Renewed

So I was really struggling Spiritually for about a month... I didn't tell anyone and really thought that no one could tell. The Ironic thing is that the person who could tell the most was my old roomie Kim. She called me out all the way from Asheville, NC! haha! Well, about 2 weeks ago maybe 3 I started the book Soul School by Jeanne Stevens. I can not tell you how much this book has truly blessed my life and has renewed me. I am preaching next Sunday night and this book has inspired much of what I am going to speak on. From Christians trying to hide their sins from each other to focusing on the past instead of the present. Jeanne put Isaiah 43:19 out of the message translation into a chapter. It says,

Forget about what's happened;
don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
It's bursting out! Don't you see it?

Man that is good stuff! How many of us focus on what we did in our pasts or even wanting to go back to a certain time in our life when we feel like things are getting tough. INSTEAD we need to be alert and present because God is gonna ROCK our faces off if we are just expectant about it! I see this in our churches. We want to go back to the hay days but we forget that our hay days were some of the toughest times in our lives. We just remember how we felt after God brought us through those things. In the book Pop Goes The Church, by Tim Stevens, a question is posed... What would your community look like if your church was gone? Would people notice? and by people the author is not talking about the church goers and their friends but the people who do not attend and drive by on a daily basis. I know for Round Oak that all we do feeding people and helping them get by in tough times and on Wednesdays nights when the van runs to the trailer park to pick up the kids that those people would notice... they would notice that that help is no longer there. I just hope that we are seen as a light in this community and not just a social club!
So yeah that's what God has been teaching me lately!


Another Subject entirely is how much I love Dorothy Thomas... She is a pillar in our church and is the oldest member at like 98 or something like that... Today while playing Secretary she called to see if tomorrow during homecoming work day if someone would clean a plaque that was placed in memory of her husband... she said that in 26 years no one has probably cleaned it, but she was just hoping that someone could get around to it... That makes me want to go clean it right now! She never wants to inconvenience someone but is so sweet and loves her Jesus so much people just want to help her!