Word Alive

Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp unto my feet and light for my path.

After the seven year hiatus from God. Nah...that sounds to positive. After seven years of living in the darkness of our own choices (That's better), we had made the decision to return to church. But which one?
My mother-in-law kept talking about her church, Central United Methodist and what a great teacher was their pastor. We gave in. Central it would be.

I remember our first day there like it was just yesterday.
We sat in the balcony.
The place wasn't full, but we had the Zacheaus complex. We wanted to see God at work, we just didn't want to get to near to what was happening. If my memory serves me well, it was just Vicki and I and the sound guy up in that balcony. The music was good. It was comforting singing the hymns. Stirred something within me. Then the teacher/ pastor ...George Creel stood to deliver the message. From the first words out of his mouth, the Holy Spirit just blew us away. I had never heard such teaching as this. I knew that I knew that I knew, we were home. For the next 14 years, George Creel opened the Bible to us in a way that no one else ever had. We began to take note pads, pens and our Bible to every service.  He began to teach us about the Holy Spirit. Now from my back ground, we just didn't talk about the Holy Spirit. He was relegated to being listed with the big 3 (Trinity) but never received any billing for himself. George taught us that the Holy Spirit was God's promise to us that would aid us in living out this life here on earth. Which included moving in the gifts that would be provided by the Holy Spirit.

He taught prophecy (never heard any of that before)
He taught spiritual warfare (never heard the mention of demons before either)
He taught our place in the kingdom of God. (Everyone gets to play)
He taught us how to worship ( I thought the music was simply a stall for time until the pastor was ready)
In other words, we had attended church in the past, but now we were living church.

Vicki and I started a "home group" during out time at Central. Little did we know that this would be part of our training for what we are currently doing. Out of this group came a closer, tighter group of young adults (wow..I was a young adult) that really wanted to see God move in our church and in our lives. Also at this time I began to meet a good friend of mine, Johnny Burttram, at the church on Saturday nights to pray. This layed the foundation for a behavior I have carried with me ever since those days. Going to church at night to pray when no one else was there. It was some of the most intense and wonderful times with God I have ever experienced.

As with all things, change comes, and our times at Central were about to end. God was moving us to the next part of this journey.

Until next time....
God on you....
mb