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So, Leon was not so much 'lost' as he was missing from our family. Leon was the Press Agent for The DOORs, back in the day and had always been an artist, thinker, and overall not-tied-to-society person. This is a recap of the story of tracking him down on a whim one day. Previous Finding Leon! So, Leon was not so much 'lost' as he was missing from our family. Leon was the Press Agent for The DOORs, back in the day and had always been an artist, thinker, and overall not-tied-to-society person. This is a recap of the story of tracking him down on a whim one day. Finding Leon! Next Finding Leon! by G.W. Bill Elliott, Jr. I found Uncle Leon!!! It wasn’t really that he was actually lost… he’d just not been around our family for many years (since his mother died) and we hadn’t seen him. See… Leon has always been ‘his own man’ and prefers solitude, quiet, and being unattached. He lives where-ever he can, which is typically in and around the little town of Solvang, CA. At the time “I found him”, I was actually living in the San Francisco area, but had driven my big old Cadillac down the Los Angeles area to teach at a conference. While there, I also visited with my mother and sisters, and we got to talking about ‘where is Leon’, and not even my mother knew. So, I figured that since I was driving back UP to the San Francisco area to get home, I’d take a little different route and see if I could find him. I drove the two hours to Solvang, and just dumped into the downtown part of the city. It’s a quaint little Dutch settlement, and very touristy. I went to the Information center and struck up a conversation with Florice, who had lived there for 20+ years. She’s heard of Leon, but really knew of him by his artist pseudonym, Prints Charming… He shoots photos, then mounts them and does a little art around them… also photographing things for calendars… He’s been an artist since ever I knew him, and wouldn’t know him any other way. Florice even called her husband at home, because I mentioned that Leon had a ‘school’ of fine arts, which he called Barnard Institute… this sparked her memory, because she had an actual sweatshirt from his school (I only got a T-shirt!!)… and was calling her husband to see if it actually stated which city it was in (she was thinking the school was in a nearby city)… no luck… he couldn’t find the Sweatshirt (Florice was ‘remembering’ they ‘may’ have loaned to the kids)… but!!! He remembered Leon… and actually described him by some of his quirky characteristics. Cool!! I’m feeling close, and I just got into the city!! I went into a couple of taverns and lunch places… and got some of the same responses…. ended up in a Leather Shop (I’m a fanatic for leather goods)… the ladies in there were quite helpful, and thought they remembered Leon but hadn’t seen or heard from him in over a year. They remember seeing ads in the paper he’d run for his Prints Charming stuff, and directed me to the town newspaper…. and it REALLY gets good here…. I went into the paper office, and all the folks there were very helpful. After only about ten minutes, I had all the office staff (five people) dragging up old paper-run books in search of one of his ads (looking for the phone number). We found it, and dialed it, but it just had a quick busy signal… must not have been in service. They ALL knew who he was, but no-one knew how to get in touch with him. They were making phone calls to nearby town papers, and connecting with all kinds of good leads, but…. ultimately… nothing!! So… we were brainstorming as to HOW to find Leon, and one of the managers commented how he could remember that Leon would drive up in his little red car… and I interrupted him!! You see, I remembered (and shared the story with them) that he got that car from Oliver Stone!! THE Oliver Stone was making a movie about The DOORS and Jim Morrison, and Leon was a very close friend of Jim’s , as well as the Press Agent for the Doors … So…. Oliver was using Leon as a Technical Advisor… but Leon has really NEVER had any transportation to speak of… he’s an artist!! So… He bought Leon the little red Geo Metro… Leon still had it!! We laughed about that, and they were finally starting to believe some of the oddities in Leon’s wacky little life. Well… I resolved to running my own ad in the paper… “Leon Barnard, call Bill Elliott, your nephew (111) 222-3333″… and left. One last time, I went by the information booth to tell Florice about the adventures, as well as let her know the outcomes…. she was about to tell me to go the paper and place and ad… so we were on the same ‘wave’ at least!! So…. I uncovered the CADI, drove away from the downtown, and out