Some of the major responsibilities of the church are to pass along the encouragement, comfort and strength found in living with Jesus. Today the church is taking a beating and many are saying the church needs to be more proactive. This weekend a scripture verse and a quote have been circling in my thoughts to the exclusion of everything else. I have finally decided that the Lord wants me to share them in order to dispel them.
The scripture is a comment in the verse II Samuel 11:1 "The following spring, the time of year when Kings go to war..." (NLT) The quote was repeated several times by our guest speaker, Charles Fiesel, in his sermon yesterday, "For the church to be the church, the church has to get out of the church."
For many years Christian pastors have been teaching that we fight the war against our enemy, the devil, by praising God. Also, many pastors across our land have become convinced that rather than expecting people to come to us we must go out to where they are if we are going to help them. My pastor is one of those.
Last night we had this year's first 'party in the park' for the park's surrounding residents. It was so much fun! We had food, drawings for lots of prizes, balloon animals, a wonderful variety show, and to top it off an opportunity to accept Jesus and start a new life for everyone who attended. What a blast!
However, as much fun as these parties are, waiting for the next planned event is not enough excitement for me. The day before I had had several errands to run and wanted to complete them early. I was congratulating myself when I realized I had made every stop and it wasn't yet nine o'clock. Then, I had a thought, "Go by McDonald's and start a blessing stream."
I hadn't ever thought in those exact terms but I knew what it meant. There was a McDonald's a few blocks up ahead so I pulled right into the Drive Thru and almost immediately a woman pulled in behind me. For the first time I felt that the simple random act of kindness I planned was more than an insignificant little incident. "Since God suggested the activity He must have brought the person He wanted to bless into line behind me." I reasoned. So, as I waited to reach the window to pay for her order as well as mine, I prayed for her.
As I prayed thoughts began to materialize. What if there were many 'blessing streams' active in town on the same day? What if several people made passes by a Drive Thru somewhere and the receivers decided to become givers to the next person in line? What if, while waiting, each one prayed that the stranger behind them would be blessed by God and his needs met? Would it make a difference in our city? Wouldn't it be fun to see?
If this experiment seems fun to you and you want to start a stream, let me know. I'll coordinate a day. Leave a comment on this blog or e-mail me at: mariannecassell@yahoo.com
If you're looking for my book, Available Grace: True Short Stories of the Rewards of Intentional Living click on: http://sbpra.com/mariannecassell
No comments:
Post a Comment