Being Christ Like
Today I felt the most Christ-like I ever have. I felt more Christ like today than anytime I've attended church or any church function. More than anytime I've spoken in tongues, more than any time I've wept and cried and prayed at an altar. Today I experienced Christ in a whole new way.
One of the other youth leaders I work withat church has a job with a medical supply company. I don't know the extent of his job, but he delivers wheelchairs and oxygen stuff to people. On his job he came in contact with a Holy Ghost filled lady who is paralyzed. She hasn't been able to attend church often, so he suggested that he would bring some of the youth to her home, and we could sing and pray with her.
What started out as a mission to minister and encourage this woman turned into her ministering and encouraging us. She told us her story of how 2 years ago a limb fell on her as she was helping a neighbor trim her tree. As a result she has become paralyzed and placed on disability. Lately she's been praying for God to send people to her house to encourage her, and God sent us her way. We sang a few songs, shared testimonies with her, and prayed for her. Mostly, we just listened to her talk about the Lord. She shared her prayer of walking again and her passion to be able to lay hands on others and watch God heal them. I know that God is going to heal this lady and that one day she will be standing in our church giving her testimony.
There wasn't any formal service. We were sitting in chairs and couches in this woman's living room, but God's Presence was there. There was no mistaking it. So many times as "Christians" we get caught up in church. We think going to church 3 times a week makes us super spiritual. We live day to day, going to our jobs, coming home, going to church, and going back through the same routine. We never take time to get to know someone or to share our lives with them. We think that the only way to "witness" to someone is to invite them to church, shove the Holy Ghost down them. If they continue to come to church, we've succeeded. If they never show back up, we failed.
Church is more than meeting up in a sanctuary, singing 3 praise songs, having some preaching, and crying in the altar at the end of the service. If we never take what we have outside of the church, we've accomplished nothing. Doing what I did today is what Jesus did everyday of his life. True religion isn't teaching Sunday School and attending Youth Service on Wednesday night, though those things are good. True Religion is helping the orphans and the widows, reaching out to those with less than us. Our job is not to judge why they are in that predicament, but simply to give out of our abundance, cheerfully. Only then are we true Christains; only then are we being Christ-like!
One of the other youth leaders I work withat church has a job with a medical supply company. I don't know the extent of his job, but he delivers wheelchairs and oxygen stuff to people. On his job he came in contact with a Holy Ghost filled lady who is paralyzed. She hasn't been able to attend church often, so he suggested that he would bring some of the youth to her home, and we could sing and pray with her.
What started out as a mission to minister and encourage this woman turned into her ministering and encouraging us. She told us her story of how 2 years ago a limb fell on her as she was helping a neighbor trim her tree. As a result she has become paralyzed and placed on disability. Lately she's been praying for God to send people to her house to encourage her, and God sent us her way. We sang a few songs, shared testimonies with her, and prayed for her. Mostly, we just listened to her talk about the Lord. She shared her prayer of walking again and her passion to be able to lay hands on others and watch God heal them. I know that God is going to heal this lady and that one day she will be standing in our church giving her testimony.
There wasn't any formal service. We were sitting in chairs and couches in this woman's living room, but God's Presence was there. There was no mistaking it. So many times as "Christians" we get caught up in church. We think going to church 3 times a week makes us super spiritual. We live day to day, going to our jobs, coming home, going to church, and going back through the same routine. We never take time to get to know someone or to share our lives with them. We think that the only way to "witness" to someone is to invite them to church, shove the Holy Ghost down them. If they continue to come to church, we've succeeded. If they never show back up, we failed.
Church is more than meeting up in a sanctuary, singing 3 praise songs, having some preaching, and crying in the altar at the end of the service. If we never take what we have outside of the church, we've accomplished nothing. Doing what I did today is what Jesus did everyday of his life. True religion isn't teaching Sunday School and attending Youth Service on Wednesday night, though those things are good. True Religion is helping the orphans and the widows, reaching out to those with less than us. Our job is not to judge why they are in that predicament, but simply to give out of our abundance, cheerfully. Only then are we true Christains; only then are we being Christ-like!
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