Sharing

Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:11

I was talking to my stepmom this morning and we were reminiscing about Ned.  He was the priest at the church where I became a Christian and the priest that brought my dad back to church.  We were talking about how he taught grace and taught us to bring Jesus into every situation.

My stepmom said that he taught us that we should bring Jesus into every situation, like if the toilet overflowed we should call Jesus, Jesus, Jesus – and Jesus would come, right into whatever mess we were in.

We’d go to the Wednesday night prayer and praise services, where many times everyone would end up circling the alter, holding hands and singing praise songs. After the meeting we’d go have dinner or dessert and spend hours talking about the things Jesus had done for us, about the miracles in all the everyday things we experienced.  We saw Jesus in everything and we’d share our faith and our love with one another.

She said, that’s why the Bible tells us to not stop meeting and sharing with one another, because sharing causes us to see and remember, it causes us to be thankful and see God’s hand where it is.  It brings us out of the mundane and into the presence of a Holy God – A Holy God who became man and walked among us, A Holy God who fills us with the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, so we are never alone.

Not only did Ned preach Jesus, He lived in relationship with Him and shared Him with us.  Ned was never above us, he was a fellow sinner in need of grace, but he knew where there was a fountain flowing freely and he wanted us all to know.  He loved us, his congregation, and he was there for us pointing us to the true source of love through his stories, his laughter and his tears.  I am so thankful that God gave us Ned at a point in my life when I truly needed Him, but you know I still need Ned’s in my life.  I need people who are real, down to earth people, people who exude Jesus.

White Flowers with Hebrews 10 verse