It's Monday Already?

2nd Corinthians 4:18
So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Here's a recap of this past weekend.

Friday Night:
Home group for the core leadership of VRC. 
We continue to learn how to trust, as we open up and share our hurts and misgivings.
We are learning that it's o.k. to be us, as long as we are seeking God to bring correction and illumination to the character defects we still carry around.
We are closer as a group.
We are learning to love each other.
Worship in the home setting is entirely different from our corporate meeting on Saturday night. The intimacy continues to grow with each of our meetings. We are seeking to bring this same kind of intimacy to the larger meeting on Saturday. Not to impress those who are there, but to simply understand that we can be ourselves especially during times of corporate worship.


We have taken to starting our meeting around the table with coffee and dessert. Everyone is at ease and engaged in conversations about the goings-on of the week. As the conversation begins to wane, I like to lead off with a question or topic that we need to take a look at as a group.
The group question for our meeting came from Marty Boller's book "The Wisdom Of Wimber".
If we truly claim that we want to be "A fool for Jesus"....what would that look like in our everyday lives? Discussion brought up a number of good insights, but in the end, we realize that we are a work in progress. A work that is produced by the Holy Spirit moving and guiding us daily.

There were prayers for healing....
There was a prophetic word given to someone who was struggling.
God later used that word to bring some clarification and direction  for that person the next day.
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Saturday :

Young girl comes to VRC for the first time. She was nervous,but was able to share some of her story with me. Not long ago, she overdosed and it quickly got her attention. She was in need of having her court card stamped, but there was more to her story that simply satisfying the courts. She was ready to move on with life. She confessed that she was anxious and uncertain  about the future, but she was glad that she'd come to the meeting. She had been referred to VRC by Steve Brewster and the Gathering Recovery meeting that meets on Friday nights. That is one thing that I love about the Recovery Community....the sharing and connection that we have with one another.  We realize that we are not in competition with each other. It's about the souls and lives of those still trapped in addiction.

In some ways, Saturday night was like the old days of House of Blue. After the meeting was over, we had several come up for prayer. Two young men had experimented with Spice (this was not their usual DOC) and it had an adverse effect on them, to the point that there has been some physical damage done. They wanted to know if our prayers might bring healing. "Well, let's see," I replied..."Can't hurt can it?" For these two to reach out for prayer was major. The Spirit came with power as one of the young men almost collapsed as we prayed. There were tears all around when we finished.We will continue to pray for them, and see what has happened over this coming week when we gather next Saturday.

Had several alumni from Rapha at Saturday's meeting.
They came up from prayer also.
Prayers for needed jobs....
Prayers for reconciliation with family.
Prayers for strength to keep on the path of this new way of living and following after Jesus.
Once again, I left that building knowing that God had been in the middle of our meeting.
It had been a good one.

Please pray for the young girl I mentioned. 
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Sunday:
Sunday morning found me out at New Outlook Christian Fellowship.
This is another group whose primary focus is to minister and serve people in addiction.
They also draw from the Fellowship House as well as Rapha.
Rannie Childress, pastor, is a straight shooter. No playing around here. Or as we like to say..."You can't con a con". In other words, you're not going to play him or take advantage of him. Couple this with a heart as big as all outdoors and you've got yourself a recovery pastor.

Bottom line, the folks of N.O.C.F. are just a good bunch of people.
They're loving...
They're genuinely concerned about people in recovery....
In other words....who they truly are is reflected in the way they do church.
If you're looking for slick or ritualistic high church, then move on down the road.
If you want real people who are carrying out a mandate from God...then stop by and visit with New Outlook Christian Fellowship.

Well, that about wraps it up.
Seth Barber will be speaking this coming Saturday night at VRC.
Come on out and join us if you're free....
Until tomorrow....

God on you....
mbb