Need Some Peace...

Ever had one of those days? Well- it seems like one of those weeks or maybe even month, where things are moving so fast and slightly chaotic that you don't even feel you are getting enough sleep to keep up? Or you never quite get to the end of each days list of things to do and consequently the laundry backs up and dirty dishes remind you they are sitting there by the smell hovering close to the sink. Yuck! It's not really that bad. (Me rolling my eyes.) Or you look out into the future and get heart palpitations over what it might hold.

The most frustrating thing to me though is that I want to be done with the everyday things and ponder on the important.  I am still reading Hatmaker's book Interrupted. I might get two pages quickly read early in the morning before the birds even start waking up. (Me feeling a little sorry for myself- what a baby.) Anyway, this author is pleading with us to break out of the American dream mode.  I need to be interrupted. I'm praying that we can be hit over the head by God and made to see the important things to do and think about in life. I think these things we have been talking about in our worship time are helping:

*First thing first is to acknowledge the fact the we must live by the Spirit that is living in us.

*We should never make a move physically or emotionally or in any way without asking God to move through His Spirit in what ever situation we are in.

*The Spirit was not just a there and then (bible times) thing but He is a here and now thing- living in us.

John 14: 15-26
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 
(By the way if you are wondering what the pictures mean- they really don't have anything to do with the content of the words in this post. I just needed to think about our peaceful vacation and lay my eyes on some beauty. Maybe you do too.)
Don't those verses just make you want to jump up and down and high five someone?!!
We have Jesus living in us. We are His hands and feet. I fear we just don't even think about it enough for Him to make a difference through us and in us.
We must pursue the Spirit actively.
Words from Tim Woodroof, our interim preacher:
I pray we can be like the apostles of Jesus.
They followed Jesus around for three years.
They saw and heard awesome things.
They were now unfitted for boats and nets.
He ruined them for ordinary living.
Jesus addicted his apostles/disciples to His presence.
Oh, that we would learn to be addicted to the presence of Jesus.
Oh, that we would be ruined for this world and only long for the next one.
Oh, that we would know that living life for Jesus is the only life worth living.
Shout to the Lord all the earth let us sing-
Power and majesty praise to the King!!
Jesus living in us. In us.

Let's practice not making a move in any way without acknowledging the Spirit in us and asking God to guide our every word and step and move and thought and days.
Then I think we can better form a plan to love and seek and transform our neighborhoods and cities and world. For. Him.
Interrupt us Lord.


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