Creative Ministries

Welcome to Creative Ministries!

Cathy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:09:48 +0000

Faith Family is a place “where believers can discover and develop their spiritual gifts and are matched with corresponding ministry opportunities.” (Faith Family Core Values,2008). Creative Ministries is an area of opportunity for many different “creative types” to participate in the ministry of the Kingdom of God!

We offer ministry opportunities through :

Worship Teams
Choirs
Drama
Media
Library

…as well as other areas.

If you are interested in serving in one of these areas, contact Cathy Cox at cathycox@faith-family.org.

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Snow, Blankets, Tea and Books

Cathy — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:47:12 +0000

Brrrrrrrr! There’s no question about it – Winter is here! January 2010 has brought with it a blast of arctic air that really makes me want to stay inside where it is nice and warm, wrapped in a blanket, enjoying a nice hot cup of tea or cider and a good book. My first book of choice would probably be some sort of fictional fantasy story in which I could easily become immersed, so as to take a brief hiatus from the realities of the busy, bustling schedule to which I have become accustomed. All too often, when I have the opportunity to read, this is actually what I usually do. And I attain the desired result – complete oblivion to the world around me and disconnect from reality. In moderation, this is not such a bad thing. I think we all need to, from time to time, take a moment to just “veg” and do mindless activities.

I wonder, however, if I took half of the time I give to my “mindless reading” and spent it in the Word of God, how much more I would gain from that experience? I mean, just think about it. Couldn’t I wrap up in a blanket with something soothing to drink and read from the Bible? What would happen if I were to regularly become immersed in the flowing rivers of the Holy Spirit of God? Consider how much more I would gain if I spent more time feasting on the Daily Bread that is found in His Word? I would not be reading fiction, for the Bible is true and its characters real people. I would not be lost in a fantasy world, for the Bible is written about the world in which we live, and what’s more, speaks of an Eternity we will together share. And in reading from the Bible, I will experience no disconnect, but rather life changing revelation that will not only impact the quality of my life, but how I live life out in front of others as I live to serve my God and King.

My prayer for 2010 is that I would more often choose to set my mind on the things of God and those things which help me move closer to Him so that I may learn more about Him and go deeper into Him. “So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.” (1 Corinthians 4:1) It is only in spending time with Him and in His Word that I will know about Him; that I will move closer to Him; that I will go deeper into Him; that I will know His secret things.

2010 – bring on the cold days! I think I’ll wrap up in my blanket with a hot cup of tea and enjoy The Good Book! Yeah, I think I’ll make God’s Word my first Book of choice.

Be blessed!

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Worship

Cathy — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:48:45 +0000

Hands are lifted high like trees reaching to the skies. Voices are raised in a harmonious symphony. Hearts are being woven together by an unseen thread. Minds are centered with a single focus. Believers are joined together with one ambition for one reason in one God. The audience is the great One: Our Father, His Son and The Holy Spirit. This event is an intricate melody; a dialogue of adoration between children and Father; between creation and Creator.

What an awesome picture for those who experience worship! The Holy Spirit is moving, beckoning, drawing. The Intercessor is going before – leading to the Father who yearns to know and who yearns to be known in return. This Father desires praise, craves love, and longs for relationship. All are invited to come the place where they may bow at His feet in awe and reverence; God’s people longing for a manifest presence of the Lord. Enter His Throne Room. Enter His presence.

For Believers, this is the apex of the week! The time gathered together as a Body to corporately exclaim praise for God and pour out love on Him. This is also the place where hearts are softened and ears become attentive; where minds are made void of the every day bustle of life; where personal agendas are no longer important. Rather, people are brought to the place where they can hear God. God is the center of this moment! It is all about Him!

Worship Services can include different elements of worship. For example, singing songs of praise, reading the Holy Scriptures, giving tithes and offerings, praying, hearing the message, and partaking of the Lord’s Supper are all examples of worship that may occur during a Service. Each element gives the worshipper an opportunity to commune with God by giving to Him and receiving from Him. Singing songs of praise allows the worshipper to speak to God through song while tithing and giving an offering is returning to the Lord from what He has provided. In reading scriptures and hearing the message, worshippers can hear from God His heart’s desires for their lives and for the lives of those whom Believers are called to minister to.

Worship should be alive, but that does not always mean worship has to be lively. There is a time for worship that is expressive. People should not be coerced or forced into participating in worship. Worship should come from the heart. God seeks worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth, which can quite often come from a heart that is quiet and contemplative before Him. What God wants is a heart that has surrendered to the will of the Father and given Him a home.

