I was listening to a "famous" christian preacher talk about "feeling God's love" today. She mentioned that we receive all things from God by faith. She mentioned that with maturity we know Gods love and presence as a deep truth, not necessarily something that makes the hair on our arms stand up and waves of sensational insensibility rush by. I agree. We do live by faith not sight, and we do know Gods love and presence as a deep truth that remains as a foundation in our spirits. I guess it struck me that maybe some of Gods children have never experienced a great, (physical) wave of sensation around knowing God's love and presence in their lives.
I suppose there are some that will say that it is pure emotionalism, which in my opinion the church is in no danger of, and that spiritual experiences like tangible manifestations of the holy spirit are not necessary components of a healthy relationship with God. I do not argue that it is not necessary to have tangible experiences with the holy spirit to be saved, or even that a believer could go many years with a deep faith that did not involve physical manifestations of the holy spirit.



I guess what I am saying is that, why would you want to?



Let me say that on a regular basis that I can feel God with me. There are times when I have to rely on my faith muscles to know that God is with me, or his word which tells me so and is perfect in truth. But I also must say that I can feel him physically with me, that at certain times I can feel the world around me shut off, the things of this earth fade and a greater presence, a tangible one surrounds me, speaks to me, comforts me, confronts me. It is God, he shows up. I do not intend on becoming someone who just jumps from spiritual experience to experience defeated in between strung out for the next rush. I know that faith is much deeper than that. I also love the word and how it, He speaks to me and shows up in my life. I love relationship with others that brings God nearer to me, but I also find a fullness in knowing his tangible presence.
I think of Moses that relied on the tangible presence of God to find direction and strength, he also experienced great trails on his journey but still had access even through that to Gods tangible glory. I love the Psalms that show mans reliance on Gods presence. Think of David who when in repentance calls out "take not your Holy Spirit from me, do not cast me away from your presence."



I know that I need his presence, yes by faith, but also by his tangible glory. He is my friend and I experience the fullness of joy through his touch.



Psalm 16:11You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

WHO is this KING???

I love when I find a worship song that fits the season I'm in spiritually...check it out:

Highs and Lows

Now I don't know where the idea of highs and lows was invented, but I was first introduced to it by a comrade CO who used it as a tool to provoke discussion and debrief after a major group experience (conference, mission trip, etc.) It has been so effective that it caught on down here in Charlotte, so we use it with the kids @ cell group, in Church and so on. It's a great way to get down to the bare bones of something - especially for chatty kathys like me. (!)

The past few days have been FULL to OVERFLOWING when it comes to activities and experiences, so it's hard to narrow it all down. So, I'm just going to give you my highs and lows. Here goes...

Yesterday

Lows

While moving a group of Christmas turkeys from the bottom floor of the Corps to the kitchen on the second floor, I leaked raw turkey juice on my uniform (shirt, pants AND shoes)

I let the myself get all frustrated about this.
For about 20 minutes. Until the juice dried and I forgot all about it. (!)

Highs

I facilitated a family of my favourite kids loving on a couple of men whose sexual orientation generally causes them to despised - the guys thought they'd bless the kids by donating a beautifully decorated Christmas Tree, but in turn they were the ones blessed up (isn't that always the way!) and moved to tears by the beauty, acceptance and Christlike love of children...

I had a very enjoyable lunch date with new friends who feel like old friends.

I connected with a family I hadn't seen in a long time and was able to hook them up with our Christmas program - the BEST part of this high is the testimony Ms. Lea shared with me. You see, we've always known her to move around from slummy run-down rental house to slummy, run-down rental house...and the house she's been in these past months isn't any different. Until she got a letter from her landlord's bank indicating that they were foreclosing on the house and that she had 8 days to collect her boys and their belongings and get out. Ms. Lea isn't a wallflower - she's feisty! She called up the bank and spoke with the manager, pleading for more time and asking if there was anything that she could do to avoid being evicted...jokingly he said "Well, if you had $1000 you could put down a down-payment" Ms. Lea told me that in that moment she only had $300 to her name - so she did what she could on a wing and a prayer and was able to scrape together the money -Ms. Lea is the proud owner of a slummy, crummy run-down house! It made my day!

Random Prayer

Twice today I have had the experience to just stop and pray with two different people, not for any reason in particular, just because I wanted to enjoy practicing the presence that way. It has been a huge blessing. I often pray throughout my day but it has been a while since I stoped and prayed with somebody else just because God is good. I forgot that we are hard wired to do just that ... praise God for being so good - TOGETHER!

I think we can personalize our relationship with God so much so that we actually isolate our faith journey to exist just between us and him. I do not think that is a terrible thing but at best it means that our journey is one that we are on alone. I know that God is with us and that He will never abandon us but I also do not think that the fullness of joy, and Jesus said he came to make our our complete, can manifest without the fellowship of others.

The problem, my problem, is that because life can get so busy often we do not have time to just chill with other believers and share how amazing God is and what he is doing in our lives. I often live in this tension between serving others and serving "each" other. I see the example of Christ where he stopped to wash his brothers feet along side feeding 15,000 people. I am encouraged by the Acts 2 community that not only gathered in the temple courts together for prayer but also daily broke bread in each others homes.

I guess I want it all ... the fullness ... a completed joy.

I guess I will start with stopping tomorrow too.