Learning from what God is doing in others’ lives

Posted by Alan Knox on Mar 27, 2013 in blog links | 3 comments

I love listening to the life-stories that my brothers and sisters in Christ share. I get to hear these stories often: over coffee or dinner, on the phone, walking/running or playing in the park, even on Sunday when we gather with the church. There’s a power hearing what God is doing in someone’s life.

Over the last few days, I’ve read a few posts in which the blogger in sharing other people’s stories. I love that, too!

Here are a few that have encouraged and challenged me.

Gavin at “Simple Church Alliance” shares part of Jeff’s story in a post called “An Encouragement From Pendleton, KY.” In describing part of the journey that God is leading them in, Jeff writes:

As the weather slowly starts to turn over to the warmer months, our family is planning to spend Sunday mornings at a local park to see who we can meet, get to know better, build relationship with, pray for, etc. We started doing this just as the weather got bad last year, and we know this can be a great place to meet families who are disconnected from the Sunday morning church routine, for whatever reason. We’re not sure what God will do, but we’re going to show up and find out. I appreciate your prayers with us about this.

Joe at “More Than Cake” shared part of Amber’s wonderful story in a post called “Scars that Bring Glory – A Woman’s Perspective.” Amber writes about a difficult, painful time in her life:

In the beginning I prayed for what I wanted. Lord, take away the pain and make it as if it had never happened. Please heal my wound and make me as though I were new again. I knew it was in his power. As time passed, God showed me that to heal my pain and not leave a scar would defeat the purpose and take away from His glory and the good work that He had done. We had ugliness in our lives before the actual wound even took place. I was, in essence, asking to be placed right back there where I had started. God used a deep wound to create something more beautiful than what had been there before. The scar is part of the beautiful creation He stuck in place of the old. The scar is a reminder of what the original product was and how He had taken such imperfection and created something beautiful in its place.

Finally, in a new site (to me) called “Mennonite World Review,” Bethany tells part of her story in a post called “MWR: Define ‘church’“:

Back to last Sunday. After the killer breakfast, book reading and house straightening, we headed to our small group at 2 p.m. Our masks and guards were at home. I showed up in jeans, slippers, a sweatshirt and rocked a semi-greasy, mini-pony tail. I read verses on my iPhone and didn’t feel the need to explain that I wasn’t texting or surfing Facebook. We shared. We cried. We asked questions. We gave suggestions. We prayed with and for each other. And every two months we serve together. We meet in homes and don’t have mailboxes, but we communicate throughout the week. Without paper. Next time we’re even going to scrub each other’s feet and stuff after communion. Is that church? (HT: Robert)

I hope you enjoyed these stories as much as I did. (And, please click the links to read the whole story…)