Struggling?

Well, the conference is amazing. It is great to be here.

We had Benny Perez yesterday morning. Benny is a Mexican American pastor with passion, depth, anointing and joy. On top of that, he's pretty funny!

Benny challenged us and reminded us of how important it is to rely on the strength of God. He shared his own challenges of even the past week - a friend who also attends their church, Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans, died on Friday. Another pastor friend in LV fell morally.

Using the story of the man with the withered hand in Luke 6:6 and following, Benny mentioned that in the midst of our struggles of why? what? how come? etc. God wants us to reach out to Him.

Here's a few things that Benny said:

1. We all struggle in various ways. Jesus is not intimidated by our struggles. We all have them. Jesus embraces us in the midst of our struggles.
2. In His grace, Jesus reaches out to us, calls to us and doesn't sit by waiting for us to reach out to Him.
3. Religion is when we forget about hurting people and spend more time debating how and why we do things the way we do.
4. Apart from God, I can do nothing. With God, I can do whatever He calls me to do. (Moses, Jeremiah, Gideon)
5. God starts with people that struggle. He has the incredible power to turn our tests into testimonies and our mess into messages for Him.

Be encouraged. Jesus is calling out to us in the midst of our struggle. Stretch out your struggle to Him. Let Him do what only He can do.