Church Today

I was laying in bed this morning (after the alarm clock went off) debating on whether to get up and go to church, or sleep in a bit more. I kept thinking that I didn't get enough sleep seeing as how I didn't get home until after 1am from work and then I had to do the whole work thing all over again today. However, I knew that I needed to get up and get going! I sat next to friends James and Marcie this morning, and she said that if it was such a big debate within that it must mean God had something he wanted to tell me this morning through the word being preached!

What did I learn? "Jesus is MY EVERYTHING!" Not sometimes, not when I'm in a good mood, not when I am desperate to pay this month's bills...but all the time! Through good and bad, Jesus is my everything. Friends aren't my everything. Money isn't my everything. My car isn't my everything. My everything is only found in one place and that is Jesus Christ. I'm glad that I wake up every morning and have the opportunity to decide whether to get up for church or not. There are so many people that don't have the same opportunities that I take for granted! No more debates...Jesus is my everything!

Pastor also spoke about breakthroughs today. Here are just a few key points that I picked up on as he was speaking about the last few chapters of Job:

1. "I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you" 42:2--God can truly do anything He wants to and no one...especially me...is able to stop Him. He can make a way where there seems to be no way. He can provide finances when you don't have two pennies to rub together. He can heal the blind and the sick. Isn't it great to know He can do whatever, whenever?!!!

2. "I had heard about you before, but not I have seen you with my own eyes" 42:5--Amazing how Job was such a righteous man before everything bad happened to him. However, during that time of blessing he states he had only heard about God...after his children, livestock and very way of living was wiped out he saw God with his own eyes and knew God so much more intimately. Because Job embraced his personal pain he was able to deepen the quality of his realtionship with God! I want this!

3. "We are confident that as you share in suffering, you will also share God's comfort" 2Cor1:7--this is hand in hand statement. You must suffer to be comforted, you can't have one without the other. As I know that I want God's comfort, I know that I will go through suffering...it isn't an option...so don't going looking for the back door to get out of the suffering that comes.

4. "So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning" 42:12--I don't regret the past, I don't think that I have lived life to the fullest, and I don't think I have seen the greatest portion of God's blessing in and through my life. The best years of my life are still to come!! Yes I believe this even as I see 32 looming on the horizon!

Thank you Jesus that I got up out of bed this morning and heard the word of God spoken into my life! I thank you that you meet me right where I am at, knowing at all times what I need and how I need to get there! I give everything into your hands...the worries I have right now about finances, my car, and relationships. They are not mine to worry about, but they are yours to work in and through. I know that you have only the best in store for me, and I continue to press into that which You have called me to!!!!