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Whew! It’s already January 18! I feel like January is slipping away quickly. So much that I am just getting around to doing my 2012 in Review! At the beginning of each year, I like to review my notes from sermons I heard the year before. And I like to share the gems with you. So I sat down this morning to do just that.

What a tremendous blessing to read through all my sermon notes from the first half of 2012. Looking back, I see themes that God was developing as I heard from different speakers. I didn’t necessarily absorb those themes as I heard the sermons over a number of weeks. But taken as a whole, they were powerful.

Here are some of the best “lines” from sermons I heard in the first half of 2012. I try to let them stand on their own, but sometimes just couldn’t resist adding my own commentary. Be blessed as you read! Free free to pause and reflect as frequently as you want!

“When God shows up, the norm is set aside.” Pastor Larry Klaiber, 1/8/12

This sentence both excites and challenges me. It excites me because I want God to show up and do the unexpected. I want to be a part of that. Yet I know my nature is to control what is happening and we have a plan so let’s stick to the plan! The quote challenges me to be more attuned to God’s plan and more quickly throw my plan out the window when God shows up.

“God is waiting for us to come into agreement with Him.” Jack Nehmer, 1/15/12

How true! It’s interesting that I heard this message just a week after making these notes in my personal journal:

“There is a difference between God’s power and His authority. God has the power. When He’s given us the authority, it is the authority to ‘use’ his power…Lord, I give my schedule to you – because submitting to You is where Your power is.”

In my prayer on that especially stressful day, I was coming into agreement with God over my schedule. I was submitting it to Him to resolve and saying “I will agree with You in working this out in whatever manner is pleasing to You.”

“We all believe in Jesus…but do we know Him? If you want to know Jesus, you must go to the cross and look into the eyes of Jesus.” Pastor Dan, 1/22/12

I would add “If you want on maintain your relationship with Jesus – not just learn more about Him, but get to know Him more – you have to continually go to the cross and look into His eyes.”

“Jesus didn’t die for you to live in doubt and discouragement. He didn’t die for you to live under the circumstances.” Pastor Dan, 1/22/12

“There is a beauty and radiance that flows from the spirit of a Godly woman.” Sandy Hovatter – this was a nugget God dropped into my heart while listening to a sermon on Psalm 34

“Sometimes we have to set everything aside except our covenant with God.” Pastor Larry, 3/4/12

In other words, all that matters is our relationship with Him. All that matters is my promise to Him and His to me.

“The beauty of the Lord is light and color and song and flowing movement.” Sandy Hovatter – from my personal journal on 3/12/12

“Wherever we go, we are the house of God…We need to live in the awareness that we have the ability to bring others to Christ through our obedience and maturing…We are the gate to heaven. We are the ambassadors of Christ.” Pastor Larry, 4/8/12, 4/29/12

“There is power in the tongue. Words are containers – they carry faith or fear. They carry blessing or cursing. Do you really want all the negative things you’re saying to come to pass? ” Randy Wolff, 5/4/12

I love the imagery of words being containers. Randy’s question was so logical and powerful – “Do I really want all the negative things I say come to pass?” Lord, forgive me.

“Don’t deny that sickness exists, but deny its right to exist in your body.” Randy Wolff, 5/4/12

“God’s Kingdom purposes were overshadowed by the pain of the journey in Joseph’s life.” Julia Schatz, 5/6/12

When we keep things in perspective, we can live as Joseph did – allowing God’s Kingdom purposes overshadow our pain. Julia continued with some hard-hitting lines:

“We don’t have to let our circumstances thwart God’s plan for our lives…Let’s not settle for anything less than God’s purposes in our lives…Don’t let your trails go to waste – use them as the place form which you glorify God.” Julia Schatz, 5/16/12

“Where we struggle in life, somewhere there is a lie! We’re looking at the world through a broken piece of glass.” Pastor Dan, 5/13/12

“If we’re to walk tall and consistently with the Lord, we must be unmovable in Him.” Pastor Dan, 5/27/12

“Faith is not idleness. It’s an action word.” Pastor Larry, 6/3/12

So let’s live it!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2013 at 10:33 am and is filed under Christian Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.