"Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." (Matthew 2:1-2)
The World was too busy to notice the birth of this child. There was no room found for Him in the Inn. And no room in the hearts of men. The angels had announced His birth, the shepherds had bowed before Him and the two intercessors had confirmed His identity and yet Israel did not know this King.
Two years would pass before these Wise Men of the East would come searching for this child. Into an occupied country three princes came looking for the real king. These Arabs of the East seem to be more aware of the coming of the King than Israel. They explained that a star has guided them to this place. Today most Christians would dismiss them as simply too "new agey" or "weird." And yet here they are very close to the Christ.
I think that they were astounded to find Jerusalem so complacent. I think they believe they would find people worshiping the Christ. However, they were not deterred by the indifference of the people, they simply started going door to door. Like the Lover of the Song of Solomon they began to ask "have you seen him whom my soul loves?"
These men were more in tune to the fact that God had promised a Christ, than the believers or the religious leaders of that time.
"WISE MEN SEEK TO WORSHIP THE CHRSIT"
We now live in a world where worship is no longer considered a need in our lives. You can if you want but you don't have or need too. You can be a believer and not worship. Perhaps that is because our society has lost a sense of value of the Christ.
Once people lose a sense of the value of the Christ it follows that worship is diminished in our society. I was praying this morning and I realized that "WISE MEN STILL WORSHIP THE KING."
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Worship -- why participate in it?
I looked across the top of my bookshelves at home and took inventory of several pieces of, well things, things that my children made me either in school, vacation bible school, or children's church. Things that in themselves have very little value compared to other things that are in my office, and yet my heart was overwhelmed with emotion as I held each piece with great appreciation. Why?
If you are a father, do you not like receiving tiny gifts from your children, even if you don't know what to use the piece of clay pottery for? Why do you value it more than a pen from your insurance agent or a gift from a friend? If you are a mother, does not your heart find a greater joy in a handful of yellow dandelions from your little daughter, than in a bouquet of roses from a dinner guest?
Do these trivialities make you richer? Do you need them? Would you be imperfect without them? Yet you love them. Why? Because your children are "worshiping" you; because they are acknowledging your love, your goodness, and by doing so they are perfecting themselves--that is, developing along the lines of love rather than hate, thankfulness rather than ingratitude, and service rather than disloyalty. They are becoming more perfect and more happy children.
Just as you do not need more dandelions or hand made childhood pottery, neither does God need your worship. If their giving is a sign of your worth in your children's eyes, then, are not prayer, adoration, and worship a sign of God's worth in our eyes? If you need your children's worship, why do you think God needs yours? If their worship is for their perfection, not yours, then may not your worship of Him be not for His perfection, but yours? Worship is your opportunity to express devotion, dependence, and love, and in doing that you make yourself happy? Full of Joy!
If you are a father, do you not like receiving tiny gifts from your children, even if you don't know what to use the piece of clay pottery for? Why do you value it more than a pen from your insurance agent or a gift from a friend? If you are a mother, does not your heart find a greater joy in a handful of yellow dandelions from your little daughter, than in a bouquet of roses from a dinner guest?
Do these trivialities make you richer? Do you need them? Would you be imperfect without them? Yet you love them. Why? Because your children are "worshiping" you; because they are acknowledging your love, your goodness, and by doing so they are perfecting themselves--that is, developing along the lines of love rather than hate, thankfulness rather than ingratitude, and service rather than disloyalty. They are becoming more perfect and more happy children.
Just as you do not need more dandelions or hand made childhood pottery, neither does God need your worship. If their giving is a sign of your worth in your children's eyes, then, are not prayer, adoration, and worship a sign of God's worth in our eyes? If you need your children's worship, why do you think God needs yours? If their worship is for their perfection, not yours, then may not your worship of Him be not for His perfection, but yours? Worship is your opportunity to express devotion, dependence, and love, and in doing that you make yourself happy? Full of Joy!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Are You Too Familiar to Worship???
G.K. Chesterton said, "The greatest of all illusions is the illusion of familiarity."
Familiarity is then the death of respect, wonder and awe! When our hearts and minds are no longer poised for surprise and astonishment... we have lost our sense of child-like faith, without which we can no longer worship. Or for that matter perhaps that is why some never worship.
The illusion that we can control our lives and our destinies has led humanity to turn away from the very "mystery," of knowing Him who formed us in His likeness and image.
I am expecting to be amazed by His "appearing." He came to earth as a child, He comes to us as Spirit and He will come again in great Power. And I know that He has promised us that He manifest Himself to those who gather in His Name to worship and adore Him.
I realize that much of the western church has reduced Him to a law to be obeyed, when in fact He is a Presence to be embraced. And that Presence is manifested by the union and unity of His People who are focused on being "grateful."
Familiarity.... thanks Him for granted. God forgive us!
Familiarity is then the death of respect, wonder and awe! When our hearts and minds are no longer poised for surprise and astonishment... we have lost our sense of child-like faith, without which we can no longer worship. Or for that matter perhaps that is why some never worship.
The illusion that we can control our lives and our destinies has led humanity to turn away from the very "mystery," of knowing Him who formed us in His likeness and image.
I am expecting to be amazed by His "appearing." He came to earth as a child, He comes to us as Spirit and He will come again in great Power. And I know that He has promised us that He manifest Himself to those who gather in His Name to worship and adore Him.
I realize that much of the western church has reduced Him to a law to be obeyed, when in fact He is a Presence to be embraced. And that Presence is manifested by the union and unity of His People who are focused on being "grateful."
Familiarity.... thanks Him for granted. God forgive us!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Church who needs it?
It seems that most Christians think that the Christian faith is something that a person does alone, like monks in a cave. They believe that the backbone of the faith is time alone with God, reading and praying or meditating on some special text. Or simply being good when others are not, or at least they are not as bad as some. If you go into the faith section of any bookstore it certainly appears that faith is something that you do alone. It appears to be a private, personal journey of self-improvement and behavioral modification. This mindset is a symptom of our societies love affair with individualism and compartmentalization of our lives.
A few days ago I was cruising through the social clubs of the digital/technological society in which we live (facebook, twitter, emails, texting, etc.) when I stumbled across this conversation-taking place in the corner of the smoke filled club of this digital world. It began with a one liner (just another pick-up artist).
“My faith is private, (he starts slowly) I don’t need other people’s help to realize my faith.”
In no short order “like this” filled the room (hear the applause?) It wasn’t long before he had gathered an entire entourage of eager listeners. “That’s right, who needs Christians?” “I don’t like organizational religion.” “They are all hypocrites, (now who’s judging?).” Oh, by now I’m leaning into this conversation with open ears, I knew what was coming, keep listening……
“Yeah, going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, you don’t really need any of that, in fact, this is more real than that.”
I leaned back into my chair and wondered how the “Christ” who came from heaven to earth to be with us would respond to this conversation. “Immanuel” – “God with us,” (no me, alone, but “us”).
Christianity or shall we say, “those who follow Christ,” are people who have been adopted into the very family of “Abba Father.” His family is called “church.” Contrary to the popular conversations in the digital clubs of our time, “The Faith,” the Christian faith is a very public, very communal reality, which is realized not as an individual who is left alone, but who is gathered into this family to be nurtured and matured in this new family.
As I write this I’m looking at a picture of my new Granddaughter, and I am flooded with the urge to drive three hours just to hold her. You see, her parents did not bring her into this world and then set her out on her own and hope that she could discover how to live on her own.
I am so grateful that when I was spiritually born they did not set me out on my own, but rather brought me “home.” His House, His Family, “the church” is the very community that has loved, and nurtured “the faith, the very life,” that Christ came to give me.
And now, now that perhaps I don’t need as much as I did as a child (although I think we are always children) I realize that I am called to nurture others. Grandpa may not be needed every day, but he is needed. So I remain in the family, not necessarily because of my need, but because of the needs of others. We are supposed to have realized that “it’s not all about me,” that we are here for others.
Maybe you don’t need church, family or community, maybe you think that your faith is “private,” but that is the paradox of Christianity, it is personal but it is never just yours. You see if you have received “the faith” it requires, no, it pushes you to share that “love,” that “faith” with others. Just maybe someone needs you, (or least what you have) and perhaps that is the real value of your existence.
Christmas – is the celebration of how God gave His Son to us! Maybe we ought to consider giving ourselves?
So I leaned away… away from the conversation of the social clubs of our day!
A few days ago I was cruising through the social clubs of the digital/technological society in which we live (facebook, twitter, emails, texting, etc.) when I stumbled across this conversation-taking place in the corner of the smoke filled club of this digital world. It began with a one liner (just another pick-up artist).
“My faith is private, (he starts slowly) I don’t need other people’s help to realize my faith.”
In no short order “like this” filled the room (hear the applause?) It wasn’t long before he had gathered an entire entourage of eager listeners. “That’s right, who needs Christians?” “I don’t like organizational religion.” “They are all hypocrites, (now who’s judging?).” Oh, by now I’m leaning into this conversation with open ears, I knew what was coming, keep listening……
“Yeah, going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, you don’t really need any of that, in fact, this is more real than that.”
I leaned back into my chair and wondered how the “Christ” who came from heaven to earth to be with us would respond to this conversation. “Immanuel” – “God with us,” (no me, alone, but “us”).
Christianity or shall we say, “those who follow Christ,” are people who have been adopted into the very family of “Abba Father.” His family is called “church.” Contrary to the popular conversations in the digital clubs of our time, “The Faith,” the Christian faith is a very public, very communal reality, which is realized not as an individual who is left alone, but who is gathered into this family to be nurtured and matured in this new family.
