God's faithfulness

Okay, this is probably going to be a very random blog, but I'm just reminiscing of how God has been so faithful throughout the years. Last week, Brent and I celebrated our 13 year anniversary. We're so thankful for our marriage and how Christ is the head of our home! Just for fun, I thought I'd post a picture of our wedding day. :)

This past Sunday I was completely humbled and blessed by how God revealed Himself during worship...the message in the morning was about "passion" and the sinful woman that anointed Jesus' feet. Jesus taught the Pharisees that this woman loved much because she had been forgiven much. Don Cousins (the pastor) talked about how passionate we are as followers of Christ is related to how thankful we are for the gift of undeserved grace we have been given through Jesus' sacrifice for us. When we realize what a huge gift Christ gave us (freedom from eternal damnation!) we are, or should be anyway, filled with an overwhelming sense of thankfulness that turns into a passion burning bright for everyone to see.

After church, a young college student (Haven member) asked me how much money we still needed for the youth group's Tijuana trip. (I had made a plea during the service for people to help since we still needed some more funds to send 42 people to Mexico on Friday!). Anyway, I was basically thinking, "we need way more than you could give," but I just said, "quite a bit." He asked, "how much?" I said, "Oh, about $1,000." He just smiled and nodded, nothing further was said. Later that night I found an envelope in the church office (locked up in the safe), bulging at the seams. The envelope had no name on it, just a note "To Tijuana Team." It was a wad of cash... $1000. I knew immediately who it was from and was completely blessed & humbled that a college student would give so generously. Perhaps this lavish gift is because he knows how much Christ has done for him and he wants to pass that love on.

Then Sunday evening our service was to send off the Swanson family (friends of ours that are moving to Montana) as well as the Tijuana Team. The Tijuana team's theme is "Do Works" (WORKS is an acronym for the teams' goals: Worship, Obedience, Relationships, Kingdom, Service). Our guest pastor had no idea that this was the theme, but preached from the book of James about faith without works is dead. It couldn't have been a more perfect message to fit with the Tijuana team send-off.

You know, sometimes I get frustrated with "church" or "Christianity" because it seems like sometimes people just go through the motions but it's all just meaningless. I have to admit that sometimes I'm guilty as well of this passion-less religiosity. But then being part of a week like Serve, and hearing messages and experiencing worship like we did on Sunday, then being blessed by a college student, gave me so much hope. I was reminded that even though the church is made up of imperfect people, God is still working in hearts and bringing transformation. God is still faithful and loves His church, His Bride, very dearly, no matter how short we sometimes fall from the church we should be. I'm going to choose to focus on the glimpses of times that we "get it"... like on Sunday... and be filled with hope to keep going, to keep shining, to persevere in this journey of following after Christ until He comes again!