"Let Them Eat Cake"

 

Yashua did admonish his disciples to care for the widows, orphans and the poor.  As modern day disciples, we do not need to do so, because the state will take care of them--right?  That way we all share the burden-at least that is the idea.  But for many generations now, the middle class has carried this burden in compatibility with the wealthy who supplied the jobs and income for them to do so.  It worked-relatively,  unless you were "under class'...ethnically diverse, disabled, undereducated.

 

Now, we are moving into another socio economic status.  Yes, we still have the wealthy and powerful--but they do not share the same values with the poor and middle class.   We have wealthy churches and inner city "mission" churches.  The wealthy are no longer philanthropists and self-governed to care for the weak.  The are elitist, greedy and selfish.  While they take world wide vacation flings, children go hungry and needy.  It is blamed on their drug addicted and media addicted parents that will not work--but that is not the complete picture either. 

 

I have often seen the poor children well provided for with boots and coats and designer brands at that.  They are shuttled off to camps and enrichment programs while the children of the hard working Mom and Dad, maybe with two jobs each, saying, "pizza is good enough" and we can "make do" with those tennis shoes one more year.  They shop at 2nd hand stores and budget their money, pay their taxes and even tithe--because they are grateful to the Creator of the Universe for His creations. 

 

So, enters the Obama era of government--and it is time to "pay back" those selfish Republicans and whites--not the rich and wealthy but the middle class man or woman that goes off to work every day and grieviously leaves their treasure at day care--a government approved day care.  It's not just the NSA that is spying, big brother decides what Medicare and Medicaid will provide, schools cease to be locally run with local values and impose standards that contradict the strong moral and spiritual ethics of the middle class Mom and Dad.

 

Neighborhoods are taken over by druggies and the middle class are asked to relinquish their guns.  Let the government protect you.  Who in their right mind would trust the government to run anything?  We have.  We have more agencies and czars and administrative assistants and interns than the system can afford financially.  And the fact that most are morally deficient is another whole issue.

 

I am not sure this immorally tolerant society gets what is happening to our infrastructure of government.  Yashua said, "Christ (Yashua) in me the hope of Glory"--the hope of the ages, the hope of our families, the hope of our nation.  We substituted.   "Government Agencies" are the hope of America (?)   It can't work, won't work, never has worked.  How well have Communists fared?

 

While the masses "eat bread" and are told to "pull the belt tighter" our elected officials are literally screwing around--on our time, our money and our future. 

 

As we Celebrate Easter, Resurrection Day, let us remember that yashua did not leave us defenseless.  Those of us who belong to Him, are victorious in Yashua.  We have the Holy Spirit to help us overcome in the Spirit.  We need to fall on our knees and pray for America-for the world, for the Jews in Ukraine, Pastor Saed in Syria, for orphans in Nigeria and ask that "His Kingdom would come and His will be done on EARTH--as it is in heaven!"

 

We need to pray that the "wall of poverty, elitism, communism and every other ism will come falling down like the walls of Jericho.  We need to hear God's voice and OBEY.  That word is seldom used and even less understood in a "ME-ism" society.  I am my own boss, I matter to me, My money is mine, I will attend the church that entertains ME...and on and on it goes. 

 

Let' us focus on, envision and work toward that "Glorious Kingdom"--not of this world but of the world to come.  HE is our ONLY hope.

 

 

Powerless Prayer?

Powerless Prayers

 

 

What is a powerless prayer?  Is it a prayer to an unknown god?  -To a lesser god? Or is a prayer of a "lesser" person, perhaps an unenlightened non-clergy?  I s a powerless prayer presented by a modern day Pharisee on a performance based platform? 

 

  We all know the power of a child's prayer.  Simple.  Straightforward.  Full of faith.  A child often knows that their Abba (Daddy) God cares about the smallest detail of their life--a new skate board or a bunny rabbit or puppy--or maybe and often this is the case, a child will pray a selfless prayer for Grandma to get better or for Daddy to get a new job or to stop drinking. 

 

So, how do we graduate from a child-ish prayer to a prayer of power, passion and depth?  Is it in the reading of volumes of liturgy and theology?  Is it in monkish sacrificial fasting?  Is there a formula?  Didn't Jesus teach his disciples a "formula" prayer? 

 

We all become appalled when they try to take out "legislative" prayer in the assembly.  But, is it really prayer?  If we pray to a variety of gods lest we offend someone?  How  do we "vet" those who are worthy to pray on behalf of others or even a nation? 

 

Is powerful prayer when there are accomnaying signs, wonders and miracles?  Didn't Jesus himself say that you will say to me on that day, "have I not preached in your name and cast out demons in your name and I will say to you, Depart from me, I never knew you?"

 

Powerless prayer is prayer that is prayed by someone that doesn't know to whom they are speaking.  Like an unsolicited sales phone call, it doesn't get the attention of its intended.  Do we KNOW to whom we pray?  If we do, we are in awe, we are respectful, we are in love with HIM, we trust him completely with every detail of our lives.  We know His voice (My sheep know my voice) and HE, our shepherd knows ours--not by how many books we have read, or how often we go to church, or fast and pray duty-bound prayers, or how intellectually astute we in biblical hermeneutics.  He loves us because we are HIS beloved and He acts powerfully on our behalf. 

