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Chain Reaction vs. chain reaction
Posted by: Black Sheep | Mon, Jul 2, 2007 1:28 am | Tag(s): Testimonies | Permalink |
I am a member of a Seventh-day Adventist church that has suffered greatly –in recent years—from the bickering and infighting that has existed amongst both her members and her leaders. Church attendance has waned; members have left our church in waves over the years to find other Adventist homes; sadly some have left the message altogether. There is a warning that has spread among local SDA churches to “stay away” from our church “at all costs”. I have seen fellow Adventists recoil when I answer their question, “What church do you attend?”
There was a small group of us who had heard about OGR and who had decided to be a part of this experience no matter where or how we had to do it. We have been praying ever since we heard about it and especially after we saw the 3ABN interview.
We, however, are what you might call the “black sheep” of our church family; at least that’s how we have most-often felt. Our simplest spiritual endeavors have been met with resistance by our leadership; and –it at least seems to us that— laodicean complacency has hindered Spiritual growth on all levels (all levels) of church leadership. We have witnessed a desire to permit a free-flowing and outpouring of the Holy Spirit turn to grief; grief, to resentment; and resentment, to hatred. Open fighting has broken out; and children of God (from all ranks) have been hurt in ways that are unimaginable. “Our church has imploded on itself,” is how I’ve heard it described.
There have been prayers of desperation as we asked God to reverse this chain-reaction of events and to bring healing. For months, many have been praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to help us. We found confidence in 2 Peter 1:5-9 that God has His own “chain-reaction” planned for us if we would just trust His Spirit.
It is with great honor to God that I can report, our faith has been richly blessed.
· We have seen (one-by-one) deep wounds healed with no “apparent” reason.
· We have seen former “enemies” become allies in the work of Christ without demanding apologies.
· We have felt the unseen hand of God touch our hearts and bring us together.
· After suffering unimaginable divisiveness; we are experiencing unbelievable unity.
With expressions of amazement I’ve heard others say, “I don’t know how things changed [between me and so-and-so]; I didn’t do anything to change things; things just changed. And I’m just going to trust God and accept these changes.”
There are still those whose wounds remain open and for whom we are praying. But, we thank God that He has initiated His chain-reaction of events in our church in time for us to become a participating member of OGR. – Amen!
We’ve had three of the meetings so far and each night the Holy Spirit has been revealed in a most wonderful way. Attendance has exceeded our expectations and has grown each night. Last night the theme was “forgiveness”. And –having heard about OGR—one of our flock who had been deeply hurt came searching in desperation for a sense of belonging.
As we were flooded by the outpouring of God’s love, there were tears of joy for the healing and forgiving Spirit He has bestowed upon us. We also had a visitor from one of the local churches (where previous warnings had circulated); on Sabbath an announcement had been made at his church extending an invitation to join us (at ours) in OGR.
Please pray that we continue to permit God’s Spirit to be poured out on our church; we will continue to pray the same for you and all of God’s remnant.
Praise be to God!
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4 Responses to “Chain Reaction vs. chain reaction”
ehuffman | July 2nd, 2007 at 6:56 pmAmen! I pray that all the damage can be undone.
ingrid wijngaarde | July 2nd, 2007 at 8:04 pmPraise God! His promises are true! He gave us the great promise that “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Our Loird is a healer allright! We cannot be too far off for Him to reach our hearts, for His arm is not toot short to reach us. bring our blessings tot your church from our OGR prayer group in The Netherlands (ingrid wijngaarde)
matt allen | July 2nd, 2007 at 11:50 pmAmen, All Praise to the Lord. And my prayers are for you all,please remember to pray for us too!
blessings
PowerOfChoice | July 4th, 2007 at 8:16 pm- - -
Chains reactions, yes indeed!
Another way of looking at the same mostly invisible cause and effect relationships may be as follows:
If I lay a faulty or crooked foundation when I build upon something in my life the consequences will be accordingly and eventually the results will be, as Yeshua said, like those of a house built upon sand…
If I turn my attention towards the ultimate specific source of whatever the particular may be, yes, even towards the Source and Creator of all, then my consequences will be accordingly, that is, like those of a house built upon the rock…
When I do the latter, my prior thought structures and, yes, even my prior troublesome relationships, will evaporate and turn into something much more in tune with the will of God.
Of course this is a process, a sometimes troublesome and stormy process, even involving conflicts, persecutions, and wars at any and all levels, because I may not as yet have learned all I need to learn and because I may still be pointing my finger in an attempt of blaming another while forgetting the importance of recognizing that my neighbor is also a unique being with unique experiences and with unique weaknesses, just like I am…
Yet, in the end things should start to fall into place, and order and peace be restored by means of powers and mechanisms beyond our comprehension.
I believe Black Sheep’s story is a beautiful illustration in real life of the power inherent in God’s principles. Most of the time we remain unable to specifically pinpoint the detailed cause-effect relationships, yet when we implicitly trust the principles of God we can count on uncountable blessings in the end, can we not?
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