Wednesday, August 12, 2009

10 Years Ago Today

August 12, 1999.
10 years ago.
I was associate pastor for Gadsden Vineyard Church and was putting the final plans together to begin hosting a Saturday night service for people in recovery and those who may be trapped in addiction.
There was no such animal as Celebrate Recovery at this time.
No other churches were having Recovery meetings.
I wasn't sure how it was going to play out or what it would even look like.
I just knew that God was leading me in this direction.

On this day 10 years ago, Wayne Wimpee (a good friend and brother) stopped by the church and told me that God had given him a verse for me. Cool! I'm always up for anything God wants to do.
Wayne felt like it was connected to the meeting we were going to hold, which we referred to a HOUSE OF BLUE. A lot of people have asked me about that name and why we didn't use BLUES as in the concert hall made famous by Dan Akroyd. Well, we felt that blue (singular) was appropriate because it is the color of revelation. Blue is the color of an open heaven, one in which God's communication comes through to us. That was the heart of what we were doing as a group. We wanted people to run into the real God. We wanted them to go away from the meeting with a "Wow!" factor going on their hearts. And that is what happened.

The verse that Wayne brought to me was Psalm 134
Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minster by night in the house of the Lord.
Lift you your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. May the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth bless you from Zion.

I have held onto this verse ever since that day and it has defined who we were and are.
In May of 2008 we moved our Sunday service at Rapha to Saturday night and the dynamic of the meeting changed drastically. Why? Because I have God's favor to do a Saturday night meeting. Why? Because the people I deal with come alive on Saturday night. They use to come alive for the devil but now they do so for Jesus.
It is a sight to see.........

God on you.....
mb

1 comment:

Bobby said...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the favor of God and how it works. It comes with living in His presence and being obedient to his call. Keep doing what your doing!

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