Tremendous Blessing

Today I'm reminded of how blessed I am to have such a wonderful wife. Suzii and I will be married 10 years this upcoming February and I'm still blown away that God would bless me with the privilege of calling her my wife. Those of you who know her are aware of her incredible beauty; inside and out. She's always been an incredible support to me in ministry. And for almost the last 2 years I've watched her selflessly dedicate her time to raising our little boy, Cooper.

See, Suzii is the educated one in our family. She has the capability to thrive in any work environment, achieving prestigious positions with great salaries. But, she chooses to pursue our shared conviction that God wants for her to stay home and raise Cooper in spite of all of the notoriety, financial comfort, and success that she could so easily find outside the home.

And she does it so well. I couldn't have asked God for a more wonderful wife. I know I couldn't imagine a better mom to my child. She's definitely the most valuable player on the Rohrbeck team as far as I'm concerned.

Thank You God for blessing me with Suzii.
Johnny

Whew

Man. The last few days have been sort of a whirlwind. Last week was a little crazy at work. Then Friday morning I got up and went downstairs at 7 a.m. to discover that ants had found their way into our kitchen, living room, bathroom, etc. So all day Friday was "track the ants and kill them" day. It took forever to find all of the places they were entering the house and either spray, vacuum, or wipe them up. Then Saturday was spent doing what we normally do on Friday, which is clean the house. Then yesterday was a good full day of worship and fellowship at church. This morning I made it to the gym by 7 and had a great workout. And here I am back from lunch realizing that it's been several days since I've posted anything. So, that is what's been going on in my neck of the woods.

Here's where I'm at today. I desperately want to be led by God. I need His guidance, His favor, His wisdom, and His provision. I long for stability for my family and the fulfillment of knowing that I'm properly aligned with His will for my life and ministry.

God, please speak to me in ways that I can't miss it.
johnny

Gym Update

Well I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I found a gym partner. Nick Rios, the MORE College ministry leader at the church has been meeting me at the gym for a couple of weeks now. I gotta say, it's so much easier to not only show up at the gym, but work really hard when someone else is there with me. It's been a true blessing to have a great friend there to talk about God, church, ministry, music, and sometimes just goof off a little.

Today I worked really hard on upper body stuff. I did several different exercises that concentrated on biceps, back, and shoulders. The weight-assisted pull ups were the real killer. It's a good thing I did that one first.

I haven't used the scale even one time since I've started this quest. I don't have a target weight. I have a target size though. I'm happy to report that I'm down a notch in my belt and have increased all of my weightlifting amounts by 25 to 40 pounds depending on the exercise. I'm getting a full 35 to 40 minutes of cardio before each work out and loving the sweat. I'm still plugging away.

Later,
j

Fire Fall Down

Today our band introduced the song "Fire Fall Down" by Hillsong United to our church during our worship service. The majority of the song itself doesn't make reference to the title. It's a pretty straight forward song about redemption and our response to God's love. But, then the song moves into repeating "Fire Fall down...on us we pray" as part of the ending. At first glance, this seems out of place with the song. But after re-reading Luke chapter 3 it makes perfect sense.

See, Luke chapter 3 is where John the baptist is telling people that "One will come who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire...He will separate the chaff from the wheat and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire...". This made perfect sense to me as the conclusion to a worship song. As worshippers, we should long for that fire to purify us and refine our expression of worship so that it would be acceptable to the Father. Chaff is defined as "any excess, unwanted, or worthless thing". I don't know about you, but I don't want my adoration for God to be tainted with "worthless" things. He deserves my best. And, it's only because of the work that Christ did and still does through the Holy Spirit that our offerings can be made acceptable to God the Father.

So, that was how we concluded the musical portion of our worship service. This is how the whole set looked:

1. We opened with "Unchanging" by Tomlin. Our desire was to focus on God's faithfulness, greatness, and love and respond to His never ending nature with total surrender. "So we raise up holy hands, to praise the holy One, who was and is and is to come".

2. We moved to Father of Life, an original song of ours. This song allowed us to express how overwhelmed we are by God's love, mercy, and grace. The song says, "I owe Him everything, so this is the song that I sing" and "I'll not hold back all the praise that's inside, I'll not stand quietly".

3. Finally, we read from Luke chapter 3 and sang Fire Fall Down by Hillsong United. It starts with "I know that You're alive...You came to fix my broken life...and I'll sing to glorify Your holy name...Jesus Christ".

It was a great day. God we love You.
Johnny

Obedience

As a father, I understand so much clearer why our obedience is better than sacrifice, or offerings, to God. It wouldn't mean near as much to me for my little boy to color me a picture or give me his half eaten sucker if he disobeyed me all the time. As I prayed with him tonight, my heart was completely full of pleasure over him. As I thought through our day, I realized that it was because he had been an obediant little guy all day. Even at bedtime he was sitting with Suzii just waiting for the words to come from me: "night night time". He immediately got up, went to the stairs, climbed up there himself, walked in his room and climbed in bed. No rocking chair, no fussing about it. He just continued what he's done all day. He was obedient. It doesn't make me love him more, but it does bring me so much pleasure as a dad.

So God, help me to be obedient more often; not just in the big things, but in all things. As I prepare my heart to bring you an offering tomorrow morning; a sacrifice of praise, forgive me for not having always been totally obedient. My deepest desire oh God is to bring pleasure to Your heart and a smile to Your face as my Father. Thank You Jesus for making a way for me to reconnect with the Father. I love you God.

Johnny

Patience

If you pray for patience, be prepared for your circumstances not to change. Sound a little off? Let me explain.

In order to truly grow in patience...I have to practice it. And there's no need for patiently waiting unless I'm in a non-changing holding pattern. So when God wants me to learn patience...He doesn't go about it by immediately changing my circumstances and giving me the thing(s) that I'm praying for. Instead, He sits me in a corner and says, "wait".

Now here's the tough part. Being patient doesn't change the length of the wait, the details of the circumstances, or bring about any outward reward. Practicing patience only changes me, my attitude, and my outlook. Being patient doesn't mean giving up on something either. So many times it's easier to get tired of waiting and just say, "Oh well...I'll just forget about it and move on to something else". That's not patience...that's not standing still...that's just moving on.

Instead, patience is standing right in front of the thing you're waiting for with an attitude of hope and courage without questioning God's integrity. It's allowing God to make you while you wait. It's His desire for us.

Romans 5:3-5
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.