Enter and Bless

Sunday morning retuning:  This retuning goes beyond Sunday morning.  Because the President of the C&MA was with us for several different sessions, I am expanding this retuning to the entire weekend.  From a Saturday night Q&A, through the message on Sunday morning and concluding with a powerful testimony making sense of his physical suffering, Rev. John Stumbo stimulated our souls and invigorated our faith, all the while calling us deeper.  I hope you were able to join us for one of those.  

When I consider a time like this weekend, rich in spiritual insight and teaching, I generally try to watch for nuggets of truth the Lord might use to make me more like Him.  That is actually what I called the note I made over the course of the weekend, “Stumbo nuggets”.  I was listening for what God would speak through our leader, my brother, to help me on my way. 

Enter and bless.  That is the one I want to refashion for you today.  In talking about how God worked through our sister church in Salem, Oregon while he pastored there, John shared that they cultivated and operated from this position, enter and bless.  They looked for opportunities to go into places with the intent of being a blessing,

Now that can take a million different forms, but it is truly a great way to think about how to live our your faith, and walk as Jesus walked.  It also connected with two other thoughts I will share but not elaborate on here.  You heard this one Sunday morning, “When God’s people get it right, the world wins.”  And akin to it, we need to find opportunities where “people of faith” (us) can partner with “people of goodwill” (them). As we continue to seek ways to serve our world, all of these are new phrases or twists on old ones that put our efforts in a slightly different light.  

So where in Scripture do we see this idea of enter and bless?  Clearly it is in play in Matthew 10:12.  Jesus was instructing His disciples how they should act as they went out to declare the news of the Kingdom.  Granted they were instructed at this point to go to “the lost sheep of Israel”, but later that commission would broaden.  The intent here was to look for a place that would welcome the blessing the disciple was bringing.  To use Stumbo’s words, as we look for a place to “get it right”, we need to look for a place that is ready to experience the blessing, a “win”.

So I simply want to ask you, do you enter with eyes wide open looking for the opportunity to bless and be a blessing?  Notice I did not mention where you are entering.  That was intentional because we need to be looking to bless everywhere we go.  It is a way of life, and it is not always profound.

A simple example.  After being escorted to a table for lunch yesterday I simply told the hostess, “Thank you.  This is my favorite table.”  You should have seen here light up.  It occurred to me in that moment that I need to be looking for places and ways that I can be a blessing.  Will you join me?

Jesus, help us to be a blessing everywhere we go.  Sometimes it will be a simple act of kindness, but other times maybe so much more.  The key, may the Spirit guide us.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy