Great service this morning. Our Young Adults Pastor Phil was speaking. Very demonstrative, in the sense that he had five flip charts on the platform and then asked for audience participation to write information on each chart based on the names he wrote on each of them. He noted the following individuals, Donald Trump, ??, Bono, Julia Roberts and a blank one. Audience called out things about each of them. Donald was $$, Hair, Pompous, Arrogant, You're Fired; ??? was Ipod, millionaire, something else (I did not know this guy), Julia was hair, lips, smile, teeth, actress; and the last flipchart was blank. He was talking about the difficult sayings of Jesus. (Mark 10:17-26) 'You have to give up everything'. (vs 21-22). The rich young ruler who asked what he needed to do to inherit eternal life.
On first glance it would seem that Jesus answered the opposite of what we would expect. Instead of making comments about faith and grace, Jesus tells him he needs to do 'one more thing'. It was like suggesting the man had not done enough yet. That goes against new testament theology of 'grace not works'. Yet, the young ruler was following the commands of the Old Testament as a believer, but was feeling there was 'something missing' as he asked what MORE could he do? Phil asked us the same questions. Do you sometimes feel there is something MISSING in your walk with Christ? He explained the world uses material things to define someone's life. How would you define YOURSELF? Many people have difficulty answering the question "Who am I?" What are the markers that define me? That was exactly what Jesus was trying to get the rich young ruler to ask himself. What would (or should) you give up to find your true identity? What's holding you back?
Anyway, just wanted to share that I now view these verses in a totally different light than I had before. Check out the website and listen for yourselves. http://www.mwpa.com/services/audio-messages.aspx and click on the May 2 mp3 download (once it is loaded in a day or two). Last week's (april 25) is pretty good too.
On another subject, we had a great evening last night at the Gala. I wore my pantsuit and was not out of place. Most women wore a fancy dress but not gowns, just dresses. One other woman wore a dressy pant suit and I was fine the way I was but would have liked to have been in a dress also but it was not a big deal. I spent 'way too much time worrying about this' but isn't that always what happens? The event has now come and gone and I lived through it all without incident!! They had a 'cake walk' and these fancy cakes were auctioned off to raise money to purchase a mini bus for the residents of one of the care campuses. Over $22,000 was raised by the sale of 30 cakes. Mindbloggling! but successful.
Today we had quite a downpour which is so needed and now the sun is shining again. Definitely spring weather is at hand. Next week is Mother's Day and we hope to drive to Bonnyville and spend a few days with mom. The following week we are off to Phoenix. Life is full but almost too busy. Time once again to slow down and reasses life.
1 Peter 4:15 Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
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