My son and I drove to our destiny because we were bringing items for our Mom/Nana celebration of life service that it would have been hard to travel with via flying. His BMW suv was a comfortable ride for us too. I like the comfortable ride of this much better then when he had just a BMW sedan. The ride was smooth sailing and then the lake effect snow started to kick in the closer we got to our final destiny which was on the Eastside of Cleveland, better known as the snowbelt. Started to experience white out snow conditions off and on. See, I grew up here and it didn't surprise me in the least bit because I always remembered there would tend to be once last snowstorm usually around St. Patrick's Day. At that point in time in the season it was never that big of a deal because we always knew it would melt fast because Spring was right around the corner.
The plan was for my daughter to drive from the Westside of Cleveland to pick me up early Sunday morning and bring me back to the Westside so I could attend church @ the church I attended when I lived in Ohio, Church on the Northcoast. Well a light dusting of snow as I went to bed Saturday night turned out to be maybe 3 to 4 inches of snow as I woke up and wind howling throughout the night. She drove from no snow into snow roads/highway to pick me up to take me to church. That is love it truly is.
She dropped me off @ church and was going to spend time with family while I was @ church then pick me up. We were going to then join my son and all of us were going to visit with their grandmother and my former mother-in-law who I still love and remained friends with throughout the years. We did and I even brought her a piece of my mother's craft class creation for her to have.
So good going to church with sweet familiar faces to greet you and they remembered you too. There is just something about going home to church to visit where they taught you the word of God in the Bible. Yes, about heaven and hell, no sugar coated words but scripture truth. Where I had freedom to worship, sing in the choir and most importantly where I learned to evangelize via the class, Evangelism Explosion along with being trained in deliverance ministry too.
I took a few pictures and I asked and still had freedom to worship with my little percussion shaker instruments and I could still find a seat in the front row to sit in. I found a seat in the front row to the left in the center section and went to the altar for praise and worship.
Pastor Troy preached on JOY and I took notes. I am coming back home for a celebration of life for my mom and yes I have the joy of the Lord which is my strength. I couldn't help being reminded of the time I attended CNC when my father went to be with the Lord and I fought for the right to be able to get one of his license plates that simply stated JOY. I wanted them because I had the joy of the Lord. It was odd though because when people I went to church with saw my license plate they would refer to me as joy even though I thought they knew my name was Kimberly? That baffled me a little. As it was time to renew the license plate Holy Spirit asked me a simple yet poignant question Who gives you the joy Me or the license plate? I got the message and realized I did not need a license plate to advertise joy and it was time to let go of that object in my life and gave up the plates and went back to regular license plates when it was time to renew them.
Holy Spirit will give you a season in your life for things of this nature then when that season is up He will present to you a choice but ultimately the choice is for you to make if you will or will not follow His lead. I am so glad I followed His lead in that. The joy of the Lord truly is my strength and it does not come from a license plate stating it. Who will you choose to follow this day? Holy Spirit or your own agenda, the choice really is your own and choose wisely ok.
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