Real Fulfillment…

As I prepare today for the upcoming Uganda Crusade and Conference, here is the word in my spirit today from the Lord:

He alone fulfills. I have tried it all in my life: wealth & land & houses & cars & sex & porn & drugs & alcohol & friends & jobs & careers & learning & achievements & idols & …, BUT everything eventually leaves me empty, EXCEPT the Love of God in Christ Jesus. He ALONE satisfies, fulfills, and makes me content. Striving, fear, & worry cease in His presence. Through Jesus the Son, I am drawn near to God. Jesus takes away the scales of blindness from my eyes, and standing beside Him, I gaze into eternity. The days of greatest joy are before me; the grandest fulfillment ever known awaits me; the greatest Hope is in me. Words can’t describe the goodness that continually pours out upon me as I journey into eternity with Christ. All fear is gone, all worry is gone, as I journey ever forward into the heart of the eternal God of all creation!

Chilean Miner Rescue

As me and millions of others sat glued to the screen watching the almost miraculous rescue of the miners from 2300 feet below ground, it occured to me how many similarities there are to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Consider:

Chilean Miner Rescue	Gospel of Jesus Christ
The miners were hopelessly lost in the darkness of the earth, buried and dead, but faith kept them alive—the faith of the individuals and the rescuers	We are hopelessly dead in our sin. Buried deep, with no way out. It is only by Faith that we can receive the rescue that ONLY Jesus Christ brings.
A hole had to be punched through to the miners to bring them communication, food and air.	A hole must be punched into our minds that we, through prayer can receive the life saving, life giving messages of life that are food and breath to us.
In order to be saved, they had to depend on another, they COULD NOT save themselves	We cannot dig ourselves out of the grave that we are in. We must depend upon another to save us from an eternity separated from God.
To be rescued from the mine, a hole had to be punched through the earth  to bring them up and out.	Jesus went to the cross, died and descended into hell, and He punched a hole in hell, overcame death, was resurrected from death and has given that gift to all who will believe!
The miners had to trust in the method of rescue, climb into the rescue pod, and have simple faith that they would be lifted up to life and freedom from their grave.	To be saved, we must simply trust in the method of salvation. Believe in the Lord Jesus, confess Him as Savior and Lord, and be lifted up!
Those who were above ground, reached down to their brothers, they did not leave them there, and in fact some actually descended into the mine to rescue their brothers—once in the mine, they aided their brothers in climbing into the rescue pod.	Those of us who have been given this gift of salvation and have been rescued from death are called to not forget our brothers still trapped—we are called to go down to them and help them into the rescue pod—to tell them the good new of salvation through Jesus Christ!
The miners had to pass from darkness through a tight passageway into light and freedom and life—similar to their original birth experience into the world—the miners were “reborn”.	Jesus said we must reborn. The birth He speaks of is leaving the darkness of our life of death, and being reborn into the life and light and freedom of eternal life.
The president of Chile was present as each man was brought to the surface. He personally congratulated and thanked each rescuer and each miner.	In Proverbs there is a passage that says: “do you see a man diligent in his work? He will stand before kings.”
How many miners were there? 33.	How old was Jesus when He went to the cross to die for the sins of men? 33.
When the men were brought to the surface, they were reunited with loved ones, and received a warm reception from the rescuers and these formerly obscure unknown men met the president (king) of Chile.	As believers in Jesus Christ who have been given eternal life, when we step from this life into eternity, we will be reunited with loved ones (those who received eternal life through Jesus Christ), and we will also meet the King!

Imprisoned in Kenya

As our team prepared to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in one of Kenya’s largest prisons, Kibos Maximum Security Prison for the condemned in Kisumu, where 800 men reside. Many milled about the main prison yard. Some were curious, some were expectant, some were disinterested.

Here we were, 12 white people form America, allowed to enter this place of darkness to bring the light and freedom and good news of Jesus to these condemned men. As I stood with my interpreter and began to share this message of freedom and hope, I noted with interest the ways that the men gathered. The equatorial sun was brutal, yet there was a group of about 35 believers that got as close to us as allowable and sat in the direct sun; there was the other group of 50 or so believers who wanted to be close, just not that close, so they gathered in a tight group under the sparse shade of a mimosa tree; there were the curious all around who, in single file,hugged the walls of the huge prison yard in the 2 feet of shade provided by the walls during midday; there were those who stood in the doorways of their cell blocks peering out at us; and then there were those who went about their business of daily survival moving here and there completely disinterested in the words of hope and freedom.