onto the main drag. By now, it was 3:45p, and I really needed to think about pointing the old beast homeward. I got on the highway and was just outside the town limits, and getting up to highway speed… A group of cars was coming toward me (as they would on any other highway), and I quickly wondered to myself if any of them would be Leon’s little red… and then… I noticed that one of the cars WAS a little red car…. and it only had ONE driver… could it be…. NO…. could it REALLY be??? Well… you know damn straight that as we passed each other (now approaching 50mph), I was cranking my head to see… and dog-gone if it didn’t look JUST like Leon!! Wow…. I found the quickest place to bring the big-blue-beast around and went SPEEDING after him!! By now, though… numerous cars, and a few semi’s had gotten between us (remember, he was driving in a pack of other cars). I ran the two red lights that little town had… and finally caught up to ‘Leon’ about a mile outside of town (on the other side)… He was turning into a ritzy neighborhood, and I turned right in after him…. honked the horn (and man, that CADI’s horn is noisy!)… gesturing for him to pull over… I pulled alongside that dinky little red car with my HUGE Blue CADI (top was down) and ever so smartly stated ” Uncle Leon… It’s Bill Elliott!!”. What a total gas!! To actually find Leon by ‘accident’, only to later learn that he hasn’t been in the Solvang area since last November (1996). He has been back for two weeks, and was only house sitting nearby for friend vacationers… that day (Wednesday) was his last day in the area!! He was actually on his way to the house to get his personal belongings because the owners were one their way home!! Killer timing!! Regrettably… he didn’t know that his younger brother (Terry) had died the previous year… and now it was all making sense… Terry died in November, and Leon, not knowing this, began experiencing a lot of stress and strain in his life… so he left! He does that… just goes away… No one ever really knows where… he just goes. I just happened to catch him… We talked for about 1-1/2 hours… then exchanged numbers and mailing stuff… and I was off… totally thrilled, and very happy!!

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What do you mean "Depart from me, I never knew you", God? This story helps remind us how easy it is to mimic Christianity, and what that is bad. Previous Spue You Go What do you mean "Depart from me, I never knew you", God? This story helps remind us how easy it is to mimic Christianity, and what that is bad. Spue You Go Next Spue You Go by G.W. Bill Elliott, Jr. Spue You Go I know… Spue doesn’t even seem like a word, right? I mean, maybe it should be spelled spew, or something. Well, the word spew is pretty close to the context of this writing, but spue is actually the word Jesus used to describe just how aggressively He will reject you! Wait… Jesus rejects people? Wait… Jesus isn’t patient, trusting, kind, compassionate? Wait… what the spue? No… I didn’t misspell it just to get your attention. See, in Revelation 3:15-16 , He said; “ So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth “. It is that word Spue that caught my eye, my ear, and my heart recently… I was thinking about the ‘So then’ part of this verse.. the verse begins with the word SO. I mean, ‘so’? So what? Well, I backed up just one verse and read, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.” He uses this two-three verse presentation several times in this chapter, so it is a recurring theme… hint… pay attention! Now as much as I know about the Bible and God’s word, I still had to look up this spue word because I actually thought it was just an Old English version of the spew word… but the word spue is MUCH more aggressive and definitive than that. The dictionary actually described SPUE as; Spue: [spyoo] : to discharge the contents of the stomach through the mouth; vomit. In the Greek, it is “emeo” (em-eh’-o), which is used as a verb and also means, “to vomit”. It sure sounds the same as SPEW, but mercy… quite a different picture we have now! I mean, the word spew connotes having put something into your mouth to only spit it right back out (and sometimes quickly)… with that blargh sound, too! This spue word that Jesus uses is something much deeper… much more internal… and much more impacting on your body when it occurs. But, that is how Jesus spoke, that is how He taught, that is how He wordsmiths His phrases to help get our attention. See, to vomit something out of your body is much more than just ejecting something from your mouth. Sure, it goes through your mouth, but the journey began down in the stomach… down in the bowels, the abdomen, and the very