This is not particularly unusual, as my normal time to awake in the middle of the night is 3 am, but this is four in a row at 1 am. Something's up.
The Days of Awe are winding down, with Wednesday (the 29th) being the 9th of Av, historically the worst day of the year for Israel. We have indeed been in a narrow place. We started this 3 week ministry trip on the 11th, one day into this traditional mourning period, and will get back home about 3 days after its conclusion.
It has been a ministry trip like none other we've taken. We have slept in double beds, taught thrice, spoken on Sunday morning service twice, spoke at a Sunday School thingy once, and done what seems like a million Sozos. 15 in Rusk, 12 in San Antonio area, 16 in Abilene and 24 in Amarillo (including what is scheduled for later today). We will start home on Wednesday morning ... a journey of about 1,300 miles.
Ministry-wise, the Kingdom has been advanced. Financially, its been a bust. Last time I figured it we were taking in about $4.05 an hour for our services. I think I need to ask the boss for a raise; there's rent to pay.
We are pretty tired now. But not to worry ... He's been faithful before ... He'll be faithful again. We count it a privilege to be considered worthy enough to get to do this.
Hangin on to 2 Chron 16:9 in Amarillo.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Kingdom Instruction
I was sitting before the Lord and this is what he dropped on me ...
Kingdom Community
(Me) Lord I am grateful for the year we’ve had – for your great faithfulness, your forgiveness and mercy – your revelation and anointing and for your opportunities.
(God) “Those are like a song to me. They gladden my heart and cause my face to turn to you.
You live in an ungrateful nation, among an ungrateful people; those who believe that everything they have and have received has been because of the cunning and the power of their own hand, or is the product of their own creative mind. They do not even choose to consider that there may be a more powerful beneficent force at work. Much of what they have is because of the prayers and deeds of the righteous; and they abhor them; fight against them and the very thing that has brought the blessings they strive so hard to hold on to.
... Come out from them. Do not entangle yourself in the affairs of the nation. Do not let it take you down with it. Am I going to punish the righteous with the evil? No, but I am judging the world within them. Come out from among them that you be not judged as well. You are going to see evil on a scale you have never witnessed before - and all in the name of ... and you will see it with significant local manifestations. Understand, that I have promised those in the kingdom food/drink/shelter (Matt 6). When you try to hang on to more than that, evil is birthed. My provision is promised for those in the kingdom - and to those pursuing the kingdom. No one else. The kingdom is based on love - its currency is love - it does not envy or strive. It does not do evil in any form to another, even if self preservation it as stake - because relationship is at its core. Love does not exist outside of relationship. I repeat, Love does not exist "outside" of relationship. One cannot simply be acquainted with people and have relationship. One cannot simply be friends with others and walk in relationship. Although this is often considered a level of relationship, there is no such thing in the Kingdom. Acquaintances and friends (as you know it) are terms of the world, not Kingdom concepts.”
(Me) But the Word says, "greater love has no man that to lay down his life for his friends" and, "no longer do I call you servants, but I call you friends." So what's up with that?
(God) “You have to understand that 1st Century Judaic culture and its precepts have been completely lost to the Western Church, and certainly to the North American church. Kingdom relationship cannot be understood or experienced outside of it. And that's the root of the problem. Friendship in American is strictly conditional. Such was not the case in 1 BC, nor 1 AD. The word "friend" carried with it a decidedly different connotation than it does today. Remember, the entire society was agrarian. As a result, everything was based on trade, or barter. You raised something, harvested it and lived off of it, but you kept some back and traded it for something somebody else grew or made that you needed. Everything was based on trade - face-to-face. No stores manned by hordes of nameless clerks. No faceless internet transactions. No impersonal text messaging. No Twitter. The fundamental element underlying all trade in that society was trust. That trust was built on mutual respect of the individual and similar values.
Trust and local first-hand knowledge of the one you traded with every day, year after year, was an integral part of every day life. You couldn't live without it. Yes, you occasionally bartered with people you didn't associate with everyday, but you saw them often enough to be very familiar with them, and consequently the foundational elements were there to build a level of trust if you so desired. Since that’s the way all of society worked, you were generally open on some level. But your friends were the ones you trusted implicitly because you lived with them; laughed with them, cried with them, worshipped with them, they celebrated births with you, and they mourned with you and helped bury your dead. When calamity struck, it struck all of you. When plenty came, it overtook all of you. Everyone shared in both the good times and the bad. When someone got ill or injured, the whole community pitched in and helped to take car of him/her. It was the way everyone lived life - in community - always a part of each other's lives. It is what gave meaning to everything.
