Moments from the Heart of God

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus || Spoken Word

2012-01-15T06:43:00.000-06:00

Pictures of Grace

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-06:00

The Most Risky Profession

2011-12-17T06:22:00.001-06:00

Why you need to pray desperately for your pastor.

Mark Galli | posted 7/14/2011 10:04AM

It's refreshing news to hear of pastors taking a leave of absence not over sexual or financial misconduct, but over pride. Such was the case with John Piper last year, and this week with C. J. Mahaney. Mahaney has been president of the church planting network Sovereign Grace Ministries, which according to its website now includes "about 95 churches," mostly on the East Coast. He is the founder of the megachurch Covenant Life Church, which he handed over to Joshua Harris after pastoring there for 27 years. He is also one of the leaders of the Together for the Gospel Conferences, and one of the most popular speakers in the neo-Reformed circuit.

The story behind his leave of absence is still unraveling. But he has publicly acknowledged that he has succumbed to "various expressions of pride, unentreatability, deceit, sinful judgment, and hypocrisy."

It's an interesting list of sins—ones that pastors all over America commit week in and week out. This is not to excuse Mahaney or to take such sins lightly. It is to suggest that the state of the modern American pastorate has been shaped so that these sins—especially pride and hypocrisy—are impossible to escape. For this reason, our pastors need not our condemnation, but our prayers. They are in a profession that is about as morally risky as they come.

Bigger and Better

The modern American church is very much a product of its culture—we're an optimistic, world-reforming, busy, and ambitious lot, we Americans. In business, that means creating a better widget, and lots of them, and thus growing larger and larger corporations. In religion, that means helping more souls, and along the way, building bigger and better churches. Alexis de Tocqueville marveled in the 1830s how American Christians seemed so blasé about doctrine compared to their enthusiasm for good works. Religious busyness will be with us always, it seems.

Translate that into church life, and we find that American churches exalt and isolate their leaders almost by design. Our ambitious churches lust after size—American churches don't feel good about themselves unless they are growing. We justify church growth with spiritual language—concern for the lost and so forth. But much of the time, it's American institutional self-esteem that is on the line. This is an audacious and unprovable statement, I grant, but given human nature (the way motives become terribly mixed in that desperately wicked human heart) and personal experience, I will stick to it.

With this addiction to growth comes a host of behavioral tics, such as a fascination with numbers. The larger the church, the more those who attend become stats, "attenders" to be counted and measured against previous weeks. Pastoral leaders are judged mostly on their ability to enlarge their ministries. It's not long before we have to rely on "systems" to track and follow newcomers. It is the rare church now that can depend on members naturally noticing newcomers, or on their reaching out to them with simple hospitality. That has become the job of a committee, which is overseen by a staff member. With increasing size comes an increasing temptation to confuse evangelism with marketing, the remarkably efficient and effective if impersonal science of getting people in the doors.

With the longing for size comes a commitment to efficiency. No longer is it a good use of the head pastor's time to visit the sick or give spiritual counsel to individuals. Better for him to make use of his "gift mix," which usually has little to do with the word pastor—or shepherd, the biblical word for this position. Instead, he has been hired for his ability to manage the workings of large and complex institutions. The bigger the church, the less he works with common members and mostly with staff and the church board. To successfully manage a large church, one must be on top of all the details of that institution. This doesn't necessarily mean directly micromanaging things, but it certainly means to do so indirectly. The large church pastor may not personally tell the nursery volunteers to repaint the 2–3 year-old room, but when he notices a spot of peeling paint as he passes by, the pastor will tell someone who will tell someone, and it will get done in short order. This is not because the senior pastor is a control freak—or if he is, the church wants him to be. Churches on their way up the growth curve like to know that someone is in charge, that someone is attending to the details, that someone is getting things done. That's why they've hired this dynamic, forward looking, administratively savvy leader. They enjoy being a part of a humming, efficient organization. It reminds them of the other humming, efficient organizations our culture admires, from Google to Apple to Disneyland. It makes them proud to be a part of such a church. That the pastor has to take a heavy hand now and then—sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly—is a small price to pay.

(I use the masculine pronoun to talk about pastors precisely because the vast majority are males, and men are particularly vulnerable to these realities. I also speak autobiographically here, having been a pastor for ten years.)

What makes the pastor's job even more spiritually vulnerable is the expectation that he also be the cathartic head of the church—someone with whom members can identify and live through vicariously. Someone who articulates their fears and hopes, someone to whom they can relate—at a distance. This is key, because the pastor has time to relate to very, very few members. Thus it is all the more important that he be able to communicate in public settings the personable, humble, vulnerable, and likable human being he is.

Thus, preaching in the modern church has devolved into the pastor telling stories from his own life. The sermon is still grounded in some biblical text, and there is an attempt to articulate what that text means today. But more and more, pastors begin their sermons and illustrate their points repeatedly from their own lives. Next time you listen to your pastor, count the number of illustrations that come from his life, and you'll see what I mean. The idea is to show how this biblical truth meets daily life, and that the pastor has a daily life. All well and good. But when personal illustrations become as ubiquitous as they have, and when they are crafted with pathos and humor as they so often are, they naturally become the emotional cornerstone of the sermon. The pastor's life, and not the biblical teaching, is what becomes memorable week after week.

Again, this is not because the pastor is egotistical. It's because, again, we demand this of our preachers. Preachers who don't reveal their personal lives are considered, well, impersonal and aloof. Share a couple of cute stories about your family, or a time in college when you acted less than Christian, and people will come up to you weeks and months later to thank you for your "wonderful, vulnerable sermons." Preachers are not dummies, and they want approval like everyone else. You soon learn that if you want those affirmative comments—and if you want people to listen to you!—you need to include a few personal and, if possible, humorous stories in your sermon. The inadvertent effect of all this is that most pastors have become heads of personality cults. Churches become identified more with the pastor—this is Such-and-Such's church—than with anything larger. When that pastor leaves, or is forced to leave, it's devastating. It feels a like a divorce, or a death in the family, so symbiotic is today's relationship between pastor and people.

No wonder pastors complain about how lonely and isolated they feel. The success and health of a very demanding institution have been put squarely on their shoulders. They love the adrenaline rush of success—who doesn't? But they also live in dread that they may fail. Wise pastors recognize that unique temptations will assault them, and some set up accountability structures to guard their moral and spiritual lives. They try to have people around them who can speak truth to their power. But in reality, since this is an accountability structure that they have set up and whose membership they determine, in the end it can only have limited effectiveness.

