We've come full circle.

Today was the last time that we would be meeting on Sunday morning as Axios Church. The irony of it all is that a little over 6 years ago, we began Axios by meeting in this same living room with a handful of people about the size of the group that met today (Jim, Donna, me and Pattie are the only one's left from that original group). At the first of April 2002, our group began to visit different churches on Sunday morning and then met at our house on Sunday nights to pray and look at Scripture and seek guidance concerning starting a church. At the first of May, we felt led to begin Axios Community Church. We began giving and praying because we knew we would need God's power and financial resources to take on this endeavor. God began to immediately move and amazingly and , to me, miraculously provided a warehouse space for us to begin in. We had our first official service on June 2, 2002 with 50 people. There are too many stories to tell of the good things we accomplished, the lives that we touched, and also of how God worked in me to mold and shape my faith, my thinking, my life into the follower I am today. Of course, there are also stories of failures, disappointments, missed opportunities that have also led us to where we are today. But I am not sad, nor full of regret, or ashamed but honored by this opportunity called Axios, grateful for this journey, and excited about the next endeavor, dream, challenge that lies ahead. In 2002, while we met in our home, we looked at the different prayers that Paul prayed for the young churches that he had helped start but then had to leave behind. Through this study, we discovered our name "Axios" in a prayer in 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12. It is the Greek word translated "worthy." Today, we looked at one final prayer which is also my prayer for all who have been a part of Axios, for all those who read this blog and all who seek to be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. It's found in Ephesians 3:14-21 and says:

"For this reason I kneel before the Father,
from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
I pray that out of his glorious riches
he may strengthen you with power
through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the saints,
to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—
that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more
than all we ask or imagine,
according to his power that is at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations,
for ever and ever!
Amen."