In our series “Hot Topics”, where our people were able to text in their greatest questions about God, the Bible, life, etc., one of the biggest areas of questions centered around the issue of the afterlife. Apparently people want to know what’s next….imagine that. In this message I tried to address some of the most repeated questions we received.
In the four years Grace Community Church has been a church we have received much praise from people that love what we do. Hundreds of lost, hurting people have chosen to unite with us. We have had some previously churched people join us who felt we were a better fit for them or their family, but mostly we have reached people who previously did not attend church. Most exciting to us is that we have baptized more adults than children in our four years, indicating to us that we are truly evangelizing and not just helping people swap churches. It has been a wild, exciting, thrilling time watching God shape us over these first few years.
As we announced Sunday, Grace Community Church has purchased 58 acres of land just a couple miles from our current meeting location. We are excited about the future. To answer some of the questions we did not have time to share Sunday, I wanted to share some details about this process.
Now, I really think there is more to this than just a good trivia stumper. I think the fact that David, the one who “killed the lion and the bear” could be afraid, means that I too will have times that I am afraid. The fact that the one who “approached Goliath” could become terrified means that surely times will shake my confidence. The reality that the one who was “anointed to be king”, could become so afraid that he would act like an idiot to avoid being found out, means that you and I, who may be of lesser stature in our faith, should not be surprised when we have fear and doubts.
Here are 10 lessons it took me years to understand:
For years, I resisted a call to ministry, partly because of this advice. The simple fact was that I could do some things besides ministry. I had some success in business. In fact, at one point I was extremely successful in my field. In my own strength, I found I could do many things.
I enjoyed meeting some of the people that I admire online this week at Cultivate Conference in Chicago. Names that appear bigger than life to me, because I enjoy their blogs and work so much, were up close and personal. I shook the hands of people like, Jon Acuff, Kem Meyer, Scott McClellan, Kent Shaffer, Tony Steward and Rhett Smith.
This month our local Clarksville Family Magazine featured one such woman, Kelly Blevins. Kelly, and fellow Grace girl Lynne Woodson, have decided to use their experience with cancer to launch a local support group for other breast cancer patients. This type ministry fires me up, because it addresses real and practical needs. I want to be their biggest cheerleader!
The most common reasons for not pursuing a dream or goal are the fear of failure or the uncertainty of success.
Never underestimate the power of God’s intervention in your life. He uses broken, mixed up, hurting, fracture stories to mold and shape some of His greatest work.
