Message from Anita June 23, 2008
John 15:12
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Last night, my spirit within felt an urge to grab my little pocket testament and go for a walk through the fields behind our house. I needed some time alone with God to process a book that I had just finished reading, “I Would Die For You: One student’s story of passion, service and faith.” The story of B.J. Higgins, a missionary who died right before his 16th birthday is very compelling and challenging. Everywhere B.J. went he shared the gospel including those he ministered to on a Peru Mission trip where he contracted a fatal respiratory disease. The reader is left with the challenge, “Who will take his place?” Who is willing to lay down their life for Christ? Who is willing to die daily to the flesh and its selfish ways, and be more concerned about lost souls then their own personal pleasures?
As I walked through the peaceful corn field I kept asking God, “Do I have it in me, to die completely to self?” You see, just nights earlier, I had failed miserably at dying to self. The Lord showed me this through a pitcher of ice tea! For those who don’t know this, I am a southern at heart when it comes to ice-tea. I will only drink fresh brewed ice tea. I had made a fresh pitcher Friday afternoon and was hoping it would last a little longer than the last batch I had just made. A group of young adults had converged on my house for the weekend and had devoured one pitcher rather quickly.
Friday night a 16 year old young man came to our house to swim. My son had told me he is gay and each time he has come to our home I have made time to get to know him. My son was away for the evening so I decided to stop working and take time to talk with him. As we sat on the deck talking, he asked me if I had anything to drink. (This is where the selfishness came out!) I did not want to share my ice tea with anyone at that moment. So I told him that I had water and milk to drink. He said water would be fine. So I poured a glass of cold water with ice for him. You know the saying, “your sins will find you out?” Well, it is so true! A few minutes later, another young man who happened to be playing volleyball on our volleyball court came into the house to help himself to a drink. He comes walking out on the deck where we are sitting with a tall glass of ice-tea!!! Of course my young friend could clearly see that the other guy had ice tea and proceeded to ask, “hey, where did you get that ice tea?” I won’t take the time to tell you how I wormed my way out of that one.
The gravity of my selfish heart did not hit me until Sunday morning, as I was teaching JoyShop at my church. I had given everyone the assignment to read John 15:1-17. As I was reflecting on that passage of scripture for the umpteenth time, the Holy Spirit convicted my heart. I heard this question from Him, “Anita, who committed the greater sin Friday night, your friend who does not really know me and is living a gay lifestyle, or you, who claims to be my follower but was unwilling to share your ice tea? How can you say that you are willing to die for me, when you can’t even give up a glass of ice tea in my name?” Tears flooded my eyes, as I heard this question repeated over and over. It was a sobering reminder that my heart is wretched and it was for this very reason that Christ had to come to this earth and die for my sins. I immediately confessed my sin and asked God for forgiveness, thanking him for pointing out the “beam” in my eye.
With God pointing out my selfishness and lack of love for others that morning, and reading about the selflessness of B.J. in the book I read that afternoon, I knew I had to get alone with God in that corn field and talk it over with Him. I found a place to sit, pulled out my pocket testament and began to read John 19:17-18.
“Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.”
It was the phrase, “Jesus in the middle,” that I could not shake. Yes, everyday Jesus is in the middle of so many decisions. We have two choices, just like the two criminals that were hanging on crosses beside Jesus. They each had a choice in how they were going to respond to the “King of the Jews”. The one blasphemed God and the other plead for mercy.
In the quietness of the evening, looking up to the sky, Jesus stood in the middle of my thoughts. I asked Him to have mercy on me and to renew my heart’s commitment to him. Acknowledging that I am incapable of truly showing the gratitude that He deserves for dying on the cross for my sins, I once again surrendered my heart to him and asked him to make me willing to die for Him.
