It seems life is spinning and this morning as I awoke I wasn’t sure there was any control over it.  The wonderment and beauty of yesterday’s eclipse was quickly past, enjoyed, but here and gone.  Everything quickly went back to what’s on the plate to get done.  This morning I awoke extra early and knew I needed to get up and see what God was wanting me to know from Him.  My devotional reading and Bible reading seemed to be giving the same message.  It centered around taking heed to what God is doing and unite with Him in it.  However, when we do attempt to unite with God’s message, don’t go there unprepared and alone.

Since last Spring I’ve been working with one of our pastor’s to prepare a pathway to better connect our ministries in the church purposely to one another–assimilation.  In so doing, we found God leading us to our Core Values.  These are: Worship, Connect, Equip, Serve.  In my secular life working in education I found that the Community Agreements we lived by were the starting point for all the planning we did making sure the work was done thoroughly.  Now I’m finding the same to be true working with our church in this depth of planning.  We tend to burn people out giving lots of opportunity to do things but not attaching the “doing things” to the greater purpose of God’s Kingdom Work.  When we are doing God’s Kingdom Work under His empowerment we ignite rather than burn out.  Burn out is truly a man’s energy/adrenaline drain.

When the pastor gives his message on Sunday morning, what does God want us doing with it?  How does the message tie purposely to Sunday school classes, Bible studies, Life Groups, Celebrate Recovery, Teens, Children?  Is it a message detached in purpose to these?  When a speaker comes in with a pertinent message are we to take it as an informational time unrelated to ministry areas where we serve?  Is there a deeper, united purpose we are missing that would help unite everyone?

As I was journaling and asking God what He wanted me to know from Him today He seemed to shed much Light.  He showed me this area of Core Value is spiritual battleground.  One should not go into it alone or uninformed or he will likely end up feeling very beat up.  Satan wants us detached in spiritual meaning and purpose.  He wants us isolated and feeling that way.  We freeze up when we are–giving Satan just what he was after.  I was seeing each of our ministry areas as troops within God’s Army.  When we are fighting the war of spiritual victory we need to do so with everyone on high alert and fully informed.  So, this would start with Worship–then Connecting–then Equipping–then Serving.  Our communities, countries, world are battling spiritual darkness and attempting to give secular light instead of Spiritual Light.  God is asking us to join Him and shedding His Light.  Lets unite and do this hand in hand.  We will do this best being united in purpose and intent not leaving those attending expected to do it on their own as they see fit.

OK, that’s my sermon.  I’m not even a preacher but this message is pressing in on me today.