Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The Glory Of Forgiveness

The Theft

Back in late 2002 to early 2003, I had bought a severely fire damaged house from a guy. It was a wreck and I got it for next to nothing but it needed a ton of work done on it. I worked on it for several years but the first year I spent gutting out what was left of the interior and rebuilding and adding on to it. I use to leave my tools there locked in the house because it was a hassle picking them up every day. I only lived a mile away.

One morning I got there and there was a broken basement window and, upon entering, I found a whole bunch of my power tools missing. On top of that I found that my digital camera I had put in the desk I kept there was missing as well. I was devastated. Some of you know that helpless, frustrated feeling you get when you've been the victim of a robbery.

I called the police and they sent out an investigator who did the usual taking of fingerprints, etc but he said the guy was good at it cause it was all carefully wiped clean. While he was doing his thing, I went outside and I found a muddy shoe/boot print on a piece of construction paper on the ground and I took it in cause it wasn't mine. The inspector said that was not a common type of shoe but was a rather expensive certain brand of hiking boot. He took photos of it and told me that it was unlikely they would find out who did it.

After he left I got an attitude in me like, "I'm gonna save this boot print and I am going to catch this guy!" I was angry and frustrated. So, I kept that boot print with me all the time thinking I am going to nail this guy when I find the boot that fits this print. It was over a thousand dollars of tools, the camera, not to mention I had to replace the window that was broken. I couldn't afford that. It took over 3 months to replace those tools. My neighbor did tell me later that he saw a guy walking down the street with a cardboard box that I was missing and that he was struggling to carry it. Nothing ever really came of it but I kept that boot print with me just in case.

The Mercy of God

Late one day towards evening after working on the house all day I was driving home and was stopped at a stop sign when the Holy Spirit spoke into my heart to go to Taco Bell. Well I was tired and I really didn't WANT to go to Taco Bell. I just wanted to go home and relax. Well some of you know how that goes. I really couldn't leave that stop sign until I somewhat grudgingly said "yes." It was only a few blocks out of my way. No big deal right? As I arrived there and was walking to the entrance, He spoke again to me clear as a bell, "Buy two meals." Well, by then I was a little more cooperative so I went in and did just that.

So I sat down at a table wondering about all this and started to eat my meal. There was a young guy sitting across the aisle and down the way a bit and somehow we ended up in a conversation. That was awkward at a distance so I invited him over to my table to continue the conversation (which quickly and effortlessly turned to being about Jesus). I could tell he was hungry so I told him God had nudged me to buy two meals so it was pretty obvious it was for him.

There is something about receiving the mercy of God that if we "don't forget what manner of man we were," we end up carrying the mercy of God for others in us. He had a pretty good christian background but he confessed that he was struggling with falling back into a drug addiction. We had a great time talking and their was such a bond forming there. God's love poured out among us is an incredible thing. It never ceases to amaze me.

The Thief

After a while I noticed that we had been there for over an hour so I told him, "Wow, we should go outside to make room for other customers." When we got outside, we were standing there talking and I told him how my house had gotten ripped of a bunch of tools. While telling him that, the Lord spoke to me to give him $20.00 so I pulled out a twenty and told him what came to my mind. After having such wonderful fellowship and seeing him perk up and be encouraged so much, I was surprised that he suddenly looked so very sad and uncomfortable. He was practically stuttering saying, "I-I-I can't take that money". At that point he looked like he was going to burst into tears. Then, out of nervousness I guess he lifted up his leg to scratch his shin with his boot facing me and there was that boot print I'd saved all those weeks right there on the bottom of his boot.

He was so devastated. That's what drug addiction can do to you. You end up doing things you wouldn't even imagine doing normally. And he was so sorry and I could see that sorrow went deep inside him. And then an amazing thing happened inside me. I knew that God had help me find "that thief" but now I also knew that "thief" was my struggling brother in the Lord. I reached out and squeezed his shoulder and put that 20.00 bill in his pocket, gave him a big comforting hug. "I love you brother..."

I walked away from that meeting with a million dollars worth of God's love coursing through my veins and he walked away knowing that God knows all he was going through and was really there not condemning him but walking with him... I used to tell other brothers in the Lord about that story for quite a long time after that and the biggest smile would come to my heart as I would tell them,

"That is the best thousand bucks I have ever spent!"

God's Glory Revealed In His Forgiveness

See Jesus spent a whole lot more than that to purchase the forgiveness of God in our lives. He shed his own blood and died for us so we could be reconciled to God.

"I came not to condemn the world but to save it."
"All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
"Christ died for ALL sin, for ALL men, for ALL time."

Is there any part of "ALL" that we don't understand???

Are you SURE?????

Sunday, December 15, 2013

They Lived In Tents




There has been something rumbling around in me for a while now and I can't seem to put my finger on it. I don't know why yet so I just keep giving it up to God and waiting on Him to show me what it is.

As I was contemplating this rumbling inside me this morning in between chats with two Ugandan brothers (who have lived there all their lives) that I know, I found myself thinking about a time in our lives back in Hawaii about 25 years ago.

