Pastor’s Pen

"CONNECTING WITH GOD"

As we prepare to enter the new fall season together, I think it would be very helpful for us to pause for a while and reflect on our desires for the beginning of a new year.  What is your prayer for this new season?  How do you wish this time around to be different from the last?  Would you wish for more balance?  More time?  More energy?  More quality and depth in relationships with family and friends?  More personal growth?  More hours spent feeling truly alive?  A greater sense of meaning and fulfillment in your life? 

I believe that movement toward each of these goals begins as we tend to first things first.  The “first things” I have in mind begin with our personal relationship with God.  So many of these good things that we crave in the depths of our souls have their foundation in our connection and our life with God.

This fall I will be bringing a series of messages entitled “Connecting with God” focusing on more effectively connecting with the source of our lives.  We will be invited to grow in our faith by exploring ways we can connect with God through prayer, worship, scripture, creation, and service.

This is how Richard Foster describes the invitation to embark upon this journey in his book entitled “Prayer”:

“God is inviting you and me to come home, to come home to where we belong, to come home to that for which we were created.  His arms are stretched out wide to receive us.  His heart is enlarged to take us in.  For too long we have been in a far country: a country of noise and hurry and crowds, a country of climb and push and shove, a country of frustration and fear and intimidation.  And he welcomes us home: home to serenity and peace and joy, home to friendship and fellowship and openness, home to intimacy and acceptance and affirmation.

We do not need to be shy.  He invites us into the living room of his heart, where we can put on old slippers and share freely.  He invites us into the kitchen of his friendship, where chatter and batter mix in good fun.  He invites us into the dining room of his strength, where we can feast to our heart’s delight.  He invites us into the study of his wisdom, where we can learn and grow and stretch… and ask all the questions we want.  He invites us into the workshop of his creativity, where we can be co-laborers with him, working together to determine the outcomes of events.  He invites us into the bedroom of his rest, where new peace is found and where we can be vulnerable and free.  It is also the place of deepest intimacy, where we know and are known to the fullest.”

-Pastor Dennis Anderson