The Revelation of Anna

Come Watch our Community Christmas Production….

akshirley — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:13:00 +0000

Well about 2 months ago, our ministry decided to do a community Christmas Production to reach out to our city. (BTW: I am working on my about page which will have all that info in it when I get it up…thanks for your patience!) This is not just a simple Christmas play with a few speaking parts and a choir, this is almost a Broadway production with lighting, serious stage props, backdrops, dolls, toy soldiers, evil toys, and a little girl, Lydia, who is searching for Christmas. So, I am sorry for the delay in posts! I am over the props and well let’s just say it’s been a little time-consuming. Anyways, I am so very excited about this play, and I want you all to be in prayer about it. The jist of the play is a little girl is searching for Christmas with some of her favorite toys. In the end, she finds out the real meaning of Christmas. We are doing this play Friday night and Saturday night (Dec. 12th & 13th) at 7 p.m. If you would like to watch it live, you can click on this link. I would like you to specifically pray for our city, Hamilton, AL, and that people would see the real Jesus, pray for healing, deliverance, salvation of souls, and for the Kingdom of God to come! Also, pray over the actors and ministry team for our health and strength in our bodies! Thank you all for your love and prayers! Please watch online!

Oh, the Christmas Season…..

akshirley — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:54:38 +0000

Well, it’s definitely that time of year…honestly one of my most favorite and yet most disheartened times of the year. I have been trying to get gifts, make extra money for gifts, put on a community Christmas Production, eat right, pray every morning, exercise, as well as manage the other daily interruptions that spring up. Even though this is supposed to be a season about Jesus, somehow it gets mixed up in the hustle and bustle with each year getting busier and busier. It never fails that no matter how good I go into this season with my life routines; they ALWAYS get off course! And not even with just the eating of lots of great food..but even the daily prayer time…sometimes I truly believe the intentions of this season were meant for good, but somehow it has become more of a distraction and a season of selfishness. I was shocked when I went shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving…yes I did get up at 4 a.m….and every time I do this I ask myself, “Why are you here?” Nevertheless, I went. I was amazed at how rude people were, even in a small Alabama town, the gleam in their eyes when they got the last product marked down 1/2 off and literally guarded it with their whole LIFE getting it to the cash register. How we, the people, would push other people out of the way to get a piece of merchandise….What in the world? This is ridiculous! People literally losing their lives over stuff that will rot and be destroyed during a celebrated season about a man who DID give His life for us! Please. What a mockery! And you do know that after that man (I think he was a Wal-mart worker trying to protect a pregnant lady) died in Wal-Mart, WE, the People, said it was the store’s fault for having such good sales. NO WAY! We chose to trample over a man because WE ARE A SELFISH PEOPLE! Let’s just admit it and fix it! I know that some of you are thinking, “I agree..I would never do that!” But wait just a minute. Let’s look at our own lives. Can you honestly say that in the midst of that tragedy you would have been the ONLY one to go against the crowd? I can’t honestly say yes, can you? I would like to think I would have done the right thing, but honestly I might not have stepped on the guy and just seen what was going on and thought well someone else will stop this rather than me. Or let’s talk about our own checking accounts during this season…TOUCHY subject…..but a Jesus subject nevertheless. How many of you give a generous offering that is equal to what you spend on the entire Christmas season….gifts, decorations, ornaments, food, etc. to the church? Did you know that December is the worst financial month for most all churches? Less money is given during this “Giving season” than any other time of the year! Don’t you think that if you were celebrating someone, you would give to the place that not only He commands us to give, but also chooses to bless us if we do give. (Mal. 3:10) It seems to me that it is true that the Wise Men brought gifts to a King, not gifts for each other…or at least that’s how I thought the story went. Look, I am not trying to put a damper on the Christmas season, I get very excited about this time of year, and I love to give gifts! But I am simply stating this to help change our perspective, including mine, on some things. I know some of you may be offended, but please let offense make you search the things out in your own heart, don’t just give up. I just find it so sad that we, the people, the church, have the wrong God-perspective. I mean think about this story of the Wise Men, they got one nice gift that probably cost them almost all of their money, followed a star for miles, maybe even hundreds of miles, to give it to a baby, that they didn’t even really know for sure if He was King Jesus or not, but did all this just because they believed! Wow, where are we church? We wouldn’t travel a hundred miles to even tell someone about Jesus, much less, spend our life savings and follow a star based on an assumption! What has happened to us? We have made God to be like us! Well guess what, He is not like us, He is HOLY, which means “different”. This God that we serve sits on the Throne of Heaven, has hair white as snow, eyes of bright flames of fire, and brass feet refined in a furnace. He holds 7 stars in His right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword comes from his mouth, and His face is as bright as the sun in ALL its glory! (Rev.1) This God we serve cannot be comprehended…..He is outside the realms of our thinking, outside the realms of time. No wonder Heaven is constantly telling him He is Holy, Holy, Holy! Don’t think this is a boring Holy chant either, Heaven is saying this with great excitement because everytime they say it….This Holy God reveals something different about himself. Please don’t put God on our level…His ways and thoughts are much greater than ours! Don’t be the typical “Christian” this season…be bold and ask God what He would have you do! Put Him first in your life, so that whatever He asks you to do, you do with no hesitation. And know that during this season of celebrating Him that you have pleased Him with your WHOLE life…not just the leftover pieces. Think about when you have to stand before Him and have to give an account for this day, this time, this season in 2008. And don’t think He’s gonna say, “It’s ok honey, I know you were just doing the best you could.” No, He is going to judge us by our fruit, period. So, think about sharing your testimony, or looking at your own life and asking Jesus to be the true reason for living. If He is who He says He is in the Bible, then we are expected to do that. Just a few thoughts for you to ponder.

