We hear it a lot, “It ain’t all about you!” We hear that it’s all about God and Jesus and His great epic story and making His name famous in the nations. My son, Chase, attended PASSION 2010 in Atlanta and their vision posted on their website reads:

“At the heart of it all, Passion exists to see a generation stake their lives on what matters most. For us, that is the fame of the One who rescues and restores, and our opportunity to amplify His name in everything we do…we are convinced more than ever that God is raising up a generation all around the globe that is passionate about making their lives count for His fame. Passion Twenty Ten is another step in a journey that is all about finding true meaning as we take our places in a story that is so much bigger than ourselves. It’s about trading in small dreams for a role in a grand epic that is shaping history and has no end.”

Now I don’t doubt that being born chronically self-consumed we quickly put ourselves and our own needs in the forefront of the expectations we place on our circumstances and on other people. Hey, we want what we want when we want it and we think we know what we want. We’re all about numero uno. I get that! But what is it that God is after? Who is He rescuing and restoring? Who is He raising up to glorify Himself? Who is He continually convincing that His story is the great Novel in which our chapters build His grand plot; that being caught up in telling HIStory is the great satisfier of our souls? Well, I believe it’s little ol’ ME and YOU! From God’s perspective, it IS all about you!

God created us in His image for a love relationship. From creation to redemption to the great wedding feast of heaven, He’s all about us! He is about our being free to be ourselves the way He intended from the beginning. Free from addictions and delivered from the grievous affects of molestation and all sorts of immorality, of depression and of other chronic self-consuming mental slavery. He wants us cleansed from the dirt that has ruined the virgin snow (Psalm 51:7; Isaiah 1:18). He wants us to come home (Luke 15:20) He wants to live in us! John 14:23: Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” He wants us alive!

We see this in our kids…especially teens! (As of this month, we now have 3!) They think it’s all about them. It erks me when I see the pursed eyebrows and hear the smack of entitlement. “We don’t owe you anything,” Kelli and I remind them. Yet we spend most of our energy providing, guiding, loving, correcting, parenting THEM! So much of what we do IS about them. And in doing these things, we also receive our benefit: a satisfaction that they are prepared for life, encouraged, “loved-up,” equipped.

Satisfaction, meaning, significance, value, purpose, all these are realized through relationship! This is what it’s all about. God pursuing us and us responding with a sweet surrender that completes us. We get lost within ourselves, but are found in Him! If it IS all about us apart from God, we will never find these things. No spouse, child or personal pursuit can take His place. We find ourselves ONLY when we find ourselves in Christ! The Father IS all about YOU. You can only see this when you’re all about Him.

“Ministry Update”

Discipleship-Counsel Sessions in October: InYou: 4; Homes for Life: 5; New Life BC: 0; Anderson Mill Road BC: 1; Grace Pointe: 0.

Web Radio Show: Listen to Scott LIVE each Monday @ 9:03 pm EST on www.talkshoe.com.LISTEN 24/7 www.gracewalk.org (click GW Radio) “Just Speak Life” Mission Experience Journal and wristbands! JSL t-shirt ($15); JSL M.E. Journal ($5), JSL wristband ($1). All 3: $17.95!NEW “Brand New Me” discipleship materials are $5 for 3-booket set.

NEW “I Have Overcome” discipleship materials COMING SOON!

Men’s Discipleship meets each Friday at Bethlehem BC, 10:30 am.

“Tuned In” Parents of Teens meets twice monthly @ 6:00 pm @ Hope Point Church.Dec. 2-3–Taste of Christmas Prison Dinner for Tyger River Correctional was another huge success. 150 inmates were served through the giving, preparing and serving of 17 fried turkeys, 70 lbs. potatoes, 40 lbs. corn, 40 lbs. green beans, dressing, mac-n-cheese, cranberry sauce, gravy, salad, desserts and tea by Hope Point members! Kyle Conners from Homes for Life shared his testimony as imates were exhorted to accept help, submit your will, and follow instructions.