How close that is to the world we live in as believers. There are those sold-out followers of Jesus who will sit in the brutal heat of the noonday sun to be close to the Word of God; there are also those Christians who love Jesus, but would prefer to stay in the comfort of the shade; there are those curious onlookers watching from a distance around the walls or from their “cell blocks”; and then there are those going about the business of commerce and survival in the prison of their life, oblivious of the eternal message of hope, freedom and deliverance that is being preached all around them.

May we as followers of Jesus take this Good News into all the dark places of our world so that those in the shadows, those in the cell blocks, those in the shade, and those blinded by their busy-ness may one day come into the Light and see the Saviour!

Faith for Healing?

Faith healing is an often hotly debated issue in the Christian life. The charlatans through the years have caused those who believe scripture to question whether Jesus still heals people today.

Throughout the world there are recorded miracles of healing, most often in non-Western cultures. But in America, the church varies from outright disbelief, to a non-committal tolerance (“yes we believe that sometimes God sovereignly heals a person”) to the zealous charismatic who is quick to lay hands on a sick person and adamantly proclaim they are healed! In America, the vast majority seem to be at the disbelief or tolerance end of the spectrum. In America, our faith is placed more in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry than the amazing supernatural power of God to heal.

So as believers, as we are always called to do, we examine scripure to form our opinion and to decide how to walk this out in our daily lives.

In the scripture, Jesus healed people of every kind of sickness, disease, injury and even death. But, as a follower of Jesus, do you really believe this? If you do, then why is the first place you go when you have the the sniffles is to the medicine cabinet?

Now, some will say, “yes, God healed in scripture, but that was Jesus”. And to that I would suggest that you look at the Gospels. Remember when Jesus sent out the 12 disciples? What did he tell THEM to do? He told them to Heal the sick, and cast out demons. So, they, as ordinary human beings, were empowered by Jesus to heal people.

And then some modern western Christians may say, “yes, but these were the original disciples. They lived and worked with Jesus daily and were more specifically empowered”. To that I would suggest that we look at the gospels to see that later on Jesus picked 70 more people, unnamed and unknown to us, and he sent them out to heal sickness, cast out demons and preach the Kingdom. They came back reporting much success. It goes on and on throughout the book of Acts even after Jesus had ascended into Heaven, His followers performed miracles of healing and raising the dead.

Do you as a modern Christian believe this? Hopefully you do, because if there is one single part of scripure that you don’t believe, then the whole of scripture is no longer trustworthy to you. It is impossible to pick parts of the scripture as true and divinely inspired and disregard other parts as embellishment–the integrity of it all becomes suspect.

Now, what about us, as modern 21st Century followers of Jesus, what do we believe and do about healing and faith?

In John 14:12, Jesus, who has just completed a series of miracles and healings, says this: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” Do you believe this? Doe your life reflect this belief? What works have you tried lately?

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus gives the parting words of , “these signs will follow them that believe…they will lay hands on the sick and they shall be healed”. Do you believe this?

In light of scripture, why do Christians struggle with faith for healing? Why does so much of the modern western church belittle ministries that believe and practice faith healing?

Healing was not some offshoot splinter group in Jesus’ ministry–it was core. Fully half or more of His ministry dealt with physical healing.

May those of us who profess faith in Jesus truly follow him and the commands He gave us. May we do the Greater Works he called us to do!

You are what you eat. Yeah. You aren’t what you do!

What you do and how well you do it defines you, right?

Is life a roller coaster of ups and downs? Feeling miserable one day and good the next?

Are you a performance-based person? A person whose sense of self worth and joy come from how well you are performing, whether it’s school, sports, your career, your income?

Here is how the “world” sees things: Performance=Identity=Acceptance

• Performance: What a person does and how well they do it defines them. Conversations often begin with “what do you do?’, and depending on the answer, “ I’m a doctor, lawyer, salesperson, construction worker” these allow the inquirer to assign that person an identity. And sadly the one answering the question often assigns the same identity to themselves. This is trained into children at an early age. “Did you get straight A’s? Did you make the team? Are you a starter on the team?” What you do and how well you do it begins to form the basis for our:
• Identity: The world says you are what you do and how well you do it. “He’s a successful attorney. She’s a struggling actress. She’s a leader in her church. He is a wealthy real estate investor” So the more successful and prestigious our performance is, the more glamorous our identity is, and the more likely we are to gain:
• Acceptance: The world says, we will accept you based on what you do and how well you do it. And the world likes superstars. The more prestigious, wealthy, successful, the more the world will accept you.

But that’s just backwards!

