Monday, June 20, 2011

Home Church and Growth

A quick praise report, the host of the former home church I went to has moved back to town and he has started up the home church group again.  It was such a blessing being with all my old friends. 

 

I missed the first two meetings because I only found out about it last week.  When the host saw me he apologized and told me that he was telling people as he saw them and hadn’t seen any of the [insert name of bar here] crowd yet since he had not gone there in a long time.  I replied that he should worry because I hadn’t been to [insert name of bar here] in almost 2 years either.  He was rather surprised and asked what happened.  I told him that I outgrew it – which wasn’t the complete truth…

 

The complete truth is that since I started studying God’s word for myself, almost everyday, I didn’t feel right going to [insert name of bar here] anymore.  It started off that I would rather stay at home and have a beer or glass of wine while watching a movie.  Then I stopped drinking beer and it became a glass of wine with dinner.  Then it became a glass of port or sherry when I had guests over.  Now I only have half a glass of port or sherry occasionally when I have guests – and only if they are drinking already.  I few times I haven’t felt like any type of alcohol and have stuck to tea or soda.  Perhaps in a few more months I’ll be off completely.

 

Recently I committed to reading the Bible and/or praying for 1 hour a day, everyday.  I am amazed at how I have grown in only a month of this.

 

Even though I tend to talk big, I have always had difficulty keeping my focus on God throughout my daily life.  I so easily find myself getting carried away.  Just last week I noticed that I think of God much more often during the day.  In everything I do I have found myself asking if God would approve of it.

 

The other area where I noticed a change in the past month is during conversation and also in what I watch.  I had friends over the other night and the conversation moved towards age-restriction 16 topics.  It got to the point where I excused myself and went to wash the coffee mugs.  I was not enjoying it at all – 6 months ago it wouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did that night.  The same goes for movies and TV shows.  In fact, the closer I am getting to God, the less I have in common with my friends – even the Christian ones!

 

And this is why I was so thrilled to find out the home church group was starting again.  It brings me to a place where once a week I’ll be able to talk about God, and also all these experiences I am having during my growth.  It brings me to a place where I can watch the growth in others too.

 

God is definitely blessing my socks off!

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