The Conductor never Stops Conducting.

I've been praying for the last entire week for God to please help me out of the miry pit and set my feet upon a rock, and establish my way.  He has heard my plea and has put a new song in my heart, even praise to our God.  (Ps 40:1-3)  I must say that I wasn't very patient but in his grace and mercy he  heard me anyway. 

The Pastor of our church came to our house last night to visit with us.  I was a bit afraid but my husband took on the conversation and I stayed quiet and pretty much just listened at first.  Art was very diplomatic and seemed to know how to lead the conversation gently and non confrontationally.  I was grateful.  I could not have done half as well.
Here is a letter I wrote afterwards to let everyone know how it went


Hi All,

Well, I thought I would let you know that it all went well with the visit with the pastor this evening.
Art asked the pastor if he would be willing to mentor him in how to do Bible studies and personal evangelism. He was willing to do that and seemed grateful that someone was interested in helping out.
We talked a bit about the issues in the church and he was very gracious although, he's not quite sure what to do about it. As far as the music goes, he said he doesn't really know much about music and he really doesn't have a problem with the music here. But we were able to be very open and honest with him on our being uncomfortable with this and a few various other issues.
On another note, he brought up the fact that when studies are done, it always comes up statistically that Whitehorse is the most post modern city in North America. I used this opportunity to mention that *McNielus's had suggested a great idea for outreach in post modern style communities that want nothing to do with a church setting and that was to start home groups or small groups in public rented facilities.
The pastor was quite excited about that. He thought that was a fabulous idea. He's willing to work with us on that. He wants us to come to a church business meeting and let everyone know what our ministry is and that our absense from church is not because we are gone awal or something like that, but that we are spreading the Gospel message in a way that might actually work up here.
I did let him know that we have some other motives too, we truly wish to have a place to worship with our family that is in more accordance with our convictions on music and a few other things. He had no problem with that and thought that was a good solution for us as well.
He is excited to have Dr. Tim Riesenburger come up and he thinks he should be put on a list of people that we should bring up more then once.
I also mentioned that we would love to bring a group of young people who were missionaries in training and were on fire and excited, and how would he feel about that? He loved the possibilities and thought that would be awesome. He said that would be something we couldn't refuse.
We ended with prayer and everything went very smoothly and easy.
He asked me again to be the coordinator for health evangelism for the church. He said, when and if you have time between your other ministry ideas. The church has money to help you with whatever you endeavor in that area.

It was good and we are praising God for the way he worked this evening.

Thanks for your prayers.
Julie           
 
Now,  I felt pretty relieved after the meeting.  I was ready to jump in both feet but as yet,  we still did not have the means to even begin.
Tonight I recieved a letter in the mail from a friend named Joanna.  I was moved to tears when  I opened it and discovered a check for $100.  She had asked God what she could do for him and she said, "His answer was oddly clear, ""Do what lies nearest you.""  I guess she had just read my post last week about feeling called to work for God and having a miriad of ideas but confused because I hadn't the means to accomplish them.  So,  She felt that this was where God could use her best at the moment.
As I pulled the check from the envelope, Art stood beside me and we both simultaniously thought, "1000 Glow tracts!"  We'll order them up tomorrow.  Praise God we will have the message to spread through this town like the leaves of Autumn. 

I guess it is time to jump in with both feet now and get to work!  Hurray!  Praise God!

In my devotion today, it talked about the fact that music is made up of notes and rests.  The notes are sounded by the instrument and the rests are silent.  However, the conductor never stops conducting.  He doesn't miss a single beat whether there is sound or not.  And so it is with our lives.  We are the instruments doing his bidding.  He writes the notes,  he writes the rests, and he conducts the orchestra according to the music he has written. 
Sometimes we balk when he directs a pause, a rest.  We love to sound, to be active at all times.   We feel the song is over when we're not singing or making sound, but it is not.  He has a rythem.  He is directing every beat and it is in synct with his heart, not ours.
When I was discouraged last week,  I was balking at the pause in my part of his greater plan.  Oh, it's hard!  I'm a hard learner.  Music was never my fortee' but I do know I must follow the conductor.

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