Sunday, November 18, 2007

Praise God for another Lord's day! Last night and this morning we had non-stop rain. I do not think this is an epidemic, but some of our parishioners were allergic to the rain this day. The good news is-many who attend on very rainy days are often serious about worship. Praise and Worship were both uplifting and empowering. For me, I felt extremely fatigued and, in my view, struggled with communicating the message. We shared a message from 2 Kings 4 that deals with the Shunamite woman and her son. Yes-I did preach the truth and conveyed the message of the text. I tried to deal with the idea of 'remaining calm when life seems cruel.' All in all-I know that the message could have come across better; but God breathed upon the message despite my fatigue. Incidentally, though attendance was down; giving was kind of better than it has been. I am unsure if this is simply a 'Cornerstone' thing-but when attendance is the highest, giving is the lowest. I have tried to figure this out for the life of me; but it is not MY church. I do know that the economy we are living in is extremely disturbing and we have all, but declared a recession. There is no excuse for failing to give God the tithe and offering-but there are many within our congregations (across the nation) who have allowed this systemic infiltration perpetrated by the 'Administration' (from 3 dollar gas to raising electricity while minimum wage stays the same) to affect the first priority-putting God first. I have noticed--that EVERYTHING is raising in price...everything, of course...except paychecks. Well, unless you work for Halliburton. This has, no doubt, affected many churches-I am sure. I am praying for a breakThrough! It is not my intention to be political in this blog; though I think that the record in scripture will show--that the prophet/preacher didn't always agree with the current 'Administration'. I do pray for our nation (these yet to be United States), our churches (whom Christ gave His life), and for the Bush!!!