Worship is an act of surrender. It is the response that arises from the revelation and recognition of God’s worth-ship and the reality of His presence in the life of the Believer. Christ speaks to the heart of worship in the Gospel of John. “Yet a time is coming and is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for these are who the Father seeks. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24, NIV)

To worship God “in spirit” is to worship Him with His life-breathed breath (pneuma). Only those who have received the breath of salvation can worship God. To worship God “in truth” is to worship Him without barriers or falsehoods; worship that is absent of any hypocrisy and deception. Only those who have an experiential knowledge of God can worship Him.

God is not concerned with the how’s and where’s of worship. God wants our lives to worship Him as we echo His love to the world. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18) God wants His people to be so enamored with Him for His out pouring of love for that they in turn offer surrendered lives back to Him as living sacrifices to be living witnesses to the world. (Romans 12:1) The life that loves God offers itself back to Him as a reasonable act of worship.

So what does a life that worships God look like? A life that worships God does not just emulate His attributes. Rather a life that worships God begins to take on characteristics of godliness. That life abides in His faithfulness. In order to abide in the love of God, one must first invite His presence to indwell his or her life, and then seek to walk with God in all circumstances. (John 15:4) God’s presence and power will then become more and more evident through the actions of the individual and the “fruit” that person bears as he or she willingly lives by the commandments of God. (John 15:6) That person will begin to exhibit aspects of Christ-likeness like gentleness, meekness, self control, forgiveness and kindness. (Galatians 5:22)

There is no better place than being in God’s presence and encountering his Being. And there is no better life than one which allows God’s presence and Being to indwell. That is what God desires – to indwell the hearts and minds of his creation. That is a life that worships God.

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Today Is the Day!

Cathy — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:28:47 +0000

“Today, if you will hear His voice…” (Psalm 95:7)

God is speaking. Are you listening?

It’s another busy day. So much to do. I have to work all day. I have a wedding rehearsal this evening. Then there’s the football game. (Go Kewpies!) My mind is a blur. Too much info in. Not enough coming out. Folks calling my name – needing to talk to me – needing my help. Who do I answer first? What do I do first? What’s the most important task? What requires my immediate attention?

God is speaking. Am I listening?

I’ve been reading the book The Practice of the Presence of God. It’s a book of conversations between Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century monk, and God. Brother Lawrence learned to practice the presence of God at all times. He learned to walk with God regardless of his circumstance or situation; to make the love of God the end of all His actions. In doing so, he was in constant conversation and contact with God.

Today, if you will hear His voice…

I long to be in constant conversation with God. Interestingly, God longs to be in constant conversation with me.

“Today, Cathy, if you will hear my voice…”

I don’t always have the opportunity to find a quiet place and shut out the world. Most of my life is spent in “go” mode. But that doesn’t mean I can’t listen to God as I go. Brother Lawrence made it a priority to focus his mind and his heart on God as he went about his daily routine. He made his routine such that God was always in it. God was first in it!

Today, if you will hear His voice…

I wonder what my day would be like if I made God my routine? Hmmmm….???

God is speaking. I am listening.

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I Can Do All Things

Cathy — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:58:43 +0000

I’m sitting in the waiting room at De Paul Hospital in St. Louis. My son Zach is having yet another procedure to place a graft in his arm. This will improve his quality of life by allowing him to do more of the basic things in life you and I take for granted like shower and swim. It will also allow him to get back on the mats from time to time and wrestle.

He’s lived for the past three years with tubes hanging out of his body as a result of renal failure. For those of you who don’t know Zach, his kidney’s shut down about three years ago and he is on dialysis awaiting the perfect donor organ.

Zach has been a real trooper. He has never complained about his situation. He has been one who rolls with the punches and takes life as it comes. Through the many surgeries, being poked and prodded, having to come off the road as a welder and find other employment – he’s been a great example of what it’s like to not feel sorry for yourself, but continue to live with hope in the future.

So as I am sitting here watching he and Chai play – both of them content as can be – I see my oldest son and Philippians 4:11-12 is ministering to my spirit:

“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

Paul learned the secret to contentment, and I’ll bet he had to endure much in order to reach this point. My guess is that he didn’t learn this secret by sitting back and watching life go by. I’m sure he didn’t disengage when the going got tough. I’ll assume when life began to get rough and things went opposite his plans, Paul did not just check out and wait until all was calm before stepping back into service.

No, I believe Paul learned the secret by rolling with the punches, taking life head on, and moving forward in full assurance of verse 13:

“I can do everything through Him (Christ) who gives me strength.”

My son is my example this morning – youth leading maturity. Perhaps in this one instance, he is the mature one.

