Answers in the unknown

Answered prayers.  That's all there is to it.  That is what I want to share with you all today.  Answered prayer.

When we were convicted to leave behind organized religion as we knew it we felt as though we were stepping out into the great unknown.  I admit, I was very uncomfortable with the whole idea.  I had some serious reservations against walking away from the church I was familiar with.  There were many worries about falling into sin and away from the Lord through my actions.  But I also had this nagging conviction that God wanted much more from His children and that trying to tweak the system I grew up in would result in nothing more than a sore forehead from repeated bangs against a wall.  So we followed our convictions and stepped out of the institution while seeking to strengthen the relationships we have with those who remained.  The Lord has not let us go, in fact it has drawn us closer to Him.

No one likes to be all alone and that is how it felt for some time.  I have this glorious idea of Christ's bride made up of a united family of believers who all lived by Christ's life as individuals and came together to share small glimpses of His glorious person when they assembled.  Finding others who share that vision, well that's not exactly as easy as we might think it to be.  My desire for the Church seems so lofty, so impossible, so much like a utopia that I wondered if it was just unrealistic.  Can we really be united under the headship of Christ and share in His life together without the trappings and hindrances from our sinful flesh?  Well, probably not totally, but we can surely all seek after that together.  Together, not alone, with Christ in us as the goal, has been my dream.

Some new developments in our journey have begun to take shape.  I'm pretty excited to share them with you.  I've already spoken about a family we have been building relationships with.  We continue to go deeper.  There have been times of vulnerability and transparency in dealing with some life issues that would cause many people to run the other way seeking shelter from the storms.  Life is like that sometimes, it seems to suck really bad and these folks have stuck by us through it all.  Along with that we have begun studying scripture and coming together with our notes and thoughts only to find that as we come together our notes get multiplied, united and formed into something even bigger that we had pictured through our personal study.  It's really cool.

Another answered prayer has been another family that has moved into our area.  Well, they live about 20 minutes away but that's close enough.  They moved from Gainsville, GA where they were a part of the established Organic Church in that area.  They have only been here a few days so we haven't spent much time together....yet.  The two families only live about 10 minutes away from one another and were like I said about 20 minutes away.  That is a bit of a geographical obstacle for seeing each other often but I'm still very thankful and hopeful.  I'm looking forward to a time when we can all come together and begin to build one another up in Christ.

So like I said, answered prayer.  There have been many prayers going up for God to build together a body of believers that are devoted to gathering under His headship.  He is answering those prayers and I feel like singing.