Dreams are places to make your mistakes!

Last night I had a couple of dreams that really exposed my heart.  In one of them, I was with a group of pastors eating a meal and a policewoman came up to our table and asked if any of us would be willing to conduct a wedding ceremony for the daughter of a congressman and her girlfriend.  I answered, 'My doctrine won't permit me to do so." 


When I awoke, I was ashamed of my cowardly answer!  I could actually feel the "fear of man" in my bones as I awakened.  As I prayed about it and the way it made me feel, I began to get downloads from God on the purpose of the dream and the way He would use it to train me.

Firstly, God made it clear to me that the place to make mistakes is in my dreams.  It is often in our dreams that our hearts are revealed, our deepest fears are manifested, and the heart of God is communicated to a mind that might be resisting Him. 

Second, God gave me a download, a revelation if you would, of what I should say or how I should respond to the very difficult question of "will you do my wedding ceremony?"  I have had so many requests over my ministry, and have never had a "standard" for how to say yes or no to them.  I have considered many approaches, all based upon externals like "church membership," "how long one has been divorced," "how long have they been engaged," to "are you sleeping together'" and a host of other potentially ambiguous and non-essentials.  I have even polled other pastors as to their policies for conducting weddings, and have found the standards as far ranging as humanly possible.  I have enacted policies for non-members that require a substantial fee compared to members, as well as requiring that the couples meet with me 4 to 6 times before the wedding.  But those have not helped, nor have they been able to change the hearts of those who had come to me. 

What I believe God showed me was to ask a simple but penetrating question.  "How would my conducting your nuptials advance the Kingdom of God and promote His Glory?"  The bottom line is that I would not conduct weddings unless they do both.  While that might appear hard and callous, it belies a solid truth behind the standard that I believe God wants for His Church and His people.  It really ought to be the standard for all of our life and conduct. 

Set Apart by John Mulinde

I am reading Pastor Mulinde's book and am beginning to see the hooks that the activities, hobbies, diversions and duties have in me. He describes their "cry for attention" as being what drowns out the call of God to draw near to Him, and inasmuch as we respond to their voice instead of God's voice, we institutionalize an idol in our hearts. These patterns of behavior and their network of activity draw us away from having a heart solely for God. No, they aren't "sinful" but are still sin, because they compete with God's sole possession of our hearts.

About 10 years ago, Pastor Mulinde says God had him list the diversions, the objects of his heart's affections, and he says he was shocked to find so many. God led him to a deep and lasting repentance which has resulted in a radical change in the way God used him.

As I reflect and pray about this, I recognize the awful truth that is here. Last year, when we fasted and prayed for 21 days, I saw the competing activities set aside as I made a conscious choice to give God my heart. This radical shift lasted for probably 2 months after the fast ended, and then I began to compromise on what I would spend time on. Before long, I found myself as deeply immersed in diversions as I was before.

What to do? I have agreed to begin a fast on September 18th which includes a fast from media (which comprises the bulk of my diversions and competition to giving God my time and attention) -- but the hard part remains...how to make it last. Stay tuned!

Bee Healed

For the past 7 months, I have been in constant and withering pain from my right elbow, from a tendon that was injured while carrying firewood up the stairs in our home. We have prayed repeatedly for it, even seen a doctor who gave me a referral to an orthopedic surgeon, because of its severity. On Sunday evening, it was so painful, even Advil didn't seem to help much, so Jennifer prayed again over my elbow and arm. There was no immediate change.

On Monday, I wore my elbow brace while I worked cutting wood, and then weed-whacking the tall weeds along our stream. I was nearly done when I felt a burning pain on the inside of my elbow. I looked down and there was a double-sized BEE stinging me THROUGH the elbow brace, right above the location of my injury. I brushed him away and was astonished at the level of the pain of the sting. Later that day, the sting had a small hole in it, and was closing and scabbing over.

On Wednesday morning, my bee-sting still hurt, but not as bad. What was surprising was, that my elbow and the tendon was almost entirely pain free. No pain when I carry stuff, no pain when I bend it, and none when I straighten it. My only question was..."God, did you need to send a bee to heal me?" I heard in my spirit, "I can use mud to open a blind man's eyes, why not a bee to heal you?"

