Clearing The Stage

Well, I have to say first that I believe God is continuing to do great things at Cross Pointe in the worship realm. Not only do I feel I have been given a clear vision for where He is taking us, but I have also been encouraged by several of your compliments. This last Sunday I truly felt like we came together in a wonderful time of worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is amazing how much of an impact having a wonderful intimate worship experience has on getting you off to the right attitude for a week. I am pumped about the upcoming weeks to come.

I have really been thinking about a few things in my walk with the Lord recently. Mostly around the reality of what I put in the center stage of my life. My stage has a lot of things on it: idols, my family, temptations, Cross Pointe, softball, my desires, selfishness, Jesus Christ, Christie (my wife), my dogs, my jobs, friends, fixing my house, etc.. (you get the drift). These are the things that I pay close attention to. There are always things going on in our lives that if we don't stop and take the time out of our busy days to realize, they can consume us and pull us away from having the meaningful relationship that Jesus desires us to have with Him. Last week I took a deep dive into rearranging my stage (just as I would setting up a worship set at the church). I asked myself, "where is it that I should place these things so that I can worship God to my fullest?" Well this is what I have come up with:

Center Stage: Jesus Christ - The center of my attention/focus

Front Stage Left/Right: Christie, My Family, Friends, Church Family, My Jobs

Back Stage Left/Right: My Dogs, Fixing up my house.

Removed totally from the stage: Everything that keeps me from giving my all to Jesus. Everything that keeps me from loving my family, from having integrity, and everything that does not depend on me to provide for it.

So how do you have your stage arranged? Is it too busy to tell who the Leader is? Or what you are giving your focus the most to?

This is my prayer for this week:

"Father, we desire to make you the center of our stage, by clearing off the stage of all things that have no purpose in aiding us to love You more. God we realize that true worship is not about singing, or about how great the guitarist is, or how awesome a Pastor is at giving a message, it is not about how great of a building we have, but it is all about laying our lives down to YOU! God we give you our lives for you to do your will in them, for you to use us according to the purpose you have for us. Our lives are your lives. This week as we work, study, socialize, etc. help us keep our hearts focused on You as the center." - In Christ we pray, Amen.

Have a blessed week, see you all soon.
Mark