Northpointe Community Church

Success!

Hey friends. This year’s Christmas program will remain as one of the highlight shows that we have done in all of the years that I have been here at NorthPointe. I knew I was going to like this year’s show even before we began. To be honest, sometimes I’m not sure if I’ll like them or not, but go on it good faith! There was something about the simplicity of the story that was very appealing to me.

The show by all accounts was quite successful. 84 people responded to the message by picking up a Good News Pack. 56 “Renewing My Faith” packs were handed out and we raised almost $4000 for Northpointe Global Missions projects. Our show from 2006 provided for a much needed medical shipment to India. (FYI!) I would estimate that somewhere near 3000 people came out to see the show. I want to commend all who helped out with the show. Your work will yield eternal benefits in somebody’s life both locally and globally!

Emmanuel

My wife Melanie and my two girls Eden and Emily got to take off to the coast for a few days after New Year’s. It was a good time together just hanging out. Nothing rushed. No demands. I think we never quite know what to do with ourselves after the Christmas madness! Life does get pretty chaotic that time of year. I have come to expect it, but it is still a shock when it’s all said and done and things go quiet!

One of the highlights for me of our trip was taking a drive up to my old home town up in Half Moon Bay. We drove by my old Jr. High, the 7-11 where I used to hang out and play video games, the park with the hill I used to ride my skateboard down and wore ruts in the grass, and my old house with the overgrown bushes that I used to have to trim on Saturdays in my old neighborhood. I even got to put on my wetsuit and take a paddle out at the beach I used to surf at as a kid.

That day the sky was dark and cloudy and yet the sun was trying to break through making the water a beautiful dark grey-silver color. It was just me and one other guy about 50 yards from me. Solitude. I had a sense that day that God was present in the beauty of that moment and it occurs to me now that he is present in all my moments. That is what Christmas is all about! No, not surfing… it’s about Emmanuel. God is with us. God sent himself to dwell with us in all of our moments big and small, significant or simple, painful and joyful.

Take time to recognize that God is with you in every moment at all times. God wants to dwell with you and you with him even in moments that don’t seem spiritual. He can break through in a moment waiting for the stop light to turn green or at SaveMart buying a half gallon of milk. Let’s look for God’s presence in the common. Let’s invite him into our average everyday lives and invite him to make our ordinary extraordinary.