God is Very Much Relevant Today

What's God doing in my life today?  Wow... a lot.  My mind is swimming with things running through it.  All the need around me, a whirlwind of thoughts after our church retreat, and now an open door and a willingness to lead a women's study this summer on the book of Daniel.  Our church retreat focused on building a safe community to share our stories with each other so then we can then go out and share them with those who may not know how relevant, real, powerful, and awesome our God is yet.  God's story is the ultimate story and He has blessed us by allowing us to be a part of His big story.  He gives us our own stories.  He loves stories!  He explained things to people when he was here on earth through stories.  Stories are powerful!  Stories create word pictures and connections the human brain can understand.
One thing I didn't notice during the retreat was the emphasis on getting to know our Lord more through His word.  I get the idea of living in the spirit.  I'm all for it!  However, we can't live in the spirit if we don't focus on the word come to life.  Jesus is the word come to life.  He is the word in flesh.  We don't have Jesus with us on earth anymore, but we have His spirit.  There *has* to be a balance.  We must read His word to know God's heart (the scriptures), then we must act on it (action, throwing the ball back) with faith (believing them) so we can let God do His thing in us and around us.  We must let go.  It's not our story that changes lives, our story is only a small part.  It shows others that God is very much relevant here and today.  It's God's story in the big picture that brings about a change in the heart.  Our stories only bridge the gap for others to see that God's story is very much worth listening to because it's real.  It's alive.  It's relevant.  It's urgent we understand this.  We must study His word to keep in His heart, and we can't do this by our strength alone.
The bible study I'm going to facilitate... I'm pumped and super excited to get it going.  I have to give a shout out to God for bringing friends into my life.  Friends who have encouraged me.  The friends I hold so dear and who spur me on to walk closer with our relevant, heavenly Father.  Praise God for you!  You are loved by me.