That God thing (again)...

"Emmanuel - one of my favorite words in the Bible. 'God is with us'. Always, till the end of time. Amen to that." 

People who I know or have known that are deep in their faith, constantly deflect. Whenever I notice them doing something noble, charitable, speaking with kindness and/or wisdom, and call them on it, they never take any credit. They simply point upward and say, "It was all God". True words.

My wife bought a simple wall ordainment for the kitchen years ago. It says, "I believe in God, even when He is silent." And yet there are times when God is anything but silent. If you listen with your heart, His voice comes through loud and clear. Sometimes thunderous. The other night I had one of those times.

We had some friends over, and once we finished a light supper, we retired into the sun room to chat. We have not really talked for some time, so our conversation was rich and fulfilling. We talked about how much we missed our former church, our small groups, the fellowship it provided, and so on. Even though we love our new church, some of those ingredients we had and cherished at our former church, are not at the new church. It is then when God spoke to me in the clearest of terms.

God brought us to our former church for a reason - a very good reason. When we joined, our former church was deeply anointed. We learned many years ago that churches, just like people, are anointed differently at different times. Because of the strong anointing, the blessings that church had to offer were abundant.

We were trained at that church, and trained well. We were also trained not to be insular - we knew we could take our training with us. To train others. To have fellowship with new friends. To help those in need. To help all of us to become spiritually stronger.

God also provided the opportunity to meet people at our former church for various purposes. Some are casual friends, some are very close friends. Our friends who were here the other night are some of our best "accountability" friends. I am convinced that God forged that friendship to keep all of us sharp. When I say sharp, I mean iron sharpening iron sharp. We need that sharpening to stay strong and accountable.

What did we decide the other night? Onward and upward! There is work left to do. But we will not do it alone. We have Emmanuel. Not only guiding us, but also watching our back.

Emmanuel - one of my favorite words in the Bible. "God is with us". Always, till the end of time. Amen to that.