Children were raised by an entire village - their weddings were likewise celebrated. So was the birth of their children and the death of their grand parents. It was a perfect picture of Kingdom life. Friendship was based on living all of life - an entire life with someone (or lots of them). Almost like covenant. The Kingdom viewpoint is that friends and family are treated the same.
That's what's wrong with church life. You have treated family like 20th century American friends, and you have treated friends as acquaintances. That's really why church sucks!!! People are irritated with it because they think it is supposed to be the seat of spiritual power in this world, (and it is) . But Kingdom power does not operate on a continuous basis outside of real relationship. People always want to see the power, but are afraid of relationship. Why would I give you power, when you would not invest in relationship? Especially, when it is relationship that will keep power from corrupting and killing you and everyone around you? Not gonna’ happen!”
Hope this speaks to you. It spoke to me. I sat around a Thanksgiving dinner table with folks I've been acquainted with for several years now. The host family sees those assembled often. But I only see them a couple of times a year. We shared what we were thankful for since we had last gotten together. And that was good, but the fact that there was no real relationship among us was a little sad. I enjoyed the time, but walked away wanting more.
Some time ago I had opportunity to travel to Nashville, TN and participate with some friends in a roundtable Q&A with a woman who does DID and SRA therapy in ______. Two years ago the Lord asked her if she would only take those that He wanted her to see. She said yes, and it resulted in her only seeing about 4 people a year. She has them move in with her and she works with them 25 hours a week. In this environment, she able to fully integrate and de-program an SRA victim in six (6) months, which in other more traditional environments might take 5 to 10 years, if ever. After two years, she believes that the real transformation occurs in the community they share; living together; eating together; going to movies together; etc.; where real life skills are imparted and goofy thinking is challenged and corrected. Her conclusion was that this was the new paradigm of DID/SRA (the intentionally broken) ministry for the church … in community.
Kingdom Community
(Me) Lord I am grateful for the year we’ve had – for your great faithfulness, your forgiveness and mercy – your revelation and anointing and for your opportunities.
(God) “Those are like a song to me. They gladden my heart and cause my face to turn to you.
You live in an ungrateful nation, among an ungrateful people; those who believe that everything they have and have received has been because of the cunning and the power of their own hand, or is the product of their own creative mind. They do not even choose to consider that there may be a more powerful beneficent force at work. Much of what they have is because of the prayers and deeds of the righteous; and they abhor them; fight against them and the very thing that has brought the blessings they strive so hard to hold on to.
... Come out from them. Do not entangle yourself in the affairs of the nation. Do not let it take you down with it. Am I going to punish the righteous with the evil? No, but I am judging the world within them. Come out from among them that you be not judged as well. You are going to see evil on a scale you have never witnessed before - and all in the name of ... and you will see it with significant local manifestations. Understand, that I have promised those in the kingdom food/drink/shelter (Matt 6). When you try to hang on to more than that, evil is birthed. My provision is promised for those in the kingdom - and to those pursuing the kingdom. No one else. The kingdom is based on love - its currency is love - it does not envy or strive. It does not do evil in any form to another, even if self preservation it as stake - because relationship is at its core. Love does not exist outside of relationship. I repeat, Love does not exist "outside" of relationship. One cannot simply be acquainted with people and have relationship. One cannot simply be friends with others and walk in relationship. Although this is often considered a level of relationship, there is no such thing in the Kingdom. Acquaintances and friends (as you know it) are terms of the world, not Kingdom concepts.”
(Me) But the Word says, "greater love has no man that to lay down his life for his friends" and, "no longer do I call you servants, but I call you friends." So what's up with that?
