shawnethomas

After months of waiting, this week it is finally here! Starting this Friday Pleasant Ridge will be presenting our Christmas musical “The Grinch” downtown at the CoMMA. It is a major production, and preparations have been made for months in advance: the choir has been practicing twice a week all fall; actors have learned the lines for their characters; costumes have been sewn; tickets have been bought and given to friends and co-workers; tests have been made on the equipment for the characters that will fly; videos have been made; all kinds of people have been lined up for food, and child care, and decision counseling, and greeting people at the CoMMA — preparation in every imaginable way has been made for this program.

Preparation is vital for something like this, because programs of this magnitude do not just “happen.” It takes preparation to make something like this come off successfully. What we need to see is that there is another kind of preparation that needs to be made if this program will accomplish what we really desire — and that is our SPIRITUAL preparation. If our hearts and lives are not right before God, and we have not prepared ourselves spiritually, then all the other preparations we have made are made in vain. We must prepare ourselves spiritually if we want to see God work this week. And we need to understand that this same kind of preparation is also vital if we want to see God work in other areas of our lives in the days ahead: in our families, our church, and our community. This morning I want us to turn to a passage of scripture that challenges us to prepare ourselves today, in order that we may see God work in a special way in the days ahead. Joshua 3:5 says:

“Then Joshua said to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.'” Continue reading →