not just touched.....changed!

What just happened touched my heart and filled me with great joy. I went into my "nectar of the God's" location this morning later than my normal opening visit. After all this is where God finds many of His people! As I walked in I saw a friend from church. He replied "you're running late, what are you doing?" I said I just am in no hurry to get to work, what I found out was He was orchestrating this meeting.
We got our coffees, we sat down and he pulled out his Bible. I asked what he was studying today, we started to talk about Daniel. Then he just opened up, tears in his eyes said, "Chris, I just can not believe His faithfulness. He keeps using this church to impact my life in such a timely manner." Here's what I know from serving alongside of him for the last 9 months. This is a man who no longer wanted to be married, chains of bondage tore at him and they're in financial distress. He struggles with self-worth and image.
He serves with the vision of doing so allows others to experience life change like he is seeing in his life. He embodies the very culture of this church. He told me they started coming to church during "Break-Out" which hit him with truth of his bondage. VLDS series offered them an opportunity to begin to really dig into their marriage, he said his priorities have shifted placing his wife in far greater importance. He said he had just asked someone for help budgeting, and what's the next series "Real Change Campaign." Week after week he is being filled with God's truth, a direction in Him and practical applications for real change. This seems a mirror to me! I thank God for the fact that getting by will never be acceptable again!
So here are 2 grown men with tears in their eyes at our local Starbucks sharing about how our lives have been changed by the ministry of this church! I can not help feeling grateful for the pruning taking place in my life, the standards to the measure of success are weighed by these kinds of impacting moments, not financial, not worldly but of what we are witnessing Him doing all around us. "That people far from God will be filled with life in Christ." My praise to Him who allows me to be transformed, to witness calm seas in the midst of the storm!