· I broke one of the cardinal rules of Sunday Evening Mind Dumping…I missed Sunday! So, I made the executive decision to change it to a Monday Evening Mind Dump. Hope this doesn’t cause great angst with anyone! And I’m sure you’ll forgive me once you read what happened at Grace Community Church this past weekend!
· We baptized 34 people on Sunday! The majority of them did not come to church that day planning to be baptized but once they heard how Jesus desires for each and every one of His children to stand up and be counted through baptism—well, they stood! And not only that, they got dunked for Jesus! It was a break through day for GCC and I believe the best is yet to come!
· Gained a whole new love for the extent of Christ’s grace and mercy toward us as I took a closer look at the three denials of Peter. It’s easy to judge him harshly for denying the Lord in His hour of need, until I realize how often I do the same thing when I make excuses for not sharing my faith or engaging people when they clearly are crying out in some way. How often have I sat next to someone on an airplane or in a waiting room and kept my nose to my iphone or ipad while someone nearby talked with others about their life falling apart and how no one seemed to care? Why is it so easy to make excuses? And, if I was really tired, how far would I go to avoid someone?
Of course there have been many times I engaged people on an airplane or while waiting for something. I’ve even had the privilege a time or two to pray with them to receive Christ right then and there. But that’s just it. Sometimes I find myself resting on my resume and using even that as an excuse to not engage others!
No, I’m no better than Peter—far worse in fact. But praise God that He still loves me. We’ve all had times in our lives when friends or family walked away. Maybe some of you reading this have even been betrayed by those you loved the most–those who were supposed to love you back. It hurts. I know. But one thing that never fails to bring comfort (and this past week studying the denials of Peter was no exception) is the “steadfast love of the Lord.” It never fails. Even in those times where I have to admit that even I would walk away from someone as fickle as me—it gives me peace beyond measure to know that I never have to worry about an “eye for an eye” from Christ. He’ll never leave me or forsake me.
· Study the following verses sometime if you need more convincing! Romans 8:38-39, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”