Last Sunday was the greatest Resurrection Celebration I’ve ever experienced.  What made it so great was the tangible presence of Jesus in His people!  I can’t fully describe the sense of excitement, the willingness to clap and shout and give God praise, the overflowing joy of knowing that Jesus is alive!  The Church was being the Church that day –a people called out by God to declare His praise to the world! (I Peter 2:9) 

During our Celebration we opened the “Edification Mic” for people to share what God has been doing in their lives.  Between songs of praise, several testified to God’s work in them:  fresh reminders of God’s intensely personal love for His children, God’s sovereign protection and preparation of small children in grieving the death of a loved one,  an exhortation to remain utterly dependant upon the grace of God in witnessing – not trusting our own wisdom or experience, a step of growth in embracing our church family as “my family”, an understanding that we need God’s Word more than physical food, an encouragement to love one another as we are all “messed up” but being changed in Christ, and other personal expressions of thanksgiving to God.  I was softened, humbled and challenged through these words, the words of God’s people ministering to one another.

The visitors who were present on Sunday saw some convincing evidence for the gospel.  In God’s mercy, several responded to the teaching and appeal to follow Christ.  While they heard the Word of God through the sermon, they experienced the presence of the Living Christ through the lives of His followers.  Jesus is Alive – we cannot deny that He is living in these people!

I felt like we began to taste the blessings of living out I Corinthians 14:24-25.  “But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare.  So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

My heart is full of thanks today.  Thank you Jesus that You are alive, and that You live in us!  Amen.

Recently I was very, very tired.  One weary Sunday after preaching, while asking God to help me live out what I preached, I had a clear sense of Him speaking to my spirit, “You need rest, not entertainment.”  For much of my life the end of a hard day, the resolution of a trying situation, or finishing a long week meant that I was entitled to some kind of entertaining reward.  For me, television or movies always won the day.  I came to discover that my “default setting” in response to stress was to turn to entertainment.  This impression concerning rest has been producing thoughts I’m trying to work through so I can “change my settings” to be programmed in a way that pleases God.

Just what is entertainment?  Webster’s defines it as a noun – a diversion or amusement, something that holds our thoughts or attention.   Entertainmnent is the plethora of possible activities that divert us away from reality, fill our thinking, and manipulate our feelings.   In my experience, while entertainments are enjoyable (otherwise we wouldn’t run to them so much), I have found that they steal my time, weary my mind, feed the flesh through subtle compromises, and encourage an attitude of passivity because they require no response.  I can be entertained and simply walk away unchanged, unmoved.  But through entertainmnet I have been influenced in my spirit.  Feeding on this world’s entertainment can only result in living a worldly life.

So what would God have us do?  Are TV, movies, the net, mags, books all evil?  Should we go back to the monastery so we can stay pure?  I don’t think so.  The answer, as God is teaching me, is found in pursuing and embracing God’s rest.  More thoughts on that to come.