How Can I Serve You?

At the services this past weekend, Bryan McInnis said something that started a “buzz” in the Atrium and with people I talked to this week.  Bryan really challenged all of us to be servants and not to focus on ourselves.  He suggested that we reach out to one another -- our neighbors, friends, family, co-workers and strangers – and ask a simple question.  How can I serve you? 

In our “me-focused” world, we often lose sight of others.  We don’t necessarily do it intentionally, but we get so “busy” with our own lives, our own children’s activities, our own problems, our own stuff, that we just forget to look outward toward others.  We just don’t seem to have time.  This past week I began to consciously think about looking “outward.”  It was an interesting week. 

While I was at the doctor’s office getting checked for allergies, the nurse who was giving me all the myriad of shots over the course of two hours, mentioned that her husband was unemployed.  We chatted about his job and his skills and I was trying to think if I knew of any people in that field.  The nurse then said, "Well, he’s in an interview right now. Could you pray for him?"  Wow!  What a cool request!  I didn’t even have to ask how I could serve her; she just asked me.  So as she continues to inject me with different allergy strains, I began to pray for him and for her.  It was a simple request, but one that showed me that sometimes just a simple conversation with someone can lead to a blessing for both that person and for me.  While lifting another person up in prayer, I was also able to “re-focus” the pain I was experiencing.  It was a real “God moment.”  The interview went great and now he has been called back for another follow-up interview.  Praise be to God!

As we journey closer to the cross this week, listen to this song and be reminded that we are all called to be servants first and to follow the greatest servant of all, Jesus the Christ, the Servant King. 

Soli Deo Gloria!

Pastor Carol

Monkey Bars and Jesus!

In the sermon this past weekend, Pastor Steve mentioned that, when it comes to Jesus, we have three choices.  One choice is to have one hand in this world and one hand reaching out to Jesus; another choice is to live the lives we see fit, keeping both hands in this world; and a third choice is to let go of this world and give Jesus both our hands. 

When I heard that on Sunday, I have this mental picture of a set of round rings we used to have on the playground growing up.  We called them monkey bars.  I visualized myself hanging on with one hand in one ring and the other hand in another ring.  It was hard to hold yourself up when you had both hands in two rings.  As Pastor Steve said, Jesus can’t save you if you don’t let go.  We need to give Him BOTH our hands so He can pull us up.  That vivid picture got me to think more about how letting go can be both hard, but also freeing. 

What would happen if you and I really let go of this world and gave both hands to Jesus?  How might our lives be different?  Ask yourself this week what barriers you have in your life that make it hard for you to “let go” of the rings?  Why don’t you trust Jesus fully and completely with your life? 

Friends, it’s hard to “let go,” but I promise you, once you do, you will never look back.  Once you hand your entire life over to Jesus, you will be forever changed.  When we live out the life Jesus wants for us, we experience joy in all things, even during tough times and struggles.  You see joy comes from within and is not dependent on our outward circumstances. 

Here’s a wonderful Lenten video that reminds us of who Jesus is to us.  I hope you find yourself raising your hands and praising God as you watch and listen to this song.  Jesus Christ, You are indeed my life!  Alleluia!

To God be all Glory!

Pastor Carol

Just Believe!

In the sermon this past week, I mentioned that in the lower story – in our world – it’s all about doing.  Yet, in God’s Upper Story, it’s all about believing.  Do not be afraid, just believe!  I got to thinking about that and the word "freedom" came to my mind.  Not the freedom to do what you want, but the freedom from worrying that you have to do something in order to be rewarded by God or to secure a place in Heaven.  The phrase “just believe” is so simple, but is so hard to live out for many of us.  Why? 

In our culture, we are always rewarded for hard work and for doing things.  And while there is nothing wrong with doing things, we need to do them for the right reasons and realize that doing things in and of themselves will never bring us eternal life.  We should serve and help others out of a response to what God has done for us. 

All we need to do is believe in God.  “If the Son sets free are free indeed” (John 8:36).  Jesus restored and removed the separation we had from God once and for all by going to the cross.  And isn’t it amazing that, through the cross, which was an instrument of death, we are given freedom and a relationship with Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life?  Can I have an “Amen!"?

I asked a closing question at the end of the sermon that I hope you were able to ponder and pray about this week.  “Do you know the One you serve?  Do you serve the One and Only Jesus Christ, who takes away the sins of the world and restores you and gives you eternal healing and life? 

Remember, fear not, just BELIEVE!

Here is a wonderful song that I know stirred many of you this past week as you attended worship: "My God" by Stuart Townend.  I hope that you will use this song in the middle of the week to continue to reflect on and focus on your relationship with Jesus the Christ!

To God be the Glory!

Pastor Carol

Bleeding and Believing

Last night at our Lenten service, we heard the portrayal of the woman in the crowd, also known as the woman with the issue of blood.  She suffered for 12 years, which meant in ancient culture that she was isolated from her family.  She couldn’t be with them, they couldn’t hug her, she couldn’t eat with them or cook their food, and she was considered unclean.  She was totally untouchable and alone for not just a few days each month, but for 12 whole years.  Think about that for a minute.  Can you imagine not only the physical pain of continual bleeding for 12 years, but also the psychological pain of isolation she must have endured? 

While I watched the wonderful portrayal last night that Andrea Ranstrom did of this woman, I was moved to think about the “wound” we all have and carry with us silently that isolates us and even causes us to wonder if God really cares or knows us by name.  Yet, I’ve found that it is in our afflictions and our “wounds” and our suffering that we are oftentimes moved to reach out or to even run to God just as the bleeding woman did.  Sometimes it’s through our “wound” that we find God’s grace and He leads us to a wholeness we may not be expecting. 

Do you remember the wounds that you have carried in your heart and the grace that healed them?  Maybe you have wounds today that need the healing grace of God.  There is a wonderful poem called “Bleeding and Believing” found in a book entitled Seasons of Your Heart by Macrina Wiederkehr. 

Once there was a wound.

It was no ordinary wound.

It was my wound.

We had lived together long.

I yearned to be free of this wound.

I wanted the bleeding to stop.

Yet if the truth be known,

I felt a strange kind of gratitude

for this wound.

It made me

tremendously open to grace,

vulnerable to God's mercy.

A beautiful believing in me

that I have named Faith

kept growing, daring me

to reach for what I could not see.

This wound made me open.

I was ready for grace.

And so one day, I reached.

There I was thick in the crowd,

bleeding and believing,

and I reached.

At first I reached

for what I could see--

the fringe of a garment.

But my reaching didn't stop there

for someone reached back into me.

A grace I couldn't see

flowed through me.

A power I didn't understand

began to fill the depths of me.

Trembling, I was called forth

to claim my wholeness.

The bleeding had left me.

The blessing remained.

And, strange as this may sound,

I have never lost my gratitude

for the wound

that made me so open

to grace."

Have you ever stopped thanking God for His grace that in Jesus reached out to you and into you and healed you and saved you?  Perhaps this week, as we reflect on the faith of the woman in the crowd, we too will reach our hand out to Jesus. 

Natalie Grant’s song “Your Great Name” is a song that reminds us that the lost are saved and the weak find strength through one name – Jesus.

To His Glory!

Pastor Carol