We’re in the home stretch before the Not For Sale Campaign’s Backyard Abolitionist Tour presented by StreetGRACE. This is going to be an awesome event Thursday November 12th at 8 pm. David Batstone, founder of Not For Sale, is an incredible speaker and modern day abolitionist. I guarantee you will have a great time at this event. Please tell all your friends to come. We’re going to have some local partners on site to tell you more about how you can get involved.
This past week at the Men’s Community Bible Study I was sitting next to a gentleman that’s been coming for a long time. He normally is very quiet. He’s very kind and respectful but very quiet. We were discussing the 2 Samuel Chapter 13. The bible study is set up so that we have about four tables of men each discussing questions around our passage of study. It makes for a very open and free to share environment. Yet, this guy had never been one to share much. Well that night I leaned over to him and asked him his opinion on our current discussion. He started “I’m afraid to share this because I think you guys are going to call me out, but this is what I really am thinking. I don’t know how you can say this is a loving God when we’ve been reading about people being killed and murdered all over the place. And now we read about a baby being killed because of David’s sin. This stuff is messed up.” The other men at the table weren’t really sure what to do. I said “That’s an excellent point, and I don’t have a good answer for you.” Which was true in that moment.
I bring this story up for a couple of reasons. After the initial statement this gentleman added some more thoughts that called up stories we had read in previous weeks. He may have doubts, but I know God and the Holy Spirit are at work. He’s really tracking and processing with this stuff. He also felt safe enough to share his honest thoughts. That is a recent development. This group is giving us a vehicle for true deep discipleship with these men. Here is a guy who is homeless, and his struggle is wrestling with the character of God. Physical needs were totally put aside. That is significant to me. I’m not sure where this will go, that’s in God’s hands, but it gives me encouragement that our efforts to foster deeper relationships with these men are starting to produce fruit.
Finally, thank you to everyone offering encouragement and thank you to everyone doing kingdom work whether it be “official NAPC” work or not. I’m starting to see some really cool stuff happen.
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