core of your body as it were… down in the depths of your very life. Now just imagine being out to dinner, or being at a camping picnic, or even just traveling abroad and ingesting something that is so good tasting… so filling… so comforting actually (like you just ate the best desert ever!). Unbeknownst to you, something bad was in that food that neither your tongue, your sense of smell, nor your taste-buds could detect. See… those senses help protect your life so that you don’t ingest something that can/will make you sick and cause you to die… but, they missed it this time… they didn’t catch the subtle and pending doom… they didn’t suspect a thing. Hence, your sense of fulfillment is well intact, for the time being! Whatever it was, it got past your senses and you’re none the wiser… nor do you care actually because that warm-n-fuzzy feeling was just so completing and so rewarding… all is right with the world, you think. Some 3 or 4 hours later though, you are not feeling so well… things are brewing… festering… they’re fermenting, actually… causing tumult on your entire system and ultimately, those contents need to be ejected from your body. Otherwise, for them to remain there will poison you, will sicken you further, and in many cases kill you! Yes… this involuntary action of vomiting is your body’s way of protecting your very life. Sure, you fight it off, drink some water, lay down, settle yourself… who likes to puke anyway, right!?? The inevitable does finally occur and it IS quite a violent experience. Me?? I hate it! It feels like I will never get a clear airway again and get another breath of air. Literally, it is a gut-wrenching experience (I just had to… couldn’t help myself!). Now… back to Jesus using this as a reference and picture to describe rejecting ‘lukewarm’ people. Why would he introduce this “you could be ejected” idea in Revelation? I mean, there’s always been this standing “once saved, always saved” argument, or the “my name is written permanently in the Book of Life”, or even the core ‘security of the believer’ promises we lean on…. Jesus even told us, “ I’ll never leave you, nor forsake you ” ( Deuteronomy 31:6 ). This event isn’t God changing His mind, it is not a ‘gotcha’ thing where you neglected to read the fine print in some buried scripture deep in the ‘boredom’ of the Book of Chronicles, or something like that. This is actually God rejecting something from His body that will cause it harm. It was included into the body under ‘good faith’, but has since turned bad… turned destructive… turned poisonous actually. Leaving it there will cause the body to be sick, and may even cause it to die. He’s protecting His body, just like ours does involuntarily. Now, sure… this seems contrary to His grace… to His love… to His acceptance of us. I mean, WHY “let us in” if we have impurities, if we have a ‘virus’, or an ‘infection’? Seems like God is more perfect and much more thorough than that, right? But, back up and look at the context of this entire chapter in Revelation Chapter 3. He’s going through several churches and pointing out that He ‘would’ that we were Hot OR Cold, but since they were lukewarm… spue goes you! YOU actually caused this tumult in His body… your indifference… your middle-of-the-road commitment… your “I’m just trying to keep the peace” way of compromise is despicable, even to God! Approaching His will in your life with an ‘Uhhh… does it matter, really?” posture is horrible. It is that “eh, no big deal” attitude that just sickens the Lord… Have a position! Have a perspective! Have a conviction! So fundamentally, there are three types of people in God’s world and in His body (by reference in this passage): Hot, Cold, and Lukewarm. It is the Lukewarm ones who cause such a vicious and body-impacting event to occur…. sure, mainly the stomach and abdomen, but the rest of His body is doubled-over in turmoil… tossed into utter chaos, and involuntary convulsions… torn of almost all it’s contents to clear itself of this ‘bile’… this poison… this life threatening substance. All to protect His body, His very existence, His very peace and calm. What determines the boundaries for Hot or Cold? And since there is a Lukewarm area, just how wide is it? Is it like a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of a battle area, just how wide is it? I mean, back before Jesus gave us Salvation and His forgiving grace, there was only the Law (10 Commandments and more). The rules were documented and the consequences were much clearer (side note: not ONE person could follow all of them). This new ‘grace’ thing Jesus introduced back with the Disciple leaves life a little more ambiguous and open to interpretation! Now, we seem