Blessings

God has definitely blessed me the last week with some awesome conversations with friends, old and new!

An interesting conversation with a friend on Thursday last week where I was challenged about my spiritual disciplines. Jeff altered my views on some things, very refreshing indeed. I am so glad that I took the time to meet up with him since we don't get to see each other as often anymore. But I am happy for him and it was great hearing about what God is doing in his life!

Friday night was dinner with Aban for her birthday. God has been convicting me to demonstrate my faith more openly and publicly. The fact that there were some non-Christians there who I have been friends with since high school was a great opportunity to do so. Although it was about a particular topic that we never really got to a unified answer to, we were still talking about the Word and using it as our foundation to answer the question, which may cause them to think further.

On Saturday morning, Zoe met with Pastor Scott, a prospect for the English pastor candidacy at church. It was an interesting topic, he did a spin on prayer, and it ended up being about church history, but it was interesting nonetheless. However, he did challenge us on our knowledge of the Bible. As in the words of one of the girls, he made us feel like "bad Christians." But I think that it was a wake-up call for me, like I may say I know things about the Bible, or people may perceive that of me, but do I really know the Bible?! I do not even know all the books of the Bible, especially the OT (minor prophets...)!

Sunday's message by Pastor Scott was also convicting. He preached on mercy using Jonah as an example. Jonah knew what he was supposed to do, God spoke to him so loud and clear, yet he still ran the other way. However, God is merciful, and he came to Jonah a second time, and spoke to him. This time Jonah obeyed. He did what he was told, and preached an eight word sermon to the Ninevites. Only EIGHT words! But God worked mightily through those eight words because Jonah had finally chosen to obey. God provided Jonah with a second chance, God has provided me with a second chance, third, fourth, fifth,... chances - Pastor Scott challenged the congregation have I been giving others these chances?

Sunday school was also awesome. It challenged me again about my Bible reading - something that I had just talked with Jeff about a couple days prior. He provided four things that are required in order to effectively read the Bible:
1. PRAY (oh how often we forget this!)
2. Genre
3. Reading the OT through the lense of the NT
4. Using Scripture to interpret the Scripture

Meeting Jessy on Monday was another great blessing! Things just flow out of my mouth and I don't know how to stop them sometimes when I am talking to her. But of course, there is that security of not being judged or condemned for the things that I say. She has been such a help to me the last few months and I do not feel that I have been the same to her at times. I pray that I can encourage her as well with the things that she shares with me!

Tonight I also had a great conversation. The first one was with Kelly, a dear friend and sister in Christ since our days at MCBC. We both went through the same thing in our past, something that we can relate to each other about, I feel it is something that connects us. However, I feel that we have not really connected for a long while, with conflicting schedules and just being dumb at times. But tonight it was full of great conversations and really opening up to one another - not being afraid to share what is on our minds, something that unfortunately I know that I struggle with sometimes. I have always been a private person, sharing yet witholding some things - keeping it to myself. But tonight God was convicting me just to share and be totally open. Some of the things I shared so few people know about, but I trust her and she can trust me as well. It is crazy to see how far we have come since those days at MCBC and even from just last year!

This week God has truly blessed me with wonderful conversations and showed me how many people are there to encourage me. He has also convicted me to to pray for all of them as we shared with one another and learned more about our lives, the need for prayer is so much stronger. We NEED to pray!

God reminded me about a number of things this week as well. We NEED to pray and we NEED to read our Bibles and be grounded in the Word! I am blessed indeed. It has been an AMAZING week!