Hooah and Amen!

I was privileged to attend to very different services yesterday. The first was at my home church in PA. The age rang is diverse, though most of the congregation is 20 and 30 somethings. The dress code is from jeans to dresses. Tim's sermon started with a video clip from Pirates of the Caribbean and the remainder focused on 1 Corinthians 3. The fellowship was great!


Then last night I attended the new cadet worship service at the Cadet Chapel on West Point. The service consisted of Amy, myself, and about several hundred sweaty, tired, new cadets. It was the first chapel service I’ve been to where the worshipers placed M-4 weapons in the pews next to the kneelers. Instead of Amen, the Soldiers yell Hooah! The Chaplin, dressed in full battle rattle, preached a visual sermon on the armour of God. It was a meaningful and encouraging message to the worn down Soldiers.

It was awesome to participate in two very different services and feel the spirit of God so evident in each. I was struck with how ready the field is and how white it is for the harvest.

The Reason Why

I found this on a fellow knitter's blog yesterday. I am not sure who originally wrote it, but is spoke to my heart about the reason why God has us wait for things. When I am in the pain of waiting I sometimes forget that His plans for me are good. At that moment it does not seem good, and in fact the wait can seem cruel. But God is good. He has used and is using the pain of my own wait to make me more like Him. I hope this poem is a blessing to you while you wait on God and learn to seek Him more.

Desperately, helplessly, longingly I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.

I plead and I wept for a clue to my fate....
and the Master so gently said, "Wait."

"Wait? You say wait?" My indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened?Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked,and Im claiming your Word."

My future and all to which I relate
Hangs in the balance and you tell me to wait?
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign.
Or even a 'No', to which I'll resign.
You promised, dear Lord,that if we believed,
We need to but ask, and we shall receive.
Lord, Ive been asking, and this is my cry;
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply."

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
as my Master replied again. "Wait."

So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
and I grumbled to God, "So,
I'm waiting...... for what?"

He seemed then to kneel,
and His eyes met mine...and He tenderly said,
"I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.
I could give you all you seek
and pleased you would be.
You'd have what you want, but
you wouldnt know me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint.
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.
You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair,
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in me,
when darkness and silence are all you can see.
You'd never experience the fullness of love when the peace of My Spirit
descends like a dove.

You would know that I give,
and I save, for a start,
but you'd not know the depth
of the beat of my heart.
The glow of my comfort late into the night,
the faith that I give you when you walk without sight.

The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask
from an infinite God who makes what you have last.
You'd never know should your pain quickly flee,
what it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.

Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But oh, the loss if I lost what I'm doing in you.
So, Be silent my child,
and in time you will see,
that the greatest of gifts, is to truly know me.

Though oft my answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still, "Wait."