Greetings from Austin Street

Happy Wednesday!  All is well here at 811. 

Dear God, I praise you that you are God. You are the keeper of time and make your presence known when I need you and even when I do not know I need you. Lord, you give me new challenges so that I can grow in my faith and learn to love you more deeply.  I ask you to open doors so that I can become all you want me to be and bring encouragement to those who only seen limitations. I love you Lord, in Jesus’ name, amen.

One of the lessons I learned this past weekend while serving on the Kairos weekend was about stepping out of the way and letting God work around me and in the lives of other servants. I shared in a previous writing that my primary task is to facilitate 9 worship services throughout the weekend for the support team to attend.  Each service consisted of singing, scripture, talks that correlated with the talks being given inside the unit, a brief devotion, prayer time and a benediction. I could have given each one of the talks/sermons for each of those services and been the only voice in the room all weeekend. I love to preach. I love doing the scripture study and “walking around” in scripture.  But I prayed about my leadership as the weekend approached and realized that while I was in a leadership role, I was also part of a team.  I was not called to be the only voice in the room. This team had been given gifts and graces for service, but also each of these wonderful folks had a story to tell about how God had worked in their lives. As each one of these believers shared their story we drew closer to each other and closer to God. Each story told of how we saw limitations in ourselves and God saw potential and promise in each of us.  When each of us saw challenges, God brought encouragement to our lives through the lives and stories of others. 

God challenges us to see ourselves from His perspective.  While we think our story is not really a story of importance we may find when we share our story it helps someone else. The chapel last weekend was not my room. It was God’s room. With each person who spoke, prayed and sang our faith grew beyond ourselves and we found how others experience the abundant life created by God for each of us.  We do not share our stories for ourselves. We share our stories to the glory of God telling of His great mercies and in the name of Jesus.

“Not for our sake, God no, not for our sake, but for your name’s sake, show your glory. Do it on account of your merciful love, do it on account of your faithful ways.”

Psalm 115: 1

Take joy in the journey praying as you go.  Do not be afraid to share what God has done in your life with others.  Wear comfortable shoes and get some sleep. We love you all, Bruce and Gaylene