WEEKEND UPDATE (032011)

Spring has sprung!  Yea!! I love this weather!!!  Absolutely gorgeous day on Sunday at Crossroads, and even though many were off taking advantage of it, we had a HUGE crowd and two wonderful services!  Here's just a few of the many things that stood out to me:

• Love the new Children's Center!  Our children's ministry team added an additional check-in station to clear up hallway congestion and it worked great.
• Once the video system is installed by Easter Sunday, the Lobby in Children's Center will be an IDEAL place for parents to sit with wiggly or crying babies who are not in the nursery.  You'll be able to hear AND watch the whole service from a comfortable couch!
• TONS of first-time attenders on Sunday!  
• We continued our series about John 15 and what it means to remain in Jesus and be fruitful.  
• We talked about pruning.  Ouch!  Pruning can be painful.
• In horticulture (and, apparently in our lives as well) pruning most often occurs when growth has stopped.
• We had some laughs as we talked about our Westernized approach to Lent, and how Lent can become more about temporary behavior modification then actual life-change.
• Regardless of whether our lives are in the "sweet spot" or we're just bumping along, stuff like major disappointments, financial meltdowns, relationship problems/failures, rebellious children, stubborn parents, failed businesses or the death of a loved one can make us want to RUN and not REMAIN.
• God uses Problems, Pressures and even People to prune us.
• Throughout the Bible, people God LOVED were pruned and disciplined.
• One of the biggest mistakes we can make as Christians is to equate PRUNING with PUNISHMENT.  It isn't.
• God's not mad at you.  He loves you and sees POTENTIAL in you beyond what you see in you.
• God knows (better than we do) in order for us to reach that potential, there are some things we have to learn.
• We're okay with the idea of God pruning away the sinful, superficial or superfluous JUNK from our lives, but none of us want to take a hit to the things WE think are good.
• Sometimes the "good stuff" that we are holding onto with a death grip are the very things standing in the way of us reaching our potential.  We're often afraid to "give up the good stuff", not recognizing that sometimes God wants us to let go of it so He can put something in our hands, or use us in some way, that will make us more productive for HIS purpose.
• When we become fruitful, we become useful.
• Just like it is for a little kid that doesn't want to get a haircut and squirms and struggles and complains, how much God's pruning hurts in our lives has everything to do with whether we hold still.

Don't RUN.  Instead...REMAIN.  Love you.  See you Sunday, and come expecting something GOOD from God!  Have a GREAT week!