A spiritual feast!

Hello again! Yesterday was a great day for being fed spiritually. I am feeling an intense drawing of the Spirit to come closer to Him. I sang a song at church last night that I heard on the TPC Memphis site, that is just the heartbeat of my life right now, and it ministered to me so much even as I sang it. I hope it blessed others as well. It's called "I Need You More". Other songs I wanted to sing (although I didn't get the opportunity) were "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" and "I Just Want to be Where You Are". My heart longs to know Him more and more! The Word of God says "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me." He's definitely drawing! And I am definitely lifting Him up... every chance I get!

Mid Week Bible Study

My pastor preached an interesting message last night about the importance of attending church... particularly the mid-week Bible study lessons. The reason it was so interesting?? His point was that the people who were there listening to the message didn't need to hear it, and those to whom it was directed were obviously NOT there to hear it. He told us that those who don't consider mid week Bible study (tailored specifically to meet the needs of the born again believer) to be necessary or relevent, more times than not will stop coming to Sunday services as well.... then stop coming altogether. The Bible is clear that in the last days, the love of many will wax cold, and that those who are only lukewarm in their relationship with the Lord will be rejected by him. Lord, I don't want that to be me!!! His point was that some people say, "I can stay at home and have church with my dog!" Or, "God speaks to me through the animals." That is ridiculous and totally NON-biblical! The Bible encourages us in Hebrews to come together with the rest of the believers in the Body of Christ often; more and more often as the Day of His return draws near. Judging from what I see happening in Israel right now, I'm thinking we should be gathering MUCH more often than we do already! I am 100% guilty of not making the Tuesday evening prayer meetings.... I want to go! My flesh does not cooperate, but I need to tell it to "SHUT UP!" and just GO!!!!! I could go on and on about this lesson, but this post would be way too long to read if I did!

God Night

My very good friend Petrina and I used to do something called "God Night" quite often a couple years back (before she had the nerve to leave the country and go to Bible College... hee hee hee). It was an awesome time! We'd choose whose house to meet at, and when we got together, there was no "visiting" or "social time" allowed. As soon as you arrived, it was prayer time! Fellowship with the Lord! Then we would sing! Then, we would sit on the couch with our Bibles and pop in a preaching video (usually Bro. Jeff Arnold... he's amazing). And we'd furiously take notes, rewinding and replaying, pushing pause to just take a shout and praise break... sometimes we would stop it to debate some point he made, or share an experience WE personally had that was similar to what he'd just said. After all was said and done, THEN we would visit and fellowship with each other for a while. I cherished those God Nights. Well, we had our first one in quite a while last night, but this time, we invited Sandy to participate, and my husband happened to be home, so he took part as well. It wasn't quite the same as in times past, but God never changes, and the message we heard was VERY powerful (yep, Jeff Arnold... he's hilarious!). The title of the message was "The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy". There was a LOT of meat to chew on in this message, and it caused me to think about some things in my mind that I just can't seem to work out in my own limited wisdom and knowledge. I have some things that I can take to God in prayer as a result of this message, and dig into the Word to try and figure it out.

One of my favorite illustrations in his message was about the TV show "Gunsmoke" (with Matt Dillon and his sidekicks Chester and Festus). When the Marshall would head out of town, he'd leave these two in charge of law enforcement until he returned. When he came back and asked about things, they'd say "A bunch of guys came in and raped the women, and burned down buildings, and busted up the bars having fights and stuff." "Well, do you have any of them in jail?" the marshall would ask? "Oh no... we don't want to offend anybody." "WHAT???? Well, did you have any hangings?" "Oh no, we try to be tolerant."
Then the marshall would say, "Didn't I give you a gun?" "Yes." "Didn't I give you bullets?" "Yes." Didn't I give you power of attorney when I pinned the badge on you?" "Yes." "Don't you realize that you became my replacement body while I was gone???" You see, if the church ever woke up and realized WHO WE ARE... the replacement body for Jesus Christ, we'd turn our state and our nation, and the world upside down in a day! We have been given a weapon (prayer) with powerful bullets (the Word of God) and power of attorney (the Holy Ghost inside us) so we can be Jesus' replacement body while he's gone!!! We can do all the things He did while He was here, and GREATER things than He did, because there are so many of us! He was only ONE! We are MILLIONS! We should have this entire world evangelized by now! We need to stop being Chester and Festus and step up to the plate and do what God has called us to do... preach the gospel of the kingdom! Reach the lost before it is too late!

Okay... I was worried about this post becoming too long to read... mission accomplished! Sorry y'all! I could say so much more! But I won't. Please, this week, lift Him up, and feel Him drawing you closer to Himself. Be blessed!!!!