Beyond Me:

Have you ever had a moment that you knew that God was asking you to do something specific and you wanted so badly to ignore it? I had that happen to me today. I should say, I have been having this feeling for the past couple of days. God has been impressing on my heart the need for a solid message on confession and park of that confession was telling my own story.

I don’t like to see the deep, dark corners that my soul has experienced because I do not want it to appear as if I am parading around some evil scar or martyrdom or displaying my “scarlet letter” for all to see in a prideful way. I am in no way proud of my past, save that God’s grace abounded to me all the more.

Approaching the evening, I was honestly scared. It has been year since I have felt that way in anticipation of a preaching engagement. Maybe I was anticipating what God was going and was scared to be used in that capacity. I spent a few hours in one of the side rooms off of the Lab finishing my sermon and crying out to God to take it and use it for His glory.

After several phone calls to reliable prayer warriors, I knew that this evening was never in my hands and that God ultimately would work with or without me. As I stepped to the platform to speak, I felt the weight of what I had to say, but felt the freedom of the Spirit to say what needed to be heard tonight.

I can’t remember a time that I spoke on my own accord like that. There was a true empowering of the Holy Spirit tonight as I spoke. I don’t say that lightly. I truly believe that God graced me with the ability to speak His message of hope and forgiveness tonight.

No, there were not droves of teens that came to the alter. In fact, I really don’t think anyone came up to pray. Yet, the work that was done was not at that physical alter, but the alter of their hearts. I had about a few conversations with people who had been living in some kind of sin that came to both Marty and myself after the service. Seeing those lives and the honesty reflected in a better payoff than seeing all our kids at the alter. Praise God for His work.