losing the remote and finding my way, all in the same day!

I mentioned yesterday I was going to talk about going to church today and I am.  It's coming at the end.

I had a great day yesterday.  In an existence that lately has involved a lot of strife and things going wrong, so many good things happened yesterday, I'm just kind of excited to share it with you.

I am on fire for the Lord!  I'll explain why in a bit.

Sunday started out like most Sundays do.   I woke up too early and couldn't get back to sleep.  I listened to the radio and had my morning smoke and coffee, part of my routine.  I didn't struggle with whether or not I wanted to go to church.  I wrote my first draft of what is the first of the two blog entries, got cleaned up and went to church.  We sang a hymn that I had to share with you and did so in the second draft of said blog.  As the day progressed, it was revised a time or two after that.

I had my thumb in the splint so there were the questions.  I'm uncomfortable explaining the silly things that happen to me, but it never ceases to amaze me how God can use something so trivial as a dumb thing of getting your hand wrapped up in the lawnmower cord for His purposes.  I met a lady at church who I'd never met before and talked to her and her friend who I kind of knew but not really for a few minutes after the service.  It's nice to get to know the people I worship with better.  Maybe I'll not be running off after a quick cup of coffee after the service like I usually do.

After church, I went to the store to pick up some things and that's when I felt it laid on my heart to share with you about the Bible.  I hope whoever it was that needed to read what I wrote took me up on the challenge.  I'd hope that every person who reads my blog would make reading just a bit of scripture each day an important part of his/her life.

After the store trip, I mowed the lawn with my new lawnmower.  Later on in the week I'm gonna share with you what I learned about myself today with my lawnmower experience.  He's always at work in my life.

I thought a swim might be nice so I took the cover off the pool but because of all the rain on the cover, some of the stuff the cover is supposed to keep out went into the pool along with the rainwater on top of the cover.  I cleaned out the pool and just about the time I finished is when the storm clouds started building.  I walked in the house and my favorite movie was on television!  I watched it.

Shortly after the movie ended I lost the remote and June had programs that were recording that I don't particularly care to watch, so I just shut the television off.  I made some bread and instead of just being bored, I finished up a Bible study class that led to another and another and something very unexpected.

I got the answer I needed.

I keep praying to God that I can understand all this, to lead me,  and to guide me.  The man conducting the Bible study made it crystal clear to me.  If you're not going anywhere it's because you're where God wants you to be and it's time to just wait and see where He's going to take you next.  Apparently I'd had the answers all along but I'm wanting things to move in my time and I couldn't see them moving in His time.

That was my d'oh moment.

I kind of knew this, but when He's talking to you, well you just...know, you know?  I have a friend who's in need of the same information.  We're where we are because that's where He wants us to be.  With that came understanding that what doesn't make sense to me someday will and it just has to be in God's time.

Something else I came to understand finally is why.  This is a time for God to use to make me into what He wants me to be and I have some things to work on.  There are just a couple of things that need tweaking.  Smoking has to go.  What got me was this:  Would I see Jesus with a smoke hanging out of His mouth?  Answer:  NO. I might be a bit testy for a little bit, so in advance, sorry, but we're gonna do this cold turkey.  I said we.  I'm never alone.  I also understand what it means when the Bible speaks of being refined by fire.  This quiet little idea just popped into my head and made me feel like God was using this time alone for His purpose.  I guess I had my own little epiphany.

I learned so much from an hour and a half of Bible study.  It was great and it's what I mean by finding myself because I couldn't flip channels on the TV.  I used the time to grow closer to Christ and, boy was it time well spent!  He gives us what we need just when we need it.  When days like these happen, when I come to understand the what, and for me the most important thing, the why, I'm just in awe of the subtle things God can do.  I know this is going to sound dumb but hurting my thumb is one of the best things that's happened to me in a long time.  It cost me the opportunity to work overtime this past weekend but I needed the rest. I was supposed to be at work when I lost the remote and decided to pick up on my Bible studies during the rain showers last night.  I'm so very happy I was where I was at and chose to use the time the way I did.

This morning, I'm on fire to share with you the joy and peace that Christ brings into our lives and I'm on fire to share with you what God does in my life so you'll want that for your own life!  Praise God!  Praise Jesus!

Now, this is where the blog turns to YOU, the reader.  What did you do yesterday?  If you identify yourself as a Christian and don't regularly attend church services, your question for you today is:
Why?

 Re-read the verses I posted yesterday, look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself:  Why?

I spent 25 years of my life being wrong about this.  Again, I'm not judging you.  I am trying to nudge you, to encourage you; I can't force you to and it's not me making you feel guilty if you feel guilty.  That comes from within and I hope you'll listen to that inner something and do something about it.  Fellowship with other Christians, well, beside from being a great experience, it's biblical!

If you don't have a church,  I can recommend a 20 minute lesson on-line to help you pick a church or you could join me at mine.  The Pops concert at Weber State is on Sunday and there are fireworks during the concert.  If you'd like, come up to the house. Bring the family. We can bar-b-que, you can go for a swim.  We can play boccee ball and go to the fireworks or watch them from the back yard and listen to the Pops concert on the radio.

But most importantly, you could join me at church and we can make a day of it!