And so we have a system in which pride and hypocrisy are inevitable. The situation for the pastor is impossible. He retains his biblical vision, but the system he finds himself in makes him waver between humility and arrogance, hope and cynicism, patience and anger, love and hate. The pastor has to increasingly downplay these tensions or any serious shortcomings, moral or administrative, to play the part that is expected of him. He must learn to doubt his moral instincts, so he starts believing that efficiently running a large, bureaucratic institution is "ministry" or "service" rather than what it often is: mostly managing and controlling people. He and his congregation justify his heavy-handed leadership and his lack of time for individuals—the very antithesis of his title, pastor or shepherd. His sermons are increasingly peppered with himself as much as the gospel, and even his self-deprecating humor turns against him. Now people praise him for his humility, which only goes to his head, as it does for any human being.

The morally serious pastor will be aware of much of this—even if he can't admit it to anyone—and he will strive to keep himself in check. But he will find that his left hand always—always—knows what his right hand is doing. He has become incapable of carrying out his ministry in simple freedom and trust in God's grace. He began running the race of ministry with holy ambition, but he now finds himself on a treadmill of "various expressions of pride."

Every profession has its secret sins and habitual vices—believe me, we have plenty in journalism. We all need prayer in our callings. And no more so than pastors, whose spiritual leadership makes them most vulnerable to the sins that Jesus most severely condemned: hypocrisy and pride.

Is there hope? Of course. Pastors aren't the only people who find themselves trapped in a social milieu where it is impossible not to succumb to sin. It is for habitual and trapped sinners—like pastors, like us—that Jesus died. The hope is not that we can find a perfect church environment in which we can eradicate pastoral pride. The hope is that Jesus loves and uses repentant sinners despite our pride.

Jonathan Edwards on Spiritual Pride

2011-10-18T21:17:00.001-05:00

By Jonathan Edwards The first and worst cause of error that prevails in our day is spiritual pride. This is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christ. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit to darken the mind and mislead the judgment, and the main handle by which Satan takes hold of Christians to hinder a work of God. Until this disease is cured, medicines are applied in vain to heal all other diseases.
Pride is much more difficult to discern than any other corruption because, by nature, pride is a person having too high a thought of himself. Is it any surprise, then, that a person who has too high a thought of himself is unaware of it? He thinks the opinion he has of himself has just grounds and therefore is not too high. As a result, there is no other matter in which the heart is more deceitful and unsearchable. The very nature of it is to work self-confidence and drive away any suspicion of evil respecting itself.
Pride takes many forms and shapes and encompasses the heart like the layers of an onion- when you pull off one layer, there is another underneath. Therefore, we need to have the greatest watch imaginable over our hearts with respect to this matter and to cry most earnestly to the great searcher of hearts for His help. He who trusts his own heart is a fool.
Since spiritual pride in its own nature is secretive, it cannot be well discerned by immediate intuition of the thing itself. It is best identified by its fruits and effects, some of which I will mention together with the contrary fruits of Christian humility.
The spiritually proud person is full of light already and feels that he does not need instruction, so he is ready to despise the offer of it. On the other hand, the humble person is like a little child who easily receives instruction. He is cautious in his estimate of himself, sensitive as to how liable he is to go astray. If it is suggested to him that he does go astray, he is most ready to inquire into the matter.
Proud people tend to speak of other's sins, the miserable delusion of hypocrites, the deadness of some saints with bitterness, or the opposition to holiness of many believers. Pure Christian humility, however, is silent about the sins of others, or speaks of them with grief and pity. The spiritually proud person finds fault with other saints for their lack of progress in grace, while the humble Christian sees so much evil in his own heart, and is so concerned about it, that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He complains most of himself and his own spiritual coldness and readily hopes that most everybody has more love and thankfulness to God than he.
Spiritually proud people often speak of almost everything they see in others in the harshest, most severe language. Commonly, their criticism is directed against not only wicked men but also toward true children of God and those who are their superiors. The humble, however, even when they have extraordinary discoveries of God's glory, are overwhelmed with their own vileness and sinfulness. Their exhortations to fellow Christians are given in a loving and humble manner, and they treat others with as much humility and gentleness as Christ, who is infinitely above them, treats them.
Spiritual pride often disposes people to act different in external appearance, to assume a different way of speaking, countenance, or behavior. However, the humble Christian, though he will be firm in his duty; going the way of heaven alone even if all the world forsake him; yet he does not delight in being different for difference's sake. He does not try to set himself up to be viewed and observed as one distinguished, but on the contrary, is disposed to become all things to all men, to yield to others, to conform to them, and to please them in all but sin.
Proud people take great notice of opposition and injuries, and are prone to speak often about them with an air of bitterness or contempt. Christian humility, on the other hand, disposes a person to be more like his blessed Lord, who when reviled did not open His mouth but committed Himself in silence to Him who judges righteously. For the humble Christian, the more clamorous and furious the world is against him, the more silent and still he will be.
Another pattern of spiritually proud people is to behave in ways that make them the focus of others. It is natural for a person under the influence of pride to take all the respect that is paid to him. If others show a disposition to submit to him and yield in deference to him, he is open to it and freely receives it. In fact, they come to expect such treatment and to form an ill opinion of those who do not give them what they feel they deserve.
Adapted from "Some Thoughts concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England" from The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Banner of Truth).

2011-10-18T11:39:00.000-05:00

This will make you roll but has great truth. I have been guilty of walking in religion in pass times. I think we all have at one time or another. The key is relationship with the Father. To get passed this place a person has to allowing the Fathers heart to draw theirs into a place of relationship that only he can do and not rely on our religious learned behaviors.

180 Movie

2011-10-12T21:18:00.002-05:00

Burn For You - Rick Pino

2011-10-10T20:50:00.000-05:00

Don't Judge Too Quickly We Won't

2011-10-09T08:44:00.000-05:00

Nick Pitera Senior Thesis Animation "Fame and Fortune" Ringling College ...

