Henry Schmidt

Christmas 2011

2011-12-24T13:24:00.000-08:00

Here's our Christmas newsyletter to all our friends + eagles flying into all 4 corners of the world!
The Schmidts are home this year for Christmas, returning after an almost 2 months' journey. It's taken a bit to catch up with things after so long an absence + the Schmidt family is having babies! Our next generation is growing + on Nov 24th, Ryan + Sophia had a baby boy, Aleksandre Ryan, a brother for Anastasia, our 1st grandson!
And soon Michael + Kelsey have more good news on the way for next year!
We are blessed!
Our family picture keeps changing. How’s yours?
Some depart, always missed, but leave an ongoing legacy for new arrivals who in turn take up the baton to run their lap in life’s race! Speaking of running... we’ve been doing a lot of that since our last Christmas letter... running all over the world:
2010 - May + June I was in Ghana, Nigeria + England;
September - in Bali, Indonesia;
November- in Saigon, Vietnam, teaching in an underground Bible School.
Between trips, we fought off a ‘demon-rat’ that attacked our house + chewed through our plastic water-pipes! Our downstairs walls + ceilings looked like a battleground: water pouring out, holes punched in, carpets pulled up -- a mess! But God sent angels disguised as Harry the plumber + James the renovator to fix it all up again! I am convinced it was a ‘demon’ rat: it didn’t take our gourmet bait - cheese, sausage or peanut butter! but then in the dark of night - 2:30am! I heard it chewing - right above our bed, right above my head! ... if I’d had a gun?!
But he finally took the poison… after $9,000 damage!
Even rats have vulnerabilities.
So with our house under restoration last Christmas, our family scattered around the globe: Ryan, Sophia + Anya to Brazil, Michael + Kelsey to Mexico, Amy, Erica + I
to Uganda. Definitely more fun munching papaya than shoveling snow!
It was a return-trip for us to Kampala where we had run a month-long Training Centre in January 2008. Some of our students had been from UJV (Uganda Jesus Village),
a home for over 60 orphans, victims of war (LRA - Lord’s Resistance Army atrocities) AIDS + famine. It was an extra-not-so-ordinary Christmas as God used us wonderfully to not only touch others’ hearts, but also refresh ours! We loaded up suitcases to ‘send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared’ and emptied them all!
When we came home at the end of January, our house was fixed, but winter was still happening: we thought we’d missed the cold, but our furnace had stopped working!
From Africa’s 30c to BC’s 0c in January + no heat! What is wrong with this picture?
We shivered through, got the furnace running in a few days + then kept running…
throughout the year: Prince George, Edmonton & Red Deer in May; we fled the Stanley Cup play-off riots for Iceland + England during June-July; and now we have just finished a return lap to Finland, Uganda & England from September to November -- almost 2 months!
‘Jesus, the Revelation of The Father's Heart, to a fatherless generation’ became our focus message throughout this last trip; not just in words, but in action. Unfulfilled commitments, empty words, every kind of confusion will come; but when you are secure in your true Identity as a son with a Heavenly Father who loves you, then you are free to run + fulfill your Destiny! Africa has more than ‘demon rats’ to combat: it pulls + pushes, attracts + draws you in, only to disillusion with its pot-holes, poverty, corruption + grief. But then, just when all seems lost, redemption + salvation appear! -- only as it can in Africa!
And that’s what we found at UJV! Years of insufficient funding + lack of workers have taken their toll on the mission’s resources + left it in an only ‘with God all things are possible’ state.
Some promised help, but then walked away; others, even worse.
The bottom line for us is: here are 61 'vulnerable/orphans’ who are not to blame, but candidates for James 1:27’s
‘pure + undefiled religion = Take care of orphans + widows in their trouble’
= the fatherless! Less talk + more walk is needed here!
Amy had returned to UJV in August & we joined her during October with a team of 4 others: our friends Marg, Larry, James & even Erica’s 82-year old Mom! helped do whatever was necessary. It was sad to see UJV in such disrepair. I felt much like Nehemiah must have when he viewed Jerusalem’s broken walls and after I’d seen the ‘demon’-rat’s rampage.
We found: a woodpile without a saw or sharpened axe to cut firewood; filthy showers & washrooms without running water; plugged sewage + drainage pipes that threatened the entire mission’s closure.
The questions: ‘What can we do when the need, obstacles + giants are so great?’
and ‘What is so little among so many?’ filled my mind.
But then I also heard God say, 'A LOT when I AM in it!’
+ remembered the 5 loaves + 2 fish!
With funds donors had entrusted us to apply towards the greatest + most pressing needs, we went to work. We found a tradesman who fixed the drainage problem (must have been trustworthy, his name was Henry!). We repainted the washrooms + showers (bright blue is a lot better than black!). Erica’s 9 suitcases (they were really overflowing treasure-chests!) poured out new underwear, pyjamas + shoes! We pooled resources + bought 20 colourful new mattresses to replace the old, stained, tattered + shredded remnants children had been sleeping on for the last five years. I wish you could have seen their faces when they got them!
Marg + Grandma taught pre-school; Larry + James preached on the streets; Erica + I shared in the Missions Conference & churches. Our message became clearer: Healed people heal people!
It’s time for sons + daughters of God to be whole + become fathers + mothers with a vision beyond ourselves! = clear demonstrations of The Father’s Heart in action
to heal this fatherless generation!
We returned home in mid-November doubly thankful: no demon-rat + our furnace worked! Neither of us had any jet lag; we slept right through the nights!
My own bed had never felt so good! ..almost as good as the UJV kids with their new mattresses!
Amy has just rejoined us at home for Christmas, but hopes to return to UJV in the New Year. So we're all back, resting...
‘The Schmidts are nestled, all snug in their beds,
With more than visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.’
Please join me as I share more of these over the next year here on our blog:
-- archived DVDs of Revelation2Revolution are available: just click on Top Right button: 10-week Revelation StreamingLive
+ a just completed set of OT + NT Survey manuals is also ready:
just email me henryerica604@gmail.com
+ more to come, as we await the Lord’s leading on how to run further in this coming New Year!
Thank you ALL for ALL your continued love + friendship, Merry Christmas!
+ we pray ALL God’s best for you ALL in this coming New Year!
ALL our love in Jesus,
Henry & Erica

So Few Among So Many?

2011-10-28T03:03:00.000-07:00

Here in Uganda so often so much looks like so little among so many. But Africa 'surprises' continue & you can never presume things are what they seem to be.
Father's Heart teaching went well, but Father's Heart in action went even better! Yesterday we bought & distributed 20 foam mattresses for UJV kids who needed them most. It would break your heart to see what some have been sleeping on: tattered, stained, mere fragments of stuffing. They were so excited + thankful!
I'm sure they had a better night's sleep!
What are so few among so many?
Step out & watch Jesus feed 5000 with your 5 loaves + 2 fish!

COVENANT - THE BIG PICTURE 3

2011-06-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

From its opening to closing chapters, The Bible charts the relationship between The Creator and His Creation through a 'covenant' lens. This is a Book of The Covenant, revealing God's Heart as not only Creator, but Father. The Old Testament portion, in particular, traces God's efforts and man's reactions from his Creation through his Fall and subsequent, tragic journey of unbelief and rebellion. This is God's account of how man, exiled from Eden, has aspired to find his way back to the garden without success.
The key to The Bible is Covenant. God is Covenant-making + Covenant-keeping.
Man, however, is Covenant-breaking. This is the chief underlying factor in all that transpires throughout this historic chronicle. The Old Covenant records approximately 4000 years of man's futile attempts to make his own way, while simultaneously outlining God's singular path of true restoration. It not only exposes man's separation and inability to keep covenant, but reveals God's heart of faithful love to fulfill His part regardless of our failures and promises an unconditional New Covenant in His Messiah.
Man has instinctively perceived his separation as 2-fold: between himself + God and among men themselves. His search for reconciliation brought him to understand he could not effect this by himself and somehow blood was required to restore these severed relationships. Leviticus 17:11 reveals: 'the life is in the blood'. In Hebrew, 'bereeth' means 'to cut, compact, confederate; a league made by passing between pieces of flesh'. Something had to die to restore the life man had once possessed. Blood had to be shed to re-establish trust between God and men. As sin had turned Adam + Eve from life to death, so man instinctively understood he now required a life-substitute sacrifice to effectively turn his separation to restoration. His very life depended on right relationship: both with God + other men. 'Covenant' was essential in securing this confidence.
Adam broke God's original covenant and lost not only his relationship with God, but also his authority over all creation. When Adam fell, so all creation fell with him and the way was barred to The Tree of Life. Following generations manifested the evil fruit of their separation from God and reaped a Deluge with total destruction of all but 8 souls. But God spared Noah and his family and gave them a further covenant, signed with His rainbow, promising that He would never again destroy the earth in such manner.
Later, in the face of idolatry, God called Abram, himself a former idol-worshiper, to walk with Him. He promised him the land of Canaan, an heir and descendants from his own body, innumerable as the sand of the sea and stars of heaven. Abram 'believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.' (Gen 15:6)
God then 'cut covenant' with him, changed his name to Abraham (father of many nations) and made him a blessing to all the earth. Abraham was circumcised in his flesh together with Ishmael, his 1st-born, and all his house, but the covenant was spiritual through promise so when Isaac, the promised seed, was born, Ishmael was cast out. Natural flesh can neither satisfy God's heart nor inherit the kingdom. His choice is spiritual Seed.
Generations passed, and Abraham's seed migrated to Egypt with Jacob and Joseph. But God's promise stood and when it was time, approximately 400 years later, their covenant-keeping God raised up Moses to not only free a people from slavery, but birth Israel as a nation and destroy Egypt. Furthermore, he led Israel to Sinai to receive the Covenant, specifically 10 Commandments embodied in The Ark of The Covenant, housed in the Tabernacle's Holy of Holies, God's very dwelling in the centre of their camp. God desired fellowship with His people and gave them laws to teach them His ways so they might approach, worship and dwell with Him in holiness. But right from its inception, the law was unable to bridge this separation: even before Moses had come down from Sinai, Israel had already broken it! Consequently, Israel's history can be best understood in terms of their obedience or disobedience to this conditional covenant. Obedience brought blessing; disobedience yielded cursing and destruction. They were delivered from bondage, but unfortunately continually faltered through unbelief and never really enjoyed a sustained, free, covenant walk with God. Their first generation perished in the wilderness; Moses renewed the covenant with the next on the plains of Moab, but Deuteronomy's final song prophesied their eventual disobedience and destruction.
Joshua led them into the Promised Land, won many battles, and faithfully established them in God's ways, but Israel fell into a repeated cycle of blessing, sin, disobedience, idolatry, bondage, repentance and deliverance throughout the next 400 years of Judges. They cried for a leader: a king who would unite them and defeat their enemies so they might live in peace and prosperity. God and Samuel gave them their heart's desire. Saul, their first king, was unfaithful; but David was a man after God’s own heart and His Promised Seed narrowed from an entire nation to this man and his posterity.
God covenanted with David that he would not lack one to sit on the throne forever. His kingdom would be God's kingdom here on earth. Ultimately, the Messiah would come through David’s line to rule over not only Israel, but the entire world! David was not the Messiah; he was not even able to build the Temple, a permanent place for God's dwelling in Jerusalem. Nor was his natural son, Solomon. Nor any of his natural seed. The nation even divided into two. Israel proved themselves unwilling and unable to walk in God's covenant law. The covenant was broken and many times it appeared as if all hope was lost. But even at its darkest hour, as Jerusalem was besieged by Babylon, Jeremiah prophesied forgiveness: a New Covenant in the people's heart. (Jer 31:31-34)
Simultaneously, from among those already captive in Babylon, Ezekiel promised 'one heart and a new spirit within them, not a stony heart, but a heart of flesh.' (Ezek 11:19)
Then Daniel prophesied not only an end to exile, but God's supernatural kingdom to come in 70 Weeks (490 years) after 4 Gentile kingdoms – Babylon, Medes + Persians, Greece and Rome – had run their course. God never deviated from His Covenant and promised His Messiah would bring the long-awaited Covenant Kingdom into reality.
However, even with restoration to their land, city and temple, Israel again forsook their God! Freed from worshiping physical idols, they now re-fashioned His image with traditions and misinterpretations of God's Word. Malachi, the final Old Testament prophet, called them back to their God and His covenant, but then further promised,
'I will send you Elijah the prophet... he will turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.' (Mal 4:5-6)
The New Covenant reveals this promise fulfilled 400 years later when John the Baptist prepared the way for the Messiah, Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us: Jesus the Lamb + Son of God, the true King of Israel, Her Messiah! He alone was able to heal the past wrongs and wounds of both Israel and all mankind!
He alone is the Answer to the questions and cries from men's hearts over all the centuries. What the Law could never do, nor was ever meant to do, Jesus did!
The Law, our Old Testament and Covenant is also our schoolmaster to bring us: to Christ, the end of any trust in religious works and self-sufficiency; to Calvary's blood-soaked Cross, a new and living way; to Jesus, The Mediator of the new and better Covenant. (Heb 11:24)

IT'S ALL ABOUT JESUS!
Isaiah writes, 'Your ways are not my ways,' and continuing with the jigsaw puzzle metaphor, God's approach to life is also amazingly different from our natural ways. Rather than begin by joining edge and corner pieces first, His revelation of the mystery in life and the Bible can only be solved by starting right at the center:
the 1st piece is JESUS!
He is the Alpha + Omega! Jesus doesn't just finally show up 4000 years into the story, in the New Testament. He is present throughout the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It’s all about Him! He alone has the pre-eminence: the first place!
When He came to His own people, the Jews' spiritual leaders did not receive Him as their Messiah; they rather rejected Him. In effect they said, 'We have our doctrine of Messiah all figured out. Our box says the true Messiah would never heal on the Sabbath nor call God His Father. You do not fit our box and so you are not him!' Jesus' replied to these religious Pharisees: 'You search the Scriptures and in them you think you have life: but they testify of ME!' (Jn 5:39)
On Resurrection Day, Jesus joined two of His disciples on the Emmaus road. They were discouraged, walking in the wrong direction. When they should have been rejoicing, they were rather troubled and saddened by the day's events. Their misinterpretations (like ours today) led them to totally misunderstand the events, miss God’s way and arrive at negative conclusions. Jesus countered their doubts with the Old Testament Scripture:
'Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things? And then he expounded to
them in all the Law + Prophets the things concerning Himself.' (Luke 24:27,44)
It’s all about JESUS! He alone is our Beginning + Ending and challenges and changes everything in between! He is Genesis’ singular Tree of Life and Revelation’s forest on both sides of the river. He is all their Root, Fruit and Leaves for the healing of all nations! Revelation testifies Jesus is on the Throne and Ephesians teaches we are seated together with Him. When we truly walk 'looking unto Jesus, the Author + Finisher of Our Faith', life flows and the mystery becomes a revelation! What formerly didn’t fit, now finds its complement and fulfillment in Him, without our trying to force our way. It is finished! This is the New Beginning! Our lengthy struggle becomes a living Revelation of Jesus Christ: who He is and what He’s done, to us and through us, who we are and what we are called to be + do! He is our Content and we are his context for even greater works!

THE BIG PICTURE 2 - OVERVIEW OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY

2011-05-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

The Bible presents the story of divine-human relationship throughout all time: a grand tapestry which humans often view only from the reverse perspective as a mere tangle of loose thread-ends. But... it is history woven from God's perspective: His-Story from Genesis' origins to Malachi's final promises, working all things together for good!
Its grand scope reveals God – eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent; relating with man – finite, remarkably ignorant at times, especially when professing wisdom, limited, and very weak when confronted with the truth of who he truly is. How can these two possibly dwell and walk together? The Bible presents this God-man story: Creator and Creation and both their efforts to restore their broken relationship.
However, man perceives this historical journey and its events very differently from God. Frightened, driven by fear, greed, lust and power, history reveals man has constantly fallen short of all God has offered him. He initiates, we react. He builds, we destroy. He loves, we retaliate. How such differences can be overcome for restoration to truly take place is His-Story. God has never been frustrated. He has always steadfastly stuck to Plan A and never reverted to Plan B, although He might well have been justified to abandon this pitiful dust that we are. Such is God’s Love that He never gives up on mankind, but continues always with His Original Plan, regardless of our failures.
Old Testament history in particular outlines His-Story from The Beginning to one of the darkest times in human history: the 400 years just before the dawn of His Messiah! Right from the moment Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, God's plan to save, reconcile and restore us to Himself was set in motion. However, man has not always understood God's ways and resisted His attempts to draw us close. We have been rebellious chicks, quite unwilling to be gathered under His wings! But His Genesis 3:15 Promise stood firm: the seed of woman would one day crush the head of the serpent’s seed and all the devil’s work would be undone!
First, mankind had to see his need for broken relationship to be restored with God. All man-made substitutes needed to be exposed as poor counterfeits indeed. Man cannot make God in his image; God made man in His! Nor could man advise God about how to fix this broken trust; that is God's part. Man fell from the inside when they ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The corrupt seed took root, defiled their heart and bore not only shame, guilt and fear in Adam and Eve's generation, but murder in the next: Cain slew his brother Abel. But Cain's further lineage reaped a fuller harvest of 'only evil continually'.
Until God intervened. The Flood destroyed the entire human race, except Noah and his family. However, even with this destruction, man continued in his own devices and built Babel to 'make a name for ourselves'. Again God intervened, broke their proud schemes and scattered them as 70 nations over all the earth.
Then the process of re-gathering by faith began. God chose Abram, a former idolator, called him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and promised to bless him and make him a blessing to all nations. Abraham (father of many nations), became a pilgrim model of what it means to be a true worshiper and 'friend of God' here on earth. He
'went out, not knowing where he was going...
looking for a city which has foundations,
whose builder and maker is God.'
He walked with God, looking for life beyond himself. Then followed Isaac, the promised son, and after him, Jacob who became Israel (prince with God) and, through his 12 sons fathered 12 tribes. However, this dysfunctional family eventually ended up in bondage in Egypt, slaves for the next 400 years.
Seemingly forgotten, but not by God, Israel was persecuted in Egypt until God answered their cry for deliverance and raised up Moses to miraculously free His people. Israel now became a nation, birthed through a series of 10 Plagues that totally decimated Egypt, destroyed every one of its 1st-born males and ultimately drowned its armies in the Red Sea. The Law-Giver then led them to Sinai to receive the Old Covenant, specifically embodied in The 10 Commandments, to teach them how to approach, dwell with and worship their God.
From the Exodus, Israel's history chronicles the nation's inconsistent walk with their God. It is the oldest and most detailed record of any people's history. The Greeks and Egyptians have their mythologies. However, the Bible records Israel's history in often minute detail, outlining not only the nation's triumphs, but also its many failures. God does not spare even His heroes from the whole truth. In not always literal or chronologically-ordered themes, we find God patiently pouring out His heart to His people, seeking their heart repentance and reconciliation. But to no avail. Rather than believe God's good report and enter The Promised Land, they wandered 40 years in the wilderness. A generation passed. Joshua eventually finally led in a new generation, but their unbelief persisted. It was easier to get Israel out of Egypt than Egypt out of Israel.
Israel stumbled through the next 850 years in cycles of sin-addiction: sometimes walking in faith + blessing, then recurrent sin + idolatry, subsequent conquest + servitude, followed by repentance + restoration. But neither judges, prophets, priests nor kings were able to save Israel from themselves. A zenith of power under kings David and Solomon was short-lived and Israel fragmented in two.
10 tribes led by Ephraim separated to form the Northern Kingdom of Israel with its capital at Samaria, while 2 tribes remained with David's dynasty in the Kingdom of Judah, still centred in Jerusalem. The two kingdoms often warred against one another, sometimes allied against their neighbouring kingdoms of Syria, Moab or Edom, but rarely repented and served the God of their fathers with all their hearts. Both peoples eventually lost their focus on God and ultimately their kingdoms. God Himself put an end to their unfortunate cycle.
First, Israel: the Northern Kingdom, after 9 dynasties of ungodly kings, was defeated and its 10 tribes scattered among the nations by Assyria in 709BC. Just over a century later, in 586BC, Jerusalem and its temple were also destroyed and its people led captive to Babylon for 70 years. The land would finally have its Sabbaths.
Empires pass, but God’s Promise always stands faithful. In 539BC, the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon under Darius and shortly thereafter, Cyrus decreed the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its Temple! Beginning in 536BC, true to Jeremiah's prophecy of 70 Years' Captivity, 3 remnant waves of exiles returned to the land under Joshua + Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah. Together with the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, they rallied the nation in rebuilding and revival, but the people soon became disheartened, discouraged and addicted to dead religious forms. Idolatry had been broken, but a more formal legalism now took its place. Malachi trumpeted a final prophetic message: hearts needed to turn back to the Father. God spoke again, but his people apparently had no ears to hear and 400 years of silence followed!

THE BIG PICTURE 1

2011-05-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

I finally completed a two-year project: an Old Testament Survey manual of all 39 books!
It is finished!
You might ask, ‘So... Why’d you do that?’ There are lots of other Old Testament studies available.’
...Yes. But I’ve never done this before and I must confess it was first of all primarily for my own benefit: I needed to find out whether I really knew and understood what the OT truly said or was I merely believing and repeating what I thought others thought it said. Does that sound confusing or is that really where many of us are concerning God’s Word?
… and furthermore, I felt a simple, practical tool was needed to help hungry & thirsty hearts see all the Old Testament’s signs clearly pointing to Jesus. Truth- seekers just need a few basic helps to unearth Scripture’s treasures and reveal their fulfillment in Christ, the Father’s heart.
A few years ago, I completed a similar overview of the New Testament’s 27 books and used it in our Training Centre with the goal to help disciples discover and walk in God’s Will. He likens us to eagles, called to fill up, mount up and grow up in the revelation of His kingdom. But we need both wings: the Word + the Spirit. A merely intellectual, academically top-heavy Word-wing only leads to a dry, bumpy, unbalanced flight, while a similarly lop-sided ‘winging it in the spirit’ over-emphasis on experience fares no better. Both extremes share the same fate: if they do get off the ground, they merely fly around in circles, create a lot of hyper-activity and havoc, but inevitably crash-land in heaps of vanity and confusion. As Shakespeare said, “Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!’ Flopping around with one wing may seem exciting for a brief time, but ultimately ends up being remembered only for its foolishness.
I believe God deserves better. The Word confirms the Spirit’s work and the Spirit empowers the Word’s truth. We need both and this manual’s purpose is to help us develop both wings. May it stir hearts to rediscover their Bible for what it is: Our Father’s love letters powerfully revealing the ‘simplicity of Christ’. No longer a mystery, but ‘in Christ’ now a revelation! Jesus didn’t just show up in the New Testament. He is present throughout the whole Bible: both Old + New! He is the Word of God!
Personally, I gained a deeper awareness of 2 uniquely new wings during this project: Content + Context. If we can hear and see these letters’ original message to their original recipients in their original setting, then we can better interpret their message, understand how it relates to our day and apply it more effectively. That is: Context clarifies Content. This requires teachable disciples who desire to become mature and trained followers of Jesus, hungry and thirsty for the undiluted Will of God to obey it! However, many believers barely subsist on a watered-down diet of speculation, doctrine and tradition, far removed from the strong meat of the Word + Spirit. We have church-attenders, but not many workers; spectators but few participants; perhaps 10,000 teachers, but not many fathers; milk but not meat. Milk is anything you receive from someone else, like infants who breast-feed from their mothers. We also have become too dependent on others for what we believe: preachers, teachers, televangelists and even ‘Christian fiction’, and have often settled for Scripture wrenched out of context rather than searching out the Word for ourselves.
‘For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.' (Hebrew 5:12-14)

God is calling sons and daughters to rise up and grow up, to become strong men and women of God in both Word + Spirit, mature not just in knowledge, but in wisdom, discerning + walking in His Will. We need to hunger for meat and not settle for mere bones.

And so I offer this manual to whoever is hungry + thirsty for God. May it help/aid/guide your heart and mind to search out God’s Word for yourself, experience the Holy Spirit’s leading into all truth and release your Identity into Destiny! This is not the meat. It’s simply: a tool to help you ‘rightly divide the word of truth’ to eat the meat; a spade to help you dig, discover and value its priceless gems; a key to unlock what was once mysteriously hidden, but is now gloriously revealed in Jesus Christ!
May it help challenge, encourage and incite you to probe greater depths than you’ve known and also stir, equip and lift you into the boundless heights of His faith and love!
Life is a journey. Take time to stop along the way: rest and drink beside peaceful waters, enjoy the fullness of His healing and restoration, and let Him release fresh vision and strength to continue! It is written that we might read and run that race set before us, our very lives proclaiming His Good News!

The following excerpts are from the Introduction-Overview of the manual. If you are interested in either of the complete Old or New Testament editions, please contact me at: henryerica604@gmail.com

I. INTRODUCTION:

The Bible is THE BOOK of God + humanity, presenting the grand story of human origins, history and purpose as well as reaching beyond to future hopes and destiny. Its view is all-encompassing and beyond human comprehension. The Bible is a revelation of not only our existence, but also the meaning of things, people, events, struggle and ultimately, God. It purports to be the Creator’s Handbook to His Creation on 'How to Live this Precious Gift of Life', outlining its God-given covenant warranty with provisions for healing, recovery and renewal even when things break down.
It offers such a grand scope and scale of the picture of the Divine-human story that we often run the risk of losing its full and proper perspective: God’s macro-cosmic panorama compared with our own micro-myopic, self-centred portion. We need to see both the forest and the trees; not merely our own personal part in the drama, but the overview, the entire script, the BIG picture: the whole of the human landscape from God’s perspective.
Just like piecing a jigsaw puzzle together, so we need to approach this mystery called life. We must first see the picture on the box before we randomly jam pieces together. The Bible gives us the BIG picture for those seemingly disconnected pieces in life's box. Without this primary revelation, all will remain a confusing mystery and we will frustrate ourselves, trying to force pieces together that seem to have no meaningful relationship.
People tackle puzzles in different ways. Some just dive in. Others are more methodical: they first turn all the pieces picture-side up, separate various colour-groups from one another and then connect the corner and edge pieces. They prefer defined parameters and marked limitations to measure and order their task. Some approach life and the Bible in the same way, but these defy such simplistic methods.
The Bible's pieces do not often fit our ways of thinking. God's life cannot be forced into a box mentality! He will always break out of whatever box we might try to force Him into! They tried to do that to Jesus once and He broke out! It's called The Resurrection! Genesis to Revelation chronicles the God-man story from both divine and human perspectives, revealing God's faithfulness and man's inability. It is life, filled with all its struggle + loss, triumph + defeat, passion + betrayal, disappointment + courage, fear + faith. The Bible asks and explores the Eternal Questions of Life, unlocks mysteries and reveals its one focus, key and purpose in this journey of faith: Jesus Christ.
The New Testament does not accomplish this alone, but finds its full revelation together with the Old Testament. The 2 are 1! In at least 3 relational aspects:
1) literary: the New quotes the Old over 500 times! Its language and style are birthed and shaped by the Old.
2) both affirm the same basic truths: the New assumes the Old's historical foundation: eg creation, origin of sin, central role of covenant in redemption, atonement.
3) inter-dependence: the New claims Old Testament types, shadows, and future hopes are now present realities, fulfilled in Jesus. The Old is the theological centerpiece of the New while the New describes the climactic fulfillment of Old Testament themes.
You cannot comprehend the New without the Old nor the Old without the New for
The New is in the Old Concealed
The Old is in the New Revealed!

The 8th Letter of Revelation

2011-04-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

'And to the angel of the Church in _______(fill in the name of your city) write…'
What if Jesus added an eighth letter to His 7 Letters to the Churches of Revelation and sent it to the Church of your city today?
What would He talk about? What would be its highlights? Affirmations? Corrections? Warnings?
To whom would it be addressed? Who would receive it?
Would we receive it?
It’s recorded in history that the church of Laodicea did not receive its letter. They could not accept that its contents described their church’s actual situation. They instead insisted that things were just fine.
The letter was wrong; they weren’t. 'It’s addressed to the wrong church. That’s not us!'
The letter asserted they were self-sufficient, in need of nothing, not even God. Their refusal to accept God’s view of themselves ironically testified against them that God had indeed witnessed correctly.

A few years ago my wife and I visited Turkey and some of what are left of the 7 Churches of Revelation. Nothing remains of Laodicea today: neither the city nor the church. Its waters were neither cold not hot, but lukewarm. True to Christ’s Word, it has been spewed out, vomited, left desolate and in ruins. It is an amazing testimony to how we need to hear and receive God’s prophetic message for us in our day or suffer the consequences.
In fact, the only church still functioning is in Smyrna (now called Izmir): the Suffering, Persecuted Church. Of the 7, Smyrna (together with Philadelphia) received no rebuke and is the only one which still has a present-day congregation of worshipers.
'Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.' (Rev 2:10)

I believe one of the things Jesus would highlight in His letter to the church in our city is:‘keep the unity of the Spirit.' (Eph 4:3) He does not say 'strive to attain', but 'keep', which affirms we must already possess this unity through Christ. You cannot 'keep' what you don't already have. We are one body. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free, Baptist nor Charismatic in Christ's eyes. Various moves of the Spirit have impacted the body of Christ throughout history, but their full effect, value and legacy are ultimately realized in how they relate to building the kingdom of God and not their own little kingdoms. The church is one and we need to acknowledge this truth, value our unity and act out who we integrally are in Christ.
Jesus prayed, 'That they may be one just as We are one.' (John 17:22)

After the fall of the Soviet Union, I was privileged to teach in the first Bible school opened in Ulyanovsk, a city with over a million people about 400 kilometres from Moscow, best known as the birthplace of the father of Russian communism, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, aka Lenin. God has a sense of humour: our Bible school classes were held right in The Communist Hotel! Every morning on my way to class, I would pass by one of Lenin’s few still-standing statues in Russia in the city's main square and sarcastically greet him,
“Good morning, Comrade Lenin. My, but you don’t look very well. Are you sick? Losing your balance? You seem to be tilting a little more each day?!”
Towards the end of my two weeks there, I was invited to join one of the first unity meetings of a group of pastors in Ulyanovsk. My interpreter kept me informed on what was transpiring, but the pastors’ body language needed no interpretation and even my limited Russian understood a clear enough message. They were enjoying their new freedoms, but old suspicions, rivalries and prejudices still surfaced as the different denominations struggled to find common ground together. They were trying to decide on holding their first public meeting together to celebrate Christmas, but… they couldn’t even decide on the date!
Should it be the Western December 25th or the Eastern Orthodox January 6th?
Who should speak? Some felt the Orthodox priest should, but the Lutheran pastor said that if the priest spoke, many of his parishioners would not attend and he wasn’t sure he would either.
The Pentecostal pastor objected; then still another objected more to the Methodist pastor's involvement: she was a woman.
It was starting to get uncomfortably hot in the room.
I watched and prayed and felt a Holy Spirit tug on my heart.
I asked my interpreter if I might share something with the group.
They agreed and so I spoke:
'I understand from the Bible that God views His church quite differently from how we see ourselves and one another. When He addresses His church, He writes to either His universal body, a specific ‘church in your house’ or a city church in a geographical area, that is, 'in Ephesus', 'in Philippi', or 'in Corinth'.
As long as you continue to see yourselves divided by different walls and denominations, you will remain fragmented and ineffective.
You need to see yourself the way God sees you, as His one church in the city of Ulyanovsk.
You will not be able to do what He has called you to do until you see yourselves as you truly are, the way God sees you… as one body and one church in this city.'
There was silence in the room and I nervously wondered if I had given the message clearly enough. Had they at least understood what I was trying to say, let alone accepted it?
However, the silence ended, the contention seemed to break, and they began relating and sharing in more positive, inclusive ways. They even started serving tea and enjoying one another’s company!
A few months later, I heard that they had indeed held their unity service and God had blessed their coming together. The Orthodox priest spoke, but I don't know if the Lutheran pastor overcame his stumbling block.

I thought of my own city.
Our City of ___________needs the Church of ____________
(fill in the blanks with your city's name)
to see itself the way Our God sees us and respond accordingly.
We need to be, stand and walk together in a kingdom mindset, in His unity, freedom, love and purpose.
We need to take our unity to heart and demonstrate it in prayer, faith and action.
We need to put away our petty, divisive distinctions and embrace the fullness of who we are in Christ… together, for Christ’s sake.
The alternative is clear: you can't find Laodicea today.

Revelation: It's ALL About JESUS!

2011-03-02T13:51:00.000-08:00

Hi Readers!
I apologize that it's been more than a few months since I last blogged, but so much has been happening, so very quickly, and I have often been quite removed from consistent Internet access since then that I have not had time to write it all down. It's like the Lord has put His foot down hard on our accelerator and we've been running FAST: Bali, Indonesia; Kitimat, Vietnam, Finland, Uganda, England. However, I am now glad to be home... for a while.
Our present focus is an addition to the written blogs: you can now join me for an overview of Revelation in 10 1-hour sessions on Tuesday evenings 7:30pm PST - Streaming Alive. You can access by just clicking on the '10 Weeks' Streaming Live button at the Top Right + you are then linked to our website: RevelationMysterySolved. If you can't join us Live, then sessions are Archived and available anytime. Please feel free to just click on whichever session you want to view. Also, accompanying Notes for each session can be downloaded.
Enjoy and be challenged by The Revelation of Jesus Christ!
Put on your Son-glasses & let the Holy Spirit reveal Jesus more fully in, to + through you for ALL He is!

A REVOLUTION OF THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST 4

2011-03-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

Do you want a Prophetic Word for your life?
Maybe you've heard some optimistic 'words' proclaiming 'greater increase, glory and blessing' for the coming year? Nice thoughts, but how?
You've probably also heard the doom-and-gloomers pessimistically predicting the sky is falling, icecaps are melting and oceans are rising?
Perhaps you've heard the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 so the world will end then also and you've got just over a year to figure out how to make the most of your life before then?
How do we discover what our year/life really holds? Does that mean we should try to break the 2010/2011 code and decipher 20 = 2(double) X 10(the number of unbelieving spies who kept Israel out of the Promised Land)or 11 (the number of disciples minus Judas?) so does that mean there will be twice the opposition this year?
Predicting the future through such darkened lenses gets ridiculous and confusing. Some 'words', unfortunately, are more pathetic than prophetic. However, turn to the Word of God, the simple original blueprint, and we'll gain a clearer, more objective perspective. Take a step back to 1910, not the year, but the foundation of all prophetic words, 19:10... Revelation 19:10 - 'the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy'.
The Church desperately needs a restoration of the revelation of this sure foundation in Christ, rather than the fluff of speculation that's so often passed off as prophecy. Prophecy must come through this grid of truth: Jesus Christ. Has it passed the tests which witness a true testimony of Jesus? Has it crossed over from the Old Covenant to The New through Christ's open, new and living way? Has it come through God's plumbline: The Cross, or is it just regurgitated Old Covenant concepts in New Covenant forms? Does it exhort, comfort and edify the body of Christ to be who He says we truly are in the earth, or is it merely a sad parody of psychic prognostications?
The world needs the Revelation of Jesus Christ, not some pseudo-substitute... even if it doesn't understand this. True signs, wonders, dreams, visions, angelic visitations, supernatural encounters, and trances all point to Jesus! Often God resorts to them only when men haven't heard Him the first time. Ask Balaam. God also had to put Peter in a trance in order to get it through his thick Jewish head that the New Covenant already included Gentiles.
The Cross changed the world's perspective. Let it change yours.
Miracles, wonders and prophetic signs are to follow us, not us them.
All Old Testament prophecy was a sign pointing to The Messiah: Jesus Christ. And the overwhelming majority were fulfilled in His 1st Coming!
"For all the promises of God in Him are Yes and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us." (2Cor 1:20)
But it's the last phrase here that, I believe, God wants to highlight for us: This is all happening "through us," not in spite of us.

