OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS LIKE FILTHY RAGS

"The day of denominationalism is over. That which is highly esteemed in the sight of (religious) men is an abomination to God."

One night in 1980 I had this desire burning in me to stay up late to read the scriptures. As I was reading, it was like the Holy Spirit took over and suddenly I found myself opening the scriptures randomly and my eyes focused in the dim light of the oil lamp on the words, "To the Church at _____ (a locality)" then just as quickly I found myself opening the scriptures to yet another passage with the same words.... Over and over and over again until I had opened to every passage in the new testament with those words. I could not have possibly done so in the natural.

While this was going on the thought was burning inside me, "Lord, what does this mean?" "What are you saying?"

A Dream/Vision I also had In 1980...

In this dream/vision I was suddenly caught up very high in the air overlooking what appeared to be a subdivision of houses. The houses were all basically the same and were on both sides of a straight road. There were many, many of them. All of them had driveways that led to the road but I couldn't see where that road went to. Being a builder, I was somewhat impressed with all this.

I found myself observing this scene from high above for a time then just as suddenly as I had been caught up in the air, I found myself inside another huge house in the midst of a large crowd of believers worshiping God. I didn't recognize any of them but we were all caught up in the presence of God so much so that it was beyond anything I had ever experienced. I had been ushered into the presence of God many times before this in gatherings of believers but nothing anywhere near like this.

The presence of the Jesus was so powerful, so real, so permeating that if anyone had a question in their heart towards Him about something while they were worshiping , the answer was instantly revealed. As I looked around in awe at all this, a question came into my heart. "Where did all these people come from?" Instantly the words came into my mind,

"These are the ones that have come out of the houses you saw." (in the subdivision) [Note: I much later realized that this coming out was in our hearts]

I looked around in awe at the multitudes that were gathered in the presence of Jesus. He was there in the midst of it all. The gathering went as far as I could see. The house was like no house I had ever seen. God was the foundation and the floor. He was the very roof of the building. It was expandable for as many who would come to gather in His presence because the building had no walls. The foundation was laid on the earth but the roof was suspended from above so it didn't need any walls to hold it up. It was built by God and held together by Him and it was filled with the Glory of God Himself.

Then as quickly as I had been caught up, I was back from where I had been before the dream/vision.

The houses of men are built for the pride of men but the House of God in Jesus the Messiah is built for the glory of God Himself. There are no walls in His house. There is only the glory of God that fills those that believe from every nation on earth.

Is it possible that everything we are so proud of about "where we gather" and "who we gather with" named or unamed, that very thing to God is an abomination?

Even the Roman soldiers, when Christ was being crucified did not take a meat cleaver and chop HIS Body into pieces yet we think nothing of doing so ourselves.

Before this, I used to think that "ecuminical unity" was the unity that God desired but ecuminical unity is the upholding of the concept of the "subdivision." God's unity of the Holy Spirit is given to all believers in our hearts. The two are diametrically opposed to each other. In the one we endevour to create a unity but in the other the unity IS and we are commanded to maintain it.

I Once Had A Dream

I once had a dream that as I understand it, the outward form of what is known as the church fell into a bottomless chasm leaving us totally reliant on the pure light of Jesus to carry us across that chasm. That day the Lord spoke a confirming sign: That the doors to Russia were going to open... But someday they would close as quickly as they had opened. That was in 1987. In 1991 or 1992 the doors to what was formerly the USSR suddenly opened to everyone's shock. I'm not much of a betting man but the relationship between the USA and Russia has of late relatively soured and that door is being prepared to slam in the face of the USA. 

If my understanding of all this holds true (we see in part and know in part), the non-profit corporation that the "church" has been leaning on is about to pierce our hand. It will either not exist or we will be forced to choose between keeping it and denying God or following Him and letting it go. My sense from another vision is that the decision to hold on or to let it go will not have any in-betweens but comes with serious eternal reprocussions. It will be like a fire that will force us to one side or the other.

I am not by any means saying that we should at this time abandon the outward form and the non-profit status but rather to be very vigilant in the coming times and allow God to teach us how to do without it. We do need to recognize though that it will be God allowing these things to prepare us for the 2nd coming of the Messiah. That is very important so we can keep our discernment sharp. If we are all bent out of shape and blaming governments, political parties, Muslims or even other "churches" we will not see the day of our visitation coming. It is in spirit much like 9/11. A few saw it for the warning to this nation that it was (God's hand lifted for a second) and unfortunately many were found (and still are) blaming scapegoats to avoid the conviction and have totally missed the warning of the LORD at that time..

There is something we need to understand about God's ways. If it comes down to it He WILL sacrifice a nation to accomplish the purity of His Church. If we don't understand that we will stumble. Jesus is not coming back for a Church that looks like it just got chopped up at a butcher shop. He is going to have His way with His Church and our flesh is NOT going to like that one bit.

The Church is going to enter into this time of refinement as a huge ocean pleasure cruise liner with lots of room for passengers but it is going to come out of this time we are entering into as a sleek, much smaller fighting ship and everyone on it will be a functioning part of it's crew.

