Don't make me bow up! haha

**edited** I don't wanna take back this post, but I do hope that the attitude you might hear from me in this post is purely in jest. I'm serious about the content, but joking in my attitude. I reread this post and realized for those people who don't know me personally it may sound like I'm being ugly, but hopefully as you read some of my other posts you'll realize I love to horse around! Just wanted to clarify that. Thanks...

Feeling a bit random today. I had a busy weekend but it was fun. Church yesterday was simply amazing! God was moving. People were coming forward to receive Christ like crazy! We even ran out of decision counselors at one of our services and a vocal team member had to leave the platform to go counsel someone who had come up!! THAT is AMAZING! God is so faithful to our church. Ya know sometimes people say things about your church that are hurtful. For instance, a couple of ladies came to my door last week to invite me to a Bible study being held at their church. Now, I'm not going to get into a debate here, I'm just tellin' ya what happened so don't anyone get their feelings hurt. Okay? Okay.

They told me they were not Mormon's or Jehovah Witnesses but that they were having a study from the Holy Bible - the Word of God - the "true Word, the King James Version" (their words not mine). That sent a BIG red flag up for me. (not gonna go there in this post, but just tellin' ya how I feel) So they went on and on about when the study was happening and where but I could feel the Lord whispering to me "hold on girl". Then one of the ladies asked if I went to church and I told her yes and where - she didn't know of my church and y'all I'm not bragging here, but if you drive down one of the biggest 'connector' roads in Charlotte and miss my church, well you better get your eyes checked. It's a big physical place.

She started telling me that she had grown up Southern Baptist but had finally learned the 'truth' once she started going to her church. My husband was raised in the denomination which she attends so I told her that and she gets this sympathetic look on her face and says "Oh, did he fall away?" To which I reply "Uh, no, he's faithfully serving at church with me and walking stronger with the Lord than ever before in his life" (I didn't want to offend her but don't be talkin' about my man! haha) I told her that, in fact, he was serving today by playing for a Billy Graham special. Using a talent given to him by the Lord to serve Him. She goes "Is Billy Graham still alive? I thought he died already" I nearly passed out!

So then she starts telling me how we Southern Baptists have it all wrong. We're wrong by not having communion every Sunday - didn't we know that's what the KJV says? (I didn't bother asking her where 'cause I sure don't remember that one) We're wrong by paying our pastor. Didn't we know that the KJV says that Jesus never got paid for preaching so why should anyone else and what about caring for the sick and shut in's? (Again, not sure where that verse in the KJV is either) I could feel myself getting defensive so I began praying that the Lord would give me the words to say, but after getting beat on I opened up and told her that's one thing I like about my church. My pastor preaches and that's it. Sure he'll do an occasional wedding or funeral and visit someone sick he knows personally, but his MAIN job is to preach the Word of God. We have other pastors on staff who care for the sick and the shut in's and the children of our church and the seniors and so on. I told her my church is a big church so we're able to do that. She goes "Well let me ask you this. Have you ever had your pastor over for dinner? Has he ever invited you to his house?" Ok, she wanted a fight. haha I said that I had not, but she had to understand that our church has 14,000 members and 2 campuses so even if our pastor had someone over every night for a year I still would only get an invite about every 3 years or so. haha

So anyway, I thanked her for the invitation to the study and told her that I was actively involved in a few studies at my church but again thanked her for her time. She walked away a bit red in the face, but I stayed calm and tried to just show her as much love as I could. I was going to invite them in and really talk, but once she started dissin' my church - well I knew myself well enough not to go there. There's a few things I'll let you diss in my presence but my Jesus, my man, my kids and my church AIN'T one of 'em! haha

So that was my excitement last week - part of it anyway. Have you ever had a situation like that? It's hard to know the right way to handle that kind of thing. It's best to slow down and ask the Holy Spirit to intervene and then don't get in His way. But it's hard to fight your emotions when someone starts 'attacking' the things you love. I don't believe for a second that Jesus expects us sit and take it, but I do believe that no matter how mean or ugly they get He expects us to show HIM to them. Hard to do when you feel backed into a corner but if we get it right I believe God does a little jig in heaven just for us! Yes, God does the jig!! haha

Anyway, with that thought in mind, I'm going to head out to hunt for some gas. Hope I can show Jesus as I'm sitting in line!!! teehee