Steven Gibbs

Charge The Ball

When teaching kids how to catch grounders in baseball, we teach them to charge the ball.  In other words, if a ground ball is coming to you, go and get it.  If you charge the ball, it puts you in better position to catch the ball.  Don't wait for it to come to you.  If you don't play the ball, it will play you. 

Where are you not charging the ball?  If you have joined the Daniel Fast, are you letting the Fast play you?  Are you focused on what you'd like to eat, rather than on what God has in store for you?  One thing I've realized is how controlled we really are.  If I don't get what I want, I'm frustrated and irritable. 

Don't let the Fast play you.  Enjoy the opportunity to join with God and others through this time.  See the possibilities of what God can do through us.  Charge The Ball!

John 5

I love John 5, as we see Jesus in action.  A friend sent this to me today.  It's based on John 5, and reminds me of the "you" I'm praying for during our Daniel Fast.  Enjoy.  

Brennan Manning – speaking on the life of Rich Mullins:

There’s a scene in Thornton Wilder’s play The Angel That Troubled the Waters that to me really captures the essence of the life and the spirituality of Rich Mullins.  Ah… the scene is… A doctor comes to the pool every day wanting to be healed of his melancholy, and his gloom and his sadness, and, uh, finally when the angel appears, the doctor – he’s a medical doctor – goes to step into the water and the angel blocks his entrance and says, “No, step back, the healing is not for you.”  The doctor pleads, “But I’ve got to get into the water, I can’t live this way.”  The angel says, “No, this moment is not for you.”  And he says, “But how can I live this way?”

 

And she says – the angel says to him, “Doctor, without your wounds, where would your power be?  It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men and women.  The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children of this earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living.  In love’s service, only wounded soldiers can serve.”

Sowing and Reaping

In John 4, we again see the biblical principle of sowing and reaping.  Sometimes we sow, sometimes we reap.  Sowing is the hard work.  No immediate gratification.  No guarantee that there will be a harvest. However, we need to be willing to trade what we want to see immediately for what will happen eventually.  

When you sit on the floor with 2 year olds on a Sunday morning, you may not immediately see the harvest.  When you do kid's motions to a kid's song in Splash, you may not immediately see the harvest.  When you sit on the floor with your Kidzu group and talk about a Bible story, you may not immediately see the harvest.  When you wave a car into the parking lot, call your middle/high school group, open the front door - for all of those you may not see the harvest - immediately.  

But you will see the harvest eventually.  Jesus states that reaper and sower will rejoice, together.  Eventually.  

Let's pray together that God would give us opportunities to sow immediately so that we can rejoice together eventually.  

Daniel Has Arrived

I know, I know, I haven't posted in 6 months.  Thought the next leg of Stonecreek's journey was a good time to jump back in.

We've done all the shopping. We hit Costco last night, and then Target today. As we finished Target I was completely done. Too much thinking and label reading. Don't let that tank anybody. The goal is spiritual - remember - praying in 3 directions. Me (what will God change in me), You (who does God want me to impact), Us (what does God want for us as a community). Don't forget the point. If you end up with a shred of cheese in your salad, you can still pray. If you bought something with a "forbidden" ingredient in it, God still loves you and knows your heart. We have over 100 people praying and fasting! So, let none of us forget, we are praying towards the Come Home series. It's a spiritual journey. See you tomorrow.