Wednesday, September 23, 2020

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  The setting…11:45 a.m. Friday, September 18, 2020.  The sky was blue, with a few clouds floating by.  It was a warm 63 degrees with just enough breeze to put a good ripple in the flag.

I was approaching the first pond on my lunch walk when I saw three geese high tail it out of the pond onto the land.  Seriously, I’ve never seen geese move that fast.  That’s when I saw it, a black plastic grocery bag had blown into the pond and the three geese were afraid of this strange, unknown object.  But it didn’t stop there.  About 10 or so geese that were to the west of the bag started to form a semicircle around it and more geese on the east side of the bag were also approaching, while the three stood on the bank watching.  This scene reminded me of being part of a Christian community.  Satan blows strange unknown objects at us to disrupt our peace and calm, get our hearts beating wildly, and scatter us to places we really didn’t want to go.  But when we surround ourselves with a strong community of Christ believers, without thinking or regard for themselves, they circle up in your defense to take down the enemy.  If you’ve ever had someone stand up for you like that, give me an AMEN! 

The Lord did not put us on the earth to live this life on our own.  He offers us a family of sisters and brothers in the Lord to do life with.  Even Christ didn’t do life alone.  He had His brothers in the Lord that he traveled with.  True, one time in particular they scattered like the three geese when the trash blew in, but they eventually regrouped and fought Satan all the harder.  Sometimes life will scatter a group of Christians, but as Jesus showed us, it’s in the rising that lives are changed.  In His rising, He showed us that although things may seem dark and appear to have no way out of your tomb, NEVER GIVE UP.  RISE UP and reach for the blessing…His blessing on the other side.  And don’t be surprised to find that almost all of those blessings will be accompanied by a fellow Christian to share your blessing with.  The song I want to share with you today is The Blessing by Elevation Worship, but given the theme of community, I want to share this special community version with you.  Bless others and be blessed. 

#ThePitsburgBlessing – Virtual Church Choir