Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Orrville Christian Church

This Past Sunday in Church really made me cry. Tears of joy, which is a great thing men. In our class before 2nd service we were told to go into the Sanctuary quietly and Pray. It was hard not knowing what service was going to be like. No Church bulletins or talking or laughing, just come in, sit down and pray.

Ok change is hard! When you do something for so long you get used to it or it becomes repetitive at least with me it has.

My Heart was not in it that day.

You want to give God your best every day! Think of the movie Facing the Giants. In that movie the coach is yelling incouragement to his football player "I want your Best, Give me Your Best, Your Absolute Best, Don't Give Up, Keep Going, Your Best, Your Very Best,....."

You need to watch that movie even if the actors weren't to great. But I own the Movie and it gets me everytime.

So anyway just like in Church I was feeling bad that I don't give God my very Best and I always fall short of my Goals or I sin so much.

Now we are half way through our service and I feel it has been very hard to give God my attention at Church. I felt like I couldn't stay focused on anything. You can clearly tell I was not thinking about God it was all for me. Me, me, me, me....

Then communion time comes... Our Minister John says something like " get out a piece of paper and write down your sins and lay them at the foot of the cross for Jesus." We had a big cross in church that day and it is never there. It was in the way of the big screen and It was hard to read while we were singing all day.

So as I am writing my sins on the paper he said we will take communion up here at the 2 tables instead of it being handed to us at our seat. Another change that we had. Again thinking of me, me, me, me, me...

I get up out of the pew and start to walk down the aisle, not first of course. Then waiting in line I am starting to ask God to forgive my sorry behind, feeling not worthy at all. Then I hear... A Loud Thump Thump Thump..... Thump Thump Thump.

Three men are at the cross nailing our sins on the cross. We had several people in Church that day maybe over 300 hundred so there was a lot of hammering.

After I took communion I stood at our pew I closed my eyes and asked God to really forgive me I told Him sorry for being such a pain. I told Him this time, and I hope to mean it the same next time. It hurt me to realize how bad I really can be. If you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you can nail your sins to the cross and be forgiven. That's what life is about. You need Jesus in your life. You cannot live without Him. I can't breathe without Him and He is the reason why I live today.

If you have seen Passion of the Christ, you may have seen the part where Jesus gets nailed to the cross. Or you turned your head and listened to the Hammer Thumping the Nails through His Hands and feet.

I thought about that in Church when we nailed our sins to the cross.

I pray that I become more Christ like and that I change to be more like Him. I also Pray that others will come to know Him as well.

Sunday one of my friends decided to get baptized in the name of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thank you Lord for such a great day!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

was that real or is that an illustration?

JC said...

Me crying that was real.

JC said...

That was real. March 18th, 2007 it was great!

I would have had communion at the beginning though. We had it half way through. After all is said and done for the day I guess it would have been hard to do it that way.

Like I said before they caught me off guard and instead of welcoming others at our Church during the beginning part of the service we skipped that part.

So it was a great day and several others came forward for invitation time at the end of service.

Caylin also was playing so much in her class that she puked and the minister had to get me while I was praying after communion. Or I may have flooded the Church.

Good Stuff!

Anonymous said...

Big fella like you crying? Had to hit deep.
I cried once listening to The Carpenters...wait I didnt just say that did I?