Unconditional, Unlimited, and Unimaginably Extravagant

Psalm 36:5 (NIV) Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.





David Brenner gives a description of What God's love is all about and it is really unimaginable what He does for us.He says for us to know God the basis of our character needs to be embedded in our soul. When we think of who we are , the first thing to come to mind is our status that we are deeply loved by God.

I can think of the many times in the past when I thought that I was loving God but what I was doing was loving the things I did for God. God was in my head as the object knowledge but not in my heart the source of transformational knowledge. The knowledge that calls us to action because of the great love God has for us and for the love we have for ourselves in wanting to do what God desires.



Jesus met the Samartian woman.

Touched by perfect love, she would never be the same again.

She had encountered the Lord.

I encountered the Lord this summer and he met me in a place where I had never been.

He me in the heart of my soul and I will never be the same again

Coming to know and trust God's love is a lifelong process.

"Making this knowledge the foundation of our identity or better, allowing our identity to be re-formed around this most basic fact of our existence will also never happen instantly Both lie at the core of the spiritual transformation that is the intended outcome of Christ-following. We don't make the time table. "


"Every time I dare to meet God in the vulnerability of my sin and shame, this knowing is strengthened. Every time I fall back into a self-improvement mode and try to bring God my best self, it is weakened. I only know Divine unconditional, radical and reckless love for me when I dare to approach God just as I am. The more I have the courage to meet God in this place of weakness, the more I will know myself to be truly and deeply loved by God. And the more deeply I know this love and his will."

Only God knows the timing, the place and the results as his timing is always perfect on the Adventure in Middle Grove.

The Gift of Being Yourself - Life Comes at You Fast

Psalm144:4 (The Message)

^3-4 I wonder why you care, God—
why do you bother with us at all?
All we are is a puff of air;
we're like shadows in a campfire.

Good Question...

There is a television commercial by Nationwide Insurance that says,

"Life comes at you fast" Psalm 144 tells us we are but a puff of air or a fleeting shadow in a campfire. That is Fast! We need to know ourselves before we can really know God and we really do not have much time here on this earth to get to know God and know ourselves.

Brenner says in "The Gift of being Yourself" we are rear view mirror Christians. We look back over the day and do an examination but do we really do a self examination about ourselves? Do we avoid the feelings and indwelling sin in our lives escape the scrutiny of examination and reflection? If we do, we are allowing a disconnect between our self and God. We are not looking at our self in view of the transformational knowledge that God give us in his word.

What we are left with is the shame we have by not being true to God and the shame we bring on ourselves for not knowing ourselves. It is the shame that keeps us from the true knowledge with action if we really know ourselves and God.

"The goal of a prayerful review of recent life experiences is not self-analysis. The point is not to peel back the onion and find some problem or meaning. The goal is to increase our awareness of God in the events of life and the depths of my being."

Lord, let me come before you this day and put my shame before you.

The shame I have for not always following your wisdom;

The shame I have for not always loving people close to me the way you love them;

The shame I have for not always looking at people through your eyes, not mine;

The shame I have for not always yielding to you.

Release me this day from the shame and sin in my life so I can see a path that is clearer this day as you care for me on the Adventure in Middle Grove.

The Flip Side

"Stand up; I too am a man." (Acts 10:25-26 RSV).


"Peter was a Galilean, the characteristics of which at the time included a strong sense of independence and a direct, impetuous manner. His "frontier mentality" made him as quick on the draw with a sword (e.g. when he cut off Malchus' ear ) as many American cowboys were with a six-gun in the Old West nearly 2,000 years later."

Sometimes weird connections come to me as I a labor during the day. Yesterday I had one of those connections. I was cleaning the storage area in the basement and was not looking for anything in particular. I stopped to think about a box of 45 records I had in the basement and started looking for them. I couldn't find them but finding them was not the point by now. For those of you who have never seen a 45 record, you are a lot younger than me!

45 records were pressed on 2 sides. I guess they figured why waste a side of the record, we will put something on it. Sometimes it was not even the same artist. So, you could get a top 40 song on one side and "The chorus of German shepherds howling Gregorian Chants" Most of the time a purchaser of the 45 did not know what was going to be on other side until the record came out.

Just a point of meaningless trivia. Decca records pressed many of their 45 records in Gloversville NY. Don't know how that happened!

Ok back on task...

So, you would potentially have a hit on one side and a dog on the other. Alright, it was a cheap attempt at a joke.

But there were a few that had hits on both sides. This was VERY rare.

The Internet is great for an ADD person. I found a site that had all the 45s ever pressed and had the front side (A) and the flip side (B) and where they appeared on the record hit list.

1 COME TOGETHER A / 2 SOMETHING B- The Beatles (1969)

Two hits on one 45!

This was was Peter. He had a flip side.

"Reading Peter's epistles makes me wonder if this is the same hot-headed fisherman we meet in the Gospels! Something dramatic has happened to him. His knowing of both God and his own self underwent a radical change because he came to know Jesus. "

Our ideas about God are formed in the relationship we have with him and the relationship we have in knowing who we are before God.

If that doesn't humble you, nothing will!


Our objective knowledge of God is good but it is pale in comparison to the transformational knowledge available to us if we get to know God on a more intimate level.

I believe this is what happened to me this summer. I had the same 45 playing for a long time but it was side B. God said "Rick, enough of listening to side B, I am going to flip this record over"

He did, literally..

He flipped me over to a new side that had rarely been played before;

the quality of the sound was something that was never heard before

and the words were only his words.

God can change people

He Changed Peter, he changed me

Lord, Side B sounded pretty good for a long time. the words and the music were soothing to me. They satisfied my desires and my longings.

But you flipped me over to Side A, "The number one hit"

The music and words are now your music and your words. Side A is for you because I know more about me. Keep the music playing as the Adventure in Middle Grove likes the sound of your tunes.

Reassuring grace!

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.


Romans 8:26-27


I have faced very difficult circumstances in my life as a Christian.When I did , sometimes I felt my prayers just bounce off the ceiling. My words will seem empty and useless. I couldn't seem to verbalize what was on my heart. I felt like my words were ineffective and insufficient.


So what did God do to me?


He showed me trust this promise.


Go to God in prayer!


Even when I don't have words to say, I offer my heart to him, trusting that the Holy Spirit takes those thoughts, emotions, and inarticulate frustrations to God.

The Spirit makes my heart known to God, interceding for me according to HIS will. Even when I don't have words, the Spirit makes my needs known.

What a tremendous reassuring grace!



It is so comforting to know that my words, thoughts, and emotions are all presented to you through your Holy Spirit. Father, I feel inadequate to approach you and I know without the intercession of your Son and the Holy Spirit that I would not be worthy to do so. Thank you for giving me the assurance that you will always hear me even when I can’t find the words to say while on the Adventure in Middle Grove.

Transformational Knowledge - God is Love

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever.





Psalm 136:1






A little late this morning. Cable maintenance. I guess that is pretty sad. I am up before the cable guys are done!

Today a last discussion to wrap up the transformational knowledge and how this least to a better understanding of Jesus and ultimately a better understanding of myself. The information below is a paraphrase of some of the material in "The Gift of Being Yourself". I could not add anything to make it better.

We can hold fast to the testimony of the scriptures for our faith and knowledge of God. As valuable as this objective knowing is, JI Packer reminds us that even "a little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about Him. Transformational knowing of God comes from the intimate, personal knowing of Divine love.

Because God is love, God can only be known through love. To know God is to love God, and to love God is to know God (1 John 4:7-8). The Christian God is known only in devotion, not objective detachment.

This is why Paul's prayer is that we may know the love of Christ and so be filled with the utter fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19).

This is transformational knowing.

Knowing God also requires surrender.

Thomas Merton writes that "we must know the truth, we must love the truth we know and we must act according to the measure of our love. Truth is God himself who cannot be known apart from love and cannot be loved apart from surrender to his will."

Genuine knowing demands a response.

To know God demands that we be willing to be touched by Divine love.

To be touched by God's love is to be forever changed.

To surrender to Divine love is to find (my) soul's home..the place and identity for which (I) yearn in every cell of (my) being, today on the Adventure in Middle Grove.

Transformational Knowledge or Walking on Water Part 5

Why Many Christians Never ‘Walk On Water’

This will finish up my look at transformation knowledge. Knowledge that moves us to action in Christ. Knowledge that takes the words off the page and puts them in our hearts. It is true faith and action.

The boat represents our natural life: the visible means of support around us that we are so familiar with. The disciples were in the boat because Jesus had told them to get in. There was nothing wrong with them being in the boat. In our Christian life we often go along just fine in the ‘boat’ God has given us. It was God’s perfect will for us. He gave it to us and there is no sin in it. The boat is not leaking and there is no reason to the natural eye to get out. But if we are growing in Christ there comes a time when we will have to leave some comfortable place and step out in obedience to His command.

When we walk on water, we are walking away from what we find natural and comfortable and walking towards our highest goal in life, Christ. This isn’t about quitting your job and moving to Africa as a missionary. It isn’t only about making changes in your external circumstances at all, although that may happen as a result.

It is about drawing closer to Christ.

This may require you to give up something that you’ve been turning to for comfort or pleasure in order to make more time for Christ in your daily routine.

So why do so many of us remain stuck where we are and never come into the purpose God has intended for us? I believe this story of Peter suggests a few reasons why this happens.

