I've been spending some time in Hebrews 11 today.  Your know, it's impossible to please God in our journey with Him unless their is the Faith component.   In this chapter, there are some great examples of people who lived by faith and accomplished great things for God.  I think they bought into the idea that fear or any kind is effectively diminished by faith.  Take a look at some of these people:

Able--he brought a "more acceptable" gift to God, and although long gone, he still speaks to us because of his faith.

Enoch--God took him into His presence without dying because of his faith.  (What a way to Go!)

Noah--God warned him that something was going to happen that had never happened before (the Great Flood).  Noah, with simple faith, believed God and built the Ark. The rest is history.

Abraham--(my personal favorite) He obeyed God, picked up his family and stepped out on a journey, without knowing where he was going, and made a tremendous impact in the lives of countless millions.  This is kind of like stepping up to be a JGL isn't it?

Sarah--barren, but by her faith in God, had a child, and a whole nation was born because of her simple faith in what God told her.

The lesson here, I believe, is in verse 13, "All these faithful ones died without receiving what God had promised them, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed the promises of God."

I'd like to encourage you to study these men and women of faith. Spend some time in this chapter.  You will be a more effective JGL by following their example and trusting the same God they did.  By the way, I also believe that the work we are doing with Journey Groups is just as important and significant as the work that Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah accomplished for God. 

More to come.....

Hello everyone!    Much has happened since we last communicated to you.  Jan and I had the opportunity to visit Matt and Bev Shankle's group last Sunday night.  We were warmly welcomed by this group and we were excited to participate in what God is doing.  Jan and I got to meet   new people and challenged individuals in the group to pray and consider being a Journey Group Leader (JGL).    We plan to visit the other ongoing groups as well. 

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone Sunday night.  To prepare, we ask that you pray that God would allow us to confirm all four new JGL's that night.  We also would like to match apprentices/co-leaders to each of these JGL's.   Remember the question we asked last time?  "What do you think you can accomplish in life (for God) if you were not afraid?"  We'll, we are looking forward to hearing what you have to say.  Also, I know that several of you have led groups before, so we'll be looking to get your input-what works for you, what did not work well, etc.    Our goal Sunday night is to delve deeper into the "nuts and bolts" of small group dynamics. We've ordered a book for everyone, and we hope that it arrives before Sunday.   So, come prepared to participate, ask questions, pray, laugh, cry, or whatever!