Understanding Sovereignty

Today I had prayer with a new friend, Thomas Owens. When we concluded, we talked a bit about "judgment" and how disasters are an 'example' of judgment. I have come to the place in my understanding of God that I believe that God isn't "sending judgments" against the earth for sin in the form of every earthquake, flood, famine or hurricane. My rationale for this is that God's wrath against sin was spent upon His Son, that God punished sin in His Son, and us in Him. If anything, God is not sending judgment upon an unbelieving world (yet), but rather is in a sense "judging the household of faith." (1 Peter 4:17).

Consider this scenario. There are those who claim that God "sends" sickness and disasters upon people, and they rationalize that God's absolute sovereignty requires that He has the ultimate say in whether those events happen or not. I would argue, however, that while God holds the veto power over the devil who is the author of sickness, death, disease, disaster and comes to steal, kill and destroy, God has also subordinated HIS authority to His Church, through His Son, who came to "destroy the works of the devil." In a very real way, the Church's mission is to carry on Jesus' mission of bringing the Kingdom of God to bear "on earth as it is in heaven." So when disaster, disease, death, sickness, and the other works of the devil are manifested on the earth, it is evidence of the church's failure to believe and fulfill Christ's commandment to carry the "Gospel of the Kingdom" to the uttermost parts of the earth. What does the Kingdom look like? It is anywhere the Presence and Power of God reigns. It is supposed to reign in you and me.

Famine in the Horn of Africa

One of my favorite blog writers noted that a few years ago, he heard of a crisis in Africa, and bought a plane ticket and simply "went there." He felt that the alternative, of doing nothing, was insufficient. I have to believe that he was following the Lord's leading in his heart when he did so.

Which brings me to today's news story that Kenya is opening a NEW refugee center for the starving people of Somalia that will house 150000 people. They have 4 centers that already house nearly 200,000 each. This boggles my mind. That is more than the population of Painesville, Madison, Ashtabula, and Mentor COMBINED. A sea of faces filled my mind's eye as I thought of the countless starving and hungry who would be open to hearing the Gospel.

I even checked the air-fares online.

Fires are burning

I had a dream just before awakening this morning that stirred me deeply. I have to tell the conclusion of the dream before I share the content. As the dream was ending, I was being approached by a number of young Christians who were saying, "I've never seen this happen before, have you?" To which I replied, "I have seen a match burning, and I have seen a fireplace burning, but I have never seen a house ablaze or a forest fire."

The context was a movement among Christians who were permeating their culture with the love and power of God. The dream centered around a massive community (of what looked like apartments) in which people were gathering in homes for bible study, discipleship and then reaching out to their neighbors.

I entered the dream about this time and was welcomed with hugs by people I knew from my past. There was an atmosphere of celebration and dining. Each person shared with me what they had seen God do recently, and I shared my perspective as well. Then, as we looked at the sea of people approaching us, someone said to me, "I have never seen this happen before...have you?"

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My answer seems to be the reply I would still give if asked about revival fire. I have seen a match burning...individual Christians on fire with the love of God. I have seen a fireplace burning...small groups passionately pursuing God and His purposes for this world. But I have not yet seen a house burning (church?) or a forest fire (region) on fire for Him. And I believe that this dream was a picture of us looking out and seeing the tinder of men and women ready for the fire of God. I pray that the Spirit of God in me and you be fire to this tinder!

Growing as a Disciple

I am reading a highly recommended book by 3D Ministries that deals with creating a discipling culture in a church. Of course, to develop one in a church, one must also develop it in his or her life. Today, the author spoke how we look at our journey in life. We tend to look at our journey as linear. The author suggests that it is linear with circular "detours" along the way. Most of us, myself included, avoid the detours because of the pain or growth involved in them. But those "circles" are the stuff that being a disciple is made of. He describes them as moments when the Kingdom of God "happens."

My understanding of the Kingdom really matches up with his. He is so succinct in his description though, describing it as the intrusion of the perfect eternity of the Kingdom (God's reign) intruding into my imperfect time and space. A good example is when we pray for someone and they are instantaneously healed. The perfection of heaven just invaded the earth and restored someone to health "on earth as it is in heaven." Each one of these events is one of these circles he calls a "kairos moment."

