Refreshed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure I'll type this post this evening without tears all over myself attempting to put into words what my heart feels, but since we're sharing via the barrier of this computer screen I suppose my tears will do nothing to distract you from reading and sharing this blog and so I'll write with tears and I pray you read and are encouraged, perhaps even challenged.

I went this morning way out of my comfort zone and my 3 inch box which in some ways was a result of my post from yesterday as I mentioned my having lunch with a new friend (have I mentioned how much I love new friends who love Jesus...well I do if I haven't, they each just bring such rich unique fabric squares into the quilt of your life). Actually I just love people, I think that it is through one another that we experience so much of God. I think Jesus loved people and I'm learning that as I fall more in love with Him I am able to do the same. Anyway, that was a sidebar sorry.

Went this morning to a place called Extreme Encounter. Now I realize what's coming next is a very BOLD statement and I'm going to make it anyway. I saw with my eyes this morning what I believe to be a modern day replica of the way Jesus ministered to people and what He asked us to be fore people. I saw young people and older people. I saw families and singles. I saw cleaned up and I saw messed up. I saw middle class and I saw poverty. I saw....well I saw Jesus. I just saw Jesus.

Allow me to share here about the setting because I believe it plays a huge part in the moral of this particular blog. You pull up to this "church" building and it is an old run down warehouse looking building with a sign outside that says EXTREME in big black letters above the door. As I walked up the sidewalk to the entrance there was this middle aged black man sitting on the steps with a bag of canned goods he'd just received from inside the "church," where for the first hour on Sunday they open up the doors and allow people who need it to come inside and get food and clothing. They have a super ministry to the homeless who live under the bridge. This sweet man was sitting on the steps and as people passed he would say "good morning." I had huge tears before I ever entered. As I walked in, the room was dimly lit and in the corner there was a coffee shop and donuts and people mingling in this very casual room with sofa's and chairs and just a living room type feel. Then I watched this lady come in who was almost without a doubt a recovering drug addict with two children. She spoke loud and she shook some as she talked. She was speaking to a very "cleaned up" lady and she was explaining to her that she'd been sick and up all night and this gentle kind lady who had Jesus hands today placed her hand on this lady's forehead and said you're burning up and took her to get a drink and stood there with her just listening and loving. There was so much dignity given in that moment and I learned something about Jesus in 5 minutes of watching two other human beings interact. We learn so much that way if we take the time to pay attention.

Ok so all of that was before the worship. The worship was incredible. It was Spirit led, it was deeply felt. The message was completely centered around the cross of Christ and urged us to come and die...to boast in nothing but the cross of Christ and challenged us that the only way we could boast in the cross is on the cross. I must place myself on the cross, dying to myself, realizing I have a lot of dying left to do. WOW!!!

I realize that hundreds of words here fell far short of doing this justice. I saw today though with these two eyes God gave me one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a long time, perhaps ever in my life. My hope has been restored that there are places who really are doing this ministry thing the way I read about in the Bible. Who really are setting up worship stations where anyone could feel welcome to enter. Places that really do structure themselves so that not knowing how to "behave" or "conduct" one's self in church is never a factor.

I pillow my head tonight so refreshed. So completely refreshed. Saw something absolutely holy today and it inflated my Spirit in ways that I don't remember feeling before.

Oh Lord that we would always seek ways that mimic what you've asked us to. Thank you for this precious glimpse into Your heart today and for being so utterly kind to allow me to be just one small part of that moment in time. You are awesome! Help us get it God please. Help us be it God with all that we are and all that we do. Please help me die that you might live in this temple.

By the way thanks Jen, for being a conduit for Jesus. I appreciate you!