Thanksgiving morning. Thirty seconds before going on a roller coaster. During a colonoscopy.
 
These are just a few times when I think most people welcome that "empty feeling." This week I got to enjoy another one of these moments, as I walked through the downstairs of the church. No, my office hasn't been pillaged by pirates (I wish!) Actually, it looks more like it was ransacked by disgruntled members of the carpenter's union.
 
The empty feeling I enjoyed was located in our renovated fellowship area. After months of "squatting" in this space, not a table-saw or hammer or paintbrush or ladder could be found. Even the pounds of sawdust and gypsum have been swept and vacuumed away. As I write, a crew is laying our new carpet, which has dampened some of the reverb from the newly emptied room.
 
President George W. Bush got into a great deal of trouble by prematurely announcing "mission accomplished." So, I'm not rushing to unfurl any banners just yet. But I am prepared to say that we've been blessed. Regardless of whatever "bumps in the road" we may encounter in the next few weeks using our new facilities, there is no disputing the fact that the Lord has kept us safe and enabled us to work together despite strong wills and clumsy steps. We've been blessed.
 
Soon, we will face a tough decision: what to do with the blessing we've been given. Will we make it a priority to preserve the pristine nature of this beautiful space; or will we accept the fact that, if people invade the space, it won't be new forever?
 
Since most of us have a personal stake in this project, each of us will have to make that decision. In a sense, your involvement in this project -- whether cooking, cleaning, painting, building, etc. - is an investment. As with any other investment, it's reasonable to expect some type of return or dividend.
 
I'm praying the dividend for the past six months' of renovations will be salvation and spiritual growth for many souls. But I know that these souls will be attached to people with dirty feet, who will stain our new carpet and dent our new walls.  It's inevitable. If we invite people into our new space, it won't stay new.
 
I suppose we could make it a priority to keep the place "like new." We could guard it like a museum, reminding all guests not to touch or get too comfortable. We could set a goal of "being good stewards" and try to preserve the newness until Jesus returns.
 
But that's not my goal, and I don't think it's anyone's here at West Valley. We haven't invested six months of our blood and sweat just to make a space - we've been investing in Christ's Kingdom. Every individual we reach represents the dividends of our efforts.
 
In the next few months I'm hoping the Lord will bless us with miraculous returns in our investment. If He doesn't, I'm afraid all we'll have when Jesus returns is a big, empty room... and with it the kind of empty feeling that no one enjoys.

 

 

The CLT held its regular monthly meeting on Thursday December 10. Notes and actions from that meeting include:

 

When the angel appeared to Joseph with the message that Mary was to give birth to a child, he was told that the child was to be named Jesus, because He would save His people from their sins.  Throughout the Scriptures, in both Old and New Testaments there are several words for sin. But, the most common of these meant to get lost or to miss the mark. One of the parables of Jesus of being lost is that of the "lost sheep". As one shepherd described sheep he said, "Sheep nibble at grass with their heads down. One comes to a hole in the fence and with its head down nibbles away at the grass and on through the fence. Before long the sheep is far from the fence and is lost. I cannot think of any person I have ever known in my lifetime who made an intentional decision to get lost. People get lost in thousands of ways. Being lost comes from bad choices and decisions. To use another metaphor of "missing the mark" getting lost comes from shooting at the wrong target. In the Christian understanding of things God is at the center of everything. With the coming of Jesus, God (The Word) became flesh. God entered into human life in the person of Jesus Christ. He came here to be the Savior of the world.....to save people from their sins. The Bible says, "All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6)  Redemption and salvation culminate in Jesus. He is the target.  Jesus is what life is to be like. In this sense anything outside of what Jesus is like is sin. We often talk of sins as individual acts of which people are guilty, and there is truth in that, but the greater truth is that sin has more to do with being out of relationship with Jesus, out of sync with God, than anything else. Jesus said, "I have come to seek and save what was lost."  This is what Jesus is all about. 

God bless you!
Love in Jesus,
Pastor Clio