The challenging part of the "detour circles" is that they are happening all the time. They are those moments when God is speaking to us and trying to get our attention, or when God arranges our circumstances to have us minister to someone. The author describes our response as "repentance" (Metanoia in the Greek) which actually means to change our minds. Have a paradigm shift. Change our way of thinking about something to God's perspective.

I am seriously and prayerfully considering enrolling in the 3D Ministries Pastors conference which is actually a "taster conference" in December. It is free except for the cost of hotel and travel. http://www.3dministries.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=133904 This really seems to me to be one of those "detours" toward more growth personally and for the people in my care.

Building in Vain

For years I have attempted to practice what I was taught in seminary and by other church leaders I have served under. That is, how to "build the church." The methodology included a good new members class, indoctrination to the beliefs of the church, inclusion into the life of the body and get them into service quickly so that they can form relationships and get "connected." In addition, I regularly contacted visitors to invite them to become a part of our growing fellowship, had small groups or classes to connect folks to, and even produced "wow" marketing pieces to grab people's attention. I scheduled "events" that made us an attractional church - VBS, Sports Camps, Concerts, etc. to draw in the community. And as good as all of these things were/are, they didn't really build the church.

About a year ago, I heard a quote that said, "Jesus never commanded us to build the church (that's his job) but rather to make disciples." Something about that quotation really resonated with me. I began to study what "making disciples" should look like, taught a sermon series on discipling, and even began to attempt to relationally disciple several members of our church. I found much more success at my feeble attempts to disciple than I had in all my efforts to "build the church." Today, while picking strawberries in my garden (yes, that is my place of revelation) I got a download...If I am making disciples, that will organically build the church. But building a church won't produce disciples, and certainly programs and events do neither.

Now before I get too far along in this post, let me say that I have been a part of a growing church - a very large church by northern standards...of about 600 attenders in Massachusetts. They were highly attractional, ran excellent programs and hired the best staff. The problem? I saw first hand how they also "fired" the staff to move to the next level of the church growth. In hindsight, I see this as a mindset of "growing the church" instead of "disciples." The growth of the organization was the goal, not the personal growth of every component (person). I saw some folks have broken hearts at the way they were let go. I heard elders say, "it isn't personal, its just business." And my own heart broke when I was one of those to be let go.

But over the next nine years, I was still tempted to imitate these actions as I tried to model my leadership on the leadership I had served under. And the Lord said clearly to me, "a person doesn't hold you back from growth, they are the goal, not the obstacle." If a leader isn't fully functioning, then it is my job to invest more in them, to invite and to challenge them to move deeper and grow more.

I pondered over some of the folks in my church and wondered who else I could invest in...and names came up, I wondered, "Gee, they don't have much of a walk with God" and had previously written them off. I now see that if they are in the body, then they are an object of growth, they are a disciple even if they haven't yet seen it themselves. It is my job to help them to see that wonderful truth! Through invitation and challenge, I am to make disciples. That is my job description as a pastor.

Yes, the daily programs, responsibilities and conflicts will still tug at me. But I can make a shift in my priorities and agendas to focus upon individuals. God will grow the church in His time.

Applying Grace

A year or two ago I did a sermon series on "embracing grace." At the time, my understanding of grace was mostly about with my relationship with God, regarding morality, obedience, spiritual disciplines, etc. I have had quite an epiphany this past week while riding in an enclosed space (a car) with two family members for 5 days straight.

Let me share how it all happened:
I spoke harshly to my daughter while she was driving and she said I was being "derogatory"...which I really didn't understand. But as I mulled that over, I realized that I was talking down to her. So with hours of driving ahead and behind me, I did some more mulling and praying. Where did that "talking down" originate? What was at the root of my attitude? Why did I do such a thing? Then as I pondered, I realized that my loving wife had told me that I was harsh with her sometimes. I thought some more, I had also been very harsh with my oldest daughter all through out her childhood, coming especially down on her when she didn't meet my expectations or did something wrong. In fact, I recalled becoming angry when someone spilled something or made a mess.

