...this is a test...

Okay, so yesterday when I said I had a few other things that I wanted to talk about, but forgot... well, I'm back again!  LOL!  I wanted to talk about me going back to church... I haven't been in a few months, nothing to be proud of at all.  I feel so much better when I do go to church.  And sometimes when I don't go, I feel like things don't always go my way... makes a little sense to me, considering some of the foolishness I had to go though recently.  Just like I said yesterday, sometimes you can't go around thinking negatively, because guess what, something bad just may happen to ya (YA... my daughter has been saying this so much lately... "what me to get that for ya?!"  "mommie, I wanna go with ya!" ughhh!).  Okay, so back to me and church...  I go to Zion Church.  To me, in my opinion, it is one of the best churches in the area.  Granted I haven't been to every single church around, but I just think it's the best!  LOL!  You wanna disagree, well, come and check us out... I think, nope, I *know* you'll enjoy it!  Well, we had guest speakers at every single service.  I went to the 10 o'clock service and Pastor Ronald Crawford was there from New Vision Church (if you click on the "last week sermon", you'll actually see my Pastor on there... shout out to Keith Battle, he's the bestest!).  Okay, so Pastor Crawford (PC is what I may call him from now on...), PC's sermon was on "This Is A Test"... Already, I was loving it, because I feel like I'm going through a test.  PC said this is a test from the Lord, when you think it's *that* bad, you don't want to think it's from Him, but it is.  Goodness I wish I was better taking notes, but I was paying attention to what was going on and unfortunately, my memory... I mean that was 2 days ago!  LOL!  Well PC said there are different steps that we all go through after being saved:
Celebration - seriously, who doesn't celebrate??  life feels sooo much different on this side!  ;-)
Frustration - then we go tho something and we get frustrated... no matter what the circumstance, we always have to remember God is Good!  you can't only celebrate when the good things are happening to you.
Correction - God can make the command and turn any situation around... Trust Him!
Indifference - Unfortunately, I can't remember what he was saying about this specifically... but I think he was saying no matter what (good, bad, indifferent), remember to celebrate!

PC referenced Exodus 15: 22-27 and broke it down with those 4 steps. 

Exodus 15:22-27 New Living Translation (NLT)

Bitter Water at Marah

 ²² Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water. ²³ When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”).  ²⁴ Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. ²⁵ So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink.
   It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him. ²⁶ He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”
 ²⁷ After leaving Marah, the Israelites traveled on to the oasis of Elim, where they found twelve springs and seventy palm trees. They camped there beside the water.

Breakdown:
Celebration - 15:22, we moving!
Frustration - 15:23-24, we pissed!!  "you mean to tell me, you got me following you for 3 days, and this is what I get?!"  LOL!  "i meannnn, what we 'posed to do?!"
Correction - 15:25-26, listen to His commands!!  He'll turn it around!
Indifference - 15:27, now they living the good life!

It's just amazing to me, what it is that we all go thru in life... No matter how big or small the test may be, we all go thru these steps.  Continue to trust in Him!  Continue to celebrate who He is!  Continue to love life!