Mark Marshall

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Divine Purpose , Kingdom Community , Personal Growth

Am I Friend Enough 2…

I have contemplated and mulled over this thought for a couple of years. This idea of becoming and being a friend is pretty special these days in the world we live in today. The definition according to the online free dictionary is:
FRIEND

1. A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
2. A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.
3. A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
4. One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement:
I guess I’m older now and really assessing the value of true friendships. I remember hearing a message by my pastor some 30 years ago, still ringing in my spirit; “You can’t love someone fully and truthfully unless you love what they love!” What a statement, and in the same breath he said, “You can’t save someone at a distance, you must get close.”
And when you think about it our great friendships have been stained with religious ideologies, that don’t really serve anyone. People are more interested in ‘their thing, their faith, their stuff, etc.’ I fear our friendships have been distorted because there are some if not most that actually think ‘Principles are more important than people’. I do not or ever will but into the idea that your belief and doctrine is more important than people, I am pretty confident in saying that Jesus lived that model over and over.
What Jesus really did in His short time was to show people how important they are to the Kingdom. NOT STUFF. One of the last great revelations He spoke to His tribe was the fact that He saw them as friends. If we would learn to truly love and quit projecting a great something beyond the next hill, we probably would find the garden that we are all looking for.  Beloved there is no higher form of connected Kingdom life outside of friendship. It is truly your gift to humanity. Jesus was actually friend of sinners. He was able to live out the ‘Love the sinner / hate the sin’ because He was a friend first.
Word History: The relationship between Latin amīcus, “friend,” and amō, “I love,” is clear, as is the relationshipbetween Greek philos, “friend,” and phileō, “I love.” In English, though, we have to go back a millennium before we see the verb that we can easily connect to friend. Frēond, the Old English source of Modern English friend, is related to the Old English verb frēon, “to love, like, honor, set free (from slavery or confinement).” Specifically, frēond comes from the present participle of the Germanic ancestor of Old English frēon and thus originally meant “one who loves.” 
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
I love here how the term friend and love are so closely related. I fear that in our culture today that has been tainted and lost in translation. I mean with social media we have now learned how to be a friend without the commitment and love that is necessary to be said friend. I have like 1000 facebook friends, I follow most of the people and interact as much as I can, but I have few friends in the real world that I can bend their ear, share my stuff, or even get a cup of coffee!
With that being said I can’t tell you how many ‘friends’ I have that know nothing about my heart and direction. These are acquaintances I have come to find out. Over the years people have loved my ‘gift’ but not necessarily me. I am sure many people feel the same way. I have learned in my short career that I would never surrender my ‘gift’ to any one or group that didn’t want a relationship to me and my family as a person. At one time in my life there were seven pastors and leaders from five different states that were wanting me and my family to move and be a part of their work. I was so confused, but very excited. You know for once you think your hard work and life’s achievements are paying off. Only to realize these people were more interested in building their own thing. Not one of them actually wanted to know what made me tick, or motivate me. My greatest test and struggles have been the result of pursuing these relationships, only to be stripped and left for dead.
Today I have the most amazing Bishop to my soul. He and his team have loved the ‘hell out of me’. I am learning how to be loved for who I am and not what I can do for a group. Believe me it’s foreign to me so please be patient, I’m facing the light and running towards love. My Bishop is the truest friend I think I have ever known, I aspire to be like him when I grow up! I have known him twenty plus years, and he is so purposeful, and kind. He is one of the few that sat down with me and listen to my story with a heart of pure love, no judgement, but rather compassion and love. No matter where I am in my walk, or where he is in the world; time and time he has texted me to check on me or answer….
I strive to be like him, I haven’t arrived by no means. But I am aware that I have short comings, please remember me in your prayers. Honestly I believe this kind of love is what the Kingdom is all about. I was talking to a friend of mine Sunday, and I said, I hate it that most people run around looking for a miracle or revival, when the real miracle is sitting right in front of YOU! I told him that I was so ready for people to re calibrate their directives. I said, ‘So many people are wanting to be healing etc, yet all I can do really is love; it’s up to God alone to heal’.
I am purposing to become a better friend by becoming easier to love. I am using my ‘Lent’ season to commit to those who call me friend. I mean at the end of the day, isn’t that what everyone wants? To those I have let down, misguided, and left hanging; I do love you very much, but I have a lot of untangling to do. I will fulfill my obligation to be a friend to those who call me that!
MM+
When You Love Someone
Bryan Adams
when you love someone – you’ll do anything
you’ll do all the crazy things that you can’t explain
you’ll shoot the moon – put out the sun
when you love someone
you’ll deny the truth – believe a lie
there’ll be times that you’ll believe you can really fly
but you’re lonely nights – have just begun
when you love someone
when you love someone – you’ll feel it deep inside
and nothin else can ever change your mind
when you want someone – when you need someone
when you love someone…
when you love someone – you’ll sacrifice
you’d give it everything you got and you won’t think twice
you’d risk it all – no matter what may come
when you love someone
you’ll shoot the moon – put out the sun
when you love someone
Kingdom Community

