GREENE STREET LETTERS: Friiiiiiidaaaaaay!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friiiiiiidaaaaaay!

Made it.
Another week under the belt and now the real work begins.
Friday for me is an organization day.
Prepare the worship for tomorrow nights meeting.
Work on the message.
Lot's of prayer.............mostly "O God, O God, O God, O God!" Those, I think, are God's favorite prayers to hear. Why? Because by the time you get to simply crying out "O God!" you've pretty much reached the end of everything you can do and you are ready to turn to God. You know that when times are hard or your in trouble, you don't pray those King James prayers.....
You know the ones I'm talking about.
"O Lord-eth! We besechest thouest to comest downeth from the heaveneth and toucheth all whoeth are undereth your careth."
Nah! You don't pray like that. When you are in a hard place you cut right to the "O God, O God, O God" prayers. That's o.k. What I need to learn is to carry on prayer with God all day. Kind of a running dialog with Him and as I do this, learn to listen for him to speak.

Yesterday was a kind of payday time. From time to time if I find myself struggling God will send someone who has gone through the program to tell me what is going on in their life. Yesterday he sent a man named Ray who was here back in '04. Ray walked up and hugged my neck and told me that he was working with the VA hospital in Birmingham and that he God was letting him minister and pray with the guys. He told me his story of what all has transpired since leaving Rapha. Some good..........some not so good. In the end, here today, Ray is doing well. He has a passion to serve God by doing whatever God wants him to do. Like I said, yesterday was payday.

Tonight Vicki and I travel to Centre for Celebrate Recovery.
This is one of my most favorite places to go and speak. I have never gone there and came away not seeing God work and move on the people. It is like this particular Celebrate Recovery has a lot of grace to carry on the work. I know that it was birthed (the meeting) from the death of Regina and Donnie George's son, Griffin, so if ever pain and grief brought forth something wonderful and beautiful, this is a perfect example. God took this families loss and the pain they were suffering and used it to bring life to so many others.

I trust that you have a good day.
Find God (not that he's missing) as you travel around.
Until tomorrow...
God on you..............
mb

VERSE OF THE DAY: Psalm 103:4
He ransoms me from death and surrounds me with love and tender mercies.

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friiiiiiidaaaaaay!

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THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD