"I am a God who is everywhere and not in one place only. No one can hide where I cannot see them. Do you not know that I am everywhere in heaven and on earth? ….. The prophet who has had a dream should say it is only a dream, but the prophet who has heard my message should proclaim that message faithfully. What good is straw compared with wheat? My message is like a fire and like a hammer that breaks rocks in pieces.” (Jeremiah 23:23-24, 28-29 GNB)
My campus pastor, Pastor Cliff, sent me a reply yesterday about my email to him about the body being tapped by God to open doors by which things might be changed in my situation; financially, employment and family. He said that “Sure, that was a possibility….” And “For the record, I didn’t say you should move away but in the absence of God’s open doors, you should explore all the avenues.” The burden is still on my heart that I’m supposed to be in Holly for the season in which I am on this journey…..and it is the Body, not the Band, that is supposed to walk in this journey with me for this time…..and the invitation has been soundly rejected under the nice automatic Christian responses. It is no matter, it would seem, as God whispers things in my ear and calls me…to a dream surrendered and a far bigger hope than I could’ve imagined for His service.
The dream that I’ve had where God is calling me out of the country of my birth and the country in which I have spent the whole breathe of my life of forty-one years in is as real as the seat upon which I sit, the computer I type this on and the other sensory data that comprises my world. It is alive, evolving into a sharper, concise and frightening (to my former self, which still seems to squeak its fearful disappointments into my mind) picture of what it would shape up to be….a church plant, teaching the godly masculinity that I’ve been shown, with the radio station “gospel hour” utilized to reach those who think Christianity is just a part-time, Sunday thought religious experience instead of a evolving, living and changing lifestyle that demands its voice to speak of the wonders that have been found and the love that is experienced. Powerful disciples who stand in the garden of their gifts and produce amazing fruit.
God brought me to Jeremiah 23:24 today…..”No one can hide where I cannot see them. Do you not know that I am everywhere in heaven and on earth?” God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. “The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, without the interrogative, "I am a God near, saith the Lord, and not afar off". The meaning is, that God is alike near in one place as in another; which is a very great truth; and a very comfortable one it is to the people of God, to whom he is near in all places, and at all times; he is a present help in time of trouble; he is near them, to hear their cries, and grant their requests; he is near to give them assistance in a time of need, and to deliver them out of all their troubles; to afford them his gracious presence, and to indulge them with communion with himself; to communicate all good things to them; to speak comfortably to them; to take them by the hand, and lead them in the way everlasting:” John Gill writes about this facet of God, “He is at their right hand to uphold them with his, and to strengthen them with strength in their souls; to advise and counsel, and direct them; to rebuke their enemies, and save them from them that condemn them;” and indeed there are no people like them, who have God so nigh unto them, in all things they call upon him for; and though he may seem at times to be afar off, and stand at a distance from them; when he hides his face; withdraws his gracious influences; does not appear at once for their relief in distress; but suffers them to be afflicted in one way or another; yet in reality he is not; but is nigh unto them when they call upon him.” That is why I have the simply complex statement, “God is………” on the display screen of my cell.
God is……
And it appears that He is showing me that He is the God of impossibilities and improbable things. And the dreams I dream are too small to fit within the scope of what He would do with this broken and fearful man. He is a far bigger dreamer, far bigger provider and a far bigger visionary than I could ever imagine Him to be.
Once again, as with the original small scope of the Call that I had back in October of 2004, comes the walls of impossibility….the realistic (in terms of human involvement) improbability of fruition….and the passion without outlet. The “God will as God wills” statements of the past seem hollow and empty….and inadequate to describe this disappointment and moodiness that pervades my soul. Once again, it is the consequences of my past that come full circle to put me in a place where it would seem it is improbable that God could want to use me in that way; as a missionary to any country, let alone a foreign one.
Maybe this is an effect of my story; dreaming impossibilities so that I can prove the declaration of my father that I’ll never amount to much more than a garbage collector (no offense intended to those who are) and only then if they take pity on me. I have many of those dreams; writing a published book, being a counselor, going to the University of Michigan (Go Wolverines!) in pursuit of a degree, finding that one true love that will be with me, fight for me and leave only when the Lord calls them home. It everything I’ve done, both before God and after God, has been a failure. Family, finances and ministry all never seem to settle into a routine of successful operation that many within the Body claim and so many declare is the mark of a ‘true’ believer. Life is simply a step by step recreation of desire, faith and near disasters that haunt the sunlight of my days. Many will say that this is because of the presence of sinful pursuits in my life, others that I am not applying the knowledge and truth of God to the struggles that I face and only a few, a very small few, will look at my life and say those foreign words (to many a Christian’s vocabulary)……spiritual warfare, “You, my brother, are under attack.”
Some say I’m a walking testimony to God’s grace, mercy & forgiveness and would be a great minister while others just laugh at me quietly behind the masks of their ‘Sunday’ dress and utter the automatics of “I’ll pray for you”, “God will as God will” and the shadowy, ambiguous “Follow the ‘yellow brick’ road” mantra of sitting back and watching what happens. Living life on the edge of peace, joy, happiness and still proclaiming God even when the faith is low and the heart is beating slower with the passion is not a realistic Christian, born of the blood and redeemed of the Lamb. In the quietness of their darkness, shielded from the ‘brethren’ and even themselves, their greatest fear is to stand before that White Throne of Judgment and be told it was all a ‘joke’ and the universalistic, human-induced reality of ‘love, peace, tranquility through the power of your minds attraction’ was the way to go…….the lifetime spent in dogged pursuit of God was nothing more than a race they didn’t have to run. They are so fearful of starvation that they’ll eat any fruit, declaring it good and tasty as the bitterness and rotten flesh of the fruit slides down the gullet of their illusion and corrupts their new soul with its enticing aroma and peaceful deception.
Very few will walk the miles and miles of this journey close to starvation, on the edge of spiritual death, clinging to that hope of finding food….gorging themselves on it when they do…and stumbling on….brought once again full circle into that cycle of starvation, hope, substance. “Rinse and repeat” people of the darkness, their spiritual lights cloaked in the filth of its stench for the clandestine missions for those deep in the enemy’s hands. Living on the edge between being accepted within the human institution of corporate church and being accepted within the secularized world…..being more than they appear to be, taking on the illusions of those they are trying to reach without becoming what they are trying to save. A living, breathing testimony where the hand of God is visible beyond denial, is evident beyond all explanation other than faith and is lived peaceful in peace’s absence sustained only because of the hope that is undeniable, a promise that cannot be broken and a God who holds their hands even in the disobedient times and calls them to account, calls them to forgiveness, calls them to His work even after failure and loves them where they are while enticing them to go beyond the logical, the mystical and the corruptible into a pure, righteous and joyful relationship that they will never achieve in the lifetime they live on this world.
.
It is these people who walk into the wilderness without a clue of their path, guided only by the word of God to go…to a land I will show you…with their families in tow, trusting on a promise given in the foolish reality of life of something beyond life’s capability to give. Who walk into a dream with no provisions and leave a legacy of orphanages that have led generations of abandoned, thrown-aways through a realized life of love without limits, compromise or costs. Who have left sermons of their testimonies that inspire and guide countless generations years and years after their deaths with the same message, the same notes led by a voice long since silenced upon the air of this world but preserved to be carried by faithful servants and supporters into the void of the world. Who leave their multi-zero salaries and get into a travel trailer to go where God leads and trust in His substances, His direction and His promises. Those who follow in the footsteps of greater men and carry the vision into the fruition of God’s covenant despite other’s disapproval and disbelief. It is those people who stand before Christ and ask for Him to move in their lives; finances, health, family, worries….and say they believe, yet cry out for Christ to help their unbelief.
A people who trust in God to provide, giving what they have been given into the hands of another without question or condition, based upon the direction to which God spoke to them. Who are weak but not pushovers who will believe the whispery and hollow promises of false prophets no matter how ‘good’ it sounds, who bring themselves into account well before the mobs can be formed (and the Christian church has its mobs) and face their persecutors with honor and dignity, assured this worldly invention of human-judging-human in the spiritual warfare of life is of no consequence and the judgers will someday be the judged, by the standards and rigidity of their own standards. A people who live by a rock-embedded foundation that forms the spiritual house of their souls, fit to be changed as the architect provides new innovations, new ideas and clearer eyesight to the craftsman.
A people who’s faith goes beyond the ‘smooth, lulling and deceitful message’ of the false church, the false prophets and worldly influence to judge the theological and doctrinal by the faithfulness of the Word, unchanged, unaltered and alive under the hand of its author, inspiring the hands that wrote it and the minds who were heavy with the need to write the eternal into the temporal. A people who follow a Truth that is enlightening, living, full of the warm embrace of love, and a penetrating depth that consumes them to speak, seeing to disrupt the enemy and shatter the illusions of his lies but is uncomfortable, dreadful and convicting even to them but ever more so to those wicked and unclean in the world who run from it with no hope of finding peace from its presence that invades “heaven and hell…..earth and the seas…..” as John Gill puts it…..to the utter ends of the earth or the recesses of the human mind. As God says, “I can see your falsehoods, no matter how well you think you cover it, and at that moment of its commission.”
A people who live by the truth of Hebrews 4:12, “For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” When these people speak the Truth inspired and authored by God, sinners are convicted and converted by its power, disciples are drenched in the thirst of the Word and convicted with the commission's call and a world is transformed against impossible odds and improbable hopes.
I face the same closed doors, the same hardened and shallow hearts that have plagued the continued desire to answer the call, to be shaped in the forge of the Master Blacksmith, into the sharp, doubled edged sword that pierces my own heart when it is weld for the battle that is joined. Willing to be wounded, destined to be killed and only desiring that one more soul, one more heart, be transformed by the powerful testimony of God's grace, mercy and love in the life of this redeemed sinner.
I am not one who speaks prophecies, though I do believe in the power of God to bring such pronouncements to His people through the god-fearing body of His children for the edification and supplication of them. I don't speak tongues, but believe that there are some who speak what God would have another hear in a way that brings Him glory and undeniable authority to thus communicate with His people. God is still working within the lives of His people in the miraculous ways He has and continues to do, it is not my experience that dominates such belief, but the Word of God alone.
I also know that prevalent in the westernized and culturized 'corporate' church of today, there are many more who speak in prophecy and whirl the empty words of their own brokenness as God's words….and there are those who induce within themselves for their own distortion a language that bears no understanding because it is the fevered attempt of a sinful humanity to mimic God. The harvest work that the Lord has prepared is ripe for gathering but the workers are few.
That said, I will speak my dream to paper, not for the edification of human agendas of agreement or approval…..but for the fire brought by the righteous and the mighty God….so that it would be shaped not by my desire but the desire of His movement and work within my life to be an effective, passionate and equipped servant for His kingdom purposes. Casting it free from the confines of my inner most into the light of His being, so that He might walk into the formation and preparation of such movement and declare my discernment of God or not……I’ll speak the completeness of the vision given to me that day in October, it’s content and structure unknown and unrealized fully and completely at that time, as God took my reluctant agreement and began shaping me for that fullness.
This is a part of my story, its formation and the groundwork for the purposing of it at this moment in my life shaped and molded even in the sinfulness of my denial of God and the bitter war waged against all that His children claimed to stand for, from long ago. A realization long ago realized, upon that February day so long ago, that even in the midst of my rebellion, God was there….drawing me back into His arms and working for His purpose my life to be a living testament to His grace, mercy and love….above all, His love. A friendship borne of the wrong beginnings that has continued to develop throughout the ups and downs of my life even as our paths wandered down separate paths and the experience of a culture from the eyes of one of its people from a personal level that speaks to my direction in the years since my rebirth.
The utterance of an idea put forth as a half-joke. The beginnings of a turning towards the breath of life. The collection of talents, skills, spiritual gifting and passion brought together under the clarity of vision, causing that the essential click of God’s purpose for me within the context of God’s larger story…..and the startling confrontation with the very essence of my fears, known and worked by the enemy for the purpose of preventing the promised joy and peace of walking in such a grand tale. When God beckons to us to move into His work that He is doing, we must change….facing our greatest fears through the crisis of belief that is endured and overcome through faith and experience.
Dare I utter it for the disapproval of the Body, that westernized component of the misguided, mislead and self-serving of the Church that has given itself over to the cauterization of its faithful execution of God’s mission? Already, in its very ‘hopeful’ speaking to those around me have it been met with utter disgust, verbal reproof and even marginal acceptance…..no edification from those faithful within the Kingdom that would be a quiet assurance beyond the nagging and utterly unreasonable (in light of this world’s reality) of its reality. It has been a dream of mine, secular in its origins but surrendered and claimed for the Kingdom upon my rebirth. God is everywhere and He calls His children to greater things than they believe in their comfortable world of familiarity.
A distant land…….Paul had his Rome…..
I have my Australia…………
It is my vision that I go to Australia as a foreign missionary. There are many ways this seems both possible and impossible. Most missions in the Outback seem to focus on ‘indigenous’ missionaries, those who live in the country and are from it’s citizenship. I am not one that would be eligible for those missions. Others seem to want some other qualifiers that I don’t have. So, the method by which God will make this vision happen are yet to be discovered…….He simply tells me to prepare. First and foremost is the passport……..from there, God will answer His provisions to the source of the way that I will touch upon Australia’s soil.