Am I Friend Enough…

I love a girl, she is not mine by birth, but by the spirit. If I had a daughter she would be the one I would choose!
Of course I know she isn’t perfect, but to me she is. In God’s eyes she is known as one of the ‘favorites’. She has
been such a friend to me and my family for about 20 years. And back in the days when everyone and their brother
couldn’t get away from me and my family fast enough; there she was. I think when the scriptures talk about; “there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother”; I’m pretty sure she’s that friend to me.

She had complications during pregnancy, and had an emergency C Section. And by complications, I don’t mean it didn’t go as planned. And by emergency I don’t mean we couldn’t plan everything. I mean all hell broke loose! And the bottom line she just about stepped into glory. I talked to her husband a few days ago, and he told me the news and all the details. I mean like AFTER the emergency C Section she had a 3 hour surgery just to stop the bleeding.

And when I got the call I was on the way to a meeting that I could not get out of. But I was so distraught that I had to pull over and have a talk with Father. After I got my peace I fulfilled my meeting obligation. I got in my car, and immediately texted her husband for an update. When I got the update it was still not that great, but stable.

I remember hearing those words and thinking that I may not see her again. My heart was open and filled with presence. In that moment I had a thought; “Was I friend enough?” I mean was I real friend to the person that I truly love so much. I thought about how good of father I need to be to my sons. And even those in the faith. I thought about it all night didn’t sleep hardly at all. The next morning I got up and went to the hospital. But all the way there I was worshiping and realigning my thoughts to the fact that the one gift I have is ‘Friend’. Am I friend enough…. this has really occupied my thoughts these last few days.

I mean, am I friend enough?. If Kindness is my religion, then surely Friendship is my doctrine! I am exhorting you to be better friends to those that call you that. Ask yourself am I friend enough? I am going to do my best to stay connected and be a friend, because that is the highest calling on earth, to be called friend. Jesus said, I show you these things because you are friend. So to my ‘friends’ I say I love you and hope to catch up with you soon. Remember me in your prayers. Like St. Paul I hear, Oh wretched man that I am….

Much luv
MM

Divine Purpose , Kingdom Community

Polarization of Humanity

I have been contemplating the thought; humans have no patience or endurance and therefore have long left the idea of a spirituality that actually practices. Aesthetic is so vital to the experiential realm of true spirituality.  Today’s society is transforming from the idea of hearers, to feelers.  At least the pendulum is swinging back to a spirituality that has experiences along with the concepts.  St. Symeon the Theologian says that, “Only through the experiences of God is He truly ever known.”

Today’s version of spirituality and conviction for life breathing decisions has come down to hearing.  You see the phases of spiritual constant renovation must go something like this: 1. Experience the presence and inward / outward reality. 2. Contemplative inward knowing beyond knowing, which leads to supernatural expression through practice. 3. Thinkers on a more educated life level, putting all of the pieces together for the logically dissemination to the masses. 4. Hearers are very easily ad-hearers, and become believers on hearing only platform.

This cycle will continue to come to the end of concepts and get reformed over and over again via the same process. The depths of reality of the Presence and awareness, can not be logically explained / taught. The true Spirit life can not be packaged for the masses!