The Church is God's prophetic sign in the earth. Not some natural nation, but a supernatural body. A people birthed by His Word and Spirit, the true Temple of the Holy Spirit and City of God! God wants to reach an unbelieving world through us: His chosen vessel, His Church, His Bride, His New Jerusalem!
It's all here... in the Bible, the prophetic Word of God. Ephesians, the Epistle of the Church, Chapter 3 outlines the 'mystery' of how He brought Jews and Gentiles together into one body . Paul writes that this revelation became our call
"to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery....
to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the
church..." (v9-10)
I used to read this with the view that God's objective was to somehow make this wisdom known to the church. But that's not what it says!
I was reading from a self-centred perspective that it's all about me, us, the church, when it's really all about Jesus through us to the world!
My focus was wrong: it wasn't to the church, but through the church! Same thing in 2Cor 1:20: Jesus wants to live through us!

The prophetic Word then cuts through further unbelief when it challenges the church to make this revelation known to principalities and powers in heavenly places (v10); that is, proclaim it against demonic forces that formerly had authority in the earth, but were stripped of their power at the Cross, and are now bound up and cast down. 1Jn 3:8 declares: 'Jesus was manifested to destroy the works of the devil." He did it at His 1st Coming! Why wait for something that the Bible reveals has already happened! It will become fully evident at His 2nd Coming, but let's not cower in unbelief until then. Let faith stir us to walk in this testimony HERE + NOW!

Ephesians 3:11 continues, "according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus Our Lord." That's not 'will be' accomplished (future), but 'already has been' accomplished (completed in the past + effective in the present). That means it's already taken place! That's how much Jesus effectively completed at the Cross: no less! Either it's true or it's not. There's no middle ground grey area here.This is an all-or-nothing statement. And since it's true, it's time for His church to believe, see and receive this revelation, battle from His victory and not just for it, and make this known throughout the earth!
Col 2:15 also proclaims that this has already taken place: "He has taken it (the handwriting of requirements that was against us = the law) out of the way... nailed it to the cross." While He was accomplishing our salvation, Jesus simultaneously "disarmed principalities and powers ...made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them." (v16) Our focus needs to be God's focus. It's The Cross here, not the 2nd Coming! Too much of the church has its eyes on a future 2nd Coming which will one day accomplish what a proper reading of God's prophetic Word declares has already been accomplished in Christ's 1st Coming!
And this is the gospel the world needs to hear and see... through us!
Heb 12:1-2 exhorts us to be 'looking unto Jesus", not as a Coming King, but "as the One who endured the cross... and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." To see Him on the throne is to see Him for who He is NOW on the basis of what He has done in the past at His 1st Coming! He is already crowned. NOW He is seated on the throne of the universe, at the centre of God's will, ruling and reigning, and we are to live and move in this revelation.
We need to see how and what God sees. Get your Son-glasses on! See Him: Jesus, on the throne, NOW! The King, already crowned; not just the coming King; He's Here NOW! by His Spirit.
Stephen, the church's first martyr, saw this. Check it out in Acts 7:55.
The only way through the tests is the testimony of the Revelation of Jesus!
And it's His Church's privilege and responsibility to receive and proclaim it in all the earth! He's accomplishing this through His body: we're the vessel through which God has chosen to reveal Himself: His Body, Temple, City + Nation: The Church of Jesus Christ!
That's why He suffered, bled and died for and rose again.
This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ the world needs today through the Church!

When the Church doesn't see this, it rather buys into a fear-mongering, escapist, all-hell's-breaking-loose Doomsday scenario message.
Then we're more the problem than the solution!
Then we merely offer the world dead, boring, lifeless religious forms: poor substitutes for the life Jesus gives.
He came to destroy the works of the devil. (1Jn 3:8) He did and so must we!
He came to bring new life abundantly. (Jn 10:10) He did and so must we!
He came to establish His kingdom. (Mk 1:14-15) He did and so must we
Occupy, do business, break old horizons and take new ground for Christ!
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof!
Unfortunately, if we live as many Christians 'unbelieve', you will think the devil's still in control here. Like, please tell me how a title like 'Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth' turns out to be a best-seller in Christian bookstores?
Focusing on anti-Christ misses the Revelation of Jesus Christ!
The Holy Spirit is prophesying New Covenant reality: our Identity as sons of God released into their Destiny and inheritance. Too much of the Western Church has wallowed in lesser self-deception, blindly bowing in servitude to materialist pleasures rather than worshiping our loving God!
We need a Revolution in the Revelation of Jesus!
We need to see Him as He truly is and that's what the Book of Revelation is all about: The Revelation of the Lamb slain and the Lion's reign!
His sacrifice not only accomplished our full salvation, but His Presence fills the courts of heaven, spills over and overflows: even now "your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven." Too many 'believers' have lost the original Bible vision. Christ's kingdom is filling the earth NOW... not in some distant, fanciful, speculative millenium. We have again been seduced by demonic enticements, deprived of our true focus, ensnared in distractions. The pursuit of personal peace, pleasure and happiness have taken pre-eminence. Only Christ Himself is worthy of that honour. In all things, Christ must have pre-eminence. We need to be refocused on the Light, centred on Christ, not a foolish, futuristic, won't-it-be-nice-then mindset. Such myopic vision only produces delusion. The devil loves it when we're so preoccupied with his view of things that we are no longer 'looking unto Jesus,' but reacting when we should be effecting Christ's kingdom in His earth.
It's time to know Christ for all He is and follow Him NOW!
The Spirit of God is moving, bringing in a harvest to fill the earth, not just an endtime remnant (Old Covenant term) to then destroy it. That script might sell a lot of movie tickets, but it's not New Covenant. At best, it's repackaged Old Covenant gobbledy-gook.
New Covenant Revelation of Jesus shows He came, He saw, and He conquered, better than any Roman Caesar. And now He's riding forward, calling us to follow Him and reveal His victory from glory to glory!
You cannot enter the next glory until you leave yesterday's glory behind. Your former glory was good, but the next one promises even more: His best!
And it comes through a Revolution in the Revelation of Jesus!

The Revelation of Jesus Christ 3: The Big Picture - Breakin' the Box!

2011-02-28T13:20:00.000-08:00

Most people tackle puzzles with their head and not with their heart. We try to reason our way to the solution: wriggle around the unknowns, analyze the problem, define its perameters and break it down into smaller, more digestible, bite-sized portions.
God doesn't work that way. From the very beginning, He is The Solution and applies His Word His Way to cut to the heart of the issue, not just manage The Problem. We tend to complicate; He simply cuts through it. As Alexander the Great cut through the Gordian Knot with his sword and fulfilled ancient prophecies, so God's Sword of the Spirit pierces our 'grey areas' to reveal His Light through us.

We really run into difficulties when we try to apply this analytical approach with the larger puzzle called Life. We all too easily lose sight of our real purpose and become ensnared by insignificant details. We need The Big Picture: God's overall view and perspective on things, a world-view bigger than ourselves and our own little kingdoms of personal peace and comfort.
Too often we literally cannot see the forest for the trees!
We lose our focus on the essentials and become distracted by temporal non-essentials.

Distraction is the enemy's ploy to get us out of focus and off balance, majoring on minors and minoring on majors, straining at gnats while swallowing camels. When we're distracted, we're like Martha, subject to all sorts of delusions and confusions, prone to blame our brothers and sisters, and even the Lord! Lacking The Big Picture, we unconsciously seek to somehow compensate for our loss of vision! We focus on details, without properly evaluating their relationship to the whole, and this produces an even fuzzier image, farther yet from the truth of what really is!
That which is amazing becomes a maze!
And so we wander, broken and fragmented, from event to event, tree to tree, conference to conference, ever seeking, but never able to relate our experience in the context of a whole picture.

I believe that's what happened in the Garden of Eden: The Big Picture got broken! God gave Adam and Eve His true focus: The Tree of Life at the centre and every tree in the garden for food (Gen 2:9,16-17), except The Tree of Knowedge of Good + Evil. But the serpent distracted Eve from her centre, misdirecting her attention to doubt God, question His truth + motives and focus on 'the other tree' as a rightful substitute (Gen 3:3). The Tree of Knowledge wrongly became her centre. With her perspective and relationship with God off balance, she became confused and easily moved to wrong action.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian church almost two thousand years ago:
'I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.' (2Cor11:3)
I fear the same warning holds true today. The Western Church has become distracted from its centre: the Tree of Life - The Revelation of Jesus Christ!
Our focus has rather become self-centred: 'What's in it for me?''What's good for me?'
We have lost sight of The Tree of Life forest, mesmerized with enticing Trees of Knowledge: the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life.
We need the whole Big Picture restored!
We need The Revelation of Jesus Christ!

Unfortunately, many hear 'The Revelation' and immediately think mystery, 'mark of the beast', '666'. That is so 'Sick, Sick, Sick!'
The same distracting, deceptive tactic our enemy used in the garden against our first parents is now directed against us.
Our focus must be God's focus: It's The Revelation of Jesus Christ!
Not anti-Christ, not end-times, not some supercomputer in Belgium punching out chips for implanting foreheads and wrists, not some speculative, end-time sci-fi scenario!
Sadly, much of the Church has traded a healthy Big Picture of Jesus and His New Covenant kingdom reality for some sick, futuristic fantasy.
An unBiblical horror movie. Lots of special effects, but no substance.
We've exchanged discerning Holy Spirit Son-glasses for a trendy set of fashionable Doom-and-Gloom goggles.
That may sell a lot of books, but it definitely does not line up with The Book.
These give a false, distorted vision of Jesus Christ: a diluted, defeatist, stale, boring, lifeless image of Churchianity.
A poor substitute indeed for the real thing: the Risen, Overcoming Christ who invites us to follow Him in victory, breaking through lies and limitations, plundering the devil's goods, opening new horizons of adventure in His Kingdom!
We've become addicted to consuming repackaged, candy-coated Old Covenant mysteries instead of feasting on New Covenant Revelation. Too much of our diet derives from the Tree of the Lie and not The Tree of Life!
We need to refocus on The Big Picture! We need The Revelation of Jesus Christ!

It's the Revelation of Jesus Christ!
In his 3 1/2 year walk with His disciples, Jesus constantly sought to help them refocus: take their eyes off themselves, their circumstances, their ministries, and redirect them to their true centre: HIMSELF!
He disputed with the Pharisees who misused the Word of God to fashion a comfortable legalism for themselves.
He commended them, 'You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life.'
But, He said, (and I paraphrase) 'You have missed the real point, for the Scriptures testify of ME! (John 5:39) It's all about Jesus!
On Resurrection Sunday, two of His disciples were headed in the wrong direction (running from Jerusalem to Emmaus), at the wrong time, with the wrong motivation (fear), and a wrong attitude (unbelief and discouragement). Jesus Himself joined them.
Why does He care so much about us even when we are oh so all wrong?
Why does He take time to meet us where we're at, even when we're headed in wrong directions with wrong purposes?
On this day, The Day history had anticipated for centuries, The Day I'm sure He must have had many other important concerns,
(Imagine how your priorities will change once you've risen from the dead!)
but Jesus chose to walk with these two... for hours, and listen to their confused, discouraging details misinterpreting the day's events.
Their puzzle pieces did not fit together!
They couldn't make sense out of the details because they'd lost sight of The Big Picture: The Resurrection!
They didn't even recognize Jesus when He Himself showed up!
But 'beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself! (Luke 24:27)
Later on, with all the disciples, 'He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures...
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning ME.' (Luke 24:44-45)
The message very clearly was JESUS HIMSELF, not some religious idea, theory or how-to instruction manual.
Either Jesus was a very egotistic, misguided man with an over-inflated opinion of himself or, and this is the only alternative,
He truly is who He... and the Father...and the Holy Spirit...and the Bible...and many human witnesses... reveal Him to be:
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!
Have you got your Son-glasses on?
Can you see Him when He shows up, even when He's changed from yesterday's glory to today's glory?
Or does He first have to fit your image of misunderstanding?

It's quite clear. The only true focus for healthy vision must be The Tree of Life: JESUS HIMSELF, not our own vision or creation of Him after our own thoughts. Anything less fashions a false image. We may call it God and worship it, but it is no more than an extension of ourselves, a creation of our own identity... an idol. Ironically, that's the case when we lose our focus on the True Jesus: we end up fabricating an image that is nothing more than our own intellectual (mis)conception of a reasonable god.
We may call it Jesus, but we have merely fashioned a glorified religious box.
So... we must, like instructions to activate an Emergency fire alarm, 'Break the Box!'

The Pharisees tried to put Him in their theological box, but He kept on breaking out of it:
'Tell me, who is the Christ? Is He's David's son? Then why does David in the Spirit call Him Lord?' (Matt 22:41-45)
The Sadducees, religious naturalists, tried to trap Him with questions about the supernatural that didn't fit their reasonings:
'Whose wife will she be in the resurrection, for all seven had her here on earth?'
But He answered, 'You are in deep error, neither knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.' (Matt 22:23-33)
In other words, you are so caught in your own snare, trying to figure out and manipulate details, that you can neither accept nor even recognize the overall truth of God's abundant and eternal life! You've eaten from a forest of Trees of Knowledge and now you are lost in their midst, incapable of knowing either your true identity or destiny. You've substituted a maze of lies for God's amazing revelation and now you are wandering among the details of your own confusion!
Jesus became a Problem to religious people and their solution was The Cross. They plotted to kill Him, put Him away, in a grave... in a box.
But God's answer to man's boxes is also The Cross! Jesus kicked out the walls of the grave at His Resurrection!
Sin and Death could not stand against Him! He destroyed the power of the devil at The Cross. His Resurrection and Ascension to The Throne of All Creation reveal this openly! Jesus broke the powers of hell, the grave and every anti-Christ box!
We are free! From stereotypical world-views and compartmentalizations, that is, parts of mental boxes that we can or cannot understand. God has given us a whole life!
Stop putting Jesus back in the box! He doesn't fit!
He's not a Jack-in-the-box. He's Jesus-out-of-the-box!
Build a box and He'll break out of it; He always has and He always will!

Let me illustrate this another way. Spiritual enigmas and mysteries have natural counterparts: some reveal similarities, others opposites.
Take, for example, an ordinary jigsaw puzzle.
Aren't you glad there's a picture on the box to reveal what the mumble-jumble of pieces inside will look like once you've joined them together? Without that big picture, there would be no reference point, no target, no vision of what you are working towards.
Even moreso for life's big puzzles: we need The Big Picture of Jesus!
Often it seems like we're holding only a box, a form with pieces and we're not even sure that all its pieces actually belong in our puzzle.
The Bible works the same way.
It's not just a collection of pieces: stories, ideas, doctrines, moral lessons, strategies, principles of Law or concepts of Grace.
It has a Big Picture. He's called Jesus! It's all about Jesus, Who He is and What He's done!
He is the express image of The Father, the complete fullness of the godhead bodily.
The simplicity of Christ alone reveals what's in the box of life's mysteries, so... once you've got The Big Picture, the best thing you can do with your box (ie. your assumed expectations, stereotyped presumptions and taped personal prophecies) is...
BREAK IT!!! He's much more alive than any status quo image!
Let Him live, let Him out! You're free to think, feel and live outside the Box!

Life in Christ is so different from the natural puzzles where we first turn all the pieces face up, group the various colours together, find the corners and join the edge pieces.
You can't do this with the puzzle pieces of your life in Christ!
Don't start with the edges.
Don't limit God in you by presuming limits and predetermining boundaries beyond which God cannot move!
Remember: He's bigger than all we can ask or think! Who you are in Him, who He is in you, and what He means to do through you cannot be contained in your little box! Don't try to define the boundaries of God in your life because in Christ there are none!
The first piece to place in your Life puzzle must be the centre-piece: The Revelation of JESUS!
Start with Him right at the centre and then join only pieces that fit with Him, not ones you fit Him into. When you connect pieces with Him, in His time + His place, you will not have to try to force pieces together. They will flow together!

One Christmas I got a jigsaw puzzle: it was BIG!: a blue-and-white sailboat with white sails on a white-capped, blue sea and a blue sky with fluffy white clouds in the background. 2500 pieces, all in the same two colours! And every piece was also virtually the same size and shape: small, with tabs on each of two sides and indentations on the other two.
I rose to the challenge and began to piece together the unpieceable. It took hours! Days!
My Christmas holidays ended, but I came home from university on weekends and pressed on.. literally... I pressed and even pressured pieces into place, especially when my patience wore thin (and that grew to be more and more often). I placed what I'd already completed on a plywood sheet so I could move and store it safely. One weekend when I returned home, however, while opening my bedroom door, I inadvertently surprised the family cat, who had been comfortably sleeping on my bed ...on the puzzle. Startled, she immediately dug her claws into the puzzle, sprang from the bed, and dragging it behind her, left a broken trail of blue and white pieces.
I died.
I had worked so long and been so close to completion. And now, there lay my masterpiece... in pieces, a broken vision strewn from one end of the room to the other. The cat fled through the open door as I stood immobilized. Somehow I recovered enough to begin regathering the scattered pieces of my work. Some sections were still relatively intact; I just had to reconnect them. Others I had to completely reconstruct!
I don't remember how long the process took, but I do remember this: the day finally came to finish the last piece and... wouldn't you know it?
one piece was missing... right in the very centre!

Isn't that the picture of a life without Jesus?!
People try so hard to fit the details of their life picture together: all the colours, shapes and sizes of experience, but it's all in vain without Him first, right in the centre. Edges can define natural perameters and our relationships with other people, but in the Big Picture with God, they actually hinder. Jesus has taken away the veil of mystery and limitation that separated us from God, reality, our true identity and destiny.
He has given us the freedom to be who we truly are and all we can be!
We can look into the mirror of His face and know we are loved and accepted, but the picture's always changing as He transforms us from glory to glory! Natural mirrors expose faults that require our attention; but the mirror of His Spirit reveals an ever-changing Big Picture: Christ in us and us in Him becoming more and more like Him, the expression of His Body and Kingdom filling all the earth! (2Cor 3:18)
It's The Revelation of Jesus Christ... to us and through us!
Not only are we changed from glory to glory, but our lives become a continual revelation of His glory to others through us!
Jesus in you, Jesus in me WANTS OUT!
Take the step: Break the Box!!! There's so much more Revelation in His Big Picture!

The Revelation of Jesus Christ! 2

2011-02-27T13:30:00.000-08:00

Where do you start on such a complex, controversial, complicated book?
This is a life journey! What's the first step? How and where do we even begin?

Questions, questions... we want answers!

How about at the same place someone pointed me to on the day I came to know Jesus? ... 'In the beginning'.
Begin with the SIMPLICITY OF CHRIST (2Cor 11:3)! Who said it's so complicated? Surely God didn't! We made it that way!
I'm more convinced with each new day: if it's complicated, it's not God!
For years, I tried to understand all the so-called Revelation charts... with their dates, coloured arrows highlighting what God will do, where the Church will go, when Jesus would come again, but I must confess: I soon didn't know if I was coming or going
....and I believe that's a big part of the problem!
Revelation is not meant to be a problem, but a solution. Focusing on the problems only serves to magnify them.
We need to look beyond our questions and focus on the solution. It's The Revelation of Jesus Christ!
This book was given by God to bring clarity, not the dust and confusion that so many stir up.
God didn't give us such a profound book to prove we are incapable of grasping it.
Nor does He expect us to superspiritually unravel it like some Christian Gordian Knot. In fact, if we take Alexander the Great as our natural example, then let's take God's Sword of the Spirit, cut right through all the confusion, get right to our hearts, and bring His revelation to light!
This book is not our test to see if we can figure God out and some day successfully arrive at our revelation-destination.
Perhaps that's why some people (even believers!) don't even read the book: they're intimidated by its bad press!
If that's your thinking: let's break it right now.
Let's start at the beginning, where the key is... simply... The Revelation of Jesus Christ!

In order to discover what something really is, it's sometimes helpful to determine what it is not!
So let's examine what Revelation is not:

It's not A Revelation. That is, this Book of Revelation is not just one of many Revelations out there, so we have to try and discover how much this book is the true revelation compared with whatever other options might be out there... another Revelation of Jesus Christ?
No, this is THE REVELATION... THE true, God-sanctioned Revelation. That is... the Book, not this article!
Yes, I know Greek doesn't use articles (that's a point of grammar, in case that's important to you); and you do need to search out the historical setting: who wrote it, when and where, and whether it's really God and belongs in the canon of Scripture.
But beyond these considerations, we need to understand our Bible text is The Revelation, not just one of many available possibilities. Do the homework and you'll find that this final book of the Bible has, like the rest of the book, come through the tests of time and weathered them all. Like an anvil, it's outlasted every spiritual or human hammer that has attempted to destroy its credibility and authority. Instead of breaking, it has rather withstood and broken those same attacks, misunderstandings and misinterpretations of these last 20 centuries. It has stood and its adversaries instead lie defeated. Even unbelievers maintain a healthy, but arms-length respect, for this book. Perhaps they know they cannot criticize what they cannot begin to understand. The Gospels reveal Jesus' earthly ministry, Acts shows how the Early Church responded, and the Epistles give understanding of Christ's impact on believers, the church and our world at large. But The Revelation comes at the end of the Bible to both seal and release the vision of the book in all its unique and remarkable fullness!
Most of the Bible is audio...we hear His Word;
other parts, especially Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Revelation, are visual...
and now we see Him for all He really is. Truly, a picture is worth a thousand words!
And to see Jesus for all He is will leave a man breathless, let alone speechless!

Neither is it the Book of Revelations ...plural. This is one Revelation...singular... ein, une, uno...not one of many,
but a single, consistent view with one theme, object and person: It's The Revelation of Jesus Christ!
It's not about philosophical ideas, historical events, or mathematical subtleties.
It's about seeing a Person, a most remarkable Person, the most enigmatic, yet enlightening Person this world has ever known! He was in the world, but not of it. Light came and darkness could not comprehend it. Without getting into big doctrinal, theological disputes, The Revelation of Jesus Christ simply presents The Person who fully knew His Identity and fulfilled His Destiny.
It's all about you, Jesus; it's not about me or even us!
He's the One we need to see here and focus on without distraction.
He is One with The Father; He is One with the Holy Spirit.
In Him dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily and we are complete in Him! (Col 2:9)
It's all about seeing One Person; not events, experiences, or end-time speculations.
He alone is the Alpha and Omega, the express image of The Father, and Scripture exhorts us to look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and have eyes for none other.
His disciples asked Him to show them the Father and He replied,
"Have I been with you so long and still you don't know? He who has seen Me has seen the Father." (Jn 14:8)
We can and must see Him for who He is and what He's done, not just what people have thought about Him.
Look really close and you'll see Him everywhere. Nebuchadnezzar did after he had the 3 Hebrews thrown into the fiery furnace. "Didn't we just throw 3 into the flames? But I see a 4th? ...and He looks like whatever the Son of God would look like!'
Jesus Himself admonished the Pharisees,
"You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life; and they testify of Me." (Jn 5:39)
The Bible is not about how to get saved; it's about Jesus! Know Him and you'll know life and get saved!
When it comes to a relationship with God, religion cannot cut it. Only the revelation of Jesus can focus our vision to see Him as He truly is and train us to see things the same way He does. That's all it really takes: one good clear revelation-introduction to Him as He is and you're hooked. Just ask Moses, or Peter or Paul.
Saviour, Redeemer, Prince of Peace, Lily of the Valley, Bright and Morning Star, King of Kings, Lord of lords, Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Lamb of God, Son of Mary, Son of Man, Son of God, Sun of Righteousness risen with healing in His wings! The Branch, The Bread of Life, The Light of the world, The Way, The Truth & The Life, The Good Shepherd, The Door of the Sheep, The True Vine, The Resurrection and The Life, Our Healer, and the list goes on... you can never exhaust The Revelation of Jesus Christ!
His fountain continually springs up with new life. No other can satisfy mankind's various and numerous needs; no one else even comes close!
As in all of life: it's not what you know, but who you know!
We can have revelations on certain subjects, but only one revelation gives life and that one is: The Revelation of Jesus Christ!

Nor is it The Book of Reflections of Personal Prejudices.
Unfortunately, this book has become known more for fearful images of God's future judgments and wrath poured out in earth's 'last days' than its true message. Well-meaning Christians (more mean than well) who should be His most faithful representatives have instead given God bad press. Rather than witnessing the Father's love and faith for a lost creation, many interpreters of Revelation have twisted its message into a final fearful future for all who don't measure up. Presumption, supposition, negativism and religious fear-mongering have distorted and misrepresented The Father's heart to believers and the general public. What is meant for blessing has somehow morphed into the ultimate curse. How could we go so wrong?
In the beginning, God made man in His own image and man has been unfortunately returning the favour ever since.
Religion does nothing less than attempt to create God in man's own image... and that is a fallen image. God is not impressed.
So He sent Jesus, not to just argue His case and condemn the world in its guilt, but to give a clear presentation of His Heart to a fallen world, 'that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.'(Jn 3:16)
Jesus is God's way of separating wheat from chaff: those who truly are from those who only appear or think themselves to be.
Jesus is God's way to cut through all of this world's vanity, hypocrisy and hype, especially when it dresses up in 'Christian' clothes. How we respond to the King on The Cross reveals how we truly worship the Lamb on the Throne.
The Father is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and truth and Jesus is that Way!
That's the wisdom of God: He doesn't need us to come up with a formula of 101 ways to glorify Him.
He simply sets the Truth before us and looks to see how we respond or react...
His Reflection in us, not ours on Him. When we react in fear, we reflect our own insecurities, not His true image.
The New Covenant cuts through all the self-preserving religious subterfuge.
Jesus tore the veil separating man from God from top to bottom. He appeared, the revealed glory of God the Father in the Son, entered the holy place, and by His blood opened a new and living way for us! Not a system of do's and don'ts, but a better way of faith which alone pleases God.
Religion sewed the temple veil up again, carried on its abomination for another 40 years while persecuting the Way, but its temple and city were ultimately destroyed.
And religion is trying to sew it up again, substituting lifeless forms of tradition for the liberating freedom of Jesus.
These are nothing but dead bait, enticing traps for the undiscerning who can only be spared by a true revelation of Jesus!
Don't accept anything less than what the Word of God fully reveals. Too many Christians live beneath their call.
Embrace the liberty by which Christ has set us free and don't be entangled again in yokes of bondage!
The veil has been torn away once for all. It's been done away in Christ! The way to the Holy of Holies is open. The Father's heart is open to us through Jesus Christ. Be bold... enter in.
Moses had to put a veil on his face when he came down from the mountain because the people could not bear the glory of God. It was too personal, too intimate, too powerful, even in its Old Covenant form. Man could not comprehend how a Holy God could meet them and they would yet live! So Moses covered his face, and that veil remains today on hearts which only know type, form, and tradition. Now how much more does Christ's New Covenant bring us into God's Presence, His abundant and eternal life! And as we look on His face, He fills and changes us from Old to New, an ongoing transformation into His same image from glory to glory, radiating, releasing His glory into the nations,and ultimately filling the whole earth!
If it be at all a book of Reflections, let it be us reflecting His image, light and glory into earth, not us reflecting our old, negative prejudices and fearful mind-sets onto His book.

Nor is it The Mystery of Jesus Christ. 'Mystery' connotes mystical, obscure, enigmatic, puzzling, undisclosed, impossible to understand, secret ritual truths, unknowable to but a few initiates. Religion feeds on mystery. Someone (the leader/elite) knows something about God that the rest (the followers/auditors) don't know and if you trust/submit to us (and bring your money) we'll break off the curses and let you in on our blessing. We really do know what's best for you and we'll take good care of you. Only fit into this box/form/program. Don't ask any unnecessary questions. Trust us. We have everything under control.
Mystery religions in Jesus' day (Mithraism, Greek & Roman mythology) promised that, but He broke their boxes with His Revelation.
The Apocalypse (Greek: 'apokalysis') is the 'unveiling of what was once hidden'. What was once in darkness and shadows has now been brought out into the light. The gospel is good news,
'the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made
manifest and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations' (Rom 16:25-26)
In other words, the secret has become open knowledge and we all have a part in it!
Receive the truth, embrace His love, proclaim God's fullness! Don't hold back!

The New is in the Old concealed.
The Old is in the New revealed! NOW!

You'd think we would understand this from the Gospels, Acts and Epistles of the New Testament, but God knows how difficult it is for us to see and keep The Big Picture. Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees! We lose sight of the overall picture and get lost in the details. We try to figure out the mark of the beast in Chapter 13 and don't even recognize the seal of the Living God throughout the entire book! We forget the picture on the front of the puzzle box and are left with 1000s of scattered pieces called life, unsure of how they relate, sometimes questioning whether these pieces even belong in our puzzle.
The Big Picture is Jesus and we need to see Him!
He is neither elusive nor hidden. He is right here now, front and centre, definitely out of the box!
And the Holy Spirit desires to help us fit the pieces together in our life context.
In His wisdom, as He moved on John to receive, record and relay The Revelation, so now He moves on us to bring that picture into reality: The Big Picture of Jesus in us! The 4 Gospels gave us 4 different perspectives of Jesus' life + ministry, but they were not enough.
We needed clarity, completion and closure.
We needed revelation.
We needed the light to come on in our hearts and minds.
Revelation clarifies and confirms the previous Bible books with at least 7 more visions, replete with symbols overflowing with all the fullness of who Jesus is and what He has done! None of us can grasp this with our natural minds. John said if all Jesus' deeds were written one by one, the world itself could not contain the books which would be written! (Jn 21:25)
There is so much MORE!!!
And so the Holy Spirit is here to bring His word alive in us.
'And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts' (2Pet 1:19)
We need to see Jesus fully, for who He is, not just who we think He is, but the way the Bible presents Him.
Let Him turn our lights on and in turn make us lights to shine in this dark and needy world.
Christ to us, Christ in us, Christ through us.
When we see Him as He truly is, we will also see ourselves in Him for who we truly are:
no longer sin-sick, but healed,
whole by His love and truth,
renenewed ambassadors of His kingdom with a mandate to fill the earth with His glory!

I remember the first time I read The Revelation. My friend and I were traveling in Europe. We saw ourselves as travelers in life, not tourists, seeking truth and the answers to the eternal questions. While in Boston, I'd bought an 1844 New Testament edition, a real bargain price for an interesting old book. A few weeks later in Munich at Oktoberfest, while downing beer with a Hofbrauhaus full of other party animals, I found I was thirsty still. I reached into my pocket, pulled out that old New Testament. It opened right at the Book of Revelation and I started to read. I didn't stop until I had finished it, all at one sitting.
I don't know if it was the beer or the book, but by the end of my reading, my head was swimming.
Many lights swirled; in time one prevailed.
Take the challenge: Drink in the vision... all at one time. Let it work in you.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for The Big Picture.
Reveal Yourself to each hungry heart and thirsty spirit.
Thank you for our Identity in You; release us into Your Destiny for us to know and follow you always!
Thank you for your Love and Presence with us.
We have a long journey ahead.

The Revelation is …. Jesus Christ!

2011-02-26T13:32:00.000-08:00

Move over, Hollywood. When it come to script-writing, you've got nothing on the Bible. In this field, the Oscar goes to... pause, drumroll... GOD.! And not only for this year's performance, but every year, His amazing tell-all Scripture continues probing and revealing both the heights and depths of the human heart and its history.
But even God breaks His own records in His last volume, The Revelation. When it comes to high drama, there's nothing like waiting for the seventh trumpet to sound.
You want special effects? How about a 200 million-man army and four thundering horsemen charging across the landscape, leaving war, famine and death in their wake?

Hollywood even selectively borrows from Revelation's abundance of names and symbols to fuel its own blockbusters. For example, check out 'Armageddon' (which had nothing whatsoever to do with the fortress in the Middle East, but everything to do with a meteorite threatening Earth's very existence). But when it comes to the real thing, somehow the movie capital misses the whole issue and The Passion of the Christ is relegated to the celluloid cutting floor and doesn't even make it onto the nominations list. It's amazing how this last book of the Bible, the only one to promise, right at its beginning, a special blessing to those who read and heed, has been so misunderstood that a large segment of the church avoids it like the plagues it describes.
When was the last time you heard your pastor preach from this book? It's become too controversial for many. Its vivid descriptions too graphic; its cataclysms too breathtaking; its interpretations too divisive.
We prefer that kind of stuff for our entertainment, but not for examining our hearts for truth.
Not one to avoid controversy, I therefore feel it necessary to open the discussion by lambasting a few of the common presumptions, prejudices and misconceptions that many hold out there about this book and launch out to proclaim and receive that awesome blessing it promises and delivers. Over the next while, I invite you to join with me as we take a walk (or come on eagles, let's fly and soar even!) in the Spirit and discover new horizons beckoning us into deeper realms of God's kingdom glory. You need not fear: Jesus will never get boring and His well will never run dry: it's rivers of living water for those who are thirsty!
First of all, verse 1 (check it out) holds the key. It is The Revelation of Jesus Christ! Not anti-Christ! It's mind-boggling to hear who people think of first when this book is mentioned. Right away the race is on to Chapter 13 to decipher 666, discover the number of the beast, where its secret computer is in Belgium, what the mark is and whether we've received it yet.
All this and 'anti-Christ' isn't even mentioned in Revelation –not even once!
Besides, why do so many remain ignorant of the first-mentioned mark - the Seal of the Living God - which is given to protect all true believers six chapters beforehand?

Again in the first verse, it's The Revelation --singular, not Revelations plural. Yes, there is a series of startling visions recorded here, but there is such unity in their progression that it is essentially one vision, reiterated again and again, first from one perspective and then another. That is ...The Revelation of Jesus Christ! who He is and what He has done, His Person and His Purpose, His Identity and Destiny openly revealed.

Do you see Him? Not only in this last book, but throughout the entire Bible? Jesus said to the Pharisees: 'You search the Scriptures and in them you think you have eternal life: and they are those which testify of me ...that is, Jesus! (John 5:39) It's all about Him! If we're not seeing Him on every page, we're only skimming the surface, we're not getting the full-meal deal. We're being cut short, robbed. Are you hungry? There's so much more! So take off those cool-looking Pharisee shades and put on Holy Spirit-fitted SON-glasses! You'll find Him everywhere!

Also, many presuppose Revelation is all about events of the end-times, the Lord's Second Coming, something like Arnold Schwarznegger's 'I'll be back!' However, as I read the text in its context, I realize the end-times already started when Jesus said, 'It is finished!' I am steadily being convinced the Holy Spirit desires to reveal a Prophetic Person more than prophesy events. We need to see Jesus more clearly and appreciate what really happened at His First Coming rather than speculate about the Second. Jesus Himself just said, 'Be ready!' to His disciples. He didn't give them the year, day or hour of His Second Coming. His 1st Coming was so vital that He raised up Daniel to pinpoint the very year Messiah came at least 570years beforehand! Rather than guesstimate or presuppose about the future, our world, and the Church especially, would benefit more by focusing on and appropriating the fullness of what God's Word has already prophesied and shown fulfilled in Christ than merely presume what we think might happen.