One way that I seem to keep returning to is to become an foreign exchange student, to a missionary-focused college in Sydney to study. This study would equip me for the purposes of ministry within the country of Australia, emerging me and my family in the cultural climate there while I pursue a degree in Pastoral care. Sydney Missionary & Bible College would be the place of such studies, having the capabilities of meeting my family needs and pursue a full, in-depth study of theology under the cultural aspects of the people that I have the vision of ministering to once the degree is earned. But that is a very large dream that, like many things, has a rather impossible sized price tag.
I would pursue a Bachelor of Theology (BTh), which is a three year full-time undergraduate degree program offered for students without a prior degree (it would take nine years of part-time study to complete) and be equipped to be a full-time pastoral, evangelistic or Bible teaching minister for Christian ministry in Australia (as a pastor, assistant-minister, or student worker while in school). Entry into the program who be based on maturity and practical experience as well as a application of the IELTS (International Education and Employment English test) in which I would have to score a 6.5 average with no score under 6.0 in four categories of tests. The College does have family lodging and the overall cost of each year of study would be 20,000 aus (15,000.00 degree costs, 5,000 in books and other related cost) in addition to the basic needs of a family of three (child care, food, clothing, etc.).
Upon graduation, if not provided for before, I would seek a ministry position in Australia where the origination of this desire began and seek to establish and minister to a local nondenominational, bible teaching and discipleship making church that teaches men to be godly men, women to be godly women and families to seek God's will and purpose in their lives and pursue such in the battlefield of the world. In a nation who, as my friend describes it, is not much for religion….this is where I believe God would have me go for a season. Beyond that, the vision isn't formed, for I know that I would have to be ready upon the prompting of the Spirit to go where God would have me go, do what He would have me do and trust in His wisdom, grace and mercy to make the journey both fruitful and purposed for His kingdom. Wherever He would call me, if indeed the life we struggle with and the world we stand against is finally reclaimed by the return of our King and Messiah.
Maybe this is my journey into the lands where God would have me shine the brightest for His glory….much like Paul did after his Damascus encounter….disappearing for three years until Barnabus sought him out in Tarsus…and the missionary journeys began…..to lands far away….and eventually back to his native country “in chains.”
There are worries that wash upon my shores daily, problems that make this more of an improbability that reality…..and there are those who will say its running away or its for incorrect reasons, but I have faced that before and God has still called me into those places to which others would not believe He would dare….to speak for Him, to testify through the movement of my life to His glory, His mercy and His peace. So, believe or not…
Let my Paulian journey begin………………..I speak His vision for my purpose today….and until its fruition in His greater story…….
Showing posts with label Missionary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Missionary. Show all posts
Saturday, June 27
Wednesday, June 24
Moving closer......
“When Jesus finished telling these parables, he left that place and went back to his hometown. He taught in the synagogue, and those who heard him were amazed. "Where did he get such wisdom?" they asked. "And what about his miracles? Isn't he the carpenter's son? Isn't Mary his mother, and aren't James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas his brothers? Aren't all his sisters living here? Where did he get all this?" And so they rejected him. Jesus said to them, "A prophet is respected everywhere except in his hometown and by his own family." Because they did not have faith, he did not perform many miracles there.” (Matthew 13:53-58 GNB)
A brother in arms…… one of the warriors out in the world who is fighting in the hand-to-hand dirtiness as we continue towards that moment in time when Christ lights up the sky and reclaims what is His by righteousness and original craftsmanship……replied to my blog about moving into that unrealistic, unforeseen realm of God’s possibilities and reminded me of a few things that I had forgotten and reassured me to follow God in where He calls, provides and entices.
“It seems to me that God is definitely leading you in a direction that the world may never understand……………no-one can know the will of God for his life like the man himself, who is truly seeking after God. You are doing that my friend, and I stand beside you in battle supporting you and praying for you. If you feel you are where God wants you to be, then press on my brother. God will show you the way - every step of the way! I am reminded of the journey Abraham took when God first called him……………….. Be faithful to your calling. Let me know if I can pray for you specifically in any way. And may God richly bless you (as it appears is already happening) as you continue to follow in Christ's footsteps.”
When I mentioned the struggle against the ‘fellowship’ of believers regarding the call to a few teammates of mine, they quipped “You should be on TV, there’s a lot like you out there on TV.” I think they meant well, but it was another example, to me, of the unbelieving responses I have been getting for the last four and a half years since that moment at Willow Creek. I’m not seminary trained, not endorsed by a church body and don’t have the financial ease in which to pursue such a wild vision. My life isn’t neatly wrapped up under the illusionary umbrella of ‘spiritual awakening and renewal’ and the story I have to tell makes others quake and quiver………
And, in the westernized culturized Christian movement, such things are the ‘approval’ markings that are too often looked for as a ‘god-approved’ adventure. No consideration is given to the story of the declarer, to vett out the human-response of ‘agenda’ and see the visionary and unrealistic (in the world’s eyes) goals of God’s in the calling. We, in this culture, like our pastoral leaders trained under the same apologetic, denominational or emergent veins…….having connectable points to the larger picture. When the rogue comes and disrupts that preference, we get upset. When God doesn’t send us someone who doesn’t fit into our preconception of what ‘annointed’ of God should look like, we move away from God’s story and become self-serving in our own stories.
As my friend reminded me, Abram must’ve been a bit fearful and nervous about the calling to depart from his family, his friends and his countrymen and go where…no specific location given….the Lord would lead him. Yet, he packed up and went. God isn’t in the business of comfort and easy living….to have such an existence in this world would mean that you are so aligned, so covered in the world that the illusionary things that you feel are comfortable, easy and unstressful appear real to you……until God provides the impus to show you that such things built upon the world’s standards are anything but long-lasting and eternal. They are as fragile as dreams and as deadly as temporary fixes. And, if I’ve learned nothing more about God than this; when He purposes you, He calls you into the biggest of your fears, discomforts and weakest ‘struggles.’
I think that’s not because God has a desire to break you down into your most simplistic of molecules but rather that it is because that is where the enemy has concentrated most of his energy because he knows how powerful and effective you would be with your life, calling and faith aligned with God’s larger story. How much more quickly his time would end because of the multitude of the faithful spread out all over the globe who were aligned with God and working with Him in the pursuit of the kingdom plans. With intimate knowledge of what your purpose is, why wouldn’t he build the protection against you ever fulfilling it? Fear, doubt and even intimidation are merely his tools.
Henry Blackaby and Claude King, in their study Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, say that when you receive an invitation to join God’s work in the world around you, there is a crisis of belief….that point where you focus on yourself…in the selfish human manner that we all recognize as the genesis of sin…instead of God. As they write, “God wants to intercept those lives. Suppose He wants to do it through you. He comes to you and talks to you. But you are so self-centered, you respond, ‘I don’t think I am trained. I don’t think I am able to do it. And I…..’…..the focus is on self. The moment you sense God is moving in your life, you give Him a whole list of reasons why He has got the wrong person or why the time is not right.” Like Moses, "I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Exodus 3:11 GNB) and "But suppose the Israelites do not believe me and will not listen to what I say. What shall I do if they say that you did not appear to me?" (Exodus 4:1 GNB).
Moses, in the story of God, was not the ‘right’ man for the job when he was the son of the daughter of Pharaoh….with all the degrees and pedigrees that would’ve made a easy road to change from within the empire…..and where the power and movement of God would have been harder to see and easier to disown. But, in the desert as a simple shepherd, Moses had no degrees to fall upon, no elegance of mouth, nor the ‘pedigree’ of the empire to rely upon to open the doors where he needed to go. And, once God made it clearly apparent to him that he was the one to go….he had no choice but to either answer in the affirmative or deny God.
God has shown me that He can answer the three biggest fears I have that would be unavoidable if I became a missionary….to Australia or anywhere else….
Relationships, Confrontations and Provisions.
If I became a foreign missionary, I would need to be in relationship with the church leadership in the area I serve as well as the community…no missionary can be sustained without it. Confrontation? To go to a country where the topic of religion just isn’t that important would be a breeding ground for ‘confrontation.’ And provisions? I wouldn’t, as a foreign national, be able to do a ‘tent-making’ ministry like Paul but would have to rely on home support, and the support of the community which I serve.
Which makes this both repelling and enticing.
The new song out on the Christian airwaves just has captured my attention in this place of where I am;
Closer to Love by Mat Kearney
She got the call today, One out of the gray. And when the smoke cleared, It took her breath away. She said she didn't believe, It could happen to me
I guess we're all one phone call from our knees
We're gonna get there soon
If every building falls, And all the stars fade. We'll still be singing this song, The one they can't take away. I'm gonna get there soon, She's gonna be there too
Cryin' in her room, Prayin' oh, Lord come through
We're gonna get there soon
Oh, it's your light, Oh, it's your way. Pull me out of the dark, Just to shoulder the weight. Cryin' out now, From so far away. You pull me closer to love....Closer to love
Meet me once again, Down off Lake Michigan. Where we could feel the storm blowin', Down with the wind. And don't apologize, For all the tears you've cried. You've been way too strong now for all your life
I'm gonna get there soon, You're gonna be there too. Cryin' in your room, Prayin' Lord come through. We're gonna get there soon.
Oh, it's your light, Oh, it's your way. Pull me out of the dark, Just to shoulder the weight. Cryin' out now, From so far away. You pull me closer to love....Closer to love
Cause you are all that I've waited for all of my life. (We're gonna get there) You are all that I've waited all of my life
You pull me closer to love.......Closer to love. Pull me closer to love (You are all that I've waited for)
You pull me closer to love.......Closer to love. Closer to love (Cause you are all that I've waited for)
Closer to love…….Pull me closer to love
Pull me out of the dark, Mat sings, just to shoulder the weight……..we’re gonna get there soon….. these are the things that hit me out of the silence….God’s work pulls me closer to His love and brings me out of the comfort of my misery to the uncomfortableness that exists in walking with Him in relationship…burdened by the weight of the mission and kingdom building to be wounded and persecuted…to be peaceful in unpeaceful places and comfortable in uncomfortableness……for the sake of the Lord and the fulfillment of His plan as experienced in His story.
Then Carolyn Baker, of AllAboutGod.com, sends this as her devotional for today:
“He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be His God and he will be My son.” Revelation 21:7
“Lord, I soar on eagles wings this morning recognizing the great privilege You have given me of being called by You - for Your purposes. I soar above all the fears and doubts, and claim for myself and all who pray this prayer, a new freedom that comes from recognizing a new day is dawning.” Carolyn writes in her prayer, “ I am so grateful Lord that You allowed me to take a good, hard look at my own fears so I would recognize the counterfeit strategies Satan was using to cause me harm. The greatest message ever preached is going to be heard around the world. No matter what happens in the physical realm of our lives, all Christians were created to move in this great purpose. We all serve differently but not one of us is immune from the cry of the Savior’s heart.”
Carolyn concludes in her reflection part of the devotional some powerful, and all-too-familiar (to me in this enticement), statements from our Father:
“We all have a high and holy calling on our lives. Complacency, comfort, fear of man – all of these counterfeits need to be surrendered at the foot of the Cross. Your life is of so much value that Christ gave His own life for you. Do not waste the opportunities you are given. Every day in your path there is something to be done for His kingdom needs. If you are not recognizing this truth in your life, you are not seeing with the eyes of the Holy Spirit. Ask Him now to free you so you can see with His eyes, hear with His ears and think His thoughts with your mind. That is true freedom. When you walk in this truth God will use you – in spite of yourself to accomplish His purposes in and through you. You need the Holy Spirit to accomplish this goal. Pray to Him – submit to His ways – then be prepared for a manifestation of Christ’s glory to shine through you.”
God has shown me a glimpse of what He wants to do, and has shown me the provisional strength He has to make it happen. Now is the time I face, as all those who are called in specific and unique ways, to make my declaration:
To Join Him in the work He is doing completely or to decline and thereby show the depth of my faith and belief……..
My faith is too strong, even if it is the size of a mustard seed, to deny and my belief has been fortified by faith and experiencing God in the other immediate areas of my life…..
I must accept the challenge to join Him where He is at and draw closer to love………
A brother in arms…… one of the warriors out in the world who is fighting in the hand-to-hand dirtiness as we continue towards that moment in time when Christ lights up the sky and reclaims what is His by righteousness and original craftsmanship……replied to my blog about moving into that unrealistic, unforeseen realm of God’s possibilities and reminded me of a few things that I had forgotten and reassured me to follow God in where He calls, provides and entices.
“It seems to me that God is definitely leading you in a direction that the world may never understand……………no-one can know the will of God for his life like the man himself, who is truly seeking after God. You are doing that my friend, and I stand beside you in battle supporting you and praying for you. If you feel you are where God wants you to be, then press on my brother. God will show you the way - every step of the way! I am reminded of the journey Abraham took when God first called him……………….. Be faithful to your calling. Let me know if I can pray for you specifically in any way. And may God richly bless you (as it appears is already happening) as you continue to follow in Christ's footsteps.”
