The Healer of the Broken

God of Mercy, we need you now,
Hold us up with Your power,
Holy Spirit, comfort us,
As we cry to You.

Let Your grieving children come,
To Your glory and be filled,
With peace, peace,
That passes understanding.

You're the Healer of the broken,
You're the Healer of the broken,
You're the Healer of the broken,
So we'll rest in You.

God of Hope, we trust in You,
Rescue us, O Christ,
Let the wounded ones arise,
And shout Your praise.

How long, how wide,
And how high,
Is the deep, deep Love of Jesus?

You've rescued us, and redeemed us,
With the blood of Your Son,
You have called us to be Your people,
So hold us up, hold us up,
Hold us up with You Love.

Ephesians 3

14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

I wrote this the other day as I was preparing for a service in which our church will dedicate a child that passed away earlier this year. The God of creation has shown His power mightily in our congregation over the past year. He has corrected actions, healed hurts, reconciled relationships, given guidance and provided in ways we could never have imagined. We have seen first hand that the Lord's promises are true. Still, we must pray for peace in the midst of things we cannot understand. I love verse 21 of Ephesians 3: "to Him be the glory in the church..." Lord we pray this in our generation!

Grace and Peace,
Joel

P.S. You can listen to a scratch recording of this at http://www.myspace.com/joelwinters

Once Upon A Time

Growing Pains: Just a couple of years ago (when I was much younger:) I had a strong opinion about my calling for ministry. I felt strongly that I was not supposed to work in a local church. In fact, I believed my only connection to the local church would be one of support from the church, without me doing anything in return (other than attaching my ever so prestigious name to it). I'm sure many of my motives were pure and honest. I know many of them weren't. Its hard to get famous leading worship in the same congregation each week. The Preceptor sat and waited patiently, for years really, for me to 'grow up' (my own words). Thinking about ME two years ago makes me scared of what I'll think of the current ME two years from now.

Conversion: Before I married I took a position as a worship leader in a part-time capacity at a church. I married during my time there. My wonderful wife and I spent a lot of time frustrated with "church." Things just didn't gel. It was supposed to be glorious. It was meager at best for our paradigm. But subtly a shift took place inside of me. I started to lose my thinking of how church is 'supposed' to look. The global Church became more important to me. I started to see the local church as part of the global Church. All Creatures Of Our God And King, Lift Up Your Vioce And With Us Sing. What I've found is that the more I care for the global Church, the more important the local church is to me. The Body is made up of many members: great and small.

God-Sized: I get tired of these hook-phrases. Some friends of mine and I were on our way back to the Rock from Hot Springs after driving to a church, only to find that the worship event we were supposed to lead in had been canceled. All of our gear was in the back of a Ford f-150 pickup, no tarp, it was rainy. We were thrilled to say the least. Out on I-30, between Malvern and Benton we were passed and splashed by a huge RV pulling a large trailer. The trailer and RV had matching flashy paint jobs with some fancy, new-wave Christian symbolism (definitely not against symbolism, just let me finish the story). The text on the side of the RV read: "Doing God-Sized Things." As you may imagine this started a bit of a discussion in the cab of the truck. The rain kept coming. The gear was fine when we got home though. Thanks be to God.

• A water jug
• Five loaves, two fishes
• Gideon's army
• David, before he was king
• Moses'/God's rod
• Thorns and nails
• Pierced flesh
• "Let the little children come unto me..."
• A young virgin
• A carpenter
• Saul/Paul
• A cross of wood
• The early church
• St. Patrick
• Lottie Moon
• St. Francis
• Zacheous
• A heart, willing to worship in obedience

I am having to learn to lay aside what I think is God-sized, and learn that in God's Kingdom, and in God's hands, the weak are made strong through His power and for His purpose.

Grace and Peace,

joel