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Tuesday, April 10, 2007
 Changing me and changing you We have come with open hearts O let the ancient words impart." ~ Lynn DeShazo~ Jesus had promised another gift before His ascension. The gift of the Holy Spirit. He told his disciples and followers in Acts (and us): ‘And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."’The waiting began. The early Christians didn’t just wait. They read His Word, they prayed, they broke bread together. Sometimes I long for being like the first Christians. Sure, I wouldn’t like to be persecuted like them—I just long for their community. Certainly we have our churches where we worship behind closed doors. We have our doctrine we follow. Please don’t misunderstand me—there is nothing wrong with that. What I do long for is that we worship all together on Sundays. We all believe that Jesus is Lord; that He died for our sins. We believe that there is one God, who is infinitely perfect, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God gave us all the same Holy Spirit. His Spirit is changing us from the inside out to become more like Christ… Okay, so maybe I am just dreaming too big. I probably just have to wait for His second coming to see my dream come true--the dream of a unified Church without the ‘walls’ of doctrine. I think that is why I love the on-line community so much. We respect each other; pray for each other, love each other as Christ commanded us to do… ‘And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”’ ~ Matthew 22:37-39 (ESV) My sweet sisters, let us continue to encourage each other and reach out to the ones that don’t know Him yet. With His help and the community of believers we will reach the finish line… Lord of Heaven and Earth. You gave us Your Holy Word and Spirit to change us from inside out. Help us to reach the finish line. Continue to guide us in Your Word that we may never depart from it. In the precious name of our Lord and Savior, in Jesus’ name we pray ~ Amen…  Please visit this week's hostess Loni to read more takes on this week's IOW quote... Labels: "In 'Other' Words", Iris's Articles, The Word
Comments:
I just long for their community
Iris, this is beautiful. It is funny how you mention community. I was thinking about this the other day. Now you are going to laugh at me, but years ago I read the book "The Red Tent" and even though I am glad women are not banished from men during that time of the month now, I really wish we had that time of "community". I think that is what I miss most in life. Life is busy, so much to do. But because of that I feel I have sacrificed the closeness women have to one another. Sitting around chatting, the "community." Ok enough rambling, but this post reminded me of that and I see your heart was feeling the same. Beautiful words, and I love how it ties to the quote this week.
I love this Christian blogging community! I love how supportive and loving it is and we all share a love for Christ. He brought us together. I'm so grateful for that.
Beautiful post, Iris.
I love the online community as well! My Sunday's are so cherished in my heart because i attend church, sunday school and then a bible study in the evenings. But when Sunday is over..I feel so alone and long for the community until the following week! I'm finding that getting online and reading blogs has been so wonderful!
My heart echoes your words! I do love this community on line. Each woman with her particular background but in the foreground a love for Christ that I can identify with.
The community is something that is quite amazing. That is what I really enjoy about our blogging community. We are all different "religions" but we are united in our love for God and for other women. That is what God wanted! Loved this post! Thanks for sharing.
Coming together as one is one of the wonderful parts of the scripture. That is why I so enjoy our blogging community that we have. We may all be different religions, but we are all united in purpose and love. That is wonderful! Loved this post!
Dear Iris,
You ladies are such an inspiration to me. I love the Christian blogging community and the wonderful Christian friends I am learning so much from, sharing and enjoying. I love your post. In his endless love, Angel ():) ( Pearls of Wisdom)
Iris that was written so well, what an awesome post. I read a bit in Philippians last night that reminded me of unity as well. It said that some preach Christ for the wrong reasons, and some for the love of the gospel, but whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached so I rejoice.
I'm a little off topic, arent' I? :) Oh well, great post!
Iris,
I was able to enjoy our "church community" this last Friday. In our town all of the area churches gather to walk the Good Friday Walk of the Cross. We trek across town to a park. Then sing and worship together. It doesn't matter your church affiliation. It is the "Chruch, Christ's church--all toghether in worship. I can't wait until we are all united before the throne in worship. WOW!
I will just have to echo a big amen to what everyone said...I love God's community and can hardly wait until the walls of denominations fall and I believe that we are beginning to see some of that....I can hardly wait until we are all in heaven and enjoying the true community of Christ together.
Blessings
Yes, it will be wonderful when all those "walls" are broken down, and we worship together without all the "rules" but with full worshipping hearts. Thank you so much for sharing here. I so enjoyed your thoughts.
I totally agree with you. It will be wonderful when the "community" truly comes together as one and we can worship together without any walls.
Blessings, Julie
'Okay, so maybe I am just dreaming too big.'
There is no such thing, dear! God has set eternity in our hearts...the 'on earth as it is in heaven'. All this tells me is that you long for home. So do I sister, so do I! Beautiful post! Lisa
You are so right. I have found here what I haven't found in the church community I'm in. We need to keep encouraging each other and remembering the "one thing" that's needed, as Jesus told Martha: to be at His feet.
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