The LISTS: Kooky with Big Ears, are you?

It was great to be back at HRBC today. We had a low attendance day today.. FYI to all, we noticed and missed you. Glad we had Jill, Jon, Veona, Don, Tracee, Heather and myself..

MAKE A DIFFERENCE SUNDAY will be April 26. mark your calendars, and start preparing.. We are partnering with Julie's class and ideas are coming soon...

Study today was on Isaiah 11:1-9(full text is at the bottom of this post from the NIV)
Sermon in worship service was on :

We began our exercises today trying to come up with the characteristics we would list to describe people in our lives who are "led by the spirit".. real people, real examples.. not ministers or church leaders..

Our Role models, Encouragers, Accountability Partners, and Resources were:
Bruce, Cassandra, Pat, Ed, Liss, Dee, and Nancy.

The Spirit LIST: Humble, Faithful to God, Trusting, Compassionate, Honest, Encouraging, Servant, Positive, Respected, Kooky, Helpers, Charitable, Available, Big Ears, Big Hugs, Persistent, Fair, Objective, Prayerful.

For us this list defined values that are Old and TRUE... these should be the keys to success. It is unfortunate that in most cases in today's world, we tend to attribute value to individuals who exemplify the opposite of these things all too often. The list above perfectly exemplifies the ideas we have been focusing on for: Perspective, Opportunity, followed by Action. That is how we meet God in my book. We should all strive to be a little more "kooky" and we should definitely spend more time listening with our "Big Ears".

We then dove into our Bible study and created the following lists to try and make sense of the poetry and message from the prophet.

vs 1-5-- The new king as defined by Isaiah will be: fruit-bearing, filled with wisdom, understanding, counsel, mighty, powerful, full of knowledge, fearful of the Lord, will delight in the Lord. he will judge by righteousness and not just by sight, just, righteous, faithful,

vs 6-9-- The new kingdom as defined by Isaiah will be: non-conformist, child-like, calm, peaceful,trusting, smart and safe

The Branch From Jesse

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -

and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;

but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.

The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.

They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.

QUESTIONS for YOU!
How would you score on our spirit filled, spirit led 10 point scale?
Under pressure, do you look to the Lord first or do you first lean on your OWN understanding and experience?
Who is in control? the president, the pastor, the church, the individual, the parent? or......