Deadly

This coming Sunday (at 9am) we will have the blessing of a testimony from a person God is leading from the throes of addiction.  Teresa Anne Garrard-McGuire from Broken Chains JC Motorcycle Club will share about her journey battling addiction, fear and abuse.  We will be celebrating how God breaks the chains that bind us and how we can invite God deeply into our hearts, our lives and our bodies.

"Gviyah" is the Hebrew word for body.  In 2016 deaths in America attributed to opioids (just one drug grouping) totaled 42,000.  In America 88,000 people die each year from alcohol-related causes.  When you see these statistics (both from the CDC) you realize that they dwarf reported deaths from things more "popular" such as military deaths in Afghanistan or deaths from 'active shooters.'   I am not saying we shouldn't be concerned about these other things.  I am just asking ... are obscure deaths related to these issues less popular because they are less important or do they happen in places where cameras and reporters would not dare to come?  Yet, God says all these people (the world and the fullness thereof) are His!

I hope we will all come to pray, worship, celebrate and listen to what God is doing in lives of people all around this country.  Remember that God cares about the places His Spirit resides (He literally lives in this temple called 'Gviyah).'  God created the people who are represented by those statistics and He did not make them flippantly or carelessly.  Their loss is a loss to humanity and to us.  Their victories are also ours.  So when we share testimony about saved lives, broken chains and redemption, we share about God's amazing work and His passionate love for us ... a love that follows us to the very gates of hell to bring us out of that dark place. 

Charles Wesley wrote, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light ... My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth and followed Thee ... My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth and followed Thee."  Go thou, and do likewise!  Randy