Revitalize Your Church

Some profound insights from John Piper making a connection between the inauguration of President Obama and the flight that went down in the Hudson last week. (Thanks to Bud Wesche for sending this to me)

Jim, one of our members at Hayward Wesleyan Church, had a pancreas transplant last week. It's mystifying, really. Through the death of a young Utah man, and the kind generosity of his family, Jim will have a new life. Everything was going well until Sunday morning. Just before I was going up to preach, someone came to me with an urgent message. Jim was not doing well. He had a fever of 104, and there was serious concern about his body rejecting the new organ. We stopped and had a special prayer for Jim in the middle of our three worship services. Monday, I called the hospital. Pandora, his wife, answered the phone. "How's Jim doing?" "Great! Really Great!" she replied. "We heard that you prayed for us during the worship services. Well, guess what?? At each service, while you were praying, his temperature went down a degree or two! By the time the 11:00 people had finished praying, it was down to 99!"

A newcomer to our church told me an amazing story this morning. She has been coming about four weeks now -- and for the first time, has experienced the love and grace of Jesus. It has been absolutely tranformational for her. She has signed up for Alpha, and also is singing in our Easter choir! She told me that last week, she shared about her lonliness with Deb, one of our parishoners. Deb asked her if she had ever listened to Christian radio. She hadn't. In fact, she had never listed to a Christian radio station in her whole life! Deb told her where she could find KDNW , on the dial. When she went to her car, she turned on the radio. Amazingly -- Miraculously -- it was already on KDNW! She said that her radio has NEVER been on that station before. She said her car was locked, and she has NO idea how the dial ended up at 97.3. "It scared me to death!" she admitted, "But it also made a believer out of me!" We're going to light the faith candle for he...