Wendy Elarton

Soul Hole

Wendy Elarton — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:00:54 +0000

We were created to be dependent, as an infant we had no way to provide for ourselves, so our wonderful parents allowed us to be dependent on them. As we grew we realized how we could be more and more independent. Still, in us is a need to rely on someone. How many times do you really want to make all the “hard” decisions and lead the way in things? Our Creator God intended us to have a hollow gap here to fill with Him. We can’t make everything work out, We can’t bring perfection in every area of our lives and the world. It brings us to the realization the there is a hollow place in our souls. In our own search efforts and abilities we try relationships, money, success and maybe even over doing it on food, drinks, and altering drugs. This only makes us hate ourselves and push us into a greater need to find something that works. Our mind tries to think hard and we make our bodies work harder. The truth is, the answer has been the same all throughout history, We need our Soul Hole Creator to move into this “gap” in our lives. We can’t run from our souls. It is who we are in the quite alone time and how we think and make choices in our lives. As human beings we are involved in so much physical actions(not saying this is all wrong), we forget to pay attention to the involvement we need with our void in the soul. Striving to fix this with tangible things are short-lived and even push us into deeper dispar . Can I encourage you today stop trying to put dirt or fluff into the hole of your soul. Call out to your Creator of you soul, allow yourself to depend upon his way to fill your gap. Allow the sin of striving to do it yourself be over so Your Heavenly Father can make you whole! This is the greatest need we have and we independently think we can fill it ourselves. Pay attention and realize only God has the remedy for your gap. Allow Him to draw near and wipe out all your efforts that have failed! I can say without doubt, our Soul Creator know whats best for you. Can you depend on Him instead of trying on your own? Remember our souls will live for eternity, they need our attention!

A message to Baruch(to you?)

Wendy Elarton — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 14:34:38 +0000

I wanted to post yesterday, but time got away from me. As I sat down this morning to take in God’s words, I was reminded again of what I read yesterday. Jeremiah had a hard “calling from God”. In these chapters of Jeremiah, it seemed like not many would listen to this “mouth piece from God”. How discouraging is that? Of course there are some famous verses in this book like Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” There are the Recabites in chpt.35 who were an obedient group and I am sure that was encouraging to Jeremiah. Right after they are talked about comes the challenge for Baruch, he wrote everything down for Jeremiah. God directed them to write down everything concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations for many years. I can imagine that took many hours (no laptops). Do you know this story? When they were finished He had to take (big huge scroll) to the Lord’s temple and read it to everyone there. Well it ended up in the kings hands and he had it burned. He sent men after Jeremiah and Baruch to be put in prison. As they were hiding from the king, Baruch was writing all the words from Jeremiah down again( v. 32 of chpt.36). I am sure there is a lot going thru Baruch’s mind at this time. He was a servant and willing do to what he was told but I am sure redoing everything was time-consuming and disappointing. His buddy Jeremiah is taken later and thrown into a cistern (yuck). Many more things happen thru the chapters and no mention of Baruch until a whole chapter(45). Jeremiah looks at him and says God wants to say something to you. God heard what Baruch had said ,vs.3″Woe to me! the Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest”. Baruch was very discouraged. Can you imagine all of your “work” shown no respect and burned up? I am sure he lived in fear and torment because of who he was and the stand he took along side Jeremiah.

Our Awesome Lord that we serve, says to this discouraged, worn out man, vs. 4&5 “I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted throughout the land.Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not………….but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.” That must have been just what he needed to hear from the Lord. I was thinking about this promise the Lord made to him, He has given us this promise also thru His Son Jesus. We are free from the enemies in our lives and we have eternal freedom. Some of you today may be feeling you have no message from the Lord and you can’t feel Him today. He did more for us, He put into action His words by sending Jesus. Don’t seek great things for yourself, if you have received Christ, you have received the greatest thing!!! God sees us and our human focus at times can get down and fear and disappointment with failure feelings can flood in. You are an individual in God’s eyes and He made his promise clear. Hear it today and be encouraged!!!!!!

Thirsty?

