The Chronicles of Melinda

First of all - GROUP LINK - THURSDAY JANUARY 31, 2008 7:00PM @ NHC.  If you’re not in a Community Group - here’s your chance to get in one.  Refer to my previous post on the benefits of being in a Community Group!  I love mine!!!! Learn a little more here: http://www.encounternhc.com/16.html 

Okay- just wanted to lay something out that I just haven’t had time to put down.  This past Sunday as I walked into NHC I was a bit overwhelmed by the elation that came over me.  (Bear with me - yeah - I’m bout to lay the smack down!)

As I milled around the lobby getting Taira signed in to Uhambo and saying my hellos…it was just one of them feelings.  I walked into the doors of the auditorium where Gary and the Worship team were already in the mix and found my “people”.  And every step of the way I saw a familiar face, got a smile, a hug, a wave….and as I was worshipping I’d look around the room and it just hit me.  You know- all of these now familiar and friendly faces I would never have known if not for NHC.  All these folks that appear happy to see me and I am equally as happy to see…were completely unknown to me this time last year.  Now it’s like I have a whole new group of family and friends.  I feel….well…Blessed.  Just when I was getting frustrated by a few things that have been going on…God reminded me that He is always looking out for me.  It’s like God smiled down on me and decided I needed a few more people in my life who would make my days a bit brighter!  I wonder if people at NHC know just how meaningful thier one smile, wave, friendly hello or hug can be to just one person.  And it just multiplies across the place.   It’s like that Pay It Forward concept.  I smile at you and it makes your day a little brighter, you smile at someone else, and so on and so on.  It’s infectious.  So thanks to all the people at NHC who have reached out to me in one way or another and added to the Blessing God has given me through NHC. 

We’re anguished and hurt
We see nothing to gain
And we turn to Him asking
“Why would you bring pain?”

Yet He may remain silent
Offering not a word
And cause us to question
If prayers have been heard

For a time we may suffer
In worry or fear
And don’t recognize that…
We do preservere

He does not leave us
For we are never denied
We may not feel him
But He’s there at our side

And when the rain clears
And our hope is renewed
We give Glory to GOD
That he carried us through!

Sometimes - when times are tough we question why God would “put us through it”.  But I think this scripture explains why God puts the hard times before us and why it is necessary for us to endure them.  Right now…I’m having a hard time with a few things.  But I know where to turn…and to be patient.  Usually when things are down… God is up to something.  So I’ll pray that whatever he intends for me to learn from this is accomplished as he intends.  So in the words of Mercy Me….Jesus Bring the Rain!

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that
I’ve gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You

I am yours regardless of the clouds that may
loom above because you are much greater than
my pain you who made a way for me suffering
your destiny so tell me whats a little rain

Forgiveness should come easy
But it seems for us, so hard
To take something someone’s said or done
And hold no ill regard
Sometimes we’ve been cut deeply
And we carry in our heart
Emotions that we can’t let go
To give a brand new start
Sometimes we let consume us
Placing contempt and blame
We tend to walk the other way
Or cringe at someone’s name
But how can we refuse
To forgive someone for the hurt
When we know WE were forgiven
By our Father, not on earth
We’ve been ultimately forgiven
Our sins were swept away
Through a holy sacrifice
And it’s in his name we pray
So for him we must forgive
Just as he’s Forgiven us our sins
And every time you do this
Know that you honor him!

Another of my co-workers is going to come to NHC for the first time this Sunday!  Hoping to get her son plugged into Spiked, too!

God is at work.  Through us…through the Holy Spirit…he is drawing more people to the church.  Wether it’s NHC or any other church…people just need to open their hearts to God and let him show him how truly wonderful it is with him in your life.  I know I am so glad I did.

I’m extra thankful for a church like NHC.  NHC is the church for those who have steered away from the church because of the stereotypes.  I was having a conversation with a few co-workers yesterday about different churches they have attended and why they didn’t go…and I have to say it really would make you raise an eyebrow or two.

But NHC is the church that’s at “A whole…nubba…lebel!”
 
