Dirt and Dreams

Dirt and Dreams aren't usually connected but I want to take time to explain how they are.  The picture on the right is the future home of Northview Church's FOREVER home.  This past Sunday we as a church celebrated the fact that after 7 years of not having a permanent home in the area, we now have 12.7 acres of land to build on for God's Kingdom.  So as part of our service we got to walk up to the stage where there were two huge 5 gallon buckets full of dirt from this land, and we were instructed to put a few scoops of dirt into our bags and then every time we  feel this baggie of dirt in our purse or pocket or backpack to stop and pray for the future of the church, and what we think would be the best use of the land for the community.  While we were filling bags full of dirt our worship Pastor Brandon was singing Build Your Kingdom Here by Rend Collective(great song and band by the way) as we were singing this song I got goosebumps because I started dreaming about what the future held for Love's Journey. I began to think about seeing and taking pictures of a sign like this.  I began to think about bagging dirt from the place Love's Journey will sit. But then I began to think about it as the week has gone on and it's deeper than that.  I think about how vital dirt is to the world.  You can't grow things without dirt. I mean have you ever seen flowers grown in concrete. NO? Me either.  I began to dream about what the church building would look like and how God's going to use it for His purpose.  I began to see how Dirt and Dreams are tied together but more so Dirt and Dreams and Growth.

For this I dug into Google and looked up Dirt and Growth in the bible and came up with this story " But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. Matthew 13: 23a [NIV]

Have you ever planted anything? Perhaps you took some packages of seeds and planted a garden of vegetables. If so, you know that the type of soil that you have is very important to the success of a garden. If the ground is too hard, or full of rocks and weeds, you probably won't have a very good crop of vegetables.

In our Bible lesson today, Jesus told a story about a man who went out and planted some seeds. Some of the seed fell on the path where the ground was very hard. The seeds just lay on top of the ground and the birds came and ate the seeds. Some of the seed fell on rocky ground. The seeds sprang up quickly, but when the sun came, the plants dried up because they didn't have good roots. Some of the seeds fell among weeds and plants grew for a little while, but the weeds took over and choked them out. Fortunately, some of the seed fell on good soil and the plants grew strong and healthy and produced a good crop.

In Jesus' story, the Word of God is the seed, and we are the soil. Often, when we come to church, the preacher is preaching the Word, but we aren't really paying attention. Perhaps we are thinking about what we are going to do that afternoon or about what we did yesterday. We are hearing the Word, but we are not listening. That is like throwing seed on the top of the ground. It won't ever grow into anything in our life.

There are other times when we hear the Word and we get excited about it, but then our excitement fades and we drift away. That is like the seeds that fall on the rocky ground. The plants spring up, but then die because the roots are too shallow.

Sometimes we hear the Word and we believe what it says, but we want to keep on doing the same things we have been doing. That is like planting the seed in with a bunch of weeds. I can tell you what will happen, the weeds will soon take over!

When we hear the word, and we listen and try to understand what it says and put it into practice in our daily life, then we are like good soil. We are like soil where the seed takes root and grows and produces a plentiful harvest. That is the kind of soil that Jesus wants us to be. What kind of soil are you? **http://www.sermons4kids.com/depends-on-dirt.html**

We need to be like Christ but when you have a good healthy foundation in him ( a good Dirt) the fruits of the spirit are going to flow from you easily.  Good dirt produces good things in our lives.  If you have crappy dirt then you can expect bad things to flow from your life.  It's the same thing as if you are walking with Christ and doing everything to be close to Him.  Things like daily spending time with Him, walking the walk, and going to church- doing these things draw you closer to him.  But if you don't go to church, you are full of filth- doing things that aren't Christian and then wonder why God feels far away. You need to have a daily time with Christ to see the maker of the universe, make beautiful things grow out of the dirt of our lives.  

Something I am most excited about is that this Sunday my lead Pastor Steve is starting a 9 week sermon set all about the Fruit of the Spirit - watch out for 9 blogs talking about each fruit and practical ways to apply that fruit to our lives and challenges.  Something I'm also excited about is something the beautiful miss Yolanda has already talked about which is our church doing a bible study on the book of James.  I will be writing about that later :) 

So sorry for the tangent!  I want to talk about Dreams - the only way I know to do that is to Share some of the dreams I have for Love's Journey and for myself.  What is a dream? Websters defines a dream as : : a series of thoughts, visions, or feelings that happen during sleep or another definition is : an idea or vision that is created in your imagination and that is not real and lastly : something that you have wanted very much to do, be, or have for a long time

So when I think about what a dream means I begin to get excited about the bright future Love's Journey has in store for her.  Here's a few of my dreams for Love's Journey:

1: I dream of finding a forever home and the journey that will be
2: I dream of the future girls and women who will be blessed by us
3: I dream of my special wing where our Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery girls will get the  therapy they need
4: I dream of the possibilities for Love's Journey
5: I dream of what the building will look like 

I have personal dreams. Things like graduate school, Move to Houston or that area, and I have long term dreams things like - getting married and having kids.  

I am reminded daily to " Dream Big and Work Hard"~~JJ Watt. I have this quote posted on my desk right at eye level so that I daily remember to  do just that Dream Big Work Hard. 

So to close, I challenge you all to walk close to God and Dream Big and Work Hard

Much Love 
Jessica