Well better late than never! It’s been an intense week.
• Finishing up MESSAGE SERIES LAY OUT for the 2010 thru Easter – finally got it to our team who will lay out the “WEEKEND GUIDE”.
• Getting ready for the retreat I’m doing for my friends at Oasis (the High School ministry at Brookside Church in Omaha).
This weekend was great! So I didn’t want to miss a chance to reflect on it with you.
MESSAGE – The message was on the Sacrifice aspect of worship. To be honest, I really wrestled with this message. I didn’t really like what I was coming up with until Friday at about 4:30. All of the sudden it was like a “Beautiful Mind” moment. I was able to see the Word from God in the sermon. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but it was cool. It was clear that God was moving at several points.
WORSHIP – It was important to us put some of the stuff in the message into practice right away. So we laid out the service with part of the message coming after a 2nd set of praise & worship songs. It was very cool to see people respond.
STUFFED SATURDAY – Saturday, for me as may full. I got up earlier than usual for a super fun surf session. It was one of those rare times when I caught the tide just right & happened to meet Randy out in the water. I passed the rest of the crew going in as I was taking off. Then it was off to Laurie Kolenberg’s wedding. It was great to see a lot of old friends at this very large wedding. We had our long time friend John Alford staying with us over the weekend so we spent some time with him as well.
SELAH –It’s so good to spend time in community in the presence of the Lord with minimal agenda. We saw a lot of people touched by the Lord. It was cool to see a healing of someone who had lost his hearing in one ear & walked out hearing well in that ear. Selah is a great balance of seeking the “Face of God” and seeking the “hand of God”. I think it’s important that the order looks like that.
GIVING TREE – I love this opportunity. Jim & Linda Doss, who are part of Journey, lead HIIS Ministry (click here – http://www.hisministries.org/). We had about 190 very poor kids in Tecate, Mexico whose pictures are on little ornaments with their stories on the back. For $30.00 we can get them a nice gift for Christmas that they really need. We can help a family significantly & personally since we have people on the ground. Of course it helps that they are about 30-40 minutes from the Front doors of Journey.
As I said, above I’ll be out speaking this weekend. I always miss being at Journey when I’m out speaking or something. But this weekend is going to be fantastic and unique.