Monday, August 26, 2013

The Awesomeness of God!

How do we explain and describe an awesomeness that is beyond human comprehension? We can't... We can only EXPERIENCE it, and we do that by joining God in His work in the world. That 'work' is an activity of Love and Compassion, giving it, watching it flow and receiving it. God is a Father of generosity, He gives abundantly, without limits in all circumstances to ALL His children... He gave His only son as a sacrificial lamb, so that we might experience a life of eternity. We will never be that giving, sin gets in our way, but I am convinced that He has the power to mightily reveal Himself through us when we humble ourselves to His service. Radically impacting the world with His Love bears fruits of abundance. This past Saturday, God became, once again that light of the world, that city  on a hill which cannot be hidden.  22 Wheeling Jesuit University incoming Freshmen students reported for community service to God's work in the world, The Free Wheelchair Mission. Five students went to Brooke High School and joined Kylie Greathouse for the 1st annual Brooke H.S. homecoming & prom fashion show to benefit FWM. Kylie called me in tears sharing how God had mightily rained down His blessings upon the event, opening the hearts of hundreds in service to those closest to God's heart; the forgotten poor without mobility or a knowledge of a loving, living God. He changed that through Kylies service, He sent His love oceans away. Although I was unable to be there, another group of 17 students reported to the FWM office and blessed the world and our community by taking His Love into the streets, quite literally ! We gathered in the office and God revealed His might to us, and for 3 hours we served others from the street, giving food, water and love away for free ! The response from the steady flow of traffic was beyond words, hundreds of people were handed free food and love and returned their hearts to us by donation an amazing amount of money to the FWM ... we were also able to go move a needy family from one residence to another because someone gave us a large truck to move their belongings. ALL of these things are simply small things with GREAT LOVE and they reveal THE AWESOMENESS OF GOD and they change the world one act of kindness at a time. I have ZERO doubt that, as we GO into the world, He reveals Love in a way that only He can do, and its a Love that He desires us all to have and to give and it will change your life and fill you with an AWESOMENESS that will never be hidden and raise higher and higher as that city on a hill surrounded by lush valleys of agape love. 'The Church' is our lives in constant action amoug the people, on  the streets, on His behalf....its not a building... It is YOU and it has ALL Power and Authority to Transform the world and your life in the process...... Small things Great Love.......Awesome indeed... ONWARD ...the Highways, byways and rooftops await ....











Sunday, August 18, 2013

Answering His Call.... 'Rebuild My Church'

In 1205 Francis of Assisi received the call from God >>> "Francis, go rebuild my church,which you see is falling into ruins." This of course was a call of spiritual rebuilding of the temple of God's Spirit; our lives.
Francis's response was "This is what I want, this is what I long for with all my heart." What does this mean to our lives, what is He calling us to do? Of course He is calling us to do the same thing... to allow God to transform our hearts into His, to change the world in and through the mighty power, authority, signs & wonders which He promises us in scripture He shall reveal through our witness, for  His purposes.
     The Gospel of Mark emphasizes Christ's power as well as His servant hood. Jesus' life and teaching turn the world upside down. The world sees power as a way to gain control over others. But Jesus, with all authority and power in heaven and earth, chose to serve others. He held children in His arms, healed the sick, washed the feet of His Disciples, and died receiving this same power to serve. As believers, we are called to be servants of Christ. As Christ served,so are we to serve.
      Mark 16:15-20
               "He said to them, "GO into all the world and preach the good news to ALL creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. all these signs WILL accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all, they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

Authority does not beg; authority doesn't ask; authority commands! We are not told to ask God to cast out demons, we are told to do it ourselves! We are not told to beg demons to come out, we are told to CAST them out. How do we obtain  & exercise this authority?  Through faith we exercise His authority through our spoken word, Scripture tells us that the power of life and death are indeed in the spoken word........

   Proverbs 18:21
            The tongue has the, power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Fransis 'loved it, longed for it and claimed it,' as it was and is freely given to those who believe and have  unwavering faith. Do you? That is a question for all of us. Do we recognize the calling He has placed on our lives and the power He gives us to fulfill that calling?

Indeed again.... He has revealed.....He has spoken... He has said plainly; "Rebuild  my church, which you see is falling into ruins." I hear and joyfully respond to that call, long for it with all my heart. In the responding we encounter what He tells us we will...The trials, the tribulations, the obstruction of man... indeed the sufferings of His fellowship. Francis received the Holy Stigmata...his sharing in Christ's sufferings. We will receive ours as well, it is part of serving God and doing His work, it is revealed in the evil ways of this world, indeed of the enemy. Faith in His power ALWAYS puts that enemy behind us.... LOVE ALWAYS WINS ! and We are to proclaim that from the rooftops!
It has been a powerful week of witnessing God profoundly come to this place we so weakly & falsely hold on to as having meaning. Our place of residence is His Kingdom, and as He brings the fruits of His kingdom, founded in love, we stand in awe of the lives He transforms through our witness. We know that He has called and we have responded and we continue to walk humbly in His boldness, as He alone uses our lives to indeed "rebuild His church which has fallen into ruins."