Furthermore, I am constantly amazed at how people in general, even Christians in particular, fear this book, when its purpose is wholly to dispel fear and let the love of Christ shine. I even found a copy of the recent DVD 'The Apocalypse' filed under the Horror-Sci-Fi section in the video store!
The Revelation has been used and abused over the past generations to:
castigate and even demonize political enemies;
stir up hell-fire and brimstone fears to promote and manipulate through false guilt;
encourage people to purchase fire insurance against hell rather than a life assurance relationship with a loving Saviour;
promote fear-mongering schemes such as the Y2K fiasco;
and increase book sales of spurious and unfounded speculations,
ultimately bringing disrepute and scorn on the Church and even the Word of God.

It's time to redeem the book from such such a maligned and undeserved reputation. It's the Revelation of the only and most beautiful Saviour this world could and will ever have, The Lord Jesus Christ!
Let's see Him and let Him be known for who He truly is! Come and join me! Let me know your thoughts as we begin together; it's a fascinating journey!

As Incense

2010-10-12T19:16:00.000-07:00

Missions trips can be very humbling experiences. North American Christians often presume that Third World nations would languish without Western input and ministry. However, I have discovered the very opposite to be true. We need what the Third World Church has more than we think they need us to minister to them. I have just returned from Bali, Indonesia, and was again humbled as I heard, saw and experienced God moving through believers’ simple and willing hearts there. I am also convicted of a proud, neo-colonialist, patronizing, religious spirit that has so often governed Western thoughts and actions and must indeed bow and break before the manifest presence of the God we profess to proclaim.
We need what they have more than they need what we profess.

Bali is a tropical paradise, a virtual Garden of Eden. Tourist brochures tout its exceptional beaches, hot, sunny weather and unique culture and promote it as ‘The Island of the Gods’. A small, predominantly Hindu island enclave, it’s centred in the midst of the most populous Muslim nation in the world. Indonesia is BIG! Approximately 240 million people on 17,500 islands (6000 are inhabited) stretched and scattered across an area equivalent to the continental US. About 3 million live on Bali in an artistic, creative cultural community of shrines, temples, carvings, statues, ceremonies, rituals... idols. Everyday some type of festival or ceremony takes place on the island. Religious ritual pervades the atmosphere. Streets not only fill with motor scooters, but Hindu shrines and temples overflow from sidewalks into intersections. Most houses are fronted by altars laden with offerings: incense sticks burn together with little packaged ceremonial offerings dedicated to a pantheon of 30 million gods! But the real consumers of these sacrifices seem to be countless homeless dogs more than invisible hungry gods!
To further complicate the scene, the wail of Muslim muezzins also spreads over the island, calling their faithful to prayer. Five times a day, from well before sunrise till after sunset, the same monotone, mournful laments lift their dreary cry and hang over the towns and cities till they drop like a suffocating religious shroud over the land and its people.
Paul perceived ‘in all things you are very religious!’ of the Athenians,
(Acts 19:22), and this could very well apply to Bali today.
Then there is the international contingent: the Western pleasure-seekers who have discovered Bali’s beautiful beaches, constant sun, surf and club scene. New Agers ply their relativistic philosophies; hedonists indulge without moral restraints; party animals celebrate their freedom to do anything or nothing. Life here is in holiday mode, but even as the natural climate’s sweltering heat and humidity can suddenly turn to thunder and lightning, so a spiritual storm has broken over the island and its formerly comfortable status quo is being challenged.
The struggle between religion and faith in Jesus Christ is a constant daily contest here. Locally, Hinduism’s deep roots entwine the Balinese in a pervasive bondage of tradition and culture. Nationally, militant Islamic jihadists have sought to radicalize Indonesia’s moderate Muslim majority with a more extremist practise of Islam. In recent years,they even pursued a policy of ‘island-cleansing’, similar to the Balkans’ ethnic-cleansing, in which militants attacked Christian villages to cleanse the island by either forcibly evicting or murdering their Christians inhabitants.
Eight years before this last trip, I had traveled with a ministry team to Ambon, one of the exotic Maluku, (Moluccas or Spice) Islands, the easternmost group of Indonesia’s archipelago, very close to Papua-New Guinea. While there we heard eye-witness accounts from Christians persecuted by Muslim extremists: church buildings burned to the ground and their congregations ravaged; men, women and children savagely beaten; entire families slaughtered. At one point, pastors even showed us helicopter-view video footage of Christian villages under attack. Scenes of white-robed marauders pillaging from house to house, setting them afire and then hacking with machetes those who escaped the flames out the front-doors, while others fled out the back, into the jungle for refuge. Government authorities and soldiers had often stood by passively, ostrich-like in denial, doing nothing to protect the Christian minorities, even sometimes assisting their attackers!
We had flown from Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city. It took a whole day’s journey of 3 different flights to reach our destination. Also boarding our first plane was a sinister-looking group of 6 men, robed all in white, a sign of strict Moslem adherence and dedication. I watched them suspiciously, however. Frankly, I had never seen such evil hatred in eyes before! Fortunately, they disembarked before us, at our second to last stop, just before Ambon. The government did not allow anyone to continue to Ambon without specific permission. Officials had just turned back a planeload of Western journalists weeks before, insisting there was no story there for them to report. Our team was only able to continue because we had letters of invitation from some of the city’s Christian pastors requesting our visit. Even so, we had to skirt Muslim roadblocks and travel the last leg of our journey by boat across the harbour to reach safe haven in the city.
Much of Ambon was burnt out; many buildings lay in ruins, mere empty shells. A stench of stale smoke still lingered in the air. Roads were pot-holed detours around piles of rubble. Our hotel had electricity and light at night, but it appeared that few others did. Personal armed guards accompanied us at all times. We visited a pastor whose church had just been burned down the week before by Muslim neighbours.
‘They had always seemed friendly,’ he recalled.
’But,’ he also wondered, ‘why would these ‘neighbours’ suddenly burn down my church?’
We also met Alphonse, a young believer, who had been riding his bicycle when suddenly confronted by an angry Muslim mob. One of the crowd lunged at him with a machete and cut away almost half of this young man’s face! His attackers then just moved on, seeking their next victim, leaving him for dead.
Later, we discovered over 6000 people crammed into 3 decrepit warehouses, each partitioned into tiny 20-square foot family units with about 7 people jammed into each. Forbidden for over 2 years to return to their homes only 15 kilometers away, these thousands had barely subsisted in this makeshift city. Unable to work to buy food, or grow their own, they had now used up the last of their rice and faced starvation. Fortunately, we were able to buy them a few more days’ supply. I do not know what happened to them afterwards.
We visited the governor, but he insisted there was no problem, no persecution of Christians, no refugees, no food shortages, just a few minor, temporary difficulties that the government was capably dealing with. After a few days, we returned to Jakarta and I wondered what it would take for the Indonesian government to awaken to reality. Two years later they received their wake-up call when terrorists planted 3 bombs in Bali, primarily targeting Western tourists, blowing up stores, restaurants, and night-clubs, killing over 200 Australians, Europeans, Americans and even some Canadians. Under the threats of a tourist boycott and revenue loss, the Jakarta government then launched a crackdown on Laska Jihad, Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups responsible and brought some of their leaders to trial, conviction and lengthy prison sentences. Others resisted and were killed.
Persecution still lifts its ugly head throughout the nation, however, as minority Muslim extremists continue to seek to influence and impose their views and life-style on the moderate majority.
The cost of simply being a Christian is high in Indonesia.
Three women have been convicted of the heinous crime of teaching children Bible stories in Sunday School and sentenced to 3 years in prison. ‘They’re proselytizing Moslem children!’ the radical imams screamed.
In another city, 3 young Christian girls on their way home from school were beheaded recently by radicals.
Indonesia now hangs in a spiritual balance, ponders the outcry for change and considers its response.

But the blood of the martyrs is not silent.
The Father has heard the cry of their testimony above the militant mobs and He answers!

I saw this truth in evidence during my second visit just last week. While spying out the land in prospects of a future Discipling Training Centre, I was invited to speak at a Young Adults meeting. Their pastor was a lady, a widow. According to my friends’ initial report, she sounded like a bit of a radical herself. I always appreciate an opportunity to share with young people who have a vision beyond themselves and are seeking to pour out their lives for the gospel, so I was really looking forward to this time. Little did I realize the heights and depths this evening would hold!
My friends and I arrived early and were welcomed by a group of smiling, even cheerful, young men and women. One of them led us up a couple flights of stairs to an upper room.
‘Hmmmm,’ I thought, ‘good things have happened in upper rooms!’
Not very large, kind of like a gymnasium, no window views on the outside, no outside noise to the inside. Already some had started gathering. I watched as they entered and took their places. There were chairs, but these remained stacked along the walls. Rather than taking seats or socializing with friends, each one moved forward, to the front of the auditorium, and took their place standing in successive lines that gradually filled and moved towards the back.
I felt a holy Hush! fill the air as each one consciously presented themselves before their Lord: some bowing their heads, others lifting hands, all praying, seeking His face, His Presence. I noted a simple dedication and consecration as their prime purpose in being there: to meet with Jesus individually and also as a church community. It was sobering to witness such remarkable hunger and thirst for God.
And so it began... a steady stream of prayer and praise rising from those assembling and I joined with them: asking, seeking and knocking. The room steadily filled. About 8 lines of 10 formed, each row spread across the room, each a rank in this growing army of worshipers. In time, a worship team emerged from the group, filed up to the front and took their place with their instruments: guitars, keyboard, drums, and a couple of singers. Rather than introducing themselves and a whole new format, they simply joined the song already in process, picked up the flowing theme and blended their instruments and voices together. Worship here was birthed from hungry hearts, not imposed from an imperious pulpit.
My friends and I stood at the back watching, but were steadily drawn in by the Spirit’s leading, flowing with wave after wave of His power, love and glory. It grew intense!
And that’s when I began to smell a faint aroma, a gentle but alluring fragrance... like incense wafting through the room. At first it was only a mere whiff, like a slight breeze. Old hippie memories mingling with other aromas came to my mind. I figured someone was burning incense in the room, like what I had smelled passing those those ubiquitous Balinese Hindu shrines. But, I thought, ‘That would be strange for a Christian church to worship Our God so like their neighbours worship their idols? But maybe someone’s perfume, their ‘eau de Bali’, was just a bit strong?’ Finally, my curiosity got the best of me and I approached my friend,
‘Stacey, do you smell something, like... incense?’ ‘No,’ he replied.
Then he did a sudden double-take: ‘But now that you mention it, Yes, I do smell something and it’s really strong!’
Seeking more input, I asked another friend.
‘Yeah, it sure smells like something here! What is it?’
I didn’t know, so I thought it best to go and ask the pastor.
‘Is someone burning incense here in the meeting?’ I tried to ask as discreetly as possible.
She looked at me and smiled a simple ‘No.’
‘But don’t you smell something?’
Her look further spoke to me like, ‘Yes, but what’s so exceptional about that? Doesn’t the Lord come to you in North America like that when you worship Him?’’
I decided to not pursue the matter any further and rejoined the rest of the body in worship.

Suddenly my focus cleared and I saw it: The Word confirmed what the Spirit was doing.
‘Let my prayer be set before You as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.’ (Ps 141:2)
‘the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints’ (Rev 5:8)
‘and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God’ (Rev 8:4)

As incense in the Old Covenant Tabernacle and Temple order of worship typified Jesus, Our New Covenant High Priest and His finished work on The Cross, so now our prayers and praise were rising before the our Ark of The Covenant, His Throne. And in response to our worship, Our Father God was pouring out His Presence in a new and living way, a growing wave of His Glory!
The lights came on as the scent and sense of His Presence grew.
Like a wave reaching for its destiny, the Spirit moved among us, unpredictably, first this way and then that, embracing and being embraced. I felt Him dance throughout the congregation, catching up whosoever willed, playfully tossing us along the crest of His beauty and joy! Like a surfer awaiting the best next wave, I began to anticipate the Spirit’s flow so I might hop on board and, with trust as my only security, ride it until it finally broke, washing, crashing, spilling its fullness over me.
And so it continued...for over an hour. We didn’t just sing songs. Sometimes a slightly familiar melody arose and Indonesian and English words appeared on the overhead. But this was that prophesied ‘new song’ crescendoing together with heavenly choirs, each one an instrument in a great symphony led by One Composer and Conductor. Worship flowed together to and from the throne.
Inevitably I was forced to my knees, surrendering to His omnipotent mercy, my face buried in the cup of His infinite grace. I poured out all my vessel to drink of His endless love. I pretty well forgot that I was the speaker. Usually just before ministering, I find myself searching my heart, asking the Holy Spirit to not only help me speak His Word with His anointing, but to just not say anything stupid, or unnecessarily offensive.
But this time it was totally different. I found my heart and mind overflowing:
‘Lord, there’s just so much of Your Majesty here!
How can I ever do justice to all You are by anything I might say? My puny little words would only cheapen such grand themes!
How can I ever convey the fullness of what I am now seeing and experiencing?’

Suddenly a hand touched my arm. I looked up to see the pastor motion me to follow her to the front. We somehow managed to walk through the lines of worshipers without disturbing them. It was like the Red Sea parting before me. The band continued playing. I looked out over the hungry and thirsty group before me. I felt like how God must feel when facing such a sea of overwhelming devotion: here are true worshipers in spirit and in truth, firstfruits of Christ’s labour! The kingdom of heaven had truly invaded earth! ‘As it is in heaven’ had actually come ‘here on earth’! And I was a part of it! so I joined with all those ten thousand times ten thousands and thousands of thousands I knew also encircled the throne and together we sang out, ‘Worthy is the Lamb!’
Another wave of heavenly fragrance washed over me. I was out of my comfortable boat now, swimming in the River.
I felt our prayers and praise ascend, so filling and fulfilling the Lord’s desire, that He just couldn’t contain Himself either and so poured out more of His sweet fragrance of gratitude. Then our hearts were touched in turn more deeply and further overflowed! It’s called ‘LOVE’! and we were exchanging gifts.
So I began to sing out loud: just had to let it go and it flowed. I had to thank Him and let the others know God was so pleased! So pleased that: sons and daughters would simply worship Him for who He is and what He’s done; this just more fully released the River of Revelation from His throne; praise was both fruit and fragrance of His Presence! Buds, blossoms, fruit of the Tree of Life in every season!
Circumstances make no difference: poverty or plenty, famine or abundance, wilderness or palace, peace or persecution. We, His people praise because He alone is worthy! No opposition can stand against Him; no weapon formed against us will prosper. The armies of heaven follow the Lamb wherever He goes. He is going forth to conquer and so do we! The Prince of Peace has given peace and no one can take it away! And so it came: the words + the melody: a new song to the Lord!
And then a further glory, from glory to glory, a greater glory! and we got to soak it in and give it out again! Take it in and give it out! Take more in, give more out! The river flows and increases as it reaches the mouth and becomes an ocean.
‘For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea!’ (Hab 2:14; Isa 11:9)
I could barely stand as I sang, but the words and music kept coming! Finally, I stopped, but the Spirit kept moving through the sea of His people. I was enjoying what was happening and it was quite evident the Father was enjoying it too! My smile couldn’t stop and I felt the Father’s heart swell with joy within me!
The musicians stopped. We waited and... another wave of the Spirit rose up and broke against our shores. We needed little convincing that we are but sand.
Then the keyboard started to softly play again.
I wondered, ‘Where is this all going?’ I looked to the pastor. She was all smiles.
I thought, ‘That’s a good sign. If the pastor’s happy, it’s OK!’
Walking on water is an art; you have to step lightly from wave to wave.
I continued to wait. The silence seemed awkward at times. I wondered when the pastor would release me to start preaching, unaware that they were waiting for me. But I was so enjoying the Lord’s Presence any uncertainty quickly melted before another wave of His glory! Five... ten minutes? Can’t say I really know how long this lasted. My friends later said they were wondering when I was going to start speaking, but I just kept riding the wave!
Finally, I looked again to the pastor and motioned if I should speak.
She nodded and I tried but... my mouth wouldn’t speak!
All I could do was sing... and so we went from glory to glory again and for the next few minutes I sang my message of The Father’s Heart:
His acceptance breaking our rejection,
His peace removing our anger and anxiety,
His joy replacing our pain.
So much more than we could ever ask or think. This message has touched hearts in every nation I have preached it, but I must admit that that evening took my natural breath away and I stand in awe of the gospel, this good news of the kingdom, Our King... Jesus!
I couldn’t hold anything back even I had wanted to. What a wonderful predicament!

Like the woman with the alabaster flask of precious ointment. She washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, broke the flask and poured its ointment on him...
‘and the house was filled with the fragrance.’ (Jn 12:3)
Spectators complained and chided her for impropriety and waste, but Jesus commended her lavish outpouring upon him.
‘What this woman has done will be told as a memorial to her!’ (Mark 14:9) No one else had been in time to anoint His body. All others were too late.
So these worshipers had counted the cost and paid the price for worship in spirit and in truth.
A new song is rising in the earth. It’s the Song of the Redeemed, the Persecuted Church: Indonesian, Chinese, African, believers from every walk and nation standing through this world’s trials and tribulations, following the Lamb wherever He goes. It cannot and will not be destroyed; it will only increase as the glory of Jesus fills our hearts and all the earth!

That night I fell asleep refreshed. My air-conditioned bedroom cooled the evening air, but it was a still-lingering fragrance of worship that coloured my dreams.

The Truth-Seeker: A Journey

2010-08-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

I always believed there was a Truth.
And I knew I didn’t have it.
It was out there somewhere. Distant. Elusive. Illusory.
But I could never quite grasp it. Just when I felt I had it close enough so I could reach out and apprehend it, it mysteriously moved, shifted, kind of slipped away, beyond me... and my grasp... again.
For lack of a better term, I defined Truth as God. Much of my culture did that, so that fit my parameters too: distant... elusive... illusory... God. Didn’t matter: big ‘G’ or little ‘g’.
And Truth for me was definitely removed and remote, up there somewhere, above the clouds of confusion and ignorance and unknowing, but...
I figured, if I could just find that one first truth, one I could simply count on as absolute truth, then...
like building with stones, that first truth would lead me to a second, and then connect with a third, and... as I fit them together, building layer upon layer, they would not only stand, but eventually one day reach up and lift me above those hindersome clouds to where I would finally and triumphantly proclaim, ‘I made it, God! Aren’t you proud of me?’
All the while, however, I was oblivious to that still gaping gulf between us; not the vertical gulf, for in my mind I had already bridged that, but the horizontal one, the chasm my self had created, the one still looming between G(g)od and me. So intent on realizing my own personal truth, I had unwittingly created my own personal god: ME!

It’s hard to be god, especially all the time! You’ve got to be perfect and for humans, that demands a lot of work and striving to: meet impossible standards, realize impossible dreams, and self-fulfill your own prophecies.
I tried for a lot of years. Tried real hard. I suspected truth realization might have something to do with character, so I tried all the harder. But some days, after I had purposefully turned over a new leaf just that very morning, no one noticed by noon just what a great guy I had instantly become! That was hard to take! People can be so disappointing!

Don’t know why I was wired this way exactly, but all my pictures in elementary school had mountains in them and I don’t think it was just because I lived in British Columbia. I think it had more to do with trying to ‘Climb every mountain; ford every stream!’
Something like The Sound of Music meets Mission Impossible in my blood, urging me ever onward and upward to make the impossible possible.
Reach the unreachable; attain the unattainable.
Deceptive idealism.
Much of my spiritual journey seemed to end up with me often falling into creeks by that name. They were not only messy, slippery experiences, but most of all, embarrassing.
Self has to keep up appearances for a lot of ego and it doesn’t like to apologize for what it is not.
Unfortunately, I still seem to encounter some of these same waters at times and when you stay too long and wallow, they become, as for all pilgrims of truth, Sloughs of Despond.
And I really did fashion myself a pilgrim, or maybe even a Don Quixote on some formidable quest, forsaking the familiar, turning my back on the status quo to deliberately seek out the exotic unknown, that which could not + would not be nailed down and put in a box...like a coffin.

Or more to my way of thinking, I fancied myself a traveler. Never a tourist.
God forbid! (now who was my god again?) I would never be as crass, lame, nor unforgivably stupid as those tourists: you know, the ones who rent the taxis or go on city tours in double-decker buses with the driver-guide cracking the same old tired jokes he/she’s worked over every trip for the last twenty years?
Same old, same old.
Routine, routine, rut rut routine.
I prided myself that I was able to smell them a mile away and run even further in the opposite direction.
Tourists were not truth-seekers. Tourists never truly know where they are or where they’ve been. I used to ridicule them as poring over their cache of vaguely familiar photos when they got home, the ones they snapped through streaked bus windows while still driving.
‘Funny? why do all these pictures have that same dirt smudge in them!?’
I remember when I was once in Lisbon, Portugal, ‘traveling’ through the Alfama: the former Arab section of the city and oldest district not destroyed by the devastating 18th Century earthquake. Original buildings from over 600 years ago; a still working-class fishermen neighbourhood among narrow, twisting streets and alleys barely wide enough for donkeys to pass.
Sounded interesting... so I went to see it for myself.
While exploring its maze of old shops, houses and marketplaces, I heard a sudden commotion up the street ahead of me and looked up just in time to see one of Lisbon’s unique green-and-black taxis screech to an abrupt stop. Its rear passenger window rolled down.
A camera poked its eye out like a spying U-Boat's periscope, intruding on the medieval scene below.
Then one ‘Click!’ and the interloper receded, back into the anonymous black hole from where it had come. And just as quickly as it had arrived, the taxi then sped off again, its window still rolling up with its human cargo anxiously anticipating their next exciting destination.
I stood there, taken aback by the superficiality of what I had just witnessed.
I imagined what bland existence lurked behind that camera incognito.
And then a humorous scenario occurred to me:
Fast Forward to possibly 1 week later, back home in America, where I pictured ‘Fred + Martha’ looking over the photos of their recent quickie European tour.
‘So where’s this one from, Martha? I can’t remember where this was? Looks like some kind of fish market. Disgusting! Look at the way they just lay them out on the street! Probably France. Or was that Spain? They both looked the same. Or... wasn’t there another country in there too? What was it called? Something like.... Portyoucall? Do you remember? Were we there?...
Are you even sure these are our pictures?’
Some people spend their lives like they tour countries: ‘If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium!’
And then, after they’ve returned home and they’re left only with memories, they have no clear recollection of where they’ve been and how it relates to their present picture.

In retrospect, however, I was more like that very tourist I mocked than I ever realized.
Essentially, I was a tourist in my own life: looking for truth, but rolling down my window only enough to poke my opinion out, ignorantly taking the moment’s snapshot, and then withdrawing once again into my self-centred darkness; anticipating the later joy of more photographs of places, people and experiences, but never able to appreciate their moments of truth while I was actually there.
And so I kept seeking and stumbling.
One day I stumbled over these lines from T.S. Eliot, a fellow truth-seeker:
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.’ (Little Gidding)

But.... I wondered,
Where is that place, that first place, the first knowledge, that first stone I can count on....
the truth?’

IN HIS TIME -Part 1

2010-07-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

“To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die; plant + reap; kill + heal; break down + build up;
weep + laugh; mourn + dance; cast + gather stones; embrace + refrain; gain + lose;
hold on + let go; rip out + mend; shut up + speak up; love + hate;
A time for war and a time of peace.” (Eccles 3:1-11)
Bob Dylan set these words to music and The Byrds had us singing them in the ‘60s, but I doubt many realized they were singing God’s Word. We thought them paradoxical but catchy, words for a time of change. “Turn, turn, turn,” was our cry for revolution in society, but it was really God’s call for repentance in the human heart. It’s amazing how confused we are sometimes, understanding so little of even what we say we want.
We know little of either the times or seasons of the heart.
I used to think timing was important. Now I’m convinced: it’s absolutely crucial!

The Preacher goes on to say, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (v 11)
But when is ‘its time’? How can we truly know when something is in or out of season?
And who determines what really is the ‘right season’?
I might think it fits perfectly, but later find out it’s completely out of sync.
I might think I have a sure-fire prophetic word for someone; but a good word must be spoken at the right time in the right spirit or… it may be pathetic, more than prophetic.
‘A word spoken in its time, how good it is!’ (Pro 15:23) But at the wrong time? ...devastating!

We need to know ‘His’ Time. The One who created everything in the first place is also the One who is able to bring it forth to fulfill its purpose at the right time. If He is able to make it,
He can also make it beautiful in the time for which it’s created.
And even if I make a mistake, God can take what the enemy intends for evil or my blunder, and make it good. (Gen 50:20) He works all things together for good to those who love Him, those called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28).
Yeah, but sometimes that takes longer than I think it should!.. and that’s where timing comes in.

I remember arriving one Sunday morning for early prayer in a church we were interim pastoring. Things were in flux; change was in the air; our future was unclear and unsettled, but a sense of excitement and beckoning adventure pervaded in my spirit. I was there first, and when I opened the door and turned on the light, I saw 3 doors standing before me on the school stage, probably props for a play practice. My first thought was: “Which one, Lord?” as in, “Which door-choice is the right one for me to walk through?”
Ever notice how the Lord often speaks when you least expect Him?
Well, without any effort at listening, I immediately heard Him say so clearly,
“They’re all right, but in My time!”
Startled, I looked again more closely at these 3 doors and wondered what future opportunities they represented. Were they 3 specific decisions, relationships, events? Narrow doors often lead into larger rooms. Were these possibly future limitations to prepare me for further service and enlargement? Jesus is the Door. We just need to discern which one... in His time.

1Chron 12:32 describes sons of Issachar who came to David at Hebron before he was king of all Israel. They even went against the popular flow, because they ‘had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.’ Historical hindsight is good if we learn from it, but foresight is preferable. It discerns and reveals the wisdom and godly character to know not only the right thing, but also the right time, so we don’t live life in ‘should-have’s.’

Few in history have found their time to be His or His Time to be theirs.
Jesus came ‘in the fullness of time’ (Gal 4:4), neither too early, nor too late.
He came exactly at the right time.
21st Century North American pragmatism would counter that He should have come in our day. He could have reached so many more millions! More people are alive today; our advanced technology and communications could reach them more effectively; He’d be seen world-wide, not just in tiny Judea. But the Bible says He came at the right time! Jesus knew who He was and He knew His time. Some still think He comes at the wrong time...too late.
Someone who knows their time as His and His as theirs is in step with God and His Purpose.
Those who do not are only trying to prove something.

Jesus didn’t have anything to prove. His first sermon was seed for all future messages and ministry:
“The time is fulfilled, - all OT prophecies about future time were now complete in Him
and the kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mark 1:15)
In other words, “Don’t put it off; drop everything else and receive the kingdom NOW!
It’s right here, don’t wait for another! The King is here! So is His kingdom, it’s for you, NOW! Don’t doubt, reach out, take it to heart! Here it is! Believe… You got it!”
This was Jesus’ essential message both then and now. Unfortunately, many people today respond the same way as some did then: “We believe in the kingdom, but it’s not time yet. It doesn’t fit our theology or our understanding. Maybe some of it is 'already'? But how much is 'not yet'? Probably more the latter: just look how much power the devil still has!”
And they spent their time debating, disputing, arguing while Jesus went about doing good to all: healing, setting captives free, manifesting the kingdom regardless of their unbelief!
Just like He does today!

Actually, the first to recognize Jesus for who He was were demons. They identified Him as the Son of God before His own people did, and added,
“Have you come here to torment us before the time?” (Matt 8:29)
Jesus never let devils tell Him what time it was, especially when it was their time to be cast out.
He replied, “You’re twisted! You’re no longer in control here to say who is going to torment who for how long. I AM HERE NOW. The power of my kingdom is NOW and your time to leave is NOW. Don’t argue ...GO!”
They had no choice: they went. Their time had come.
Jesus said, “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matt 12:28)
Note the past perfect tense. The demons did.
It is finished! And so are they. Time’s up; the King is Here! Everything else? Out!

Jesus wept over Jerusalem,
“If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes.
…because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41, 44)
Even at His most difficult time, Jesus knew His Time and Purpose: who He was and what He had to do. The very night He was arrested,
‘when Jesus knew that his hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.’(Jn 13:1)
He was not intimidated by the accusations of this world, overcome by its threats, nor defeated by its reactions.
He overcame and because He did, we are!
"Excuse me...can you tell me what time it is?"

IN HIS TIME - PART 2

2010-07-22T12:20:00.000-07:00

“He came to His own, and his own did not receive Him.” (Jn 1:11-13)
The Jews rejected their Messiah even when all their prophecies and signs pointed unmistakably towards Jesus. Then they unwittingly fulfilled more of those prophecies by crucifying Him.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God,
to those who believe in His name:
who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God.”

The new birth must not be misunderstood as merely getting our eternal ticket to heaven.
He wants us to know His time of visitation for us TODAY, His coming to abide, dwell, live and walk together with us, opening up the present treasures of His love to and through us! We are salt and light, called to make a difference HERE NOW.
He taught His disciples to pray and impact their contemporary world, not just some time in the future, but RIGHT NOW in their generation:
“Your kingdom come, Your will be done… in earth as it is in heaven.”
The other way around often seems to be many Christians’ present perspective:
“Take me to heaven soon, because my life is getting dark and unbearable here on earth!”
New birth opens a new, full life of liberty in Our Lord!
We need a fresh revelation of this truth today!

His first disciples heard Jesus call their name, “Follow me!” and that same call continues today for us to ‘deny ourselves, take up our cross,’ (Matt 16:24).
In effect, He is calling us take up our new Identity ‘in Christ’ and follow Him. Timing is ‘crucial’ (variant of its root ‘crux = cross’).
Our response shows whether it’s a walk or just talk.
Sons of God are led by the Spirit. (Rom 8:14)
We must not settle for living below our call.

We cannot afford to neither run off ahead nor lag behind in unbelief.
Both procrastination (putting off God’s timing eg. ‘Later, Dad!’)
and presumption (prematurely acting before God’s timing eg. ‘Look Ma, no hands!’)
distract, throw off balance and ultimately crash in equally devastating ditches.
Both deviate from true Christian liberty and wander in a religious wilderness of ideas, fads and traditions, far removed from our necessary central focus.
We need to be looking unto Jesus, focusing on faithfully knowing and following Him alone.
Our walk with Jesus shows how close and sensitive our relationship truly is: either with Him or not.
I’m not talking theory or theology here, but a plain and simple practical reality:
truth + love in action. Do the math: God = Love. Jesus = God. Ergo… Jesus = Love.
Jesus knew His Identity, who He was, and therefore, He knew the best action to take, especially at His most difficult, crucial times. His Cross revealed God’s love in action to a sin-sick world.

And it’s how close our walk is with Him that will bring us through our crises. The crosses-crises we go through reveal who we truly are, what’s really in us, what we’re made of, just who indeed we are truly following and serving. People can say they follow the Lord, but if their confidence is in signs, they’re still caught up in externals and empty showmanship.
However, God says, “Look at my son/daughter, ___________, (put you name in here).
They have signs following them; they are signs themselves, just like my Old Testament prophets and their children.”

Words are cheap. Actions can cloak deceptive motives. But when sons of God follow Christ in spirit and truth (both wings in His Time), the world has to take notice.

This unshakeable unity in the Lord shakes the very foundations of what seems to be!
It’s revealed sometimes like the awesome power a united army unleashes when it marches together, in time. Such highly trained natural armies even have to break rank when crossing bridges or their synchronized co-ordination can actually cause them to collapse!
Or on the other hand, it can be like the game where the ‘leader’ mischievously falls in step closely behind the ‘follower’ without his knowing, and they walk together, step-in-step, virtually as one body. Our Heavenly Father delights in playfully exchanging places with his children, leading by walking so closely behind us, we don’t even realize He’s there. We begin to learn to lead by simply being led by His Presence!
And still other times, He intimately draws us even more closely to Himself, holding and caressing us, as a Bridegroom dances with His Bride, lifting her up for all the world to see! So Christ’s Church, His body, is rising up and advancing over all the earth!
An army of sons and daughters wedded by the New Covenant in Christ’s Blood! United in His Body and established in His Kingdom! He leads us together in His Spirit, one step at a time, to shake earth’s natural foundations, take ground in men’s hearts, disciple nations, do business, occupy and fill the earth with His glory…as the waters cover the sea!
This is our calling: to walk in His Presence and our destiny in Christ here on earth NOW ...so much more than just waiting till heaven’s ready for us.

Paul learned this walk in the Spirit and knew His leading.
In Acts 16:6-10, he and his apostolic team traveled west from Galatia, intending to preach in Ephesus, the major city of the Roman province of Asia. Big commercial, religious, political centre, important centre of influence, lots of souls for the kingdom: prime place to preach, right?

But the Holy Spirit forbade them! Or was it the devil? Can you tell the difference?

Surely, if someone is hindering the gospel, it must be the devil! Or is it?
Paul was not just trained to not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Gal 5:16 does not equate walking in the Spirit with not fulfilling the lust of the flesh. The second is a result of the first; both are not equal. There is a great deal more to the Christian life than just not sinning (whatever that is). Our identity must be more than negatives or what we don’t do.
I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs…hey, I’m a Christian! Unnnhh! Wrong!
Canadians sometimes reason that same way. We think we are Canadians because we’re not Americans!?! That’s confusing and produces confusion! No wonder our country has gone through such identity crises.
God has not only forgiven us, but we who were former sinners are now saints. We are a new creation with a new Identity and Destiny, sanctified, set apart for His glory! Walking in the Spirit does not result from legalistically trying to not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. These are two entirely different mind-sets.
God has freed us from the works of the flesh by the faith of Jesus Christ and called us to walk in His liberty. He wants us to rejoice in this freedom and let the Holy Spirit break us through into new and future adventures in uncharted territory. It’s neither a matter of how well we can keep the letter-perfect dictates of a spiritualized Christian ‘law’, nor of how close we can come to sin without ‘losing our salvation’. It has everything to do with drawing closer day by day to Jesus and letting Him lead us in victory through the enemy’s snares and distractions in this world!

Paul didn’t just receive a preaching-healing gift to justify whatever else he wanted to do ‘in Jesus’ Name’. He had the call to live Christ, follow Christ and preach Christ wherever the Spirit led him. Not just preach and ‘do the stuff’. He was not primarily a preaching machine.
Preaching and other ‘spiritual gifts’ can even be motivated by people-pleasing pride, producing nothing other than lust of the flesh! Ask any honest preacher.
No! Paul was being trained to walk in the Spirit and know His Lord’s leading, yielding to the subtle sensitive tugs on His heart, not just following circumstantial signs.
The Holy Spirit said ‘No!’ to Asia.
At that time it was not His Time.

Paul turned north to Mysia + Bithynia. Surely this was the Lord’s direction!?
But again, “The Spirit did not permit them.”
A lesser man, led by his own feelings, would have been discouraged and turned back to Antioch, questioning whether God had ever really called him to preach in the first place. But Paul was not such a man: he and his team were not easily stopped. Going back was not an option.
Neither to the left nor right? Sounds like Moses at the Red Sea, eh?
So they went straight ahead …to Troas (Troy) and that’s where Paul had his Macedonian vision and clearly “concluded the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
Paul had felt to go to Ephesus: big city, big vision, big exposure?
But God had a bigger vision than Paul!
Paul saw only a city, but God saw Europe, a whole new continent!
Eventually, after 2 years and churches successfully established in Philippi, Thessalonica and Corinth, Paul made it to Ephesus. He later spent 3 years there and evangelized the entire area.
If Paul had only been led by his gifting, and went to Ephesus according to how he might have ‘success’, he might have had good meetings, but missed out on God’s Best.
In His time.
True sons know their Identity to walk in the Spirit + fulfill their Destiny.