2011-09-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

Louis Giglio ~ Indescribable Part 5

2011-09-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

Louis Giglio ~ Indescribable Part 4

2011-09-25T08:59:00.001-05:00

Louis Giglio ~ Indescribable Part 3

2011-09-25T08:59:00.000-05:00

Indescribable by Louie Giglio - Part 2 of 5

2011-09-25T08:58:00.000-05:00

Indescribable by Louie Giglio - Part 1 of 5

2011-09-25T08:57:00.000-05:00

21 Week Babby in Womb

2011-09-23T22:37:00.000-05:00

April 4, 2011

The Hand of SAMUEL ARMAS, at 21 weeks, reaching out and grasping surgeons hand during surgery, as if thanking him for life. ----- The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta. She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb. During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile. The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, "Hand of Hope." The text explaining the picture begins, "The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life." Little Samuel's mother said they "wept for days" when they saw the picture. She said, "The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person" Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful. Now see the actual picture, and it is awesome...incredible....and hey, pass it on! The world needs to see this one. GOD BLESS.

By: Eliza Earsman

Jamie Grace - Hold Me featuring tobyMac (Official Music Video)

2011-09-23T21:13:00.000-05:00

MY HEART CRIES OUT!!

2011-09-21T21:54:00.000-05:00

The heart of a child is to be loved unconditionally. A child desires to be adored and affirmed. A child desires to be fed and have the security that all their basic needs will be met. A child desires to be hugged and held. A child desires to hear Mommy and Daddy to say, “You are mine and I will always love you”. They want to know that they are important and of value.

Matthew 25:35 I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you took me into your home.

My heart cries out for all the children that go without these things. There are many children who do not have the love of a father and the nurturing of a mother. There are many children that do not get held when they are crying or a soothing of the fears they might be encountering. There are many that struggle with going to sleep at night because their belly is growling and hurting with hunger. My heart cries out for the children that long for the gentle touch from a mother and the sheltering safety of a father. My heart cries out for all the children that have not yet found a forever family.

The Children Cry Out, “Please somebody love me, I am hungry, I am cold and I am lonely.”

James 2:16 And one of you tells that person, "God be with you! Stay warm, and make sure you eat enough." If you don't provide for that person's physical needs, what good does it do?

Restoration, by David Brymer

2011-09-21T20:02:00.000-05:00

The Resurection of Christ

2011-09-20T22:25:00.001-05:00

The truth of the resurrection gives life to every other area of gospel truth. The resurrection is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns and without which none of the other truths would much matter. Without the resurrection, Christianity would be so much wishful thinking, taking its place alongside all other human philosophy and religious speculation.

John MacArthur

1 Corinthians, Moody, 1984, p. 398.

The basic truth of the resurrection undergirds a number of other truths.

1. It gives evidence that the Word of God is totally true and reliable. Jesus precisely when and in the way He had predicted (see Mt. 12:40; 16:21; 17:9, 23).

2. The resurrection means that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, as He claimed to be, and that He has power over life and death.

3. The resurrection proves that salvation is complete, that on the cross Christ conquered sin, death, and hell and rose victorious.

4. The resurrection proves that the church has been established. Jesus had declared, "I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it" (Mt. 16:8)... His resurrection proved that death itself could not prevent Christ from establishing His church.

5. The resurrection proves that judgment is coming. Jesus declared that the heavenly Father "has given all judgment to the Son" (Jn. 5:22), and since the Son is now risen and alive, His judgment is certain.

6. The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that heaven is waiting. Jesus promised, "In My house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you" (Jn. 14:2). Because Christ is alive by the resurrection, believers have the assurance that He is now preparing a heavenly dwelling for them.

John MacArthur

Matthew 24-28, Moody, 1989, p. 314-315.

The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity. If the resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth.

Henry Morris

CONFESSION OF SIN

2011-09-18T21:22:00.000-05:00

© 1999 James A. Fowler You are free to download this outline provided it remains intact without alteration. You are also free to transmit this outline electronically provided that you do so in its entirety with proper citation of authorship included.

I. Biblical statements.
    A. General.
         Lev. 5:5 - "he shall confess that in which he has sinned"
         Numb. 5:7 - "he shall confess his sins..., make restitution..."
         Prov. 28:13 - "he who confesses and forsakes his transgressions will find compassion."
         Acts 19:18 - "many kept coming and confessing and disclosing their practices."
         James 5:16 - "confess your sins to one another"
         I John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."
    B. Examples.
         Ps. 32:5 - "I acknowledge my sin to Thee...I will confess my transgressions to the Lord."
         Ps. 38:18 - "I confess my iniquity"
         Isa. 6:5 - "Woe is me...I am a man of unclean lips"
         Luke 15:21 - "I have sinned against heaven and in your sight"
         Luke 18:13 - "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!"
II. Defining confession.
    A. Greek word homologeo means "to say the same thing," to agree, concur.
    B. What confession of sin is NOT:
         1. Informing a human priest in the confession booth.
         2. Giving God information. "God, You won't believe what I've done."
         3. Speculating. "IF...I have sinned..." "I have...."
         4. Saying "I'm sorry..." "....just a joke!"
         5. Asking/pleading to God for forgiveness for our sins. Forgiveness already available in
             Christ's death.
         6. Plea-bargaining for a lesser charge. "Yes...but...."
         7. Emotional groveling; mental contortions.
         8. Psychological catharsis. "Feel good when you get it off your chest"
         9. Superficial or flippant incantation. (Sin was reason for Jesus' death).
        10. "Confessionalism" - (Excessive sin-consciousness; wallowing in weakness; focusing on
              'flesh'; navel-gazing introspection; "Worm-theology"; Pride of sinfulness; back-handed
              basis of spirituality; exhibitionism; revel in relating sinfulness in testimony; Who was the
              worst?)
        11. Based on false established attitudes which create false-guilt and false-confession. Some try
              to agree with God that something is wrong, when God never said it is sin. But, if not done
              in faith, it is sin. (Rom. 14:23).
    C. Confession is...
         1. Ceasing to deceive ourselves - I John 1:8
         2. Ceasing to continue the defense mechanisms of denial, avoidance, distortion, cover-up.
         3. Calling sin "sin." Calling a spade a spade!
         4. To recognize, admit, acknowledge, concede and declare our guilt of sin.
         5. Part of repentance. A change of mental attitude leading to changed behavioral action.
         6. Inclusive of asking forgiveness for wronging another person.
         7. Inclusive of restitution - Numb. 5:7; Lk. 19:8
III. Defining sin.
    A. Anything contrary to character of God.
    B. Any activity not done in faith (Rom. 14:23), and thus not derived from God.
    C. May include hidden, secret, unknown sins
         Ps. 19:12,13 - "hidden faults"
         Ps. 90:8 - "our secret sins"
         Eccl. 12:14 - "everything which is hidden"
    D. May include besetting sins; habituated, life-dominating sins (Heb. 12:1,2)
IV. Practical concerns of confession of sin.
    A. To whom do we confess our sin?
         1. To those wronged by our sin. Sphere of confession only as broad as context of sin.
             a. Intrapersonal sin confessed to God alone. (Ps. 32:5; Prov. 28:13; I John 1:9)
             b. Private interpersonal sin confessed to God and the one sinned against. (Matt. 5:23,24;
                 James 5:16).
             c. Public interpersonal sin confessed to God and those affected. (II Cor. 2:6; James 5:16).
    B. How long should we go before confessing sin?
         1. Unconfessed sin in past needs to be dealt with. (Eccl. 3:15; Phil. 3:13)
         2. Is God keeping ledger book of our sins? Those who encourage keeping "short sin
              accounts" seem to imply such.
         3. Confessing sin is like reacting to a stumbling on sidewalk. (Quick down; quick up!)
         4. Confessing sin is like rebounding a missed basketball shot.
    C. What happens if our sins is not confessed?
         1. Does unconfessed sin affect...
             a. Our redemption? (Isa. 59:2; Rom. 8:39)
             b. Our salvation? (Prov. 28:13)
             c. Our sanctification?
             d. Our eternal destiny?
             e. Our physical well-being? (Ps. 32:3)
             f. Our psychological well-being? (Ps. 32:4)
             g. Our prayer-life? (Isa. 59:2; 66:18)
         2. Confession of sin is not a "work" that has any merit before God.
    D. What if a person doesn't feel forgiven after he confesses his sin?
         1. We do not live by feelings, but by faith.
         2. God is faithful - I John 1:9
         3. When you still feel guilty of sin
             a. Examine the motives of your confession.
             b. Remember that Satan is the "accuser of the brethren" (Rev. 12:10).
             c. Have you forgiven others or asked for their forgiveness?
             d. Have you made necessary restitution?
         4. Have you forgiven yourself? "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?" (Rom. 8:33).

