Sunday Overflow

This next posting is the result of some good conversation with my mom and a very good friend of mine. For the last several months my church has really been seeking for God to pour out His spirit upon us, and it has really been awesome to watch that hunger grow in our church. I know that God is moving in our church and I am excited to see what is in store for all of us. As I think about that hunger and I pray about it I really feel like God is showing not just me but others as well that Sunday should be the overflow. What I mean by that is that the Bible teaches us that we should be in His Word and in His presence each and every day. It says, "give us this day our DAILY bread" (I added the caps) But I feel like most of us (and I am including myself here too)arrive at church on Sunday in a spiritually starving state. Just think about what would happen to your body if you went without food. I actually looked up the symptoms of starvation and it is eery how similar they are to what we experience when we starve ourselves of our spiritual food. When we starve ourselves of physical food we may start out with irritability and lethargy. Which I find ironic that one of the first things I notice when I have not been feeding my spirit is how my attitude goes down hill. One of the next things that happens with physical starvation is that you start lose fat and muscle mass. You start to whither away. The same happens to the spirit within us as we begin to starve it. Your physical body will become so weak that it reaches a point to where it no longer even is able to sense that it's thirsty. This one really hit me between the eyes. I see it and have experienced it where you go so long without your spiritual food that you completely lose your thirst for that living water all together. And when your physical body gets this week your immune system starts shutting down and you are at risk of many diseases. And when your spirit becomes that weak it no longer has the strength to fight off the disease of sin. Sadly what comes next is heart failure and whether physical or spiritual it leads to the loss of a life. The parallels God uses in His word and His creation never cease to amaze me.

I bring up this parallel on starvation and such to ask if we should really arrive at church in a spiritually starving state waiting for our pastor and worship bands to spoon feed us our "daily bread"? Should we arrive in such a state of spiritual malnutrition? So weak that it takes a several songs just to get strong enough and in the right mind set to worship God? Or should we be feeding ourselves so well that when we arrive that we are ready to burst at the seams with what God is doing in our lives. How awesome would it be to go to a church where people are gorging themselves on God's Word each and every day instead of on a candy bar? When I say we should be bursting at the seams I am not going to say that should look one way or another. For one person it could mean serving the church, for another it could mean dancing in the aisles, for others it might be praying with or encouraging a brother or sister in Christ, or any other of the many many ways we are able to let the love of Christ flow through us. My point is that we should not arrive at church spiritually starving if we are mature believers in Christ (and I say we because I am saying this to myself as well), but instead we should be overly full and ready to share some of the food we have been stocking up on all week long. I really believe that the American church has gotten things backwards in this area of waiting till Sunday to be fed spiritually. Just think how amazing would it be to have a church that instead of the pastor being the only one sharing what God laid on his heart the whole body took turns sharing all the things God had been showing and teaching them throughout the week. How powerful would that be? I get excited just thinking about it. The things God could do with a READY AND WILLING church are so much greater than we could ever imagine.

********************** Taking it one step further********************************

As I was praying this morning and reflecting on the comparison of physical starvation and spiritual starvation I believe God wants to take it a step further. When a person is in severe starvation you can not just give them a hamburger right away. You have to start them out with very small and mildly flavored portions and gradually work them up to larger portions with more substance. There stomachs could not handle it. It would make them sick. They have to work up to the ability to be able to digest that food and expand their shrunken stomachs to be able to take in larger portions at one time. I believe the same is true for our spiritual starving state. We pray and are seeking God to move in powerful ways and we want to experience the out pouring of the Spirit, but God is needing to still give us the smaller portions because we are not ready to digest all that He has for us. So we need to start expanding our spiritual appetite so that we are able to digest all that He wants us to partake in. We need to be in state that we are able to handle ALL that He has for us.

