 that,” she went on. I responded, “Every person who has followed the will of God in their life is in full-time Christian work.” God calls some to the mission field, others to be accountants, and others to be advertising executives, and still others to be construction workers. God never made a distinction between sacred and secular. In fact, the Hebrew word avodah is the root word having the same meaning of “work” and “worship.” God sees our work as worship.
I learned this lesson personally when I sought to go into “full-time” service as a pastor in my late twenties, only to have God thrust me back into the business world unwillingly. This turned out to be the best thing He could have done for me, because it was never His will for me to be a pastor. He knew I was more suited for the workplace.
The Lord has a specific manner of preparing His people for useful service. God desires to turn His children from rough, hard-edged stones into gems of gold and silver.
The refiner’s fire can only accomplish its purposes when the heat is turned up to extraordinary temperatures. It breaks down the metal in order for it to become moldable and shapeable. Only when the temperatures reach this level can the work be fully accomplished. So it is in our lives.
Until the Lord completes His refining process, the offerings we make are not made in righteousness and cannot be acceptable. Thank God that Jesus is our righteousness and that there is no righteousness apart from Him. Still, the Lord continues to purge all that is not of His righteousness out of our lives. This comes through trials that bring each of us to the end of ourselves in order that He may only reflect that which is Himself.
When God takes you through the refiner’s fire, be encouraged because it is His overriding commitment to turn you from a rough, hard-edged stone to a precious metal.  Our job is to avoid trying to blow out the fire.
Have you ever thought about a typical day in Jesus’ life? Perhaps He might have had questions like these, “Who am I going to heal today? Who will I visit today? Which person will I deliver from demons this day?” etc. The demands on Jesus’ time were great. Yet we see that Jesus allocated His time very deliberately. We don’t get the idea that Jesus was flustered or stressed from the activity He was involved in. He often sought times of prayer and reflection away from the disciples. His life appeared to have a balance of quiet moments and active ministry into the lives He came in contact with.
“Lord, should I add this Bible study to my schedule? Should I spend an extra night out on this committee this week? Should I take on new business that will take me away from home more? Should my daughter be involved in music lessons?” These are the daily challenges for the world we now live in. We are an activity-based society that often encourages more and more activity, often in the name of Christian virtue.
Our lives will become less cluttered, less stressful, and more fulfilling when we follow the model Jesus provided. It may not always please everyone. Jesus never sought to please everyone. Ask the Lord each day this week how you and He are to spend your time. Yield your schedule to Him. Let Jesus direct your every activity. You may discover that He desires you to cut back some things in order to spend more time alone with Him. He will be faithful to show you. And you will become more fulfilled because you are centered in His will for you.
The first requirement for being used by God in the life of others is to mourn on their behalf. We must identify with their pain and suffering. Each of us must be broken for others first.
In order to be fully used by God in the workplace, we need to understand what breaks God’s heart. When we understand what breaks God’s heart, we are able to mourn on behalf of a grieving person, or a nation we are called to serve. What breaks God’s heart? When we begin to answer this question, we begin the first step to becoming instruments of change for those things that are important to God. Perhaps it is an overemphasis in our own talent and abilities, or lack of complete trust in Jesus. Perhaps it is the lack of respect for human life that leads to the killing of innocent babies. Perhaps it is the deceit and pride that often rule the workplace of commerce. Or perhaps it is the strife and divisions among His own Body that grieve Him most. When we begin to mourn over our own sins in these areas, God begins to use us as instruments of righteousness to affect these things. It was only when God let me see my own sins in the workplace and how they broke His heart that I began to be an instrument for His purposes.
Today, ask God to show you what things in your world are breaking His heart. Then see how He might want you to be the priest to affect for Him. The first step is identification with what breaks God’s heart.
And yet, in the midst of this great event, the Holy Spirit spoke to Philip and told him to remove himself and go to a completely different area to speak to one individual. Philip was so sensitive to the directive of the Holy Spirit that he left what would be deemed a successful event to go speak to another – an Ethiopian eunuch. The result of his obedience was that Philip led the eunuch to faith in Christ and baptized him. The Lord then took Philip away supernaturally to another region many miles away.
God’s ways of determining where we invest our time and energy often have little to do with results. The danger for each of us is to determine that we are in the center of God’s will simply by the success or failure of the events we are involved in. Our plumb line for determining success can be only one thing: obedience. Philip responded in obedience to the direction of the Holy Spirit.
Are you listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit? Has God prompted you to speak, go, or come alongside another? Ask God today to help you hear the Holy Spirit’s voice so that you might be used mightily in your workplace.Within the Middle Kingdom living quarters of the town of Elephantine, the German Archaeological Institute Cairo is focusing in the scope of the project »Realities of Life« on all kinds of finds down to the smallest samples to gain insight into daily life on the island around 1800 BCE. The study of ash deposits and fireplaces in House 169 has recently been especially rewarding. Evidence for food production, waste management and animal keeping during the habitation periods of this building in the northwestern town could be gained. Statistical methods used on the only rarely studied find group of dung underlines the results from the zooarchaeological analysis of animal remains, which suggest that goats were the predominantly kept caprine on the island.On Tuesday 8th June the nursery celebrated Best Friends Day and the children enjoyed discussing their special friendships with familiar friends and family.
The Seahorses, Turtles and Dolphins spent their key group times talking and learning about what it means to be friends and how we treat each other with key links to the feeling box and kind actions linked to The Fundamental British Values.
Pelicans, puffins and Penguins enjoyed a physical threading activity to create and design their own friendship bracelets using motor skills to thread beads onto the pipe cleaner.
The children ended their day with party with all of their friends and familiar adults.In this post, I’m going to tackle two questions I get asked all the time: “How do you stay so organized throughout the week?” “Do you do all of your lesson planning at home?” I’m going to share my organizational tips and tricks with you, as well as my personal weekly routine I use throughout the school week.
 Finally, I told myself, “No more!” I knew in the near future I wanted to start a family and that the hours and hours I was spending each week on plans would not be possible – or healthy – for a balanced life. So, I devised an organizational “system” that worked for me.
*Reading passages we will be using for our small groups.
On Tuesdays, I also pull any content related activities I want to use for next week. I’ve spent a lot of time organizing my materials over the past few years and it has REALLY paid off. One thing I’ve loved doing is transferring my printable and copies to a binder system instead of filing cabinets. It just makes more sense for me to grab a binder filled with resources instead of sifting through a pile of random papers that are spilling out of file folders.  For example, if a teacher friend is looking for science ideas, it’s easier for me to grab my Science Binder and have all of my science units organized for her. Of course, once again, you need to figure out a plan and a system for filing your papers that works for you. Binders work for me. Binders did not work for my sweet friend Kristin, who recently shared a hilarious post about her love for file folders that you can read here. Remember, whatever makes your life easier will help you stay organized.
In the picture below, you can see how I have organized all of my materials into monthly thematic binders and binders by subject. If I have little centers or task cards to store, I store them in a sheet protector within the binder. This keeps everything nice and tidy.
The ADORABLE binder covers in the picture above are from my sweet friend Haley O’Connor.
You can find them in her TpT store by clicking HERE.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: FILL IT IN!
Now that everything I need for next week