Sunday, May 22, 2005

There are times when God's Spirit begins to move, and you can sense that something is about to happen that will permanently change the way that we operate church. I believe the time is getting very close to God again doing something spectacular and mighty in this body of believers we call The Journey. Let me give you a few reasons why I believe this:

1) We have come out of what I believe was a wave of harvest from September through January, in which we saw over 40 people come to know the Lord in our services. During that time we experienced tremendous growth and baptized many. I believe that wave of harvest is now done, and that means right now we are planting for another harvest. I do not believe that time of harvest is far off.

2) We are at a point of need with our space. In other words, we can keep growing, but we have to become very creative at exactly how we will do this. We need the Lord to do something that we cannot do ourselves to be able to facilitate what He is going to do next. We need some solid steps to take with our building projects - I need God to give me some fresh insight into our next steps. God often puts His people in great need so that they will completely rely on Him- call it "the blessing of desperation," or as we learned a few weeks ago, God blesses the poor in spirit.

3) We are praying now more than ever before. We have prayer meetings on Wednesday and Saturday, and our prayer times on Sunday during our services are great, and I believe that the Lord wants us now, more than ever, to call on Him and become completely dependent on Him. As Alfred Lord Tennyson said, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of."

4) Many of our "babes in Christ" are growing, taking forward steps and seeing the Lord work in their lives, even though the devil resists. I am excited to see God work with our new believers, and I believe that they, through their excitement, will stir us on to greater growth.

All that said, yesterday - May the 22nd, was a great day in God's house. Our people heard a good word from the Lord through Ed Cormier, another man who stepped up in my place to preach for me. Through Ed's meek and powerful approach, he stirred the saints to pray for their pastors, and honestly Journey, you folks have no idea how badly I needed that. Please keep praying. But I feel like there is some great growth that is happening, as was indicated yesterday.

The total attendance for the day was 107, which is fantastic, and it was so good to see most of our regular people there. God has truly blessed us, and we continue to see Him work.

Also, I want to thank you, Journey, for your consistency and growing faith with your giving. I am on the verge now, of becoming full-time with the church, which is something we have strived for since we moved here. God has stabilized our finances through your generosity, and I rejoice on your behalf. Keep going.

God has been good to us. Let's not look back - let's keep moving forward. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to pastor and lead.