This is my Church; Part Deaux
"This is my Church"
People love each other. They celebrate each other.
They enjoy the fun of life. They pursue Jesus.
They live to serve others. Chew on this. This is my church.
I see myself in you. I see my heart, my love.
I see my will being done in you. In all of you. My church.
When you are experiencing life the way God wants you to experience it, you know and believe and identify the fact that God is good. He doesn't sit in heaven with lightning bolts waiting for you to screw it up. And when you really start to chip away at the stone that is 'hardening your heart', Jesus smiles and laughs and demonstrates his love for you in a multitude of ways. When you give up your idols, when you sacrifice your self-serving nature so that others might experience the love of God, you see and feel and hear and enjoy the love and joy that is in Christ Jesus. No one could ever explain that to me as I grew up, as I became a young adult, as I became a young man, and even now as I go through the 'middle ages', I don't know that words can do it. You need to experience it in order to understand it. Without the grace and peace that are offered as a free gift, and without experiencing that by engaging with who God really is and how much he really loves this world, you can never understand the love 'that surpasses all understanding. No wonder I could never get it before. Here are a few miracles that have happened because of the level of engagement that I have worked toward:
-No longer a smoker
-No longer participating in the amount of alcohol consumption that I used to
-Not looking at pornographic images
-Loving others at a level I never knew was possible
-Working to honor my wife each day in my actions and words
-Loving my children unconditionally
-Released my career path to God's path, not my own
-Utilizing my skills and abilities to serve the underserved in many areas of my life
-Reading my bible daily
-Spending time in prayer for others regularly
By no means am I posting these things to boast, for I in no way think I am better than anyone. I am still a sinner that falls short each day of the perfection Jesus says we should work toward. I am simply posting some of these items in my life to encourage others. To identify the miracles of transformation that God has performed in my life recently. I clearly see now the direct relationship between my engagement with God and my ability to follow ways that are counter cultural in this broken world.
People love each other. They celebrate each other.
They enjoy the fun of life. They pursue Jesus.
They live to serve others. Chew on this. This is my church.
I see myself in you. I see my heart, my love.
I see my will being done in you. In all of you. My church.
When you are experiencing life the way God wants you to experience it, you know and believe and identify the fact that God is good. He doesn't sit in heaven with lightning bolts waiting for you to screw it up. And when you really start to chip away at the stone that is 'hardening your heart', Jesus smiles and laughs and demonstrates his love for you in a multitude of ways. When you give up your idols, when you sacrifice your self-serving nature so that others might experience the love of God, you see and feel and hear and enjoy the love and joy that is in Christ Jesus. No one could ever explain that to me as I grew up, as I became a young adult, as I became a young man, and even now as I go through the 'middle ages', I don't know that words can do it. You need to experience it in order to understand it. Without the grace and peace that are offered as a free gift, and without experiencing that by engaging with who God really is and how much he really loves this world, you can never understand the love 'that surpasses all understanding. No wonder I could never get it before. Here are a few miracles that have happened because of the level of engagement that I have worked toward:
-No longer a smoker
-No longer participating in the amount of alcohol consumption that I used to
-Not looking at pornographic images
-Loving others at a level I never knew was possible
-Working to honor my wife each day in my actions and words
-Loving my children unconditionally
-Released my career path to God's path, not my own
-Utilizing my skills and abilities to serve the underserved in many areas of my life
-Reading my bible daily
-Spending time in prayer for others regularly
By no means am I posting these things to boast, for I in no way think I am better than anyone. I am still a sinner that falls short each day of the perfection Jesus says we should work toward. I am simply posting some of these items in my life to encourage others. To identify the miracles of transformation that God has performed in my life recently. I clearly see now the direct relationship between my engagement with God and my ability to follow ways that are counter cultural in this broken world.
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