the encounter

Struggling with anger, resentment, frustration, emptiness, and broken relationships?  Not seeing others influenced by what you thought was Good News from you?  Finding that your approaches to making others feel guilty and reminding them of “the rules” to follow God not working?

Just as guilt, shame, condemnation, and rule-keeping only end in lifeless pool of frustration for ourselves; Scripture reveals they don’t work for helping others change either.

Unless genuine desire is ignited in the heart of another person to seek after God, any other efforts through pressure, laws, and rules fall flat.  There is only one way for desire to be ignited in another person’s heart – through grace.

To show that grace our hearts have to be resurrected and filled with a new kind of desire and love.  That resurrected love has the power to infuse life and desire into others.  It also has the power to free me from the pressure to have to make others conform and obey when I say.

The power of the resurrection is far greater a power than any of us have ever tapped into or understood.  In this series at encounter we cry out with the apostle Paul when he said, “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection!”

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Where do your definitions and experiences of love come from? The ways you have seen and experienced love will determine how you show it to others. You can only give to others what you have first experienced. For most people, their understanding of love has come from parents, family, friends, or media. As good as any of these may have been, they are all flawed at some point. None of them were perfect. They all had their weak points of inconsistency, unfaithfulness, impatience, being unforgiving, and selfish.

If they are the only ways you have experienced love, then your experiences in showing love to others will look much the same.

Love, however is something much greater than the best people in our life ever expressed to us. At its origin, it is patient, forgiving, understanding, faithful, merciful, gentle, never gives up, and is available even when I am undeserving of it.

Its that kind of love we long for. Its that kind of love we dream of. But just because we’ve never seen or experienced it, doesn’t mean that it does not exist. That kind of love is available – it flows from the heart of God. When I genuinely accept it without resistant and refusal, that kind of love changes me.

When I realize I can’t earn it, never will deserve it, quit trying to pay it back, and humbly allow myself to be loved by God, it causes my heart to be reborn. It causes me to be different. It changes how I see life. It changes love others. Then I have a new definition and experience of love. How much of this love have you allowed yourself to receive?

You can only give to others what you have first received.

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Dear Encounter Loved Ones,

On Friday, we were informed of the tragic death of John Corpany. John was a proud father of two young boys, a give year old and a 15 month old and the loving husband to Jaimie who is also 6 months pregnant with a girl. She is due to enter this world in late August/early September.

Upon visiting with Jamie today, we learned of some of the greater needs she has now. John did not have life insurance and he was the sole provider in their home. Please review the list below, any help you could provide would be extremely appreciated.

1. Baby/Toddler needs:
a. Diapers – Gabriel currently wears a size 4 diaper
b. Wipes, etc
2. General Household items:
a. Toilet Paper
b. Paper Towels
c. Laundry Detergent (Dreft only please)
3. Rent – June rent has not been paid yet. She will pick up John’s final check next week. After that check, there isn’t any other income. She will apply for SSA Benefits for the children, but as we ALL know, it takes quite a long time to go through the application process to receive benefits.
4. Utilities – Again, John was the sole provider for all of their expenses.
5. Vehicle – John was driving the only vehicle they owned. The vehicle was financed, therefore the insurance will cover the payoff, but won’t provide another vehicle. She needs to be able to get back and forth to the doctor, take Ian to school, etc. If anyone has a vehicle they want to sell or donate, please contact us as soon as possible.
6. Funds for burial service needs

Are you ready to extend your hand with grace, love and mercy? We have an Encounter family who has experienced a great loss and is in need of our help. What better way to show God’s undying grace, love and mercy than to embrace those who are hurting, help them through the storm and lift them up with unceasing prayer?

Please contact Brian Treadaway or Lisa Mederos if you will help love on Jaimie and her children. As always, please lift up Jaimie, Ian and Gabriel in your prayers. Please pray for Jaimie’s family as they will be traveling from out of town to be at her side during this time.

DONATE to the JAMIE CORPANY FAMILY FUND:

You can also donate to a special fund set up at SAGU as well.

Send your donation to:
SAGU Cashier
1200 Sycamore
Waxahachie, TX 75165

Note on payment “For Corpany Family Benevolence Fund”

If donors wish to pay via debit or credit card, please call Nancy at SAGU (972)825-4561.

Or you can make a payment in person by visiting the cashier in SAGU’s Davis Building.

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Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken…. – Rich Mullins

Where have you seen Jesus lately?

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“Community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives.” – Henri Nouwen

There are times when community gets tough. When jumping out of the (fellow)ship seems way easier than sticking it out. But when we abandon ship because it holds people we don’t like, we also abandon community.

“Community has little to do with mutual compatibility. Similarities in educational background, psychological make-up, or social status can bring us together, but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together and not to the attractiveness of people to each other. There are many groups that have been formed to protect their own interests, to defend their own status, or to promote their own causes, but none of these is a Christian community. Instead of breaking through the walls of fear and creating new space for God, they close themselves to real or imaginary intruders. The mystery of community is precisely that it embraces all people, whatever their individual differences may be and allows them to live together as brothers and sisters of Christ and sons and daughters of his heavenly Father.” – Nouwen

It’s easy to build community when everyone looks like you, talks like you and believes the same things as you — but is that really the type of community we’ve been called to be a part of?

How have you struggled with these barriers? How have you overcome them?

“Love means loving the unlovable – or it is no virtue at all.” – GK Chesterton

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