Thursday, December 31, 2015

Discover Life: Exciting Update!!!

Discover Life: Exciting Update!!!:

Hey everybody! I just wanted to give you something to be excited about as we bring in the New Year! I released our end of year update a couple of days ago and asked for you to join me in praying for Rob, a new inductee who was accepted into the discipleship ministry. He knew some things about the Bible but had never accepted, confessed, or even considered the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I am ok with that ... in fact, as far as discipling goes, I am excited about it. I've met a lot of guys who think they are Christians, but only serve themselves as lord ... and it is hard to get them to see it. This guy knows he is not a Christian but, after trying everything else, was willing to listen and decide for himself. After almost two weeks of time well spent, he decided tonight, while enjoying some laughs at my house after dinner (Michael Jr - The Man With a Limp ...) that he needed to surrender.

We went into the sanctuary (next door) and talked through some things ... and ... well ... all of heaven is rejoicing. It doesn't take coercion! If it worked, I would do it all of the time ... but it doesn't take that ... neither does it take well thought out speeches or sermons ... but it does take prayer! If you prayed for this man, I thank you. I ask that you would continue to pray. Pray that his heart remains soft as the process of sanctification and transformation continues!

God is faithful! Prayer works! Happy New Year!!!

Monday, December 28, 2015

Discover Life: Wrapping Up 2015! Looking Forward to 2016! Should You Check That Again?

Discover Life: Wrapping Up 2015! Looking Forward to 2016! 

Woohoo!!! 2015 is in the books! What a wonderful year! We had near twenty men come through our doors here at Discover Life. We have seen some impressive break through, healing, and freedom. It is a blessing to be a part of discipling God's wounded people.  We had several decisions to follow Christ, even in baptism! We experienced the thrill of seeing people find healing and freedom from past pains, addictions, failures, and wounds! It hasn't been perfect, but God's perfect love has been prevalent!  Please pray for Rob, a man who joined the ministry up here a week ago. Please pray that God will be intrusive ... that His light will penetrate ... and that Rob will respond to the love of God in Christ Jesus and repent!



Monday, November 30, 2015

Discover Life: Wrapping Up November 2015: You're Holding That Wro...

Discover Life: Wrapping Up November 2015: You're Holding That Wrong...:



I do appreciate the opportunity to share month after month what God is doing here at Discover Life. God has been so good. We, as a church, pray consistently for God's wisdom to reach the lost, strengthen the weak, support the hurting and wounded in their healing and recovery, and equip and encourage those who are ready; thoroughly equipping them for every good work (or at least we should). Many fellowships just don't have the resources to meet all of the needs of their congregations specifically in the area of intimate, intensive and intentional discipleship at the personal level. Here at Discover Life, we get to be a part of God's meeting of that need. I am convinced that we can serve the collective church as a tool for that purpose.



Sunday, November 1, 2015

Wrapping Up October 2015: I Think You're Missing Something

One of our trucks was rusting through the cab and desperately need to be repaired before the damage was irreversible. Since I consider myself to be a decent shade-tree mechanic/body guy, I took it upon myself to fix the damage and reseal the truck. I am not sure why they don't just fiberglass everything with all of the salt and corrosion. My strategy was to grind down all of the rust-contaminated areas using a grinder brush, treat the remaining surface rust, then fiberglass the bottom of the truck (all of it up 6 inches on the door, and finally cover the fiberglass with truck bed liner. I expected all of this to take about 2 weeks.  In Louisiana, I would have been successful. You have about 12 minutes to use fiberglass before it cures, so you only use a little at a time and just kind of work your way around the truck. I expected to go through a few cheap brushes (they are destroyed by the hardening fiberglass). I had all of the pieces of the plan together and in place. I had prepared for contingencies. I had all of my materials ready. With this level of preparation and my experience and skill set, what could go wrong?

It started bad. As I began to work on this golf-ball sized hole, the entire sub-surface began to fall apart. The paint was truly holding it together.  My golf-ball sized hole grew to the size of a parking garage. Both sides were falling apart all the way up the doors behind the wheel and door trims.  No problem, I had plenty of bondo, fiberglass, and plenty of the matting.  I was grateful to discover it and to be able to treat it before the winter got it. I am confident it would have been beyond any help with one more winter.