57 Leadership Tips from a Veteran Pastor

2011-09-18T09:55:00.000-05:00

57 Leadership Tips from a Veteran Pastor: Joe McKeever offers life-tested insights for every new and growing leader in the church today.

"Only one True God Proved himself with love in action"

2011-09-14T19:02:00.000-05:00

Church historian Bruce Shelly Wrote, " Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God."

EVERYTHING I DO, I DO IT FOR YOU-The Passion Of The Christ

2011-09-14T18:59:00.000-05:00

In a relationship, married or not... YOU SHOULD READ THIS!

2011-09-13T22:43:00.000-05:00

by Kimmies Floral on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 12:43pm

MARRIAGE

When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn't know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly.
She didn't seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn't talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn't love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company.
She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn't have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane.

When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn't want anything from me, but needed a month's notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month's time and she didn't want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.
She requested that every day for the month's duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife's divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

My wife and I hadn't had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don't tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outsidethe door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn't looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me.
On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn't tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.

Suddenly it hit me... she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.

Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it's time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn't noticed that our life lacked intimacy.
I drove to office.... jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind...I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won't divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn't value the details of our lives, not because we didn't love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart.
Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away.

At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I'll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.

That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed - dead.
My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push thru with the divorce.-- At least, in the eyes of our son--- I'm a loving husband....

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse's friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!

If you don't share this, nothing will happen to you.

If you do, you just might save a marriage.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Quotes

2011-09-08T15:02:00.000-05:00

"Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

Spiritual Discernment? Criticism or Judgment?

2011-09-05T21:46:00.001-05:00

True discernment is marked by our ability to love others with God’s redemptive sacrificial love. One who has invited Jesus Christ to be Lord of their life, should have humility, peace and a desire to minister the unconditional love of God. False discernment is based in criticism, mistrust, suspicion and fear. Our ability to discern ourselves, others and the Holy Spirit, depends on our ability to perceive correctly. Our perceptions are discolored by our past experiences, if they have not been healed and redeemed.

Rev. Barbara Yoder says that many people often confuse their critical or judgmental spirit with a Spirit of discernment. They may sense an urgency to point out the weakness of another and think that it is spiritual discernment. Have you ever been given a word that was technically correct but it defiled you because it was not given with the redemptive grace of God?

To discern rightly, we have to take our urge to criticize and judge to the cross to be crucified. Most people give others a piece of their mind instead of a word from the Spirit. We have to be willing to renounce all our ungodly reactions - past, present and future - so that we can be the pure in heart, who see God. We have to be willing to demonstrate His great grace, at all times.

1 Cor. 2:16 says “Who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him, but we have the mind of Christ.” To express discernment from the mind of Christ, we have to have the heart of Christ. In John 12:47, Jesus said He didn’t come to judge the world but to save the world. His motivation was not to judge but to rescue or save people out of death and into permanent safety. It's not that a minister never feels a hurt but that they chose a lifestyle of forgiveness before the other sins; they never take offense in the first place.

2 Tim 2:24-26 describes the true discernment: 24 “And a servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who oppose themselves, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

Rev. Barbara Yoder says that spiritual discernment is the grace to see in the spiritual realm, to see into the heart of their spirit, to see the secrets of men’s hearts or to see beyond the veil. The veil that keeps us from perceiving correctly, is the veil over our own heart. Until we can perceive ourselves correctly and deal with the impurity in our own hearts, we will not clearly see what is in the heart of another.

Hebrews 5:1-2 speaks of priests who have great compassion because they can so clearly see their own weaknesses; the extent of their own need became evident as the veil was removed from their own eyes. Carnal perceptions are typified by a compulsion to point out how others are not getting it right. Their motivation may be to judge, gossip or expose rather than to save, restore and cover with the love of God. As Jack Deere said, “Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a skillful carpenter to build one.”

People will gravitate to those who are able to confront with restorative words, without reacting out of their own wounds and experiences. They will choose someone who is able to minister to the root of the matter without reacting to their surface behavior. When God calls us to partner with Him to restore another, we must not take offense at immature behavior and must automatically forgive every weakness.

Mark 3:28, “Whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him.” Jesus was prepared to forgive us before we ever sinned against Him. His mission was to give up his life so that we could have Life. Paul said we must die daily that others might live. He died to his own right to a natural reaction and chose to become a expression of Jesus, in the flesh. It’s not that a minister never feels a hurt but that they chose a lifestyle of forgiveness before the other sins; they don’t take offense in the first place.

