Sunday in Retrospect

What a wonderful, yet challenging day, it has been!

The weekend started off great.  Kaden, our five-year old, has been under the weather.  As a consequence, D'Ani and Karter stayed behind with him in Houston as Kai and I journeyed to Victoria on Saturday for a Christian gospel concert being help at the Victoria Fine Arts Center.  I must admit, I was quite impressed by the venue, attendance, the flow of the service, etc.  An up and coming gospel artist, Chester D.T. Baldwin did a phenomenal job taking the crowd to 'church.'.

While my mind and thoughts were in Pearland, and on the recovery of my 5-year old, my short time with Kai and being at Saturday's event were quite enriching and rewarding.

Sunday morning came fast!  Little did I know that Saturday's enrichment would empower me to deal with varying personalities on Sunday.  In my 34 years of life, I have learned continually that life is a  journey, not a destination; pastoring isn't for the faint of heart; sheep are dumb and they bite; it's important to love God's people irrespective of their stations in life; worship is not a spectator sport! All in all, God is faithful; and those personalities will be dealt with during the course of the week.  I paused from my study in Matthew 5 from the Sermon on the Mount and took a text from Phillippians 4:8-9.  This is our theme for next week's observance of our Men and Women Annial Day.  

Here is the simple outline:

I. The admonishment of Godly Attributes.

II. The attainment of Godly Associations

III.  The acceptance of Godly Actions

All in all, I am excited about what God is doing in my life and ministry.  Oh, how He stretches us by stretching our faith and experiences.  Even my commitment to continually blog and chronicle my walks of faith have served as a strengthening of my own discipline and spiritual formation.  

Ironically, my day concluded with a dear pastor friend of mine calling in his moment of disappointment and disillusionment regarding his pastoral experience.  This was quite disheartening after knowing of his moving his young family to another area of the country for this particular ministry venture, only to encounter difficulty and seeming hardship in the move, a few years later.  I had to remind him of our charge to go where God sends us, bloom where He plants us, remain where God places us, and stand still until God speaks.  Comfort is not always a sign of God's presence any more than inconvenience is an indicator of God's conspicuous absence.  God is in every detail, every adversity and in every obstacle that seems insurmountable.  Often, God is trying to stretch you!

I thank GOD for stretching!!!