The "Experiencing God" Series

I have a friend from Toastmasters named Doug. I found out that he's been to the church I go to and he invited me over to he and his wife's house for Bible reading on Mondays with a small group of friends. I was like, "Score!!!" Finally I find a group I can chat chit with about God.

So I show up. The first new person I met was a young Indian man who works at Apple. He seems quiet and polite. Probably an older soul.

Then a 60 year old man showed up. He announced that his birthday was last week - a Pisces- which may explain why it was so awkward between us. I didn't like him. He imposed himself into too many conversations and when he spoke it was like everyone needed to stop and listen to his words because they were more important. Their was a subtle hint of superiority there -which took me a while to flesh out because before that I couldn't quite figure out what it was I didn't like about him.

Then there was a corky 50 year old guy who spoke every once in a while. There was an older soul/ Indian man and his wife -who I think was a younger soul- and their 2 little girls who were playing in the other room.

Then there was an Asian man who was in his late 40s who talked about being a Mentor/ Pastor and had met Jeremy Lin before he was famous. He was sort of suggesting that Jeremy Lin was a nobody until God intervened. I'm not sure.

We didn't actually end up reading the Bible. Instead Doug introduced us to a book by Henry + Richard Blackaby called Experiencing God. The book/ videos go over how to live out God's will and develop a close relationship with Him. My first instinct said: Find out the legitimacy of the writers. What are their zodiac signs/ level of experience/ insights of wisdom.

Thanks to the internet I know: Henry -the main writer -was born April 15th. He's an Aries!!! And his son is Richard (of 5 total children). Henry found Blackaby Ministries -a string of churches running throughout Canada mostly. So pretty legit.

I then looked at the book. It's sort of a step-by-step on the main guiding principles on how to connect with God. It's practical and thorough, and also emphasizes the fact that no two people's paths will be identical. These are guidelines to follow but cannot be entirely specific since God works through people in His own way. It is a very God-centered way of looking at things, which is good because most of the time people focus too much on themselves when trying to reach God and not enough on His end and how He works.

But I decided that before I read Henry's book and figure out what he has to say about everything I should get my own findings out first to see how close I was. Kind of like walking down a path blind-folded (having read little from the Bible and mostly following spiritual pathways) and seeing how far off the beaten path you've been going forward.

So in the next post I'm going to state for the record what I've seen as to how to get closer to God and what that's like and looks like.