Under circumstances that were not entirely under our control, we ended up buying (on payments) an acre of light forested land and living in a tent - a very large military tent. Before that I had heard about an older widow from one of the christian gatherings whose house in town was falling apart so badly that it was deemed by the county to be unsafe and they informed her that it needed to be torn down. She was very poor and couldn't afford to do that. I felt led to help her and I carefully dismantled the house. It was very dangerous work.

Almost all of the material from the house was useless but I did manage to glean from it enough to build a floor for that 16 x 32 foot tent to sit on and later, an out building later that we called the "sitting room" where we would gather. The other 1/2 of it we called the "bath house"... Later we had a "temporary" power hookup installed when I started to build the first "module" of a "permanent" house (kitchen/dining) on the property. We had been stripped down to nothing before all this and slowly things were looking up for us.

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you it was an easy life but we were alive and together. I guess you could say we were "poor"... If I left it at that, I'd have to say you were right but there was also something wonderful about that year in the tent. No, actually I'd have to say, awesome because it was an "Our God is an Awesome God and He reigns from Heaven above" kind of time. We had almost no distractions that the world normally puts on us. Recreation was singing sometimes spontaneous praise and worship songs. Late night foraging in the scriptures. The presence of the Lord would descend in our midst quite often. and sometimes visitors would get unusually touched by God.

I met an older brother in the Lord who visited us back then  and years later I was telling some brothers that this 14 bedroom house we lived in once, was the most amazing house we ever lived in. He interrupted me and said, "No it wasn't. That tent was the most amazing house you have ever lived in." I asked why and he said, "Because of the anointing that rested on the property..." (we went out back of the property to pray one day and neither of us was exactly sure where we really were in spirit during that prayer time.) If I had stated that we were "poor" at that time, I'm sure he would have argued vehemently against that as well. And I would have to agree with him on that.

Just as an example, one day some cars pulled up front of the property and out piled about 10 or so "Jehovah's Witnesses" with their bibles and all. I found myself walking quickly up our long driveway to meet them just a little ways into the driveway. One of them said, "We are Jehovah's Witnesses." and out of my mouth came the words, in no small measure of authority, "I... am one of Jehovah's Witnesses"... As soon as that came out of my mouth the Spirit of God descended upon us all and I began to tell them the testimony of how I had been drowning in a car, started to experience my own judgement (revealing of the truth) before God (whom I didn't even believe in at the time) and then by the power of God when I should have died was translated right out of the car I was trapped in.

Then I told them how a year after that accident, not knowing how one could ever survive the judgement of God, Jesus manifested Himself in Spirit when I was out in a garden and how His presence filled that garden and how overwhelmingly beautiful that was. I told them about how He spoke to me while I was standing there in awe and adoration and said, "Come into my Kingdom." and how the back injury I had suffered with for a year since that accident was instantly healed. When I said that the Spirit of God descended on us all even more so. So much so that one of the ladies whom I could discern wasn't as tied in with that group spoke up and prophesied in agreement with that testimony. One thing I might mention is that the walls that normally would accompany that kind of a "meeting" were melted away for those ten minutes or so by the presence of the Spirit of God.

There were many other times that year that the Presence of God would manifest during times of worship, prayer and bible study.

There is something about us as human beings in that in this life we crave stability and longevity. And having been around for 61 years, I can totally understand that need. In a sense, during that time in the tent, we had a measure of stability. Something to hang onto. Things were starting to look up for us. I got more work and at one point was wondering if I could get better prices on lumber if I could arrange container shipments on my own. I arranged a two week trip to Portland, Oregon to check out direct lumber prices there. To my surprise all of my business appointments were done by the end of the first week so I found myself one day walking around in some fresh fallen snow and then I suddenly realized something. I looked up at the Father and said, "You want us to move here don't you!?"

Now I've got to tell you that up until that moment, you would have had to use a five foot long steel crowbar to pry me away from the islands for any length of time much less to move to the mainland USA. But all those reservations melted off of me at that moment. When I returned to Hawaii and our tent, I told my wife about what had come to my mind and we were in agreement. Long story short but the Lord graciously confirmed all that in short order after that and provided for the tickets for us to go there. Every detail just seemed to fall in place.

Finally, the day was coming for us to leave.We took down the tent, folded it up and sold it and the dismantled floor to another family who needed it and off it went in their truck. It was that simple. Just took it down, folded it up and off it went. Just like that... No muss, no fuss, our "house" was off to it's new purpose. The purpose for the tent in our lives was over and we watched it moved on... And, we moved on as well to follow the Lord in an entirely different direction and location. Just like that! (Can you hear my finger snapping?)

Now if we had built a house and had to move it to it's new location and purpose, that might have been an entirely different story. The truth be known, we very likely would not have responded to God in His direction had that been the case. We would have been too attached to the stability and looking forward to longevity in that place.

Now I'm obviously not advocating anyone live in a tent but I wanted to establish that I have had a certain level of experience living in a tent.

