Remembering Your Past

How much f your past do you remember? Do you remember the good times? the bad times? How much of it do you try and forget?

One of my all time favorite movie scenes is when Rafiki whacks Simba on the head to teach him how things are in the past and need to be left there. I think most of us can relate to Simba's problem. We struggle with getting over the hurts and mistakes in our lives. We allow those feelings to hold us captive in the here and now. There was never a part of God's plan. This is not to say that He wants us to forget the past, rather He wants us to understand where He has brought us from so that we can better appreciate where He has us now.

God constantly reminded the Israelities that He had brought them out of the slavery of Egypt.He did this to help them realize that they were not meant to be the slaves of anyone and that He desired for them to be a free nation living in peace and prosperity (Leviticus 26:1-12). This desire was never meant to be limited to the nation of Israel and as such God repeats this theme specifically to the Gentiles in Ephesians 2.

In the end God never wants us to forget our past. He has used it to make us who we are today and without you would not be the special and unique creation that you have become. God also does not desire our past to cripple us. Fro those of us who have accepted Christ we must remember we are living in the year of jubilee. This means that we have been set free from all of those things which have held us in bondage and made us slaves to this world.

So my question for you today is... What part of your past continues to keep you in bondage? Whic things in your past are preventing you from truly living out the joy found in the year of jubilee?

Facebook, Love and Life

My wife has written a great post about her experience during Lent this year. Check it out at http://abailey423.blogspot.com/2009/04/facebook-love-and-life.html

Final Beach Reach 2009 Report

For those of you who have been praying for Beach Reach this year I wanted to let you know the final numbers and some stats. These came from Jason Hayes' blog...

810 participants from 18 states.

Pancakes: Served 12,371 in 12 days
Van Rides: Transported 13,441 people in 15 days
Commitments: 91 First Time Decisions for Christ!
Prayer and Interest: Over 2 million refreshes on www.beachreachlivepcb.com

Thanks for all your prayers and I look forward to giving some live reports from the field next year. If you interested in joining or supporting us for a trip to Florida next year please let us know.