Chapter 17: Impale Detail
12/16/1990
PRACTICAL stuff. At your gatherings, keep the trivia of every detail of your day, or even the details of your “evangelistic” conversations with non-Christians, to a minimum. Sometimes this might be appropriate for “equipping” reasons, but rarely. Ask for prayers if prayers are needed, but without a long story. Be considerate of others. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? When it’s YOUR story, it’s great. When it’s someone else’s story, it gets old real fast if it is not significant to the church as a whole. So be sensitive and give the bare minimum of details, unless there’s reason to go beyond this. This is especially true when the numbers are very large in the gatherings of the entire church, but it remains an important principle even with “two or three gathered in His Name.”
By the way, it also can be wrong and time-consuming to start asking for details that are unimportant. If prayers are requested, we don’t need to ask 40 questions about the situation. Some people are very curious, while others don’t need the answers to those 40 questions in order to pray for the situation. So don’t get caught up in an evening of trivia talking about this and that. It isn’t the Kingdom of God to be involved in trivia. Again, I’m not saying never talk about anything specific or practical (sometimes it’s perfect!), but I am saying that you should be careful about needless detail controlling gatherings.
Totally You
There was a new Life
Waiting out there for me.
There was a breakthrough
That I couldn’t see.
I could trust You with each moment
Till my life was brand-new,
And, Lord, when it happened it was totally You,
totally You.
CHORUS:
‘Cause no power on earth it could be.
No power on earth could set me free.
So I’ll proclaim it to the nations;
I’ll shout it from the roof;
My life will be the witness;
They’ll need no other proof.
It is totally You,
totally You.
I won’t lay back and waste your time, Lord,
I’ve got dying to do.
And even as I’m dying,
There are lives to press into.
Lord, You’ve got the new Life;
I know Your promises are true.
And, Jesus, with each victory, it’s totally You,
totally You.
CHORUS
— Patty