As I write this I’m looking at a picture of my new Granddaughter, and I am flooded with the urge to drive three hours just to hold her. You see, her parents did not bring her into this world and then set her out on her own and hope that she could discover how to live on her own.
I am so grateful that when I was spiritually born they did not set me out on my own, but rather brought me “home.” His House, His Family, “the church” is the very community that has loved, and nurtured “the faith, the very life,” that Christ came to give me.
And now, now that perhaps I don’t need as much as I did as a child (although I think we are always children) I realize that I am called to nurture others. Grandpa may not be needed every day, but he is needed. So I remain in the family, not necessarily because of my need, but because of the needs of others. We are supposed to have realized that “it’s not all about me,” that we are here for others.
Maybe you don’t need church, family or community, maybe you think that your faith is “private,” but that is the paradox of Christianity, it is personal but it is never just yours. You see if you have received “the faith” it requires, no, it pushes you to share that “love,” that “faith” with others. Just maybe someone needs you, (or least what you have) and perhaps that is the real value of your existence.
Christmas – is the celebration of how God gave His Son to us! Maybe we ought to consider giving ourselves?
So I leaned away… away from the conversation of the social clubs of our day!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Authentic Discipleship
Martin Luther said:
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. He who goes on his way thinking that he has faith and has completely mastered its meaning is in a more dangerous condition than he who knows nothing whatever about it. Why? Because he who knows nothing whatever about it may come to his senses and say: ‘You have never heard this doctrine nor known anything about it. my friend, listen to it and see what it really is’ . . . Then it may happen that he understands it well. The former, however, is hindered by his conceit. He imagines he has already grasped the matter and thoroughly knows it. And so he goes on his way, considers himself well informed, and pays little attention to the subject.”7
There are many Christians who have a “little knowledge.” They have received the inoculation or the vaccine if you will of real faith. Many times this keeps some one from truly getting “Jesus.”
A. W. Tozer says, “What we think about God is the most important thing in our lives.”
To be “in-formed” is not the same as being “re-formed.” Information about God is not enough. Only as we come into association with others who are walking with Him can there be a true “transformation.”
Jesus called His disciples to “follow me.” It was in that association with and that imitation of that they were changed; re-formed into His image and likeness; which is our original state of being.
1Cor. 4:16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
1Cor. 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
Heb. 6:12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Paul was continually calling others to “imitate” him as he did Christ. The pattern of discipleship is not difficult …. but it is time consuming. A disciple is not an “instant” event or decision. No it is a way of living. Living a life after Jesus.
The “church” that Jesus founded followed this pattern. Seeker, Hearer, Kneeler and Faithful…. People were “transformed” or “re-formed” by coming into “fellowship” with others we knew Christ and could assist them in “becoming” like Christ.
The church of the last several hundred years has so “individualized” Christianity that it has forgotten that God called us into a “family.” He sent the “spirit of adoption” into our hearts. And it is through the “family” that we come to understand and know who “He” truly is and who “we”truly are.
Evangelism – conversion is so much more than gaining a “little information” about Jesus; it is coming into the living reality of being changed so that “as He is so are we in this world,” (1 John 4:17).
“Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ” (Detrick Bonhoeffer).
Authentic Christianity demands that we “make disciples.” For far too long we have thought that “decisions” to believe were enough. That line of thinking has left us with an anemic church. A church that has spiritual amnesia and who has settled to be far less than she truly was designed to be.
Dallas Willard says, “So far as the visible Christian institutions of our day are concerned, discipleship clearly is optional… Churches are therefore filled with “undiscipled disciples. Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ.”
I am dedicated to raising up people who are fully dedicated to “following” Jesus! This requires our ability to critically analyze the processes and the perceptions that we have followed in our own journeys to Jesus and to recover “truths” that have been lost.
I began this posting by quoting Martin Luther; “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. He who goes on his way thinking that he has faith and has completely mastered its meaning is in a more dangerous condition than he who knows nothing whatever about it.”
I will finish this posting by quoting Paul, “Phil. 3:12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (NLB)
We should never make the mistake of thinking that “we have arrived” or that “we have achieved” something. We are all still on a “journey to Jesus.” Dr. Webbers book is a very good tool to help us understand the pattern that Jesus and His first disciples used to make the “journey.”
Discipleship is a journey! A journey of becoming like Jesus!
Enjoy the journey!
Bishop Quintin
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. He who goes on his way thinking that he has faith and has completely mastered its meaning is in a more dangerous condition than he who knows nothing whatever about it. Why? Because he who knows nothing whatever about it may come to his senses and say: ‘You have never heard this doctrine nor known anything about it. my friend, listen to it and see what it really is’ . . . Then it may happen that he understands it well. The former, however, is hindered by his conceit. He imagines he has already grasped the matter and thoroughly knows it. And so he goes on his way, considers himself well informed, and pays little attention to the subject.”7
There are many Christians who have a “little knowledge.” They have received the inoculation or the vaccine if you will of real faith. Many times this keeps some one from truly getting “Jesus.”
A. W. Tozer says, “What we think about God is the most important thing in our lives.”
To be “in-formed” is not the same as being “re-formed.” Information about God is not enough. Only as we come into association with others who are walking with Him can there be a true “transformation.”
Jesus called His disciples to “follow me.” It was in that association with and that imitation of that they were changed; re-formed into His image and likeness; which is our original state of being.
1Cor. 4:16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
1Cor. 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
Heb. 6:12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Paul was continually calling others to “imitate” him as he did Christ. The pattern of discipleship is not difficult …. but it is time consuming. A disciple is not an “instant” event or decision. No it is a way of living. Living a life after Jesus.
The “church” that Jesus founded followed this pattern. Seeker, Hearer, Kneeler and Faithful…. People were “transformed” or “re-formed” by coming into “fellowship” with others we knew Christ and could assist them in “becoming” like Christ.
The church of the last several hundred years has so “individualized” Christianity that it has forgotten that God called us into a “family.” He sent the “spirit of adoption” into our hearts. And it is through the “family” that we come to understand and know who “He” truly is and who “we”truly are.
Evangelism – conversion is so much more than gaining a “little information” about Jesus; it is coming into the living reality of being changed so that “as He is so are we in this world,” (1 John 4:17).
“Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ” (Detrick Bonhoeffer).
Authentic Christianity demands that we “make disciples.” For far too long we have thought that “decisions” to believe were enough. That line of thinking has left us with an anemic church. A church that has spiritual amnesia and who has settled to be far less than she truly was designed to be.
Dallas Willard says, “So far as the visible Christian institutions of our day are concerned, discipleship clearly is optional… Churches are therefore filled with “undiscipled disciples. Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ.”
I am dedicated to raising up people who are fully dedicated to “following” Jesus! This requires our ability to critically analyze the processes and the perceptions that we have followed in our own journeys to Jesus and to recover “truths” that have been lost.
I began this posting by quoting Martin Luther; “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. He who goes on his way thinking that he has faith and has completely mastered its meaning is in a more dangerous condition than he who knows nothing whatever about it.”
I will finish this posting by quoting Paul, “Phil. 3:12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (NLB)
We should never make the mistake of thinking that “we have arrived” or that “we have achieved” something. We are all still on a “journey to Jesus.” Dr. Webbers book is a very good tool to help us understand the pattern that Jesus and His first disciples used to make the “journey.”
Discipleship is a journey! A journey of becoming like Jesus!
Enjoy the journey!
Bishop Quintin
Friday, October 2, 2009
THAT THEY MAY BE ONE
At the last supper, Jesus told his apostles about the one characteristic that would distinguish his believers in the world: "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). Above everything else, Jesus wanted his people to be known for their agape love--a love that conquers hatred and bigotry, a love that overcomes division and judgments. This is a love that unites, a love that brings people together in a union of trust, respect, and affection (see Acts 2:44-45: Galatians 3:26-28).
A Legacy of Separation!
Yet, as we look at the sweep of history, it seems that Christians have given a far different witness than the one Jesus asked for -- particularly in this past millennium. In 1054, the Eastern Church of Constantinople and the Western Church of Rome had become so estranged that these two fountains of faith and blessing separated themselves from each other. As time progressed, this spirit of division spread, ultimately manifesting itself in numerous sub-divisions that resulted from the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. While doctrinal and moral issues played a significant role in these separations, they seem to have been fueled just as much by political agendas, ethnic prejudices, and personal hatred. It was not uncommon, in fact, to see these sparks of bitterness explode into violence and bloodshed.
We may not recognize it too often, but we have all inherited the legacy of centuries of separation and rancor. This is especially true for those of us who grew up in the last half of the twentieth century. Many Roman catholics were taught that protestants could not be saved, and protestants grew up believing that catholics were guilty of idolatry and apostasy. However, the greatest enemy of Christian unity today may be apathy in a time of extraordinary grace and favor from the Lord. All through out this last number of years, God has been pouring out powerful gifts of healing and reconciliation. In the past fifty years in particular, Christians from every background have come together in unprecedented numbers to pray, worship the Lord, seek each others' forgiveness, and work together for the spread of the gospel.
As we encounter God's presence through prayer and worship, we can take comfort in the knowledge that we all have the same heavenly Father. We can rejoice that we are forgiven by the same blood of Christ, shed for all people. As we join our separated brothers and sisters in worship of our Lord Jesus, we will recognize the great deposit of faith that binds us together. Prayer....enables us always to discover anew the evangelical truth of the words: "You have one Father" (Matthew 23:9), the Father, Abba, invoked by Christ himself the Only-begotten...Son. And again: "You have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters" (Matthew 23:8).
