Pilgrim's Progress and tough transitions....



Transitions would be the word for my life at this point.  Let me give you a list.
  • Our church will be transitioning to a new pastor in the near future.
  • Our overseer team will be transitioning with a couple new overseers to replace two leaving the team after 5 years of service.
  • Our son will be transitioning into his own apartment after living with us for 5 years after college.
  • Our good friends are transitioning to a new home in a new town to be closer to their children and grand children at this stage of their lives.
  • Our church has many leadership ministry positions that have been transitioning to bring in new team leads who have new ideas and energy.
  • Our own transition to interim pastoral work in the near future that will mean a move and many more to come.
Transitions are tough but sometimes so necessary.  For us they are transitions but for God they are all a part of His grand plan.  None of them take Him by surprise.  I am so thankful that we have a God who guides us through what He already knows but we need to experience.  

Transitions make us lean on something or someones.  Maybe it is a spouse or our children.  Maybe it is good friends.  Maybe it is the resources we have saved for such an occasion.  Maybe it is the medical staff with the answer to this new physical problem.  Maybe it is counselor or godly Christian brother or sister.  Maybe it is a whole church body or community who rallies to give support.  

I am thankful to our God who gives us so much when we walk through another transition of life.  But the one to lean on of course is our Lord Jesus Christ.  We find Him in His word.  We talk to Him with our prayers.  We sing to Him with our psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  We fellowship with Him as we interact with His family.  We see Him as we serve Him with the good deeds He puts before us.

If there is something I have learned through the transitions of life is to lean hard and heavy on Jesus.  Don't give Him just a token place in the process of this transition but put Him on the top of the list.  We do this by increasing the spiritual disciplines He has given us.  One example of this is Acts chapter 2 and verses 42, 46 and 47a, which read,...

"They devoted themselves to the Apostle's teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer....Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.  They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people."

Adam

p.s.  I came across this version of the Christian classic Pilgrim's Progress by a church who made it into a musical and put the lines in rhyme.  It is about an hour and 20 minutes long but a great way to hear again the Gospel and the process of our salvation.


A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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