Two topics before bed

Pastor Johnny Beaver from Calvary Baptist Church in Pascagoula, Mississippi, spoke at our service at Lake Gregory Community Church this morning. He touched on two topics that struck close to my heart. One is something I have been thinking about a little already, and another is a new thought I want to ponder more. I'm just going to capture it here tonight, before bed, and then come back to it this week.

Overtly, he talked about Deuteronomy 32, specifically verses 1-5, and then verse 11. Johnny is pastor of a church that LGCC committed to supporting and caring for after Hurricane Katrina. He was at LGCC this morning to thank the congregation in person for their part in Calvary Baptist's ongoing recovery, and he shared terrific, only-God-could-have-done-this stories about things that have unfolded since Katrina. The verses from Deuteronomy were part of his story, and I loved his talk about verse 11, about being pushed out of the nest, into God's care. He brought up some cool metaphors in there that I want to think about.

Less overtly, one of the themes of the morning seemed to be about Pastor Johnny learning to be ministered to. I have had this thought about my own interaction with the Body of Christ and with the Lord over the past 18 months, and it has come to the surface again significantly in the past few weeks. He said this morning that one of the things he learned after Katrina was about the vastness, the sheer size, of the Body of believers. He and his congregation have been cared for and encouraged in extraordinary ways by people they never met, and you could tell by his sharing that it was something for him to get used to.

Preach it, brother. I am living in the land of learning to accept His goodness in both broad and detailed, and sweeter ways.

So, there's just enough to capture the gist of it. More thoughts and reactions later to:

1. being pushed out of the nest
2. being ministered to