Has anyone ever seen the movie, "Joshua"? It stars, oh, what's the name? The guy from Ghost that played Patrick Swayze's best friend, a.k.a. enemy. Anyway, this is such a good movie about God's love that I thought I would recommend it to all those that are hurting right now. It reinforces the fact that God loves you so much, all of us, that I thought it fitting for everyone on here.

I watched it the other day with my family & it touched me so much. I had seen it before & cried & cried, but this time, I don't know, it really affected me. There were several things that really touched me that I'd like to emphasize. One was that God is not found just in a building on Sundays. Most people feel God when they're at church on Sundays. But He's more than that. He's with us ALL the time. Everywhere around us. In the smallest way. Joshua touched everyone around him by the smallest act of kindness.

Next, there was the age-old belief that the Bible stood for God's "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth". Well, Joshua saw the Bible not as an instruction manual, but a love letter. I love this analogy. It is basically how I see the Bible. It puts more on the fact that God's love is so powerful, never-ending, very fulfilling, instead of looking at it from what to do vs what not to do. When we look at the Bible that way, to me, it seems that we emphasize God's anger & it makes Him look like a God that only loves you when you're making the right choices. Seems pretty scary to me. Although God does get angry with you & disciplines you, sometimes rather harshly, He still loves you unconditionally. That means that no matter what we do, no matter what we say, He will always, always, always forgive us as long as we ask Him & that He never stopped loving us during that time we were "rebels".

I also liked the fact that it showed that God has a purpose for each one of us. There was a gentleman that was destined to become a preacher although he had a terrible stutter. How he got there was totally up to him by the choices he made, but God chose this man to deliver His word. Now, he had a terrible tragedy happen to him that Joshua had to heal him, but from this tragedy his stutter went away & he was able to fulfill his destiny. It just reinforced my belief that we each have a purpose on this life & it is up to each of us to take the talents that God has given each of us & put them to use serving the Lord through them.

Can you sing? How about joining the choir? Can you sew? How about making blankets for the poor? Were you blessed with a good job? How about donating some money so a child can attend church camp? Were you given the talent of speaking in front of others? How about giving the preacher a break & giving a sermon that Sunday? All these things we take for granted every day. So focused on our weaknesses instead of our strengths. So focused on our hurts instead of our blessings.

Lately, I have been in this boat. I have been concentrating on what I don't have instead of what I do have. I've been concentrating on how on earth I'm going to pay all my bills & still have a home? Financially, we are going through some very rough times. We are very far behind in our monthly payments. So we could really use your prayers right now. But I didn't come on here to ask for that. I came on here to emphasize these points, heck, probably to myself, to see it actually in print. And I think it helped. It helped me realize that I need to be focused on my strengths, my blessings around me.

Oh, one more thing. I really do feel that we have a community around us on this board. We have a church so to speak. Where two or three are gathered... In our Sunday School class, we discussed church, the early church. I had asked my class how do they define church? My daughter hit one of the points when she said, Worshipping God. I also looked up the definition. It said the actual building or a group of believers or worshipping God. Don't we do this here? Aren't we a church? The MB church! We meet every Wednesday and join in prayer. (I'm also in trouble because I haven't gathered for prayer lately!) We should form a name for our church. Can anyone think of one? The early church gathered by the river, today's church gathers in several different buildings, tomorrow's church will gather in cyberspace!

I don't know how I missed seeing this post!

I agree that we are a church and I am very glad that I found other believers in this place.

(We are a witness to Gods love in this place too).

I will look for that movie.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial"> He never stopped loving us during that time we were "rebels".
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Not unlike the kind of love we have for our spouses even when they hurt us.

It is hard for some people to understand, I think..