What can I say about these days? The rains have come to CIncinnati and so far, I like it... I've owned this leather cowboy/indiana jones-style hat for over a decade and, like, I never wear it 'cos I'm embarrassed to... But the day before yesterday I got it down and mink oiled it up and today I wore it out to Starbucks for Bible Study. It didn't rain, so I felt kinda sheepish. Plus, it leaves a funny red "ring" on my head... You see, I started shaving my head this week because I'm just tired of messin' with it and it's so CLEAN! So i don't get hat hair. i get hat head. Looks like I had a lobotomy or my brain got replaced... So, I try to choose "low impact" hats, with soft bands... But there's no avoiding it... So, after ten years, I'm hatted in leather cowboy style...



Do you think that's related to the fact that I sang a johnny cash song at GCF, last week?



I think most of the Work of the Spirit in this group has been internal journey for the last year or so... Our little huddle of souls has come to include incredible testimonies and foe-vanquishing faith. There has been no sense of "outreach", only a sense of desire for the Spirit to come and teach us to love...





Jn 17:20 "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me



That the world would recognize Him when WE have unity like His with the Father. THis is huge, as we (the grubbykupp crew) press in to know Him and find, of all things, EACH OTHER, there before the throne...



The very same ones who let us down and disappoint our souls in daily life (not major betrayal of sin, just the simmering pot of inadequacy and limitedness), are worshipping there... profaning the Presence!



This is the scandal that we're overcoming in Christ--that he has once again enfleshed himself, by the Spirit being in "one another"... treating one another like a temple.



At the house, we're gearing up for activity as resources become available. There is a stove on the line that we'll pick up this weekend, it looks like. There's the question of building an island in the kitchen for the stove to be in, as well as tearing out carpet, refinishing the first floor oak floors, repairing the pocket door tracks, painting everything, cabinets, counters, shelves, dehumidifying and organizing the basement for resource storage, getting the Rosses moved in on the 2nd floor better, setting up the office (thank you God for the copier), and the like...



So there's a bit of outward journey arising. The challenge in my heart is to do it all in the Love, joy, peace, patience... of the Spirit...



If there's gonna be dischord and anger, bickering and fighting, we'd better just shut it down...



but we won't have to, because He is able to make us One. One Body, One Spirit, One Hope, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God...One God...



Pax Cristi cum spiritis vobis

May the peace of Christ be with your spirits