Big shout out to Carrie Elrod for the cookies she bakes and brings to the Saturday night meeting. Carrie truly believes that life is worship. How we live is truly what we believe, and should be evidenced by our actions and our words. Carrie prays over each batch of cookies she bakes, asking God to use them in some way to open the hearts of the ones who eat them. I know...this may sound foreign to some, but it sounds pretty natural to me. I mean if God can take deliver His message through a talking donkey...surely he can do the same through chocolate chip/peanut butter cookies. Call me crazy....but I am just crazy enough to believe that my God has that kind of power.
Saturday night was another good one. Funny, but when I journal about Saturday night service, that is usually the way I open the entry. We had much ministry after a message on finding desperation. One of the definitions of desperation was "a loss of hope that cause illogical decisions." I like this. Illogical decisions. What better way to describe the Leper that came to Jesus in Matthew 8. What better way to describe anyone who would come to Jesus for anything.....illogical. That's the way the world views Jesus. An illogical answer to a question that cannot be solved.
The world if all up into intellect and education.
If we can just teach everyone about the danger of drugs and alcohol, then the problem will be solved. So we come up with catchy sayings, and commercials to educate the public.
To the world, viewing Jesus as the answer to anything is preposterous. Yet over the past 18+ years I have been in ministry, I have seen countless lives set free by the Power and the Presence of Christ brought to bear against the addiction that has kept them in bondage. I think I'll fall on the side of the Kingdom and keep sharing the message of hope, and the reality of what is possible when you become desperate for change.
The leper in Matthew 8 was desperate. He risked everything just by being in public, not to mention making his way through a crowd of people to reach Jesus. To me, he fell prey to the desperate notion of coming to Jesus saying, "Either heal me, or kill me...but do one cause I can't stand this anymore." In other words, the leper was going to walk away from this encounter either healed, or in a body bag. Now that is desperation. Yeah, I know. They didn't have body bags back in Jesus' day. But do you get the point? We do not have the liberty to live in apathy and acceptance of our condition in life. There is a call to every human being to come to Christ. It fills the air. The message never stops. It is always around us. over us, and sometimes in us. The message of the Cross and the Power of Christ to save, heal, and restore.
John 12:32 - "And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself."
And who falls under "everyone"? Everyone! The answer to our problems is here, now, in our time and space. Now what are we going to do? Find that desperation to get up and go after Him? Or stay where we are and waste away until we find out that we're to late. We've waited to long and rejected the One who can truly save us.
Think on these things...
God on you..
mbb
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