I mentioned in my Prayer and Praise page that I started the Radical Experiment. It's been nearly a month now and I'm doing well. Reading the Bible part is going really well, the praying could be better, investing is going steady, connecting with the church is still going, and the involvement outside of my comfort or cultural context is kinda alongside with my line of work. Those five things are out of order and really prayer should be exceeding all others because my relationship with Jesus will cause my heart, mind, soul and strength to discern my actions, thoughts, and decisions in anything and everything I do.
The Bible reading plan I'm using is the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan. I picked it mainly because I'll be reading four books simultaneously. I have no desire to hurry and finish the Bible in less than a year, but after reading the beginnings of the Old Testament, I may just as well. I have not read all of the Old Testament and the books that I have read, I did not really retain as much. But now, I am so enthralled by it that I couldn't stop reading AND I'm retaining most of what I read. Though, when I got to Leviticus, I have to confess I slowed downed a bit, with all its regulations for offerings, the priests and the people. But reading through all of that makes me appreciate of how things are versus how things were. We really do have freedom through Jesus in many ways to be saved. There is no more need of sacrifices brought to priests on our behalf; the freedom we have is to talk to God directly.
As far as connecting with a local church, I've been attending a church called The Stirring for about a month. It's been wonderful and really God bringing things together. The first time ever that I went to The Stirring was at their Sunday night service. At the end of the service, they had the prayer team come to the front of the stage. At that time, I was emotionally overwhelmed from my job. I didn't feel like I was good enough or adequately prepared to help these girls....so I walked up to ask for prayer. After she prayed, the woman told me about her life group on Tuesday nights. Already, more doors were opening up. Though, I left that night only learning her name because I thought her life group information was on the website.
A few days later, the church was having an info meeting about their church. Kinda like a membership class where we meet the pastors and they talk about the church, but without actual membership with the church. There, I met a woman who had newly moved to Redding as well and learned that she regularly attends the Sunday night service. I told her that next time that I'm there, I will find her.
A couple of weeks go by and I don't attend the night services but the morning services because I had planned to go home. When I finally attend the night service, I find the woman that I met at the info meeting towards the front of the church. We reconnect and talk for a while. While we were both leaving the row where she was sitting, I guess we both spotted the same woman cause we started making our way towards her. That woman we were both walking towards was the first woman that prayed for me weeks before. Low and behold, they are in the same life group so naturally, God is saying "now you know 2 people in the same life group. I think you should go." Actually, that's me saying I think you should go. I'm sure God is saying "Go already".
So last Tuesday, I went to my first women's bible study and it was awesome. Connecting with other people outside of my work is refreshing AND of course, we're talking about God. We'll see what else God has in store for the next couple of months and what He will teach me.
