Basking in the Love of God

From the moment I woke up, I had the feeling that today would be special and God did not disappoint.  Yesterday, was a special day for me.  We are now meeting on a regular basis for our Emmaus team meetings.  We received our assignments for the Emmaus weekend yesterday and the we annointed each team member.  It was a special time and then we received communion.  I had the opportunity to serve the bread and as I broke off a piece for each member, I looked them straight in the eye and said, “This is the body of Christ broken for you.”  By the time we finished, it had really gotten the best of me and then it was my turn to receive communion.  What a powerful time.  The only time in my life that was anything close was while serving communion at FLAME in Frankfort, IN.  Again, I was serving the bread.  There is something about holding the bread (which is the body of Christ) and tearing it — breaking it off — that really brings home the point that Christ’s body was broken for us. 

God has been dealing with me lately and yesterday, I spent basking in His presence.  After the meeting I had to go to work for a few hours and help close.  It was at that point I went over to the church to run through my sermon.  What a powerful time that was.  I went over about 9:45 and came home at midnight after a long time spend praising, praying and talking and communing with God (it was very cool.) 

That is what set up today.  By the time we got to worship this morning I was wired!  I really hope my sermon made sense (it made sense to me!)  I was excited and passionate about preaching the Word this morning.  I gave everything I had.  Some will probably think I had too much coffee, but what I had was a serious dose of the Holy Spirit.  Even though there was no physical response to the message, I really believe the congregation was moved by the sermon.  I was physically drained by the time lunch rolled around.  Wow! what a morning.  But God was not done.  After a few hours rest, we were back at church for choir practice and then a Celebration of Praise (I had a very loose outline of where we were going.)  We had a good amount of our regular church kids show up and most of our musical teens sang and did a great job.  We sang both new and old songs of worship.  I have been letting everyone choose there favorites out of the hymnal for the last few weeks, so we did that as well.  God met with us once again tonight and as he usually does a theme emerged as the service progressed. 

Yes, I have been long-winded tonight — but God has been so good.  I have been overwhelmed this weekend with His grace and his mercy and especially His love — that God would love me — that God would choose me to do His work — that God would want me as a partner in the ministry.  Sometimes that is all just a little overwhelming.  My take-away from this weekend is that everyone needs to know that God loves them and cares about them.  We need to live our lives so that the world knows that without a doubt.  Carp Diem (Sieze the Day)!