to have this Hot or Cold category, and apparently the Lukewarm one is frowned upon, at all! Lukewarm can be characterized as; half-hearted, limp, ready to compromise, indifferent, listless, and ready to keep the peace, to name a few. Now, you may not see yourself in any of these descriptions… but still ARE a lukewarm spirit in the Lord! How? Because you are defending you! The Bible says, ‘…now we look through a glass darkly, but then face to face“. Too often, it is so deeply ingrained into our lives, we think and FEEL it is right, but it is wrong. I once Tweeted this, in response to that; Now, this is not a story about what you eat… it’s not an encouragement to watch your diet, to get all fanatic about organics, about ‘cage-free’, about locally grown products… see, the Bible reminds us in 1 Cor 10:23 , “ All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. ” You can eat what you want. You can live like you want. You can be like you want. Not everything you want is right (expedient), nor edify others around you (encourage them toward God). Rather… this is a story about being in God’s body and keeping your life as pure, as holy, and as righteous as you can so-as to remain Hot… to remain fervent… to remain “on fire” with the Lord’s Holy Spirit in your life. No… you can NOT do it on your own. Man’s solutions to Man’s problems will always fall short. How, then? It would be great to have a manual, to have a trouble-shooting list, to have a formula, to have an On-Call place we can contact to ensure we remain on track, maybe even to logon to God’s “App Store” and install an Update or Hot-Fix, or even a Patch. Wait… there are ALL of those! The Holy Spirit is available to use for these very reasons. Jesus left us the comforter for this very reason. We don’t have to do this on our own, or seek out some group-therapy process to get us closer to God… mercy, no! Being Lukewarm is not something we strive to do, it is a result of what we’re too tired to do… a result of what we’re too weak to do… a result of what we’re too confused to do… a result of what our commitment to the Lord really means… not much! Spue You Go . His Spirit was left here to help us, to meet with us, to guide us. The Holy Spirit is God’s way being being “closer than a brother”, and “coming alongside”, and even better, being that “small still voice” we sometimes like to call “gut feeling”. How To Avoid & Repair Lukewarmness OK, I did say there was not a manual… no formal directions… no “Hot Fix” patch from God’s App Store you can install to get back on the right track… and here I am about to show you how I do it! Well, this is how “I” keep my life fresh… how I keep my heart tender, ready, and alert for His calling on my heart (whispers of His leading) . On my “Where is Your Heart?” page, these three steps… these three core components set the stage for me and prepare my heart, my soul, my life for drawing closer to God, to Him drawing closer to me, and most critical, me getting farther away from Lukewarm, Surrender, Ask Him In, and Look for Gold; Surrender Acknowledge your brokenness ( Worlds Apart , by Jars of Clay) Get rawly vulnerable with Him, show Him the secret of your heart. Now, that means you surrender your pride, your “I’m not that bad a person”, your posture of entitlement. He knows your every sin, He knows your every trouble, He knows your very secret secret! Just surrender and recognize that your fallibility is better than it was, but still tripping you up… still causing you trouble… still the core problem with your character. The first verse of this song from Jars of Clay states; “I am the only one to blame for this. Just want to want Him! Please do NOT approach God with that whole, “I need help” nonsense! Sure, He does want to help you…. sure, He is able to help you… sure, He died to help you! Way too often, we reach out to God WHEN calamity occurs. Invite Jesus Ask the Holy Spirit to ‘dust your furniture’ ( Rushing Wind , by Keith Green) Do NOT stop after that first step! Sure, you can but don’t! See… confession… surrender… opening yourself up like that IS healthy… is healing… is so cleansing. But, unless you let the Holy Spirit get in there and ‘blow out the dust’ and take up residence in your heart, you WILL be worse on than before! Understand, this is the “where the rubber meets the road” part of your living. It can be tough, it can be challenging, it can be so hard you will wish (and may even try) to stop, to no longer trust the Lord, to throw it all away. The children of Israel did the very same thing just days after they were led out of captivity from Egypt (that thing Moses did)… they were facing their first “looks impossible” challenge at the banks of the Jordan