What an Easter Weekend! It's great to have fun at church, and have a deeply meaningful experience with God. This is what happened this weekend at The LifeHouse:
- we had coffee smelling candles all over the place, so you not only get to drink coffee but the whole place smells like coffee, too.
- the flowers all over the place were great too, thanks to Susan for making the school look beautiful for spring.
- I started a new sermon series called RELIGION BYTES. And I think I scared some people on the front end, until I defined what I meant by religion (man's attempt to earn access to heaven, God, etc). What an incredible reality, that all religions make an attempt to earn access to God through some form of works, sacrifice, self-abasement, etc. That's what makes the gospel of Jesus so different! Jesus said that nothing we do can bridge that gap or divide between God and man because of sin. We can't earn it, don't deserve, and will never be good enough. The only way to cross the chasm is through an active faith in Jesus Christ, who bridge the divide through His death and resurrection. Then, we can live free and fulfill the purposes that God created us to fulfill, because we are not preoccupied trying to work our way into heaven.
- Great fun on the 2000+ egg hunt. There was a crowd in the fields, and kids everywhere getting their "candy fix." You might consider The LifeHouse "pushers" for terrible things like jelly beans and chocolate candy. I'm sure all the kids went home and were absolutely wired!
- Just as a note, this was our 2 year anniversary of officially launching on Sundays as a church and if you count everyone, we broke the 200 people barrier. Wow! That's great!
1 comment:
This series is going to be GREAT! The friend who led me to the Lord lived out what your sermon is all about, which is why I was curious about God from the start of my friendship with her. She was raised and lived in a Mennonite community with traditions that I knew nothing about. One day over coffee, I asked about her "religion" and she talked with me about the traditions that she followed. Then, she said to me, "Joelle, although my traditions mean something to me personally, the day they get in the way of me loving a person the way that Jesus loves us is the day I give those traditions up. My faith is about Jesus." She had no idea how profound those words were to a girl who had heard nothing but negative comments about religion from her dad her whole life, but wondered what it was all about ... whose best friend growing up was a minister's daughter, which made her wonder even more. I spent three years watching Naomi live out her faith with me and all around me, then one night when I agreed to go to a women's conference with her, she led me to Jesus. I had the best sleep of my life that night, because I knew faith in Jesus had saved me. Religion had nothing to do with it.
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