Our Daily Chair - God's great gift

What a simple, but PROFOUND illustration Pastor John used this last weekend, the chair. The chair represents so well the "rest" God offers to us -God really is saying, "Relax your fist, let God put his hand on your shoulder and say, "It's going to be OK. Your OK. I love You." This was the powerful message of last week.

I was approached by Pam on Sunday after the service; she was so excited. It was her third week at our Portland campus and is so excited to be baptized this Sunday. She told me how she had her purse stolen at Loyds' Center this week. Pam checked with Lost and Found, looked everywhere, and then prepared to move on. At some point she thought to herself, "why not pray about this." She did, and then got on with life.

When the call from the Postal service came she made no immediate connection to the stolen purse. The postal caller informed Pam that they had a suspicious package with her return address on it. There was insufficient postage, and no address to mail it to- The caller then asked, "Could we bring the package over and have you open it?" You guessed it, the rest is part of an Only God history -yes, the total contents of Pam's purse was in the package. Wow"! Pam's face was still lit up when I saw her on Sunday! It was so cool! What a living example of a gift that goes way beyond what you expect - A gift from God!

Monday I was at Starbucks. It was my day off. I was wearing my "Only God T-shirt." Two baristas smiled and said they had just been talking about "that church." I got my coffee and introduced the people I was connecting together, and then left. As I left I walked next to a line of cars waiting for the "much more than $3 per. gallon coffee." Suddenly a horn awakened my posture -It was my friend Randy, and as he rolled his passenger window down he called out -"I loved the message this weekend." He then went on to tell me he was going to take his "chair card" to share with other business person he would met with this week! God's chair of grace is everywhere.

Have you acted out Grace into someone life this week? Is there someone in your life that you need to be more gracious with this week? Try reading I Corinthians 13:4-7, then circle the words you need God's grace in order to love someone better this week. Invite someone to sit in God's chair of rest - GRACE.