Triumphant Return ...

Or at least a return. Sorry about my absence the past couple of weeks. It has been a crazy time. I was gone for 3 days over the weekend, but that doesn't excuse the other 11 days. I was at a regional youth event with over 2,000 youth at our college in Illinois. It was an awesome time, and the 9 youth from our church represented well. They were very involved, they were fun to be with and I was very proud of them. My wife and I however, are still recovering physically. We really need to get a youth pastor in here soon.

The past 2 Sundays have been very good days. Mother's Day we had a great time together, with a good spirit and very good attendance (even with a huge number of regulars gone). This past Sunday was a very encouraging day. We honored our High School grads, 8 of them. The service went well and there was good energy in the place. (Shouldn't every Sunday have that kind of energy?) The attendance was great, it was higher than Mother's Day and that was with very few visitors. I started a new series of messages on Mother's Day. I have traditionally done a series on relationships from Mother's Day to Father's Day and that tradition continues this year. I am using James 4:1-12 as the foundation passage and every message originates from that scripture. The first sermon was on "More Grace", that God gives us more grace, abundant grace. That we need to recognize our need for it, accept it and be gracious in our relationships. We examined why we need more grace, from our choices, to our pride, to our tendency to display spiritual ADD and more. We need to "embrace the grace". This past Sunday was on the "Desires that Battle Within". From the conflict of determining God's will for our future to just the relational battles that are so common. We looked at some reasons why we have these battles, we want what we want when we want it, we often react poorly to not getting our way, we often partner unwisely in many relationships and more. The solution is simple, but not easy. To surrender our desires to God, and no one else can make this choice for us, and to resist Satan and his lies.

Sunday afternoon I spoke our local High School's Baccalaureate. It was a real honor because the Seniors themselves chose who they wanted to have speak. I think it went well. Then graduation was a little over an hour after that finished. Graduation went well and there were a lot of students that I had contact with, it was an encouraging time to see some fruit of my time here and relationships that have been forged. Then I went home and crashed.

I will try and get back on track and post regularly again. If you have missed me, I am sorry, if you haven't missed me then who cares. How is that for being gracious in my relationships?