He Believed In Us

^"13"You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. ¹⁴You are the light of the world--like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. ¹⁵Don't hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. ¹⁶In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father." Matthew 5: 13-16 NLT

"You are salt. You are light."

Absolutely no question that Jesus believed that His followers could be agents of His Kingdom work here on earth. With all the failures of the church in reaching into culture, just the knowledge that Jesus Himself believes we can do it is both challenging and comforting.

I watched the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" this weekend. As Jerusalem is about to be attacked by Saladin's Muslim army, the defender of Jerusalem has every man who can fight kneel. He then recites the Knight's Code over them and has them rise as Knights.

The clergyman says sarcastically "So you believe they will fight better, just because you said a few words? Just because you made them Knights?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

Jesus believes in us.

Grace!

David

Batting .500 stinks

I'm beginning to think that the only one who could preach the sermon on the Mount was Jesus. Spent hour upon hour this week in background, in contextual study, in word study, in exposition and exegesis. (for the non-seminary geeked people who read this, that means I worked hard and pulled out all the stops). But frankly, when a clip from the Lion King is the highlight of the whole sermon, then you stunk. I stunk. As they said about Lazurus "but Lord, he stinketh". That was me.

Don't really know why except that my reach exceeded my grasp. So I'm praying hard for understanding and direction, reviewing what I did and limping away.

Tonight (yes a true Baptist 2x Sunday), I broke open the book of Judges to the story of Samson. I had a ball exposing the folks to this conflicted character's highs and lows (ok lows and high). It was everything that morning should have been. Application, inspiration, correction - all of that.

Sigh...

It's not enough in this vocation to bat .500.

Father forgive me. You'll do better through me next week, if I can get out of your way.

Grace - and Lord I need it!

David

You Have Heard It Said...

"once more into the breach, men."

Tomorrow I bring the Sermon on the Mount to the people - again. My wife told me that when she hears me start to preach on passages like that or the Fruits of the Spirit, she instantly goes "yada yada yada".

When I read it though, I hear giants from the past calling out to me saying, "Tell it, brother. Make it ring." Like Clarence Jordan.

The story is told that after one sermon before a southern congregation, an
elderly woman approached Clarence and said, “I want you to know that my
granddaddy fought in the Civil War, and I’ll never believe a word you say.” Returning
her steely glare with a gracious smile, Jerdan replied, “Ma’am, your choice seems quite
clear. It is whether you will follow your granddaddy or Jesus Christ.”

That's how I want to preach tomorrow - to lift Jesus' words before the people assembled, and have them make a choice. Lord, make me fully yours.

Grace!

David

The Challenge of A Lifetime

Ephesians 5:2 (The Message)

²Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

Since I've been a pastor, I've tried to "always be ready to give an answer". I've worked hard to "preach the Word."
Those are skills.

The verse above is the challenge of my lifetime. I can get to feeling pretty good about myself - good sermon, strong teaching, church growing, building bridges.... me - and then I read that verse and realize just how far I am away from God's ideal for anyone who shepherds His people.

But reread it. he gave us the secret for making it happen in our hearts. "Keep company with Him and learn a life of love."

Let me ask you a question.

How much time have you spent with Jesus lately?

Join me in admitting "not enough" and then let's see what God does as we spend our lives in close communion with Him.

Grace!

David

What to do When Your Resources Are Low

Who knew?

I was minding my own business this morning, working on a sermon series, looking at PowerPoint, listening to music, and fielding and answering email when a little window popped up on my computer.

Your resources are dangerously low!
You should close open windows not in use.
Windows will adjust your virtual memory.

Okay, so I had 8 windows open. Shouldn't I be able to do whatever I want to do?

Your PC, like your life, can be adversely affected when you try to do too many things at a time. What generally happens when you are overloaded is that your stock of compassion, of optimism, of joy, and of hope wears away. You find yourself struggling to "be nice". You find it very difficult to listen as others share their struggles, all the while thinking "yeah, yeah, yeah...you just need to straighten up." The love of Christ that enables you to feel other's hurts and respond in love and kindness - your resource - is low.

What to do?

Well, if you cannot break away for a quick respite - say a breath prayer like "Lord, help me be like you right now."

Or take a five minute sabbatical from whatever it is you are doing. Yes, five minutes. No phone, no email, nada - five minutes alone with God. Just try it.

Let me ask you a question.

Are you busier than Jesus?

He had three years of ministry time, within which he healed the sick, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, taught His disciples, sparred with the religious...