There is aspect to "living in a tent" that needs to be applied to how "christians" relate to "church." It applies individually and it applies organizationally.


I do have to express one thing at this juncture:

That those that follow Jesus the Messiah as a whole would be much better at responding to God's directions and moving with Him if we were to, in the organizational sense and our still imperfect perceptions of the Truth, consider "living in tents" in the Spirit. Instead, there is the constant building of what inevitably becomes permanent organizational monuments to something God may have in fact done or partially revealed years before but has subsequently moved further on in His plan for our perfection.

It is a sad testimony to the world and to angels that we are not able to fully follow Jesus as He leads us onward towards the promised land simply because we have been tricked into thinking we have already arrived. In the process, we have left a seemingly endless string of walled cities all claiming to be "the promised land."



Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Definition of Marriage

The Definition of Marriage

The PERMANENT God-ordained merging of the lives of a man and woman together, when consummating a sexual act that is, in it's essence, capable of reproducing another human being between them. In many (but not all) present day cultures usually preceded by a religious and/or legal ceremony.

A reality that precedes all religious and governmental influences

A deep rooted concept that has existed for thousands of years and in thousands of cultures and people groups. Even the most "primitive" ones. It is ingrained and built into the very fabric of humanity. All of the 7 billion people alive today on the earth have resulted from either the practice of marriage or the abuse of it's concepts. There are absolutely no exceptions to that fact. An incredible cloud of witnesses.

An Unchangeable Responsibility...


The same principles that govern the concept of "Marriage" (as defined above) also govern the universe, it's function and it's creation. If we could grasp that reality we would be able to see it's simplicity, beauty and importance in the scheme of things in ways we could never imagine. And we would never, ever try to redefine it as something contrary to the universe itself. (Much less the creator of it all) 

I guess what I need to say here considering the current confusion being passed for wisdom in some countries is that "marriage" in it's ESSENCE, in it's FOUNDATIONS for 1000's of years has ONE consistent factor embedded in it's foundation. That factor is NEVER going to change. That factor (already stated in the "definition" above) has not been embedded or created by societal norms or political law or religious tradition. It isn't a matter of anybody's "opinion". It just IS. 

Can society make water dry? Can government legislate the direction that the earth turns? Can religion, no matter how true change the orbit around the sun or remove the stars from the sky? 

There is a lot of emotional debate about "same gender" marriages lately:
 
If physical marriage as defined above were totally eliminated the human race would cease to exist in a short order. If same gender relationships were totally eliminated, the human race would continue without a single blip in its continuity. No society, government, religion can change that. Nor can someone make the two equal. They are diametrically opposed. 

EQUAL?
 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The TRUTH vs Opinion

Saw the below sentence written on someone's facebook page:

"He leads me beside still water which is not contaminated with opinions."

That kind of caught my eye  so I was thinking about this and the expression came to me to explain why opinions can be contaminating.

"Opinions by their very nature are an admission of the inadequacy of the level of Truth in the statement."

The world we live in is FULL of conflicting opinions because we are not searching for the Truth. We don't really want to know the Truth because then we would have to give up our opinions.

Is it possible to state an absolute truth? Sure it is and we do it all the time. If I see an apple tree (especially one that is presently bearing fruit) I can say with all certainty that is an apple tree. That is the truth. It is NOT my opinion. There is no need for an opinion because the truth is self-evident.

Here's a couple TRUTHS...

Eternity: No matter how far back in time we were to go or how far into the future we would travel we would never reach the "beginning" or the "end"...

Infinity: If we were to be able to travel to the very ends of the universe there would be something after that. If we were to travel to the ends of that, there would be even more after that endlessly.

Our temporal finite minds cannot even begin to comprehend those things yet we insist upon trying to instruct with our "opinions", a Being who fully comprehends the depth of those things. A Being who not only understands the Truth. He IS the Truth...

Jesus said something very provocative to the Jewish religious leaders of his day.

"Before Abraham was, I AM."

Now before we go offering any more opinions perhaps we all ought to chew on that for a while.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Greatest Works

"God chose the weak things of this earth to confound the wise"

It is absolutely true that the greatest works of God that manifested on earth were precipitated by someone hearing the voice of God an obeying Him, more often than not in the most simple, seemingly insignificant act of faith that opened the floodgates of Heaven to pour out God's Spirit on man.

It's not the great buildings and organizations, well choreographed "services", the best worship bands, worldly marketing techniques or even great speakers, that bring down the power of God. The power of God that reaches out to and ministers to people, that changes the outcome of the lives of people and nations.

It's the simple acts of faith in response to God's speaking into someone's heart that further the Kingdom of God. And the beauty of that is it leaves the door open for any believer in even the most simplest or weakest circumstance to be used by God.

