Often people will share personal stories with me about how God worked in their lives, whether through a miracle, an answer to prayer, to deep or personal experience, a “God-moment” (what some people call a coincidence, but I prefer to call God-incidents), and many other ways. Maybe you could start sharing your stories here, so others can also experience and appreciate them.
Thanks, Pastor Norm
I think the Lord may be trying to tell me something. Lately I’ve been going for a morning walk around the church neighbourhood, and each day He is connecting me with someone who just wants to talk… and talk… and talk. I say ‘hi’ as I walk by, and they keep talking. At first I resented it, an intrusion on my quiet time with the Lord walking. But I sense Him telling me, “I care about these people, do you?”
You see, I am often saying that we as a CHURCH need to connect with our community more. But now He is impressing on me that I need to do it too, and yes, it will interfere with my plans, but since when are my plans preferred over His?
OK Lord, I surrender my walk time to You, trusting that You will use those conversations to bless others.
I am somewhat frustrated that there are not more ways to connect people within HOPE. Many struggle with depression, health issues, marriage concerns, parenting concerns, financial strains, employment discontent, loneliness, anger, hurt etc. and yet tend to battle this alone. We are a family of believers and yet many feel alone? This makes no sense to me. I am sure each and every one of us knows someone who struggles with such an issue within this church and community. My challenge to us at HOPE is this: what can you and I do to show the love of Jesus to someone/couple/family that we know is struggling with something. Do you know that just a simple phone call or card acknowledging that you care can make all the difference to someone whom satan is busy convincing ‘no one cares’; ‘no one else has this problem’ etc. Over the years I can think of cards that were sent to me, some even anonymously, that gave me such strength when I most desperately needed them – to me those cards where the voice of God. How about the family struggling financially who receives a note in their mailbox with $50 or $100 for groceries or that unexpected repair. God’s timing is always right on! We live in such a busy and yet isolated world. I know there are not enough hours in a day as it is, but I know from personal experience that taking the time to be His love, will be the greatest blessing of your day! – LORD, make us willing to help others experience You!
This past week March 3 to 10th my husband and I were in Mexico and I would like to share some special God moments. This was to be a special vacation to celebrate our upcoming 25th Wedding Anniversary. I woke up Mar 3 with a terrible cold (I rarely get sick) but had to push through it because we had to finish packing and be ready to leave for 11 am. We finally arrived at the Cancun Airport at ~9 pm. It had been such a long day, especially as I wasn’t feeling well and we had a 2hr bus ride ahead of us! I looked around me (we were at the luggage carousel) and asked “Are you here God?” A few minutes later an amazing, very, large (each wing span was ~ 5 inches wide) butterfly appeared. Everyone gasped and oooed and awwwed. It was an incredible and special moment. It lifted my spirits so much and made the bus ride bearable.
A few days later at our first romantic A La Carte supper another butterfly was waiting for us at our table. It was small and beautiful and we felt it was their just for us.
Later, during a day trip, we were snorkeling in this very large, beautiful lagoon where a fresh water river met the ocean. At one point I spotted a large collection of colourful fish in shadow over by the rocks. I was praising God for all the amazing things I was seeing and decided to sing “What an Awesome God”. You have to understand that even on land I am not the best of singers and with a snorkel tube in my mouth I really expected them all to swim for their life! What an awesome surprise when to my amazement they completely surrounded me and were swirling and “dancing” and I wasn’t at all afraid.
I continue to praise and thank God for the many wonderful blessings and “God Moments” on this very special trip!!
Today as I was driving to church, I experienced such an overwhelming sense of God’s love and power. Tears spilled out abundantly as I felt the power of God’s unfailing love wrapping around me, enfolding me in His mighty arms of love. There are no words to describe this experience of worship which was only taken deeper in service through the words that were spoken, the prayers that were uttered and the songs that were sung and the communion that was shared. I could not contain the tears: tears of unworthiness, tears of joy, tears of great sorrow, tears of awe, tears of hurt, tears of forgiveness, tears of peace, tears of uncertainty yet tears of affirmation – ONLY GOD could orchestrate such uncontrolable tears. God continued to reveal Himself as those who noticed my tears approached me after the service or phoned me later at home to show their love and concern. I give thanks and praise to God for the power of His love! LORD, grant me all that I stand in need of to share and be Your love…..
This week was great. I was sitting in our cafeteria, eating lunch today with four friends. For some reason, religion, faith, beliefs, etc always seems to come up with people at my school. Funny how it always comes up for me so much stronger in the public school system. Anyways, I always feel like it’s me against the school when it comes down to discussing topics. Everybody always sees my points as biased due to my faith, or crazy for believing in a fairy tale. It was so nice today to have my friend who is also a Christian with me at lunch for the extra support when talking about every-day issues. It doesn’t seem like much, but just having one more person there, knowing they believe the same thing I do, is so uplifting and strengthening. I have rarely had a problem sharing my faith since I started school again, but it does get incredibly tiring again taking bullets from people for your faith, so it’s nice when God gives you a bit of backup.
Where did I see God? Well two things happened yesterday (Sunday, Feb 18) that God spoke to me through. One was something that happened at church that really bothered me, and how God used it to make me look into my own heart, and to wrestle through the meaning of grace. The other thing was the nursing home service, where the Discipleship Class shared the love of Jesus through “God Loves You” Valentine cards, where they “stepped out of the boat” to sing and talk with the residents, as nervous as they were. I saw God stretching them, equipping them and using them to show the love of Jesus. THANK YOU GOD!