Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Summer Showers

Summer is supposed to be about sunshine and swimming, baseball and hot dogs, vacations and ice cream. Instead, this morning I awoke to the sound of rain down pouring. The news said traffic was a mess and little league games rained out. Rain is not a curse but a blessing. I know you're thinking "but my plans got rained out." Rain is God's way of watering the earth. It's a cycle of rain with water runoff into creeks and rivers that flow to the lakes and oceans, which evaporate to start the cycle all over again. Rain keeps the plants and flowers watered. We need a spiritual rain cycle in our lives. God pouring His truth and grace upon us, which overflows from us to others, from person to person until it returns to God in the form of praise. John Piper once said that "missions exist because worship doesn't." As we experience God's blessing, we are in turn to bless others. The church today is over saturated. It has been blessed beyond measure. We hold onto the blessing as if it is a commodity in short supply. God's economy is far different from ours. For the more we give away, the more we receive. The only way a sponge fully saturated with water can receive more water is by wringing it dry, then it is ready to receive more. Believers are blessed in order to be a blessing. This past week the Exodus ministry closed its doors. It's director said that "Christians had lost the culture war." Here's the problem: The church was never called to wage a culture war. We are, however, in a spiritual war and our culture is a by-product. As citizens of our country, we have the right to voice our values and vote the way we think is right. But politics cannot change a human heart nor transform a life for eternity. But God can and does. God chooses to use us in His cycle of reaching people. Have you been blessed by God? Has God touched your life? Has God transformed you? If so, then wring God's blessings out of your life and into someone else. Let the showers of God's blessings flow from your life to another. Do not be afraid to declare what God has done for you, for when we declare this, we are fulfilling God's plan and opening the eyes of those who know us to the reality of a God who blesses. One by one, person by person, we bring people to Christ. As each receives a blessing, they in turn go out to bless another. May you be a blessing to someone today. Pastor Pete

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