As you go through the day, I invite you to take this phrase, “Jesus in the middle,” and apply it to the circumstances you encounter today. Put Him in the middle of every decision and may our hearts have the same plea for mercy as that of the one criminal, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Ministry Highlights
Praise God for the open door He gave JoyShop Ministries at Lancaster County Youth Intervention! I had the opportunity to minister to about 14 teen girls. I was permitted to give every girl a Pocket Testament (with the staples taken out), a journal and a highlighter. The Chaplin felt my time there was very profitable and gave me an open invitation to come again. Pray that God will send others to water the seed that was planted in these young women.
Praise God that the Pocket Testament League is able to print more of JoyShop Ministries pocket testaments, but it will take about two months before they are available again to their membership.
I continued to be blessed with the opportunity to serve my own church each Sunday in June. Recently I received this email from a man attending the JoyShop:
"Just wanted to drop you a note.. I have started the 21 day challenge.. WOW...Just looking back over these past years.. How I have missed Gods blessings...in my life of serving him...I love your study guide I will be using it for other chapters I read...It was last week every morning at my desk for devotional time... I asked God to show me with his presence of his beautiful birds, I asked for a different color bird each day and God did just that.. that is just WOW...
Thank you for opening my eyes to what I have been missing....
The ministry also received this email from a woman who had attended a JoyShop Retreat back in the spring. She wrote, “My life has been transformed because of the message you shared through the power of God’s Holy Spirit.”
From a Messiah College student through Facebook I received this message:
"hi anita! I asked you to be my friend on facebook a while ago around the time that you spoke at my school…I heard you speak both at chapel and at a workshop that evening. I wanted to let you know that I just bought your book, "The File" off of your joyshop website. I am anxious to read it this summer. Although I already heard your story at my school, I am excited to read your words. Thank you for everything that you do...God is definitely using you in more ways than you probably know. Good luck in everything you do!"
From a student at Lititz Christian:
"hello again. so i just finished reading your book! it was really good! haha i could hardly put it down :] thanks so much for giving it to me, i will pass it on to my friends and hopefully then we can donate it to the LCS library. thanks again!"
From a man I met in Dallas recently who is a business administrator of a large church in Californina:
“That night I opened your book and began reading the Introduction-and Icouldn't put it down. I read it clear through that night. Since I returned, my wife has read your book. Next it goes to a new believer in our 'not-so-small-group'…Next it goes to our Youth Pastor…she is anxious to get her turn. We have a thriving youth ministry of about 176 youth. With that many youth (over half new believers coming from outside families in the congregation) you can imagine, we deal with every kind of life situation. We will have some interesting conversations of how to best utilize this resource.Where it goes from there, only God knows.”
Only God knows is right!!!! I say this all the time to our operational team and board. We really do not yet know the full magnitude of where the Lord is going to take JoyShop Ministries but we are so excited and confident in the One who does know!
Ministry prayer requests
As I wrap up my last Sunday at Manor Church, pray that many will make a heart commitment to prioritize their relationship with Jesus. Unless the Church makes their relationship with God their first priority, they will never fulfill their true destiny as a Christ follower.
Sunday night I will be speaking to youth at the Byerland Mennonite Church. They have invited youth from other area churches. Please pray that many teenagers from the community will be looking for something to do that night and that the Holy Spirit will move in an unusual way to stir hearts into action.
While you are at it, you can pray that I have strength to speak three times in one dayJ!
Tuesday night, July 1, I will be speaking to a large group of young adults at an event called “Extreme Worship” in Atglen. Pray for an anointing of the Holy Spirit over my mouth and what comes out. Pray for changed lives. Pray for a revolution to begin in the heart of every person that attends.
Please continue to pray that the Lord will lead the team as we make decisions about the direction of the ministry and how to increase the awareness of JoyShop Ministries to colleges and high school settings.
In closing we continue to thank the Lord for His hand on this ministry and the way He provides financially as needs arise. Recently the board had approved a budgeted amount that we could spend on professionally taping JoyShop so that we could have video footage to use on our website as well as a promotional DVD. Amazingly we had already received a generous check from a supporter of the ministry earmarked for this project but we needed a lot more! God had been nudging me for months to approach a couple about partnering financially with us on this project without having to pull from our checking account. Two days after the board meeting, I had lunch with this godly couple and shared my heart with them. Within a couple of days they handed me an envelope with a personal note that they were pledging $5000.00 towards the project and we would have it by August 1. Tears came to my eyes as I realized their check plus the other one was enough to cover the budgeted amount for the project! Does not God’s goodness just blow you away!
