“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.  You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.  So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James1:2-4, The Message.

Enough said!

One may ask, “why attend two small groups?”

 I’m glad you asked!  One group I attend is a men’s small group early in the morning.  I have been meeting with one of the men (Randy)  going on 2 years. 

During our time together we have reached out to several men.  We had a couple of other guys join in from time to time but we never really experienced any “numerical growth.”  I know why… it was all about God’s timing.  I was serving on staff in a church while going through a divorce.  That was a lot to go through.  While at the same time trying to cope with the emotions of not being with my children daily (I still deal with that)… this was more than I could ever bare on my own.  Randy saw me through a lot. 

I knew it was time to step aside from “the ministry” (for a season) as I struggled with my personal life.  I told my former pastor Brad (who is still a great friend), “I just can’t do this (ministry) right now because I have nothing to give.”  Every-time I tried to get filled up there was nothing left to spill-over or to give away.

So, Randy and I kept meeting together.  Back in August of ‘07, I for the first time in 1-2 years began to experience a breakthrough.  God began to overpower the hurt and darkness that had me bound.  Simultaneously, God was also at work in the lives of several of my friends.  As a result, numerical growth began to take place.

Joel was asked by Tim (our small groups pastor) if we would come and be a part of the small group network of our church.  So here we are.  It’s been amazing to see the guys who have come to be a part of this group.  Guys coming to know Jesus… reunite with Jesus.  Today, we are always on the look out for other’s who may come and get to know Christ.  Through our one-on-one relationships and through the group.

The second group is a couples Journey Group from our church.  Five months ago I got married again.  Me and Lori attend this one together.  This week was our 4th week (I think).  It is something we need for each other.  What a miracle it is to be a part of this group!!  I feel like I have known these folks for much more than 4 weeks.  The great thing about our journey group is that it is not about us.  It’s about Christ.  It’s about the “one”.  It’s about prayer.  It’s about accountability.  It’s about serving our community.  It’s about celebrating life’s victories.  It’s about serving our church.

“Doing life” with other believers is awesome and it is something that I would never forsake.  Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name – I am there too.” 

But we should never forget the “one”.  Who is the “one”?  It is the person you work with that does not have a relationship with God.  It is the neighbor who needs to be reached with God’s love.  It’s the person who waits on our table.  It’s the person at the checkout stand in the grocery store.  It’s the stranded motorist on the side of the road. 

The beauty of building relationships in group life is for the “one.”  On my own, God can use me to lead someone to Christ.  But when I can get the “one” connected with other believers there is so much more that can occur in that life. This person will get a much bigger picture of God through others.

God didn’t call us to come together just to sit, soak, and sour and be a bunch of spiritually over-weight stinky Christians!  He wants us to be filled up with his fresh water so that we may spill over onto others.  To impact other lives in the name of Jesus.  We need to care for the lost.  We need to not only pray for them but we need to be with them.  Make time to be with them.  Matthew 28 tells us to go into all the world…

…Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We’re one, but we’re not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One…

…One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we’re not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

One…life

One

– Bono, “One” U2

Attending two Journey groups in one day is something else!!  Men’s group @ 6:30 AM and the couples @ 7 PM.  What an amazing experience today. 

But to hear, see, and experience what God is already doing is incredible.  Sunday’s message and challenge of “the one” followed up with the focus of the groups and accountability.  All I can say is that I am encouraged, inspired, and very focused on “one”.  Not sure if I will get any sleep tonight.

Jeff defined accountability tonight as “encouragement driven by love.”

“Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going.  He always keeps his word.  Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshipping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:23-25, The Message.

Got to love ‘em… not me!  I can’t stand ‘em!

My Jeep is down… in the shop. I am patiently waiting for it to be fixed.  It’s already a stressful thing just to put your car in the shop.  I found out today that it will not be ready until Thursday.  Ouch!  But no worries – right?  Almost, I still have to pay for the thing to get fixed.  That’s a bit of a worry.  I can wait to get it back.  And patiently I will wait.

Funny thing happened on the way home today.  I have no ride so my good friend… Let’s just call him “Tony” for the sake of the story.

We were driving home and I was explaining how I typically go home.  That’s not the way we went home.  So we continued on toward the construction zone!  Guess what appeared in the midst of the already bad traffic?  If you guessed a train… no a slow moving train you are right. 

