I'm inspired this morning. Inspired to do something...something different. Do you ever get tired of routine? Of the same ol' same ol'? I do. I know what you're thinking..."but kelci, you're in south africa having the craziest adventure of your life! how could you be tired of 'routine'?" Well folks, I've got some news for you, routine is a global thing. I'm not saying routine is all bad. I believe we need some order to our lives. Our God is a God of order for sure. But I also believe our God is a God who rocks the boat...and thoroughly enjoys it! I've been going 3 months strong now here and it's been great, but I feel like there's more to be done. We have our weekly schedule that we stick to. Ministries on this, this and this day. That day is our day off. Church on Sunday of course. Oh and team day on that day. Cool. But what if the Holy Spirit doesn't do schedules? Which do we follow? Schedule or Spirit? I believe this is a huge problem in the churches today. We have our set times for worship. Our set days for specific ministries. Our perfectly planned out evangelistic efforts. We even plan baptisms sometimes! The problem with all this planning is that we get in this mind-set of there being a beginning time and an ending time for our Spiritual life. We think, ok...I've given God His allotted time this week, I can punch my Spiritual time card and go home to relax. What is this?! As if we even had a "spiritual time card"! Brothers and Sisters, we have to learn to be in tune with the Holy Spirit...even when we're not necessarily "on the clock".
Lately I've had this deep longing to start a house church out in one of the townships. (a township is a government given housing area for people who once lived in shacks) Townships are some of the poorest parts of the city. Many people would say that they're some of the most dangerous parts of the city as well. I say they need Christ. I imagine so many possibilities if we were to start a house church out in one. In my short life of being an active disciple of Christ, I've found that the most receptive people are the ones in need. People who aren't in need of physical things usually don't seem to see their need for spiritual things. But people who are in need of physical things usually see their need for the spiritual as well. Think of some of the people that Christ impacted. He almost always addressed a physical need (aka healing of some sort or food), then he would address the spiritual need. Since the people saw his love for them in his caring for their physical needs, they listened to him about their spiritual needs as well. We can do the same thing. Show people we care about them physically, and they will be more likely to receive us when we show concern for them spiritually.
ok, that was a bit of a side point. Back to my desire to start this house church. I truly believe this is the Holy Spirit's leading. The only problem is that it conflicts with my schedule. So I stand at a crossroad. I can either push the idea out of my mind and continue on with my week to week schedule, or I can shake up my schedule and try to follow the leading of the Spirit.
I think I choose the second option.
I think I choose the second option.
People, the Spirit works on His own time.
