Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Growing

Through many conversations, the thought about growing has come to mind. Thoughts about how we could become a strong "community" of believers. What a community of authenticity, a community of acceptance, and a community of hope would look like. Through these conversations, the vision of how we could grow as a congregation and the Kingdom of God came to mind. It doesn’t matter how many great and wonderful programs a church can offer, if the church isn't authentic in their faith and who they are, if they aren’t reaching out in grace and love to other people, if they aren’t offering hope, it won’t grow. Growing isn’t always easy. Think about yourself or your children growing up. Growing up has a lot of up hill battles. Are we willing to go there as a church? Are we willing to enter the messiness of what it means to grow? Each one of us has been given gifts and abilities, finances and possessions, and time to use under God’s direction to love and serve Him and to help the church grow by uniting together in love and serving one another. In order to grow, we must give up playing God and let God be God. What are you saying, we play God? We can’t possibly play God! You’re right, but we do sometimes anyway. Think about it, how often do we get stressed and frustrated when life doesn’t do our will or when we think God isn’t doing what we want God to do? We must let go and let God be in control! He has a plan for our church, for our lives, for our community, and for our world. He has it all mapped out and we need to listen and follow His will. Let God do for us what we cannot do for ourselves! That’s when we will start to grow.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Fingerprints in the Clay

When I was taking a master's class, we were asked to mold a piece of clay into anything we wanted. For some reason I thought of a smooth skipping stone. You know those? They are these flat smooth rocks that have been formed by the waves that are ideal for skipping across the water. So as I molded the clay, I could see my finger prints on the clay. So too, when God molds us, God’s fingerprints are all over us. It is God who is shaping each one of us to be His, maybe not the way we feel we should be, but in the way He wants us to be. God has molded each of us in a special way. The gifts we have are His fingerprints. The way we use them show His glory to others. Isaiah 64:8 states, Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. We are His work...we are His creation...We are His. He has molded us to do His will, His work. How can we share His fingerprints to others? How can we share His glory?