Yet despite Jesus' instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. 16But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. Luke 5:15-16 NLT

and separated Himself regularly from all that to be alone with His Father.

When your resources run low, spend time with the Source.

Grace!

David Wilson
www.newhopevalp.org

What To Give God (Who Has Everything)

It's been an interesting week.

Back and forth to Macon, GA to be with my father as he awaited a doctor's report. Then directly into preparing and carrying out the funeral of a church member. And now this weekend, Sunday to be exact, is my father's 86th birthday.

Over the years I've given him some pretty interesting presents. He's not really into "stuff", though, and sometimes months later I'd find the present I thought was "just the right thing" still sitting in its box somewhere in the house. So I'm trying to think of just what I can give him, but not having much success.

I'll bet some of us have trouble trying to figure out what God wants from us too. I love the way Paul's instructions to the Roman Christians are phrased here.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Romans 12: 1-2, The Message

Everyday

Ordinary

Sleeping

Eating

Going-to-work

Walking-around

Life

Is what God wants you to give to Him. Learning to see Him at work all around you, and then not losing focus on Him will help each one who does it become more like His Son Jesus Christ. Listening for His promptings and doing what He's asked you to do will help you develop a heart like His.

And that's what God wants.

Grace!

David

It's Not About You

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2 (New International Version)

Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him. "Peter," he says, "kindly remember rule number 6," whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes, and withdraws.

The politicians return to their conversation, only to be interrupted yet again twenty minutes later by a hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying.

Again the intruder is greeted with the words: "Marie, please remember rule number 6." Complete calm descends once more, and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology.

When the scene is repeated a third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague: "My dear friend, I've seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of rule number 6?"

"Very simple," replies the resident prime minister. "Rule number 6 is 'Don't take yourself so seriously.'"

"Ah," says his visitor, "that is a fine rule." After a moment of pondering, he inquires, "And what, may I ask, are the other rules?"

"There aren't any."

The hardest thing to do every day as a Christian is to die to your self. We all think we can do it, are willing to do it, but we're always looking for that real big thing God is going to ask us to do. We base our self-confidence in our belief that if that "Big Request" should roll into our heart from God, that we would be able and willing to do that "Great Thing".

So each and every day, we pass people who just need a word of encouragement, or a others who have a need we could fill, and go to bed that night confident that we are pleasing God, and will bless Him real good when our "Big Request" comes in.

Go back and re-read the Scripture above. The One who formed the universe, who placed the stars, who created daffodils and butterflies with merely a word...

humbled Himself and took the form of a slave.

It's not about you. (or me)

It's about Jesus, and returning His love.

Grace!



David Wilson

Tear Down the Walls


"For you ignore God's specific laws and substitute your own traditions." Mark 7:8

One of the most vivid memories I have of Ronald Reagan's presidency is his bold request while standing in front of the barrier that then divided East and West Berlin.

Facing a crowd of Berliners, the president forcefully stated his request -

"Mr.. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

The pressure of world opinion, coupled with unrest and turmoil within, eventually led to that very wall being dismantled, and we were all treated to pictures of families united and the newly liberated dancing with glee on top of the very barrier that had separated them for so long. The whole world watched and applauded when that wall came down.

Not too many years before, another wall came down, and I never heard about it until today.

In an article within the Palm Beach Post, writer Steve Gushee tells of the legacy of brother Roger, founder of the Taize' community in France. Brother Roger had a dream, that Christians of all denominations - Protestant and Catholic alike - come come together to worship God in Spirit and in truth. He founded the community on authenticity, humility, sacrifice, and service to Christ. And in the late 50's and 60's, thousands flocked to the little chapel Roger and his friends had built with their own hands to house two hundred. The people would sit outside in hopes of hearing a word now and then, or a measure or two of music.

One Easter morning, the crowd swelled so much that Roger and his leaders wept to see how many were still outside.

So without a word being spoken, Roger went to the back wall of the chapel he and his friends had built and began removing the stones they had placed there themselves, one by one, until finally the whole back wall was open to the fields the people were sitting in.

Now everyone was within the walls.

I wonder sometimes how willing we are to consider that those outside our communities of faith are there in some ways because of walls we've built ourselves. Our walls might be a tradition of worship style, or of dress. They might be a judgmental spirit or prideful hearts.

They could be unknown to us - those of us who have been inside for so long we've forgotten what a "wall" looks like.

Whatever they are, those things that we have built to keep others out, I believe Christ is calling out to us right now saying, "tear down those walls."

Grace!