When I mentioned the struggle against the ‘fellowship’ of believers regarding the call to a few teammates of mine, they quipped “You should be on TV, there’s a lot like you out there on TV.” I think they meant well, but it was another example, to me, of the unbelieving responses I have been getting for the last four and a half years since that moment at Willow Creek. I’m not seminary trained, not endorsed by a church body and don’t have the financial ease in which to pursue such a wild vision. My life isn’t neatly wrapped up under the illusionary umbrella of ‘spiritual awakening and renewal’ and the story I have to tell makes others quake and quiver………
And, in the westernized culturized Christian movement, such things are the ‘approval’ markings that are too often looked for as a ‘god-approved’ adventure. No consideration is given to the story of the declarer, to vett out the human-response of ‘agenda’ and see the visionary and unrealistic (in the world’s eyes) goals of God’s in the calling. We, in this culture, like our pastoral leaders trained under the same apologetic, denominational or emergent veins…….having connectable points to the larger picture. When the rogue comes and disrupts that preference, we get upset. When God doesn’t send us someone who doesn’t fit into our preconception of what ‘annointed’ of God should look like, we move away from God’s story and become self-serving in our own stories.
As my friend reminded me, Abram must’ve been a bit fearful and nervous about the calling to depart from his family, his friends and his countrymen and go where…no specific location given….the Lord would lead him. Yet, he packed up and went. God isn’t in the business of comfort and easy living….to have such an existence in this world would mean that you are so aligned, so covered in the world that the illusionary things that you feel are comfortable, easy and unstressful appear real to you……until God provides the impus to show you that such things built upon the world’s standards are anything but long-lasting and eternal. They are as fragile as dreams and as deadly as temporary fixes. And, if I’ve learned nothing more about God than this; when He purposes you, He calls you into the biggest of your fears, discomforts and weakest ‘struggles.’
I think that’s not because God has a desire to break you down into your most simplistic of molecules but rather that it is because that is where the enemy has concentrated most of his energy because he knows how powerful and effective you would be with your life, calling and faith aligned with God’s larger story. How much more quickly his time would end because of the multitude of the faithful spread out all over the globe who were aligned with God and working with Him in the pursuit of the kingdom plans. With intimate knowledge of what your purpose is, why wouldn’t he build the protection against you ever fulfilling it? Fear, doubt and even intimidation are merely his tools.
Henry Blackaby and Claude King, in their study Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, say that when you receive an invitation to join God’s work in the world around you, there is a crisis of belief….that point where you focus on yourself…in the selfish human manner that we all recognize as the genesis of sin…instead of God. As they write, “God wants to intercept those lives. Suppose He wants to do it through you. He comes to you and talks to you. But you are so self-centered, you respond, ‘I don’t think I am trained. I don’t think I am able to do it. And I…..’…..the focus is on self. The moment you sense God is moving in your life, you give Him a whole list of reasons why He has got the wrong person or why the time is not right.” Like Moses, "I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Exodus 3:11 GNB) and "But suppose the Israelites do not believe me and will not listen to what I say. What shall I do if they say that you did not appear to me?" (Exodus 4:1 GNB).
Moses, in the story of God, was not the ‘right’ man for the job when he was the son of the daughter of Pharaoh….with all the degrees and pedigrees that would’ve made a easy road to change from within the empire…..and where the power and movement of God would have been harder to see and easier to disown. But, in the desert as a simple shepherd, Moses had no degrees to fall upon, no elegance of mouth, nor the ‘pedigree’ of the empire to rely upon to open the doors where he needed to go. And, once God made it clearly apparent to him that he was the one to go….he had no choice but to either answer in the affirmative or deny God.
God has shown me that He can answer the three biggest fears I have that would be unavoidable if I became a missionary….to Australia or anywhere else….
Relationships, Confrontations and Provisions.
If I became a foreign missionary, I would need to be in relationship with the church leadership in the area I serve as well as the community…no missionary can be sustained without it. Confrontation? To go to a country where the topic of religion just isn’t that important would be a breeding ground for ‘confrontation.’ And provisions? I wouldn’t, as a foreign national, be able to do a ‘tent-making’ ministry like Paul but would have to rely on home support, and the support of the community which I serve.
Which makes this both repelling and enticing.
The new song out on the Christian airwaves just has captured my attention in this place of where I am;
Closer to Love by Mat Kearney
She got the call today, One out of the gray. And when the smoke cleared, It took her breath away. She said she didn't believe, It could happen to me
I guess we're all one phone call from our knees
We're gonna get there soon
If every building falls, And all the stars fade. We'll still be singing this song, The one they can't take away. I'm gonna get there soon, She's gonna be there too
Cryin' in her room, Prayin' oh, Lord come through
We're gonna get there soon
Oh, it's your light, Oh, it's your way. Pull me out of the dark, Just to shoulder the weight. Cryin' out now, From so far away. You pull me closer to love....Closer to love
Meet me once again, Down off Lake Michigan. Where we could feel the storm blowin', Down with the wind. And don't apologize, For all the tears you've cried. You've been way too strong now for all your life
I'm gonna get there soon, You're gonna be there too. Cryin' in your room, Prayin' Lord come through. We're gonna get there soon.
Oh, it's your light, Oh, it's your way. Pull me out of the dark, Just to shoulder the weight. Cryin' out now, From so far away. You pull me closer to love....Closer to love
Cause you are all that I've waited for all of my life. (We're gonna get there) You are all that I've waited all of my life
You pull me closer to love.......Closer to love. Pull me closer to love (You are all that I've waited for)
You pull me closer to love.......Closer to love. Closer to love (Cause you are all that I've waited for)
Closer to love…….Pull me closer to love
Pull me out of the dark, Mat sings, just to shoulder the weight……..we’re gonna get there soon….. these are the things that hit me out of the silence….God’s work pulls me closer to His love and brings me out of the comfort of my misery to the uncomfortableness that exists in walking with Him in relationship…burdened by the weight of the mission and kingdom building to be wounded and persecuted…to be peaceful in unpeaceful places and comfortable in uncomfortableness……for the sake of the Lord and the fulfillment of His plan as experienced in His story.
Then Carolyn Baker, of AllAboutGod.com, sends this as her devotional for today:
“He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be His God and he will be My son.” Revelation 21:7
“Lord, I soar on eagles wings this morning recognizing the great privilege You have given me of being called by You - for Your purposes. I soar above all the fears and doubts, and claim for myself and all who pray this prayer, a new freedom that comes from recognizing a new day is dawning.” Carolyn writes in her prayer, “ I am so grateful Lord that You allowed me to take a good, hard look at my own fears so I would recognize the counterfeit strategies Satan was using to cause me harm. The greatest message ever preached is going to be heard around the world. No matter what happens in the physical realm of our lives, all Christians were created to move in this great purpose. We all serve differently but not one of us is immune from the cry of the Savior’s heart.”
Carolyn concludes in her reflection part of the devotional some powerful, and all-too-familiar (to me in this enticement), statements from our Father:
“We all have a high and holy calling on our lives. Complacency, comfort, fear of man – all of these counterfeits need to be surrendered at the foot of the Cross. Your life is of so much value that Christ gave His own life for you. Do not waste the opportunities you are given. Every day in your path there is something to be done for His kingdom needs. If you are not recognizing this truth in your life, you are not seeing with the eyes of the Holy Spirit. Ask Him now to free you so you can see with His eyes, hear with His ears and think His thoughts with your mind. That is true freedom. When you walk in this truth God will use you – in spite of yourself to accomplish His purposes in and through you. You need the Holy Spirit to accomplish this goal. Pray to Him – submit to His ways – then be prepared for a manifestation of Christ’s glory to shine through you.”
God has shown me a glimpse of what He wants to do, and has shown me the provisional strength He has to make it happen. Now is the time I face, as all those who are called in specific and unique ways, to make my declaration:
To Join Him in the work He is doing completely or to decline and thereby show the depth of my faith and belief……..
My faith is too strong, even if it is the size of a mustard seed, to deny and my belief has been fortified by faith and experiencing God in the other immediate areas of my life…..
I must accept the challenge to join Him where He is at and draw closer to love………
Thursday, June 18
The world grows smaller as the dream grows bigger
"And when they were on the way, a certain man said to him, I will come after you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have resting-places, but the Son of man has nowhere to put his head. And he said to another, Come after me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and give the last honours to my father. But he said to him, Let the dead take care of their dead; it is for you to go and give news of the kingdom of God. And another man said, I will come with you, Lord, but first let me say a last good-day to those who are at my house. But Jesus said, No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is good enough for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:57-62 BBE)
God's commission doesn't sit well in the modern westernized Church model...which seems so far from the model of the Church that Christ left in the hands of His disciples some 2,000 years ago. More and more churches are more concerned about fancy temples, big projects (called capital building projects) that do little within the communities in which they rest. Evangelism becomes a 'big sign' and 'full parking lot' rather than one-on-one relationships. Pastors become favorites rather than the word that is preached. Outreaches become single-minded and sharply focused upon one group, one bracket or one direction.
The numbers look good, the finances attract investors who 'loan money to visionaries' and the Word (never to return void) goes slowly silent as the faithful are guided into the postmodern 'self' message of love, love and love.....the lies and philosophies of man become hazy and semi-biblical in their utterance but totally void of their fruitfulness, until it becomes the 'Word', leaving more and more of the mega-churched empty and abandoned to fall prey to the growing malaise that paralyzes a people into 'voting' for a immoral change, speaking less against a culture in chaotic destructive mentality and a rejection of those who would speak the Truth in its unadulterated, non-respecting purity.
Go out to all the nations of the world and tell them the Gospel, making disciples becomes an inward focus on keeping what you have and calling the community that lies stagnant a focal point of God's blessings, the Word proclaimed and the lesser 'dirtiness' of life is conveniently swept under the table that sits on the stage.
Disciples lose their zeal for the passion of Christ and opt instead for the relative comforts of Sunday school and cookie-cutter programming for the ministries. Challenges once issued to the leadership under the passionate convictions of a man or woman of God, even if in opposition to the leader's chosen direction, fall upon the ears of the discontent as they have been silenced into submission by the congregational love feast with their pastoral leadership. No one really questions anymore, for questions are not welcomed within the halls of the faithful and the glittered temples of mega. It is better to fade into the quietness of contemplative silence and forego the desires God stokes within the flame of our faith.
Most churches preach a doctrine of peaceful contentment, relative bliss and relational complacency that one has to dull their hearts in such condition so that the mudanity of their lives serve as a balm for the discontentment that boils beneath the surface. This is why I believe the mega-, emergent- and postmodern churches are the most popular today.....it soothes the discontentment that a life seeking Christ, knowing God and being counseled by the Spirit causes, the disruption and the fearful reliance upon a faith that is never stagnate, never satisfied and constantly challenged.
As John Eldridge says in The Sacred Romance, "While our hearts grow in its capacity for pleasure, it grows in its capacity to know pain." The Church, in trying to answer the painful experiences that its congregations are facing actually helps to silence the growth of its members....calling them to a mundane numbness that nullifies the growing sense of painful disconnection to a world that moves further and further from the precepts of its Designer and Creator.
"As the Lord gives you truth, acknowledge it and allow HIM to guide you through it. Don’t try to do anything on your own. Our walk with the Lord is a continual realization of how we need to grow in the image of the Son." Paul Ferree, American missionary and writer of the blog "How To Become A Missionary", writes as he and his family travel the United States where the Father leads, "We simply recognize our errors and repent, or trade our ways for the Father’s ways. Turn from the way we do things and do things the way our Father in heaven instructs us to do them."
As I sense with growing wonder and competing fear the grand work of the Lord within and around me, and the evidence that shows a preparation to the impossibility of the direction that......my preconceived perceptions of what my service to the Call would shape out to be. These are shattered upon the rocks of disillusioned fantasies, exposing the utter foolishness of a future built upon their fragile and simple frames. The assured, peaceful disruption of following the 'walk of sorrow' that characterizes the journey of Christ from rejection to condemnation to the crucifixion promises a grander context, greater works and stronger persecution in ways that I immediately want to reject as foolishness and point out their improbability.
It no longer seems ironic to me that as I look into the chaos of my disrupted life and all of its trials, tribulations and stresses that I find more and more Word being delivered upon the platter of my supplication for God to speak. From a multitude of sources; devotions from separate ministries, words from others (and not just necessarily 'faithful' ones) and an inter-relationalish to events in my life.
Today, from the Ransomed Hearts ministry of John Eldridge, author of Wild at Heart, as well as other fantastic books, comes a devotion that referenced Psalm 119:25. I've quoted part of Eldridge's comments from his book, The Sacred Romance, already...but God chose to expand upon Eldridge's offering with the verses from 25 through 38.
