Hi, I’m Penny Lyons, singer songwriter with a Christian band “Out of the Ashes.” Welcome to God Today. Why is it that some of us can hear God speaking all the time and yet some of us, He seems to be inexplicably silent. Why is it that for some of us worship is just in light, full filled with joy and richness. Well, for others, it’s just something we have to get through on Sunday morning. What is that all about? Why the difference now?
Just recently we had a Christian women’s day in our church, so we had great speakers come in and we had chocolate cake, very important, and a women’s day and tissues and stuff that women will love spending time together with. We chatted and a group of us decided we were going to do what we called foot washing. I went out and I got some plastic bowls and I got some smelly stuff and we had plenty of warm water and we had oils and creams and we invited women to come and to have their feet washed while we sat and just prayed over them. It was utterly amazing to see somebody to be the person that’s on your knees before somebody’s praying over them, while you massage their feet and seeing the Holy Spirit come on them and seeing their face just filled with the joy of being close to God was just phenomenal.
But the thing that also really struck me was the number of women that really didn’t want to come anywhere near us. Not because they didn’t want their feet touched, but because the thought of somebody being knelt on the floor in front of them, while they received, filled them with horror. So many of us are so bad at receiving and yet we love to give. Let’s be honest, when we give and the person we’re giving to has learned about being gracious about it and being comfortable with them. Doesn’t that increase the joy of giving so much?
Now I’ve spoken before about going through some difficult times and there was one particular time when I was talking to somebody who said, “Come on, you stopped receiving. You’re not even receiving from God.” I was in such a pit of electricity and stress and anger and worry and goodness knows what else that I had stopped receiving. So here’s a look, I’m going to get you to do something. He said, “I want you to pray this prayer.” And he told me the prayer. He said, it’s, it’s kind of Orthodox Catholic, “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me, a sinner.” And he said to me, “I want you to pray that prayer ab