Church Giggles

Sometimes I giggle in church. Oops. I sit there, all intent on listening to the sermon, and then the preacher-man says something that may or may not really be that funny, but it just catches me off guard and have to *try* to control my outburst. Horrible, I know. ;)

One of the things I love the very most about services at Oak Grove is that because we have no full time preacher I (we) get to hear a large variety of men speak. Some (like my daddy) have been preaching for years, and others (like my hubby) are just starting out. It is a wonderful opportunity and experience to listen to different men preach. It allows me to hear many different sermons, follow many different thought processes, and witness a lot of growth! I can't even tell you how much I absolutely love it! This past Sunday we heard two outstanding sermons: Josh's was titled "Bonfire in Ephesus" and Dustin's was titled "Run like a Kenyon". If those titles don't peak your interest, nothing will ... so go listen to them both here. Now either I was just doing an extra good job of paying attention, or these men were doing an extra good job of preaching, because I sure got a lot of good thoughts from their sermons! Annndd there were *giggle* moments for me in each sermon - that's part of what I love about hearing different people's perspectives! They probably each deserve their own blog post ... and they just might get it sometime...

Now, what made me giggle this Sunday? Josh was preaching Sunday morning - he is a really excellent speaker. Easy to listen to, lots of great ideas (and I'm not just saying that because he's my brother-in-law). Sometimes what I like to call his "coaching side" kicks in and he says thing in a very matter-of-fact way that I love. Towards the end of his sermon, he was recapping, and he said (and I quote) "If we have sin in our lives, we need to just quit-it". He said this like he might say to his basketball team, or I might say to my 4th graders who were doing something they shouldn't "you need to quit-it!". It was great! He went on to say "Seriously. If we have continuous sin in our lives, we need to make a decision to stop. We need to quit it". I KNOW that is not a funny statement - its actually very serious! But sometimes we forget to be so matter-of-fact with sin. Sometimes we try to make things more complicated than they are  -- because I think the phrase "it's complicated" makes us feel better. It's not complicated. We need to quit it. Quit sinning. And being that matter-of-fact made me giggle (in all fairness, he chuckled as he said it too. He knew it sounded awesome).

Now, obviously, I know we will never just *quit* altogether. We are human. We are surrounded by temptations. We will fall. We will mess up. We will sin. Probably again and again and again. But, each and every time we catch ourselves, we have to make a decision: continue in this sin, or quit it? And hopefully we will grow stronger and stronger as we keep making the decision to quit it. Just quit it.