"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matt 18:20
"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25
Last week was an exhausting week. Between working, looking for a house, packing, and running around from sun-up to after dark on Saturday Greg and I were wiped out on Sunday morning. We were laying in bed watching the news and Greg said he really didn't feel like going to church. He just wanted to lay in bed for awhile and relax before having to go back to work the next day. I completely understood - after all, he does have to leave the house every day to go to an extremely stressful job and he very seldom has down time.
We made a compromise. We agreed to not go to Sunday School and just go to church. Then he would go hang out with his friends for awhile and watch a Nascar race for the afternoon. I told him God has just blessed us with a house after a very short search and I felt like we needed to be faithful in our worship and spend some time just thanking Him for His gifts.
I am so thankful we didn't lay out of this worship service. I believe it is the best service I have ever been to. God was in that place! There are so many families in our church being attacked right now...through sickness and disease, infidelities, addictions, etc. It seems to be the families who are all the leaders, teachers, choir members, basically the active members that are being affected. During worship Sunday our pastor got up and began to speak about how his heart was burdened for what was going on within our church and he just wanted to spend some time in worship and prayer for anybody who needed it. He felt like there were some needs and people were distracted. That pretty much opened the floodgates.
For the next hour instead of listening to a sermon we heard people crying as they were praying at the altar; we heard people apologizing and making up with one another; we heard an impromptu testimony from a man who had been unfaithful to his wife...he had just come back from Promise Keepers on Saturday and he was asking for help to restore his marriage and keep him on the straight and narrow. Sisters praying with sisters-in-Christ and brothers praying with fellow brothers-in-Christ. It was an amazing, soul-cleansing, worshipping Sunday and I praise God I did not lay home in bed and miss that!
We made a compromise. We agreed to not go to Sunday School and just go to church. Then he would go hang out with his friends for awhile and watch a Nascar race for the afternoon. I told him God has just blessed us with a house after a very short search and I felt like we needed to be faithful in our worship and spend some time just thanking Him for His gifts.
I am so thankful we didn't lay out of this worship service. I believe it is the best service I have ever been to. God was in that place! There are so many families in our church being attacked right now...through sickness and disease, infidelities, addictions, etc. It seems to be the families who are all the leaders, teachers, choir members, basically the active members that are being affected. During worship Sunday our pastor got up and began to speak about how his heart was burdened for what was going on within our church and he just wanted to spend some time in worship and prayer for anybody who needed it. He felt like there were some needs and people were distracted. That pretty much opened the floodgates.
For the next hour instead of listening to a sermon we heard people crying as they were praying at the altar; we heard people apologizing and making up with one another; we heard an impromptu testimony from a man who had been unfaithful to his wife...he had just come back from Promise Keepers on Saturday and he was asking for help to restore his marriage and keep him on the straight and narrow. Sisters praying with sisters-in-Christ and brothers praying with fellow brothers-in-Christ. It was an amazing, soul-cleansing, worshipping Sunday and I praise God I did not lay home in bed and miss that!
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