Monday Morning Musings ...

Yesterday was a highlight day. The best part of the day was ... well actually there was more than one "best part". One of the best parts was our baptism service in the afternoon. It was outdoors at one of our family's homes. They have a great set up with plenty of lawn and space to park and they have pond that works very well for a baptism service. We had 7 people get baptized, 4 adults, 1 youth and 2 elementary children. There testimonies were encouraging, the actual moment of baptism was inspiring and the fellowship was meaningful. We had a picnic following the service and the weather was gorgeous, a little cool for late August, but great weather nonetheless. Know the full background story of each one getting baptized makes it even more meaningful for me. I am always moved to joyous tears when I participate in a baptism service and yesterday was no exception. We had a tremendous number people attend the service and that just added to the celebration. After it was all over my wife got inspired and "took a few teen girls into the water". Mind you this was not baptism and none of them brought extra clothes to change into. It just make for a lot of laughs and wet rides home.

Sunday morning had a tremendous spirit in our service. We had technical problems, a video failed to work, some sound issues and, well you get the picture. But God is not dependent on our abilities and He did His thing in spite of us yesterday. There was a good time of prayer during the service and following the sermon several people came to the altar though had not made any specific plea toward coming to the altar. How great to see people being sensitive to Holy Spirit and obedient to come and pray.

The message was in our series on "Characters of Faith" using Hebrews 11 as the foundation. This week's character was Abraham, in fact we will look at Abraham one or two more times in this series. The principle of Abraham's faith we examine was that he obeyed. God told Abraham to move to a foreign place and Abraham did as God said. He did it even though he didn't know where he was going. How well do you obey when God calls you to do something that you don't understand or even know what it means? Abraham could only do this by faith. This was the original GPS system, although I called the "God Positioning System" instead of Global Positioning System. You won't do this unless you have chosen to be dependent on God, on His strength and His guidance. If you are depending on your own abilities you will not do what God asks. It also makes a difference if you are looking forward as God calls, rather than trying to live in the past. It is hard to respond to God's call if you are only looking back.

Here's hoping you are looking forward in obedience to God's call, no matter, no matter where and no matter when.