I watched a Chic Flic with my wife the other night and I have to say – The older I get the easier it is to Tear up…  Just is not right….  This is not what getting older should mean… we are to get tougher and meaner – Grumpy old Men should have been the movie we watched.
But this was a Christian Based movie and one of the main themes throughout the Drama – was people getting a second chance…   Here are a couple of insights that I was able gain from watching this tear enhancer;

1.  God meets people where they are and works there.   You are not required to better yourself before God can work in your life.   Two of the characters (one a drug addict and the other was plain mean) – God met them where they were and circumstances caused them to seek him.   The circumstances were not what we would choose to go through – but at the end a relationship was built and Christ became the center point.
2. The other part that got my attention was who God used…   There were several different types (Christians and Non-Christians) – but it made me aware that we need to stay focused on how Christ is working through us.  We may be the person God uses to help someone get a second chance and bring healing.  So we must be aware of the people around us and listen to the direction that the Spirit is giving us.   “It Takes Practice and being alert to recognize the promptings”.

There is one other area that got my attention:   I have been raised in a Christian Home and never thought that I would need a Second Chance.  This movie showed that even Devout Christians need Second Chances.  Our relationship with Christ can be enhanced to a Level that we could never experience if we are open to change and willing to go down a different path that Jesus has opened up for us to take.   Sometimes we believe that we are doing everything right and there is no need for change – but when we are in tune with the Spirit – there should be constant change.
**Recently Christ has shown me that I need a much deeper relationship with him to get through the path that he is taking me.   There have been several times that I have cried out to him to help me through what I am experiencing presently.  He has taken that Burden and I see the need for a second chance on my part to know that he is in control and will get me through.  We as Christians believe that we can do it on our own and we get comfortable in thinking this.  To fulfill what Jesus is going to work through us – we must seek him and be willing to go down the path he has given us to take.
**”We all get Second Chances”  It is what Brings Life….
Bobbyg

GMM (Gods Mighty Men) in Action – what does that actually mean – well let’s talk about it.   Pastor Shawn yesterday was talking about Jesus having compassion for the people and that required Action – not just a feeling.   This will be our fifth year for GMM and I was thinking about the Themes God has given us for each conference and they all require Action – you must be going forward.  GMM has always taught that we must being going forward in what Christ would have us do.
1^st Year:  “How Big is Your God” –  One of the talks that year was about Jonathan and his Armor Bearer and the Action he had taken in trusting in God.   Jonathan had taken Action knowing that he had a really Big God and he was not going to stay under a tree with Saul.  So he went forward and defeated the enemy – we must do the same – even if it means going forward a little recklessly (there is a song about this).  We have a Really Big God…
2^nd Year:   “Alive in Christ” – One of the main areas I looked at when this theme came out is – “Do they see Jesus in me?”…   Recently I have tweaked that into “What did Jesus Say”.
https://godsmightymen.com/2013/08/03/wwjd-or-what-did-jesus-say   when you read the word and look at what Jesus said and did – He took Action…   If we are to be Christ like – we cannot just sit there and look good – we must demonstrate what Good is…
3^rd Year:  “Driven by the Power of the Holy Spirit” –   The word Driven is Action in its self and requires that we do what the Spirit is prompting us to do.   Being in tune with the Spirit takes allot of practice and requires Obedience and there is no other way.
4^th Year:  “Activate Your Faith” – I really enjoyed this year’s Theme….  It looks different for everyone.  When I try to explain what that means to me this year – I like to use the example of when the Spirit Prompts you to do something – take Action and do it.   Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Choe – He has been prompted to bring in Christian Artists to Cheyenne to Help Christians in their Relationship with Christ.   Awesome Ministry and you will start to see a few more Christian Artists coming here because of his Passion.  **Reminder:  Matthew West and others are coming October 8^th – https://godsmightymen.com/matthew-west-in-concert – Buy your tickets now.
5^th Year:   “Radical Truth and Grace” – This will be our Theme for Next Year (2014).  This is another one that will have a different take for everyone.  When I look at this – I think of Christ all the way…   One of the Best examples I like to give is when Christ is coming up to a group of people who are about to Stone a Sinner and his response is…  To the one who has no sin – cast the first stone.  No one did…..    Christ did not come to condemn us to an eternal Death – but to love us and forgive us…   but there is Action on our part to receive this.
So today as you go Forward – Take Action and see what Christ is telling you to do and “DO IT”.
Bobbyg
 

