The New Norm

Take a walk with me into my beloved Bethel. It's Sunday and with a joyful heart RJ and I prepare to attend church. I'm thankful that for now, we are still free to go to church and worship the Lord together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. This past weekend was our NY Metro District Conference. I plan to blog about that later this week. It was special for me because on of my heroes was here with her husband to minister, Sis Jessica Marquez. She's a fiery preacher and prayer warrior. For today, Bethel had evangelist Tim Greene come and preach. I did my best to take notes, but I have to be honest, by the time he got up to preach my soul was soaring from the move of God's spirit that had taken place during the worship. Also, he preaches with an anointing that at times is hard to take notes for. You can watch/listen to it here.  Bro. Green preached on "The New Norm" and his main text was taken from Joel 2: 23-29. He gave several examples of instances over history where what was once normal had to be changed over to the new normal. In our present situation in regards to Covid- you hear  this spoken about a lot. The New Norm. What does this really mean?  A new normal is a state to which an economy, society, etc. settles following a crisis, when this differs from the situation that prevailed to the start of the crisis. In other words for the need for a new normal to take place, there must be a crisis that takes place that pushes you out of the old normal. Recently this pandemic was a crisis that went all over the world. Everyone had to learn a new normal for survival. Shelter in Place. Social Distancing. These phrases have become common words. If you look at it through the eyes of a Christian and how it affected the church, especially over the past year, it has been painful. To be Apostolic is to come together in worship. We are strengthened when we are together. We lay hands on one another and pray. We greet each other with a holy kiss. We worship together. The body of Christ needs one another.  However, when everyone needed to stay at home, the church was given this crisis to push it to grow. Pastors were stretched. Those who say they are followers of Christ, needed to evaluate their walk with God. You can not have a walk with God based just on a Sunday service. You must have a daily walk with Christ. We can not let fear take hold! This is the greatest time the church has been given to let the world see what being an Apostolic really is. This is our chance to stop the divide. This is our chance to be Christians. What does that mean? It means the color of your skin does not define you. It means the language you speak does not define you. It means who cares if you are Republican or Democrat. It means, mask or no mask. Vaccinated or non-Vaccinated. You are brothers and sisters in Christ. You are first citizens of heaven. They shall know us by our love one for another. If we use Social Media as a platform to rip each other to shreds of these things, we are allowing the spirit of the Anti-Christ to succeed  in dividing and ripping the church in two.  Now more than ever before we need to love one another. Who cares what you look like? Throw out the religious traditions that some things just have to be so. Doctrine stands. That is never to be thrown out. We stand on it, we live it, we breath it and we preach it. What we need to do as the family of God is be a family. Take down the walls of division and love one another. Walk together. Pray together.  As he was preaching this I wanted to weep. This is exactly what has been resonating within me for weeks. The love of God is so wonderful. How dare I look at someone and say they can not experience Him because they don't fit what I am comfortable with. I tell you this, for me, personally. If you want to see what church is all about, I will make room for you on my pew. I don't care if you come with a screaming kid.  I don't care if we don't speak the same language. I don't care how you are dressed. I don't care where you are from. I just want you to sit with me and experience the love of a wonderful savior. Come to Bethel, ask to sit with Julia. I will make room for you. In a world where everything is all chaos, come and learn about the one who wants to give you rest for your heart, mind, spirit and soul. Has it been a while since you sat on a pew at Bethel, come sit with me. To you my fellow Christians, I beg of you stop putting God in a box.  Open your eyes and heart. Ask God to guide your feet and give you the words that are needed in this day and age. Be a light for Christ. Love. Love like Jesus loves. We don't know how much longer we will have this freedom to share the love of Christ openly. Use your social media to spread kindness. Use your social media to share your testimony. Rise up oh Church!  Rise up and shine bright. This is the new norm for the church. Let this pain and crisis push you into a new dimension in your walk with Christ and how you relate with your fellow man and church family. Love like  Jesus. He gave His life. Lay down your personal agenda, your opinions and just love one another.  God is good.