Dad is here…

Today I drove to San Francisco International Airport and picked up my father, who flew in from Atlanta. He is staying with us for the next three weeks. It’s good to have him here. I have never shared this on the blog…but the early part of my life, my father and I didn’t get along. In fact there was an eight year period in which we didn’t talk. But later in life through Christ we where able in mend our hearts and build a relationship.

It’s amazing how ‘forgiveness’ is so powerful in our lives. It starts with Christ…we forgive because Christ forgives us. The power of forgiveness is underestimated in our culture…the need to forgive and the need for forgiveness. For many years I carried the burden of ‘hating’ my father. I blamed him for all that had gone wrong in my life, later in life I stood face to face with him and he asked me to forgive him for what he had done.

I remember at first being shocked, and the same time relieved. It was a freeing experience that opened the door to a deeper relationship with God and my father. People ask me where are the ‘miracles’ pastor…how about the miracles of healing relationships, mending broken hearts and taking the burden of carrying the ‘unforgiving’.

I hope, if you’re reading this and God has tugged at your heart about someone you haven’t forgiven…that you would ask the Lord to help you forgive that person. No matter who the person is or what they have done…God can help you forgive. I’m speaking from experience; I have had to forgive some people in my life, whom many would consider ‘unforgivable’. But how am I the ‘chief’ of sinner, whom God forgave of all my sin…how can I not forgive those who have wronged me.

-ps

So what’s been going on…

Let’s see…we started family night on Wednesday nights. We provide a meal and a Bible study for everyone….K-Living. I love it! Tonight we had 22 people show up for the very best ‘Spaghetti alla Bolognese’ I have ever had. The sauce of was made by Doris aka “Na-na”, mother of PJ and mother-in-law of Don. We followed-up the meal with a bible study class and prayer. Overall I would judge the last weeks as very exciting and I can’t wait to see how God plays this out.

What else, school, football…I am in a Biblical ethics class and it’s been very interesting I will have to share some of what I have learned as soon as I can digest it. It’s like ‘drive by learning’. Last week we had over three hundred pages to read and write on.

Football has been fun…I haven’t coached in years and I get to spend two days a week coaching my son. Who by the way is turned in a real ‘force’ to be dealt with. I love his attitude most of all he plays where you ask him and he gives 100%...and lights people up! I have to say I have enjoyed this year watching more than ever.

Saturday morning I meet with my accountability ‘team’. I have learned to love these two men in way I have only started to understand. I say that because God has brought us together and we are bonded together by a common desire to know Christ deeper and to share that love with others. We all want the same thing and we are helping each other to accomplish that end. I have become so dependant, I need them in my life. I thank God for them…

Sunday morning I meet with the Deacons and the men in training, five of us right now. This group too has started to steal my heart…I have watched them grow spiritually and I have enjoyed watching them serve. All of this has been very humbling…I can see working all around me and I have to wonder why at times….I am so undeserving to have any part…yet that is what God does for all of us…we all don’t deserve his love or grace…and yet ‘while I was a sinner, Christ died for me’…It is too much for me to understand!

I love you Lord!

-ps