I'm guessing you have noticed that I haven't been at church for a bit. I had some family stuff come up and had to head up to Pittsburgh to be with my family. I'm excited to tell you guys how God was with me and my family during these last few weeks, but I'm not sure when that'll be just yet.
While I was at home I went to church with my cousin, Tom, who had - the week before - lost his mom, his gradfather (my mom's dad), and his other grandfather - within 24 hours. Tom is a new Christ follower and it was so great to see how God entered his life at the perfect time before this tragedy to be with him and carry him through it.
The message that Saturday night that the pastor gave - really spoke to my heart. Their Easter series is called Relent. It spoke about how we need to lay our personal agendas aside. We so often come to God with preconceived notions of what we want to happen or what we expect to happen. What a mistake!
Read John 12:12-19....the Jews praised Jesus when he rode into Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. But they didn't see how this was part of the prophecy being fulfilled in order to free their souls from death. They were short sighted - they thought Jesus - King of the Jews - would free them from Roman oppression - start a war. But Jesus wasn't here to free us from earthly oppression - he came to free us from the spiritual oppression of sin. These same Jews that praised him in John 12 - became dissappointed when Jesus didn't come to fulfill their agenda of freedom from Rome. In John 19 they yelled 'Crucify Him!'.
The people were in the presence of the man who would obey God and freely give His life to free them from an eternity separated from God....yet they were blind to see it because they had their own agenda in mind. Rather than bow at his feet. They spat in his face.
What agenda do you have that keeps you from seeing what God has planned and the gifts that He is giving you?
See you guys at Illuminate tonight - and i hope to see you this Friday at the Passover North Point After Dark service!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That was a really well timed post miss Brewer. I just got through a sort of depression funk period of my own. People kept telling me to relax and just have faith that everything would be ok but for some reason i just wouldnt listen and i just kept beating myself up and i started losing sleep and it was just terrible. Then i started to see things come around and all the threads of events that came to a nexus were revealed to me. It blew my mind how i was able to have such doubt when everything was in control the whole time. It really is a wonderful feeling to just let go and allow our king to just take care of us.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy how no matter how many times we go through these situations where we have little faith God will rescue us....yet does - we never learn...well maybe a little. But the first time is usually not the last. That's why it is good to have a strong circle of Christ followers around you to help you and remind you of God's unfailing love and faithful rescue.
ReplyDelete