This week has been less than the best.

Wednesday night was the best--NOT :) A guy who goes to our church is in serious physical pain with no end in sight. As I talked to him for over an hour I was so overwhelmed with all that he was going through. I'm a "fix-it" person. If there's a problem, I'll work on it and think on it and figure out a solution. That's the kind of person I am. But there is no "fixing" his situation. I couldn't "do" anything. And it broke my heart. Right after I got off the phone with him, I got a call from my brother. His life has been turned upside down and he was now in the hospital suffering from a nervous breakdown. And again there was nothing I could "do". Nothing I could do to "fix" or even temporarily put a band-aid on the situation. And my heart was broken once more.

After I got off the phone, I did a lot of crying. Not for me, but for them. For the guy who deals with physical pain everyday and it's messing up his life in more ways than you could imagine. For my brother who feels like he's lost everything. I cried for them. I cried that their lives are so messed up. And then I spent some time with God. And I laid it out before Him. It was good. He doesn't want me to "fix" everything. He doesn't want me to "figure" it out. He wants me to love on people. If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it..." 1 Corinthians 12:26 It's been a long time since I've allowed myself to "suffer" with another. Most of the time I take it before God and trust Him with it and go about my merry way. Oh and don't forget that I would give a band-aid or two for the situation. God calls us to suffer with each other.

Thanks God that you humbled me this week and made me think about someone else and not just to think, but to feel their pain. Thanks for making it real to me.

Be the body. Suffer with those who are suffering.

And there is an upside as well... ...Or if one part of our body is honored, all other parts share its honor. 1 Corinthians 12:26
Rejoice with those who are rejoicing! Tonight I will do that too. I'm going with a bunch of ladies from The Crossover to TGI Friday's to eat and talk and have a great time. And I'm sure there will be lots of laughter!

So really, this week has been a good week. I was allowed to come alongside of other parts of "the body" and suffer and I'm also getting the opportunity to rejoice as well.

God is good.

Experiencing God

Just like individuals, churches are often more interested in what God wants them to do than what He wants them to be. Being the kind of people that please God is far more important than doing something for Him.

Ahh, being. That sense of just "being" there. Not doing anything. Drives us crazy. Can't imagine the thought of not being busy doing something.

God desires purity and holiness in our lives. He's more interested in who we are than what we do. He wants character development..we want to be able to "list" all the great causes we've championed. I think some of us will be surprised when we stand before Him on judgment day and find that our list is insufficient. Develop who you ARE in Christ. The actions will follow out of that being..and the best part is, those actions won't be filled with our selfish desires and motivations, they will be filled with God's power and His authority and will actually make a difference.

Two days in a row..whoo hoo!

Just finished my lesson today and there was such a great illustration, that I just had to share it!

The question, How can I know whether the word I receive is from God, my selfish desires, or Satan? was posed to Blackaby and the following was an illustration he used to help bring understanding.

From Experiencing God (workbook) page 160

Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Mounties, train men in anti-counterfeiting work. They never let a trainee see a counterfeit bill. They know only one genuine type of ten-dollar bill exists. They so thoroughly study the genuine bill that anything that does not measure up to that is counterfeit!

You can't imagine all the ways people can counterfeit money. But Mounties don't study how people counterfeit money. They just study the real thing. Anything that doesn't measure up to that is fake!

I just loved that. Applying that to our spiritual lives... Know God thoroughly and when something comes your way and you have to question it..measure it against God. If it doesn't measure up..it's not from Him.

Thanks God!