Celebrate

Yesterday at NewSpring, Perry spent some time helping us celebrate what God has done over the past year in and through NewSpring Church. Some of the statistics are amazing. But of course it has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God. Although celebrating the past is good, anticipating what God will do in the future is just, or maybe more, important.

This morning I began to think about Jesus and how and why He chooses people and/or churches to bless. We know that He chose Judas to be one of His twelve closest companions and that Judas was in charge of the money for the group. But we also know that Jesus knew that Judas was a thief and that Judas would betray Him. But still Jesus chose him.

Jesus chose Simon Peter who would declare boldly "You are the Christ!" and "Even if I must die with You, I will not deny You!" But Peter did deny Him, just as Jesus said he would. Peter was hot-headed and impulsive but Jesus chose him anyway.

The disciples had their flaws. Thomas the doubter. Nathaniel the skeptic. James and John the glory seekers. Yet Jesus chose them. Jesus knows that we are flawed by sin but if we allow Him to work in our hearts and lives, we can be completely new creations.

There are many people who think THEY have to clean themselves up; they have to get their act together before they can come to Jesus. And what is even worse is people who profess Christ who look at someone and think he/she is not redeemable so we don't even attempt to introduce them to Jesus. We don't want their messy lives to make a mess of our pretty churches.

Maybe that is one of the reasons Jesus is blessing NewSpring Church. We welcome those with messy lives; those who live like non-Christians because they don't have a clue about who Christ is. But they come to NewSpring and hear the gospel and Jesus transforms their lives. HE cleans them up. HE helps them get their act together. Just as He did for me and countless numbers of others through out history. Example: our opening song yesterday was "Glory Train" by Ozzie Osborne. A guy attending in Charleston said he came with all sorts of walls up. Walked in and heard Glory Train and the walls came down. After hearing the gospel preached, he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ who performed the miracle of raising this man from the dead - along with 79 others yesterday at NewSpring.

So the celebration is not about NewSpring but about Jesus and life change. People who were dead and are now alive. And our anticipation is that Jesus will continue to raise people to new life until He returns.