ministry life

2025…WORDS TO LIVE BY

/ joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

I am sitting at the dining table eating left over Chinese food, thinking about the year past and the year ahead.

2024 was a hard year. I don’t think I have really stopped to meditate on just how hard it was. I certainly haven’t allowed myself to feel the hardness. It was a year of death and a year of sickness for our family. It was a year that brought earth shaking change to our lives, identities and ministries. We are not the same people we were at the end of 2023.

Last night we celebrated the New Year as a family at The Vicarage.

New Year’s Eve was our gift exchange this year. I got designer coffee! My son Joe got tools. The kids got play dough and toys. The ladies got winter clothing. James got a book he had been wanting to read. It was a good night topped off by our traditional meal…. Chinese food

It was also a game night.

To say I am not a good game player is an understatement, but other members of the family are. It was a quiet and comforting way to spend the last day of this very difficult year.

Today I am catching up on chores, and putting Christmas away. As I write this note between loads of laundry I am thinking about what the Lord has already told us about 2025.

My personal words for the year are: PRACTICE THE PRESENCE…

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AND ENGAGE IN THE PROCESS

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Here are some other things we have learned about 2025 from the last few months of 2024.

Amanda has heard- Focus and Watch. 1 Peter 5:8 State alert for your great enemy the Devil stalks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Focus on the right thing not similar distractions because there will be good things and God things. See the potential particularly in our children. Don’t overlook the small things in life or neglect the potential of small things. Watch is the word, Gregorio. Its definition is- Keeping your eyes  on the truth.

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Melanie has heard-We are to be beacons of light. We have been preparing to maintain our light in the hour that is coming.

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James has heard- We are children of THE KING. The time has come to act like it. We are an already not yet people. We have the victory but we now have to posses this in the Spirit. We need to use our spiritual authority.

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Joe has heard-Go! Luke Chapter 10… “Pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send for the laborers into the vineyard…. Go I am sending you.”

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Kristine has heard-Dwell! Dwell in the presence of the Lord and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Claim the victory. Psalm 139 teaches us that God is all knowing.He knows every detail of our lives and even when we don’t see it, He is working in our lives. We need to remember that He knows the end of our stories and the progress of the journey.

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Yesterday my sister and I were on Messenger talking and this prophetic word came –

And this is what the Lord says, open your eyes, I am bringing you into a spacious place. This is the culmination of over a half a century of My work. I have hidden this from the enemy as I have hidden this from you, but this is about neither of you and both of you. The enemy can see the size and shape of this thing, but even he does not know what it is any more than you know what it is. you were chosen for this. your family was chosen for this. You each have your part to play. I have prepared you. I have called you by name. Now prepare yourselves. Gird yourselves and answer me like a human, where were you when I laid the foundations of the storehouses of the snow?

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As I embrace this first day of 2025. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt….this is going to be a year for the memory books.

INFLECTION 35. INFLECTION 57

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Birthdays have never effected me much. Mostly they were just numbers in a series. 16 didn’t feel very different from 15 other than the fact the State recognized I was old enough to start driving. Honestly, that didn’t excite me much. 18 was the same as 17 except for the whole registering for the selective service thing. 21 passed me by without even a tip of the hat. I was married and in Bible college. The “BIG 21”. celebrations so many people make of that birthday never even crossed my mind.

I do remember 35, though. It was a tough birthday. I wasn’t prepared for it. I thought it would just pass me by like every other birthday, but it didn’t .

I can only speculate what changed, but when I turned 35 the weight of what I at first called “adulthood” suddenly fell on my shoulders, and that weight was HEAVY. In fact it was crushing.

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By 2002 I had 3 kids ages 13, 12 and 11. I had been married for 15 years. I had owned two homes and been through three careers, finally settling on the work of ministry. It’s not like I was suddenly introduced to adulthood that year. I had been adulting as far as I understood it for over a decade. But honestly….

Maybe, it was that, in 2002, for the first time I felt a sense of permanence. Maybe, it was at 35 that I first understood my course was set and I had passed the point of no return.

Maybe, it was at this point I understood that I was going to follow the call of ministry no matter where it led me.

Maybe, for the first time I was clear on the fact that the calling was not about “professional ministry”, but about a walk of faith with God that would cause me too fulfill an office of the church no matter what my job ended up being.

Maybe, it was in this year that I began to fully realize I was answering destiny’s call.

Maybe that was what felt like a weight.

Maybe it wasn’t the weight of “adulthood” I felt at 35, but the sudden realization I had been caught in the full influence of destiny’s rip tide.

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Maybe….

maybe…

maybe….

