Rev Bill

The past few weeks I have really felt God at work in my life.

Sally and I have been going through a lot of changes and transitions the past few weeks with our moving to Florence, SC. Last Sunday the Wentworth Presbyterian congregation voted to concur with my request to dissolve the pastoral relationship between myself and the church — a relationship that has lasted 23 years — so I could accept the call to be pastor of Hopewell. Yesterday was my last day at the Reidsville Outreach Center. I will spend the month of August focusing on things with the Wentworth congregation, packing, and doing preliminary stuff with Hopewell.

Through all this, Sally and I have felt a lot of mixed emotions — sadness, joy, frustration, joy, sorrow.

This morning I read a devotion in Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life e-mail devotions that reminded me that — if I will be patient and remain faithful — God can use all these emotions to make me more like Christ.

Here’s a portion of the devotion:

How do you become like Christ? Interestingly enough, God is more committed to this than we are. And it’s a good thing, because if it all depended on us, we would never get very far in this process. We would probably be too easy on ourselves.

“And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.” (Philippians 1:6) He started it; he will finish it.

OK, but how does this happen? One of the ways God does this is by letting the opposite thing happen to you. Do you need to learn how to love? Get ready for someone you can’t stand. Need patience? Better prepare for some aggravations to come your way. Looking for peace? Here’s a little chaos you weren’t expecting. Joy? Did I mention sorrow?

Becoming more like Christ.

It’s not easy — but through it all — God’s at work!

You can read the entire Purpose Driven Life
devotion for today here.

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