river… no way to cross, and the Egyptian soldiers now chasing after them (they figured out they lost their work-force), and they urged Moses to lead them back, because “…at least we had food and shelter there“. Let His Holy Spirit move through your life… blowing out the dust within! There's Gold Recognize the Gold ( I Think I See Gold , by Ray Boltz) God will reward you through your cleansing…. through your trials… through the turmoil, anguish, and utter pain. But, remember.. you had all those before starting your journey with God, right! Just… no real reward. Sure… self-satisfaction, accolades from humanity, maybe. But, all of those are superficial… all of those are man-made, and will never be remembered into eternity! God leaves nuggets of gold in your life… the fire has burned the useless stuff away… and there is a shiny nugget or two left! But, the trying of your faith produces patience. This world of instant gratification has numbed us to His ways… to try our faith over and again… taking time to groom us, to mature us, to lead us to that special Will of His for our lives. Now all that may seem like nonsense… like it is easier said than done.. like I am just guilting you into action. Somehow, we’d rather download an app, inject or ingest some medication, or even just ‘change the channel’ and move on to something else that will get us the gratification we seek. Please take some time to read The Deep End of the Poo l, and you’ll have a better idea just what is intended. But, at least ‘start’… at least turn your eyes to Him and no longer remain in the Lukewarm side of life… the middle-of-the-road, complacent, agreeable, devil-may-care attitude with God… with life… and yes, with death itself!

It is WAY better to just be ‘fat, dumb, and happy’, but that is a cop-out way to live your life. Wrestling with problems, let alone spirituality is often avoided. Many find it the easiest way to deal with the subtle anxiousness they sense from facing evil, anger, and even just ugly calamity all around us. This story is about the techniques we can apply to overcome this in our lives. Previous Wrestling in Spirituality It is WAY better to just be ‘fat, dumb, and happy’, but that is a cop-out way to live your life. Wrestling with problems, let alone spirituality is often avoided. Many find it the easiest way to deal with the subtle anxiousness they sense from facing evil, anger, and even just ugly calamity all around us. This story is about the techniques we can apply to overcome this in our lives. Wrestling in Spirituality Next Wrestling in Spirituality by G.W. Bill Elliott, Jr. Wrestling in Spirituality This physical life is tough… it is complicated… confusing… awkward… and often just contains way too much heartache, disappointment, and emotional struggles that really just lead us to conclude it is way, WAY better to just be ‘fat, dumb, and happy’. It is a cop-out way to live your life, but many find it the easiest way to deal with the subtle anxiousness they sense from facing evil, anger, and even just ugly calamity all around us. The spiritual side of our lives is quite complicated too… I mean… why wouldn’t it be since it is non-physical? Were you to try describing the spiritual side of your life, you would have more “uh”, “I mean”, and “it feels like” portions of your description than actual wording that could help someone else get a grip on their own spirituality. Therein, we tend to avoid the subject, let alone the concept altogether. I know… life is much easier just being ignorant or at least less aware of the evil crap going on around us. As Christians, this works to a certain point. As non-Christians this fuels your attitude/belief that God doesn’t exist or care. Neither are good for your life. But, there is always that weird shadow following you around… hovering… feeling like you are about to be pounced on. Wait… both are actually ‘good’ for your life, to a point. I mean, that whole ‘fat, dumb, and happy’ thing works great for the shallow hearted… for the faint-of-heart… for the weak-minded, weak-spirited, “wanna-be Christian” folks on this planet. And… you ‘can’ get by your entire life not ever caring or knowing that you DO have a choice… you can wrestle with spirituality with certainty! One of the more prominent scriptures that discuss this is Ephesians 6:12 , which states; For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12 Too often, we don’t realize the craftiness of the enemy against whom we fight. We get all tied up thinking or feeling as though we see angels, hear people from the dead… even have real experiences that convince us that we don’t really need God. See… we easily adapt a belief that we are already in touch with spiritual