A New Title

This week has been a further plunge into the culture of Seattle and the surrounding area.  It began with a birthday party for a friend that our boys have made through church.  It was held at a local swimming pool.  Yes, you read that correctly, but swimming pools here aren't like those from Texas.  Most pools are indoors here because it is so cold year around, and on this night that was especially good since it was 38 degrees outside!  This one had the look of a typical "splash pad" in Texas except that it was entirely indoors and climate controlled.  The boys had a blast.

 

On Sunday we spent the afternoon at a friend's house watching the Seahawks demolish the Denver Broncos.  The city was absolutely on fire for the Seahawks in the week leading up to the event, and it went even crazier once they won.  Seattle hasn't had a championship team in any major sport since the Seattle Supersonics won the championship in 1979.  That's a long drought.  Over 700,000 turned out for the victory parade on Wednesday, and that's more than the entire population of the city of Seattle!  Schools in the area deliberately let out and others openly said they'd accept excuses from families who wanted to take their kids to the parade.  School attendance laws here are much more lax than back at home, so any "cultural event" can be an excused absence for a student.  Many took advantage of this opportunity, with everyone from radio announcers to TV anchors stating that this was a "once in a lifetime event."  The city rallied around this team with a religious fervor!

 I continue to play with the boys at a park that is within walking distance from our apartment.  The field looks nice and tidy because the entire thing is made of field turf, the same artificial surface used by the NFL and college teams.  This prevents users from experiencing a muddy field.

 We also play in the skate park that is nearby.  We have a new game where the people on the rim try to peg the people at the bottom with a ball.  This is a distinctly boy game.

What the Lord has been doing

Last Sunday I had a strong sense that I needed to hit the streets in an attempt to go share Christ with some more homeless people on the streets nearby our house.  I packed up a backpack and some water bottles, Bibles, and some food, and enthusiastically hit the streets and prayed all the way.  On a normal day you would encounter multiple homeless individuals on a walk such as this, but on this day, I encountered NOBODY.  Not a soul was out apart from the occasional jogger.  I was dejected at first because I so badly wanted to work on the Lord's behalf, but the Lord quickly turned my thinking.  He made it clear as I walked and prayed that He simply wanted me to spend some time with him, alone.  Can you believe that?  The God of the universe wanted some time with me, a nobody!  Once He had my attention I prayed and walked some more, this time more at peace.

Around mid-week I got up for my usual quiet time prior to work.  I had experienced a lot of discouragement over the prior couple of days due to my own questioning of myself regarding what degree of influence I was having on this culture.  I really became frustrated with things that were going on around me and was wondering how I would ever be able to work for the Lord.  He drew me to 1 Corinthians 13, one of the best passages in the Bible and one that is most often read at weddings.

13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;^[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

As I hit my knees to pray, His voice spoke to me in that same clear-as-a-bell way that He has done so many times.  This time, He said "Love these people.  That's all you need to do."  I was stunned and overjoyed at the same time.  I had my marching orders and they were crystal clear.  I must show love to everyone that I encounter here.  In small acts and large ones, always love in the way that Jesus loves.

As if the message were not clear enough already, I got to prepare to teach at our church plant this week on John Chapter 6.  In this passage, Jesus says the following after feeding the 5,000:

⁶ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. ²⁷ But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man^[f] can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
²⁸ They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
²⁹ Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

This group of people was more concerned about food than about meeting the Lord.  They were more interested in physical food than they were in spiritual nourishment from the Lord.  And look at what he says in vs 29 after they state that they "want to perform God's works, too."  He says quite simply that their work is to believe in the one he has sent.  That's it.  That's the thing we have to do, and at this moment in our lives, He has asked me to do this thing only.  

I am convinced that the Lord will allow things to break free once we are moved in at our new house, but right now He just wants me, and he wants me to desire Him.  Incredible thought, isn't it?  There isn't anything else we are supposed to do now other than to love Him, and to love people.  It just so happens that these are the two greatest commandments according to Jesus himself.

Preaching

I have had many titles in my adult life.  Teacher, counselor, mentor, coordinator, associate principal, etc.  Today I received a new title, and this one is one that I still shake my head about in wonder.  

Pastor Paul.  Pastor Paul Edwards.  

I was asked on Friday to come deliver a sermon to a small country church in Oso, Washington, a community nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains about an hour northeast of Everett.  I excitedly started preparing for this and spent quite a lot of time writing out all of the points I planned on making.  Probably the best preparation I could make, though, came when I sent texts to some prayer partners of mine who are all close friends.  I asked them to pray for me as I spoke on Sunday.  I also spent some good time in the Lord's presence asking that He use me.

I actually managed to sleep for the entire night on Saturday (I was shocked) and woke up at the comfortable hour of 7AM.  My first inclination was to go to God's word and read and prepare for the sermon some more, but the Holy Spirit pushed me hard to get on my knees and go directly to Him.  So I did.  I have come to realize that while I can initiate many things on behalf of the Lord, if He is not in them, they ultimately come to nothing.  I asked Him to speak through me in any way that He saw fit.

Since we had experienced a surprise snowstorm last night, the roads were under packed snow for the entire way up to the church  We again experienced the utter majesty of God's creation the entire way there but managed to arrive early.

The church was a real gem, and that is because of the brothers and sisters in Christ that we were able to meet while there.  We experienced a fellowship of very kind people who welcomed us with open arms, continually referring to me as Pastor Paul.  This church clearly has a heart for people as evidenced by their current plans to plant another church in the Camano Island area of Puget Sound.  They also have a genuine love for each other that is evident, tangible, and contagious!

 

The church building is over 100 years old.

 

The sermon went well as I preached on John 6, sprinkling in some of the things that the Lord has taught me recently about its practical and immediate meaning.  I was able to see my boys and my wife in the crowd, and one of the boys even took notes!  As I spoke, there were some things said that I had never planned to say, and there were other things that I planned to say that I did not say.  I believe the Lord said exactly what He wanted to say, and I just happened to be His vessel.  What an honor!  I had several people approach at the end who related to me how the Lord had spoken to them and what they were currently dealing with that related exactly to the message from the passage. Praise the Lord for this!  An answered prayer!

As you approach this week, soak in the truth that the Savior wants a relationship with you.  If you are striving hard to do things on his behalf and nothing seems to be working, stop and go to Him.  Jesus said that believing in Him is the work He wants us to do.  Will you still produce good fruit as a result?  Absolutely.  But it is imperative that you go to the source of living water first so that this living water can flow from you to other people.  Rest in His love and love those that he brings you into contact with.  

1 John 4:10

This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.