IN HIS TIME - Part 3

2010-07-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Jesus didn’t say He’d be there just at the end to meet us when we arrive on the other side.
He says, “I AM with you always, all the way through.”
His light isn’t just at the end of the tunnel; He’s with us in the midst of the darkness and trials. He is the Light unto our path, the Lamp unto our feet.
It’s not enough to just run: we need to run with the right message, direction and timing.
We need to run with patience, endurance, perseverance and never give up.
These all relate to timing.
God’s not looking for showy sprinters, but good starters who finish well.
He’s training marathoners who will run together with Him.
He ran and finished His race well here on earth and opened up a better way for us, a new and living way. His race; we need His pace.

Too often, Christians follow wannabe shooting stars and end up crashing in ditches of legalism or license. These are poor and shameful substitutes for a personal walk in liberty with the Living God. Faith beckons us to cross the threshold, take a daring step through His revelation into the unknown, and then another and another, continually trusting God Himself has opened the way.
Jesus only spoke what He heard the Father speak. Only did what He saw the Father do.
So should we.

Only five centuries ago, much of the Church had so compromised its faith that it had lost its Christian outlook and world-view.
It had become mired in institutionalized form, rather than being a revolutionary force.
It had decided for scaffolding rather than substance.
It had so compromised itself that it became a maintenance-minded status quo of hierarchical, religious people-pleasers.
Called to bring truth to light, it had instead retreated into shadows of fear and mystery. Forsaking a clear stand in the truth of God’s Word, it had become spoiled by vain philosophies of men and painted itself into a corner, ironically defending pagan Aristotelian myth (the earth is flat and if you sail too far, you will drop over the edge) as God’s truth.
Similarly, to a large extent, so have we.

However, Christopher Columbus saw himself and his world in a different, divine light.
He derived both his identity and destiny to dispel darkness and break down old mind-sets from his namesake, Christ the Light-bearer.
He believed the Word of God. For him, Isaiah 40:9 described the ‘circle of the earth’ as a globe and this insight gave him the confidence that he could reach Oriental destinations by sailing westward. He did not believe the fear-mongers’ prophecies that he would fall over the ocean edge and perish. Rather, faith by God’s Word stirred his vision to look beyond the edge and see new lands…a new world to be discovered.
He further read, ‘The islands wait for Me,’ (Isa 60:9) and his eschatology and world-view were revolutionized. Only when the whole earth (including all those yet-to-be-discovered lands) had heard Christ’s gospel could the Lord ever come again… and not before!
Columbus realized he had God’s calling to answer, His destiny to fulfill, this job to do!
He believed His time had come. It was His time to step out in the boat.
Christopher was predestined to follow Christ his Light, break through old borders, open new horizons and discover new lands, all to the further glory of Christ’s name! Many could not grasp his vision, but Columbus sought to fulfill his part. His destiny called him into the unknown and he stepped out in faith on the Word of God.
He believed He was called according to God’s purpose, predestined by God.

Many of us face much this same dilemma in our day.
And here’s where either faith releases or religion entraps.
Rom 8:28’s ‘predestinate’ (the only form of ‘destiny’ in the New Testament) is the English translation of the Greek ‘proorizo’(4309 Strong’s Concordance). While others debated that this meant either the predetermined ‘fate’ of a sovereign God, or the answer of man’s preconceived ‘free will’, Columbus took it in its practical sense and turned his world upside down.
It literally means ‘pro’ = ‘before’ + ‘orizo’ = ‘limit, decree, boundary, horizon’; that is, ‘to see in advance’. As you approach what appears to be earth’s edge, the visible horizon steadily retreats before you. As you confront and break through the ‘old horizon’ boundary, whole new horizons repeatedly appear and further open up before you.
‘Predestinate’ then takes on a whole new perspective!
Rather than being trapped in some fatalistic box, you are now free to journey ‘before horizons’, confident He is leading you out of old world forms into new world vistas.
As in the natural, so also in the spiritual, God has also challenged and broken the religious, traditional, limiting horizons, the status quo, defeatist, God-in-the-box systems of unbelief. While others remained in port, complaining and making excuses why it couldn’t be done, Columbus set sail, opened up new horizons by faith and our world has never been the same!
He believed the Word of God rather than his contemporary fear-mongers.
He knew His time!
The Word of God releases faith to advance in the Spirit and discover new realms of His glory in the kingdom of God NOW!
That’s how the Spirit leads His children in faith.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
We are.. transformed into the same image (changed to be more like Jesus each day)
from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord!” (2Cor 3:17-18)
Even today, this same Spirit confronts and destroys old, religious, negative boundaries/mindsets and releases sons and daughters to walk in His kingdom faith
…it’s His Time!

IN HIS TIME -PART 4

2010-07-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

So how can I apply this in my time…the situations I’m facing today and tomorrow?
I pray this testimony may be an encouragement to you all!

This last year has not been easy for our family, but the Lord has been with us and led us. As some of you know, Erica and I were involved with a ministry, leading a Training Centre during the last 4 years. Some of you were eagles with us then. We enjoyed wonderful times in God’s Presence. The Holy Spirit revealed our Identity (we are not turkeys, but His eagles) to release us into our Destiny (get our 2 wings to fly and soar with Christ) and fulfill God’s kingdom purpose in our lives.
However, in the midst of these ‘glories’, strong discrepancies appeared between the ministry’s professed vision-values and its actual reality. My wife and I met with the leadership and challenged what we discerned to be hypocrisy and deception. We did not seek to condemn; we simply sought to be honest and loving, at the same time. Part of an eagle’s training is to simply use both wings: speak the truth in love.
We did. It was not received. We knew our time was finished. However, for the sake of the students, I felt we needed to stay until the end of the term…another 2 ½ months. This would not be easy, but somehow I felt strongly that this was necessary.
Time did not fly by; in fact, it often seemed to grind to a halt. Especially when the ministry went into revival mode and God appeared to be suddenly blessing (?) what we had questioned! It all grew very confusing!

Finally, the last day of the semester arrived and our class shared in a time of communion. Students were speaking their hearts and I felt I needed to also.
So after others had shared about how they were facing changes, I also told them about ours: this would probably be our last year as leaders in the Training Centre. Many responded: some with understanding; others were upset. It’s not easy to go against the flow of what appears. However, I felt I had to take a stand, be honest publicly and leave the rest to the Lord.

That was on Friday. Sunday night was graduation. Monday we were finished!
So I thought: “Now I can just kick back and finally rest…let’s get a movie!”

Do you think God can speak any way He wants?

He definitely speaks through His Word and His Spirit in many ways: people, circumstances, thoughts, feelings, dreams, but what about movies?
Is He free to speak and confirm whatever way He wants? Come and See!

Looking through the titles on the DVD racks, I thought I should get a chick flick for Erica. Found one, but can’t even remember what it was now. But just in case she didn’t like my first choice, I thought I’d better get a back-up. I walked up and down the rows, sampling different covers. I picked them up and checked them over, then put them down again. One seemed to linger longer in my hands: a baseball story called “Off the Black”. Never heard of it! The popular movies all had multiple copies on the shelf; this one stood alone. So much for it being well-known and popular! Nick Nolte was the lead actor. I’d heard of him, but nothing too earth-shaking. Put it down, continued sampling. No particular movie suited my mood or taste, and I found myself back with “Off the Black”.
I reread the storyline. Again put it down, and picked it up a third time.
Finally I decided, “Oh, why not?!’ and took it home.

That evening we watched the chick flick, but Erica lost interest halfway through and went to bed. However, I was now in vacation mode and wanted some amusement. I wanted to turn my mind off and just relax.
Curious, I popped in “Off the Black”.
Scene opened: a baseball diamond. Nick Nolte’s character, a somewhat rounded, 60ish and balding umpire calls out, “Ball Four!” and in walks the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. ‘Off the Black’ means ‘off target; outside the strike zone’. That meant a loss for the teenage pitcher and he was not a happy camper. He’s so upset, in fact, he wants revenge for what he views as a bad call that cost him the game. So he and a couple of his buddies decide to trash the ump’s yard. A few nights later, 2:30 in the morning, they strike: general mayhem, toilet paper strewn throughout the trees, a rock crashes through Nick’s car’s side window. Inside, ‘Nick’ is passed out in his easy chair, surrounded by empty beer bottles, TV still on, but no one’s watching …not much of a life! But the breaking window awakens him, he rises, stumbles groggily to the doorway and catches the pitcher as he tries to make his getaway.
“What…? Who…? he stammers, trying to assess what’s going on and what he’ll do.
He can only threaten, “You’ll pay for this! You’re going to fix this up… or else!”
“Ah, stop bugging me, old man!”
“Old man!? I’ll show you!”
But before either of them does anything foolish, the teenager relents and over the next few afternoons, returns to clean up his mess. The two even begin to strike up a friendly relationship.
Also during this time, Nick receives an invitation to an upcoming high school grad reunion. He graduated in 1966. Same year as me! Hmmmm!?
Looking at his life, he feels like a real loser, a turkey, no eagle at all. No family, no measure of any success whatever. He feels he has nothing to share with old grad friends. But somehow this crazy idea gets in his head. He fights it, but the next day when the kid comes over, he makes his offer.
“I’ve got this invitation to my grad reunion. I was thinking about going, but then I figured I really got nothing to tell anyone ...no stories, no family, no exciting experiences. But then I was also thinkin’… that window’s gonna cost you a lot to fix and seein’ you haven’t got money like that, uhh… so I was thinking, how about you come with me to the grad, be my son for the day, and we’ll call it even, hey?”
“You’re crazy!” and the kid stormed off.
However, he reconsidered, came back in a few hours, and both agreed to the deal.
Over the next few days, their relationship grew and suddenly the scene shifts to a boat out in a lake and the two of them fishing. The shadows show it’s late afternoon; the kid’s impatience shows they haven’t had much luck.

‘Want to call it a day? Haven't had any bites all day.”
Nick replies, ‘You're a real whiner, you know that! Do you know Henry Schmidt?’

… I believe I dropped off the couch! I could not believe my ears! Had I heard correctly? Wasn’t that my name?

Nick continued. I listened, scarcely able to take in what followed.
“This fellow was a pitcher from Texas. In his rookie year, he played for the Dodgers, won 20 games. Know what he did for his 2nd year?
He sent in his 2nd season contract unsigned with a note attached to it: I do not like to live in the East & I won't report.
He never played another game in the majors.”

‘Why?’ the kid asked.

‘Why?

Because Henry Schmidt knew he had to walk away.
Because some voice deep inside of him was telling him it was time.
Now, do you have a voice deep inside of you that's telling you, “It’s time?”’

And that was the end of it! A couple minutes' dialogue out in a boat, totally unrelated to the rest of the movie, a scene out of nowhere with my name in it! It’s not like my name is that popular that it pops up normally in books or movies. I sat there…literally dumbfounded!
I reached for the remote and pressed Replay. Played it again. Sure enough…that was my name! Clearly I was not hearing things.
And then the message!
Henry Schmidt knew he had to walk away because he had a voice deep inside telling him it was time!
That fit! I played it again…and again…and again.
But then I started second guessing: maybe someone’s made a mistake or they’re playing a cruel joke on me. But it was no mistake. I thought of waking Erica up. But then I figured if it was true, it would keep until morning.
It was true. Check out the movie for yourself. In fact, I’ve attached it to the end of this blog. I don’t know if the director really knew why he was putting that scene in his movie, but I am convinced it was solely and ultimately for my benefit! The message and its timing were extraordinary! Exactly the issue I had been facing! Precisely what we had felt, but without any external confirmations! In fact, what evidence there was seemed to show I was dead wrong!

My confidence level soared! I googled ‘Henry Schmidt’ and sure enough: he was not a fictional character, but a real pitcher, played his rookie season for Brooklyn in 1903. Exactly like Nick had described!
It’s not my name in the movie that was so amazing, but how I’d chosen it (or had it chosen me?) the very day after our classes finished, neither a week/month/year before or after, but that very day!
The timing was more than incidental; it was Godcidental!
And the message: it was a prophetic word for us to know that regardless of what people said or what things looked like, it was God’s opinion and timing that mattered most.
Not too many stood with us during the test, but the Lord wanted us to know He was standing with us! And He led us away when it was the right time in His time.
Paul writes, “But the Lord stood with me” (2Tim 4:17) and when it comes right down to it, what else really matters?

“Do you have a voice deep inside you telling you, ‘It’s time?’

P.S. Click on the following and you can actually check out the actual scene itself!
Isn’t God amazing?

FROM THE HEART OF AFRICA

2010-06-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is a first for me!!!
My 6th trip to Ghana & Nigeria and finally I am able to not only phone out(that 1st was in 2001), but I can access my own blog & let you know:
JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF AFRICA!!!
There was a time this was known as The Dark Continent, but the Holy Spirit has changed all that superstition and my report is:
The Light is filling this continent to overflowing.
The warfare is intense, but Christ has already conquered and through Him we, His Church, are more than conquerors!
I'm here in the middle of what used to be a civil war zone, centre of slavery, dumping ground for so-called cursed babies whose mothers had died giving them birth. BUT GOD has turned what the devil meant for evil to good.
"Out of the eater has come something to eat;
out of the bitter God has brought something sweet."
Bitter waters are our opportunity to apply The Cross to our situation & see sweet healing come. This is the testimony coming out of the Depths of Africa's Heart. What has been misused, abused, raped, terrorized, taken for granted, written off as only good for exploiting, God has rather said,
"Out of Africa (Egypt) I have brought forth my son."
"This is my pearl of great price and I have bought the entire field!"
I see a fire coming out of Africa, breaking through the Moslem offensive, turning its terror by the unconquerable message of The Resurrection, triumphing over:
all false religious + political systems,
greed + deceptive economic manipulations,
till the gospel of God's Heart touches every nation
& His glory fills the earth as the waters cover the sea!

IS YOUR JESUS THAT BIG???
IF NOT: YOU BOUGHT INTO A COUNTERFEIT!
TRADE THAT IDOL IN FOR THE REAL THING...THE REAL JESUS, KING OF KINGS FOR
THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD HAVE BECOME THE KINGDOM OF OUR LORD & SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST!
It's happened + it's happening: The Light is shining; the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.
They received what we gave but now the West needs what they've got!
Here's a good report: the giants are big, but Our God is bigger!
Don't settle for a remnant when God reveals Harvest!
Let's go in & take the land!

Out-of-the-Box Apostolic Breaking Centres

2010-05-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

God is far greater than our natural mind’s understanding. In Christ there is always more than we can ever ask or think. His ways are higher than ours; His understanding is far beyond our limited comprehension. Although we try so often to figure God out, He simply will not be put in a box.
God hates boxes; He always breaks out of them. They tried to put Jesus in a box once. He broke out. It’s called The Resurrection.
God is more than we can figure out and this essential Nature therefore challenges all of our mental, emotional, theological and religious boxes. He changes us from box-making to box-breaking. True apostolic ministry reflects His Nature. It does not focus on form or programs, but reveals a five-fold pattern to help believers recognize, confront and break out of these boxes, affirmed in their new Identity in Christ, equipped in His Word + Spirit, and released into their true Destiny!
Scripture provides our model:

‘And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.’ (Eph 4:11-12)

God gives gifts to equip and release the saints to do the work of ministry and increase the body’s effectiveness. To this end, there is a need for the Lord to raise up more than Bible schools and seminaries in our day. Our Western church has unfortunately focused lopsidedly on the intellectual side of faith and therefore teeters on irrevelance. By teaching academic and theological decision-making rather than modelling apostolic and prophetic disciple-making, we overlook His call to personally walk with God and vitally impact our communities. Just as Jesus trained His 12 disciples and the Early Church mentored its next generations, so our vision must be to raise up a responsive, radical generation in our day, filled with His Word + Spirit, confident in who they are 'in Christ' and passionate to fulfill His purpose.
There is so much more in Christ’s Person + Purpose than we have grasped. Purpose is good, but it doesn’t drive the Church. When I read the Scripture: it was the Spirit who drove Jesus into the wilderness, not just purpose. We have to get our priorities clear: Christ must be in the driver’s seat, not our vision, desire or any other nice-sounding religious substitute. He has given us the tools and now we need to learn how to use them. We need the Word + Spirit together in our lives to break through into new and greater realms of knowing Him and obeying His will. Together, the Word + Spirit lead us into a greater reality and awareness of His Presence and Power, the fullness of His life.
God has called us to this cutting-edge lifestyle with Him which will also challenge and equip the next generation of disciples.

I see Training Centres rising up: not degree-granting institutions. Christians: true disciples and apostles, don’t get their identity from special letters in front of or behind their names: they receive it by the Father's name written in their hearts and on their foreheads.
I see Equipping Bases helping disciples answer the call of God on their lives, discovering who they really are in Christ, and then releasing apostles to His harvest fields.
But those who would be sent first need to be discipled. You may jump into an envelope, but you can't lick it. Apostles are simply 'sent ones'; they cannot send themselves. Someone else needs to lick your envelope to send you. It’s not enough for you to just want to run; you must have the message burning in your heart before you race into the fields. Otherwise, you will be like young Ahimaaz who wanted to run to King David with news of the battle, but didn’t have the message. When he arrived, he had to step aside in favour of another who did. The Lord wants all of us to be ready to carry His full gospel so we will not be disqualified in the day He would use us. (2Sam 18:19-32)
Young race horses need to be trained.
To carry this gospel, we need both the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of His Word. The Pharisees prided themselves on knowing God's Word, but Jesus reproved them for twisting their knowledge of God into vain traditions and producing dead religion. All their study and formulae for righteousness only brought them to where they did not recognize the Word Himself when He appeared before them in the flesh. Jesus admonished them, ‘You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.’ (John 5:39)
They declared and believed in the concept and doctrine of a Messiah, but when Jesus The True Messiah actually came, they said,
‘You’re not Him! Your ministry does not line up with our understanding of who Messiah should be. The real Messiah will come to set Israel free from Roman political domination. He would not break the law by healing on the Sabbath like you do; and He definitely would never call God His Father!'
Jesus offended them (John 5:18).
He did not fit the Pharisee box, so they rejected Him.
‘He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.’ (John 1:11-12)

When Jesus’ disciples left all to follow and serve Him, He began their training by revealing His identity. They needed to clearly know who He was in order to know who they were. Effective leaders know who they follow.
Matthew 16:13-27 recounts how Jesus brought His disciples to Caesarea Philippi, the Jordan River's source, to reveal and release this truth in their hearts and minds.
He asked them, 'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?'
And they responded by giving others’ opinions: 'John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'
Then He challenged them even more directly: 'But who do you say that I am?'
Simon Peter spoke out: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!'
Jesus commended this confession of faith as the very foundation and life of His church. It is absolutely clear: membership in the body of Christ comes through first identifying and confessing Christ, not reciting some doctrinal creed. Regarding salvation, the old saying is true: 'It’s not what you know, but who you know that counts!' Just like a river, salvation flows from the source. The gift of Salvation opens only by clearly recognizing and acknowledging The Saviour – Jesus! A Christian's personal identity is inextricably linked to who Jesus is in us and who we are in Christ.

Having clarified His identity, Jesus then proceeded to further reveal His destiny and purpose: He was going to Jerusalem to suffer, die and be raised to life again on the third day. However, this second revelation proved more difficult for the disciples to grasp. Peter once again spoke out, but this time he sternly rebuked the very One he had just moments before confessed to be God! The Greek here actually conveys the sense that he physically grabbed and forcefully shook Jesus!
'Far be it from You, Lord,' Peter declared, 'this shall not happen to You.' (Matt 16:22)
Peter and the other disciples could not understand how Jesus’ death could possibly be God’s plan. Jesus directly confronted this confused mind-set. He not only rebuked Peter, but the spirit at the heart of this opposition – Satan, the opponent and adversary of every one of God’s purposes.
Scripture clearly describes Jesus’ ministry mandate: 'For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.' (1John 3:8)
The disciples could not fathom Christ’s kingdom and how it was to be established and administered. Their worldview and kingdom mind-set were very much akin to that of the Pharisees: an earthly government with earthly means and methods. Having just confessed Jesus as Messiah, their understanding was that they would now triumphantly turn toward Jerusalem with Him to receive this kingdom, not to die.
Jesus and His Way were challenging their boxes again and this made them uncomfortable.
But God is always bigger than our box and a large part of fulfilling our purpose (ie. plundering the devil's goods) comes only through our hearts and minds being freed from reasonable unbelief and rebellion, so that we follow Christ wherever He leads, regardless of our earthly expectation. This applies especially when He leads us to 'our Jerusalems' to die.

Jesus dealt similarly with this identity/destiny issue when John the Baptist sent two of his disciples from prison asking, ‘Are you the Coming One, or do we look for another?' Jesus first answered John’s disciples by pointing out all the miraculous works He was doing, signs confirming that indeed that Coming One had Come. John had also come to a place where his expectation of who Jesus was and what he understood concerning His identity did not coincide. There were gaps in his understanding. Had he missed something? Christ answered John’s questions concerning His identity, but then revealed even more about John's.
'Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear!' (Matt 11:7-15)
Jesus not only informed His listeners about His true identity, but also John's; and then gave even further revelation about what actually constitutes the kingdom of God!

Jesus identified John the Baptist as ‘a prophet… and more than a prophet.’(v9)
John had a greater ministry than we understand; probably even greater than John himself understood at times, as evidenced by his apparent doubts about Jesus at this point. Jesus said that none ‘born of woman’ came close to being as great as John: who he was or what he did. In other words, no ordinary, natural-born person compared with him. No one born until that time, including such Old Testament heroes as Moses, David, or Elijah, was greater. John was the greatest!

Did Jesus mean that John did greater miracles? ...but not one single miracle is recorded in John’s ministry!

Did John preach better sermons? ...his words definitely hit their intended target, but what truly singled him out as the greatest and even more than a prophet?

Prophets under the Old Covenant were raised up and commissioned by God to call Israel back to His holy standard of righteousness that had been revealed at Sinai. Israel’s entire history from Sinai to their Babylonian Captivity had been a continuous cycle of rebellion, repentance and short-lived restorations. God hated this idolatry and even told Jeremiah to stop praying for them at one point! 70 years in Babylon cleansed them from their idol-worshiping once for all and after they returned to Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah, idolatry never again raised its ugly head.
God broke their idolatry box.
However, the scribes and Pharisees then led Israel astray by their religious traditions, legalistic interpretations and additions to the law. Essentially, they created a god out of their own concept of the law! They missed the law’s true purpose. They couldn’t comprehend that it was never meant to save anyone, but rather intended to convict of sin, drive them to their knees and bring them to Christ.

'The law was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made;
... confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
The law was our schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.' (Gal 3:19-24)
When John the Baptist came out of the Judean wilderness preaching, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,' (Matt 3:2) he was therefore calling Israel back into covenant relationship with their God. He confronted sin in whatever shape and form it was present, especially when it wore religious, Pharisaical garments.
John knew his call and God’s purpose for his life. At his birth, his father Zechariah had prophesied, 'he will be great in the sight of the Lord… filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb… and turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord.' (Luke 1:15-16)
Even more essentially, John knew his own identity. When priests and Levites came from Jerusalem asking, “Who are you?” he denied he was Christ, Elijah or ‘the Prophet,’ but simply quoted Isaiah 40:3:
'I am the voice on one crying in the wilderness,
Make straight the way of the Lord.' (John 1:23)
John knew both who he was and who he wasn’t.
John was the watershed marker for the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New.
He was not ‘the Prophet’ foretold by Moses (John 1:21), but John pointed to Him.
Even more, Jesus revealed that, if they could receive it, John was the Elijah prophesied to come in Malachi 3:1 and 4:5. Therefore, for those who are willing, this Scripture has indeed been fulfilled (Matt 11:14). There was definitely more to John than he himself, or Jesus’ disciples understood then, or than most believers even today understand.
John’s ministry exceeded that of any Old Covenant prophet before him. He had called Israel to return to God’s standard of righteousness and virtually the entire nation responded! Yet he saw even further. He witnessed the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descend as a dove and heard the Father’s voice mark Jesus as His Beloved Son.
John called Israel to behold Jesus Christ their Messiah and receive the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
Only the Lamb could forgive Israel’s sin once for all.
Only the Lamb could break the cycle of religious idolatry, fulfill the Old Covenant and bring in the New!
John knew who he was and so he was able to recognize Christ and proclaim what God was doing through Him. What a privilege!
No other Old Testament prophet had been given such honour to fully reveal the identity of Israel’s promised Messiah.
However, after stating the true greatness of John the Baptist’s ministry, Jesus reveals an even greater truth to believers: our identity today ‘in Christ’ and His subsequent call on our lives surpasses even what John the Baptist knew!
Oh, it just keeps on getting better and better!
‘But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.' (Matt 11:11-12)
Once the Cross came into effect, our sins were forgiven and washed away by Christ’s Blood. The Holy Spirit’s presence and power was poured out at Pentecost to confirm we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, no longer slaves or orphans. What were once merely vague, mysterious shadows is now clear revelation light.

And God is on the offensive through us! Jesus is building His Church: a passionate, zealous army that will march against the gates of hell. Those called, filled and released in the power of the Spirit dispossess the enemy, take the kingdom and possess the land. Hell’s prison gates will not prevail.
'The whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.' (Habakkuk 2:14)
John had not been able to fully comprehend this prophecy, nor did he live to see it fulfilled. However, even the least in the kingdom of heaven now has this privilege: to know Him and walk in His Spirit. A dwarf on a mountain sees further than a giant in the valley. Jesus has enthroned us with Him on Mount Zion, given us His view of the whole earth and called us to fill it with His glory. In Christ, we truly are greater than John or anything he ever imagined!

Unfortunately, many believers do not clearly grasp their identity in Christ Jesus and consequently are not released into their destiny.
We often continue to perceive God’s call and provision through Old Covenant glasses and fall short of our fullness in Christ. We fail to take hold of all that has now come into effect through Christ’s Death, Resurrection and Ascension to the throne of the universe. Too often we do not enter the full, abundant life Christ has purchased for us, but continue to live far below what is already ours, passively accepting the lies, half-truths and condemnations of the enemy and false teachers. We remain ignorant of both who we are in Christ and what His call and plan is for us!
In God’s timetable, 'The law and the prophets were until John.' (Luke 16:16) The law fulfills its purpose when it leads us to the end of ourselves where we see our total incapacity and admit we need a Saviour. We cannot save ourselves; we need Christ. The Old Testament law then becomes obsolete, and must give way to the ‘law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.’ (Rom 8:2)
We are called and empowered to ‘walk in the Spirit’ (Gal 5:16); the counterfeit religious crutches of either legalism or license are not options for believers. We do not overcome lusts of the flesh by substituting a new system of religious principles and formulae for the true, simple gospel. Having begun in the Spirit, God calls us to continue in faith, releasing the life of Christ in us! However, we are often like ‘foolish Galatians,’ who lack understanding and revert to dead forms of religious behaviour. Since Jesus announced, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand!' (Mark 1:15) the Holy Spirit has been empowering believers to believe the whole gospel, break the box, step out of the boat and walk on the waters of life, trusting God to move in and through them!

Apollos was such a man in such a boat. He was highly educated, fervent in spirit, gifted to speak powerfully, but living beneath Christ’s standard –below the spiritual poverty line. He knew only the baptism of John and therefore he needed Aquila and Priscilla to take him aside and 'explain the way of God more accurately.' (Acts 18:24-28)
Apollos had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. So he humbled himself and received scriptural instruction from the Holy Spirit through others. He went through God’s Bible school. After receiving ministry of a fuller revelation of the kingdom of God, he was able to refute even those Jews who resisted the gospel, 'showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ-Messiah, the very One the prophets had foretold, the goal of all Old Covenant prophecy.

Apostolic ministry goes beyond John’s revelation of 'baptism of repentance for remission of sins’ (Luke 3:3). John himself prophesied that the Messiah would bring a subsequent baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16). The saying,‘Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven’ might make a catchy bumper sticker, but it is bad theology. This statement is only a first part of a whole truth and by itself incomplete. There is more than a ticket to heaven in Jesus! Sins are forgiven and reckoned buried through baptism in Christ, but the power of the Holy Spirit also releases Christ’s very life in and through us. Christ Himself lives through us! And His divine fire burns through us to pull down opposing gates of hell and set even more captives free!

Paul later met another group of 12 disciples in Ephesus who knew only the baptism of John and had not ‘so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.’ (Acts 19:1-10) He preached the whole gospel to them. They believed, received and were not only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus but, when Paul laid his hands on them, they all spoke in tongues and prophesied.

What did they prophesy? Rev 17:19 says 'the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.' I believe they prophesied about Jesus, the New Covenant He fulfilled, and the kingdom of God that He established as a present reality, not just a future promise. They became witnesses to the Holy Spirit’s outpouring in and through them. I am sure they no longer questioned whether the Holy Spirit existed. He had filled them and they overflowed with His power!

Paul was greatly encouraged and returned to the synagogue in Ephesus where he
‘spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.’ (Acts 19:8)
But when some of the Jews, unable to make the transition from the Old Covenant to the New, did not believe but hardened their hearts, Paul moved his Training Centre into Tyrannus’ house. This became the base for an equipping and releasing ministry that spread the gospel throughout the entire Roman province of Asia in the next two years!
Our prayer is that God will raise up such Training Centres throughout our land: equipping and sending bases, truly apostolic centres to the nations, not just forms with the fashionable 'apostolic' buzzword attached. As with Jesus and His 12, our heart’s desire is to affirm disciples in their identity and release them to their destiny in Christ. Because we need the full function of the five-fold ministry to bring the church to maturity, we must raise up and release the equipping ministries of the apostle, evangelist, pastor, prophet and teacher:
Evangelists like Philip who will be so led by the Spirit they will leave their multitudes to minister to whomever God directs.
Prophets like Stephen who will preach the good news with a full anointing even if it cuts their hearers to the heart and costs them their lives.
Teachers like Aquila and Priscilla who will ‘explain the way of God more accurately’.
Pastors who will have a heart to shepherd God's flock and not flee like hirelings.
Apostles who will not just call themselves so, but will, like Paul, disciple both individuals and entire churches to know and follow the Lord's leading.
Like Apollos and the Ephesus 12, we need to welcome and embrace each one and take to heart all that Jesus is and has for His Church.
Let us yield to the Holy Spirit as He brings more of His New Covenant truth to light and be ‘established in the present truth.’ (2Pet 1:12)

Church history teaches that many who have been part of previous waves of revival unfortunately resist God’s next waves and do not move with Him from glory to glory. We can only move into the next glory when we have left the last one behind. God has worked in the past and undoubtedly will move again. We must be led by His Presence, rather than comfort-seeking, people-pleasing pressures.
Christ has given us His Word + Spirit, truth + grace, faith + love, as well as charisma + character in right balance. He calls us to mount up with these wings like eagles – the wings of His Word + Spirit. They always agree with and witness to one another. The Holy Spirit gives life to the Word’s truth and the Word gives substance to the Spirit’s power.
Flying on only one wing is not an option! We need both wings in balance. Only when we fly with both wings will we begin to see God's kingdom come more fully here... on earth as it is in heaven.
He is so much more than we can fully comprehend and just when we might think we have Him figured out, He breaks out of 'the box' again, moves on ahead and looks for us to follow. His sheep know His voice and follow The Lamb wherever He leads.
The Father freely reveals our identity to release us into our destiny in Christ.
Are you ready to step out of your boat and walk on the waters?
Will you stick with your 'box' (come on, admit it: your old ways are leaking and ready to sink!) or break out and live the Jesus adventure?

Crisis of Character

2010-03-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the most exciting things happen at the most unexpected times. You just have to be ready!
Here's our latest example... a few weeks ago, my wife and I were driving into Vancouver the day after the Olympics had begun. We had not planned on being there or doing this. Transportation advisories had discouraged people from driving their cars into the city: traffic restrictions, blocked-off routes, anticipated delays, the sheer volume of vehicles. All these factors had successfully persuaded most drivers to park their cars and instead take the SkyTrain into the city. But we had got a call that morning from friends who were arriving unexpectedly that same day at Vancouver airport and needed a ride to Abbotsford, so we thought: while we're already going into the city, why not take an hour-long rabbit-trail downtown in our little grey Honda Civic that wouldn't take up much space and see what was happening?
So there we were... naively driving down the freeway, talking about things: how I was feeling that the last while had seemed quite uneventful in our lives, not too much happening day-by-day, not many opportunities for ministry, things pretty well predictably the same each day, ho-hum, not very much excitement at all until...

