Pastor Skip and the men's breakfast

My church has been holding a men's breakfast on Friday mornings. They did a few during the spring, and I thought it was a pretty good idea, but every Thursday night I would think about what time I needed to get up in order to be at church at 6:15 and decide to go next week. After a break during the summer they resumed last week, and rather than make an excuse I just forgot to go.

So I decided this week would be different. I picked up a flier at church and kept it out to remind me every day that I was doing this. I set the alarm back to 5:00 and promptly hit snooze when it went off. You've heard that God works in mysterious ways? Today He worked through two hungry cats that jumped on the bed, thrilled at the prospect of an early breakfast and forcing me to get up. And I am so happy that I did.

Once again I can't express my gratitude to God that He has assembled such an amazing group of people at Avalon Church. Pastor Skip, who also runs the homeless ministry and is the choir director, was our host. His topic was the importance of relationship over religion. That it's not what you do here that determines where you spend eternity, it's your relationship to God. He read three of the most unsettling verses in the Bible, Matthew 7:21-23:

²¹"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 
²²"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'
²³"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'"

This can be quite bothersome to people who believe in works salvation. As Skip explained, "knew" in the Biblical sense describes a personal, intimate relationship, with that of a husband and wife being the prime example. So when Jesus says "I never knew you" He's not saying "I don't know who you are" but "I never had a personal relationship with you; you never trusted Me to redeem you." And all the "good things" you did during your life count for exactly nothing against that.

Funny that Skip would speak about this the first time I went to the breakfast, after all the posts I've done on this topic over the past few months. Coincidence? I think you know how I feel about that too.

So thank you, Pastor Skip. I don't think I'll need the cats to help me make next week's breakfast.