David Wilson

"Till My Trophies At Last I Lay Down"

Henley the big black dog and I were walking this morning, and it being Tuesday in Valparaiso, the curbs were cluttered here and there with trash and treasures. It happens every week here, because our incredibly efficient trash guys will pick up basically anything that's not moving or hazardous. So frequently people will leave things to throw away that someone else would take to Goodwill, or even keep.

This morning, as I walked by a stack of boxes, a glint of sunshine off gold caught my eye. I stopped and looked into the box and noticed it was full of trophies. There must have been a dozen trophies and plaques all thrown together in that box. There were other objects there too but since I'm under watch care by my wife as a recovering packrat, I walked on. But it got me to thinking.

At one time, everything that person had discarded mattered - maybe a great deal. Those trophies might have occupied a prominent place in his house. Those plaques might have been the center of attention, prominently displayed on a wall. They'd make sure each visitor say them. They'd use them to launch into stories of days gone by. But now they were trash.

Friends, I've spent some time lately with men who are looking past this life into the next. They've both been diagnosed with illnesses that mean their time on this earth is drawing to a close. For one that might mean weeks, for another the prognosis isn't sure yet. Both are receiving all the help modern medicine can provide. But death comes for us all, and for them sooner rather than later. When talking with them last week, one told me frankly "I haven't done everything I wanted to do. But I'm ready to go if it's God's will. " The other phrased it this way - "I've had a full life, now I'll just have to trust God through this."

You know, in the hours of conversations I've had with them lately, I never heard a word about "stuff" or trophies of any kind. All I heard was about people - about friends and loved ones, and about their God.

Jesus asked the question, "What good is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul?"

Well, from where I sit, these two men haven't lost anything. Instead, by holding onto their faith in Christ as their Savior, they've found peace in circumstances that might overwhelm any person. They might have to "lay their trophies down" soon, but they'll soon be wearing a crown.

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Grace!

David Wilson

As To Dying Men

"I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men."
RICHARD BAXTER

I've spent a lot of time lately around dying men.

One lies in a hospital nearby, having already lost his arms, and soon to lose his life. I know him, but not well.

The other is my father, who at 85 is carrying esophageal cancer in his body.

Nothing like hanging with the dying to focus your preaching on what matters. Today I tried to do just that. In a series on the "Marks of a Christian" I focused on "Groups" or "Community" and laid out before the crowd the "one another" passages in the NT.

I was desperate to make them understand - to embrace and be embraced by God's plan for His people - redeemed and restored to rescue their neighbors.

I pray I got just enough out the way for that to happen.

Grace!

David

For thee

No person is an island entire of itself.
Every person is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were.
Any person's death diminishes me, because I am involved in humankind.
Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee.

John Donne

Sitting here today finishing tomorrow's message on Biblical community with this week's images fresh in my mind and weighing heavy on my heart. The coast of Mississippi lies devastated, as does that of Louisiana, its crown jewel flooded as its citizens become "every man for himself." It's raw, this descent into lawlessness. We recoil in horror and rightly so.

But what about when we cut another with our words? What about when we flood their soul with grief, when we imply that God doesn't care for them? What about when we look on each other and see anything other than God's precious creation - clothed with mortal flesh, but destined for immortality.

What then?

I pray I'm ready to point us toward grace tomorrow even as I rouse us from complacentcy into a deeper community.

Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner.

David

Til I Met A Man...

There are good times and there are bad times in any area of life. The ministry isn't any different. On some days, it's glorious to be sold out to God - leading His people into worship and the Word.

Other days, well, let's just admit that church people can find a way to take all the fun out of church. It might be a fight over what to keep or what to toss on cleanup day, or who spent how much on what, or even my all time favorite - whether to open or close the curtain in front of the baptistry.

Had a few cat fights today to handle.

But they all pale beside the man I visited in the hospital who had his hands amputated Sunday.

As I was trying to help him - sharing the love of Christ, praying for Him, letting him know that he is loved by God and by God's people, I knew that I wouldn't face any challenge today bigger than his. And I knew that God would meet all our needs from His riches.

Someone told me once that the difference between the average painter and van Gogh was one word - perspective.

Now that I have that, I should be able to handle anything else - today.

Grace!

David

A Living Illustration

My friend, the right reverend Arnold Hendrix, called me a "story teller" today. Now before you get all third grade on him, you should know I take that as a compliment. That means like my Master Jesus Christ, I take life and God's Word, and bring both to this life and the living of it. I tell stories. You can call them their proper name, "illustrations", as they are referred to in preaching textbooks too. Every now and then I even bump into one.

