iJourney

Beginning May 22 thru June 30, God is inviting The Journey Church to hunger for Him more than we ever have before.  For 40 Days we will focus on 5 spiritual disciplines that will help us listen to and follow God.  These 5 disciplines are: 

1.      Fasting.  Whenever something big was about to happen in the scriptures, people fasted.  Fasting is simply giving up something that you crave for a period of time to help you focus on God.  Every time you crave you focus.  The majority of fasting involves diet or food in some way, but you can fast from just about anything.  The important thing is that what you fast from is important to you.   We’re suggesting the Daniel Fast (or a variation of this fast) as a place to start.  There are lots of places on the internet that explain the Daniel Fast in detail  (see http://danielfast.wordpress.com/ for more on the Daniel Fast).  This is primarily a vegetarian diet that leaves out meat and beverages.  For many people, the Daniel Fast is a good choice because it will cause you to think about what you’re eating every day, thereby causing you to think about God at that same time.  Read Daniel chapter 1 for the background on this. If the Daniel Fast isn’t right for you, choose something else.  Then on May 22 begin your fast.  As you crave whatever it is you’re fasting from, turn your focus to God in prayer. Important:  If you have health issues such as diabetes, you should consult a physician before implementing a dietary fast.  

2.      Scripture Reading & Listening.  For these 40 days you will want to read the scriptures everyday, and if possible several times a day.  As you’re reading, pause after important thoughts and reflect on that thought while trying to quiet your spirit.  The goal is to discipline yourself to listen to God’s voice speaking.  It’s not as important how much you read, but that you read and listen during whatever time you set aside for this. 

3.      Prayer.  Just like you’ll want to set aside time every day for reading the Bible, you’ll also want to set aside time to pray.  There are lots of places and postures you can use to help you pray.  For example, go on a prayer walk every day.  While you’re walking pray for people.  Perhaps pray for the people in your neighborhood as you pass their home.  Journaling in prayer is another example.  This is simply writing out your prayers.  This helps some people focus if their mind wanders a lot (like mine).  We’re also encouraging you to find a prayer partner or two.  During these 40 days, you and your prayer partner can meet once or twice a week to pray together.   

4.      Serving the Poor.  Jesus placed a high emphasis on serving the poor, and so did his disciples.  The Apostle Paul wrote about it and reminds us to not forget this as we move through life.  At The Journey, we are all about serving our community and beyond, and we regularly want to help people who are hurting in life.  During these 40 days, we’re inviting you to pray about who God might lead you to serve.  Begin praying about this on Day 1 and listen.  If God doesn’t answer right away, just keep praying about this.  You’ll know before the 40 is over.  You can also team up to do this if you want.  Journey Groups may come together and pray about who their group may serve.   

5.      Journaling & Sharing.  We’re encouraging everyone to purchase some sort of a journal for this 40 day H4G experience.  You don’t need anything fancy, just a pad of paper will do.  At least once a day, write down in your journal things like:

·         what’s happening in your heart,

·         what God may be saying to you,

·         how you are changing,

·         things you’re learning from the Scriptures,

·         people you’re praying for

·         answers to prayer·         etc 

We’re also going to invite you to share what God is doing in your life with all of  us.  We’ll offer several different ways you can do this.  On the internet, we’ll have a place set up on our website where you can share your stories.  Also, if you Facebook, search for The Journey Church under “groups”.  There will be a place for you to share your experiences there as well.  On Sundays, you may also use our Welcome To The Journey card and write your experiences there, and someone will post it on the website.   Through practicing these 5 disciplines over these 40 days, I believe God will do something very special in your life.  More than that, I believe you’re also going to learn some tools that will help you connect to God more every day.  If you’ve been around The Journey for any length of time, you’ve heard me say that God has a great dream for you.  This dream will always involve following Him on mission in this world.  It might be in your neighborhood or it might be somewhere in the world.  I believe God has more plans for The Journey Church in the greater north Oakland County area.  I believe there are lots of people God wants us to love and offer hope to in Jesus’ name.  Perhaps this 40 Day H4G will prepare us for what is to come.    

