This past weekend, my hubby took a bunch of pre-teens and teens away for their annual winter youth retreat to Muskoka Woods resort and so that meant… I was up to bat at our church.
Yes… I preached on Sunday!
By last Thursday I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to, something nasty happened to my back on Wednesday night and it left me in severe pain and resembling the Hunchback for the rest of the week. It’s amazing how God can use you if you’ll allow Him, especially when you press through how your feeling or what’s going on to distract you at that moment!
I was inspired by an incredible devotional titled, “Second Chances” about Peter and Jesus. Peter denied Christ 3 times and after Jesus rose from the dead he visited the disciples (John 20). I can only imagine what was going through Peter’s head and heart. The 2nd time he sees Jesus was on the shore, he and some of the disciples were fishing (John 21). When they realized it was Jesus on the shore, Peter jumped in the water and swam to shore. He couldn’t wait to see Jesus. Jesus had prepared a fire and had some food ready, he’d provided for them comfort and nourishment. Peter had no more shame, he didn’t let his mistake get in the way of being by his Saviour’s side. New beginnings. 2nd chances.
God is a God of 2nd Chances (and 3rds, 4ths, and 5ths…). I think it went over really well. My back felt a TON better by the time I was getting up and dressed for the day.
I almost had a wardrobe malfunction though! Wearing a dress, when you have to attach the cordless, over-the-ear microphone… it wasn’t the best choice of outfits. As I struggled to find a place to clip the box, one of my friends who is a singer on the worship team mouths the words, “stick it in your boot”. Thankfully I chose to wear knee high leather boots with my “can’t stick that anywhere” dress! 🙂 Thanks AZ!!
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| best place to clip your mic… in your boot! |
And while preaching, I translated the key points into Japanese for our 5 visitors there from Hokkaido, Japan. My Japanese is a little rusty but I just wanted to let them know that God is good and that Jesus loves them – in their own language.
That’s all I will say for now. If you want to hear what my actual message was {Peter and Jesus wasn’t it}… just let me know! 🙂
wow. i can't imagine preaching. I used to get nervous just reading or making announcements. I was regularly told that people liked my reading voice, which is funny since I hate my voice. But the last time I went up I had a paper (showing something that applied to my announcement) and that paper was shaking like CRAZY!
It was a great morning and a very timely message that really could apply to anyone's life who was open to it. We all need those second chances! So glad I was able to visit 🙂