For Him and Forever - Listen for Him!

Carol and I are reading through Pete Scezzaro's Emotionally Healthy Spirituality as a couple and as part of our Community Group's study.  As we drove to Arkansas recently and as Carol read, I heard her voice Scezzaro's words about silence, meditation, and solitude.

Now I know those aren't exactly the same, but the theme is clear:  "Be still and know that He is God".  This is straight scripture from Psalm 46:10.

Psalm 46:10

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” 

Today I get to be quiet.  I choose to be quiet and stop typing.  I choose to listen - not to music, not to nature, not to my thoughts but to purposefully still myself and ask my Abba Father God to speak.  I will be quiet until or as long as He wishes.  Why?  

For me - of course I benefit, but it is not for me.

For you - of course you will benefit from my life when I am unhurried and patient and loving as He will empower me to be.

For Him and Forever!

The passage says that God will "be exalted among the nations, I (God) will be exalted in the earth."

We need Him so desperately.  I need Him so desperately, and we need each other to exalt Him and love Him and stand in awe of Him individually so that collectively He will be exalted in the earth...all over the earth...in every nation...starting at home...your home and mine.  

No more excuses.  Let's be still and know the God of the universe who loves us so much that He thinks about us all the time, sacrificed His one and only Son to make it possible for us to be forgiven and free to be with Him forever ----starting now and never ending.  

Hallelujah, what a Savior is Jesus Christ the Son of God.

I am now still.

Can It Be True? Marriage Gets Better!

As a teen when I first thought about being married someday, there was no way I could have understood or imagined how life would be at 64.  Could you have imagined it?

Should someone have questioned me about marriage and what I thought it would be, not even then would I have thought much past the first few years.....wedding, honeymoon, work, kids, honeymoon, kids, honeymoon....you get the idea.

Now that Carol and I are almost 42 years into this relationship having 3 wonderful Lewis kids (adults), 2 wonderful in-laws for 2 of our 3 wonderful kids, 7 grand - and I do mean grand - grandchildren, I can honestly say that life is better than I could have imagined back in my teen years.

In fact, it is so great, that I now get to go around the country (even the world) helping Christian leader couples establish effective marriage and family ministries!  Who knew?!

So when culture and media tell you that marriage is mundane, average, awful, sub-par with just living together or "hooking up", and therefore not worth pursuing, they don't know what they are talking about.  Marriage - done in God's great love - is "exceeding abundant" above all I asked or imagined.  It's the hardest, most wonderful thing you'll ever do!

Now, that's what I'm talking about!!

A Flop Becomes a Blessing!

Recently we discovered that one of the workshops we had calendared was simply not going to have enough participants.  The group with whom we'd been working decided to find another date and cancel the August workshop in Florida.

Though we were disappointed on several fronts, we knew that God always has His timing for things...even a changed date for a workshop.

Well, He did it again! 

For us -
The opening of that weekend allowed us to finalize our plans to move after the sale of our home.  A Moving Sale that was profitable, an extra week that allowed us to finish getting the house ready for the new owners, and a time of great fellowship and "Joint Accomplishment" as our wonderful community group members came to our rescue as they helped us clean and pack.  Carol and I cannot imagine what the last few weeks would have been had this freeing of our schedules not happened.

For me -
The night before I was to have led the workshop in Florida I spiked a 102.6 fever and spent most of the next 24 hours in bed not knowing if I was coming or going.  How did God know that I was not going to be well enough to lead a workshop that day....????  Oh, yeah, He IS God after all.

For a Florida couple -
Since I had to cancel the reservation so near to the event, the hotel would not allow a refund of the money. (Long story...but not for here)  We remembered a sweet couple among many sweet couples from our NextGen Tampa Bay Training campaigns.  We contacted them, since they did not live far from the city where the workshop had been postponed, and they were excited to have a time away together gifted to them.  This is part of the note she wrote to us after their weekend away:
 "We really needed to step back for that moment and enjoy each other.  Things may have escalated had this not been presented to us.  So again, thank you for blessing us."


Don't you love it when God's plans come together!

More of the Same is Not Boring! Ephesians 3:20-21 Revisited!

Realizing how long it has been since I last posted and feeling incredibly blessed in the interim,  I decided it was time to give Abba the glory He deserves.
So here goes!

In Tampa Bay Florida area - 

• Now 23 churches and ministries are launching marriage ministries and / or using the Intimate Encounters principles in their counseling models.  Who would have thought that in a year's time we would see God so powerfully at work in so many marriages of leaders who are in real ways "living loved and giving love freely...starting at home".

