Sooooo, I finally broke down crying and confessed to my husband that the December service I attended at my home church in 2012 fulfilled me more spiritually than the entire year of sermons we heard at our home church. I know, I know. I am sad about it. I love my church and there are wonderful people there. I get so much from it in many ways, but spiritually I am hungry.
What do I do with this? My husband is loyal to a fault, as am I. We aren't going anywhere. We have relationships with these people. We learn from their actions how to be more Christlike through works. The Presbyterians are the most service oriented religion I have ever seen. My problem is that their sermons pretty much explain biblical text. They recap the stories with some interpretation along the way. For me, I need a challenge. I need someone to read the word of God and say, here, this is how you take it out into the world. Can you do that? Here are ways to try.
A few weeks ago the pastor of the Presbyterian Student Center on campus came to speak at our church. Now that was a lesson. His sermon was entitled, "The Edge of Glory." He spoke on being pushed to the edge and how to push things to the edge. He spoke on integration at the university and how the PSC was one of the first places to welcome african americans. They pushed to the edge because they knew it was the right thing to do, regardless of the backlash they may have received from the masses. He asked what we do to push things in our own lives. It made me think and try to figure out how to make it applicable for me. Yay! Something to take home!
After the talk I had with my husband yesterday, a friend of mine posted a link on FB to North Point Ministries sermon that morning (a mega church I am afraid of because, well, it's a mega church). But I watched the link and it was an amazing lesson on encouragement vs criticism. It was based on Proverbs 11:25 :When you replenish others you will be replenished..." This is a huge insight from Solomon. The challenge for us to take home: be mindful of how many words of encouragement you use in a conversation, when you start to criticize, stop yourself. Change the 1:6 ratio of encouragement to criticism in the average conversation. A message I can take home and practice!
Then this morning, I read a link on Momastery about an old man and an onion. It is a wonderful story and I encourage you to take a moment to read it. The lesson, sometimes being nice to people doesn't come back to you at that moment, but you know you did something kind. "You show you are a letter from Christ." (NPM) From Glennon, "People who believe badly still need love."
Application can make all of the difference. And that is what I need. I need to find a way to take the word of God with me and use it. My decision for now is to keep attending my church and couple it on Sunday's with lessons from NMP. Why should I rely on others to feed me spiritually. I need to find a way to do it myself. The solution isn't necessarily changing churches, because I could spend years finding a place that was perfect for me and still find things to complain about it. So how about I take pieces from all I know to be good? Pieces from my church, from blogs, from online sermons and patch-work it together for my faith journey. How about I make up my own hod-podge lessons and challenges each week? Challenge excepted. Let's do this.
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