On these hang all the law and the prophets
God didn’t call us to a safe, easy life. He called us to a life of adventure, and sometimes it’s hard.
On November 11, 2018, I was asked to give a short message at the time for tithes and offerings.
For some context, I am a member of C3 San Diego. My family attends a new “East Campus” that is temporarily meeting in a high school auditorium. We setup and tear down every week, including a massive 30-ish foot tent out front where we serve coffee and donuts each week. It’s so much more amazing than I ever thought this much work could be.
This is what I said.
This morning at men’s prayer God gave me some words, and I finally spoke them. Later I said, “I’m more of a ‘write it down’ guy that a ‘say it out loud’ guy.” One of the other guys immediately asked me, “Who told you that?” That limitation didn’t come from God.
Six months before Jesus was born, another baby boy was born. John was a cousin of Jesus. He was a miracle baby, born to Elizabeth, who was old and barren.
In my version of how things might have happened, I imagine that Jesus and John played together as children. Maybe they saw each other all the time, or maybe they only saw each other at the festivals and holidays, but I believe they were friends growing up.
I had a “vision” this morning. I use that word loosely. In reality, it was more like me imagining myself being in an action movie scene, complete with a dramatic orchestral soundtrack. 1
I was walking down a nice trail with a friend. We were talking and enjoying hanging out. The views were nice. It wasn’t a piece of cake walk, but not really strenuous either — comfortably difficult. Most importantly, it headed toward a place I wanted to go.