"I am at the point of death. Let your teachings breathe new life into me. When I told you my troubles, you answered my prayers. Now teach me your laws. Help me to understand your teachings, and I will think about your marvelous deeds. I am overcome with sorrow. Encourage me, as you have promised to do. Keep me from being deceitful, and be kind enough to teach me your Law. I am determined to be faithful and to respect your laws. I follow your rules, LORD. Don't let me be ashamed. I am eager to learn all that you want me to do; help me to understand more and more. Point out your rules to me, and I won't disobey even one of them. Help me to understand your Law; I promise to obey it with all my heart. Direct me by your commands! I love to do what you say. Make me want to obey you, rather than to be rich. Take away my foolish desires, and let me find life by walking with you. I am your servant! Do for me what you promised to those who worship you." (Psalms 119:25-38 CEV)
My heart wants to cling to the 'comforts' of this life that has taken so much effort and suffering to achieve, even at this level. It wants peace, grace, mercy, love and above all, hope in such degree that its undeniable. It wants evidence of healing, restoration and an visible 'outward' sign to point to as evidence of my spiritual growth in His purpose. Yet, by clinging to that desire and the resultant chains that it creates, I become bound by the declarations of others.....more beholding to their perceived and unknowledged agendas. God doesn't move where we chain ourselves willingly but calls us to break those chains and live 'on the edge' of His cresting wave of life-giving water......straining in those places where our worst fears lie, unprepared and uncomfortable....God has already prepared us for those things, just as He has already restored our corrupted bodies, yet the journey is realizing that in truth in its entirity, something we will never fully achieve until we reach the point of Christ's return or ours to our Heavenly home
God doesn't ask us to 'fit Him into our life' but to surrender our life over to Him so that we can fit into His story, His life.
"But more than anything else put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well." (Matthew 6:33 CEV)
Even in the fluidity of my current situation; finances, location and family struggles.....my time has been less focused on what God is doing in my world, in the life around me, and more focused on the miserable attempt to 'maintain' this lifestyle's 'status quo' at least, with the hope to improve it beyond the difficult position of being fully dependent on God's timing, provision and direction. My devotional time, as reflected in my blog postings, has been stagnant and full of silence.
But, in the last few months, in ever increasing ways….God has brought undeniable proof of His provisions and of His conditioning for the Calling He's given. Not in the hallowed halls of the Church, nor the venerable cafeterias of the aging saints. By becoming vulnerable to God, I am realizing the folly of my limitations…..as if God is big, but not big enough for my situation and problems. He is working in my life in ways I didn't realize, amid the painfulness of letting go of the old…..and it is the strength He has added to my faith that makes it still cling to Him despite no assurance of anything.
Oh, I'm not fully free, if I ever will be, but God is still pointing the way and whispering words of preparation for a world that He's opened for me to journey in with His Truth, His Mercy and for His Glory. The dream, though personal and unique to my perspective, is expanding beyond my wildest imaginations.
Paul Ferre's website is www.paulferree.com that is his 'tent making' conjunction to his ministry. His blog, how to become a missionary is at www.howtobecomeamissionary.com . John Eldridge's devotionals are sent from the website of his Ransomed Heart ministry that you can sign up for at www.ransomedheart.com.
God's commission doesn't sit well in the modern westernized Church model...which seems so far from the model of the Church that Christ left in the hands of His disciples some 2,000 years ago. More and more churches are more concerned about fancy temples, big projects (called capital building projects) that do little within the communities in which they rest. Evangelism becomes a 'big sign' and 'full parking lot' rather than one-on-one relationships. Pastors become favorites rather than the word that is preached. Outreaches become single-minded and sharply focused upon one group, one bracket or one direction.
The numbers look good, the finances attract investors who 'loan money to visionaries' and the Word (never to return void) goes slowly silent as the faithful are guided into the postmodern 'self' message of love, love and love.....the lies and philosophies of man become hazy and semi-biblical in their utterance but totally void of their fruitfulness, until it becomes the 'Word', leaving more and more of the mega-churched empty and abandoned to fall prey to the growing malaise that paralyzes a people into 'voting' for a immoral change, speaking less against a culture in chaotic destructive mentality and a rejection of those who would speak the Truth in its unadulterated, non-respecting purity.
Go out to all the nations of the world and tell them the Gospel, making disciples becomes an inward focus on keeping what you have and calling the community that lies stagnant a focal point of God's blessings, the Word proclaimed and the lesser 'dirtiness' of life is conveniently swept under the table that sits on the stage.
Disciples lose their zeal for the passion of Christ and opt instead for the relative comforts of Sunday school and cookie-cutter programming for the ministries. Challenges once issued to the leadership under the passionate convictions of a man or woman of God, even if in opposition to the leader's chosen direction, fall upon the ears of the discontent as they have been silenced into submission by the congregational love feast with their pastoral leadership. No one really questions anymore, for questions are not welcomed within the halls of the faithful and the glittered temples of mega. It is better to fade into the quietness of contemplative silence and forego the desires God stokes within the flame of our faith.
Most churches preach a doctrine of peaceful contentment, relative bliss and relational complacency that one has to dull their hearts in such condition so that the mudanity of their lives serve as a balm for the discontentment that boils beneath the surface. This is why I believe the mega-, emergent- and postmodern churches are the most popular today.....it soothes the discontentment that a life seeking Christ, knowing God and being counseled by the Spirit causes, the disruption and the fearful reliance upon a faith that is never stagnate, never satisfied and constantly challenged.
As John Eldridge says in The Sacred Romance, "While our hearts grow in its capacity for pleasure, it grows in its capacity to know pain." The Church, in trying to answer the painful experiences that its congregations are facing actually helps to silence the growth of its members....calling them to a mundane numbness that nullifies the growing sense of painful disconnection to a world that moves further and further from the precepts of its Designer and Creator.
"As the Lord gives you truth, acknowledge it and allow HIM to guide you through it. Don’t try to do anything on your own. Our walk with the Lord is a continual realization of how we need to grow in the image of the Son." Paul Ferree, American missionary and writer of the blog "How To Become A Missionary", writes as he and his family travel the United States where the Father leads, "We simply recognize our errors and repent, or trade our ways for the Father’s ways. Turn from the way we do things and do things the way our Father in heaven instructs us to do them."
As I sense with growing wonder and competing fear the grand work of the Lord within and around me, and the evidence that shows a preparation to the impossibility of the direction that......my preconceived perceptions of what my service to the Call would shape out to be. These are shattered upon the rocks of disillusioned fantasies, exposing the utter foolishness of a future built upon their fragile and simple frames. The assured, peaceful disruption of following the 'walk of sorrow' that characterizes the journey of Christ from rejection to condemnation to the crucifixion promises a grander context, greater works and stronger persecution in ways that I immediately want to reject as foolishness and point out their improbability.
It no longer seems ironic to me that as I look into the chaos of my disrupted life and all of its trials, tribulations and stresses that I find more and more Word being delivered upon the platter of my supplication for God to speak. From a multitude of sources; devotions from separate ministries, words from others (and not just necessarily 'faithful' ones) and an inter-relationalish to events in my life.
Today, from the Ransomed Hearts ministry of John Eldridge, author of Wild at Heart, as well as other fantastic books, comes a devotion that referenced Psalm 119:25. I've quoted part of Eldridge's comments from his book, The Sacred Romance, already...but God chose to expand upon Eldridge's offering with the verses from 25 through 38.
"I am at the point of death. Let your teachings breathe new life into me. When I told you my troubles, you answered my prayers. Now teach me your laws. Help me to understand your teachings, and I will think about your marvelous deeds. I am overcome with sorrow. Encourage me, as you have promised to do. Keep me from being deceitful, and be kind enough to teach me your Law. I am determined to be faithful and to respect your laws. I follow your rules, LORD. Don't let me be ashamed. I am eager to learn all that you want me to do; help me to understand more and more. Point out your rules to me, and I won't disobey even one of them. Help me to understand your Law; I promise to obey it with all my heart. Direct me by your commands! I love to do what you say. Make me want to obey you, rather than to be rich. Take away my foolish desires, and let me find life by walking with you. I am your servant! Do for me what you promised to those who worship you." (Psalms 119:25-38 CEV)
My heart wants to cling to the 'comforts' of this life that has taken so much effort and suffering to achieve, even at this level. It wants peace, grace, mercy, love and above all, hope in such degree that its undeniable. It wants evidence of healing, restoration and an visible 'outward' sign to point to as evidence of my spiritual growth in His purpose. Yet, by clinging to that desire and the resultant chains that it creates, I become bound by the declarations of others.....more beholding to their perceived and unknowledged agendas. God doesn't move where we chain ourselves willingly but calls us to break those chains and live 'on the edge' of His cresting wave of life-giving water......straining in those places where our worst fears lie, unprepared and uncomfortable....God has already prepared us for those things, just as He has already restored our corrupted bodies, yet the journey is realizing that in truth in its entirity, something we will never fully achieve until we reach the point of Christ's return or ours to our Heavenly home
God doesn't ask us to 'fit Him into our life' but to surrender our life over to Him so that we can fit into His story, His life.
"But more than anything else put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well." (Matthew 6:33 CEV)
Even in the fluidity of my current situation; finances, location and family struggles.....my time has been less focused on what God is doing in my world, in the life around me, and more focused on the miserable attempt to 'maintain' this lifestyle's 'status quo' at least, with the hope to improve it beyond the difficult position of being fully dependent on God's timing, provision and direction. My devotional time, as reflected in my blog postings, has been stagnant and full of silence.
But, in the last few months, in ever increasing ways….God has brought undeniable proof of His provisions and of His conditioning for the Calling He's given. Not in the hallowed halls of the Church, nor the venerable cafeterias of the aging saints. By becoming vulnerable to God, I am realizing the folly of my limitations…..as if God is big, but not big enough for my situation and problems. He is working in my life in ways I didn't realize, amid the painfulness of letting go of the old…..and it is the strength He has added to my faith that makes it still cling to Him despite no assurance of anything.
Oh, I'm not fully free, if I ever will be, but God is still pointing the way and whispering words of preparation for a world that He's opened for me to journey in with His Truth, His Mercy and for His Glory. The dream, though personal and unique to my perspective, is expanding beyond my wildest imaginations.
Paul Ferre's website is www.paulferree.com that is his 'tent making' conjunction to his ministry. His blog, how to become a missionary is at www.howtobecomeamissionary.com . John Eldridge's devotionals are sent from the website of his Ransomed Heart ministry that you can sign up for at www.ransomedheart.com.
Wednesday, June 17
Following the work God would do.........
I don't know if this is going to be a 'smooth' flowing blog post today.....God has me in such a disrupted state that I just let it go......The harvest, He keeps whispering, is ready and the workers few, will you join Me where I call?"
"Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls”" (Jeremiah 6:16, ESV)
Dare I hope that the day has come where I see the positive movement of God within the context of my story, no longer at the behest of the writer but through the hand of the Ghost writer that has been writing the whole breathe and width of the human story since its inception at the breath of God into the formed lump of clay?
If so, the vision is unlike the shape and color of that moment in October where I heard the LORD speak to me as Gene Apell stood upon the stage at the mega-church of Bill Hybels and spoke of his ministry; neighborhood communities. Being so newly minted into the new creature that God enables upon rebirth, I find it funny sometimes how convinced, convicted and even 'rejectful' of that moment in time, a scant eight months since the experience that would forever change my life's direction and would bring me into full view of the enemy's ill will, that I was.
It surely hasn't translated into assurance, edification and mentoring in the whole-wide body of Christ, even five years plus later....except in those 'pockets' of believers that have stepped into the messiness of life and seen the mark of God's annointing, that band of brothers, and sisters, who move into the messiness of life with more than just words of life but a positive movement that speaks louder than words could ever convey.
A faint glimpse that powerful October call seems to be now; the width and depth of the need within the body of Christ, not just worldwide but especially within the 'hallowed halls' of the westernized church that is slowly dying in the postmoderistic, universalist and agenda-ridden environment of the American experience has never seemed to be more in need of those faithfully called to ministry and yet so rejectful of those so called. "A prophet is not welcomed in his own town" has rang true throughout my experience here at home in the land of my birth.
The barely understood journey from the beloved boy that God created who was killed in his infancey to the godly man; still forming, still growing and still wounded as he faces that death and finds God's restorative, resurrecting power even in the midst of his past....testifies to the mighty works the Lord is doing within its confines and the broader scope of its use for the Kingdom.
It seems to be the mode operandi that God has used in my life; a simple question, a scriptural reference, or even a study that, once considered, becomes a moment of choice that becomes a journey of learning, seeking and realization that becomes a clear vision of God's working in and around me in my life...wherever it is and how ever it has been lived......that becomes a desire to declare its clarity in the lives around me and then another question, simply put, that brings me full-circle into the process.
Sometimes the process is seemingly effortless, those simple truths that cascade through the moments like a waterfall....one simply gives in to its powerful truth. More often though, the process is very difficult, exceedingly painful and in its entrity not all that much fun....but it is like a stream, still of the same element, but slower as it whittles the hardened rock to its eventual collaspe.
And, in the darkness of human despair, depression, loss, struggle and tribulation when the dark fluidity of the night seems to press upon me with the liquid heaviness of blood, I find the strength born of fear, faith and an undeniable hope that causes me to reach out to those things I fear the most for substainable substance in the midst of it all. Other men, relationship and community.
It is still a source of amazement to me at the power of God in the controlling and issuance of His word from the mouth of another brother or sister that, even in its actual context, speaks different words to each of those He has touched to be compelled by its utterance. Recently, my current home church completed the process of securing funding and the ownership (with mortgage) of a parcel of land where the Lead Pastor has envisioned a dream for God's work in the Holly Area. The pastor called upon the congregation to be a participator in God's work, not a spectator.
