Yes, I am bringing LIFE back to this blog!! :D
Last night I had an INCREDIBLE time with some friends. I'm telling you, it was friendship in it's fullest glory; sharing, talking about what God is showing us, talking about God in general, reading His word, PRAYING, listening to Him, laughing, and just...... being. Hanging out, but with God THERE.
I really wanted to get together with some people, just to hear what God might be saying to each of us. And to encourage each other. God designed us to be in companionship with fellow believers, so that we can help each other out, but He also uses someone else to say something to you. It's just like how He designed the human body... with a head, hands, feet etc. When all the parts are together, then the body works wonderfully. So, when all the different parts of the Church's body (people) are working together, then it's complete! (And we can bring God's kingdom!)
"Truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” - Jesus (Matthew 18:19-20)
I saw this ^ happen last night!! We specifically prayed for God's presence to come, for us to hear His voice, and for Him to lead our discussion. AND HE DID! He was THERE, and He SPOKE to me (by giving me a picture - and I don't normally get pictures like that! It was incredible!), and He LEAD OUR DISCUSSION! Looking back on it now I'm realizing how everything tied together so perfectly. The random passages of the Bible we read and what we were talking about really clicked together. I really felt that God was leading it all. Which is the whole point.
Haha, it's funny because I was actually kinda nervous about it all beforehand. I hadn't really done anything like this before and I really wanted God to lead it all. To be honest, I was afraid that we wouldn't be able to hear Him. But we prayed for God to open our hearts to hear Him, and HE DID! :D
Anyways, this morning, as I was biking back from the neighbour's farm (I'm taking care of it this weekend - so much fun! :D), I was thinking about some of the things we talked about last night (there was so much, that I need a while to process it all!). Then I got a sort of revelation!!
I was thinking about what we were discussing about our motives behind being good. Do we want to do what is right so that we can feel good about ourselves? Do we want to be righteous, or SELF-righteous? If those are our motives than we will just become prideful. However, it is important that we try to be good/do good things, but we should only do it if our motives are right. So what is the right motive? To honour God... to obey Him when He says to "Love your neighbour as yourself" and to "Love the Lord with ALL your heart, mind, strength and heart."
So here's the sort of revelation I got when biking in the rain:
Honouring God is different than trying to please Him. Nothing we can do can make Him any more pleased with us than He is. Nor is there anything we can do to EARN His grace, favour, and love. We never deserved His goodness towards us in the first place, and we can't even BEGIN to deserve such amazing gifts that He gives us. But (to quote Reliant K) "The beauty of grace, is that it isn't fair." He still has grace, and He still is pleased with us. The picture I had was exactly that; Jesus was laughing and playing with us, like we were all his little children. He smiles with us. He is delighted in us (no matter how messy we are). haha!!! That's so cool. :) But it's neat because I didn't think of this. It was God showing me....
So I don't think honouring God is about pleasing Him, but more about THANKING Him! When someone does so much good to you as Jesus does, than one can't help but praise Him. And when you spend time with Him, in His presence, then His goodness fills you up! Till you're OVERFLOWING, that it's just NATURAL for good things to come out of you. When you spend time with God, then His Spirit fills you up, and SEEPS THROUGH. Then the good things you do isn't you anymore, but GOD!! Then naturally, all the glory goes to Him... because you know it wasn't you! Isn't that incredible?
Haha. I love that whole concept. I was laughing as I was getting SOAKED during my bike-ride.
Sooo....
> Being 'good' means to honour God
> Honouring God means showing gratitude to Him, (thanking and praising Him)
> We show gratitude to Him BECAUSE of all that He does!
> And we become open to the good that God does when we SPEND TIME with Him.
AWESOME ZOE!!!!!!!!!!! The weird thing is that we have been learning a lot of the same things here! About what is righteousness? And how, and what does that look like? And all that. We were also able to dig in, and know what the Hebrew word means for that, and the difference between the Hebrew worldview, and our, 'Greek' worldview. And How the Greek worldview is visual, and descriptive, whereas the Hebrew worldview is all about FUNCTION.
ReplyDeleteYyyyeeeaahhhh.. there's a lot to be learned! The more we know, the more there is to know! And THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE BEST TEACHER!!!!!! :D:D:D
I'm SO glad that you were able to have a holy spirit taught, time! << That is a simple church, right there. congrats on starting your own simple church ZOE!!!! :D:D You are awesome and amazing for just going ahead and doing that!!! YEEEEEHAAAAAWWW!!!!!!
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
Can't wait to tell the crew here... :D
May God bless you and keep you, and may His face continue to shine upon you! Blessings!
I love your insight and thoughtful heart in listening to God. Being in tune with what He is saying and doing with you and the people you got together with. Relationship.
ReplyDeleteThat's what is was like when I met with Jette, Susan, Lucy, Lisa and Joanne for breakfast. We caught up with each other, enjoyed the company and shared what was going on in our lives. This time I talked about my struggles and got prayer. Lisa has just moved and said God answered all her prayers so we rejoiced. I was able to share my heart, and struggles they prayed for me and were even encouraged. Jette said,"This is church." When we all hugged each other.
They are getting the simple church concept.
I got a call from a family that wants to meet for dinner and talk about how God is leading them to simple church. People are popping up all over the place.