Feels Like Chi Alpha

Before planting Solomon's Porch, my wife and I spent eleven amazing years in the world of college ministry.  I think I speak for her when I say we loved every minute of it.  However, if there's a downside to ministry on a college campus, it has to be finding space on campus to meet in.  This is a problem we had to deal with for the first 7-8 years, until we were able to build our own student center (thank you Life Fellowship in Weatherford, OK).

Even though our college ministries days are over, we find ourselves dealing with the same problem regarding meeting space.  We've been meeting in a hotel since we started doing pre-launch services in October of '09.  Over that time, we've met in pretty much every space they have available.  Thankfully, Chi Alpha prepared us well for this type of inconvenience.  That being said, the inconvenience reached new heights this past weekend.

On Saturday, I received an email from the hotel letting us know our time with them was over.  Starting in November, we will no longer be meeting in the hotel.  It's always tempting to panic or get upset when something like this happens, much to my surprise though, neither happened.  Without going into a lot of details, I believe the timing of all this is God ordained.  I don't know what's around the corner, but I believe God is in the middle of it.

Right now we're praying for direction and wisdom.  Do we find another hotel and/or temporary meeting space?  Do we go ahead and use this time to find a more permanent location?  Do we go into homes?  We're not quite sure which direction we'll end up going, but here's what I do know.  We will not panic.  God is in control!

Miracles

We're currently in a series called miracles.  I'm having a blast with the series and we're seeing God move in the lives of our people.  Because this series has been both encouraging and challenging to me personally, I wanted to use the next few blog posts to share some of what we've been learning at Solomon's Porch.

Week 1-Lazarus

John 11:6 When Jesus heard Lazarus was sick he stayed where he was two more days.  During that time, Lazarus went from sick to dead...however, if you know the story, you know Lazarus lived again.  Lesson...A delay of the miracle doesn't mean a denial of the miracle.  Keep praying...keep believing...your miracle may be delayed but it doesn't mean it has been denied.

The thing that stuck out to me the most in this miracle is found in verse 39...Jesus turned to the crowd and told them to "move the stone."  Lesson...sometimes our participation is requested.  Time after time in scripture we often see that action from our side is needed before we see action from God's side.  Moses had to raise his staff before the sea parted.  A miracle is something only God can do, but it doesn't mean we get to just sit back and wait for God to move.  Many times we need to move some stones before we see our miracle.  Instead of waiting for your miracle to just happen, maybe you should ask the Holy Spirit to show you if there's any action you should be taking.

Maybe the thing that brings about your financial miracle is a change in the way you handle your money...move that stone.  If a passive approach to your miracle hasn't worked, maybe there's a reason for that.  Take some action and walk towards your miracle.

For the entire sermon click here.