One of the things I didn't mention yesterday was a couple of great conversations I had this weekend. I wanted to take a moment and share this experience with you.
We had a new neighbor move in a few months back. "Bob" and his wife and kids had lost their business, house, have a ton of debt from that and with the economy he is struggling to find regular steady work.
He has been asking questions lately about God, Bible, and Jesus and general religious questions. However, we have not been able to have a good deep conversation about the topic. On Saturday night, things changed. My friend Josh and his family was over, as well as, "Bob" and his family.
While the wives went to get dinner, we began talking. I felt like it was a good opportunity to take the conversation a bit deeper, and we began discussing God. That led to a great 1 hour conversation about every aspect of a relationship with God. The fears, the unknowns, the doubts, etc. In the end, Josh and I had a chance to pray over him in the driveway, although he wasn't quite ready to make a commitment.
The next afternoon, while I was outside with the boys, "Bob" came over to thank me for the night before, for the conversation, the prayer and just being a friend. For the next conversation, I got to be a friend to my neighbor, we talked about life, religion, family, fears, etc. He still was not ready to make a decision, although I believe he is close, but the opportunity that Josh and I had to speak into his life was amazing.
This opportunity wouldn't have came about, if we weren't sensitive to listening for the Holy Spirit's prompting. The timing, topic, and discussion were the result of God's timing and the Spirit's prompting. I am grateful for being a part of that.
Are you listening for the Spirit's prompting?
Well, I am sitting here this morning reflecting back over the weekend. I thought I would share with you a bit about our weekend and why it is so significant.
I woke up Saturday in a panic. I realized at 7:40 AM that I FORGOT to pick up the keys for the building that we rent to hold our church plant church services. I quickly realized that we are probably going to have a shortened service outside. I quickly began enlisting people to pray for a solution. By 12:00PM that day the issue had resolved. I remembered I knew some Lion's Club officers. They use the same building and have permanently issued keys. They loaned us the keys.
Second, after chasing around looking for keys, I cleaned the front yard (Autumn did a great job doing the back yard) and we got ready for Jordan's Birthday Party. What an amazing party. He had so many friends and family there to honor him. He felt VERY special. Fun was had by all.
That night we continued with some friends and got to play some games while the kids continued to play.
Sunday morning, we were up early and I was at the building (with keys) to open up by 7:30. We had a wonderful service, with our Children's Education Pastor preaching a great message. We were locked up, cleaned up and home by 11:30.
I spent a couple of hours doing personal finances and recovering from the cost of a birthday party. I then watched Fireproof with Autumn. That is an emotional movie...and I HAD seen it before.
I then took the boys outside for some bike riding and chalk writing. We had a fun afternoon. A great dinner from Autumn, and then finally some quiet computer time for me.
What a memorable and enjoyable weekend. How was yours?
Yesterday I met with a young man from our church. He is in his early/mid 20's. He is a pretty unique young man.
He is a rapper, and he dresses the part. He is always dressed in brilliantly bright colors, plenty of bling, and style to go with it. He has the lingo. If you could hear this guy rap....man he has a gift. He is also a graduate of Teen challenge. He is currently living in a transition house trying to get back on his feet.
I have really felt like God wanted me to come along side him and disciple him as he starts this new life. We all know that when we disciple others, we are being discipled as well, right? At the same time I was feeling this, he had been wanting to put on a hip hop/rap outreach concert.
Yesterday, we got to finally meet together. The time was spent getting to know one another, and a bit of our pasts. The bulk of the time was spent brainstorming for the concert. Who would be a part of it, how would it look, sound and feel to the community we are trying to reach. When would we do it, where, etc. It was a great time and we accomplished a lot.
As I reflect back on that first meeting, there is one thing that really stands out to me. His passion. It was great to hear his passion to reach people and tell them about Jesus through his music. It was a genuine, excitable passion. A contagious passion.
For some reason, it seems that the longer we are Christians, we loose some of our passion...if we don't protect it. Why? many reasons.... but it does happen. It was great to see and hear his passion yesterday, because it stirred up my passion. It reminded me why I do what I do and why I want to be a part of reaching people who are lost.
Thank you, my friend, for reminding me what outreach is all about!
Yesterday was a momentous day in the Hicks household. After many trials and tribulations, Austin has now joined the ranks of many others before him. He has climbed the mountain and reached the top...
Yes, Austin can now ride a bike!
Yesterday was the "Oh, I get it!" day for him.
We have been at this for 18 months. We have tried soft grassy hills at the park. We have tried stern forcefulness at home. I have ran beside him for--I don't know how many-- miles. I have attempted it many different ways. He has made good progress over the many months. Our last attempt, he actually was able to ride for great distances...as long as I was along side of him.
Yesterday started out like many others...he was frustrated, struggling and gave up. He told me he was going to go play with chalk. I told him "OK" but that I was disappointed he quit so easily, because I knew he was not a quitter.
After a few minutes (like 3) of playing with chalk, he came back to me. "Dad, I am ready to try again. This time I am not going to quit!" By the end of the afternoon, I could not get him off the bike. He could ride, start/stop, turn around. He was able to look around for cars, move out of the way. Needless to say, he asked if he could ride again the next day.
Although it took some pushing on my part, when he finally got it...he got it! It clicked and then his skills accelerated from there. I think our Christian walk can sometimes be the same way.
We become a Christian, we have great expectations. Sometimes we fall and it hurts. Sometimes we have success. I think we reach a point, though, where we finally get it. We understand what being a Christian really means. We understand what having a relationship with Jesus really involves.
Once we "Get it". Once we truly realized all that is involved in living a life for our Savior, then the best happens. We begin to grow. We begin to ride like the wind. We don't want to get off the bike. Our skills become refined, and we get better and better.
Can we still fall off? Sure. But the more and more we live our life for Christ and stay focused on Him, the harder it becomes AND when we do fall, we know how to get back on the bike!
Where are you in your bike riding journey?