I read this article in this morning’s News Paper and the Topic was “Consider: What did Jesus Say?” – So I started reading it. In the first paragraph the author commented on people having problems with Work – Spouses – Everyday problems and they would murmur WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) – then she stated that this does not work for her.   This is normally the time that I go onto the next Article – this has to be one of those Liberal Articles that is going to Bash Christianity.   But I kept reading.
The Article was excellent – it actually hit home with what I am dealing with at work…    The WWJD has been a tough topic for me at the Work Place – I am always looking at myself in Mirror and wondering do they see Jesus in me – even in spite of my difficulties at work.   Well the Article went on to Say that Jesus probably did not have one of those Radical People to work with or for – so most of the time we would answer “I Do not know what Jesus would do?”  Then at that point we would be put some extremely high expectations on ourselves that we could not achieve.
Here comes the better question:  “What did Jesus say?”  –  The answers are there and we may not like what he has instructed us to do.  In my case at work (which the article addressed) – Jesus has stated to Love your Neighbor as your Self – Well I am OK with that – my co-worker is not my Neighbor…   Then she went on to explain in the Article about the Good Samaritan – Our Neighbor is the Person in Front of us.         OK – I am ready to go onto the next Article in the newspaper……  The meat of the Article was right on – we do need to seek what Jesus has said and apply it to our daily walk.   I will now have to go to work on Monday with a whole new perspective on my situation with my co-worker and it will be tuff – but Obedience is required on my part if I am going to have an extreme relationship with Jesus.
The last paragraph of the Article summed it up greatly:  “In Short, Jesus put his own works into Practice.  He walked the talk – and that’s what we should do.”
        So the next time the question comes up “What Would Jesus Do?”   ask the Better Question:   “What did Jesus Say?”  and go forward in Obedience to what you have learned.
 Bobbyg
If you would like a copy of the Article you can email me and I will send you a copy 🙂 –  rogudahl@wyoming.com

Instead of the normal blog – I would like to announce some activities that are up and coming….     Cheyenne is starting to bring events and concerts in and if we would like to keep them coming – then we need to support the efforts or the hard working people who are bringing them in.
1^st Event that I would like to present is Convoy of Hope…   There is a big team behind the scenes putting this event together with several churches coming together in unity to support it.  The event will be held on August 24^th and the objective is Feed people and present the gospel – with many other activities for everyone to enjoy…   https://godsmightymen.com/convoy-of-hope – you can check out the details on this Web Site…  *I am sure they are still looking for help.
2^nd Event is a Christian Concert coming up on October 8^th..    Matthew West – a Christian Artist with some really awesome songs…   along with Side Walk Prophets and Jason Castro…   This is going to be a great Concert and tickets will go on sale August 2^nd at the Civic Center.
https://godsmightymen.com/matthew-west-in-concert
These are some great opportunities for us to support our community and support the people who are working hard to put them together.
Bobbyg —   Call me if you have any questions on either event…          307-631-1464
 
 
 
 