1. First, as we’ve noticed, Peter asked. NO PRAYER is probably the number one reason why Christians remain spiritually stunted. Nothing of eternal value happens in our life apart from communion with Christ in private prayer. Without that, there will be no power, no life from God to reach loftier heights. We will only grow spiritually as we seek Him in prayer and feast on His word. Until we are doing this, we cannot expect God to call us to higher things.

2. Next, we see the eagerness in Peter in that he boldly asked to do such an outrageous thing. Of all the maladies afflicting the Body of Christ today, one of the greatest must certainly be apathy. Once we strip away all our excuses, plain lack of desire for Christ is what is really behind our prayerlessness. We will always make time for what we really want to do after the inescapable duties of daily life. The redeemed of Christ are “eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14). Christ counseled the lukewarm church to “be earnest” (Rev. 3:19). Among the other 11 disciples that remained in the boat, some I am sure harbored a desire to walk out to Christ as well, but not as much as Peter. Many Christians never “walk on the water” simply because they don’t want it enough to leave the boat. The question is not whether you love Christ, but how much do you love Him? Do you love Him more than all these other things, or are you allowing the cold water of worldliness to douse your desire for Christ?

3. We will also note that Peter was willing to leave the boat. He wanted to walk out to Christ, and he was willing to leave the relative comfort of the boat to do so. Unwillingness to give up the things we currently enjoy keeps many of us back. It is much easier to stay comfortable where we are. Walking on water requires that we make some hard choices in life and give up some of the things we enjoy and comfort ourselves with so that we can spend time with Jesus. The boat that Peter walked away from was not sinful. It was perfectly legitimate and given by God. Christ had told them to get into the boat. But Peter walked away from it in order to have more of Christ. The worldly Christian remains a spiritual infant because they will not give up their grasp on something that may be legitimate, but takes them away from Jesus, all the while arguing for it’s innocence or harmlessness. They are simply unwilling to give up some worldly pleasure, such as TV, or a favorite hobby, in order to make more time to seek Christ in prayer and the Word.

4. Many never ‘walk on water’ because they are letting fear and unbelief stop them from obeying Christ’s call. They are looking to the flesh – taking stock of their strengths, weaknesses, abilities and limitations – and not looking to Christ. Or they are looking at the difficulty of their circumstances. Either way, they are not looking to Christ. In short, they are saying ‘I can’t’ , instead of realizing that whether they can or can’t has nothing to do with it. Christ will give us the strength and ability we need to obey Him.

The only way we will ever be able to take great steps of faith is to look to Christ and not self.The only way is to know ourselves so we look to Christ. Peter did this when he left the boat.

5. There are conditions to receiving God’s power, often overlooked by the church today. Many never ‘walk on water’ because they haven’t met the necessary prerequisites. Peter was a disciple. He had left all to follow Jesus. His boat, his employment, his family, everything he knew, to follow Christ. Jesus came first before everything else.

Peter wasn’t perfect, but sin had been dealt with and wasn’t an issue in his life. He had surrendered his life to Christ completely and his heart was undivided.

Many Christians are waiting for God to move in their life, to make some dramatic change, to open doors to greater power and ministry while they lounge in front of the TV for countless hours each week. Everything we read in the bible has application to our daily life. All scripture is given for our instruction, admonition and growth in righteousness.

We often get ourselves in trouble in one of two ways: We are presumptuous in our faith and try to get out of the boat before God has called us, or we are not trusting Him enough to ask and leave the boat when He calls as I am ready to get out of the boat that floats in the Adventure in Middle Grove

Transformational Knowledge or Walking on Water Part 4

1Corinthians 2:5 (NIV)

...so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

Transformational knowledge must also move us forward and not keep us stagnant in our walk. When we hear God's call, we need to act. This is why we really need to know our self. If we know our self and we know God, we then can make the critical decisions in life just like Peter had to do.

There was no turning back...

Faith is Zealous

When Christ gave the word to come, Peter didn’t procrastinate. He didn’t stop to reconsider or ask Christ to supply some more details. He didn’t need to be pushed overboard by the other disciples. He didn’t need any further reassurance. In he went. He was obedient. He sought the Lord’s will first, and waited on the Lord for His answer, but when it was all said and done, Peter had a great desire to go. He was eager, and didn’t need to be invited twice. His eagerness is also shown by the initiative he took in asking Jesus to walk out. He was, as the scripture exhorts “eager to do what is good.”

The faith that walks on water is a zealous faith, eager to do what is good.

