Tear Down the Walls

I'm sure you are all wondering if I have completely forgotten about my blog. I really haven't meant to keep everyone waiting this long for the next post. My daughter keeps bugging me to post more so she can read it.

Life has been a little busy in the Brown household. In the past two months we have taken a missions trip to Cambodia and then packed up our entire household and moved to Tomah, WI, where my husband is now the pastor of Lighthouse A/G. God is so awesome...and He has specifically ordered our steps in this path to be here in Tomah. We are so very thankful to be part of His awesome plan.

Tonight was a simply amazing service at church where walls were brought down and the church worshipped with everything in them...and we "had CHURCH!" as Grandma Anna said! As I was completely consumed in God's presence during the worship time, God spoke to me about walls.

What is a wall? The walls in our house enclose each room. Walls provide a barrier. Walls are not meant to walk through. Walls are normally permanent.

God reminded me of an incident that happened earlier today in our house. My mom was visiting and we were sitting on our deck in the smoldering heat. We normally leave the sliding glass door and screen open so our dog can go back and forth between the house and the screened in deck. However, since we actually had our air conditioner running, we left the door shut.

As we were visiting we suddenly heard an awful BANG!!! A few seconds later, my daughter emerged from the house and came out on the deck rubbing her foot. The BANG we heard was my daughter completely running into the sliding glass door. She didn't look close enough to see that the door was actually closed!!! I'm thankful she wasn't hurt at all....but looking back, that was quite hysterical!

When God brought that to my memory, I felt like He was comparing that to the walls we put up in our own lives...especially in the area of worship and our relationship with God. Often we limit ourselves in what we want to do...or what we are willing to do for God. We have our comfort zone...and the walls we put up around us limit us....or prevent us from going outside our comfort zone.

And then after time...we get so use to the walls, that we often completly forget that they are even there! We become conditioned to the limits we have placed on our lives....rendering us almost incapable of moving forward without BANGING into the wall.

But I have good news!!!!! The spiritual walls are NOT permanent!!! They are easy to take down with God's help. The key is us. We have to be willing to move beyond the walls. We have to be willing to move outside our comfort zone. We have to be willing to do something different...something uncomfortable.

But really...how can we ever grow in our relationship with God if we never move outside those walls? How can we ever grow without change?

If we want change...and growth....that requires moving outside what we are comfortable with.