Performance-based identity and acceptance is a shaky place to live. Life is a roller coaster of emotional ups and downs. You are only as good as your last game/season/victory/sale/grade/commission check, etc.

… but God sees things totally upside down from the world.

When we come to Him through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, he accepts us completely. We are now a child of the King, a redeemed sinner, an inheritor of eternal life! And it is out of His acceptance of us that our identity is formed. This is now who we are. We are God’s very own child. A child of the creator of the universe, the one who breathed out the stars and planets, who imagined and mapped DNA, who created mankind, who owns it all! This is our Father!

And. This. Is. Our. Identity.

And so it is out of this identity that we then perform whatever job or calling that we have in life. We perform it to the highest level not to gain acceptance, but because this is who we are! WE are a child of the creator, he has accepted us, we have our identity in Him, His ways are order and excellence, and we perform according to who we are in Him.

If we have a bad day, a bad performance, a bad game, a bad test, or lost sales and a low annual income, our identity is unaffected by this. How we perform never affects who we are and never affects God’s acceptance of us!

Gods way: Acceptance = Identity = Performance

As parents let’s teach our children this…but first, let’s be sure we are living it!

Shalom.

The storm on the horizon…

This morning during prayer and meditation, I saw a vision of a very dark sky moving in from the east–a sky filled with an intense storm that was rapidly approaching. I pondered what the storm meant, if this was prophetic for me, my family, my country. Is it a financial/economic storm for our nation? More terrorist attacks? (Bin Laden’s warning of more attacks hit the news wires today) Is it a natural disaster like Haiti experienced? Is it an H1N1 type health crisis?

I asked the Lord what the vision meant, and He impressed in my spirit that I am to teach my children about storms. As believers in and followers of Jesus Christ we are to deal with storms just as Jesus did.

In the Gospel of Mark chapter four, the disciples, a very experienced group of fishermen and sailors crossed a familiar body of water while Jesus slept in the stern of the boat. They encountered a storm, a storm so intense that even experienced sailors cried out in fear for their life. When they awakened Jesus, he did not begin to bark orders like many leaders facing a crisis: “trim the main sail, steer into the wind, bail water, people!”. Nor did he begin to comfort and counsel them in their fear in some peace-inspiring, gentle voice, “relax, my children and pray for peace in the midst of this storm”. No. Jesus stood and immediately took authority over the storm.He rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “peace, be still!” And nature obeyed Him.

John, 14:12 quotes Jesus saying to us: “Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believes on me, the works that I do, he shall do also and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father.”

As Christians, we are called to NOT become one with the fearful people crying out that we are perishing and sinking. We are called to take authority over the storms in the mighty name of Jesus. We are called to do as He did.

This is the rhema word that I must teach my children. We are not a part of the crowd crying out in fear when the storms come. We are Storm Calmers.

In the words of Joshua 24:15, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

“My Dad gave a man his shoes!”

Occasionally I take a group of people from my church down to Finley Park to participate in feeding the homeless people of Columbia, SC. Every Wednesday night a group of people from various churches gather to set up a bountiful buffet for the homeless. The gathering brings together the regulars from the streets and the regulars from the churches and it is in that hour that the real ministry of Jesus Christ to the “least of these” takes place.

It was on one such visit just before Christmas of 2009 that a grandfather, father and son were in my group, and as first timers, they didn’t know exactly what to expect. As is the case during the cold months, some of the people came with blankets, coats and shoes to distribute. As I was standing talking to an old friend, a regular from the streets who needed prayer, suddenly the son of the aforementioned generational trio burst in among us and said with awe and pride in his voice, “my Dad just gave a man his shoes”. He said a homeless man’s shoes were tattered and torn, and the man needed shoes desperately, but there were no shoes to distribute that night. So his father, wearing a rather nice new pair of low cut boots took them off and gave them to the homeless man. Sure enough, a few minutes later I saw Scott walking around barefooted as if nothing special had happened.

As we left Finley that night I reflected on the powerful life-changing moment for all of us. In this world and especially in the Unitied States where fatherlessness and lack of role models is a plague among the confused youth of our society, here were two generations of fathers doing the right thing. The grandfather could look with pride upon the investment of fathering his own son to live not just for himself, and the grandson could look with pride upon his own father’s selfless act of love. This son saw his father do something that will live with him forever. He saw his father change a man’s life, for no matter how hard the streets make a person, for a kind stranger to take off his shoes and give them to you on a cold night also has to change the heart of the recipient no matter how hard or broken the heart is.

