weekend thoughts...

i was reading eric cooper a story tonight at bed time.  his devotional was on repentance...that happened to be our topic at North Point this morning.  (btw, great music this morning!) really it was a great service...it has had me thinking most of the day on repentance and re-thinking what it means to repent.  tommy gave 4 "little r words" that make up the big R word.  re-structure, re-think, re-arrange and reality check.   different than feeling bad or guilty or sorry, or an emotional experience.  i think i agree mostly with this theory...too much to unpack in a short post.  but you can kind of fill in the blanks in the 4 points.  

eric's devo was out of psalm 51.  this psalm is written by david right after jonathan confronts him after the adultery w/ bathsheba.  my favorite part about david's view on repentance is the Lord restoring the joy of his salvation...

i think i got more out eric's devotional time than he did...somehow i think that is ok.  i love hearing him asking God, in prayer,  to help his cousin Bud to have a great time in heaven.  and praying for his aunt shelby to be ok now that she is going to be living by herself.  i KNOW the Lord heard that prayer!

my cousin Bud's funeral was saturday.  another cousin of ours, tony, officiated the service.  i dont know how long it has been since tony has done a funeral or preached a message...but it was obvious the the Lord had gave him words.  the question of the resting place of bud's soul was heavy on my heart and our small group had just got done looking at the story of the prodigal son.  tony referenced how the son came to his senses. he then told a story of an instance in the last month or so of bud's life.  he was living with his sister and had  attended church with her, later that day or week...he was walking around singing praise songs from church.  i dont have time, nor space to share with you how huge that was for bud to be singing praises.  essentially he had come to his senses.  he was confessing with his mouth that Jesus is Lord.

sorry so long and kind of winding around...lots of stuff going through the head!  but i think it all has something to do with repentance...