So for the last couple of years, once a month I put together a ladies lunch for the women at my church. I love it! I love the time each month that I get to sit down with no kids, sometimes I have to bring them, and enjoy a meal with a wonderful group of ladies. Most the time I don't have a clue who is going to show up or not, there are a select few I can always count on and that is always the joy in it. The ones I can count on and new faces. Sometimes this is the only time I get to speak to some of the ladies, which is sad since we all go to church together. But that happens when you have more than one service and I am trying to make sure where my four kids are at and what they are into. These ladies have shown me strengths, struggles, joy, pain, hope, kind words but more than anything have shown me Christ. They help keep me on the line for him. Sometimes I will put together a devotional that I have wrote but most times I read something that has stood out to me since the last time we were together or sometimes we just chat. The most important thing is we come together for a common thread, that's our love for God. God designed us for fellowship with him first and foremost but he also wants us to have fellowship with each other. And through fellowship is when he gets to shine. I believe when we go eat together in public restaurants others get to see us outside of church with a common goal. Often times as I am reading the devotion the other tables near us can hear what I am saying. And just maybe what is being read is something they may need to hear. They also hear the prayer before we eat and sometimes, I have seen others join in with lowering their heads or even stop eating or talking. I pray that they may be joining in but who knows, only God does, it' at least a sign of respect. And maybe it makes them think did I pray for my meal? When others get to see a group of women or men together praying, talking about God and having a time of fellowship I believe a seed is being planted. Are we not called to be planters for Christ?
Not only do these lunches me the world to me but in the last year, every Thursday morning, I join in with ladies throughout our county and surrounding counties in a morning bible study called Community Bible Study or CBS. This past year we have been reading the book of John. Have I ever read it before this study? No, just bits and pieces through my life. The last few lessons we have studied about the last few days of Jesus Christ life and how he was preparing his disciples. He was letting them know that he his time is short but the Father was sending another counselor in his place,
John 14:26 states,
"The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
I have read this verse before as well as bits and pieces of all the Gospels but the last few weeks a light went off. I know that their is God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit or the Trinity but what stood out to me was I have Jesus completely inside me. In the past I know that I have treated my Holy Spirit as that, a spirit or as just my consciousness or even my momma in my head. But guess what that's not the case, that is Jesus inside me convicting me on my actions. How many times I have I just brushed it off. So when I brush it off it off in reality I'm brushing Jesus off. Boy did a light bulb go off in my head, DUH Kim. The Holy Spirit is a person, as opposed to being just an influence, He "walks the earth" through the men and women who
believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. Knowing that I am LOVED that much for Jesus to live completely inside my body, heart and mind, WOW. I need to stop, pray and listen. He is right there with me all the time.
We are made for fellowship with Him and through Him to have fellowship with others. We are made to bring glory to him through our lives. He is living inside all who believe in Him. So this brings to my mind how can I listen more to His Spirit and make God Famous.
