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Monday, February 18, 2008

My Thoughts On Sunday's Church Service

Sunday's church service opened my eyes to some things that I do that aren't right. Pastor Rick didn't "preach" on a certain verse, he more or less taught us some things. He had some bales of hay stacked up with a target attached to the hay. The target was a sheet of paper with a faceless head on it.


Rick was talking about arrows yesterday. The arrows he talked about were:

Criticism - fault finding, passing severe judgment. He talked about how as Christians we should not be passing judgment on other people's lives but help them with their needs. The church wasn't meant for the holy, but for sinners. You don't have to be holy to come to church, come as you are! Some things I wrote down in my notes were this, "Christians are the brightest lights in the darkest places", "The same way I judge you is the way I will be judged", "Have compassion".

Comparison - Don't compare yourself to others, God designed you the way he wanted to.
He talked about how Christians compare themselves to other Christians in ways like, how we live our lives, how active we are in the church, our spiritual gifts, our families, etc. Here are the things I wrote down for my notes. "Do the very best you can do", "What you make happen for others, God will make happen for you", "Focus: Make the Master look good so He gets all the glory and honor".

Argument - This one really hit me hard! He started talking about arguing in your marriage. I'll be honest, Daniel and I are bad about this. We are both hard headed and want to have the last word. One thing Rick said was that in a marriage, one of you has to the be the adult and not fall into temptation and argue. Something I thought about while he was talking about this was a comedian I saw over the weekend on T.V., he said "Do you wanna be happy or do you wanna be right?" I know he was meaning something sexual but it made me think.

Rick said that power of life and death lies within the tongue! If you said it, apparently you meant it in your heart! Three things married couples argue about are a) Communication,
b) Sex, and c) Money. We are to fight for our marriage! Rick advised that we diffuse arguments with a soft tongue and also to never argue in public. I was really crying hard when he was talking about this because I love Daniel with all of my heart but our arguing is getting old! I've been reading "The Power of a Praying Wife" by Stormie Omartian. I try to read when I can, however, I do have a hard time trying to find quiet time to read. I'm working on it though.

Low Self-Esteem - I kind of missed some of this because I will still stuck on arguments. But I did write down a few things. We are made by the hand of God. Even though we may be feel bad about ourselves, we should always know there is a friend in God. We are not below anyone; inferiority.

Gossip/Doubt - This is another one that hit me like a ton of bricks. Living in a small town you hear a lot about everyone, often times, you repeat the things you heard. Now, in all honesty, I don't gossip to a lot of people but I do mention things to my close friends. Yesterday, I realized that I shouldn't be doing that. We are to rid ourselves of gossip, malice and bitterness. As Rick said in an earlier arrow, the power of life and death lie in the tongue. Certain members of the church were doing skits for each arrow showing us what he meant by these words. One thing he did with this one was a lady talking about Pastor Rick to som
eone else. See, Rick welcomes all sinners. Some churches kick you out of the church if you do something wrong, not Rick! He has a vision for this church and it is inspiring! I felt bad after listening to this one!

Last but not least,

Broken Heart - Remember when I said there was a target with a faceless man? Well, a male member of the church was shooting a real arrow with a real bow at the target for each topic Rick was talking about. Once all the arrows were shot Rick tore away the faceless man and it showed a picture of Jesus with all the arrows in his eye! Everyone in the church gasped. His point: When we point arrows at other people we are only breaking the heart of Jesus because he made that person we're talking about!

When we act on these things we are not allowing ourselves to grow with God. Last Sunday Rick talked about how actions do speak louder than words. So what if we go to church every Sunday, how is our walk with God Monday through Saturday? "Christians are the brightest lights in the darkest places". Are we letting our light shine throughout the week? Are
we inviting people to come to church and hear the Good News?

If you're reading this and you're in Georgia, I invite you to come to Joshua's Place Sunday morning! Learn more about the church on their website, click here! Wednesday we're having Bible Study at 7:00 p.m. Also on Wednesday's, Youth Bible Study, Journey (1st-6th grade) and Kids (0-5 yrs) nursery, toddlers and Kids Klass!

1 comment:

Shalene said...

Ohhhh! That hit home (pun definitely intended.) Thanks for the reminders. I'll have to share this with my hubby when he comes home. Though we do well with the not arguing thing, I have other issues in there. I won't get into them here, because that would take too long, but thanks for sharing. Blessings to you!

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