WOW!!! Two months since I've posted anything at all and the world is still moving along!!! Ha! Shows how earthshaking my opinions are, huh?? I will just get to the point. I haven't posted in that time because God has been doing some major overhauling in my heart and soul. I mean MAJOR overhauling. And it is difficult to write when that is going on. Not to mention another thing that has been a major change: we now have our 3 new children from Uganda, and THAT has really been a challenge. Even though the number of children we have increased by 50%, the noise and energy level has gone up about 3000%. Mix all of this in with God revealing to Melissa and I new ways to raise our children, and God really pulling out all of the garbage out of my heart, and you have the perfect recipe for, well, not blogging. I am sensing it is time, though, to start sharing. I think the most incredible thing I have learned over the last 2 months has been that I was living my life completely out of a mindset of fear. Everything I did was fear-based. Everything I was doing to raise my children was fear-based. My relationship with God was fear-based. But God doesn't just show us the garbage and then leave us stinking. He is showing me how to live from love. Now this isn't as easy as it sounds. In fact, when one has been living out of fear for years, there are times when living out of love just seems impossible. But of course, God likes impossible. God shows up in impossible. And that is just what He is doing.
That brings me to something else I am seeing. My relationships with God and my family and my friends are more important to me now than I would have ever imagined. One cannot love in a vacuum. There must be others present there. And here is where I feel like our whole society is coming apart, and where I think the church (the people of God, not a building) MUST rise up and fill in the gap. If you look at our world, relationships are just getting RIPPED. The modern-day church (the organization, not the people) doesn't even come CLOSE to allowing relationships to form and build and bear fruit. We have got to realize that coming together and faking smiles and singing some songs that make us feel good and hearing a sermon isn't changing the world. It is NOT CHANGING THE WORLD. I hope everyone heard that. It isn't. The only thing that is going to change this world is the love of God. God has established the earth for mankind to co-labor with Him. The only way for mankind to get the love of God is to get it through God's mankind. And the only way that happens is through relationships. Relationships cannot be fake. You can't build them in an afternoon handing out tracts. You can't build them with a weak pat on the back and a meaningless response of "I'll pray for ya." They take time, and they take effort, and they take courage, and they take patience, and most of all they take love. I feel like God is really calling His people to begin to really connect. It is time for those who have the love of God burning in their hearts to open up their homes and get together with a small group of others. You don't have to have everything in common. In fact, it's best if you don't. You don't have to "learn" anything except each other's stories. The only "agenda" has to be allowing God's love in to do what it does: Change the world. You don't have to have a Bible degree. Jesus' most significant witness in the New Testament was a demon-possessed maniac who had been born again and delivered all of about one hour, and Jesus sent him out to tell about what Jesus had done for him. The next time Jesus went through that town EVERYONE wanted to see Him, even though the time prior the whole town asked Him to get out. What happened? One man told his story. He changed the world by releasing the love of God. And that is what it is time for us to do. I wonder what would happen in our churches if there were a thriving collection of small groups who all came together and simply released the stories of God's love that were occurring in their groups. I bet we wouldn't be checking our watches wondering if we should eat Mexican or Chinese. I bet we would actually see what happens when we listen to Jesus and simply do what He shows us to do. I bet we would actually begin to EXPERIENCE the love of God instead of just talking about it. That sounds like heaven on earth to me. Let's get together. Let's get real. Let's let God loose. Let's let His love change the world.
