Led By the Spirit....

I had two interesting experiences this week that I wanted to share. We have been studying "Being Led by the Spirit" at church. I had two instances this week were I feel that "The Spirit" was really leading me.

First, I went with a friend on Thursday evening to a dinner with a bunch of buisness women in the community. It was entitled, "Women and Wisdom." We were to go and have a nice dinner and hear a speaker impart some wisdom to us. We however did not know what the speaker was speaking on or who it would be. So after arriving we realized that the speaker was somewhat famous psychic. She had been on The Tyra Banks show multiple times and was there to speak to us about empowerment and taking hold of our lives. My friend and I are both Christians and as the speaker spoke we felt a bit uncomfortable....when she used the terms like, "the universe wants you to do this or that." Although it was extremely interesting, I found myself seeing what she was speaking about but with a different explantion. She spoke about using your intuition etc and having time each day to "GO within yourself" for answers etc.
I believe that we can pray for God to impart wisdom on us and intervene in situations and give us insight...and that my intuition is based on the holy spirit within me....
Anyway, after the end of her session she did an audience participation reading where you could raise your hand and she would answer a question for you. If you did not get a question answered she told us that we could each e-mail her one question for her to give us a reading on. Uhm...it is quite tempting for me to do...but I am not going to. It is hard not to get sucked into this kind of thing if it is pretty much handed to you...and you land in an interesting circumstance. While my friend an I were quietly talking after the session was over about what we thought, another lady from across the table came an crouched down between us and she said, "I want to know what you ladies think about what the speaker talked about tonight."
I almost choked on my words, but I started out by uttering , "Well, I am a Christian." And my friend jumped in and said, "I am a Christian too.." And the lady who had come to talk to us said, "I am a Christian too..and I could tell by the looks on your faces that you were too."
It opened up a time for the three of us to talk about our beliefs and how we feel the Holy Spirit working in our lives and how we all felt like we needed to flee from this type of thing, no matter how alluring it might seem. It felt good to be able to relate to each other in a room where a hundred pretty successful ladies were in, we three Christ believers were definately not in the majority. It made me think of the verse in Matthew..."For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them."


The second situation happened this morning in church services. I LOVE Calgary Church of Christ! It is an inner-city church that is VERY multi-cultural! I love taking my children to a place where everyone is the same no matter what they look like or what their circumstance may be. I want them to treat others always with the love that God gives us. So here is where The Spirit was working on me.
There is a difference between volunteering to help someone who needs it..and accepting them as an equal in your world...and I think that the first of the two is easier to do. We had been sitting there only for a couple of minutes and a homeless couple came and sat down right next to us in the pew. I noticed and thought that it was great that they were there...but then the Devil started working on me and my pride issues. I then started praying to ask God to take away any judgemental thought I was having because I knew that the pureness of the worship and praise that this couple was giving to God was more pleasing to him than mine. Collin kept saying loudly, "Smells like amal, mommy....smells like amal" (smells like an animal). Why can't two year olds whisper??!! I was horrified that he was saying this and would not stop, but hopefully no one but Earle and I could really understand what he was saying. He repeated this for quite a while. These people were so joyful in their praise. I felt ashamed that my son was pointing out smells and such...but he really did not know what he was doing. Then came time for communion. The plate of bread came down the pew...them first, then us. I have to admit, I was a bit worried about the germ factor. I feel ashamed that I had these thoughts. It made me realize how prideful I have become. I felt joy that these people feel comfortable enough to come in to our church. I prayed for forgiveness for my pride all through church. After services were over, I went and introduced myself and shook their hands. They were warm, kind hands and I was glad I did! I hope they come back and I hope they sit next to us again. So anyway, I tell this to confess, my pride and let you know that I was truly humbled. I love being a part of such a loving church that reaches out to so many people and does not treat people as a project, but rather as a part of a family. I am pretty sure that is how Jesus would want it.

On a side note...if you live in Calgary and would like to help the homeless community this holiday season, my friend Brandi is organizing the Calgary Homeless Wish List.
You can become a fan on facebook and there are many ways you can help, either by volunteering or donating. Definitely check it out!

Hope you have a good week!
CB