I went down to Grace Community Church this morning for the Fall Women's Event. The guest speaker was Joni (pronounced "Jonny") Eareckson Tada. She is such an amazing woman of God. She does a million times more than I do for the Kingdom of God, and she's been a quadrapeligic for 40 years. Her two sermons this morning were so encouraging and powerful.
The first one was titled "A Jewel in His Crown" verses given throughout the sermon were: Malachi 3:16, Zephaniah 3:19, 1 John 2, Jeremiah 32, 1 Peter 2:22, 1 Peter 4:1, Matthew 20, Luke 12, 1 Kings 6,
Zechariah 9:16- The LORD their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown.
-Trouble is the textbook which teaches you who you really are
-You can't be sinless as Christ was, but for us to be like Christ is to sin less.
-God doesn't want us to be the same. God wants us to change. It is a process of hammering and is a series of drastic obedience to become more like Christ.
-Jesus is worth it all. To share in Christ's suffering, daily taking up our crosses and putting our sin to death.
-God could be doing a thousand different things through your life at any given moment.
-You are not a pebble without a purpose.
-Make sure the pain and difficulties that you face have a purpose.
-God will wipe away our tears. (Joni said, "when I finally have new hands to wipe away my tears, I won't need them for that anymore because God will wipe away my tears.")
The second sermon was titled "Rescue the Perishing".
-Don't toast your fate. Turn from your ways and LIVE.
-Suffering is a splashful/ a spoonful of hell, come early. Suffering should make us stop and think about what life is about, what we have done with Jesus in our lives.
-Don't let awkwardness override the opportunities to share the gospel.
-We should not be 'come and see' churches, we must be 'go and tell' churches. The lost won't come to us, we must go to them.
Verses: John 5, Ezekiel 33, Philemon 6
There was a continental breakfast before the event started, and I was standing along a wall of this room, eating my delicious tea cake and pumpkin bread, when a lady (her name was Elanor) approached me, addressed me by name (thanks to the nametag on my chest) and asked if I'd come to the event alone. I said that I did, and so she offered for me to hang out with her and the friend that was with her, Vivian. I graciously accepted the offer, for it's sad being a complete loner at a church event. I chatted with them about where I'm from, how I found out about the event, where I graduated from (turns out Elanor completed a Business Managment program at TMC), where I work, etc. The three of us sat together in the worship center, and then had lunch together. It was nice getting to know a couple of older ladies. I gave Elanor my phone number so that she could find Vivian and I at lunch, and at the end of the event, she said she'd call me to check up on me. So sweet! This lady I'd just met would call me? She'd mentioned at one point in our conversation how we are family- in Christ. And that if I never saw her again here on Earth, that we'd see each other up in heaven.
The Grace Women's Gospel choir was introduced today, which was amazing, for clapping used to be frowned upon (possibly banned?) at Grace Community not that long ago. One of my wingmates from Master's, Emily Taylor, was one of the several faces I recognized in the choir. It was great seeing her up there. I miss having friends. After the event was over, I searched for her in the crowd of 1400 women, and found her with her good friend (and also my wingmate), Michelle Mullin. I gave Emily a hug, and started chatting with her about what we are up to post-TMC, and as usual, I didn't know what else to talk about, so I said that I wanted to say hi to Michelle too, Emily tapped Michelle, I gave her a hug, and that was about it. So, I said it was great to see them both, and I left. Not too bad for my first interaction with people outside of work since I graduated. Wow. That's like 4 months. I need to get back into church and regain some social skills so that I don't always feel awkward talking to people, and am able to keep a conversation going for longer than 2 minutes. I don't know if that will ever go away really, for I've always been kind of an awkward person, but it's gotten a lot worse over the past couple of years...for reasons I don't really want to discuss. At all. And that is the problem. Keeping things hidden sucks. I would like to think that one day I will get over the fear of opening up to people again, and will be able to grow and change and move forward, but who knows? Do I have that kind of courage? How do you regain/ gain courage? I had to gather up a lot of courage just to speak briefly to two old friends today. How much more to open up to people about my messy problems? Why do I feel like the church is full of judgment? That all too often churches hold up these facades that the people that go there are doing great- they don't have problems like I do. And I know that's where the devil uses his powers on us. Making us think we are all alone. I should know that I am not. It just takes courage to seek out others and share one another's burdens. I want so badly to live life with other people. Work is the only place I feel like I am doing that, and even then, it is not exactly community like a church is. It is not a body of believers that can lift one another up. Why do I know these things, and then when it comes to acting on going to church, I freak out because I think I'm going to have to open up and share with everyone? I realize that I have messed up and put up my own facade for too long, so maybe that's why I think that's what is still shown by others in the church.
As I looked throughout the crowd of 1400 women today, I tried to picture each one of them as broken, hurting sinners, all united by one common, comforting, redeeming Savior. I need to hear some stories/testimonies. To get to know people and know that I am not alone in living in this broken, fallen, hurting world in days that are evil. That we must fight a battle everyday to deny ourselves, to fight sin, and to fight the devil and his evil schemes. To share God's miraculous story of hope with this hurting world.
Rain is so refreshing. I love when the change in seasons is actually visible. I miss the rain and the cold. Mostly the cold. As a person who sweats a lot, the cold is a nice break from always having to be embarassed about the sweatiness. I can wear a nice zip-up sweater (great for covering up the way less than perfect bod) and then if I get too warm, just take the sweater off and don't have to worry about being sweaty! It's a wonderful thing, the cold.
It's been a great Saturday thus far. I wish I had events to go to every Saturday to keep me busy. It's really weird not having homework or required reading in October. It's nice, but I am so lonely and bored without school (...or a roommate.....or church...).
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