This is Us (30th Anniversary Edition)

We’re celebrating our church’s 30th throughout the month of November, so we’re focusing the “This is Us” posts on folks that have been around a good part of that time.

This is from Kevin Johnson: “We remember our first worship service in September, 1989, at Wooddale Roller RInk. Mark Overmyer preached on James 1 - "consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds ... the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Mark said that God allows many things in our lives that we would not write into the story if it were up to us, and He does it for His larger purpose, a theme that was reinforced when Henry preached through The Story of God in 2011. Dawn and I have seen that played out in many ways. The loss of a child, dealing with chronic disease in our family, and facing unexpected challenges have opened up our hearts and allowed us to minister to others in need and sorrow over the past 30 years. We also have seen that God shakes us up and redirects us when needed. A recent example is the totally unexpected and daunting change in course in 2016 from being a contented retiree to becoming Impact Director at Five Oaks. But this role has allowed us to engage with so many of you at Five Oaks as well as to work alongside precious believers in many parts of the world. As we look back on the last 30 years we see that God's plans are better than ours.”

You were Made for Experiencing Joy and Satisfaction

Every once in a while a magazine will feature a cover picture of a celebrity without make-up or without having photoshopped their picture. Sometimes a celebrity will do this on their own Instagram page.

I think most of would say George Clooney is a handsome man. But what does he look like without makeup or photoshopping? Say, a picture taken when he’s on vacation and simply enjoying a cigar.

No, that’s not Clooney. I have no idea what he’d look like under those circumstances. Did I have you for even a moment, though?

Mike Cosper wrote an article a few years ago he titled, “The Satanic Ideology of Photoshop.” Over the top? Not really.

His point is that Satan’s strategy in the Garden was to assault Adam and Eve’s contentment. The results were disastrous.

No one wants to live life unsatisfied, constantly discovering that the next thing we thought would fill the void of satisfaction turns out not to work.

We continue in our second week on learning contentment this weekend as we ask again why contentment is so important for our lives.

I hope to see you. Bring a friend.

Photo by Ellen Carlson Hanse on Unsplash