Throwback Thursday: Grasping

Sunday nights have very quickly become my favorite night of the week.
We started having campaigners when we got back from Frontier & even though we have actually only had two, I feel like we've been doing this forever.
There is NOTHING more beautiful to me than sitting in a room  together, opening up the Word, highlighting verses that jump out, asking questions about the ones that confuse, & digging for more info on Jesus who loves us, mess included.

*sigh*

We fill up my little living room, some on couches, some on the floor, some have pulled up kitchen chairs in empty spaces.
We laugh together.
We learn together.
We share the tough things.
Last week, I recreated family dinner like we have at camp because my friends had told me they never eat like that with their families. (cue tears)
This week we made s'mores over the fire pit in my front yard.

We talked about grasping tonight.
In Romans, we read about the tension between our sinful flesh & our new Christ centered mindset.
About how the two create this intense chaos in our lives.
Our continual desire to be like Him paired with our instinctive selfish actions is painful!
And sometimes, at least for me, makes me feel crazy!
Then we read in Philippians, that if we have experienced His mercy & affection, then we must feel beholden to work towards being more like our Savior.
That we are to retract our hands from ignorantly grasping at the empty earthly things that only temporarily fill a void, in order to latch on to a God that will permanently sustain us.

Easier said than done.

I find myself still grasping at the wrong things.
As soon as I rest in the Lord in one area, I begin desperately grasping in another.
The tension.
Sin vs. Savior.
Thank goodness we know who wins in the end.

I'm learning more through teaching, than ever before.

And we will continue, "...until Christ is formed in you." Galatians 4:19
 

Cast aside everything that might extinguish this small flame which is beginning to burn within you, and surround yourself with everything which can feed and fan it into a strong flame.

July 21, 2013