Let us all take advantage of the marvelous grace that God is pouring out on his church in our day. He is working powerfully to heal all the divisions and animosity that the past one thousand years have brought. Let us all seek deeper conversion to his gospel--a closer relationship with Jesus, through prayer and worship, and a greater love for all our brothers and sisters. Let us answer the call to pray, to repent and to forgive.
A Legacy of Separation!
Yet, as we look at the sweep of history, it seems that Christians have given a far different witness than the one Jesus asked for -- particularly in this past millennium. In 1054, the Eastern Church of Constantinople and the Western Church of Rome had become so estranged that these two fountains of faith and blessing separated themselves from each other. As time progressed, this spirit of division spread, ultimately manifesting itself in numerous sub-divisions that resulted from the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. While doctrinal and moral issues played a significant role in these separations, they seem to have been fueled just as much by political agendas, ethnic prejudices, and personal hatred. It was not uncommon, in fact, to see these sparks of bitterness explode into violence and bloodshed.
We may not recognize it too often, but we have all inherited the legacy of centuries of separation and rancor. This is especially true for those of us who grew up in the last half of the twentieth century. Many Roman catholics were taught that protestants could not be saved, and protestants grew up believing that catholics were guilty of idolatry and apostasy. However, the greatest enemy of Christian unity today may be apathy in a time of extraordinary grace and favor from the Lord. All through out this last number of years, God has been pouring out powerful gifts of healing and reconciliation. In the past fifty years in particular, Christians from every background have come together in unprecedented numbers to pray, worship the Lord, seek each others' forgiveness, and work together for the spread of the gospel.
As we encounter God's presence through prayer and worship, we can take comfort in the knowledge that we all have the same heavenly Father. We can rejoice that we are forgiven by the same blood of Christ, shed for all people. As we join our separated brothers and sisters in worship of our Lord Jesus, we will recognize the great deposit of faith that binds us together. Prayer....enables us always to discover anew the evangelical truth of the words: "You have one Father" (Matthew 23:9), the Father, Abba, invoked by Christ himself the Only-begotten...Son. And again: "You have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters" (Matthew 23:8).
Let us all take advantage of the marvelous grace that God is pouring out on his church in our day. He is working powerfully to heal all the divisions and animosity that the past one thousand years have brought. Let us all seek deeper conversion to his gospel--a closer relationship with Jesus, through prayer and worship, and a greater love for all our brothers and sisters. Let us answer the call to pray, to repent and to forgive.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
IT IS TIME FOR FREEDOM
I have been watching the events of the last few months with great interest. Several years ago a good friend of mine, Vivian Hibbert, encouraged me to pay attention to what God was doing outside the church, particularly in the arts. And maybe with artists, so lets take notice of a few things.
First, Whitney Houston has stepped forward telling how God delivered her from a long abusive situation. Second, I am intrigued with McKenzie Phillips new book telling about her long-time abusive relationship. And finally, Kaycee Dungard, is found after 18 years of being held captive in an abusive situation.
I remember how the Lord spoke to me over a year ago these words:
Breakthrough - May 11, 2008
“My perception is that spiritual authority is going to increase in the next 6-12 weeks. The thing that I am seeing is that you are going to be given the power and authority to break and destroy the limitations and strongholds that you have been dealing with in your lives for years. You are going to go free from those limitations in areas of your life that you have been merely coping with because you couldn’t get rid of it. There is going be such an experience of freedom in the lives of individuals and families that strongholds will be broken off of people’s lives. Listen to me, it is happening to you. You need to exercise it. The authority is coming up into your life, but you need to be the one who exercises it and says, “I am going free of that.” And when you go free of it, you’ve got to hate that thing. Those things that were strongholds in my life before, I hate them now. You cannot go back and play with them…. If you have strongholds, thought patterns, limitations, habits, particularly low self-esteem; particularly you don’t think you are worthy, you’re insecure…that is going to be destroyed, because low self-esteem is the Enemy robbing you of the potential in your life. If the Enemy can keep you thinking you don’t matter, you don’t count, nobody loves you or likes you, if He can keep you there he can keep your gifts from coming out. Those strongholds are coming down, that is coming off, and you’re going to come out of that thing and go, yes go into the freedom that He has purchased for you.”
I truly believe that God is releasing people from strongholds that have been extreme. Now is the time for the Church to arise and to set people free. Jesus defeated the enemy and He has entrusted the Church with the authority to set people free in His name. Unfortunately the church has been lulled asleep. It is time for her to wake up and to operate in the authority that she has been given.
It is time for many to realize that they can go free right now. A few days ago I ran across this: "We remain captives within a mental framework that has actually been broken. We are like prisoners who could walk out of a prison because all that would enclose us has been burst open, but we remain inside because we are asleep...it is time to wake up.
First, Whitney Houston has stepped forward telling how God delivered her from a long abusive situation. Second, I am intrigued with McKenzie Phillips new book telling about her long-time abusive relationship. And finally, Kaycee Dungard, is found after 18 years of being held captive in an abusive situation.
I remember how the Lord spoke to me over a year ago these words:
Breakthrough - May 11, 2008
“My perception is that spiritual authority is going to increase in the next 6-12 weeks. The thing that I am seeing is that you are going to be given the power and authority to break and destroy the limitations and strongholds that you have been dealing with in your lives for years. You are going to go free from those limitations in areas of your life that you have been merely coping with because you couldn’t get rid of it. There is going be such an experience of freedom in the lives of individuals and families that strongholds will be broken off of people’s lives. Listen to me, it is happening to you. You need to exercise it. The authority is coming up into your life, but you need to be the one who exercises it and says, “I am going free of that.” And when you go free of it, you’ve got to hate that thing. Those things that were strongholds in my life before, I hate them now. You cannot go back and play with them…. If you have strongholds, thought patterns, limitations, habits, particularly low self-esteem; particularly you don’t think you are worthy, you’re insecure…that is going to be destroyed, because low self-esteem is the Enemy robbing you of the potential in your life. If the Enemy can keep you thinking you don’t matter, you don’t count, nobody loves you or likes you, if He can keep you there he can keep your gifts from coming out. Those strongholds are coming down, that is coming off, and you’re going to come out of that thing and go, yes go into the freedom that He has purchased for you.”
I truly believe that God is releasing people from strongholds that have been extreme. Now is the time for the Church to arise and to set people free. Jesus defeated the enemy and He has entrusted the Church with the authority to set people free in His name. Unfortunately the church has been lulled asleep. It is time for her to wake up and to operate in the authority that she has been given.
It is time for many to realize that they can go free right now. A few days ago I ran across this: "We remain captives within a mental framework that has actually been broken. We are like prisoners who could walk out of a prison because all that would enclose us has been burst open, but we remain inside because we are asleep...it is time to wake up.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
RE-VISION THE CHURCH
Failing to understand the nature of the church can lead to a number of problems. Defining the church functionally -- in terms of what it does -- can shift our perspective away from understanding the church as a unique community of God's people. In place of this, the church tends to become a series of ministry functions such as worship, education, service, children, youth, etc. Defining the church organizationally -- in terms of its structures -- shifts our mind away from the spiritual reality of the church as a community, a family, the body of the Christ, the very presence of God on earth.
In most cases the church has become something to be structured and managed. Thus ministry is to be administrated and managed to maintain effectiveness, in order to accomplish certain goals. This seduces leaders into placing too much confidence in their managerial skills or in their us of organizational techniques. Thus church leaders are always looking for the "next" key to success.
It is my conviction that we need to move beyond trying to find the "next" church "thing" that will help us be successful one more time. We truly need to rediscover what is more basic about what it means to be the "church." It is critical that we recover the nature of the church before we understand what the church is do be doing.
We must face the very way we think about "Church." The critical question is what is the church?
The church is more than what meets the eye. It is more than a set of well-managed ministry functions. It is more than another human organization! The church lives in the world as a human enterprise, but it is also the called and redeemed people of God. It the people of God who are created by the Holy Spirit to live as a missionary community here on the earth.
The church is God's personal presence in the world through the Spirit! This makes the church a unique spiritual community. The very family of God who by it's presence give witness to the origin and future of God's people.
The Church's true character is its embodiment of Christ’s mission by its very existence in the world, it witnesses to the mission of God, to overthrow evil and to the ultimate reign of God over the entire created order. This is the eschatological nature of the church. It is the presence of a Good God now revealed, it is the very future of God’s Kingdom; in a world hostile to its message and values.
The early Christians saw themselves as participants in a grand drama, …..those gathered from all nations to testify to the resurrected Lord. Without the church the world literally had no HOPE OF SALVATION since the church is necessary for the world to know it is part of a story that it cannot know without the Church.
The Church is the adopted people bought by His blood, united to Him and to each other …. Whose lives have been changed and communities that have been transformed by God’s presence among them.
The church is an inviting and compelling community of people who attract unchurched because they embody a new life under the reign of Christ and informed by their eschatological (prophetic) vision.
Our personal journey into Christ therefore is nourished by the community called “church” which God has been sent and set as a divine presence to proclaim the unltimate destiny of the world…
Without the church the world would have no idea of it’s destiny!
To come to Christ and His Church is to come into a new way of seeing!
The church is the nurturing and caring community of the Father: “when we encounter the church we move into spiritual territory that occupies earthly terrain. We encounter the living God in the midst of our humanity. We encounter the Spirit of God dwelling in the midst of a people who are created and formed into a unique community. In and through this community the converting person is nurtured, discipled, and equipped.
In most cases the church has become something to be structured and managed. Thus ministry is to be administrated and managed to maintain effectiveness, in order to accomplish certain goals. This seduces leaders into placing too much confidence in their managerial skills or in their us of organizational techniques. Thus church leaders are always looking for the "next" key to success.