John 17:18 “As You sent Me, I sent them.” We have the same mission that Jesus had; we can choose to let Him manifest love and peace through us. We are called to have covenant relationships where we love others with the unconditional love and acceptance of Jesus Christ, when they need it the most. True spiritual discernment sees the weakness of the other as an opportunity to bear them up in prayer and will die to its own convenience so that the other can live.

False discernment is slow to hear, quick to speak and quick to anger. They may judge by surface symptoms and surface causes, without discerning the heart intent or root causes of outward behaviors. They are not motivated by love and peace. They may be unaware of the anger that is inside of them that comes out of their own dysfunctional past or injustices suffered. For instance, we might judge that one who is dependent on prescription drugs, when we should minister healing to the pain and rage that is smoldering inside.

Those operating out of a critical spirit will have a desire to expose the other’s weakness, will attempt to elevate themselves and will forget their own deep need for the grace of God every day. Rick Joyner says that when we sow criticism, we reap blindness to our own faults, which in turn causes us to reap more criticism of ourselves.

True discernment will not gossip but may report a matter to spiritual Leadership. It will only report the facts without adding fleshly interpretations, suspicions, innuendos or conclusions. It is motivated by Christ’s heart of love, to restore that person to life and godliness.

Before God can give us a spirit of discernment, love and forgiveness must mature in us. We cannot be used to free others from captivity, until we can be trusted not to react sinfully to their carnality or immaturity. We cannot react to what they think, say or do. To walk in offense, criticism or judgment is to walk in self-deception ourselves. We cannot prevent feelings from coming but we can choose not to add sinful reactions, which produce sinful emotions.

When we are in self-deception about our own hurts, sins and strongholds, our thoughts about the behavior of others are not trustworthy. Often we will project our own woundedness or sinful motivations onto others. It's not that a minister never feels a hurt but that they chose a lifestyle of forgiveness before the other sins; they never take offense in the first place.

Have you noticed? Accusers accuse you of the self-deceptions in their own life?

Prophetic people can be the first to mistake suspicious thinking for prophetic perception if they are operating in pride. (A wise counselor hears both sides of a story.) A prophetic gift is no substitute for a humble heart that repents readily and keeps short accounts with God. A tendency to “slice and dice” others is not prophetic gifting, but judgment with condemnation.

Rom 2:1-2 states, “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”

The gifts of the Holy Spirit have to pass through the condition of our own heart as they are ministered. God’s law says that we will reap what we sow, more than we sow and later than we sow. If we have sown seeds of judgment and dishonor when ministers have appeared harsh, contentious and high pressure, we will reap that seed sown in our own ministry.

I grieve for those who are bitter, blaming others who have not recognized their “call to ministry.” They feel self-righteous when they judge and criticize those who will not support their “mission.” A spirit of accusation has caused them to think they are discerning others rightly, when they are actually projecting what is in their own heart. Their friends and leadership know that they will not see clearly to minister restoration until the instinct to judge, blame or accuse has been crucified.

When we receive the grace of God to see the log in our own eye, we will not rush to accuse another of having a spec in their eye. When others find us trustworthy to minister without judgment or condemnation, they will ask for our discernment and value our insights. Can God trust us to be ambassadors of His grace to those who have failed miserably, who justify their sin and can barely feel remorse, much less true repentance?

To receive true spiritual discernment, we must still ourselves before the Lord – on the inside – as a lifestyle. We must choose to aggressively become calm and be willing to hear His heart and mind in the situation. As we receive His love, peace and grace, we will be able to overflow it to others. God’s desire to bring an outpouring of great grace that will enable the church to be healed and to have enlarged hearts that discern by agape love and will not judge by outward behavior.

Can God trust us to take that one by the hand – who was the perpetrator, not the victim? To guide them to the throne of grace, where there are won by the kindness and mercy of God? To be a safe harbors for ships which are in serious danger of shipwreck? To be happy when He not only restores but promotes them?

If so, God will trust us with the secrets of men’s hearts and enable us to discern the roots of the matter. Probably, they have lost the ability to trust a perfect God, much less fallible ministers. They don’t care how much we know; they want to know how much we care. They need trustworthy people to help them to trust again. When we remember how much grace it takes for God to love us, the “unlovable” will come to us for His unconditional love and true discernment.

( http://crosswalklife.com/spiritual_discernment.htm)

How we see is in the setting of truth in ones Heart

2011-09-05T09:51:00.000-05:00

For years I was in the trap of seeing more of what others believe and not seeking for truth myself. I did not have the understanding of the filter. It is more than just believing in God. Or my Grandpa was a preacher. I attend the so and so church and been a member for20 years. Not seeing the truth can happen also when a person has a shallow or no relationship with father God. How does someone go deep in the truth of God? We need to seek His wisdom with a teachable heart that is ever willing to change and adapt. A person can have some knowledge of God and some level of faith with some form of relationship with God but still walk in a distorted version of truth.

When I talk about my understanding on this subject or any other subject I know that there will always be a need to grow and mature on my journey with the Father. We all just know in part or see in parts of the truth on most things. I have in the past walked in the trap of the mindsets of how I saw things or my own perceptions or just accepted others idea of truth without questioning. I have learned there is a difference in what I perceive to be the truth and having the truth. I may know that stealing is wrong in my mind. Truth is having the values of what the Father has done in the heart of a person and stealing is becomes wrong because of the heart change, not just a mind understanding. This is just an example to make a point between something being a part of who you are as a person (genetic makeup of real truth in one’s heart) or being in knowledge in the mind. Then also ones genetic makeup can be truth or not. It can be religion or reality of relationship with the father. It can also be a combo of both.

For years I have read many different books on different subjects and matters of the church and so many different so called “truths’. I have heard many different men and woman preach and teach. Some are truth and some maybe were not. How do we know? What is the scale or measurement that one goes by? Some would say, “We would weight it and/or test it out by the Word of God”. This is a great and truthful answer, but there is a problem. What if ones understanding of the Word is not truth but religion or a perception? Maybe it may have been passed down through traditional family beliefs. How many things in the past have I called truth of God and found out different.

I have come to a place that, I don’t have all the answers, but I do know the one that does. This kind of thinking keeps one’s heart humble and also looking for truth. God the Father will fill with truth a humble and seeking heart. Chasing his heart or ways is the only way to know real truth. Then I believe once you get some of the truth from him it is always growing as he brings more understanding.

