I have been told that it is hard to impress me. I suspect that comes from having such high standards of myself and others. Well, God is teaching me that even the simplest blessings in life are impressive. It feels like a dichotomy though because our society and culture has SOOOO many unimpressive attributes. But! The impressive attributes are astounding!!! Ann Marie invited me to attend church with her Sunday evening and I must say that I was impressed! I admire and respect her relationship with God but it’s the church I was impressed with…..I’ve always known that Maranatha Fellowship Church was a great church and very filled with the spirit. In my family it is common to raise hands or reach out for God. That hasn’t been so with me! I’ve tried here and there but never really felt comfortable. That is until Sunday night! I raised my hands high and I felt God’s presence in me and definitely in the church. Powerful experience and a very moving one. Anyway, it is evident at Maranatha that the people are serious about their relationship with God and very filled with the spirit of God. It was very comfortable, it was a new experience. A very good one at that. I guess what I’m getting at is this…..when we slough off the shackles of every day living in this world and truly try to connect to God we can see and feel things in a new and different way. We can experience our relationship with God beyond a conversation. We can actually engage in the Holy Spirit which is a very powerful experience and quite honestly it can be a bit scary. What is most important (at least I think so) is that we trust God and work to have a relationship with Him on all levels. Not just the ones that we are “comfortable” with or in. I know the relationship with God is subject to the individual and all I’m saying is that going to Maranatha on Sunday night opened my eyes and my heart even further for God. What else was impressive? The sermon. The sermon was led by a young man named BJ. Wow! That young man has a gift and we were blessed to receive it. I sent a message to the church requesting a copy of it so if I get one I’ll post it here on the blog. With that I leave you with the following requests: praise God, walk with God, trust God, receive and be thankful for His blessings and work daily to have “your” relationship with our God and Savior.
Chip