Now, we all know what happens next in the story. Peter started out with great enthusiasm , but as he went on his way toward Jesus he saw the winds and the waves, and began to sink. As he was sinking, Peter cried out to the Lord, and Jesus extended His hand to Peter and pulled him up. There are times when I stepped out in faith, only to find me sinking, whether due to a lack of faith or an error of the heart. It is not the error of direction I need to fear so much as the error of heart. If my heart is right with God and I sincerely desire to do His will, I can always trust the extended hands of our God to hold me up.

Christ is the Goal

Have you ever seen motivational posters so popular in business. Usually they show a rock climber, a white-water kayaker, or a runner, with some motivational slogan encouraging you to strive for excellence and higher attainments in life, or to reach for your dreams. Many preach Christ as some kind of personal enabler, come from heaven to help us achieve our full potential in life.

I call it the "make a wish God"!

The story of Peter walking on water is a popular passage with preachers who turn it into a motivational message encouraging people to reach for higher goals, to take risks ‘for God’, to dream bigger dreams. They often sound like a religious version of the many motivational speakers popular in business who make a living hyping people to “be all that they can be” and to “reach for your dreams”.

The Bible teaches us otherwise.

“Unless the seed falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.”

The gospel is not a motivational message from heaven to bring us into greater personal fulfillment. Christ did not come to earth and die on the cross to become our personal enabler so that we can achieve a better life.

The goal of the gospel IS Christ, and to bring us to Him.

Peter’s request was to “come to you on the water.” When he got out of the boat, he “came toward Jesus.” Peter’s desire and request was to go to Christ, not to walk on water. Walking on water is not about miracles; it’s about drawing closer to Christ in our personal lives. It is about coming to Jesus daily in personal communion.

The gospel of Christ invites us to come and die to self, our will, our dreams, our ambitions, our agendas and become servants of the cross. Unless we hate our life, pick up our cross and die to self we cannot be His disciples.

It is no longer our path in life we follow, but His.

The goal of Christian faith is always Christ, to know Him and obey Him. If that is not our overriding desire in all things, then my motivation is wrong, and if my motivation is wrong than nothing I do can be right with God. In my asking, my goal must always be to do His will and not my own.

“Not my will, but yours be done.” The faith that walks on water has the person of Christ and His will as it’s supreme goal in all things as the Adventure in Middle Grove continues to seek Your face..

Transformational Knowledge or Walking on Water Part 3

2 Chronicles 7:14

…”if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”






In this third part of Transformational knowledge, we learn we need to trust and obey.

Faith Trusts and Obeys

When Christ said ‘Come’, Peter put his trust in God and climbed out of the boat. He didn’t let fear or the natural circumstances stop him. He obeyed Christ’s call, and into the water he went. Faith is always expressed by obedience to Christ, and unbelief by disobedience.

Peter put his confidence in Christ’s Word, and didn’t look at his own inability to walk on water.

God’s grace is sufficient for us. He isn’t expecting us to do anything on our own: “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” He will amply supply us with all the grace and strength we need to do His will: “My grace is sufficient for you.”

When Jesus said “come”, Peter put all his trust in God and went. His confidence was based solely on Christ’s word, not in his own strength.How many times did I believe this and tried to put my confidence before the God of the universe.

In, Christ’s command is His promise to enable us, for He knows we are but dust and unable to do anything apart from Him.

We can do whatever God asks us to do!

His command is the highest possible evidence that we can do it. Just as Peter possessed no natural ability to walk on water, so we are often called by God into areas we have no natural ability lack the very tools necessary for life. I need God to supply all my needs to heal relationships and to give me the ability I lack sometimes to wait on him for his answer.

Obedience to the calling of God will often take us into realms we have no natural strength for completing the action on our own. Scripture has many commands that we are often unable to fulfill on our own.

But that same word of God also promises us every provision we need to keep His word and to be holy, pleasing Him in every way.

He knows how weak we are and our confidence needs to be solely on His word, and if we earnestly seek Him with all of our hearts and call out to Him faithfully, He will hear us and give “grace to help us in our time of need.” But His grace is promised only to do His will.

Many Christians burn out because they are trying to do things God never asked them to. God never promised to strengthen us for things He hasn’t asked us to do.

When Peter was still in the boat, there was no visible way for him to walk on the water. Christ didn’t show Peter a hardened path in the water first, or give him a detailed explanation of how it was going to work out.

God makes the way as we go. HE leads me down the path, not me

Only after Peter stepped out and walked towards Jesus did he see how God would make the way as He firmed up the water under his feet.

Faith obeys God by getting out of the boat when commanded to do so, and then trusts God to make the way as we go.

Just as Peter walked on water, Lord enable me to do whatever YOU ask me to do. The faith that walks on water and trusts in the Lord is the faith needed today on the Adventure in Middle Grove.

Transformational Knowledge or Walking on Water Part 2

Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said. Then Peter… walked on the water and came toward Jesus.’

