One of the hardest things for me in moving to LA was finding a new church. I loved the church I left back in Omaha. Over the years that church has changed beyond recognition and God has grown up in me a love for a church out here. Many Sundays go by that I leave my church with a giddy feeling in my heart. A few weeks ago in the midst of extreme financial uncertainty in the country and before the bailout had passed our pastor thanked the church for giving over $30,000.00 toward missions--that's in addition to the regular offering. I am astounded and overjoyed that the state of the economy isn't dictating the state of many people's faiths.
This past Sunday was another "I love my church" kind of day. The sermon was amazing. In some ways it spoke to what I had been praying about on my drive over, which speaks to what God is doing in and around me right now and in itself is exciting, but even aside from that the sermon was just really edifying.
It was about being called. One of my favorite moments was when Mark our Senior Pastor said, we make it a point here to have everyone call the staff by our first names because none of us is any more special than anyone else or more called by God than anyone else. We have different callings, but all of us here have been called. I love that.
He also talked about how God calls out of us our potential. He sees and calls forth what we do not yet see in ourselves and what we have not yet become. He knows what has been borne in us and he calls us to be the people we were designed to be. I don't know about you, but I find that to be rather exciting. We're always in a process of becoming, and if we're holding tight to God's hand we're progressing toward becoming what he had in mind when he thought us up, before we were knit together. It's okay that I'm not completely who I'm supposed to be yet, but God is at work & I can rejoice in that.
There's so much more to it and a whole blog or more that I could write on the importance of names & how God has a habit of changing names in the midst of a calling. Names are something about which I've long been passionate & this sermon augmented that. Perhaps I will get to it another time.
If you're interested you can check out the sermon "Called Gifted Part 1" here.
This past Sunday was another "I love my church" kind of day. The sermon was amazing. In some ways it spoke to what I had been praying about on my drive over, which speaks to what God is doing in and around me right now and in itself is exciting, but even aside from that the sermon was just really edifying.
It was about being called. One of my favorite moments was when Mark our Senior Pastor said, we make it a point here to have everyone call the staff by our first names because none of us is any more special than anyone else or more called by God than anyone else. We have different callings, but all of us here have been called. I love that.
He also talked about how God calls out of us our potential. He sees and calls forth what we do not yet see in ourselves and what we have not yet become. He knows what has been borne in us and he calls us to be the people we were designed to be. I don't know about you, but I find that to be rather exciting. We're always in a process of becoming, and if we're holding tight to God's hand we're progressing toward becoming what he had in mind when he thought us up, before we were knit together. It's okay that I'm not completely who I'm supposed to be yet, but God is at work & I can rejoice in that.
There's so much more to it and a whole blog or more that I could write on the importance of names & how God has a habit of changing names in the midst of a calling. Names are something about which I've long been passionate & this sermon augmented that. Perhaps I will get to it another time.
If you're interested you can check out the sermon "Called Gifted Part 1" here.
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(Appreciate your visits to my blog, btw. Thanks for your thoughtful comment on the pizza story!)
Dawn