As you each partner with JoyShop Ministries in your own unique way, know that you bring to this ministry what is needed to impact lives for eternity! I thank God for your support and for enabling us to fulfill the call that God has placed on each of us!
Learning to die daily,
Anita
Monday, June 23, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
JOY ALERT! June 7, 2008
Joy Alert!! June 6, 2008
John 15:4-5
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me….If a man (any believer) remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
This past week the Lord blessed me with the opportunity to get away for a couple of days to have concentrated time of “remaining” in Him so that I can be more fruitful for him. Through the generosity of a couple who supports the ministry, I was given a quiet and peaceful place along the water to be still and listen to the Father’s heart.
As mentioned in previous ministry updates I have been slowly working through the gospel of John and it just so happened that today’s reading assignment was John 15:1-6. As many of you know, John 15 is the passage of scripture that I use in the JoyShop for participates to practice what they have learned in the workshop. So with much joy this morning, I picked up my little pocket testament, read the assigned verses, and then began to work my way through the detailed commentary’s remarks on this brief passage. The Holy Spirit taught me so much but I will try to summarize a key point or two.
The Lord tells his disciples to remain in Him repeatedly in John 15. The word, remain, in the Greek means “to abide, continue, to dwell.” In other words Jesus tells us to maintain our fellowship with God with vigilance! Why? Because, He is the vine, we are the branches, and the sole purpose of the vine is to produce fruit for our Father, the gardener. This morning the Holy Spirit reminded me in a forceful way that my time on earth is not about me and my desires but about the Lord Jesus, producing fruit through my life for the Father. John 15: 8 confirms this, when Jesus spoke to the disciples, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciple.”
It is my responsibility to abide in personal communion with God it is His responsibility to produce the fruit!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God the Father has granted us life, physically and spiritually. It is His desire that we produce much fruit while we have breath for His glory. There is no other purpose. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to waste my life chasing after the things of this world. I want a life that bears fruit for the Father! And this can only be accomplished through abiding in him. In the words of Arthur Pink, “To abide in Him, then, is to have sustained conscious communion with Him. To abide in Christ signifies the constant occupation of the heart with Him—a daily active faith in Him.”
Have you thought much of Him today? Are you occupied with an intense focus of dependency on Him as you go about your day? Friend, we can do nothing apart from Him. Nothing means NOTHING! Big or small, whatever we are doing today, we need to do in dependency on Him. And if we truly desire Jesus to own us so that he can produce fruit through us, then we have the responsibility to have constant communion with him on a daily basis. Then we can rest. We don’t have to produce fruit. God the Father does it for us through Jesus. May we bow our hearts before God right now, confessing our lack of being occupied with Him and our lack of bearing much fruit. May we each take personal responsibility to guard our time alone with Him. Our number one priority has to be daily time in the Word so that we may have fellowship with the Father and that He may produce the fruit he desires in our life. Apart from intimacy with the Father there will be no fruit. PERIOD!
Joy Alerts:
Praise God for the fruit that came from our time at a church in New Tripoli, Pa. This JoyShop was opened up to the community and close to 50 women were in attendance plus a few men! A few comments we received:
“Thank you so much for coming today. It really made me consider about seeking God first every day.”
“Thank you for speaking clearly and lovingly of God so that I could understand the path of putting God first in my life. The first step in my journey begins TODAY!”
“I needed this so much. I appreciate the love and acceptance that I received.”
From a teen: “Thank you for coming and telling your story and stuff.”
Frequently we get comments like the following:
“I wish I would have brought some friends with me. I hope there will be a next time.”