Matthew 14:28,29 NIV

This is going to take longer than 2 days. Transformational knowledge is so important in my life as a Christian, more and more keeps coming to light for further investigation.

Transformational knowledge is: where the head meets the heart;

the knowing of self transects the knowing of God;

It is the moment where the reality of Christianity meets the depths of the soul;

It is where self is actualized in the Spirit of God as actions of faith are moved by God.





I believe this is what happened to me this summer. The soul and the self met the spirit and God moved in ways that could not be explained in human terms. This is what Peter experienced in his encounter with Jesus his faith was brought to the place of impact.

Faith Waits On the Lord

After Peter sought His will in asking the Lord for permission he didn’t immediately jump out of the boat. Peter didn’t presume upon the Lord’s answer, but waited for it.

I would rather have a puff of smoke and be done with it.. It does not happen this way.

This brings us to the next point:

The faith that walks on water is faith that waits on God until He answers.

This passage of scripture is a popular one among preachers who love the vivid metaphor it provides for believing God for great things. We love to hear about the action, the excitement of taking leaps of faith and ‘walking on water’. It’s highly visible and empowering. It suits our busy, externalized culture and modern temperament.

But the waiting aspect of faith taught in this passage of scripture is often overlooked. There is a lot of ‘faith’ teaching around these days telling people to step out on promises and take risks. To many such preachers, Peter’s waiting would have looked like unbelief, and no doubt if they had been on that boat they would have been encouraging him to ‘have more faith’ and jump.

But Peter didn’t jump into the water until after he had waited on the Lord and heard from Him, and this is precisely where many Christians go wrong in their faith. They ‘jump out of the boat’ without sufficiently waiting on the Lord, and end up in troubled waters.

Satan literally tempted Christ to take a similar leap of faith. Luke 4:1-13 gives the account of Christ being tempted in the wilderness. In the last temptation, Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and challenged Christ to jump off, based on a promise of protection in the scripture. Satan even quoted chapter and verse. Satan was challenging Christ to step out on the promise of God. It is a legitimate promise in Psalm 91:11,12 that God will protect us and keep us from harm. Now, there is nothing wrong with God’s promises and every Christian knows that we are to trust those promises. So what’s the problem here? Sounds pretty scriptural, doesn’t it? But instead of jumping, Christ responded by quoting another verse, from Deut.6:16 - “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Testing God means deliberately putting ourselves in a situation where He has to come through or we end up in trouble. The temptation here was twofold: to cherry-pick certain promises from the word of God without heeding the entire written word, and to test God by deliberately putting Himself in a risky situation so that God is forced to prove Himself.

This is a common pitfall Christians fall into. We cast ourselves down on a single promise.

We take a rash stand on a certain promise, without taking the whole counsel of scripture into careful consideration and waiting upon the Lord.

This may result in placing ourselves in a risky situation where God has to respond in a certain way or we end up in trouble. If Peter had jumped before receiving Christ’s word to step out, instead of it being a legitimate step of faith, he would have been putting God to the test.

Faith waits on the Lord, and takes the whole of God’s word into consideration. It requires that we heed the entire counsel of God in His written word and not simply cherry-pick the parts we like. Notice that Christ looked to the rest of scripture for the right response to this temptation, and didn’t make His decision based on a single promise.

Faith isn’t about naming and claiming the promises, or insisting that God honor some ‘step’ of faith we’ve decided to take. It is about looking to Christ and seeking His will, and humbly waiting on Him that He may guide us.

The faith that walks on water is the faith that waits on the Lord as my faith is waiting as the Adventure in Middle Grove moves on to another week.

Transformational Knowledge or Walking on Water

Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter… walked on the water and came toward Jesus.’ Matthew 14:28,29 NIV



This is a real example of transformation knowledge. Not just knowledge for the sake of gaining knowledge. But knowledge that leads to actions because of obedience and love for God and from an assurance in self that knows God is leading in the right direction and I can trust him. It is also the basis for faith in God that I can trust him because he loves me and I REALLY know he loves me.
Today I want to look at the faith that is born out of this love for me and the assurance I have in God that he works all things out for good no matter what the circumstances.There are a few points to examine so I will do this over 2 days since God has put this on my heart for a close examination. I have used the book and other resources and a great deal of prayer over the past months to really see what faith is all about and how God works through my faith.In this well known story, the disciples are alone in a boat out on a lake when they see Jesus walking towards them on the water. At first they are afraid, and think it must be a ghost. But when their Lord reassures them that it is He,

Peter asked the Lord to come out to Him on the water. Christ said “Come.”, and Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water towards Jesus. Much is have written and preached on this popular bible story, for it is a very vivid picture of faith in action.

