Do your eyes deceive you, or am I really blogging 2 MESSAGES in ONE DAY!!?? They do not. It's only 4 p.m. and I just finished the final sermon of the Wilderness Gifts series, and since this one is so short, I figured, why not catch up on another one?? LOL

Since I didn't mention it earlier, there's MORE SNOW predicted for tomorrow afternoon into Saturday morning!! The apps are saying 4-8 inches!! This news actually goes perfectly with Pastor Matt's End of the Year Party message. Look what God is doing with the weather this year!! After the severe drought from last Summer, He's giving us more than we can ask or think in terms of snow this season!! Amen!!?? (Hey, I live in an apartment building, I don't have to shovel it!!) 😉😜

During the worship time, Tyler read Psalm 100 as an introduction to the celebration that morning.

In his opening comments of Sunday, Dec. 28th, Pastor Matt mentioned a recent conversation with a friend who has gotten to know him and Heidi over the 10 yrs. they've been ministering here in Concord, NH. This guy said, "I'm seeing what God is doing here. I know you, and it doesn't make sense!!" LOL

Things have happened here that ONLY God could have done!!

As suggested by the final bit of my Message Intro above, our Scripture is from Ephesians 3 -- Let's turn there...

Ephesians 3:14-21

New International Version

A Prayer for the Ephesians

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In this passage, we find Paul's prayer for the faithfulness of the Church at Ephesus. He prays also for the fullness of that faith. As mentioned above, our "takeaway" today, for this message, is this --

"God is able to more than we can ask or think in People being formed by His love."

The truth is that the Church is the Family of God. In light of this, His name shows the character we should reflect.* As His representatives on Earth, we have a global influence in local communities. This is our identity. We are meant to be a people marked by daily faith and trust in the center of ALL THINGS. In relation to us, Jesus is OUR CENTER, expressed in love.

Our job is ONLY the receive that love and rest in Him. We are not meant to strive for perfection.*

In verse 20 Paul encourages them that "... He who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine...". As the saying goes, "The Math isn't 'mathing'!!" (It doesn't usually for me, anyway) 😜😜

The question then becomes, do we see it?? Do we hear?? Our tendency is to grasp onto what God is doing, but do you know what happens sometimes when we grab things?? We may actually crush them. To illustrate this, Pastor Matt mention butterflies. If we try to grab them with our hands, we'll destroy the beautiful creature God has made. Conversely, if we just go ahead with our lives and shrug off the things of God, we'll miss them entirely.

Our time ended with an update video on our Forward Together initiative. Technically, FWD. Family. Witness. Discipleship. This came about based on a professional survey that was done several years ago on how CenterPoint could improve our daily outreach and equip members and friend to help in those ways. Out of this, one of the major projects that has come into existence is City Hope of NH. You may remember back in September when I had mentioned them in relation to getting money for tires for Mike's and my van. They partner with other local agencies in helping those in need get thing like this, or groceries, or gas cards, pay fuel bills, etc... It would be a huge blessing if more people would donate in order to do more good. This is how Paul's words work in practical terms. As the Holy Spirit guides, people are brought around to help others. This is how people in need may receive, "more than they can ask or think". Amen!?

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. It's a sad commentary on the Church that more of us don't reflect God's love, but rather insist on being judgmental, bigoted hypocrites who want nothing more than to have their opinions of other's lives heard and forced on those who cannot be expected to agree because they don't believe as we do. These opinions are ALWAYS based on misinterpreted Scripture, although they would never admit it, even when faced with the original Hebrew or Greek languages. (I can say this, because I see it on Quora all too frequently)

2. The idea of striving comes only from Churches that are Legalistic fear-mongers of the faith. If you remember from my post the other day, the concept of "buttoned up perfection" is NOT GOD'S WAY. We have only to read through the Psalms to see the truth of this. Many of them were written by David in times of deep distress and/or anger. It's OKAY to be "real" with God. That's why He's there. That's why Jesus came. Because, as long as we are humans, we simply CANNOT achieve "perfection" on our own. That's what justification, righteousness, and sanctification are ALL ABOUT. Since we can't do any of those things on our own, God did it FOR US. As we saw above, our ONLY job is to receive and rest.

3. For any interested and able in donating to City Hope, here's the link... https://cityhopenh.org/

Music -- Never any rights!!