Jan. 23, ‘10–1^st Annual InYou Indoor Trichotomous Triathlon! Pray for sponsors and participants (10 min. swim, 20 min. bike, 15 min. run.) Great Escapes is donating odometers and our ortho Gary Horvath, Hope Point, Academy Sports, His Way at Work (Scott Gajewsky), So.BBQ, Moroz Elect., Chase Wolfe, and 2RMore are sponsoring so far.

Feb. 5-7, 2010–4^th Annual InYou Men’s Retreat. Lake Conroe, TX.

December started with a bang with a big turkey fry at the house. We enjoyed the Homes for Life boys and friends from church who helped prepare food for prisoners. Chase performed well in a couple school and church plays and has also been offered a small scholarship for running at Wofford. He also ran 2.4 miles with a football thru downtown Greenville, shirtless and police-escorted in 36 degree weather toward the Shrine Bowl in Spart. He also totaled his 2^nd car L but he and Carson were safe. Carson got a 94 Chevy truck for Christmas and plans to fix it up. He is still battling poison ivy (8 months now)! Cooper got the lead role as JoJo in Suessical at Spart. Theatre coming up in March. Scott qualified for the 2011 Boston Marathon by 74 seconds at Kiawah Island marathon (3:28:46) on Dec. 12, and the family enjoyed Charleston and the beach villa. We have also enjoyed time with family in Columbia (Scott’s G-Ma turned 101) over the holidays and Kelli’s sisters came in from TX and AR this year for Christmas! The boys have been a big help to Scott painting during the break.

Do you ever feel that way? Glad someone came to visit, to share a gift or a word or a deed that just lifted you, met a need and inspired you to do the same for someone else? My brother-in-law did that for me this Christmas. After four years of frustration with internet access in our home, he took me to Best Buy and bought a wireless router that actually works. By that evening our kitchen island bar looked like a Starbucks with four laptops wirelessly connected and cousins enjoying picts and Facebook and surfing the web.He also went with me to Academy Sports and came out with new pool balls for the pool table someone in our church gave us. I didn’t expect it, didn’t ask for it, planned to buy them myself, but before I could find them, he was at the counter with them checking out. And the conversations we had over three days reminded me that we are here on earth for more than ourselves. We are tools of God, uniquely fashioned to cultivate the hearts of people and plant the seed of truth by all means possible. My vision was rekindled, passion restored, resolve deepened and conviction recovered. I’m so glad he came!Then a young man coming out of a homosexual lifestyle sent me a Christmas card that reminded me why God came to earth. He came for me and for you. He came to visit, to share a gift and a word and a deed that lifts us out of ourselves, and He came to meet a desperate need we couldn’t meet in ourselves and to inspire us to do the same for others…that is, share of His great deed! The card reminded me that we need Someone so much bigger than ourselves to reach in and pull us out of ourselves. That Jesus would disrobe and enter into my world reminds me again that we are here on earth for more than ourselves. I’m so glad He came!

And others come as well. One’s in need, searching, missing the boat, embittered, discouraged, self-consumed! They come because we are light in their dark world. They are searching for hope, but cannot see past their own misdeeds. They need a gift or a word or a deed that will lift them out of themselves and God has chosen us to deliver unto them His Son. Just Jesus. The only One who can meet their deepest need, give them a brand new life and inspire them to offer the same for others. He is the Word made flesh who speaks the heavenly “I love you!” in a demonstration of selflessness that satisfies the wrath of God against sin, breaks the curse of the Law and the chains of death, renders the Prince of Darkness powerless and makes the captive free.

More needs will come this year. More frustrations with relationships and jobs and things that break down. We will feel afresh our neediness and be tempted once again to look to our own resources for the solutions. We’ll feel empty again. But let these times be a reminder that we are broken and needy and that we cannot fix ourselves. Remember this is why He came. He is everything we are not! He sees our needs and has the resources to meet them in ways we do not expect, with things we don’t even ask for, and at times when we planned to do it ourselves. I am SO glad He came!