Sundays with Westminster

I grew up in the church, as in every time the doors were open we were there. :-)
Did I always love it? I was a kid! Of course not. That would require loving having to sit still and listen to adults talk for hours. BUT did I learn from it? YES! YES!

Sadly, that habit kind of fell to the wayside as I moved out for school and lived away from home. I could offer a list of excuses for how it happened, but that's neither here, nor there, or worth worrying about.
Did I completely ignore God? Of course not!! But the habit of spending His day in His house didn't get the devotion it deserved.

We, Husband and I, have attended the local EPC, off and on, for almost as long as we've been in south MS, but only in the last couple of years joined. With a little one in the house now, we made the decision to make a better effort to attend habitually. I want our little one to have that immersion in the body of Christ and that kind of exposure to her church family.

August was to be our clean slate for us after the business of summer, and well, last weekend... we didn't do so well. So... last night we all got baths... head to toe clean. This morning we were all up by 7:30 am. So, no excuses!

Little Bit did okay in the service with us for a while, but our little chatterbox would not hush and had to go visit the nursery in the middle of the intercessory prayer. Sunday mornings can be busy in there and when I went to get her she was not happy... Too many kids and strange faces. :-/

Husband and I though were fed the word, which is what we needed.

As I took notes, the thought occurred to me... "If I blog about our Sunday services, that will be a type of accountability with those who read my blog (even though they be few)."

SO, my goal going forward is to share from our Sunday services with you. It may be a point that spoke to me, a hymn that I loved, or a moment that speaks of God's love and grace... or all of the above. When I can, I'll also share our pastor's words with you. I know some people can't attend services for genuine reasons, i.e. not laziness, and look forward to hearing food for the soul from God's ministers.

May you be blessed, not by my doing, but because of the Word and the Spirit of God!


Today's sermon: Providential Intersections - Jesus At the Beach (click link to listen)
John 21:1-17
Rev. Mike Allen
Westminster Presbyterian Church, EPC

Things I took away from the sermon:
*The first time Peter sees Jesus while the disciples are fishing he tries to walk on the water to get to Jesus. This time he lunges himself into the water to get to Jesus. He just wants to get to the Master he has denied and needs forgiveness from.
*Christ doesn't shame Peter, but when He questions Peter about his love for him(Jesus), he uses Peter's pre-disciple name, Simon son of John. By asking Peter three times of his love he gets to the heart of the issue. "Do you love me?" Peter's root sin was that he didn't love Jesus more than man's approval. He had to be broken and come to true repentance, at which point Christ reinstates Peter to the Rock on which he shall build the early church.
*We have to get serious about our faith and be willing to live life on the edge of the page.