"One day Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side." But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave at Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men, including Ahijah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the LORD in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. Within the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. The one crag rose on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba. Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few." And his armor-bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul." Then Jonathan said, "Behold, we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them. If they say to us, 'Wait until we come to you,' then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. But if they say, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up, for the LORD has given them into our hand. And this shall be the sign to us." So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, "Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves." And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, "Come up to us, and we will show you a thing." And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, "Come up after me, for the LORD has given them into the hand of Israel." Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor-bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer killed them after him. And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, killed about twenty men within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land." (1 Samuel 14:1-14 ESV)
An exercise of the heart, like Jonathan's boldness in the face of an larger foe, doesn't start with worldly and human motives, but speaks of a boldness of the faith within; we know the brokenness of the world, the depravity of it and its soothing way of destruction, yet we live in a state of peace...worship...and blessing because our Lord is real. We mourn for the world, speak into the darkness because of this awareness and proclaim through the worship of our lives the Good News of the Lord. We don't ignore the enemy at our gates, nor do we wait underneath the relative comfort of our church walls and offer burnt sacrifices to cover our inaction.
As we were taught to pray, the desire of the children of God should be nothing more than to do the will of the Father on earth, by whatever means necessary without the compromising of the tenents and commandments that already exist. It is that desire that is so dominant in the bedrock of our foundations that we don't think twice about what He speaks, but have brought it into the light of His purpose and are given a peace about its truthfulness. A Participator, as my pastor would say, rather than a spectator.
"Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10
This desire doesn't seem to make sense to others, yet many have left the comfort of support, security and familiarity at great personal cost to follow the Lord's will in their story. When we fail at the duties because of our own foolishness, disbelief or fearfulness, we hurt.....not because of our fear the Father but because we love Him so much. We rush headlong into the world where our Father is working around us, as John Eldridge points out, "out of desire" as Jesus did, "for the joy set before Him." The depth of His desire to be where His Father was, serving alongside His Father and bringing His Father that joy that comes from His child, indeed all of His children, was evident as He was scourged, beaten and crucified. The fierciness of His passion, His sorrow and His love touch our lives and draw us into the world He left us in to "perform things greater than these."
The life of a follower of Christ, a believer, is nothing more than a 'holy longing' that is never fulfilled but that grows stronger and stronger as we walk towards that final hilltop and view our Father's house arrayed before us....for that is where the saints who have gone before and those who will gaze into the skies and see the mighty Savior's return all are going.....the familiar treaded, harden pathways are permanently etched into the fabric of this world and yet it is only those who have learned to 'groan inwardly as' they 'wait eagerly' under increasing desire. A question, spoken by a dear friend of years, was a simple one; laughed off as 'yeah, right'.....for its sheer laughidity and utter improbability. Then another, when it was laughingly repeated, looked intent as words were spoken, "Maybe you will be...." Again, a shake of the head by the sheer folly of the very idea.......and the issue drops into the back drawer, forgotten for a time.
"O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me." (Psalm 139:1)
There is no denying God those things we wish to hide from the consuming fire of the passion He ignites in our faith, properly directed, in His purpose for us. A 'purpose' that isn't some block on the big board of God's construction projects where He grumbles, conjoles and entices us to finish our specific 'contracted' part of the building but something that was uniquely designed by Him for us to use to show our thankfulness and love for Him....like a father making known what he would like for Father's day and then helping his children make it. God has searched us, literally penetrated deep into our being and knows us intimately...our tendencies under the old nature, our fears and our ability to do the job at hand. He can even see the formation of words before they gain shape enough for our utterances....we are totally transparent to Him and only the blood of Christ saves us from that condemnation that is the result of sin. There is no hiding.
God loves us in spite of what we have become, and where we will fail and yet, He lives in the knowledge, the understanding, of what we can be through the gift of eternal life, the transformation that takes place and the journey that continues until we come to a place before the throne and find ourselves what He's always known we will be.
And if that is all true, then who are we when in the fire of the consuming passion to judge when we are 'sent forth' rather than 'dropping what [we] are doing and following Him?' We should follow the examples set forth by the saints of old….from the apostles through the early church fathers to the saints that have been fading from the American landscape as the church grows more distant from the origins of its birth…..and the Head Priest that gave her to us to care for….
Like George Mueller, quoted in "Experiencing God",
"I never remember…..a period…..that I ever sincerely and patiently sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the Word of God, but I have been always directed rightly. But if honesty of heart and uprightness before God were lacking, or if I did not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow men to the declarations of the Word of the living God, I made great mistakes."
Only by sincerely seeking God's direction, waiting on Him to supply the Word to go forth with and looking to the Spirit to teach through the written Words of God, we are only running after our own agenda, our own wishes of glory and greatness that haunt the flesh of this corrupt body……forgoing forthrightness, uprightness and patience to follow the counsel of men who are themselves broken and corrupted.
So, as this question blooms into a choice to join God in the work He is doing, I seek to bring myself into a place where my will is absent, leaving this choice to follow not subject to feeling or whim and seek the Will, Word and Motivation of the Spirit of God, the Holy Counselor, through prayer, study and reflection.
And the possibilities are enormous, frightening to the flesh and peaceful to the spirit.
"Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls”" (Jeremiah 6:16, ESV)
Dare I hope that the day has come where I see the positive movement of God within the context of my story, no longer at the behest of the writer but through the hand of the Ghost writer that has been writing the whole breathe and width of the human story since its inception at the breath of God into the formed lump of clay?
If so, the vision is unlike the shape and color of that moment in October where I heard the LORD speak to me as Gene Apell stood upon the stage at the mega-church of Bill Hybels and spoke of his ministry; neighborhood communities. Being so newly minted into the new creature that God enables upon rebirth, I find it funny sometimes how convinced, convicted and even 'rejectful' of that moment in time, a scant eight months since the experience that would forever change my life's direction and would bring me into full view of the enemy's ill will, that I was.
It surely hasn't translated into assurance, edification and mentoring in the whole-wide body of Christ, even five years plus later....except in those 'pockets' of believers that have stepped into the messiness of life and seen the mark of God's annointing, that band of brothers, and sisters, who move into the messiness of life with more than just words of life but a positive movement that speaks louder than words could ever convey.
A faint glimpse that powerful October call seems to be now; the width and depth of the need within the body of Christ, not just worldwide but especially within the 'hallowed halls' of the westernized church that is slowly dying in the postmoderistic, universalist and agenda-ridden environment of the American experience has never seemed to be more in need of those faithfully called to ministry and yet so rejectful of those so called. "A prophet is not welcomed in his own town" has rang true throughout my experience here at home in the land of my birth.
The barely understood journey from the beloved boy that God created who was killed in his infancey to the godly man; still forming, still growing and still wounded as he faces that death and finds God's restorative, resurrecting power even in the midst of his past....testifies to the mighty works the Lord is doing within its confines and the broader scope of its use for the Kingdom.
It seems to be the mode operandi that God has used in my life; a simple question, a scriptural reference, or even a study that, once considered, becomes a moment of choice that becomes a journey of learning, seeking and realization that becomes a clear vision of God's working in and around me in my life...wherever it is and how ever it has been lived......that becomes a desire to declare its clarity in the lives around me and then another question, simply put, that brings me full-circle into the process.
Sometimes the process is seemingly effortless, those simple truths that cascade through the moments like a waterfall....one simply gives in to its powerful truth. More often though, the process is very difficult, exceedingly painful and in its entrity not all that much fun....but it is like a stream, still of the same element, but slower as it whittles the hardened rock to its eventual collaspe.
And, in the darkness of human despair, depression, loss, struggle and tribulation when the dark fluidity of the night seems to press upon me with the liquid heaviness of blood, I find the strength born of fear, faith and an undeniable hope that causes me to reach out to those things I fear the most for substainable substance in the midst of it all. Other men, relationship and community.
It is still a source of amazement to me at the power of God in the controlling and issuance of His word from the mouth of another brother or sister that, even in its actual context, speaks different words to each of those He has touched to be compelled by its utterance. Recently, my current home church completed the process of securing funding and the ownership (with mortgage) of a parcel of land where the Lead Pastor has envisioned a dream for God's work in the Holly Area. The pastor called upon the congregation to be a participator in God's work, not a spectator.
"One day Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side." But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave at Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men, including Ahijah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the LORD in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. Within the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. The one crag rose on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba. Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few." And his armor-bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul." Then Jonathan said, "Behold, we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them. If they say to us, 'Wait until we come to you,' then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. But if they say, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up, for the LORD has given them into our hand. And this shall be the sign to us." So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, "Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves." And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, "Come up to us, and we will show you a thing." And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, "Come up after me, for the LORD has given them into the hand of Israel." Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor-bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer killed them after him. And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, killed about twenty men within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land." (1 Samuel 14:1-14 ESV)
An exercise of the heart, like Jonathan's boldness in the face of an larger foe, doesn't start with worldly and human motives, but speaks of a boldness of the faith within; we know the brokenness of the world, the depravity of it and its soothing way of destruction, yet we live in a state of peace...worship...and blessing because our Lord is real. We mourn for the world, speak into the darkness because of this awareness and proclaim through the worship of our lives the Good News of the Lord. We don't ignore the enemy at our gates, nor do we wait underneath the relative comfort of our church walls and offer burnt sacrifices to cover our inaction.
As we were taught to pray, the desire of the children of God should be nothing more than to do the will of the Father on earth, by whatever means necessary without the compromising of the tenents and commandments that already exist. It is that desire that is so dominant in the bedrock of our foundations that we don't think twice about what He speaks, but have brought it into the light of His purpose and are given a peace about its truthfulness. A Participator, as my pastor would say, rather than a spectator.
"Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10
This desire doesn't seem to make sense to others, yet many have left the comfort of support, security and familiarity at great personal cost to follow the Lord's will in their story. When we fail at the duties because of our own foolishness, disbelief or fearfulness, we hurt.....not because of our fear the Father but because we love Him so much. We rush headlong into the world where our Father is working around us, as John Eldridge points out, "out of desire" as Jesus did, "for the joy set before Him." The depth of His desire to be where His Father was, serving alongside His Father and bringing His Father that joy that comes from His child, indeed all of His children, was evident as He was scourged, beaten and crucified. The fierciness of His passion, His sorrow and His love touch our lives and draw us into the world He left us in to "perform things greater than these."
The life of a follower of Christ, a believer, is nothing more than a 'holy longing' that is never fulfilled but that grows stronger and stronger as we walk towards that final hilltop and view our Father's house arrayed before us....for that is where the saints who have gone before and those who will gaze into the skies and see the mighty Savior's return all are going.....the familiar treaded, harden pathways are permanently etched into the fabric of this world and yet it is only those who have learned to 'groan inwardly as' they 'wait eagerly' under increasing desire. A question, spoken by a dear friend of years, was a simple one; laughed off as 'yeah, right'.....for its sheer laughidity and utter improbability. Then another, when it was laughingly repeated, looked intent as words were spoken, "Maybe you will be...." Again, a shake of the head by the sheer folly of the very idea.......and the issue drops into the back drawer, forgotten for a time.
"O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me." (Psalm 139:1)
There is no denying God those things we wish to hide from the consuming fire of the passion He ignites in our faith, properly directed, in His purpose for us. A 'purpose' that isn't some block on the big board of God's construction projects where He grumbles, conjoles and entices us to finish our specific 'contracted' part of the building but something that was uniquely designed by Him for us to use to show our thankfulness and love for Him....like a father making known what he would like for Father's day and then helping his children make it. God has searched us, literally penetrated deep into our being and knows us intimately...our tendencies under the old nature, our fears and our ability to do the job at hand. He can even see the formation of words before they gain shape enough for our utterances....we are totally transparent to Him and only the blood of Christ saves us from that condemnation that is the result of sin. There is no hiding.
God loves us in spite of what we have become, and where we will fail and yet, He lives in the knowledge, the understanding, of what we can be through the gift of eternal life, the transformation that takes place and the journey that continues until we come to a place before the throne and find ourselves what He's always known we will be.
And if that is all true, then who are we when in the fire of the consuming passion to judge when we are 'sent forth' rather than 'dropping what [we] are doing and following Him?' We should follow the examples set forth by the saints of old….from the apostles through the early church fathers to the saints that have been fading from the American landscape as the church grows more distant from the origins of its birth…..and the Head Priest that gave her to us to care for….
Like George Mueller, quoted in "Experiencing God",
"I never remember…..a period…..that I ever sincerely and patiently sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the Word of God, but I have been always directed rightly. But if honesty of heart and uprightness before God were lacking, or if I did not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow men to the declarations of the Word of the living God, I made great mistakes."
Only by sincerely seeking God's direction, waiting on Him to supply the Word to go forth with and looking to the Spirit to teach through the written Words of God, we are only running after our own agenda, our own wishes of glory and greatness that haunt the flesh of this corrupt body……forgoing forthrightness, uprightness and patience to follow the counsel of men who are themselves broken and corrupted.
So, as this question blooms into a choice to join God in the work He is doing, I seek to bring myself into a place where my will is absent, leaving this choice to follow not subject to feeling or whim and seek the Will, Word and Motivation of the Spirit of God, the Holy Counselor, through prayer, study and reflection.
And the possibilities are enormous, frightening to the flesh and peaceful to the spirit.
