"Jesus, Friend of Sinners"

Pastor's Log - Sabbatical Date 2.1.2 - 20:41

We had a good Saturday together.  Beth spent the morning making and decorating a graduation cake and cupcakes.  I made our traditional Saturday morning waffles and we watched some cartoons together.  The kids enjoyed the beautiful weather by playing outside and riding their bikes, while I worked on cleaning up our front porch.  Then Elam and I played Monopoly together.

One of my sabbatical goals is  to be very intentional this summer about saying "yes" or at least not putting the kids off for too long when they ask to do something.  The reality is that all too often in the daily grind of life, I find myself saying "no" or "not right now" and then never getting back to them.  I intend to balance things out better this summer.

This evening, we went to a graduation party.  When we got home, we played some darts and carpet ball in the basement while Beth finished up a project for tomorrow and did some more work on VBS plans.  I took a video of Silas "inch worming" across the floor.  He is mobile but not quite to the crawling stage.  He gets up on all fours and then lunges forward rather that moving his hands forward as in a typical crawl.

I can't help but notice that it's an odd feeling to be at home on a Saturday evening and not be studying/memorizing my sermon for Sunday morning.  Tomorrow will be a full day, part of which will include worship at Bethel.  Rick is on with the sermon and there will be a portion of the service in which I will be released of my responsibilities for the summer, my family and I will be blessed for our summer together, and Rick will be commissioned to lead in my absence.

On a final note, we had a Christian radio station playing in the background today and I heard the song, "Jesus Friend of Sinner" by Casting Crowns.  I don't think that I have ever heard that song before, but I was struck by the lyrics within the first four lines.  It has a lot to say to us about who Jesus is and how we have not been faithful to his call upon us for how we live out our faith.  I especially liked the part of the chorus that prays for God to break our hearts for what breaks His heart.  Here is a link to a YouTube video of the song with the lyrics.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipwEtvWL_3c&feature=related Check it out!