I pulled off at the 1st Avenue Exit and all of a sudden, large black SUVs came out of nowhere, blocked off our right side, and simultaneously on our left, two others effectively did the same. Just like that, we were boxed in! The car immediately in front of us stopped dead and so did we! I didn't have time to think. Right at that same moment, an ear-shattering 'Boom!' shook our car. We both sat stunned. I looked more closely to the right, but the three SUVs' windows were tinted so I couldn't see from the outside in; you know, the kind that either the FBI or Mafia drive. I was hoping they weren't the latter.
But before I could further evaluate the situation, a squad of full-body-armoured figures surrounded us: helmets, fatigues, even machine guns held high, aimed and ready to fire. Ten, twelve, maybe. I didn't have time to make an exact count. The Boom! had commanded all my attention.
Then four doors opened in the car right in front of us and four hooded individuals exited from each door, two on each side, reversed their direction, and started walking towards our car! I couldn't believe what I was seeing: had we somehow happened on: a terrorist assault? one of the billion-dollar-Olympic security practise sessions? El-Qaeda's Olympic team entry? a foreign invasion? a scene out of Terminator VII?
I even wondered, "Had I been speeding and this was an Olympic-sized speed trap?" Somewhat of an over-the-top reaction, eh? Perhaps I was really still asleep at home in my bed and this was only a wild dream?
But no...those guys in body armour with machine guns didn't go away. They were very real. I just hoped they were the 'good guys' on 'our' side.
But these 4 in the hoodies heading towards us were really unnerving! And most unsettling was the one from the rear driver's side: dark, unshaven, his raised hoodie concealing most of his face made him look even more mysterious and sinister. My apprehension peaked when I noticed his right hand fumbling some object from his pocket as he continued walking toward us; he was only a few steps away and the object clearly was... a handgun! Thoughts raced through my mind, "What if these 4 hoodies and the 10 machine guns are on opposite sides and decide to shoot out their disagreement right here now with us in the middle?'
He took another step towards us.
I cried out to Erica, "Get down!" In the same motion, I reached clumsily for the door lock to ensure this guy and his gun would not be able to gain access to our car. Really! How ridiculous! As if one little door lock was going to protect us against him and his gun: he could have easily shot out our window if he'd wanted!
He was now right at my window. I tried to hide myself by retracting my body under the steering wheel. As if!
But then... he kept walking right on by and disappeared behind our view. I heaved a sigh of inner relief! We were still alive! But Erica's curiosity kept getting the better of her and she lifted her head above the dashboard to see what was going on. "Erica, Get down!" I shouted, as quietly as possible, and that's when we spontaneously invented this peculiar game of bobble-head: everytime she poked her head above the dash, I would put my hand on her head and push her down.
Then the scene changed. One of the full-armoured machine-gun toters on our passenger side produced a loud-hailer megaphone and boomed out, "You... in the front seat!"
We both wondered, "Is that 'You' us?"
"Drop everything. Put your hands up... in the air... slowly... open the door. Get out of the car!"
I dropped everything just in case he really did mean us. You don't want to be wrong in a situation like that. You could be dead wrong. However, I couldn't see very clearly from my hiding-place beneath the dashboard, so I wasn't exactly sure. I waited, and with no subsequent reaction from the guys with the guns, I inched my head up a little, over the dashboard, just enough so my eyes could discern whether or not we were indeed their object of attention. However, their focus seemed fully directed two cars ahead of us, on the one in front of the 4 hoodies'. I could see more clearly now: the guns were not pointing at us, but straight ahead at that second car. More relief!
It's amazing how you really don't have time to think about what you will do at a time like this.
You either respond or react. That decision has been made a long time before.
But I still had no assurance that the whole place wasn't going to explode in a hail of gunfire at any moment!
I saw movement in the suspect vehicle and slowly, a figure emerged from the back passenger side.
"First: put your hands over your head. Next: turn around. Then: start walking back towards us!"
The figure turned and became more identifiable: a man, medium height, disheveled, thin... even gaunt, long greying hair, a rather 'disconnected' look to his face. But one word immediately resonated in my mind: ugly. Not a merely physical ugly, but something beyond that: a spiritual ugly... evil personified. His greasy, dirty hair straggling to his shoulders was in turn strangled by an artwork of leaping, menacing, flaming neck tattoos. He started moving towards the megaphone and our car. It felt like the devil himself was approaching. Was he going to submit or erupt?
Henry, get down!
But my curiosity got the better of me and my eyes were soon peering over the dash again, watching I knew not what unfold around us.
'Ugly' soon stood right in front of our car and was quickly surrounded by the machine-gunners. The unshaven hoodie dude moved in, grabbed 'Ugly's' arms, and quickly handcuffed them behind his back. That was assuring: it was looking more like both the machine-gun + hoodie dudes were indeed on the same side and I was growing more hopeful that their side also was our side!
My breathing steadied a bit more. My confidence and eyes both rose a little higher, over the dashboard.
"OK!" the megaphone bellowed. "You, driver! Same thing: drop everything, raise your hands, open the door, slowly exit your vehicle!"
By this time, both Erica and I were transfixed, drinking in the amazing scene transpiring around us.
Life was suddenly very exciting... too exciting, really!
We watched and this time a woman emerged, turned and walked straight towards us. As she approached our car, she started protesting, "What's going on here? We're just out for a drive! We haven't done anything! What's the idea? How can this be happening? We haven't done anything!"
You know how you can sometmes just tell automatically when someone isn't telling the truth? Well, this was clearly one of those times. Every word she protested just mounted more evidence against her. Another of the hoodies, this time a woman, grabbed her arms and, as with 'Ugly', quickly handcuffed 'The Lady doth Protest too Much methinks'.
Then the megaphoner played out the same procedure with a third man in the backseat. However, when this one turned and made his way toward us, he somehow didn't do everything as asked. 3 or 4 of the body-armoured machine-gunners immediately surrounded him, and not only slapped handcuffs on him, but took the extra precaution and threw him down to the ground right in front of our car! I raised my head higher above the dash to see his head facedown on the pavement right under our hood. My eyes joined the focused surveillance of 4 loaded machine-guns. He was not going anywhere!
There were no more suspects in the vehicle. The unshaven hoodie dude sidled over to my window, gave me a curious grin and I read his lips through the glass, "Are you all right?"
I don't know why, but I didn't really hear him. I somehow felt I first needed to see his lips mouth those words, rather than just hear words without knowing their source. I wanted proof these were in fact his words. I needed to connect those words with that man. I finally felt enough assurance he was indeed on 'our side', so I gingerly rolled my window part ways down and asked incoherently,
"So... are we going to be on the 6 o'clock News?"
"Don't think so," he replied. "You've had enough excitement for one day, haven't you? You should be on your way home in a few minutes."
In a short time, the machine-gunners had corralled the 3 detainees off to one side. Erica and I both sat up in our seats and shared a mutual hug of relief. Within a few minutes, what had appeared to be an alarming terrorist attack had turned rather to be a routine police drug-dealer takedown. Arms that had minutes ago threatened machine-gunfire now waved us through the maze of black SUVs.
The 3 suspects sat to the side on a grassy knoll, hoods pulled over their heads. The Lady was no longer protesting. 'Ugly' was still ugly, even with his new hoodie. 'Face-in-the-ground' was turned right side up.
The crisis had come and gone. We resumed our drive downtown, somewhat still in shock and awe, wondering what all indeed had taken place in this, our Olympic experience! And we hadn't even entered the city yet!
But one major change had already happened in me: I learned to be content at home: the seemingly unexciting, all-too-predictable, everyday, not-too-much-is-happening... securing... times on this road of life.
You just can't ever tell what might happen at the next exit!

Crisis of Character - 2

2010-03-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

You are who you are. Not just who you think you are or try to present yourself to be to others. The first is reality; all others are mere masks.
And there is nothing like a crisis to strip away those masks and let the truth of who you really are either be exposed to your shame or revealed to His glory.
When I previously wrote in Crisis of Character about our episode with the Olympic SWAT team, I recounted my own spontaneous response to the rapid course of events. There was no time for logical, formulated response: immediate reactions simply flowed from who I am; it was me, for better or worse. In retrospect, I find it hilarious how I tried to evade the approaching gun-toting hoodie by ducking under our steering wheel and locking the door. I mean, he'd already seen us and had the guy been intent on doing us harm, our burrowing down would surely not have saved us. He could have easily shot out the window. But here I was, frantically trying to lock the door!
However, my biggest surprise was our all-too-evident innate and insatiable curiosity to try and see what was happening! Encircled by a task force of a dozen highly-armed gunmen, potentially in the middle of a terrorist shoot-out, and still Erica & I could not resist sticking our noses up above the dashboard to try and figure out what was all going on around us! Even with a highly suspect gunman coming at us, this primary need to know seemed to overrule any possible danger and nothing could keep us crouched down, out of sight. We wanted to see, and our sense of adventure overcame the possible peril.
So we are who we are, even if that means discovering certain traits and qualities about our selves we would rather not own too closely. That's still who we are and before we can change, we need to recognize and acknowledge them.
Jesus confidently knew and consistently demonstrated who He was. Even as man, He was one with The Great 'I AM' and not only clearly proclaimed, 'I AM The Way, The Truth and The Life,' but acted in accordance. He not only stated He and The Father are One, but demonstrated this with all His life. Scripture not only teaches truth about Christ, but also evidences that truth in who Christ was and is. Jesus is The Word of God. The Word made flesh. The Bible's internal evidence elucidates a Man not at all caught up with Himself, but the express image and embodiment of The Father's selfless Love. Scripture does not only talk about love, nor just say Jesus is God's love; it reveals Him to be The Father's Love in word and deed, thought and action.
God is Love. Love in its essence does not look to itself, but to the welfare of others.
Jesus is Love. These are not merely words: hypocritcal double-talk or double-mindedness. He does not only say this; Jesus Himself is the revelation of what He says and His actions clearly and consistently demonstrate this. No duplicity, just simplicity. The Man and His Message are one!
One of the most profoundly beautiful illustrations of this simple, selfless love comes in Jesus' arrest in Gethsemane. This episode is both a richly vivid drama and a poignant black-and-white snapshot of this truth in action. The lines in the battle between Darkness and Light are clear here; evil and good stand in stark contrast. There is no mixture, no grey area, no middle ground. Jesus came into the garden with his disciples to pray; Judas came with troops to prey upon Him. This is the crisis point of Jesus' life and ministry. He had said this is why He came into the world, and here we see His Person fully embrace and fulfill His Purpose. Identity Releases Destiiny in this moving portrait, especially in John's gospel.
John 18:4 recounts that in the face of this menacing attack: perhaps 100 or even more soldiers against 1 unarmed Man,
'Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward.'
Any ordinary man in such a situation would, I believe, be concerned with his own self-preservation and, desiring to protect his own life, turn and run in the opposite direction from such a mob. I would probably seek out any possible escape route or refuge: perhaps a tree, a bush, even under a steering wheel! any hiding place that would afford some shelter from the ensuing trial. But there is no indication of flight here at all. Troops, lanterns, torches, weapons... none of these caused Jesus to flinch from His purpose. He stood His ground.
Knowing 'all things that are about to come upon us' would only be more incentive for us mere mortals to make our escape ahead of time. But Jesus knew the full details of what was awaiting Him beforehand and still He did not run. Rather, He faced the crisis, confronted the confronters and embraced His Cross.
He asked them who they were seeking. They answered, 'Jesus of Nazareth'. He did not to try to evade recognition or hide amongst His group of disciples to avoid capture. His disciples were the opposite of Spartacus' who all proclaimed his name as their own to conceal their leader's identity in their midst. No: these disciples rather forsook Him and fled for their own lives while one of His own, Judas, had already singled him out with a kiss.
When Jesus replied, 'I AM HE', the soldiers did not advance to arrest Him. Quite the opposite: John says they drew back and fell to the ground! An amazing reversal of the naturally to-be-expected roles! Were Jesus only a mere man facing such a crisis: an entire detachment threatening, his own disciples sleeping, confused and even betraying Him, He could not have stood. In this scene with all against Him, you'd think Jesus would be the one falling back, trying to avoid capture, but NO! He's the one advancing towards them! and they're the ones falling back!
Then, as they tried to pick themselves up from the ground, He again answered them, 'I AM the one; so if you seek me, then let these others go their way.'
Not only does He make no attempt here to rally his sleeping troops, but Jesus does all He can to clarify their non-involvement and secure their release. Furthermore, He mounts no self-defense at all. Most would cry out like the woman driver in my story, 'What's going on here? We haven't done anything wrong! It's not fair! We were just here for a snooze in the park!'
Quite clearly, Jesus had no intention of defending Himself: He had a much bigger view in mind. He knew what this drama was all about. He had come to die and nothing was going to deter this. There was no self here to protect; never had been and never will be. He is God and has nothing to prove. His life speaks. The time had come. As a lamb led to the slaughter, He was dumb to His shearers. He did not protest, but rather submitted to the process. He gave His life and enacted The New Covenant in His Blood.
Jesus went forward and so must we. His Church can neither continue sleeping nor falling back. We must press forward. Weighing possible detriment to our own reputations if we stand and follow only exposes us as cowardly hypocrites. Nor can we react as Peter; such violence betrays the very spirit of the One we say we follow. He is I AM WHO I AM and so we must allow Him to live WHO HE IS in and through us. His purity, integrity and humility are essential commodities in even contemporary North American Christian life. They are neither fashionable, expendable nor negotiable; they are His ever necessary costly evidences of His Presence.
Jesus initiated and established His New Covenant: the Kingdom of God is now unfolding in the drama of human history. His Passion was no mere play, but Act I of an entirely new revolutionary reality. His followers are not mere actors called to mouth His lines on life's stage, but to live out His Word as led by His Spirit through who we are in Him and He is us. Agents of revelation. Ambassadors of decisive change, bringing on earth as it is in heaven. He went forward, His Kingdom continues to move forward and so must we. Let us pull down strongholds, move mountains and crash gates of hell -- for His glory!

More than Gold

2010-02-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

This week my family buried our Mom. She was a rich 94 years old. Our Dad passed away almost 8 years ago and Mom kept going and going, more energy than the Everyready Bunny. She was always there. She had always been there. And I guess we assumed she always would be.
We were wrong and now she is gone.
However, we don't sorrow as others who have no hope. We will meet again!
God did amazing things in my Mom & Dad's life, especially during their last 20 years together. I would like to take this opportunity to honour both them and the Lord through sharing some of these with you. I was privileged to be able to read both their eulogies at their respective funerals, so essentially what follows are those transcripts with a few relevant changes.

The following exerpts are primarily taken from my Mom's (Agnes/Neta/Aganetha Schmidt nee Enns) personal Journal written in the Menno Home, Abbotsford, B.C. during summer 2009, compiled by her granddaughter, Jackie Miller. I felt to keep it as much as possible in her own words; it is much more personally effective. However, at times we switch from the 1st to 3rd person. You'll be able to make the transition.

I was born in Furstenwerder, a village in the Molotschna Colony of South Russia on July 17, 1915. I was the 4th of 7 children born to Jacob & Helena Enns: Helen the eldest, then Peter, Jake, Nick & Tina. Another sister, Katerina, died when she was only a baby. Our village was very small so we would walk to Rukenau, a nearby town. It had stores. I had pneumonia when I was about 6 or 7 and they wrapped me in a heavy blanket and took me to a doctor there by horse and buggy. We farmed very fertile land: grew watermelons & grain; raised horses, cows, pigs and sheep. Our house and barn were all in one building and one night we came home and the sheep were gone. I think we got them back!
WWI was happening then. I remember my Uncle Peter had a pocket watch and gave it to my brother, named Peter after him, when he went off to war. He didn’t come back. He knew he wasn’t coming back. In those days it meant so much to name a child after the uncle – that is why so many had the same name. I was named after my dad's mother, Aganetha (Dueck). Cannons on top of the hills surrounding our village shot down on us below – I remember sitting in the cellar/basement of our house and being scared.
The German army traveled through our village: the war was finally over, they were going home with their cannons and all the kids went out to watch them. One time they shot our neighbor dead right there on the street and everyone ran over to see what happened. (Grandma saw him lying there; she was probably only 3 or 4 years old and this must have greatly affected her. She didn't talk very much about her years in Russia, but when she did, she mentioned this incident.)
My Grandparents on mother’s side were wealthy – nice house and fruit orchard – turkeys walking around. I would go into their garden and fill my apron with fruit until I could hardly carry it back to the house. They stayed in Russia when we moved to Canada. Never saw them again.
My Mother did a lot of knitting and sewing. She was always busy. She got old clothes from the army and made new clothes for us kids out of them. I was very proud of the dress she made for me. My father sheared sheep and Mother cleaned the wool and got it ready for spinning – her spinning wheel was always going early. She knitted a dress for herself, brought it to Canada and wore it while working in the sugar beets. But it rained, her dress got wet and then it weighed her down so much she could not walk – it got all stretched out. She made shirts for the men and pants too. She was a hard worker.
My family came to Canada 1925. We took a big cedar chest, really heavy, filled mostly with clothes, but with a secret compartment in the bottom where we hid some money. We traveled by a small ship from Holland and then a bigger one from England to St. John. I liked it best on the deck of the ship. Everyone else was sick on the deck. We ate roasted buns (roeschte zweiback) on the ship – ones Mother had made.
We were then told to go to Alberta by the Canadian government & CPR(Canadian Pacific Railway). We bought a farm without a down payment: 100 acres of sugar beets – but we sold it after a year. Then the government gave each family 80 acres. My family built a house in Stirling on the barren land and planted sugar beets there too.
I turned 10 years old shortly after we arrived here in Canada. My uncle came and gave me peppermint candies for my birthday. (That's the only birthday she remembers celebrating.)
Leaving all my friends in Russia was hard – then to make new friends: that was harder. We didn’t know English when we arrived – we had special lessons in school. We couldn’t talk proper English even when I was 16 or 17 – we didn’t stay in school long enough to learn anything. I don’t remember making plans for the future or dreaming of what I wanted to be when I grew up!
I remember going to a Christmas concert and I wanted to take all the decorations home. I had never seen something like that before. We didn’t go shopping, we ordered from the Eaton's catalogue – all our shoes and everything. They would send it to us in the mail; we could do it all from home.
I went to school in nearby Readymade. All the different ages were together – up to 8 grades in a room. I only went to school for 3 years because our family needed us to work. We all worked hard in the sugar beets, raised grain, chickens, gardens of vegetables and fruit: a busy life.
(She doesn’t remember getting any money for this– she thinks that all the money she would have made working went into the family fund.)
I was a champion beet-thinner – they even took pictures of me.
(She was told they made these into films and showed them on the boats that were bringing people over to Canada to tell them about working in the sugar beets.)
We moved too many times: from Stirling to Coaldale. We didn’t have electricity, or hot water or even running water.
My sister Tina died in February 1931. Her horse fell over backwards on her when she was 11. She had all her Valentines ready for school, but wasn't able to give them to her friends. (Grandma remembers she had a swing on a tree and it had to be taken down to put tents up for Tina's funeral.)
As a teenager she related best with her Mom. They were close, but.. Mom wasn’t well. She worked really hard. Mother used to raise cucumbers: she picked and pickled dills in wooden barrels. Then we put them on a wagon pulled by 4 horses and took them to the train station. (here's the source of our family favourite dill pickles recipe we've all eaten and loved! Store-boughts don't even come close!) We worked in the fields and Mom was at home working in the cucumbers. It was too hard work for Mother; she had an enlarged heart. It was hard for her to breathe; her lips and cheeks were so dark blue. Hard to believe how hard she worked for being so sick. I loved our mother. She died in 1938 at the young age of 49. She was too young to die; we missed her very much.
I had no other boyfriends before Grandpa: too busy working. On one of our first dates, he took me out to a Chinese place for dinner and the pie was mouldy. We went to the fair once: he had a friend who was showing cattle in Lethbridge – but I didn’t like that because he asked me to go there and then he worked with the cows.
I went on a train to BC by myself at about 17 to visit cousins. This was a special time; maybe I was gone for about a week.
Jake and I were married in Coaldale on June 27, 1935. My parents got married young too – so they were OK with me getting married at 19. It was hard starting up. I was not well. We lived up on the dry land north of Readymade.
In June 1936, Eric was born. But there was no crop; it was a hard start. We had to do some changing; my health was not very good and Jake had trouble with his back.
Ernie was born in June 1937; very hard wind, dirt blowing, could not see very far.
Lucy was born in 1942. Jake went and checked things out in BC and wanted to move there – I had a little baby and I was busy. I was OK with moving to BC. You always have to look ahead, not back at the past, and try to do better. In late October/early November, we moved to Abbotsford by train.
They bought a chicken farm on King Road; had cows also. At first no electricity – just gas lanterns; the house was on stilts. They had quite a strong earthquake while there – shook the whole house. Grandma ran the farm: they collected eggs and then the boys packed them in boxes and nailed them shut when full. This was a prosperous business for them and they were able to pay the farm off. Tragedy there also though– the barn burnt down and they had to turn the cows loose and give some away. Then Dad began bulldozing in 1946 while Mom still worked on the chicken farm.

The family then moved to Aldergrove in 1946 or '47. Grandpa’s idea, Grandma not impressed. Traded chicken farm for 60 acres on North Jackman, north of Aldergrove. Had 3 floors of chickens, raspberries and cows also. They also raised baby chickens. Grandma had to learn to do things she had never done before. It was hard to keep the chicks warm in the winter when the NE wind blew for 1 week straight! Lived here also during the 1948 flood. Then Henry was born.
They traded the 60 acres for a house + 11 acres on Peardonville Rd in Abbotsford in 1949. In the early '50s they rented their farm out for a year and moved up to 100 Mile House because Dad had a contract for bulldozing – stayed at the Golden West Lodge near 93 Mile House. It snowed so much that year that the cow barn collapsed. They had about 1000 chicken (layers) in another 3-storey barn. That chicken barn later collapsed as well!
Eric, Lucy, and Ernie all got married within 11 months so the house was suddenly empty. Grandma worked at Lilydale (again with chickens) for 7 months. Grandpa was away a lot bulldozing because there was no work locally for him.
We were at this farm the longest of any – well into the '60s. Grandma's Dad built a house next door and Mom & Dad moved there when he went into the Menno Home. The day after they moved in, the basement flooded with all their stuff in it – the drains didn’t work. They later built and moved into a new house - their first - on Lilac Street in 1970. During this time, they traveled quite often: across Canada, to the southern States & Mexico in their trailer; even flew off to Hawaii and Europe. In 1989 they moved into a new condominium on Gladwin by Mill Lake.
In 1998 Dad's health wasn't good; Mom tried her best to take care of him herself, but finally couldn't do it anymore and Dad moved into the Tabor Home and then Menno Hospital. They sold their condo and Mom moved into the Menno Home. During the next 4 years, Mom never missed a visit with Dad; sometimes even 2 or 3 times a day she would drive her 'electric chair' across the parking lot to make sure Dad had company and got his meals right. Dad passed away on Oct 17, 2002. They had been married 67 years together.
Mom made Menno Home her home for the last 10 years. She always loved flowers and gardening. She could nurse any dead plant back to life, so she made it her job to keep the planters and hanging baskets around the Home well-watered.
Then Mom took up knitting....she made blankets, touques, and dishcloths....and more dishcloths!
She didn't believe in doing nothing. Her mind remained clear for all her 94 years. She could remember details about friends and their families from years ago: names, dates, places, even the colour of one of her nurses' grad dress who had graduated with me in 1966!

Grandma responsed to a questionnaire as follows:
3 things I was good at: looking after children, cooking & sewing
The most important bit of information you want to pass on to your children: Have children
What is your secret to happiness and living a good life?
It wasn’t about what we had – health is most important; I like to be around lots of people.
What are the most important life lessons you have learned?
Losing a husband is a hard lesson – when sickness comes in, you don’t know what to do.
What would you like to see future generations accomplish? Health is most important
What would you like to be remembered for?
I had to have a lot of responsibility for grandchildren and great grandchildren.
What are the best ways to handle crisis times in life? What have you done?
Keep busy – it keeps your mind on what you are doing.

Mom was a hard worker and as you can tell from her story, her life was not easy. 'It was hard,' is a phrase that turns up many times in her story. Our family was culturally Mennonite, but you don't get to heaven by eating borscht and speaking Plat Deutsch (Low German). Alcohol had brought a lot of hurt and pain into our broken life-picture and Mom had held our family together and kept us going as best she could. She was a giver and gave her life for our family. Finally, when Dad was born again in 1980, things began to turn around. But Mom found it hard to trust what Dad said had really happened. She needed to see this change with her own eyes, so she determined to watch him closely and find out if he was truly on the level. He was not going to get off so easily by just saying he was now a Christian and everything was fine: he'd been forgiven by God. Mom was going to make sure this was real before she trusted God enough to make any kind of similar commitment. True enough, Dad became the spiritual leader in our family: he would pray at family gatherings, buy Mom flowers and cards; things he'd never done before he now did, with gentleness and without any coaxing!
She watched him for 5 years until it finally came to a head. Mom came to the place where she recognized that all her hard work could not accomplish what she spirtually needed and God wanted: it could only be received as God's gift. Salvation was one work she could not attain by hard work; she was now ready to receive God's work: to believe on the One whom He had sent, His Son Jesus. She was able to forgive Dad when she realized God had forgiven her through Jesus and the gospel's Good News. It was by God's gift; not Mom's work. She was finally convinced, phoned their church pastor to come for a visit: Mom made things right with God and received Jesus as her Saviour. John 3:16 became real to her. During those 5 years, I had asked Dad if he wanted to be water baptized, but he said he would wait until Mom was ready. After the pastor's visit, it was only a short while and they inivited our entire family to see them publicly baptized, bearing witness to their faith and new life in Jesus together. What an awesome testimony that was!

A few weeks ago, Mom finished a blanket and touque for some of her great-grandkids. She told a friend she was now finished; she had completed what she was supposed to do here. The weather had warmed, so Mom went out in the courtyard to enjoy the sun. She caught a chill, developed a chest infection and died within the week. Other than not being able to walk and other ailments with age, she was very healthy. She never really grew old in her spirit. Sometimes she even commented about all the 'old people' that lived here like she wasn't one of them. When she went to be with Jesus, it happened very suddenly: she died within a few hours after the hospital called us to come and say goodbye. We are so very thankful she did not suffer very long.
We want to thank the staff of Menno Home West 2 for their care and kindness throughout her 10-year stay here. She was happy and content here. She always spoke highly of the staff; she especially appreciated Marty's organizing those many activities. From her stash of potato chip bags, we figure she was the big winner at Bingo. Even in her little room, she always had a supply of food on hand (Smarties for the grandkids); she was prepared for the worst possible famine and made sure none of her family would ever be hungry. I think that carried over from living through the Great Depression of the '30s.
Mom was 94 when she died on February 16.
Unlike her sister Tina, she got to deliver her Valentines to so many of us for so many years.
She outlived all of her brothers and sisters.
The day after she died, our family was cleaning out her room, going through her things. From previous moves from house to condo to one room at Menno Home, Mom had winnowed out the chaff of things pretty well to a bare minimum. We didn't have to dig through much to find wheat.
One thing was totally unexpected: a birthday card I had given her 34 years ago, shortly after I had become a Christian. I had written her a poem inside and used the theme of the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics to describe how she had out-medalled the athletes. Just that day after her death I'd even been thinking along this same theme, but now in light of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. I was pleasantly shocked by how its words bore even prophetic relevance now! Here it is:

Today they begin the Olympics
Back east in Montreal,
But run or jump, they'll never beat
The World's Greatest Mom of all!

'Cause you've outrun, outjumped 'em,
And brought us into this race too.
May you rest in your blessings – so great in abundance:
More than gold God has given in you!

Agnes, Neta, Aganetha, Grandma, Great-Grandma... Mom
will be lovingly remembered by her 4 children & their spouses:
Eric & Sandra, Ernie & Carol, Lucy & Dave, Henry & Erica;
also 9 grandchildren + 11 great-grandchildren.
As she said, her priority was to look after her children and she did that with all her heart. She has left her family and many friends a rich inheritance.

More than a Holiday

2009-12-24T13:40:00.000-08:00

The miracle of Christmas is much more than celebrating another calendar holiday or searching for a reasonable hope that indeed something brighter exists during these shortest, darkest days of the year. When we learn to 'read the white between the lines', often a wealth of light and revelation in colour appears in what had been otherwise merely a murky mystery in black.
I recently watched The Nativity Story, one of the latest movies about the birth of Jesus, and came away impressed, not only by how the movie stayed true to Scripture in its message, but actually discovered new territory for me.
I definitely appreciated Joseph in a whole new light. Largely unheralded in the Bible narrative, here the storytellers bring his dilemma into believable reality. His purity of heart and character stand out all the more when he discovers his fiancee, Mary, not only very pregnant, but affirming that somehow God is to blame. Translate that into our contemporary setting and I'm certain few of us would find that scenario very easy to believe. No wonder God intervened with angels and dreams to reveal to Joseph the truth of what was really happening. God had to not only supernaturally communicate that He was doing something outside of Joseph's 'box', but also that he, Joseph, was somehow crucially and intimately involved in this project's ultimate success.
Joseph's faith accepts the dreams he sees to be truer than the offenses he feels.
He would have been legally right to have Mary stoned or 'put away' at best, but God worked this potentially destructive situation for His righteousness and justice. He found His willing vessel in Joseph. The Bible story speaks volumes to our hearts if we will take time to meditate and drink in more than our minds can grasp in surface readings. A man's depth lies not only in what is written about him, but often in what isn't. Joseph was such a man.

I was also impressed by how the nativity story presents more than a dramatic birth and survival. Heaven and earth are filled with drama, throngs of angels trumpet fulfilled prophecies, the magi follow a miraculous star, a wicked Herod destroys Bethlehem's infants. And all of these are mere backdrops to the 'main event', a birth to transcend all births.
I was stirred to review familiar events in new light and struck by how the story integrates two 'impossibles' to yield truly 'conceivables'.
Both Elizabeth and Mary were naturally unable to conceive children.
Elizabeth was too old. The Bible doesn't say she was barren, but childbearing was not in her picture.
Mary, on the other hand, was young, but not married and had never known a man.
Childbearing was physically impossible for both of them. John the Baptist and Jesus were not naturally born.
Their births had to be supernatural. For Elizabeth, a child seemed too late in life; for Mary, too soon.
For one, hope was lost; for the other, premature.

But just when everything seemed completely impossible, the God of the impossible supernaturally intervened in the hopeless history of mankind to bring His solution, His Saviour, His Son.

God is painting so many pictures together here on one canvas! The human mind boggles and must bow in awe to His artistry, wisdom and beauty. Man alone could never have woven so many intricate 'hopes and fears of all the years' together into such a simple, yet magnificent tapestry of 'peace on earth, goodwill to men'.
The Christmas story speaks to our hearts across the centuries: empty wombs of unfilled dreams and premature longing are fulfilled in this Christ of Christmas. Jesus was born 'in the fullness of time'. Just the right time then, and again to present-day Bethlehems, the Prince of Peace comes. When The Eternal God of the Now speaks, faith rises, life comes forth and nations bend their knees. Death, fear and unbelief can only fall back into their shadows and graves, agog at what God has done and is presently doing in hearts that open to His King.

Merry Christmas! and may the life of Jesus be birthed afresh through each of you throughout this New Year!

A HOLY NATION

2009-11-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

A friend asked: "Does God still judge nations?" I thought, "That's a good question!" so here are some thoughts.

I do not believe God judges nations now in the same manner as before The Cross.
The Cross revealed The Great Commandment and released The Great Commission!
The Lord of the Harvest is raising up and sending forth sons and daughters to labour in the harvest field, to make disciples of all nations, not judge them.
Furthermore, He's not making just individual disciples, but discipling whole nations, transforming entire people groups (ethnos). The gospel calls whole nations to know Him as Saviour!
Unfortunately there is still a tendency for some 'believers' to hold on to Old Testament types while not realizing New Testament fulfillment in Christ. Some continue viewing the kingdom of God through political, nationalistic glasses, whereas God has given us new gospel-glasses, or...SONglasses!!! to view things as He sees them through Christ!
'For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.' (2Cor 1:20)
The old natural mindset diminishes the full work of His Cross and obscures the present authority of His Throne in ruling and reigning NOW! But SONglasses magnify Christ and His Work! Put them on and you will see Jesus revealed everywhere... in the Scriptures: Old and New, in your circumstances, in your friends, even in your enemies! With His perspective on life, your enemies can even become your friends!
Look at Matt 25:31-46 where the Son of Man separates the nations one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats: sheep on the right + goats on the left. I have heard some preach this means there are 'goat nations' + 'sheep nations'
ie. unbelieving/evil/damned/condemned-to-hell people groups vs. so-called 'Christian nations'. However, I believe the divisions are really within the nations themselves, ie. individual sheep + goats from every nation are separated either to or from Christ. This does not refer to the entire population of a natural nation: ie. Canada is a 'sheep-Christian nation' so its citizens are saved/blessed, while Russia is a doomed 'goat nation'. In other words, some are not idolized while others are demonized! Such vision is far from the truth! It smacks of the remnants of Medieval 'Christendom' thinking. Such interpretations are gross misinterpretations and misrepresentations of God's heart, nothing more than continuations of a 'nationalistic, legalistic Old Covenant' stereotype/mindset that misses the 'kingdom New Covenant' heart of what Christ's work on the Cross accomplished.
Isa 2:2 prophesied 'all nations shall flow to the mountain of the Lord's house'
and Rev 21:24 shows its fulfillment in 'the nations (of those whose who are saved --some translations omit this phrase?) shall walk in its light'....
v26 'they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.'

Typically, natural Israel was called to showcase God's kingdom to the Gentiles and all the world.
Ex 19:5-6 describes how God brought them out of Egypt to be
'a special treasure to Me above all people
And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'
But that 'nation' never fulfilled its call, never realized its true identity or destiny. The Court of the Gentiles in the 2nd Temple had become a money-changers' den of thieves when Jesus turned its tables upside/down-right side up. He made this abundantly clear when He admonished the Pharisees, the Jewish religious national leaders: 'the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.' (Matt 21:43)
They had been chosen to bring forth God's glory, His Messiah, into the earth, but they rejected what they'd been chosen for.
'He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God,
to those who believe in His name:
who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God.' (John 1:11-13)
This is no so-called Replacement Theology. There has only ever been 1 true spiritual nation: 'the Israel of God'. (Gal 6:16)
Seed of Abraham was both natural and spiritual: sand and stars. (Gen 22:17)and The Seed is Christ. (Gal 3:16) Jacob (supplanter/manipulator) only became Israel (prince who prevailed with God) when he surrendered to God and was virtually 'born again' at Penuel. (Gen 33:22-32) His walk changed forever. The true people of God have never been merely a natural race, ie. Israel after the flesh (1Cor 10:18), but those who, like David, have looked to the Messiah and His Salvation! (Ps 118:22-24) Jesus exposed legalistic Pharisees and their ilk as 'of your father the devil' (Jn 8:44), not Father Abraham nor Father God.
Peter reveals God's purpose fulfilled even more clearly when he writes of the church, the Bride of Christ:
'But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special
people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into
His marvelous light;
who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy.' (1Pet 2:9-10)
Rev 1:6 & 5:10 proclaim: Jesus 'has made us (= the Church) a kingdom of priests to God.'
The original calling of Ex 19:5-6 is clearly fulfilled today in the Church, the body + temple of the risen Christ!
True Israel has ever only been a spiritual people who worship and look for their Messiah in spirit and truth, not according to their own self-centred righteousness by keeping God's laws.
Romans clarifies this even more:
'He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in
the flesh;
but he is a Jew who is one inwardly: and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.' (Rom 2:28-29)
'They are not all Israel who are of Israel....but the children of the promise are
counted as the seed.' (Rom 9:6-8)
The law was never given to make a nation, let alone make it 'righteous', for no individual or nation has ever been able to keep it. But the law was given to convict of sin (individual and national), convince us of our need for salvation and bring us to The Messiah, Jesus! (Gal 3:19-24)
Now that Christ has paid the full price for our redemption, we must not go back to that former old mindset in any form. He has made it obsolete and in Christ, it has vanished away. Hebrews exhorts us,
'You have not come to ...Sinai, but to Mount Zion ...the city of the living God,
heavenly Jerusalem, to the Judge of all.... to Jesus the Mediator of the new
covenant.' (Heb 12:18-24)

God has moved on from judging natural nations to His kingdom, manifesting His glory through His spiritual nation, His own special people bought by the Blood of Jesus. Our citizenship is now in heaven (Phil 3:20) and as His ambassadors, we represent a kingdom which is neither mixed nor tainted with the religious politics of that old former worldview. His is a kingdom that cannot be moved or shaken and will ultimately fill the earth 'as it is in heaven'.
Nationhood is no longer defined by race, but by grace.
God has moved on.... in Christ... let's move with Him!
Amen?!

Time to Resolve the Identity Crisis

2009-09-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

Who am I? Who are you?
Personal identity has attracted much public attention lately. Thieves have found it very lucrative to actually steal peoples' personal identities through credit card frauds and computer scams. Identity theft has become big business.
However, I believe an even greater problem exists in that many people don't even realize their identity has been stolen, because they don't even really know their true identity in the first place. Many fall through the cracks of life, merely passing through, but never coming to a knowledge of who they are.
Unfortunately, we have become human doings rather than human beings.
The medium has become the message. True, we can send a message around the world in a micro-second, but what value is it if it merely communicates a burp, a grunt or even worse?
We have become mesmerized with our own hype.
We have lost touch with the truly vital intrinsic realities of this life. Our identity has become lost in a sea of information and misinformation of questionable value.

I spent years searching for my identity. I also attempted running away from who I was, or at least, who I thought I was. Lack of identity can be a very frustrating experience.
One day some friends told me I needed to meet someone who could help me find this elusive identity; someone who knew everything about 'heart' issues. My friends said that if I met their mutual friend, it would bring an end to my search. After all, had I not spent years trying to solve the eternal questions and was still none the wiser?
How could this be? I did not think such a person really existed. Who could possess such knowledge and then be able to give it to someone else?
They set up opportunities for our introduction, but I missed many appointments.
I was too busy and couldn't make them. However, they didn't give up on me.
They persisted and persevered and finally, one day I met Him.