This is no average church….and that is why the people keep coming!  Where else can you walk in wearing jeans and a t-shirt and be in the majority, listen to some awesome modern Christian Music (with a twist now and then), be greeted with smiles on the way in and out, not ever feel pressured, judged or put on the spot, get Saved or Baptized and have it celebrated by the whole church and not feel embarassed by it,  build great relationships through community groups and just FEEL the Holy Spirit when you least expect it?  And where else can you have a “tailgate” party in the church parking lot and then watch a movie like you are in a drive in?

Where else will your pastor drive around the sanctuary on a Harley, taunt you with junk food (ha ha) and apply simple things we can relate to in our every day lives to the word of God?   

Where else can our youth watch cool interactive plays, play Nintendo Wii, X-Box, Guitar Hero, Air Hockey, fooseball, have their own band to worship with and just hang out and be teenagers, but still learn to love, trust and believe in Christ our Saviour?  And then…try to pry them away from it to go home….!  HA HA!

So what I’m saying is….if you’ve been shying away from church because you are used to feeling like you are being judged by how you look or what you wear, used to being put on the spot and asked to stand before the congregation, feel judged by how much you put into the offering bucket (at NHC they don’t even look), feel that the church is preaching hypocricy and just overall feel like the church environment is not for you…give NHC a chance. 

Now I’ve only been attending NHC since June of 2007…but I feel like I have a huge family at NHC and every Sunday is a family reunion!  NHC is a place of acceptance and nurturing of your faith and spiritual journey.  Call NHC the “misfit” of churches…but I’m proud to be a misfit and I think you would, too!

www.encounternhc.com
www.myspace.com/RuSpiked

I used to go through birthdays not saying a word.  If somebody didn’t remember my birthday…I didn’t remind them.  I let it quietly come and go.  And then I started having an annual birthday bash with one of my best friends who’s birthday is 2 days from mine and another friend.  Then I went on a ski trip for my birthday.  Then I just started having quiet birthdays that came and went.

I had a quiet birthday this year.  Two friends came over for wine and a movie on Friday night (actual birthday night).  And then Saturday, I spent the day day and evening with some very special friends (one being the best friend who’s birthday is two days from mine).   But I also had the chance to look into the past and pull something from way back…into the present.   So my birthday was very quiet, yet very special.  Life is good…and with God in it I think it’s only about to get better.  Stay tuned…

I sat down  last night and composed a HANDWRITTEN letter to a very special old friend from high school that I was fortunate enough to get back in touch with.  Yup- no copying, pasting, editting, spellchecking, hitting send.  I mean a HANDWRITTEN letter.  Now it probably took about three times as long as typing it would have…I type roughly 75-80 words per mitnute.  And about mid-way through I remembered what writer’s cramp is.

But when all was said and done I felt a feeling of utter accomplishment.  Like I had done something great. I mean who gets those anymore?  With the internet and e-mail…very few people take the time to sit and write handwritten letters anymore. Sure, people send cards and sign them with quick little notes.  But heck - now you can even send e-cards! (Guilty!)

So I vowed that I would take the time to give some of my friends the very personal gift of a handwritten letter at some point throughout the year.  Some of them will be friends that I talk to almost daily or e-mail back and forth with daily. But I just figure, that a handwritten letter, in my own personal handwriting with my own personal signature might really mean something these days.  

Now I love e-mail just as much as the next person.  The internet is my information highway and primary communication home base for me.  That…and text messaging.  But think about how you’d feel these days to receive a stamped, handwritten envelope that actually contains something other than a bill or a solicitation.

So if you haven’t written someone significant in your life a handwritten letter lately…think about it.  It just might brighten someone’s trip to the mailbox.

Anyway, Friday is the 13th Anniversary of my 21st birthday so I’ve been pondering the last 30 or so years.  Kind of puts me in the mind of that Tim McGraw song - My Next 30 years.

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• @Dougbug24 You know you missed it! 09:26:36 PM November 23, 2009 from web in reply to Dougbug24