There is a lot I can learn about the nature of faith from this passage. Peter illustrates in it a quality of faith and trust in God which I, as a sincere believer, desire to emulate in my own Christian walk - a trust in God to step out more fully into His will and purpose for my life and to see me through the storms.
God never leaves me guessing in the dark, but has given me all the light I need for my walk of faith this side of eternity. I believe that a close look into this passage of scripture will open to give me a better understanding of the nature of biblical right now if I am able “to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” A closer look at Peter’s ‘walk on water’ reveals several key elements: First, notice that Peter asked. He asked Christ to call him out. Then, he waited for the Lord’s answer before getting out of the boat. Next, he obeyed when Christ said “Come.” 1. Faith Asks in Prayer Why did the Lord call Peter out of the boat, and not the other disciples? There were eleven other disciples in that boat. Why was Peter the only one invited by Christ to step out of the boat? Simply, because Peter asked. The text gives no other reason for the Lord’s call to ‘come’ other than Peter asked. In his asking, Peter demonstrated a quality of faith that the scriptures repeatedly exhort us to: “keep on asking” (Mat.7:7 AMP); “in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Phil.4:6) Jesus repeatedly taught His disciples to be persistent in prayer. “Ask, and it will be given to you.” (Mat 7:7). In Matthew 15:21-28 it is taught that it is the persistent asking of the Canaanite woman that gained her the answer to her prayer. It is the persistence of the widow before the unjust judge in Luke 18:1-8 that got her request granted. The friend at midnight got his bread because of his persistence in asking. So I am taught to be persistent in prayer.
The Lord called Peter because Peter asked. The other disciples didn’t ask, and consequently were not invited by Christ to step out. Don’t be afraid to ask. Our Lord is not offended by our asking, and will respond to our prayers. He may not always respond with the answer I hoped for, but He will respond.

The faith that walks on water is the faith that prays, and keeps on praying. 2. Faith Seeks God’s Will What did Peter ask for? He asked for Christ’s Word: “if it’s you…tell me...” He sought the Lord’s will first, before getting out of the boat. Biblical faith always seeks the Lord first, to do His will. The goal of faith is obedience to the will of our Lord. Faith is not a tool to achieve our own agenda. Peter wasn’t making demands or claiming his ‘right’ to walk on water. He didn’t ‘speak words of faith’. He was humbly seeking the will of his Master.

The faith that walks on water looks to Christ for His will, not our own.Today, Lord, give me the faith that walks on water and looks to you as I do your will. A faith that looks to you and not my own agenda, this day on the Adventure in Middle Grove.
continued...

Transformational Knowledge

When wisdom enters into your heart and knowledge itself becomes pleasant to your very soul, thinking ability itself will keep guard over you, discernment itself will safeguard you, - Proverbs 2:10, 11







"Self knowledge that is pursued apart from knowing our identity in relationship to God easily leads to self inflation."

Benner says in "The Gift of Knowing Yourself" that self knowledge can lead to an arrogance when knowledge is valued more than love and if we do not spend as much time knowing God as we know ourselves it will lead to a "self fixation" that is not healthily and not honoring to God.

He also says that having great volumes of knowledge of God without the knowledge of self is just as bad.

Here is an example I have used many times to illustrate this point.


A person is an expert in swimming.

They lead seminars on proper swimming techniques.

They write articles on how to swim and the importance of training to be a better swimmer.

They read all the material available on the great swimmers in the past and how they trained and prepared for swim meets

They model the proper techniques and plan programs for swimming improvement


One day they are visiting a friend by the lake watching the sunset on the dock, The dock is uneven and they fall in to the water.

AND DROWN

They did not know how to swim!

This is what Benner is speaking about and what scripture says about faith without action is somewhat an empty faith.

If you are going to be an expert in swimming, you better be able to swim!


Never being able to swim also puts us in a position where we need to rely on God and not live the "false self" we create when we do not want to be vulnerable or want to search the depths of our souls to see the mess that lives inside us.

Never wanting to jump in the pool, prevents us from meeting God as he is the one and only who can take all the junk in our lives and use it for good.

Only God can show us love and the vulnerability we can have before him, our family and our friends since we know GOD LOVES US.

We can posses knowledge about God but if this knowledge is not used for transformational purposes it is like the knowledge of the great swimming coach who dies in the water. It means nothing.

What is that knowledge that transforms?

More to follow...

Lord,

help me be vulnerable before you,

help me feel your love

help me love others as I can only do through you

help me rest in your presence as I labor today on the Adventure in Middle Grove.

The One and Only

John 17:3 (New International Version)

³Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

---

WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

"How would you identify the most important thing for your existence or well being?"

David Benner starts his book "the Gift of Being Yourself" with this question and rapidly answers the question with a statement like the one found in the Shorter Catechism. He says most people will give an answer like this but omit another important aspect of knowing God is knowing yourself.