So people are out loud in public confessing their sins, when it gets to me I want say Pass, but a month later I was told I actually said Hi my name is Jay and I am addicted to porn (don’t ever remember saying it). Then comes the conference feeling real uneasy, but by this time the Holy Spirit has me just where He wants me, as the conference goes on I realize I cannot run or hide anymore nor do I want to, by the time the alter call comes around I can’t wait to get down there and give all to God. Well I did give it ALL to My Lord and Savior right there and He took every bit of my sin and cast it away as far as the east is from the west never for it to return.
What seemed like a life time of hiding and being ashamed has now been a New beginning. Feeling for the first time as a Christian unashamed of the Gospel. I continue to be healed, though God has taken away my sin there is still plenty of work to be down.
My encouragement for any brother in sin is to Please turn it over to the ONE TRUE HEALER JESUS CHRIST, I never thought I could or would be healed but you can, if you swallow your pride and let Christ be the center of your life. Get involved in a recovery group contact me if you need help, talk to your Pastor, someone you trust, just start the healing NOW!!
Worship is alive in me not only do I have my own concerts (just YouTube any Christian artist) and jam away.
My theme song for life has become HELLO MY NAME IS by Matthew West (who will be here in Cheyenne October 8th) the song and the story behind it is me and I am so proud that now I don’t introduce myself as Jay a porn addict, but Hello my name is Jay A CHILD OF THE ONE TRUE KING.
In Christ glorious name,
Jay C. Goldberg

Our GMM Theme this year for the Conference was “Activate Your Faith” and my Pastor (Shaun) was talking about Peter Walking on Water – it hit me – What a Way to Activate Your Faith.   Peter gives us a great example of what that means.   When they were in the Boat and the Disciples seen Jesus coming they were somewhat confused as to what was happening – Jesus tells them to “Take Courage”.  So Peter says – Lord if it is you – Tell me to come to you on the water.    Jesus says “Come”.
How many times to you suppose Jesus has said to you “Come”?  I recently made a trip to Denver for work and on my way down there, I prayed about a possibility of a door being opened to heal a broken relationship.   I have had a Big Problem at work with my co-worker in Denver for about 2 years and it has been an area of concern for me as I go forward in what Jesus would have me do.  Well the door was opened and you can say that I either stayed in the Boat or really sank to the Bottom of the Sea.
Shaun during his sermon talked a little about Jesus response to Peter when he began to sink…                   “You of Little Faith”…       How many times do we look at the Waves or the Wind of what life brings and stay in the Boat or really Sink to the Bottom.   We must remember that Jesus is there to pull us up again when we blow the opportunity (So maybe I will get a second chance and not blow it).  Something else that Shaun stated – Having a Little Faith can move Mountains… so it is not a bad thing to have a Little Faith…   Remember 11 of the Disciples stayed in the Boat.  It is only through Jesus that our Faith becomes Bigger….
There is a great Book that I read a while back “If you want to walk on Water – You’ve got to get out of the Boat” by John Ortberg..   This is a great read…     but it reminded me of an article in The Newspaper on Sunday about Life in the Middle Ages and towards the last part of it – it talked about 2 types of People.  Ones that are very nice – but you can not expect any surprises from them.  Then there are the other types who may be considered unstable but are far from it.  These are the Peter’s in life that are going forward and practicing their Faith….   To “Activate Your Faith” – it takes allot of Practice and Obedience when Jesus says “Come”.  If we are to be Alive, Young and Excited in our Faith we must take on these 2 attributes..  “Faith must be Excercised…”
**So guys – do as Peter did and get out of the Boat!!!
 Bobbyg
 

