January 9, 2010 Evening

Today was incredible! Our team had the chance to regroup today from the long travels. We met as a group and talked about this week and it's going to be crazy! God is going to do great and crazy things this week. I ate jack fruit for the first time today and it was delicious! They grow on trees around here and grow to 2 or 3 times the size of a normal watermelon and they taste just like a tropical starburst! AMAZING! And it only cost 50 cents or 1,000 schillings for the whole thing! We also had a group of about 10 monkeys hanging out in our courtyard area. That was neat to see. Tomorrow we have church all morning and by all morning i mean 8 oclock till about 2 oclock. And I was thinking about that today. In Mexico its the same way 2 hours minimum for a service. I feel like in America lots of most people are just going to church to appeal the their guilty conscience. To make themselves feel better. Service starts at 10 and better be over by 11 or else you will have some very upset people. They are too focused on whats going on after church that they don' get all they can out of church. Lunch plans, football games, naps, shopping, etc. Those are all more important than praising God. Don't you think God knows what we need? If you think He does then do you believe it to be true? If you believe it's true why can't you live like you do? Lets say God lays it on your Pastors heart  to change the sevice time from 10-11 to 9:30 to 12:30. Would you be upset? Maybe you will have to get up a little earlier than normal so you can get your coffee you HAVE TO HAVE! Or maybe push your lunch plans back to 1 or 1:30. Or maybe tape the football game that is so important to your life. Isn't God supposed to be more important than all those things? He is our creator, our saviour, our life blood but we say coffee, lunch, football and things of that nature are more valuable. We are only on this earth for a short time. Shouldn't we utilize our time we have to worship God and further His Kingdom? So what I am getting at here is, why in America do we have this silly standard of having 1 to 1 and a half hour church services? Everywhere else in the world seems to have a different "standard." 2 1/2 hours, thats a short service over here. 1 1/2 of worship and an hour of teaching sometimes more sometimes less depending on what the Holy Spirit lays on the peoples hearts not because of lunch plans or football games. They plan their day around church instead of planning church into their day. In America we are always so worried about what other people will think or say. WHO CARES! Worship God with all your heart! "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength!" Sound familiar? I believe that applys to worship as well. [Worship] the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." If that means falling to your knees and crying out to God, THEN DO IT! If it means raising your hands to God, DO IT. As long as you are doing it to glorify God and not bring attention to yourself, DO IT! I know for myself personally I am afraid to do some of those things because I am afraid of being ridiculed by others around me. But does it matter if they do? NO! I need to stop being afraid of those people and start worshipping God in whatever ways the Holy Spirit leads me. I feel like I could talk about this for days but I think I will leave it at that. Tomorrow I am giong to be helping with the childrens sunday school at Stephens church. I am very excited for that opportunity. I think its time for me to sleep. It is 9:30 PM here so for my body its 10:30 AM and breakfast is at 6 AM tomorrow morning so 7 PM for my body. lol Good Night all. More to come tomorrow!