A Very Important Message from Pastor Don

Awesome, incredible, unbelievable! These are just a few words that I would use to describe our first two weeks. Janice and I are thrilled to have a new spiritual family and cannot wait to see where God leads us in the next few months. We know that many are out of town for this holiday weekend. Be careful, have fun and we will miss you on Sunday.

So here is my first blog attempt. I welcome any comments.

The past two weeks, we've been talking about the baggage we carry around. It ranges from hurt, depression, anxiety, abuse, disappointment, to addiction. It is easy to recognize the need for Christ to heal us from our hurts, habits and hang-ups, but few recognize that most of the time it also takes a process. It can be so frustrating for someone to hear that the answer to the pain that has been driving their life straight through hell can be solved if they just pray the right prayer.
What people without these issues don't understand is that there are underlying causes for the pain that can't always be answered with just a prayer. God certainly can and has miraculously healed people from their baggage but many times He wants us to work through the things that got us there. It can be chemical, emotional, physical, or circumstantial. It can also range from depression, to peer pressure, to abuse. The list is endless. Ultimately we have to trust Jesus to remove the hurts and heal the pain but sometimes it's hard to lean on Him. He really is our garbage dumpster where He willing desires us to unload on Him all the trash that accumulates in our lives.

Someone made a great comment to me after the worship experience that despite having a relationship with Jesus Christ, their issues and choices makes them too ashamed to pray. It reminded me of a lie I've told myself or had told to me many times before, I'm too ashamed to go to God. The idea is that in my shame, God is actually ashamed of me. I remember so many times that I wanted to be different but couldn't. I wanted to do what was right, but willingly chose to do what I knew was wrong. At the point of no return, I was ashamed.

God ashamed of me? That is a lie. My shame is my own and it is not from Him. There is an unspoken list out there of sins that are really bad, bad, and not so bad. The not so bad and a few of the bad still make us ok with God. BUT, the really bad, well that's another story.

Paul said he regularly does what he knows is wrong, but he was still the strongest force influencing Christianity in the first century and even today. The Bible says that we are accepted by God when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. It's called grace and it is completely undeserved. The very thing we trust about God as we begin a relationship with Him is almost completely forgotten when we continue to fail.

God's grace extends into our lives forever. The truth is, God loves it when we come to him for the answers to our problems. David had an incredible relationship with God but failed big time. This king that God had blessed with wealth, success, and a growing kingdom willingly chose to abandon the principles he lived by because of his relationship with God by having an affair and sending his mistresses husband to be killed on the front lines of battle.

The consequences were steep but at the point of his shame, sorrow, and brokenness he called out to God with this prayer:
3 For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunts me day and night.
4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Oh, give me back my joy again;
you have broken me—
now let me rejoice.
9 Don’t keep looking at my sins.
Remove the stain of my guilt.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
-Psalm 51:3-4,7-10

If David could pray that prayer, we should be able to do the same when we fail or have done what we know is wrong. I thank God for his love and grace and live and dwell in it every day and I believe that God can build a great church on it!