A blessed day

Today has been a very blessed day! Church was awesome! Praise and worship was just good. You know? What I mean is, it was good for me. When we sang that song, "The More I Seek You," it really was overwhelming, just like the song says. My heart just swelled with love and the tears just started to flow. I couldn't stop! Not that I am complaining. It is good to be overcome by the reality of the love of God. That is a truly anointed song.

PK's message was anointed also. We are still on the love series, which is good. Faith pleases God, and faith works by love. So the more we love, the more our faith is boosted, yes?

We had some great fellowship with good friends this afternoon. We got to play some games and just laugh! I love to laugh! I didn't win one game, but I had a lot of fun! I guess I am not competitive enough or something, but it's just like a road trip . . . getting there is more than half the fun!

Well, more later . . . . I love you all! (not a faith statement!)

A Friend Indeed

OK, yes, this is more of the love stuff, but about the time I think I am moving on to something else, PK delivers another message (that hits me between the eyes) in his gentle way. Anyway, I have been studying the Body of Christ and our relationship one to another - you know - what is the Body supposed to look like if functioning the way we should?

So, what was my daily lesson from this? One question - Have you ever gotten frustrated at someone for going through the same thing over and over when they have enough truth that they should know better by now? Honestly? I have. I am not saying it's right, I am just giving you the facts. I realize that this is not by any means a demonstration of love toward members of the Body of Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:14, says:

. . . encourage the timid and fainthearted, help and give your support to the weak souls, [and] be very patient with everybody [always keeping your temper].

In Romans 12, the Word also tells us to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought. In other words, when we think we have it altogether enough to think someone else doesn't, we are missing it. We are of the same body. We need to lift each other up and encourage each other in the Word. There are so many levels of development with all of us in many areas, so even if the devil tries to get us frustrated with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we should remind ourselves that there are those in the Body that are and have been patient with us about so many things.

When we truly love, we will exhort. Not just a smile, or a wave as we walk up the isle of the church, but we need to be obedient to the Holy Spirit. He may tell us to give someone a hug, shake their hand, buy them a book, send them a note or just get their email address and send them a scripture. The more we respond to other members of the Body the way we should (the way the Word teaches), they will get it. I used to have an instructor that often said, "some things are taught, and some things are caught." I don't know if it was an original quote, but it was a true one.

This post didn't turn out at all like I intended for it to, but here it is anyway! I am just so thankful that God didn't leave us alone to figure it out, but gave us His word and His wonderful Holy Spirit! And the more we yield, the more we grow! By the way, I put a link at the bottom of the page to read Romans 12 in the Message Bible. It has some great instruction to us in dealing with each other!

http://bibleresources.bible.com/passagesearchresults2.php?passage1=Romans+12&book_id=52&version1=65&tp=16&c=12

The Threat of Love

I remember a few weeks (maybe even months) ago, I was reading in 1 Corinthians about taking the Lord's supper. There it was talking about how because we do not discern the Body of Christ the way we should, that there were many sick among the Christians. I meditated on that for several days, and I started meditating on the Body of Christ, the Church. Could we have more sickness in the Body, because we don't realize the importance of each other? That came back to me several times and then, a few days ago, I was reading in one of Brother Hagin's books. He said that part of the reason that there was so much sickness in the Body of Christ (and even premature death), was because of the way that believers treated one another. My spirit exploded inside me with excitement! Not because of the sickness and death, but because I knew I was on the road to some revelation!

There have been some things that I struggled with inside myself for way too long concerning the Body of Christ and my relation to it, but when these revelations began to come, I told the Lord that I wasn't giving any place to that junk any longer! I asked Him to give me truth on this, and He did! and He continues to do so.

So what does this have to do with love? And what threat could love possibly pose? I am glad you asked that! (didn't you?)

Here's the deal. For years, satan has set it all up to make everyone feel . . . feel like they have the right, feel like they have to look out for number one, feel like they are unloved and mistreated, feel like they need to defend themselves, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. After a while, this seeped into the church. Well, how can the Church be effective when it's members are inwardly focusing and not looking out to a world that needs Jesus? When people get inward focused, there is a greater likelihood of offense, schism and division in the Body of Christ. This is a major factor that, in the past, has made the Church weak, because where there is no love, there is no unity. Love, by God's definition, is deliberately taking ourselves out of an existence based on self-seeking ways to a life of love and service to God and to man.

As I meditate and study on this, I see that the more we develop in love, we are able, as the Church, to become stronger and more unified. This threatens satan's kingdom, and as Pastor Susan said, weakens his kingdom. He is exposed for his schemes. When we are walking in love, the focus goes out to a lost and dying world instead of some little boo-boo the devil has tried to convince us that we have suffered. I mean, how could we even let ourselves take one offense against our brothers in Christ (or our family or anyone else) when we know it is a strategy of the devil to keep us ineffective for the Kingdom of God? WE CAN'T!!!!!!!!! He is a liar! He is a liar! We cannot be deceived by him any longer! The Master has need of the church in her glorious state!

Aren't you glad I went for the encapsulated version? :)