Wendy Elarton — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:55 +0000

John 7:37, 38

“Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink, Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

This morning I read these verses and my thoughts went back to our time at these falls. Not the biggest ones but still powerful and beautiful. It never runs out of water because there is a source. We have a great source to draw from too. If we all come to Jesus like He asks and believe and drink, we have a promise of “streams of living water will flow” from us. What is it that will flow out of us? It is defiantly not things from our flesh or the world! It will be the substance of what Christ is. Can Humility, Joy, peace, wisdom, forgiveness, love, compassion, holiness, generosity and many more great things of Christ flow out of us? Have you been getting your thirst filled by Christ or is the Worlds false drinks been what you have been filling up on? Can you imagine if we the Body of Christ really obeyed and all came to Him and drank fully? I can see gatherings of Christ’s Body more powerful because we are joining together to go over the edge of just the norm. All who are walking up to observe would see how real Christ really is thru our daily living and how powerful Christ’s Church really is!! So are you thirsty today? Get yourself to Christ and drink of Him!! I want to see your streams of living water flowing out of youJ. We need each other drawing closer to Jesus!!! Don’t settle for false quenching! Come on Brothers and Sisters get thirsty!!!

Kicking up the JOY!!!!

Wendy Elarton — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:27:59 +0000

It is Monday! Sometimes that means the “same old” stuff has to happen. Landry, dishes, groceries and many cleaning up stuff things. I have determined in my mind and heart today that I am kicking up the Joy while I am about the ordinary stuff. God has blessed us so many tools to use to revive our joy. Last night I down loaded a few new songs, so fun! Have you shouted out while you are alone. I did today alot!!! Fun, Fun, Fun,!!! Maybe the Reeds(our neighbors) heard it but that is okay, they know I am a bit edgy. I hope my other side neighbors ask if they hear it because I love to share what God is doing in our lives ! So I challenge you today, kick the devil with kicking up your joy in the Lord. Remember Joy gives us strength to go forward. Do you think the enemy wants us to be happy and full of peace? Show him up today and determine in your mind and heart to kick it up!!! Yeah!!!

Appluad our God!!!

Wendy Elarton — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 11:17:05 +0000

“The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.” Psalm 50:1

Reading this reminded me of the beautiful sunrises and sunsets lately! It is refreshing to the eyes and brings me to think of the awesomeness of our Heavenly Father!! Do you ever think about when Jesus returns for us how the sky will look ? Are you still looking for that day? There is a day coming when God will summon us to be with Him! Are you ready? There is still many who have not realized how blessed and happy they can be and have a hope for this future! Keep going forward and when you see these beautiful sun displays Remember to Appluad our Awesome Creator!!!

I Woke up this morning with…….

Wendy Elarton — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:33:20 +0000

The word “Adversary” kept rolling around in my head early this morning, like 1am, 3am, 4am and then finally @around 5:50am , I decided I needed to get up and look up this verse. 1 Peter 5:8″Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9But resist him, firm in your faith…..”(NASB). I don’t know why but I feel I am to be obedient today and blog this. I googled the word really quick this morning because there is much to do today. Here is the site I went to and I like the three points they made http://bible.cc/1_peter/5-8.htm from this site - As a roaring lion – Satan tempts under three forms:

1. The subtle serpent; to beguile our senses, pervert our judgment, and enchant our imagination.

2. As an angel of light; to deceive us with false views of spiritual things, refinements in religion, and presumption on the providence and grace of God.

3. As a roaring lion; to bear us down, and destroy us by violent opposition, persecution, and death. Thus he was acting towards the followers of God at Pontus, etc., who were now suffering a grievous persecution.

As I began to ponder this verse and think about what I was to say I feel my challenge for all of us today is to recognize because of the fall of Adam & Eve, our human nature, Satan knows and magnifies it as our adversary. The verse that comes to my mind a lot is ” ….. because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1John4:4 The adversary may prowl around trying to hurt and mix our minds up but we have Overcome with Christ!!!! If you have not been drawing closer to the One in you who is Greater, You better do it today! Don’t let your adversary make you think he has you defeated. No more devouring can take place. Our God has a better plan and the truth for you today. Go to Him!! I am going now to pray and seek Him who is greater in me right now! May you be a Overcomer today!! The enemy has no power over you!