beings, angels, or we even just have that warm fuzzy feeling all is right with the world… opting to remain ignorant, or at least remain innocent-ish. We are not aware that even Satan can pull off these ‘just like God’ appearances! Wait… WHAT? Right… Satan has power too… has dominion on this world… has the sly, craftiness to mimic God. This can trick you to believing a false hope… a half–truth promise… a fallacy. See… in 2 Corinthians 11:13-14 , Paul was telling folks that too many people have already begun to believe and trust other spirits… other preachings… other ways that are not God’s ways. He says; “ For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. ” Spiritual Warfare is an odd concept for most. Personally, I don’t actively seek out a wrestling match with Satan, evil, or anything high-n-mighty like that… rather… I find myself just struggling… just wrestling… just fighting against shadows, it seems. I recently read in Romans 7:23 ; But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Romans 7:23 OK… granted… that scripture may not make sense at first glance… second glance… even after the 20th glance! The core premise is that our lives are constantly being tugged at by the spiritual calamity going on in this world… and spiritual warfare sounds ominous… sounds too complicated and certainly ‘above my pay-grade’, as most would agree. So… we plod along content with the fat, dumb, and happy approach to life. The norm of the people around us (and maybe even you) is to just blame Karma, Fate, “the gods”, and even Bad Mojo for the nonsense going on in your life. That sense of being attacked, being targeted, even being singled-out for some nasty turmoil event in your life… The Bible does say that the rain falls on the good and the bad ( Matthew 5:45 ). When things are ugly and super evil or even mystical, we shy away… we dismiss it away… we even hunker into the corner of our lives hoping this ‘phenomenon’ doesn’t see us… doesn’t come closer to us… doesn’t even give us the time day… leaving us alone is our hope/fear! Too many horror movies have filled in the blanks of our imagination and we now have an image or a scenario of probability that is believable (fear does that to us). We essentially lost our innocence… our pathetic minds have imagined enough to convince our spirits that anything spiritual is off limits, spooky, unpredictable, and especially out-to-kill… that we should automatically be afraid of evil things and shrink into a cowering mess when calamity arises. Well… welcome to being in the world! Satan has dominion of this space and has the power to conjure up a slew of nonsense to keep you scared, afraid, frozen and just outright defiant to any help/security Jesus can provide! Remember the story of David when he faced Goliath? ( 1 Samuel 17:45-47 ) David was empowered by the very spirit of God and no one and no thing was going to threaten his family, his people, and his God! Forty days Goliath had taunted the mighty armies of Israel, leaving them trembling and running for their skin. David would have NONE of that. He knew the power and might of the Lord our God and was not about to stand by and let this ‘little man’ Goliath be defiant of God’s people. No evil is big enough, strong enough, fearful enough… a well-placed-stone can solve the problem, toot-sweet! You too are empowered with the very same Spirit of the almighty Lord… none shall harm you, ever! How? Sort of easy, really… but hard, too! The Bible tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 That key word ‘resist’ is essential. But, notice that it doesn’t say ‘…resist the devil until he gives up‘, or ‘…resist the devil until he loses interest‘, or ‘…resist the devil and show him your game-face‘. He WILL flee, is what that passage reminds us! Think on it this way, if you are bold enough to resist the devil, you DO have the Holy Spirit watching guard over you and Satan can see that from ‘miles away’, as it were. Watch this passage; And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. Matthew 8:28-32 Notice that Jesus was merely ‘coming to the other side’ of this region and the ‘two possessed with devils’ began the whole “what have we to do with thee?” line of questioning! Satan WILL see you coming and he WILL tremble! How is THAT for a change? NONE of the SciFi movies depict it that way, these days… that is not a popular presentation… it doesn’t sell tickets… have pizzazz… make us shirk in fear! Just because you are a child of God though, does not automatically make you impervious… keep you from harm… put a shield over you. Some special cloak of protection. No… the Bible reminds us that we have to take on an active role of preparation… a posture of training ourselves… a life of exposure to His training. See… Ephesians 6:11 tells us, “ Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ” The whole armour is fully described in Ephesians 6:13-17 (get some time to refresh your memory and grasp these pieces). Jesus did it, and so can we. I know…. He is the Son of God and came from Heaven and all that holy stuff… makes it hard to imagine we too have the same power… the same boldness… the same fortitude. But, Jesus did promise us; These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

