Today is a Sunday and I usually do not post on Sundays, but today I feel compelled to do so. I woke up wanting to go to church service so bad, but I can’t. This COVID-19 virus has kept, and continues to keep, our church families away from each other!
I miss them. I miss our preachers! We are very fortunate to have resources they provide on the internet, but it is definitely not the same! I miss fellowship with my family. I miss their smiles and warm welcome, their checking to see how we are doing, their pure concern for our well being and heart, and I miss their voices that raise up to Our Lord in glory! We do keep in touch and call each other to check in, but to be there in person is so much better!
Our preachers tell it like it is and show every day on a screen in our building why they say what they preach: God’s Word as it was written from the beginning! Roger and Jason have a way each of their own to bring out God’s scriptures and give proof to their meaning. Bite your spirit and flat out bring rebelliousness to the front lines, sure they do! If they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t be doing God’s work as HE wrote it and as HE said to never change to it!
His ways are not our ways and He says so! We may have our feelings hurt and think God wants us to always be happy but that is not how God works! He wants our souls to be convicted! He wants our souls in Heaven! We are told to have a humble heart not a prideful heart.
There are so many religions out there and you know why? Because there had been leaders who felt their own Way was the right way. Many changed to pacify the people to draw a crowd. Many did not understand that God had just ONE church He established and not many!
In Ephesians 5:23, His Word says, “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior.” The words to look at is “the church” that He is the head of. If He intended for there to be many, He would have said for the churches. But He didn’t.
When we meet as a family praising God and thanking Him for His Son and being a part of His church, there is a feeling of peace and ahhhh. Being away from each other puts a kink in the whole week! The feeling of “something is missing” just isn’t pacified.
There is a difference in congregations on many levels. Today, being that I really miss my family, I want to discuss one in particular and that is the feeling of being a part of family. As you have read the many stories I have posted, you would have known by now the importance of my endeavors of wanting to fit in.
I belonged to a certain church for the most of the first 40 years of my life. I taught the Religion classes and did my part to work the festivals and clean the rectory. I sang in the choir. I spoke with a lot of people, but something was wrong. I had a need, an ache, for more.
After many years of teaching, studying, promoting God’s Word, there became a divide in my heart. By this time, as previously put, I had read several Bibles and in each, they were basically the same except the Catholic Bible added to it where the others had not. I questioned a lot of what I knew against what was taught.
As most in my shoes have found, the search for Him grew stronger. I needed more for myself! So I set out on a mission just to see for myself how these other churches taught and what they were about. I sought true Scripture taught and weighed the differences between each.
My sister-in-law convinced me to just come listen in on their preacher. I did. Wow! Roger was AMAZING! He spoke so fast, but he said it like it was and to see that Scripture on that screen and taught exactly how God wrote it with no candy-coating, I was hooked!
My heart was finally getting filled. Now mind you, my love for God had always been strong and I put effort in to where I had been, but I wanted more. I craved beyond my own understanding for more. The more I sought, the more He allowed me to see. Those blinds that earlier in a post were slowly lifting had lifted a bit faster.
I had just joined that congregation of The Church of Christ when my biological mother died. Most of my biological family made it to the funeral home and only a few of people from my previous congregation came, and that was mostly because they were close friends and some her old neighbors.
My heart was awakened a bit more. My eyes witnessed the difference in congregations on a brand new level! There were so many members of Charlestown Road Church of Christ members there and they brought food and gifts! They did not know me! I was so brand new to this congregation! After 40 years of my life at the previous congregation doing my part, loving those kids beyond, doing for the elderly, and just doing my part as God would have it, I was becoming aware of what LOVE really meant!
My new family supported me full force while those after 40 years wanted no part of supporting me. My mom that raised me had it announced at their church service so it was made known to them. I would drive up the road and have neighbors turn their back as I saw them look when I came out of our road and knew they saw me. I had one person close to us tell me that we left their family. I didn’t leave my family, I gained a family in my heart!
We are all suppose to be of ONE heart with the Lord right? We are all suppose to love each other right? We are all suppose to be of His church. It hit me in the gut on just how much I really meant to these people. I was only a speck being used for their benefit. The true love of God had awakened in my soul. Not only did this affect me, but my own immediate family felt it.
So when I say that this COVID-19 has interrupted our lives, I mean it has really separated true family members that I have deep love and concern for. I still love my previous family and that will never change. They have helped me build a closer relationship with our Lord and I am grateful for them and continue to pray for them.
This virus may be interrupting your lives, but please use your every resources to stay connected and do not fear His true Word. Let it fill your heart to satisfaction. I love all of you and pray for good health and healing for those who are sick and need comfort!
https://www.charlestownroad.org/2020/04/04/sunday-april-5-resources-to-use-at-home/
