Seeing With God's Eyes

The challenge this week for the Summer of Blessing is to begin each day in prayer asking God to help you you see what he needs you to see. I just received a note from someone expanding on this prayer:

"...we need to pray unceasingly for the "vision" of the heavenly host in order to see with our transformed minds and not our eyes when we look upon the cloudy images right in front of us."

Seeing with God's eyes? We don't naturally see with God's eyes. We often see what we want to see. It takes practice and focus to learn how to put God first and what we want second because usually it is the other way around.

Imagine how incredible it would be if all of Sugar Grove's 950 people spent every day wherever they are seeking to see what God needs them to see.

Try it out. Start your day asking God to help you to see what he needs you to see. And know that I realize none of us will do this perfectly. In fact my day yesterday started kind of crazy and I realized this morning that yesterday I had never asked God to help me to see what he needed me to see... I did today!

Summer of Blessing Stories

I am having so much fun hearing some of the Summer of Blessing stories! But even more than just fun it is neat to realize all the tons of ways God is working and active and leading people.

In the last post I mentioned about the group of people setting up a canopy in their front yard and inviting their neighbors to get together and pray and their neighbors came. I have heard stories about people writing notes to all of their neighbors and beginning a chain reaction of neat events on their street. I have heard stories about people greeting neighbors who moved onto their street.

But I know there are lots more stories out there. When those stories are shared with other people it is encouraging and exciting to hear all the ways God is working and leading. We want to hear the stories. Post your story on the church facebook page , shoot a note to me, or grab a pen and paper at the Grand Central cart in the back of the church auditorium, write it down, and pin it up so others can be encouraged.

Fun Stuff About Sugar Grove

There are a bunch of fun things about Sugar Grove... like the youth minister coming home from camp with huge chops, or the ability of an undisclosed person who works in Live Wires to put on a tacky chartreuse colored jacket and become a totally new person. However what is even more fun about Sugar Grove than some of the characters that inhabit its hallways is the expectation and atmosphere that God will move and work in each and every person.

Somewhere along the way in the church world an expectation developed that God only worked and moved in the leadership of churches and the rest of the members simply did whatever it is that members are supposed to do. However this goes against some basic foundations of the church such as the reality that every person is filled with and gifted by the Holy Spirit.

I was attracted to Sugar Grove 9 years ago by the desire of the leadership to let God be in charge. This passion to let God be in charge is what continues to drive Sugar Grove and at the core of the Summer of Blessing. The goal of the Summer of Blessing is to encourage everyone at The Grove to open their eyes to what God desires to do with them in their daily walk. There have been some neat stories that have come out already this summer. Here is one:

• A few of our members in Meadows Place got together and set up a canopy in their front yard and spread the word on their street that they were going to get the neighbors together and pray about anything that might be a need. Eight of the people who showed up had no connections to Sugar Grove and 4 of them had no connections to any type of church. They had planned to end this time of prayer at 7:30 PM and the neighbors did not leave until 8:30 PM.

These types of things cannot be planned by church leadership. They are things that occur because God directs specific people in a specific place to do a specific thing to reach specific people.

The fun thing about Sugar Grove is the expectant atmosphere that God will work and lead every person in unique ways.

How is God leading you?

The Body of Christ..

^{1 Corinthians12:12} Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 


My family and I just returned from Colorado where we were able to spend a couple of weeks on vacation in the mountains. One of the things I like to do every morning while in the mountains is get on my bicycle and ride. Cyclemeter Log

Riding in the mountains is both torture and awesome. No humidity. No Oxygen. But the beautiful views and wonderful smells compensate for chapped lips and burning lungs.

One thing I do when I ride my bike is spend a lot of time communing with God. Sometimes I talk. Sometimes I listen. One day while riding God helped me to notice how interesting the mountains are. Any part of the mountain environment taken on its own is not that remarkable- a dusty rock, a plant with a few flowers... But combined together in just the right way and all of the unremarkable individual pieces form together into an environment that bears the powerful fingerprints of God.

God reminded me that this is like the church. Each of us on our own is impressive as a human being created in the image of God but, like all of humanity, we are flawed and fallen. However when God places us together in just the right way as the body of Christ we become a collection of unremarkable individual pieces that are formed into a remarkable whole that bears the powerful fingerprints of God.


That's pretty incredible!

Don't forget who we are and why God has put us together!