Worshiping…In Spirit and In Truth

Today I spent “recovering” from yesterday and I say that in a good way. Pam, Rebecca and I went to the bank and grocery shopping. It’s been a long time since I went shopping on Monday morning. This afternoon, I took down our outdoor Christmas decorations in a t-shirt and shorts. It topped out at 70 degrees this afternoon.

As we woke this morning, Pam and I listened to Spirit-FM out of Lynchburg. One DJ is from Roanoke originally and other other is from Quebec. Pam and I could identify with Linda (from Quebec,) this is winter in name only. It is a far cry from lows of -35 and highs barely reaching zero with snow piled high in Fort Miller. As I write it is still 54 degrees this evening.

I helped Rebecca put together a PowerPoint presentation that she will be sharing with our students on Wednesday night about Southern Wesleyan University. She did a great job putting it together and has some real talent in that area. Carp Deim!

With Christmas money, I bought Casting Crowns “new” CD, “The Altar and the Door.” I first became familar with this CD via the radio. The song “East to West” has been playing since early this summer. That particular song was part of a very powerful moment during my Emmaus Walk. I have never listened to the song the same way since.

There are some great songs on this CD. I’ve only had this CD since Saturday, but the strongest cuts so far for me are “Everyman,” and “The Word Is Alive.” As I’ve been listening to this CD, I sense a sermon series coming from it. I did that with Lifesong and it was one of the more powerful times in the life of our church since I have been here. It’s one of those CD’s that I have to listen over and over again, because I catch something new each time. It’s been a long time since Casting Crowns has released a CD, so it’s good to hear from them again.

This past Sunday I taught our Young Adult Sunday School class. Most of these class is older than I am. The subject was healing faith. This was an interesting subject because it was just a year ago that I was fighting to live. I came to have a different view what it means to have faith when you are facing death yourself. As I look back a year ago when I was sick, the day I got to the hospital I was not in my right mind. It was just hard trying to understand what I was being told by the doctor and nurse. All I know is that one word kept coming up in the conversation and that was death. It did not hit me until Sunday when I started to get better what I had heard the doctors and nurses telling me. On Sunday all I could think about is God’s love. The song that kept going through my mind was the “Love of God”. There are times I have to admit that I wonder why God let me live. I just have to believe that He had a good reason to let me live.

One of the students suggested that if a person does not have enough they will not be healed. My view of healing faith is when you put your faith in God’s healing power is know that you put your life in God’s hands and knowing He will do what is best for His will. Sometimes God will heal the person and sometimes God will take that person home with him, because for the believer the ultimate healing is heaven itself.