None Would Even Exist

Sitting on the deck last night with my 12-year-old grandson in one of those precious moments in life. He thinks differently than most kids his age and sometimes comes up with the most incredible perceptions. Sometimes I think people don't really appreciate the fact that he's becoming a pretty amazing "young man" or the rare giftings that he has. Well, we are talking and somehow the conversation turns to God and in one of the rare moments in my life I find myself telling him a story I have managed to tell only a few people in my entire lifetime:

When I was a young man (23?) God saved me from drowning when my car went into a ditch, flipped upside down and sank with me in it. The car was wedged between the 2 sides of the ditch and I couldn't get out.

So I'm telling him this story and he's asking questions like he does so I tell him that when I started to pass out I suddenly knew "I was going to die" and as I started to "go," for the first time in my life I began to be aware of God (really aware) and His presence. Everything I'd ever done, every thought and every motivation, as revealed by God began to be played out. And the horror of it was that I was found guilty before God. (Who I was convinced up until then didn't even exist.) It was utterly terrifying.

Then suddenly, there was this rush of indescribable power as I was "pulled" out of that car. Pulled through a space no bigger than my arm. I had a new breath of air in my lungs and I was alive and outside of the car as I burst through the surface of the water.

My two friends who were with me, who got out before the car sank, were a ways off sitting on a rock with their backs to the car. I had been down there too long.

So my grandson says to me, "So God saved you from death." and I answered him, "yep!" So then he said, realizing that I have 5 kids and 4 grandkids, him being one of them,

"Wow! If God hadn't saved you from death, then none of us would even exist!"

The thought rather startled me so all I could say was, "yep." Then we both sat there on the deck for a while soaking in that thought.

I honestly had never thought about that...

The Mercy and Foreknowledge of God.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Are You Defending Slavery?


African Americans were enslaved by humans living in the evil of deception and were set free from slavery by people who recognized the evil of that deception.

Same Sex Attraction is for the most part, an enslavement by the evil of deception. It captures people, chains them to others and carries them off from the normalcy of life. Denying them the freedom to live a normal, natural heterosexual life.

Rather than desiring the slaves to be set free, there is a movement that is fueled by that same deception to participate in encouraging these slaves of evil to see their slavery as "normal."

That is exactly the same evil deception that southern whites were rallying for and living under in their day. They defended the deception that "There are some people who were born to be slaves"...

It is a profoundly right desire to see all slaves set free no matter who or what enslaves them. What is going on right now in Hawaii and the USA is nothing less than enshrining this sad and cruel slavery into law as a "normal" condition of life. That will only lead to a deeper form of slavery and the massive spreading of deceptions of all kinds into all areas of society...

So to quote One who knows more than all of us put together: "Choose you this day whom you will serve..." But be aware that who you serve WILL become your master...

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Beware The Underlying Contract!

What is that?

For the benefit of a younger generation which grew up with copy machines and scanners, I'll explain a bit. In the old days they didn't have those modern machines to make copies. What they did have was something called "carbon paper" which when pressure was applied to it some of the coating on the paper applied to the surface below. So When signing a contract, a carbon paper was inserted between the contract and another copy of the contract. Thus when signing the contract, the signer also signed via carbon paper the other copy of the contract (which was also derived via carbon copy). Thus the term "carbon copy." The carbon copied carbon signed contract was the "underlying contract." A carbon copy of a contract was considered a legal copy.

A contract can also be described as an agreement. An agreed upon and signed compromise can also be a contract.

The problem was that in the old days, unscrupulous men would place an entirely different contract under the one you were signing with the signature space directly below the one you were signing. If you didn't actually read the underlying contract you would be signing your agreement to the underlying and different contract as well. Many people in the real old days lost their homes and lands by signing a contract for an easement through their property, etc that had an underlying contract giving the other person your property. That's all illegal now but in a modern sense the lawyer for the person you are dealing with today has likely written the 20-30 pages of a contract in his clients favor with a few tidbits for you in case you actually read the thing... How many people have actually read all their mortgage documents or their rental contract?

The reason most people fell for that type of scheme to swindle them was A: They were incapable of reading the contract. B: They were ignorant of the fact that someone was that unscrupulous or C: the other person managed to gain their trust enough that they didn't bother to check the underlying contract.

Here's another example of a type of a different kind of "underlying contract" placed under the one someone is in effect signing. A young chaste woman is asked by a handsome young man if she would like to go out to dinner on a date. He seems like a nice respectable young man so she says yes. In effect she is signing a contract to go to dinner on a date. Altogether too often, the young man has other ideas of where he would like to go with this "date." He has an underlying contract. All he needs is for the young lady to "sign" the obvious contract by saying yes and agreeing that he will pick her up in his car. (Thus giving him tremendous power over where they go after their dinner.) Being on his best behaviour thus obviously engaging in the original contract, he asks her if she would like to go to a place in his car to check out the city lights. He seems trustworthy. She can't imagine such a nice young gentleman would be anything but. So she says yes. When they get there the lights are beautiful but nothing else that happens that night after that is. The young man's "underlying contract" with her is fulfilled to his satisfaction...

