Weekend Recap w/ A Heavy Dose Of Monday

Lamentations 3:22-23
Though the Lord's mercies are not consumed, because His compassion's fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness.

Lot of first time visitor's Saturday night at Vineyard ReCovery.
One of them came up to talk with me  after the meeting, expressing how much they had enjoyed it. How different VRC was from the other recovery meetings they had attended in the past. "I will be back." I hope so. I hope that they return and receive from God everything they need to move forward and have a life. A real life.

We talked about the first part of the Serenity prayer...."God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change".  The need to decipher what is in our control and what isn't. When we focus on those things that we have no control over, they become serenity robbers. They steal our peace and rob us of the ability to hear God. We become an emotional whirlwind that draws our attention and strength to a situation we literally cannot control or solve in our own strength and ability. 

So as one who is coming from a lifestyle where chaos rules, it is important that we learn to seek God, asking for something we cannot produce on our own......peace/serenity. Jesus told His disciples to "Let not your heart be troubled," and "Peace, my peace I leave with you." So the disciples received a gift that was not of this world. How does peace/serenity come to us? Through the work and presence of God's Holy Spirit in us. The peace that Christ gives is the kind of peace that steadies us when everything around is crumbling or in chaos. We do not get swept up in the maelstrom that draws us away from depending on God. In the opening line of the serenity prayer, we are acknowledging God's ability to enable us to live outside the pull and draw of our old way of thinking and seeing our problems and situations. Good stuff.

Yesterday morning, I spoke at New Outlook Christian Fellowship. Great bunch of folks who truly love Jesus. The music took me back to my growing up years....."The Old Rugged Cross"..."Pass Me Not O' Gentle Savior".....I do love the hymn's of the church. Spoke from Hebrews 12:26----"Whose voice then shook the earth, but now has promised saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven."  This verse has followed me since October of 2003. I won't go into the particulars, but God has spoken to me on several occasions that His "shaking" serves one purpose only...to reveal His truth. Everything in our lives that we think is important will be shaken and only His truth will stand and be revealed. The very things we put our trust in, other than God, will be exposed for what it is worth....nothing! Such is why we need to let Christ be at the center of all we say and do. No time for religious posturing or pretense. Things around us....situations in this world and our nations will be exposed for they really are. False idols and gods that we have believed in and latched onto for salvation. 

Last night, it was time for Catalyst Recovery. 
Talk about "throw-backs"!
The meeting reminded me of the old "House of Blue" recovery meetings we use to do back in the day. Worship was off the scale. I know it is so easy to type that "God was in the house"...but there was no other way to describe it. He truly was there in a big way. The folks there last night were worshiping. God has created something special in this recovery meeting, and I bless Seth Barber for being crazy enough to believe God and follow Him. 
Using the book of Lamentations as my starting point, I read from Lamentations 3:19-21

Remember my affliction and roaming.

The wormwood and the gall.
My soul still remembers and sinks within me.

This I recall to my mind.
Therefore, I HAVE HOPE!

The very last word of that portion of Scripture is something that you will never find in a lifestyle of addiction.......HOPE! Only God can provide that. Only God can implant this into a heart that is tired of the darkness. Because Hope is the down payment on a life redeemed. No matter how bad things may get here on planet Earth.....in my heart I am driven by a belief that God is He who claims He is, and God will do what He promised He would do. HOPE!

It was good to see a lot of familiar faces last night, and meet some new ones. I left Catalyst Recovery last night, driving home with a sense of satisfaction. Not in anything I had done or said.......but satisfaction that God had come into our meeting and had done His work. Who could ask for anything more? 

So this morning, I sit here at my computer wondering what Monday has in store for me. Always an adventure. Always something out there waiting. But today I will focus on God.
No matter what...
It will be a good day!

God on you...

Michael b.