(God) “You have to understand that 1st Century Judaic culture and its precepts have been completely lost to the Western Church, and certainly to the North American church. Kingdom relationship cannot be understood or experienced outside of it. And that's the root of the problem. Friendship in American is strictly conditional. Such was not the case in 1 BC, nor 1 AD. The word "friend" carried with it a decidedly different connotation than it does today. Remember, the entire society was agrarian. As a result, everything was based on trade, or barter. You raised something, harvested it and lived off of it, but you kept some back and traded it for something somebody else grew or made that you needed. Everything was based on trade - face-to-face. No stores manned by hordes of nameless clerks. No faceless internet transactions. No impersonal text messaging. No Twitter. The fundamental element underlying all trade in that society was trust. That trust was built on mutual respect of the individual and similar values.
Trust and local first-hand knowledge of the one you traded with every day, year after year, was an integral part of every day life. You couldn't live without it. Yes, you occasionally bartered with people you didn't associate with everyday, but you saw them often enough to be very familiar with them, and consequently the foundational elements were there to build a level of trust if you so desired. Since that’s the way all of society worked, you were generally open on some level. But your friends were the ones you trusted implicitly because you lived with them; laughed with them, cried with them, worshipped with them, they celebrated births with you, and they mourned with you and helped bury your dead. When calamity struck, it struck all of you. When plenty came, it overtook all of you. Everyone shared in both the good times and the bad. When someone got ill or injured, the whole community pitched in and helped to take car of him/her. It was the way everyone lived life - in community - always a part of each other's lives. It is what gave meaning to everything.
Children were raised by an entire village - their weddings were likewise celebrated. So was the birth of their children and the death of their grand parents. It was a perfect picture of Kingdom life. Friendship was based on living all of life - an entire life with someone (or lots of them). Almost like covenant. The Kingdom viewpoint is that friends and family are treated the same.
That's what's wrong with church life. You have treated family like 20th century American friends, and you have treated friends as acquaintances. That's really why church sucks!!! People are irritated with it because they think it is supposed to be the seat of spiritual power in this world, (and it is) . But Kingdom power does not operate on a continuous basis outside of real relationship. People always want to see the power, but are afraid of relationship. Why would I give you power, when you would not invest in relationship? Especially, when it is relationship that will keep power from corrupting and killing you and everyone around you? Not gonna’ happen!”
Hope this speaks to you. It spoke to me. I sat around a Thanksgiving dinner table with folks I've been acquainted with for several years now. The host family sees those assembled often. But I only see them a couple of times a year. We shared what we were thankful for since we had last gotten together. And that was good, but the fact that there was no real relationship among us was a little sad. I enjoyed the time, but walked away wanting more.
Some time ago I had opportunity to travel to Nashville, TN and participate with some friends in a roundtable Q&A with a woman who does DID and SRA therapy in ______. Two years ago the Lord asked her if she would only take those that He wanted her to see. She said yes, and it resulted in her only seeing about 4 people a year. She has them move in with her and she works with them 25 hours a week. In this environment, she able to fully integrate and de-program an SRA victim in six (6) months, which in other more traditional environments might take 5 to 10 years, if ever. After two years, she believes that the real transformation occurs in the community they share; living together; eating together; going to movies together; etc.; where real life skills are imparted and goofy thinking is challenged and corrected. Her conclusion was that this was the new paradigm of DID/SRA (the intentionally broken) ministry for the church … in community.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
New Church Revelation
As some of you may know, I have been heavily involved in a local church over the last 30 years and thoroughly believe in it. So this isn't simply a gripe session. But like many before me, I have become less and less enamoured with church as we know it because so much time and energy is devoted to Sunday mornings (1.7% of the weekly time available), while real Christian life is being lived outside of church the other 98.2% of the time. Why should 90% of the resources be devoted to less than 2% of the week? Especially since every survey taken in the last 100 years details that the vast majority of conversions are the result of one-on-one relationships.
The same is true for grwing in character and maturity ... it's a relationship thing. Aside from the obvious; our culture has come to expect it, and we seem to be clueless as to what else to do, I believe I have an answer ... or at least some insight. What I've come to believe is that the church (the north American church at least) doesn't really understand that God established it this way for a reason. It isn't really all about Him, although that's the established pretext for it, and that is certainly what we've been led to think ... but I think God established church to see if we'll actually love one another.
