It’s not a matter of if! God is doing a renaissance! It’s going to be all encompassing. The rocks and trees and dirt will cry out. “Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy before the Lord; for He is coming to judge the earth… (Psalm 98:8-9)
But wonderfully and in a way, surprisingly, it starts with what God is doing in His people. It starts with our recovery and as we looked at this release.
We spent our message time this last weekend in one of my all time favorite parts of the Bible, Romans 8. Right in the middle Paul belts this out:
8:21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
The God plan starts with our freedom. Release!
So the question is how do we live in that release. So beginning last week and continuing this one we talked about what that looked like.
The part that seemed to land so heavily this weekend was our need to “LET GO OF CONDEMNATION”. Condemnation is not something we do; it’s a way that we are in the world. We need to learn a different way to BE! Many people’s experience with religion and “Christianity” to the contrary, condemnation is not the energy that propels authentic transformation. Grace is!
[The following paragraph is earthy and slightly gross – you might want to skip it]
Apparently that point needed driving home for me. On Tuesday I did a little prayer walk around our facility stopping by the Journey sign looking over the buildings and praying for the various ministries. As I looked at the worship center, I noticed a bird swooping over the parking lot toward the worship center as I was praying. As he got close, with me still praying, he let loose what looked like a very healthy amount of bird poop. (I told you to stop reading). Of course I laughed. But then, this thought flashed brightly in my mind. “That’s exactly what the devil is trying to do to us. He wants to spoil, soil and stink up with condemnation, accusation, guilt and shame.” Not exactly Isaiah’s vision in Isaiah 6, but point made!
The highlight once again was the My Journey. This time Jared and Bob Womack share the son and father story of God delivering from addiction.
Worship as per usual was sweet.
After the services on Sunday our Generations ministry through a family fun day.