I read  from a great book, “The Naked Now”, by Fr Richard Rohr,  ‘Humans tend to think because they agree or disagree with the idea of a thing, they have realistically encountered the thing itself.’  This strikes a chord in my heart. I fear the majority of our beliefs are based loosely on teachings or sermons from a Sunday morning service someone, and most of our theology too. The lack of practice and community, contemplative prayer and old fashion study and devotion, even void of experience, is a recipe for a people unable to see with eyes wide opened.

This totally happened to Adam, in Gen 3 He hid himself with his wife, from the presence! With their fragmented perception they could no longer make sense of the mystical union. We certainly still struggle with it today, our fragmented polarized perception has produced just over 50% divorce rate. That was still a mystical revelation of the relationship of Christ and the church.

My life changed some 13 years ago again! I got born again again! I became not afraid for once in my walk, and turned over every stone that I had been taught about God and spiritual reality. I measured them in the light of my new place. I can assure 32 years later I am much closer to KNOWING …than when I first believed.

People ask me all the time how I come to this realm and thoughts. I tell them its easy:

Get rid of your polarized identity, of good and evil. Reconcile both on the cross, and learn to walk free from the duality of this lower realm.
Learn to see all as one!
Endeavor to See God in ALL things…….and surrender to who we all say who God is…………selah

Divine Purpose

Discovering the RealU 4

Today I am pondering the possibility of discovering your true identity apart from manifesting your destiny. When I say discovering your divine identity I am not merely talking about the mental ascent to understanding. But rather in the revealing and being who you know you are at your core. With this thought in mind then I can see how walking out your destiny or purpose is closely linked to walking out your divine nature. This journey has taken me quite a while. I started out by the realization that I even had a divine nature. In the beginning of my process I just wanted to follow Jesus. I never dreamed that this journey would take me to this place!

Here is my process so far: Following Jesus was certainly the beginning and of course I still do that today. But it evolved into a great hunger to do the works and do what He did, I mean after all He did promise us that we could do His works. After years of that pursuit, I began to desire to be like Him. I wanted, and still do, to be more like Him in His response to humanity. I can only imagine how awesome it must have been to sit and eat a meal with Jesus back in the day. I am certain you would just feel empowered, loved, not judged, and embraced all by His very essence. I have felt this many times over and over again. But I honestly began the pursuit of Heart of God, not just His works.

This wound up being a twenty year journey so far. I haven’t mastered the Character of Christ just yet, but I certainly am a million miles from where I was. When I was young and zealous in the beginning, everyone could not deny my consecration and passion. But they were turned off by my nature and rough judgemental spirit. I know it’s hard for people to believe that really know me. But years ago I wasn’t the person I am today. That is why I tell people you don’t need Jesus to become a good moral person. It seems we have shrunk the whole of Christianity into being ‘blessed’, avoiding troubles, helping a few poor people along the way. But the underlying message has become, a true Jesus follower is a good moral person! This concept should be a given! I mean honestly you can have Jesus in your mind and heart, but the real question is does He have yours? I mean do you have the Spirit or does He have you? I have met and had very hurtful encounters from people who were followers of Jesus, and filled with the Holy Spirit. It is not those that have the Spirit that determine sonship. On the contrary, St. Paul says, “those who are LED by the Spirit, THEY are the Sons of God.”

I know plenty of unbelievers, Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims who are amazingly loving and good moral people. So that criteria alone can not make the determining factor. You can be a good moral person, and still miss the nature of Christ in every area. I mean a good moral person, goes to work, provides for his family, doesn’t lie, cheat, and pays his taxes. But he can still be full of envy, bitterness, poison, gossip, and back biting. So in my mind the pursuit of Christ Conscienceness and the purpose of becoming a Follower of Jesus has more to with ‘becoming’ in Nature. Some of the best advice I got from my mentor years and years ago was hard to swallow but it saved my life.  My spiritual father and mentor at the time told me that I was way too rough around the edges, and I was teaching the letter of word, but missing the spirit of it completely. He said, “I want you to spend the next few months and read nothing but the ‘RED LETTERS.” I was obedient and the rest shall we say is history.

