Sunday, March 30, 2008

Toughest Day ever!

I am pretty much an eternal optimist and look forward to every Sunday and getting the opportunity to share God's "best" news with the people of NorthStar! Today, was a day that I struggled with more than any other that I can ever remember. There was no doubt about the truth we were sharing today because the enemy of God's best was out to make me not want to share and to distract people from hearing the realities of life.

We closed our 316 series with the "Open Door" and sharing about heaven & hell. We really minimize talking about Hell and want to pretend it doesn't exist but it does and there is a door that many walk through that heads directly there. I talked about the 3 deaths we can experience: physical death, spiritual death and an eternal death. God sent His Son so that "whoever" walked through His door would NOT have to perish but have life with Him forever!!!

There is so much written on Hell....we surmised by saying it was "outside" - "separated"....separated from their Creator, separated from God's best...forever.

The door to heaven is through a relationship with Jesus Christ and it is for "whosoever". After hearing Daniel & Stephanie sing the new song "A new door" by Lenny Kravitz I closed by talking about Heaven and what it is going be like.

I have to say, anything that could technically go wrong did this AM -but it did not stop what God wanted to get done! There were 13 people alone in the Compass Centre that stood up and prayed the prayer of Salvation with me...it was amazing...no fluff, no stuff, just guts to make a move towards God!

It was crazy - but SO worth it! I typically don't send you to our website to listen in - but this may be one you want to catch! Not a normal week at NorthStar but sure one that we all needed to remind us of the realities that await our choices!!

We begin our new series House in a couple of weeks....it is going to be strong!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

AWESOME JOB....God's TRUTH was presented CLEARLY and BOLDLY. That is all God asks of you Mike ( of us ) , the rest is HIS work and boy was HE present at NS yesterday :)
Keep proclaiming HIS TRUTH!

Anonymous said...

It is "tough" when we share the "not so warm and fuzzy" TRUTH but God calls us all to share the whole TRUTH. You did that yesterday and 13 made the BEST choice of their lives.
Heaven is REJOICING just as we are .

Cynthia Cullen said...

Mike, that is awesome! Todd doesn't speak much here but he did yesterday on Hope (check out my blog!) Anyway, we had the WORST weekend personally and I KNOW it was because of the topic he had to share. Satan was testing our own resolve in where Our Hope truly is placed. Keep it up, man! We continue to pray for our "church home."