MUSIC: SECULAR OR SACRED?

A brother posted a really nicely done worship song recently and I found myself posting this in the comments:

"Whatsoever things you do, do them with all your heart 

as unto the Lord and not as unto men."

Such a guideline for us who listen to and perform music that in all things we do them to glorify God and not for the admiration of men!

When the Lord touched me and saved me decades ago, I was a musician playing in clubs in the hotels in Hawaii. That was my life but it was also my emptiness because performing in the secular world (and unfortunately in the "modern christian pop world" is a barren life craving for the attention and admiration of men.

When I first started going to a gathering sometimes they would sing a song out of the old "hymn book" and I couldn't appreciate the words because I just couldn't stand the music. Three months later, I had no desire at all to play or to listen to secular songs (and never did again after almost 40 years.) BUT I started loving to play and sing those old hymns and worship choruses and it didn't matter if people cheered the music or admired my person, whether there was a whole crowd or just me before the Lord.

I discovered that the whole reason God placed that desire in us to sing and appreciate music was solely to express worship and to glorify God.

There was one song from my secular musical past that I used to sing with all my heart in my early years. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Find The Cost of Freedom." but I had changed the words to glorify God.

"Find the cost of freedom... 

Nailed upon the cross.. 

Jesus Christ has won it all. 

Laid my burden (of sin) down."

That is the only secular song I ever performed (besides "happy birthday to you".) in almost 40 years. Nobody influenced me or taught a "rule". It is just what God did from the beginning of my walk and I love Him for it.

It's funny because I have never shared that part of my testimony in words before today. I just found myself blessed with the living of it. Nobody ever taught on the subject. It was just pure grace and still is. It wasn't a "Thou shalt not." it was a "thou shalt." The work of God in us in that way can be expressed so beautifully in the scripture:

"Old things are passing away.Behold, all things are new!" 

- (2nd Co. 5:17)

My Early Testimony

40 years ago...

Trapped and drowning in a car turned upside down in a ditch. No hope. I'm going to die! Fear. No air left. No strength to try to get out anymore. I pass into the unknown. I am ushered into the presence of God. You know. The one I cursed and ignored. The one I didn't believe even existed. The one when others mentioned Him, I would laugh to scorn. The brunt of my jokes is now my judge. I have no lawyer. I am not allowed to speak. Every breath I have taken. Every thought, every motivation. Every secret wrong I have done. All played out in living color. I cannot hide. I realize I am a condemned man and there is no hope. There is no escape from the truth. It is utterly terrifying.

Suddenly there is great indescribable power displayed. I am whisked from certain death to life. I have a new breath of air. My body passes through a space that only a few minutes before I couldn't even get my arm through. All within less than a split second. My two passengers are sitting on a rock above the water. Their backs turned to the wreck. They are sad. The tow truck driver arrives. He looks shocked when I pop up to the surface. I didn't tell a single soul for years. I had no words to describe. I know now it is called, "The Mercy of God..."

I had a back injury from the accident so no one would hire me so I went up to Alaska to work. I tried to clean up my life but I kept falling on my face in the mud. No matter how I tried I knew that it wasn't enough to please God. I finally gave up but I was so empty. Came back home. Played in a band in the hotels. On the surface everything was great but inside I had no life in me and had to deal with constant back pain.

One night we had a 45 minute break and I went outside in the garden between two hotels and I stood there alone, empty, wondering if there was even any real meaning to life. Suddenly everything around me was filled with the presence of Jesus. Yes there was a certain fear but I was numb to it now. I knew I was a condemned man. I had nothing to look forward to in that way. But His presence was so beautiful, so loving and life was pouring out of Him towards me. I was awestruck. Then He said to me,

"Come into My Kingdom..."

 and those words were so full of life and forgiveness that all I managed to say was, "YES!" as I stood there basking in His presence. Then as I was standing there, the same power that had ushered me out of that car and out from the water that night went through me like a bolt of lightning and my back was instantly and permanently healed and my life was turned upside down in a wonderful way.

I was thinking today how sad it is that this generation seems to have turned it's back on God but then can we really blame them? Have they ever seen even one miracle (in "church" or out on the street) Have they heard the Gospel go out in power where man stands out of the way and let's Jesus run the show? (He is very good at it!). I think God is hearing a heart cry inside this generation. One that by and large we are ignoring. They want the real thing. They want evidence.

For decades now, by and large people have been hearing the Gospel of 2000 years of defiled churchianity but soon they will hear the Gospel of the Kingdom of God preached in power. Power to save. Power to turn people's lives around. Power to heal and all that will be found in God's power to forgive and cleanse from sin. That is one purchase that has already been made for us and it was Jesus that paid the price to make it possible. People cannot see that because often we are obscuring their view. But that is all about to change...

Jesus is saying something but with all the noise we are not hearing Him.

"Come into My Kingdom or get out of My way!. There isn't much time left and I am not willing that even one perish..."