It is my conviction that we need to move beyond trying to find the "next" church "thing" that will help us be successful one more time. We truly need to rediscover what is more basic about what it means to be the "church." It is critical that we recover the nature of the church before we understand what the church is do be doing.
We must face the very way we think about "Church." The critical question is what is the church?
The church is more than what meets the eye. It is more than a set of well-managed ministry functions. It is more than another human organization! The church lives in the world as a human enterprise, but it is also the called and redeemed people of God. It the people of God who are created by the Holy Spirit to live as a missionary community here on the earth.
The church is God's personal presence in the world through the Spirit! This makes the church a unique spiritual community. The very family of God who by it's presence give witness to the origin and future of God's people.
The Church's true character is its embodiment of Christ’s mission by its very existence in the world, it witnesses to the mission of God, to overthrow evil and to the ultimate reign of God over the entire created order. This is the eschatological nature of the church. It is the presence of a Good God now revealed, it is the very future of God’s Kingdom; in a world hostile to its message and values.
The early Christians saw themselves as participants in a grand drama, …..those gathered from all nations to testify to the resurrected Lord. Without the church the world literally had no HOPE OF SALVATION since the church is necessary for the world to know it is part of a story that it cannot know without the Church.
The Church is the adopted people bought by His blood, united to Him and to each other …. Whose lives have been changed and communities that have been transformed by God’s presence among them.
The church is an inviting and compelling community of people who attract unchurched because they embody a new life under the reign of Christ and informed by their eschatological (prophetic) vision.
Our personal journey into Christ therefore is nourished by the community called “church” which God has been sent and set as a divine presence to proclaim the unltimate destiny of the world…
Without the church the world would have no idea of it’s destiny!
To come to Christ and His Church is to come into a new way of seeing!
The church is the nurturing and caring community of the Father: “when we encounter the church we move into spiritual territory that occupies earthly terrain. We encounter the living God in the midst of our humanity. We encounter the Spirit of God dwelling in the midst of a people who are created and formed into a unique community. In and through this community the converting person is nurtured, discipled, and equipped.
Monday, August 31, 2009
BE STRONG IN THE LORD!
Paul says to the Ephesians, In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides]. (Eph 6:10).
As he closes his letter to the brethren he admonishes them to be "strong in the Lord." Most people want God to make them strong, but Jesus did not come to make us strong in ourselves but rather He came to become for us our strength. It is our "UNION" with Him that provides us strength. It is our relationship with Him that ultimately produces the strength (the very JOY) that is needed to live this earth bound life. We are to draw our strength from His Love.
In the face of the battle of life "what are we to do?" BE STRONG IN THE LORD! Rely upon our union our, oneness with the ONE who has "chosen us before the foundation of the world," who "made us alive," who "has seated us together with Him."
Our strength comes from Love. A love that the world had never known before. A love that was furiously focused on restoring His union with us. Into the midst of our weakness He came and rescued us with His Divine Embrace. Within that Embrace all Embarrassment disappears. All our weaknesses and fears are destroyed and we are empowered to receive all that He is and has.
Be Strong! Be Courageous! Put on the whole armor of God. The very Presence of the One who has come not only once as the son of Mary but also He has come to live within our hearts. Yes the Holy Spirit longs to make His home within us. We must allow the ONE who walked the shores and the waves of Galilee to live within us.
To be filled with the Spirit of the Lord is the very hope of every individual and the essence of the church. We are a people who are in need of the very Presence of the Lord who is a "Spirit" and who desires to fill us with Himself.
Eph 3:14-16
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
NKJV
The Church is in need of a Spiritual Strengthening. A reconditioning of long forgotten muscles. A recovering of abilities that were given to us in the new birth. We need to "RE-THINK" what it means to be the church. The Church is the body of the Christ. We are his family, we are the continuation of His ministry. A ministry that was full of the power of the Holy Spirit. I am truly convinced that we have allowed the rationality of our times to rob us of the potential and possibility of the manifestation of the supernatural realities of the Holy Spirit.
This is a cry! This is a shout to the Church! BE STRONG IN THE LORD. Rather thaN chasing to find or build strength in ourselves we must rely upon the Holy Spirit. It is He who was sent to empower us to be the sons and daughters of the Most High.
So today... Put on the armor of the Lord. and Pray ... Pray in the Spirit ... ALWAYS!!!!!
As he closes his letter to the brethren he admonishes them to be "strong in the Lord." Most people want God to make them strong, but Jesus did not come to make us strong in ourselves but rather He came to become for us our strength. It is our "UNION" with Him that provides us strength. It is our relationship with Him that ultimately produces the strength (the very JOY) that is needed to live this earth bound life. We are to draw our strength from His Love.
In the face of the battle of life "what are we to do?" BE STRONG IN THE LORD! Rely upon our union our, oneness with the ONE who has "chosen us before the foundation of the world," who "made us alive," who "has seated us together with Him."
Our strength comes from Love. A love that the world had never known before. A love that was furiously focused on restoring His union with us. Into the midst of our weakness He came and rescued us with His Divine Embrace. Within that Embrace all Embarrassment disappears. All our weaknesses and fears are destroyed and we are empowered to receive all that He is and has.
Be Strong! Be Courageous! Put on the whole armor of God. The very Presence of the One who has come not only once as the son of Mary but also He has come to live within our hearts. Yes the Holy Spirit longs to make His home within us. We must allow the ONE who walked the shores and the waves of Galilee to live within us.
To be filled with the Spirit of the Lord is the very hope of every individual and the essence of the church. We are a people who are in need of the very Presence of the Lord who is a "Spirit" and who desires to fill us with Himself.
Eph 3:14-16
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
NKJV
The Church is in need of a Spiritual Strengthening. A reconditioning of long forgotten muscles. A recovering of abilities that were given to us in the new birth. We need to "RE-THINK" what it means to be the church. The Church is the body of the Christ. We are his family, we are the continuation of His ministry. A ministry that was full of the power of the Holy Spirit. I am truly convinced that we have allowed the rationality of our times to rob us of the potential and possibility of the manifestation of the supernatural realities of the Holy Spirit.
This is a cry! This is a shout to the Church! BE STRONG IN THE LORD. Rather thaN chasing to find or build strength in ourselves we must rely upon the Holy Spirit. It is He who was sent to empower us to be the sons and daughters of the Most High.
So today... Put on the armor of the Lord. and Pray ... Pray in the Spirit ... ALWAYS!!!!!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
ReThink Church
The early Christians discovered that telling the story of Jesus carried a power which they continually associated with the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts makes these references often: "Filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke God's word with boldness." "The Word of God continued to spread." "The word of God continued to advance and gain adherents." The Word of God grew mightily and prevailed" (Acts 4:31; 6:7; 12:24: 19:20).
Paul said it like this, "When you received the word of God from us, you accepted it not as human word, but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you beleivers." "The word of truth, the gospel which has come to you....bearing fruit and growing in the whole world" (1 Thessalonians 2:13; Colossians 1:5-6).
They were using old language with a new intent. "Bearing fruit and growing," is a direct connection to the language of the first creation, of Genesis chapter one. "By the word of YHWH were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth," (Psalm 33:6).
The early Christians were now saying the very same word is now at work in you through the good news, the "gospel," the message that declares Jesus as the risen Lord.
"The Word is near you, on your lips and in your heart: because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:8-9).
In other words, when you announce the good news that the risen Jesus is Lord, that very word is the word of God, (who created the first creation), is now the carrier or agent of God's Spirit, the means by which, (as Isaiah had prophesied), new life (everlasting, abundant life), from God's dimension comes to bring new creation with in our life (Isaiah 40:8; 55:10-13).
That is how the church is to carry forward the work of Jesus! Luke said, “all that Jesus began to do and teach.” The implication is clear: that the story of the church, led and energized by the power of the Holy Spirit, is the story of Jesus continuing to do and teach — through His Spirit-led people. That is why we pray “Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
Together as we are filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit we are the hands, the feet, the very continuation of the ministry of Jesus. Empowered by His Spirit we can love each other and the world around us in such a way that the very Presence of the Lord is revealed to all. We must “Re-Think” what it means to be the church.
We are so much more than an institution, an organization or a building. We are so much more than a group of people gathered around some sort of common vision or a set of values. The Church is spiritually and literally the "body of the Christ." We are the "house of the Lord." We are the "dwelling place, the temple of the Holy Spirit."
When we "unite" together in love for the Lord and in love with each other we become the very "living organism" of the Christ. He Himself lives in us! (Col. 1:27). The reality of His Presence is to be found and encountered in the very midst of our loving God and each other.
Our unity, our worship, our relationship with each other is absolutely essential for the ministry of Christ to continue on the earth. We must Re-think ..... what it means to be the church.
Paul said it like this, "When you received the word of God from us, you accepted it not as human word, but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you beleivers." "The word of truth, the gospel which has come to you....bearing fruit and growing in the whole world" (1 Thessalonians 2:13; Colossians 1:5-6).
They were using old language with a new intent. "Bearing fruit and growing," is a direct connection to the language of the first creation, of Genesis chapter one. "By the word of YHWH were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth," (Psalm 33:6).
The early Christians were now saying the very same word is now at work in you through the good news, the "gospel," the message that declares Jesus as the risen Lord.
"The Word is near you, on your lips and in your heart: because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:8-9).
