Speaking of Mondays, I'll tell you about something that we had a class on last week. Aaron had Jon Stallsmith (one of the teaching staff at Grace) talk to us about the Sabbath. We went through Gen. 1 & 2, and some stuff in Exodus 17 about the Sabbath and what it means and how important it is to keep the Sabbath. We also talked from Matthew 10. (If you want my notes from that, send me an email and I'll send them to you.) All of that to say, I am trying to set aside Monday as a Sabbath rest for me. This includes things like sleep and rest; unhurried prayer; recreation and fun; relationships, especially spending time with Mary; decompressing and processing, and more. This would be the day for me to be able to put my thoughts from the past week down, or up on the internet, as the case may be. I think this is very important. This is not just for special people who are really, really spiritual. Keeping the Sabbath holy is for every Christian. We can't be too busy to have a Sabbath, it's to be a part of a holistic life of holiness.
I'll stop preaching now. Keep in mind that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I don't have this all together. I'm not doing as well as I should on this, or on many, many other areas.
Sunday, Isaiah and I led worship in the main auditorium at Grace. I'll find out in a little bit just how many people were there this weekend, but I know that, over the course of the three services, there were probably over four thousand people who came through the doors. That's more people than I have ever led worship for in one day.
Isaiah did a wonderful job on Sunday. Aaron was commenting yesterday about him, that he was very warm and compelling an inviting on stage, and that he felt like Isaiah connected well with the people.
Buddy preached a sermon as sort of a follow up for Craig Gross' (www.xxxchurch.com) sermon last week on the dangers of sin and especially sexual sin, namely pornography. Buddy preached from Mark 6 about Herod and his stolen wife and step-daughter, and the death of John the Baptist. His main points were that sin is never singular and that we are responsible, not only for our actions, but also for our influence. He showed a rap video at the end of his message, about a middle aged man taking a prostitute and making her a porn star, basically, and then about a young man, looking at porn on the internet, and finding this girl. It shows how far-reaching our sins are, and how interconnected sin is. After the video, he prayed and then we came up for the response and worship. In the 5:15PM service, he didn't even pray, he left while the video was going, so I got to do the whole transition. That is a tough place to transition from. It was very intense. I'm thankful that I got to do that, it was a great experience. It was a lot of pressure and a lot of fun, and I felt the weight of responsibility for all those people. I prayed that I would lead well. Aaron was really encouraging about what he saw me do yesterday. The response of the people in the congregation was also good. I do think that most of the people are really comfortable with Aaron leading, and it was a curve to have Isaiah and me there, instead of him.
All in all, yesterday was an incredible experience...so much more than I can say.
I'm headed out now. Tuesday mornings are staff meeting at Grace, and I want to go with Aaron.
At the beginning of the internship, he talked about how his vision for the school is that it would be like Elijah and Elisha. One of the things that stuck out to all of us about the story of the passing of Elijah's mantle was the no matter what Elijah said, nearing the end of his time on earth, Elisha wouldn't leave his side. I want to learn as much as I can from Aaron's leadership, and his example. I want to go where he goes and see how he walks out his life, not just in ministry, but in every day.
Keep praying for me. Thank God, provision for tuition for October has come in. I have about a third of the tuition for November, and none for Dec.-Feb. Keep praying, and if you have to give, please pray about contributing to my ministry and my training and education.
If you read this, you're probably in my group of friends and circle of influence. Chances are, you're in thoughts frequently. Know that I care about you and appreciate you.
Cheers,
-Daniel
Post Script - The internet went down this morning as I was typing this, so here it is now. Update: I didn't get to go to staff meeting. We had Vania, who babysits the Keyes kids, come down and do a workshop on good ways to keep the basement clean and orderly...very mickey mouse, but still fun. Enough for now. Comment and stuff.
1 comment:
Ha ha...Aaron has an entourage!
...Elijah had an entourage...hmm...Jesus had an entourage...I need to get an entourage...It's only Godly. ;-)
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