As I prayed about it, I realized that I had very little tolerance for errors in my own life. I would get "down" on myself when making mistakes at volleyball, or golf (which is why I only played golf once). I hated failure. But worse than that, I hated MYSELF when I failed.

Then, as we were driving back to Jennifer's old home today, I picked the wrong lane and grumbled. Jennifer made a statement, along the line of "it's okay to be wrong." And the revelation clobbered me. I had applied grace only to my "spiritual life" (as if it could be separated from the rest)...but never to my expectations of myself. I refused God's grace in the areas of my daily "performance." It was so obvious, it was painful.

Later, I tearfully asked Jennifer for forgiveness for all the years of my grace-less living. It seems that we treat others the way we treat ourselves. I hated my own mistakes and failures, and I reacted very harshly to others' failures and shortcomings (not so much moral but rather their performance issues). I had refused grace and therefore had little or none to offer to anyone else.

So today, my prayer was to ask God to apply His grace to every area of my life, every performance issue, every failure, every expectation, and to RECEIVE that grace instead of rejecting it. Perhaps God will help me understand the source of my rejection of His grace in this area of my life...but until then, I want to swim in His grace and apply it to every area of my life!

False Teachers

Hardly a week goes by without me getting an email from someone about "false teachers." It seems that being the standard bearer for truth and "being right" is a badge of honor among Christians. The logic goes this way, "God is always right...so I want to be right too." But the truth of the matter reveals an insecurity in our trust in God's grace. The false teaching exposers aren't aiming at the "core" truths of the Christian faith, but peripheral beliefs such as healing, the realm of the Kingdom of God, and manifestations of the Holy Spirit's power. I have some thoughts about those too.

1. Healing - The deniers of "healing is for today, and God desires healthy people" infer that God sends illnesses to make us stronger and that those who heal are "of the devil." Isn't that backwards? I thought the devil came to "steal, kill and destroy" and keep people in bondage to sickness and illness and infirmity. My bible says that Jesus came to set captives free and to bring healing to the nations.

2. The Kingdom of God - Last week I preached on the "the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed...grows to be the biggest of all garden plants that the birds of the air can find shade in its branches." (Mark 4). Got an email from a Scofield follower who complained that birds are code for the devil, and leaven is code for sin. Therefore, according to his view, the Kingdom of Heaven would be filled with false teachers and filled with sin and apostasy. Jesus didn't talk in code. In fact, Jesus was referring to the prophecy in Ezekiel that spoke of the coming Kingdom that would be from a branch that would come off of Israel. There were no "codes" to be deciphered. He spoke in the plain language of the day. The Kingdom of God I know is victorious, never ending, always expanding and full of God's grace...literally, the manifestation of God's presence upon the earth wherever it is proclaimed and displayed.

3. Manifestations of the Holy Spirit - This was from a recent email that criticized the various manifestations of the Holy Spirit in revival services of uncontrollable laughing, rolling on the floor, "trancelike" falling out in the Spirit, etc. Their complaint was justified by this statement, "I don't see any of the apostles falling out in the Spirit, or laughing etc. If it isn't in the bible it isn't real." I had to think about that one for a moment. Didn't John say that if all the things Jesus said and did were written down, there wouldn't be enough books in the world to contain them? I perceive that means that God is always doing new things, things we haven't seen before. If God can only do what He has done before, doesn't that limit His sovereignty? And speaking to the "falling out in the Spirit" ...I wonder how we would react to someone stripping of his clothes and lying naked for three days in the field under the power of the Holy Spirit? It happened to King Saul of Israel. How is that for embarrassing us!

Back to my first point about being right. I have to believe that God's power to keep us from error (the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth) is greater than the devil's power to deceive us. I also have to believe, that other than being saved by grace alone through faith in the atoning finished work of Jesus, that any other beliefs are forgivable if wrong. Isn't the grace of God, the cross of Christ and the blood of our Savior sufficient to save us when we aren't perfect? We certainly aren't perfect in our all practices, much less all our beliefs. If I must keep the law in one area, I must keep it in all (see Galatians) and grace is of no effect.

