"God shaped man from the soil of the ground and blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being." Genesis 2:7 (NJB)
"You made my whole being; you formed me in my mother's body. I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way. What you have done is wonderful. I know this very well. You saw my bones being formed as I took shape in my mother's body. When I was put together there, you saw my body as it was formed. All the days planned for me were written in your book before I was one day old" Psalm 139:13-16 (NCV)
“Your hands formed and SHAPED me…” Job 10:8a (GN)
Your S.H.A.P.E. is one-of-a-kind. It's a combination of your Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality and Experiences.
Spiritual gift - God gave you a special ability when you started following Him. We call this a spiritual gift. God gives us this gift to build up our church family and reach out to the world with Christ’s love.
Heart - God gave you a unique passion for particular activities, subjects and circumstances. He gave you a Heart for the things you feel deeply about to help define how and where He wants you to serve Him.
Abilities - You have Abilities, given to you before you accepted Christ, that God can use in specific ways to assist you in your ministry.
Personality - God needs a Personality in ministry that's exactly like yours! He wants to use you whether you're an extrovert or an introvert; whether you enjoy routine or variety.
Experiences - God has placed a multitude of Experiences in your life to help mold you for ministry. He can use many of the experiences in your background to help heal the hurts of others in your church and your community.
My shape is...
unique...inter-related...fixed...irrepressible
Form follows function whenever you are doing a project or building a new building.
But Spiritually function follows form.
This was just the beginning of the message on Sunday October 11, 2011 at Shadow Hills Church given by Pastor Michael Rochelle.
This really started making me think more about who I am, why I am here, and what is my purpose. I often reflect on my past and my passion, but today I am putting my feelings and experiences into words so that just maybe my SHAPE can help someone else.
I am who I am today because I have God in my life and because he knew me before I was born and allowed me to have experiences that are different from what others have experienced.
Throughout my life many people have crossed my path and inspired me and I often sit and reflect on the impact that they had in my SHAPE. I grew up in a very small town in Michigan called Homer. There was a church in the Country when I grew close to the lord and learned thing about myself that I may have otherwise never learned. If I began to list each and every person from Cook's Prairie Baptist Church that influenced my life I would not only have a very long list but I am sure that I would accidentally leave somebody off the list. So I thought long an hard about how to tell my story and my experiences while showing how I have learned about my shape. I will try not to bore you but I am am going to tell you my version of how a few wonderful people touched my life and taught me some valuable lessons.
I never thought I had many friends in school or that anyone ever noticed me or would have even missed me, but in the last few years as I have begun searching my life for answers and looking for my true purpose while putting the past behind me I have found that more people cared than I ever knew.
I remember that because we were from a very small town that it seemed like not only did everyone know who you were but most people in our town were related to each other in some way. The reason that this is so important is because there was one very special lady in our town that made a huge impact on my life and my SHAPE but so did her entire family and many of them may not even know it. The thing about our town was often the teachers you had in school where also your Sunday School teachers or your youth leaders.
Our Pastor was Larry Fulton; he and his wife Betty were warm and caring people even when they no longer served our congregation if you called they would be there and that is something that is still true. I must say that Larry is now in heaven but often I struggle and reach for help and I am reminded of things that he told or moments that he and Betty gave me support and loved me. When my dad I made one phone call and Larry, came all the way just to sit with me and pray. He could have could have prayed or the phone or told me or how sorry he was or even said that he was my pastor so that he couldn't do anything for me, but that was not him. Whenever you called he was always there.
Then there was Maryann Egnatuck and her sisters and their families that touched my life in ways I can never put into words. I won't go into a ton of detail on this right now because I plan to expand on their impact in my life in a future blog.
This is the beginning of my journey to show how I found my shape, when I came from, where I have been and where I am going. i hope that many of you will follow me in this journey and I hope that just maybe one little thing that I write, have felt or experienced will help at least one person that reads this.
I was weak but now am strong
Was blind but now I see...
My shape is...
unique...inter-related...fixed...irrepressible
Form follows function whenever you are doing a project or building a new building.
But Spiritually function follows form.
This was just the beginning of the message on Sunday October 11, 2011 at Shadow Hills Church given by Pastor Michael Rochelle.
This really started making me think more about who I am, why I am here, and what is my purpose. I often reflect on my past and my passion, but today I am putting my feelings and experiences into words so that just maybe my SHAPE can help someone else.
I am who I am today because I have God in my life and because he knew me before I was born and allowed me to have experiences that are different from what others have experienced.
Throughout my life many people have crossed my path and inspired me and I often sit and reflect on the impact that they had in my SHAPE. I grew up in a very small town in Michigan called Homer. There was a church in the Country when I grew close to the lord and learned thing about myself that I may have otherwise never learned. If I began to list each and every person from Cook's Prairie Baptist Church that influenced my life I would not only have a very long list but I am sure that I would accidentally leave somebody off the list. So I thought long an hard about how to tell my story and my experiences while showing how I have learned about my shape. I will try not to bore you but I am am going to tell you my version of how a few wonderful people touched my life and taught me some valuable lessons.
I never thought I had many friends in school or that anyone ever noticed me or would have even missed me, but in the last few years as I have begun searching my life for answers and looking for my true purpose while putting the past behind me I have found that more people cared than I ever knew.
I remember that because we were from a very small town that it seemed like not only did everyone know who you were but most people in our town were related to each other in some way. The reason that this is so important is because there was one very special lady in our town that made a huge impact on my life and my SHAPE but so did her entire family and many of them may not even know it. The thing about our town was often the teachers you had in school where also your Sunday School teachers or your youth leaders.
Our Pastor was Larry Fulton; he and his wife Betty were warm and caring people even when they no longer served our congregation if you called they would be there and that is something that is still true. I must say that Larry is now in heaven but often I struggle and reach for help and I am reminded of things that he told or moments that he and Betty gave me support and loved me. When my dad I made one phone call and Larry, came all the way just to sit with me and pray. He could have could have prayed or the phone or told me or how sorry he was or even said that he was my pastor so that he couldn't do anything for me, but that was not him. Whenever you called he was always there.
Then there was Maryann Egnatuck and her sisters and their families that touched my life in ways I can never put into words. I won't go into a ton of detail on this right now because I plan to expand on their impact in my life in a future blog.
This is the beginning of my journey to show how I found my shape, when I came from, where I have been and where I am going. i hope that many of you will follow me in this journey and I hope that just maybe one little thing that I write, have felt or experienced will help at least one person that reads this.
I was weak but now am strong
Was blind but now I see...
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