May you find your strength in the Lord Jesus Christ, for through Him all things are possible!

God Bless!

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He Looked Beyond My Fault

Cathy — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:48:25 +0000

Amazing grace shall always be my song of praise

For it was grace that bought my liberty

I do not know just why He came to love me so

He looked beyond my fault and saw my need

Time to be transparent.

Each of us has a past. I have one. You have one. Our pasts are part of who we are, but they alone do not determine who we will be.

I have not always dealt easily with the choices I have made. Being reminded of “from whence I’ve come” has often sent me into a downward spiral of “woe is me,” leaving me feeling unqualified, insignifcant and unworthy. Who am I? Why did God choose me? What do I have to offer? This has been a tool the enemy uses to doubt myself – to doubt God at work in me – to doubt his redemptive powers. This tool used to work.

But not anymore.

The lyrics to the song above are a reality in my life today. Because of God’s amazing grace – given freely by Him to me, because He knew my past and understood my need for grace – I am who I am today. In His infinite love, Grace withstood unimaginable tortures and a horrific death on a cross, and with His blood purchased my freedom from death, from eternal separation from God – from my past.

I don’t understand the depth of love that He has for me. I am nobody! But His love looked past each thing I had ever done and saw the desperate condition of my broken state and how apart I was from the Father, and knew that I needed Him! What a pure, selfless love you have for me, Jesus!

It is because of His love that I am who I am today. I am a daughter of the Most High God. I am loved with a love that cannot be broken or diminished. I am a recipient of God’s amazing Grace.

And so…

I shall forever lift my eyes to Calvary!

To view the cross where Jesus died for me.

How marvelous the grace that caught my falling soul.

He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.

Romans 8:1-2; 38-39

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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I Want More!

Cathy — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:26:03 +0000

How often have I told God this? “I want more of You, God! I want to know and experience You more!” This desire is often a result of one of two things:

I have been very intentional about my time with God and by doing so, have developed a deeper yearning within my spirit to commune with His, or;
I have not been as intentional about seeking God, therefore entering into a period of “dryness” where my spirit thirsts for His and is unquenched by anything else.

Regardless of the reason, what is important is that I make time for God so that He can continue to fill me with His Holy Spirit, for it is only in being filled by Him that I am able to pour out myself to others.

Matthew 6:6 says, “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

There are several things to gain from this passage. As Jesus speaks, He teaches us:

1. “When” you pray – not “if” you pray.

Prayer is an essential facet in the life of the Believer. Without it, we have no communication with God – no communion with Him. God expects us to talk to Him, but even more important – He WANTS us to talk to Him and, in return, to allow Him to speak to us.

2. “Go into” your “room” and “shut the door.”

We need to learn how to eliminate the distractions that prevent us from focusing on God. What might those distractions be? Television? Family? A list of errands? A sporting event? Anything that keeps us from sitting with God is a distraction. Remember that distractions do not always have to be external. Our minds can so often wander and become yet another distraction! As we practice quieting ourselves before God, He can begin to fill us with His thoughts.

3. God “is in the secret place!”

God is omnipresent. There is not place He is not! When we enter our secret place, He is there – ready to meet us – wanting to meet us. Isn’t it encouraging to know that we don’t have to look for God or wonder about whether or not He is actually there? He is there and He will not leave us disappointed when we diligently seek Him!

4. God “will reward you openly.”

I believe this is where we receive the “more” we so desperately seek! When we make time for God and expectantly anticipate communion with Him, He rewards us with His presence! It is then that His fruit begins to grow and as it does, it becomes more and more evident in our lives and we reap the reward of God in our lives.

If it’s more of Him you desire, take time to give Him more of you! Pray, eliminating distractions, expecting God’s presence and receive Him!

Diligently seeking Him,

Cathy

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What is Worship?

Cathy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:21:53 +0000

Romans 12:1-2
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Often when we think of worship, we think of it in the context of singing during a church service. But worship is so much more! God desires our entire lives to be an offering to Him – an act of worship. The way we live our lives – in public and in private – should reflect God’s glory to the world.

God urges us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to him. To sacrifice means to relinquish one’s personal interests or well-being for the sake of another. When we relinquish things like our own agenda, pride, selfishness, anger, bitterness, jealousy, sin – those things which are not pleasing to God, that is when God can move us in a new direction and we can begin living lives that are being transformed into His likeness and His image!

What will you relinquish today? If you don’t know, ask God to reveal those areas in your life you have yet to surrender to Him. Then, allow His Holy Spirit to begin to renew your mind as you honor Him and worship.

Be Blessed.

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