Thursday, May 8
Powerful testimony of a fallen warrior.
"A man's pride shall bring him low; But he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honor. Proverbs 29:23 ASV."
A friend of mine, Al, is very active in ministering to the homeless in North Carolina, running a ministry called Church in the Woods. I have had his website posted to my blog for some time now, it's under the "brother's and sister's websites". Too often, we think that we have to run overseas to meet the needs of the poor, homeless, and needy while those who are easily accessible remain in the darkness.
Al is not one of those people who ignore the near-in-need. Al used to be an AP reporter and his writing/musical abilities are awesome. All used for the Kingdom, all given back to the God who gave it to him. I aspired to be half the writer he is. But Al isn't the sole focus of this posting, though he is the one who wrote the following testimony.
It is a man who became his friend, brother, and an inspiration to the world from a little town in North Carolina………..
I will let you read what Al wrote, both the personal posting on www.outofthewild.com and the obit in The News & Observer.
-- Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. - John 12:24
This is both a prayer request and a praise report. I guess they usually are.
On Tuesday night, during our small group/home church/healing/prayer thing, a good friend of ours died.
Paul was an ordained Baptist minister who led a fairly large church at one time. Then he kind of fell away from God, not in a big way. Just stopped reading his Bible for four years and bobbed along, doing good works and feeling kind of empty.
God started reeling him in last year. He showed up for a homeless outreach and got plugged in with us as friends. Another couple he met there had him do their wedding. He met our autistic son, Parks, and fell in love with Jesus all over again through him.
I'm tearing up as I write this. The story keeps growing as I type, deeper and richer and wider, like the river of living waters flowing from the temple.
Paul decided to start a home group and, since he lives very close to us, we joined in. People started showing up, uninvited; always carrying a burden or brokenness that miraculously found healing and peace there in Paul's home.
The group grew to 30 people. Paul began mentoring several men, including a former drug addict who has since been adopted by the entire group as he goes through a full year of a very tough treatment program.
At God's request, Paul turned one room of his home into a prayer room. People began flocking in, again finding peace and healing in ways they had never experienced. He was in the process of turning his garage into a worship area this week (God, was it only a few days ago?)
Tuesday night's meeting was wonderful, as always. At the Lord's leading, all our songs were about love. Parks was dancing with joy in our midst. We had prayed for two people.
Then things started to get a little strange.
Paul's wife, Linda, took a call from the hospital. Paul's elderly father had fallen at his rest home, landing flat on his face and breaking his nose. He was OK, but was probably going to spend the night at the hospital.
Linda handed Paul a note with this information as he walked across the room to get anointing oil, preparing to pray for another woman.
He took the oil in his hand, turned to face us and smiled. Parks, on the other side of the room, started walking towards him, smiling and saying what sounded like the word "heal."
Then Paul said, "Jesus" and fell to his knees, his eyes focused somewhere to my right near the windows.
Then Paul fell like an axe, flat on his face.
For a moment, everyone thought he was just full of the Holy Spirit, but the fall was too abrupt. In fact, he broke his nose when he hit the ground.
I believe he died and God accepted his spirit before that final fall.
Two nurses in the group worked feverishly doing CPR while we prayed and called 911. Paramedics spent at least 30 minutes trying to revive him. Linda tried to get Parks to lay hands on Paul, but he put his hands in his lap and just smiled, as if to say, "He is complete now, how can I heal him?"
We were all rocked by the loss of Paul, even as we grew to accept the idea that God had taken him at the perfect moment, when he was fully restored to Him, surrounded by his family and friends.
And we began to realize that, in God's perfect timing; we were ready to carry on with the love Paul had planted in each of us.
I drove out to see Ricky, our friend at the drug rehab center, praying the death wouldn't derail his recovery. But where once that might have been an excuse for him to give up, now he felt a burden to carry on Paul's legacy, to one day mentor someone else.
Ricky will be one of the guys giving their testimony at Paul's memorial service.
After all the hubub, I sat down and went through some emails. The last one I got from Paul was about bringing in a speaker for a conference on Living in the Kingdom.
I chuckled, thinking, "He won't need to hear to speaker. He's living in the kingdom now."
And the rest of us?
We get back to work building the Kingdom here on earth.
Sorry this is so long. It's just pouring out. But here are the prayer requests:
For Paul's wife and children, for their peace, strength and financial resources to hold on to their home.
For Paul's young men, that they bear fruit from the love poured into them.
For our small group, that we continue to meet and grow in love.
________________________________________
Paul Jones
Paul Jones, a spirit-filled follower of Jesus and a guide and mentor to many area Christians, died Tuesday night during one of the many prayer meetings held at his home in Cary. Jones, 54, an ordained Baptist minister, often told the story of how he had fallen away from his calling to heal and evangelize. But in recent months his faith had been rekindled as he performed weddings, baptisms, and healing services and opened his home to anyone needing prayer.
He died of a heart attack, just as he was about to pray with a member of his Upper Room Fellowship. His last word was "Jesus". Dozens of friends were there, praying, supporting one another and sharing stories of how Paul had touched their lives and strengthened their faith.
Jones, a self-made businessman who worked with computer hardware, always found a way to provide for churches and charities as well as individuals in need.
He also was committed to expanding God's kingdom.
In fact, the day he died, Jones was sending out invitations to a conference to be held in Raleigh on Living in the Kingdom.
Now he is truly living there.
Jones is survived by his wife, Linda and children, Jason, Kristen, David and Benjamin.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that people donate to the Jones Family Memorial Fund at Hope Chapel in Apex.
Published in The News & Observer (serving Raleigh, Durham, Cary, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina) on 5/8/2008.
May we all have the ability to have our lives not end but to live on in the touch we have given to another to continue the good work God has started within us. God has promoted Paul to greater things and I believe he will be one of the warriors in the front near Christ when the Army of God rides to retrieve their own who continue the battle here on Earth.
Good and faithful servant, be at rest. We shall meet upon the field of righteousness and glory with our King.
A friend of mine, Al, is very active in ministering to the homeless in North Carolina, running a ministry called Church in the Woods. I have had his website posted to my blog for some time now, it's under the "brother's and sister's websites". Too often, we think that we have to run overseas to meet the needs of the poor, homeless, and needy while those who are easily accessible remain in the darkness.
Al is not one of those people who ignore the near-in-need. Al used to be an AP reporter and his writing/musical abilities are awesome. All used for the Kingdom, all given back to the God who gave it to him. I aspired to be half the writer he is. But Al isn't the sole focus of this posting, though he is the one who wrote the following testimony.
It is a man who became his friend, brother, and an inspiration to the world from a little town in North Carolina………..
I will let you read what Al wrote, both the personal posting on www.outofthewild.com and the obit in The News & Observer.
-- Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. - John 12:24
This is both a prayer request and a praise report. I guess they usually are.
On Tuesday night, during our small group/home church/healing/prayer thing, a good friend of ours died.
Paul was an ordained Baptist minister who led a fairly large church at one time. Then he kind of fell away from God, not in a big way. Just stopped reading his Bible for four years and bobbed along, doing good works and feeling kind of empty.
God started reeling him in last year. He showed up for a homeless outreach and got plugged in with us as friends. Another couple he met there had him do their wedding. He met our autistic son, Parks, and fell in love with Jesus all over again through him.
I'm tearing up as I write this. The story keeps growing as I type, deeper and richer and wider, like the river of living waters flowing from the temple.
Paul decided to start a home group and, since he lives very close to us, we joined in. People started showing up, uninvited; always carrying a burden or brokenness that miraculously found healing and peace there in Paul's home.
The group grew to 30 people. Paul began mentoring several men, including a former drug addict who has since been adopted by the entire group as he goes through a full year of a very tough treatment program.
At God's request, Paul turned one room of his home into a prayer room. People began flocking in, again finding peace and healing in ways they had never experienced. He was in the process of turning his garage into a worship area this week (God, was it only a few days ago?)
Tuesday night's meeting was wonderful, as always. At the Lord's leading, all our songs were about love. Parks was dancing with joy in our midst. We had prayed for two people.
Then things started to get a little strange.
Paul's wife, Linda, took a call from the hospital. Paul's elderly father had fallen at his rest home, landing flat on his face and breaking his nose. He was OK, but was probably going to spend the night at the hospital.
Linda handed Paul a note with this information as he walked across the room to get anointing oil, preparing to pray for another woman.
He took the oil in his hand, turned to face us and smiled. Parks, on the other side of the room, started walking towards him, smiling and saying what sounded like the word "heal."
Then Paul said, "Jesus" and fell to his knees, his eyes focused somewhere to my right near the windows.
Then Paul fell like an axe, flat on his face.
For a moment, everyone thought he was just full of the Holy Spirit, but the fall was too abrupt. In fact, he broke his nose when he hit the ground.
I believe he died and God accepted his spirit before that final fall.
Two nurses in the group worked feverishly doing CPR while we prayed and called 911. Paramedics spent at least 30 minutes trying to revive him. Linda tried to get Parks to lay hands on Paul, but he put his hands in his lap and just smiled, as if to say, "He is complete now, how can I heal him?"
We were all rocked by the loss of Paul, even as we grew to accept the idea that God had taken him at the perfect moment, when he was fully restored to Him, surrounded by his family and friends.
And we began to realize that, in God's perfect timing; we were ready to carry on with the love Paul had planted in each of us.
I drove out to see Ricky, our friend at the drug rehab center, praying the death wouldn't derail his recovery. But where once that might have been an excuse for him to give up, now he felt a burden to carry on Paul's legacy, to one day mentor someone else.
Ricky will be one of the guys giving their testimony at Paul's memorial service.
After all the hubub, I sat down and went through some emails. The last one I got from Paul was about bringing in a speaker for a conference on Living in the Kingdom.
I chuckled, thinking, "He won't need to hear to speaker. He's living in the kingdom now."
And the rest of us?
We get back to work building the Kingdom here on earth.
Sorry this is so long. It's just pouring out. But here are the prayer requests:
For Paul's wife and children, for their peace, strength and financial resources to hold on to their home.
For Paul's young men, that they bear fruit from the love poured into them.
For our small group, that we continue to meet and grow in love.
________________________________________
Paul Jones
Paul Jones, a spirit-filled follower of Jesus and a guide and mentor to many area Christians, died Tuesday night during one of the many prayer meetings held at his home in Cary. Jones, 54, an ordained Baptist minister, often told the story of how he had fallen away from his calling to heal and evangelize. But in recent months his faith had been rekindled as he performed weddings, baptisms, and healing services and opened his home to anyone needing prayer.
He died of a heart attack, just as he was about to pray with a member of his Upper Room Fellowship. His last word was "Jesus". Dozens of friends were there, praying, supporting one another and sharing stories of how Paul had touched their lives and strengthened their faith.
Jones, a self-made businessman who worked with computer hardware, always found a way to provide for churches and charities as well as individuals in need.
He also was committed to expanding God's kingdom.
In fact, the day he died, Jones was sending out invitations to a conference to be held in Raleigh on Living in the Kingdom.
Now he is truly living there.
Jones is survived by his wife, Linda and children, Jason, Kristen, David and Benjamin.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that people donate to the Jones Family Memorial Fund at Hope Chapel in Apex.
Published in The News & Observer (serving Raleigh, Durham, Cary, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina) on 5/8/2008.
May we all have the ability to have our lives not end but to live on in the touch we have given to another to continue the good work God has started within us. God has promoted Paul to greater things and I believe he will be one of the warriors in the front near Christ when the Army of God rides to retrieve their own who continue the battle here on Earth.
Good and faithful servant, be at rest. We shall meet upon the field of righteousness and glory with our King.
Tuesday, April 29
My voice....
"Stop judging so that you will not be judged. Otherwise, you will be judged by the same standard you use to judge others. The standards you use for others will be applied to you. So why do you see the piece of sawdust in another believer's eye and not notice the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to another believer, 'Let me take the piece of sawdust out of your eye,' when you have a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye. Then you will see clearly to remove the piece of sawdust from another believer's eye." Matthew 7:1-5 GWT
Long ago, in a place not far from where I now stand, an event happened that would change the lives of two people for twenty years or so. In the tempest of the storms that raged in the lives of these two souls, it was more than the storms that would wound both to the point of separation.
I was one of those who stood in those events of that day and I was the one who spoke in woundedness, bitterness, pain, and anguish against another who's only crime was stepping into the future that was being shaped for him. Accusations of 'selling out' and abandoning the family that had survived many a trial before created a wound that would drive the gap between me and that person for years and years, through the death of a father, the death of a mother, and the death of a grandmother.
That person was my older brother.
And the ensuing silence that has haunted the bond that once stood unbroken never left my ears.
Not realizing the depth of the wounding I had caused with my angry words, regardless of the reasoning that I had behind them (faulty reasoning at best, wounded reaction at the worst), that connection would ripple across the landscape of my life for years. My younger brother, with whom contact was more frequent, was more painful than the silence of the elder. Through the connection of the younger sister, the brothers would stay tenaciously connected to the bond of family broken upon the altar of this world.
There is more than just this one thing that would cause the bond of the unbreakable four to be torn asunder and there is more than I who hold blame, responsibility, and wounded brokenness that ripped the fabric of each of our lives so long ago, and in such painful ways. And maybe what is lost will never be recaptured, never see the blinding light of day.
