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God's work
Sunday, April 16, 2006
For Easter, my church built this beautiful bridge that spanned the width of the stage, surrounded by flowers and shrubbery and some kinda sweet lighting/paint job on the floor to indicate a river underneath. The idea was to have anyone wanting to begin their relationship with God walk across as a symbol of committing to faith in Jesus. I remember my doubts. "It's gotta be scary enough to raise your hand during the prayer with everybody's eyes closed, but getting up and walking across that bridge with everybody watching you?"
The sermon was a simple one with stories about bridges and the basic information people needed to know about what God was offering them, with an Indiana Jones clip and a testimony, and then the invitation, where we sang a mix of the traditional hymn "Just as I am" and the contemporary song "Jesus I come."
It seemed like about 10 or so came to walk across during the early service, the first of those being this little boy with his mom, which was a wonderful sight. I was unprepared for the next two services however, in which tons and tons of people got out of their chairs and came solemnly down the aisles—a line actually formed around the stage as we switched to different hymns and cried and smiled. It was one of the most amazing and spiritual things I'd ever seen, as I looked into the faces of the people coming forward from where I sat in the orchestra, and tried to catch a glimpse of God working in them. They estimated that 200 people walked across the bridge in the second service alone (probably half of that being the friends/family of those coming forward, but still shocking for my 1,500-seat church of the apathetic rich suburbs in the middle of America).
After that, those already believers were invited to walk across as an affirmation of their faith, and I did so, reflecting upon many different things as I did and feeling this sense of God's power that made me feel better in many different ways. I can only dimly perceive that glory, but what glory there was today!
11:19 PM
Comments
wow, that is so cool. :)
Posted by shiowei at April 17, 2006 5:03 PM
This picture reminds me of one of my own.
Posted by John at April 18, 2006 8:32 AM
Vic! oh, so this was what you were talking about with your church bridge thing! that is just SO cool! i pray that those who walked over were sincere!
i loved hanging out with you the other day, we really need to do that MUCH more often. i'm thinking multiple times a month, none of this once every other year business it is not working out. i miss you desperately!
P.S. i won the Adobe Creative Suite 2 yesterday in a raffle at COD yesterday! craziness!! i'm so excited, so now i'm going to go on a designing/advertising spree!!! yay!
love ya vic, God Bless!
Posted by Paula at April 21, 2006 12:57 PM