The Sermon on the Weeds

No, Jesus didn't give a sermon on the weeds, but I did this past Sunday. And as I was preaching the Word, I was amazed at the "instant insight" God allowed me to experience. It was as if I was "hearing" the word as I spoke it, and it took on fresh meaning and insight. I was preaching from Mark 4:18-19, about the weeds and the thorns that choke off the life of the word and make it unfruitful. As I listed the "things" we do that choke off the word, (the cares of life, the deceitfulness of riches, desires for other things) the Greek word for riches struck a chord with me. The root of the word Ploutos (rich) means "to be full." As I began to ponder the implications of this, God reminded me that 75% of the people in the world we live NEVER know the feeling of fullness. And yet, we experience it two or three times a day.

Jesus was reminding us that fulness leads to a false sense that "everything is okay" with my life. But the truth is, my hunger for God is often silenced by the fact I am "full" of so much else. That is why times of fasting are so valuable. When we fast, we deny ourselves food and fulness, and experience hunger that can be a reminder of Who we belong to and of our dependence upon Him.

All of this brings me full circle to the idea of weeds. If you don't keep them pulled up they will take over, and deny you the fruit your garden (heart) was designed to produce. As I have learned from my gardening hobby, you cannot let up for even a short period of time, as weeds have an innate way of taking over!

2 Dreams, 2 Days

When I get a vivid dream that leaves me in my waking hours pondering and meditating on it, I generally can label it as "from God." Today, I had the same dream as the day before...so God has gotten my attention in a big way.

I dreamed I was going for an interview as a plant manager for a packaging company. (In my pre-ministry days, I was a packaging foreman for Nabisco for 6 years). During this interview, I viewed the entire plant and gave advice to the owner on a number of things they were doing. One was "availability" of supervision, another was "providing tools workers need" and another was "use red yarn when the thread breaks" (that was very weird). The owner asked me what success I had in my supervision, and I shared that I had personally encouraged and interacted with each worker daily, and made myself readily available for their needs. Then I woke up with a voice going off in my head saying, "Do this in your ministry!"

Last night, I had the same dream. And I awoke with the same voice telling me to do the same thing. The second dream had some additions..."unleash people to their destiny and help them understand what that means and looks like."

So as I reflect upon this, I have to make the choice of implementing it in my ministry...especially considering that it sounded as if God was telling me to do so! On Easter Sunday, we saw some folks return for the service who hadn't been there in a while. I felt like God was pointing them out to me concerning their potential and destiny, and how to help them to not waste their future!

Reflection on where I have been

This week, a former member of our church sent me some harsh emails about our church's practices and beliefs, accusing me of being a false teacher, and a coward for not agreeing to let him try to change my mind. Those accusations hurt. Not because they were true, but because I had once been in his shoes, living a dogmatic, love-less life, believing "knowing" and "practicing" the truths of the bible was evidence of being saved. The truth is, I have not been completely delivered from that mind-set yet. That is why when he lashed out at me, I felt the sting I had inflicted upon so many others over the years.

The issues were pretty typical, over what version of the bible we use, the role of women in the church, and the continued use of the power gifts in the current church. Of course, the disagreement wouldn't have stopped there. It would have then shifted to the type of music and instruments used in services, the role of divorced folks in church, the length of a man's hair (and probably women's dresses). While i hadn't focused upon all of those details in my dogmatic period of my journey, I had my fair share of "my truth or no truth." The bottom line is that I had equated the knowledge and possession of the "correct" interpretation of the truth with righteousness. It turns out that this is just another form of "works" righteousness. Jesus focused a lot less on the don'ts and a lot more on the positive actions he expected his disciples to do.

Among those specific commands Jesus gave his disciples was "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper and preach the Kingdom of God." But since those require supernatural power to do them, we prefer to stick to the things we "CAN DO" in our own strength, which is to tell others what they can and cannot do as a part of their walk with God.

So in a very real sense, I am thankful for the harsh criticism of my ex-friend. It has shown me what I was (and still am) and how far I still have to go to be transformed to the likeness of my Savior.

Sending out the Nine

On Sunday April 10th, we had an 80 degree day. I wish the week after that day was as warm, but it was an exceptional day. We were conducting our Workshop on Supernatural Ministry and only nine folks showed up. I suspect the nice weather had a lot to do with it. But after a brief time of instruction, I told the group we were going to walk around Township Park and find people to pray for.

