I got very fired up while preaching yesterday. I love it when the Spirit moves, people are engaged and I can just let myself be moved along by the energy of real worship when I preach. Yesterday was fun, well most of it was fun. Let’s get on with the musings …

-I preached on vision. I love preaching on vision. God has been doing so many great things among us in the past year and we took a glace back at the past year during the message. We celebrated some great things. Then we focused forward as I laid out our vision for this coming year.

-We had outstanding attendance in worship. We were just 1 below our Easter attendance of a year ago! We had a lot of children and a great group of adults. Yesterday morning was a good snapshot of the great things that have taken place in the past year.

-Our small group had another good night of looking at the Word and discussing how we are applying it to our lives and how to reach out to our friends with the Word.

-It was great to see a few people able to attend worship after missing some weeks because of illness or surgery.

-I was exhausted heading into this Sunday. There has been a lot going on and from Thursday morning until Sunday evening I have been going non-stop. I took my first day off in a month earlier in the week. But I think my body and brain are screaming for a few days away. We’ll see what can be done about that issue.

-I am very encouraged by several who have really gotten serious about becoming people of prayer. While that is encouraging I am very burdened by the number of people who have not shown any desire to increase this part of their life.

-Between weddings and funerals I have worn a suit more in the past 6 weeks than in the past year. And I have a couple things already on the calendar that call for me to wear suit in the next month. What is going on?

-I am very encouraged by the number of people who are really speaking to others about their faith and those who are inviting people to attend worship with them. This will lead to great things.

-Our family’s annual bracket challenge is very interesting this year. For the first 3 days of the tournament my youngest grandson, he just turned 8, was leading us all. He is still in 3rd place after the first 2 rounds and is only 2 points out of first.

-I thought we were past winter weather. The forecast for the next few days indicates that I may have rejoiced a little too early.

-One of my activities this weekend was a draft for a Fantasy Baseball team with several people in our church. I love that kind of stuff. My fear is that those in the league are about to see the competitive side of me that they may not have witnessed up to this point. You may want to pray for them.

-With two weeks until Easter Sunday I am working hard on that sermon. There are likely to be several people in attendance who do not normally attend any church. I want to declare the Good News in a way that is understandable and will prompt some life-changing thinking and actions. That is a big responsibility and I take it very seriously.

-My son and oldest grandson will be with us for a couple of days soon as they come from Kenya so that my grandson can look at some colleges. I am so excited to have them with us and I am trying to figure out how I can have a grandson who will be attending college in a couple of years.

Here’s hoping that you have a great week no matter what the weather does where you are and that you find someone to encourage.

Dennis