In other words, when you announce the good news that the risen Jesus is Lord, that very word is the word of God, (who created the first creation), is now the carrier or agent of God's Spirit, the means by which, (as Isaiah had prophesied), new life (everlasting, abundant life), from God's dimension comes to bring new creation with in our life (Isaiah 40:8; 55:10-13).
That is how the church is to carry forward the work of Jesus! Luke said, “all that Jesus began to do and teach.” The implication is clear: that the story of the church, led and energized by the power of the Holy Spirit, is the story of Jesus continuing to do and teach — through His Spirit-led people. That is why we pray “Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
Together as we are filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit we are the hands, the feet, the very continuation of the ministry of Jesus. Empowered by His Spirit we can love each other and the world around us in such a way that the very Presence of the Lord is revealed to all. We must “Re-Think” what it means to be the church.
We are so much more than an institution, an organization or a building. We are so much more than a group of people gathered around some sort of common vision or a set of values. The Church is spiritually and literally the "body of the Christ." We are the "house of the Lord." We are the "dwelling place, the temple of the Holy Spirit."
When we "unite" together in love for the Lord and in love with each other we become the very "living organism" of the Christ. He Himself lives in us! (Col. 1:27). The reality of His Presence is to be found and encountered in the very midst of our loving God and each other.
Our unity, our worship, our relationship with each other is absolutely essential for the ministry of Christ to continue on the earth. We must Re-think ..... what it means to be the church.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
HOLY HEARTBURN
There is one huge barrier that keeps most of us from hearing the voice of God, it is what Henry King called, “the seeming unreality of the spiritual life” or we could say “the overwhelming presence of the visible world.”
The visible world daily bombards us with its things, and its events. These circumstances of life push and pull (and sometimes hammer and beat) away at our lives. Very few people wake up as thirsty for God as they are for Starbucks.
The spiritual voice of God does not shout, but rather He whispers at us. He appears on the edges of the events of our lives. God is hovering always, longing for our attention. God’s little intrusions into our human lives are so gentle that they are far too easily dismissed or explained away. We are obsessed and ruled by the visible decay and death around us that we cannot seem to grasp the life of the spirit (Roman 8:6).
Hence, we are hindered from hearing because we too quickly and easily explain away the very movements of God towards us. God wants to be wanted! He wants to be wanted enough that we are ready, predisposed, to find him present with us.
Unfortunately we live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than one who believes. Only a very hardy individualist or social rebel – or one desperate for another life – therefore stands the chance of discovering the substantive reality of the spiritual life of God, and hear His voice. Hence, very few people develop competent prayer lives. This is chiefly because they are prepared to explain away as coincidences the answers that come to the prayers that they do make.
If we are to “hear God” we must chose to be a spiritual person and to live a spiritual life. We will be required to “bet our life” that the visible world, while real, is not reality itself. Today we live in a culture that overwhelmingly gives primary, if not exclusive, importance to the visible. We cannot make spirituality “work” without having a significant degree of confidence in and commitment to the truth that the visible world is always under the hand of the unseen God.
This is the challenge that I face every day when I wake up. It walks with me through the events of each day. Will I, like Moses, “endure as seeing him who is invisible?” Will I listen for God then obey? Right now where I am, moment to moment, I sweat it out with my brother Paul: “My visible self may be perishing, but inwardly I am renewed day by day… it is working for me, to produce in me His glory, thus I refuse to look at the visible, but rather focus on the unseen.” (2 Cor. 4:16-18 paraphrase)
God has always used and invaded the visible. He has always provided visible points of contact for His people. Consider all the visible elements that He instructed Moses to build. Those elaborate provisions provided a visible means through which Moses might be able to hear God’s voice. The tabernacle, the sacrificial equipment, the rituals and so forth provided a point for constant interaction in the visible world with the invisible God. They were called to worship morning and evening, at the very door of the tent of meeting, “I will meet with you, to speak with you there” (Ex. 29:42). Here they, “heard the sounds of the words, but saw no form…”(Deut. 4:10-14). Here they stood, only one step away from the visible to unseen reality of God’s Kingdom.
The Voice of heaven becomes visible in and through the life of Jesus Christ. After His resurrection He appears to his disciples in visible form a few times in order to allow them to grow accustom to hearing him without seeing him. Thus it was “through the Holy Spirit” that he gave instructions to his apostles (Acts 1:2). He made Himself visible to them just enough to give them confidence that it was he who was speaking in their hearts. This prepared them to continue listening and conversing with him after he no longer appeared to them visibly.
Remember for a moment those two heartbroken students who were on the road to Emmaus. He caught up with them in a visible form that they did not recognize. He spoke with them from the Scriptures and explained what had happened to their Jesus. Then when they sat at supper with him, suddenly “their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:31). They asked one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).
They realized that his words had always affected their hearts, their inward life, in a very peculiar way. No one else spoke the words or the way that He did. They realized that they should have recognized Him by the affect that His words had on their hearts. This was not the first time that they had discussed “holy heartburn” that was produced by Jesus’ words.
We are called to live on the road, on a journey, with intermittent moments of “HOLY HEARTBURN.”
Our healing, our health is directly related if not proportionate to our hearing of God’s word. If we are to walk in health, it begins with our hearts being warmed by the very VOICE of the One who came to “heal the broken-hearted.”
Today, be listening, be expecting to hear the voice that will warm your heart, and make you whole!!!
The visible world daily bombards us with its things, and its events. These circumstances of life push and pull (and sometimes hammer and beat) away at our lives. Very few people wake up as thirsty for God as they are for Starbucks.
The spiritual voice of God does not shout, but rather He whispers at us. He appears on the edges of the events of our lives. God is hovering always, longing for our attention. God’s little intrusions into our human lives are so gentle that they are far too easily dismissed or explained away. We are obsessed and ruled by the visible decay and death around us that we cannot seem to grasp the life of the spirit (Roman 8:6).
Hence, we are hindered from hearing because we too quickly and easily explain away the very movements of God towards us. God wants to be wanted! He wants to be wanted enough that we are ready, predisposed, to find him present with us.
Unfortunately we live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than one who believes. Only a very hardy individualist or social rebel – or one desperate for another life – therefore stands the chance of discovering the substantive reality of the spiritual life of God, and hear His voice. Hence, very few people develop competent prayer lives. This is chiefly because they are prepared to explain away as coincidences the answers that come to the prayers that they do make.
If we are to “hear God” we must chose to be a spiritual person and to live a spiritual life. We will be required to “bet our life” that the visible world, while real, is not reality itself. Today we live in a culture that overwhelmingly gives primary, if not exclusive, importance to the visible. We cannot make spirituality “work” without having a significant degree of confidence in and commitment to the truth that the visible world is always under the hand of the unseen God.
This is the challenge that I face every day when I wake up. It walks with me through the events of each day. Will I, like Moses, “endure as seeing him who is invisible?” Will I listen for God then obey? Right now where I am, moment to moment, I sweat it out with my brother Paul: “My visible self may be perishing, but inwardly I am renewed day by day… it is working for me, to produce in me His glory, thus I refuse to look at the visible, but rather focus on the unseen.” (2 Cor. 4:16-18 paraphrase)
God has always used and invaded the visible. He has always provided visible points of contact for His people. Consider all the visible elements that He instructed Moses to build. Those elaborate provisions provided a visible means through which Moses might be able to hear God’s voice. The tabernacle, the sacrificial equipment, the rituals and so forth provided a point for constant interaction in the visible world with the invisible God. They were called to worship morning and evening, at the very door of the tent of meeting, “I will meet with you, to speak with you there” (Ex. 29:42). Here they, “heard the sounds of the words, but saw no form…”(Deut. 4:10-14). Here they stood, only one step away from the visible to unseen reality of God’s Kingdom.
The Voice of heaven becomes visible in and through the life of Jesus Christ. After His resurrection He appears to his disciples in visible form a few times in order to allow them to grow accustom to hearing him without seeing him. Thus it was “through the Holy Spirit” that he gave instructions to his apostles (Acts 1:2). He made Himself visible to them just enough to give them confidence that it was he who was speaking in their hearts. This prepared them to continue listening and conversing with him after he no longer appeared to them visibly.
Remember for a moment those two heartbroken students who were on the road to Emmaus. He caught up with them in a visible form that they did not recognize. He spoke with them from the Scriptures and explained what had happened to their Jesus. Then when they sat at supper with him, suddenly “their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:31). They asked one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).
They realized that his words had always affected their hearts, their inward life, in a very peculiar way. No one else spoke the words or the way that He did. They realized that they should have recognized Him by the affect that His words had on their hearts. This was not the first time that they had discussed “holy heartburn” that was produced by Jesus’ words.
We are called to live on the road, on a journey, with intermittent moments of “HOLY HEARTBURN.”
Our healing, our health is directly related if not proportionate to our hearing of God’s word. If we are to walk in health, it begins with our hearts being warmed by the very VOICE of the One who came to “heal the broken-hearted.”
Today, be listening, be expecting to hear the voice that will warm your heart, and make you whole!!!
Friday, July 10, 2009
HEALING
"If there is one thing I hear with growing clarity, it's that God is calling each and every Christian to personally participate in the healing ministry of Jesus Christ." Brennan Manning
I love that statement! God is not some impersonal force trying to get us to conform to His will. No He is "Our Father"; a loving parent who is working within our lives for our highest and best.
