Wow! What a Sunday! Our total attendance was 370! I'll have to check the records but we haven't seen that high a number for a long time! Traditionally the Thanksgiving weekend is one of churches (not just our church but all churches) lowest attended Sundays. God was in this because we bucked the trend big-time!!Thanks so much to Catherine Belcher for singing "Jesus Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood and to Dylan Frashier for singing "Watching You" by Trace Atkins. You guys rock!
In both services I failed to mention the "Crazy thing" from the title of my message (and Keith Urban's album). The Craziest Thing I know of is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The fact that God would make himself a little, helpless infant and entrust himself to human hands blows my mind! Then as a man Jesus would teach a message that goes against everything the world pushes on us.
The world screams, "More!" Jesus whispers, "Less."
The world shouts, "Me!" Jesus says, "You."
The world cries, "First!" Jesus states, "Last."
It's all CRAZY!
The Gospel is a backwards, upside-down, inside-out message the world has a hard time understanding. It's not natural. It can only be understood as supernatural. It's a of God. Human nature bucks against it with every fiber in our being.
It's all CRAZY!
God reached out to a lost world. He made Himself like us in order to speak to us, tell us who He is, show us how to live. He was rejected, beaten, and killed. He came back to life and taught his disciples, "That's how it's going to be. You can expect the same." No apologies. No regrets.
Paul wrote, and I paraphrase, "We're living like Jesus and people are treating us just like they treated Him. If this isn't the way to life, we are really losers!" (1 Cor. 15:14-19)
It's all CRAZY! And my life is based on it.
There has been discussion of a Saturday night worship service with a praise band and a more formal atmosphere than what you experience on Sunday mornings. We're looking for committed, Christ following musicians right now. I know you are out there. I'm just waiting for God to prod you into serving Him with your musical talents!
