We aren't content to just stay with the status quo. As much as we love house church it can become what happens in bigger churches at times without us wanting it to.....a social club.
People can become very comfortable with it being just our group and forget that Jesus commands us to look outward.
So our house church talked about what we needed spiritually and what we wanted to do for Jesus both individually and as a group in 2011.
What I shared that I needed was a group of men who could get together regularly (preferably weekly) to spend about an hour together. Praying, confessing, prayer requests, etc.
I confess it was a selfish request. I'm feeling on the fried end spiritually and I need to be a part of a regular group - a grupo de apoio.
Grupo de apoio means "support group."
For the last few years I've had this in my life with some really strong brothers. I could share whatever with no fear of judgement. All the men shared lots of spiritual strongholds that our enemy had in their lives. Unfortunately for me, they've all moved away.
God created His family for a purpose. We don't need to try to walk this faith walk alone but it's very easy to just do our day to day stuff and not make getting with your family a priority.
Right after I shared this with our group, Jorge, who participates with our group but hasn't yet given his life to Jesus, leaned over to me and asked me if I wanted to start working out with him.
I told him I had no extra money to do it and he told me that this new gym allows him to bring a guest for free 10 times per month. He invited his girlfriend but she wanted to stay at the gym where she works out so he asked me if I would be interested. He goes twice during the week and once on the weekends.
He works at Dell and leaves his house about six in the morning so the only time he can work out during the week is starting at nine at night.
If you know us then you know our family crashes pretty early. I try to be in bed by ten because I wake up most days between four and five. So, as you might imagine, my first response to his workout starting at nine at night request was NO.
Then I started thinking that maybe God was using Jorge to give me the group that I shared I needed. Maybe God's purpose was for me to spend even more time with Jorge to be able to share more of God's love to him.
I accepted and we started last week. I won't lie, getting home at eleven is tough on this old man but it's worth it to be able to spend some time with Jorge. It has been one answer to my prayer.
This morning four other men and I got together to have our first grupo de apoio.
We met at six this morning. We met at a hardware store. Three of these guys are in their twenties and the other just turned thirty in November. I thought having an early morning prayer time would be tough for them but they all jumped at the chance to do it. One got on a bus at 5:40 to make it and he's got six kids at home. It encouraged me so much to see their dedication to being a part of this.
Only one had a little bit of difficulty getting up. See if you can tell which one it is.
So within ten days God gave me two grupos de apoio.
I don't know where they will go or how long they will last but that's not even something I'm thinking about right now.
Right now it's very encouraging to me to see these young guys, the now and the future of this church family, making some sacrifices to get into God's word together.
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