The Missing 12 Smooth Stones

I am reminded of when the children of Israel were exhorted in their crossing of the river Jordan into the promised land that they were to take from the river 12 smooth stones to remind them of all that God had done for them in bringing them through the wilderness and crossing the Jordan. (And they had many more difficulties to go through and overcome so would need those reminders to prevail.) Their instructions were to take those 12 smooth stones and tell those stories to subsequent generations.... And, they were commanded that for a reason.

Even though the Acts of the Apostles (Actually the Acts of God through and witnessed by the Believers at the time) ends where it ends in the scripture, the book of Acts in the Church is not intended to end until the Coming of the Lord. Throughout history there have been saints of God who have walked in incredible grace. When we leave all those smooth stones of God's moving through His people back in the Jordan river of History that the Church has passed through, when we have sentenced them to be forgotten by subsequent generations, we are doing a vast disservice to future generations of Christians. Christian converts who will accept a life in Christ far less than He has intended or is capable of working in us.

Much of the present generation of newer Christians lack a certain foundation of those smooth stones of the continuity of the LORD's work in and through His Church throughout history. I have never seen a generation like this that so much seems to need to be entertained to come to and remain in Christ as opposed to realizing the deep and constant need for conviction of sin and the need to submit out lives to Christ and bear our own cross. That our lives are no longer our own. We have been purchased with a price. Part of that reason is that we have all but erased the testimony of God in prior generations and by doing so have shortchanged ourselves and this generation....

And They Were One

From the heart and mouth of the Lord Jesus:

"and there shall be one flock and one shepherd (Jesus)." John 10:16
"I and my Father are one." - John 10:30
"And the glory which You gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." - John 17:22
"And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father [GOD], keep through Your own name those whom You have given me, that they may be one, as we are."- John 17:11
"By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." - John - 13:35

And affirmed by the Holy Spirit upon His outpouring on the disciples:

"And all that believed were together and had all things common" - Acts 2:44
"And the multitude of them that believed were of on heart and of one soul." - Acts 4:32

---

Is it wrong to desire such a thing if Jesus himself desired it to be so??? Do we dare to entertain such a thought that seemed so prominent on the mind of Jesus prior to his crucifixion??? That after Jesus ascended the promised Holy Spirit came upon them became so apparent???

That those who follow Jesus would be ONE.

What is it that hiders us? Is it the desire to rule our own kingdoms as in the world? How is it that there are endless splits within what is outwardly known as the "Church" to the point now that we have 10's of thousands of independent organizations all claiming our own identities.

Is identifying with Christ insufficient to our hearts that we find ourselves chasing after strange fruit to satisfy some carnal desire within our ranks and in our own hearts to "have our own?" Can we possibly see that desire as sin that Jesus died on the cross for? Something that needs repentance? What is the call to repentance that so many have heard and professed really about?

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." - 2nd Chronicles 7:14

It is not "America" (or any other country) that God is calling out to be saved. It is His Church splintered in spirit like a broken sheet of glass mirror, shattered into thousands of pieces all reflecting to some degree His image yet unable of it self to reflect that one quality of God that seems to have escaped our convictions: "Hear Oh Israel. The Lord your God is ONE God."

Jesus is not returning for the pieces of a shattered mirror but a perfect mirror image of his own likeness. We will either in our repentance finding ourselves being restored by Him or we will have to face the tremendous heat necessary to melt the shattered mirror that we have become to make us that perfect mirror image once again.

That day of extreme heat is fast coming upon us. Never underestimate the passion of a holy God for the purity of His Church. Individually, organizationally, locally or nationally...

No form of government either political or religious will save us from that day. We need to decide, each of us individually, organizationally, in our locality, nationally, to not break faith with one another other. To live in Christ as one. Rather than being puffed up about our differences to mourn before God over them until they are settled. To decide whom it is that we will truly serve, God or the shattered outward form. The failure of those in authority "above us" will be no excuse for us in that day.

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all." - Isaiah 53:6

I will leave you in this with a last thought to consider from Jeremiah 18:1-6

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words."

Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?" saith the Lord. "Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."

The day of denominationalism is over. 
"That which is highly esteemed in the sight of religious men is an abomination in the sight of God." - Luke 16:15

We need to be careful that after 2000 years of religious traditions we are not found "choking on a gnat" yet having been tricked into "swallowing a camel"...

The "Oneness" of Cooperation

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them that any of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. - Acts 4:32

Wikipedia is a non-profit effort formed to provide a knowledge forum where people can work together on any subject to enhance knowledge about it. The restriction is that they agree to allow others to use it freely and without restriction and that in passing that knowledge on they do not restrict others from using it or passing it on freely as well endlessly. The goal is to enable the passing on of knowledge not to profit financially from it and to insure that continues to be the case. It has always been upheld by that discipline and the contributions and financial donations of others whether small or large.

