Thursday Memo

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend’s coming and there are a few things I don’t want you to miss:

The Weekend

We recently saw the movie Captain Phillips. It’s based on the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of a U.S. cargo ship. There are several scenes featuring Navy SEAL’s. Everything about them screams “elite”—elite force, elite team, elite soldiers.

Most of us don’t feel like “elite” anything. We’ll never be a part of anything like a SEAL team. Yet God has chosen us to be part of his team. Look at the disciples or the early church and “ragtag” comes more to mind than “elite.” Jesus said “whoever believes” and the whoevers who believed were anything but elite.

If you feel more “ragtag” than “elite,” my sermon this weekend will show you, from Scripture, that God uses ragtag communities of people and individuals to change the world. And you can change the world. You probably already are making an impact, in often imperceptible ways, if you’re simply seeking Christ daily. Come this weekend for week six of the our FOR [  ] series—“FOR [ Whoever ].”

If you want to really show up ready, then go to Show up Ready.

Helpful Links

It’s Halloween and I love to scare people and I have this strange theory that God loves to scare people. So I found this article very interesting: Ghost Stories for the Christian Soul.

One More Thing

This week was Kings and Prophets in our Story of God study. We had some interesting discussion in my small group around the depth of David’s sins of adultery and then murder. David paid a great personal price for his sins even though he was forgiven, but God didn’t reject him as he did Saul. Why?

You may not only feel more ragtag than elite, you may also feel useless or discarded because of sin. If you are God's child by faith, you need to know God will never reject you. There is no condemnation for you and nothing can separate you from God’s love. Reread Romans 8 if you need to be reminded.

But becoming useful again does require repentance. That was one of the differences between Saul and David. Saul spiraled into despair because of unresolved sin and David repented. Repentance isn’t just a thing we do once when we come to Christ. Repentance is a change of mind and sorrow of heart that leads to fruitfulness for God.

You may not be elite, but you are never discarded or useless in Christ. Be encouraged by that. Let that lead you to repentance and usefulness in God's kingdom.

Blessings to you all, Pastor Henry