Well, Tony turned around to go a different way to my house.  (The way I would have gone in the first place). We are heading down Mission Rd and guess what!  That same train was headed straight for Mission Rd!  A funny thing happened -  we got caught again.  He starts to turn around – AGAIN.  I said, “Listen you of little patience.  Just chill for a minute…” then the brainstorm for my next thought to share with you happened in that moment.  I told him he would be in the center of the story.  I believe he said, “I can’t stand you!”

Often times God allows slow downs in our lives.  He may even block the road for a minute or two.  But it’s all for our good.  It could be for any number of reasons.  It could be he is wanting to teach us something.  It may be to let us have a quite moment for whatever reason.  It could be that we are getting ahead of Him.  Maybe He is protecting us from something else up ahead…

Whatever the reason for the little slow downs in life.  There is a need to take them in stride and see what God has in store.  I know that can be painful at times.  James says, “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

I would love to be a Chaplain in the US Army.  I still think about it everyday.  Not sure why I didn’t make it.  I heard from the recruiter a few months back.  I still can be one.  But I need 6 more hours of seminary to make it happen.  I have a little over 4 years to get it done.  I know God has a plan… He has a reason why I didn’t become one.  My heart is still very tender over it.  Kind of breaks when I spend too much time thinking about it.  Who knows maybe he has something else that He has been preparing all along anyway.  I still think about it none-the-less.  I may not be wearing the uniform serving our country the way I would like to be.  So I will serve my country anyway… a little differently.  I’ll serve by praying daily.

I pray each day for Maj. Steven Cantrell (Chaplain), Pvt Todd Trowbridge, and Pvt Steven Scroggins.  I’m proud of you guys!!(Jason you don’t have his name on your blog but Joel seems to think it is Steven so that’s what I’ve been praying since your post.  Let me know if it is different… until I know for sure I still pray for your brother daily.)

Who do you know serving our country that you pray for?  Someone that you would want others to be praying for?

God’s love never quits.  His love endures forever.  His mercies are fresh everyday.  God is my rock, my comforter, and my shield.  He is my help in times of trouble.  He is the Rock that makes me roll.  God’s love never quits. 

How many times have you tried something… and you absolutely loved it for a season then quit… gave up, got bored with it.  God’s love never quits.

God is who He is.  He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  God never fails.  God loves me.  God loves you.  God’s love never quits.

God has purpose and meaning for all things.  We may not understand it.  But He does.  That’s enough for me.  It’s got to be.  God’s love never quits.  God is eternal.  He is the Alpha and the Omega… the beginning and the end.  He is here.  He is there.  He has always been and always will be.  Love him.  Celebrate Him.  Worship Him.  Put nothing else before Him.

God’s love never quits.  Check out Psalm 118.

(Originally posted on Even Adam’sMySpace – January 21, 2008)

I was reading the Bible tonight in James.  As I read this passage I thought of you guys and wanted to pass this verse along to you as well as the idea that went along with it.  This is out of the Message, “In simple humility, let our Gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.”

I love this verse and how it reads in the Message – the wording of this is a beautiful picture of how God wants His love to appear in our hearts and through our lives.  We are His… we are his garden.  He is the Master Gardener and we are his garden.  As I thought about you guys, you are the fruit if His garden.  You are writing music and expressing God’s love and Message through the lyrics He gives.  What God is producing are seeds that He will use in others lives.

Now lets turn back to the Book of Genesis…

Genesis 2:4b-5, “When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, there were no plants or grain growing on the earth, for the Lord God had not sent any rain. And no one was there to cultivate the soil.”

God created Adam in order to cultivate the soil.  This was an earthly soil.  Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it.”  God has raised each of you (Even Adam) to cultivate soil that is found in the souls of man.  This cultivation will occur as an overflow of how God works in your lives.

The book of James in Chapter 1 deals a lot with faith and standing through trials that come our way.  “You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced out into the open and shows its true colors.  So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”  God desires for us to live by faith.  To seek Him out with everything that we are made of.  James says to ask God boldly, believingly, without a second thought.  I like the Message when it says we are not to be “people who worry their prayers”. 

Live your lives with an attitude of faith and that built on prayer.  It is out of your life of faith, prayer, and devotion to God’s Word that He will speak.  And when He speaks, “Act on what you hear.”