The same principle drives the working of the Free Software Foundation which cooperatively birthed the Linux operating system into existence worldwide as an alternative to Microsoft's which was produced solely on the basis of market control and financial gain. Microsoft shares nothing of it's advances unless it absolutely has to therefore it is often very slow or negligent to correct them. The free software and knowledge community shares with and cooperates on everything so that all benefit and can continue to develop and pass it on. We might be more familiar with the "Android" system, a somewhat derivative, that powers some phones and smaller computer devices as an alternative to Apple's potential monopoly.

Even though such efforts are prone to occasional error it is notable that correction or improvement of those errors can come by way of the most seemingly insignificant member/participant very often far quicker than those commercial systems can produce. It is inherent that because no one cooperating can claim exclusiveness in anything that there is tremendous openness to correction (rather than the hiding of errors and unwillingness to have them be corrected from the "outside" inherent in more commercial efforts.) The level of cooperation and selflessness is quite often astounding considering the dog eat dog world we live in.

When I built the software that powered the INCN site years ago, I learned what I needed to know from the freely available and correctable programing efforts of others in that cooperative world. In addition, the servers were running on Linux system created and maintained by the cooperative effort of others. The Christian news articles were all produced or passed on by various cooperative efforts. I only supplied (or at this juncture in my life prefer to say "funneled") the means to publish them efficiently on the web. I found myself cataloging them first and foremost according to country or locality rather than by organization, something that I partook of earlier in my walk and certainly not my own exclusively. How else could a carpenter with a GED and no experience accomplish something like that by himself. I can never say I did it or designed it because ultimately it was formed on the backs of others before me.

One day at my desk when I was finding myself overwhelmed by the awareness of all the cooperation that went before me, I was reminded of the scripture and warning from Jesus, 

"And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." - Luke 16:8"

What if the Church, the followers of Jesus in Christ was originally designed to function like that in utter selfless cooperation and willingness to be corrected. Where the greatest among us is as a servant. And, if so, is it possible that the Creator of the Universe who has His hands in every event that unfolds upon the earth, speaking to a Church which has fallen to the state of many independent Balaams that desire to prophesy for personal gain. Speaking to that Church through the very donkey that it is riding on? "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6

How about a revival of Holy Spirit led "oneness in cooperation" among all the believers in Jesus Christ?

Lessons From My Dad

I will give thanks unto thee 

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are thy works and 

that my soul knoweth rightfully well.

Some people get what they need from the supermarkets and malls and some people are forced to get it from the garbage dumps. When I was a kid in Hawaii, the dumps (just like this picture) was a viable option. Think I'm going to borrow this picture from a friend. If nothing else to remember from whence I came.
(cont. below)

A child scraping out a living in the dumps - probably in Mexico

When I was very young, about the age of that young child in the picture above, my dad used to take me to the dumps where in addition to his regular job, he would collect scrap metal along with a host of other things. To be honest, I hated going there. It was humiliating and a nasty environment that if I described it in detail I could with utter certainty guarantee that you would lose your breakfast. I don't have to imagine much what that child's life is like.

My dad was the son of a sugar plantation worker who himself was the son of a sugar plantation worker. My dad probably hated that plantation culture as much as I hated being in those dumps. When he was in about the 8th grade (possibly earlier) he was pulled out of school to work in the plantation store to help support my grandfather's very large family. That was plantation life. It wasn't always very fair.

He managed to escape that life when he signed up for the army during WWII in the pacific for about 5 years. When he came back, his eyes were open to many new things and many new people. He got a job as a welding equipment repairman and later in sales. He also married my mom, a nurse from Nebraska who worked at the plantation dispensary - something that was not exactly looked upon with favor by some people. My mom could have had a place with the elite, the managers and doctors hired from the mainland US but she chose to marry a "local" instead, come what may. He could have ended up cutting cane and she could have ended up at the "Yacht Club" with the rest of the "haole" manager class from the mainland.

My dad wanted better for us kids and his job couldn't pay for that so he would spend every day after work and saturdays at the dumps gleaning for scrap metals. He got pretty good at it. Later in life the dumps people used to call him "the King of the Dumps." Out of that extra they managed to send us kids to private school. They wanted better for us. It costs money to send your kids there. Up until the 8th grade, I went to school with the children of parents who were much better off financially. When I was about the age of this little girl in the picture, my dad started taking me to the dumps with him on Saturdays and in the summer, sometimes on weekday afternoons.

I utterly resented it because I lived in the utter fear of the humiliation I would suffer if one of my friends from private school were to ever come down to dump their rubbish and see me there in the midst of it all. (Again I will spare you a graphic description.) There was a tremendous stigma attached to being among the dumps people - the extremely poor. I had no idea as a child that those dumps were paying for my education and exposure to the very friends I had come to know in my life. I honestly didn't realize that until I was a young man in my mid 20's. I was somewhat spared humiliation when for some reason when I had finished 7th grade my parents took us out of private school and put us into the public school closer to where we lived.