I made the decision to do a complete strip and just fiberglass everything.  As I began to work with the fiberglass, I noticed it wasn't tacking up. I mixed the hardener catalyst properly ... it just wasn't hardening. I at first thought that, due to the cold weather, it just took longer, so I continued to fiberglass the rest of the truck. I was actually pleased that I was able to use one brush and not destroy so many.  I had expected to be able to come back after lunch and apply the bed liner.  When I came back from lunch, it was all still very wet. I figured I would come back the next day and finish it all still way ahead of schedule. A week, later, it was still as if I had just applied it ... wet and totally unworkable. I was stuck and behind schedule ... so I began to ask the experts because obviously I had just been removed from that category. Guess what I discovered.

Did you know that fiberglass doesn't cure when applying it in temperatures under 60 degrees? I didn't know that. But now I do. I can take from days to weeks to cure ... it will cure, but in needs something ... it needs HEAT!!! I hooked up a space heater and employed the use of a heat gun on low heat with high air volume and wouldn't you know!?! As I carefully focused the heat on the fiberglass resin, I could see it hardening. I watched it cure! Wow!!

So what's the point? Let it sink in. I had all of the pieces in place. I had all of the skills, materials, plans, processes, etc ... but I was missing heat. Isn't that our lives. We have all of the things we can control in place for the plan to work and it doesn't because it's missing the one substance that is not natural to us or it ... so we can do all of the things correctly, have the discipline to do all things right and with excellence, and they still don't work out.

Have you ever obeyed God to the minute detail and the thing didn't work out? That's hard to deal with isn't it? Have you ever stepped out using a solid and well laid out plan that just didn't work out? That's hard to deal with isn't it? We question God's faithfulness. We question whether or not we can actually hear His voice. We question our commitment to Him and His commitment to us! Yet in all of these things we must remember that somethings just don't work out because they are missing something we are not responsible to provide! In those cases, the assessment of success must be on the grounds of obedience and not on results! Did you obey God and do what He asked? Then you are successful. Remember, as with King Asa, just because you get the results you want does not mean that God is behind it either. In all things, we must remember this key verse:

"Unless the Lord builds the house, they that labor do so in vain." (Psalms 127:1)

Heat can be a killer ... it can be destructive. It is merely a chemical reaction ... a transfer of energy - atomic collisions. We ask God to do a thing. We make the arrangements. We go through the preparations. We may even go to a few seminars. But when conflict comes we go through tirades to avoid it. Yet it may be that very conflict that God is bringing to serve as the missing ingredient that will cause all of the other parts to work.

The Bible speaks of love the same way (John 13:34-35; 1 Corinthians 13; 1 John 4). "Let me get this straight! I can do all things necessary but, without love, none of it will matter?" Yes! That's exactly what it says. Jesus says (paraphrased) that I can perform the greatest miracles, most powerful services, etc ... but if I don't have an obvious and noticeable love for others, my discipleship is void and invisible ... therefore they can't see Him working through me ... therefore through me they can't see Him. That's something to think about!

When we move to obey the leading of the Lord we must get out of our head the thought or predictions of what that success will look like, or else we will adjust all that we do to cater to that thought. Instead, we must be content with assessing our success based on the merits of pure obedience. If He provides the ingredients we can't, the thing will work. But if in His perfect design He has decided that failure is the needed thing, we have to be ok with that ... even ready for it.

I can tell you, that when working on another man's truck who needs it back, who can't just go buy a new one, who has entrusted me with his valuable possession with the idea that I was going to make it better, and I can't either make it work or replace it ... that finding contentment is easier than it sounds ... and thank goodness for a heat gun.  But I have seen plans in Christ fail ... and have seen Him right behind it all ... He always is ... and the result of the thing, whether success or failure, is always survivable and contentment is always attainable throughout the process.

Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus.

That's my take anyways, thanks for reading!!!

Friday, October 2, 2015

Discover Life: Wrapping Up September of 2015: There are Rocks in ...

