It Was A Great Weekend

I Corinthians 2:2
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Psalm 107:20
He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.

What a weekend....
Saturday night at Vineyard ReCovery was "Family Time"...
I had a feeling that the evening was going to feel like a family reunion. I even mentioned it to the worship team as we were practicing. 
The message that Vicki and I were going to share was on learning to trust God in every area of our lives. I talking really trust Him, and not just offer lip service to Him. 

Sure enough, as seven o'clock rolled around, there were some old familiar faces coming through the door, and it was good to see them. Like I said, family time. I guess you could even say it was a family reunion of sorts.
I love to be present when my wife teaches. She is passionate and to the point when God has given her something to share. In our case, the message of learning to make bricks without straw was about our finances. Learning to trust God with our money and that He is our provision. Just as the Hebrews in Exodus were put in a place where they had to make a quota of bricks without straw that was provided by the Egyptians, God was trying to teach us how the Kingdom works. 

Straw was the binding agent that held the mud together in the formation of bricks. Take away the straw and you've got a mess on your hands. If you are able to make a brick without the binding agent, all you have is a brick that has not capability of being solid and strong. Would you really like any structure built with those kind of bricks? Well, when God told Vicki and I that He was going to teach us to make bricks without straw, He wanted us to learn that we did not need the world's straw to make our bricks solid and firm. Our binding agent would be faith. The substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. That faith was to be more than a mental exercise of a bit of religious information. Faith in Christ should be the center of our lives as we move about daily. Faith that God is who He claimed to be...and faith that He will do what He has promised He would do.

Lot of ministry Saturday night. Prayers for one young lady who wanted to go to her sister, who is in the hospital, and share not only the news of what Jesus had done for her, but to take the presence and power of Christ to her sister who is in desperate need of a healing.

Sunday morning found me at New Outlook Christian Fellowship. Once again, good folks who truly love God, and burn with a fire to tell others about Jesus. Once again, familiar faces that I had not seen in a while. Spoke on Jesus' first words from the cross...."Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing." The incredible fact that Jesus simply didn't talk about forgiveness as some kind of lofty, high, spiritual idea....No! In the worse place and time a person could ever experience, He lived it out. There on the cross, racked with pain, Jesus demonstrated the act of forgiveness. More than that, His very death opened the door for all of mankind to receive this forgiveness. 

Sunday night found me at Catalyst Recovery to speak at their meeting. Of course it was like coming home since they meet at the Vineyard. I got to the church at 4 p.m. and spent the time hanging out and talking. A young lady wanted to ask some questions that she'd been wrestling with, so we sat down and talked. She is broken over the state of the church. The bickering, the infighting, the excusing of sin in the midst of the church. You could tell that God has truly put a burden on her to intercede for His body. Hopefully I was able to answer her questions, although I did tell her that any answers I may be able to supply might have a Vineyard Tint to them. In the end, I told her to pray and ask God to show her the answers to her questions.

Blake and the worship team were spot on last night. They seem to have grown stronger,and more confident in their sound each time I get to worship with them. 

I spoke from Acts 3, the story of Peter and John and the cripple man. Putting into the context of addiction being as crippling as any disease man could experience, the healing that is needed is found in Jesus. Like Peter, I told those present that "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do possess I give to you....In the name of Jesus the Nazarene, get up and walk".  The invitation was for those who truly wanted to know and experience Jesus better to come forward. I told the crowd that such an invitation was for everyone....whether you had never given yourself to Jesus ever, or if you've been a believer for 30+ years, if you wanted more of Him, then come forward.

The front filled and prayer began.
There were a lot of hungry hearts standing there asking, crying, for Jesus to come. To fill them up. There were prayers of repentance....prayers of praise.
At one point, I felt that God wanted to heal, and I got the impression that there was healing for knees that were giving someone a problem. Then I got the impression that someone was struggling with acid reflux. I didn't know who it might be, but continued to pray. 

After the meeting, a young lady came up to me and told me that she was the one who needed the prayer. She told me that as she was standing there, she knew that she had those problems, knees and acid reflux, but didn't think much about asking for healing until I spoke both of those problems out loud. 
Then came the thoughts of .."O God, could it really be me you want to heal?"
I gathered some of the people around and we anointed her with oil and prayed over her. 

It was a good evening....
It was a good weekend...
He is an awesome God....

God on you...
mb