Heb 3:7 That is why the Holy Spirit says, "Today you must listen to his voice. 8 Don't harden your hearts against him as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested God's patience in the wilderness. 9 There your ancestors tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years. 10 So I was angry with them, and I said, 'Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.'

Ps 103:6 The LORD gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly. 7 He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious; he is slow to get angry and full of unfailing love.

Ex 33:12 Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, 'Take these people up to the Promised Land.' But you haven't told me whom you will send with me. You call me by name and tell me I have found favor with you. 13 Please, if this is really so, show me your intentions so I will understand you more fully and do exactly what you want me to do. Besides, don't forget that this nation is your very own people."

Phil3:7 I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead! 12 I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven. 15 I hope all of you who are mature Christians will agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you.

Col2:2 My goal is that they will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have full confidence because they have complete understanding of God's secret plan, which is Christ himself. 3 In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I am telling you this so that no one will be able to deceive you with persuasive arguments. 5 For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I am very happy because you are living as you should and because of your strong faith in Christ. 6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done. 8 Don't let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ.

Col2:18 Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on self-denial. And don't let anyone say you must worship angels, even though they say they have had visions about this. These people claim to be so humble, but their sinful minds have made them proud. 19 But they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For we are joined together in his body by his strong sinews, and we grow only as we get our nourishment and strength from God.

Jer 9:23 This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man gloat in his wisdom, or the mighty man in his might, or the rich man in his riches.

24 Let them boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who is just and righteous, whose love is unfailing, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken! 25 "A time is coming," says the LORD, "when I will punish all those who are circumcised in body but not in spirit

The Church Jesus is Building

2011-08-31T21:51:00.000-05:00

By Wayne Jacobsen

Living Loved

"What do you think the church is going to look like ten years from now?" I get asked that question almost everywhere I go. People assume that my travels and correspondence give me a wider view of God's work in the world. And while it may be a bit broader than some, in the grand scheme of things, I interact with a very small slice of Jesus' followers and even that is a very specific subset drawn by the content of my books and websites.
Nonetheless I find it a fascinating question mostly for what it says about us. Our religious training has put our focus in the wrong place, asking the wrong questions, and leaving people feeling adrift when they have no need to be. No one can answer it with any degree of certainty and the question itself assumes a standardized answer that ignores Jesus' immense creativity in the world across differing cultures and local realities.
The question does admit, however, that we are in a time of transition, where the old congregational forms based on centuries of worn-out methodologies and compromised hierarchies no longer work. People are leaving their congregations in droves. Certainly many of those have abandoned God either believing he isn't real, or not worth knowing if he's the demanding busybody religion often presents him to be. But a significant number are leaving because their congregations were having a negative influence on their desire to know God and find real community. The reasons are numerous--empty rituals, irrelevant programs, messages provoking guilt or demanding performance, misplaced priorities, authoritarian leadership, superficial relationships, or simply the inability to honest friendships sharing a journey of spiritual growth.
It's easy to point fingers at those leaving. But even if you love the traditional congregation, you might want to look beyond it and ask why do we spend so much energy propping up a system that alienates so many wonderful people, instead of concluding that the people must not be wonderful because it no longer works for them.

Scattered?

For those who have given up on the congregation they were a part of, what do you do now? If you found your identity in a task you did for God or group you used to belong to, finding yourself outside of it can be incredibly disorienting. Even if your mind knows better, your emotions are still tied to the approval you received by being visible and active in a local fellowship. The same people who used to love and applaud you, now look down on you for "forsaking the assembly" and question your relationship with God.
Many feel like scattered sheep battling the guilt of their inactivity rather than using the time to deepen their own relationship with the Shepherd. Some seek another group of like-minded believers or try to start one of their own. If they do, they find themselves relapsing into that same feeling of superiority that comes from being in a group that is more committed to Biblical principals than the one you left, or at least thinks they are. But soon you realize that even a house church or an organic group can be as empty, or as abusive, as the congregation you left.
All the while, the question that nags you is, "What should the church look like?" The underlying premise is that if you just knew what it is supposed to look like you would know where to look or how to form one. That's why so many end up in the unending struggle to find the right church model to copy. In doing so they never realize that their own pursuit is keeping them from the very reality they desire.
If your connection to Jesus is growing, you are not scattered at all. You are simply finding that the voices of religious performance no longer hold the same weight and you are no longer getting the same validation you became accustomed to. Your passion to live inside his affection is drawing you to a greater gathering of believers tha you cannot yet see. Don't be afraid. You are not alone. Jesus is building a people in the earth who can live as his body in these days. You won't miss out. You are simply transitioning from religious obligation to a relational reality, and no one I've met on this journey has ever regretted the cost to do so.
So while I am not able to answer the question directly, I want us to look at how we can embrace the church Jesus is building in the world. I won't pretend my observations are complete or authoritative. They are simply the way I see it at this vantage point of my journey. Admittedly these thoughts have also been shaped by insights I've gained over the past fifteen years by tasting real community at home and in distant countries, and sitting at the tables of brothers and sisters around the world who have wrestled with these same questions, many of whom have lived outside the distractions of religious performance longer than me.

He Is Shaping A Bride

Jesus is building his church with the same passion that he has demonstrated through the ages. It may be hard for some to see, because they have used the term "church" to describe buildings and institutions, and thus have failed to recognize the church as she really is. Even if you attend a so-called church meeting, the church is not the meeting you attend or the organization that sponsors it; it is the network of Jesus-centered friendships that you enjoy in those institutions and beyond them.
He builds that church by first shaping people who can walk with him. I am thrilled with the stories I hear of people who are breaking out of religious molds and learning to live in the reality of the Father's affection. This draws them out of religious performance and obligation, which relies on human effort and ingenuity. They are learning to follow him instead of finding security in a specific group, doctrine, tradition, or ritual.
The words of Isaiah may even be more timely for the religious contrivances we have designed today:
"Who talked you into the pursuit of this nonsense, forgetting you ever knew me? Because I don't yell and make a scene do you think I don't exist? I'll go over, detail by detail, all your 'righteous' attempts at religion, and expose the absurdity of it all.... They're smoke, nothing but smoke." - Isaiah 57:11-13, The Message.
There's no doubt Jesus is exposing the absurdity of our religious self-effort. None of our activities matter if they are not drawing us into a meaningful relationship with him, where each one learns to hear his voice and follow him. As well intentioned as it may be, our work for him may be the greatest obstacle to actually knowing him. The New Testament is clear: the only thing more dangerous than unrighteousness is self-righteousness.
And let's not blame the institutions. Religion is not something we get from them; it is what those institutions provide to satisfy our fleshy inclinations. I know many who have left religious systems but are still living in religious ways of thinking. And I also know those who attend a local congregation, but they are not caught in the performance trap. Instead they are learning to love God and the people around them. They may have to ignore the guilt-inducing messages, or the manipulative tactics of those who seek to lead, but because they are free on the inside they can still be there to love beyond it all.
The church Jesus is shaping is one not driven to performance by fear, shame, or guilt. She doesn't respond to obligation or ritual or the absence of them. She is learning to live at the pleasure of the Head and that makes her radiant with his glory wherever she appears on the planet.

