kayaking at work

Here was my plan growing up. 1) Be a good kid and do well in school. 2) Go to college and get a degree (one that I could support myself well without ever having to be married – marriage was to be a gift, not a necessity). 3) Get a good job that would make my parents proud. 4)Live the life. Be a good person.

The first step was pretty easy. I had loving, supportive parents, who encouraged me and guided me to find my faith. My upbringing in the Methodist church in Bay Minette, AL was blessed by wonderful teachers, mentors and families. It was a pretty sheltered life in a small southern town. Of course there were little obstacles here and there but it was a good life. My family surrounded itself with Godly people. That’s what I knew.

Step two. What a blessing it was to be able to attend college! I loved math – and there seemed to be a need in the market for women engineers, so why not? I had a great time, made great friends, and grew to love my school. It was a great experience – the only thing is, something seemed to be missing. Who had time for church stuff anymore? I had tests, football games, sorority events. So much to do! I put God in the back seat (mind you, he was still there. Just not up front.) I was driving now. What freedom! And the temptations began to slowly creep in without me even realizing it. But I still lived in my little world, thought about God, and everything was good.

Step three. Interviews, and the most wonderful job in the world (I thought)! I packed up and moved to Raleigh to a new journey. Looking back now, I’m amazed at how I was protected as IBM sent me all over the country to places I had no idea even existed. (BTW, no GPS existed back then). As my travels sent me to sheet metal houses and plastics extrusion factories, I started to realize my little world of good people wasn’t the norm. Even when I was at the office, there were many that I worked with that just didn’t have the same ideas about the importance of having a foundation of faith. I began to push my faith under the rug to be more accepted and potentially have more “opportunities” in the workplace. It was hard enough being a woman in engineering where most of your peers and managers were men, but to be a Christian woman? You were left out of coffee runs, water cooler talk, etc. I thought it was OK to put my dedication to church to the side. God was still in the back seat, I could barely see him.

As I moved around in the company, I began to enjoy perks of traveling on conferences, project meetings, and other fun things. What a life! But the more I did that, the more I realized that the lives some of these folks lived were not what I wanted to be remembered for when I left the job. The foul language that came out of their mouths, trying to be “powerful and authoritative” was unreal. Some of the “shenanigans” that went on at the conferences were just unbelievable to me. Right there in front of everyone!

I met my amazing Godly husband and married. I began to realize the need to bond myself again to those who believed, and found those at work. We stuck together and tried to avoid all the temptations around us. One turning point was one Sunday morning in Raleigh when the management had scheduled a call at 9:00AM. We had to leave for church at 9:20, so I said “I have to drop from the call, I have to go to church”. Silence on the phone. I trembled. What had I done??? Was I going to be fired on Monday Morning for not doing my job?

Ten years later here we are. I still work in the same company. There are still foul words. There are still “shenanigans.” But my colleagues know that those things are a offensive to me. They know that Sunday and Wed nights are church. I can do calls before or after, not during. I have been blessed with a kind, compassionate, caring manager. The Christians I work with ask me for prayers, and I give them. They hold me up when they know I am suffering. And I lean on God more than ever. I have let God back up with me in the front seat.

I look around at the vehicle I have been driving throughout my life. It’s not a car. It’s a two person kayak. Guess who steers the kayak? The person sitting in the back. 🙂

by Lynn Keefer

Let me hear…

In a world where busy seems to be the norm and rushing is the standard, it is often hard to hear that still, small voice that God uses to speak to us. We fall prey to our schedules and routines, leaving little time for quiet and for just being with the one who so longs for our presence. We rush from one event to another, blinded to the beauty around us, ignoring the needs of the people we pass. We do good things, meaningful things, important things and things that matter deeply to our families.   Our to-do lists are long, in fact, they are never ending.   We forgo rest because there is so much that has to be done, needs to be done. We somehow think it all depends on us.

God has said “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)  He longs for our presence, he delights in us and wants us to find our peace in Him. (Zephaniah 3:17)  He is willing, waiting, longing for you to sit at His feet so He can guide your way.   He has come to give you rest, to help you carry that load, to give you more than you can ask or imagine. (Matthew 11:28), (Ephesians 3:20)   Will you carve out some time from the busy and be with him today?

Still my racing heart.

Calm my restless spirit.

Quiet my wandering mind.