Reading this weekend, I came across this passage.

16So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. 17These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. 18There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.
2 Corinthians 4 The Message

Then today I went to see the illustration.

Rick Barton is a man with a host of troubles. A long time diabetic, recipient of a donated kidney that's failing and requires dialysis three times a week now, finger tips that have turned black from lack of circulation - the body that encloses Rick's soul is in need of repair. But Rick's a man that doesn't depend on his own will to live, though that is fierce. Rick depends on God's grace, and though he needs all of it he can get, Rick's still looking for people to share it with.

Rick's roommate Lloyd has heard from Rick about the grace that God is giving him. And in the most unlikely place, at the most unlikely time, from the one who outwardly seems to be falling apart - Lloyd met Jesus, and was embraced in God's love himself. Now Lloyd calls everyone "brother" and "sister", and has a real faith growing each day. Nursing home evangelism might be Rick's ministry gift. It was a great thing to see.

Friends, God shows us the truth of His Word not just in the splitting of infinitives or parsing of ancient languages. He illustrates it in life. I saw two men both experiencing hard times, who have turned their eyes away from this life's standard of living toward the next. They are living for forever. That's real life.

Take a look around today friends. See whether you're living for the soon past or the forever future. You can make a difference for eternity.

Grace!

David Wilson

www.newhopevalp.org

Who, me?

Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. Philippians 3:17 (New Living Translation)

Was talking with a young man recently, and as he was speaking of his life as he saw it, he blurted out "I want life like you have it."

We finished our talk, but that hadn't finished resonating with me. When he said it, part of me wanted to laugh, part wanting to scream "are you kidding me", and part of me just was shocked. I am blessed with a great family. I am blessed to be doing meaningful work. I am blessed to be healthy and well taken care of. But someone wanting my life?

How do you handle that?

My life isn't without heartache. Not a day goes by that I don't think of my granddaughter's death. Even the tragic loss of our dog 4 years ago still scars me. There are events that have happened here as we worked our way to a healthy church that still are dull aches. (Consolation - that's better than open wounds)

My life's not without fear, or doubts, or worries - all that's common to man.

But I do have a faith in God. I do have a certain knowledge of His love for me. And if I died tonight, it would be fine with me. Maybe that's what he wanted.

Funny isn't it, that without a sermon being preached, people still hear the message - and want it to be real in their lives. I pray my friend finds what I have and more.

Grace!

David

It Moves Me

Living in Florida has done a lot of things to me. I've learned that jeans are for dressing up, that shorts can be worn year round, and that a portable generator is as indispensable as a refrigerator. I've changed from someone who really didn't pay attention to the weather, to a person who knows how to plot tropical storms by latitude and longitude, and who just has to have live weather instantly available on my PC. My Earth Science teachers would be so proud.

Yesterday, I was reading about the weather and stumbled across an article in which the writer (overzealously I thought) tried to connect every dot of activity across the globe to a corresponding weather phenomenon. His premise was that if a tree fell in Africa, or a butterfly flapped its wings, the earth everywhere would be affected.

I'll have to mull that over for a while.

But I know this, when I see a butterfly amidst the flowers as I walk along the bay - it moves me.

Psalms 33:4-5 (MSG)
4 For God's Word is solid to the core; everything he makes is sound inside and out.
5 He loves it when everything fits, when his world is in plumb-line true. Earth is drenched in God's affectionate satisfaction.


Why does it affect me?

Because I know to the very core of my being that our God loves me enough to create a world I can never cease to be amazed by - just so I'll remember His love toward me. He is the One who holds everything within His power, Who caused everything to be...

and He loves me.

Yeah, that moves me.

Grace!

David Wilson

www.newhopevalp.org

The Real Deal?

On the way to the church today, fashionably late, and already thinking about the day, I reached my last turn and was blocked by men, trucks, and asphalt. The ditch they had dug across our road and left two weeks ago was getting fixed at last.

Now to go another way is a pain, and there are times when the combination of A: late, B: busy, and C: inconvienced would mean a David not exactly exhibiting grace. I'm a long way from the days when I'd have saluted them or yelled, but murmuring is within my skill set.

But today, I whipped the car around, cut across and parked.

On the way into the office, I looked over at the workers standing maybe 100 yards away. I was thanking God for the victory over my emotions, when one of them waved.

Then it dawned on me. He had connected the dots between guy, car, church parking lot and pastors office. And I hadn't let him down.