Almost a year ago today, I stood before a group of godly men and told my story. I had touched, in that painful half-hour or so of tearful recollection, upon this silent relationship of my elder brother and I. The painful traffic-wreck relationship of the younger brother and I. Bearing responsibility for whatever I had done to endure the silence (for much of my life up to seven years ago is borne under wounded bitterness and grief), I spoke to the silent gathering of that which was lost and faded in the annuals of time.
I spoke of being criticized by a father who knew of the painful truth of having a son who looked like him, acted like him, and spoke like him but had none of the qualities that the elder had or the younger showed promise of. Of fighting to find the value under a brother to which life seemed a breeze and accolades fell like rain around his feet. But I never spoke, had forgotten or hidden, the event that would silence the brother who would leave upon an adventure that would take him far away and silence him for what seemed forever.
Four years ago, I stood in the back of a church with a million thoughts racing through my mind. Would the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob finally be found in this warehouse converted into a worship center? Would I get the feeling that once was a Sunday event in the torn world of my past? Or would the silence that even pervaded my brother's relationship with me continue to invade everything else, as it had done since I turned my back on the religiosity of the hypocritical Pharisees that to this day stand on tradition and universal multitudes of ways to the "god" we've designed as a people since the Fall.
God spoke, in a whisper………."Don't you think it's time to come home?"
And my world has never been the same. Can never be the same. And it was then that I began a journey that brought me to this day. And, like that Saturday a year ago, I have been disrupted and brought to a place where the grace of God is displayed and the forgiveness of the Christ permeates the soul, where the strength of my weakness is the glory of God.
Again, I've heard God speak…….but in my brother's voice.
Four years ago, the silence that the brutalness of my words brought upon the heart of my brother was invaded through the mighty hand of the God we both know…four years ago, since the rededication and ignition of the faith that I never realized was visited upon me in that cheap seat in the back of a converted warehouse. And God started to work……….
I turned my brother's silence over to God, giving Him the power and permission to invade the portions of my heart long bricked over and forgotten in the hallways of my past. And there wasn't a total peace that was brought, but patient conviction that in time, when I was ready to face those wounds and painful memories, God would move.
Maybe not towards reconciliation or restoration, but a healing.
I heard that my brother had become a missionary with the Navigators and was in Germany on an Air Force base that most likely he had once stood as a Air Force Officer. He was doing good things and really working to the design and purpose to which God had given and purposed to him.
I sent an email.
And my world exploded yesterday with the reply.
The thing that hit me the most was the ending……………
Love, Larry.
The beam has been removed, and by the strength of the Father we both love, I stand in awe.
The silence is no more.
This time, I will use my voice.....
To say I'm sorry.....
And I love you too...
Long ago, in a place not far from where I now stand, an event happened that would change the lives of two people for twenty years or so. In the tempest of the storms that raged in the lives of these two souls, it was more than the storms that would wound both to the point of separation.
I was one of those who stood in those events of that day and I was the one who spoke in woundedness, bitterness, pain, and anguish against another who's only crime was stepping into the future that was being shaped for him. Accusations of 'selling out' and abandoning the family that had survived many a trial before created a wound that would drive the gap between me and that person for years and years, through the death of a father, the death of a mother, and the death of a grandmother.
That person was my older brother.
And the ensuing silence that has haunted the bond that once stood unbroken never left my ears.
Not realizing the depth of the wounding I had caused with my angry words, regardless of the reasoning that I had behind them (faulty reasoning at best, wounded reaction at the worst), that connection would ripple across the landscape of my life for years. My younger brother, with whom contact was more frequent, was more painful than the silence of the elder. Through the connection of the younger sister, the brothers would stay tenaciously connected to the bond of family broken upon the altar of this world.
There is more than just this one thing that would cause the bond of the unbreakable four to be torn asunder and there is more than I who hold blame, responsibility, and wounded brokenness that ripped the fabric of each of our lives so long ago, and in such painful ways. And maybe what is lost will never be recaptured, never see the blinding light of day.
Almost a year ago today, I stood before a group of godly men and told my story. I had touched, in that painful half-hour or so of tearful recollection, upon this silent relationship of my elder brother and I. The painful traffic-wreck relationship of the younger brother and I. Bearing responsibility for whatever I had done to endure the silence (for much of my life up to seven years ago is borne under wounded bitterness and grief), I spoke to the silent gathering of that which was lost and faded in the annuals of time.
I spoke of being criticized by a father who knew of the painful truth of having a son who looked like him, acted like him, and spoke like him but had none of the qualities that the elder had or the younger showed promise of. Of fighting to find the value under a brother to which life seemed a breeze and accolades fell like rain around his feet. But I never spoke, had forgotten or hidden, the event that would silence the brother who would leave upon an adventure that would take him far away and silence him for what seemed forever.
Four years ago, I stood in the back of a church with a million thoughts racing through my mind. Would the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob finally be found in this warehouse converted into a worship center? Would I get the feeling that once was a Sunday event in the torn world of my past? Or would the silence that even pervaded my brother's relationship with me continue to invade everything else, as it had done since I turned my back on the religiosity of the hypocritical Pharisees that to this day stand on tradition and universal multitudes of ways to the "god" we've designed as a people since the Fall.
God spoke, in a whisper………."Don't you think it's time to come home?"
And my world has never been the same. Can never be the same. And it was then that I began a journey that brought me to this day. And, like that Saturday a year ago, I have been disrupted and brought to a place where the grace of God is displayed and the forgiveness of the Christ permeates the soul, where the strength of my weakness is the glory of God.
Again, I've heard God speak…….but in my brother's voice.
Four years ago, the silence that the brutalness of my words brought upon the heart of my brother was invaded through the mighty hand of the God we both know…four years ago, since the rededication and ignition of the faith that I never realized was visited upon me in that cheap seat in the back of a converted warehouse. And God started to work……….
I turned my brother's silence over to God, giving Him the power and permission to invade the portions of my heart long bricked over and forgotten in the hallways of my past. And there wasn't a total peace that was brought, but patient conviction that in time, when I was ready to face those wounds and painful memories, God would move.
Maybe not towards reconciliation or restoration, but a healing.
I heard that my brother had become a missionary with the Navigators and was in Germany on an Air Force base that most likely he had once stood as a Air Force Officer. He was doing good things and really working to the design and purpose to which God had given and purposed to him.
I sent an email.
And my world exploded yesterday with the reply.
The thing that hit me the most was the ending……………
Love, Larry.
The beam has been removed, and by the strength of the Father we both love, I stand in awe.
The silence is no more.
This time, I will use my voice.....
To say I'm sorry.....
And I love you too...
Monday, February 18
The drums are beating the call to arms....
2 Timothy 2:3 (Amplified Bible) Take [with me] your share of the hardships and suffering [which you are called to endure] as a good (first-class) soldier of Christ Jesus.
Saturday night, I wanted to write some about the situation and trials that I am facing in this place and time. I had just finished with the M3 meeting (see www.mmmministries.org for information on the group). Scott Engelman had spoken further on the topic of releasing and restoring, which are the two main parts of forgiveness. I focused on the perseverance part of the notes and 'googled' the e-sword program (not that google has anything to do with E-Sword, it's just slang for research to me) for the word perseverance in the Bible. It came up with a 2 Timothy verse and I proceeded to start writing………
And it wouldn't work out.
I had intended to write about the struggle, personally, that I was dealing with right then….and I was typing out another 'complaint' about how we, as a church and community, are failing our children in the wake of another college shooting. How the message has become so distorted that we are giving our children the loaded weapons (figuratively) to destroy themselves. And we wonder why. But I have written about that topic for so long and so loudly that surely someone must be listening…..but it doesn't seem so. Why would they listen to a person like me? I kept erasing and restarting, erasing and restarting. But that was all that came out of that verse and it wasn't smoothly flowing.
So I quit.
And then today, I arrive and work frustrated and depressed. No car, and no money to get a new one (at least to me). I have been forced to beg, borrow, and whimper for a ride. And that will not last too long. But a dear brother in Christ, who works with me, gave me encouragement to endure. To persevere. So I felt the calling to go back to that verse in 2 Timothy and write.
Or so I thought.
I couldn't find the verse in the 'google' program of the website I used; it just isn't as easy as E-Sword's and I once again got frustrated. I put in endurance, what my friend had encouraged me to have, and found what God wanted me to hear today.
A battle is coming. One that will make the historical battles of old and current conflicts between men seem like child's play. And it is a time of training, for the warriors within the Body, to face this battle with honor and endurance. As Matthew Henry says, "We need to grow stronger in that which is good; our faith stronger, our resolution stronger, our love to God and Christ stronger."
To be the warriors that God has called us to be, we must face the regimen of training He is presenting us in this day and time. We must strive for perfection in the correct manner, in a way pleasing to Christ, and must strengthen our faith to be faithful in the battle to our Captain. There will be an unleashing of weapons common and uncommon in the final engagement and we must endure to insure ourselves immune to the betrayer's call.
We must remember who we are fighting for and with…..
2 Timothy 2:10 "Therefore I [am ready to] persevere and stand my ground with patience and endure everything for the sake of the elect [God's chosen], so that they too may obtain [the] salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with [the reward of] eternal glory."
Until the Lord declares, the battle will not be finished. We should strive to make the enemy's forces as unpopulated as we can in pursuit of the Great Commission.
Let's draw our Father's line in the sand and tell the enemy,
YOU SHALL HAVE NOT ONE MORE!!!!
Saturday night, I wanted to write some about the situation and trials that I am facing in this place and time. I had just finished with the M3 meeting (see www.mmmministries.org for information on the group). Scott Engelman had spoken further on the topic of releasing and restoring, which are the two main parts of forgiveness. I focused on the perseverance part of the notes and 'googled' the e-sword program (not that google has anything to do with E-Sword, it's just slang for research to me) for the word perseverance in the Bible. It came up with a 2 Timothy verse and I proceeded to start writing………
And it wouldn't work out.
I had intended to write about the struggle, personally, that I was dealing with right then….and I was typing out another 'complaint' about how we, as a church and community, are failing our children in the wake of another college shooting. How the message has become so distorted that we are giving our children the loaded weapons (figuratively) to destroy themselves. And we wonder why. But I have written about that topic for so long and so loudly that surely someone must be listening…..but it doesn't seem so. Why would they listen to a person like me? I kept erasing and restarting, erasing and restarting. But that was all that came out of that verse and it wasn't smoothly flowing.
So I quit.
And then today, I arrive and work frustrated and depressed. No car, and no money to get a new one (at least to me). I have been forced to beg, borrow, and whimper for a ride. And that will not last too long. But a dear brother in Christ, who works with me, gave me encouragement to endure. To persevere. So I felt the calling to go back to that verse in 2 Timothy and write.
Or so I thought.
I couldn't find the verse in the 'google' program of the website I used; it just isn't as easy as E-Sword's and I once again got frustrated. I put in endurance, what my friend had encouraged me to have, and found what God wanted me to hear today.
A battle is coming. One that will make the historical battles of old and current conflicts between men seem like child's play. And it is a time of training, for the warriors within the Body, to face this battle with honor and endurance. As Matthew Henry says, "We need to grow stronger in that which is good; our faith stronger, our resolution stronger, our love to God and Christ stronger."
To be the warriors that God has called us to be, we must face the regimen of training He is presenting us in this day and time. We must strive for perfection in the correct manner, in a way pleasing to Christ, and must strengthen our faith to be faithful in the battle to our Captain. There will be an unleashing of weapons common and uncommon in the final engagement and we must endure to insure ourselves immune to the betrayer's call.
We must remember who we are fighting for and with…..
2 Timothy 2:10 "Therefore I [am ready to] persevere and stand my ground with patience and endure everything for the sake of the elect [God's chosen], so that they too may obtain [the] salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with [the reward of] eternal glory."
Until the Lord declares, the battle will not be finished. We should strive to make the enemy's forces as unpopulated as we can in pursuit of the Great Commission.
Let's draw our Father's line in the sand and tell the enemy,
YOU SHALL HAVE NOT ONE MORE!!!!
Friday, December 21
Turning tides........
'But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded." 2 Chronicles 15:7 (ESV)
There is a moment in every battle.....where the tide turns on way or the other. No matter the weaponry used, sticks and stones or tanks and planes, this perception happens each time........
In the fight, Christian warriors have those moments of realization where the tide has turned....sometimes for, sometimes against...
But always with God's hand upon the turning.......
I had a dream last night that I was standing amidst the field of battle; bloodied and bruised, tired and exhausted,and I felt that turning...the tide of the battle against the enemy and his minions turning...against me and my brothers in arms....
Like William Wallace, Leonius, and countless other leaders in the midst of battles both physical and spiritual, I turned to my Savior in answer to His question.....
"Will you follow me, dear friend, despite the odds? Will you stand, my brother, against the tide? Will you die for me as I have died for you?"
In the struggles of just living, there are many more things that we are called to under the banner of the Most High to do in service to the Kingdom. For some, its evangelism. Others, it's teaching. Some are called to reach out in love and understanding to counsel those who are lost. And some are called to fight in political circles for the values we all share.