A "healed" person is one who finds his/her identity only in God, and no longer in a role (wife, mother, father, etc.), in a career or profession (doctor, lawyer, pastor), or in class (woman, white-collar worker), a "healed" "whole" person is no longer shaped or determined by fears of failure or by what others think. JUSTIFIED BY GOD AND GOD ALONE! This redeemed personality is free! Free from sins, mistakes, opinions; it is free from the rejections it has experienced. This person is free: free to love -- even its own enemies; free to create -- in spite of the fears and hate surrounding it. This personality (healed person) no longer attempts to relate to others (much less the Body of Christ) on the basis of expertise of any kind, for it no longer finds its identity in that expertise. A HEALED PERSON (PERSONALITY) FINDS HIS/HER IDENTITY AS A CHILD OF THE FATHER!
A "healed" person is free from fears, outward pressures, undue domination by others. Free from the very circumstances of life and secure in his or her inner person, a healed person is able to confront and to deal with these issues rather than being shaped by them. A HEALED PERSON HAS WILLED TO BE ONE WITH GOD.
A healed person has begun a journey of collaborating with its Creator. This person has realized that he or she can create nothing of himself, but rather being "one" with God is now free to discover what the Creator is doing in and through his or her life. Healing then is surrendering to the "One" who can "RE-CREATE" our lives according to His Divine will.
Thus, a "healed" man is indwelled by God the Holy Spirit who now empowers man to be an "artist" or a "co-creator" with HIM. THIS IS OUR DESTINY!
Christ in man, resurrecting the whole of man; his intellectual, his senses, his emotions, every area of his being to be responsive to the very life of God. Healing then is the result of our union and communion with the very Source of life and all of creativity. In this union we become whole persons. Love flows from the uncreated to the created and out to other created beings.
God's love in us is the Divine Energy that overcomes the Fall every person and lifts us back up into the very life that we were created to live. To enter into this Union, Communion or "The Great Dance", then, is to enter into the Presence of the Holy Spirit, the dynamic activity of the Love that is shared between the Father and the Son, this is Healing to all of creation.
I love that statement! God is not some impersonal force trying to get us to conform to His will. No He is "Our Father"; a loving parent who is working within our lives for our highest and best.
A "healed" person is one who finds his/her identity only in God, and no longer in a role (wife, mother, father, etc.), in a career or profession (doctor, lawyer, pastor), or in class (woman, white-collar worker), a "healed" "whole" person is no longer shaped or determined by fears of failure or by what others think. JUSTIFIED BY GOD AND GOD ALONE! This redeemed personality is free! Free from sins, mistakes, opinions; it is free from the rejections it has experienced. This person is free: free to love -- even its own enemies; free to create -- in spite of the fears and hate surrounding it. This personality (healed person) no longer attempts to relate to others (much less the Body of Christ) on the basis of expertise of any kind, for it no longer finds its identity in that expertise. A HEALED PERSON (PERSONALITY) FINDS HIS/HER IDENTITY AS A CHILD OF THE FATHER!
A "healed" person is free from fears, outward pressures, undue domination by others. Free from the very circumstances of life and secure in his or her inner person, a healed person is able to confront and to deal with these issues rather than being shaped by them. A HEALED PERSON HAS WILLED TO BE ONE WITH GOD.
A healed person has begun a journey of collaborating with its Creator. This person has realized that he or she can create nothing of himself, but rather being "one" with God is now free to discover what the Creator is doing in and through his or her life. Healing then is surrendering to the "One" who can "RE-CREATE" our lives according to His Divine will.
Thus, a "healed" man is indwelled by God the Holy Spirit who now empowers man to be an "artist" or a "co-creator" with HIM. THIS IS OUR DESTINY!
Christ in man, resurrecting the whole of man; his intellectual, his senses, his emotions, every area of his being to be responsive to the very life of God. Healing then is the result of our union and communion with the very Source of life and all of creativity. In this union we become whole persons. Love flows from the uncreated to the created and out to other created beings.
God's love in us is the Divine Energy that overcomes the Fall every person and lifts us back up into the very life that we were created to live. To enter into this Union, Communion or "The Great Dance", then, is to enter into the Presence of the Holy Spirit, the dynamic activity of the Love that is shared between the Father and the Son, this is Healing to all of creation.
Monday, June 1, 2009
HIS PRESENCE
In Psalm 27:4, David says; "One thing I ask of the Lord -- the thing I seek most -- is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life."
The greatest need in Christianity is the ability to "focus." To cut through all the fog of current fads and focus on the main thing! So many Christians get stuck or sidetracked on things that do nothing but distract them from what is truly the "one thing necessary."
THE MAIN THING IS HIS PRESENCE.
JOY AND PLEASURE
Ps 16:11
11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
NKJV
GLADNESS
Ps 21:6
You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.
NKJV
SAFETY
Ps 31:20
20 You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence
From the plots of man;
You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion
From the strife of tongues.
NKJV
REFRESHING
Acts 3:19
19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
NKJV
JOY, PLEASURE, GLADNESS, SAFETY, AND REFRESHING COMES FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD AND NOT FROM ANYTHING ELSE.
DAVID KNEW THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND EVEN IN THE MIDST OF HIS OWN FAILURE HE CRIED OUT FOR GOD'S MERCY!
Ps 51:11
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
NKJV
DAVID CRAVED THE PRESENCE OF GOD
Ps 42:1-3
As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
NKJV
NO WONDER GOD SAID THAT DAVID WAS A MAN AFTER HIS OWN HEART.
In both Amos and Acts we read:
Acts 15:16
16'After this I will return
And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down;
I will rebuild its ruins,
And I will set it up;
NKJV
Amos 9:11
11 "On that day I will raise up
The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And repair its damages;
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;
God Himself is rebuilding that relationship were we can meet with Him and live in His Presence.
He gave his very Son so that we could be redeemed. He sent His Spirit into our hearts so that we could experience the very "adoption as His children."
As we move through the celebration of "Pentecost" we should allow ourselves to be focused on His Presence that now abides within our hearts and not merely in tabernacles, tents or temples.
The very "fullness" of God lives in and finds expression in and through His Body, the gathered and assembled "people of His Presence."
Live every moment, every day in the awareness of His Presence!
Pastor Quintin
The greatest need in Christianity is the ability to "focus." To cut through all the fog of current fads and focus on the main thing! So many Christians get stuck or sidetracked on things that do nothing but distract them from what is truly the "one thing necessary."
THE MAIN THING IS HIS PRESENCE.
JOY AND PLEASURE
Ps 16:11
11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
NKJV
GLADNESS
Ps 21:6
You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.
NKJV
SAFETY
Ps 31:20
20 You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence
From the plots of man;
You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion
From the strife of tongues.
NKJV
REFRESHING
Acts 3:19
19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
NKJV
JOY, PLEASURE, GLADNESS, SAFETY, AND REFRESHING COMES FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD AND NOT FROM ANYTHING ELSE.
DAVID KNEW THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND EVEN IN THE MIDST OF HIS OWN FAILURE HE CRIED OUT FOR GOD'S MERCY!
Ps 51:11
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
NKJV
DAVID CRAVED THE PRESENCE OF GOD
Ps 42:1-3
As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
NKJV
NO WONDER GOD SAID THAT DAVID WAS A MAN AFTER HIS OWN HEART.
In both Amos and Acts we read:
Acts 15:16
16'After this I will return
And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down;
I will rebuild its ruins,
And I will set it up;
NKJV
Amos 9:11
11 "On that day I will raise up
The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And repair its damages;
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;
God Himself is rebuilding that relationship were we can meet with Him and live in His Presence.
He gave his very Son so that we could be redeemed. He sent His Spirit into our hearts so that we could experience the very "adoption as His children."
As we move through the celebration of "Pentecost" we should allow ourselves to be focused on His Presence that now abides within our hearts and not merely in tabernacles, tents or temples.
The very "fullness" of God lives in and finds expression in and through His Body, the gathered and assembled "people of His Presence."
Live every moment, every day in the awareness of His Presence!
Pastor Quintin
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
THE KEY TO STRONG FAITH
The Key to Strong Faith:
The key to strong faith is a close fellowship with God. When we know intimately the God in whose word we trust, it becomes easier to trust him when we have not other assurances but his word. It is easy to see that this intimacy was the case with Abraham. Each time God says, “Abraham,” he answers immediately, “Here I am.” That biblical way of expressing the quick and ready obedience of a servant who knows his master well. Had spent twenty-four years before Isaac’s birth becoming acquainted with this God’s faithfulness and love. He had the benefit of the years that had passed since his son’s birth to see in Isaac a daily, living reminder of God’s faithfulness. Abraham knew intimately the one in whom he trusted.
Abraham was like the young sailor in a story that was the delight of Robert Louis Stevenson. Waves crashed over the ship as it labored along the rocky coast. The danger in the air was palpable. One sailor, toiling below the water line, could contain himself no longer. In a panic, he stumbled up the stairs into the control room where he stood frozen in terror, watching the captain grapple with the controls as he fought to steer the huge ship through the rocks to open water. The captain looked over his shoulder at the scared sailor and smiled. The sailor smiled back and went back down below deck to tell the crew that everything was going to be all right. When they asked him how he knew, he said, “I have seen the face of the captain, and he smiled at me.”
Abraham had spent years looking into the face of God and had seen his smile often enough to trust him when he couldn’t see it. That is what a lifetime of waiting, in close fellowship with God, does for you. There are no shortcuts to this kind of trust. It comes only out of a reservoir of faith that has been fed by years of experience.
When asked how he became such a great orator George Bernard Shaw answered, “I learned to speak as men learn to skate or cycle, by doggedly making a fool out of myself until I got used to it.”
I love these words by Martin Luther;
This life, therefore, is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health, but healing; not being , but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing towards it. The process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.