Living at Home

Our old religious inclinations tell us that what we need for a vibrant spiritual life is "out there" somewhere. Find the right group, movement, author, plan, or revival or you're going to miss out on what God is doing in the last days. That simply isn't true. Jesus told us not to buy into the notion that the kingdom of God was somewhere else. "The kingdom is within you!"
We all know how to live in our fears or anxieties. We know how to conform to the world's demands or religion's dictates. What Jesus wants us to teach us is to live at home in his Father, the same way Jesus lived in him. This is not a theology to subscribe to, but a way to live all day, every day. Living in Christ has absolutely nothing to do with where you are on Sunday morning at 10:00 and everything to do with following him through each day. Jesus did not come to create sacred space for us in religious services, or even in our daily quiet times. He made all of life sacred by coming to live in us and becoming a part of every thing we do.
This is not as complicated as many fear. The reason people have trouble discovering this reality is because they don't believe it is as simple as it really is. Living in communion with him is what he shapes in a wiling heart as we learn to relax in his love. Right where you are he can show you how to live at home in the Father, confident in his love, and at peace even in times of trouble
The loneliness some feel when they find themselves outside religious systems is really not a cry for more people; it is a drawing to God that we have tried to fill with other people. If you are not at rest in God's love for you, no amount of human contact will fill that void; it can only mask it. Let your loneliness draw you into a greater depth of relationship with him and then a new way of relating to others emerges.

Resist the Urge

It's often been said that the greatest enemy of the best is the good. It often is. The greatest distraction to being a part of what God is doing in the world is to be focused on human efforts, especially what we try to do for him. Nothing disrupts God's work around us more than when the arm of flesh asserts itself to try to do for God what we think God cannot do for himself.
When we feel unattached, unproductive, or insignificant this growing urge will prod us to "at least do something," as if misguided activity is preferable to a quiet, listening heart. If that doesn't spring from our own flesh, then it will from someone's near us. Many of our fellowship groups, Bible studies, and outreach efforts have begun with the perceived guilt that we are not doing enough for God. More time-consuming and irrelevant religious activities have been generated from that distorted impulse than any other. Authors manipulate it to sell books, and would-be leaders exploit it to get us to embrace their programs and contribute to their income.
The fruitfulness of God rises out of rest not anxiety, out of the gentle nudge of his Spirit not the vision of a charismatic leader. In truth, God is not asking us to do anything for him. He's already doing the best stuff in the world and as we learn to live inside of him he will invite us to be part of what he's already doing. One of the things I notice about the life of Jesus is that he rarely created the environment, or planned meetings for other people. He simply joined them in the environments in which he found them.
When we get so involved with our own planning we easily miss the moments Jesus puts right in front of us. They are always far simpler and yet more magnificent than what we conjure up. At the beginning they never look as flashy as our plans or appear to be as far reaching. Usually he's just inviting us to love someone. We have no idea how simple acts of obedience can snowball into consequences we never considered.
As long as you have any confidence in your flesh's ability to work for God, you will confuse the urge to be productive with the nudging of the Spirit. And the more capable you are in your own efforts and intellect the greater danger you're in of substituting the arm of the flesh for the breath of the Spirit.
Being part of his church happens by simply loving the people God puts before you each day.

A Different Kind of Gathering

God's voice isn't in the passion to create new church movements, nor is it in the cry for revolution. Those appeal to our own self-need for significance by belonging to the most cutting-edge group. God's invitation comes from within--that deep drawing into the Shepherd's care, and learning to love as he loves, to think as he thinks.
What the church will become in ten years isn't going to be unveiled in the next ecumenical conclave in Geneva or Hong Kong, nor in the latest how-to book on church life. What the church becomes in the next ten years will be the fruit of millions of simple decisions made each day by people like you who are learning to live loved by the Father. There is no model to copy, no method to implement.
The early church focused on Jesus and its life was merely the visible expression of how people who are alive in Jesus treat each other. It was not perfect, but it was full of life because their life was in him, not each other. The church was the joyful network of relationships that living in him spawned and its visibility in the world came simply from doing together those things he put on their hearts.
The church of Jesus gathers like a family, not with orchestrated meetings, but a celebration of relationship and sharing with each other. With the Father's love as the source of church life, not it's objective, a new range of possibilities as to how the church might gather will become clear. I already see God connecting in unique ways brothers and sisters across this world who live unencumbered by religious performance and seek simply to love as they have been loved. They are less concerned with getting church right than they are seeing Jesus reveal himself. Connections happen easily among such people as a friend of one quickly becomes a friend of others, and the body grows!
What will happen as that continues to spread? I don't know and don't need to know. I do expect, however, that this church will take more more visible expression over the next ten years than we can conceive. The forms that takes will uniquely fit the locale and the season of God's working, but in the end may not be all that different from ones we have already known. I'm sure it will involve meals together with lots of laughter and at times tears, insightful sharing, caring about each other, and listening to God together.
In the end, what forms that takes is far less significant than having authentic, caring friendships that put Jesus first. What we can do is learn to live in him and open our hearts to the connections he wants to make with us.