I’m just a girl……

akshirley — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:35:32 +0000

Well, this is my first blog and I am honestly not yet comfortable sitting here spilling my guts about various topics right here for all to see. However, I want to be. I titled this blog “I’m just a girl….” because through all the life decisions, changes, happenstances, and wrong turns I have made in my 26 years of life, I have landed on a path that may seem odd to others but is TRUTH to me. Sometimes, I think about where I am and what I do and I think why me?…but at the end of the day I realize I am just a girl who one day at the right time happened to pass by and look into the eyes of the one who was seeking me. You see I didn’t realize at the time that He was seeking me, but now 5 years after our meeting I know that the timing of our glances was truly divine and set me on a course that somehow I knew would be my life. You may realize now that I am not talking about just anyone, but a true King, a Righteous Warrior, One who wears the title “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords”. I know you may be thinking “Oh great…one of those religious freaks!” or “Another Hippie for Jesus”. Well I have to tell you that if “religious” to you is laying down my life for His Will….then yes I am religious. But please don’t make “laying down my life” a cliche like many so-called Christians have done in the past. I know some of you are a little upset because I called you “so-called Christians” but I have been one of you too. I have played on both sides of this fence, but we’ll get to that in a later post. The point is that I am just an ordinary girl who grew up with a pretty good family within the Bible Belt, went to college, got a degree, got married, and had a good career. Yet somewhere in the living of the ordinary “American Dream” I got sadly disappointed and longed for something more. And somehow I ended up here, living this life, making this life-decision literally every day, and yet knowing that I have accomplished more in these few years of ministry than most do in a lifetime. Some of you may be thinking “Oh, she is a missionary in some foreign country.” and my answer would be yes and no. I am a missionary but I am called to an unusual place…..the church. Not a building or even a particular denomination (which has become our way of identifying church) but to the REAL church. The one that Jesus calls His true Bride, the one that lives inside of each one of us, and the one that truly lives the life of “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” I want to be apart of that Bride, pure and blameless before a Holy King. I want to be persuaded like the disciples who when Jesus said, “Leave everything and follow me” they left with no hesitation and ended up living a life that cost them life itself. So what is my mission, well my mission is you, the church. And don’t think it is just you, but myself too. Like I said earlier, I have to make this life-decision each day…do I want to live for myself or live for this Jesus. Are there times when I want to run away and seek “normal life”? Yes…but eventually I know it will not satisfy. Do I fail everyday in my pursuit of knowing Him? Yes….there is no outline of how to do this. Do I see His heart for His true Bride, His true Church? Yes…and that alone can make me pursue longer. So, like I said earlier I am just an ordinary girl, now seeking the Real Jesus, holding on to His truths, and pursuing a life that He has already laid before me, trying to take up my cross DAILY as Paul states. And well now blogging about it for anyone who wants to read. This blog will discuss many things…..basically about life, the struggles, the disappointments, the joys, the glory, and most importantly how to live this “ordinary life” unto a King. It may not be perfect, but it is definitely a journey of pursuit.