Good afternoon lovely friends. I hope and pray that you have had a most spectacular day thus far. it's pretty chilly in my neck of the woods. it's actually 50 degrees outside right now, but it just feels colder than that. it was 25 degrees when we got up this morning, and we have a lot more cold and colder days ahead of us. can I just say that winter hasn't even started yet, and I'm over it. hahaha I'm ready for spring!!!!
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If you're in the United States, I hope you had a wonderful Happy Thanksgiving. my husband and I did. a lot of people are still celebrating today and others will be celebrating tomorrow.
I'm always thankful to remember what Christ has done for me in my life and I've got some prayer requests right now going up to Him to heal, protect and keep safe, someone I love. please join me in that prayer, God knows who I'm praying for and He'll know that you're praying for this person. thank you!!
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This is something that I wanted to share. we can be young in Christ when we are young and we can also be young in Christ when we're in our twilight years. we should always be trying to grow in our knowledge and wisdom of Christ and one place to we should be doing that is in sunday school.
I was a Sunday School teacher for many years. one of the last classes I taught was for one of the older ladies classes in my church. these ladies, 25 to 30 of them, was all over 70 years of age, but come to find out, they were young in Christ. some of them said they had been in church all their lives.
when the Lord started leading me in the direction of taking on this class, I was doubting myself. how could I ever teach anything to these ladies that knew the bible frontward and backward and every other way? well, after week one, I seen what I had not seen before. they was not used to having sunday school class, they was used to having a gab session. they had done very little bible reading at all. I told them the second sunday, that we will start the lesson at the proper time and we'll be on point with the bible. after a month of teaching these ladies, they all came in with bible, sunday school book, and a notepad and ink pen to take notes!!!
one by one, at different times, they would come up to me at church, hang out in the class room after sunday school was over, or call me at home and tell me that they had already learned more about the bible in the last month than they had ever learned in the previous years they had been on planet earth.
I shed many tears over that. I taught the bible. I didn't teach what I thought about anything. I taught what God thinks about everything, every word of mine was from His Word. when sunday school teachers or preachers or anyone in any kind of position in church makes it about them, their position, or don't teach and preach the Word of God, then church becomes another distraction in our lives. and that's what it was in their lives, a social club.
every week, I took one word, maybe 2, and done an in-depth word study and presented it to the class. just words that we hear from scripture, but maybe haven't stopped to think about that word or two and what they actually mean for us. they loved it and I did too. the pastor came to me and asked me what all I was doing in that class, because he was hearing a lot of good compliments about my teaching.
I just told him that it wasn't me, I was allowing God to use me as He seen fit. sad to say, but every one of those ladies have gone on to be with the Lord now, but I have wonderful memories of seeing their faces light up, when they learned something new.
I'm so thankful for that experience. I'm thankful that God taught me that it's His Word that changes lives and we have to be faithful in presenting His word. it made such a difference in my life too. when we get away from God's Word, that's when false teaching comes in and makes itself at home. it truly is hard to find a good bible believing church. that's why it's so important for us as individuals to know the truth for ourselves. we have to stay in the Word ourselves.
if we don't know the truth, then we'll believe anything. people get mad when they hear the truth. the truth actually stirs the devil up. I'm getting old now myself, much fewer days ahead of me than what's behind me and it's scary to think about what takes place in the name of "going to church".
I commend anyone for not walking away from Christ. but I don't blame anyone for walking away from the church. if the Word of God isn't in being taught or preached, then it's just another social club and we don't need the distraction. what's taking place in churches today is not the fault of Jesus Christ. it's the fault of the leaders that let the outside filth come into the sanctuary of God. each one of us who are Christians has the Holy Spirit within us and His desire is to help us on this journey and to help us grow closer to God thru learning more about His Son, Jesus Christ. we can't hear the world and the Holy Spirit at the same time. what we feed is what grows. we can't be neutral and straddle the line. we're either for Jesus or against Jesus, there is no gray area. the devil owns the gray area, the devil owns the line that we want to straddle. so, we're either for Christ or against Christ.
just make sure what you're putting into your own head and heart or the heads and hearts of other people is 100% God's word and not yours or some other individuals words. those words mean nothing, but God's word and what we do with it will determine our eternal destiny.
well, this is what I wanted to share with y'all and I hope it makes a difference in all our lives.
blessings of love, peace, joy and thankfulness as we go into the holiday season. love y'all, patty