So what am I getting at with all this? Well it's sort of a parable if you will. We live in a world full of agendas. Most of them present themselves to us as "respectable" causes that somehow we find ourselves trusting are right. Many of us are ultimately signing on to these agendas like we would sign onto a contract at it's face value. Most if not all of these agendas have underlying contracts that if we knew the real terms of what we are unknowingly agreeing to, we would never sign off on them.

We need to recognize this concept of "underlying contracts" and very carefully inspect the social engineering contracts, agreements and compromises we are signing onto in this day and age. What we think we are signing onto is NOT what we are going to get... In a way we are like a naive young lady agreeing to a nice respectable date with a guy who is an expert at manipulating someone naive into a position where he can rape her. If you think the symbology I used was harsh just hang around a while. You won't.

You cannot trust Deception no matter how seemingly respectable the cause he is hiding behind.

The only person I would ever trust in this day and age we live in is God. He lays it all out there in front of you. No hidden, underlying contracts. This is what He has done for us in Jesus. This is what we need to do. This is how we get there. This is where and how we will end up... And He is the best lawyer we will ever find to represent us in this maize of agendas, and underlying contracts...

Aloha!

Friday, October 25, 2013

RapozaCare: My proposal...

RapozaCare:

When are we (and by extension our govt) going to have the guts to stand up to the medical professionals, administrators, schools, manufacturers and pharmacutical companies and say you will either drop your prices -or else- ...

Some people go into a car lot, see the car they want and whether they can or should afford it or not they just pay the price. Me? I go into a car lot and I KNOW they have way overstacked the price and I will wave some money in front of the sales manager and dicker with him till he brings the price down to what the car is really worth. If he doesn't, I nicely tell him that there are other car lots in town... I rarely hit the front door on the way out before he is calling me back in to sign the papers on the sale...

We need a govt like that to handle the REAL reason for exploded health care costs.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Hawaii: Same Sex Marriage? A Word

I got this "Word" this evening for the believers in Hawaii. I found it odd because I have really not had anything to do with Hawaii for many years even though it was the place of my birth - my homeland.

"Are there no prophets in the church in Hawaii to warn these men and women in Hawaii's legislature of the spiritual peril they are entering into or the horrors they will be participating in and loosing upon the people of Hawaii? No one to warn them that they will be held personally accountable to God for their part in this? Have you become so religious that you have become useless? How many souls will be lost because of your cowardice? Now stand up as men and women of God, seek His face and speak what He commands you to speak..."

I shared this "word" with a brother there and the memory of the words I remember an old brother said once back in the 70's... "KEEP IT SIMPLE. KEEP IT BOLD!"

If you find yourself confused over this "word" above then it is probably not meant for you. If you want to know what God is saying about "same sex marriage" in it's simplest, purest form it is:

NO!

And we when we act like a three year old child wanting to know "WHY???", here is His answer to that question:

BECAUSE I SAID SO!

You can stand before God on that one. I am...

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Rumbling Like An Earthquake

There is something rumbling inside of me from the Lord like an earthquake rumbles the ground...

There is something about an earthquake that is marvelous and yet terrifying... No matter how much we think we have it together in our lives, in that moment we become so aware (really the Truth) that we are very frail and powerless compared to the power of nature... In one moment we can lose our homes, even much of our community, our jobs, and potentially our access to food, electricity, and (Oh Lord not that!) even our internet connections. An earthquake can dramatically change the landscape (and the life and understanding of security) we are standing on.

There are quite a few christians who have clearly sensed that there is an upheaval coming to the United States (and ultimately to the whole world) and like in an earthquake, when it happens, we are not even going to remotely recognize the nation for the condition that we "thought" it was in... Our security and everything we have put our faith into in life will be shaken by what we see.

But there is one thing in "christianity" in the US that we are totally overlooking for some reason and maybe that is evidence of deception itself IN the "church" itself (or at least what we recognize as the "church")...

The scripture says "judgement (the exposure of the truth) comes FIRST to the House of God and THEN to the world."

There is an incredible prophetic message planted at horrible human cost in the fall of the "Twin Towers" on 9/11/2001. Those towers did not collapse solely because some terrorists attacked them. They only attacked several stories near the top. The reason that the "Twin Towers" collapsed was because of the way they were built. In fact (all conspiracy theorists aside) it was the very qualities that made them strong and so "admirable" that caused them to collapse. As the top stories collapsed on the next story down, each collapsed story with it's weight and force of collapse was added to the total collapse exponentially cascading and crushing the whole building.

It's somewhat easy hindsight to see that in our economy and definitely in our political system at present, but how many christians in the USA can see that a whole bunch of the religious system we have built in American "christianity" resembles a city of towers.

Are we building for the admiration or are we building to protect and prepare the believers from an inevitable collapse of the system??? The GOOD NEWS is that Jesus and HIS CHURCH is going to endure forever. You can count on that. HIS church. Not YOUR church, not your pastor's church, not your denominations "church"... The church of Jesus is like nothing else on earth. It is a living organism held together by the infilling of the Holy Spirit of God Himself...