This sounds like a narcissistic exercise like the ones found on Oprah. "To be the best you can be" or "You can do it on your own" are some of the mantras found in the pop culture of TV and media today.

This is NOT what Benner is proposing in the beginningof his book. He talks about the important of self in the development of how we know God.

A quote got my attention demonstrating what he is suggesting as we "get to know our selves,"

"There is no deep know of God without a deep knowing of self and no deep knowing of self without a deep knowing of God"

John Calvin

"The Institutes of Christian Religion"

Benner goes on to say we have ignore knowing ourselves as we get to know God and this is not presenting a complete picture of God before us .

He says,"Leaving the self out of Christian spirituality is a spirituality that is not well grounded in experience. It is therefore, not well grounded in reality"

He says this lack of self will lead to an outward piety but leave a gap between experience and reality.

I was thinking of the recent fall of Ted Haggard, the pastor from Colorado who had a view of self and God that was far from the reality of what it really was in his life.

Knowing God is not enough. Knowing God to know yourself is the focus as I explore the meaning of self in the context of knowing God in a more important and intimate way.

Benner talks about the importance of "transformational knowledge" and how this is important in developing a healthy view of ourselves and God.

More to Follow....

Lord, Help me to know you as you help me to know me. Let your Spirit reside in me so I can receive a deeper knowledge of you. Let me develop a deep knowledge of me so I may have a broad and full understanding of who you are as the Adventure in Middle Grove seeks the "me in YOU and the YOU in me

Why God?

Ephesians 2:8-9 (New International Version)

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast.

There is a mutual sensibility in life that God participates in. God saves me through faith. He chose me to be one of his people. He Spirit guides me as I live my life.

Why God?

I do not know why

I becoming more and more convinced about this mutual relationship and understand the how much of a gift this is from God. This mutuality is the challenge of seeing God’s very presence in me and that He chooses to live in me.

Why God?

I am such a slug, at times, and God chooses to reside in my very being?

Why God?

God chose to dwell in me. Wow! would I make the same decision?

Why God?

God looks at me as I would look at an old dilapidated building that needs repair and He sees the sees the potential not as it stands in disrepair but as it will stand as a finished work.

That is me,

Why God?

How much more proof do I need of His love for me. Many times I forget the enormity of what he has done for me and the mutual relationship we have that started with Him, not me.

In the following weeks, I want to examine who I am not as a physical being but as a spiritual being created by God and called to do his work.

"The Gift of Being Yourself" has many points for further examination. From the preface and introduction, here are some of the points in the book as I start to examine who I am before God.

We are created from love, of love, for love, our existence makes no sense apart from the love of God

If God loves and accepts us as a sinner how can we do less (in other words how can I reject myself today?)

Self-acceptance always precedes genuine self-surrender and self-transformation.

We believe we know how to take care of our needs better than God

We all tend to fashion a god who fits our falsity

We do not find our true self by seeking it. Rather, we find it by seeking God

Jesus is the True-Self who shows us by His life how to find our self in relation to God

Our happiness is important to God

As I rise each day and question my very existence and my part in this mutual relationship, I ask you to guide me and direct my life towards His highest calling for me as I sometimes wander on the Adventure in Middle Grove.

An Inside Job

2 Corinthians 5:17


Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.

The Message

Sometimes "The Message"is a bit wordy but I like this translation.


We are new creations in Christ.

He Chose me

The old life is gone,

He Chose me

He settled the the whole battle between me and God

He Chose me

He asked me to forgive others as he forgave me

He Chose me

I started reading the book "The Gift of Being Yourself" by David Brenner. It is a short book with many nuggets of my life as a believer in Christ and how this is intertwined with my inner being and who I am. I cannot exist without God and my soul and my existence depends on my relationship with him. I want to explore this relationship and how I can be more in sync with God and what he wants to do for me and how I can rest in his arms as I learn to be more like him as I learn to be the person he wants me to be.

I rest in your arms today as I seek how I can be more like you and look to you for my existence and growth. Thank you for the work you have started in me and for the gift of your spirit as the Adventure in Middle Grove takes another fork in the road.

Pieces and Parts

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Romans 12:4-5


An arm detached from the body is just a dead and useless body part. I belong to others because I belong to Christ. I find my freedom to be what God has made me to be, and the Body finds its power and usefulness as I  offer myself to be used for the good of the Body and the work of the Lord. Too many times I think this is limited to the church but I believe this is much more expansive than the local church. It is  the local, regional, state, country, global body of believers who need to work as a unit as the church of Jesus Christ  is at work around the globe.

