John 1:4
The WORD gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can NEVER extinguish it.
What an incredible ending last night to what turned out to be a really great weekend.
Friday night, I spoke at Celebrate Recovery Centre.
Great worship....
Friends....some old, and some new ones.
Stories of what God is doing in the lives of those who were once on the road to darkness and death.
That's what I love about hanging out with people in recovery. There is an honesty and hear-felt appreciation for what God has done to them and for them. There is a real hunger to share their story.
Saturday night's VRC meeting was a continuation of our journey through the book of James.
What did we find out Saturday night?
#1) The difference between "Testing" and "Temptation".
Testing comes from God to reveal the weak places in our character and thoughts. Weak places where the devil can gain a foothold, so to speak, in order to reap destruction in our lives. Temptation comes from the devil, and is an instrument he uses to stir up our emotion and sin/nature to turn away from God, and indulge ourselves in sin. It's an invitation to feed our wrongful desires.
Sunday at Northside Baptist, was a time of worship, lots of laughter (these folks love a good laugh). I might be wrong, but I do believe that someone once said that laughter was the best medicine. If that be the case, then we had ourselves a whole pharmacy yesterday. Taught from Exodus 4, Moses' encounter with God. Moses throwing down his staff, as God commanded, only to see it turn into a serpent. I shared how this was a symbol of the things we need to throw down to God that keeps us from growing in Him. Like the staff, which was nothing more than a dead piece of wood Moses used to lean on, so are the attitudes, behaviors, thoughts and deeds we lean on rather than trust God to see us through. We can't really see the extent of how we have relied on these things until we cast them away from ourselves and allow God to show us exactly what we've been trusting in.
At the beginning of this posting, I wrote how last night at Catalyst Recovery was the perfect ending to a great weekend. Here is why I say this.
After I'd finished speaking, and ministry time was taking place, I'd moved back from the stage to a chair on the front row. Greg, who has been staying at Elmo's transitional house, came and motioned for me to come over where he was standing. Greg had a young man standing with him. Now Greg is one that God has gotten a hold of and turned inside out. I mean Greg has sold himself out to this Jesus. Greg introduced me to the young man, who was now crying .....let me rephrase that...sobbing was more like it. Between sobs, the young man said...."I can't live like this any longer"......"I need Jesus"......So right there, over in a corner, this young man was saved. If ever there was such a thing as "More than saved"....It happened to him. As he prayed, the tears came harder, only they weren't tears of conviction anymore. They were tears of joy and release. They were tears of freedom from a life that was killing him one day at a time. It was the perfect ending to a great weekend.
Oh yeah....
One last thing.....
The young man who was saved is Greg's son.
There was a celebration to beat all celebrations.
That God is something else, isn't he?
Make it a great day today...
Be thankful and find gratitude for what God has done in your life.
Until tomorrow
God on you...
mbb
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