faith like the flu....

     I decided something today at WOC.....I want faith like the flu.....and with that being said ....I will admit, I have always been like most people and said with various virus' and "bugs"..."oh, I have the flu...I feel just awful"....well....let me tell ya...I had never really had the flu until last year, and I went from feeling fine, to feeling as if I had been ran over by a bus within about 1/2 an hour!  Man!  It knocked me off my feet...literally!  I guess you are wondering how in the world I came to that comparision....faith like the flu.....it all goes back to what God has been doing all this year, giving me various words or phrases and then putting those in front of me everywhere I go.  The phrase that He is giving me right now is:  contagious/infectious faith.  I know some people might think that these are negative words, words that conjure up bad impressions of things that must be stopped, rather than encouraged.  According to Webster's:  contagious means:   likely to spread and affect others.....and infectious means:    likely to influence others....and when you think about it, isn't that exactly how our faith, whether strong or weak, and the attitude that we have along with it is?

One example of that is King Hezekiah....he led by example...he didn't say do this, or do that...he did....and at a very young age, he tore down all the brazen idols, he prepared and cleansed the temple, he walked out his faith, and everywhere he went, God was with him.....and most importantly when the time came for his subjects to do the same, they did it...without question...they went in and did whatever he asked of them...they had seen the fruits of his faith, and they followed his example...he was contagious.

     Job is another example of that...he had lived his life not only where satan himself took notice and wanted to destroy him, but his friends had also seen the fruits of his contagious faith...In fact one of them, couldn't keep quiet and said, "I have to speak up and say something,  you have instructed  many, and you have strengthened  the weak, your words have held firm him who was falling, and you have strengthened the faint....is not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity and the strength of your hope?"..Job 4:3.  They had been affected by his contagious/infectious faith.

These words came to me in a defining way during worship this morning...specfically during two songs, "O, the wonderous cross" and it's words, ....."love so amazing, so divine, demands my love, my life, my all", and "Hosanna", and it's verse, "You are the God who saves me, worthy of all my praises".  How could I not desire that?  How could I not what everyone I meet to be exposed to His all changing, never ending love?  He really spoke to me how much my faith, and in turn,  my attitude is contagous and therefore, infectious, but also is my doubt, my disobedance, and even my fears as well...if you doubt this...think about public meetings that you have attended....all it took was for one person to stand up, and with his or her words, either infect the meeting with strength or fear or hate....how one simple person, who has the courage to stand up for what he believes in, with a few words can change the entire flow, success, or failure of the meeting.  What I say matters.  What I think matters.  What I believe matters.  What I fear matters.  What I feel matters.  It affects not only my attitude, but more often than not, all those I come into contact with.  With that being said, it brings me back to my point...I want my faith to be like the flu, not only do I want to be contagious, i want to be infectious....I want what He is doing in me to be consuming...if a small, tiny virus like the flu can, within a few hours, change everything about me...my attitude, my outlook, my words, my energy...everything...how much more should He? I want Him to consume me....to change me at the molecular level....to change my DNA....take my human, damaged DNA into His own perfect self....to where everything about me is different, from the inside out.  I am not sure, but I can be fairly certain when that happens, it could be like a plague....who knows...you might "catch" it, and pass it along, and so on and so forth....until the entire room is infected, then the entire church...or school...or workplace....and then the entire town....and well you get the picture.....if tiny fleas can wipe out most of Europe, who knows how much further this could spread,  if those who are made in His image truly take hold of what that statement means...made in His image...to where we are so infectiously consumed by Him, we truly reflect Him?

One thing I do know, he is changing me...from the inside out....yeah, maybe a little slower than both He and I would like......but if He can break thru to my hardened rebellious heart, I know He can change yours....and if just a few of us allow ourselves to be "weak" enough to be infected by Him.....who knows...maybe that will change the world?
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