Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
10/27/2023
A Small Group or a Bible Study is just not for me!
Those of you who have thought of starting a small group in your home or at a coffee shop or church or restaurant, may I offer some advice before you mark this journey off your to-do list.
The people who come do not come for a program, or even a table of others to find a friend. Even though many are starving for a godly friend. Beneath their hurts and confusion, they want to see Jesus –
feel Jesus …encounter Jesus, and here is the hardest part for us.
It will only happen through you by the power of the Holy Spirit. They want to see your love for Christ. So many hesitate to be used by God because they feel unqualified. They are clearly no bible scholar. They cannot quote scripture like some. They fear what will happen when they have no answer and they look foolish. The resistance is often about how they will look, and sound and the fear of being unqualified, and the fact they are sure they will embarrass themselves. Isn’t it amazing how that one little element can keep us from moving forward in so many areas of life? But have you heard that God does not typically call the qualified…He calls the willing. He will grow you by His Spirit. He will give you the words to say. Matt 10:18 “Jesus says that when you are brought before VIPs, governors, and kings for His sake, do not worry about how or what you should speak because God will give you the words to speak, for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you”. (Where is your faith? If you have these thoughts about leading a group or even being a part of one, where is the obedience to that small voice that is telling you to go? When you join a bible study or small group as a leader or member, they are not looking for your eloquence as a teacher, or a table leader, or even a person attending. We are all children of God. All toddlers in our faith until we learn, and are taught the more mature things of God…that takes time and study and someone to mentor us.
God doesn’t expect a child to take on the things of a man. He is a loving father who understands where you are in Him, and He wants you to learn of Him, and spend time with Him. Crawl before you walk with him in knowledge and truth. Do Not let your pride keep you from reaching out, from attending, from leading if that is the case. This is about God calling you into the deeper waters of a relationship with Him not what clothes you wear or the silver of your tongue. The people you will meet are like you, but maybe a little more mature in Christ. If you want to bring something, bring your bible or bible app. Come with an open mind, humility, and courage to be obedient to the calling He placed in you to go. They want to see your heart to love, to lift Christ up, and adore him. Whatever level you are in God is acceptable and you will find people who are open-hearted, but mostly you will find the Holy Spirit with you.
You will not be alone.
Is that you? Do you want that to be you? Are you prayed up for that to be you? Have you prepared for your first meeting for that to be you? The Holy Spirit has called us to life in him, not a life in a men’s or women’s program, even though that may be a vehicle God uses to grow you.
And when we move away from just the reading of His word, away from the discomforting scriptures that are hard to read, from the prickling, penetrating, conscious that comes alive as they penetrate that prideful exterior…
When a more mature person or leader reads his word or leads a group but is not pieced by God’s revelation and continues asking questions and going through the motions, then they are following a dead specimen of Christ, that we slice and dice for our analysis and table talk discussion. Something we can stand over as a master of the text. And thereby never having the discomfort of being confronted by it. The teaching has become a mere memorial to Christ… almost like a tombstone. He says he will not reject a humble and contrite spirit…THAT is how we approach the altar of God!
If people are called to the cherished and treasured Christ, they cannot nearly be told that he is true, good, and beautiful, they must be shown so that they can taste and see the love that bought us. Are we sufficient for these things? In the natural? No. Not one of us in ourselves. No, we must decrease and he will increase, and then when He is lifted up, he will draw all men to himself John 12:32
I know that I have been gone a while and I am so thankful to be here writing again, so thankful for your prayers, so thankful for your love, and soul, and generosity, please do not take this as a chastisement, but a deep recall to truly serve in Christ. A shout-out of what’s needed to run the race…to win. A calling to truly prepare your hearts for the war we live in daily. Which is dismantling the faith of Christian men in creating lifeless idols of religion and programs. We must be that two-edged blade of loving, adoring children of God, people who are not afraid to show that we are noticeably a holy priesthood, who, create a holy huddle, a holy family, that creates a holy church, that creates a whole neighborhood, that creates a holy city, to create a holy state that creates a holy nation that influences the the entire world. And that all begins with YOU being obedient to His calling. Do Not stand alone. Get in a huddle, create a huddle, and be a part of His holy family. Begin to build holy relationships! There are deeper waters ahead.
What will it take for you to stop doing the same old thing…
stuck in the same old place? Join us! Join Someone!
Tauren Wells. Citizen of Heaven
