"Come to Me and I'll give you rest" in Texas

Finishing up four days in sweet Austin, Texas...

To My Girls---your dad preached at Southwest Hills Church in Austin this weekend on the verses in Matthew 11:28 - Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you Rest for your souls...not your typical principled sermon outline but a radical invitation from our awesome God inviting us all to come to Him right where we are. And He will put something on us all--- His yoke. No quick fixes, but His Presence. In our most alone moments, Jesus comes. What if Jesus called and said He was coming to your church this weekend? You'd get everything in perfect order: paint, caulk, shine, maybe new stuff and charge it to VISA... after all it's Jesus. But like Mary and Martha...this one thing is necessary... prepare our hearts, get our hearts ready for Him...and we can't even do that without Him. Apart from Him we can do nothing. Your dad did a very good job with the text.

Bob also showed Rob Bell's video on RAIN to close his sermon...go to NOOMA's website www.nooma.com and watch it...click under 001 RAIN film and you can watch that one for free on the internet--it's an 11-minute film on Matthew 11:28... God doesn't ignore the cries of the afflicted...He is close to the brokenhearted. We don't have to have it together to come to Him. He came for the sick. Deut. 1:8 - He carries us...

Our hotel overlooked the city's skyline (yeah! for Priceline) and we read and rested--- a rarity for us--- for a few days. Read together Eldredge's book "Epic" and Meyers book "Allure of Joy" and then another one. It rained so hard in Austin it even took a couple of lives, I heard.

It's raining very hard in my heart! The worship at this church was simply awesome. God showed up for me in one of the songs..."I am in the center of your storm." Such an awareness of a Presence in my storm. So grateful to God for carrying us through even though it's still raining.