waxer

don't mess with a man's woman.
i love being protected and am unashamedly a sap for love stories, so this analogy from waxer (our speaker) clicked immediately. :) anyone can mess with waxer or say what they want to about him, but the minute they say anything about his wife - "you'd better forget about it - it's all over!" a man will do anything to fight for and protect the woman he loves.

and what is the church to God? His Bride.
and what are people constantly bashing? the church.

what a convictingly great word ... to be careful when we start talking trash on His bride! it's also encouraging to know that God will redeem His church. that as His body we are on the forefront of His mind. waxer influenced me tremendously and i can't summarize everything God spoke to me and did inside of me this week. that was just one of many 'waxerisms' that will stay with me. i have a lot to apply to my living! he talked a lot about our role in the church to serve, and how when we are serving to serve people we will end up burnt out. when we live to truly serve the Lord and not man is when we will find fulfillment. another good line was that the key to frustration is unmet expectation. how easy is it to apply that to not only church, but relationships? work? life in general? we forget that we have both physical and spiritual needs to be met, and commit entirely too much time to meeting our physical needs. not that they aren't necessary, but they aren't everything. which is why we see people like michael jackson or britney spears having their physical needs perhaps met in excess, and yet they are going crazy. their spiritual needs aren't being met. (then there are the searchers like pamela anderson sticking up for PETA in a desparate attempt to find purpose, but that's not quite getting it either ...) instead of worshipping God they are worshipping themselves and receiving worship. and it's not just the rich and the famous - i am just as guilty. we are created to worship and serve God, not ourselves.