John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Psalm 63:1
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Joshua 24:15
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
On a pleasant redirect, we ended up at iChurch for worship. This church had been worshiping in a high school auditorium, but while the school has been closed for the summer they found space in a gym at Pine-Richland Youth Center.
The acoustics of a gym are such that the echo makes it hard to understand the speaker. A member joked if you didn’t catch the sermon the first time, you could hear it on the echo. I had my ear plugs and noticed that the church also provided some…for me the bass was overwhelming.
The service had just started but we were warmly greeted at the door. I did not see a cross anywhere but that may be due to the temporary space. The guitar playing during the prayers made it difficult to hear/understand.
The sermon, “God Bless This Home,” was the final part of a series and dealt with what we are really asking with that request for God’s blessing. I appreciated the development and delivery of the message and the Scripture he interspersed. It was refreshing to hear a message that was not watered down.
I liked at one point reference was made to the fullness of God in response to dieting downfalls.
The pastor’s passion was apparent in the sermon and in our talk after the service. I was interested to hear how his timing and God’s timing were reconciled and enjoyed hearing his testimony of God’s orchestration and timing in his life.
We arrived at the church we were headed for only to find I had not noted the summer hours on their website. Since we had already missed the sermon, we decided to check out another worship opportunity for which we saw a sign on the main road…along with signs pointing the way all the way to the entrance, which we couldn’t help but appreciate.
The facility is a community youth center and worship takes place in the gymnasium. Though we arrived a bit into the service, we were warmly greeted by a woman standing near the door who introduced herself, made sure we had a bulletin, and invited us to come in and sit.
Acoustically there is only so much that can be done to tone down the echo in a gymnasium, and I thought it hospitable that ear plugs were offered on a table toward the back along with pens, and note-taking paper/connection cards. I can’t imagine the amount of effort it takes to set up and tear down everything used here each week.
The message was part 4 of a series called “The Blessed Life” and this final installment, “God Bless This Home,” centered on family relationships. After readily acknowledging the numerous challenges in homes nowadays, the pastor set out to light the path toward understanding God’s precepts for a happy and successful family life. After acknowledging there is no such thing as a perfect family, he asked the question for the day: “What do you hunger for?”
In the context of our spiritual diet, I loved his story about tacos. He told of his…I’d say love, but passion is a better word…for the dish, and how he needed to remove them from his diet for health reasons. He started out with no appreciation for his new dishes, and gradually, after time, he saw change and improvement and eventually came to enjoy the new foods he was eating. He declared it’s the same thing when we remove less desirable influences from our life and focus on God, when we ‘give Jesus the wheel’ and allow Him to change us for the better.
He spoke of what does not work: legalistic Christianity (rules without relationship end in rebellion) and lukewarm Christianity (what our culture has now).
God has instructed us to pursue, hunger, and thirst after righteousness and to do that we must see God as loving, approachable, and involved. Three ways he advised that work toward that end are (1) involve God in daily conversations, (2) make church together as a family non-negotiable (attendance and serving), and (3) show how seeking and serving is fun. After all, life really is more caught than taught.
One of his final points was, “If you pursue God, you will have all God wants you to have.” That is God’s promise both in Matthew 5:6 and 6:33. My only question is, how different would our lives be if we took that to heart and believed it?
Heavenly Father, we pray You continue to encourage this church to seek You. We also lift up the pastor and ask that You support him as he speaks Your Word in truth and love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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