One of the hardest things for me to endure personally is the fact that I know that in the audience there are many people sitting there thinking the very same thing. This is why I continually ask you to pray as a team that everywhere Joyshop Ministries goes, that the Holy Spirit will draw those He wants there and that some day He will cause thousands to flock to a JoyShop so that there can be an awakening of the spiritually dead, and new fruit producing lives for the glory of God.
Praise God for the opportunity God has given me to take JoyShop to my own congregation during the month of June. I am teaching it during both Sunday school hours. The first Sunday there were over 200+ in attendance ages 14-80! One man came up to me afterwards who had never attended a JoyShop before. He told me that he had tickets for Hershey Park the next Sunday, but he didn’t want to miss the next session so he planned to give up some of his time at this amusement park to learn more about how to seek God. PRAISE THE LORD!
I also received an email from a man in our congregation telling me how awesome the first session had been and how he was looking forward to the next four Sundays. He said,
“wow what an adventure looking up each verse on seeking God... and then I read the sub notes about each verse... Thank you so much for the Joyshop.
Everyday I try to spend at least a 1/2 hr in God’s word doing your workshop.”
Another blessing I received this week came through the mail by a mother from my church, “Just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know that my son really enjoyed listening to you speak on Sunday. He was proud to show me his JoyShop notebook and eager to show me he was filling in the blanks. This all coming from a child who didn’t think he wanted to go to JoyShop. I had been encouraging him to attend during the month of June. I was so encouraged by his excitement and I just wanted to pass it on to you.”
Please pray that God will use Joyshop Ministries to impact many lives at my church and that we will become a fruit bearing people to reach our community.
Remember how the Pocket Testament League partnered with us in producing a Joyshop Ministries pocket testament? They printed 20,000 and sent us 4,000 to start with. On April 7 of this year, they sent out an email to all of their members introducing our pocket testament. Six weeks later, all 16,000 pocket testaments are gone!!!! Praise God!! Members liked the look of our pocket testament and the title on the front, “Letter from God.” Think of all the people that will be receiving our pocket testament with the 21 Day Challenge on the inside cover. Pray that everyone who receives these will take the challenge and grow in their knowledge of God. Here is a story that was recently published on their website from a woman who had attended a JoyShop:
"I received my testament at a ladies retreat. it was a very special gift to me. It showed me that God does love me no matter what i have been through. I recently committed myself to Jesus and became a member of my church and am considering baptism. I would like to share my experiences with others hoping that they too can come to know that our savior loves them as well."
How exciting, how thrilling that the Lord allowed us to hand this young lady her own pocket testament and to now have the joy of seeing the fruit! Just think of the lives this woman will impact!
Our June/July Newsletter just went out and I instantly received this wonderful message through face book:
"I enjoyed the newsletter I just read. I know it had a good word in it for me and I enjoyed reading your views on how to approach "an encounter with Jesus". That was good and I needed to read that. I forwarded the message to my dad - the part about being discouraged. I think he will really take a lot from that just given life circumstances right now. Thanks for the time you take to make that letter!!"
Comments like this make all the time I put into writing the newsletter worth it! If you are not receiving the bi-monthly newsletter then please notify Deb Risser at info@joyshop.org.
I am sorry for those who missed the JoyShop Ministries Cookout last Sunday night at our home. My husband, Paul, was the chef, and we had lots of food and wonderful fellowship. There were 50+ in attendance and it was a blessing for all of us to see who all is involved in supporting the ministry through prayers, time volunteered, and finances. I enjoyed the blessing of being able to share personally some of the highlights of this year as well as projecting what we see in the future.
Praise the Lord for the finances that continue to come in. As we make plans to do some professional taping for promotional purposes, etc, please pray that the necessary funds will come in to complete the project in a timely way.
Prayer for the following upcoming events:
June 11: JoyShop Ministries Board meeting
June 12: Lancaster County Youth Intervention
June 19: Cocalico Place (Retirement facility)
June 29: Byerland Mennonite Youth
June 12 is open to anyone who feels led to partner with us in corporate prayer for the ministry from 7:00-8:00 p.m. at my home.