Dear Father, thank you for making me a part of something that is living, dynamic, powerful, and eternal. Thank you for giving me special abilities and gifts to use in the Body of Christ. Please help me find and use my gifts and abilities for the good of your people and to glorify you today on the Adventure in Middle Grove.

Just at the Right Time

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to
die.




Romans 5:6








When I was still powerless...




When I start to think, why did I do that for a certain person, I can put myself in a position to think I should decide how to assist or help.



Kindness knows no boundaries.




Love has not limit.




Grace and mercy cannot be measured




Many times the receiving of God's love by others is not accepted like I want it to be accepted.





But I am still powerless...




Many times I expecting to receive something back in return for showing kindness or love.





But I am still powerless...




Many times I want to feel something from what I did for a person or a kind act I performed.




But I am still powerless...




Many times I have wanted the focus to be on me an not on God.




But I am still powerless...






Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for me. I am powerless to save myself or make myself righteous. Without Jesus' sacrificial death and without God's grace I could not be saved. Jesus did for me what I could not do and paid off my debt to sin which I could not pay. He did it for me; not because I was good enough to be worthy of his death, but because I couldn't be worthy without him.




Loving God, thank you , I praise you for what you did for me while I was still powerless. Words cannot express my thanks for the gift of your grace that cost so much and yet means so much to me.




You saved me...





While I was still powerless...






All honor, glory, and praise to my Father who sits on the throne and my Lord Jesus who went to the cross and in whose name I offer my thanks. Thank you for ways you are still working in lives of people who I love who know your power and grace. What I do in life should be set by the example of what you continue to do for me while on the Adventure in Middle Grove.

Life Time Gaurantee

<sup>2 Corinthians 13


11-13</sup>And that's about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello.

¹⁴The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.

As I was writing about yesterday, I have been honored to have so many good friends who really know what friendship is in this life. It is amazing how God uses the most unlikely people in my life to come along side of me and walk the path. It shouldn't be so amazing since this could only happen by God's intervention and the work of his Holy Spirit and not my intervention. This is what makes is so special.

This is God's work, not mine.

He is sustaining me, not me.

It is Him, not I

This verse is a blessing but it is also a mirror. A mirror in to me to see the depths of my soul and how much God loves me that I would have the extravagant love of God. It is also a guide to how I am to live as a Christian

Cheerful

Harmony

Agreeable

It is also a prayer that I would daily pray for God to work in me on all the things mentioned in the verse. Strengthen me so I may be more like you and feel the presence of your Spirit.

Most important, today, Let these words

Publish Post

ring as I embark on a fork in the path as your AMAZING GRACE needs to work today as the Adventure in Middle Grove is patiently waiting on change.

R.I. P.

I thank my God every time I remember you. -- Philippians 1:3

REAL IMPORTANT PEOPLE

People in my life have always been important but in the last year, the importance of relationships reached a new level. People who care about me and the care and love is mutual. People who listen, cry and hug when times are bad and listen and cry and hug when times are good.


The importance of people in my is a life is a blessing as events take their toll on emotions and days turn in to months. A quick email or time to talk has been something I cherish as I patiently wait on the Lord.

These friends are blessings. It doesn't matter whether I visit with them on the phone, get an encouraging email, or see them face-to-face. Any time I remember them, I thank God for them. So I follow Paul's example and tell them they give me MANY reasons to offer thanks to God.

Loving LORD, thank you for ..

Caleb and Bet
John and Barbro
Matt and Jess
Tommy and Caitlin
Judy
Mary Ann
Dave and Kim
Felicia


There are others but God chose these people to minister repeatedly to ME. Some of them are not followers of Christ and will never read this but God has used them:

In His Time


In His Place


In His Way


They have blessed my life in so many ways, so I'm asking you now to bless their lives with your grace, power, and Spirit as your friends minister to me while on the Adventure in Middle Grove

Weary

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

The Winter of life presses on, and sometimes I get weary!

Weariness is a part of life. Weariness is a part of the daily interaction with my soul and the Spirit of God.

Weariness is definitely something that overtakes me when I set my heart on doing good for others or struggle through broken relationships. The wonderful blessing of God, however, is he will renew me and sustain me and rekindle me.

He does it through the encouraging word of a friend or just a kind person. He does it through his presence, the Holy Spirit in me. He does it through songs of my heart. He does it through Scripture and prayer.

So while my body and spirit may get weary, let me continue to press on with You at my side. If I will serve with faithfulness, discipline, and integrity, God's grace will empower me to do what he has called me to do.


Father, as I face the challenges of life, I need your strength. Please empower me through your Spirit who lives within me. Give me the courage to continue when I am tired, discouraged, and confused. I trust that as I seek to honor you, you will bless me with the strength I need to continue as I live to bring honor to you, today, on the Adventure in Middle Grove.