Monday, October 20, 2008

Monday, October 20, 2008 The beginning of the Second Week

To All of our Many Friends!

Thank you for your prayers, your thoughts, your emails. We begin week #2 of this little journey. Some of our opportunities are beginning to take a little shape! You ask, "How are you listening and sensing?" Or another way to ask it is, "What is your grid for determining what you should be doing in the future?"

Both are excellent questions. Here is a simple grid we put our thoughts through:

  • We need to make sure we have some sort of income as in reality we cannot NOT have any source of some sort of income at this stage in our lives. It doesn't have to be much, but it does need to be something. So we keep that thought in front of us.
  • Are doors closing on/in certain opportunities? Or, are opportunities changing, to the degree that we would not be challenged and/or able to do the particular ministry where the opportunities are changing?
  • How does what we are sensing and seeing fit in to what we understand to be the overall plan of God, not only for our lives, but also for the larger context of the Kingdom of God?

Now I could say more, but I think this gives you a sense of the direction on the opportunities over which Judy and I are watching and praying.

As a result of the grid above, we see one door as slowly closing. A door we thought had "potential" is shutting as we sense and see that others are taking up the mantle and are charging ahead with this ministry and without us. (And by the way, that is perfectly OK with us!) It is one of the "famous four" I listed for Eastside Church and one that Judy and I have been praying about and discussing. Others are stepping up to the proverbial plate of leadership in this particular ministry. And even though we will probably not be "leading" this ministry as such, we will still continue to be involved in one way or another...just not in a specific leadership role.

Is that helpful? I hope it is. So we say, "Thank You Lord," as we see doors closing and others opening. That is what we are here for and truly this is what we are NOT anxious about. The Lord will reveal Himself strong and mighty in the right place at the right time for what we are to be doing in this next chapter of our lives! Remember what I have said: "This ministry could be any one of the four or five we are considering, and it also could be 'none of the above!'" The Lord might have something radically different for us! By God's Grace...we are open to those "radical differences!"

By the way, the reading of the Scripture as I set out in an earlier blog has just been excellent!

Our prayers and love,

Graydon and Judy

graydon.jessup@gmail.com

graydonandjudy.blogspot.com

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