ROYE

I know a group of guys that just blow me away.  I’ve known some of them for a few months and others for over 20 years.  You know what… more than them blowing me away is what I see God doing in their lives… that’s what really excites me!  I take great pride in knowing them and doing life with them.

Their lives are a beautiful portrait of what can happen when total surrender and focus is directed toward God and to God alone.  The song, the sound, the melody that flows when they are working in unison along with God’s Spirit is a beautiful thing to experience.

I recall Joel making this comment about Dean on a Sunday night a few years ago… We had gone down to watch Dean and Darrell lead worship for a youth group in town.  Joel leaned over and told me, “Dean has found his voice.”

That quote from a few years ago for some reason has come back to me several times this week.  That statement was even the center piece in a dream I had last night. I was searching for my voice… the voice of God speaking through me… the dream was rather confusing yet it ended with me saying… “I think I finally found my voice.”

You know each of us has a voice inside.  Telling us what to do… how to act… how to feel, etc.  Too many times that voice has been conditioned by some negative outside influence from the past.  But yet there is another voice – a gentle voice – we often times neglect. 

Each of us have been given a voice.  A voice given by God that he shaped before we were ever born.  A voice to be used for His glory in the unique way He created us to use it. Have you found your voice?

How beautiful on the mountains  are the feet of the messenger bringing good news, breaking the news that all’s well, proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,telling Zion, “Your God Reigns!”  Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts, shouting in joyful unison.  They see with their own eyes.  God coming back to Zion.  Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem:  “God has comforted his people!  He’s redeemed Jerusalem!”  God has rolled up his sleeves.  All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.  Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other, sees him at work, doing his salvation work. (Isaiah 52:7-10, The Message).

My step son gave his mom a rose for Valentine’s Day.  It sits in this stem holder with a balloon over it in the shape of a heart.  As I sit here and admire the rose, I recall how it looked a week ago and how colorful it was.  A week later it is still pretty standing tall.  It’s faded and worn a bit now but still safely inside the balloon bringing beauty as the center piece to the table.

As I look at this rose I’m recalling my life following Jesus.  I’m thinking about all of the great things God has allowed me to do in His name.  I recall how fresh I was as a new energized follower of Christ.  In this same moment I’m also recalling all of the loneliness I’ve experienced in the midst of doing His work. 

Even now with my insatiable desire to live for Him and serve Him in all I do – I find myself still feeling a little lonely.  Not sure why… I just do.  Kind of lost looking for a place to be and to belong in the midst of His kingdom… a place to serve him. 

I listed the lyrics to a song I wish I could have written myself.  While satisfying my hunger at lunch today this song came to mind.  It’s called “Desert Rose” by Whiteheart.  

Desert Rose

Lost in a windswept land in a world of shifting sand  A fragile flower stands apart and there in that barren ground You feel like you are the only one trying to serve Him with all your heart and you wonder, wonder can you last much longer this cloud you are under will it cover you

Desert rose, desert rose don’t you worry, don’t be lonely heaven knows, heaven knows in a dry and weary land a flower grows His desert rose

Sometimes holiness can seem like emptiness when you feel the whole world’s laughing eyes but it’s a lovely day know you’re on the Father’s way  He will hear you when you cry and He will hold you, hold you your Father will hold you  He will love you love you for the things you do

I love to eat.  My kids are starting to laugh at my insatiable desire for food.  I even clean their plates… thus the name human garbage disposal.  They point it out by reminding me of my ever expanding waist.  (Those who know me may even laugh at that… I do).

I was so hungry today I left for lunch early.  Resisting the overwhelming temptation to go to Ross’ Diner I headed home to see what leftovers I could dive into.

As I eat, I am thinking about my own spiritual hunger these days.  It’s like I can’t get enough to fill the hunger.  Glad I’m not one that can’t feed himself.  I’d be in some serious trouble!  Glad that I had several people in my life as a young Christian that taught me how to feed myself.

If I’m not careful my spiritual waistline may start to expand too.  Don’t want that to happen either.  I ask myself now… What does God want me to do with all this spiritual hunger?  Who is it that I need to be pouring my life into?  Is it one other person? A group of people?  I have this great desire… just not sure what to do with it.

Until I know, I will sit at the Master’s table and eat.  I will get my daily exercise as I go.  Being flexible to what He desires.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6, NKJV).

I like how The Message reads, “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God.  He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.”