I had a blast today at Cobblestone Community Church....Loved the new displays in the atrium for VBS and Ichthus. Great job!
I always LOVE meeting new folks, and was once again thrilled to meet at least five families I'd never met before.
God was in the house, again, in our worship. I think the church is really starting to believe the words, "I am FREE!!" At least today they seemed to sing it (and "Healer") like they believe it!
The fourth installment in our "Livin' Venti" message series was a lot of fun, and I was greatly impressed by three young men, Austin, Max, and Davis, who voluntarily ate my special-recipe Krispy Kreme donut, topped with grape jelly, Hershey's chocolate, Heinz ketchup, and Vicious Vic's Habanero hot sauce. Gotta say, Max and Davis stole the show when, about thirty seconds after they took their bite and I continued with my message...they got up simultaneously from their seats and made a quick exit! I hope you're doing okay, Max and Davis. But I hope it made the point. What point, you ask? You shoulda been there. :)
And God was definitely honored in the church's worship today during the celebration of communion. Thank you, Cobblestone, for responding as you do! And thank you Sharla, Aaron, Jeremy, Jason, and Tony for that awesome "Nothing But the Blood" rendition as we celebrated.
Again, I was blessed to pray with some precious people in each of the celebrations, and am remembering them in prayer this evening and throughout this week.
As often happens, numerous people expressed gratitude for the worship and the message today, indicating it hit them right where they needed. But I wonder at the same time if some of us long-time Christians and church-goers struggle with the message of freedom in Galatians. I think we're so accustomed to the church's ways and expectations, that we try to fit Jesus' ways and the Gospel message INTO that mix, and that never works. Our natural tendency is toward legalism and judgmentalism and self-improvement, and the Gospel is counter-intuitive in all those respects. Which is part of the reason it's the GOSPEL, the GOOD news!
A visitor to the church from out of state this morning overflowed with praise for our worship ministry, telling me what I've known for a long time: we are unspeakably blessed to have the worship pastor, worship leaders and musicians we have! No doubt about it. And it's always a blessing, as happened at the Friday night prayer event and this morning's worship, when people effuse about the wonderful servants and prayer warriors and lovers of God in this lovely church. I can only agree and praise God!
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