cardboard testimonies

A couple of weeks ago our church presented "cardboard testimonies." The first side of the cardboard tells who a person was BEFORE they encountered Christ and then the flipside tells who they are now--AFTER Christ has REDEEMED them.  It was a truly incredible time of worship as we witnessed people be totally honest and vulnerable so that they could share with others how Christ has transformed their lives by his grace and love.  Take a look at the video if you have a few minutes...


Central Church Cardboard Testimonies 11:00 Service from Central Church on Vimeo.


After the testimonies, our pastor challenged us to realize and act on the reality that people will remain in their "before"--will remain LOST-- unless we who are experiencing the "after" of knowing Christ and his peace share that with them.  [I don't want to debate whether God will or won't save someone because I did or did not share with them.  I just know that Christ has called all of us who know Him to share. {Matthew 28:19-20, 1 Peter 3:15}]  These cardboard testimonies were a visual wake-up call for me.  I've GOT to be more intentional about sharing the hope of Jesus with others.  

grace.

This morning, a big reminder about my salvation from Ephesians 1...

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace ⁸that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 

¹⁷I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, ²⁰which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms

I hope these verses will remind and encourage you today as they did me: My salvation has nothing to do with me, and I have an incomparably great hope and power that lives within me because of Christ.  Praying that I can let that spill over to someone today.

P.S. The past couple of weeks have been ca-razy busy! I'm ready to catch up on everyone's posts and get back to posting myself! Hope you all have a happy hump-day! :)