At some point saying how great every weekend is runs the risk of A. Making all my out of town friends jealous. B. Having people think I’m one of those everything is beautiful types C. calling my credulity into question (or maybe yours). Willing to fly in the face of these risks I boldly go where I’ve gone the last 4 weeks (and thankfully most weeks) and say this last weekend at Journey was stellar!
We are in week four of our series, which is really a kind of church wide season of spiritual focus. While I was just walking around bumping into people on Friday, I was already hearing cool JCreed related stories of what God was doing – people joining small groups, bringing neighbors to small groups, giving to the poor, sharing the good news with people who were wondering what’s going on with them. It wasn’t hard to start expecting a great weekend.
COMMUNION – We are taking the Eucharist (another word for communion) every week during this series. I love the very sight of His people going together to his table. At one of the services I happened to know the stories of a group of people sitting right by me, an amazing, ridiculous story of deliverance and redemption. As the filed out to get to the table I was just overwhelmed with the beauty of it all.
WORSHIP – It’s been great to have our worship pastor Jason Denison back the last two weekends. This weekend featured a song by Mumford and Sons called Awake My Soul. It was so good!
POWER TOOLS – It seems like those of us who are not handy have a kind of awe for those who can use an awl. 
This weekend’s message was birthed in a conversation I had with a surf buddy in the parking lot at the beach who is making his way to Journey and toward a connection with God. I thought of the picture of a lathe. Maybe those areas where we are least like Him; maybe those are the points of connection, points of God’s entry into our lives.
MESSAGE – the message was on the pericope of John 8, commonly called the woman caught in adultery. Despite the textual issue associated with this story, I love it. I love the picture of Jesus and the radical picture of grace that it presents.
When I was wrapping up this just flew out of my mouth: “if this is what Jesus is like, who in their right mind would not want Him all over their life?”
Awake My Soul indeed!