Reading those red letters for those months changed my whole life. It launched me in to the next step of the process which went from wanting to be like Him, to BE Him! I know this doesn’t fit into the religious boxes of most, but I have been observing and watching on sidelines for years. The concepts have to be revealed and shared. I can just hear my old self saying, “Now come on nobody can be perfect, there is only one Jesus.” Well that is true, Jesus is the summation of the Son of God becoming the Son of Man. St. Athanasius said, “The Son of God became man, so that the sons of men might become the Sons of God.” So in this light it is not a stretch for me to pursue the possibility of becoming not only ‘like’ Jesus, but to become Him. And let me say we can not only do this, but it IS the High calling of God in Christ. We can only pursue this place by the grace of God, the Life of the Spirit and in the Spirit of Christ. Another great saint of old said, “The more I know thee, the more I know me.”

You can not enter into this zone without being one with humanity. As a matter of fact if you are eating the tree of knowledge and evil still you will think I’ve lost my mind and crazy about now. But the greatest mystery of all is to manifest Christ in you the hope of glory. We will not consistently manifest the works and heart of Jesus without striving to do them as Him. Remember this concept; Jesus was not crucified for doing the miracles alone. He was crucified primarily because He said God was His Father, and that He was one with Him.

So the pursuit for me has become to manifest and discover the REAL ME. The Real Me is my Divine Nature where the seed of Christ dwells. Since I am one with Him, and reconciliation has taken place. We are in Him and He is in us. So in my divine nature manifestation it will reveal the Christ in me! What a mystery!

My Process:
I wanted to follow Jesus for all He had done for me
I desired to be like Him
I pursued to the possibility to Be Him
I am on a discovery to know and reveal the Divine Nature Me
In this I bring Heaven to Earth

Back to my subject intro. It is futile to pursue your destiny apart from being. They are one in the same, and will take you to the same place. If you get to the place of manifesting and walking in your destiny, take a look at your nature I bet you have changed!

Divine Purpose

Purpose for your pain…

The definition for pain according to Wikipedia:

Pain is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”It is the feeling common to such experiences as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting iodine on a cut, and bumping the “funny bone”.

Pain motivates us to withdraw from potentially damaging situations, protect a damaged body part while it heals, and avoid those situations in the future. Most pain resolves promptly once the painful stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but sometimes pain persists despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body; and sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease.

I was teaching at Triumphant Church in Detroit yesterday morning when this concept became very clear to me. My very best friend in Oklahoma had an accident while cutting trees that had fallen during a storm. The tree suddenly fell on him, and broke his L-1 Lumbar, actually shattered it to pieces. It was horrific, but God was even faithful through all of it. The first couple of nights in the hospital were some of the roughest. His surgeon that was one of the best in the nation was out of the country. So in the mean time my friend had to wait two days for surgery with the fragments of the vertebrae everywhere. The calls from his wife were heart wrenching because of the pain and suffering he was going through.

Here is what I learned about the pain management. On the second night he was in so much pain, we were all praying but couldn’t understand why they couldn’t give him enough pain medication to keep him comfortable. His wife told me that night that one of the bone fragments was like a hair-line away from his spinal cord. If that fragment would have punctured or cut his spinal cord he would most assuredly been paralyzed. She told me that they didn’t want all of the pain to go away, so that he would not move around too much and take a chance of paralyzing himself. He of course at the time didn’t know this, but knew his pain was excruciating. So the pain was actual and potential damage. It was left in place to keep him from hurting himself even more than he already was!

The third day was the four-hour surgery. It went successful as planned. He is a proud owner of a titanium vertebrae and some hardware. All the while he has totally feeling and used of his extremities and even without any numbing or tingling. You see after the surgery he seemed relieved from the pain, he felt great. Talking to him on the phone was just like old times. So after the surgery the doctors gave him this new medicine that actually blocks the pain receptors. So now being pain-free for the most part he was able to move around and do his therapy and exercises! If the pain had not been managed, then his recovery most certainly would have been a slower process. Within a week in the hospital, he was walking on his own, and actually went home a day early. He is still recovering miraculously. I know for a fact it is by the mercy and power of God’s grace, the prayers of the saints. But I think today the pain management and the way it was handled had a lot to do with my friends positive attitude. You see this kind of faith is unstoppable. He is supposed to remain home bound for six weeks, at this rate I highly doubt it. After being home just a couple of days from a most traumatic accident, he was at one of his son’s baseball games. It’s hard to keep this man down, he has more faith than anyone else I have ever met.

Let’s bring this idea closer to home. No one wants to suffer or experience any kind of pain. But pain is result of injury and designed to keep you from further damage. You learn lessons from pain. I remember the old school way of teaching a child not to touch the stove, guess what they will only touch it once in their lives! So in a real sense pain can be a teacher to keep you out of harms way. What I realized yesterday morning while I was teaching was it might be quite possible that your current pain via be relational, emotional, etc. could be keeping you from hurting yourself even more permanently. Like as if my friend would have moved around too much, he might have paralyzed himself without knowing. In the same fashion, if you have a relational breakdown with a spouse don’t compound the pain by going out and doing something stupid. This action may result in doing irreversible damage to your relationship.

One thing for sure pain and suffering is a part of the transformation process from the carnal to the spiritual. Until we become totally free in our minds we will suffer. Suffering and going through things in this life is inevitable. Even Jesus said, in the world we would have tribulation, but be of good courage. And again St. Paul says God will make a way of escape, that you might endure the process. St Peter talked a lot about suffering in so much that he said it was a necessary element in establishing you. He says in First Peter that the God of all grace after you have suffered a while, God will strengthen, establish, and settle you. He will not allow you to suffer above that which you can take. The crazy thing is the thing you are going through that you don’t think you can, but you still are, because you CAN!

Pain is relative to each person’s threshold. If you ever visit a doctor for any kind of pain you will be asked to give a number between 1 and 10 to describe your pain. Also the length of your pain will be relative to which stage of the process you are in. If you are in the protective stage, your pain will remain to keep you from moving and further risking damaging yourself. If you are coming out of the process, then your pain will slowly dissipate as you learn to walk through and past it.

Just know for certainty today. Your ego and carnal mind is the source of all of your pain and suffering. So as you slowly become enlightened you will experience this pain of letting go and exercising your ‘new’ eyes, and muscles.

Kingdom Community

Belonging and Fitting In

I may have missed my calling just a bit, I am fascinated in my older age by the behavior and thinking among humans. I find myself studying, doing hours and hours of research on the subject. I came across this idea of belonging versus fitting in. They are not the same thing. Belonging and connection are at the core of every person alive. Fitting in is an external or internal adjustment on someone’s part to belong artificially.

Teenagers master this skill because it is inherited in our DNA. Because of our need to belong, the inability to be authentic and courageous leaves us no choice but to fit in or conform. Fitting in is about changing my authentic self, in my looks, desires, attitudes etc to conform into the desired crowd or relationship. We have done it so long that honestly people have mistaken this for their real self!

My friend Toby told the basic needs of all humans
1. To be fully known
2. To be fully loved
3. To be fully connected (I added this one)

All of the driving forces within us cause us to seek these things through our human strengths. Brene Brown Ph.D. says,” Connection is the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued: when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derived sustenance and strength from the relationship.” You see to be connected in this sense requires you to be authentic and vulnerable. It’s definitely a learned process. If you think about your first date that you have with your potential mate, the fear and anxiety of fitting in and finding approval. Now think of the authenticity of the relationship after you are married for 20 years!

Daniel Goleman wrote a book called, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships. Daniel proves through neuroscience that we are hardwired for connection and that our relationships shape our biology as well as our experiences. He writes,”Even our most routine encounters act as regulators in the brain priming our emotions, some desirable, others not. The more strongly connected we are with someone emotionally the greater the mutual force.”

