Our God, He is a consuming fire!

I would be failing in my job as a blogger if I didn't mention what is going on in the adult bible study. What started as a 5-6 person study one day a week in our AA room has now evolved to a 30-40 person study two days a week in our sanctuary. There is even a study by Dr. Amanda Madrid that meets on Monday evenings at 4 in one of the neighbors homes.

I am a little tentative in saying this, but I have grown up in the church and I have NEVER seen the hunger for the word like I am seeing from these women. When we arrive at work in the morning, there are probably a dozen women waiting outside (despite the weather) just so we will open the doors and let them in to study the bible. They are bringing friends and family. We are doing nothing but providing the place and the Lord is doing the rest.

We have had many baptisms since the study began and in the past week we have had 3. Let me explain what a baptism is like here. I could say one word... POWERFUL! It isn't a formality with a question and a quick dip. It's a worship to the Lord... the women sing and lay their hands on each other, they call out to the Lord in every language, they raise their hands and fall on their knees, and they weep. A baptism with these women is not for the faint of heart.. it's a transformation. A woman named Mary was baptized yesterday and when she came up out of the water she cried out in Spanish, "I'm covered in the blood of Jesus!" I can't explain the obvious presence of the Spirit in words....it's just there.

I write all of this to say. I WANT THEIR PASSION! I want to lose all my inhibitions in the presence of the Lord. I want to lay myself down at his feet, literally, like some of these women do. I want to cry out for him and weep to him. Some of us have lost that. When we first began our walk with the Lord, we had that fire. We've lost it somewhere along the way... I want it back. OUR GOD HE IS A CONSUMING FIRE!