History of “The Journey of Thomas”
How Did The Journey of Thomas Come About?
Todd Posey and I were meeting to reviewing some material I had put together from one of my February meetings in California. That outline was introduced in three basic parts, covering honesty in relationships, choices in building relationships, and the goal of building fruit bearing relationships for the Kingdom of God. Todd was reminded of the familiar passage John 14:6 which says “I am the way, the truth, and the life” and we saw some correlations between my relationship outline and this passage.
We also began to discuss the Grace Rivers’ Core Values and wondered if they might lend themselves to being taught in a particular order. Up to this time, whenever we listed the Core Values, no particular conscious order was given to them. We came to the amazing conclusion that if we reordered the nine Core Values, they had both a linear flow to them and were easily divided into three categories lining up logically with The Truth, The Way, and The Life. Examined this way, they became incredibly clear and even more easily applied in our daily lives.
As we continued further into the parallels, it seemed that all heaven came down and we saw a dramatic revelation of a foundational concept for Grace Rivers. Most intriguing was that as we looked up the passage, we saw that Jesus was answering a question posed to him by Thomas. His question is very similar to what Grace Rivers as a ministry is trying to help people answer.
So, we are very excited to announce “The Journey of Thomas”, which begins with the question “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Or as we paraphrase it, “We don’t know where you are going, and we don’t know how to get there.”
We believe whole heartedly that God has given us a practical solution to that question that will help many hurting people find a way to freedom. The basic mission of Grace Rivers is to provide hope and to do this through practical tools to help men and women build healthy relationships with each other.
Our nine Core Values are just that; foundational principles for us to apply to each and every relationship we have. By putting these to work, they help us to build healthier relationships from the get go and to provide structure and safety in complicated and challenging relationships which leads to healing and restoration. The Core Values represent the unique and foundational teachings that God has been developing in my life for over 20 years leading up to the formation of Grace Rivers.
So we want to invite you to walk alongside us as we enter into the “Journey of Thomas”-an exciting new chapter in the life of Grace Rivers.
