Fourth "G" - Grow

Today is our 9th anniversary! I love my wife more and more each day. Talk about growing. Love is awesome! God is Love! I Love growing with and through God. In fact God has grown me more in the past 2-3 years than ever before in my life. This past week's message hit a note with me about loving my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is hard enough to ask for forgiveness from God but even harder to humble your self and ask for forgiveness from a brother or sister. Well needless to say it was placed on my heart to seek out a particular brother, swallow my pride, and ask for forgiveness. Of course the person was unaware of my issues with them, and they were actually quite surprised. I hope that they knew how sincere I was in asking for and explaining my thoughts that were wrong to feel towards them. I am now ready for communion with the Lord tonight @ Southbrook knowing that I have learned how to be humble in a particular area. Feels good to let go of hurt, I am prayerfully hopeful that I can continue to release, let go, and learn more and more as I grow in Christ. Have a great week.

Third "G" - Gather

I have been so busy with work and family that I have been slack in posting this week. I am sorry and will try to get back into a normal pattern of posting soon. (whatever "normal" means) I once heard a pastor say that things there really is no such thing as normal or "after I finish this life is going to slow down". Doesn't happen. He did say that it will slow down eventually, like when you die. I believe that it is going to slow down a lot then. After that it all depends on what God has planned for us in His Kingdom. That is my goal now too, seek His Kingdom. Geoffrey spoke Wednesday about simplifying and checking everything we do asking, is this action leading me to seek His Kingdom. Sounds like a good question to ask yourself constantly.

Great service this past weekend about the third "G" - Gather. I do not have my notes with me so here is a link to the message: http://www.southbrookchurch.com/ Look at the lower right for the mp3 and podcast versions.

Have a good one!

Second "G" - Give

I found this on my web travels and thought it would be relevant to the next "G" - Give.

"In Romans 12:1, the apostle Paul applied the truths of what he had already written to the followers of Jesus in Rome. He said, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice." He also urged us to keep our bodies from sinning and to avoid the world's corruption by renewing our minds. We are often told to give our hearts or our lives to Christ. So why did Paul call attention to our bodies? If we are to carry out God's will, it will be with our bodies.

Every pastor has members who say, "I won't be in the service next Sunday; we'll be up at the lake. But I'll be there in spirit." Unfortunately, the "spirit" will contribute nothing to the atmosphere of praise and worship. We also offer God our bodies as a response to His love. The body is a gift worthy of God. Consider the value of the human hand. The brilliant surgeon Dr. Paul Brand, in describing operations performed on the hand, said, "I don't know of a single operation anyone has devised that has succeeded in improving a normal hand. It's beautiful."

This year, give God something beautiful. Offer Him not just your heart, but your hands, body, spirit, mind-your entire being!"

I want to offer Him my entire being and I have heard that the most powerful prayer you can pray is one where you ask God, "use me, your will be done in my life". Are you in good hands? (I know, sounds like the Allstate commercial)

First "G" - Glorify

We attend Southbrook and they are beginning a series called "G-Force". The series is based on the 5 core purposes of the Church and they are as follows:

Glorify: We want to love God by worshiping Him with joy and celebration!

Give: We want to show our love to others by serving them.

Go: We want to go and tell the world the Good News about God—that He loves us and wants us to know Him.

Grow: We want to help everyone follow God and become more like Him.

Gather: We want to identify with Jesus by becoming part of His community through baptism.

The most recent message was on "Glorify". Pastor Rob broke it down and laid it out, like only he can. Let's break it on down further. (Props to Wikipedia for the definition)

Glory - (from the Latin gloria, "fame, renown") is used to denote the manifestation of God's presence in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. In Hebrew it would probably be the word הוד Hod. For example, see Exodus 24:16. It is also used simply to express God's majesty and honor, or God's miraculous power.

I really get fired up about that last part, expressing God's majesty and honor, or God's miraculous power. WOW! What do you think?

New Years Revolution

New Year's is traditionally a time of resolutions: maybe you're thinking that this year you'll lose weight or try to be a better person. Why not try to start a New Years Revolution? The Spirit is moving over Southbrook and 2007 is going to be one of the greatest for the people it touches and the community it reaches. Just check out Pastor Rob's blog for a glimpse of things to come.

I found this in my web travels and thought I would share because it motivates me to reach the lost both on and off line now.

"The Spirit is at work, showing us what Christ has done, and how that makes a difference in what's going on around us. The Spirit's witness to Christ doesn't function like a hypertext link. One doesn't click one's mouse on the Spirit's doings and get taken to the front page of Jesus' Cybersalvation Web Site. First of all, your mouse-clicking takes more initiative than you can take in restoring your relationship with God (or, in church-talk, it's God's grace in Christ's work on the cross that saves you, not anything you do). Second, the Spirit leads us into Christ's presence and Christ's character, two things that don't pop up on a screen and say 'I'm here'. Then, the Spirit works to get our own Web Site to take on the character that others would recognize as Christ's, for instance, by removing the annoying banner ads for the causes and ideas we're stuck on, or the irritating pop-up windows with our excuses, or the sneaky spy cookies that gather the information we might want to use against others. The Spirit is trying to push this Body of the Scared past their fears into full contact with the rest of reality, especially with other people who are not aware of Christ, or who hear the Name and yawn."