Week 6

Hello all,

Once again it has been a while since my last post so I do apologize. I am beginning to see the inability of words to describe what God is doing in my life and the lives of everyone here in Jax. It makes me awe even more at God's Word and how he was able to use our words to communicate who he is. It is astounding to think about. Here are a few high lights of the last couple weeks:

Week 4 was themed "Identity and Christ" and we talked about what it looks like and why it is important to find your identity and purpose in Christ and not someone or something else. The most impacting thing from this week was a list of "Who God says I am" verses. It looked at about 30 different verses that tell us how God views us, that we are secure in him and that He gives us significance. It was challenging to look at some and believe them, but I continue to pray that God will speak the truths of his word into me so that I may more fully know his grace and mercy in my life.

Week 5 just ended and was focused on "Other centered living". It might seem strange to order the weeks like this, but I have learned that only when we are overflowing with joy and humility from where God has rescued us can we truly be free to serve other out of a heart that desires for God to get the praise and glory and not ourselves. This is so contrary to our culture which tells us to work hard for ourselves so that we can be successful and prosperous. I think this includes doing good, but who can really say that deep down they don't want some form of praise or recognition for the good that they do? Christ working in us allows us to do good because He did good, because he is transforming us into himself. We are tied to our own selfish desires and wants even if that includes helping others because if we look long term, would we still serve others if we never ever got another "thank you" or "good job" or some other form of recognition. I doubt we would. The sign of a true servant is one who is able to serve while being treated like a servant. This is how Jesus came and how he lived. He came to serve and he was treated like one.

Please continue to pray that this would be instilled in my team (Derrick, Cody, Ryan) and myself.

In Him,