CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

K.LeVeq

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Wait, I need to tell what??

I think like most others, I tend to camp out in the New Testament. Sorry, Ezra and Nehemiah. Old Testament history can get, well, old! The words of Christ are magnetic. I mean who doesn’t want to dwell on the eternal wisdom Jesus shared with His disciples?

As I try to improve my constant contact with God (love me some step 11!), I have found myself spending a lot of time heeding the advice of my friend and Bible study leader by seeking to understand God’s character in His words. In John 13:35, Jesus reminds His followers to play nice. He tells them: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” It reminds me of something my mother would say to me and my brother when we were fighting. “Love each other. One day you may not have anyone else!”

I read those words and put them out of my mind. I mean of course we should love each other. Lines up with what Jesus called the greatest commandment: love God, love your neighbor as yourself. Ok, I got that. Only, Paul had to go and mess it all up for me.

In Romans 10:14-15, Paul wrote: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” Ok, sounds like the work of preachers and missionaries. Except, Jesus told us in the Great Commission in Matthew 28 to go and tell.

I don’t know why, wait I really do know why, but all those disparate points coalesced in my recent study of Romans. By how we love one another, others will know we belong to Christ. Not will come to Christ…will know we belong to Christ. Jesus told us that wasn’t enough. Go and tell. Paul took it a step further. He reminded us that people need to be told. They need to hear the words, to listen to the Gospel. We must go and tell. Tell the story of Jesus, the Gospel, and how he overcame death and sin and was raised from the dead. And how He saved you and all about your story of recovery and redemption. How he didn’t walk away from me and redeemed me in my addiction and continues to work in my family…all about my story.

So go. Tell. In your work. At your school. To your neighbor. Your co-workers. Your friends. What better way to show your love than to share the Gospel with others. And if you feel safe, share your story of how Christ redeemed you.

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Prodigal – Saturday at 5:30 pm
Connecting with God
Summit, MS is small. Seriously small. Population 1,651 souls. Growing up in Summit probably mirrors other small towns. Everyone knows everyone and all their “business.” My Dad knew what I had done on a Friday night before I even got home.

Small towns have some advantages. Connecting with others doesn’t require much effort. As a boy, I just looked for the bikes. As I got older, I went to the places where everyone else hung out. Eventually I would run into all the people I knew.

Today, we have a whole industry for connecting. Social media exists to expand our connections. The breadth and variety of our “friends” has never been larger. We even have people we don’t know “requesting” to connect with us. A TV show just started on what would happen if God tried to “friend” us. Funny. Are all these social media friends really intimate friends? Is this our idea of a connection?

Connecting with God requires more than accepting a friend request. See, God wants to be more than our friend. He wants to know us intimately. And for us to know him intimately as well.

What are you doing to connect with God? Is He your acquaintance? Do you say hi to Him and tell Him about your day, much like when you check in with your parents? Or do you seek to know Him, asking Him to reveal His character and His will to you daily?

God gave us many ways to connect with Him on an intimate level. He gave us His Word. Through it we can seek to understand His character and ask Him to reveal more to us. He gave us His people, His church. We can surround ourselves with others who also want to know Him intimately, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through them. We pray and speak with Him. A constant conversation, opening our hearts, allowing Him to take over, and seeking his guidance.

What are you doing to connect with God? Try it. He’s the most important “friend” you will ever make.

Join us this week at Prodigal. We are a bunch of broken people searching for God’s purpose for our lives.

This week, Sean brings a message of how we improve our contact with God and Judy Z will share an impactful testimony.
When: Every Saturday at 5:30 pm

Location: The Fellowship (in the Loft), 22765 Westheimer Pkwy, Katy, TX 77450

Childcare is available. Pre-notification is not necessary but is requested. For more information about childcare, email us info@theprodigals.org.

Give:  We need your support! Give to the Prodigal. Use your smart phone and text your donation. Send a text to 28950, and type the keyword PROD, a space and the amount you wish to give. You will receive a text response for your name, address and account information for one-time registration. An email confirmation will be sent to confirm your donation. Next time, you simply send a text with the amount – and it’s complete.

Come home, prodigals!

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Moving Towards God

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By Keith B. @ NotUnknown.com

At the age of nine years old, I understood and accepted that God sent His son to die for me and redeem my sins. I began a journey on that day to know God. Unfortunately, that’s all I did. I began. I didn’t continue. God stayed where He was. Available to me and waiting. I got…sidetracked.

My contact with God wasn’t constant. God was like that neighbor who would knock and not go away, even when I wouldn’t answer the door. I could just feel Him peeking in the windows. So I went my own way, avoiding His gaze, trying to stay just out of reach.

My friend Sean and I were at breakfast one morning, drinking Denny’s outstanding coffee. We were talking about God and knowing Him. Sean held his hands apart.

“Buddy! God is here, and I am way over here. I am either moving toward Him or away
from Him. There is no inbetween!”

Sean speaks in exclamations. That is part of what I love about him. He also speaks from God. I love that about him even more.

Knowing God requires structure for me. Without it, I follow the sound of my own voice. My own voice has always eventually led to destruction. So, to purposefully know God, I put structure in my everyday life. For me, that started with how I make decisions.