Sunday’s gathering at The Journey was awesome! I had been meditating all week on the resurrection and the difference it makes in our lives and in the world today whether people realize it or not.  I could feel a great anticipation building all week as we headed into the weekend.  I just kept praying that Jesus would be lifted up, and that He would use our little ragamuffin tribe to reach out into the greater Holly area.  We’ve been working on serving our community and letting people know we’re here, and ready to serve them.  Our growth in Holly has been slow but steady.  But what i’ve been most excited about is how people at The Journey have caught our vision to serve and be on mission with Jesus in this world.  For a small church, and in just a few short years, we’ve planted a church in Kenya where we’ve dug a well and are getting ready to build their first building.  We’ve led mission adventures to Africa, Trinidad, and Mississippi.  We’re active in serving our community every week through the various non-profit organizations that exist.  I’m proud of the people at The Journey! 

As we opened the doors for our Easter gathering, I was blown away by all the people who kept flooding in.  At least for us… we had nearly 190 in attendance.  That’s our highest day since moving to Holly.  More importantly, our worship experience was dynamite!  We were moved in worship, video, life sharing, kids singing and teaching.  Many new people from the community joined us and shared on their way out that they’ll be back, and that they’ve been longing for a church like this to arrive in Holly.  Yay God! 

Thanks to my whole team who worked hard, prayed hard, and served graciously through this whole weekend.  You’re the best!  Can’t wait to see what God has around the corner for us as we continue to follow Him.

Two weeks ago, early on a Sunday morning, an older couple perhaps on their way to a church service were struck by another car, which launched their car off the highway into a ravine.  Lauren, one of my team leaders, was on her way to our building early to set up for our Sunday gathering.  She drove up on the accident moments after it happened, and pulled over.   Lauren is a nurse, and immediately she let her emergency medical training guide her to provide immediate medical care for the couple trapped in the wrecked car.  As she got into the car, she knew it was serious, and spoke with the couple as she worked on them and waited for rescue workers to arrive.  She prayed and cried for them, but within a few moments, both the man and woman slipped from this life into the next. The woman’s hand clutching the hand of her husband even in death. Rescue workers arrived, and Lauren got back into her car.  Most people who just experienced something as devastating as this would just drive home, and I wouldn’t blame her if she did.  Lauren, however, drove to our church building and continued to set up for our gathering, tears flowing from her eyes.  I’m not surprised really.  Lauren is one of many people who have discovered the importance of serving others through her own experience of having the God of the universe serve her.  She like so many around The Journey inspire me, and I hope to be more like that in this world. 

We live in a day when this kind of love and sacrifice for people is so needed and yet sadly so lacking in our churches.  I believe in many ways its because we’ve made church about us,  rather than about Jesus.  Jesus transforms our character to display His character here on this earth.  The more we allow Him to change us, the more we see Him through our actions.

Twitter is cool, but sometimes 140 characters takes too much time and too much concentration for espresso-soaked microbloggers and their ADHD buddies.

Enter Flutter, the world’s first nanoblogging site.

CEO Zak Ryman says: “I think a lot of people don’t have time to Twitter. It just takes too long to compose a message with 140 characters, and then you start getting bombarded by a few tweets and it’s like hundreds of characters that you have to read.”

Flutter chops it down to just 26 characters for time-challenged Twitaholics.

(click here to read more)

In a hospital room in Greenville S.C on June 20, 1987, I caught my first glimpse of God’s heart toward me.  That was the day Caroline, our oldest daughter, was born.  I was the first person to hold her.  She was so tiny.  Her eyes were wide open, taking in the new world she was just born into.  She was beautiful.  She was my little princess. Just then, the nurse reached out to take her away from me.  She gave some lame excuse about needing to clean her up.  I really didn’t notice she needed to be cleaned up.  OK, so she had a bunch of red jelly all over her.  I still thought she looked beautiful.  When the nurse took her, she started to cry, and my heart broke.  Then the nurse pricked her little foot and drew some blood.  Caroline cried again.  I was a complete wreck.  But I knew that this was all for her good.   As I was watching all this take place, the nurse looked over at me and noticed the tears in my eyes.  She said, “Mr. Harris, would you like to wait outside while I perform these tests?  It might be easier on you.”  “Are you kidding me?”  I said.  “I’m her dad!  An entire army couldn’t drag me away from her right now!”   It was in that moment that I realized how much God cares for me.     

“And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.’“

(Deuteronomy 1:31, NLT)