Boy-King -- A Letter from Pastor Todd

Dear PoC Family:

I have experienced God’s “just in the nick of time” grace many times in my life.  Here is just a sampling:

• When I was a young teen, I was playing with a nail gun on a construction site with some men from the church.  I hit the hammer onto a board when the gun backfired somehow, sending the nail toward my right eye.  It happened so fast.  The next thing I remember, I’m taking my glasses off only to find that the nail had shattered the right lens of my glasses.  God’s grace came to me in the form of a plastic lens.  
• When I was in senior high, I was driving home from work.  I had just picked up my paycheck and was driving home on a snowy and mountainous West Virginia highway when a semi decided to pass me on the side of the road that had not been plowed yet.  His trailer jack-knifed and spun out of control, hitting my car like a baseball and sending me hurling against the side of the mountain cliff.  It happened so fast.  The next thing I know, I was laying in the middle of the road staring at my unrecognizable car with blood running down my face.  God’s grace came to me in the form of an old Buick that was too old for seatbelts.
• When Kim and I first set out (with our incredible launch team) to plant Point of Change, we took a huge leap of faith.  One day we were praying here in the IBEW (our church building), praising God for His clear direction and next step for our church.  The next day I was having a full-blown panic attack because this crazy leap of faith came without a paycheck.  I remember sitting in the kitchen at the house telling God that we weren’t going to make it unless He stepped in.  The months leading up to the launch had happened so fast that it never occurred to me that my salary would be gone.  So, that was a loooooooooonnnnnnnnng Monday that ended with a phone meeting with my friends Lynn and Megan, our newly appointed Finance Team leaders.  They were calling to tell me to come pick up my first paycheck.  The launch team had decided to kick it into high gear and provide a part-time salary.  God’s grace came to me in the form of an answer to prayer and the kindness of friends.

This Sunday we are starting a new sermon series called, “Boy-King:  Guilty of Everything”.  It focuses on the life of Josiah as recorded in 2 Kings 22 & 23.  This young 8-year-old boy becomes the King of Judah after His sinful father is murdered.  What’s more, young Josiah has been raised in a court that has been apostate (formal disaffiliation and abandonment of God) for 57 years and that subjected all opposition to a reign of terror.  The young boy-king’s life is on a trajectory that seemingly can’t be stopped.  The nail has left the nail-gun!!  The car is racing towards the cliff!!  The paychecks have stopped!!!!  The only thing left to stop Josiah from barreling down his inherited path of destruction is the grace of God.  But, how will the grace of God come to Josiah?  In what form?

PoC, your life and my life have both been on a set path for some time.  Look at our nation, our fathers and our mothers, their choices and the choices of those who have come before them.  When you look at all that you inherited, what is the likely outcome?  I don’t know about you, but my life SHOULD have looked very different had it not been for God’s amazing grace.

And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.  Acts 20: 32

For the next three weeks, PoC is going to be exhilarating, joy-pumped, and grace-full.  Now would be a good time for us to invite those friends and family members to share in the waterfall!!

I’m praying for you!  Let’s keep talking about Jesus.

Pastor Todd