I really enjoy watching Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson just wrote a book called Happy Happy Happy.   The Robertson’s have become come extremely popular recently and I do not believe it is because of their show – which will make you smile.  This family has been talking to anyone they can about their relationship with Christ and at times when the Network will allow them – you will hear about it on the show.  But Phil’s book about being Happy is what I would like to comment on in this Blog.  How many of us Really enjoy Jesus and our Relationship with him.  If we had the Relationship with Christ as would should then we would be Happy Happy Happy.
My Pastor Bob is retiring and I went to our Men’s retreat to hear him for his final chapter of speaking as an Official Pastor.  One of the Topics was ‘Glorifying God and Enjoying him forever” – (Great message) – Now How do we enjoy Jesus?  As Bob was talking about – Glorifying God is the way to Happiness in Jesus Christ.
As the saying Goes – “Do they see Jesus in Us?”  –  If they did they would see a Happy Person.   As I was pondering this – How do we do that in our daily lives?
Family:  As Christ would do – we would be a servant and love our family as Christ Loved the Church.  One of my best days is when I can do stuff for my Family that will help them accomplish their Happiness.  As Bob Stated – Humility is one of the Greatest things we can do to Glorify Christ.
Church:  This is an Area where we can look at utilizing our Gifts that God has given us –  we need to be looking at areas where we can make things better and enhance others relationships with Christ.   Going back to serving…… **Remember our Greatest Commandment is to Love our God with all our Heart – and this should show in the Church.
Work:  As in some of my Previous Blogs – this is a hard area for me at the Present time – but it is one of the most important areas of Evangelism.  People should see the Happiness in me and want to know how they can get this.  It comes back to “Do they see Jesus in Me?” –  They must if we are to be effective in what Christ would have us do at work.  You know a Great day at work is when I can tell someone about Christ Love…..
**One of the key factors of enjoying Christ and being Happy in our Relationship with him is Obedience.  When we work at pleasing Christ and start enjoying his rewards then we become “Happy Happy Happy”.
Bobbyg
“Activate Your Faith” TODAY

Luke 10:27  –   ²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’^[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b]”

 
 

Now that we have established my sin, let resend to when God really started to make it clear he wanted me to deal with it on His terms and not on my own. I had just switched churches and though I knew quit a few people I just wanted to be that fly on the wall. You know the type, go in sit in the far back closest to the door, worship hear the message (yeah right) then leave and no one will know I even exist, it’s worked before – stick with what works, right. Well God had other plans, as I was doing my thing I was blindsided where as I was really starting to enjoy this new church, need to admit God will always have His way with me even when I try to resist. So plan A failed, go to plan B DO NOT GET INVOLVED, that will mean you have to let down your guard. So as the summer hit they start to announce we need help in ministries, rats caught again this has always been my weakness, serving. So now plan A gone B gone sorry I’m not that smart to have a plan C. Never got this far. So I just went with it – serving and enjoying all aspects of service, but no one knows the true me.
Winter 2013 New series called Hurts, Habits & Hang-ups, it dealt with all the garbage we deal with in life that we never want to deal with – must be honest this was the longest 8 weeks I ever sat through. That was the start of the Lord using His plan on me. Well that was nice but don’t think I’m changing anything.
Now that that was over I can still be me, right, wrong 2 months after the above mentioned series I am approached to help out with new Ministry called Celebrate Recovery, remember can’t say NO to serving. No big deal I can clean up after everyone. That’s what I said to self. Back track what is Celebrate Recovery well we all have heard of AA, on the same lines but with a huge twist where as AA does a good job helping people recover, CR adds the element of a Christ based recovery program.
So there I was learning not paying much attention and starting to feel very uneasy this night. Well good worship nice message (in my head I was like Time to get out of here), so we leave the sanctuary to break in to small groups men with men women with women. I am like now what do I do this is not for me, but I can leave cause I promised to help clean up, so we are sitting around the tables telling everyone are hurt, habit or hang-up and it’s coming around to me I am saying to myself what in the world have I gotten myself into. I then realize it’s not me but God had this all planned out over a year ago.
End Part ll  –   More to come
JG
 
 

