“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not negate our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.” Hebrews 10: 24-25
Dear CCEA Sisters,
I confess that I wasn't too keen on getting onto Zoom for fellowship. I have an increasing dislike of technology.
Perhaps I am suffering with technology PTSD. I was a nurse with Kaiser and was on their four billion dollar system all day—every day—for many years. It was a large reason that I left nursing (other than my husband was dying and I was at retirement age).
Anyhow, this seemed like another "tech intrusion” to me. It was a giant hassle to get it on my devices, just as it has been for others. It took five people over a week's span to get me on! That included three sisters and two pastors, including Bob! How embarrassing.
As I write this, I am screaming with laughter at myself causing Hanah (my housemate) to come and check on me. She was the one who eventually got me connected, so she is laughing, too. To say the least, I wasn't enthused.
Well, last Thursday about eight ladies from the group I co-lead in the Thursday morning Women’s Bible Study were able to connect on Zoom. My mind has been changed! There was something about seeing everyone's faces all lined up that really struck me. For one, everyone looked beautiful. As I gazed at them, I saw their individuality, their problems, their prayer requests, their commitment to meet, their love and much more. All of them lined up in a big block and filling my screen made me think of a wall.
I happened on a little devotional book a few days ago. It is “The Joyful Heart Daily Meditations” by Watchman Nee and in it I read this selection:
"Ye also, as living stones, are built a spiritual house." I Peter2:5
“Solomon's Temple was built of quarried and trimmed stones, each stone in its place but every one lifeless. Today God's house is made up, not of dead but of living stones. Peter, who wrote these words, was a living stone, a single unit before he was built together with the others. Many remain thus, scattered here and there, independent, useless. But if a house is to be constructed they must be gathered, and stone must be built on stone and fitted to other stones.
Thank God you are his! You have trusted in the Lord Jesus, and now you are God's living stone. Don't then, just hide out there alone in the shrubbery to become a cause of stumbling to the unwary! Let yourself be carried to the building site. Allow yourself to be matched up with other living stones, fashioned to fit into your place. The trimming may be uncomfortable, but in the end God will have a dwelling-place.”
Now I will enjoy Zoom as a faster way to see and experience the building of God in the church and I hope you do too.
By Beth Ferrari