Wednesday, July 8, 2009

July Update

THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

This is one of the hottest summers that I can remember here in Texas, we are known for hot summers anyways, yet this summer seems to be scorching up there with the drought we had back in '98.

Have you ever felt like that you've been in a spiritual drought? I've had some conversations recently about the current generation of spiritual people that we are ministering to locally. I've been praying that God would raise up some young people with a burning desire in the hearts to know God, to passionately pursue God, and to not let anything hamper their pursuit of intimacy with God.

We seem to easily forget that the Holy Spirit in us is abundant and not lacking in revelation, understanding, and wisdom. What seems to be causing the drought with this generation? Sure we can go and look at what George Barna's Research has to say about this generation, that there is emergent generation that is looking in all directions for spiritual life willing to accept any means by which they can understand God, but what happens when the search comes up empty even in the local church body?

Is there anyone out there that wants to know God intimately anymore? I fear we have made God out to be distant and far away from us as if we can't approach Him without the understanding that we must acknowledge how sorry we are first. The glory of God is a great subject and one that we should know and understand, but it shouldn't be hampering our progress to know God.

I love what John Piper has written about being a Christian Hedonist that we should find our complete joy in God, I love to enjoy God, I love God's glory, and it is exactly His glory that drives me to want to know Him intimately, but not at the expense of being fearful to approach.

Much of what has happened with this generation of the church body is that they do not understand or recognize the Holy Spirit and the presence of God in us. Since I'm another, that means God won't share His glory with us right? If Jesus glorifies God on our behalf and God has given us Jesus, then hasn't it always been God's even in us?

Just some food for thought, I'm praying that this generation will begin to boldly approach the throne of grace, to march into the presence of God in their time of need knowing that the glory of God will not keep God from enjoying you as well, even in our junk.

Dave Busby talked about living in God's hug and we would do well to begin to reexamine the issue of grace and the approachability of God. It really grieves my heart when I see people who freeze up and become tense when the presence of God shows up. I believe we are seeing a spiritual drought because the presence of God is not recognized. We need a real jolt of practicing the presence of God in our lives. Identifying ourselves in Christ as a means by which we can understand the presence of God, His Glory, and His sovereignty.

God, please fuel the passion in the hearts of this generation to know you intimately, in and out of the walls of the church building and manifest yourself in us your body by your grace and through Jesus we beg.

WHO WE ARE

I began about 20 days ago to start writing some daily devotionals for my students because they enjoyed having something to read and go by while at Lake Forest for the week and I really felt like God was leading me to do it so I prayed about it and God has been blessing this His work to examine specifically "WHO WE ARE."

I've had conversations for many years with different people about scriptures that just say it, that interprets themselves and really gives us a look at about our identity in Christ. Sharing thoughts about specific identity markers and reading the scripture that surround these identity markers to help us understand our "identity."

I've started a group on facebook if you are interested in joining it called, "WHO WE ARE" it begins with day 1 and will move through until God says stop. I'm almost complete with 3o days and will be pursuing to publish in the future. Anyone is available to join and you can invite whoever you want to begin reading and have some open discussion. You can go to my facebook page at www.facebook.com/jtgoodson and it will have in my profile on the wall information about the WHO WE ARE group.

GYPSY MARKET

www.mineolagyspymarket.com

vendor info packet at the bottom of the first packet and rental contract if you are interested in setting up a booth, follow the instructions and it will lead you to exactly what you need to do.

July 25 North Johnson St. 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Bring your family and enjoy the arts, music, and market and children's play area! Free Admission.


FINAL WORD

We love each and everyone of you and are thankful for your support in prayer for Teleo Ridge, we invite you all to come and join us at some point in Mineola, TX for an opportunity to see what God is doing here in our community.

Jason

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