Thank you God for giving me the strength to reflect Your grace... today. :)

Weakness

Having the best job in the world is a great feeling. But if you do it long enough there will be times when you just aren't "up" to the task. In my case today, I was running on fumes because of a terrible nights sleep the night before. "I slept like a baby" wasn't even accurate.

Yet every time I laid back down, I knew that in a few hours I would be called to be a representative of Jesus. We had a 101 class scheduled, communion within the service - and I wasn't happy with the message for either service.

What to do? I prayed. Most of the time that I was lying in bed hoping the heartburn would cease, or willing my lungs to place nice and give me a breath - I prayed. But I left the house for church feeling like I was carrying a weight.

Upon arrival, I was stunned by how many people were in our gathering before the Bible Study hour, and amazed at how many were in the 101 class. But nothing prepared me for the biggest crowd of the whole year in worship.

Praise be to our God, Whose power is perfected in weakness.

Reproducing Disciples

I can't tell you how happy I am to learn that many members of your congregation are diligent in living out the Truth, exactly as commanded by the Father. 2 John 4

I was sitting in my office today, talking to a man who just got back from a mission trip to Indonesia. He nad his wife were missionaries there for a while, and they returned for a month to help tsunami relief.

For me, missionaries have always been heroes, so much so that I picture them coming back to America and feeling let down at our lack of fervor. But not today.

You see this man works with youth, and while he was gone, two of the people he had asked to fill in began to really learn to love our youth. So much so that they want to continue teaching them at another, additional time each week.

he was telling me about the welcome home party the youth had given him and his wife, and about these two women steppingup, and then it was if a light went off in his brain when he realized - "Hey! They are growing!"

Yes they are. And that's why we do what we do.

Grace!

David

We're All Learning

How does God do it?

I'm sitting here this afternoon on a pretty quiet Friday, and in the sanctuary, separated from my office by a wall, but with a heating and A/C return box running the length of it that lets me hear events in there as if they are... next door. My wife is busy teaching piano to a series of little children. They are playing very simple melodies. Some are doing better than others - they change every 30 minutes. But their halting way of playing doesn't.

Each is supposed to have practiced daily, preparing for their lesson. Piano is one of the subjects you learn where each lesson builds on the last, so mastery of one needs to be accomplished before the next.

I'm guessing practice was sporadic this past week.

But they are trying, and Bunny is encouraging.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

On the other side of the wall where I sit, having been given God's Word to show me how to live, His Holy Spirit to guide me into truth, and a congregation and friends for encouragement and accountability...

I sometimes live as haltingly unsure a life as the music I'm hearing.

Is that it? No this. mmm.. Maybe this way.

How does God stand it? Well, just to remind you, it's not about our performance. It's about His love.

If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Romans 8:31 NLT

Just keep loving Him with all your heart, soul, and mind. He's heard every wrong "note" you've ever made. But He loves you - and that will never change.

Grace!

David Wilson

Comings and Goings

Well, as I sit here tonight, fresh from another brush with a Hurricane - in this case Dennis - life is as good as Florida can be without electricity or air conditioning. I'm thinking there was a reason why no one lived here pre- A/C.

But if you are going to live near the ocean, you should expect to see nights like this.

In the two days of preparation leading up to today's event, I walked down to the bay and saw the ships resting at anchor. Many were placed there Friday and Saturday, hoping to take advantage of the relative shelter of the bayous. There were two boats though, that had been there.

The first sits in about ten feet of water, with the mast and jib the only testimony that a boat lies there. There for the last ten months, I'm fairly sure it may never sail again without heroic measures by someone whose dream is to see it underway.

The second lies at anchor - just as it has every day, every night since September. Though it made it safely through Ivan, and now through Dennis, the only thing it has done that a boat needs to do is float.

As the day begins tomorrow, many boat owners will come and check to see how their boats fared. They'll weigh anchor and set sail for tommorrow's adventure and yes, possibly for another day's storms.

Given that storms come to us all, can I ask you a question?

Where's your life taking you?

Maybe you feel defeated - sunk, and cannot see yourself any other way.

Maybe you are tied down to grief, to heartache, to past deeds and misdeeds. So afraid of the future you won't "raise your anchor."

My friend, storms will come - but so will sunshine and balmy breezes. You were made to live in freedom from defeat, from fear, from your past - you were made to set sail and glorify God with a life lived for Him.

Do this. Take Jesus at His word.

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)
28"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. 29Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Just as a sailboat was meant to slice through the waves - but only can when freed from its moorings - you can only live the life you were created for when you are letting Jesus live through you. Leave that past and embrace a future with Jesus.

Grace!

David