1 John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."
I am truly blessed to be part of a fellowship of men who serve in the U.S. military. All are officers representing each branch of the armed services. I am amused that the same ribbing between the police and fire professions exists between the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines (when they can keep up of course). Our group gathers every Thursday for lunch at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey to talk about a passage from scripture, to share about our journey of faith and to encourage each other as husbands and fathers. For me, it is one of the most connected fellowships of men I have ever experienced.
This blog post is about how the group began. It is a story about what happens when you ask God to grow your faith and to realize that how He answers is never exactly what you expect. This is a story about Chu.
Matthew 7:7, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
Chu is a man after God's heart. He reads scripture daily, is the father to two young sons and is a committed husband. He attends Shoreline Community Church weekly, sitting in the second row of the stadium seats, stage right. I spotted Chu one particular Sunday when I was singing on the worship team. He was not hard to miss as I looked out at the congregation. He is built like a linebacker and takes up three seats during worship because he extends his arms wide to receive the blessing of music. He totally engages in worship and the Holy Spirit prompted me to introduce myself and invite him to join the choir.
Shoreline Community Church is a big congregation and it took a few weeks before I was able to move through the crowd and catch up to him. I suppose it was not very fair to my "new friend" that a stranger would walk right up to him after church, introduce himself and say, "I really think you should sing in the church choir!" Chu was understandably caught off guard. His wife was not. She began to laugh and gave him the, "So what are you waiting for?" look.
He turned me down flat.
Jonah 1:3, "But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord."
It is true that he tried to run but not before I found out that he was a student at NPS. The Holy Spirit was not going to take "no" for an answer so I went to Plan B.
"No problem. I am starting a men's bible study at NPS and you can help me lead the group! When can we get together for lunch?"
It is important to understand that Chu was praying for God to give him an opportunity to get more involved at church. I showed up the day after he knocked on God's door. Like Jonah before him, Chu stopped resisting and agreed to be part of the group. And so what started with two guys meeting for lunch turned into a group of 12 men laughing together at the absurdities of the life, holding each other accountable and walking together as brothers in Christ.
Chu asked, God answered. I was seeking fellowship and I found Chu. Chu knocked, I opened the door.
In two months, Chu will graduate from NPS and along with him Chris, Josh, Ray and Ken. They will leave Monterey and continue their military serve throughout the world to keep us safe and to protect our freedoms. More importantly, they will go out as Christians; men of faith to shine the light in this dark world. My heart is full of sadness that our adventure of faith is going to end. I will continue to pray for them even though we will no longer join together each Thursday at high noon.
Luke 10:1-2, "After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, 'The
harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the
harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'"
What is God calling you to do? Who is he prompting you to reach out to and fellowship with?
2 comments:
Great story. All our relationships exist for a season for a purpose if we are willing to pay attention. Some folks we experience for a brief encounter and they teach us something, some folks we know for a lifetime.
Praying that more people will open the door when God says,"Go ask that guy to be in the choir." What you saw for music God saw for relationships.
Great story, Mike. Thanks. Now, I'm going to go out an pay attention to what doors I need to open.
Mike, I commend you for your ability and desire to identify those qualities you see in a person that they sometimes cannot see in themselves. You cast seeds and untold numbers of people reap the benefits… Thanks.. Briggs
Luke 8: 4-9 4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown. ”When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’
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