I gave up the pursuit of knowledge and found the love of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I discovered that my true identity had been stolen in a garden by a serpent many centuries ago, but Jesus had since paid the price on the Cross and won it back for me.
He also showed me that if I truly wanted to find my identity and real life, then I needed to in turn lose it. Paradoxical?!
Through faith in Christ I am now a child of God. That was 35 years ago.
Not once have I found Him to be a liar. Jesus is always true to His word. That is a very precious commodity in today's world: someone who will agree from his heart to do something and not forget or go back on his word. Such a one is secure in his identity.
Our 'Who am I?' questions find their answer in 'Who do you say that Jesus is?'
Some say He is a man, others a wise teacher, others still a prophet or guru. Some believe the stories about Him are merely fabricated myths or lies.
But the Bible reveals that the mystery is resolved in a Revelation of Jesus who is the Christ, the Son of the Living God!
None of us are complete in ourselves. Our identity is fully involved with Our Creator and Redeemer. Satan stole our identities and has lied to every generation. We have swallowed these lies and wandered this world without meaning or identity. Until we renounce the counterfeit, idolatrous images we have substituted for God, we are condemned to continue this frustrating journey. Only in Christ is the Father's pure love revealed and we are restored to His image, secure in the knowledge that we are His.
Do you know you also have an arranged appointment with this Jesus?
This year it became required for all Canadians to have passports in order to cross the border into the United States. Even moreso, we need our new real identity in Christ revealed that we might cross over spiritual barriers to enter and enjoy new life in His kingdom. Please don't miss your appointment because you're too busy on this other side.
Besides, this is only the beginning. Introduction leads into Relationship.
God-forgiven Identity releases into God-given Destiny.

**Let the Lord fulfill your new Identity in Jesus Christ below
Check each in the Word; then let the Holy Spirit verify + release His life in you!
Take at least 1 of these to heart each day like spiritual vitamins + grow!
Remember: the devil comes seeking whom he may devour;
let Jesus' answer be yours: 'he has nothing in me' (Jn 14:30)
.... I am in Christ!'

WHO AM I ???
“ in CHRIST JESUS ... ”

I am the salt of the earth. Matt 5:13
I am the light of the world. (1Thess 5:5) Matt 5:14
I am of priceless value. Matt 6:26
I am a child of God; I have a Father who loves me. Rom 8:16; Gal 3:26,28
Jn 1:12; 1Jn 3:1-2
I am set free. Jn 8:31-32
I am the Good Shepherd’s sheep; I can hear His voice and follow Him. Jn 10:4,10
I am a branch of the true vine, a channel of His life. Jn 15:1, 5
I am Christ’s friend. Jn 15:15
I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear His fruit Jn 15:16
I am filled with joy! Jn 16:33
I am One with the Father and Son and all believers. (1Cor 6:17) Jn 17:22-23
I am Christ’s witness. Acts 1:8
I am a slave of righteousness to God. Rom 6:18, 22
I am free from all condemnation. Rom 8:1-2
I am a son of God, spiritually adopted by my Father God.(Gal 3:26,4:6) Rom 8:14-15
I am a joint-heir with Christ, sharing His inheritance. (Gal 4:6-7) Rom 8:17
I am inseparable from His love. Rom 8:35
I am more than a conqueror, an overcomer. (1Jn 5:4-5) Rom 8:37
I am a temple/home of God; His Holy Spirit dwells in me. 1Cor 3:16; 6:19
I am washed, sanctified and justified. 1Cor 6:11
I am not my own; I have been bought with an incalculable price. 1Cor 6:19
I am a member/part of Christ’s body. 1Cor 12:27
I am transformed into Christ’s image by faith from glory to glory. 2Cor 3:18
I am a new creation; a totally new person. 2Cor 5:17
I am reconciled to God and an ambassador of reconciliation to others. 2Cor 5:18-19
I am the righteousness of God. (Eph 4:24) 2Cor 5:21
I am crucified with Him: dead to sin and alive to God. Gal 2:20
I am redeemed from the curse. Gal 3:13
I am a saint, blessed with all spiritual blessings. (Phil 1:1) Eph 1:1-3
I am totally accepted/chosen in The Beloved. (Col 3:12) Eph 1:6
I am completely forgiven by His Grace. Eph 1:7
I am sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Eph 1:13
I am alive, saved, raised up and seated in the heavenlies. Eph 2:5-8
I am God’s workmanship, created to walk in good works. Eph 2:10
I am a member of God’s family, secure in His foundation. Eph 2:19-21
I am a prisoner of Christ. Eph 3:1,4:1
I am confident He will complete what He has begun in me. Phil 1:6
I am a citizen of heaven and seated in His throne right now. Phil 3:20
I am delivered from darkness and translated into Christ’s kingdom. Col 1:13
I am absolutely complete. Col 2:10
I am hidden with Christ in God, my life is kept of God. Col 3:3-4
I am not afraid, but filled with power, love and a sound mind. 2Tim 1:7
I am never alone. Jesus never leaves me nor forsakes me. Heb 13:5
I am of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a unique people 1Pet2:9-10
I am an alien, stranger and pilgrim in this world I temporarily live in. 1Pet 2:11
I am an enemy of the devil,; the devil cannot touch me. 1Jn 5:18
I am His Bride. Rev 19:7
I am not the great “ I am” (Ex 3:14; Jn 8:24,28,58)
but “by the grace of God I am what I am” (1Cor 15:10)

There Must be a Better Way

2009-09-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

A short word before this next article:
I first wrote this just before US forces moved into Iraq in 2003; however, I find it addresses a perspective still out there in the contemporary 'Christian mindset' that needs to be challenged.
What are your thoughts?

Preparations for war have filled our minds and newscasts.
Soldiers pack up their gear, embrace their children, kiss their wives. “We just want to get the job done, get it over with and get back home!”
Thousands fill the streets of New York, London, Rome, Istanbul; 35,000 protest in Vancouver and even Abbotsford hears the cries, “No blood for oil!” The images contrast as sharply as the opposing battle lines in the desert.
Days and nights of constant bombardment have now left much of Baghdad in ruins.
Our TV screens explode with “Shock and Awe!”
but do we realize men, women and children are dying while we watch the fireworks?
Then the next photos: close-ups of the injured and maimed lying in blood-soaked bandages in ill-equipped hospitals; or even worse, the dead lying in the streets after the battles.
Even closer to home, a Maryland father thrusts his slain son's picture into the camera's eye. “Take a look, George Bush. This is my son, my only son, and you killed him!”
Sons, fathers, soldiers, civilians...all casualties of a world that has definitely lost its way...again.
Survivor Baghdad has become the ultimate Reality TV show.
A chorus of hearts cries out: “There must be a better way!”

The debate intensifies:
“Saddam's a monster, a foul dictator, a virtual anti-Christ. He slaughters his own people. Replace him and we'll make the world a safer place!”

“Bush is no better. Who does he think he is: the world's policeman? imposing his brand of 'Christian' democracy, bullying Moslems and the entire Arab world?”

“Terrorism, biological and chemical weapons must be countered with ten times more force. These are threats to world security and must be preemptively neutralized.”

“But by reacting this way, haven't we become what we say we oppose?”

Over 3000 died in the World Trade Center disaster.
How many will have to die in the retaliation?
United Nations diplomacy proved ineffective.
Canada teeters somewhat smugly on the fence, officially uninvolved, but cautiously cheering on the Americans, anxiously concerned about effects on our economy and comfortable way of life.
There must be a better way.
It's amazing how we can piously mouth Jesus' teachings, “Turn the other cheek, Walk the second mile, etc.” on a personal, individual and family level, but fail to relate them on the wider community, national and international stages. The words sound good on an ethereal, spiritual plane, but they don't really apply to the 'real world'.
How easily we sentimentalize 'Blessed are the peacemakers', but resort to waging war when our 'real' interests are threatened.
Indeed, a 'Christian brother' once tried to enlighten me by proving that The Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount will only come into effect in some future Millenium!
What happened to The Cross?
Shows you how strongly your end-time beliefs can determine your present-day attitudes and actions.
The problem with Christ and His teaching is not that they have been tried and found wanting; it's that they have not been really tried!

We so-called 'Christian' nations have not truly sought to put them into practice when it comes to resolving problems.
“Be realistic,” some counter.
Jesus was and is.
He understood that what we sow we ultimately reap:
sow violence, reap violence;
sow love, reap love;
live by the sword, die by the sword.
Don't be overcome by evil (the forces of this world that are bent on destruction),
but overcome evil with good.
Gandhi was not a Christian, but he sought to follow Christ's non-violent approach, and he ultimately led India to independence.
Martin Luther King dreamed of his people's freedom from racism and inspired them by Jesus' faith.
South Africa has been spared a bloodbath because they chose to forgive past inhumanities by both whites and blacks rather than resort to vengeance.
The Berlin Wall did not fall to tanks and missiles, but to the prayers of believers who not only filled a Dresden church night after night, but then let their light shine in the streets until the communist darkness could stand no longer.

Jesus said, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink, and by so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head.” (Romans 12:20)
I always interpreted this to mean that God would ultimately execute fiery retribution on my enemies. But my heart motive was all wrong. Rather than calling down judgment on your opposition, this verse alludes to the nomadic custom of transporting fire coals from camp to camp in baskets on their heads. If someone's fire went out between camps, others were to give them some of their own.
Rather than retaliate, rekindle.
Jesus tells us to bless and not curse; heal rather than wound; help, not destroy ...and not just when it's personally convenient. Thousands of Iraqi children have died over the last 10 years' embargo on goods, including proper medical and food supplies.

What if: rather than pound them with missiles, we bombarded them with mercy and the skies rained down relief packages rather than death?

“Traitor! Naive! Impractical?"
But the real gospel in action has worked miracles and fostered much more goodwill than self-centred evil. We really do have so much here in the West. God has blessed us with such abundance. Rather that retaliation, why not break the cycle of violence by faithfully following the One whose Death and Resurrection forever broke the power of sin and death … hatred and war?
I am convinced: The Gospel of Jesus Christ is A Better Way!

Something Greater

2009-09-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

Something greater than the Iraqi and Afghan war, terrorist acts or Canadian and American elections is now happening in our world. The kingdom of God, greater than any election platform, is presently sweeping the earth. The greatest movement in world history is now changing the face of the earth! Are you a part of it?
People are turning to Jesus and discovering His words are true.
“Search the Scriptures for in them you think you have life and these testify of me (Jn 5:39)
“All the Scriptures…things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27)
must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”(Luke 24:44)
Spiritually hungry people do not accept counterfeits; they turn to Jesus!
A few years ago, my wife and I visited many ancient sites of the early Christian church in the Mediterranean world. These cities had once known vibrant churches, but the ravages of apathy, war, and time have taken their toll and their once-strong congregations are no more.
In Spain, we found church buildings full of gold plundered from Aztec and Inca empires, but empty of people. In Assisi, we found St. Francis’ simple church, but now smothered beneath an overwhelming edifice. In Greece, St. Paul’s powerful words seemed silenced amid all the noisy Olympic preparations.
The seven churches of Revelation were merely empty ruins in Turkey, a 99% Muslim nation. Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia, once the largest church in the world, was now only a shell of a museum.
However, we found something even more remarkable. Although the outer vestiges of ‘Christian faith’ are no longer as prevalent as they had once been, an even more powerful movement is now sweeping these lands, especially in the hearts of the younger generation. Hearts are hungering for the real Jesus and will accept no substitutes.
Our young Italian friend was born and raised in the church, even served as an altar boy, but the church’s hypocritical practices had turned him away. Their large, cold marble buildings no longer impressed him and he now looked for heroes elsewhere. I challenged him and his counter-culture group of friends to look to the original Jesus, the only perfect man who has ever lived. “Why continue to look for ideals of perfection when He has already come?”
He acknowledged that Jesus’ life uniquely demonstrated truth in action, in spite of all man’s external religious embellishments. But it's hard to find the real Jesus through all the religious embellishments...the crap!
One afternoon in Ephesus, just outside the ruins of the church where St. John lay buried, we stopped to talk with a young carpet-seller. The topic turned to the emptiness of religious buildings and observances and we encouraged him to seek the head of the living church, Jesus Christ. Suddenly he remarked, “You’re just like those other people who were here this morning and shared this same message with me. And you’ve got that same joy in you! You are filled with joy and radiate life just like them! Is that Jesus?”
Then he told us how he had begun to read the New Testament (Injil) in his own language so he could find out these things for himself.
Later that evening in our hotel, Achmed, our 18-year-old night watchman, watched his new ‘Jesus’ video all they way through on the very first night he'd had it. In the morning, he was so very excited about what he had seen and had all sorts of questions about this Jesus.
In Cappadocia, our young Turkish tour guide led us through labyrinthine underground cities, nine or 10 stories deep, 150 feet below the surface, where Christians had fled to escape Roman persecutors and later Muslim invaders. We marveled how they had survived and prospered for centuries and gazed at their wonderful frescoes and mosaics. But there’s more to life than old paintings, murals and books –and as we drove to the next site, she wondered out loud about what we were seeing. Our topic of conversation turned to Jesus. Rather than argue concerning religious dogma, I asked her what Islam said about Jesus.
“He is a prophet,” she replied.
“But much more.” I added. “The Koran speaks of Jesus as the Judge at the last day. Surely, if even the Koran esteems Jesus so highly, don’t you think it’s most important for us to know Him as He truly is now, seeing we are all going to stand before Him as judge on the last day?”
That opened more questions.
Other nominal Muslim friends of hers had gone to the theatre to see Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ because they’d heard it was anti-Semitic, but the movie had now turned them and their thoughts to examine who this Jesus of the Passion really was.
In Istanbul, another young Turk stood in a nightclub doorway, his red and black T-shirt emblazoned with Che Guevara's picture on the front and “We want a revolution!” on the back. I couldn’t resist and stopped to ask what kind of revolution he wanted.
“Do you want to have a real revolution or just replace the present batch of scandalous politicians and ideas with others? What about revolting against the world’s greatest tyrant?”
“Who’s that?”
“Self! Do you want a real revolution of the heart? Have you considered the world’s greatest revolutionary?”
Who’s that?”
“Jesus! He turned the world right side up!”
He chuckled.
Che Guevera had good intentions, but he was a very imperfect political revolutionary and is now very dead.
Jesus alone dealt with the greatest threat to freedom: self.
And He is very much alive: He is risen! He alone offers a revolution of the spirit.
While the world’s philosophers and politicians argue – ‘esteem yourself, free yourself, empower yourself! Jesus invites us to “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.”
Charee (his name in Turkish means ‘called’) heard theJesus' call that day.
Not to ideas, but a Person.
Not to dead forms, but resurrected life.
Not to religion, but a faith relationship, personally and directly from Jesus Himself to be then shared together with others.
Jesus has given us life. Not dogmatic systems or learned responses. Not buildings or programs. God is looking for those who will simply respond out of their heartfelt need. He draws those who are honest in their reality.
It is only a matter of time: His kingdom is filling all the earth.

The 8th Letter of Revelation

2009-08-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

“And to the angel of the Church in _______(fill in the name of your city) write…”
What if Jesus added an eighth letter to His 7 Letters to the Churches of Revelation and sent it to the Church of your city today?
What would He talk to us about? What would be its highlights? Affirmations? Corrections? Warnings?
To whom would it be addressed? Who would receive it? Would we receive it?
It’s recorded in history that the church of Laodicea did not receive its letter. They could not accept that its contents described their church’s actual situation. They instead insisted that things were just fine.
The letter was wrong; they weren’t. “It’s addressed to the wrong church. That’s not us!”
The letter asserted they were self-sufficient, in need of nothing, not even God. Their refusal to accept God’s view of themselves ironically affirmed that God’s judgment was indeed correct.

A few years ago my wife and I visited Turkey and some of what are left of the 7 Churches of Revelation. Nothing remains of Laodicea today: neither the city nor the church. Its waters were neither cold not hot, but lukewarm. True to Christ’s Word, it has been spewed out, vomited, left desolate and in ruins. It is an amazing testimony to how we need to hear and receive God’s prophetic messages to us in our day or suffer the consequences.
In fact, the only church still functioning is in Smyrna (now called Izmir), the Suffering, Persecuted Church. Of the 7, Smyrna (along with Philadelphia) received no rebuke and it is the only one which still has a present congregation of worshipers today.
“Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Rev 2:10)

I believe one of the things Jesus would highlight in His letter to the church in our city is
‘keep the unity of the Spirit.” (Eph 4:3) He does not say 'strive to attain', but 'keep', which reveals we already possess this unity through Christ. We are one body. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free, Baptist nor Charismatic in Christ's eyes. You cannot 'keep' what you don't already have. Moves of the Spirit have impacted the body of Christ throughout history, but their full effect, value and legacy are ultimately realized in how they relate to building the kingdom of God and not their own little kingdoms. The church is one and we need to acknowledge this, value our unity and act in who we are in Christ already.
Jesus prayed, “That they may be one just as We are one.” (John 17:22)

After the fall of the Soviet Union, I was privileged to teach in the first Bible school opened in Ulyanovsk, birthplace of the father of Russian communism, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, aka Lenin. God has a sense of humour: our Bible school classes were held right in The Communist Hotel! Every morning I would pass one of Lenin’s few still-standing statues in Russia and sarcastically greet him,
“Good morning, Mr. Lenin. You don’t look very well today. You seem to be tilting a little more each day?!”
Towards the end of my two weeks there, I was invited to sit in on one of the first unity meetings of a group of pastors in Ulyanovsk. My interpreter kept me informed on what was happening, but the pastors’ body language and my limited Russian conveyed a clear enough message. They were enjoying their new freedoms, but old suspicions, rivalries and prejudices still surfaced as the different denominations struggled to find common ground together. They were trying to decide on holding their first public meeting together to celebrate Christmas, but….
they couldn’t even decide on a date…should it be on the Western December 25th or the Eastern Orthodox in January?
Who should speak? Some felt the Orthodox priest should, but the Lutheran pastor said that if the priest spoke, many of his parishioners would not attend and he wasn’t sure he even would.
The Pentecostal pastor objected; still another objected more because the Methodist pastor was a lady. It was starting to get uncomfortably hot in the room.
I watched and prayed and felt the Holy Spirit tug on my heart.
I asked my interpreter if I might share something with the group and they agreed.
I spoke: “I understand from the Bible that God views His church quite differently from how we see ourselves and one another. When He addresses His church, He writes to either His universal body, a specific ‘church in your house’ or the city church, that is, in Ephesus, Philippi, Corinth, etc. As long as you continue to see yourselves divided into different denominations, you will remain fragmented and ineffective.
You need to see yourself the way God sees you, as His one church in the city of Ulyanovsk.
You will not be able to do what He has called you to do until you see yourselves as you truly are, the way God sees you….as one body and one church in this city.”

There was silence in the room and I nervously wondered if the message had been clear, had they even understood what I was trying to say, let alone accepted it.
However, the silence ended, the contention broke, and they began sharing along more positive lines. They even started serving tea and enjoying one another’s company!
I heard a few months later that they had indeed held their unity service and God had blessed their coming together.

I could not help but think of our own city.
Our City of ___________needs the Church of ____________ (fill in the blanks) to see itself the way Our God sees us and respond accordingly.
We need to be, stand and walk together in a kingdom mindset, in His unity, freedom, love and purpose.
We need to take to heart and demonstrate our oneness in prayer, faith and action.
We need to put away our petty, divisive distinctions and embrace the fullness of who we are in Christ…together, for Christ’s sake.
The alternative is clear: just try to find Laodicea today.

2009-06-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

WANTED! STRONG CHRISTIAN DISCIPLES

God wants to take you through a process that will brand the image of Jesus Christ right in your innermost being (Rom 8:29). Through His fiery dealings, God wants to make you a strong Christian disciple because it’s His desire to forge His character in your very life, making you into a man/woman fully mature and equipped for His purposes.
God is completely committed to this end and He is looking for those who are just as committed—believers who are wholly devoted to Him. Essentially, if that level of dedication is beating in your heart, then you are marked as a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

FIRST A DISCIPLE, THEN AN APOSTLE!
So what does ‘disciple’ really mean? To begin answering this question, let’s examine Matthew 10:1-2a:
“And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these . . .” (emphasis mine)

First of all, we see that in verse 1, the twelve were called ‘disciples,’ but in verse 2, ‘apostles.’ Which is it? Are they disciples or apostles? There is a distinction here: it’s important to note that when Jesus called the twelve disciples to Himself, the Bible says, ‘He gave them power … and then they were called apostles.
This power was given over a period of time in testing and proven faithfulness, before they became apostles. But these days there appears to be a lot of confusion about this.
Look at Mathew 28:19:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (emphasis mine)

Jesus didn’t say to go and earn brownie points, or get people to say your version of the sinner’s prayer; definitely not to get another notch in your new converts’ belt! He didn’t call us to make converts with head-knowledge formulas—“Yeah, I said the sinner’s prayer once,” or “I spoke in tongues once.” He said, “Go and make disciples...”
The Greek word for ‘disciple’ is ‘matheetes’ which means ‘follower, student, learner.’
Jesus called us to be disciples who make disciples who will make disciples!
Sometimes Christians have a mentality expressed like this: “I got saved ten years ago and five years ago I made Him Lord.”
I’m amazed! ... You got saved 10 years ago, but you only made Him Lord 5 years ago?!
If I read my Bible correctly, He’s already Lord. It just took you 5 years to catch on and catch up! Disciples are called as whole-hearted followers of Christ from the start, from ‘the very get-go’!

DOUBLE STANDARDS
After Jesus gave the disciples power, He called them ‘apostles’, or in the Greek: ‘apostolos’ – ‘sent ones, someone who is sent.’ Now you cannot send yourself.
In other words, you can get in the envelope, but you can’t lick it!
You must be sent from somebody by somebody to somebody. Someone else has to send you! That’s where many miss the mark. They are trying to be an apostle in their own eyes, raising their own self-called ‘apostolic’ ministry. You do not tell others you are an apostle. If you are sent by God to them, He will let them know. Either they recognize you and receive you as an apostle, or you are not an apostle to them. People somehow think that if they just call themselves ‘apostle’ they actually are one. We really are too position-oriented sometimes! You cannot get your personal or ministerial value, worth and measure from whatever labels you try to wear. You cannot tack apples on an orange tree and call it an apple tree. Too many people confusingly chase positions to find their identity within the church and not in Christ.

There is one particular denomination in which my wife grew up that does not let women speak or do anything because they take ‘women keep silent in the churches’ (1Cor 14:34) literally. This is an amazing misinterpretation and twisting of Scripture!
Philip the evangelist had four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9).
Where do you think they prophesied? Out in the field? In the outhouse?
They prophesied in church, in the assembly of the saints!
The Early Church had no problem like some denominations do today.

One day we went back to my wife’s former church and I just happened to pick up a brochure that listed all the missionaries sent out into the field from that denomination. They were out in the jungles of Ecuador, New Guinea, etc. and 75% of these ‘missionaries’ were…women!
I began to question: “I think I smell hypocrisy here. These women can’t speak in their churches here in Canada . . . but they send them out among the head-hunters, to the uncomfortable, uncivilized areas of the earth where no man would go. It is acceptable for them to speak, preach and establish churches there, but they can’t speak in church here?!”
Aha! here lies blatant hypocrisy! They were ‘sent out’ by churches here; that is, they fulfilled the ‘aspostolos’ calling, but their church called them ‘missionaries’, not‘apostles’.

‘Behold!’ (The Bible uses this attention-getter, in other words: “Look at this!.. closely!) ‘Missionary’ is simply the Latin form of the Greek ‘apostolos’: ‘one sent on a mission’. Both words have identical meanings, only in different languages. It’s like pro-abortionists arguing that a ‘fetus’ does not become a real person until it’s born and only then it’s a real baby. But they’re ignorant of this fact: ‘fetus’ is Latin for the English ‘baby’. Either in or out of the womb, a ‘fetus’ is a ‘baby’, with all the parts and rights of life. Legalistic semantics only confuse when proper distinctions are not made. Often they are no more than lies hiding behind obscure terms.
We also have hypocritical, double standards in church because we are often locked into forms.
In that particular denomination’s history, authorities at one time defined ‘leader’ in a certain way that excluded women. Isn’t it ironic that women can be called ‘missionaries’ (Latin), but not ‘apostles’ (Greek), when the terms essentially mean the same things?
Some think women can’t be sent, but God sends them anyways.
He sent Mary Magdalene to tell his ‘apostles' (?). The ones who should have been sent were hiding in fear and unbelief. The first one who was in all practical terms ‘sent’ (apostolos) by the risen Christ was a woman.
God has already broken down walls by the gospel, but many traditional mindsets and limiting perceptions need yet to fall! So here’s a word of encouragement to women. You’re not second class! We are all one in the body of Christ!

What’s more, this is not just about women; these roots touch all sorts of other issues too. We have wrong concepts because we often have a wrong view of the body of Christ. Jesus Christ is the One who has broken down every wall! We are all His disciples, regardless of our background or natural position. We all share in the same call. In Christ Jesus, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free. That equality was a revolutionary revelation in Early Church context (Gal. 3:28).
Actually, do you know which social group most readily received the gospel first preached by the apostles? Slaves! 75% of the population in Athens then were slaves. What a revolutionary message for them! Think about life back then and relationships between slaves and masters. If you were a Christian slave-owner, you might one day suddenly discover one of your slaves worshipping beside you in church! Put yourself in Philemon’s shoes! His slave, Onesimus, ran away from him, but Paul appealed to Philemon (on Onesimus’ behalf) to take him back —
“For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever,
no longer as a slave but more than a slave--a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” (Philemon 15-16)
Don’t you think we need some adjustments on how we look at ourselves and one another?
When Jesus calls ‘disciples’, there is no hierarchy based on rank or status.

BEING SENT MEANS GOING WITH A MESSAGE
Eventually, through this process of maturity, disciples of Jesus reach a point of release when you are actually sent. But you must be ready and not race off prematurely. You can probably think of examples of those who have run to do great exploits with great haste, but were not truly ready. Let’s learn how not to run by studying the lesson in 2 Samuel 18:19-32.
The context of this passage is: King David is fighting to save his kingdom in the face of his son Absalom’s rebellion. During the climactic battle, an accurate message about the battle’s outcome needs to be conveyed to the king. Ahimaaz, (the son of the high priest, Zadok) approaches Joab (David’s army commander) pleading,
“I am a runner, I want to run. (ie. I am an apostle. Can’t you recognize it?)
I need to be sent; send me! I just really want to go into my apostolic ministry right now.”
But Joab said, “No, not now. Step aside. You haven’t got any message.” (my paraphrase)
Next, Joab called a Cushite. He charged him to go tell David what he had seen on the battlefield. So that messenger started running; he had the message!
But Ahimaaz appealed to Joab again, even begging, “Let me run!”
Still, Joab did not permit him.
However, Ahimaaz didn’t know how to take ‘No!’ for an answer and he pressed Joab further: “But I’m a runner. Pleaasse! I want to run! I have to run! Let me run!” (again my paraphrase). So Joab finally relented and off he ran, running and running, even outrunning the Cushite, and reached the king first.
“Is Absalom safe?” David asked.
Ahimaaz answered, “When Joab sent the king’s servant and me your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I did not know what it was about.” What an empty answer! Unfortunately, that's the picture of a lot of so-called ministry today.
David could only say: “Turn aside and stand here.” He had no message! He was only sent by his own vanity and so he was ultimately turned aside and the one with the message was heard!

Disciples need to grow and mature into apostles. That doesn’t mean you can’t do anything till then, but you come to the place where you clearly hear the Father’s voice and obey. You hear the Master’s voice, but you don’t just run and chase after anything. It’s like a dog owner who throws a stick and calls out “Go, fetch!” to his dog. At his master’s voice, the dog runs and retrieves the stick. Likewise, we must know and hear our Master’s voice and at His call, go and do what He says. ‘The other guy’ is out there throwing sticks at random and we could well end up running after any old stick if we chase every stick that’s thrown.
Furthermore, an ability to run fast doesn’t mean you’re called and chosen. We need to be sure we are in God’s right timing and under His direction! Otherwise, all our super-gifted speed only serves to take us further away from our true destination all the more quickly. That’s a sobering thought. So we must get the message and timing so clear in our heart that we know the Father’s voice releasing us, “Go for it! Now! I send you! You’re on my mission! I’ve sent you with my message to these people. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Be strong and courageous!”

GOD WANTS TO MAKE YOU THE MESSAGE
Not only does God want to give you the message, He also wants to make you the message. For example, Old Testament prophets themselves and their children became the very signs of their ministries. They even named their children prophetically. The prophets became their message. Isaiah and Ezekiel not only spoke, but lived out their prophecies. Hosea not only reproved Israel for its idolatry, but married a faithless prostitute to show Israel’s unfaithfulness to her Lord. Francis of Assisi proclaimed, “By all means preach the gospel. If necessary, use words.”

Do you want to become His message? I ask you this directly because God clearly wants to make you His message—the message becomes you. He’s seen the desire and the intent of your heart and He wants you to know your true identity in Christ. He is calling you and you are still wrestling with what this means and what it will look like. But when Christ calls, He also takes responsibility Himself to make this effective: “Okay, I am going to do something in and through you, that’s going to be revolutionary! I will make you fishers of men!”

Take John the Baptist for example. He was revolutionary! He was a prophet and an apostle, one of the first apostles, in the true sense of the word. But after he baptized Jesus, there came a testing time when his disciples reported more people going to Jesus than John to be baptized. “Aren’t you upset that the new kid on the block seems to be upstaging you?”
“Not at all,” John replied.
“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, I have been sent before Him.” (John 3:26–28)
John knew he was God’s forerunner. He knew both his identity and destiny: who he was and what his mission was. He wasn’t jealous of Jesus; he knew his mission was complete when he pointed others to The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He did not have to have his own following. His ministry had been fulfilled: it had all been to point others to Jesus and now He had come. This is the heart of a true disciple, a true messenger who becomes an apostle.
Then John goes on to say: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (v 30). The order here is crucial: 1st, He (Jesus) must increase; 2nd, I (John) must decrease. Get filled with more of Jesus and your selfish ambitions will fade and fall away. John not only embodied his message, but faithfully ran and communicated it to its end fulfillment. As he stepped from the world stage, he added this testimony to their intimate relationship.
“The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (vv. 35, 36)
He glorified the Lord. He gave the glory to his Master and did not keep it for himself. Isn’t that what being a disciple is all about? Knowing Christ intimately and glorifying Him. But it’s a process, a uniquely personal process for each one and God is completely committed to this process because He knows and loves us so deeply. Ponder this love and let His heavenly dew drench you today. Step in close to God and completely surrender yourself to Him.
I urge you: Today, hear and answer Jesus’ call, “Follow me!”

2009-06-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

WANTED! STRONG CHRISTIAN DISCIPLES! PT II

REAL PROGRESSION IS FROM GLORY TO GLORY

So what happens when someone turns from his own ways to follow Christ, the real Way?
Christ called, “Follow me!” and then invited disciples to “Come and see!” (Jn 1:39)
Step out, see where and how Jesus really lives! Beckoning, exciting, adventurous…
dangerous words! When we give ourselves wholly to Him, the resulting transformation will be beyond comprehension, exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think! Take a look!

How many times is ‘disciple’ used in the Gospels?…230.
How many times ‘apostle’? …8.
Jesus calls and relates with followers today the same way He did then: as His disciples.

Then in Acts, changes happen when the gospel is put into action in and through us.
Jesus’ followers gathered to Him and were ‘sent out’ into the world.
Here they are called ‘disciples’ 30 times and ‘apostles’ 30 times -- equally balanced!

However, in the Epistles, the emphasis changes again: they are ‘apostles’ 40 times,
but never ‘disciples’! Not one time, no, not at all, nada - 0!

What happened! Their identity in Christ had been transformed! They had moved into a further glory from the stage of student disciples to released apostles! They were first called ‘disciples’, but once Jesus gave them power over unclean spirits to heal the sick, they were sent ‘apostles.’ There is progression here and it’s from glory to glory!

Furthermore, when Jesus sent His disciples in His power, they were commissioned to make more disciples. (Matt 28:19) In other words, His ‘seed’ produced like kind. Think about this: believers are to be prime examples of godly character, reproducing in those to whom we minister. As we pour out our lives, we’ll be like ‘gifts that keep on giving’.

FIVE-FOLD MINISTRY IS TEAM GOVERNMENT

One of Christ’s major emphases in this discipleship process is transforming us from egocentric, self-absorbed individuals to selfless team players.
Unfortunately, self subtly motivates and marks much ministry today.
Fortunately, the Holy Spirit can effectively expose, unmask and deny self an opportunity to lie hidden among ministry’s baggage. He wants to freely minister to and through us; He wants us to be free so He can do this! Ministry is not something we do ourselves; it’s what He does through us. Ministry is the overflow of Jesus’ Presence in and through us; so let’s get full of Him and let Him overflow!

There are a few pitfalls that exist in church structure today; however, when unearthed can reveal further foundational truth about apostolic government. In most denominational churches, government order and structure is very pastoral, centered on the leader, most often called ‘pastor.’ Pastors today have so many responsibilities and things to do that many of them ‘burn out’. Why? It seems strange to me that ‘burn-out’ is so rampant among ministers today when it’s not even mentioned in Scripture! Perhaps much of our present-day ministry focus is so out-of-focus that Scripture doesn’t even recognize its legitimacy? Perhaps so much so-called ‘pastoral’ ministry is not really pastoral at all, but administrative book-keeping and bureaucratic paper-pushing that ultimately consumes pastors who are not really administrators, but only gifted people trying to do something they’re not called to.

God does not equip you for what He has not called you to.

I believe that’s one of the main reasons why so many ‘pastors’ burn out. They are stuck in offices day after day, not relating with people (where their true gifting lies), preoccupied with maintenance, not able to give themselves to “prayer and ministry of the Word.” Yet they are also expected to come up with weekly messages that please the people, nourish the flock and maintain the church. It’s this maintenance-mentality that kills church life and burns out ministers. The goal of Christian church life and ministry is not keeping the flock comfortable, trying to keep as few as possible from leaving church.
When this becomes a ministry’s focus, it drains and depresses.

It’s not easy being in a rat race! But, I ask you, what are sheep doing in a rat race? If the rigors of pastoring burn pastors out, perhaps we need some ‘foundational forms’ of pastoring challenged and changed! Actually, I would think the leaders caught in this kind of abusive system would be the first ones to call for and embrace reforms to the ‘form’.

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers
for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”
(Eph 4:11, 12)

God’s answer to 1-man burn-out is team ministry!
The work of the ministry is based on the call of God. If you don’t have the call, you aren’t cut out for the work. Relationship also is essential to fulfill the call —intimate relationship with both God and other leadership giftings in order to flow in your call together. Learning to work together as a team to equip others to do the work is God’s way, or we ourselves will be wasted.

It’s 5-fold ministry with this purpose: ‘edify’ means ‘build up’ and ‘edifice’ = ‘high structure’;
together: ‘build up the church’, a body bigger than your own self or ministry. In one little word like this, we can see that God is not just building a bunch of individual bungalows or personalized mansions for us to glory in. His church is to be an ‘edifice that edifies others and glorifies Christ.’ We are to build one another up in faith and the Holy Spirit. Consequently, we need to ask God to breathe His life in and through us. His breath brings life to the work of the ministry ‘for the edifying of the body of Christ’. His ministry may burn us up, but not out.

Now who is supposed to lead this? The pastor? No! ‘Pastor’ is only one of 5 offices.
God gave 5-fold ministry and by its very nature, this is an apostolic team: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. The 5-fold ministry is not just one person. It functions out of relationship to take the pressure off just one person. We are not supposed to do the work individually; we are supposed to be built and build together: working as a team, training up members of the body, releasing and sending them to do the work.