And we grow weary in the battle…..tired of the constant defense that comes with the armor we wear, that is emblazoned with the symbol of the King of All Kings….Lord of Lords, and Almighty God.
Maybe this isn't the appropriate verse for this thought…but it caught my eye as I skimmed my email…….take courage!
Isn't that what every leader from Roman times up to the Iraqi war has cried out to the troops that are facing that turning tide of the battle? And haven't the warriors responded to the cry????
Take courage. Stand firm.
HonorBound had this to say in regards to this verse:
Determination is based on the fact that your work and effort is going to pay off in the end. You will never know how close you come to victory if you quit. Keep praying and working for the Lord and He will make His presence known in your life. You may not feel strong and you may not feel courageous, but do not go by your feelings. Keep your mind on the reward, not the enemy. God is bigger than your problem, and stronger than your enemy.
Oh, the answer I gave Jesus as we stood there, watching the tide seem to turn to the enemy's favor???
I'll stand.
Picking up the sword point from the ground and hefting the shield upon my arm, I shouted to the Heavens.....
I'll stand for my God....
Will you?
Here's some interesting things from American Family Association......
2007 in Review: Attacks on Faith, Family and Freedom
by Jennifer Mesko, managing editor
'The game is on again in 2008, and our side had better show up.'
As 2007 draws to a close, California's Pacific Justice Institute has identified some of the worst instances of hostility toward faith, family and freedom.
"Values voters contained a lot of this nonsense by turning out strongly in 2004, but they went to sleep in 2006, and the moral-values agenda suffered. The game is on again in 2008, and our side had better show up."
The Top Ten offenses:
10. Red Cross refuses donations of Bibles to California fire victims.
9. California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, with no children of her own, introduces legislation to ban spanking. She says she got the idea from a law professor at the University of San Francisco, who pointed to European bans on spanking.
8. U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the city of Oakland's removal of an employee flier because the term "natural family" was deemed "homophobic."
7. More than 100 students suspended in Sacramento-area schools for wearing T-shirts that quote a Bible verse.
6. Public high schools in California have Cross-Dressing Day as part of School Spirit week.
5. School attempts to censor God out of private yearbook ad. To wish their son well upon his graduation, his parents submitted an ad that included the phrase "may God bless your life."
4. Yolo County Clerk (California) issues "Certificate of Inequality" to gay and lesbian couples on Valentine's Day. The certificate says, "I issue this Certificate of Inequality to you because your choice of marriage partner displeases some people whose displeasure is, apparently, more important than principles of equality." The certificate concludes with, "May the God of your choice bless you."
3. Sacramento Public Library Authority Board refuses to ban Internet access to pornography. Viewing of this state-subsidized access to pornography is in areas where children are present.
2. Federal hate-crimes bill (HR 1592), which could criminalize speech by clergy. In a mischievous attempt to have it signed into law, the bill was later inserted into a massive, unrelated Defense appropriations bill.
1. California governor signs SB 777, which allows public school children to arbitrarily choose whether they should be treated as a boy or a girl.
"While many of the dubious 'winners' come from California, they are representative of incidents across the country," said Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus Action. "There seems to be no end of stories of parental rights, religious freedoms, and freedom of speech and association being sacrificed at the altar of liberal political correctness.
"Christians should especially take note of the importance of taking part in the political process. We say we want to influence the culture for Christ and raise up our children in the fear of the Lord, and our Constitution guarantees us the rights to do so. But those rights are only as secure as our willingness to resist attempts to take them away, whether they come from the halls of Congress, our state legislatures or our schools."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Visit the Pacific Justice Institute Web site.
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family [or myself] is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
There is a moment in every battle.....where the tide turns on way or the other. No matter the weaponry used, sticks and stones or tanks and planes, this perception happens each time........
In the fight, Christian warriors have those moments of realization where the tide has turned....sometimes for, sometimes against...
But always with God's hand upon the turning.......
I had a dream last night that I was standing amidst the field of battle; bloodied and bruised, tired and exhausted,and I felt that turning...the tide of the battle against the enemy and his minions turning...against me and my brothers in arms....
Like William Wallace, Leonius, and countless other leaders in the midst of battles both physical and spiritual, I turned to my Savior in answer to His question.....
"Will you follow me, dear friend, despite the odds? Will you stand, my brother, against the tide? Will you die for me as I have died for you?"
In the struggles of just living, there are many more things that we are called to under the banner of the Most High to do in service to the Kingdom. For some, its evangelism. Others, it's teaching. Some are called to reach out in love and understanding to counsel those who are lost. And some are called to fight in political circles for the values we all share.
And we grow weary in the battle…..tired of the constant defense that comes with the armor we wear, that is emblazoned with the symbol of the King of All Kings….Lord of Lords, and Almighty God.
Maybe this isn't the appropriate verse for this thought…but it caught my eye as I skimmed my email…….take courage!
Isn't that what every leader from Roman times up to the Iraqi war has cried out to the troops that are facing that turning tide of the battle? And haven't the warriors responded to the cry????
Take courage. Stand firm.
HonorBound had this to say in regards to this verse:
Determination is based on the fact that your work and effort is going to pay off in the end. You will never know how close you come to victory if you quit. Keep praying and working for the Lord and He will make His presence known in your life. You may not feel strong and you may not feel courageous, but do not go by your feelings. Keep your mind on the reward, not the enemy. God is bigger than your problem, and stronger than your enemy.
Oh, the answer I gave Jesus as we stood there, watching the tide seem to turn to the enemy's favor???
I'll stand.
Picking up the sword point from the ground and hefting the shield upon my arm, I shouted to the Heavens.....
I'll stand for my God....
Will you?
Here's some interesting things from American Family Association......
2007 in Review: Attacks on Faith, Family and Freedom
by Jennifer Mesko, managing editor
'The game is on again in 2008, and our side had better show up.'
As 2007 draws to a close, California's Pacific Justice Institute has identified some of the worst instances of hostility toward faith, family and freedom.
"Values voters contained a lot of this nonsense by turning out strongly in 2004, but they went to sleep in 2006, and the moral-values agenda suffered. The game is on again in 2008, and our side had better show up."
The Top Ten offenses:
10. Red Cross refuses donations of Bibles to California fire victims.
9. California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, with no children of her own, introduces legislation to ban spanking. She says she got the idea from a law professor at the University of San Francisco, who pointed to European bans on spanking.
8. U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the city of Oakland's removal of an employee flier because the term "natural family" was deemed "homophobic."
7. More than 100 students suspended in Sacramento-area schools for wearing T-shirts that quote a Bible verse.
6. Public high schools in California have Cross-Dressing Day as part of School Spirit week.
5. School attempts to censor God out of private yearbook ad. To wish their son well upon his graduation, his parents submitted an ad that included the phrase "may God bless your life."
4. Yolo County Clerk (California) issues "Certificate of Inequality" to gay and lesbian couples on Valentine's Day. The certificate says, "I issue this Certificate of Inequality to you because your choice of marriage partner displeases some people whose displeasure is, apparently, more important than principles of equality." The certificate concludes with, "May the God of your choice bless you."
3. Sacramento Public Library Authority Board refuses to ban Internet access to pornography. Viewing of this state-subsidized access to pornography is in areas where children are present.
2. Federal hate-crimes bill (HR 1592), which could criminalize speech by clergy. In a mischievous attempt to have it signed into law, the bill was later inserted into a massive, unrelated Defense appropriations bill.
1. California governor signs SB 777, which allows public school children to arbitrarily choose whether they should be treated as a boy or a girl.
"While many of the dubious 'winners' come from California, they are representative of incidents across the country," said Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus Action. "There seems to be no end of stories of parental rights, religious freedoms, and freedom of speech and association being sacrificed at the altar of liberal political correctness.
"Christians should especially take note of the importance of taking part in the political process. We say we want to influence the culture for Christ and raise up our children in the fear of the Lord, and our Constitution guarantees us the rights to do so. But those rights are only as secure as our willingness to resist attempts to take them away, whether they come from the halls of Congress, our state legislatures or our schools."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Visit the Pacific Justice Institute Web site.
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family [or myself] is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
Tuesday, October 16
Great book, inspired thoughts
Andrew Murray states, in warning, "The power of the world, the spirit of its literature, the temptations of business and pleasure, all unite to make up a religion in which it is sought to combine a comfortable hope for the future with the least possible amount of sacrifice in the present."
That is the gist of the book Green Leaf in Drought by Isobel Kuhn. The quote is in the last page under the conclusion title. This book has given me hope. Hope to survive the drought in which I find myself, hope that my Lord and Saviour has me in His sights and will favor me in my striving to honor the call. But, some additional thoughts about what this book (and God's prompting) has given me:
That is the plight of the American Christian today. Not the fact that wherever you go, Christ and His followers are maligned and the truth distorted. But simply the fact that no matter 'what' we do for Christ, we want to be comfortable.
Alot of Christians say, "Well, I make the money, I should be blessed with the rewards of making it." While their fellows are losing homes, losing family, and losing their very livelihood. There is no reason why they should drive the fancy cars and live in the too-big house, after all God has blessed them with it all, right?
Immediately a Pastor will usually say, "I'm not talking about everybody and I think that it is okay....if...." That's the pursuit today, to be comfortable when we give.....as one Pastor puts it, "Give generously or not at all." Another will throw up "God loves a generous giver." with the scripture to support it. But when does the pursuit of money become the god we worship?
I don't have a brand new car, the one I have is falling apart. It, along with my wife's car, is in desperate need of repair....but we have a car, which a majority of the world does not....and we have two.
The loss of the house is still a thorn in my side, each moment I wake up and each moment I fall to sleep. I miss having the office where I could go, study and prepare. Now, if I want to study or prepare my sermon, I do it at work or at the kitchen table. But there are those who are living in cardboard boxes, in garbage dumps, and/or in the open. We have rooms for each of the five of us.......
I hate my job, it doesn't challenge me or fulfill me the way the Chapel does on Sunday or the Men Mentoring Men does on the Saturday meets. I don't feel I'm doing what I'm qualified to do, or what I'd like to do. But, even in the very state I live in, there are those who would love to have the job I have.......because it would enable them to step up from where they are.
Do you have riches? Do you really need those things that adorn the driveway or the garage? Rather than an end to the means, are they a means to an end? What pursuits drive your day? Do you wake every morning hoping that God will bless you with someone in need of blessing or do you wake every morning thinking about what financal needs you have that day?
I struggle with this, but on the end of not being blessed financially. Which gives me the perspective other than the 'rich man' of the biblical warnings.
That is a blessing of itself.
As it says in Isaiah 58:11; "And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."
No matter what drought we face; financial, personal, spiritual, God will always provide. All we have to do is allow Him that priviledge to subject our wants, needs, and desires to His will.
With a view that spans the centuries, don'cha think He's in a position to know best?
In Christ,
Jim
That is the gist of the book Green Leaf in Drought by Isobel Kuhn. The quote is in the last page under the conclusion title. This book has given me hope. Hope to survive the drought in which I find myself, hope that my Lord and Saviour has me in His sights and will favor me in my striving to honor the call. But, some additional thoughts about what this book (and God's prompting) has given me:
That is the plight of the American Christian today. Not the fact that wherever you go, Christ and His followers are maligned and the truth distorted. But simply the fact that no matter 'what' we do for Christ, we want to be comfortable.
Alot of Christians say, "Well, I make the money, I should be blessed with the rewards of making it." While their fellows are losing homes, losing family, and losing their very livelihood. There is no reason why they should drive the fancy cars and live in the too-big house, after all God has blessed them with it all, right?
Immediately a Pastor will usually say, "I'm not talking about everybody and I think that it is okay....if...." That's the pursuit today, to be comfortable when we give.....as one Pastor puts it, "Give generously or not at all." Another will throw up "God loves a generous giver." with the scripture to support it. But when does the pursuit of money become the god we worship?
I don't have a brand new car, the one I have is falling apart. It, along with my wife's car, is in desperate need of repair....but we have a car, which a majority of the world does not....and we have two.
The loss of the house is still a thorn in my side, each moment I wake up and each moment I fall to sleep. I miss having the office where I could go, study and prepare. Now, if I want to study or prepare my sermon, I do it at work or at the kitchen table. But there are those who are living in cardboard boxes, in garbage dumps, and/or in the open. We have rooms for each of the five of us.......
I hate my job, it doesn't challenge me or fulfill me the way the Chapel does on Sunday or the Men Mentoring Men does on the Saturday meets. I don't feel I'm doing what I'm qualified to do, or what I'd like to do. But, even in the very state I live in, there are those who would love to have the job I have.......because it would enable them to step up from where they are.
Do you have riches? Do you really need those things that adorn the driveway or the garage? Rather than an end to the means, are they a means to an end? What pursuits drive your day? Do you wake every morning hoping that God will bless you with someone in need of blessing or do you wake every morning thinking about what financal needs you have that day?
I struggle with this, but on the end of not being blessed financially. Which gives me the perspective other than the 'rich man' of the biblical warnings.
That is a blessing of itself.
As it says in Isaiah 58:11; "And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."
No matter what drought we face; financial, personal, spiritual, God will always provide. All we have to do is allow Him that priviledge to subject our wants, needs, and desires to His will.
With a view that spans the centuries, don'cha think He's in a position to know best?
In Christ,
Jim
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