God speaks

This past weekend our church had what was called, an "Experiencing God" weekend. If you are not aware Henry Blackaby wrote a study called Experiencing God years ago...really great stuff, real life changing. I went through this study when it first came out back in the early 90's.

Anyhow, our "EGW" (Experiencing God Weekend) was well publicized, promoted, prayed over, I mean all the right things to do were done. The talk was how the weekend would be life changing, uplifting, amazing stuff going on, etc.

Well I was pumped, primed and ready...I didn't have any leadership responsibilities cause a youth team were leading our youth, so it was nice to be able to be with the adults. Again, pumped and primed for a great experience...but it didn't happen. I mean I left Friday night thinking, "hmmm...God are you speaking? are you there?" cause everybody else seemed to be having this incredible experience, but me. Maybe Saturday will be different...nope, same result, same feelings.

So now I'm evaluating my spiritual life, thinking I'm really missing the boat somewhere...everyone seemed to have this new revelation of God in their life, a real experience was taking place...but I wasn't getting or feeling it (and no I'm not saying that God is a "feeling"...I hope you know what I mean)...I just wasn't having this incredible EXPERIENCE that was talked about. I really struggled with everything...

BUT...Sunday night...God spoke through countless numbers of people as they were giving testimony of the weekend. People I didn't know real well, people I'd been friends with for a long time, you name it , they were sharing and it finally hit me...God was speaking through these people to me. And the one word that kept on running around in my head was COMMUNITY.

I've used that word before in sermons and in conversations, but last night that word came alive to me. We, as a church, are a community of believers trying to become like Christ Jesus together...and to hear person after person standing up and talking about their experience, caused me to have that experience with God. I felt connected with folks that I never really knew...and the common denominator of that connection is Jesus, plain and simple. COMMUNITY! I like that word even more now, because I saw and heard it lived out last night, and really I was watching it lived out on Friday and Saturday...and didn't even realize it.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to our body here at FBC after this weekend. I suspect others felt the same way I did about Friday and Saturday...maybe I'm wrong, but God speaks even when we think He's not. Anybody else relate to this idea? Anybody else have a similar experience?