My wife and I found Jesus in Vegas. Yup, no joke. The nastiest cistern of filth in the United States...one of the places on earth KNOWN for it's less-than-holy set of virtues and values has a very bright and shining star. We first attended Central Christian Church on Easter in 2005 and I immediately felt as though we were finally "home." Not HOME as in with family, the place you grew up, but like my SOUL was home.
Over the next couple years we grew to really love this church and what it did for our relationship with Jesus. Amanda was baptized there and I have fond memories of the Central Family. Upon moving back to Pittsburgh in December 2008, we immediately set forth to find a church to fill the empty shoes left by Central. It turns out, those were VERY hard shoes to fill. We tried many churches in the area, and none of them felt...well...right. Then one day, Amanda and I were seeing a relationship therapist/counselor to re-learn how to talk to one another, and our rugrats were with a friend of ours in Mars. She had taken the kids to Mickey Dee's for lunch and we had a few minutes before they were to return so decided to go check out a "flea market" at a little church just back up the road. We looked at the knickknacks and spoke to a few people in there for a few minutes.
Turns out that one of the guys I was talking to happened to be the Pastor at this little church. I had just got done telling this not so tall guy with a shaved head and well defined beard that as a pastor (talking about the pastor at our last church) you should not be afraid of pissing off the congregation. If you always clean up the message to the church on Sunday, you are doing a huge disservice to the church. Turns out, this is JUST the conversation Pastor Dan needed and he kinda felt like we were angels sent to help him get over himself for the sermon that following weekend. We attended - not thinking we would like such a small church - I mean come on...Central is HUGE. Central had 9 Christmas services the year we left, each near capacity of 3200 a shot. YOU do the math. Christian Community Church of Mars is barely 250 strong. But they have heart...and they are all genuine, and they care about one another.
We were immediately invited to join a small group - something we struggled with in Vegas - and I really like what God is doing in our lives. Our small group is awesome and it's not really small anymore but it's not unmanageable either. Last night marked our 5th(?) meeting with Dave Gilson leading the small group through many relevant chapters in the Bible. It also marked the Division Championship win of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Small group last night was less about the Bible, and more about Football but in the end it all relates.
God expected much from Jeremiah, and tested him often. The ever present message when reading about Jeremiah is that we should be obedient, and waver not from the plan. Amanda and I have been battling with this lately and jumped back in with both feet.
At many times during the game, we witnessed many players praying. We saw alot of pain and struggle and we saw one team find victory over another. One team - one way of playing the game - one method of making decisions came out on top. At the end of the game last nite Big Ben stated in his post game interview "We had a game plan and we stuck with it" but he started with "the Lord is Good..."
Yes He is.
GO GOD! and GO STEELERS!
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