FILL 'ER UP!

With the price of oil going up and up and up, the gas prices are going up and up and up.  I’m pretty sure it’s not just a local thing, but gas prices here have skyrocketed.  Here in Indy, the price of gas is over $3.40 for unleaded.  I realize that it’s much higher in other cities and states, but $3.40+ is not something that I enjoy seeing.

However, there was one gas station today that didn’t jump the $.25 that everyone else did.  We took Caleb to get a couple of his shots at the Health Department (Praise God for free shots) and drove by this gas station selling unleaded for $3.21.  There were cars nine-deep out in the road, every pump full…and they kept lining up.  And it was the same way five hours later when we drove by after our Parents For Life class that we are taking at church.  They had raised their price to $3.29, but there was still a line.

And that got me thinking…why aren’t there lines like that coming out of churches?  Why aren’t we as interested in being filled with the Holy Spirit?  For those of us who go to church, why don’t we have that desire to go every week and be really excited about it?  For those that don’t go to church, why don’t you go?

Maybe it’s your church…but probably, it’s you.  “It’s boring” and ”I don’t get anything out of it” are not good excuses.  We receive what we allow ourselves to receive.  If you come to church with an attitude of anything but “I’m here to worship You today, Lord; there is nothing more important to me today and I expect your Spirit to move in me and through me” then you have limited yourself.  You are not open to what God has in store for you.  Are you limiting what you receive when you go to church by having the preconceived idea that you’re not going to get anything out of it?  Are you limiting your experience to a ritual because you don’t believe that God moves through the Holy Spirit today?

If you are a believer, you need to be in church—you need to be in fellowship with one another; you need to worship together.  If you’re not a believer, I encourage you to take that step and become one.  There is freedom in Christ like none other and there is a power that you receive when you’re filled with the Holy Spirit.  And that power is better than a full tank of gasoline.  Fill ‘er up!