We had a great Christmas Eve service tonight. It never gets old seeing people trust Jesus Christ as their savior. We all gathered together for one service at the Sheraton Imperial which was unique. We had several people acknowledge that they started a relationship with Jesus tonight. I also had a great encounter with a couple who said both of them had trusted Jesus Christ as their savior this past Sunday. Praise God.
I am especially grateful for all of the awesome people who were responsible for making tonight possible from planning the service, to parking cars, to wrapping presents, setting up days ahead of time, childcare, worship team, tech team, greeters, ushers etc. We have an awesome team.
When I got home we had a surprise present outside of the garage. That was great. After the girls opened their Christmas pajamas, we put them to bed and started on assembly (the new family tradition). It is time to go to bed.
When someone trusts Jesus do they get a new life or an improved version of the old life? If it were simply an improved version of the old life then all we have to do is add Jesus to the life we already have. Then we hope that He fixes our problems and cleans up our life. However, if He gives us a new life then the old things are gone, new things come because we are a new person. If you know Jesus Christ, what do you have - a new life or an improved version of the old one?
Today, we concluded our series entitled: Wake Up. We had a great conclusion to the series with several people making decisions for Christ. We covered some difficult topics in this series and one of the things I have loved about the people of Southrbidge is their willingness to be honest. Whether we were talking about sexual immorality, a loss of love, being overwhelmed by the pressures of life or apathy, people did not pretend that these messages did not apply to them. I pray regularly for several things for our church. One has been authenticity. I am thankful we are not content simply playing church.