Written in Heaven

Today was our second of two preview services in preparation for the Grand Opening of the Pekin Campus of BridgeWay. Here are some reflections from the day:

• Meeting in the Pekin Theater is really nice. The staff is extremely friendly and accomodating and the venue is excellent. I think we'll pack it out for Grand Opening.
• This week we unveiled the new signage for the campus. It looks great! Lovin the new look.
• Set up went extremely smooth this week. We had a certain campus pastor (i.e. me) forget a couple things at the Ministry Center, but luckily I get the privilege of working with a very gracious group of folks. Thanks to Nate for bailing me out and picking up some much needed equipment!
• During our service runthrough today, I realized that the band was going to be out of this world today. And they certainly were!
• The band really took it to another level today. You can tell that they have started to gel and get a lot more comfortable together. If they do what they did today at Grand Opening, I'll be thrilled!
• Our service went really smoothly as well.
• We were able to iron out some of the issues with the video this week.
• Last week we had 4 little glitches to the video of Dale, but this week we had none. It was MUCH smoother (Praise the Lord)!
• We are still tweeking the audio on Dale's message, but I'm confident that we'll get that within a couple weeks no problem.
• I want to say thanks to our Launch Team for really bustin it out every week! More than that, we know that making a transition from a live speaker to a video can be difficult, but we really appreciate your willingness to hang in there while we get better at this whole deal.
• Thanks to Daylene Morgan and our children's department workers as well. They are making the biggest sacrifice in this whole deal because the weeks they work in the children's area they are unable to attend service. This is a HUGE sacrifice and God will bless you for it.
• Don't forget that next week we will NOT be meeting in either movie theater (Morton or Pekin) because we'll be at Idlewood Park in Morton for BBQ and Baptisms @ 11:00.
• If you're volunteering for that event, we are having a training/info meeting Saturday morning at 9:00 at the BridgeWay Ministry Center in the Field Shopping Center in Morton.

Thanks again to everyone for your prayers and support! Next Pekin Campus Service is September 13 a.k.a. GRAND OPENING! Invite everyone you know!

I heard a message the other day by Dr. J.K. Warrick that has been killing me ever since and I’m going to do my best to summarize it here.

In John 6, there is a story about Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. That is pretty amazing, but the path Jesus took to get there was even cooler. There are thousands of hungry people around and Jesus poses the question (paraphrase), “how are we to feed these people?” Philip speaks up and basically says, “Come on, Jesus! Be serious, there is no way we can feed these people!” Andrew at least makes an effort, coming back to Jesus with 5 loaves and two fish. Even then, he is still not sure saying, “How in the world is this going to do any good among so many people?” Andrew however, received the food from “a boy.” We don’t know his name, but he was the smartest one out there apparently since he was the only one to bring food in the first place.

As Warrick was speaking he asked the question, “What if the boy had said, ‘No.’ Or what if he had said to Jesus, ‘You can have 4 loaves and 1 fish, but I’m keeping the rest for myself.’” That line hit me hard. The reason Jesus is able to take this meager amount and make it grand is because it was fully surrendered to Him. Our lives are but meager offerings, meager amounts. Alone we cannot accomplish much. But just like Jesus took this boy’s meager offering and made it huge, he wants to take our meager lives and work through them in remarkable ways.

God seldom works by himself in this world; he typically works through people. If we want to be great leaders, it takes that full surrender to God. What’s holding you back from being used by God? Maybe you’re like Philip and Andrew and would rather make excuses than do what God asks you to do. What are you holding onto that you simply won’t let God have? Maybe you’re the four loaves and one fish kind of person. Don’t let a loaf and a fish keep you from the life God has for you.

A verse of scripture that continually challenges me is the call in Romans 12 to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” When I first encountered that verse, I thought it meant simply this: don’t sin. As it has implanted itself in my mind, I’ve come to realize that it’s much more than that. The call here is to transform our minds into the mind of Christ. That means we think like Jesus, we act like Jesus, we talk like Jesus, we respond as Jesus would, we see others as Jesus does, etc. The list is endless, the call is great.

One area where my mind has been transformed lately is this idea of suffering. In Philippians 3, Paul is getting in the face of the church at Philippi and ends this section in verse 10 with this statement: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead.”

This is an amazing concept. To be honest though, when I first read it, it went something like this: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection,” (Oh yeah! Sign me up for that! That’s me I want that power too!) “and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings” (Um, not so sure about this part, but that power of the resurrection thing is still pretty cool…) “becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Yeah that resurrection would be awesome!)

Suffering is not something I’m quick to sign up for. I would wager to say most people aren’t. However God has pointed out to me several stories recently about people who have gladly suffered for the message of Jesus. The most recent was a guy who lived in Africa who was martyred by a gruesome decapitation with dull knives. Not only is the story available to hear, but there is a video of this martyr that the killers took to use as a threat to the Christians in the area – “You keep talking about Jesus, we’ll keep doing this!”

If this martyr weren’t amazing enough, the story behind it certainly is. This guy woke up every morning and his prayer time was this: “What do you want me to do for you today Lord?” Every day he received his marching orders. The day he died, he reported to his friends minutes before his death that the Lord had told him that he needed to lay down his life so that the word of God may be spread. Minutes later without warning, Muslim radicals stormed his house, drug him onto the street and cut off his head. Even more amazing was this man didn’t resist a bit. He didn’t fight it or struggle or even make a sound. In those moments, he followed his orders perfectly.

God continually punches me in the gut with stories like this. Regularly God asks me to tell someone about Him or invite someone to church and I hesitate for some reason that I rationalize in my head. Meanwhile, God is asking other people to suffer greatly for the sake of the kingdom and they oblige without question, while I hem and haw around debating whether or not I really should go ring my neighbor’s doorbell.

Maybe that’s not you, but I’m guessing it’s more of us than it’s not. We have this opportunity before us to change our world for Jesus. Every day we have these moments where we get to make the name of Jesus famous without much consequence. Do
we? What’s God calling you to do that your waiting on? Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure it’s not to die so, DO IT NOW! Those words are as much for me as anyone, but let’s do something with this freedom we are afforded. Let’s change the world!