I love it when I get the Sabbath off. My morning started at 0735 when my girlfriend called to wake me up. I had wanted to wake up earlier than that but I forgot to turn on my alarm after setting it. I took a shower and used a Gillette Pro Glide razor for the first time. I had been using an electric shaver but the Pro Glide was the best shaving experience I've had in a long time. At 0830 I went in to meet with my bishop. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS church) and I have been meeting with my bishop regularly to work on becoming a better follower of Christ. After my meeting with him I had some time so I helped set up for the LDS service and then sat down and read The Ensign, the official magazine of the LDS church. before I had participated in my first service I was already being fed by the Spirit. The LDS service was pretty good and then we had Sunday School. We studied the Sermon on the Mount. It was nice, I didn't really learn anything new but I was reminded of a lot of principles I already knew.
After Sunday School was the Victory Gospel Experience. If you've never visited a Gospel church I highly recommend it. The first time I went when I first walked in I felt very white, because the congregation is mainly black, then they got to the part of the service where we greet each other, and it's not just shake hands with the people around you like in the Catholic church, we go out into the aisles and walk up and down hugging everybody. I went in feeling different but at that point I had never felt more accepted anywhere in my life. It was awesome. If you are used to a conservative church you may feel out of place but if you remember what David said in the Old Testament "I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes," (2Sam 6:21-22 NIV) you will realize that sometimes you just have to not care what people think about you and just praise God. It is very loud, fast paced, and spiritual. I feel the spirit there at least as much as the other services, sometimes more. Today the sermon was on why we need to pray. I feel the spirit more from music than from sermons and we sang a song called Run to You (I think) and I had a personal spiritual experience. At the end of the service they have what they call an "Altar Call" where ministers stand up front and will pray for anyone who needs prayer. I have been feeling for a few weeks that I should go up and pray with them for strength to overcome some temptations which have been as a thorn in my side for quite some time but I never had until today. I went up to the minister who teaches the Bible study because God has been working in my heart and making me feel close to him. I feel as though we're friends even though we've never really talked outside of the Bible study. When I spoke with him today he expressed gratitude to God at me being led to speak to him because he has overcome the same temptations in his life so he prayed with me and then gave me some tips and we're going to talk more tomorrow at Bible study. I hope I'm not on mission at that time.
Next was Episcopal/Lutheran liturgical service. I enjoy going and seeing the liturgy but I have never had a profound spiritual experience at the liturgical service. We had Communion today which is always nice because it is good to remember the sacrifice of God's Son in that way.
After that I went and got lunch and took it to my Compact Housing Unit (CHU) and ate while reading the book of Jonah. I enjoy that story because it shows God's grace in saving the town of Nineveh even after they rejected him so many times, he still gave them another chance.
After lunch I went to the Church of Christ service. I like that one because there are only 3 members that come every week so I get to help out a lot. Today I was the scripture reader. I also set up and helped take down.
After that I went to practice for the evening Protestant service, where I am a member of the praise team. The service was good, I think. The songs sounded good and the sermon was on gratitude. I was impressed that I should try to be grateful for my current situation, even if I'm not always happy with the people I have to work with. God's ways are not our ways so we should just praise Him for what he does, even though it's uncomfortable now.
After church I went to dinner with the praise team and the Chaplains. It was so nice to be with a group of people who I actually wanted to be around. That hasn't happened with a big group like that since I was ripped away from Cinco. Even when I got to be with Cinco for a day I felt like an outsider but there I felt like a member of a family, or of one body, the Body of Christ.
After that I came here and wrote this.
After Sunday School was the Victory Gospel Experience. If you've never visited a Gospel church I highly recommend it. The first time I went when I first walked in I felt very white, because the congregation is mainly black, then they got to the part of the service where we greet each other, and it's not just shake hands with the people around you like in the Catholic church, we go out into the aisles and walk up and down hugging everybody. I went in feeling different but at that point I had never felt more accepted anywhere in my life. It was awesome. If you are used to a conservative church you may feel out of place but if you remember what David said in the Old Testament "I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes," (2Sam 6:21-22 NIV) you will realize that sometimes you just have to not care what people think about you and just praise God. It is very loud, fast paced, and spiritual. I feel the spirit there at least as much as the other services, sometimes more. Today the sermon was on why we need to pray. I feel the spirit more from music than from sermons and we sang a song called Run to You (I think) and I had a personal spiritual experience. At the end of the service they have what they call an "Altar Call" where ministers stand up front and will pray for anyone who needs prayer. I have been feeling for a few weeks that I should go up and pray with them for strength to overcome some temptations which have been as a thorn in my side for quite some time but I never had until today. I went up to the minister who teaches the Bible study because God has been working in my heart and making me feel close to him. I feel as though we're friends even though we've never really talked outside of the Bible study. When I spoke with him today he expressed gratitude to God at me being led to speak to him because he has overcome the same temptations in his life so he prayed with me and then gave me some tips and we're going to talk more tomorrow at Bible study. I hope I'm not on mission at that time.
Next was Episcopal/Lutheran liturgical service. I enjoy going and seeing the liturgy but I have never had a profound spiritual experience at the liturgical service. We had Communion today which is always nice because it is good to remember the sacrifice of God's Son in that way.
After that I went and got lunch and took it to my Compact Housing Unit (CHU) and ate while reading the book of Jonah. I enjoy that story because it shows God's grace in saving the town of Nineveh even after they rejected him so many times, he still gave them another chance.
After lunch I went to the Church of Christ service. I like that one because there are only 3 members that come every week so I get to help out a lot. Today I was the scripture reader. I also set up and helped take down.
After that I went to practice for the evening Protestant service, where I am a member of the praise team. The service was good, I think. The songs sounded good and the sermon was on gratitude. I was impressed that I should try to be grateful for my current situation, even if I'm not always happy with the people I have to work with. God's ways are not our ways so we should just praise Him for what he does, even though it's uncomfortable now.
After church I went to dinner with the praise team and the Chaplains. It was so nice to be with a group of people who I actually wanted to be around. That hasn't happened with a big group like that since I was ripped away from Cinco. Even when I got to be with Cinco for a day I felt like an outsider but there I felt like a member of a family, or of one body, the Body of Christ.
After that I came here and wrote this.
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