• The 70 plus couples who've attended the 3 campaigns (each lasting about 3 months) over the time from June, 2013 through today August 29, 2014, have been present to experience and observe God's work in couples from varied denominations/movements as well as racial/ethnic backgrounds.  Who would have thought that they would see barriers broken down between people of different denominations, races, and generations then replaced by deep love and respect for one another?  Who would have guessed that these leader couples would see their lives exposed to the light of God's truth, then become vulnerably humble before each other to the degree that spouses have become partners in ministry versus feeling abandoned?  

• Now we are preparing for our final NextGen Tampa Bay IE Training - Campaign 4.  Who knows what He will do in the couples He will bring along?  How exciting to see what He has done already and to imagine how He will heal, change, and equip these new couples to impact the Tampa Bay area!  They and we believe God's heart is to Take Back Tampa for Jesus Christ and His kingdom!

In Akron Ohio -

• Just 2 years ago Jeff Bogue and I met in Austin, TX, to discuss an idea birthed in the heart of Dr. David Ferguson.  The idea:  What if TBI teamed up with Grace Akron to build a relational ministry as part of the "operating system" of that great church?  After Grace Akron hired Robby Neidlinger as their pastor over marriage and pastoral care, we got busy discovering the vision and desire of those involved for reaching the current and next generations.  Who would have guessed that our Father in heaven would bring together under Robby's leadership 13 couples to be trained then begin to lead marriage small groups?  Who would have known that over this very summer 24 couples joined those leaders in 5 small groups and took seriously God's call to love as He does.  These couples are building new legacies of love in their families now and for the future generations.   The children in these homes and beyond will see the glory of God in the love found in their own homes.  These couples are "helping leaders live loved and give love freely...starting at home".

In Elizabethtown Kentucky -

• At the beginning of the year 2014 plans were set into motion for training a group of leader couples in a vital denomination in Kentucky.  These 20 plus couples have met for 3 or 4 Saturdays, have studied and experienced relational principles, have applied them personally and inside their own families, and are now learning how to develop ministries inside their churches for their communities to help "leaders live loved and give love freely ... staring at home".  Who would have thought that this group of leaders would become so transparent and relationally connected then witness personal revival in homes and churches?  Can you believe they let a person teach knowing that I am not from their denomination?  :)  Well, they did!

In Rock Hill and now Charleston South Carolina -

• A couple whose heart beats for helping engaged couples have successful, abundant marriages has now become an integral part of TBI.  Their faith in the Lord, love for Him and for each other take them across the state to Charleston to develop a model of marriage ministry for a church planting ministry.  The plan is to help those church planters learn how to "live loved and give love freely...starting at home" and how to train "faithful men and women who will train others also".    Who would have guessed that this couple and their friends in the church-planting ministry would see the need and implement a plan to make sure leader couples are healthy in their marriage and family before they go out to do the hard work of planting a church?  What a concept!  OK, there is a little sarcasm in that last bit.  :)

In Dayton Maine - 

• Having come to know Nick and Beccy Foss 3 years ago at a retreat in Tennessee, Carol and I now have the honor of going to their home in Maine, September 11-14, 2014, to lead a relationship workshop using the Top Ten Relational Needs material.  Nick and Beccy have implemented these key principles in their own home and family as they now help equip their church to "live loved and give love freely...starting at home".  Who would have thought that two Kentucky folks (Carol and I) would have the privilege of taking this message of God's loving Good News to New England?  Do you think we will need to use interpreters?  :)

Alongside these wonderful ministry milestones, Abba has helped us ...

• see another grandchild come to saving faith in Jesus
• find and contract Linda D'Avanzo as our new Administrative Assistant
• see Carol teaching alongside me in multiple environments
• sell our home in Cumming to a dear family (friends of ours in fact)
• move to a new location where we are renting
• build deepening relationships within our family and among friends both new and old
• enjoy unbroken salary for the last 18 months
• enlist 2 new Encourager Couples to join our 18 already in the field
• engage our TBI Board for another year of volunteer service alongside Carol and me
• plan a new website to offer resources to more seeking couples and launch in the next weeks and months by God's grace.  

So the mission of TBI "to help leaders live loved and give love freely...starting at home" is being realized and expanded to even more areas of the country and into new levels of leadership.  Who would have guessed it when God launched us 4 years ago in September, 2010? 

Truly, He has done "exceeding abundantly above all that we have asked or imagined".  And may He receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and even....amen"!

Well, the Apostle Paul said it more eloquently under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:
²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  (Ephesians 3:20-21 - ESV)

So, God's plan all along has been to reach the next generation through the influence, love, and witness of the current and previous ones....
Maybe it is time we reached our "neighbors" at home and around us by "living loved and giving love freely ... starting at home".  The Gospel of Jesus is worth living and sharing at home on our way to sharing Him with the world...to the uttermost parts.