You Can't Handle The Hope!

This was an amazing Sunday morning for me.  It is always crazy trying to minister in two locations on Sunday mornings and still get the girls to their classes on time in the right place...we are thankful for the assistance of grandparents and friends when it is not physically possible for us to make it happen.  This Sunday I got to reach deep and attempt to sing a Lauren Daigle song, "How Can It Be"....I told our keyboard player I felt like I needed to be like Phoebe in Friends when she wants a raspy voice (which she only has when she is sick) so she is trying to get germs from people by drinking out of their cups....whatever...the thought amused me.

Anyway, today our pastor was talking about the hope that God gives us...that He doesn't give us a glass half full, or even filled to the top....but, He gives us hope, overflowing.  Then he brought in the line from A Few Good Men....You want hope? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE HOPE!  Loved That!  But, what I love the most in that is that it is also the truth....ha!  We celebrated two baptisms today with a couple who just recently started coming to our church.  All their children came to celebrate with them and their grandkids.  Before their baptisms, they shared their stories and how God had transformed their lives by His work of grace....their stories included a past driven by alcoholism which actually led them to be living in their vehicle with two of their oldest children when they were young.  To know them now, you would never think their journey would have included a chapter like that, but it is so amazing to see the power of God to change their lives.  Okay.....that could have been enough hope, ya know?!

But, after that service and their testimony, Brad was greeted in the foyer by our friends and previous neighbors from when we lived in Jackson.  We had prayed for them for a while and were thrilled when they decided to attend our church last year.  They attended a class and have been learning so much about faith, but up until now had not been ready to take a leap of faith.  Today, they met Brad with tears in their eyes...they said, "We're ready now"....isn't it great when people can say something so simple and you know it is such a big and amazing choice for them.  So, in the next few weeks they want to be baptized and get married...and there is no denying that GOD is at work here and that He uses the stories of others as tools for transformation :)  Someone get a mop for all this hope :P

When our leadership team was at a conference with Jim Cymbala, he was telling us that sometimes he performs weddings in the middle of church services because when the Spirit of God convicts someone and they want to make something right with God, you just do it!  It looks like I will get to see God working like that in the lives of my neighbors....that is so awesome!