Vertical

A Show Of Hands...

You can tell a lot about a person by looking at their hands.

Real followers of Jesus have dirty hands.  Hands dirtied by the hard work of reaching out and touching people who are sought by Jesus.

Then there are those who call themselves Christ followers but have clean, soft, manicured hands. Hands that are unsullied by the dirty work of hands-on involvement in the mission of Jesus.

Put your hands out in front of you and take a good look. 

Are your hands dirtied by personal involvement in the mission of Jesus? 

Or do you have clean, soft hands uncalloused by hard work of reaching out in Jesus' name?   

Bill Hybels' words put it all into perspective ~

"I would never want to reach out someday with a soft, uncalloused hand ~ a hand never dirtied by serving ~ and shake the nail-pierced hand of Jesus!

God has been challenging me lately by asking me, "How are you getting your hands dirty in the mission of Jesus?" 

So, I'm looking for new ideas for getting my hands dirtier in Jesus mission of helping people find their way back to Him.

How are you dirtying up your hands in Jesus mission?

 

Going On The Offensive...

When my kids were very little, they played basketball in the YMCA league.  I remember yelling out, "you're on offense," and "you're on defense" just so the kids would know what they were supposed to be doing on either end of the floor.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, "...I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."  Jesus is saying to His church, "You're on offense, you're on offense" so we'll know what we're supposed to be doing.

I've been thinking about the mission of Jesus church lately. 

We should be expending more offensive energy in helping people discover and develop a relationship with Jesus than we have been.  Why?  Because Jesus called us to go on the offensive and take back some turf for His sake.

 

Power To The People...

You made it happen.  The Crossing Church sent $6,660 to help University Community Fellowship continue to reach and develop the next generation of leaders for Christ. 

And their first purchase was...a new generator!  In June '06 our team witnessed the frustration they experience in having power outages during their services...but not anymore.
 
Pastor Micah (right) and Levi (center) passed along this message ~ "Praise be to God...we are very grateful for the generator!" 

For all of you who believe and support our Acts 1:8 vision of helping people find life in Christ ~ locally and globally ~ thanks!

We do what we do at The Crossing, because Jesus did what He did at the cross.  The best is yet to come!