September 19-25, 2009
FORGETFUL“And now, dear children, continue in him…”~ 1 John 2:28 ~
I am enjoying ministry with the Alzheimer’s residents of Belvedere Commons Senior Living. Many of you have witnessed the power of the Spirit working even when the mind seems to have stopped working. Walking from chair to chair greeting the beautiful congregation, I bent to ask one friendly faced, white-haired, blue-eyed lady in her eighties, “What is your name?” She stared into space like she was trying to retrieve some information in a hard to reach place. After a lengthy pause and several failed attempts to remember, a resident seated next to her smiled at me as if he was especially glad to contribute and said, “Her name is Kathleen.” My favorite definition of a friend is “someone who reminds you of who you are when you forget.” There are times when we forget who we are too. We might remember our name, but we repeatedly fail to walk in our true identity as children of God. We allow the world, or our circumstances, or a past mistake to tell us who we are. One can hardly read John’s love letter without noticing how many times he refers to believers as “dear children of God” or “dear friends of God.” So often we need the ministry of a reminder. I read once that “people need to be reminded more often than instructed. Sometimes our greatest ministry is to keep on bringing people back, time after time, to the same old principles they so often fail to see or so easily forget.” After the song and prayer service, I began to share from God’s Word. In the middle of the message, that beautiful little lady who couldn’t recall her name twenty minutes earlier sky rocketed out of her chair and recited her name with absolute confidence, “Kathleen King.” It took her some time, but she did remember. I simply said, “So glad to meet you Mrs. King” and she sat back down in peace. Her breakthrough moment felt like a doxology moment to me! In moments when you can’t seem to walk in what you know, even what you have known for many years, rest in the reality that you are a child of God. While you struggle and wait to remember, may God send you some friends to remind you! May you be a friend who reminds others? For Restored Memory for the Forgetful,
P.S. I want to bring to your attention that although attendance has been increasing our giving for the last six weeks has been significantly down. Our surplus of $30,000 has dipped to $22,000. We were hoping to use some of these monies to do some much needed projects around the ministry center and to begin a savings account towards an eventual purchase of this building should God lead that way. These are difficult economic times and we realize that circumstances may alter your ability to give. Please be as faithful in your giving as you can be. We are in the most exciting time of ministry of our Orchard journey. Thank You! Weekly Financial ReportWeekly Need $4,829
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