It was funny at first, because several of those who were there wanted to "flee" because it was going to stretch them. But we were blessed and all agreed to "try." We broke into 3 groups of 3 and went out. My group found a family that wasn't interested, then a few who were open. As we were finishing up, one of the teens with my group suggested we go talk to the people sitting in their cars watching the sunset. Now I was the one who was reluctant! But we went towards one car, and as we did, the sole occupant opened his window. We chatted and noticed he was reading a book on Buddhism. So we chatted some more and asked him questions about his journey toward God, and gave him some suggestions on books he might like. Then we told him we were there to pray for him...and he opened up and let us! He had some serious needs and we prayed for the provision and blessing and revelation of Father God to him.

A second group had several folks they prayed for before they ran across a family on the swings. As they offered to pray with them, the family asked them, "are you the same church that was at Dairy Queen last year praying for people? Because if you were, you guys prayed for us!" I had been among those who had prayed for them then during our practice! Needless to say, we were blessed to see our fruit returning a blessing.

The third group ran across a young woman in dire need, her boyfriend was struggling with emotional issues. The students who knew her also knew she wasn't open to prayer. Yet when they asked her, she began to weep and was very open. We saw God touch this woman who had a divine appointment with the Healer of Hearts.

As we returned to the church building to chat, we all were amazed at how 1) easy it was to talk to strangers and 2) how easy and rewarding to ask people if we can pray with them. Doors were opened for a number of participants to actually do what we had been talking about for the past several months!

Growing Plants

This week we played for our Workshop of Supernatural Ministry, a video by Bill Johnson, in which he said, "whatever is kept within the walls of the church will die, but whatever we take outside will grow and thrive."

After I went home, I looked at my tomato plants that I started a few weeks ago. I sure was glad I planted them inside, where there was heat and regulated water and food supplies. But the controlled atmosphere is only temporary. It would be folly to try to get my tomato plants to bear fruit indoors. The best they would do is to shrivel and get gnarly if they aren't exposed to the elements as they were designed for. In fact, once mature, my tomato plants were created for the temperate outdoors, because that is where they will bear fruit. Plant them in March and they will die. Plant them in late May and they will thrive.

Likewise with us. Jesus SENT his disciples out to PRACTICE in the towns and villages. They healed the sick, raised the dead, cleansed the lepers and cast out demons. They had some successes and some failures. Then they returned to Jesus for a debriefing. Got some more instructions and tried again. Sounds like the way the church should train!

That is what I hope our Workshops will do. As the weather warms in April, we plan on conducting "neighborhood treasure hunts" in which we go through a neighborhood looking for folks to pray for, to hear their prayer needs, and then to meet those needs through whatever means God provides. We will have the opportunity to practice what we are learning, how to hear God, how to give a word of prophetic encouragement, and how to pray for healing or deliverance. Do it long enough and we will realize that this is who we are and not just something we do.

Let me Proclaim Your Power

It has been exactly a year since I last read this passage from Psalm 71:18. "Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me."

I still have it posted in my office. (I know it has been a year because I read a one year bible (NLT) each morning)

As I reflect upon the past year, I have seen at least 3 undeniable healings/miracles. I stand/sit in awe before our King and am amazed He created us to partner with Him in bringing His power and love to this desperate world. God done did it, and I got to be the tool and the witness of His action.

Now, we proclaim it to the new generation! Our youth and adults are hungry to see God at work. Anywhere from 4 to 6 youth attend our Workshops in Supernatural Ministry every Sunday night. They want to make a difference in this world.

Last Sunday evening someone said to me, "you must be pretty excited about seeing this kind of participation in the workshops." I replied, "I have dreamed of this day and the day when we equip an army to minister to our city." I believe I am witnessing a dream become reality. Of course, it really wasn't my dream to start with, God planted that dream in my heart because it was HIS dream, His heart for His church!

In Bondage to Being Right.

I had an encounter with a former church member today that broke my heart. He had been posting some negative things about a well known Christian musician and I asked him to be careful on how quickly he judged. What followed was a hornets nest of scripture postings followed by "according to the Authorized King James Version of 1611." It was like an exclamation point being added to a rant that was actually saying, "I need to be right, and can't afford to make a mistake."

