Gasping for the breath of Your Word // "God's Not Dead"

Last night, we had "Wednesday Night Live" at our church. We have several lovely cooking teams that provide dinner and then follow with some sort of Bible study/discussion group. We often start and stop WNL throughout the year for summer/winter & holiday breaks and then we'll restart for an 8-week long session. We just started back last week but I wasn't feeling all that well and thought it best to stay home. The entire group came together to view the movie "God's Not Dead".  Have you seen it yet?!

Although we didn't get to join the group at church, my husband and I had previously gone to see this movie in the theater and it didn't disappoint. If you have not seen it, get your hands on it. Good for the whole family. Time NOT wasted!

The message was fantastic....my witness stronger because of it. God, most definitely, is NOT dead. He's alive!!

One of my son's favorite songs says it perfectly....

Facebook blew up as folks flocked to see the movie. And each time I saw someone's status read "GOD'S NOT DEAD!"...my heart leaped for joy!! *fist bump*

Our Sunday School Class has been studying the Book of Revelation. Deep stuff I'm telling ya. I am so intrigued, interested, encouraged, baffled at the descriptions of what is to come. I love learning about end times prophecy and, in fact, believe that we are nearing the return of our Lord Jesus, without a doubt. Prophecy is being fulfilled. We are close.

There's a sense of urgency in my life, in our church, in the discipleship that is going on around me. We need to be prepared. Be ready. Be on our toes for when we come in contact with someone who desperately needs to hear the redeeming grace and love of Jesus. To not be afraid. We are against adversity, very troubling times and scrutiny and the adversary is pushing HARD on Christians. We are being forced to be politically correct. To shush our beliefs because we may offend. To stifle our voices because it is unpopular and we are now considered minorities (which I'm not sure I believe...I think it is a media tactic, but I digress). Our class discussed the bowls and seals and horses and antichrists just what our thoughts were about the end of life as we currently know it, the fulfillment of prophecy, the glorious awaiting. More glorious than anything we can fathom and that's hard when we see glimpses like this....

It is not lost on our SS Class that our WNL class is following in the same path of urgency and preparedness that is necessary these days.

So back to last night.

We broke into smaller groups for discussion of the movie. Last night's topic was "Get Prepared". (Oh, hello relevance!)

Our Pastor led our group in discussion Principles of Preparation.

I have to admit, when we first began the class, I was a little distracted. I've got so much going on right now. Lately, although bouncing back and forth between desires, dreams, work and family, I feel like a mental fog is lifting and there's so much I NEED to do. Need being the operative word here because right that minute, that's not what I needed to be thinking about. But let's face it. I was Distracted. Uncommitted. Not Ready.  Feel me?!

It was when Pastor David said "Be ready to share your testimony in under two minutes" that for some reason my ears perked up....I opened by EVERNOTE and began just jotting down snippets of the lesson/discussion.

My notes went a little something like this:

Testimony < 2 minutes
Know what you believe 
Can share the Gospel/Beliefs concisely
Honest. Simple. Don't get fancy. The Word is RIGHT THERE.
Can religion and science coexist?
Is God reasonable?
Creation without "evidence"
Know why you came to believe
How to gain Godly beliefs - Study the Word//Ask the wise//Saturate yourself
Be ready. Be gentle. Be respectful. Be humble. Be teachable.
Jesus was NOT a doormat.
It's OK to not know it all.
Do NOT be arrogant.
Listen to their story.

I was fully immersed. It always draws me back in. Close to my Father. His word ALWAYS finds me and captures me and reels me back in.

I'm being reeled in.
Jesus is doing the cleaning.

Oh the metaphors.

Why is it that we can get so......... lost?
Why is it so hard to stay on track and focused?

The lift of the mental fog has allowed me to focus more on my bible study and I keep sensing the same direction of saying YES to God. To be open to HIS direction. He's leading me....somewhere. Again, nothing lost on me between SS study and WNL study and my daily devotions and personal development studies that.......GOD IS PREPARING ME.

He's lifting that fog. "And at last I see the light..it's like the fog has lifted" 

But somehow, sometimes we still get lost in our daily juggle. But this urgency to "Get Prepared"....I feel it. I feel it like the pull of a million magnets on my soul.

The Holy Spirit wants to bestow power upon me, ON US, to share with others, to be fishermen and reel 'em in to Christ.

He's ready to clean.
__________________________________________________________________________________

It was at the end of class when David said, "May we gasp for the breath of Your Word". 
My skin tingled. My eyes pricked. I absolutely was touched by these words.

I don't want to be filled with anything else but the breath of Jesus. His Word. I want to be fully saturated and on time to His calling. You see.... God is positively NOT dead. He's alive. He's roaring inside of me like a lion. I've got to get ready.

WE have GOT to get ready.

1 Peter 3:15 says:

#GodsNotDead