Monday Morning Musings ...

Yesterday was a very good and difficult day. The difficulty was that we had several of our men gone on a retreat, half of our worship band and vocal worship team were gone. One of our projectors went out before the service and no matter what I did I couldn't get it to work. We got started late and that driving me nuts. Having so many men gone certainly changed the "feel" of things as well as the look. Having a downsized worship band and vocal team gave things a different look and feel. The projector being out only impacted those on the platform, but created some major adjustments. I also woke up with quite a bit of pain in my back and leg, which was discouraging since it had been getting better each day.

With all of the above difficulties, God showed up and that is all that really matters when we worship. There was a decent attendance even with so many at the retreat. I had trouble reading the crowd, for whatever reasons, while I was preaching. I felt very strongly about the message and wanted desperately to communicate the truth of the Word. This was another in the series on Characters of Faith from Hebrews 11. This week the character was Rahab. The principle of her faith that we focused on was that she acted on her stated beliefs. Too often we do not act in accordance with what we say we believe. It it one thing to say what we believe, it is quite another to put it on the line and act on it, no matter what the circumstance. Rahab had not been raised in the faith, but observed, investigated and committed to God. She followed through on her commitment and stood up against some difficult circumstances, such as her King demanding something from her that would have compromised her newfound faith.

What if we began acting in line with what we claim to believe? What if we reached out to those around us who are far from our ideal and showed them the love of Christ? What if we followed through on our commitment? What if ...

The story of Rahab, the prostitute, is the story of all of us. Before you protest too much, haven't we all been tempted to sell ourselves for something - position, popularity, money or praise at multiple times in our life? However, just like with Rahab, God steps into the areas of our life that we have walled off and given us the choice of his love.

Though I had not planned for it, we had several who came to altar to pray about acting on their beliefs. There was no music, nothing planned, just an invitation and the move of the Holy Spirit. I love it when God takes over.

Sunday evening my class on Parenting Isn't For Cowards began covering the topic "Taming the Twos, Threes and Teens". It was fun to examine these stages, to see their similarities and struggles from a parenting standpoint. We had some good discussion, laughter and a few knowing sighs. We will continue examining this next week.

Yesterday was a very good, though difficult, day. Thank you Lord for showing me your grace.