I want to thank all of you for praying for my dad. He is recovering and God totally has him in His arms! We are back, and trying to get back in the groove! We hope to see you Thursday @ 6PM, oh yea, we're having pancakes!

Something I read this week,
"I recalled a Sunday morning incident on the New York City subway. The few passengers aboard were browsing their newspapers or dozing. I myself was reading when a man with several small children boarded the train and bedlam erupted. The kids ran up and down the aisle screaming and wrestling. Their father made no attempt to intervene. The elderly passengers shifted nervously. I waited patiently for the father to restore order: a gentle word of correction, a stern command, some expression of paternal authority--anything. Nothing. Finally I turned to the father and said kindly, 'Sir, perhaps you could restore order here by telling your children to come back and sit down.' 'I know I should do something,' the man replied. 'We just came from the hospital. Their mother died an hour ago. I just don't know what to do."

Just when you think you know, you don't. What you don't know is always more significant than what you know.

We are a judging people, and we think we have the right to push God off the judgement seat, when we neither have the knowledge nor authority to do so. We have hardened hearts, hearts of stone, by what this world gives us. All those people who suck, that let you down, has made you callous. That is the Poser in us, who doesn't want us to be hindered by the hurting around us.

I pray that on Thursday nights, we attempt the impossible, in the way of making our hearts not of stone, but of flesh.

"Compassion leads to forgiveness when we understand where our enemy cries. . . . Stone hearts become warm flesh when we learn where the outcast weeps--and not a minute sooner."

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Kenny saw The Village this past week, as did I. If you haven’t seen it, that’s okay, and if you don’t want to you will get the gist of the movie Thursday night.
Quotes from the movie:
"Sometimes people don't do things because they don't want people to know they want to do them."

"I have always pictured them (the monsters) in some ways as our protectors. They have allowed us to live here, nestled amongst them in this untouched place."

People use fear as a defense, so they will not be harmed in any way. But the truth is, that fear will harm them even more, and lie to them about what is right.
Example: I know I need to go and talk to that person about what God means to me, but I am afraid that they will think I’m a religious fanatic or something. If God leads you to speak with someone, then that is the right path to take, not the one of fear.


James 515And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 17Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

It says in James that we are to confess our sins to each other. What are the advantages of that, and what fears come to your mind when you think of confessing sins to other people?
To go back to “The Village”, we don’t confess our sins and reveal truth in our lives, because we don’t want others to know we are that kind of people. The Poser in us, likes to hide!