Crossroads Celebration Church

On Tuesday, April 27th I will be sharing the last chapter in our Ethics class on environmental ethics.  I will ask the students what they do to help keep the earth green.   Most students have some things they do and on occasion there is one or two students who can’t think of a thing they have done to conserve energy or clean up the planet.

Today I installed our first ever rain barrel.  For the last two years it has been on my list to do and I even wanted to make my own.  A few weeks ago the big lumber store I frequent had a 55 gallon one on sale.  Maybe the next barrel I will make on my own.  I built a frame for it so it is high enough to have gravity push the water out to my wife’s garden.  And to my good fortune, it was sprinkling when I finished putting it up and then it dumped rain about two hours later.

I can’t wait to see how it fills and then see how it drains out to the garden.

The one thing that amazes me about people who say they don’t do anything for keeping the earth clean and green is that usually it saves them money.  And for some of my college students paying off school loans one of these days, saving some green for the wallet just makes sense.  The other thing that makes sense is that God created this beautiful world and we are given authority over the earth [Genesis - creation story]. We should be good stewards of the earth around us.  It just makes sense if you are a person of faith or not.

So if you didn’t do anything this last Thursday, which was Earth Day, it is not too late.  Plant a tree or a shrub or some flowers.  Pick up some trash.  Put up a rain barrel [save on your water bill this summer and do some good for the earth].

I would love to hear from you and see what you are doing for God’s creation.  I am adding to my list yearly and would like to get some new ideas.

What an absolutely amazing God we have.

We just finished the Lent into Easter season and we had a great sermon series.  I am not patting myself on the back.  If it were just me, it would have been a disaster of a series.  But God was pumping out his Word despite me.  Then we turn around and start this Transformation series to really celebrate new life of Easter.  I started out really hesitant and looking over it I was sure I made the wrong choice in doing a four week series on Transformation.  Today I am again totally convinced that it is a powerful series and again there is no pat on the back for Mark.  God is just simply amazing.

I will be introducing some new things this week as a result of my interview with my superintendent yesterday.  I am telling a story about a Bible character that I really don’t like, because he takes so much away from my hero.  But it is going to be a good story anyway.  This and that and another thing just fell into place and wow another great sermon is shaping up for April 18th.  You will just have to hear it once it’s posted next week or come and hear it live at Crossroads Celebration Church this Sunday, April 18th, 2010.  Then again it just might be me.  But if you are open to the work of the Holy Spirit, then some of the most simple things can become amazing when God is at work in your life.

There is obviously more to this story for me.   But what about you?   Are you allowing the transforming power of Jesus Christ to turn your life around and change?  Seek the Word!  Don’t hesitate on the transformation.  We are so comfortable in our old world and ways that we don’t trust that Christ has something even better for us if we but trust.

I hope that you will find God absolutely amazing.

Beginning on April 11, join Crossroads as we discover the secret of transformation. Take your everyday, ordinary life and place it before God. Be transformed from the inside out through Christ.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
2 Corinthians 5:17