I praise God for each of you who have allowed me the opportunity to share my heart with you. Your partnership with JoyShop Ministries is significant to me, the advisory board, and the volunteers who run the daily operations of JoyShop Ministries. May you press on to take hold of Jesus and all His fruit He wants to produce through you! Amen!
Seeking God First---Anita
John 15:4-5
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me….If a man (any believer) remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
This past week the Lord blessed me with the opportunity to get away for a couple of days to have concentrated time of “remaining” in Him so that I can be more fruitful for him. Through the generosity of a couple who supports the ministry, I was given a quiet and peaceful place along the water to be still and listen to the Father’s heart.
As mentioned in previous ministry updates I have been slowly working through the gospel of John and it just so happened that today’s reading assignment was John 15:1-6. As many of you know, John 15 is the passage of scripture that I use in the JoyShop for participates to practice what they have learned in the workshop. So with much joy this morning, I picked up my little pocket testament, read the assigned verses, and then began to work my way through the detailed commentary’s remarks on this brief passage. The Holy Spirit taught me so much but I will try to summarize a key point or two.
The Lord tells his disciples to remain in Him repeatedly in John 15. The word, remain, in the Greek means “to abide, continue, to dwell.” In other words Jesus tells us to maintain our fellowship with God with vigilance! Why? Because, He is the vine, we are the branches, and the sole purpose of the vine is to produce fruit for our Father, the gardener. This morning the Holy Spirit reminded me in a forceful way that my time on earth is not about me and my desires but about the Lord Jesus, producing fruit through my life for the Father. John 15: 8 confirms this, when Jesus spoke to the disciples, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciple.”
It is my responsibility to abide in personal communion with God it is His responsibility to produce the fruit!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God the Father has granted us life, physically and spiritually. It is His desire that we produce much fruit while we have breath for His glory. There is no other purpose. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to waste my life chasing after the things of this world. I want a life that bears fruit for the Father! And this can only be accomplished through abiding in him. In the words of Arthur Pink, “To abide in Him, then, is to have sustained conscious communion with Him. To abide in Christ signifies the constant occupation of the heart with Him—a daily active faith in Him.”
Have you thought much of Him today? Are you occupied with an intense focus of dependency on Him as you go about your day? Friend, we can do nothing apart from Him. Nothing means NOTHING! Big or small, whatever we are doing today, we need to do in dependency on Him. And if we truly desire Jesus to own us so that he can produce fruit through us, then we have the responsibility to have constant communion with him on a daily basis. Then we can rest. We don’t have to produce fruit. God the Father does it for us through Jesus. May we bow our hearts before God right now, confessing our lack of being occupied with Him and our lack of bearing much fruit. May we each take personal responsibility to guard our time alone with Him. Our number one priority has to be daily time in the Word so that we may have fellowship with the Father and that He may produce the fruit he desires in our life. Apart from intimacy with the Father there will be no fruit. PERIOD!
Joy Alerts:
Praise God for the fruit that came from our time at a church in New Tripoli, Pa. This JoyShop was opened up to the community and close to 50 women were in attendance plus a few men! A few comments we received:
“Thank you so much for coming today. It really made me consider about seeking God first every day.”
“Thank you for speaking clearly and lovingly of God so that I could understand the path of putting God first in my life. The first step in my journey begins TODAY!”
“I needed this so much. I appreciate the love and acceptance that I received.”
From a teen: “Thank you for coming and telling your story and stuff.”
Frequently we get comments like the following:
“I wish I would have brought some friends with me. I hope there will be a next time.”
One of the hardest things for me to endure personally is the fact that I know that in the audience there are many people sitting there thinking the very same thing. This is why I continually ask you to pray as a team that everywhere Joyshop Ministries goes, that the Holy Spirit will draw those He wants there and that some day He will cause thousands to flock to a JoyShop so that there can be an awakening of the spiritually dead, and new fruit producing lives for the glory of God.