What do you do when you are faced with a difficult decision? Maybe you are trying to decide whether you should look for another job. You don’t know whether or not you should stay in a marriage that doesn’t feel alive. Your parents health is declining and you don’t have any idea what to do. Do you have someone you can turn to for guidance? Is there someone you trust completely? Your mother? Brother? Spouse? Best friend?

What about the day to day stuff? Should I apologize to my wife for yelling at her when she started the whole fight by nagging me about the shirt I didn’t pick up and take to the laundry room? My daughter’s best friend stopped talking to her and sitting with her at lunch. Does anyone care about that or is that something you should just take care of on your own?

I found that in all decisions, big stuff and small stuff, my decision making stunk. I convinced myself I made great decisions. Only, when faced with the results of my decisions, I realized I didn’t.

Sean reminded me that God knew me in my mother’s womb, the number of hair’s on my head, the intimate parts of my life I felt too much shame to share with anyone else. And He never walked away. He waited for me to realize how much He wanted to be a part of all my decisions. To do that, I had to let Him into all my decisions. I had to learn how to move towards Him.
In my life I move towards God in a number of ways. I pray purposefully. My friend Lance recently talked about his day being a constant conversation with God about the big things and the little things. I do that. I read His word looking to know more about Him, not about me. Li-wei taught me how to read His word to seek who God says He is and what can I learn about His character. My friends Dan and Jay meet with me every Saturday, to do life together and to speak His word into each other. My wife Roxanne and I pray together for our marriage, our sons, the future, today, for big and small things.

Have you introduced purpose into your life? What are you actively doing to move towards God?

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Be Known – This Saturday at Prodigal
Known
I was in Bible study a few weeks ago. The lesson was on Peter. Peter, I get. Peter was up. Peter was down. Peter was humiliated by his own failures multiple times and still made mistakes over and over. Yep, I really get Peter. So this study was talking about how Peter was transformed to be able to transform others. Ok, I am listening. How did that work?

So first, Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter. He specifically stated in front of everyone that his name was now Peter, the rock on which He would build His church. This was the proclamation of who Peter was to be. Only he wasn’t that guy yet. He had to be ready. And he wasn’t. See, Peter didn’t know who he was yet. He didn’t know that he was broken and flawed and that Jesus wanted that part of him, too. He had to know that. And he didn’t yet.

So, Jesus proclaimed that he was Peter but he kept calling him Simon after this proclamation. Because..,he wasn’t Peter yet. He wasn’t ready and he didn’t know. Jesus called him Peter again…He proclaimed he was the rock…when He told him that he would deny Him three times. That’s when he was the rock. The foundation of the church. When he was broken. When he finally knew that he was broken. When he finally hit the very bottom, that’s when Peter was ready. That’s when he knew who he was.

That’s what it took for me to know. To know who I am. To start resembling the description of broken people instead of proud people. Surrendered to God instead of self sufficient. Grateful for what I have instead of thinking on what I deserve. Giving and self denying instead of selfish and demanding. Thankful to be used by God instead of focused on what I have done for God and wanting recognition for it. Easy to correct instead of defensive when criticized. I had to find out who I was. I had to know.

Join us this week at Prodigal. We are a bunch of broken people searching for God’s purpose for our lives.

This week, Sean leads us in teaching and Judy Z will share an impactful testimony.
When: Every Saturday at 5:30 pm

Location: The Fellowship (in the Loft), 22765 Westheimer Pkwy, Katy, TX 77450

Childcare is available. Pre-notification is not necessary but is requested. For more information about childcare, email us info@theprodigals.org.

Give:  We need your support! Give to the Prodigal. Use your smart phone and text your donation. Send a text to 28950, and type the keyword PROD, a space and the amount you wish to give. You will receive a text response for your name, address and account information for one-time registration. An email confirmation will be sent to confirm your donation. Next time, you simply send a text with the amount – and it’s complete.

Come home, prodigals!

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Am I Wrong?
Am I Wrong?
I recently wrote to you all, that in my past I was wrong. Also that I am wrong. I am realizing and understanding that isn’t exactly true. I wasn’t wrong. I did wrong. I am not wrong. I do wrong. Sounds like a technicality but hear me out.

I had incorporated into my life that I was wrong. That I was bad. That I was sin. Through reading, through counseling, through groups, I have come to understand the difference. I am not wrong or bad or sin. I did wrong, I did bad, I acted in sin. Incorporating that I am bad or wrong into my identity is against what God intends and is what kept me in that cycle of sin. You know it as shame. And its so pervasive that I have slipped back into that way of thinking subtly.

Do you identify yourself by what you do or what you have done? His design for us is to identify ourselves as HIS children…saved by grace.

Join us Saturday at Prodigal and find out more about who you are not what you have done.

This week, Brian leads us in teaching and Chubby will share an impactful testimony.
When: Every Saturday at 5:30 pm

Location: The Fellowship (in the Loft), 22765 Westheimer Pkwy, Katy, TX 77450

Childcare is available. Pre-notification is not necessary but is requested. For more information about childcare, email us info@theprodigals.org.

Give:  We need your support! Give to the Prodigal. Use your smart phone and text your donation. Send a text to 28950, and type the keyword PROD, a space and the amount you wish to give. You will receive a text response for your name, address and account information for one-time registration. An email confirmation will be sent to confirm your donation. Next time, you simply send a text with the amount – and it’s complete.

Come home, prodigals!