God is good ALL the time!

"And you are complete through your union with Christ. He is the lord over every ruler and authority in the universe." Colossians 2:10

I have just returned home from an AWESOME weekend at the First Baptist Church in Trussville! This weekend was Complete / Renew, a gathering for girls and women to grow closer to God and learn more about His plan for us. We had some amazing speakers (all women!) who taught us so many wonderful things about faith and joy.

Let me start by telling you how God got us there. As you may know, it snowed today. We had plans to leave at 7 am in order to be in Trussville by 8:30. We prayed over the bus (Jody's maiden voyage on the church bus)and the roads, and that God would clear our path to get there. Here's the cool part. We were on 459 when we came to a complete stop. The road was closed up ahead because of the weather (and I think an accident). We were in the middle lane of traffic and stopped even with the exit onto I-20. Here's the even COOLER part. The 18-wheeler in the outside lane beside us had not pulled up all the way to the car in front of him. God truly did clear a path for us to be on our way! With the help of some of the men in our lives, we were able to navigate from I-20 to Trussville. The problem was, we didn't know where to go after we reached Trussville. Jody just happened to have written down the number for the church and said "I think I should call them to find out where to go." Ok, here's the COOLEST part! When Jody called and told the lady where we were, the lady said "Oh, just turn left at the next light and we'll be right on your left." WOW! Do you have chillbumps? We did! We pulled into the parking lot singing "God is good, ALL the time!"

Here are a few things I learned this weekend:

From Page Hughes, I learned that if we truly have faith in God, we will see our problems through Him, not Him through our problems. Cool visual, huh? I also learned a new favorite verse: "Shut up and let that be your wisdom." Job 13:5. Any of you who know me know that this verse will pop into my head A LOT (sadly, sometimes too late!)!

From Tollie Meggs, I learned that joy is NOT happiness, the absence of conflict or being funny. Joy is the product of having the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Jesus even prayed that we would have His joy when He was preparing to go to His heavenly father. How awesome that the God of all creation would even care to know me, and even pray that I may have joy.

I will end this by saying that I had a wonderful time of fellowship and worship with other girls and women who love the Lord. I wasn't able to write about everhthing, because this post is already a bit wordy! It was wonderful to be renewed and reminded that God is the source of our joy, if only we are faithful and claim it! He wants the best for us, and sent His son to die for us. Even though I still don't understand why, I know that my God is bigger and more powerful than anything else I will encounter. May we all remember to Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS!