Facts about Friends
Facts about the Faithfulness of God
Facts about the Future
I did the alliterative thing in an effort to be clever.
The first of the three is on
Friends
I had numerous opportunities to connect with a variety of friends from Chicago last week. On Monday (March 10) I hung out with other buddies in the School of Ministry and ate meatloaf; random fact to include, but since I've been in the midwest I have enjoyed more comfort foods and meatloaves that I have in the past 7 years in AZ! It's cool. Then Tuesday I gave one of my friends, Lee a workout that left him nauseated. Not that it's an accomplishment, but I haven't had that kind of effect since training clients back in Phoenix. Wednesday night I enjoyed dinner at The Clubhouse in a part of town that I had not yet explored. But the best part about our dinner was the conversation concerning a Young Men's Leadership Initiative. My friend picked my brain about some things that we can pour into young men (recent college grads just starting life on their own) in order to equip them for serving in the church, and helping them shore up their weaknesses. The Word says that we are to sharpen one another Pro. 27:17, so we had a wonderful discussion as ideas were thrown back and forth. Hopefully the result with be a smaller scale version of the Timothy Leadership program that was a critical instrument to training young men at Scottsdale Bible Church. It was a privilege to be a part of the pioneering component of shaping the next generation of leaders.
Thursday, God gave me a good Word on Psalm 27:4 and seeking one thing at the Connect ministry! The illustration that stands out to me was this: Many of us... wait. If I give it now, I won't be able to use it in my own sermons. I'll just hold it in my repertoire of illustrations and you can ask me whether it was one that I picked up at Connect (hahaha).
Friday, I had a great dinner with a friend Kelly. She's a teacher here at the Harvest Christian
Academy, and although the school is a separate entity from Harvest Bible Chapel, we are in the same building. Kelly and a few of the other teachers have been really encouraging in lifting me up in prayer over the last few weeks as God has provided direction and guidance for my next stage of ministry. We went the Grand Lux Cafe in downtown Chicago. It's basically an upscale Cheesecake Factory, but the atmosphere a little nicer and the food a little richer! Good stuff. We had fun encouraging one another.Then I had some friends from out of town visit. My buddies from my fraternity in undergrad
had dinner with me on Sunday. Brent, visiting from St. Louis has been one of the good friends for the last 10 years and I thank God that we have been able to stay connected. He is a good sounding board and I hope that I can have as much of an impact in his life as he has had in mine. I look forward to staying connected and seeing God do some great things in his life. By the way he was also a friend that hosted me on my trip up north when I initially moved from Phoenix. (look back at the first blogs... he's there).Finally, I was able to hang with a friend from high school! Beverly was in town for business and we had a chance to go to Bandera (good American cuisine) after a random, unplanned shopping spree on Michigan Avenue - known as Chicago's Champs Elysee. She was looking for a dress for a wedding and somehow I ended up with a new pair of shoes! Kenneth Coles... but I got them 1/2 off! Praise God.
So as I look back over the past week I was truly blessed to be able to spend time with friends from different seasons. A wise woman told me, "Everyone is in your life for a reason and for a season!" thanks mom...
2 more blogs coming soon
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