Tuesday, March 06, 2007

I was thinking this morning of the wonderful experience I had Sunday morning. With Judy's nudging, I realized that we have 6 young adults at Grandview Tab that weren't getting any special attention. So I called them all and told them that I was creating a special Sunday School class just for them (donuts, milk, orange juice, etc.). They all seemed excited about the possibility. Sunday morning came and I had 8 young adults in the class. Wow! Some of the original 6 brought friends. We had a really good class. The premise of the class is to let the students talk about what is of importance in their life at the moment. They did! And the cardinal rule of the class is, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." Anonymity is a powerful tool! Between SS and the morning worship hour, we discovered 2 more young adults that will be with us next Sunday!!

This brings me to one of my life scriptures (not the major one, but one of the secondary ones). "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." Now the conundrum is this. We are to labor in the building of the house, but it is the Lord who builds it. Here is a challenge for any person. Build only what you see the Lord building. (Jesus said it like this: I only do what I see my Father doing.) As a pastor, I can tell you that this is a tough thing. Seeing what the Lord is building is, as Shakespeare says, "where the rub comes in." I am not very successful at it, but even that is a help. I can tell others that it is okay to mess up. And it is. Proverbs says the righteous man falls 7 times, but he always gets up. It isn't in the falling, it is in the getting up. Or as someone in the modern age has said, "it isn't how you start, but how you finish."

Paul said, "I have finished my course...", so I encourage you to work on the finish and forget how you started. If you have fallen, get up. If you haven't fallen, keep your eyes on Jesus and build what he is building.

Blessings.

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