We humans can be very adaptable to circumstances given the time and consistency. My dad took me to the dumps until I was about 16. I did manage after a while to find some solace in it all. It's amazing what people throw away. As long as I was gleaning for scrap metal I was also free to pick up anything else I wanted. By the time I was barely a teenager I had amassed quite a collection of bicycle parts and had my own little bicycle shop in a little corner of my dad's garage/warehouse. I was pretty good at piecing parts together to make complete bicycles. I easily had over a dozen of them at one point in time. So, I started learning something my dad had been trying to teach me all that time. Oh the stench was still there. The humiliation was still there but I found out what most dumps gleaners find out at least at some point in their lives and learn to appreciate. "One man's junk is another man's treasure."

When I was about sixteen I was old enough to go out and get jobs to make any money I needed doing odd jobs and yard work. I never really went back to the dumps after that except to dump the rubbish. Honestly, I would have been happy to never have seen those dumps again. My dad continued to go there for most of the rest of his life. He loved finding those treasures that other people had discarded, taking them home and cleaning them up and placing them on the shelves in their living room. In my later years as an adult I had the pleasure of knowing him and I realized that he could look past the grim and filth covering something he had found and he could see past all that to see the treasure that was underneath. When anyone would visit, he would watch their eyes and if he saw them paying a particularly appreciative attention to one of his treasures, he would reach up on the shelf when they were leaving and say, "I want you to have this."

I would love to say that I saw all this right away but I still had a certain distaste for the dumps and almost an embarrassment of my dad. It wasn't until after my mid twenties that I was utterly delivered from that resentment and shame. When I became a Christian, after a few years I had gotten to know quite a few people who were well endowed with the gift of the Spirit. Among them I noticed with a certain internal respect was a pastoral couple (Mr. and Mrs. Day) of a small gathering that most people seemed to have nothing to do with. I seemed to always take note of them as being a little different.

To make the point, one night a friend of mine was working as a security guard in the Psyche ward. He had a particular anointing to walk into that ward and bring a certain calm to all the patients, so much so that the nurses hoped he would be on the same duty roster. A young man had been brought in a few days before and they misdiagnosed him and mismedicated him so he fell into a coma. Apparently there wasn't much they could do so they were just waiting for him to die. Suddenly, that night, the double doors to the ward burst open and Mrs. Day, like a battle axe, burst into the ward, motioned to my friend and immediately proceeded into the young man's room to pray for him along with my friend. That young man suddenly sat up in bed alive and well. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement.

One day, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Go to the dumps." To be honest, as I said before, I wanted nothing to do with the dumps for quite a few years but because it was so clear, I reluctantly got in my car and went there. When I got there, I parked the car wondering why I was sent there because I had no urge to get out of the car. As I looked around, out there quite a ways was an older couple standing facing each other and holding hands and praying before they began to glean the fields. It was Mr. and Mrs. Day! There was a certain aura around them as they prayed. They were there to pick through used clothes to take home, clean and likely give them away the same way my dad used to do all those years.

I never looked at the dumps or my dad the same way again.

So in closing I would have to say something having lived some years on this earth. That there are some things that God wants to speak to us about. He wants to speak to us about the dumps and discarded treasures hidden in human filth. The same human treasures that He sent His Son Jesus to die for. He wants to gift us to see past all the human filth and recognize the treasure being concealed by it. To take them home, clean them up and treasure them.

He also wants us to see that underneath all the imperfections of our life long before we actually are aware of Him that He has hidden His treasures all along the way in our lives. Before we were ever born, He knew us in our mother's womb.

Above it all perhaps even warning us that we need to be more careful who and what we discard and toss in the trash heap. After all, somebody may just come along and see the treasure that we rejected. Just how will we feel then? God's greatest treasure, Jesus the Messiah, was also rejected of men.

If we feel like Jesus is strangely missing from our lives or our fellowship, it may very well be that He has gone dumpster diving for the lost and discarded treasures of humanity. If you really want to find Him, you may very well have to go to the dumps as well...

The Love Of God

This story was relayed to a group of us assembled together to hear our Jewish brother Art Katz speak many years ago. Art was a different sort of brother. He was very Jewish yet as convicted of Christ as any of us if not more so. He definitely brought a certain Jewish flavor of gospel with him. He NEVER spoke unless there was something God wanted to impart into us.

He had traveled to Japan to meet with a Japanese brother who went by the name of Professor Tashima. During WWII, the Christians particularly in leadership roles had to hide up in the mountains for the duration of the war. It was a dangerous time for them and as a result spent much time in earnest prayer. Many times God was Professor Tashima's only companion. After the war was over, Professor Tashima returned to ministry but there was something about him that made others uncomfortable around him so he could not find a pastoral position open for him. He was later assigned to the leper colony because nobody wanted the assignment.

During his first day at preaching there, he stood at the pulpit which was quite high above the gathering of lepers to keep the speaker from "contamination." He began to preach to them about the Love of God. He looked down upon the crowd of lepers below him and his heart was filled with the love of God for them. So much so that he was compelled to leap down off that high platform and went about hugging tightly each one of them telling them that God loved them. As he hugged each one of them with the Love of God in him for them, each one of those lepers was completely healed. Leprosy in the scriptures is a symbol of sin, of uncleanness. Those lepers had been set free by the Love of God in Christ to go about their lives free from the restrictions of the leper colony, free to live their lives in the freedom and gratitude of the Love of God.