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Week: 5 Trust and Surrender Choosing dependence, surrender, and obedience. This module invites a posture of relinquishment—trading control for trust in God’s wisdom and timing. It addresses common barriers to surrender and provides practices for obedience that flow from love rather than duty. Participants are encouraged to test trust in concrete ways and to reflect on how surrender transforms decision-making. Objectives Practice waiting on God’s timing. Learn to trust God in weakness. Identify areas of control and practice surrender. Reflections What will I surrender this week and how will I remember to do it? How has surrender changed me before? Where am I trying to control outcomes that belong to God? NowTo the HowTo Accountability/Tracking Pair with a partner to report weekly on one surrendered action and its outcome. Community Action Practice asking for help: each person requests one small, practical favor from the group this week. Creative Project Draft a visible “Surrender Pledge” card to place where you’ll see it daily. Leader Prompt Share a brief, vulnerable story of a surrendered decision and the fruit it produced. Personal Practice Identify one control area and write a short prayer of surrender to repeat each morning. Previous Week Devotionals It Depends 2 min read G.W. Bill Elliott, Jr created this short piece on the importance of discernment and nuance in applying faith to life's choices. Self-Help Lie 2 min read Too many times, I've heard, 'God helps those that help themselves', and that is such a deep, deep lie! It's actually a half-truth, more than a lie; He does help those... but, not those that are already helping themselves, or able to help themselves. Our devotional today is a gentle reminder... OK, maybe not 'so' gentle... that self-help is not where your relationship with God will get deeper, closer, or more enriched. We can only help ourselves just so much; we are becoming more and more... Forge Ahead Blindly Seeing 2 min read I ride a bicycle back-n-forth to work... have done it daily since 2001... missing some days, but typically covering some 4,500 miles a year. As I ride that bike lane each day, each way, I encounter many obstacles. No... nothing large at all... nothing all that 'lane blocking'... just... tire-flattening obstacles! As I snap along at a pretty brisk speed, it is tough to keep an eye on all the things in the roadway. Over the years, I have noticed that the more I concentrate on NOT running over... Our Two Edged Lord 2 min read Do you ever find yourself treating God kind of like a Bellhop? Too often, we only communicate with Him when we need Him and/or there is something going on that's just too big for us to handle. We know He's "always there"; we know He's ready to meet with us; we even know we can count on Him. So, it is just too easy to reach out to Him when 'we' need/want Him... you know... like a Bellhop. Psalms 105:4 reminds us; " Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore. ", so we really... If the Lord Doesn't Want To 2 min read Ever thought about that? The things the He doesn't want to do in your life, or even in the world in general. So often we're hoping He 'allows' us to do things; to accomplish tasks, projects, life-dreams; to enjoy a fuller life; to be safe/secure. Too often, we're really just doing enough just to get by, to keep Him pleased (not thrilled) with us... too concerned with the cause-n-effect of our relationship and fellowship with. Today's devotional gets us to focus on the 'today only' aspect of... Surrender to Victory 2 min read I know, surrendering is typically considered defeat. Victory and winning are two different things, too. Too often in our lives, we win (succeed), but don't actually enjoy/realize victory. Seems very odd, I know, but our devotional today reminds us that surrender with the Lord results in victory with the Lord... not against the Lord, but 'with' the Lord, 'in' the Lord. Sure, we can do many things, including living our entire lives without the Lord; we can work, raise families, navigate many... View More Next Week

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