 

Do you want to know HIM?  Just humbly ask him to forgive your sin, to come into your total being, life and thought processes and then begin to read His love letters to you.  Before you know it, you will have songs in the night, revelations and answers to prayer.  That is powerful prayer. 

 

Is

 



Michigan, Love it or Leave It!

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.

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.

Spiritual Boredom

Spiritual Boredom

What is spiritual boredom?  Is it a lack of motivation toward spiritual things?  Is it an insulation from any new spiritual input?

Children, often get bored during a sermon--they don't have the attention span or the intellectual ability to absorb all that is being given them via speech.  However we are told that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Somewhere, between 12 and 18 a child has either begun to absorb or reject the spiritual input they have received whether it be merely doctrine, theology or experiences and observations of the adults they look to as spiritual guides.  (Parents, pastors and teachers).

At some point, some, have an experience that transcends what they have cognitively learned about faith and accepted and entered into a relationship with a person and or an institution (religion).  At the point that some are baptized or confirmed or whatever the "mark" of spiritual understanding is in that particular denomination, some cease to grow.  They have now decided whether to follow or not to follow.  They have identified and believed the "theology" of that particular group.  Indoctrination some may say.

Many, maybe most adults continue to follow the precepts that they have been taught in regard to morality and belief.  They know what they believe.  They may go through a time of individuation or even rebellion in their teens and twenties but then settle into what they have been taught.  It has become their default mechanism when life gets hard, doing what they know to do, were taught to do, what their parents did.  They listen to sermons each week, attend the expected services, go through the somewhat satisfying rituals, but they have ceased to grow.  And then is when the spiritual boredom sets in...they can answer all the answerable questions:  where do we go when we die?  Who was Jesus?  Why do we take communion?  What is the Sabbath?  And they keep their questions and their answers in that box.  Few seek those answers for themselves, there is no need, because they have been "accepted".  Maybe even memorized--not that it is a bad thing to "hide God's Word in your heart " so that  you do not sin.  At some point, they learned NOT to ask those unanswerable questions.  (it makes pastors, teachers and parents angry, nervous, upset or irritated).

When we cease to question, we cease to grow.  When we do not continue to be truth seekers and life long learners we stagnant spiritually and the world is all too alluring in every other field of endeavor to realize that one is drifting...somewhere things moved from relationship to acquiring knowledge--and that knowledge is neatly tied to this one little box called "Baptist, Catholic, Jewish" etc.

Who hasn't been  found with  mind drifting in many services--as  it is  re-hashed  what has been taught since childhood , as the emphasis is continually on our need for evangelism and not growth.  Questions not thought to be "acceptable" to the educated professional Christian Elder/Teacher/Pastor, have long since been abondoned.  A "what if" is met with a stern rejection or a loving patronization.

Spiritual boredom comes when we quit seeking truth for ourselves, when we hide from true community and intimacy that calls us to a higher place, when we stay locked in our comfortable boxes called "theology, denomination, constitutions" and cease to meet the world and its questions head on.  When we cease to meet with our friend and Savior in the intimate garden, when we cease  to dance in His presence and Sing in HIS sanctuary (wherever that may be).

When we entertain the "traditions of men", we cease to be impressed by the discernment of the Holy Spirit.
When we ignore the promptings of the Spirit for the sake of sleep, or time pressures, or work pressures, or adrenalin rushes, we are no longer "fulfilled.".  When our experiences outside the spiritual realm tickle our fleshly longings more than our spiritual longings, we put up a wall between our flesh and our spirit and guess which one wins?.

When the joy is gone and the duty remains, when liturgy replaces divine illumination and personal understanding and interpretations.  Maybe our teaching even told us that these things are too lofty for our meager laity understanding...But then, in a moment, God uses the weak to confound the mighty, He speaks to us in a powerful moment when our religious armor is down and the Spirit can leak through...and we know, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is real and the Spirit is alive--even alive within me--when, like the mother with child, the child leaps within our womb and no one may see, but we know.  No one can tell us their is no life, for it is within us...we can't see it, but we feel it...even if we have been told NOT to rely on our feelings, we know.  We know that we know.  The Spirit is alive and within ME.

We rush back to that place again and again, just to see if He will meet us there again, if that "life" within, is growing, and it will keep growing IF we let it.  And it will, it must give birth...to life, to joy, to deeper understandings and yes, hopefully more questions--Maybe will will see miraculous interventions.  Maybe we can now not just see over and beyond that wall, but the wall is gone and the freedom is emancipating.

Then, the Spirit calls us to a "new meeting place" and new time, or a new understanding.  Our spirit arises to meet The Spirit and we are ALIVE.  Life and death are in the power of the tongue.  We can eat from the tree of "knowledge" (of good and evil) or we can eat from the tree of life.  New fresh fruit every single day.  The fruit from this tree is juicy and sweet and not dried up and "ooops, boring"...