God has given every believer the POWER to perform the same mighty deeds as Jesus himself did........IF we have Faith!   and .........We do it through doing small things with GREAT Love & "preaching the gospel at all times, using words when necessary."

I stand in awe of the servant hood and love of the people whom God has and continues to 'Raise Up' for His purposes >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
                                         2 A.M. ROOFTOP WORSHIP & PRAISE
                                              TAKING A STAND FOR HIM
                                                           HIS BOLDNESS
                                    YOU CAN'T DO IT ALONE..IT TAKES A BODY..
                                 PEOPLE RETURNING HIS GIFTS TO THE WORLD
                                            A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
                             THE DEEDS HE DOES THROUGH PEOPLE LIKE                                                                    KYLIE GREATHOUSE BRING LOVE TO OTHERS
                 THE HEART OF GOD ON DISPLAY IN DAMON HARVEY AND HIS XC                                                     TEAM HAVE NO LIMITS.
                                   MAKING TRAVELING STRANGERS FRIENDS
            ANSWERING HIS CALL TO REBUILD HIS CHURCH STARTS IN THE MIRROR....CHANGE YOUR HEART AND THE WORLD WILL BE TRANSFORMED.


Matthew 17:20
     "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and NOTHING shall be impossible for you."
           
                                      FORWARD AND NO RETREAT................










           

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

"Church" 7 days a week!

"If I could worship in "Church" 7 days a week.... I would," and the reality is that I do. I cant explain it...it just happened. Sometimes its  a church building, at times its elsewhere, but it is ALWAYS in His temple of mobility.. our lives...where ever we go, whatever  & whomever we encounter, it is by His design and for His purposes, the more we surrender to that, the more He uses us. He will prove and reveal that to you in very profound ways and through very profound interactions with those He created. I have planned and 'worked' on a lot of things in my life, but a few years back I stopped doing that. Why? I have no idea, other than joining God at His work in a broken world. But one day I pulled up to my house and realized that the life I used to know was gone. I had a new focus, and it wasn't a focus on me or anything about me. It was a focus on something big, really BIG, something only He could do by consuming our lives for His purposes.We find the answers to ALL of these things in scripture.   Galatians 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 
   That is a mouthful, but as I dwell on those God breathed words, I am overwhelmed by the truth contained there.What does it mean to be "Crucified with Christ and no longer live? To me, and I pray for you, it is what I described that He did to me.. He removed me from who I thought I was and He gave me life in The Body... That life is His life, His will, His work, His purposes.. and it is ALL rooted in His Love... When He loves the world through you, that is when you know that you are His .. You are Him... You are not a resident of this place, your home is with Him, and He has created you and planted you where you are  to do but one thing,God has sent YOU just as HE sent Jesus. He calls you to crucify your worldly ways and enter the holiest of holiest to transform a world, to bring it His Love!
John 17:15-18 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

Where will He send you ? One will ONLY discover that when we report to Him with but one thought.. That we are HIS and thus we must offer ourselves to Him,serve Him, praise Him,glorify Him in ALL we do. We "Look" on the other side of the fence...we seek long range, in pastures beyond our vision..but the truth is that where HE will use you is where you stand, its a crazy thing when it 'comes' to you. You have sought for a way to change the world, you have waited, you have tried to prepare yourself, you have served, you have gone to church...but when it hits you, and it will if we surrender to Him ... When it hits you, and you realize that you are His Church 7 days a week, where you are and you see Him working through you, then you will have a newness only He can provide and the life you live will no longer be yours, You will be submitting to the calling He created you for .... For indeed He has sent YOU to do His work and when you do, you will experience a fullness of life where no need will go unmet, no resource will be withheld from you and a light will emit from you that will over power ALL darkness. Life is interesting, the world will pull you, beacon you, try to conform you to a life of slavery. Surrendering to Your true destiny puts you in a place of  being "Church 7 days a week" 
   I have no idea what His plan is for my life, and really the details I dont need nor desire to know. Just knowing that He Loves me and He chooses to use me to be a Love not of this place to others is what makes me complete. Think about that.. He loves us, in our sinfulness ,and He uses us in His divinity. You will never be able to understand that , but He wants you to be it to others, He wants to Love a world through You and through me, The details He will take care of as we focus on our true, true calling and destiny. 
Revelation 19:7-9  Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

Monday, August 5, 2013

The Family of God

Romans 12:5 

So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

The other day I was chatting with a friend who reminded me that "we will always be friends, because we are family."  This got me to thinking about the Body of Christ and what that term really means. All trough scripture we are reminded that we are the family of God, His complete body, apart from that we are lost, one cannot function without the other. The function that God is referring to of course is the Great Commission, to be His Light unto the world... the reason we were created. As Mother Theresa's Prayer so eloquently spells out:
Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