Discover Life: Wrapping Up September of 2015:

Discipleship is messy. It just is.  This month we saw truth come to light in the lives of some of the guys up here, and it wasn't pretty.  I wish I could tell you that what we are doing is 100% effective, but God expects me to tell the truth ... so ... but I can tell you that what we are doing here is 100% Biblical, and so are the results.  He promises that what is stated in the shadows will be screamed from the rooftops, that all things hidden will be come known (Matthew 10:26; Mark 4:22; Luke 8:17). Up here we say, "the bubbles will rise."

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Discover Life: Wrapping Up August 2015: Don't Feed The Horses!

Discover Life: Wrapping Up August 2015: Don't Feed The Horses!:

Well folks, it's been a year since we left Louisiana and arrived here in upstate NY.  We left on August 13th and arrived August 16th ... and it has been an adventure with twists and turns since our boots hit the ground. Allow my to provide a simple bullet - form recap.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Discover Life: Wrapping Up June/July 2015: Plan Your Garden!

Discover Life: Wrapping Up June/July 2015: Plan Your Garden!:

Where does the time go?  June felt like it was only 10 days long and it was mid July before I realized it!  There is so much to do around here during the warm months to prepare for the long winters that we could easily fill every sunlit moment of every day with work and still have things left undone. Yet we press ourselves to keep the task of making sure that the people ministered through Discover Life are "thoroughly prepared for every good work."  This means that we have to continually view the person as the focus of the ministry, and not as a resource for getting ministry done.  These two months we saw some good transition within some of the men who have come to a place in their transformation where they need real world environments to properly apply what they've learned and what they must continue to learn in their discipleship.  Transition is part of the nature of this type of discipleship, and this month we said farewell to Justin as he moves forward with his life in his walk and welcomed Ken into the ministry here.  I ask that you pray for both.



Monday, May 4, 2015

Lessons From The Saw Mill: The Beatitude and Exodus teachings are live and on...

Lessons From The Saw Mill: The Beatitude and Exodus teachings are live and online...:


As promised, you can listen in on a great week of Biblical teachings on both the Exodus of Israel and also a detailed explanation of the Beatitudes by Bible teacher Drew Crowell.

Just visit our website at http://discoverlifeministry.com/lessons-from-the-saw-mill.htmland enjoy your learning!!!

These teaching would make great for personal, home group, and church studies. I encourage you to make good use of them!

Friday, May 1, 2015

Discover Life: Wrapping Up April 2015 - Who Muddied The Waters??

Discover Life: Wrapping Up April 2015 - Who Muddied The Waters??: What a month!!!  April was a fast and exciting 30 days.  I don't know where to begin.

Please the click the link above to follow along ... thanks for keeping up with us!

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Lessons From The Saw Mill: March 2015 in the Books ... April in the Sights .....

Follow the link to the source site or read the text below!!! Lessons From The Saw Mill: March 2015 in the Books ... April in the Sights .....:



Ahhh ... the last day of March ended with some expected (though thought by certain weather authorities unexpected) snow up here in Prattsville, NY.  It has been a beautiful winter and, though according to the calendar it should be spring, you wouldn't just know it yet here.



Wednesday, February 11, 2015

What Have We Been Up To??? Update on Discover Life

Hey!!  Where did you go?  Is the QnA over???

I can assure you the QnA is not over ... but we have been very busy in the transition from LA to NY and the start of Discover Life.  We are so excited about what God is doing with Discover Life and request you consider keeping up to date with us.

Click on the link to see our first post: http://dlifeministry.blogspot.com/2015/02/discover-life-newsletter-is-up.html

To get an idea of what Discover Life is about, click here!

With a specific goal of our ministry to avoid competition with other ministries already in operation, we have sharpened Discover Life to serve specific needs that other ministries don't necessarily focus on ... or have the resources to.  Let us know if we can be of service to those you serve.  We currently have men from Colorado, New Jersey, and New York - but have considered men from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Canada.  We serve the church from Sea to Sea and Gulf to Great Lakes.

Allow us to help you.

Patrick Hazard (The HAZ)
www.patrickhazard.com
www.askthehaz.com
www.discoverlifeministry.com
www.hctconline.org