It is a great time of year at Oak Leaf.  I just wanted to share with you one of the reasons why it is.

JOURNEY GROUPS…

I have been hearing some cool stories coming out of Journey Groups but let me tell you of this underneath theme that is running through many of them right now.

We have groups that come in all sizes.  Will Goodwin is leading the way with having like 29 people on his roster.  All of this is cool but let me tell you what I love to hear.  I had a group leader tell me last week that they did not have a great turn out so I immediately was trying to get them plugged into another group and here was the response., “No, we want to give it more time we have a new couple coming so we want to keep trying.”

I was pleasantly surprised by this person’s willingness to allow God to use them.  You see I believe God wants to do great things through us but many times we have to be patient.  Many of us are seeing and sensing this right now because of our economy.  This is when God decides to work because He wants to show Himself.  It, and here’s a churchy word, ‘glorifies’ Him and HE gets the credit.  Then everyone knows He’s in charge.

For those in groups and you are worried about numbers hang tough and above all KEEP INVITING!  It could be that God wants to see how much you are in this thing by seeing your passion for inviting others.

By the way when you ask Will how he got that many people he will tell you, “I just asked”.

Two weeks a go Ray Boltz comes out and admits he’s gay, you can read about it here.  I don’t have a problem with this, as a matter of fact if the story stops there it’s fine.  I mean we all have things that are hidden and then we bring out these things for others to see.  Maybe it’s out of guilt or we need some closure to things and I get that.  What I don’t get, well let me rephrase that, what I unfortunately get is that we (the world) believe that this makes it alright.

One of my best friends did the same thing.  I already knew he had some tendencies and I knew he would probably never be rid of these feelings he had.  He got married, had two kids, then decided to let his spouse know that he was ‘living’ a gay lifestyle.  Even after this I ’still’ accepted him and said I would stand by him through this.  Instead of facing the problem he left his family to pursue this lifestyle.  I guess I should have believed that this was alright too.

I can’t do it.  Am I angry?  Yes.  Is it because he left his family?  Yes, but that’s not all of it.  You see, like I said we all have things in our closet or things that we deal with. He left me, his friend.  I was a fellow Christ follower living day to day with temptations.  Normal everyday thoughts that come into your head that you have to fight against.  What is the difference between my friend and you or me?  What is the difference whether it is heterosexual or homosexual tendencies.  Why is the guy that comes out of the closet being gay should be understood and allowed to live a lifestyle the way he wants?  What is the difference if I want to leave my wife for another woman?  God made me that way and you should accept it.

I am upset because he gave up.  He left the game and left me on the field.  Guys, go after your friends.  Don’t let them skip out on the game easily.  The price is way too high.