Monday, July 18, 2016

Dysfunctional Family Becoming Functional


Acts 2:44
And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.

Garrett Rule and Jeffrey Cothran rocking the house Saturday night at VRC.
Different as night and day, but sharing a common bond...
Freedom...
Life....
Moving on....

Love for each other...
Love for those still out there in the darkness....

Etc...etc...etc....
Isn't that what it's all about? Sharing? Loving each other and looking out for one another. At the same time, calling each other out when something seems amiss.
Calling out, not to embarrass but to help lead back to the right path.


Saturday night was special to me.
The room seemed to be more peaceful than it ever has been. May just have been me, but there was a sense of family in the room. New comers, I'm sure were trying to figure out what was going on. Lot's of smiles, back slaps and hand shakes. Lightness to the voices and easy movement as person after person moved around the room to touch base with someone else.
We were all there...
We were ready to see what God wanted to do.
I think maybe that is the best part about being in a leadership role with VRC. We are clueless as to what's going to happen. We approach each Saturday night with a message and some worship songs....and to be honest, all of those are on the table to be scrapped if God says so.  It is an evening of celebration. We've made it another week. We've survived and overcome that which chases us. That darkness that seeks to draw us back in.

Not knowing what is going to happen leaves the evening open to a little mystery as to what we might see, hear, or experience. Call it an evening of anticipation.
Lot's of old faces last night from Rapha....
I guess you could call them success stories, or ongoing success stories.

Bottom line, in that room Saturday night was a lot of folks who fully knew and understood that they have not arrived as far as recovery goes. They are still working the steps, living in honesty and simply trying to hear God and follow Him for 24 hours. If they make it through that 24, then they get to do it all over again the next day. One day at a time.....that's the way this thing works.

Philippians 3:4
I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Pretty much sums it all up.....
We are a work in progress....
Not a work in regress.....
We are moving upward and forward in spite of hurdles, traps and snares that we encounter along the way.

We've been called by Jesus, and we are moving toward that call.
We will encourage each other, and we will not grow weary or give up.
Now that is something worth living for.

God on you...

mbb

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