Leaving Cloud 9Sample

     To go from not attending church regularly in his life to every single Sunday is a   big leap. . . .There was something about the passion of our preacher and the   messages getting to [Rick] in just the right way. Plus, the casual attire, tattooed worship leader and modern, relevant subject matter really spoke to him. He had never been to a church like this.
 

    Having attended various services over the course of his life, what made this time different, though? He’d heard sermons before, worship songs and prayer, but nothing had ever stuck with him in any meaningful way. . .   .
 

    For the first time in Rick’s life, he felt God in a real way, speaking to him. He recognized so much of the grace that had come upon him time and time again keeping him safe, protecting him from addiction, helping him through college, providing the ambition he needed to keep going -- to get right where he was today.
 

    "I had tried doing life my way and it got screwed up and I figured...God's way made more sense,” he said. “The Holy Spirit convinced me over time.”. . .
 

    While things didn’t change in a split second for Rick, it was a moment of seed planting that began the journey. God did invade his reality that day his sister told him she was going to church now. A switch flipped. The Holy Spirit came upon him. Life was going to change.
 

    God was moving BIG TIME and He was speaking to Rick very clearly. I had no idea the blessing it was to happen upon National Community Church in   Washington, DC when I moved there as an intern in 2006 but it played a huge part in channeling Jesus love and message to Rick. Each sermon seemed to have a word just for Rick – and we’d come away from services discussing them like Bible studies and talking about how they related to our lives.
 

    He began to see an actual life plan unfolding. All the things that had happened in the past were over and they had been leading up to this life that was coming together now. Our lives and personalities were so different, and they clashed, but they held strong and grew together in love and faith and truth. And they did it with God knowing without Him, this kind of love did not exist.