So much of our lives are consumed with satisfying our own needs, forging our own paths,claiming our own place in the world...we get lost, misguided...Satan is the master of deception, he pulls us from our destiny, we are human and we bend,we give in, we conform. Through prayer and the unity of body and by God's Grace alone we can be lifted up above and out of ourselves...we can indeed tell both friends and strangers alike that "We are Family" and Nothing can separate us from that. Have you been as bold as my friend and told those you love..(who by the way should be everyone)  that you will always be there for them, that you have no other choice... you were created as His Body, as His Family for works of Love. That is a challenge.....one when met produces a heart like my friends who without a second thought includes others as "Family" who gives with the heart of Jesus and recognizes that apart from that we are lost. There are people all around you ..'parts of the family' who need to hear that. You  have that power to lift them out of themselves and into His Mighty Hand... and you do it with a compassionate, giving heart, knowing that strengehening other members ,strenghens The Body / The Family so that His Kingdom will come.
THANK GOD FOR THE FAMILY HE SENDS US.....

 Ephesians2:19-22
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Ephesians 3:14-19 

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 



Thursday, August 1, 2013

"Jesus is ________."

The things that define the life of Jesus amaze me, the righteousness, graciousness, compassion, humility & simplicity of  His 'being love to the world.' It doesn't amaze me that those were the traits that defined Him, after all God sent himself as Jesus in human form and God is all those things. He knows what we need , who we are to be. He is, after all, both omnipotent & omniscient.What amazes me is that all the things Jesus did in His Ministry here...all those traits He modeled for us to be, are,for us, by His Grace so attainable, so doable & so life transforming...Not only for us, but through us into the lives of others. God planned & intends to transform the world through YOU & through I, and we allow Him to do it by patterning ourselves after Jesus.
      I just finished reading a book my daughter sent me by Judah Smith ; "Jesus is _______. "My daughter heard Judah preach at Joel Olsteen's church recently, and mailed me his book for Fathers Day. I was behind on my reading & just recently finished it.  Profound 'messengers' God sends resonate what God has laid on my heart; He wants us now, as we are... And when we seek the heart of Jesus with ALL our being, the inevitable occurs... HE GIVES US HIS HEART. We find ourselves serving with compassion, humility & grace. We find ourselves giving  with His heart & with His Agape Love for ALL... We seek out those He sought, we no longer conform  to the ways of the world, we are transformed by His Love which flows from our lives. Everywhere Jesus went people were captivated by His compassion & riveted by His practical explanations of how to do life, He becomes that in us, He reveals that through us. God calls us as His Ambassadors.. We mimic Him, people 'see' Him in our actions,hear Him in our words and embrace Him in our outpouring of self.
     A lot of Judah's book is simplistic, it is real, it is about doing life with the traits & heart of Jesus in ALL encounters to ALL people. God loves us equally & relentlessly,  and we are to do the same to those we encounter. Not all will 'see' God's grace immediately... For some it is hard to embrace, some  people are so insulated  in the ways of the world that they find it hard to embrace grace. Judah compared God's Grace to hugs, Judah, like I am a hugger.. We embrace people, friend and stranger alike, some people 'see' it as God's Grace & openly embrace it, others give 'half hugs,' they stiffen up or turn from His hugs, from His Grace which is given. I have witnessed both, as God has poured Himself through me into the lives of others, I have seen people 'witness' a Living God, and I have seen others stiffen in a state of being 'uncomfortable,' either way, there is no harnessing or withholding His Grace, He sends it into our lives for it to flow from our lives... He hugs the unhuggable!  Recently I visited a place I go often to see a God created wonder which to me represents the unstoppable power of God's flowing Love; Niagara Falls. Each time I approach the Falls and see the Niagara River flowing over the top of the falls, cascading downward I get a glimpse of what He intends.... for His Love and Compassion to flow into this broken world, into the lives of His People. The force of the water is turbulent, but as the millions upon millions of gallons of water flow over the falls and  down stream, a calmness evolves, the waters calm and turbulence passes. To me this is His desire, that we love  lavishly those He created for His purposes....reveal the power of His Love and how it will calm ones life and bring peace and joy and carry us into His loving arms.
   We need to learn how to embrace the grace God sends to us through others, we need to recognize that the compassion & love & service & relentless giving which people see flowing from us to them is sent directly from God to them through us. As I finished up the book, I was reminded that Jesus was authentic, He was real, He did nothing but give self. When we live by grace, we are continually amazed by the love, goodness & holiness of God. We think about Him & that motivates us to act like Him. He wants our hearts, Do we seek His ? ...in the doing so, God is pleased and He again becomes flesh and He Lives and walks on this planet He created. Who is Jesus to you, and who are you being Jesus to?.... God knows that answer, and we should know it to!  He desires to flow a Love not of this place, yet into this place & He chooses to do it  through you....Let it flow baby, let it flow...Its unstoppable and its ALL Him.

150,000 gallons of water flow over Niagara Falls  per second....every second of every day and night...But a glimpse of God's Power He desires to be in  & through YOUR life.

                                                    Open the valve and let it flow......