Monday, April 30, 2007

surprises from God

Our church hosted Mike Hagen's Strength Team for a week long series of crusades. To be honest the whole concept left me cold and the ads for it were nauseating in my opinion. However, on Sunday Mike Hagen preached the sermon and I was delighted with the quality of his message. I was even more moved by two brief sentences in which he said things that really hit home with me.

The first sentence needs a little set-up. He mentions how we can do the right things and be so busy working for Christ that we aren't in Christ. A very familiar concept for most of us Christians who listened to good ministers in our life. However, sometimes we all need to be beamed between the eyes. Hagen was knocked squarely between the eyes when he went to a ministerial conference and the first thing the speaker said when he walked out was "Christ did not die so that you could have a job."

I am not a preacher but somehow the depth of Christ's death really reached me when Hagen said that.

The second sentence was near the very end of his sermon "Who would you rather have watch your children, Mary or Martha?"

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:01 AM

    Me, I had not thought about the last comment from that message/ Who would you rather have watch your children? Interesting thought. We had a really great message yesterday on miracles. His message made me think that I can ask for a miracle for AJ. So that is what I am doing. I have talked to several friends and am asking them to pray too. NLM

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  2. Oh gosh what a question: Martha or Mary -- now I know the answer for me jumps to mind as does the very raw fact that I am much more Martha as a mom than Mary.

    Hmmm .... lots there to think about. Thank you for sharing it.

    -Krina

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  3. Oh, I don't know about that last question. Now I probably won't sleep tonight - and my kids are all grown!

    I remember the exact moment when I realized that the biblical characters were few and far between who met the qualifications for the homes we would let our children stay at.

    Good thoughts.

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  4. Sometimes I really hate those instances when God uses something that I don't really like or have a prejudice against to make me learn something.

    However, those are really good quotes to think on. Wouldn't it be best to be a mixture of Mary and Martha as a mother?

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  5. What sweet faces. You captured them well.

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  6. Anonymous1:22 PM

    You know I think Martha found peace in her role (I'm thinking John 12), perhaps she'd stopped looking askance at Mary's relationship with Jesus and started to enjoy serving Him and blossomed in her own beautiful relationship with Him. And in John 11 it says 'Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus'. I just think how proud I would be if it had been me and I'd read John's gospel and seen my name first after Jesus loved...Oooooo.

    They both sound like stand-up ladies so I'd let either of them care for my children ;) Especially if it meant I could have a little uninterupted afternoon snooze (LOL)

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