It Was A Great Weekend

Psalm 150:6
Let everything that has breath, praise the LORD.

Morning check:  "Am I breathing?"
Answer: "Yes".
Solution: "Praise the Lord!"
O.k., here goes.

It was a tremendous weekend for Vicki and I, as we had an opportunity to get away. We drove over to Athens, Georgia to be with our son, Josh, and his wife, Heather. Lot's of catching up with late night conversation. Good food....good times.  Plus, the trip over and back was good for the two of us to simply leave our stuff behind, catch our breath and ask each other, "How ARE you doing?"

I would be less than honest if I said I like driving through Atlanta. I don't. As my wife so aptly put it.."the difference between people driving in Gadsden and Atlanta is simple. In Gadsden, you put on your turn signal and say, "Please let me over..please...purty please!" In Atlanta, you put on your turn signal and say, "I'm coming over no questions asked, you better back off!"

I want to take the time to say say a heart-felt "thank you" to the core leadership of Vineyard ReCovery for taking up the slack in our absence Saturday night. You guys are tremendous! Also a big thanks to Seth Barber and Todd Bagley for speaking and leading worship (respectively). It is a comfort to know that the meeting is indeed God's meeting and that it will go on no matter who is there.

I got the opportunity to go out to North Glencoe Baptist Church last night and speak at their Celebrate Recovery. Good folks...good time. God was good in that we had a lot of ministry at the end. I never tire of getting to pray for folks and with folks, to see the front fill up with people coming to meet with God is always a jump start to the spiritual battery for me. I saw a lot of folk's I haven't seen in a while..they seemed to be doing well and on the right path, so that is encouraging. A big thank you to Garrett Rule and his crew at N.G. C.R. for allowing me the chance to speak. 

Message was from Luke Chapter 5 ( A last minute-during worship-change-of-message) on the cripple man brought to Jesus by his friends. The friends finally get the man down through the roof to were Jesus was teaching. Scripture says that "Seeing their faith" Jesus told the cripple man..."Son, your sins are forgiven." My take on that was...if I was the cripple man, I don't want to hear that..."Your sins are forgiven". I want to hear "Rise, get up and walk". But the fact of the matter is, Jesus say the deeper crippling that was the problem. Jesus saw this as the ultimate healing that the cripple man needed. Now to put that into perspective, people go to Celebrate Recovery to be healed of their addiction. But to some, the idea of being healed is to make the court stuff go away. To help restore relationships that have been damaged. To put the pieces back together in their lives so that they can escape the pain and destruction the have brought upon themselves through their using. All this repentance, be saved, let Jesus take your sins away and make you clean, doesn't seem to have any relevance to their problems. But, as I've always said, Sin is the root cause of all addiction. Every one who uses began their addiction with a choice. They chose to use. This choice, no matter how insignificant you may think it to be, opened the door for the devil and his minions to come in and begin the process of turning you away from God. With every episode of using, a person separates themselves (at least in their mind) farther and farther from God. Of course, in reality, God is still in hot pursuit of them. 

So last night was an invitation to have "Your sins forgiven" so real healing could take place. I pray blessings on those who came forward last night to receive. I pray blessings and God's presence on those who resisted and didn't come forward, that at some point they would find the value and incredible life that awaits them when they do come to know Jesus.
Like I said, it was a great weekend.
Now, here it is Monday...
Another week of possibilities.
Let's go out and see what God is going to do this week.

God on you...
mb