It's Palm Sunday today, and the first weekend of a long Spring Break that will include Easter as well. We sent a lot of people out on vacation this weekend, two men on deployments, and had others dealing with physical issues. So we were off by a third. Ouch! The really bright light though was the kids turn-out for our preview of our new Kidmo program for children. It was great and so were they. I really enjoyed helping out over there this morning.
When I was preparing this week's message, I tried to go in the traditional direction of talking about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Even started on the sermon. But I was drawn to a face in the crowd that day instead. The story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman just gripped my heart, and I could just see her and some of the people with her that day winding up in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Not because "that's what we have always done" like many people, but because they truly wanted to draw close to God. So we looked at John 4, and I tried to frame the text in the concept of "defining moments."
What if one of those defining moments in our life comes today, or tomorrow? What if we meet Jesus and He changes everything? So I tried to lead people to put themselves into the moment that the Samaritan woman's life changed and begin to decide whether they were open to the same sort of change. Jesus didn't come into this world to remodel it - He came to change it forever. Likewise, He doesn't approach us with the idea of rearranging some things and leaving others alone. He wants total repentance and total renewal. A new life.
I'm praying that someone found that new life today, or a renewed faith and walk in Jesus.
We chose these songs for worship - "Hosanna" by Baloche, "How Can I Keep From Singing?" by Tomlin, and "Here I Am To Worship". Our hymn of commitment was "Just As I Am."
I'll be trying hard during the week to come to comprehend deeper than ever before the awesome grace poured out on the cross, the miracle of canceled sin, and the hope that is Easter. Pray with me, and for me.
New Hope folks - invite! invite! invite! invite! - call, text, tweet, email, whatever it takes but get your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and random strangers you run into to New Hope for Easter Sunday. Do it!
Grace and peace to you all - David
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