Friday, January 23, 2009

God met me at the altar

Last Sunday when I was so down I went to church open to hearing God speak to me. I was not disappointed. An unusual thing occured and they had an altar call during the worship. "If you need something from God-come down front during worship..." I did and I heard God answer me about what I was to do. I rejoice for His mercy! I was really needing reassurance that what I believed I had heard from God over time about my call to Reedsburg and New Life. He reiterated my call and my orders. I was told to return to Reedsburg and fight. I am a fighter so I was ready to pick up my weapons and use them but He reminded me to take my tools in one hand and weapons in the other. Jacob Bock was the speaker. I had seen a book on the table before I went in and was impressed to buy it. Now I am carrying the book and will read it before I read other books. Jacob Bock is A/G and a missionary to Madrid Spain with his wife and two kids. They were all there and gave example of the street preaching they do in Madrid. I was truly drawn to them and wondered if I could get a box and then go downtown Reedsburg but it just seemed so droll...

Later this week at prayer I was hearing scripture to speak to the dry bones again and the breath would come into them. Yeah! So I spoke to the empty pews as if to the congregation. Later P.W. came up with a great idea for using the church to show movies. Our town just lost its theater due to the flooding and it is not planning to reopen. It is expensive for families to take the kids to a movie anyway so a free movie night would be appreciated. Our target age group in Reedsburg is 20-40 with families. Not that we are opposed to the young or older ones but you have to have a target in order to hit one. So families it is! This is not the only idea but it is one idea that could bless the community and make relationship to families that are not already churched. I feel hopeful that God will bless this outreach.

I have to come up with a story or movie clip about integrity for this weeks Life Connection class on Sunday morning. The hard part is making it relevent to 7 year olds and 16 year olds as the class is broad in age. Love the challenge, but if you have a suggestion please leave a comment before tomorrow night!
I also read "The Shack" this week. I enjoyed the novel and the novel way of presenting the trinity. I did take it as an allegory and not as some wierd way of presenting a bad doctrine. I have listened to views that are highly critical of the book as ungodly. I see it differently and would think anyone could get the idea that God is relational from this book. If anyone took it as the whole picture it would be like a blind man feeling the elephant trunk and deciding an elephant was like a snake. Evidence that isn't complete, right? So if you want a really good book about learning to forgive and grasping how God loves us then read it. If you want to build a doctrine go to the Word of God. I was compelled to finish the book and it was an easy read.

All in all it was a great week. I even swam for 40 minutes and had a long wonderful lunch with Sue. Hope this next week is just as positive.

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