People! If you live in Michigan, love it or leave it. Quit whinning about snow. If you live in Michigan you will have snow in the winter. January usually holds a couple of snow "events". In March we usually have at least one ice storm. You need a shovel, a snow blower, warm boots, gloves and a winter coat. You will have to use your defroster and heater in your car. It's winter in Michigan.
Aside from the beautiful snow covered trees all glistening in the sun, we have winter sports like ice skating. Yes, you actually skate on the ice and come home with rosy cheeks and lungs full of fresh, clean air. There is skiing in many forms, snow mobiling and we have acres of snow mobile tracks. If you like to watch winter from inside, grab a book and LEARN something.
Now, yes the expressways can become dangerous during a storm "event". But there are usually ample warnings and department of transportation workers that keep them clear. They know when to use salt, when to use sand and when to tell you to "get the heck off the roads, you idiot".
Those who have grown up in Michigan winters know how to slide down a hill sideways and right the car at the bottom of the hill, how to plow through snow drifts on back country roads, they know where to park their car so as not to "get snowed in"...and many have nice garages with electric openers that keep them ever-ready to move in the winter.
There am many fashionable winter-wear accessories for the fashionistas. If you are too fragile for winter in Michigan, then you are too fragile. Michigan has lead the nation in many economic endeavors (educationally, manufacturing and of course building cars) --we have not been wimps.We are hardy stock.
So, toughen up, quit complaining or move south.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Review:
John Paul Jackson and Steams Ministries: " Understanding Dreams & Visions" Revised Second Edition
John Paul Jackson probably carries the label of "out there" a bit charasmatic, over the top. As I took his 201 course on Dreams and Visions, a bit skeptical, I found nothing contrary to the Word of God.
In the evangelical realm of the church, this is a topic shied away from at best, or met with suspicious warnings at the least. I grew up with the latter.
When I was twelve, I had a dream about a friend crying for help. He was "trapped" against something. Later, he was indeed "trapped" in his swimming pook but a gone awry back hoe piling sand around his above ground pool, he almost died. As a young girl, this was freightening. I told my mother about it immediately because I was so upset. Mom said to pray ( which I give her credit for that wisdom) but didn't make a big deal about it at all. So, I asked my youth Pastor that did make a big deal about not being involved in fortune telling, the dangers of it, the warnings in the Word. And that warning kept me skeptical throughout my adult life, Even after I had prayed and asked God to take away such dreams, "incidents" continued. Once, as a young Pastor's wife, the Lord awakened me in the night several times with vivid dreams about a leader in a church and his "affair". The third night, I awakened my husband and said, "You are the Pastor, you deal with it, I am going to get some sleep."--I did not yet understand that I was being called into a ministry of intercession.
My study with John Paul Jackson confirmed many things I had learned in over 53 years as a believer. I am glad for that early warning from my youth Pastor, which kept me seeking ONLY what the Word had to say. It kept me grounded and not caught up in some new age philosophy or psychology. But, as I experienced and as I studied, I learned the scriptures talk about dreams, visions, levitations, tranferences and even though I had been told they were Old Testament, scripture did not bear that out for me.
God works in our nice little denominational boxes of theology, but He is NOT limited to it! And we are told in the last days there will be dreams and visions and that HE will pour out His Spirit on ALL flesh. Does all mean all?
I learned that I was not unique. But these things were not discussed commonly in Christian circles except for those "out there" prophetic/charasmatic/Pentecostal types. I wan't any of those things, by experience, tradtion or denomination, so what do I do with experience? I use my gifting,in humility and keep it to myself until that time the Lord says share it with the body. That day is coming up--pray that the church as a whole will embrace all that is good and pure and true and lovely. Pray that we will become ONE CHURCH under the ONE true God operating in His fulness. Pray that as one church we will embrace all HIS GIFTS, all his people--every tribe and nation, Jew and Gentile, Male and Female...for HIS GLORY.
I am grateful for the John Paul Jacksons and the John Sandfords that were willing to be "out there" investigating the moves of God so that we all might walk in more power and understanding. But, let us be very very careful to discern all things, to filter everything through the Word of God and HIS SPIRIT, let us not walk in the flesh nor the tradtions of men, but by EVERY Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
As we walk into the end times trials, the gifts of discernment will become increasing important to the rest of the Body of Christ. We need to know how to weild our weapons of warfare. We need to become HIS powerful church, not a powerless tradition of head knowledge without the Spirit.
Church Awaken! Messiah is Coming. His Church will prosper.
John Paul Jackson and Steams Ministries: " Understanding Dreams & Visions" Revised Second Edition
John Paul Jackson probably carries the label of "out there" a bit charasmatic, over the top. As I took his 201 course on Dreams and Visions, a bit skeptical, I found nothing contrary to the Word of God.
In the evangelical realm of the church, this is a topic shied away from at best, or met with suspicious warnings at the least. I grew up with the latter.
When I was twelve, I had a dream about a friend crying for help. He was "trapped" against something. Later, he was indeed "trapped" in his swimming pook but a gone awry back hoe piling sand around his above ground pool, he almost died. As a young girl, this was freightening. I told my mother about it immediately because I was so upset. Mom said to pray ( which I give her credit for that wisdom) but didn't make a big deal about it at all. So, I asked my youth Pastor that did make a big deal about not being involved in fortune telling, the dangers of it, the warnings in the Word. And that warning kept me skeptical throughout my adult life, Even after I had prayed and asked God to take away such dreams, "incidents" continued. Once, as a young Pastor's wife, the Lord awakened me in the night several times with vivid dreams about a leader in a church and his "affair". The third night, I awakened my husband and said, "You are the Pastor, you deal with it, I am going to get some sleep."--I did not yet understand that I was being called into a ministry of intercession.
My study with John Paul Jackson confirmed many things I had learned in over 53 years as a believer. I am glad for that early warning from my youth Pastor, which kept me seeking ONLY what the Word had to say. It kept me grounded and not caught up in some new age philosophy or psychology. But, as I experienced and as I studied, I learned the scriptures talk about dreams, visions, levitations, tranferences and even though I had been told they were Old Testament, scripture did not bear that out for me.
God works in our nice little denominational boxes of theology, but He is NOT limited to it! And we are told in the last days there will be dreams and visions and that HE will pour out His Spirit on ALL flesh. Does all mean all?
I learned that I was not unique. But these things were not discussed commonly in Christian circles except for those "out there" prophetic/charasmatic/Pentecostal types. I wan't any of those things, by experience, tradtion or denomination, so what do I do with experience? I use my gifting,in humility and keep it to myself until that time the Lord says share it with the body. That day is coming up--pray that the church as a whole will embrace all that is good and pure and true and lovely. Pray that we will become ONE CHURCH under the ONE true God operating in His fulness. Pray that as one church we will embrace all HIS GIFTS, all his people--every tribe and nation, Jew and Gentile, Male and Female...for HIS GLORY.
I am grateful for the John Paul Jacksons and the John Sandfords that were willing to be "out there" investigating the moves of God so that we all might walk in more power and understanding. But, let us be very very careful to discern all things, to filter everything through the Word of God and HIS SPIRIT, let us not walk in the flesh nor the tradtions of men, but by EVERY Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
As we walk into the end times trials, the gifts of discernment will become increasing important to the rest of the Body of Christ. We need to know how to weild our weapons of warfare. We need to become HIS powerful church, not a powerless tradition of head knowledge without the Spirit.
Church Awaken! Messiah is Coming. His Church will prosper.
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