Life Change
Let’s face it, if you are a Pastor you live to see Life Change. It’s the reason we do everything we do. This last week on Easter we shared a Shore Fellowship Life Change Moment. The person we highlighted was Lori Pittner. What made it so special for me was that God has used my wife and I in Lori’s story.
When I first met Lori, she was a mess. But God had already begun to work in her heart. Our sons played on the same baseball team and it was the night of the first game that we met Lori. That very day she felt a need to connect with God so she look in the yellow pages for a church. As I found out later she wrote the name of our church down along with my name and put it in her purse. After the game we were meeting some of the other parents. As I walked away from Lori, she saw my last name on the back of a team shirt I was wearing. And the rest is her story.
It’s short, but if you take time to watch I’m sure it will be worth your time.
Deeply Moved
Sometimes in life we get so used to things that very little moves us. We go through the motions just hoping something will spark us and kick us in the rear end. Tonight I had the privilege to visit one our fully committed members in the hospital. His name is Bill Becker. Over the past several months he has been tossed back and forth like a YoYo. One minute they tell him he has cancer, the next minute they tell him they can’t find it.
Just recently we interviewed him and showed it to our church. At the time he had been told there was nothing they could do for him. Right after the interview he was told that the cancer was gone.
Well, tonight I saw him in the hospital and he was told that they were wrong, they mis-diagnosed him and that he does have cancer. I wish you could have seen his peace. I left there so energized by seeing a man show true courage by trusting His God.
Sometimes we say the words, TRUST IN GOD, but when the rubber meets the road doesn’t that really mean as long as everything looks the way I thought it should. But what I saw tonight was a man who was trusting in God’s character. He said, “Tim, I win either way.” How right he is. Check out his video and our youtube channel.
Urgent Prayer Request
Just got an email at10:20 Sat. night from good friends of ours…Buddy Cremeans about Preston Mitchell. His wife called Buddy to request prayer for Preston. Preston loves Jesus and has served at Fellowship Church with Ed Young since it started. He is an incredible man of God with a huge amount of loyalty. Preston has been waiting close to a year for a kidney and pancreas transplant. Well they just got the news that it will happen tonight! Surgery should go down at at 1-2:00 am and last about 6 hours. Please join me, all you bloggers out there, and lift up Preston and his family. Please spread the word!
I believe with all my heart that Preston’s best days are ahead of him and it’s no coincidence that God has this going down on Easter Sunday! I’ll keep you posted…Pray like crazy!
Deep Impact
You never know what kind of impact you are having on the world around you. Sometimes we get discouraged because we wonder if our life is making a difference. It’s so cool when God reminds me of why I do what I do. Those reminders come in all shapes and size. Here are a few that stick out for me.
- It’s when you find out a church member who went on a missions trip to Africa with you builds a feeding center for kids to help missionaries spread the gospel. And then you find out that his business is hooking up with their corporate office to take a dollar per sale and put it towards feeding kids. How cool!
- It’s the guy who showed up in my office yesterday who had been watching us on TV for 2 years and told me how God was using our Church to change his life. The next thing I know this guy who has never been here yet tells me that God has convicted him to start tithing and he handed me a wad of money. Not only that but he tells me that a message that I preached that went out on the airways on homosexuality helped save the marriage of his friend. How cool!
- It’s the guy 17 years ago when I was a Youth Pastor in Texas who hated Christianity and let me know it, and somehow God allowed me to speak into his life, and today he Pastors an awesome church in Albany, NY. You may know him as Buddy Cremeans, I know him as friend. How cool!
I could go on but I won’t. How has God reminded you of why you d what you do? Keep plugging away, because even when you don’t see it God is using your life to place an imprint of Himself in the lives of others.
