Sunday, November 24, 2013

Loving Life



(This Week at The Gathering - November 2013)

On Sunday night we held our monthly Wesley Love Feast. The Love Feast is intended to be a time of scripture reading, worship, testimony, and taking an offering for the poor. For the past year, the offering that we receive has gone directly to assist people from our community who are in need. This night, we had a smaller group than normal. With just six of us around the circle, however, the prayer and testimony time was powerful and real. Tears flowed and praises were lifted up for over an hour as we told our stories of how God is transforming our lives.

 Of the six there, two are currently homeless, two were formerly homeless, and one lives in section 8 housing downtown. One person named Rick who came to The Gathering about a year ago and who had just celebrated 208 days clean and sober, told the group about his former life. He said, “I used to hang out with a group of guys who robbed houses. We would pull up in a van and ring the doorbell of a house. If nobody answered, we would kick in the back door and steal from them.”  Two weeks after I left those guys, all three of them were arrested and are still doing time in prison today. Since I have come to The Gathering, God has completely turned my life around. I don’t have a place to live right now, but God is changing me. I’ve never been happier in my life.”  

The last thing that we did before ending the service was to take an offering for the poor. A small basket was placed in the middle of the circle and I invited people to give as God led them. As I got up from the circle, I noticed $40 in the basket—a generous offering from such a small group! I spent some time talking with a few people and then headed to my car to leave. Just as I opened my car door, Rick came running out of the church. Pastor Carrie, you forgot something!  Don’t you want to do something with this?  It was Rick holding the basket with the $40 in it. With such a small group that night, we had failed to follow our usual procedure of designating two people to collect the offering and place it in the safe. 

I thought to myself, “Here is a man who used to rob houses who because of an encounter with Jesus through this church is now bringing me $40 in cash—cash that could have just as easily been put in his pocket. Isn’t it just like God to show Himself this way?  It was as if God was saying to me, “Just in case you wondered if all this talk about life change is real, let me show you that it is.”

“Thank you, Rick,” I said. “Let’s go take care of this.” And together, we walked back into the church, presented the offering to a member of our admin team who counted it, sealed it and secured it. 

Praise be to the God who forgives, redeems, and transforms us all. Thank you. Jesus for changing lives in real ways every day at The Gathering.

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