Cornerstone Christian Church is finally letting go and letting GOD take control. It has been so inspiring to see how God has moved through our congregation in the past weeks.
Dad started this class called, Share Jesus Without Fear. It was wonderful. Almost everyone who goes to our church was coming and getting really involved and inspired, myself included.
Last week was the most Holy Spirit filled worship service I have ever been to! It started in Sunday School. We had a couple of new young adults named Amy and Jonas. We looked in the last few verses in Isaiah chapter 53, where it talks about Jesus as the intercessor for transgressors. I can't really explain how it happened, but the Holy Spirit ignited a fire within me and I became so overwhelmed by the Love of Jesus Christ and how not only did He show this great Love thousands of years ago on the cross, but daily He continues to show His Love for us by being our advocate before God.
See we are sinful, disgusting creatures. So disgusting, in fact that God cannot even look upon us. People like to take what Jesus did on the cross and only see the pretty, aw Jesus loves us and He died for us part and only focus on that. But what they fail to realize (what I forget a lot of the time) is the magnitude of what Jesus really did. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was kneeling before His Father while drops of sweat and blood poured from his forehead. He begged God to take this cup from Him. Jesus wasn't afraid of being beaten, flogged, whipped, ridiculed and then nailed to a cross. The cup He is referring to is the cup of God's wrath. God's wrath for countless sinners and sins whom He hates. I never looked at sin this way, that God actually HATES it. In the book of Psalms it's actually said 50+ times how much God hates sin. I mean I knew He not too pleased by sin, but He is so perfect and Holy that He cannot even look upon it. I mean I have always known this but it never really affected me because I knew I had Jesus.
Which was why I got so excited and stirred up in Sunday School, because Jesus is my advocate to the Father, even though I am disgusting and filled with sin, because of the wrath Jesus endured on the cross, because Jesus died and yet still conquered the death and the grave, I can have a close and intimate relationship with my Holy, Perfect, Heavenly Father!!!! I was so excited leaving class Sunday.
I had to sing two songs that morning in the worship and it seemed so perfect to sing the first "O Praise Him" by David Crowder Band. I just let the Holy Spirit take control, by the end of the song I had no clue what I was singing, but I certainly felt the power of God in that sanctuary!! The whole worship service continued on that way.
Then dad got up to preach. He preached on the church that Christ is building. How the church is imperfect and Jesus wanted it that way. He gave examples of the imperfect people who started the church of Christ. Like Paul who was the worst of all sinners, who blasphemed the church and voted for Christians to be murdered. And Peter, who continuely asked stupid questions and always stuck his foot in his mouth. Dad ended his sermon with a challenge (which will not be as good as he said it but it's the general jist--I was furiously taking notes).
To be THE church of Christ, to submit to His will and obey His commands.
It was amazing. I have been waiting for a challenge like that. Cornerstone is finally getting it and I think God is going to use us!
I am so excited to be a servant of the Lord and I have been praying daily for Him to use me however he wants. In the past few months, God has been working on my heart and pulling me closer to Him. As much as I have been trying to completely serve Him and not focus on myself, it has not been going quite that way. God has really opened my eyes to what He has been trying to say to me for a long time. I am so excited to share this with you all:
I have been trying to read as much of the Bible I possibly can in the past 2 months or so. I have been trying to be in fellowship with the Lord constantly throughout each day. After all, our relationship with Christ is supposed to start fresh and new each day. Praise God we can pick up our crosses DAILY and follow Him. One passage I came upon is in the book of Ephesians chapter 5:14: "for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." God has truly called me to WAKE UP and RISE FROM THE DEAD. You see I have been living a skin deep christianity. I only let God come into my life so far and then I get scared of the intimacy and close up. I haven't been truly following Him with my whole life. I have only given Him parts of me and the rest I have selfishly kept for myself. But God has awakened my soul!!! Praise the Lord! I am so excited. Instead of focusing on what I want out of life, I have now finally begun to focus on what God wants out of me. I am focused on how God can use me as His true and faithful servant. I am so excited! I saw on my friend Tiffany Johnson's facebook a status that has rang truer for me in the past few months than ever before in my life. I am paraphrasing and I added some of my own: The closer and more intimate my relationship gets with my Heavenly Father, I am shown how much of a sinner I am, but it's when you get to that point when you realize you can't live without Him and so I press on toward to goal of truly being Christ like in every possible way! I have become so intimate with God that I now can no longer live without this level of intimacy. Even though I am shown how much of a sinner I am -- it's even the little things like mean thoughts about someone or speeding--but I have to press on, I cannot look back now. (And by no means am I high on the intimacy level rankings I am still far away, but I am closer than ever before!) I want to live like Christ. I want to follow His commands. Dying to self and daily picking up my cross and following Christ. Just as Paul said it, For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain! I have officially died to myself today. I do it everyday. I still struggle with sin and desires of the flesh, but I have to continually pick up my cross and follow Him. I only want what the Lord wants in me. I only want to be a servant of the Lord. Before I was consumed with what I could get out of this world and only giving God enough of me so He wouldn't get in my way. But now I have let God have complete control over my heart and with that I have been given a new heart and new desires. I am so excited to truly live for my Lord.
Please pray for me as I keep this up. It is only because of the Power of Christ Jesus who dwells within me that I can really say and do any of this! So that is the update on what has been going on in my life spiritually. I hope it makes sense. I have been keeping this inside of me for too long, only because I wasn't totally sure how to say it all.