After that Professor Tashima would go about street preaching and telling people of the Love of God always miracles accompanying his preaching. As he would go about preaching a woman who had been used by the Japanese soldiers for sex against her will during the war would stand in the back and cry out with a loud voice, "Where is the love of this God? I was used sexually all these years and I have sexual diseases that have disfigured me and my beauty and ruined my life. Who is going to love me? Tell me how can you preach the "love of God" when I have to live with such a thing? (This was before antibiotics were available for those diseases) She was very disruptive at all his meetings and would cry out each time so he prayed and prayed to God about how he could show this pitiful and bitter woman the Love of God. The Lord finally spoke to him. "I want you to marry her to show her my love..." So he went to her and married her to show her the love that God had for her. He never caught those sexual diseases.

When Art Katz was visiting and spending some time with them years later, he noticed that she was radiantly beautiful, almost embarrassingly so. He went behind a pillar so he could observe her better to understand how she could be so radiant (It was troubling him). To his surprise, her face was still very disfigured. Her radiance was the Love that she had received from God. She was literally radiating with the Love of God.

A simple message with such powerful results: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life." "Of a truth, Jesus Christ died for All sin, for All mankind, for All time."

Now days there are so many people seeking after the "power of God" and the conviction of others when we should be seeking Him for His Love for ourselves and for others. Conviction will follow, miracles will follow but what good is it if we don't have the Love of God in our hearts for others? Jesus went about preaching the Love of God but He was driven in compassion to demonstrate it...

The Testimony of Jesus

"Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends." - Jesus

One of the greatest news stories I have ever had the privilege of publishing at INCN (Inter-National Christian News) will probably never make it to the "Christian News" that we have today. Oh I could tell you stories of dramatic healings (some that I have witnessed personally) and even resurrections from the dead in Jesus name. But of all those reports, this one stands out the most in my memory because, of all of the stories I have been privileged to publish  in those "Newsie" days or even witnessed, this one perhaps expresses the Love that God has for us the most. It demonstrates the definition of a "Christian," a follower of Jesus that by it's nature humbles us before Him.

I believe it was in Iran where it is the death penalty to convert to Christianity. A relatively newer Christian had converted and was charged and sentenced to death. Another man who had become a Christian years before very quietly maintained his relationship to God. He was a fairly highly placed government official. It was extremely dangerous for him to witness to anyone. Even though he wanted to share the love of God that he had discovered in his own life for years, there was very little he could do to share it because of his position.

There is (or at least was at the time) a law in that country that said that a man's guilt and sentence could be absolved if someone else were to take his place. It was the greatest witness of that high ranking official to show the love of God in Christ that he presented himself as the legal substitution for that newer convert's life. He took the death penalty upon himself so the other man would be set free. Of all the years of his life as a Christian, his greatest witness of the Love of Jesus and faith in the promises of Jesus to everyone around him was in his death.

If his final testimony doesn't grab our hearts and humble us to our knees before God, then we are yet spiritually dead in our sins.

ps that was in the days when news articles actually had to be fully confirmed by reliable witnesses...

Having Done All To Stand

I've never really shared this except for a few people because it was so personal.

Years ago we had a christian newspaper in rural Oregon, USA and even though we weren't remotely qualified it was taking off in the entire area of towns and was welcomed by the different gatherings. There was a Billy Graham crusade coming up in Portland, OR so we decided to promote that in the paper. Any time the entire body gathers together the Lord is not far off.

One day a sister who lived with us came out of prayer and was weeping because she had just heard a word from the Lord. "Having done all to stand."... We already knew what it was like to suffer and deny ourselves when obeying God was concerned but when she said that word I heard it deep inside me and I literally gulped.

Having done all to stand. 
(suffering the loss of all things).

That issue took everything we had in the way of energy, faith and finance to produce and distribute. There was suddenly a strange deep unexplainable resistance. Even the christian radio station was strangely uncooperative. My wife and family had to visit clear across the USA in Michigan cause her mom was dying. The sister that was also our secretary got called away and I was left to finish that issue and deliver it myself. It took everything. After the issue went out, everything started falling apart. I had to move out of our small office. Then there was no rent for our house and I needed to move out. There was suddenly no donations. There was this terrible silence in spirit.

One day I heard something from the Lord I did not want to hear and later I went over to an old brother's house on a prompt and he turned to me suddenly and said the same thing, "You have to wipe off your feet and leave. You are the third ministry like this that this town has rejected." I did not want to hear that. We loved that town. A brother later called and although he didn't know what was going on, offered to rent us a large house in another town 20 miles away for very cheap. I went to the PO box the next morning and there was surprisingly some donations there that were just enough to rent a truck to move. A brother suddenly was given the day off that day and he offered to help me move. I didn't have the money to rent the house yet so we put it all in the garage on the property of that new location.

