Dear Friends:

Do you remember the first time you were remarkably amazed by God?  I remember.  It is as vivid as yesterday but it happened in 1977.  It was a Sunday just barely after noon.  The room was quiet.  Everyone was downstairs in the kitchen area looking for a fresh cup of coffee and some warm homemade cinnamon rolls.  I really did not know what I was doing or why I was doing it…but I knelt at the wooden rail of that quiet sanctuary and quietly asked God to forgive me.

No lightning bolts struck, so that was a good sign!  I had a lot that needed to be forgiven.  There was no voice, just a gentle sense of reassurance that I was in the right place, doing the right thing, and all was well.  Something settled on me like one of those warm blankets you can only get in the hospital.  There was nothing in my experience that would compare…I could only say that it was amazing.

From that moment on, things were different.  I was refreshed, renewed, and restored in a way that I could not describe.  It took me several days to figure out what happened.  To this day I can only say that grace abounded in a way that I still cannot fully define.  I did not know much…but I did intuitively know that it was the Lord answering my prayer.

Since that day, I have continued to see and experience the work of God’s grace time and time again.  It is amazing when it happens in the life of an individual and it is beautiful when it happens in the life of the church.  I have been blessed to see the amazing work of God in people and in the Body of Christ.  It is always accompanied by a spirit of hope, a sense of liberation, and an uplifted view of the future.

Right now, we are experiencing the grace of God moving in the life of our congregation.  It is more than just the process we are calling Amazed By God.  It is not a program or a plan.  It is not something we can create or craft.  Our only option is to celebrate the Spirit and be sure that we are faithfully following.  When we follow, we always discover that God has been leading us to the right place at the right time.

This is the right place!  And we are blessed to be living in the right time.  I only have one word of advice: Seek grace and you will find it.   Let’s seek the grace of God as sisters and brothers kneeling in a quiet place.  Seek grace and you will find it!

Yours in Christ,

Randy Jessen