Thank you to all who helped make our first Lenten Luncheon of 2009 such a success yesterday. Between the wonderful meal provided by Dana Blanco and the inspirational message given by Rev. Erin Oliver, I know that it was truly a blessing for God's people to be together in such an environment.
As Erin mentioned yesterday during lunch, I have spent the past three days traveling from Ruston to Woodworth to LaPlace in my role as a member of the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. Part of our responsibilities is to do annual interviews with those serving as local pastors (as opposed to Elders), evaluating their fitness and effectiveness in ministry. To see and hear the stories of people that God is using to make mighty impacts in the life of churches across the fruited plain was absolutely inspirational. These are people who in many cases are holding down 40+ hour/week jobs, tending to families, going to school 2-4 times a year, and pastoring at least one church. If it were not for the ministry of full and part time local pastors, a large percentage of the pulpits in our state would go unfilled. Thus, it was an honor to go as a representative of the larger church and visit with these wonderful servants of God, affirming their gifts, challenging them in their areas of improvement, and helping them discern what their future ministry may look like.
Thinking back on these three days, I can see a very Lenten thing coming to mind, the idea of sacrifice and self-denial. In the scripture lesson for this week's Sunday worship, Paul reminds us that the promise made to Abraham or his descendants did not come from the law but through the righteousness of faith. Every day, each of us faces those obstacles that we allow to get in the way of our fully living life by the grace of God, because we don't choose to exercise the faith given to us from God by Christ through the Spirit. What struck me over the past three days, thinking not only about these men and women who we had the honor of visiting with but also each and every one of you, is that when we get serious about sacrifice and self-denial, when we get serious about living out the Lenten disciplines, there is no telling what God and and will do in and through us.
All across this state, there are men and women who are constantly engaging in sacrifice and self-denial to serve the Kingdom of God, when we all KNOW that they don't have the time. However, God, the dispenser of unlimited Divine grace, empowers us beyond all our known limitations. My hope and prayer is that each of one us takes this message to heart, this message of God's work in and through the disciplines of sacrifice and self-denial during this season.
See You Soon!
Lamar
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