I was homeless living in my car for three weeks and took a job roofing a brother's large house by myself only to find that a lower back injury from a work injury suffered before flared up and it was sheer agony to finish that job (which was on the hill above the town I had come from). I sold my car one day and hitchhiked to the town to finish the job and stopped by a brother's house on the way. He told me he was confused because he knew I had a car but the Lord had told him to give me their older car so when he saw me and knew that I had sold my car he was so delighted to know it was God who spoken to him. (The same brother who helped me move out of the other house.) I finished that job in such agony that I was crying out to God the whole time. I needed that money to rent that house and pay the deposits on elect. etc. When the owner of the house I was roofing came home, I was just finishing up and I went into their house. He looked at me kind of shocked. So much so that I went into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. It didn't even look like me. Between the pain and crying out to God my face was transformed. (It's no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me.)

I finally had enough to secure that house and moved the living room furniture in from the garage. I really hadn't had any chance to sift through all that had gone on yet. The paper was out there by the thousands with the crusade on the front page and the call for the believers to gather but I had no phone so I had no clue as to what was happening. That first night I finally sat in my overstuffed chair and had time to think. I was financially broke. I had no phone to communicate with anyone. My family was stuck thousands of miles away in a place I had never been to. I was very alone. I felt deeply the sense of utter failure. It began to crush me. Overwhelm me. It was the first night of the crusade but it was over a hundred miles away in Portland and I didn't even have the gas to get there. I was so ashamed I'm not sure I wanted to. I don't know why but I went across the room and turned the christian radio station on. They had refused to cover the crusade earlier. To my utter shock the first song of the crusade was live on the air. A christian business person had apparently funded the whole thing at the last moment. When I heard the crowd singing in worship I sat in my chair again and broke down in deep heaving sobs crying out to God, "I have failed You. I have utterly failed You." Over and over again. There was no comforting me. That was all I could speak. Broken. Humiliated. Alone. I lost the newspaper. I had no income. No family and at that time I really wondered if I had any real friends I could trust.

Then something amazing happened. I sensed the presence of the Lord as I had many times but this time it was different. It didn't stop at a "presence" it got stronger and clearer. So much so that I dared not open my eyes for fear of seeing Him. He was sitting on the arm of my chair and I was sobbing beyond control. He reached over and pulled me into His bosom and held me and comforted me. It was Jesus. I was safe with Him. Nothing else mattered. Then He spoke to me something I crave for now and hope for in all eternity,

"Well Done!"

It didn't matter at that moment what anyone thought, or even what I thought. All that mattered was what He said. I was suddenly whisked in the spirit to the very top bleacher overlooking the Colosseum (?) in Portland, OR over a hundred miles away and as I viewed the massive gathering of believers without regard to "what church they belonged to" worshiping together, a cloud descended with Jesus on it and He poured out His utter pleasure on the gathering. Then I found myself back in my chair but I knew I wasn't alone and His words filled my heart.

I didn't know until later that hundreds from Central Oregon had gone up to the crusade. That someone had even rented buses to transport people. But I knew that He had poured out His pleasure on that gathering and that in that moment in my life He said two things to me. "Having done all to stand." and "Well Done."


There is a lesson in this and many other unheard testimonies which this generation needs to hear and learn from. There are thousands of people who follow Christ who are in prison, tortured for their true faith. Many of them go hungry. Many more suffer true persecution. Their testimonies are gold refined in the fire. (Jesus councils us to purchase that gold refined in the fire.) God is speaking to His Church. He is presenting opportunities to build His Kingdom. Not your church, not your denomination but His Kingdom, His Church, the assembly of those called out of darkness into His marvelous light. Those opportunities are calling to this generation. They are not easy. They rarely are. But we have to hear God's voice calling to us. And, we need to answer that call.

We cannot have the "Well Done" unless we are also willing to hear and walk in  the "Having done all to stand." We have to pick up our cross and follow Him in order to have His pleasure over us. And in that final and eternal moment, Jesus will say to us one of two things (and no one will be there to defend us in that day) :

Well done my good and faithful servant, enter into your rest
OR
Depart from me you worker of iniquity...

There is nothing on earth that can equal Jesus telling us, "Well Done." I would trade the approval of all mankind to hear Him speak those words again....

Judgement and 9/11

Hmm A lot of questions... Having questions can be a wonderful thing if it causes the person with the question to search for the real answer. I have noticed a lot of people in this day we are presently living in that pose questions however, with no intent or perhaps even any desire to find the answer. It's a strange ill affected day we live in when posing questions serves to insulate us from the answer.

I'm not Radio Shack who's slogan used to be "You have questions. We have answers..." But I do have a small measure of "technical" expertise from years of experience mostly learned the hard way and by sheer unmerited favor. Unmerited favor? Yes, I totally blew any chances at any formal "higher" education during my days of drug use, "free loving" and outright rebellion.