Deflecting Insults

Wendy Elarton — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:48:25 +0000

Mark 15 this morning brought on some thoughts to blog about. My amazement of my Savior brings to me to a quite awe! My Lord was not only abused physically but mentally too. The notice sign above Him on the cross had no real reason for the punishment he received. The King of the Jews was the truth and yet their great ignorance brought them to the point of ridiculous insults. V.29 says people passing by hurled insults @ Him, v.31 Chief priests and teacher of the law mocked Him and then in v.32 even the convicted on the other crosses heaped insults. I looked up insult in the dictionary and one sentence jumped out at me. ” Insult implies such insolence of speech or manner as deeply humiliates or wounds one’s feelings and arouses to anger.” Jesus was entitled to respect, He had done so many wonderful things and spoken the truth and loved so selflessly, yet here people humiliated with contemptuous words. They were so rude even after they had physically put Him on the cross, they didn’t stop with their demeaning physical acts but took it to a greater level of torture. I do believe the evil one had great influence on them but to have witnessed the awesomeness of our Savior and turn so deathly against Him. It brings me to the realization that our Lord’s love and understanding of humanity is so great our minds only know the half of it. I am reminded of how Paul wrote in Ephesians 6 about the armour and how we need the helmet of “Salvation”. We need what Christ did for us because of sin separating manner and our wish-washy minds, We can’t take what Christ took. We could never have hung and received what He did. My awareness today of my great need brings me back to my knees again. “Father , I want to wear my helmet of “Salvation” with more humility. May I never forget what you have done for me. Thank-you for putting up with humanity and our ignorance of who you are.” As you walk through this day someone or the evil one may come against you with some kind of mental hurt, Christ took the worst and deflected it for us! He knew we would have mental combat and need salvation in more ways than one. Today, remember your helmet!

15 years ago

Wendy Elarton — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:16:49 +0000

As I sit here today I am reflecting on 1996. It was a huge step of faith that year. I was 28 years old, our daughter Abby was 19 months. I had already said “no way” once to church planting. I loved being a youth pastor’s wife, so much fun! That idea was so foreign to me. In 1995 God started working on my heart and I began to say “have your way, Lord”. Following & being obedient is very important. It brings you to a deeper relationship with the Lord. I have not been any better than anyone else just chose to listen to the calling in my heart. In fact it makes you a mess and there is really no explaining the future. Just great peace moves in and you are always looking to see what God will do next because you have no control of what is next around the corner. I remember one day in particular in our Livonia house I just sat staring out the window trying to imagine what God would do when we moved to Temperance. We knew no one other than a handful of people meeting with us on Tuesday nights when we would drive down to have a Bible Study. I was so comfortable in our newly remolded Livonia house. I loved our youth, youth leaders and in fact the whole church. They had loved us so sweetly and blessed us so much! We had a very nice Christian School with the church and our daughter would have fit in very nicely.

Faith in my Savior was very easy until it was to bring it to a strange place, alone with just my small family. I have to say though, I woke up every morning looking for what God was going to do and show us. The money end seemed to come just at the right time and just enough to make it that day or week. Money can’t buy the awesome, beautiful place of trusting God deeper and being desperate to see Him move. We may not be way ahead in the financial part of our life right now, but I would not return to 1996 and change our path. I know God can be trusted! He is faithful. When He leads us to do things that are out of our comfort zone, we are secure and blessed! We can’t say to our Heavenly Father, “Have your way in my life” and not allow Him to speak and say “follow me this way”. I often have to check my heart and remember what I have prayed or sang, and mean it! My mind and heart have to be loyal to my Lord. I have given Him my whole life not just part. Self wants to crawl off the altar so many times because it feels uncomfortable. When I stay where God wants me, He always meets me way beyond what I expect. I guess I understand a little about this from being a parent, when your children obey and submit, you desire to bless them and rejoice in them. Our Heavenly Father has all the knowledge and sees our future better then we can even imagine. I see now He allows me to draw close to Him, that is a blessing and then He brings in more. If you sit and reflect on God’s blessings in your life, you will see they are great! We choice daily to be obedient not just in a major path change but every time we say no to our flesh and listen to what God wants. It is for our own good. There is no regret and I know our Heavenly Father is rejoicing over us. The enemy is defeated and our testimony to others is louder for Christ!!

