The Gospel According to Matt

Yesterday was a great day at Crossroads.

Here are some of the highlights: (1) A lady named Beverly gave her testimony, telling how God has worked in her many struggles to keep her close to Him; (2) A powerful video called “This Hand” was played to commemorate the communion service [you can check it out at www.sermonspice.com search for "this hand"]; (3) I preached (which is always a highlight, ha!) on Psalm 23:3 which you can check out at www.crossroadsofjoliet.org/listen.html; (4) a lady named Sue was baptized at the conclusion of the service; and (5) we had a ”Chili Cook-Off” as a fundraiser for students going to church camp.  It really was a great day—very powerful, very moving.

Serveral of our regular attendees were gone, but we continue to have lots of guests and returning guests, so that helps weekly attendance.  With some extra outside support and special fund-raising we finished the month in the “black” which we haven’t done in several months, and we ate into our deficit a bit, which is also good.  We received a really nice e-mail from some first-time guests yesterday afternoon that was very complimentary of Crossroads and indicated that they intended to make Crossroads their church home—which is awesome.  And a man named Bill pulled me aside after church to tell me he was ready to be baptized into Christ and wanted to do it next week while his mother visited from out of town—again, awesome!

This weekend we also had Duane and Jean, some of our old friends (old in age and kind), visit us.  It was so good to visit, reminisce, and encourage one another.  Also, the high school youth group came to our house for the evening to swim and have fun (about 15-20 students in all).  So, it was an exhaustive yet exciting weekend.  The Lord’s blessing was evident this weekend and now we’re looking forward to another great week.

I hope that the Lord’s blessing will be evident in your lives, this week, as well!