From what I've experienced in church, from having been a part of it off and on for about 50 years, is that we do a really lousy job of loving one another. We can easily ask "How are you?" on Sunday when we meet, but God help us if someone should actually reveal a real problem, especially a particularly sticky one. We seemingly do a reasonable job of giving sacrificially to others, provided we only have to have minimal contact with them and they demand no more time than we have budgeted to give. It's the way American missions are conducted; a neccessary annual effort to support those less fortunate so that we can feel better about ourselves and justify not being involved in other things. In essence, this is very much like cell phone texting. We call it a relationship but are very careful to remain superficial. We can text/Facebook/tweet our true feelings, but we never have to be accountable to anyone for the resolution of them.
There are a multitude of scriptures about love and what it means;
Col 3:8-14 "But now put ye also away all these; anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth: 9 lie not one to a14nother; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, 10 and have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11 where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman: but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on therefore, as God’s elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye: 14 and above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness."
1Peter 4:8 "... above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves; for love covers a multitude of sins:" Matthew 22:36-39 "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 And he said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second like unto it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself."
John 13:34 "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."
There is no weaseling out of this one. We are to love each other! So what is the contest before us? We will have to commit to love one another in the context of the church setting ... so that we can first change our 'church' culture, before we can ever hope to impact the culture of the world we live in. The vast majority of the witches in the Western North Carolina region are so because their spiritual gifting was rejected (not loved) by the church and were driven from it. So don't go blaming the devil for the shape of things! We do such a good job of judging others that we don't really need an enemy. God forbid that anyone in our club should screw up! They'll be barbequed before the sun sets.
Try loving someone today ... with no expectation of anything in return. Then see if you can keep it up for the rest of the week/month/year.
The same is true for grwing in character and maturity ... it's a relationship thing. Aside from the obvious; our culture has come to expect it, and we seem to be clueless as to what else to do, I believe I have an answer ... or at least some insight. What I've come to believe is that the church (the north American church at least) doesn't really understand that God established it this way for a reason. It isn't really all about Him, although that's the established pretext for it, and that is certainly what we've been led to think ... but I think God established church to see if we'll actually love one another.
From what I've experienced in church, from having been a part of it off and on for about 50 years, is that we do a really lousy job of loving one another. We can easily ask "How are you?" on Sunday when we meet, but God help us if someone should actually reveal a real problem, especially a particularly sticky one. We seemingly do a reasonable job of giving sacrificially to others, provided we only have to have minimal contact with them and they demand no more time than we have budgeted to give. It's the way American missions are conducted; a neccessary annual effort to support those less fortunate so that we can feel better about ourselves and justify not being involved in other things. In essence, this is very much like cell phone texting. We call it a relationship but are very careful to remain superficial. We can text/Facebook/tweet our true feelings, but we never have to be accountable to anyone for the resolution of them.
There are a multitude of scriptures about love and what it means;
Col 3:8-14 "But now put ye also away all these; anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth: 9 lie not one to a14nother; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, 10 and have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11 where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman: but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on therefore, as God’s elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye: 14 and above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness."
1Peter 4:8 "... above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves; for love covers a multitude of sins:" Matthew 22:36-39 "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 And he said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second like unto it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself."
John 13:34 "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."
There is no weaseling out of this one. We are to love each other! So what is the contest before us? We will have to commit to love one another in the context of the church setting ... so that we can first change our 'church' culture, before we can ever hope to impact the culture of the world we live in. The vast majority of the witches in the Western North Carolina region are so because their spiritual gifting was rejected (not loved) by the church and were driven from it. So don't go blaming the devil for the shape of things! We do such a good job of judging others that we don't really need an enemy. God forbid that anyone in our club should screw up! They'll be barbequed before the sun sets.
Try loving someone today ... with no expectation of anything in return. Then see if you can keep it up for the rest of the week/month/year.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Race
The Race
The race goes to the swift, I s'pose
or else the slow and steady,
or else the passionate,
or those who bothered to get ready,
or ones who coached themselves,
or those meticulously mentored.
But every single time it goes
to somebody who showed up.
(FRAZZ)
The race goes to the swift, I s'pose
or else the slow and steady,
or else the passionate,
or those who bothered to get ready,
or ones who coached themselves,
or those meticulously mentored.
But every single time it goes
to somebody who showed up.
(FRAZZ)
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