Weekend of December 27/28-2008

This has been an Awesome, God filled, weekend! Last night at church, we had our last message of the Dreams series and sang 10* songs!! WOW! It was Super sweet and I felt truly blessed to be a part of that! This morning we had two more services that included 7* songs, a Great...yet short...communication from God through Pastor, a truly awesome testimony that was filled with a powerful message filled with God's amazing Spirit, And we celebrated communion. Oh yeah...AND...gave away 3 Wii's!! I would have to say the service I experienced the Holy Spirit the most...in a personal way...was the 9:30 service. God passionately struck my heart during the song 'Jesus Paid it All' as people were going up to get their remembrance cup of juice that represented Jesus' blood and a piece of bread for His body. That is One of the most beautiful sights I could ever experience in seeing. It's amazing to be part of a church body that God's truth and love is totally present at, then on top of that, having the opportunity to sing up on the stage while looking out to all the redeemed people praising the same God as I and raising their hands to show their love and adoration towards Him is seriously extremely moving. Then, adding people showing their thankfulness to Him even More by joining in the celebration of Communion is even more beautiful!! Very blessed. Pastor Mark didn't speak for a very long time this weekend, but within the time he did, God sure was All over it! The Lord gave him a great story that really moved my heart in an overwhelming way, about a couple of kids and a Dad. They were eating at a picnic, when a wasp started flying around them. Of course, the kids were getting frantic not knowing what to do, and the Dad grabbed the wasp and cupped/squished it in the palm of his hand. When he opened his hand, the stinger from the wasp was grounded into his skin. I'm sure his hand did not look the greatest after a sting like that either. The kids were surprised and of course felt badly for their Dad, as we don't want anyone we love to experience any kind of pain. But, he took the sting for the rest of the family, just like Jesus took the price of Our sins through suffering and shedding His blood on the cross. Of course, the wasp story is not even a Comparison to what Jesus did for us, but it allows us to see how Little that was...but how Big it touched our hearts. Can we Really imagine what Jesus went through for us? I know I can't truly fathom it, but He allows me to realize that truth in little pieces on a sporadic basis. Then, the Lord also had Mark talk about Heaven....telling us to use our imagination full blast! God gave us an imagination for a reason, but God tells us that No eye and No ear has heard what He Really has prepared for us. The Lord also allowed Pastor to remind us that God made the earth in 6 days, with the 7th being a day of rest. Could we really imagine what heaven is going to be like after He has been preparing it for us for a couple thousand of years so far? Wow! God strongly touched my heart and allowed tears of joy come to me when He gave Pastor different examples of the things we will love in Heaven. He gave him quite a few examples, but the one that struck me the Most was when he held open his arms and gave an example of what it would be like to embrace Jesus for the first time. WOW! There will be NOTHING better than that! My Father, my Love, my Savior, my Advocate, my Defender, my Strength, my Healer*, my God. Amazing. Talk about being thankful! You could have sent me to a million churches this morning, but I can Almost guarantee that I wouldn't have been touched more strongly by God than I was at NewSpring Church in Wichita Kansas! After All of that...God allowed an incredibly impactful testimony through the life He gave Lance's Dad, Ray. This was a man that was filled with a Great amount of faith and was bold about telling people his situation in battling with cancer and sharing God's truth and love with everyone who came across him. He is such a huge inspiration and I highly suggest anyone who reads this to check out his testimony whenever it gets on the NewSpring website this coming week...if God allows. Seriously though...be prepared to be totally inspired. But then, to have Lance sing the song that Ray wanted him to sing at his funeral...or rather I would say a day of celebration of him meeting Jesus...was just phenomenal. That took total strength from the Holy Spirit and it was Beautiful seeing God's grace and love surround Lance as he was doing what God called him to do for His divine purpose and reason. When all the services were over and while Kevin was cleaning up, God helped me in cleaning up some trash in the back of all the pews, as well as organizing the bibles, tithing envelopes, and notepads. That never gets old and is definitely a privilege and blessing to do! Then, when everyone was out of the church and Kevin was getting ready to lock up, God allowed me the opportunity to sit in the sanctuary by myself to pray and reflect. This was awesome because in the morning on the way to NewSpring...leaving at 6:30 in the morning...God allowed me to reflect on what it was like before my life in Christ. I remembered it being 6:30 in the morning and I would still be riding around in the country drinking...while being already drunk...and getting ready to go home after a night full of partying. I remember that person and lifestyle quite clearly, but wow, what it would be like if God wasn't a God who chose to rescue such undeserving people!! His grace is more than enough! Once God allowed Kevin and I to make it home about 2:30, we had an enjoyable lunch with the window that displayed God's radiant beauty blowing in on us. We lit a candle in place for Him which brought me joy. All my life, up until a couple of years ago, I remember looking out the window and being sad about Something or just missing someone or something in general. I was Always depressed and Hated looking outside at 'life'. But today, I was able to fix my thoughts on God's beautiful grace - thanking Him for the incredible freedom that He alone provides. I pray He allows me to always remember and cherish beautiful moments such as these.