Let me hear the whisper

The voice of the Divine

Shutout the noise

The deceiver brings

And speak Holy Spirit

Set me free

Communion thoughts from a young man ~ Sean Condon

Exodus 12:25-27  New International Version (NIV)

 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’  then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

It was for this purpose that God instituted the Passover ceremony.  Not so that the Hebrews could feast on this special day.   Not so they could celebrate the Egyption’s first born being killed, but so that they could remind themselves of what God had done for them.  To remember when God guided them out of slavery and into the promise land, and more importantly, to pass this knowledge to their children.  This is one of the most important aspects of one’s faith;  to pass it on to the next generation.  God knew that the Hebrews would forget God’s power and protection easily.  Didn’t the Hebrews complain incessantly when they were in the wilderness, and ask that they  be returned to Egypt?  Hadn’t they just seen Gods power in the plagues, the parting of the red sea, and quite obviously, their freedom from the Egyptions in general.  God had literally just saved the Israelites from slavery, and yet, they still forgot.  If the people of that generation were already forgetting and taking God’s power for granted, think of how easy it would be for future generations.  THIS  is why the Passover was established; to remember the sacrificial lamb and the salvation God had given them from slavery.  With this tradition, the faith of the Hebrews has been passed down for thousands of years in not only the Jewish culture, but in the  Christian culture  as well.  For when Jesus broke bread at the last supper, he did not change the reason or tradition itself.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26:  For I received from the Lord, what I passed on to you: the lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For whenever you eat this bread an drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

When we partake in the Lord’s supper, we are partaking in the new Passover.  This time Jesus is the lamb slain in sacrifice for our salvation.  We remember this sacrifice and our own salvation through this tradition.  It is the WHY to our salvation.  We remember this sacrifice and our salvation through this tradition.  It is the WHY to the WHATS of Christianity. It is important that the parents generation remembers why the do what they do, lest the children feel as if what they do is useless.  The new generation ask the question WHY?  Why do we partake in this strange ceremony?  Why do we come to church on Sunday?  Why do we follow these rules from a 2000 year old book?  It remains only the parents faith if these “why” questions are not answered.  Like the Israelites in the desert, we forget God’s power and grace, and we need reminding.  And it is vital that our children understand that this is not just a tradition we do because we have always done it.  Be ready to answer the whys of the next generation.  As we partake in the bread and juice, think about why we do this, and remember.

Knowing God: So why do you study the Bible? {an article by Kevin Henegar}

As we begin a new year together, it’s a customary time for us to individually take stock of the year that passed.  We reflect on the successes as well as the failures – and we consider how we can improve and try to make this new year better than the last.  Our mission as the North Raleigh church is to know God, honor Jesus, love the family, and serve all.  I would encourage each of you to consider how you personally can grow in each of these areas during the coming year.  For the sake of this writing, let’s focus on the idea of Knowing God.

We had a great discussion in the men’s class on Wednesday night (by the way would encourage all of you men and ladies out there to get plugged into our Wednesday classes if you are not already) about why we study the Bible – both why we should do it and also why we do study.  I don’t know about you, but I have been guilty on more than one occasion of studying the Bible because I felt like it was something I was supposed to do (out of guilt), because I was trying to prepare some thoughts for a class to support a topic I wanted to discuss, or perhaps because I was looking for proof texts for why I was correct on a certain matter.  And while it’s certainly good to teach, if these are the only reasons that drive us to study God’s word, we will be left empty and lacking.  The main reason we need to study the Word is to know God more intimately.  This is the inspired word of God.  It is the most amazing love story ever written about the God of the universe who would stop at nothing to reconcile a lost world to Himself (John 3:16).  As redeemed followers of Jesus, it is OUR story and we should be not only excited about opening its pages but also anticipating a message for our hearts from the creator of the universe Himself!  According to 2 Tim 3:16, “all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness”.  It is living and active and sharper than any double edged sword (Heb. 4:12).  It is not some ancient writing that is irrelevant to the modern age.  Instead, it is filled with timeless truth for living in each and every aspect of our lives.

When we honestly open the pages of scripture, we cannot walk away unchanged if we are committed to taking up our cross in complete obedience to Him.  So in this month where we are looking at “New Beginnings” on Sunday mornings, it is my prayer that 2015 will indeed be a new beginning for our body characterized by an ever increasing desire to know and obey the will of God.

Love in Christ,

Kevin Henegar