It all started back in October of 2012, when we as a board were trying to come up with a theme for the conference, well I got word that some people wanted to hit some very touchy subjects, you know the ones which are never discussed and certainly not in any type of a church setting. I started calling other members of the board to protest my thoughts, after talking to a few I was reminded it was just a thought and we will not be discussing these matters. Good, I said to myself and anyone who would listen. Three months later we are sitting having another meeting next thing I know we are voting on the same subject we said no to in October. Now my reaction was what the heck is going on. We don’t talk about pornography in a public setting and not at our conference.
Well, I started praying for this conference and the subject matter, not happy at all. God reminded me that it is not about Me, but for His Glory. OK, I can live with it. Awesome 3rd Day Concert I am all pumped for Saturday.
Day of the conference rolls around and I am feeling great new venue new worship team all new beginnings. Then GOD again reminds me Why are you here doing My work, you pray for Me to show up and you don’t want to deal with your own problems. This is at 5 in the morning, 3 hours before the doors open, too late to call and not show up people are counting on me to be there and do whatever it takes to get done.
Get to the Civic Center start to set up again nobody really knows me and my sins – just me and God when I let Him in plus I never told anyone about my one sided talk with God so no one will ever know (until now).
Conference kicks off everything is going great I am staying busy making sure to stay away from the main speakers (keep on hiding no one knows). Then all of a sudden I am asked to help set up the stage for the round table talk, who me I surely can find some else – anyone else but me.
Let say this you may have guessed it but this guy has a porn problem and the last thing I wanted is to have this subject brought up in a Christian setting, NO Lord anything but this, again who am I to tell God what to do.
End of part 1 – More to come………
JG
 
 

I have been doing allot of Pondering lately (just ask my wife) and one topic has been coming to the top of my head.        How do I go forward?        It has been 2 months since the GMM Conference and our Topic of                “Activate Your Faith”    has been in my thoughts….     How am I going to do this?               Well three names came to mind –   Jonathan from the Old Testament   –   Peter from the New Testament –   and Jeremy Camp in the presence.     Here are my thoughts on each one before I put them together…
Jonathan and His Armor Bearer:                 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+14&version=NIV\
Pastor Jeff did a talk on Jonathan at our first GMM Conference and it was a Powerful one.   He had stated that we cannot sit under the Tree with Saul and do nothing.   We have to go forward as Jonathan did – even if it means going forward with uncertainty – but going forward in knowing of God’s promises.   There is one important item in this story – there were 2 men going forward together – Jonathan and the armor bearer (who was protecting Jonathans back).    As men – we have different gifts – but no matter what your gift is – we must go forward together.  As you know the rest of the story – God was with Jonathan and he succeeded in conquering the Philistines.
Peter Walking on Water:    http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+14%3A22-33&version=NIV
I did a study on a book about Peter:  “If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat” – it was a great study in taking that first step of Faith and going to Jesus.   But as the book stated – so many of us choose to stay in the Boat and do not take that first step of Faith.  As we do take that first step – -like Peter we will probably lose our grip on what we are actually doing – but Jesus will pull us up again and again.   But like Peter – we have to keep on going forward and learn from are failures to accomplish what Christ has in store for us.
Reckless – by Jeremy Camp:     http://www.songlyrics.com/jeremy-camp/reckless-lyrics
I listened to a description of why Jeremy wrote this song on KLove one day.  This is my brief version of what I got from it.   So many times when God is asking us to go forward and accomplish what he would have us do – we stop and weigh out what the consequences might be.   Most of the time when we weigh out what might happen – it keeps us from doing what God wants us to do.   Please click on the link and read the Lyrics of Jeremy’s song.   It takes practice to be Obedient and there are times that we will be persecuted and we will fail.  That must not keep us from doing God’s will and we may have to be a little Reckless in going forward no matter what the consequence may be.
OK – are you starting to see the comparison of these three men…   Since the beginning of time – we have all had to choose to go forward in Faith to accomplish what God has in store of us.  If we set back and do nothing – then he cannot accomplish what he wants for us.    My pondering lately has been about where God is taking my wife and me.   We have made some major choices recently in which direction of where God would have us be.   Through it all I am still not sure what that may be – but I have learned that I must go forward to see where it will take me.   The most important thing that I have learned is:  “God really wants to know if we are willing to give him all of us – before he can work through us”.
 
Bobbyg                                              “Activate Your Faith”