Footnote worth considering:
About 10 years ago, in Portland, Oregon, there was what I would call a "small" earthquake (3.8?). I grew up on a volcanic island and have been through at least two 7.2+ earthquakes and a dozen or so in the high 6.0+ range. Well shortly after this "small" earthquake, I went to a restaurant and everybody was all excited and talking about this "BIG" earthquake. So to educate them about the realities, I would ask them, "Could you stand up?" They would answer, "Why yes. Of course!" Then I would widen my eyes in wonder and tell them, "Then it wasn't a -BIG- earthquake." They really needed to think about THAT one...

Friday, October 11, 2013

Compassion

JESUS the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, even though bearing the same physical restrictions as other human beings, reflected the COMPASSION of God towards those around him in ways that far surpass our human ability to express compassion. (as an example of "The Kingdom of God") JESUS didn't just "feel" compassion (like some of us do - that just makes US feel good about ourselves), everything JESUS did was DRIVEN by the compassion of God in him to respond to the need.

When faced with a crowd of thousands who had followed him out into the wilderness to hear him teach, who aside from a few loaves and fishes had no food, JESUS had COMPASSION for them and multiplied the loaves and fishes and fed the multitude with more left afterwards than what was there in the first place.

When faced with those who were crippled, blind, sick, etc JESUS had COMPASSION for them and "healed all those that came to him by faith"

When faced with the sufferings of people who were oppressed and even possessed by spiritual evil (demons / fallen spiritual beings) JESUS had COMPASSION on them as the victims that they were and with great authority commanded those oppressive spirits to leave their victims, leaving them at peace and in their right mind.

When faced with the sorrow of those mourning over the death of Lazarus (one of his followers) JESUS wept and being filled with COMPASSION for them commanded Lazarus to raise from the dead 4 days after he died. He did and many believed the teachings of JESUS after that...

When faced with the fear and sorrow of a woman found in the act of adultery that was about to be stoned to death under the "law", JESUS had COMPASSION on her, his words piercing through and exposing the hearts of those who were gathered to stone her, "He who is without any sin at all throw the first stone." No one could throw the first stone. Then he said to her, "Go and sin no more..."

And, when JESUS had spoken and done all that God had commanded him, and knowing that our ultimate punishment for sin was eternal death and separation from God, was DRIVEN by COMPASSION to submit himself as a living sacrifice for the sin of the entire human race. The only human being to have walked the earth without sin and separation from God, the only one for whom it was impossible to die, gave up his own life to the torture and death of the cross in exchange for the eternal lives of all humanity...

When all had been done and all fulfilled, God the Father looked upon the human race and the willing sacrifice of His only begotten Son, filled with COMPASSION, raised JESUS from the dead and opened the gates of ETERNAL LIFE to all those that would repent and come in by faith in the sacrifice and resurrection of His Son.

And, ever since then and to this day, around the world, wherever this message of hope is proclaimed in obedience and the power and demonstration of the COMPASSION of God, People are fed and clothed and sheltered, cripples walk, the blind see, the sick are healed, those oppressed by spirits go free, others receive back their loved ones from the dead, and those in fear and sorrow over their sinful lives and separation from God, who repent are completely forgiven and cleansed and given a new, eternal life to enter into and walk in. A new life. One that God desires to fill with His COMPASSION for others...

The "Good News" without God's Spirit of COMPASSION is Bad News. The one thing that GOD deliberately did NOT accomplish through the death and resurrection of JESUS: The establishment of "Religion"...

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Gotta Love Mr. Fixit

I am a carpenter/handyman by trade. I like what I do. I like fixing things for people.

The last couple weeks though I have told a few people, sort of jokingly, that "nobody ever calls me anymore unless they want something fixed!!" I've said it several times this last couple weeks and even though it got to be quite funny, by and large it has been true - Unfortunately.

Nobody ever calls me to say something like, "I just wanted to hear your voice." Well yesterday I was unloading my van and while I was pulling stuff out of it, I suddenly had a very clear awareness of God saying the exact same thing:

"Nobody ever calls ME anymore unless they want something fixed!! Much less calls to tell ME 'I just wanted to hear your voice.'"

Honestly, I chuckled. I understood what He was saying really well. Sometimes God will allow us to go through something so we can understand what He is saying or what someone else is going through in our hearts - not just in our heads.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

RIGHT and LEFT

I am so glad that when I was born, I was born with a right side and a left side. For some reason if I think about being born or living with only a right side or only a left side it seems kind of icky.

Some of you may disagree with me, but, because I was born with a right side and a left side (a major qualification to understand what I am getting at here), when I eat, I feed BOTH sides of my body equally at the same time. And, quite frankly, I fully expect both sides to work together for the benefit of my whole body...

Kind of a crazy thought isn't it...

But if I saw a person with a big knife in each hand and the left side was trying to cut off the right side and the right side was trying to cut off the left side, I'd almost have to say that person was, well... Bewitched, insane. I'm tempted to almost say, demon possessed...

What do you think?

