Pastor's Blog
Back on the Mainland, Looking for the Spirit Posted 2.11.2010
This week the staff did something we had not done in years. We actually had a staff retreat. We trekked over to Avalon and enjoyed the Ellison’s hotel on the island. It was a wonderful couple of days as we shared together and talked together and played Rook together and ate (too much) together. We laughed a lot, even cried some. We brought along Christie’s dad (Don Shoff) to guide our time, and he did a great job. I came back with a renewed appreciation of the wonderful staff that God has put together here at Peninsula. The days ahead are bright indeed. God is at work in each life, and for that, I am grateful.
We all have different interests – and tastes in food – but we share a common love for Jesus. I mean some on the staff have taken the Hobbit role of two breakfasts. Some like their coffee very early. Some don’t like it at all. Some like pizza with all the works, others not so much. But getting to know and submit to one another is really what this journey of the Christian life is all about. Right? So we are a better staff because we sailed the high seas together and enjoyed the quiet lifestyle of Catalina for a couple of days.
Now it is back to the routine of ministry – tools sharpened and our spirits refreshed. It is always good to get away – and even better to come back home!
And as I get back into the swing of things this week, I am challenged by one paragraph in a book I’m reading as background to our Experiencing God Today series. It was written by AW Tozer a very long time ago (he died in 1963). But it could have been written today. It could have been written for the church in our day. And it could have been written just for us. Here we go….
“If we were to increase our attendance until there wasn’t a place to put them, if we were to get $10,000 or $20,000 given to us, if we were to have anything that men want and love and put value on without the Holy Spirit, you might as well have nothing at all. For, ‘this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts’ (Zechariah 4:6). Not by the eloquence of a man, not by good music, not by good preaching, but it is by the Spirit that God works His mighty work.”
I am ready to work as hard as I can and then stand back and watch God do His work. We must throw ourselves back on God, for there will be a day when we will have nothing but God. So let us grow in our dependence and love for Him. May we in these days restore the Spirit to His rightful place in our lives and in our church. There could be nothing more important than that today.
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Comments
2/12/10 12:57pm
good word Jim. I echo. thanks!