Dear First Pres,
What a blessed Holy Week we shared together! The Maundy Thursday service was powerful. The Good Friday service was blessed. The Easter services were just marvelous. And it wasn't just because the music sounded great, the services were well planned, and a lot of people showed up. They were powerful, blessed, and marvelous because the Lord made them such. Pastor Tim Keller says that a pastor can make a sermon good, but only the Holy Spirit can make it great. I think the same is true for worship services. We did our best to make the services good (and I'm very grateful for all the Sunday's servants: choir, band, ushers, Link Crew, greeters, children's leaders, etc.), but it was the Lord who made them great. Praise Him!
I hope that you took time during the Lenten season to draw near to the Lord. It is often a very important season in my relationship with Christ, and this year was no different. I used the Seek God for the City prayer guide to focus my prayers outward, and I loved it. I sensed that the Lord was bringing different groups of people or parts of the world to mind that I rarely think of in prayer. It was a wonderful reminder to me of how helpful something like Seek God for the City can be to help me broaden my prayers. How about you? What do you think is one thing the Lord wanted to do in you this Lenten season? Have you thought about that? Take some time over the next few days to consider it. When and if you can think of something, write it down. If you can't think of anything, talk to God about that. Ask Him to show you anything that might be hindering your connection with Him.
So often we live our lives from big event to big event. Now that we're past all the excitement of Easter, it might be easy to simply move on and start focusing on what is next. My encouragement to you is to pause and reflect over the last seven weeks (Ash Wednesday wasFebruary 10). How will the Lord's work in your life during Lent impact how you live in the season ahead? The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians, "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Phil. 2:12-13). May that be true of us.
Blessings,
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