Sick on Easter
It's 10:45am. The others just loaded up in the family truckster and headed down the road to church. And I, the pater familias, am sitting in front of my iMac writing to you. Sad.
We had a good time at AGM this year. Of course that's a very quick way of summing up a week of meetings, fellowship, food galore (that is, fried food galore), loads of swimming, kids' classes, VBS musical performances, crazy Lottie Moon auctions, and much more. With all of that we were all exhausted at the end of each day.
As a nice parting gift AGM left Vicki and me some nice sinus issues with the added bonus of two very sleepless nights. She has hit the road to recovery. I, on the other hand, feel like my face is about to explode. Nice, huh?
AGM was spiritually refreshing, offering us some well-needed perspective and even conviction from the Holy Spirit. I'll just share one thing that comes quickly to mind. We spent some time talking about having a long-term perspective or vision that sometimes can cause us to focus so much on what is coming down the road that we forget about living well today (sound familiar?). This is a trap many missionaries fall into as we seek the "holy grail"...a church planting movement (CPM) among our people. We research, network, strategize, etc as we work toward the CPM and then get frustrated that it's not happening yet. But when we step back from our office desks we realize that it's been a month since we've shared the Gospel with someone! And it's no secret that a CPM ain't gonna start without people hearing and responding to the Gospel!!
That might speak to you as well. When Jesus told his Jewish listeners to carry the Roman soldiers' packs two miles instead of one, he wasn't giving them any excuse to do the first mile poorly. To mention that even sounds absurd. But I do that sometimes (or maybe often)...maybe you do as well. So, I'm grateful for the perspective and am hoping to put it into practice.
This is a truly great day! Easter Sunday. Jesus arose! What an incredible truth that impacts ALL of creation! I wholeheartedly pray that you are basking in the joy that radiates from our Savior. Life can be hard...it can be so difficult that you think you are going to collapse under the strain of it all. But none of it can overshadow the power of our Risen Redeemer! Imagine the power that was poured out when Christ emerged victorious from the grave...that very same power is alive in His followers today!
More later...
We had a good time at AGM this year. Of course that's a very quick way of summing up a week of meetings, fellowship, food galore (that is, fried food galore), loads of swimming, kids' classes, VBS musical performances, crazy Lottie Moon auctions, and much more. With all of that we were all exhausted at the end of each day.
As a nice parting gift AGM left Vicki and me some nice sinus issues with the added bonus of two very sleepless nights. She has hit the road to recovery. I, on the other hand, feel like my face is about to explode. Nice, huh?
AGM was spiritually refreshing, offering us some well-needed perspective and even conviction from the Holy Spirit. I'll just share one thing that comes quickly to mind. We spent some time talking about having a long-term perspective or vision that sometimes can cause us to focus so much on what is coming down the road that we forget about living well today (sound familiar?). This is a trap many missionaries fall into as we seek the "holy grail"...a church planting movement (CPM) among our people. We research, network, strategize, etc as we work toward the CPM and then get frustrated that it's not happening yet. But when we step back from our office desks we realize that it's been a month since we've shared the Gospel with someone! And it's no secret that a CPM ain't gonna start without people hearing and responding to the Gospel!!
That might speak to you as well. When Jesus told his Jewish listeners to carry the Roman soldiers' packs two miles instead of one, he wasn't giving them any excuse to do the first mile poorly. To mention that even sounds absurd. But I do that sometimes (or maybe often)...maybe you do as well. So, I'm grateful for the perspective and am hoping to put it into practice.
This is a truly great day! Easter Sunday. Jesus arose! What an incredible truth that impacts ALL of creation! I wholeheartedly pray that you are basking in the joy that radiates from our Savior. Life can be hard...it can be so difficult that you think you are going to collapse under the strain of it all. But none of it can overshadow the power of our Risen Redeemer! Imagine the power that was poured out when Christ emerged victorious from the grave...that very same power is alive in His followers today!
More later...
posted by Michael Shattuck at
3:45 AM
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