Greetings to you in the beautiful-wonderful-powerful name of Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour! What a beautiful morning in the Kingdom – sunshine is a welcome friend ! Let us take a few moments, right now, to praise God and to thank Him … for three special people in your life, for three special blessings that make your life better, for your three favourite food items, for three special memories, for three events that you are looking forward, and for your three favourite music selections/songs. Aren’t you blessed? Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to encourage you, to give you energize you, and to deliver you from anything that has a strangle hold on you.
Wow! we had a great time of prayer-worship-praise yesterday – God was so with us! Recently we were singing a verse that said – “We welcome You here, Lord Jesus!” and someone stated that that was not a correct thing to sing as God is always her. Of course, that is true and in fact Jesus taught us that whenever two or three gather together in his name – He is there! (Matthew 18:20). However, as stranger as it may sound, just because He is present does not mean that He is welcome or even feels welcome. Sometimes we simply want to do our ‘thing’, sing our songs, do our prayers, read the Word, share a story or two, and not include time to listen for His voice or to sense His touch. Oddly enough, I don’t think we do that on purpose – we just didn’t think to accept the fact that He was there. So, I think it is important to condition ourselves to ‘welcoming’ Him into our gatherings.
This morning I attended a coffee-prayer time with a handful of pastors/leaders…and it was a blessed experience. Our leader-guide shared a thought – that it was having new churches come into a community that created new growth for faith community. At present we have four new church plants in our city and they are attracting people who are experiencing church life and Christian faith for the first time, as well as those ‘re-experiencing’ it. The question, of course, why is that happening? Why does it take ‘new churches’ to stimulate spiritual awareness and curiosity? One of the reasons is that when a church has been active in a community for time…it loses its “edge ” – that is it becomes ‘self-absorbed’ and less ‘other-focused’. Perhaps, it even gets a little comfortable…and a little careless…it loses its vision and purpose. So we spent time praying for a fresh Holy Spirit presence in our community of faith.
Something to think about today — be blessed today!