The true proof of a pastor is not that he pastors a large, ‘successful’ church himself, but he so cares for his flock that he raises up more pastors who in turn care for this ever-growing church. An evangelist is not just one who preaches the gospel, but one who raises up other evangelists.
A prophet is one who inspires other prophets in truth to answer and proclaim the call of God.
A teacher stirs students’ hearts to seek and teach others also.
Apostles are fathers who raise up next generations of mature sons and daughters.

PARADIGM SHIFT BRINGS A KINGDOM VISION

Sometimes, however, church is anything but relational, and we foolishly compare ourselves and our ministries on performance-based competition. 2Cor 10:12 clearly states this is not wise, so why do we do this? I’ve been to pastors’ conferences and the first question after basic introductions is invariably: “How many people are in your church?” Sometimes it varies: “How big is your church?” or “How many does your church hold? The latter is so evidently ridiculous: churches should raise up and release people to the call of God, not hold them!

I remember when our church got hit by Renewal and grew from 100 to 35 in about 3 weeks. Not exactly the successful model which church growth seminars extol! Nor what many ministers accept as a legitimate growing experience. Here is what happened: I was seated for lunch at one of these pastors’ gatherings. The pastor on my right asked the inevitable first question and when I told him ‘35’ (the truth at that time), he abruptly (and, I would add, quite rudely) turned away from me and started talking with the pastor on his opposite side! I thought news was out that I had the plague and perhaps some similar leprous ‘growth’ would hit his church if he talked with me any longer. Shaken by what had just happened, it took me a while to recover. But recover I did and I resolved to be ready for the next ‘fellowship luncheon’. Sure enough, at a similar scenario a few months later, my opportunity came.
The inevitable first question…but this time I was ready.
“Oh, anywhere from 6 to 8 thousand!” I answered.
My surprised colleague gasped noticeably.
With great difficulty, I sought to maintain a serious composure.
“Really?” he replied, choking on his salad.
“Oh yes!” I continued to feed him, "6 to 8000!" enjoying the unfolding irony immensely .
In good conscience, I was not lying. I had clearly enunciated 6 to 8,000 (and if all who had ever been at our church during the previous years had decided to show up on one particular Sunday, I’m sure we would have exceeded even that size of crowd). But depending on what the questioner wanted to hear (fuelled and conditioned by his greed, gullibility and pride), he heard 6,000 to 8,000 rather than the more humble, singular ‘6’ I had clearly spoken.

After playing with him a while longer, I mercifully clarified my response and the pastor embarrassingly turned a beet red. He apologized, saying he felt sorry for me.
I smiled and said I was sorry too …but for him and that totally un-Christian attitude, sadly all too prevalent among ‘Christian leaders’.

False images will always be exposed and deposed by the Holy Spirit. These not-so-subtle idols in our hearts must fall. I used to teach a class entitled ‘Church Leadership’, but I refuse to call it that anymore. It seems many Christians can’t handle the ‘leader’thing; something weird goes off in their brains and they immediately begin competing for control, arguing over who is greatest in the kingdom of God, vying for authority to lead.
Really they just want to tell everyone else what to do.
I changed the name of the course to ‘Christian Stewardship & Serving.’
Amazingly, that changed the spirit of the entire class!

We judge others externally by what we think we see. In response, God rightly challenges these pet concepts and prejudiced perspectives. We need a paradigm shift in our hearts and minds in order to have real kingdom vision, kingdom mentality, kingdom concepts, and kingdom world view! That was the first message Jesus delivered — “the kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mk 1:15) He continued with: “Repent and believe in the gospel,” and when He saw Simon and Andrew He called out, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (v17)

When Jesus gathered His disciples, their view of God’s kingdom was a whole lot different than His! Their preconceived ideas needed to be sifted, separated and discarded if they were going to truly become Jesus’ disciples. And those ideas were challenged and dropped! Likewise, our pet idols need to fall so we can be true disciples and future apostles of Christ. Really, that’s the heart of a disciple—a student and learner, someone teachable, willing to be molded and changed into His image. Not someone who takes Christ’s name, but continues in his own agenda.

Furthermore, many of our concepts are really centered in self rather than God and His kingdom. We often read the Word of God to suit ourselves; we have our own favorite passages. We take our spiritual scissors and cut out what is not comfortable to us. That’s what Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, did. He actually cut out passages in his Bible that revealed Jesus as God or any miraculous, supernatural signs and wonders beyond what he could accept as reasonable. His Bible is in the Smithsonian Institute today. It’s not your regular Holy Bible; it’s just a Bible with holes in it!

Yet, we mentally clip the Word of God too. That’s NOT what it means to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15)! God’s Word is the Sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17) and a sword is meant to penetrate. Let it penetrate your heart first!
Only if you lose your life (and the limitations of what you think are reasonable) will you find it.

Learn to be a disciple in the kingdom of God. Learn purity, integrity and humility from the One who is all of these.
If you want to be a leader, then learn to be a follower.
If you want to be a boss, learn to be the best employee.
Want to be a teacher? learn to be a student.
How about a father? learn to be a son or daughter.
Do you want to be great in the kingdom of God? then learn to be like a little child. (Matt 18:3)

That’s the journey God calls us on so our natural bent will be truly transformed; we will be His strong disciples sent out as true apostles.
Advancing daily, you will progress much further than the narrow, performance-oriented limitations of your own ministry. Instead, God will give you supernatural grace to first realize your identity in Him and His destiny in you. After all, He made us to be human beings, not human doings.
Jesus the Good Shepherd leads us. He sees us as God created us to be. He didn’t call His disciples “dirty old fishermen;” He called them ‘fishers of men,’ and they became great apostles, winning thousands to Christ.
Your destiny is released when you actually realize who you are.
And your identity releases your destiny.
Discovering who you are is not complicated when you learn to just trust, walk hand in hand with Jesus and enjoy His simplicity. Abide in Christ, He abides in you.
Don’t focus on your presumed destination.
God alone is your destination... to be like Him from glory to glory.
Jesus calls you to an intimate personal walk of friendship and wants you to enjoy the adventure!
‘Follow Me’ leads to ‘Come and See!’ It’s His call and He will make the necessary changes —

“Be confident of this very thing, He who has begun a good work in you will complete it.”
(Phil 1:6)

Wanted! Strong Christian Disciples Pt III – Come and See!

2009-06-21T20:38:00.000-07:00

When Jesus called His disciples, He made a first impression like none other. Whether or not they had previously met, when He said, “Follow me!” they immediately obeyed and left everything else behind: their nets, boats, fathers, and even more than they realized: their old self-identity.

I don’t think they fully understood what they were doing right away, but something intrigued them about this Rabbi. He definitely was not like the others.
Was it His compassion that drew them, the authority in His voice, His gracious manner? Whatever it was, the fishermen became the fish and Jesus dangled this curious bait before them and then added: “I will make you fishers of men.” (Matt 4:19)

He didn’t give them all the details and that was part of His fascination.
He didn’t fill in all the data info blanks.
He didn’t appeal to their reasoning.
At heart, the call of God is very unreasonable.

When John the Baptist directed two of his disciples to now follow Jesus instead, they approached the Lord and asked, “Where are you staying?” A very dangerous question. Sometimes like them, I think we don’t understand what we fully ask God. If we did, we’d probably never ask.

Jesus understood their quest. They were looking for answers:
Who is this ‘Lamb of God’? How does life go with You? What do Your words mean?
What’s so different about You? Why did John send us to You?

Jesus’ response was simple and disarming: “Come and see!” (John 1:38-39)
What an invitation!

He didn’t try to draw them with promises or convince them with arguments. He stirred their curiosity, stimulated a hunger and desire within their hearts for more. That’s what the truth will do: it’ll stir you to want more! Not make you satisfied with just a two- dimensional answer, but cause you to seek the ‘exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think’ heights… and depths!

In the natural, the more you eat and drink, the fuller you get and the less you want. However, in the spiritual realm, the opposite is true. The more you eat, the hungrier you get. Healthy babies are always hungry and thirsty; new life desires to eat, drink and take it all in! Jesus stirred that same inherent desire. In fact, those are the basic requirements of any discipleship training centre: Are you hungry and thirsty?

Proverbs 22:6 counsels parents to,
“Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Religion interprets this in a couple of ways.
The Jesuits paraphrased it: “Give us a child till he’s 7, and we’ll make him a Catholic for life.” Discipline by this order then becomes the means of conforming young people to their mold and image through obedience to legalistic, military-style rules and regulations. Some Evangelical Christians, on the other hand, take a rather pessimistic slant and this verse becomes more like: “Do your best as parents to instill Christian values in your children when they’re young, because in their teens they will rebel and turn from you and God; but sometime later on, if you pray hard enough, they’ll come back to their faith.”

Both of the above explanations fall far short of what I believe the Word of God here promises. First of all, ‘train up’ does not mean parents have a responsibility to raise their children under harsh discipline, breaking undesirable behaviour patterns and employing hard restrictions to conform them to their faith.
The Hebrew here means ‘to narrow, initiate, touch the palate’ and paints a very different picture: one of a mother weaning her child from breast-feeding, coaxing it to take solid food. Her toothless infant cannot yet chew its own food; commercial baby food or processing blenders were not yet available, so the mother bites off a piece of food, chews it in her own mouth first, then pushes it into and up against the roof of the baby’s mouth to ‘touch its palate’. This action stimulates the baby’s digestive juices; it hungers, swallows, feels good in its tummy and…
soon wants some more! The experience so satisfies the baby that he/she is gradually trained to eat solid food by this process of stimulating inherent desire!

As in the natural, so in the spirit. Jesus’ call touched the disciples’ palates. They desired to know more of Him and followed. The Lord began and continued His process of discipline in this way. He constantly gave them more of Himself. They took His Words to heart, drank in His Spirit and grew over the next 3½ years. Gradually, they changed from their former ‘selves’ to more resemble the One they followed. Jesus didn’t give them legalistic rules to follow; rather, He imparted His life, His very Person to them, appealing to their desire and challenging their will so they would respond to His faith and love. Peter later showed he had come to understand this manner of discipleship when he exhorted the church to spiritual growth in 1Pet 2:2:
“As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby.”
That’s how the Lord had drawn him and taught him to walk. Though he often stumbled, he learned to call out, let God lift him up, wash him off and set him on his feet again.

Jesus calls us into an intimate personal relationship. “Follow Me!” is not a 7-step magical formula, philosophical theory or predictable program. It’s a walk, a journey through life with the Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ Himself: 1 on 1, master + disciple; pilgrims, travelers experiencing life with Him, never just spectator-tourists!
And He’s the One who takes on personal responsibility to make the necessary changes in our Identity (name, heart desires, motives) to realize our true Destiny (function, direction and destination) in Him. Frankly, when we are naturally born on the face of this earth, we have no idea of what’s involved with the air we breathe, the food we eat or the milk we drink. We simply breathe, eat and drink …and cry; those things come naturally, spontaneously! Likewise, when we are born again spiritually, Our Father has provided everything: His Life, Word and Spirit and we simply need to grow in desire and obedience to breathe, eat and drink … and sing praises in His Presence.

We need to be trained His way. We need clarity in our Identity first: who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us, before we run off to fulfill our Destiny-ministry to remake the world for Jesus! If this is not clear, we will sadly end up merely projecting and imposing our false image on others. That’s nothing but another ‘spiritualized’ form of dead religion.
Ministry is not just something you learn to do; it’s an overflow of Jesus’ presence within you.

Get filled with His fire and others will come to watch you burn!

You won’t have to come up with gimmicks and fancy entertainments to catch their attention. Be real. Too much so-called ‘ministry’ conducted by today’s North American Church ‘in the name of Jesus’ is very far removed from the Lord Himself.
It’s cloaked in manipulation, bogged down in administration, stifled in bureaucratic programs.
It lacks the Lord’s seal, His Identity, His Presence!
It presumes gifting and charisma are sufficient and does not cultivate an accompanying character to witness “It is the Lord!” Rather, it’s still a masquerading ‘Self”.
Amazingly, the world often discerns this discrepancy more readily than much of His church.

We need a greater hunger and thirst for God Himself, not just His accompanying goodies.
We need more than a new passion for Jesus; we need the Passion of Jesus!
We need His Face, not just His Hand.
Otherwise, we remain disobedient sons and daughters, no more than spoiled brats. And when we’re spoiled, we’re good for nothing: the verdict on the Laodicean church. We are no longer capable for His effective use. When we are not His Light, we do not shine. We don’t have it in us. But when we have Christ and Christ has us, the Light of the world truly shines forth from us regardless of our circumstances, in spite of the challenges, through even the darkest of times!

Jesus takes this responsibility upon Himself: He told those fishermen brothers on the shores of Galilee He would make them fishers of men. He did not expect them to know what that all meant or how to fulfill it immediately. But something in His call intrigued them. They were tired of smelly fish and wanted to touch this offered, beckoning life…
to make a difference in hearts, an eternal difference with their lives in the lives of others. Somehow whoever this stranger was, He knew them and had chosen to use them. They could refuse or follow, render excuses, continue to mend their nets and fish all night for nothing or??? exchange their fish for men!!!

Their answer was immediate: they left all and followed Jesus.
They were never again the same.

How about you? What nets are you holding on to? Let go.
His call is ever true. Let Him touch your palate. Come and see!

PS. A few years ago, I compiled a 30-page booklet along this theme,
‘Jesus says, Come, Follow Me. A New Believer’s Guide to Faith in Christ.’
It’s meant to help disciples walk in the Spirit step-by-step by the Word. If you would like a copy for your own walk or to help others in theirs, please contact me at henryerica604@gmail.com
See you on the road!

Power to the People

2009-06-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

Wanting to concentrate on my first year studies at Pacific Bible College, I purposely avoided the Overseas Gospel Missionaries basement office for those first months in 1977. But there was this curious tug on my heart; I felt I must consciously pull myself away or fall in. Ambrose evidently sensed my conflict and confronted me after one Sunday service.
“When are you going to obey God?”
He was only 4’11”, but he stood tall in God. When he spoke, He spoke.
That was my introduction to Ambrose Anyanwu (Pacific Bible College Graduate ’77) and the beginning of my association with him and his wife, Lynda, in OGM (Overseas Gospel Missionaries). Originally just a weekly evangelistic outreach to a downtown Skid Row Mission, it soon became what is now a worldwide correspondence Bible school. The Lord put vision in our hearts and the will also to see it through. An army of committed volunteers formed. We prayed together, compiled Bible studies, answered letters, stuffed packages, licked envelopes, believed God for the stamps and saw Him bring in a mighty harvest! One of our students described it as: "I see you put Jesus in the envelope!" He was right. In our first 7 years, we saw over 20,000 receive Christ and another 5000 complete studies in discipleship! In addition, I even met my wife, Erica, through this ministry!
In 1978, Ambrose and his family returned to his native Nigeria. Eziama, his home village, had suffered much during the devastating Biafra civil war. Those who had sent him off to America were not impressed when he can back, not an engineer, but a preacher of the gospel. How could a preacher help this poverty-stricken community? The family languished for months in one of his father’s mud huts. Ambrose despaired that all would die as malaria attacked each one. However, God had different plans.
The village elders schemed to get rid of this ‘preacher’. They gave him land that had once been the centre for idolatry, slave-trading and discarding babies whose mothers had died giving them birth. Considered cursed, they were left to die: either to starve or be eaten by wild animals. The elders believed the demons infesting the land would solve their 'preacher' problem by driving him and his family away.
Ambrose moved onto the property. His very first evening there, a passing cyclist encountered a spectacular scene: hundreds of terror-stricken, disembodied faces ran shrieking towards him and then past him, disappearing into the thick jungle! Knocked from his bike, he fled back to the village and recounted his terrifying story. None dared venture out to discover what had happened until the next day when they felt it would be safe. To their surprise, they found Ambrose sitting, calm and at peace.
“Are you all right?” they asked.
“Yes. Shouldn’t I be? ”
“What have you been doing?”
“Praying,” he answered.
And Eziama has never been the same.

The Anyanwus asked to take any future motherless babies in the village into their home. Instead of being cursed, the villagers saw blessing evidenced on their family and ministry. Lives once doomed to latrine pits were lovingly redeemed. Hearts gradually changed in the community. Now, 30 years later: over 200 ‘motherless babies’ have been saved, a 1000-member church thrives with 10 branch churches, over 300 students attend a grade school, a Basic Skills College teaches young women sewing, cooking and even computer skills, and much more. The onetime jungle battlefield has been transformed into a virtual Garden of Eden.

A few years ago, I returned as part of a team to help realize a long-awaited dream. Eziama, a community of approximately 80,000 people, but no electricity or medical clinic, took a quantum leap into this new century. Donors had helped build a new Grace Hospital and we had come to install its solar energy power plant with two diesel generator backups. The day came to turn the power on and so did the entire village. All was ready; the chief, elders, and hundreds of others gathered to witness and celebrate the momentous occasion. The 106-year old ‘eldest’ Eziaman had the honour to press the small white switch on the wall, the lights came on, the fans twirled and all the people gasped, “Ahh!”
God used His preacher to bring real power to Eziama –both spiritual and technological. What they once despised and ridiculed had instead become the very means of their provision and blessing, exceedingly abundantly above all that the village and its elders had ever thought possible. Isn't that just like Our Jesus?

Metamorphosis

2009-06-07T11:26:00.000-07:00

Hey!!! Thought we might have some fun today....
Here's a couple of ....yup...poems....I have tried my hand with the artsy, creative stuff....but I've got to warn you...these are from way back there.... like late '60s + early '70s, even my pre-
Christian era. So take off your shoes and get out your flower-child glasses and take a trip with me down...

Metamorphosis Road (1973)

Forget your hope and lose your past
And soon you’ll find freedom at last;
Destroy your loss, defeat your fear,
Sorrow to drown needs only a tear.
But love….love continuously
As day meets night to become day again
So love…love through all
Brings the rainbow in rain.

Although some may say there’s no gold at the end
And following its course means a lifetime to spend
Look back from your twilight and clearly you’ll see
The means which you chose are now what you be.

And Love, our One Meaning
Shepherds His fold
To the end of life’s rainbow –
Metamorphosis Road.

(1972 - this is part of my North-African hitchhiking odyssey, when I had no clear sense
of identity, but kept on going anyway)

I X I T

My name is Wubble Dubble
And I dwibble while I talk
But when I fell for you, my dear,
You scwibbled while you squawked.
My heart is weight of rubble
And my eye sees yesteryear
A Son so bright, yet lost in flight
He fell between a tear.
It’s time I picked me up now And flowed some soul through this ole ink..
But that’s not ole as in Spanish,
Nor Ole the big Swede
But it’s olethings I’ve got to tell
Of olethings I’ve seed.
Don’t ask me whom this pen holds
To mold as it may wish,
But look there through the ink more clear
And see the struggling fish –
No… my name is Wubble Dubble
And all I ask for me
Is a little air to breathe in
And at least a chance to be.

and then I continued on to Italy and did a Michelangelo thing; I got this in Florence 1973,
resting in front of his tomb, after a few days of seeing the wonders of his sculpture and Sistine Chapel & Last Judgment

If you only knew…
Would you wipe clean the slate,
Begin again,
Or let your spirits softly sleep
Unloosed within their silent serenity of stone?
As you now do.

You must have heard the cries of man…
Or were they flashes of some God
Who touched your hand as Adam’s once?
To spark new life in grey dormant forms:
Pushing, pulling, struggling, scraping,
Outwards, upwards and round about
Your noble soul sought freedom ‘mid life’s hidden secrets.

You must have felt the breath of Time…
Weigh harsh upon your heart
Both in your Night and in your Day
From Dawn till Dusk
Each morrow nearer drew that distant wall
Where finally mirrored, yourself remained
Exposed for all to see.

You must have tasted sweet joy which is creation…
Life’s elixir proffered lips of only some certain few,
A cup impatience hurls aside,
This treasure through ignorance so long denied
By man’s will or will not to glory.

You must have smelled them even then…
Their moral stench – this circus of dilettantes
Posing beneath your towering David,
Boasting as sportsmen vainglorious raise
Fresh blood-streaked trophies from carrion-strewn wastelands,
Reflecting their vacuous souls.
You must have seen our bondage – fear
As do your ‘Prisoners’ reaching forth their liberty
To we who misunder …stand about,
Pushing, pulling, struggling, scraping,
Stretching limbs to closer view those truths you’ve seen
But for us remain myriad light tears far removed.

You must have sensed and understood
Men are slaves to their misunderstanding;
With mouths agape and wonder agaze
They kneel in idle worship of your gift,
Yet press on in material servitude.

You must have known
What some are and still will be
And now ‘bove your marble eternal peace
Echo hollow empty footsteps…
The shuffled, muffled applause of
Parading humanity lost….
If they only knew.

SUCCESS???

2009-05-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

Western society worships success, but doesn’t really know what that is. Even if we achieved it, I believe we would not clearly recognize or be wholly satisfied with what we had attained. Somehow, I think, even for Christians, the ‘gospel’ has become so confusingly interwoven with an elusive ‘American Dream’ that many are distracted, striving for illusory goals, rather than trusting the simple, sure mercies of Jesus.
Our humanistic, materialistic, intellectually top-heavy, individual-centred, entertain-me focus has essentially altered our life perspective to the point where we mistakenly equate comfort and pleasure with fulfillment and joy. Consequently, our unsatisfied ‘self’ is never able to truly enjoy the journey. Many achieved the white picket fence and 2-car garage but found that wasn’t enough. So we expanded the dream to 3 cars with a ride-on mower, luxury homes and it’s still not enough! Success is neither winning the lottery nor thinking up the ultimate special effects action movie and calling it life.
Even much of the Christian church seems to have bought into the world’s message with bigger programs, buildings and egos. ‘7-Step How-to Self-help’ books dominate the best-seller lists but Christ said, “Deny your self.” In other words, “Kill it, don’t fix it!” Somehow, it seems we have become more preoccupied with the ways of a world we profess to reach than the Saviour we profess to proclaim. It’s like adoring the ornaments while ignoring the Tree.
The superficial supplants the essential.
The Organization threatens to suffocate the Organism.
If we are honest, we can even catch ourselves singing, “It’s all about me!” rather than truly, “It’s all about You …Jesus!”

The true gospel never validates the world’s status quo. Jesus Christ is and always will be the most radical revolutionary this world has ever known! He alone can change human hearts!

Regardless of how many subtle forms in which sin parades itself, His simple good news will always expose, confound and unmask their essential egoism. The gospel reveals the hypocrisies of political (communism or capitalism) and religious (legalism or license) forms which deny the power of the Cross.
It is not about us. It’s about God… and faith and love towards our neighbour, that is, the guy next to us. “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” (Matt 25:40)
Success really has nothing to do with our twisted egotistical sense of winning, accumulating the most toys, or acquiring the most influence.
Success has everything to do with how we truly treat one another and what we live, give and pass on to others.
Trees are known by their fruit and the seed they pass on to the next season’s generation. Christians are also known by the fruit we produce: good trees = good fruit = good seed = more good trees.
We need to have a vision for harvest beyond ourselves. Unfortunately, many Christians are buying into quick-fix doctrines and escapist end-times fantasies which lead them to selfishly conclude we are earth’s ‘last generation’. These deceptions abrogate our effectiveness to witness the true gospel of Christ to a perishing world and relay this inheritance to the next generations.

Jesus succeeded. He is the true King. He died on the Cross for our sin, rose from the dead for our salvation, destroyed the works of the devil (Heb 2:14), and is now reigning from the throne of the universe. His Kingdom is successfully established and we are called to reign with Him, fill the earth with His glory and successively pass on this inheritance from generation to generation. We must not drop the baton.
We succeed when we effectively relay Christ’s life to those who follow. Jesus is calling us to stand in the gap and pass it on. Successful evangelists do not merely evangelize; they raise, equip and release other evangelists into their calling. Likewise with others of the 5-fold ministry: we only succeed when we release others to proceed in their destiny.
There is no success without a successor.

2009-05-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

‘…with persecutions’ (Mark 10:30)

Our perspective actually sets, interprets and becomes our reality. Preconceived prejudices largely determine what we open or close our eyes, ears, minds and hearts to. Revelation depends greatly on our training to either see or refuse to see. Plain truth and fresh vision might well be right before our eyes, but if we don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear, we’ll overlook, deny or even refuse them. We will miss it, though it might well be right before our eyes! Just ask Pilate. ‘What is truth?’ he asked, and The Way, The Truth and The Life stood right in front of him!

Thomas Jefferson’s prejudice against the supernatural precluded his rejecting both Christ’s divinity and miracles, so he took a pair of scissors and literally cut everything out of his Bible which did not agree with this rationalistic, but foolish, paradigm. Not only was he left with a holy Bible, but his assumptions ripped gaping holes in his overall world perspective.
Western Christians are being trained by culture and circumstances to view life through a lens of consumer-comfortable, self-centred materialist religion. Our culture offers us a line of stylish glasses, more concerned about how well we look (our appearance conformed) than how well we see (our vision transformed). We need Our Father’s New Covenant Son-glasses to see life His way, from His perspective. It 's all about 'The Revelation of Jesus Christ'! We need to focus and see Jesus at the centre on the throne. Only then are we able to see light in darkness, beauty through pain, order in the midst of confusion.
What glasses do you have on?
Conveniently but unfortunately, we have removed much of what the Bible speaks about suffering and persecution from our conscious worldview.
We have learned to quickly read over these verses, giving them polite lip service, but convinced they were for other people of other places or times. In turn, we have been spoiled for the real work of the Spirit and the kingdom of God.
We have been sold fashionable, but deceptive, designer glasses that have skewed our viewing, thinking and living.
We have equated suffering with personal and cultural discomfort and confused attacks of the devil with The Comforter’s efforts to renew us as salt and light. Comfort, personal peace and affluence are the new gods and goals that have supplanted sacrifice and service in our worship. We have virtually exorcised suffering and persecution from our Bible and life consciousness. Our eyes are predisposed to skim over these ‘difficult’ passages and focus on the more feel-good, pleasure-giving portions.
We have ascribed to the creed: If it is uncomfortable, it cannot be God.
We have taken away from God’s Word and diluted the gospel’s power.

For example, a ‘prosperity gospel’ mindset reads Mark 10:30, focuses on ‘houses and lands, hundredfold now in this time’, equates them with wealth + riches, but omits ‘with persecutions’. This set of glasses, either out of denial, ignorance, or blindness assumes this either 'must be a typo,’ or really applied to a different time when Christians were not as enlightened as we are today. But keep reading and you’ll find suffering and persecution virtually everywhere in the Bible and you cannot overlook or deny their value to us also today!
Look at 1Pet 1:11. The Old Testament prophets foresaw, but could not comprehend ‘the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.’ The Pharisees looked for the glory of a future Messiah through their own set of expectations, but Jesus Christ the Messiah did not fit their list, especially the suffering part, so they rejected Him. They read Isaiah 53, but neither received its true meaning nor made the connection that the prophesied Messiah equaled this foretold Suffering Servant present in Jesus Christ. He came to His own and His own did not receive Him (John 1:12). He did not fit their preconceived mindset of who He would be and what He would do! Jesus neither wore their brand of glasses, nor conformed to their predetermined image!
The disciples had the same problem: it took them over two years to realize who Jesus was.
Yes, He was a real man, but the God-man, God in flesh, the Christ, Son of the Living God?
After His identity finally became revelation to them, Jesus started speaking about the next step, His destiny, but again they could not receive it.
‘We are going to Jerusalem; I will be crucified, but I will rise again.’
He clearly outlined the plan to them at least 3 times, but they never understood. When Good Friday came, they could not believe Sunday was coming. Sunday morning came and they were hiding behind locked doors, afraid for their lives. Jesus’ words hadn’t fit their worldview. Their Messiah was supposed to charge into Jerusalem on a white horse, liberate Judea and send the Romans packing! Peter even openly rebuked Jesus about His negative thinking. Every time He brought it up, they changed the subject, either willfully, ignorantly or just plain willfully ignorant. They could not see what He saw. Their glasses distorted, discoloured and blinded their view. Jesus tore the veil away so they could see clearly. Have we sewn it back up again?

How willfully ignorant are you about the next step ahead in your destiny? Are you willing to see, accept and embrace what lies ahead? Can you discern what the enemy means for evil and believe the Lord will turn it for good and a testimony to His greater glory?

Look further at Philippians 1:29: ‘…it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for His sake.’ Reading with C20th Western ‘comfort glasses’ automatically stops after ‘believe in him’ and evaporates that last phrase on suffering into unconscious unbelief. However, the Word remains. And its true comfort, if you will receive it, will be there for you when you need it. And rest assured: you will need it if you are serious about following the Master.

Take a further look at another familiar passage: ‘And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,’ (Rev 12:11ab) Here is a powerful statement of God’s ability to bring victory out of seeming defeat. But that is only a portion of the entire verse and much of our contemporary Church has customized this Scripture by mentally blotting out the last phrase ‘and they did not love their lives to the death.’ Now I know that ‘death’ part is really uncomfortable and theologically, Jesus already died for my sinsand conquered death, so can’t we just skip the suffering part and go right into the glory! Let's just live in the glory, right?

Right! So, why not take the whole Scripture by faith and move into the whole glory, from glory to glory, disregarding our physical comforts' complaints. Our Western Christian mindset wants to serve God, but hesitates at the threshold of truly laying it all down. It’s like everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die to get there! We can't quite grasp what's really on the other side. Such incomplete views lead only to disappointment and discouragement when reality ultimately sets in.
Rev 12:11c is still in effect today. In fact, if today’s Church really wants to move into the next glory, we will have to count the costs (both what Christ already paid on The Cross and our present responsibilities as disciples) and follow Jesus just as every generation that has desired genuine testimony over mere hypocrisy.

Centuries ago, in the midst of intense, empire-wide persecution, Tertullian, one of our Early Church Fathers, proclaimed: ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church!’
Or, in other words, ‘When the Church is persecuted, it grows!’
It is historical fact that when one Christian died in the arena, ten more were ‘born again’ in the stands. Do the math. Eventually Roman persecution destroyed itself: the true God won more hearts than the idol emperors!
But much of today’s Western church has lost the power and meaning of this revelation.
We have immunized ourselves against suffering and persecution. Comfort and self-preservation have become our underlying creeds and goals (although I’m sure we would not admit that).
We have so sheltered ourselves from real Christianity that it is difficult for us to even recognize, let alone respond to, the real thing when it confronts us.
We are familiar with stories and pictures of martyrs from other periods of Church history, but they seem somehow distant, so ancient to us.
We feel a sentimental tug on our hearts when we hear how they suffered for their faith: thrown to the lions, burnt at stakes, nailed to crosses, flaming human torches for Nero’s garden parties. But that was all back then, wasn't it?
We are ignorant of both suffering’s content (tribulation can really be in God’s will for Christians today - 1Pet 4:19 ‘let those who suffer according to the will of God’) and context in the worldwide Church today. Do you know that more Christians have died for their faith in just this last century than in all previous centuries combined?
Persecution is not a thing of the past, at least not for real Christians in the real world. For many it is a present truth, obstacle and overcoming testimony! Rather than just decry the Western Church’s Laodicean state and its exchange of fire, zeal and passion for religious form and escapist raptures, we need to take steps of faith and obedience to break apathy and reveal true Christian testimony. The kingdom of God is so much better than the seductive American Dream!

Should we then pray for persecution? 2Tim 3:12 clearly answers: ‘All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.’ We don’t have to pray for persecution.
Simply follow The Master faithfully; the world treats His real disciples like they treated Him. Experiencing reproach for our own sin is not the same as suffering for Jesus (1Pet 2:20). It’s for Christ’s sake, not our own, that yields glory to Him! Live godly in your everyday world like Jesus did (WDJD?), and you will encounter (no, you will create) reaction + opposition. The world will seek to crucify you! The status quo does not like its world turned upside down…. or right side up! Persecution will stalk, follow and find you.
It’s not so much what you do or don’t do: it’s essentially whom you follow, who you carry within, who you are. Desire to live godly ‘in Christ Jesus’ and this new identity will become so clear that, not only will your old ‘self’ be unrecognizable, but the world will recognize and fight against this Christ in you. You will make a difference for Christ and any crisis will be your opportunity to shine. After all, ‘crisis’, essentially 'The Cross in action', only brings out what truly lives within, reveals what we’re made of, and yields fruit to God’s glory.
The Sauls of this world are watching and cannot ignore God’s Stephens. Their deaths are never in vain; they yield Pauls who change nations.

‘.. with persecutions 2’

2009-05-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

Part 1 focused on how we need God’s perspective on life’s whole picture. We need to see what and how God sees: the overall view first and then the details. Often we do not see the forest for the trees; we get lost, hung up on the details and miss the whole point. Life seems a mysterious puzzle without any picture on the box. We grope about, trying to connect pieces that won’t fit, sometimes not even sure they belong to our picture! That’s what happened to Eve in the Garden. She got distracted, took her eyes off the centre Tree and lost her focus. Ever since, nothing really fit, but man has been still trying to pick up the pieces. We’ve been eating from the other Tree: out of focus, off balance, blurry-eyed, never satisfied and never able to come to the knowledge of the whole until…
Jesus Christ came and restored the Tree of Life!
In His Light, we can now discern what the enemy means for evil, and work with God to turn it rather for good. When we are ‘looking unto Jesus’, everything else comes into focus and finds its true, full image. Everything must ultimately find its place in Him: either in glory or judgment. When exposed, it must be either changed or consumed, developed or destroyed.
Reveal your whole picture, Lord: a forest of Trees of Life, your kingdom filling us and all the earth!

We can be confident that whatever is centred on Jesus will stand. He builds His Church securely, but not always comfortably, on the Rock. The only Foundation that will stand forever was laid at The Cross: Jesus Christ and Him crucified, who He is and what He has done. True apostles and prophets testify to this alone, build according to His true plumbline (The Word) and do not stray from His clear testimony (The Spirit). Anything more or less will be exposed as such when testing comes and the fires of suffering and persecution reveal the building’s true nature. Wood, hay and stubble are consumed; gold, silver and living stones manifest His Temple’s glory. Wise masterbuilders build accordingly. They do not fear or deny the tests, sufferings and persecutions which come. They welcome them as bringing the whole picture into clearer testimony, touching others, even entire nations, for the faith. True apostles with such vision are rare these days.

But we had such a man stay with us in our home about 20 years ago: a true apostle, not an ego-tripping, looking-for-position-to-validate-his-identity-wannabe. Prem Pradhan was the real thing and having him in our church and home felt like having the Apostle Paul right with us. Prem came from Nepal, a strictly Hindu-Buddhist kingdom tucked in the Himalaya Mountains between India and China. A generation ago, Nepal had no known Christians. Prem served in the Indian army during WWII with the British Air Force and was shot down and wounded. He walked with a noticeable limp from that injury for the rest of his life. In early 1950’s northern India, Prem, about 30 years old, heard a disciple of Bakht Singh proclaim, “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment.” (Heb 9:27) It was a strange message for his Hindu understanding and he wondered how he could avoid that judgment. He asked the street preacher, who then challenged him to read the New Testament – 6 times! Prem did. During his reading, he gave his life to Jesus and God called him to go back to his country and preach the gospel that had saved him. Like Moses, Prem at first objected.
“I am a cripple,” he argued, “how can I walk up and down mountains?
And I don’t know all the different languages to reach all those isolated villages!
I can’t hike and I can’t speak. Call someone else.” But God would not relent.

