Okay, I know you are busy preparing for Good Friday and Easter Services. But ...
after Easter, if you haven't already read John Ortberg's book Faith & Doubt, pick it up.
In the mean time, here is what to keep in mind for this weekend.
God will be leading thousands of people to churches this weekend who have doubts. Doubts about whether God exist. Doubts about whether Jesus walked this earth. Doubts about whether he was raised from the dead. Doubts about whether He could ever love them. Doubts about whether God cares about them. More doubts then we could list.
Some of the doubters will be visitors and some will have familiar faces. Let's make a place where they can meet God. A place where they can articulate their doubts. A place where smugness and arrogance has no foothold. May we be a people that listen to someone's uncertainty with humility and compassion. With grace let us filter out false beliefs. Let our fellowships be a place where doubt can lead people to study and learn.
And may we be a place where doubts can lead to hope and a faith in Jesus our Savior.
O God, our Father, at Easter time we remember the great hope of eternal life which you have set before us, and we feel within our hearts the longings for goodness and for you. Grant that nothing may hinder the hope of eternal life from coming true, and the desire for goodness and for you from being realized.
- William Barclay