A Perfect Day!
I woke up Monday morning and realized my right shoulder and arm were very sore. At first I thought maybe I slept wrong, but then I realized that was the arm I used to baptize the day before. I instantly smiled! I love the fact that my arm was aching because we baptized so many people Sunday---halleluiah!!! Some pains can be wonderful reminders of something reallly GOOD that happened!!! I suppose childbirth could be another such pain. :-)
The other day I was driving down the road and I felt an incredible WAVE of gratitude wash over me. Sometimes life seems too busy to stop and just be grateful for all the good in our lives & we must really make the effort to literally count our blessings and say THANK YOU to our God. Perhaps if we don't make the effort, we will feel a WAVE wash over us when we're not expecting it and might have to pull off the side of the road to weep and give thanks to our loving Father. :-)
My mother told me the other day that she went to see the Oncologist. She said he kept looking at her and telling her how GREAT she looks. She said, thanks, I feel GREAT! And this from the women who was on her death bed only last Fall---wow!
And my brother has recently gotten a miracle. He is getting better every day---thanks be to God and to so many who prayed faithfully! I am so grateful.
And I walk in our HUGE office and feel so much gratitude. God has been so good to us! He wants to bless us beyond what we can even imagine........and He has!
I love the new people that God has recently brought to our church. Already, I can't imagine our church family without them all being a part of it. And I love the longer time members of our church & the incredible memories we share as welll. Many of them hung in there through thick and thin and I am so proud of them & feel so much gratitude to them.
On Sunday, it was awesome at the baptism / picnic to see so many new friendships being made & old friendships becoming deeper. The old and the new all connecting together in the name of Jesus!
Yeah, there are a lot of hard and difficult moments in ministry & in church families---just like with every family. My heart hurts when other people hurt---like for Rose when her mom past away last week. Or when I know someone is depressed or when someone leaves our church for the wrong reasons. I know all these things hurt the heart of God as well.
But there are also some really high high moments in the church family & in the life of the church. This past Sunday was definitely one of those for me & I believe for all of our church family. God was moving like a WAVE throughout our entire church. I'm sure almost everyone felt it. The music has been nothing less than spectacular and Spirit filled recently. Our worship team has reached an incredible level of talent and giftedness that is a total WOW.
They are truly like a team of ONE recently. It was amazing to watch them Sunday. So in tune with one another and playing as ONE. We hired a sound engineer to come in and help us with a few issues & he was blown away by their talent. He constantly goes to other churches to help worship teams & he couldn't stop raving about our worship team---said it was INCREDIBLE.
I know it's not to any one person's credit on the team. It's because the whole team is together in unity and in humility and love of Christ. It shows. There is no pride in one person---only in the team and in the Oneness of Christ in the music they produce. Only God could have put a team like that together!
I pray for them because I know the enemy will target that team more than any others and always has in the past. It's not surprising; but God is with us and we will not fear.
We have been forming more ministry teams in the church recently and it's exciting to see God moving in the hearts & lives of His people. I am continually AMAZED!
I'm sure we'll have plenty of battles and challenges ahead in the life of our church. That's just life. But the high's are so very amazing and I never stop being in AWE of what God is doing! Yes, we've all seen our share of what we might call 'the perfect storm' in our lives & in churches.
But there are also many days like we had this past Sunday in the Kingdom of God on earth. It felt like a near perfect day for BHCC. You could feel the love and unity in a powerful wayat the baptism when we all sang praises to our God. He was there. Only through His power were we all there together as the One Body of Christ.
What a beautiful picture of what it will be like every day for all eternity when we get to heaven! It was a taste of what is yet to come when we'll all be united together in worship of our Precious Lord and Savior! It's enough for now and I will savor the flavor for months and years to come! Thanks be to GoD!
Worthy is the Lamb! Worthy is the Lamb!
Because He Lives & Reigns at BHCC,
Lin :-)