One of the biggest problems is our culture. We are driven to succeed and are identified by what we have. It’s sad to say but most people in our country have an identity crisis. Our self-worth is affected by our net worth, and we base our worthiness upon our productivity. Meaning we feel better about ourselves in a worth sense based upon how far we got down our to-do-list for the day! Another huge problem in our society is we have now handed out busyness, and exhaustion as badges of honor! We are way too busy to even know what we are about anymore. Our children are way too busy, we are creating the same world for them that we hate about our own!

If connecting requires me to be authentic then it’s quite the opposite for ‘fitting in’. The idea of fitting in requires me to begin a comparison process to determine my level of fitting in, and which crowd or friends I will have. Unfortunately comparison is all about conformity and competition. If we are not careful we will find ourselves only feeling adequate or enough when we are doing better than. Better than is a myth that the carnal minds plays on you to get you to connect without authenticity. Technology has connected people but not so much in a heart to heart fashion, but sort of in a plastic way!

I remember last year I was in a funk. I just couldn’t shake it. My birthday rolled around and to see all of the posts on my Facebook really gave me a charge. My feelings of worth and value shot up. Well this year the same thing happened. I think in those two days I received over 350 well wishes and emails. While I was basking in the ‘love’, I heard my self say, “how would you be feeling if you would have only received 5 well wishes instead of 350?” So then I realized the people I have true connections with are enough to sustain me. I have to learn to enough without adding the ____________ at the end of the sentence.

Answer this question, “I will feel better about myself and my life when ________________________(happens, or gets done….ie: lose weight, make more money, etc etc….) You have to fill in the blank and be honest to yourself. The challenge that I am working on is to be enough already. And learn to accept and love the person God has already made me to be at my core!

Kingdom Community

Wounded Warriors

In the town where I work by the bank is a small veterans memorial.  On the wall it reads:

Losing your life in service to your country is not the worst thing that can happen to you; but being forgotten is.

I read that every day as I go to the bank for our company. It has been on my heart for a couple of years now. What do we do with our fallen soldiers and wounded warriors. I feel somewhat jaded here so bear with me. Our country has not given our veterans honour that is due. I mean lets face it our veteran health care is nothing like the Mayo Clinic.  It is like pulling teeth to get people to do more than attend a once a year parade for our soldiers. I can’t even imagine what the Viet Nam veterans went through when they got home.

With this thought today I am thinking the church does the same things with our wounded warriors of the faith. Those who were on the front lines paving the way into new realms of life and living. It is a painful struggle to feel ignored and or forgotten. Especially when you have laid it all on the line for others. American Christianity is become fad driven. Excitement for something that isn’t even real half of the time. I always think of everything I see in the church world today in light of those who gave all they had so we could live in the spiritual realm freely. I can’t imagine that our forefathers of the faith would be very excited to visit some of our churches today, where there is no honor to their life’s work.

Jesus said remember me! We were commissioned and to take the Eucharist (thanksgiving meal) every week as to re-member ourselves in light of Him. Forgetfulness is a God given gift. If we didn’t have it we would never overcome heartbreak and tragedy. But remembering with honor those who have served, that is YOUR gift to God.

Let’s take inventory shall we. I would venture to say not one single person reading this would be where they are today spiritually without the price paid by someone who paved a way, and invested in you. The church has lost it’s ability to love the flawed saints, to honor those who paved a way. And it could be quite possible that the ones who helped you get where they are may be flawed and even fallen from the faith. It still doesn’t change the fact that you owe so much to them for your enlightenment.

You don’t choose to forget these people; it’s a gift.
You have to choose to remember.

The word honour is translated TIME.
Take the time to give honor and respect to those who have bleed spiritually for your freedom. It pains me somewhat to hear preachers teaching things today that are acceptable to the masses: yet when I preached it 15 years ago I was slandered, ridiculed, rejected and basically shunned.

I’m writing as an old soul and father in the faith to so many; Honor your spiritual fathers and mothers this week. Write them a note, call them, or even share part of your rescources with them. Trust me this is the first command with promise. Our country will not thrive because of the evil we have rejected, and psuedo standard of goodness we pretend to stand for. It will make it and thrive due to the ability to choose to REMEMBER those who labored among us. Beloved the church is in the same shape.

