Some days get off to a wonderful start:
Father,
I want to have have a 7 day a week faith and joy in knowing that Jesus is the hero of our lives.
I want to raise kids that have 7 day a week faith and joy. This is going quite well. My kids have benefitted greatly from Sunday School. Sunday School has been one of best parts of the development of our family.
I want to have a great marriage. Our church life at Good Shepherd has been great for our marriage.
I want to be connected to diverse groups of people. I really enjoy our coffee hours.
I want to see our church life bring out the best in everyone. Our bible studies and the church's compassion for one another has been an avenue to achieve these goals.
I want to be part of a group that has pure faith. I am so inspired by members of our church who remain loyal to Jesus and steady contributors in spirit to our church despite illness, job loss, loss of children, loss of spouses, family tragedy, etc.
Many of the items I've listed are possible due to the pure faith in the joy of Jesus' arrival on earth. You summed up this pure faith in face of whatever comes our way in your March 1, 2009 sermon.
Your pure faith was in place before the recession. This makes you a tremendouse leader and Christian guide during these somewhat shocking financial times.
By the way the basement looks great with the new pictures and the new furniture. It is such a blessing to see how we are graced by this evolution from the doldrums of a facility that seemed abandoned to a warm atmosphere. It is not a forced process. Well nutured church members seem to naturally give back and create a warm home for future generations.
You are doing a fantastic job and you are leading us all to a daily walk with Jesus.
God bless you,
NNNNN
My feeble but well intentioned response:
Thanks, NNNNN. All glory goes to God. I am really not up to many of the high standards, but by His grace what is necessary seems to come through. I am truly amazed and overjoyed at the way Christ is blessing Good Shepherd. Way ahead of anything I could have planned.
2 comments:
...evolution...
He must have misspoke, didn't they mean Intelligent Design?
He also said "diverse" when he talked about what he liked in this congregation. The orthodox, historic faith has much room for all "sorts and conditions" of people.
Anglicanism has a tradition of broadmindedness, within the Biblical and catholic faith expressed in Books of Common Prayer. That's the Episcopal Church in which I grew up and was nurtured in faith - a faith that the national church now declares passe and invalid.
Are you operating out of a stereotype? Good Lenten discipline to let those go.
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