Do it Again, Lord!

Here's a question for you: Should jockeys be considered athletes? What about race car drivers? Sure, they are sports participants. And what they do takes a specialized set of skills (and in the case of jockeys, specific physical proportions). Sports fans know the names of the most successful ones (especially drivers). But does this make them athletes? After all, it's really something else that supplies the power. After all, no one buys a ticket to watch drivers run a hundred-meter dash, or jockeys play basketball.

Okay, you must be wondering what my point is. This Sunday, I plan to preach a "State of the Church" message. I did the same thing last year around this time, and I spoke of stuff we had accomplished the year before, and what I hoped we'd do in the year ahead. Nothing wrong with that. It's good to make plans, to make sure everyone knows where we're headed. But what our church needs more than good plans is the power of God. Without that, we're jockeys playing basketball...spiritually speaking.

This Sunday, we'll look at Habakkuk 3:2, reading the prayer of a prophet whose situation in life was not as different from ours as it might first appear. We'll talk about how the power of God is evident in the world today (for a little sneak preview of what I'm talking about, search for "Muslim visions of Jesus" on the internet), and ask Him to bring that same power to our place and time.