Sunday’s Comin’

As you know, this summer I've been preaching three Sundays a month and taking the fourth one off. This has given several of the other pastors on staff here the opportunity to preach. We are blessed to have a staff with so many capable and gifted speakers! This Sunday, Ansel Talbert, who heads up our middle school program, will be preaching. I'm looking forward to hearing him and seeing all of you as well.
Have a great weekend,

Will Dungee

Read below for a little preview of what Ansel is going to share with us:
For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn-fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.
For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it-though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. 2 Corinthians 7: 5-11

I was talking with my brother yesterday when we ventured into “bright” ideas we had while growing up together. There were things we did that really have no explanation, and honestly were downright shameful. Some of those moments of shame really caused a feeling of weight or heaviness that, when we were younger, we couldn't seem to explain or shake.

Let me give you an example. When I was 6 and my brother was 4, I told him that if I dropped a log on his barefooted big toe that it would blow up like it does in Looney Tunes cartoons. He, being the younger impressionable one that wants to be just like big brother Ansel because big brother Ansel wouldn't drop a log on his toe if he hadn't already been through this hazing process, obliged to my request. To make a short story shorter, his toe did swell up and bleed and he cried and bigger footsteps started heading my way. But there was something that happened in me that I realized for the first time...the moment I let loose the log torpedo and it made a direct hit, I had this intense feeling of Why did I just do that!? That's my brother! Whom I love! Why!?! I couldn't shake that feeling of absolute grief and regret. I didn't know what to do with this new feeling. I just cried, which made it harder to lie when dad came around the corner.

So, let me ask you, “What do you do with this feeling of grief, or regret?” Because it still happens to everyone today. I'm 28 and there are still times where I ask myself, “Why did I just do that? Why?”

This Sunday we'll talk about grieving. How real, hard, makes-you-cry-sometimes grieving can be done well when we hold tightly to the grace of God in Christ.
See you on Sunday,

Ansel Talbert