Where’s a camera when you need it?  My daughter Jessica and I were riding down Route 7 to Columbiana for worship on Sunday morning.  It was about 7:30 and the sun was just beginning to rise.  It was difficult to keep my eyes on the road, and I was grateful to come up on a traffic light that was red.  The sky was clearly divided with one half perfectly blue and the other half one big grey cloud.  Not all grey though.  The blue side of the sky was just above the horizon and a pinkish purple glow was cast on the clouds from the sun, which had yet to be seen.  The clouds were almost flat but had a rolling effect to them so that the sides of the rolls facing the sun were pink and the shadow cast on the opposite sides were purple – a picture only God could create.

I told Jess to get a good look because the colors would fade as the sun rose, its brightness taking over the sky.  A curious effect, one I hadn’t seen before, was a straight line of pink where the sun was obviously at, still out of our view.  It was like a mirror image of what a full moon does over a perfectly calm body of water except it was up high and in amazing color.  We both saw the outline of a cross. 

What a brilliant reminder of God’s control over the world and over our universe.  You can be sure that God gets a kick out of amazing us like this.  What an incredible gift for an incredible morning.

Thanks, God.

Yesterday I was in the bathroom in our home and noticed that one of our darling children left clothing on the floor by the sink.  In bending down to pick it up and put it in its proper place, I had forgotten that my cell phone was in my shirt pocket.  The sink happens to be near the toilet which, thank heavens, had been cleaned recently (you know what’s coming, don’t you?).  My phone saw its opportunity and did an inward 1 1/2 somersaults pike into our porcelain pool.  That phone isn’t the same anymore.  The hairdryer thing that several people told me to use on the phone didn’t work until today, but I needed my phone yesterday. 

We don’t have an office yet for the church, so I work out of my home.  Because The Gate values the importance of reaching out to people about Jesus Christ, we prioritize putting our financial resources into things like free pop and 10,000 piece mailers inviting people to our church.  So, we don’t have enough money yet for another computer.  My computer is my office, but it’s also needed by others to prepare for Sunday and other things.  My old phone needs to be upgraded so that I can work more efficiently.  The mishap motivated me to go to the store yesterday and get the much-needed upgrade which I should have sometime today.  The happenings of yesterday were inconvenient, but the effects were actually positive.

The Bible says that God brings all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).  This means even the things that might frustrate you or make you mad at times.  Are you in a bad situation right now?  Ask God to show you what good He wants out of it.  Otherwise, you’ll end up wasting this opportunity.

Mel Genova has been working hard to get our high school kids together as a group that supports each other, has fun together and talks about how Jesus can make sense of the world (or even how at times it seems that He makes things more complicated).  A couple of months ago, Ry and Heather Torhan joined up with her to meet with the kids every other week at The Encore Cafe in town.  Now they have their own blog.  Apparently, youth blog at a much faster rate.  It takes a Mel to keep up.  You can check out their blog by following the link on the left side of this page.

Tomorrow evening a group of about 20 Gaters will meet at The Way Station for another sorting party.  We went a few months back to put the donated items on the shelves so that those receiving help can find them in an orderly setting.  The Way Station gets plenty of donations, but few volunteers to help organize.  So, we will be helping out in this way.  We’ll also have a clean-up crew to help them get ready for their Thanksgiving dinner next month.  Painting, scrubbing and carpet cleaning are on the docket.  It’s just our way of helping the good people at the Way Station to help those in need in our community in the Name of Jesus Christ.  This is what community involvement is all about.  This is what being a follower of Jesus is all about.

Not sure how he found us.  Nelson Searcy, author of Active (the book we have modeled our new LifeGroup structure on) and church planter of the brilliantly successful church called The Journey in Manhattan, briefly commented on the blog about LifeGroups posted here two days ago.  It’s only a couple of sentences, but if he does this kind of thing for churches he knows uses his material then he’s got quite a few messages to write.  What I’m thrilled with more than anything else is that this is evidence that he is interested in how his thoughts have impacted other churches for the glory of Jesus Christ.  And, there are many more pastors out there who have his same sincere desire to build God’s Kingdom in any way possible.

Friends, God is providing us the tools.  Let’s use them for all they’re worth and prepare for the amazing things that will happen.

Thanks again Nelson.

We call our small groups “LifeGroups”.  In September we started sign-ups for a new way of doing LifeGroups based on Nelson Searcy’s book “Activate”.  The sizes of the groups are larger, from 12-20 people, and last for a semester.  This way there’s a break between semesters, just like college, and people sign up for new LifeGroups during the three sign-up months that fall between the semesters.  I can’t wait to see the creativity of the Winter and Summer LifeGroups when the leaders will pick the topics for their groups with the option of a added attraction (Like Kim Wetzl’s group this time.  They exercise for a while and then have their LifeGroup discussion).  But, for the fall all of the groups are discussing the message series “Going Purple”, and the series in November based on the Old Testament book of Ruth.

There have been some great discussions in our LifeGroup.  Yesterday somebody pointed out that the fact the God is sovereign doesn’t necessarily mean that everything that happens is God’s will.  Pretty heavy stuff if you ask me.  Then there was the question of at what point do Christians have the obligation to rebel against an unchristian political leader.  The message for Sunday was on the fist seven verses of Romans 13, where Paul tells Christians to obey the authorities since God had established them in their respective positions.  I hear all of the other LifeGroups have had significant discussions as well.  The Bible gives us a great deal to talk about!

I have to give a shout out to our wonderful church called The Gate.  My birthday was this past Saturday and Kim, our worship leader, secretly gathered contributions from members of our fellowship and purchased me an authentic Cleveland Browns Jersey, you know, the kind that the players actually wear.  It’s even more significant when you consider that at least half of the church are Steeler fans!  Talk about unconditional love!  

Thanks church!  You are an awesome group, and I’m truly blessed to worship with you every week!

It’s funny how our preconceived notions guide political discussions.  On Sunday we looked at the story in the Bible where politically-motivated men try to trap Jesus into making a bold statement that would have implications for his religious and/or political future as the One who would save Israel from the clutches of the Roman Empire.  His answer serves as a guide to the way Christians should respond to the “Separation of Church and State” debate.  My comments on this passage, which you can listen to by going to the media page of our web site (www.gatechurchlife.org, it should be posted by Wednesday), were very clearly designed (so I thought, anyway) to be unbiased as far a political preference is concerned.  Yet, I had discussion following morning worship on different occasions where people interpreted things that were said as indicating that I would be voting a certain way, and the discussions came up with a different conclusion as to my party preference.

My calling isn’t to tell people who to vote for.  It would be an abuse of my spiritual influence to do so.  Too many spiritual leaders get involved in this type of politics on both sides of the aisle in the Name of Jesus.  I have no reason to believe that they have bad intentions or that one group has been less spiritual than the other.  But, as common sense would dictate, at least one of the sides is wrong in every election.  When a pastor or person of spiritual leader tells me to either vote for somebody or I’ll not be in line with God’s will, then I have to question whether or not I truly believe that all the Christians on the other side of this argument are sinners because of their political viewpoint. 

That’s why my choice for president should not influence your choice for president.  If it’s possible for Christians to be on both sides, then pushing my viewpoint on you would be just that: my viewpoint.  And, I wonder: would those who are eager to hear my choice for president listen to messages differently if I don’t vote the way they vote?  I’ve caught myself doing that very thing with people on the radio.  The political message then outweighs the True message. 

It’s not a risk I’m willing to take.