First time to Church

Hi all my fellow bloggers. Today is my first blog ever. I decided to blog because I have found a church to belong to and have gone back to my roots. I am so excited and I feel whole again as a person. This morning my husband and 1 1/2 year old daughter went to a Christian church called the Vally Fellowship of Yakima. I grew up as a Christian and as a child I have attended many churches with family and friends. This was the first church I have ever gone to that made me feel welcomed and ready to come back the next week.


I want to talk about the message I got from my first church visit. The church is in week three of a themed sermon and we could not have picked a better week to come. This week was about The UnComfort Zone Moving beyond our own comfort. This is the best week because up until the middle of December of 2011 my husband was very much against church and Christians because he found most of them to hypercritical. However while celebrating Christmas (which has always be a little strange for me since I want the Christ part but not sure how to do so without my soul-mate) he decided that it was time to find God and as soon as he did my life and marriage became much easier. My husband has been through many bad situations and it has been my goal to show him family can be good and that not everything in life will run away from him and hurt him.


So when he said he was ready to walk a path behind God I was very excited for him. Since this move he has been much more positive and he said he feels like he is never alone. I understand how he feels because I feel the same way.


Now back to the sermon of today. We talked about uncomfortable places. One of these places for my husband was the very place we were, church. For me the first thing I thought of for myself is anywhere I need to go to get help with something such as government offices. In the bible (John 4:4) Jesus is also put in an uncomfortable place called Samaria. This is a place where the Jews believe unclean people lived and avoid any contact.


We also talked about uncomfortable people. For me this people I do not know. For Jesus it was a woman of Samaria that he asked for a cup of water (John 4:7).


The last one we talked about was uncomfortable times. For me this is in the morning when I first wake up. I take time to start to think clearly and need to be left alone until I can talk with people without getting irritable. For Jesus it was after a long time travelling to this place (John 4:6).


After talking about what are the uncomfortable things in our lives we then talked about how to navigate threw the UnComfort Zone. The first of these is to Trust in the Lord. The Lord may have us go into places we are uncomfortable in because he needs us there or handle people we are not comfortable talking with because he needs us to reach out to these people. Instead of trying to avoid or just get through the situation we need to listen to the Lord and do what we do best. 


Next was Lean not on your own understandings. We need to let Jesus teach us about people. Sometimes we may have a knowledge of what a type of person is like but we need to let Jesus teach us about each person because there maybe something we do not know or understand about that person. Another reason is because what we already know can be wrong.


After that we talked about In all your ways acknowledge him.
This is important to me because everything I do I need to acknowledge God. Not just at church or when talking to church friends but in my actions and words. When I am in an "Uncomfort Zone" I need remember God is with me and I need to do what I can in the zone.


The last one was But you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you. This is all about not being alone in the uncomfortable moments in life. God will lead us when we are in the zone and he will give us the strength to make it through the hard times and even when we think we have no strength left he will give us more.


If you want to listen to today's sermon you can find it at http://www.valleyfellowship.org/audio