Message #3591

[ecuworrier]

so back to ..... unusual and unexpected GOD appointments?  after Sunday...


....well actually the real GOD appointments are the one before you... starting with what's around you in church? and it is me that sees what? i go with what i see: encouraging one person and then finding ... i saw and then i saw and that is just what they are experiencing and... wow! i did saw then! and find myself volunteering for later .....  i walk chatting away a very long story to one person and then carry on walking falling off a pavement in the process... and apparently hurting my foot... initial panic ... turn to prayer and oh GOD is deffo doijng something!..
...and so i walk on... in my own vagueness of space well hid behind some sunglasses and an unlikely heavy garment well it is going to be a long day....
 

... in my own world i suddenly clap the air... oh no i am right behind two people walking before me one turns around with a lack of perturbment that hardly matches my embarrassment... i mean ... ok this was an involuntary action ... GOD  what am i supposed to do now... in my alacrity i walk by them and am surprised to hear one of them talking about the bible.. i turn around and ask if they are coming from church... surprisingly not... one of them is doing a degree with a theology component and they are completely not liking reading the bible...

 i am self conscious to be muscling in .. and come up with a value to reading the bible simply cos it informs the culture of our society in its history and values somehow...  the OT has one system the Gospels are well something else and the epistles inform church culture...  they seem underwhelmed me i want the Holy Spirit to do the rest and wish them well in breakthrough for their frustration... so that is non christian #1 talking to non christian #2... and this rings a bell/// you see..

last week somebody showed a video they liked ... me already i was making for the exit... but accepted the special invite to actually sit down...: a guy in america was talking about church... he began with stats about actual church attendance and then..., i like this.. somebody had talked about... well the afterchurch satisfaction of christians.... somebody had the inspired guess to talk to somebody in a cafe where christains aggregated en masse after church... they said ... tell me what you think of christians to a waitress and got an earful for their trouble...: they are the worst tippers ... they this they that....   

ok so what does one do in response to that then?... as you may well hear that's surely the onset of a bit of christian persecution?  you know the stuff you hear about all the time? or actually listening and doing what with it... i mean if the person was not worthy of being paid attention to in the first place cos of they just ain't a christian  then why bother now i mean it's obvious innit they are second class cos they work on sunday?  is this all about pr? the video talker by being open to hey the stats speak for themselves (the good folks of the world spend their sunday mornings) ... found there were many other examples of christian culture proving the barrier to evangelism by not acknowledging the going on and the going hard into the journey dirty hands patience  loving  the neighbour ( as they need love as you would in their shoes) and so on... above all by not loving! there was a bunch of stuff that i liked and a bunch of stuff that well... the bit about ok like christian folks working out what they thought they should encourage to do instead ... the activity of being a christian not the ideal but getting the good folks to obey the leader relies on the leader heard right ... but hey it was still a good points talk that i ain't heard in a while...   

oh yes what do the good folks of the world think of the church... later i try to ask a churchgoing homeless person ... churchgoing cos that's where they find sustenance ... i get a response about architecure that i can't quite assimilate... you see there we are sitting...... person is there out of hunger despair and loneliness and the talk is .. i smile as i see the exchange of glances between two folks as the talk is the cue to bury face in newspaper .. you see i am a little tired of listening to church folks self congratulating about 'the talk' and it clearly being pretty insignificant and meaningless for the folks there.... this talk started ok actually... well nearly... a reference to jonah in distress crying out to GOD and GOD turning up.... but ended in such turgid undigestable familiarity of the religious view of the cross.... how on earth do they come up with that one! well maybe it works for particular giftings and brain wirings ...one christian afterwards lamented that 'they' come to this service but come to no other.... well usually they will be what begging or perhaps even at a church with a more generous portion?... i reflect on the number of folks i has found has a belief in GOD and i even prayed for one who GOD got me to pray for who claimed no belief but GOD got me to pray for them and when we spoke some time later they recounted all the things  i ahd prayed for hAD hAPPENED! they attempted to say they didn't believe but it felt a little half hearted... they certainly were thrilled with what  had been happening! i was amazed!  you see we all has this desire and expectancy once we been touched by GOD....   only we look round us for our brethren and we find we has some churchfolk.. living seperate lives perfectly content in the bubble of contentment.... i was asked earlier today about the afterlife...: do you believe you are going to Heaven in the afterlife? and replied 'that's GOD's Call'  Heaven onto earth is what excites me... so how how how ?  the young homeless person of an architectural bent i was talking to has a belief in GOD  i shared a bit about Jesus being the Lord that Saves and that it was something he could call on anytime ... i left it up to him ... and for my part that he prayed.... you see i trust in Christ the Annointing... last time i was there i sat and moved tables cos i felt completely excluded from the conversation... it was confusing who was homeless and who was not,,, for some reason the one person who was genuinely so  .. i took a dislike to... in the end moving tables bore fruit... and had fun conversations ...but what was interesting was the guy i had initially disliked ... was  -well they all were- listening to the conversation about GOD happening on the next table... hung around afterwards and i had a brief word and a prayer... and .... well this time something had happened and there they were.... hanging about at the end a teeny bit transformed!


GOD BLESS!

Peace and Love,