Easter update

What an Easter! I have to say that this has definitely been one of the top 5 Easters I’ve celebrated in my life…if not the top. God showed himself so strong on our behalf, and broke through all our hopes and dreams and took us further than we could’ve imagined.

On Saturday afternoon, we finished our presentation of the Way of the Cross with 176 people having walked through the presentation. It was great!! We have never had a response like we did this year. So many people came through and were touched, challenged and changed.

Then Easter morning we had standing room only at church, with right at 100 people attending our 7:30 AM Sunrise service and breakfast. What a great time of celebration! We had several visitors from the days before return to worship with us. There was just an overflow of love and celebration for the day, a reminder of what joy the disciples must have felt that day, seeing Jesus alive!

We give God thanks for his great favor and love poured out on all of us this Easter!

As soon as I get them, I’ll put pictures from the Way of the Cross on here so you can see what we did!

favor for the way of the cross

Tonight we hosted our first night of "The Way of the Cross." (See previous post for more details.) It was incredible. Because it is a self-guided experience we space people out so they have time to go through the spaces on their own. At one point it was standing room only in the waiting area to go into the sanctuary! We had 99 people go walk through in only 3 hours. Tomorrow we're doing it again for four hours! Can't wait to see how many we have come this time.

We were blessed to have not only the front page of the paper, as you see in the previous post, but also they put us on the front page of a weekly supplement which includes sales papers, etc., and goes to every household in the county! Talk about favor!

In doing this now for four years, we've never had the favor that we're experiencing this year. Not only that but the most we have ever got to walk through our presentation was 35 people over two days when we did it at our previous church. We didn't care, because we thought of it as a spiritual discipline for ourselves, but were always disappointed that it didn't seem to matter how much we promoted, not even our own church really supported it.

But tonight we were clocking about 1 person every 2 minutes coming to the presentation and leaving blessed and saying their coming back tomorrow with friends!! Praise God for his favor and his grace!

the way of the cross

Check out this article about our Easter "The Way of the Cross" Presentation. If you're in the area, stop by and check it out this Friday from 6-9 PM and Saturday from 10 AM-2 PM.

servant vs. child

Today at church, our pastor shared a message on how to relax in God's grace. And since the recent theme of this blog has been on grace, I wanted to share a list that he shared with us. He compared the difference between our understanding of our relationship with God, whether as merely a servant or as a child of His and what each description derives it's approval or acceptance from. Take a look at it and see if you are experiencing the grace of God that comes in being a child of God...

A servant is accepted and appreciated because of:
1. what he does
2. anxious/worried that his work will be pleasing to his master
3. his workmanship
4. productivity and performance
5. his worth is proven by his work
6. when he fails, his position is at stake
7. conditional performance

But a child is accepted and appreciated because of:
1. who he is
2. secure in the love of his family
3. his relationship
4. his position in the family
5. his worth is secure knowing that tomorrow won't change his status
6. when a child fails, he's not afraid of being thrown out of the family
7. unconditional love

Again, how much of the grace of God we can experience is based on how we understand and receive that grace. God is always willing to give us and is constantly showering us with his grace, but only when we act upon it through faith can we experience it. Today, believe that God sees you as His child.