See what is going on right now politically in this country (USA) is that both "sides" are merely using certain issues to draw people onto their side to gain power for their own purposes which have nothing to do with those issues. To the powers that be, the issues are merely a means to an end... People are being USED!.

But there is a much wider agenda going on in levels far above what we can see in the realm of "power." The "power players" on the "left" and the "right" are merely pawns for, or perhaps even unwitting slaves to this upper level agenda. It's like a multi-level marketing scheme where the lower level people trying to increase their income ultimately contribute far more to goals of someone above them and those further above gain exponentially... and so on... What going on is EXACTLY like that.

But what most people don't know is this: the agendas of the "left" and the "right" are sections of the same pyramid... It's not hard to recognize who is really behind this lust and manipulation for power... Lust for power, spreading and encouraging division, using deception as a tool to keep those below in complicity... Evil at it's highest level...

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Passing It On

This morning I was scanning Mukulu Jonathan's (OOCM's founder and director) personal facebook page for potential back dated content for the new "blog" I've been helping out and putting together in my spare time and I happened upon this statement he posted in November 2012 (before I met him). I think, mostly, we only see bits and pieces of people's lives posted on facebook, rarely knowing them in a more personal way. I have also noticed over the years that people tend to become more aware of a "named ministry" and rarely take the time to get to know the people behind it all or how it all started...

Mukulu Jonathan, a local christian and a friend of mine in Uganda, posted this and I think it shows insight into his heart and what drives him in ministry to orphans and the disadvantaged. I have to say though that it is wisdom that is being lived out in their lives on a daily basis but it can also form in us a "seed" of understanding that can grow into a direction in our lives as people and believers in many other different ways and directions.

"All believers need to share yourself with others, life begins to find its meaning to our lord. When you help others you start planting a generation, happiness to young ones. The time you touch the lives of others is the moment you truly live your purpose near to lord. The kindness we do is never lost or forgotten and each act takes root to grow and every bit of love we show in time will come up with good fruit. we also need to uplift friends in prayers, AMEN"

I heard an old brother from the welsh revivals (early 1900's) speak a word once from his experience of many, many decades of life:

"You produce your like!..."

I was thinking this morning about that "word" and how it might apply to Mukulu Jonathan's heartfelt statement above. And how what he said could very well change our lives in the Lord...

Sunday, August 4, 2013

How Things Come About

How things can come about...

This is my personal blog so guess I can talk about things that are happening in my life right?

It's amazing sometimes how we can be walking along a path or even stumbling along it and God can orchestrate circumstances that draw us into another new facet in our lives or even a radical change in direction. I've seen it happen to me in my lifetime many times...In the Lord, I think it almost always starts with being made aware of a need. Virtually always someone else's need. Sometimes it can start with a vision or a dream and other times God just slowly and methodically places things in our lives (even disruptions) that draw us in the direction we need to go.

Seven months ago, (It seems a lot longer than that), a good friend of mine told me he was taking a trip to visit some friends in Uganda. Something perked up in my spirit and I knew I needed to pray for him the whole month he would be there. (Jan. 2013) Never really gave it much thought beyond praying for him except for a growing sense of "being there in spirit" but in mid Jan., a young christian nursing student from Uganda, looking for christian friends in the West, sent a "friend request" to me on facebook and after praying about it, (I am very careful about who I "friend" on facebook), accepted the request. She's about 3 years younger than my youngest daughter.

After months of endless chats with this young lady who was so delighted to meet and get to know this christian father (however imperfect) with a family, (and I to her as well) I slowly found myself being more and more aware of the country, the people and in particular the believers in the Lord Jesus through her. I learned about the lack, the hardships, the poverty of the people and yet witnessed the most amazing ability of a lot of people there to rise up above circumstances and to look forward in life by having a trust in God for things that others in the west would see as impossible or even crushing under the circumstances. One brother from the West who has been there told me it's because they have no choice. They have to believe God. There simply are no other options there. Delightful, inspiring, worthy of mention. This young lady is now in her 3rd term of nursing school with a little help from her friends in the west and will graduate in early 2014. A blessing for her and yet a blessing for many, many others in Uganda because there is a dire need for medical personnel there. Her name is Luthy Monica...

One thing leads to another... One day, I saw a comment on her facebook post by a guy named Mukulu Jonathan and I sensed a particularly strong nudge from the Lord to befriend him on facebook. Well it turns out that he is Luthy's cousin but a little older and he had started a local orphans ministry in a village in a rural area. (most of the country is "rural"). I learned more and more through him and others I've met online about the orphan situation there in Uganda that is an utterly devastating situation... I have found myself involved in one way or another since then.

I really can't help myself in that regard... Somehow in all this, I have not only been growing and challenged to change and respond, but I have gained some very dear brothers and friends in the Lord. I am finding it more and more difficult to hide in my "cave." Now I ask you my friends... Is that really a bad thing or is that a "God thing"...

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Supreme Court News Flash!

NEWS FLASH!!!