Spiritual Boredom has a cure, but you must SEEK.  Ask.  Seek. Knock. NO MAN COMES UNTO THE FATHER EXCEPT BY ME.  JESUS is The Light The Truth and The Way.  Try to enter by any other  door and you will grow discouraged or spiritually bored.   

Letting Go of You Is Letting Go of Me

Possessive love.  We call it protection.  We call it "family".  Family first you know.  But smother love is stunting love.  Smother love is trying to fill a need that no one can really fill.  My child, grandchild, niece, nephew cannot fill that spot in me that needs to be loved in ways I was not loved.  Way back before they understood love languages, love was a hot meal, a warm bed, maybe a hug and prayers at bedtime.   Over- the-top-blessings were a baseball mitt, maybe dance lessons or horse back riding lessons for the privileged.  No one questioned, "do you  love me?"--it was understood.  Mostly.

Not that abuse never happened, it did.  But that isn't what we are talking about, we are talking about helicopter  parenting.  I have done it.  I tried not to, but we so much want to protect our children from financial disaster, broken hearts, the big things.  It starts with allowing them to scrape a knee and tell them you will be fine, not "oh you poor baby".  That's crippling.  I knew that.  It's the big boy and big girl hurts that I want to protect them from.  The life threatening hurts, car accidents, bitter break ups, divorce, drugs...I mean these are legitimate concerns for a rational mother or father, right?

In a time of great angst with one of our children, God showed me how Job let things come upon him.  "The thing that I feared has come upon me" is the quote the settled in my heart.  I had let fear drive my interactions with my children.  And where there is fear, there is not faith.  Where there is fear, I cannot be planting confidence and faith.

Legitimately, I ask myself, how do I know if I am walking in true faith or just "repressing" my fear?  Good question.  I know when the fear re-surfaces that it was not handled in biblical faith.  I did not truly trust the issue, or my child to the ONLY one who knows and does what is best for him.

When I kept them from "evil" people I may have even kept them from a life lesson that would protect them later down the road in life.

I watch the grown children of what I would have called "neglectful" parents thrive in life.  They have learned skills because no one stepped in and protected them from it.

From the moment of birth I gave my children to God--and yet I have gotten in His way more than a few times.  I thought I knew best.  I was, afterall, the parent, the responsible one, the protector.

But the day comes, and hopefully before their wedding day, that I must say," I let go of you, I entrust you to the ONE triune God.  I don't expect anything from you.  I don't expect you to fullfill my need to be loved or rewarded for being such a good parent.  I planted seeds, I watered, and now, like the farmer, I trust God to bring the sunshine and the rain into your life to create the perfect harvest."

So," I let go of you."  But, I also let go of me, all my "hopes", my dreams and expectations, my demands, my "at least for Christmas, father's day, mother's day..."  At last, as every mother painfully lets go of that umbilical cord, I release you to be the men God called you to be.  I release you...and I trust my latter years to God--I am letting go of me, too.  His will, His way.  Amen.

Bullies in the Church?

For over twenty-five years, I filled the role as "Pastor's Wife".  Now, that means different things in different circles.  But for me, in rural congregations it meant being "mom" to everyone.  Though the highest preference is for the Pastor's wife to play the piano, I didn't fit that role at all. The ultimate guise of caring was praying what they thought my husband, the Pastor should do or should do differently  in my ear shot.  Who can have any retort to someone's prayer?

The other way that we experienced "bullying in the church" was S.S. teachers who regularly would tell us everything our son did wrong..."and he was a "Pastor's son" was said with such incredulity we couldn't resist.  (Although looking back we sure should have).  They were normal boys.  They were not mini-Pastors reaching for perfection and mature in the faith.

We were bullied by pay checks that barely met our needs.  Often, we were slightly above the poverty line, although God was well aware and supplied for us in so many ways and through some very generous, loving and considerate people.

We were sometimes spied on--sometimes deliberately and sometimes not, but none-the-less we were in that glass house 24/7, in town, out of town, at the grocery store and even in our bed on Saturday a.m. if we weren't up and about at the crack of dawn.  Never mind that we had been called out at 2:00 a.m. with an emergency.

There were those who competed for the attention of the Pastor's wife, like siblings looking for Mom's attention. There were those who worked to slither their way into our private lives to get closer to the Pastor-with a variety of motivations.

Why would I bother writing about these things?  Because they hurt.  They hurt our family.  They hurt my children.  I had such an innocent, pure love for people when we entered the ministry, but I grew cold and synnical.  And with that, I have grown wise.Thank you Lord.  I see the bullies coming, and I don't have to give them time or attention unless the Lord himself tells me to help this person overcome by the Power of HIS Spirit.  Otherwise, they are tools to derail my calling, my time and my emotional well being.

Why would I write about such things?  Because I am warning the young, innocent Pastor's wives, to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.  Be alert.  Be on your guard, for your enemy is prowling...and YOU have the tools to overcome by the Spirit.

Bullies in the church?  Oh yes.  But God is preparing HIS church to be filled with HIS glory more and more each day.  We will come to that place through HIS Spirit, through overcoming prayer.  And the bride will meet her groom without spot or wrinkle--that includes, Pastors' wives, Pastors, their children and every other true saint.  Amen.  Hallelujah!