Personal Growth

3 Friends We All Need

I have been contemplating Kingdom relationship principles and came across the thought, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net.”

I discovered that there where three kind of friends and relationships we all need to be successful in life. It made me think of the other three friend groups we all are familiar with. I remember the 3 Stooges; Moe, Larry, and Curly. The 3 Musketeers; all for one and one for all. The 3 Amigos, hopefully no one is in the 3 Blind mice club! There is a verse that talks about a three-fold chord not easily being broken.

I think about all of my friendships I’ve made all over country. Many of these offer so many gifts to me. But I would say if you had these three friends, then I am convinced it would be hard for you to fail at most anything. I’m talking about those friends that literally can be a source of sharpening, and another that brings clarity and the breath of life in hard times. I remember the teaching we used to get from our leadership courses; Your 5 closest friends right now will influence and determine your future. In other words the principle is you attract what you project.

My philosophy is always been we need mentoring people in our lives. We need those Over us, or ahead. We need those who walk Beside us our partners. We all need to be giving back that which was given to us in this light; we all need those we feed and help.

I believe your friends not only are a life source, but they are your friends for a reason. Many of them are ‘mirrors’ in to who you really are. Sometimes they expose you to parts of you that you weren’t even familiar with about you. I pondered to the greatest leader of all and those ‘friends’ He hung out and worked with.  I mean imagine if all of your work friends are your every day friends; that could be heaven or hell LOL. Jesus prayed all night before ‘picking’ his mini tribe of friends. I believe all 12 of them were necessary to fulfill His mission on earth. They were called and in the end He called them friends.

The 3 kind of friends we all need, whether we think so or not. The Kingdom is like a Net; so therefore the Kingdom is about relationships and connectedness  for a higher purpose.

1. Casters – Relationships that Motivate me.

Motivate – prompt, strive, stimulate, activate (provide a motive for doing something) inspire, encourage; ‘Fire with Enthusiasm’

These are the friends and people in our lives that inspire us. Not only to infuse with energy for goals, but more importantly the inspiration to be the ‘authentic me’. Discovery of our Divine nature and our RealU context takes courage. I can’t think of anything more important as to be on the search for our authentic self. Many of us have accountability partners for eating right, working out, achieve personal goals and the such. These are all great, but we need those who inspire us to shed fear and shame, and walk in our true authentic self.

You remember that Snickers commercial, where one of the people on the team, or worker is acting Not like themselves? And the just of it is, their friends will say Bob, eat a snickers man you are NOT BEING YOURSELF!  So we have snickers bars at work, and when people are being grumpy or complaining, we go had them and Snickers and say _________ you are not acting like your real self, eat this please!  It is important that we have authentic grounded friends. Those who can walk the walk.

I mean motivating me by being the kind of person that makes me a Better me! That’s what kind of friend I aspire to be. I think because it is much easier to be vulnerable and authentic in the presence of those with like desires. I don’t know all of the things in your life that cause you want to be vulnerable and authentic, more than the fear of others scorn; hopefully you are there and are ready for the ‘casters’ to arrive in your life and motivate you.

There is an old saying, ‘When the student is ready, the Teacher will appear.’

2. Menders – Relationships that Mend me.

Menders are those friends that know how administer grace when you need it the most. These are the friends that really know you better than you even know yourself. These are the friends that can show you the forest in spite of the trees. They are not impressed with your accomplishments like others are, and certainly are not afraid of your mess.

Mend – to make something (broken, torn, wore out) whole. By usable purpose by repairing
To remove and correct defects. Recovery of the sick, to knit grow back together. To improve
conditions and affairs

3. Washers – Relationships that Moisturize me.

Moisturize – to add or restore moisture, make moist, soft, and pliable again.

When people become dry they get brittle and break easily over time. They no longer know how to bend, they crack. These are those headed for a burnout, or are there and do not realize it.  Washer friends keep you from bitterness of soul, through the sheer joy they bring to your life.  They can bring peace and a light heart to about anyone. In these times especially we need these people in our lives.

Listen to the pod casts on this series. We go into more detail about how to identify these types of friends and just why they are important to you.

Click HERE! to listen…