The Supreme Court today handed down it's most far reaching decision in the case "The State of Confusion vs Superman". The court overturned the federal law administered by the FAA that gave Superman a license to fly without mechanical aids based on his unique ability to fly in that manner.

In the landmark decision, the court recognized that not all human beings can fly like Superman but also found that in order to protect the rights of other human beings who cannot actually leave the ground in their attempts to fly but desire to be licensed to fly without mechanical aids, under the Equal Rights clause of the constitution, should be granted licenses to fly by the govt based solely upon the criteria that a person who believes they can fly should in all fairness be considered to be actually flying.

The long awaited Supreme Court decision was met with shouts of joy by a crowd of 100,000 people outside of the court jumping up in the air and falling down yelling, "I can fly! I can fly! I can fly!". Many in the crowd were in tears saying, "I can fly! and now the government recognizes it and I can finally have my license to fly."

Oh and Superman was originally given his license to fly in recognition of his taking responsibility to maintain order in the skies and because it was well known by everyone that he was busy saving the human race from extinction...

It has been reported that Superman has decided to leave planet earth seeing that there are so many people who are licensed to "fly" now that surely they can save the human race from extinction all by themselves...

And you know what? Superman knows that he doesn't need a "license" in order to fly. And that giving someone a license to fly doesn't make them able to. He was just being responsible in applying for one.

End of story.
End of mankind.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Blog Introduction 101

 The way life goes lately for me between work as a carpenter/handyman and helping others to communicate online, I rarely have time to actually work on my own blog. But I have a certain nudge to add to this as well. Hopefully with balance and the grace of God...

It's funny how life goes sometimes. Years ago I started and ran Inter-National Christian News online for over 5+ years. Also learned to administer the 2 internet web servers for that whole time... I had to shut it all down eventually (2002) in part because of failing support. That's not the first time in my life I've had to do that. One thing that I was left with from those experiences is that I can relate well when ministries and individuals have their dreams, visions and goals and are struggling, and believing God to continue in them (Especially when those dreams, visions and goals are focusing on the needs of others). I also know what it is like to be dependent on God's moving in people's hearts to come alongside and be supportive in those goals...

The concept "Inter-National" is still there in spirit available for anyone with the right heart to apprehend from God and apply in all kinds of ways to their life and walk in the Lord...

The vision I had of that was of believers in and among all nations and people groups functioning together as ONE and each person participating from their own unique and EQUAL local perspective, sharing with others in other nations about their lives and what God was/is doing in their locality... - Without undue reference to organizational status or division... Just God and His people... The way it's supposed to be and God intends and will accomplish some day.Quite likely despite ourselves...


In 2013, I found myself being drawn towards knowing believers in Uganda and the great need there. That's no secret on my facebook page, but it goes a lot deeper than what I feel the liberty on facebook to express for some reason. (like a lot of things on my heart at times). I've gained a lot by allowing God to place their concerns on my heart, maybe even the start of returning to my first love of God...

So I find myself, after a few months of never seeming to have the time (or the drive) to work on my own blog, having the desire to start it by sharing the concerns I have gained (a REAL spiritual blessing) from God for a few people I have gotten to know in Uganda.

The two friends I want to introduce in this post are the first two people I got to know in Uganda on a personal level. Both their lives, even though they have personal needs of their own, are focused in the long term direction of ministering to the lives and great needs of others in their communities in Uganda.

Luthy Monica

A 22 year old delightful young Christian lady in Uganda who, despite extreme poverty and having lost both her parents at a very young age, is endeavoring to become a nurse. Through what has been nothing short of miraculous support from individuals in the "Western world" at different times, she has managed to walk towards that goal and is in her 3rd 5-month semester at Jinja School of Nursing and Midwifery at present. God willing (and people being willing to be touched by the need), she will graduate in 2014 as a fully qualified, and equipped nurse ready to go out to remote villages and provide medical care to the people there or work in one of the clinics and hospitals in the area. Many people in rural Uganda die because they have poor or even non-existing medical care.


If you feel prompted to learn more about her or follow events in her life you can go to the page at the left of this called "Luthy Monica". Hopefully I can keep up a little mini-blog for her. It's my gift to her. You can also open your heart to her life and needs and donate to her education via an online donation link I've set up for her at the bottom of that page.

Mukulu Jonathan

 This precious younger brother (31?) in 2010 founded a ministry to orphans and the disadvantaged in their area of Uganda called "Oasis Orphans Care Ministry" which is registered with the government of Uganda.. Together with his staff and volunteers from area churches since then has managed to minister to needs there in spiritual and practical ways...

On my blog page called "OOCM" found on the left side of this blog, you can find more info and links to Mukulu Jonathan's personal facebook page and the OOCM official blog (which I helped them put together). Both sites linked contain much more info and Mukulu's facebook page has tons of photos of the children as well as the staff and volunteers from the village working together to alleviate the needs there. They are in particularly desperate need right now of sponsors no matter how small the amount. There is also a link on he OOCM blog on their support page that leads to a secure online donation form.