Signs of Life

There's nothing more exciting than seeing the signs of life in your ministry and your church. At Oakwood, the signs of life are everywhere. The last couple of weeks we've felt very much under attack, but the Lord sustained us and here we are! It's Holy Week, Passion Week, the pinnacle of our salvation and faith. I'm excited to preach my first Easter message this Sunday. We've been praying that God's house would be full and that God would bless our efforts to reach the lost for Him. It's an exciting time to be a part of His church.

We have had a great few days here. We are seeing God's Spirit moving among people. I'm thankful to the Lord for allowing us to be encouraged by the signs of life we're seeing. People are serving. People are loving. People are helping one another. It's refreshing and amazing at the same time.

God has really been working on me with something over the last week or so. Tracy Morris, the head of our eldership, and I had a great conversation late one night last week that really challenged my thinking on how we can better minister to people.

So many times in God's Word we are called and implored to confront sin. Confrontation is that gift that nobody wants. Confrontation is always hard and never fun. The stakes are always high. But we are nonetheless called by God to confront sin, especially sin "in the camp" if you will. How can you do that and look most like Jesus? Obviously the answer is "do what the Bible says", and that it true. But my challenge has been, how do you do that in the spirit of Jesus, who loved sinners especially and died for the lost?

When we confront sin (and we do and will) we must always do it in a spirit of love. You know as well as I do that if we approach the stumbler or the lost with a spirit of pride or superiority, that we will lose that battle.

The best way that I know to express it is this. The person you are called to help are lost in a swamp. They have no idea how to get out. They are desperate and dying to find a way to fix their problems, be forgiven, and get out! We approach them. We tell them, "You are lost in the swamp!" The problem is, they already know that they're lost in the swamp. That's not the problem. That's why they are visiting church. That's why they are trying to build relationships in Sunday School. That's why they are reaching out by talking to you. We don't need to tell them what they already feel and know. What they need is a friend who will reach out and say, "I know that you are in the swamp, can I show you the way out? How can I help you?"

You see, in this we are speaking the truth...in love. No stones to throw, just a tough love that wants people to get(understand) God's grace.

Look out church. The preacher gets it and is going to love anyone through their muck and mire. The lay leaders and staff are catching this vision too. We are going to still speak the truth, but we are going to speak it in love and help the lost and hurting out there. There are many in our church that are catching this too and living it out in their daily lives. Join us!

If you smell Jesus when your here, it's probably us, though it all come from Him. I hope you are fragrant too! (If not, get smelly and wreak of Jesus with us!)