Tuesday is always a flurry of activity, especially since I started taking Mondays off. To shut down on Monday has been a little bit of a life-saver. I’m a better person, husband, father, leader, pastor, speaker, etc. for it. I usually jump right in on Tuesdays. Its awesome. Already did some correspondence, studied, calendar planned, did a conference call, etc.
Excited that the fast is continuing. I was just on a conference call with Franklin Graham and some other pastors. Someone was talking about white churches and black churches and I realized that I didn’t fit in. It was a cool moment. A lonely feeling sort of came over me for a second. I have prayed we would be unique, but being unique feels a little strange as well. I love pastoring a church that isn’t a white church and it isn’t a black church – especially in Memphis! OMG.
Anyway, I share that brief moment of my life this morning to say that I’m excited that the fast is continuing because we need God to show up big time. I know I need it. We need it in our church, but we also need it in our city!
I have this sense that there are some people that are counting on us to pay the price right now in this season of church life. We may not know who they are right now, but we’re going to meet them one day.
Meeting those people with the love and life of Jesus Christ we can hardly wait. Overflowing we will be with kindness they will receive. So many great things are in store. Working at the connection desk we see so many of those people, one lady in particular broke and cried and said,”I feel different and loved being here.” She left changed because of the life the Holy Spirit produces. The word that comes to mind is regeneraion(regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, which is from the old school. Memphis loves the Life Church.
come on…mrs. judy threw out some old school!
I must say that I am glad to be a part of our UNIQUE church. It can be kind of hard to describe, because we don’t quite fit into any box…and that’s what I love and want others to experience! I am also very excited that we are pressing in together as a church through fasting. God is faithful and will respond to our collective faith as we pray for miracles. Everything we are believing to do is so that we can give more LIFE to the people of our city and around the world. God honors when we give our much needed resources for the sake of others. I came across this great verse.(Isaiah 58:10-11)
10 And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday.
11 And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.
God is causing our light to shine and we will see refreshing, even in what some see as a time of drought. As we refresh others, God will make sure that we are refreshed. I am looking forward to the plans of God unfolding in all of our lives!
I just saw the ticker…3,192 fresh starts!!!
Its amazing how God is changing lives through the ministry of the Life Church. I am one of those lives that was changed and I thank God every day for allowing me to find this great church where everyone is welcome – black, white, Asian, doesn’t matter what your skin color…It is a blessed vision because God is allowing us to break the barriers of color and race through love and acceptance. For such a long time I didn’t feel accepted anywhere because I come from a mixed background – a white mother and a black father. When I went to the white churches, I was treated like an outsider, and the same when I went to the black churches. I almost gave up church altogether until I stumbled (or maybe it was God’s leading) upon this great multicultural church. It was awesome how on the first day I came, EVERYONE(black, white, hispanic, asian…I was a little overwhelmed with the variety!) made it a point to greet me. It was amazing how race just didn’t matter! It was awesome to see that nobody saw my skin color…all they saw was a child of God. Thank you Pastor John, you will never know how much your love, passion, and vision has impacted my life!
During this time of P&F, I have been having a strong sence of expectancy!! It’s that “sitting on the edge of your seat” feeling. Just itching for the gun to go off so you can run the race before you! I really feel God is going to reveal some amazing things in ’09 for us as a church. This expansion project is coming at the due time. God’s bringing it and we gotta be ready to receive it! You know, Pastor John, when I moved to Memphis over 4 yrs ago, I went to one of those “white churches”. I left there saying “Lord, there’s gotta be something different.” I drove by the church and saw the name. I said “anything with LIFE in it has to be good!” A week later, I walked in TLC and immediately I said “yep, this is it….this is where I need to be!!”