A faith like Abraham’s comes only through years of experience. There are, however, things we can do to enrich that experience. A life of prayer, meditation on the Holy Scriptures and the fellowship and worship of the church are chief. In fact they are critical. These things are to our faith what a look at the captain was to the frightened sailor. Prayer, Bible study, worship, and fellowship in the Christian community, the Church are definitely not “one-shot” experiences. Their value is cumulative, not instantaneous.
The letters to the editor section of a newspaper printed a letter complaining about the sermons the writer heard each week in his church. He figured that he had heard nearly 1500 sermons in a lifetime of church attendance, but could remember what was said in only two or three. He proposed that the sermon served no good purpose and should be discarded. A fury of protest followed. But the best word came from a man who wrote: “As near as I can tell, I have eaten nearly 55,000 meals in my fifty years on this planet. I can remember what I ate in only a few of them. I would give up eating, but I have the distinct impression that I would soon be dead if I did.”
The power of prayer, the Word of God, the fellowship and the worship of the church are food to us. These exercises may not be memorable, but they are crucial to the nourishment of our life with God.
The key to strong faith is a close fellowship with God. And the key to fellowship with God is fellowship with His people, His family, His body, the church. I cannot encourage you strong enough to get involved in our new Sunday School hour (8:45 – 9:45 every Sunday am). This time will allow all of us to grow in our faith by developing stronger relationships with each other. It will give us an opportunity to grow in our understanding of the Word and how to apply it to our lives.
I sincerely desire to see each and every one of you grow stronger in your faith. This is a great opportunity for all of us to become more like the Master. See you Sunday.
Living in the Light of the Cross,
Bishop Quintin
The key to strong faith is a close fellowship with God. When we know intimately the God in whose word we trust, it becomes easier to trust him when we have not other assurances but his word. It is easy to see that this intimacy was the case with Abraham. Each time God says, “Abraham,” he answers immediately, “Here I am.” That biblical way of expressing the quick and ready obedience of a servant who knows his master well. Had spent twenty-four years before Isaac’s birth becoming acquainted with this God’s faithfulness and love. He had the benefit of the years that had passed since his son’s birth to see in Isaac a daily, living reminder of God’s faithfulness. Abraham knew intimately the one in whom he trusted.
Abraham was like the young sailor in a story that was the delight of Robert Louis Stevenson. Waves crashed over the ship as it labored along the rocky coast. The danger in the air was palpable. One sailor, toiling below the water line, could contain himself no longer. In a panic, he stumbled up the stairs into the control room where he stood frozen in terror, watching the captain grapple with the controls as he fought to steer the huge ship through the rocks to open water. The captain looked over his shoulder at the scared sailor and smiled. The sailor smiled back and went back down below deck to tell the crew that everything was going to be all right. When they asked him how he knew, he said, “I have seen the face of the captain, and he smiled at me.”
Abraham had spent years looking into the face of God and had seen his smile often enough to trust him when he couldn’t see it. That is what a lifetime of waiting, in close fellowship with God, does for you. There are no shortcuts to this kind of trust. It comes only out of a reservoir of faith that has been fed by years of experience.
When asked how he became such a great orator George Bernard Shaw answered, “I learned to speak as men learn to skate or cycle, by doggedly making a fool out of myself until I got used to it.”
I love these words by Martin Luther;
This life, therefore, is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health, but healing; not being , but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing towards it. The process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.
A faith like Abraham’s comes only through years of experience. There are, however, things we can do to enrich that experience. A life of prayer, meditation on the Holy Scriptures and the fellowship and worship of the church are chief. In fact they are critical. These things are to our faith what a look at the captain was to the frightened sailor. Prayer, Bible study, worship, and fellowship in the Christian community, the Church are definitely not “one-shot” experiences. Their value is cumulative, not instantaneous.
The letters to the editor section of a newspaper printed a letter complaining about the sermons the writer heard each week in his church. He figured that he had heard nearly 1500 sermons in a lifetime of church attendance, but could remember what was said in only two or three. He proposed that the sermon served no good purpose and should be discarded. A fury of protest followed. But the best word came from a man who wrote: “As near as I can tell, I have eaten nearly 55,000 meals in my fifty years on this planet. I can remember what I ate in only a few of them. I would give up eating, but I have the distinct impression that I would soon be dead if I did.”
The power of prayer, the Word of God, the fellowship and the worship of the church are food to us. These exercises may not be memorable, but they are crucial to the nourishment of our life with God.
The key to strong faith is a close fellowship with God. And the key to fellowship with God is fellowship with His people, His family, His body, the church. I cannot encourage you strong enough to get involved in our new Sunday School hour (8:45 – 9:45 every Sunday am). This time will allow all of us to grow in our faith by developing stronger relationships with each other. It will give us an opportunity to grow in our understanding of the Word and how to apply it to our lives.
I sincerely desire to see each and every one of you grow stronger in your faith. This is a great opportunity for all of us to become more like the Master. See you Sunday.
Living in the Light of the Cross,
Bishop Quintin
Monday, April 13, 2009
THE CELEBRATION BEGINS!
Americans and for that matter most of western civilization are event orientated people! We have a tendency to celebrate everything only on a particular day and time. The ancient world would never have allowed themselves only a day and then only a couple of hours on that day to mark such a glorious event as the resurrection of Christ.
Think about it, the Hebrews marked and celebrated seven major events a year and they took days and weeks to do it. That is why in the ancient church they celebrated Easter for 5o days! That's right "50" days! Built within every calendar year was a mini Jubilee! Every debt was forgiven, every slave was set free and everyone returned to his home land!
That's right Easter can never be fully realized and celebrated on one day for a few hours! No, the very magnitude of the resurrection of Christ takes 5o days to comprehend and to embrace.
Yesterday was Amazing! BUT DON'T STOP NOW! HE IS ALIVE! CHRIST HAS RISEN!
He lives in our lives right now, breaking every limitation and bringing us into our God-given Destiny! I am looking forward to the next 7 weeks of feasting with the One who died for me and defeated evil for me.
Praise your name O Christ! My King and My Lord! This truly is the Day that you have made and I will be glad and rejoice in it!
Living in light of the Cross!!!
Bishop Quintin
Think about it, the Hebrews marked and celebrated seven major events a year and they took days and weeks to do it. That is why in the ancient church they celebrated Easter for 5o days! That's right "50" days! Built within every calendar year was a mini Jubilee! Every debt was forgiven, every slave was set free and everyone returned to his home land!
That's right Easter can never be fully realized and celebrated on one day for a few hours! No, the very magnitude of the resurrection of Christ takes 5o days to comprehend and to embrace.
Yesterday was Amazing! BUT DON'T STOP NOW! HE IS ALIVE! CHRIST HAS RISEN!
He lives in our lives right now, breaking every limitation and bringing us into our God-given Destiny! I am looking forward to the next 7 weeks of feasting with the One who died for me and defeated evil for me.
Praise your name O Christ! My King and My Lord! This truly is the Day that you have made and I will be glad and rejoice in it!
Living in light of the Cross!!!
Bishop Quintin
Friday, April 10, 2009
FOR WHAT PURPOSE DID CHRIST COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN?
For what purpose did Christ come down from Heaven? Answer: “That He might destroy sin, overcome death, and give life to man.”
Along with this pregnant statement we must quickly add yet another great quote: “Man had been created by God that he might have life. If now, having lost life, and having been harmed by the serpent, he were not to return to life but were to be wholly abandoned to death, then God would have been defeated, and the malice of the serpent would have overcome God’s will. But since God is both invincible and magnanimous, He showed His magnanimity in correcting man, and in proving all men, as we have said; but through the Second Man He bound the strong one, and spoiled his goods, and annihilated death, bringing life to man who had become subject to death. For Adam had become the devil’s possession, and the devil held him under his power, by having wrongfully practiced deceit upon him, and by the offer of immortality made him subject to death. For by promising that they should be as gods, which did not lie in his power, he worked death in them. Wherefore he who had taken man captive was himself taken captive by God, and man who had been taken captive was set free from the bondage of condemnation.”
The work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers, which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil. This victory does not end with the triumph of Christ over the enemies, which had held man in bondage; it continues in the work of the Spirit in the Church.
Therefore, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of continued and future glory – the central and crucial point is the victory of Christ over the hostile powers of the enemy through His death and resurrection empowers us today to live victoriously.
Bishop Quintin
Along with this pregnant statement we must quickly add yet another great quote: “Man had been created by God that he might have life. If now, having lost life, and having been harmed by the serpent, he were not to return to life but were to be wholly abandoned to death, then God would have been defeated, and the malice of the serpent would have overcome God’s will. But since God is both invincible and magnanimous, He showed His magnanimity in correcting man, and in proving all men, as we have said; but through the Second Man He bound the strong one, and spoiled his goods, and annihilated death, bringing life to man who had become subject to death. For Adam had become the devil’s possession, and the devil held him under his power, by having wrongfully practiced deceit upon him, and by the offer of immortality made him subject to death. For by promising that they should be as gods, which did not lie in his power, he worked death in them. Wherefore he who had taken man captive was himself taken captive by God, and man who had been taken captive was set free from the bondage of condemnation.”
The work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers, which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil. This victory does not end with the triumph of Christ over the enemies, which had held man in bondage; it continues in the work of the Spirit in the Church.
Therefore, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of continued and future glory – the central and crucial point is the victory of Christ over the hostile powers of the enemy through His death and resurrection empowers us today to live victoriously.
Bishop Quintin
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
You don't have to be "just right" to Pray!
People want to pray and yet they run from prayer! Attracted to it, understand the need for it and yet can't seem to find the time or the real desire to actually participate in prayer! We believe we should pray, we even want to pray and yet there seems to be huge rivers to get across before we can pray.