One more problem: in Nepal at that time, it was illegal to not only preach, but merely to be a Christian! An automatic 1-year prison sentence if a person changed religions, especially if they became Christian. For the more extreme: 3 yrs in jail for preaching, 6 if you were caught baptizing converts! Sure enough, after he returned to his country, it only took a short time and Prem was in trouble with the authorities. A paralyzed woman was healed when Prem prayed for her and the miracle so stirred the town that many turned to Christ, even the local Buddhist lama! Prem wrote and invited the local authorities to the new believers’ open baptism. “Jesus suffered openly for us,” he taught. “We must be willing to suffer openly for Him.” The enraged authorities arrested the believers and threw Prem in jail. But they murdered the lama.
Prem languished in a dungeon of death. No ventilation in summer, no heat in winter. Sanitation facilities were non-existent, biting insects everywhere! Rehabilitation was not the goal of Nepalese jails. Prisoners were given bare survival rations of only one cup of rice per day to cook over their own little fires. Without help from relatives, many soon died.
He had done no harm; he was there just for who he was!

Prem was discouraged. “Lord, you saved me with a purpose: to preach the gospel to my nation. How can I do this when I’m stuck here in this filthy prison?” He first saw only filthy prisoners, but as he looked around, he noted that many were from outside his local area. He saw that the Lord had brought his mountain mission field to him! One by one, he started to minister to them naturally and spiritually, showing Christ’s love in this inside-the-prison Training Centre and one by one, he led them to Jesus. Eventually, on their release, they returned to their homes filled with Christ, shared their new faith and love with their families and friends, and started churches in their villages. God’s plan for evangelizing Nepal was different from what Prem had first envisioned: prison ministry with a twist! Soon churches began to spring up over the entire nation, more quickly and effectively than Prem could have ever done in his own way!
Then Satan’s persecution tactics changed. The prison warden grew very angry with Prem.
“Prem,” he said, “you must stop sharing your faith. After all, that’s why you’re here in prison! You must obey me!”
Prem responded like the early apostles: “I must first obey God in my life, in prison or out.”
The warden gave up in frustration and moved Prem to another prison. Prem saw the hand of God in this too: he had already finished evangelizing this prison; he was now ready for a new field to sow more gospel seed in other needy hearts!
Between 1960 and 1975, Prem spent 10 years in 14 different prisons!
Once his sentence was 20,000 days – 54 years! and his release came only when Western friends intervened and paid a ransom of 1 rupee per day, equivalent to $2000.

The only charge they could find against Prem was being a Christian. I wonder: if you were arrested for being a Christian, would the authorities find enough evidence to convict you?

At one point, Maoist political prisoners overcame the guards and ran for freedom. The gates were open, everyone was running and Prem found himself also running with them, caught up in the excitement. However, when he reached the gate, an invisible wall suddenly prevented him from running further.
He heard Holy Spirit say, “If you cross through that gate and run for your freedom, you will have to keep running all the way to India and you will never be able to return to your country. Then you will never be free to fulfill your destiny and my call on your life.”
Prem stopped immediately, transfixed at an invisible line, unable to move.
Other prisoners rushed past him, shouting, ‘Come! This is our chance!’
But Prem stood there.
Still others shouted, “Hurry, Prem! Don’t lose this opportunity. Be free! Don’t be a fool!”
Incredibly, he remained standing. All the others escaped and within a few minutes, army reinforcements arrived to restore order. All the prisoners were gone, except one: Prem. The soldiers stared at their lone prisoner, standing in the courtyard all by himself, freedom’s gate still open before him.
“Why are you still here?” they wondered in amazement. “Why didn’t you go with the others when you had your chance?”
Prem replied, “Do you really want to know?”
Little did they know what they were in for when they responded, “Yes, why?” and Prem proceeded to share Christ with them all. He had earned the right to share ‘the reason for the hope that was in him’ and now also reaped the harvest.

God eventually opened many doors for this man who would not just run through any.
He knew that when God opened a door, no man could shut it, but when man tries to open what God has shut, his efforts are in vain. During different interludes between prison sentences, Prem returned to his home village, where he continued sharing his faith and love for Jesus. Problems plagued Nepal: sickness, poverty and ignorance were rife and the traditional Hindu-Buddhist religions were unable to bring healing, life or light. The Light of Christ shone in thick darkness, and many were touched, even without their full understanding.
His village Hindu + Buddhist leaders could not agree on their local government council; the two sides were always fighting. So rather than choose a leader from either camp whom neither could trust, they asked Prem the Christian to serve as their mayor! They knew they could trust Prem. God has an ironic sense of humour: an illegal Christian became mayor of a Hindu/Buddhist town! God’s favour shone through Prem and he served in this capacity for many years, also founding orphanages and schools to care for his people. Even the King of Nepal heard of his humanitarian and educational work and presented him with a special Social Service Medal of Honour!

However, others became envious and conspired all the more against Prem. He found himself again in prison, under the watch of a very evil warden who hated him with a passion. He determined to do away with Prem and put him in an unimaginably horrible situation: a dungeon filled with prisoners’ dead bodies awaiting their families’ retrieval for cremation. No room to stand up or lie down, no food, no water, no light, but lots of lice! Chained hand and foot, in complete darkness with only the company of rats and disease-infested, rotting corpses! Imagine being in such a hell-hole! He survived only by scraping what little moisture he could from the dank walls and bread crumbs that other prisoners generously snuck through the cracks between the massive door and stone floor. Days passed into weeks, but Prem’s courage grew. When he closed his eyes, he could envision pages of his Nepali New Testament. That’s how he read and prayed.
One day the guard outside heard him praying out loud.
“Who are you talking to?” the guard asked.
“Jesus,” Prem replied.
“I’m on guard. No one gets by me! How’d he get in there?”
“Well, He’s here.”
The guard opened the door and shined in his light.’ “I don’t see Jesus,” he said.
“You won’t find Him that way,” Prem said. “Let me tell you how you can find Him.”
The guard squatted on the threshold and Prem led him to the Lord.

Weeks passed in this chamber and eventually Prem despaired for his life. He could not see how God would call him to preach to his nation, but have it end in this dungeon of death. It seemed all hope was gone and both the natural and spiritual darkness were overwhelming him. But just when Prem was at the end of his rope, suddenly a supernatural light appeared on the wall:
a glowing Cross radiated Christ’s presence, power and life.
Prem heard His Saviour’s voice, “Don’t be afraid, Prem! Don’t lose hope! You will preach the gospel in your own nation, and beyond, to other nations around the world!”
Shortly thereafter, the warden opened the door, fully expecting to find only Prem’s collapsed, wasted corpse. However, to his complete amazement, Prem walked out of the darkness and stood before him: a testimony of perfect health!
“But… how can this be?” he stammered. “I threw you among all those rotting bodies, without food or water for all these days, and now, rather than dead, you look more alive than when I threw you in! How can this be?”
“Do you really want to know?” Prem coolly replied.

About 10 years ago, we heard that Prem went home to be with Jesus. He fought the good fight, ran his course and passed the baton to his Timothy, Sundar Thapa. Sundar, who now leads this growing fellowship of over 400 churches, a Bible Training Centre, schools and orphanages, has also visited us since. Nepal has gone through revolution: both political and spiritual. One of their princes massacred 10 of his own royal family a few years ago, sending shock waves through a once invincible traditional ruling hierarchy. Today, Maoist communists control a parliament trying to govern a bitterly divided nation. The traditional religions have lost much of their respect and control, but Christ’s Church has multiplied throughout the land. Where there were once no known Christians 60 years ago, now hundreds of thousands (some estimate up to 1 million!) follow Christ and fill the streets of Kathmandu in Jesus Marches, witnessing and proclaiming the gospel!

How can this be? In such a short time!
We in the West find it difficult to recognize, let alone, experience true revival.
The Western Church is caught in a snare of competing forms, programs and experiences, enticed by distractions, building our own ministries, churches and kingdoms to the detriment of His. Self-centred materialism, entertainment, endtimes fallacies, politics and other fleshly pursuits have taken our focus off Jesus.
We have lost His power to do what He has called us to do because we are no longer what He has called us to be! We have chosen to go to church rather than be it!
We’ve read and interpreted the Scripture according to our own comfort zones, taken the popular parts like ‘they overcame by the blood + word of testimony’ but deleted the equally important ‘loved not their lives to the death’.
We’ve cut out the uncomfortable parts like ‘suffering’ and ‘with persecutions’ because our self-centred focus does not comprehend ‘for my sake and the gospel’.
Our Western church has lived off a legacy from previous generations, but the time has come for our generation to ‘fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ’ (Col 1:24).
We don’t have to pray for persecution: live truly godly and persecution will come.
The emerging 3rd World Church does not need what we have; we need who they are!
We’ve been spoiled! We need to return to our roots in the simplicity of Christ. (2Cor 11:3-4)
We need to repent of our fabrications of new, improved gospels; they are nothing more than hyped-up manipulations!
The true gospel is simple and it works! Christ died, buried, resurrected, seated on the throne, ruling and reigning NOW! His kingdom filling the earth…first to hungry and thirsty individuals, then to the fields around us….multitudes!

I sense the frustration and questions out there: you are tired of old forms, regurgitated Old Testament theology dressed in empty New Testament terms, programs lacking the life and power of the Living God!
How did we ever get so far away from that simple experience of Christ’s faith and love in action that first won our hearts?
‘Having begun in the Spirit are you now going to be made perfect by the flesh?’ (Gal 3:3)
How can this be?
Like Prem standing before both the astonished guards and warden, I see the body of Christ rising up, overcoming …even ‘with persecutions,’ challenging those yet in darkness,
“Do you really want to know?”

2009-03-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

Gang-busters – the Jesus Way!

Guns, violence, murder! Local newspaper headlines shout this message lately in virtually every issue. Rival gangs fighting for control of the highly lucrative drug trade have spiked our city’s crime rate. Not just handguns, but arsenals of heavy-duty weapons. Bodies dumped in ditches; brazen afternoon shootings at busy city intersections, gun battles in our malls and subdivisions. Must more innocent bystanders become victims in the turf-wars’ cross-fire? People are crying out for action, demanding increased police surveillance, calling for court reforms to a revolving-door policy which releases drug felons all too quickly on mere technicalities. With no more than ineffective slaps to their wrists, they are soon freed to continue their illicit activities. When will judges favour victims’ rights, rather than criminals’? Police are overworked and discouraged, fighting a war the ‘bad guys’ seem to be winning.

I’m tired of hearing ‘Another shooting in Abbotsford…’ on nightly newscasts. Why is our city so well-known for not only grow-ops, but violence and murder? The ‘Abbotsford Murderer’ put us on the international map, but who wants that distinction? One item even ranked us as Crime Capital of Canada!? But what really stirs me are those reports which then continue by describing our city sarcastically(?) as the ‘Bible Belt’ of B.C.! Bit of a paradox: crime + religion linked so closely? Makes me wonder: with all our churches, has the Bible Belt lost its Buckle!?

Who indeed is in control here: God or the drug gangs? Rather than throw up our hands in defeat, I believe the Church of Abbotsford needs to take a pro-active stance. The solution is not building bigger barns or jails. Nor is it blaming outside influences like Mexican-Colombian drug wars for British Columbian problems. We need to fight these problems by faith solutions here in our city. Demand here stimulates the supply there! We need to cut off the drug trade at its source: addiction, hopelessness, helplessness, here.
Empty lives here in Abbotsford need filling. Wounded hearts here need healing.
Comparing statistics of church attendance to rampant drug use is futile: the devil laughs at such religious vanity! I believe the Holy Spirit is here to lead us through this if we will follow.

Jesus defeated the works of the devil at His 1st Coming; His kingdom faith and power give us dominion over violence. Before Jesus came, there was no demonic deliverance. People tried their best, but the world lay under the power of the evil one. But when He appeared as God in the flesh, the forces of hell recognized Him.
He did not debate theologically with them; He simply commanded them: “Go!”
They objected, “It’s not time yet.” (Matt 8:29)
But Jesus countered, “You’re not calling the times here. My time is not your time.OUT!”
They had no choice but to leave.
Don’t ask devils or drug dealers whether it’s their time to go or not.
Nor will legalizing the problem solve anything. These gangs will simply seek other schemes to destroy our youth and enrich themselves. I know from personal experience.

But we need something more than stricter law-and-order, caving in to criminals or hiding in religious buildings. God is calling His Church to rise and stand up in faith for our city! We have good news for Abbotsford! Jesus conquered death and violence and has a better way!
In Matthew 12:22-30, Jesus went to the root source and solved the problem.
First: bind the strongman! He didn’t offer mere strategy or spiritual warfare principles. What He prophesied He actually did at The Cross, even when it cost Him His life! Satan did not take Christ’s life; Jesus yielded it up… for us, for you, for our city. When He rose, Jesus broke our bondage to sin and in turn bound the strong man! It’s already done! Revelation proclaims what Jesus did on Calvary: He bound the devil and cast him into the bottomless pit. (Rev 20:3) This is not some future event. Colossians 2:14-15 and Hebrews 2:14-15 confirm how Jesus bound the devil and his demonic gang THEN… at The Cross. As we once were bound, but now are free, so he was free, but now is bound.The Risen Christ has given us authority to plunder Satan’s goods and release souls too long deceived and imprisoned by drugs and darkness. He overcame and so we are now overcomers, called to make a difference in our city.
Satan doesn’t care how often we go to church; in fact, he prefers we stay in our buildings so he can rule in our streets. He’ll let us be comfortable in our churches if we give him our city.
He only has as much power as we give him, so let’s give him nothing!

Prayer-warriors! Intercessors! Be encouraged in the midst of battle: victory is sure!
Stand together: 1 body united, under authority of Christ’s Blood, on His sure foundation. Proclaim: “The Lord rebuke you!” against the forces of darkness.
Evil, both spiritual and physical, cannot stand against the Blood of Christ. They will flee.
Demons are not only fallen, but falling, angels. Let’s make them fall further every day!
Our community needs His light! Psychological strategies are not enough. Only the whole, simple gospel effectively pulls down these strongholds.

Christ has commissioned us to restore this embattled generation that Satan has targeted to wipe out in senseless carnage. Light overcomes darkness; truth defeats lies; His life always triumphs over death and violence!

P.S. This article was written for our local Abbotsford newspaper but has yet to be published.
However, I felt an urgency in my spirit to post it now because my local community isn't the
only one facing such difficulties that only the gospel can confront and overcome.
I would appreciate any dialogue/feedback you might have on this?
Is Satan really bound? Is Jesus really already crowned?
If so, what effect should this have on our real-life situations? What do you think?

PPS!!! The News still hasn't printed this article, but since I posted it here, a number of us got together one Thursday evening to pray about this. Using Rev 12 as a base and launching out from this foundation, we took authority in Jesus' Name by His Blood! And guess what? Not only did the presence of the Lord fill our hearts and the meeting, but the next morning, one of the members of the Red Scorpion gang confessed to the police that he had been part of the murder of 6 men last year, and gave evidence against 3 other prominent leaders, including one of the notorious Bacon Brothers! Police were ready and arrested these other 3 right that very morning!
They are now off the streets and awaiting trial. Now I know others have been praying also, but we were so encouraged by the timing...right the next morning after we had prayed! Thank you, Jesus! It's enough to make you want to keep praying, eh???

2009-01-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

“May God Himself, who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole – spirit, soul, and body.” (1Thess 5:23- The Message) God’s will is for people to be healed, completely at one with Him, themselves and others. He is the God of peace. Jesus is The Prince of Peace, the One who breaks confusion. Last year, our STC (now Simply Transformed by Christ) outreach teams ministered both in Mexico and locally in Canada. Just as Jesus sent his disciples out to heal, so after six months of training, He sent us out to freely give, even as we had freely received. And good news reports have returned with us. Whether here or abroad, hearts are open to receive the kingdom of God now being manifest in all the earth!
We saw miracles take place! God has not stopped doing miracles. The same Holy Spirit that worked through Jesus and the apostles of the early church still works miracles today. Hopeless cases are possible with God. Miracles of heart, mind, soul, body; every part of our human being needs to be whole and just as Jesus moved in compassion and healed multitudes, so He continues by faith today!
Our students prayed for a deaf child and where there had been no hearing, suddenly full hearing came in one ear and the other began to open also. Why didn’t full hearing come to both ears immediately? I don’t know, but I thank God for the healing that did take place. Others prayed for a man whose leg had been crippled, stiff, inflexible. Shortly afterwards, they heard bones cracking, he began moving his leg and soon he was jumping around on it before them! Another lady had come with her arm bandaged and in a sling. As the students prayed with her, she suddenly tore off the sling, began waving her arms wildly and even clapping her hands together. Her actions and joy witnessed her evident healing.
But God heals more than physical bodies. He sets captives free spiritually also. After hearing our message, one woman became quite overcome, fell down and began writhing on the floor, very distraught. Three of us prayed over her, took authority, and together with the pastor, broke the demon’s power, and cast it out. The woman was freed to receive Christ in her life and be made whole! It’s exciting to see “every knee will bow” happening today! The kingdom of God is present and filling the earth just as Jesus said it would. He is only looking for hungry hearts of faith to respond to His Word & Spirit’s leading.
Personally, I saw a beautiful testimony of God’s willingness and ability to heal the deepest hurts of the heart. One evening, I was drawn towards a group of adults and children off to one side of the church. I had a strong leading towards a man, woman, little girl and older woman, but I had no assurance they were actually a family. However, as I prayed, I saw them more as a family, and even spoke over them in my broken Spanish, “familia”. When I prayed over ‘Mama’, she broke into tears; then I continued with the husband, the little girl, and Grandma (?) Then they brought a younger boy and I was assured it was their son and this was indeed a family. The Holy Spirit ministered and Mama and Grandma were both in tears as they explained through my interpreter that as I had spoken ‘familia’ over them without even knowing they were a family, God had brought healing to their hearts. They had been going through marriage difficulties, on the verge of divorce, and now God had shown and reassured them that they were indeed “His familia”. What a joy to see the couple restored, hugging and kissing with their children together: a whole family!
I believe God wants more of this ‘whole’ healing take place. That same evening, the church asked us to bless their children; the parents had been fasting and praying for them all day. We laid hands on them and then invited any others who wanted to become as little children in the kingdom of God to give their hearts to Christ and be born again. Immediately a number of young and old, men and women responded and the miracle of new birth became reality again! Without God we are incomplete. Only Jesus can make people whole. Healing in Jesus is for the whole person: body, soul and spirit; heart, mind and will. This wholeness is available and happening today wherever hearts are open in faith to His love. How’s your wholeness?

SMILE! GOD'S TAKING PICTURES!

2009-01-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

Our plane landed at 6pm, the sky darkened, and immediately the heavens unleashed a massive wave of crashing thunder, lightning and an overwhelming flood. This was my welcome to Nigeria last June on the second leg of my African mission. I was soaked, but ran across the tarmac toward the baggage depot, appreciative that any later, our plane could not have landed or even worse crashed, like one a few months earlier at this very airport, killing all on board. The thunder wasn’t just noisy: it shook the whole earth; the lightning illumined whole sections of the sky. One child put it this way: “God is taking pictures!”
But how were His pictures developing in me that day? Port Harcourt is not my favourite airport, but it is my most eventful. I ‘expect the unexpected’ there. 25 years ago on my 1st arrival, I was arrested by the military police before even entering the country. Years later, I spent an entire day in its sweltering terminal, jostling 500 other passengers for only 125 seats, all holding ‘OK’ tickets. Seats opened for those who had proper connections and money, in stark contrast to the prominently posted warning: “It is illegal to give or take a bribe.”
And here I was again, back in this same memory-provoking terminal. Another drumroll of thunder shook the entire building and… God took a picture. So far, the day had been manageable; no emergencies. I felt relieved. I waited as the baggage carousel emptied; passengers claimed their luggage and headed into the raging storm. My clothing bag appeared, but my second suitcase didn’t. One bag, same shape as mine but different colour, circled around and around unclaimed. Then the belt stopped, only this bag remained… and mine was still nowhere in sight. Another thunderclap, the unexpected was expectedly happening; my bag had gone missing; questions filled my mind and …God took another picture.
Three hours of bureaucratic hassle followed. Security officials refused to believe someone had inadvertently taken my bag and left theirs. No one could get by security without the proper luggage tags, so my bag must be back in Lagos. We had to get information “into the system” and my bag would arrive in the morning. I obediently followed them from building to building, getting even more soaked. In a typically abrupt Nigerian manner, my 3 baggage officers argued, blaming each other while quizzing me for information about my bag. The loudest thunderclap of all then effectively knocked out the power; we sat there in darkness, but they continued arguing non-stop. The power eventually returned, but not my bag.
My missionary friends had advised me to stay at a nearby hotel where they would pick me up the next morning. It is not safe to travel after dark: police roadblocks often turn out to be masquerading bandits. One agent sympathetically called me a taxi driver whom she knew because, “Some drivers just come to take you and then they take you away!” Not too assured, I drove off into the night with her driver, hopefully to the hotel. More lightning and thunder filled my senses; rain and fear were now driving me more.
I had stayed there before, but that night this hotel seemed eerie. No other guests were in the lobby. I asked the desk girl for a room. “$100 US cash, no VISA; has to be one $100 bill.” A cashier took my money and gave me neither a word nor a receipt. “If you and your room are ‘OK’ tomorrow, we might give you some back,” she muttered. Not very reassuring. A porter took my only bag. By this time my imagination was running wild and he looked to me like Igor from the horror movies. He even dragged his one leg behind him as we headed for the elevators! And the power outage had rendered them out of service, so I followed ‘Igor’ up 6 flights of stairs. Why up 6 floors in an empty hotel? At the landing, 2 uniformed ‘guards’ confronted us; one carried what resembled a submachine gun. I hoped he was what his uniform professed. Igor assured them I was a real guest and led me down the hallway, sloshing through 4 inches of water. The leaks had become a river. He turned the key and opened the door to my room. All appeared fine until I thought to tip him, but without any change from the cashier, I only had a 100 Naira bill. Not knowing its value, I thought that would suffice. Igor however took it, fumbled it, mumbled at me, and threw it down! I didn’t want to offend the only friend I had left in the world, so I frantically searched further, added another 20N, and offered him both. He grunted, took them, walked out and locked my door with his key behind him! I ran to the door and slammed the deadbolt shut from my side. The storm again shook the whole building. God took another picture and I wasn’t looking too good.
Fear gripped me. I had to contact someone. I grabbed my cell, dialed my missionary friends’ number. No response. Using my Roaming Network, I hoped to touch home base in Abbotsford somehow, regardless of the cost. I dialed the familiar numbers of wife and family - home. It rang, but an unfamiliar generic telephone voice answered. I could have coped with, “Wrong number,” “Busy,” or “Out of Service,” but this voice declared, “This number does not exist!” and my heart dropped. I felt I had fallen over the edge. Nothing that really mattered existed any longer. More thunder and lightning followed and God continued taking my pictures: Fear exposed and despair developed.
How do you counter Fear (believing that something bad you cannot see/control is going to happen)? I would like to say I dealt with fear better than I did that evening, but I didn’t. Only when I subjected my shaken thoughts to the Faith of God’s Word did I find peace. I remembered Revelation 4:5: thunder and lightning proceed from God’s Throne. God is in control; not the devil. Satan only twists what God has set; he creates nothing on his own. When Faith (believing that something good you cannot see/control is going to happen) rose in my heart; I trusted God and rested.
In morning light, Igor really didn’t look so fearful, the cashier gave me some money back, the traveler who’d mistakenly taken my bag returned it, and my friends arrived to pick me up. Things are not what they often seem to be; we need not fear, but have the faith of God. Thunder and lightning really mean that God is taking your picture. Smile!!!

Revival ???

2009-01-10T15:12:00.000-08:00

I've been wondering about modern revival in our contemporary North American Christian church. Is it a one-time event, a series of exciting meetings featuring miracles, strange phenomena, changed lives, or..? 'Revival' simply defined is 'raising to life what was once dead.' But how can a resurrected spiritual body like Christ's Church become so dead it has to be continually revived? And how often? Every generation needs its own move of God, but how genuine is Christian 'revival' if it needs to be raised from the dead every couple years… or months or days? Is it a seasonal thing? How many times can you be 'born again' again? Perhaps we are drawing more from hyped-up North American canned religious marketing gimmicks than a whole gospel. Believers in Christ receive a full gospel: Christ lived, died and rose again and this simple but powerful faith changes lives – once for all! We must not compromise this simple truth with lesser religious substitutes. We are the body of Christ, not Lazarus. Angelic stirrings, superficial manifestations and partial spiritual awakenings are incomplete and even deceptive when they only heighten expectations but do not clearly exalt Jesus and affect the genuine goods.

We have forgotten our simple roots in Christ and this is evidenced by how Scripture is often taken out of context to justify assumptions and then twisted into something far removed from its original intent. For example, John 5:1-15, the Pool of Bethesda scenario: a man with a 38-year long infirmity waits at the pool’s edge for an angel to stir the waters so he can get in, be healed and revived. This passage has been used to promote special geographically-located 'revival' healing wells, but I have a few questions about its relevance and relationship to real revival.

First, my marginal notes indicate that the last part of verse 3 and all of verse 4 are not in our earliest Bible texts. The Bible records no other such healing manifestation in Bethesda; no Jewish historical records contain that story. This is a Bible notation of mere Jewish tradition. It's a myth, a human form of religious superstition! But people have wrenched it out of context to build 'healing' ministries on watery, unstable, leaky foundations. Healing is in the fountain of Jesus' Blood, not in some pool of mystical pilgrimage.

Second, this situation is totally inconsistent with God as the Bible reveals Him. The Great I AM is a God of love; not selfish, competitive ambition. . Yes, God can do what He wants and His ways do change; but His changeable ways are ever consistent with His unchangeable nature, never in contradiction to who God is. “In the beginning… God. The Great I AM. I am the Lord, I change not. I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday today and forever.” He does not reward those who sense angelic stirrings and beat everyone else into the pool. It's incredible that such a misrepresentation of God is tolerated, let alone celebrated in much of today's church. Such teaching and manner of ministry is totally inconsistent with the Bible's revelation of Jesus Christ. Healing is definitely connected with faith, but is it that type of run-to-Bethesda, Lakeland or wherever ‘faith’, first-in-the-pool-gets-healed ‘faith’, even if it means pushing others aside for your miracle ‘faith’ that God is revealing here? A 'faith' that heals the few who make it in before everyone else but leaves the sick and dying at the edge, clinging to residues of mystical hope is not the faith of Jesus. Such a charade leaves not only a poolside of rejected, unhealed victims behind in its wake, but a bad taste in my heart and a stain on the misrepresented image and character of God. An entire revivalist culture has built around this supposition. It is a false revelation.

Christ's healing is deeper and fuller than merely requiring a physical response to some supernatural surface manifestation. However, much North American Christianity seems bored with the real thing and has instead dug up 'superspiritual' substitutes and passed them off as Christian life. Jeremiah writes to us:

"My people have committed two evils:

They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,

And hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water." (Jer 2:13)

Pools, cisterns… systems that hold no water; religious systems based on myth and tradition; ministry extravaganzas that exalt personalities and gifts. We have hewn them out. They are neither God's Hand nor Kingdom, but works of human flesh and idolatrous religion. In the end, they yield nothing but false hope, disappointment and delusion.

We are like that paralytic, lying at the edge, waiting on arbitrary stirrings of revival. And as in the Bible account, the real Jesus, the Way the Truth and the Life Jesus, comes to us, deeply moved by our constant infirmities, and asks, "Do you want to be healed?" Not just surface, physical release from pain, but body, soul, spirit, mind, will and emotions whole! In other words, do you want complete salvation, deliverance from not only physical infirmity, but healing in your entire being, even your thinking and feelings changed, a will transformed by His Life?

There is an unhealthy imbalance in Charismatic Christian church life today. We need more than the package form of revival. We need more than surface stirrings of waters; they only stroke bruised egos and ease wounded comfort zones. We need a stirring in our religious root systems. We have failed to recognize and acknowledge The Lord for who He is and the way He truly works. He is Love, Mercy and Healing. He is wholeness. The Bible proclaims, “In Christ dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily and you are complete in Him.” We cannot settle for speculative substitute manifestations when Jesus Christ has made the Way into the Holy of Holies clear and open for us by His Blood once for all. His Presence is poured out for us, in us and through us. We don’t just need a pool to jump in. We have a whole river to swim in and in Christ there is more than enough, even a well to drink in. Anyone really thirsty? Jesus said, “Come to me and out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water, not into you, but out of you! Christ challenged a self-centred religious system in His day; He defeated it at the Cross and continues to confront it today. It is finished! It’s time for the body of Christ to move out of Old Covenant types and shadows into New Covenant light! The River of God’s healing is for the whole: body, soul and spirit whole; individual members and corporate whole.

We need a deeper experience, a depth yet not probed. Spiritual awakening by itself is definitely not enough; there must be a raising up of the body, following through with specific, personal discipleship, changing from religious forms (even and especially when we pride ourselves that we are not ‘religious’) into the real image from glory to glory, not just from experience to experience, where self is the standard of measurement. Those awakened must know His healing faith and power to arise from their hearts and raise their whole being from their pitiful poolside existence. We have been crippled too long without the strength and maturity to truly walk the talk and take real steps forward. We need to drink, eat, and swim in the full River of God’s love. We need more than a visitation; we need, and in Christ we are, a divine habitation. Do you not know that individually your body is the temple of God and corporately we are the body of Christ, the temple of His Holy Spirit?

Church: will you rise from your bed of excuses or keep playing with religious games and gimmicks? Jesus is calling us to be and make disciples, those who will know Him and respond at His leading; those who truly follow the Lamb wherever He goes. We are His sheep, not a groupie following of healing junkies trying to lasso and market hyped-up miracle manifestations that fall far short of His truly revealed glory. We must discern and discount what is not God but what we have called God anyways because that’s all our poor souls have been trained and addicted to. The Law never saved anyone, but neither does license. All they can do is convict that we are in a ditch, need our Saviour and direct us to the Cross. Angels have never saved anyone’s soul nor have they been agents of healing without directing the needy to Jesus. An unhealthy overemphasis of their ministry is nothing more than a renewed cultish Gnosticism. Anything less than the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus is dead religion. It may be a different package, but it’s the same old deception; perhaps a different form or manifestation, but still the same empty religion. Christ challenged a self-centred religious system in His day and still does today. He defeated it then at the Cross and continues to expose its emptiness. It is finished! It's time for the body of Christ to move out of Old Covenant types and shadows and walk in New Covenant light! We have lain crippled too long; it's time to truly rise and walk the talk. While others wait for waters to move, let the Cross move you to look to Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith. Right now He's crying out to a needy world and a distracted Church: "Anyone here want to be whole?

I long to see what happens when we answer 'Yes!' and He adds, "Then take up your bed and walk!" The Church -- rising up, walking in love, unity, revelation and obedience…glorious and whole! Jesus paid for a revolution, true reformation in individuals and community! Let's not settle for lesser forms of 'revival'.

Poipet --- the Armpit???

2009-01-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

Here are 2 contrasting scenes from my recent experience. Can you relate?

Scene I: Our missions team returned from 2 weeks’ ministry in April in Cambodia. It is a unique country, truly like no other place I’ve visited, except perhaps Albania during the 1999 Kosovo Crisis. Highways are so potholed that driving 150 km. to Angkor Wat took over 4 hours. The Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot /Killing Fields atrocities so decimated the nation (3 million were massacred out of a 13 million population!) its people appear traumatized, stunned, hopeless, without vision. Garbage lay deep in the cities; piles of clothing littered their streets; open sewers spewed forth a sour, putrid, pervading stench of decay and refuse. Cattle ambled by, surreally munching on plastic rummaged from fields of rubbish. This is Poipet, a Thai-Cambodian bordertown, comparable in size to Abbotsford. The Lonely Planet guidebook describes Poipet as the armpit of Cambodia with nothing of interest and advises tourists to move on.

We stayed. In fact, this was our destination. The good news of Jesus Christ is hope for every nation and the poor and hopeless especially need it. We encountered more than natural filth. Garbage, open sewers, and litter were mere shadows of even more horrible human devastation. Thailand entices its poor neighbours with promises of money, riches and a better life. However, at least 15% of Thailand’s flourishing GNP thrives on a sex trade which deceptively lures and then entraps poor, homeless orphans into a web of child pornography and prostitution. Sex and money, a lethal combination, know no borders to its lust and greed. Sexploiters infiltrate Cambodia, prey on its orphans and steal them away into a 21^st Century slave trade. Sadly, many of this trade’s customers (the people who supply the demand) are Canadian sex tourists who travel to Thailand for this very purpose. Fortunately, the RCMP is now recognizing this problem, exposing and prosecuting those Canadians who engage in these illicit and inhuman abuses. Children 10 years and even younger are trapped in prostitution, coerced into videoed sex acts for the warped pleasure of perverted, twisted minds. Some even justify this as ‘inter-generational sex’! While there, over 100 of these sexploited women and children were repatriated from Thailand back to Poipet. But this tragedy of traffic in human souls continues.

One Poipet pastor and his wife decided to make a difference. In addition to their own 3 children, they began taking in homeless, orphaned, abandoned children that would otherwise have been forced into sex slavery. 1…2… eventually they added 23 other children. Their growing family became a church, and in turn became an outreach army to wash, feed, and care for hundreds of other abused children. We joined them in a Las Vegas-like strip of Thai-run casinos in a gambling no-man’s land between the 2 countries (sexual exploitation is permitted in Thailand, but gambling is not!). About 150 homeless children jostled about the field, each waiting for 1 of only 100 individually prepared meals of rice and fish. Like Jesus feeding the 5000, his disciples aligned the children in orderly rows on the grass. They ate and every one cleaned up after themselves. Not one piece of litter remained; the lawn was even cleaner and joy filled the air! But security officers from the adjacent glitzy casino intervened and forbade further feedings. They said the children wrecked the grass! Grass more valuable than children?!? Societies based on self, greed and lust, are not only are blind to the poor, but forbid those who help those who cannot help themselves.

Scene II: After returning here to Abbotsford, I attended a Christian meeting. The speaker concluded his message with an altar call: “Who is not happy with your life?” Over half of the congregation stood and waited for the man of God to pray. Were they hoping he would utter magical words to dispel their unhappiness? Perhaps wave his hand and expel their problems to Neverland? Or maybe touch them and break off anxieties that blocked their tangible happiness until their next meeting and altar call?

I watched, listened and felt a mixture of empathy and frustration. Empathy: I can identify with a desire for more of Christ’s fullness and glory to be manifest and evident in my life and the church; definitely I am not happy with the status quo. Frustration: why are so many North Americans, who have so much in this life compared with others in our world, and especially Christians, who confess eternal and abundant life through faith in Christ, so dissatisfied and unhappy? I believe we often measure our lives by the same standard as the world…self. Our ‘happiness’ is then tied to ‘happenings’ (when they’re good, we’re happy, when they’re bad, we’re sad) more than to the joy Jesus’ resurrection life gives. Why is so much of our Christian experience measured and governed by the standard of self when Jesus says His followers are to deny our selves and not use self as a standard of whether or not we are happy! (Matt 16:24)

I asked the Lord what He saw. Scene I’s homeless, hungry Cambodian children intermingled with Scene II’s unhappy North American Christians. I thought: If these ‘well-fed but unhappy with themselves’ Christians would take their riches, invest in Poipet’s poor (or wherever) instead of Starbucks (Walmart or wherever), then I am sure that within 30 seconds they would really get real joy, a vision beyond themselves and even get a life, like really ‘saved’. After all, Jesus said, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” (Matt 25:40)

Test

2009-01-08T11:24:00.001-08:00

Test