We talk about generational blessings, and it is not often that I can see the power of generational blessings of Godly fathers played out before me on the stage of life. What a great privilege and joy to be a part of that moment. THIS is the church! THIS is the body of Christ ministering the love and grace of Jesus!

Christmas Suicide?

Highest time of the year for suicides, right?

Problems, issues, needs, loneliness, depression…the world is filled with them.

Here in the West, most of us cannot fathom what real needs are. Until you have looked deeply into the eyes of a homeless person, or seen the desperation of an abused single mother, or seen the faces of AIDS orphans in the slums of Kisumu, Kenya, or the starving oppressed people of Sudan. In our comfortable, insular lifestyle here in America, we think we have problems, but most of the time we don’t have a clue!

As I sit here in my own comfortable, warm home on Christmas eve, sure, I have had my share of problems–a long life full of ‘em. Years of bondage to common vices, and every sort of fear, worry, materialism and self centeredness.  I have struggled with some version of almost every issue you may face in your own life. I have had a plateful, no a full buffet of problems in my 52 years.

But…this I know beyond a shadow of a doubt. I know it in my heart and my mind, in my soul, in every fiber of my being, I know this from experience…I know that there is ONE SINGLE ANSWER to every problem or issue that mankind can ever encounter.

There is ONE ANSWER for ALL PEOPLE, for all times, for all circumstances…the answer is Jesus Christ. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”.

Knowing Jesus Christ, the Messiah, as savior, as Lord, awakens us to to a freedom that is indescribable!

The problems of the world bind us, and imprison us in so many ways, but Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

Today I am a living testimony of this verse! I am free! Will I face old and new problems this very day? You betcha! But…as these problems float in and out of my life, even the huge icebergs melt rapidly before the Lord of lords and the King of kings.

Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the answer. Period.

Trust Him today. Ask Him to come into your life and give you His free gift of eternal life. If you are unsure about  how to do this, post a comment and I will tell you more, or go <here > for more info.

Jesus and the Morris Island Lighthouse

Years ago, my son and I anchored our boat south of Charleston, SC and climbed the Morris Island Lighthouse you see pictured here. The weather, salt air and time had taken their toll on the 139 year old lighthouse. As we climbed the rusted out spiral staircase we marvelled at this piece of history.

Originally built 2700 feet from the sea on dry land, the changing coast line of South Carolina now leaves the lighthouse 1600 feet out in the ocean buffeted by waves and strong currents. The constant 24 X365 pounding of the ocean doesn’t seem to faze the Morris Island Lighthouse. As we experienced the rock solid stability from the top of the lighthouse after our precarious climb, we were amazed that it still stands. How? Its foundation was dug deep below the ground. It’s circular structure doesn’t oppose the waves but allows them to gently break around it. It is truly a marvel of man’s engineering that it has now become an accepted part of a hostile environment.

Where do we begin to compare this lighthouse to our lives…the myriad of metaphors cry out to us. But to state it simply, just as this lighthouse has endured shifting sands, hurricanes, earthquakes and the elements, yet it still stands firm, God’s Word tells us that when we build our life on the rock that is Jesus Christ we too will stand firm against the storms and currents of life. (Matthew 7:24-27)

If you are facing storms in this life, cry out to Jesus. He died on the cross to bear the punishment for my sin and yours. Ask Him to come into your life and save you from spending eternity separated from God. Allow Jesus to be Lord of your life…follow him by reading the 4 gospels in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and praying and listening to Him. He will walk with you through the storms of your life, He will never leave you nor forsake you. Post a comment to this blog and I will be happy to pray for you or tell you more about what it means to follow Jesus.

Drag me to hell?

Last night at my wife’s suggestion (surprisingly) we watched the movie, “Drag Me to Hell”. While I fell asleep due to the boring ridiculousness of the movie, I saw enough to know that once again Hollywood dabbled in a realm of which they know so little–the realm of demons and curses. (see my Post on October 29th about Paranormal Activity). Sadly, whenever there are movies of this nature where people battle with demonic oppression and possession, no one EVER seems to discover the Truth. The truth that there is ONE who has authority over all the demonic realm–that one is Jesus Christ. And the awesome news is that when we accept Him as our Lord, when we accept His sacrifice as atonement for our sins, when we receive the free gift of salvation and eternal life, then we walk in His authority. And in His authority, we have authority over the darkness, we have authority to cast out demons, authority to break curses. (Luke 10:19) If you are reading this now and you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then you walk in this authority. Search the scriptures or post a comment and I will direct you to the passages where God grants us this authority as believers. If you are reading this and you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, and you want to know how to receive eternal life, then post a comment or go <here >  to hear the good news.