Live Connected

Being part of his church happens by simply loving the people God puts before you each day. Be intentional about cultivating friendships, especially with new people. Some will be temporary; others will connect at a far deeper level. In our human nature we mostly gravitate to people we already know who make us happy. Those relationships, however, are still focused on our needs whether it is to combat our loneliness or find an audience for our gifts, and won't lead us to the authentic friendships that radiate Jesus.
When you know you are loved by God, you own't have to use others to get what you want. Then watch what happens out of those relationships. You won't have to look far and wide for people of like mind. You won't need to find a group that believes what you do. Just take an interest in the people around you and let the results of that caring bear fruit over time. Some relationships may not go far at all. Others may be only a fruitful moment while others will become deep and enduring friendships.
Simply loving those around us will open whatever other doors Jesus needs to build his church. I am convinced that everything God wants done in the world can happen as the simple extension of growing friendships. That will provide fellowship enough, outreach enough, and work enough to let God's life flow to the world. He said so himself. If we will simply love others like he loves us the whole world will come to know him. (John 13:34-35) Because we don't believe that the world can be touched through simple, loving relationship we keep creating machines that we hope can do it for us.
I am often accused of being anti-structure. I'm not. I'm against structure as a substitute for relationship. I'm all for structure that facilitates whatever God asks us to do together. There is a huge difference. Over the past few years I've been part of some international efforts that have had widespread impact just because some friends cooperated together and God has continued to open some amazing doors.
Out of friendship we've been able to send over $100,000.00 overseas to help with relief in Kenya without overhead costs or administrative fees. I'm grateful for that, but I am also well aware that the best way the gospel spreads in the earth is by each one of us just loving the next person God puts in front of us.
If you don't know how to do that, ask for help from others who do. But be careful of those who try to herd you into their program or draw you into their vision. I'll probably share more about this in the next issue, but real elders in the family don't gather people to their vision, but help equip and free others to the vision God has for them.

FORGIVENESS: Opening the Door to True Inner Freedom

2011-08-27T12:40:00.000-05:00

This was written and past to me by my friend David Higginbotham.

KEY THOUGHT: My Forgiveness needs to be as specific as my memory!

1. Identify the hurt you’ve received-

· Be specific- I’ve been rejected, abandoned, neglected, etc.

· No wholesale forgiveness

2. Identify the person responsible for the hurt-

· Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Friend, Spouse, Teacher, etc.

· Unless you can assign responsibility for the hurt you can’t know who to forgive.

3. Repent of unforgiveness and/or wrong responses in your heart-

· We are responsible for every Motive, Attitude & Action in our lives.

· Change your mind and turn from it with all your heart.

· I must walk away from unforgiveness and choose to forgive.

4. Forgive / Release the offender from your heart- (Mat. 18:21-35 & Eph. 4:32)

· Let them out of jail.

· Release the offence and the offended unto God.

· This will be a conscious act of the will.

5. Release the hurt to God and receive His grace to heal and restore your heart-

· James 4:6 & Ps. 23

· Focus on receiving God’s grace for each area of hurt to be healed.

· Remember, often times healing is a process not just an experience.

· Forgiveness is an act of the spirit and mind/will. As your spirit rules your emotions will come into line.

· The presence of the Lord in worship and praise is a major source of healing and restoration.

6. Choose to establish a pattern of forgiveness-

· You must consistently receive God’s grace to walk in forgiveness. This means you must humble yourself to receive that grace.

· “I will not walk in unforgiveness!”

· You must choose to forgive as God has forgiven you (Eph. 4:32).

"GARDEN" by Misty Edwards (picture video with lyrics)

2011-08-27T11:25:00.000-05:00

Learning to walk in more freedom (Part 1)

2011-08-27T11:23:00.000-05:00

This year the Lord has been teaching Melissa and I through others and the Word how to work with Him for internal healing in our life. It is challenging but not as complex as many have made it seem. A lot of people including myself have missed out on finding the solution too many of their shortcomings and find themselves battling the same bondages and hurt for years, sometimes seemingly endless cycles. With so many teachings out there, how does true freedom manage to elude so many?

The truth is that there is not a formula or a quick fix. You can’t receive this in a prayer line or a book or ministry teaching tape series. You can spend time in prayer, worship and in God’s word and that is all great and very well needed, but learning to work with God in understanding and what step we are in is a key part to the healing process. We did not get the brokenness in one day and it will not in most cases be healed in one day.

Many find themselves surrounded by others who do not understand why someone can’t completely transform in areas of their lives as maybe they have or in some cases think they have. Many have internal wounds from abuse, neglect, broken relationships or the wide variety of situations that can crush us on the inside. Others around them can’t understand their hurt which comes out in many different ways. Some it is bitterness. Others it might be anger or fear. Some cover the hurt with pornography or sex, alcohol, drugs, or over eating. There is many more. Some have said, I have given that to the Lord and it doesn’t bother me. They have practice the art ether consciously or in their subconscious hiding the hurt. In some cases they do this but don’t see it themselves.

There is no quick fix but there is a starting place where we can find from the heart of God a place of becoming more healed and free than we were yesterday. True in depth healing can only be achieved when we lay ourselves at the Fathers feet in total surrender and allow His Spirit to touch us in the very depths of our heart everyday and by allowing the Father to teach in his way. Everyone has been hurt or wounded in the heart in some way. Only the father knows the right prescription of healing.

1 Corinthians 2:10 But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God's deep secrets. 11 No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. 12 And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world's spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. NLT

Working with God in the healing process is not complicated but at the same time not easy either. Restoration is painful as He works through unraveling the mess of brokenness. We all have hurt in our hearts at different levels in our life whether it was in our childhood or in adulthood and most times both. It could be a mom or a dad or someone else that has produced the wounds in the heart. They did the best they could with what they knew from the hurt in their heart. When someone is in need of healing they often hurt others without even realizing it. Please realize that they need healing in the heart also.

His Word has laid out many different places to learn from and to see the Fathers heart in this and many other matters. When a person seeks and meditates on (where the Lord leads by His Spirit) in the Word of God a person will see other places that challenge that bring change to the heart.

John 5:17 But Jesus replied, "My Father never stops working, so why should I?"NLT

So the father is always working and Jesus is to. The key is to learn were the Father is working. I have done this by learning to start my day with asking this.

1. Lord please give me faith to believe, and wisdom to understand mix with your

Grace to see it happen.

2. Father how or where are you working in my life today?

3. How can I work with you to see this happen what is my part?

I believe that by asking with a truthful heart the person who does this is asking for and inviting Father God to have control of the process of change in the inter man. By working with the Father as he leads and as we follow Holy Spirit you will find more freedom, if a person stays faithful. Some days a person may see a lot. Some days maybe none, but over time some. It is a process and we have to following his lead. Each person is different.

Love in Christ,

Scott & Melissa