Church.
“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised; And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see THE DAY approaching!”
Hebrews 10:23-26
Some people love church, some not so much. Regardless, this is what the Bible says ... so we try our best to follow! It’s good encouragement to remember when times are tough & getting up early on “our only day off” isn’t exactly what we “feel” like doing.
Lately the Lord has been showing us just how irreplaceable our church family is. Not going to mention any names but I’d just like to take a minute to list some of the ways our church family has ministered to us just in the last few months. See if you can think of any other body of people on earth who would show love in action more than a church family who loves & follows Jesus.. who radiate HIM. His hands & feet visibly at work.
One church member mowed our yard & refused payment while our lawn mower was broke. One brought over a basket full of fruit & snacks with a precious card and devotional. One text early one morning an encouragement that was timely, as the Lord always is. Several cooked meals for us when we brought home our new baby boy. No schedule or organization need.. just people wanting to be a blessing. This being our 5th baby, we didn’t have a baby shower .. yet numerous people showed up at different times with sweet gifts & diapers which we can’t ever have enough of. Church members show up at music outreach events, hours away to across the US.. just to be there for us. They don’t just show up & watch, they encourage & help all they can with setting up/loading/watching kids/etc.
Some of our church family send cards in the mail with scripture to encourage us. They spend time on their knees praying for us. Some have left amounts of money throughout this ministry that no one would ever give apart for a move of God’s love. One member made a special trip to a store out of town to pick up a gift for our daughter that we knew she would love & then refused to accept payment after delivering it to my house. Some have gifted our kids with toy guitars. Some show up when we are working on our house (add on) just to help. Some have dropped off packages of meat. Some have given us gift cards to go on dates. Some offer to babysit. Some speak encouragement. Some even have invited our whole family of 7 into their home & blessed us with fellowship & dinner! A few families bag up the clothes their kids outgrow & regularly drop them off for us. They speak well of us even though we have flaws. We trust them & love them, forgive one another at times & are strengthened by the love of Jesus. The list goes on and on and on.
Being a part of a biblical based church has been one of the greatest blessings to our family. These people don’t do these things for recogition. A lot of the things done, they don’t even leave their name.
Their investment & love into our family just causes us to want to do that much more for other people as well.
When we take a minute to look over & consider how much a blessing our church family (& thankfully our blood family) are to us, it cannot be explained apart from just JESUS!
So you, be encouraged to be HIS hands & feet on the giving end today. If you aren’t a part of a family like this, I encourage you to pray that the Lord will lead you to a body of believers that you can serve & watch the chain reaction. Don’t go to be served, but to be a servant for others & watch His hands at work! Blessing & fulfilling your life like you couldn’t ever imagine!
John 13:35
“By this shall all will know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”