There are a lot of maybes as I look back. I am certain that whatever hit me at the age of 35 almost drowned me…. could have drowned me with all that it set in motion….maybe even should have drowned me….BUT GOD.

35 was an inflection point for me.

2002 was not the year of actual change, but as I look back it was the year when all the changes that have played out since became certain. I felt it back then. I just did not understand what it was I was feeling.

I only mention all this because here I am having just passed a birthday…my 57th birthday and I am feeling 35 again…not in a “I am returning to my youthful self” way…but in a “Here I go again” way.

I sense that the tide of destiny is about to take over again. I sense that this time it may be more than just me standing at an inflection point. I sense we not just me are at an outpouring and upsurging all at once of ….BUT GOD.

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Family 2024

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Originally, I had thought I would host a family gathering in the summer, but with all the things that went on in our immediate family starting in April , that thought never materialized.

We decided instead, to host a family Christmas cookie party here at the Vicarage.

It was a fun day.

THE CHRISTMAS JOURNEY

/ joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

Nine bells just rang at the Old Murdock Senior Center, and I am just finishing my day. Snish is falling outside. Walking the dogs and putting the chickens to bed was a cold wet business tonight, but at last it is all done. I am dressed in the Christmas PJ’s the kids’ mom sent up just before Thanksgiving for all of us.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: JAMES FRANKLIN, ABIGAIL FRANKLIN, MELANIE FRANKLIN, DANIELLA FRANKLIN, PASTOR AMANDA LILLIE, SEVII LILLIE(JOSEPH E LILLIE VII), KRISTINE BARRAMEDA LILLIE (IN FRONT KNEELING), PASTOR J LILLIE(JOSEPH E LILLIE V), JOSEPH E LILIE VI

This was the beginning of our Christmas journey as a family. A lot of familial water has flowed under the bridge of life since this picture was taken.

There were all my birthday celebrations and Thanksgiving with the kids, grandkids and nephews. What a blessed day that was.

ABIGAIL FRANKLIN (FOREGROUND CENTER), TYLER NEWTON (FAR LEFT FRONT CHAIR), SEVII LILLIE (HOLDING BALL), RYAN NEWTON (RECLINER), JOSEPH LILLIE, KRISTINE BARRAMEDA LILLIE, DANIELLA FRANKLIN, PASTOR AMANDA LILLIE, MELANIE FRANKLIN… THANKSGIVING 2024

There was the decorating of The Vicarage.

PASTOR J AND THE GRANDKIDS

And the decorating of the church.

JOHN RUSSELL, BUILDING AND GROUNDS, PUTTING UP THE BIG TREE AT CORNERSTONE.

Then the celebration began in earnest.

SEVII AND SANTA

There was breakfast with Santa and the Cookie Crawl.

FRANCINE (AKA PASTOR AMANDA) AND ABIGAIL START THE COOKIE CRAWL

And the town tree lighting.

MRS. CLAUS, SANTA CLAUS, MEALNIE FRANKLIN AND THE GIRLS

This week has been a whirlwind of parties. It started Saturday with our Deacon, Staff and DLT leader Christmas party.

DEBBIE PARKER AND PASTOR AMANDA
JOE AND JODY CLAPP
THE FEASTING TABLE

Yesterday was a full day of connection and celebrating. It started at 9 AM with a meeting of the town, pastors at Sippin Serendippity.

Then it was on to Cornerstone’s weekly staff meeting. With the upcoming holidays, this will be our last staff meeting for 2024.

After that, I went to one of our DLT groups to join their Christmas party, and to discover the prophetic words from God they received during our sabbatical.



The SOUL SISTERS AND PASTOR J

Then, after a brief rest, I was off to the cornerstone youth Christmas party.

FUN AND GAMES

Today, I spent the day finishing up the decorations at the Vicarage and cooking for a dinner party we hosted this evening with some missionary friends.

This weekend, the Vicarage is hosting a cookie swap for the Tenney side of our family. I have to say I am really enjoying this Christmas journey.

What does your Christmas journey look like?

STILL PREPARING

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When I went on sabbatical our congregation began to pray for prophetic words from God about our future work.

Over the last several weeks, since sabbatical ended, I have been gathering those “words of the Lord” from our congregation so that I might have a clearer perception of where God wants our church to go in the days ahead.

Over the last two years we have been functioning off of the word from our last sabbatical which was PREPARE.

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We have been in a construction phase. It is not finished yet, but it is close.

The words I have gathered so far about our future fall into four categories: DELIVERANCE

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LIGHT

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PRAYER

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AND CARE

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I don’t yet know how these all fit together and I am not finished gathering all the words the congregation heard. I have a few more groups to meet with this week, but prophetically we are moving towards deliverance, light, prayer and care….somehow this is God’s next step.