It was so good to be back speaking this weekend. The 1st weekend of January is always kind of unique. As one friend who has stated in her new blog, it’s like the year is pregnant with possibilities! I like breaks but I’m just enough of a routine kind of person that I like it when I’m back into some kind of flow.
Here are a couple of personal highlights:
• 21 DAYS OF FASTING & PRAYER – I’m excited that we are embarking on this journey together. Even though I may not be fasting on a particular day over the next 3 weeks, WE will be. I prayed today (Tuesday) for those who are trying this out, for whom fasting is a new experience. Like any other spiritual discipline, there is a learning curve to fasting. I’m praying for a supernatural bending of that curve that will entice us to pursue God even more.
• MORE ON FASTING – I’m stoked at how many people signed up & dove in on the 1st weekend! Very cool. I love how responsive our hearts are.
• DANGEROUS – As I gave the message, I had a growing conviction that this theme is from God, that it really is a word from God at some level for us. I sense that God is stirring. I got an unusual amount of feedback – all positive so far – on how people felt “inspired”. That was the most common word. My aim was to stir up longing. I felt like a guy standing at dock at a port city trying to sell people a ticket to a ship sailing to a new world.
• TREVOR DAVIS & BAND – I love having Trevor at journey. We have him enough to where he feels comfortable & can really lead us in worship & to where we feel comfortable & free to respond to him. He has a great voice, a gift for writing insightful songs, he brings a great band. And most of all he’s a GOOD GUY – he loves Jesus, is an authentic soft hearted follower of the Lord. He always gets something out of the message when he’s here. He’s humble. It won’t be too long before he’s back at Journey.
• COME BACK FACTOR – Several of us were praying for all the people who came on Xmas Eve who were checking things out. On Friday a guy came up who had been brought. We talked for a while, he seemed like a nice fellow. Here’s the cool part: the people that brought him weren’t able to be at church this weekend due to a family emergency. He STILL CAME. That’s wild!
• 2 POLAR OPPOSITE SURF DAYS – Saturday morning was rainy & nasty here in SD, but one of my lame brain surf compadres still was paddling out. He called me from the beach challenged my manhood & told me there were some rideable waves. It worked down I went – it was crazy, but we had a blast – the only 2 knuckleheads in the H2O. Then on Monday, it was sunny, the wind was off shore, a new swell was in – it was an hour of prime 2 -4 ideal fun – my new board was perfecto! (Props Ken & Clint). Then the wind shifted & garbaged stuff up, but that 1st hour… wow.
• DESERT DAYS – After surfing I headed out for my monthly solitude days. I spent a lot of Monday night with the theme of our Fasting & Prayer season: WHAT? I’ll post some on this tomorrow.
We’re off to a great start in 2009. See you next weekend … TAPE THE GAME!
