walk.  When we enter into a relationship with Christ, He makes us clean and white as snow, taking our sin away and continues to renew and refresh us with new snow everyday.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 

One of my good friends and missionary serving here in Eastern Kentucky, Julie Pitts, absolutely loves snow!  She is originally from South Carolina where there is not a lot of snow and definitely not enough falls to get out and play in.  So every time it snows here she is like a kid in a candy store.  She just wants to get out in it and take in all she can.  I love her enthusiasm, but the older I get, the less my adventurous side wants to go out in it.  But Julie loves it!  It's cool listening to her even talk about it.  The JOY of the Lord shines from within her!  Most people, after a minute of looking at the snow are ready for it to be gone because it just causes problems, especially if you're one that has to get out in it to go to work.  But her take on it is so refreshing!  In a conversation with her, she said, "I love it when it snows, because for a moment everything slows down.  It slows down so much that you can hear the quietness of God's creation.  It draws me closer to Him!"  What JOY!!!

God's creation is His JOY!  Everything He breathed into existence brings Him pure JOY!  Genesis 1:31  says, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."  In other words, He was pleased.  He took pleasure in His creation.  He had JOY! 

If God has JOY in what He has created, we should take JOY in His creation too!  Shouldn't we?  So today I choose to take in all of His creation through the beautiful snow that has fallen in these Appalachian Mountains.  I am going to rest in the fact that His JOY comes through providing me, his most treasured creation, with the beauty that snow brings.  The newness and freshness it represents.  And as Julie put it, the quietness of God's creation.

Much Joy,

Angie Burkeen

My Joy Journey

Happy New Year!  Today is the first day of a brand new year that will be filled with many firsts.  Don't you just love the beginning of something new?  There are so many examples of firsts in our lives.  New year, new relationships, the birth of a baby, the first time that special someone says "I love you!"  I could go on and on.  Each has it's own special meaning.

Today marks a special day for me.  Not only is it a new year, but today begins a journey.  For these 365 days I will be sharing Joy through stories of real life experiences and giving biblical perspectives from God's word as well.

 I know, I know!  I overuse the word and some of you are probably tired of hearing it from me.  But joy is so much more than just a simple adjective or adverb describing how one feels.  I love the definition that Kay Warren gives in her book I Choose Joy, Because Happiness is not Enough, "Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be all right, and the determined choice to praise God in all things." 

Joy is a choice.  Joy is also a matter of the heart.  To have true joy in your life, you must first be in right relationship with Christ.  Joy is not something we create.  It only comes through a total surrender of our life to God so He can fill us to overflowing with His joy and peace.  Romans 15:13 says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Throughout this year, I hope to share with you what I feel true joy really is.  I also want to invite you to come along on this journey with me. This blog is not about me.  It's about the love of God permeating the lives of His people.  It's about seeing God move in our lives creating in us that true joy.

Each of us experience tests, trials and triumphs.  They come in the form of disappointments, heartaches, victories, love and loss.  If there is breath in our lungs, we have and will continue to experience these things.  Paul tells us in Romans 5:2-5, "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." 

I invite you to share your story of how the Lord has given joy to your life.  Maybe through an experience or circumstance God's joy has given you peace that surpasses all understanding or maybe someone you know has exuded that kind of joy and it touched your life in a special way.  Email me your stories of Joy at: aburkeen@windstream.net  or Facebook message me, or simply mail your story to P.O. Box 561, Cumberland, KY  40823 and I will try and share your story on this blog.

Yes, joy is much more than a little word!  My prayer is that through the words and testimony shared, others will seek and find true joy through the only source - Jesus Christ!

Much Joy,

Angie Burkeen