I pray today as you are seeking God’s Will for your life that as you walk in obedience, you are encouraged. Christ is faithful and your small bit of faith, He will bless! Look up and walk in His plan! I know He is rejoicing in you!! So love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and your entire mind and might. Show Him this by obedience and trust!!!

Leviticus + offerings = blood

Wendy Elarton — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:18:10 +0000

This week I have begun reading Leviticus. Chapters 1-16 are outlined as “The way of Access to God; Atonement.” It wasn’t like experiencing the lines at Cedar Point with anticipation for a great experience. The lines had to be long and all senses were at work. I am sure from a far off you could smell the animals being offered and hear the bellowing of the animals. My mind tries to place myself in that group of Israelites. Have you ever been to a meat market ? I remember as a little girl going into one with my grandma in Adrian and when you walked in the smell met you. I would try to cover my nose and I really couldn’t look at the raw meat, the man who would help us usually had a blood stained apron on. I was so relieved when it was time to go. I can almost smell it now. Wow, it was bad!! Could you imagine being in the nice hot desert sun and being last in the line? In my Study Bible here the noun “offering” (Hebrew corban) is related to the verb that means “to draw near”. They needed to do this to approach God and to enjoy His fellowship and blessing. Sin and darkness had to be dealt with, if anyone wanted to be close to God. “The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting”(Lev.1:1). From the beginning of creation our God continued to make ways to bring humanity to Himself. It was complicated because there was no other way to get around the fact that this is serious. God created the human heart with a place for Him. Just because this was a long time ago doesn’t mean that humans have become different in their souls. The difference is our great freedom from guidelines and ceremonies. Those poor Israelites had so many things they had to do to draw near to God. The blood had to be exposed from animals. This was not an easy task, the process was take the best, kill and drain the blood and place in a special place, then burn up. Blood makes me uncomfortable could you imagine with all those people that had “fallen short”. What a visual bloody mess! The lines of waiting and watching as daily blood had to be spilled out and collected to be offered to the Most HOLY GOD!!!! They had to really think about what they had done and determine in their minds, ” I will never sin again”. The experience was a sacrifice and painful in many ways. The worth was great to them though! They could be closer to God because He instructed Moses . God has never stopped being active in drawing humans to Himself. We have been blessed with the easiest and most affective way. There are no lines, no smells, no disturbing sounds, no bloody dramatic scenes just simple closeness to the Almighty God. He saw our great Need and made it simple. May we not take for granted the Precious Blood of THE Lamb our Savior Jesus!!!!

Exodus reading today

Wendy Elarton — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:18:53 +0000

So the dear Israelites have turned to worshipping a golden calf, Moses breaks the tablets with the ten commandments on it. My question as I read this is what were they thinking, I feel Moses frustration as a leader. All the punishment could have been avoided if Aaron would have been a better leader. I guess the pressure of the mass got to him. I read it and think what a mess but then we come to chapter 33 and 34. Moses hears from the Lord in chpt 33: 2. “…. But I will not go with you because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.” The people realize the Presence of God would not be going with them , this really moved them. Moses goes to the Tent of Meeting to plead with the Lord on the Israelites behalf. Great picture here as Moses goes outside the camp to pitch the tent, v.8 says “whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent”. We forget what it must have been like because we don’t have to rely on one person to hear from God and stand in the gap for our sins. I wonder if as Moses passed by the people they cried out “please speak for us, we are so sorry and we really need and want God’s Presence”.

We need to recognize that God’s Presence is with us wherever we go. We take for granted this grace that we live in, because of Jesus, we don’t have to beg for God to be with us. He is with us all the time! Now the enemy would love to lie to us and say He has left you because you are not perfect. Well that was the way it was in the Old Testament but God has made a great way “Jesus”, Moses was just a human and he led the best he could, but Jesus was both God/human and made the impossible possible. I say all this to challenge us today enjoy having God’s Presence with you all day every day!!!! Ex.33:15-16 “Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” This moves my heart to the awareness of how close we have God to us!! God has done all the work, we just need to be thankful and willing to remember He is here with us. So if you are feeling alone today, you are not!!! God is here, He is waiting to show you, may our head knowledge collide with our heart and spirit and recognize HIM!!!! ” Thank-you Father for your Presence!! Bring peace as we rest in knowing this deeper then ever today!”