There is a great stirring within my spirit. I can’t even explain the feelings I am having. They touch deeply into my soul.
On my way home yesterday from Cory McCool’s Going Home service, … Kelsea sleeping in the back seat, and Jay working on his laptop in the front seat… me driving with one earphone in my ear listening to the Bible on my iphone, dwelling in the presence of God that I felt so strongly through-out the day. I didn’t want to leave that special resting place, a place of peace that just is so thick and real… where you can almost feel the arms of God wrapping around you.
I chose to listen to Romans… starting in the first chapter… I got to the end of the 5th chapter, and beginning of the 6th… and I kept replaying it over and over. Romans 5:20, where it says, “…But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” And in Romans 6:1-6, 11-12… “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. For if we have been planted together in likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his ressurection…. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but ALIVE unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal BODY, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.”
This last week has been a time of deep reflection into my soul. My intents, my purposes… ME. Let’s hit it even deeper. MY SIN! Where am I living today? I live in a world where, yes, there is much sin, therefore much grace… But I think so often we become immune to sin. “Oh, it really isn’t as bad as that!” “God wasn’t talking about that, or he loves us too much to do that.” If God’s word is true in one statement.. it is true in all statements. God is loving, but God also expects obedience and loyalty to Him. We fail, often.. but are we so comfortable in our failures that we don’t allow God’s grace to do the work it was meant to do. It isn’t meant to allow us to stay in that sin… it is meant to give us the opportunity to rely on God, as he helps lift us out of that sin.
I look at this world…and think, are we in Sodom and Gommorah? Are we so far from God in our culture, in our times, that we really believe that everything is okay… Does our flesh suffer from sacrifice? Or is it happily content with the state we are in? Does the devil fight us? or does he leave us alone because we aren’t causing a ripple in the work he set out to do?
I want to be lifted out of the sin. I want my mind to be focused on God and living my life to the fullest by serving Him in whatever he desires of me. I don’t want to go backward… I don’t want to be part of a great falling away because I just accept that things are the way they are because of the time we live in. No, they aren’t!! God is still God! God’s word is still true! God still expects the same from his people as he always did.
Am I so caught up in the “things”… (busy, busy, busy.. entertained daily, going through the motions…etc) that I miss out on the opportunity that God is giving me to step out from among the rest, to dedicate fully and completely to him. This isn’t a one time dedication… it is daily, leaving behind the things that would distract me, tempt me, change me to be something other than what God has called me to be.
I know this may seem like rambling, but I wanted to get it on cyberspace “paper”, so I can study it deeper. 🙂
I feel the same thing. I think God is stirring up His church, readying them for a new dimension. When I got on FB after church today, there were so many testimonies of God moving in the different churches in MI. I was amazed…there is a pulling, a drawing apart that is taking place. It is coming down to the wire now…choose THIS DAY whom you will serve!
Scott and I both have been discussing how we feel a deeper need, an urgent need to get closer to God and the things of God.
Let’s keep praying, keep studying…and move forward together.
I believe that God is aligning things, placing them in the order they need to be. This world that we live in is in shambles, man is trying to come up with all the answers. People are taking more time off from church, alot of things going on. I told the Church Sunday morning, that everytime we miss church it is a vicotry for the devil. The last thing he wants is for us to take in more of the word. Because he knows it is the word that defeats him. I am thankful that we can feel GOd’s presences in our services, because I can only wonder what it would be like to not have It. THere are churchs hurting today and falling apart because the people are not desiring the presences of God. I thank God for what he is doing!!!