Praise God for the opportunity God has given me to take JoyShop to my own congregation during the month of June. I am teaching it during both Sunday school hours. The first Sunday there were over 200+ in attendance ages 14-80! One man came up to me afterwards who had never attended a JoyShop before. He told me that he had tickets for Hershey Park the next Sunday, but he didn’t want to miss the next session so he planned to give up some of his time at this amusement park to learn more about how to seek God. PRAISE THE LORD!
I also received an email from a man in our congregation telling me how awesome the first session had been and how he was looking forward to the next four Sundays. He said,
“wow what an adventure looking up each verse on seeking God... and then I read the sub notes about each verse... Thank you so much for the Joyshop.
Everyday I try to spend at least a 1/2 hr in God’s word doing your workshop.”
Another blessing I received this week came through the mail by a mother from my church, “Just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know that my son really enjoyed listening to you speak on Sunday. He was proud to show me his JoyShop notebook and eager to show me he was filling in the blanks. This all coming from a child who didn’t think he wanted to go to JoyShop. I had been encouraging him to attend during the month of June. I was so encouraged by his excitement and I just wanted to pass it on to you.”
Please pray that God will use Joyshop Ministries to impact many lives at my church and that we will become a fruit bearing people to reach our community.
Remember how the Pocket Testament League partnered with us in producing a Joyshop Ministries pocket testament? They printed 20,000 and sent us 4,000 to start with. On April 7 of this year, they sent out an email to all of their members introducing our pocket testament. Six weeks later, all 16,000 pocket testaments are gone!!!! Praise God!! Members liked the look of our pocket testament and the title on the front, “Letter from God.” Think of all the people that will be receiving our pocket testament with the 21 Day Challenge on the inside cover. Pray that everyone who receives these will take the challenge and grow in their knowledge of God. Here is a story that was recently published on their website from a woman who had attended a JoyShop:
"I received my testament at a ladies retreat. it was a very special gift to me. It showed me that God does love me no matter what i have been through. I recently committed myself to Jesus and became a member of my church and am considering baptism. I would like to share my experiences with others hoping that they too can come to know that our savior loves them as well."
How exciting, how thrilling that the Lord allowed us to hand this young lady her own pocket testament and to now have the joy of seeing the fruit! Just think of the lives this woman will impact!
Our June/July Newsletter just went out and I instantly received this wonderful message through face book:
"I enjoyed the newsletter I just read. I know it had a good word in it for me and I enjoyed reading your views on how to approach "an encounter with Jesus". That was good and I needed to read that. I forwarded the message to my dad - the part about being discouraged. I think he will really take a lot from that just given life circumstances right now. Thanks for the time you take to make that letter!!"
Comments like this make all the time I put into writing the newsletter worth it! If you are not receiving the bi-monthly newsletter then please notify Deb Risser at info@joyshop.org.
I am sorry for those who missed the JoyShop Ministries Cookout last Sunday night at our home. My husband, Paul, was the chef, and we had lots of food and wonderful fellowship. There were 50+ in attendance and it was a blessing for all of us to see who all is involved in supporting the ministry through prayers, time volunteered, and finances. I enjoyed the blessing of being able to share personally some of the highlights of this year as well as projecting what we see in the future.
Praise the Lord for the finances that continue to come in. As we make plans to do some professional taping for promotional purposes, etc, please pray that the necessary funds will come in to complete the project in a timely way.
Prayer for the following upcoming events:
June 11: JoyShop Ministries Board meeting
June 12: Lancaster County Youth Intervention
June 19: Cocalico Place (Retirement facility)
June 29: Byerland Mennonite Youth
June 12 is open to anyone who feels led to partner with us in corporate prayer for the ministry from 7:00-8:00 p.m. at my home.
I praise God for each of you who have allowed me the opportunity to share my heart with you. Your partnership with JoyShop Ministries is significant to me, the advisory board, and the volunteers who run the daily operations of JoyShop Ministries. May you press on to take hold of Jesus and all His fruit He wants to produce through you! Amen!
Seeking God First---Anita
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