Tonight's (3/31) Meeting Cancelled (Meetings)

After talking with Dan (and almost rear-ending someone on my way home), we decided to call the meeting off for tonight. There's no sense in running the risk of someone getting hurt.

We'll meet again in two weeks, on April 14th. In the meantime:

• Go over the article Doctrine and Ethics again. If you need to get a copy, look below under the posting "Chapter 7 Attachment".
• If you haven't done so yet, prayerfully fill out the Central Belief worksheet that I handed out at the last meeting (once again, if you didn't get a copy, look below). I don't expect everyone to have five central beliefs that they are working on; two or three is enough. But be sure and come up with scriptures that address your corrupted belief, and concrete steps listing how you are going to live out your Biblical belief. And, give some thought about how God can heal the corrupted beliefs.
• Be ready to discuss the last part of Chapter seven in the HOAW manual.
• If we have time, I'd really like to take a few minutes and discuss chapter 7 in Victory Over the Darkness.
• Be sure and get together with your accountability partner(s) in the meantime. If you have time, talk about what beliefs you're wrestling with.
  
• Also, I'll be posting on the website some discussion fodder in the next couple of days. If you're looking for something to discuss, drop by and leave your thoughts.
  

Take care, and stay safe.

Central Belief Worksheet (Supplementary Material)

At the 3/17 meeting, I handed out a worksheet to help work though healing our central beliefs, replacing corrupted ones with Biblical ones. If you need another copy, click here.

Next Meeting: 3/31 (Meetings)

Our next meeting is on Monday, March 31. We will be meeting at Joe Rust's home.


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The address is:

9311 191st St W,
Lakeville, MN 55044

We will continue our discussion of Chapter 7 in the HOAW manual, and continue our discussion about what central beliefs need to be healed in our lives.

Next Meeting: 3/17 (Meetings)

Gentlemen-

We'll be meeting on 3/17 at Adam Minnie's place. The address is:

20837 India Circle
Lakeville, MN 55044

Here is a Google Map:


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Please be ready to discuss the Battle Plan from chapter 6 of the HOAW manual; that will be what we start with and focus on. We'll start on Chapter 7 and get through as much as we can, but I want to give as much time as possible to the battle plan. That being said, please take time to read the article Doctrine and Ethics by Alistair McGrath. This was emailed to you earlier this week; also, here is a link to it.

I realize that we haven't talked about Victory Over the Darkness in a couple of sessions. We'll play that by ear.

I will be attending Adoration church this Sunday; if you have any questions, please feel free to call or email.

See you Monday...

Others May, You Cannot (Discussion Fodder)

Dr. Bourgond read this to us last night. Due to my crappy phone lines and lack of energy, I wasn't able to focus on it over the phone, but I heard enough to know that I needed to read this for myself to process it properly. I'm passing this onto you. Your thoughts?

From Dr. Bourgond:
Many years ago, I was speaking in a church classroom. Before I began I was rumaging through the podium and found a tract that had a huge impact on me. Whenever I have felt misunderstood, or discouraged, or not being appreciated for what i was doing for the Kingdom I read this tract.

OTHERS MAY: YOU CANNOT

-by G. D. Watson (1845-1924).

If God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious He may let others get credit for the work which you have done, and thus make YOUR REWARD TEN TIMES GREATER WHEN JESUS COMES.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an Infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to Him, He will wrap you up in Jealous Love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then that you are to DEAL DIRECTLY WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this PECULIAR, PERSONAL, PRIVATE, JEALOUS GUARDIANSHIP AND MANAGEMENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT OVER YOUR LIFE, then you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.

Chapter 7 Attachment

In Chapter 7 of the HOAW manual, on page 65, Exercise #3 requires you to read and absorb the article Doctrine and Ethics by Alistair McGrath. The article can be found here:

http://bmei.org/jbem/volume5/num3/mcgrath_doctrine_and_ethics.pdf

This piece will require at least one reading, probably two to fully absorb the material. Make notes, mark it up, and bring your thoughts next Monday evening.

Incoming!

We're under attack, men. We prayed over one of our own last week because he had the courage to bring his battles to us. Just tonight, I heard from two others that they are experiencing heavy spiritual combat.

Please keep everyone in the group in your prayers. Pray over each man by name, and their families. As I've said, we've entered the part of the program where real self-examination and self-disclosure is needed; otherwise, we're wasting our time. The enemy is aware of this as well, and won't hesitate to try to dissuade you from applying yourself to this. If he can't scare you, he'll distract you. If he can't get to you, then he will attack your family.

This is the time to be on our knees, pleading for our brothers in the group. Connect with your prayer partner this week, and talk about what's going on in your life. If you're ashamed to confess the same sin that you've been confessing for weeks, and you can't bear to admit that you fell...again...well, you're in the right group of guys.

Who Are You?

Introducing the Discussion Fodder category. These will be postings for stuff that we want to talk about, craft well-thought out responses to, but don't have the time for during group meetings. These are for conversations, so please leave comments!

The first one:

Who Are You?

When Brant and I went to the Dangerous Man Day a few weekends ago, the keynote speaker started his afternoon session by relating a scene from the movie Second Hand Lions. In the scene, Robert Duvall's character has had a crisis of self-identity. He's no longer the strong conquering young man who demanded and received respect and fear; he's wrestling with the fact that he's becoming an old man. However, when a young punk starts threatening him and asking him "Who are you, old man?!", Duvall's character remembers his self-identity.

We are in the process of examining our own self-identities. We're holding up what we belief (and what he have believed for years or decades), and examining them in light of God's holy word. The core beliefs that we've talked about while reading Victory Over the Darkness are our beliefs in who we are.

In the comments, I want to hear who you are. Imagine the enemy standing before you, challenging you. It's sneering at you, with disgust, with contempt. "Who are you?", it spits out. Satan is challenging you to identify yourself, drawing a line in the sand.

What is your answer? I want this to be my manifesto, something that I can recite not just out of memorization, but because I have made it my own. At the same time, it is making me, clearing the scales off my eyes that prevent me from seeing this world in light of eternity.

Who are you?