Losing Pounds and Finding Myself Again( part 2)

You know a lot of people have been asking me how I have lost all this weight and what my secret is etc... I think I need to begin by telling you that by no means do I have all this figured out. I am merely speaking from my own experience. The truth is I am not on any fad diet or anything like that. God has just used one of the worst trials in my entire life as a catalyst for change in many other areas of my life. Where I use to use food to cope and meet needs I now turn to God. So I do not "need" food like I use to "need" food. I don't "need" chocolate like I use to. I was so busy stuffing my face trying to satisfy the longings in my soul that I did not leave any room for God to fill those longings. I used food, but I believe we all have our own vices that we use instead of turning to God. If we are always filling ourselves how is He suppose to fill us? So not only did I clear out space on my floor to dance, but it allowed space for the Holy Spirit to come and fill and He is the one who makes me want to dance. He revives my soul and breathes new life into me. He has fulfilled my cravings. And as I have experienced where I am today verses where I was less than a year ago I have just begun to realize just how intertwined our physical and spiritual health can be. I had become lazy on every level physically, mentally, spiritually. I was always tired because of all the extra weight I was dragging around which kept my mind from being sharp which in turn kept my spirit from being on guard and ready to battle when needed. The better physical condition I am in the better I can serve Christ and my children. If I am at my own personal best health then I can do whatever whenever He asks me to do it. "If I am always ready. I don't need to get ready." I will not be hindered by physical capabilities. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and I need to take care of that temple and I need it operating at its optimal levels. I realize that not everyone is blessed with good health, but we all have our own personal best that we should strive to be which will look different for everyone and it may not always be a weight issue either. I just know that if I am operating at my peak I can serve God in a greater way then when I am unhealthy and always tired. Again it is not always necessarily tied to weight it's mainly a good health issue mine just happened to be linked to my excess weight.

I Corinthian 9:24-
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Losing Pounds and Finding Myself Again( part 1)

Today I am celebrating a major weight loss accomplishment of losing 60lbs since I have given birth to Faith 6 months ago. Granted 10-15lbs of that I gained with this pregnancy and lost after giving birth, but I am still very happy with myself. Those who have known me the majority of my life know that before I got married and had kids weight was never an issue with me. I was by no means extremely skinny, but I would have considered myself thin who might have carried an extra 5-10lbs that were not really a huge concern of mine. I always ate what I wanted when I wanted. I was never afraid to have the burger and order dessert. I was also pretty active which most likely allowed for me to eat more without the major weight gain. Over the last 9 years of marriage I had managed to pack on the pounds. Add on top of that having 4 children in 7 years I really started to gain weight. Food had become my comfort, my friend, my reward, my relaxation and stress reliever. Food was literally the only thing I did for myself. I was constantly pouring myself into everyone else and never filling myself back up. So I used food to fill myself back up again, but you just have to keep eating more and more to feel that same sense of "fullness". But now as I am looking back I realize that with each pound I gained and every time I used food to cope I lost a little piece of myself. I was hiding who Brandy truly was and who God truly intended me to be underneath all that extra weight. It was another way for me to hide. When I think about this I think about cleaning out my wonderful son's room. Samuel can destroy a room like no one else I know. It literally can get to the point to where you have to wade through a foot of toys and clothes. It's bad! Then I have to go in and clean house and get rid of all the garbage, unwanted toys, and clothes that no longer fit etc... We need to get rid of all the extra weight in there. Just like I needed to lose my extra weight that has been hindering me and holding me back. Because there is so much more tied to those pounds than just extra weight. So little by little I start sorting through his stuff and throwing out all the junk and little by little you start seeing floor space and some resemblance of organization. But you know what is amazing about a freshly cleaned room to a child. It is inevitable they get in there and just start to dance all over the place. They love it and can not resist the urge. I am realizing through this weight loss journey that with each pound I lose I am getting rid of more junk that I did not need that just hid who I truly was. And now that I am beginning to see some clear space on my floor I find myself with this incredible urge to DANCE! The weight was like chains to me holding me back in so many ways and with every pound I lose I feel more chains dropping to the ground and freeing me up to be the woman God created me to be and He loves to see us dance through life!