Billy and I spent a little over an hour talking with Janice and my heart ached as this woman of God shared with us the depravity of spiritual presence in the area she lives (about 20 minutes away from us). Her testimony of reading the bible for hours each day and not having a sound church to plug into throughout her life was heart wrenching. Although we are here in Harrisburg, PA my mind struggles to comprehend that someone in the US does not have a solid biblical church to attend. Janice shared a story about asking her husband to take her to Washington, DC (about an hour or two away) to church for her birthday....this was her gift. Her gift was to attend a church that had sound doctrine while worshiping with like minded people. (we are very thankful to have support locally with a few area churches) I realized at this meeting that the people who are here and desire a solid bible teaching church to attend need encouragement, they need prayer, they need support, they need people. They need more laborers.
After we left the meeting we headed home to prepare for our first home bible study. We hadn't anticipated starting a formal gathering so soon but we felt The Lord was leading us to begin now. We certainly felt the Lord's leading and prompting when we had people asking and making comments like "when do you meet"? "When is your bible study?" "When is your first service?" "I don't have a bible", "I don't understand the bible", "my church closed it's doors", "I haven't been to church in years". Billy and I prayed and decided that we would start a bible study in our home for our family and invite people to come along with us to study. It never hurts to study the bible as a family right? So we printed our little invitations and handed out about 3-4 to people that have specifically asked about coming. We had a few respond very positively and a neighbor and her daughter showed up to eat tacos and study the bible with our family.
We started studying the book of John inductively, verse by verse. The questions started and clarity filled the room with the gospel, the good news. We quickly realized that we had to adjust our wording on a number of things as we talked about what the scriptures said. We didn't realize how we can complicate the simplicity of the gospel with such "churchy" words.
As I looked around the living room, I couldn't think of any other place I would rather be, to see our children taking notes, reading the scripture, praying for each other and to have a neighbor excited to take home a new bible, her very first one in a translation she could understand.
Maddy and Logan watching our neighbor walk over to our house.
We started in the book of John walking through verse by verse. Many questions were asked and many words were defined. The gospel, the good news was presented. God has called us to share the good news. However, its not up to us who accepts the invitation to the bible studies or who chooses to make eternal decisions. We are called to sow and water, its The Lord that causes the growth. That part is out of our hands....praise the Lord!
The kids participated and followed along. We were asked to do another study this week before Maddy's friend goes back home to NY.
When I woke up Sunday morning, I looked across my living room and I am so thankful for open bibles that were left all across the couch. I don't mind so much this kind of "mess" in my living room.
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