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🤲🏻🤝🏻Jump into our new free community. It’s a simple space to engage with others about the Newsletter, Book Project or whatever might be on your mind. Just enter the email you use for this newsletter and you’re in. See you inside.
💬🤔I Posted the Book Introduction for Your Feedback! I’d love to hear your thoughts and get your opinion. It’s in the new free community space so everyone can get involved in the conversation. I’m going to need help naming the book and designing the cover soon. I’ll be welcoming your thoughts and ideas.
The book is for Bible readers who struggle to engage with and enjoy Scripture. They find the Bible intimidating, overwhelming or hard to read. They feel like something is wrong with them because they don’t get much out of it when they do read. The book’s introduction should give you a good feel for the book. I invite you to check it out.
My team is deep into the editing and beta reader phase of production. It should be published in October or November - Lord willing! 🙋🏼♀️Just click here to read it 🙋🏼♂️ Keep praying and share your thoughts inside the community.
📖ICYMI. The Monday evening online fellowship and study is rich. It’s a one-hour deep dive discussion into one of the weekly newsletters. Click this Zoom link a little before 8p (eastern) and join us. It’s becoming the favorite part of the week.
Enjoy today’s read!
Before jumping in, you’ll get more out of this post if you read Romans 7 first.
Lorie and I invited them to our home and could hear their tires on the stone driveway as they pulled in. They parked on the grass by the pond and made their way to the door.
They were quite involved in our rural church and we had visited in each other’s homes frequently.
We offered them some coffee, sat in my home office and soon became painfully aware of how grateful we were to be in the ministry.
After some polite conversation the mood shifted radically.
It was completely unexpected, especially coming from them.
Thankfully they were reaching out about a dark family secret. And God was giving us the privilege of joining His recovery mission 2 Tim. 2:24-26.
It would have been easy to assume that things like that don’t happen in families like theirs or with people like them.
It’s easy to presume someone you think so highly of doesn’t struggle at a deep level.
But then I recall when this guy opened up about his struggles and it seemed rather shocking (Rom. 7:8-11).
Imagine going to coffee with some spiritual giant you admire. They have a great walk with the Lord, are strong in the faith, and serve as a mentor to you and others.
As you sit together, they start sharing candidly their personal struggles. They openly share how they long for what is forbidden, lust after, and covet what others have.
You might be tempted to think to yourself, I can’t be hearing this – not you!
But then you remind yourself that you struggle with stuff like that too. We all do (1 Cor. 10:13).
Now imagine the person across the table being this honest is none other than the apostle Paul.
The apostle Paul?
Really?
But why not him? He is human, right?
To be honest, it’s refreshing when we give each other permission and the safe space to do this. God’s word encourages it in Gal. 6:1-3 and James 5:16.
But before that can happen, we’re going to need to become the kind of people others feel comfortable sharing their “secrets” with and create an environment to do so.
We’ll also need to be a bit more willing to take the risk.
It’s no secret that you struggle.
We all do.
But it’s clear from Scripture that you’ll struggle so long as you decide to keep secrets (Pro. 28:13).
Paul, being the spiritual giant, strong in the faith and great mentor that he was, showed us the way.
Every one of us needs to know that forgiveness, redemption and love is within reach when we wrestle with the common things of life (1 Cor. 10:13). Did I get this right?
They also need to know they’re in good company when they finally reach out.
Perhaps it’s time to meet for some coffee…
So, here’s my question for you: What do you need to do to create a space where you and others can share honestly about the struggles that are common to us all, and when will you take the risk and make that call?
If you need a place to start, reply to this email and share it with me. I’d love to hear your story and add forgiveness, redemption and love to it. I read every response.
You can also jump into our new free community and engage with others about the Newsletter, Book Project or whatever might be on your mind. It’s a safe space to do so.
PS: I don’t doubt that we can double the reach of this ministry. I’m going for it and would love your help. Can you forward this newsletter regularly to a few people you know — in your household, workplace and church — and encourage them to subscribe? Thank you.
Thanks for Reading!
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BOOK PROJECT & MORE. I just created a space to share encouragement, talk about the newsletter, make some friends and keep up with the latest on the book project. I posted the book’s introduction and the discussions have started. It’s free, fun and would be a pleasure to have you join in. Others are already engaged. Click here to join.
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