This week we started a new sermon series… Struggling With God (read more about it here). My take on the weekend… a homerun! Some highlights…
- The worship was AWESOME! I think Anthony’s doing an awesome job! The brother can sing and skate! What a deal!
- After the message this weekend I called people to the front to give their lives to Christ or renew their commitment to “trust Him when you don’t understand Him.” I haven’t heard an exact count yet, but I’d be comfortable saying that there were between 50 and 70 people who responded… and I’ve already heard about stories of people who gave their lives to Christ today!
- I realized this weekend, we’ve got to figure out a better way of finding out when people give their lives to Christ! If our mission is to “Bring people to Jesus and build them up in that relationship” we’d better know who’s “brung” so we can “build” (I know “brung” isn’t a word… I just wanted to mix it up for my redneck friends… you know who you are!).
I think what ideally happens is that the person who “brings” someone to Jesus takes the initiative for “building” them up in that relationship… then we don’t have to worry about databases and all that crap! (We will anyway…)
- We ministered to 900 people this week!
- After the second service we rented the Batavia Ice Arena! You invited your friends! We had almost 500 people show up! AWESOME! Way to go Northgate! The employees kept saying, “We’ve never seen this many people in here!” YEA BABY! It was great watching some of you “skate”… I’ll not mention any names! And in case you’re wondering… they didn’t have any skates my size… that’s why I didn’t skate… no seriously!
- I was wiped out after preaching! Struggling with God in front of a lot of people, multiple times is tough! Pray for Vern and I the next couple of weeks!
- I LOVE BEING YOUR PASTOR!
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I have never lost a baby or undergone a divorce or experienced abuse the way some of my brothers and sisters in the Lord have. In a way I have no right to speak to them about such things, because I don’t know the depth of what they have endured. But if you all will be gracious to me and allow me to express my thoughts after today’s sermon, here they are in no logical order….
1. God has no grandchildren. Our own son grew up in the training and admonition of the Lord but has not chosen to follow Him. I pray and fast for this twice a week but have not seen a change. I may never see it in my lifetime. But I do know that such a decision cannot be made for him; it will only mean something when he makes it for himself.
2. Having just returned from South America, I saw for myself that the sorrows and injustices we complain to the Lord about are common to all mankind. And I will dare say this…in some cases we North Americans have very little in truth to complain about.
3. Just and fair are not the same. God is just. He is not fair, nor does He have to be. Justice is simply that-a characteristic of God. Fairness is what we perceive it to be when it benefits ourselves. Our children cry “It’s not fair!” when they perceive unequal treatment-they don’t complain that “It’s not just!”
4. In a chapel service “back in the day” at Houghton College, one of my professors asked us, “Why are you afraid to doubt God? Can He not handle your doubts?” Habakkuk, Job, even our Lord in the garden expressed doubt to God in some way, yet the Lord proved Himself more than able to deal with all of their concerns. The Scripture reminds us that God’s ways and His thought are not ours. If they were, we could understand God. And then He would cease to be God. Which do we want?
Dear fellow believers, please read my comments knowing that I don’t understand why the Lord has allowed bad stuff in my life either. If possible, I am even more impatient about that and I want my answers NOW if not sooner. I am in this journey with you. It’s not easy, but to Whom else would we go? Only Jesus Christ is the Word of Life.
Lori–I love your comments and yes, you have every right to speak to all, because it’s not about “what” anyone has gone through, it’s about all being on this journey together. A comment that was left on my site popped into my thoughts as I read your comments.. “There are probably only a few people in your church who can relate to certain struggles, certain vulnerabilities, and that makes you uniquely qualified to help understand and empathize with certain people” We ALL struggle and each of us can uniquely relate to others because of those unique struggles. The ironic thing about that is without traveling together, we all think that our struggles are unique and so we think “no one will understand” and we struggle in silence and alone.
When my kids were younger, I was amazed and overwhelmed how they developed/learned and was just “bubbling” with excitement every time they accomplished something new…even though it was “normal” and “no big deal”. The way God is working in my life is the same…I’m so excited and overwhelmed because for me it’s all new. It’s not better or worse because of the experiences, it’s just amazing all around!
I also love your last comment “It’s not easy, but to whom else would we go?”. You are so right…