His reaction to my questions went beyond being merely defensive, but drove on the offense, to set stakes in the ground on what he believed, why and how it was important that he defend his interpretation as the only correct one.

At first, I wanted to "de-friend" him, then after that I felt like rebuking him or telling him he was wrong. But the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart that those actions were "about me" and not about love. Instead, I concluded that it is my role to continue to plant seeds about the awesome LOVE of God found in Jesus Christ's grace that is available to every believer. We don't have to be right or prove we are right. Love covers over many sins (flaws, faults, etc).

Shock Collar

We hired a dog trainer this week. He uses a shock collar. Before you pass judgment upon our cruelty, consider the facts. He brought out his dog which was in his car. A beautiful Austrailian Shepherd, with out a leash! The dog never took his eyes off of his master. His attention was on him without distraction. He hits the button on the shock collar before every command. Seems strange.

Our dog pays attention only when we have something it wants. Like a treat or a toy or affection or a walk. (Seems a lot like me and God.) The purpose of the shock collar is to teach the dog to pay attention to your commands. We saw the lack of this a few minutes later when our dog spotted a bird outside and barked and tensed up and completely and entirely ignored us, even when we touched or grabbed him. He's a good dog and he loves to please us (like me and God). But he gets distracted SO EASILY!

I know God doesn't have a shock collar, but sometimes I wish He did. I have so much to learn about listening and paying attention!

Treasure Hunting 2011

On Saturday, Jennifer and I went with a group of Christians from a number of churches to do a treasure hunt in Painesville and to minister to the homeless. I have to admit, Zack Barton, the young man who organized this, has an burning passion to minister to the people of our world. He regularly schedules these in Cleveland, in the middle of winter!

I had a special treasure, an elderly man sitting outside a book sale in the Library. He was sitting on a bench and I had just come out of the restroom, and figured Jennifer must be in the restroom as well. So I sat next to this man and struck up a conversation. It is so easy to talk to someone by simply being friendly. Before long, I noticed his hand was black, so I asked him if he was on blood thinners. He replied yes. Just then, Jennifer emerged from the restroom with an elderly woman smiling from ear to ear. She pronounced, "I found my treasure!" And she explained how they met in the restroom and she was about to have cataract surgery and needed prayer. This woman was the wife of the man I was sitting next to! They both agreed this was no "coincidence." So we also prayed for him and his leg (which had vein surgery a year ago) that he would be able to be healed sufficiently to get off of the Coumadin. They were all smiles.

My only regret was not asking them more about their journey with God. Each experience is a valuable lesson!

Fasting and Prayer 2011

After our January "21 days of fasting and prayer" this year, we came to some of the most powerful insights for our community that I can recall as a result of one of these fasts. Among them was the passage from Luke 4:18-19. "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD."

This passage was heard by at least 2 people at the same moment during our Sunday Prayer and Praise time. The next day, a young man from our congregation called me to ask for help breaking free of his addiction to alcohol! As a result, we revisited the passage and began to declare it over ourselves and our community.

We believe that 2011 will be a year of "the Lord's favor" (Year of Jubilee). We found out later that 2011 is the 200th anniversary of the town of Madison, Ohio, where our church family is located. We believe that God desires us to take His "Good News" to every home in our community. But in a different way than merely shouting it at them. We are called to live it before them.

About 5 years ago, we had a mission team visit that wanted something to do...so we asked them to go door to door and ask people for prayer needs. They found many people opened their doors and their hearts because we weren't try to "get something" from them, but were instead serving them. Since that time, we have learned how to do "treasure hunts," give prophetic words and listen to the Holy Spirit whisper in our ears. So as a result, 2011 is the year in which we will be actively going to homes in our community to minister "prayer" and to see what God is doing. Quantity won't be the goal. Meeting needs with the love of God will be. In fact, when a need is uncovered (a sick relative for example) we will ask the team to follow up. Visit the sick relative in the hospital and pray with them. If a need is for home repair, let's mobilize a team to help out. We must BE THE GOSPEL. (the Good News of the Kingdom (reign) of God.)