"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you." John 16:13-15

This is Jesus telling his disciples that the Holy Spirit would come after He had left them, to guide them and teach them the ways of God. This is also a piece of scripture that Penny used in Sunday School this morning. And it is also what God has been laying on my heart again and again in recent months. I keep hearing from Him that I need to know God more and in order to do so I have to become in tune with His Spirit. I need to learn how to listen when the Spirit speaks and discern when it is the Holy Spirit speaking to me, as opposed to all other forces in this world. The Holy Spirit is a part of God that I have neglected in the past for a couple of reasons. One, I have misjudged the Spirit's leading in the past and because of that have been afraid to step out in faith and follow His leading again, for fear that I might read it the wrong way. And two, something as mysterious and wonderful as God's Holy Spirit is a little scary, in all honesty, to a natural human being like myself. But, I'm willing to put those two EXCUSES aside now and get serious about knowing my God. I feel it is a NECESSITY for all Christians, in order for us to move forward in God's will and to be unified in our outreach to the lost. The Spirit is definitely stirring. I have felt His movement for several months now. Things are about to change, for sure in my life and in my church, and I think within my Sunday School class we are getting the sense that something is about to happen in the world. I mean, it's obvious that things ARE happening in the world........the tsunami, hurricane, the recent deaths occurring in 2 different coal mines, wars, disease.......all things described prophetically in Revelations. I think we all need to be on alert and ready to listen to what God has to say during these times. To quote Penny..."Something's up."

Now that my sermon is over =) , this week things at work got a little bit more back to normal. I am no longer working overtime, for now anyway. The 5th season of American Idol has begun!!! I'm so excited. Umm.....I have now tried fish tacos from Taco Tierra. Not bad. Really. They're pretty good. I rented "The Village" friday night. Interesting movie. Chet used it in his sermon today. I think it is a good depiction of how the church often is. Saturday, I went to my cousin Susan's baby shower. I had not seen her since her wedding, 10 years ago, so it was good to see her again. This afternoon I went with the youth group to Evansville. They had a scavenger hunt at the mall and us "adults" had to find them. It was pretty fun.

I hope everyone has a good week! Amy out.