Two of Timothy’s old skater friends turned up at church yesterday morning. One’s been there a few times – off and on – but J’s brand new. I get excited when I greet someone at church who has alchohol on his breath. So often I get used to seeing the same lovely faces every Sunday morning that it’s easy to forget about the highways and byways.
It’s amazing the way the Holy Spirit works on our hearts when we allow Him too. I looked out at the two of them – sitting in the front row because Timothy told them they had to – a few times during worship and smiled because they looked so bored. Later, though, one of the guys told Timothy that they both thought it was the most powerful time they’d ever experienced. He said he would have cried if J hadn’t been standing next to him.
These stories should be pouring out of our churches. Every Monday we should sit around the perverbial water cooler and tell our coworkers about the drug addict who wept before the the Throne of Glory the previous morning. Isn’t that why we’re here? Isn’t that why Jesus spent three years training up 11 guys? Closely-knit church families are a necessity and a blessing but we need to cultivate a spirit of adoption in our congregations, and we need to come to a place of prayer and faith so the Holy Spirit can work through our Sunday morning services! That means you and me, not just the leadership, need to invite the filthies sinners we know and pray that the Lord would have His way with our strict Sunday schedules! Amen?
