Life…..circumstances….suffering….pain…..renewal….growth….all around us. A swirling storm of activity. Never-ending….Never-ceasing. All the time. What does today hold? For that matter, what does the next five minutes hold? Life can be tough. Life can be challenging. And who knows where we will be in the future except for God?
These last five weeks have been full of ups and downs…..Full of trying times where I felt like I couldn’t go on. Times where I felt like I had been kicked in the gut. No sleep. Not eating. Lots of prayer. Lots of time in God’s Word. Close friends. Spiritual growth. All things necessary for God to work through us.
No matter how much faith we have, sometimes things just don’t go as we planned. In our minds we set everything up perfectly. This must be what we are supposed to do….I’ve prayed about it. However, we don’t see life from the orbital view that God does. We don’t see how all of the pieces fit. We don’t see the grand design. In the midst of it all, it’s not our place to see what God sees. It’s our place to follow with faith.
How many times in life has a door begun to close on something you held so strongly to? You spend all of your energy fighting to keep that door open…trying to find something to jam in before it closes. Fighting God. What I have learned in these situations is that, as hard as it may be, we must step back. Breathe. Put our faith in God. Because here is the deal…while WE are fighting for what WE want, God is opening a door on the other side of the room….a door we could see if we would just take a step back.
God is perfect with His timing. We are not. God will make a way when there seems to be no other way.
While the world was crumbling around my family and I, God was preparing us for what was next. In fact, I believe God has been preparing us from the beginning.
For 2 weeks now, we have been on the launch team of Venture Church…something I never thought I would be involved with. But through God’s plan, here we are.
Now yes, that means that we aren’t a part of our “former” church, but we still are closely involved with the people whom we have great relationships with. Some of the strongest people I know helped my family get where we are today, and I just know that these same people will be with us again soon.
We are all taking the next step in faith. We are doing this together. Sunday, God willing, we are opening a church….a Life-Giving church. We aren’t the first, we definitely won’t be the last.
As Peter once said, “Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life. The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honor. Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you’ll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God. The Scriptures provide precedent: Look! I’m setting a stone in Zion, a cornerstone in the place of honor. Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation will never have cause to regret it. To you who trust him, he’s a Stone to be proud of, but to those who refuse to trust him, The stone the workmen threw out is now the chief foundation stone. For the untrusting it’s… a stone to trip over, a boulder blocking the way. They trip and fall because they refuse to obey, just as predicted.”
1 Peter 2:4-8 MSG
Breakthrough is coming. We won’t be stopped. As long as we keep God front and foremost, He will use us to find the lost. He will use us in His glorious plan.
As Elevation Worship so awesomely put out in a new song, “I know, Breakthrough is coming. By faith, I see a miracle. My God, made me a promise and it won’t stop now.”
I’m new to this team. I’ve not done the legwork that so many have. I don’t have the blood, sweat, and tears invested that so many do. I don’t claim ownership of any of this. I’m humbly along for the ride. We are following in the footsteps of Paul. We are planting a church….like those in Ephesus, Corinth, and Thessalonica. We are all here to serve. We are all here to fulfill a vision that God placed in a few not so long ago.
Sunday is almost here. I can hardly sleep again. My appetite is gone. However, this time it’s different. This time it’s because of the excitement I can hardly hold in. This time I know it’s because a breakthrough is coming like one I’ve never seen before. A breakthrough than can only happen through God.
Tetelestai 