The following is
something I wrote after the mission team working on our new campus left. I shared it with our church family yesterday
morning. It is personal in nature and
applies to me, my family and our church family, but I believe this may
encourage you.
This means that anyone who belongs to
Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
I walk in to this big 40-year-old
building and see things that I have never seen before. It really is incredible the ways it looks and
the changes to this point. Nothing less
than a miracle or a touch of God’s hand.
There are pieces that don’t seem to
come together very easy when reality sets in.
It is when I think about the connection God gave me to Himself and
further to the church I get to serve that leaves me in awe. It is not about me. It is not about talent or ability. It is about our gracious God of second
chances.
How could a sovereign God choose
me? That thought comes in all different
kinds of directions.
How could he take me from the place
I knew as home and was comfortable with and placed me in Virginia, and the part
of Virginia we are in has a recent history unlike many other places of this
century. Economic unrest and the general
lack of hope are rampant in our region of southwest Virginia, but God has a
plan offering second chances.
Why did God choose me when all I
really wanted to do was preach? If you
get right down to it, we are all alike.
Without the saving truth of Jesus, we are lost. We are in trouble without Him. But when I was 15 God saw fit to save
me. I need to remember that, and walking
in this place I remember that fact. One
year ago we were able to buy this building.
It was a wreck. It was full of
discarded junk useless to most people.
It has been raped of what was most valuable. Isn’t that where God found each of us? We were without purpose and value. We were, at least I was, full of sin. But then God took what was broken and made it
whole. He changed my life.
How can God continue to choose me
when I so often offend Him by doing my own thing? I struggle with lust and pride. I have bouts of depression and severe
self-centeredness. My thoughts go in
ways that I am ashamed to confess, but I do confess and must be honest. I am unworthy, yet my gracious God made me
worthy, gave me a second chance and a third and a fourth. Often I hear God say something like “watch
this”, and then he does something I don’t understand. It is all about Him.
He has taken me from a place where I
was comfortable. He revealed my
pain. He lifted my sense of
worthlessness, and He gave me hope and purpose.
I am changed. I am different. Some say very different. Through telling the story of The Community
Fellowship even this week some have said we are crazy, and that my vision takes
guts because we will most likely fail.
Hear me well. I sit here thinking about the day we begin to
use this building. My first hope was
that today would be that day. That was
my plan but not God’s plan.
He is taking a place full of
brokenness and preparing it to share life and share potential with others. By removing what is wrong, God is putting in
place what is right. His way is
life. The enemy’s way and purpose is
death. That would be my death and yours. Did you realize when you think that you have
no purpose or no value that the enemy wins?
By thinking that way we miss the best and the purpose that God has for
us.
My life counts for something in His book. I am broken.
But He uses what is broken for His good.
I am struggling with sin. But God
uses what is simple and available to confuse or amaze those who think that they
have it together. Am I rambling? I really do hope you are following these
thoughts.
In this room one day in the future
God will bring together people from all types of backgrounds. There will be rich people, those who are
middle class and even many who are very poor.
God will bring those who have never battled addiction and those who are
deep in of some kind of addiction. This
place will be one that shouts “there is life for those who want it”, and they
will hear as well “it is all about God”.
My prayer is that this broken life
will bleed for Him. Jesus bleed for
me. For my sin, my shame and even my
depression, my Jesus died to set all of that and to set all of me free. That word, FREE, takes on new meaning when
God is sharing it.
CHANGE is about freedom. The change that God brings in to our lives
makes us new people. That change is
forgiveness and freedom from the penalty of sin.
I was blind but now I see.
I was lost but now I am found.
I was broken and now I healed.
I was set in my direction but God
changed my path.
I was depressed but He gave me joy.
I had major holes in my life but He
makes me whole.
I was weak and He made me
strong.
Don't get me wrong because I am not
turning my sermons, my writing or this church or our new campus to being about
me. If that happens, help me step aside please. But I pray even more that you will help me
set Christ Jesus as the center. Not only
is He our cornerstone, but also He is our life.
He is our agent of change. He is
our speaker of possibilities. He is our
friend, our help, our healer and our God.
I pray for those who walk these
halls, for those taught in the classrooms, for those who are served, for those
who choose to worship here that they and we see Jesus. I pray that our lives are forever changed. I want to be changed.
Change is not easy. Did you hear that? Change is not easy. The farmer has to deal with the weeds so his
harvest can be as good as possible. God
desires to deal well with our lives. His
desire is our obedience. His desire is
for our change.
Change is brought by His hand, and
change happens when we allow His hand to work in and through our lives. I want that.
How about you?
God will change your life as He has
changed mine.
God will forgive your sin as He has
forgiven so many of us.
God will fill you with purpose as He
has filled each of us.
God will take what you see as empty
and fill you with greatness.
Why will God do this? It is because He loves you, and He loves
me. God demonstrated His love to us by
giving His son. Jesus, His son, died for
our brokenness and wrong. God took what
was right and gave that for our wrong.
Where do you stand with Him? Has He changed your life? Stop looking at God as some higher power
ready to hurt you when you step out line, and start looking at God with His
arms open wide ready to accept and love you right where you are and as you
are. But He will not leave you the
same. He will change your life.
Let Him change you.
Let Him fill you.
Let Him use your heart and your
hands.
Let Him show you the potential that
He gave you.
Let His words fill your heart and
head and your mouth.
“Be the change that you want to see
in the world.” Gandhi said it. I have spoken that to you the last few
weeks. Now do that. When God gets hold of our lives, change
happens, and others will see the change.
They might even be changed too.
That is what I desire.
So, Father, I stop right now and
record this prayer as you made my heart overflow. I am amazed at what you accomplished this
week through 70 servants of yours who were so talented. They gave their time, energy and even their
money to serve you in our place. They
did what we couldn’t do on our own.
Thank you, God, for making this happen.
We trust you supply us with what we need. You will provide the money to pay for the
building materials. You will provide the
time, energy and completion of our new campus, but God, I once again cry out to
you asking that you fill this place with people who need to see and experience
your love. Then I pray, Father, that you
will fill your people at The Community with so much of your love that it
overflows to others. I am grateful for
what you have done, and in humility I ask you Lord to use me, to change me and
to infuse me with all I need to lead these people to experience you. This is my prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I loathe false humility. Fake people make me sick, but I confess that
often getting real with you is painful.
Without Him I have to find something else to lean on. With Him I must make sure I am empty and
ready for what He wants. By the way, I
believe that all of this starts with humility.
We must be humble so that He can change us. Is that what you want? I pray it is.
I pray that He does change us.
And let it begin right here.
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