Turn to me and be saved...

I'm really not a preachy kind of person. I believe what I believe and I don't force it on to others. I love God with all my heart but my relationship with him is very personal. I also am not a zealot or one who quotes scripture all the time. That being said I am often in wonder of the wonderful ways God works in us.

As I had mentioned before, I finally got Joey to agree to go to church with me again. I had planned on getting up early this morning and just going to church by myself but for some reason God put it upon me to ask (clears throat...force) Joey to come with me. After some arguing, a threat or two and maybe one or two tears we were on our way. (At least I looked cute though!)

We got to church and Joey sat there looking mad at the world through all the singing, hand clapping, and good feelings. Then the first reading came up - from Isaiah 22 -

“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.
“I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.
“They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.
“In the LORD all the offspring of Israel Will be justified and will glory.”

Following the reading he spoke of how maybe hell isn't the awful place we think of due to the flames and the eternity but because is that moment right before being eternally separated from the Lord we are given the chance to look into his eyes and see his love for us. He spoke of how much God loves us with our flaws, foolish pride and desire to control things ourselves. How our shame is our own and not the Lord's viewing of us as God will never be ashamed of his children. It just went on and on. At that moment I knew exactly why the Lord had put it upon me to get Joey into that church today - we were both drying our eyes after that message and we still had a solid hour to go.

My hope is that next time - it won't be such a battle to get Joey through those doors and that God will continue to do his work in both of us. That was the main message of the sermon today - that the holy spirit is within us. How blessed are we to have that! For those of you that are the praying sort - can I ask you to pray for us? I'll be returning the favor here in my neck of the woods, too!