We often times are not aware of why we don't or can't pray! Work and all the other obligations of life seem to stand in our way, but those are really only smoke screens to the real issues. Our busyness does not keep us from eating or sleeping or playing!
Perhaps one of the reasons is that we think we have to have everything "just right" in order to really pray. We assume that prayer is something to master. When in reality we are only and always only beginners.
Jesus reminds us that prayer is like a little child coming to his or her parents. Our children ask us for some of the silliest things. We are always glad that they ask, it implys that they trust us for anything.
God is just like that, he is pleased merely because we trust him for our lives. What I am trying to say is that all that is needed is child like faith, who comes just as we are into the very presence of God and honestly reveals one's true self. We merely bring ourselves to God just as we are warts and all. Like little children before a loving father, we open our hearts and make our requests known.
Simply begin with where we are: our families, our jobs, our friends, our church, our nation, etc. To simply believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary issues of life is the stuff of prayer. The only place that God can really bless you is where you are right now, because that is the only place we are.
I want to encourage you to pray not when you have it "just right," but rather as a little child who knows Daddy cares. Secondly, simply start where you are right now! You will soon realize that God is not merely a part of your life, but that we are part of His life. You will realize that you are having a divine conversation with God and that He is working in the very ordinary simple areas of your life.
Dear God, I am coming to you this morning with my simple concerns right now in this moment of life. As best as I can I am coming to you with these concerns. Thank your sharing your life in the midst of my life. --- Amen
We often times are not aware of why we don't or can't pray! Work and all the other obligations of life seem to stand in our way, but those are really only smoke screens to the real issues. Our busyness does not keep us from eating or sleeping or playing!
Perhaps one of the reasons is that we think we have to have everything "just right" in order to really pray. We assume that prayer is something to master. When in reality we are only and always only beginners.
Jesus reminds us that prayer is like a little child coming to his or her parents. Our children ask us for some of the silliest things. We are always glad that they ask, it implys that they trust us for anything.
God is just like that, he is pleased merely because we trust him for our lives. What I am trying to say is that all that is needed is child like faith, who comes just as we are into the very presence of God and honestly reveals one's true self. We merely bring ourselves to God just as we are warts and all. Like little children before a loving father, we open our hearts and make our requests known.
Simply begin with where we are: our families, our jobs, our friends, our church, our nation, etc. To simply believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary issues of life is the stuff of prayer. The only place that God can really bless you is where you are right now, because that is the only place we are.
I want to encourage you to pray not when you have it "just right," but rather as a little child who knows Daddy cares. Secondly, simply start where you are right now! You will soon realize that God is not merely a part of your life, but that we are part of His life. You will realize that you are having a divine conversation with God and that He is working in the very ordinary simple areas of your life.
Dear God, I am coming to you this morning with my simple concerns right now in this moment of life. As best as I can I am coming to you with these concerns. Thank your sharing your life in the midst of my life. --- Amen
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
A CALL TO PRAYER!!!
As I prayed this morning I realized just how God's heart is an open wound of love. He absolutely aches over our distance and preoccupation with other things. He longs for us to draw near to him. I truly believes that he grieves that perhaps we have forgotten Him. I sense that He weeps over our obsession with all the "muchness and manyness". I believe He longs for our presence more than we long for His.
I hear His heart beating for us to return.... return home. We are called to live in His "divine embrace." On the cross he opened wide His arms so that we could come to Him. It is far too easy to be caught in a country of noise, busy with the call to success! But this country leads to frustration, fear, confusion, and ultimately disappointment. We are all called to live within His embrace! That is our home!
The key to this home, this heart of God, IS PRAYER! I realized this morning that the distractions of this country, this life many times keep us from reaching the safety of the Father's Embrace. Many times we don't pray except in times of anguish or terror. But never mind. I want to tell you that Abba's arms are open wide this day for you!
I also realized some of you may not even believe in prayer! You've tried to pray but it proved to be a disappointment or it left you disillusioned. You didn't seem to have faith or for that matter any feeling what so ever! I want to encourage you.... the Father has both for you.
Perhaps you are just hurt, wounded by the injustices of life. You've been wronged! And you simply avoid prayer because it just hurts too much! His arms are still open to you too!
Maybe, you have prayed for years and the words just seem cold, and empty! You just don't see the results like you used too. It's OK His arms are still open!
I want to encourage you this morning that the Father wants you to come into His "Divine Embrace." We are to live within His arms! Prayer is all about knowing His Love and responding to that love by climbing into His arms on His lap and hearing His heart beat for you! Prayer is all about "intimacy." It is all about "relationship."
IF THE KEY IS PRAYER -- THEN THE DOOR IS JESUS CHRIST.
Jesus is the doorway into the Father's Embrace! Prayer is the key to that door! We no longer have to stand outside --- we are no longer barred from the Presence of our Father. We... you and I can enter into the very Presence of our God through the doorway of Christ!
Prayer is the communion between the Holy Spirit and Jesus! The Holy Spirit leads us through the doorway of Christ right into the arms of the Father. When we don't know how or what pray it is the Holy Spirit who helps us and sustains us and guides us into and through the door of Christ.
The Holy Spirit sheds and stirs the very love of God in our hearts. Effective prayer is merely the response of lovers! "He prayeth well, who loveth well" (Samuel Coleridge).
I am simply saying perhaps you need to stop and turn from all the distractions and calls of the world around and listen to the love that is crying deep within. Go ahead respond to that cry... for it is the cry of God, the cry of your Father who longs for you presence. He aches for you!
Go ahead you can pray, you can love, can rest in His Embrace today!
I hear His heart beating for us to return.... return home. We are called to live in His "divine embrace." On the cross he opened wide His arms so that we could come to Him. It is far too easy to be caught in a country of noise, busy with the call to success! But this country leads to frustration, fear, confusion, and ultimately disappointment. We are all called to live within His embrace! That is our home!
THE DIVINE EMBRACE
He has invited us to come right into the very heart of His Presence! We do not need to be shy or intimidated. We have been given free access into the family room, the kitchen, the dining, the study....the bedroom; He has invited us into His home and we have free run of the whole house.Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hand in love, may bring those who do not know you into the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen
(The Book of Common Prayer, 101)
(The Book of Common Prayer, 101)
The key to this home, this heart of God, IS PRAYER! I realized this morning that the distractions of this country, this life many times keep us from reaching the safety of the Father's Embrace. Many times we don't pray except in times of anguish or terror. But never mind. I want to tell you that Abba's arms are open wide this day for you!
I also realized some of you may not even believe in prayer! You've tried to pray but it proved to be a disappointment or it left you disillusioned. You didn't seem to have faith or for that matter any feeling what so ever! I want to encourage you.... the Father has both for you.
Perhaps you are just hurt, wounded by the injustices of life. You've been wronged! And you simply avoid prayer because it just hurts too much! His arms are still open to you too!
Maybe, you have prayed for years and the words just seem cold, and empty! You just don't see the results like you used too. It's OK His arms are still open!
I want to encourage you this morning that the Father wants you to come into His "Divine Embrace." We are to live within His arms! Prayer is all about knowing His Love and responding to that love by climbing into His arms on His lap and hearing His heart beat for you! Prayer is all about "intimacy." It is all about "relationship."
IF THE KEY IS PRAYER -- THEN THE DOOR IS JESUS CHRIST.
Jesus is the doorway into the Father's Embrace! Prayer is the key to that door! We no longer have to stand outside --- we are no longer barred from the Presence of our Father. We... you and I can enter into the very Presence of our God through the doorway of Christ!
Prayer is the communion between the Holy Spirit and Jesus! The Holy Spirit leads us through the doorway of Christ right into the arms of the Father. When we don't know how or what pray it is the Holy Spirit who helps us and sustains us and guides us into and through the door of Christ.
The Holy Spirit sheds and stirs the very love of God in our hearts. Effective prayer is merely the response of lovers! "He prayeth well, who loveth well" (Samuel Coleridge).
I am simply saying perhaps you need to stop and turn from all the distractions and calls of the world around and listen to the love that is crying deep within. Go ahead respond to that cry... for it is the cry of God, the cry of your Father who longs for you presence. He aches for you!
Go ahead you can pray, you can love, can rest in His Embrace today!
Monday, April 6, 2009
I found this video very interesting! To realize that even those who don't believe in God pay attention to those who believe enough to share their faith. I wonder if we believe enough to realize that others need to hear what we know to be the truth.
Like the man said, "if you saw a truck that was about to hit someone you would push them out of harms way." Real Love, Real Faith must witness!
We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation. (2 Cornithians 6:1-2).
We have received His Grace and part of our response is to care about others enough to offer them the same Grace! Somewhere along the way it appears as though sharing our faith has become "embarrassing." Or at the very least culturally and socially unacceptable.
If we truly believe in heaven and hell, we must share the "good news" with all people. I want to encourage you to share your faith with others. This is a great week to do it... !
We are remembering His death, burial and resurrection this very week. Please care enough to share His - Story with others.
Like the man said, "if you saw a truck that was about to hit someone you would push them out of harms way." Real Love, Real Faith must witness!
We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation. (2 Cornithians 6:1-2).
We have received His Grace and part of our response is to care about others enough to offer them the same Grace! Somewhere along the way it appears as though sharing our faith has become "embarrassing." Or at the very least culturally and socially unacceptable.
If we truly believe in heaven and hell, we must share the "good news" with all people. I want to encourage you to share your faith with others. This is a great week to do it... !
We are remembering His death, burial and resurrection this very week. Please care enough to share His - Story with others.
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