It is good to be back blogging at Panera this morning. The trip to Antigua was very productive and much needed. If you want a more detailed account of things you can go to my Wednesday blog tracylmooreblog.wordpress.com.
Back to America. Yesterday I met several visitors. Some were in town on vacation or visiting family, but there was a great number from our community looking for a church home. Hopefully many of you were able to meet some of them.
We kicked off our new sermon series, "Great Jailbreaks" this week with a lesson on authority. This Sunday we will continue with another escape and corresponding lesson. What will we learn? Prayer.
Also, this Sunday night will be an outreach event and movie. The elders shared a trailer for the movie, "Home Run." If you were unable to be here you can go to homerunthemovie.com and see a preview. Most of you know about our "Celebrate Recovery" program. It is designed to help the people of this church and in our community with hurts, hang-ups, and habits. It is not an "AA" program but much broader and Christ-centered. This movie shows one of the ways this program helps others. If you do know someone who is needing this kind of help, try to get them to attend.
But don't think this movie is only for those who need "Celebrate Recovery." This week I read, in an Alabama newspaper, about a church of Christ preacher who was fired after being arrested on heroin charges. We went to college together and were in the same social club. To be honest I lost all contact after I graduated and had not seen him until this past year at a conference I was speaking. We exchanged pleasantries but nothing more. I went on his Facebook page when I discovered he had been arrested, trying to make sense of the whole thing. In 2010 he lost his 10 year old son in a car accident and almost lost his daughter. Since that time, he and his wife apparently divorced. I don't know all the details, but just a quick glance I would say he was trying to deal with his pain in the wrong way. Maybe as a preacher, he felt like he had to appear strong and didn't have a place to deal with his struggles. I don't know. But I do know "Celebrate Recovery" is a place he could have turned to through the whole ordeal. Losing a child goes under "hurts" and drug addiction comes under "habits." Who knows, maybe if he and his wife would have had something like this they would still be married and he wouldn't have turned to drugs. Only God knows. Either way, my plea is for the people in this church to use this resource. Everything is confidential and those who run the program are compassionate and understanding. Don't wait until you read someone's name in the paper before you invite them to something like this. This movie is a first step.
Enough for today. Keep praying for our sick and shut-ins. Check on those you haven't seen in a while and let the leadership know if there is a need. Have a great week.
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