I wasn't rebelling for the sake of a cause. I was merely using the "cause" for an excuse to express my own rebellion and the rebellion of the spirit* influencing me at the time. We would do well in the day we are living in to pay attention to that statement and consider what is actually motivating us in all we do.

Of course I didn't know that then because rebellion comes with it's own blindness. It's a package deal. The real problem I found out the hard way was that rebellion is a spirit thus having spiritual influence and able to spread that influence from person to person, social group to social group, even nation to nation. I was "led" into drugs (and a lot of other things) by others but it was the rebellion in me that embraced them (and those things) as a "good" thing. Rebellion attracts rebellion. Just like those that want to know the truth are drawn to each other.

That being said, I will try my best to express answers to some questions particularly regarding 9-11 and the "God's 'Judgement' of America." To understand that we need to know some things first:

The Almighty God vs other "gods"
(Beware the blame game...)

The Almighty God (Yahweh to the Hebrews) created the universe, created man with the intent of expressing His love - as a companion. He has been involved with man throughout the total history of mankind. Even though man fell from his relationship with God, He intervenes in the affairs of mankind and each of us constantly. Unfortunately because of man's blindness and rebellion, we are not able to clearly see that intervention. With God are also an enumerable number of spiritual beings that He created to serve Him. He is without a doubt the most powerful being in the universe.

Throughout most of man's history there have always been many "gods" besides The Almighty God. Most of them figments of imagination sometimes represented by carved images. None of them have any power at all.

Satan was once a prince in the Kingdom of God. He fell under his own delusions and attempted to overthrow The Almighty God. His deception and rebellion was so thorough and powerful that he managed to convince 1/3 of the ministering spirits in Heaven to rebel against God. He lost his position in Heaven and together with those spirits that followed him in his rebellion against God, were cast down to the earth. Contrary to common misconceptions and representations of him, he does not have horns (and angels do not have wings). The scripture says he comes to deceive, presenting himself and an "angel of light." Now take notice that he is also called "the god of this world, the father of all lies, the evil one."
*He and his spirits are spirits of deception and rebellion and they affect mankind to even further evil and rebellion against God.

Judgement:

"Judgement" is not just a club slamming into someone's head (or a nation's head). It is, first and foremost, "the revealing of the truth" as only God can see it. It is actually going on long before we ever "see" it come to pass.

All of the human race is already under the "Judgement of God." That didn't happen last week, last month, last year or even a few centuries ago. It happened early on in the beginnings of the human race when the earliest man made a pretty bad choice that was contrary to God's command. The results of that choice carries on endlessly down through time and all the generations of man. We are born under the judgement of God. We all have the ability to do good and to do evil. Apart from God, none of us has the ability to fully restrain the evil in us. God was only looking after man's best interests when He told man not to ingest the fruit of knowing both good and evil. He didn't say, "If you eat of this I will -kill- you." He said, "if you eat of this the result will be death and separation from Him."

We are all born of and into sin. And we all add to that condition of mankind by the actions we take in our lives. We all "pass on" the results of those actions to future generations. It's a little bit like an expanding nuclear chain reaction that only stops only when it has run it's course. Man was never created to be separated from God or to die. We are all born separated from God and from the moment of our 1st breath, we are heading towards our death. God doesn't have to "do anything" at all for that "judgement" to be accomplished. This condition of man was not a choice on God's part but a choice (and our own subsequent personal choices) on man's part.

Mercy

God loves His creation and man. He very often intervenes in the affairs of man and nations restraining that (evil) which would happen without His intervention. If God were to remove His mercy and restraint of evil influences from the earth, we would find out in short order just how "good" we are NOT...

God's greatest act of mercy and unearned favor was to allow His only begotten Son Jesus to be crucified as a substitution for the sin and evil of mankind. That door of mercy is open to "whoever shall come let them come." When our eyes are opened to the truth that our hopeless (and horrible) end in eternal death is the result of our sin (and the sins of all mankind) and we come to God for mercy in the name of Jesus, "God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us of all sin." We are yanked out of the cycle of sin and death that is terminal in humanity and given a new life, we are made into a new person. An eternal person.

So what about 9/11 and "The Judgement of God on America"?

Long before the twin World Trade Center towers came down on 9/11/2001, they were considered an impressive world renowned symbol of the financial power of the USA in the world. God allows things on earth some times to reflect what He is saying. Man chose to admire those twin towers as representative of financial power. God says doing so made them an idol and financial power is and always has been to God a false god. (Mammon) Of all the false "gods" that have been on the earth, Mammon has been worshiped in essence by more nations and people than any other "god." To some degree or another, we have all served that false "god" at some time in our lives. Jesus said something of note about Mammon, "You cannot serve God and Mammon. You cannot serve two masters. You will either love the one and hate the other or... (visa versa)" That is true of us as individuals and that is true of nations.

Those twin towers were a symbol of something that is anything but admirable to God. I would go so far as to say they were a very dishonorable thing. A symbol of evil. There is a scripture that says, "That which is highly esteemed in the sight of man is an abomination to God."