What If The Church Danced??

12 Now King David was told, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God." So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

II Samuel 6:12-15

What if the church dance? Really danced? Just because God is God? Danced for joy??

2 They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;

they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD—
the grain, the new wine and the oil,

the young of the flocks and herds.

They will be like a well-watered garden,

and they will sorrow no more.

3 Then maidens will dance and be glad,

young men and old as well.

I will turn their mourning into gladness;

I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

Jeremiah 31:12-13

By now, you've probably seen THIS video....If you haven't you really should....and leave your inhibitions and how you think things 'should' be done, and allow yourself to be caught up in the joy displayed here.

What if the church displayed this kind of joy? See, to understand what I am talking about, you have to watch THIS! I can only imagine people would be drawn to it! We are all looking for a measure of joy in our lives. I challenge you to try God as He really is the only source of true joy. Of course there are many things that can give us happiness. Our children, our marriages, our friends, our hobbies. But, for me, only God can give me true joy. The kind of joy that lets me do this:

with a migraine. Dancing for joy in the Lord!!

A couple of years ago, Kevin had the kids at our sister church, Sharonville UMC and my kids were having a blast. They were running around the lobby like it was their personal playground. And some of the 'Propriety Police' were frowning on it. Kevin was trying to calm them down, when our dear friend, Pastor Jim said, "That's right kids. Stop having fun! If people knew that church was fun, they might want to come!"

What a statement.

If people knew that church was fun, they might want to come. If we danced for joy before the Lord, people would want to come!

Oh, the freedom that comes from dancing for joy before the Lord!

What if the church danced?

Overwhelmed!

I cannot begin to understand all that has been happening in my life this past week. God has been working big time, through so many people, books, music, movies, blogs, just life in general and I'm struggling to process it all.

I've been in my Bible a lot this month. I'm doing a reading plan to read the whole thing through this year. But I find myself doing several days reading at a time. For the first time in my life, I just cannot seem to get enough of God's word! It's amazing. I admit it started out with my need to finish things once I start them, but now it is just a thirst for the word of God!! I need to thank the amazing ladies in Thursday night Bible study. We are studying Romans. And the study is good. Women genuinely trying to get at what GOD is trying to teach us. We are not making excuses or trying to twist the words that fit more comfortably in our lives, we're just asking the Holy Spirit to talk to us, to teach us.

This past Wednesday, we had a community dinner at church. We do them once a month. Nothing fancy, spaghetti, salad, garlic bread. No charge, just come and meet your neighbors, make new friends,etc. There is no hard sell, no sell at all, just the opportunity for us to serve. The first month we had mainly people from the church. But each month it has grown. This past week we had 80-90 people. People who attend Grace Church, brothers and sisters from other churches in town, old friends, new friends, people new to Norwood. Very cool.

On Thursday, my friend, Erin, had a beautiful baby boy. He is so beautiful And because we are women and couldn't wait anymore, we called her at the hospital and were able to talk to her right after he was born. And we prayed with her. Gotta love cell phones that allow conference calls.

Saturday morning the whole crew went to a Community Breakfast at New Bethel Baptist, also in Norwood. Several of our church people were there and lots of other familiar faces, friends, family in the body of Christ. I couldn't help think, as I was cutting pancakes for the kids, "this is making God smile! His children coming together to break bread."

This was the beginning of my migraine. A stress migraine because even good stress is still stress. So, as I was sitting on the couch, with lots of pain medications, we through in a DVD that I got for $5. Facing the Giants. All of us watched. It was wonderful. The kids liked it so much we watched it again on Sunday evening.

Sunday. Where to start? A former student of Kevin's came to share his testimony. He was an alcoholic, homeless, watched his father die, lost the love of his life, was let go by the rest of his family. But, he found Jesus in a Taco Bell. He was approached by a woman who offered him shelter, took him to church, led him to Jesus. He spoke to us a good 90 minutes. A really good 90 minutes. Using the parable of the prodigal son. Now, if you are not Methodist, this might not seem unusual to you, but a 3 hour service is really unusual. Praise Jesus, almost everyone stayed to here this young man tell us how Jesus delivered him. I can't tell what he said in anyway to give it justice. But I will tell you that after the service, he gathered up our youth and took them into our prayer room and prayed with them for an hour. I don't know what was said behind that closed door, but I know he loved on those kids with all the love that the Holy Spirit poured out on him.

I was blessed to hear even more of the amazing things God has done for him when he braved lunch with Kevin, the three youngest kiddos and I.

And blogs. I love reading blogs. But there was one that really brought tears to my eyes today.

And so tonight, once again my head hurts. Thank you,Jesus, for overwhelming me! Thank you for this headache caused by good stress, not bad. And Lord, please, continue to overwhelm me with You !

It Is So Hard To Explain...

the connection we have with this small church on this small island country. But is is from God. Yes, those are palm trees along side a salt water river with mountain cliffs. Gorgeous. We spent hours on the river on paddle boats. We came home exhausted, sunburnt and happy.

The congregation is amazing. Full of lots of love and lots of Holy Spirit. They were so excited to see videos from their prayer partners in the states. They cheered aloud everytime one said they'd like to visit Cuba. They were expecially excited to see their own pictures on display in the prayer room at Grace Church.

Beautiful, sweet children.....

Sleep

Is there ever really enough sleep? The past couple of weeks I am just in a total haze. I am sure it has nothing to do with cutting caffeine, more specifically diet Pepsi out of my diet. I can take a nap any time, any where. Except, don't think you'll find me sleeping in a bed or at night!! Then I am awake. And because I don't let myself nap everyday (or should I say 5 little monkeys don't let me nap.) I can't really say it is because of napping that I am awake. Zzzzzzzz..........

Pentacost

This is one of those stories I have told on many occasions, but have never actually blogged. So here it goes.....





5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" (Acts 2: 5-12)





When we went to Cuba this past summer, I didn't speak any Spanish beyond that of Dora the Explorer

you know, roja, azul, estrella, vamanos, that kind of thing. I'd had 4 years of German and 1 quarter of French where I spoke French with a German accent. *sigh*

I have had no use for either of those languages.

Anyway, one night in Cuba there was a praise concert and Kevin and I sang. As we were getting ready to sing our first song, Matteo, who was playing piano, began speaking Spanish to the Cuban congregation. There were a few other English speakers there from our mission team, but just a handful. IN SPANISH, Matt began to explain that he would be singing in Spanish, and Kevin and I would be singing in English.

I was staring at Kevin throughout this, because I, who spoke NO Spanish, understood every word that Matt was saying. Kevin turned to look at me and I immediately KNEW that he also understood what Matt was saying.

Later we spoke to other English speaking members of our team who also understood what Matt was saying in Spanish. It was such an Acts 2 moment. A speaking in tongues. Not the type of tongues listed in spiritual gifts, but the type described here:

6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? (Acts 2: 6-8)

A real Holy Spirit moment! You see, miracles do happen today and God does continue to speak to and through His people today. The Holy Spirit is alive and at work! Praise God!!!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!

What We Did In Church On Easter

What did you do???