Hey everyone, it's Girls/Guys this week and we'll meet at our regular locations at 7pm. Look forward to hearing about your week and talking about our awesome God! Dar and I had an incredible weekend at a Training/Conference called "The Art of Hearing God" and were blown away! God is so good. More about that later though... Also, keep an eye out for an email headed your way about our first meeting with our JP families!

Oswald Chambers

I was reading My Utmost for His Highest last night and Oswald was speaking about the relinquished life - the life of being united in Christ but laying down our sin and our entire way of looking at things. I felt the same spirit from our conversation last night about confession. The passage is HERE, but this is my favorite line:

"What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not goodness, nor honesty, nor endeavour, but real solid sin; that is all He can take from us. And what does He give us in exchange for our sin? Real solid righteousness."

Amen!

Tonight!

Guys meeting @ Shorts -7:30pm

Girls meeting @ Stanfields -7:00pm

Justice Project Block Party

March 7 from 4-6pm we will be kicking off the Justice Project in Reid Park!

Looking forward to meeting the family's that we will be loving and serving for the next 9+ months!

All the groups need to bring different types of potluck/crockpot type dishes. Start throwing some ideas out there, and volunteering for what you want to contribute.  Also, please let us know if you can come! 

don't forget this thursday!!!

Hey everyone, we talked about this a long time ago...but this thursday is the big show at Visulite!
http://www.visulite.com/calendar.cfm?currentMonth=02-2009&show=696

Public Radio and John Mark McMillan...

you do not want to miss this!

Monday Monday Monday

Hey everyone, 

We will be meeting normal time tomorrow and the guys will be meeting at the Shorts and the girls at the Stanfield's. Come with open hearts....

Much Love,

Laura & Dar

God meets us more than half way

Thanks for the verses, keep them coming! So encouraging. Here's a few that I've been chewing on and clinging to recently... praise God, our generous protector and provider!

"Open up before God, keep nothing back; he'll do whatever needs to be done; He'll validate your life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high noon. Quiet down before God, be prayerful before Him." Ps. 37:5,6

"I once was young, now I'm a greybeard- not once have I seen an abandoned believer or his kids out roaming the streets." Ps. 37:25,26

"God met me more than halfway, he freed me from my anxious fears. Look at him; give him your warmest smile. Never hide your feelings from him. When I was desperate, I called out, and God got me out of a tight spot. God's angel sets up a circle of protection around us while we pray. Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see -how good God is! Blessed are you who run to him!" Ps. 34:4-8

When Dar's away...

...the mice will play!  :) But seriously, Dar's flying out to Mammoth, CA early tomorrow morning. (Please pray for safe travels, and continued direction from the Lord!) 

Thus, he will not be here for small group. I know... boo! So... Monday night, we'll all be together and I guess it's up to me to figure out what in the heck we're going to do together. Here's what I'm thinking... Pauly maybe doing a couple ditty's with us on the guitar and then dive into whatever the Lord's got on our hearts.  

I've been praying a lot for direction with our group, and honestly feeling a little lost. But I really feel like God's telling us to "Stop talking and start doing"  and I really think that means... getting our hands dirty. I'm actually getting excited about the Justice Project that Lisa and 24-7 is heading up! (Believe it or not, when I first heard it mentioned at church, I got a rock in the pit of my stomach, and felt my "flight" response kick in. Immediately coming up with at least a handful of excuses why I couldn't get involved with it. I realize now, that's just the enemy trying to deter me AND US from doing what really matters.) I think God has BIG things in store for all of us this year. Be thinking about the "gifts" and things that our group has to offer people who don't have much. How can we be the hands, feet and mouth of Christ?

A Verse...

I heard this verse a few times over the past few weeks - John 14:27

Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled or do not be afraid.

Some verses...

My wife who is my wife and also happens to be rad sent me these verses the other day....

Psalm 62: 5-8

My soul, wait in silence for God only,
For my hope is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.
On God my salvation and my glory rest;
The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.

Trust in Him at all times, O people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us.

In addition, my son who is my son and also happens to be rad did not give me any verses, but he sure looked rather sharp at church yesterday....sure he did.

Oh, and anyone had any verses that have encouraged them recently? 

Please share!

Monday Monday Monday

Hey everybody... hope you're getting in some serious relaxation this weekend! 

We're going to meet in our separate guys/girls groups this week to catch up with each other, hear each other's hearts and encourage and lift each other up! A lot of us are dealing with major life STUFF and our world's have turned up-side-down in the past several months... we could ALL use a little help along the way! I just keep telling myself... GOD IS IN CONTROL. GOD IS IN CONTROL. GOD IS IN CONTROL. These seasons of valley, desert, craziness, whatever you want to call it... always force you to grow a ton in your faith! The closer to Jesus, the better!

We've had a lot on our plate (no not broccoli, owen) and I hope you all will be patient with your leaders last minute-ness and frazzle brains! LOVE YOU GUYS!

Underage and Unemployed

I am thinking about writing a book in all my spare time the title above should peek a little interest. More to come on that later... For now I just thought I would say that I agree that Shane C was on point and amazing to just be around someone who has "left everything to gain everything". Does anyone want to buy our townhome? I think I should ask Laura first. Love you guys let me know how you are doing and what the Lord is showing you. 

Dar

what up peeps...

beth loves it when i say "peeps" so i thought i would give her a little surprise by putting it in the title...
i have nothing to say really, just wanted to say hello...i hear the night with Mr. Shane was pretty good...i did not go, but my sister-in-law and her man josh went and had a great time, including a question time where josh got to ask a question and talk to shane about some stuff and it was really cool....
gosh, reading over this post, i am SUCH a good writer with gems like "really cool" and "stuff"...
anyway, yeah, not having a job really frees up time to spend with the Lord, right Dar? I guess that is why I have spent LESS time with him...priorities.
Needless to say, that has not been a strong point of mine...
I thoroughly enjoyed Chris Webb both saturday and at church on Sunday. man, American accents are lame.
enough rambling...
hey, if you guys want to smile, check out noahstanfield.blogspot.com and see noah laughing, caught on film for the first time. it is fantastic. no lie.
love you all and see you soon!
peace

pauly

Shane Claiborne

http://www.meetup.com/Area-15-and-Shane-Claiborne/

Here's the website for the Shane Claiborne event details/tickets.

Hope to see you guys tomorrow night! Love you, mean it!

See everyone Tonight

See everyone at 7pm tonight!

Reply to Alone time...I still feel that my alone time is lacking...but prayer time with my wife has picked up. That has been seriously lacking for the past year. I definitely sense that God is starting to lead us somewhere (spiritually/maybe physically) new. It's exciting to see.

Alone Time/ Solitude Time

Man, It's amazing how easy it is to get good time with the Lord when you don't have to work. It feels good to just turn on some worship music and soak in the Lords presence. How's everyone doing this week? What is the Lord showing you/ laying on your heart? 

Test post from Darsky 

Last night...

It seems that last night everyone was on the same page even though we were in separate places. It's cool to see how God is leading us all.
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone in the group. I love you guys.

YAY!

Looks great Paul! Thanks so much for doing that for us! This is gonna be cool...

i to am testing my ability to post on this crazy electronical word posting thingamajig

Testing...

1 2 3...is this thing on? Just checking to see if it works.

How is this?

Hey everyone, this is the first post on our blog for our community life group!
I will try to add everyone as authors. we can talk more about it tonight!

word up...
peace

pauly