As promised, another title in the form of a question. It is also the last one of the titles I heard during worship last Sunday. That could be a good thing since it is already Saturday evening and who knows what might come up tomorrow. Of course the Lord does speak at other times than during the worship time on Sunday mornings, but that is a good time to hear Him if you are listening. We would suggest that if you are having difficulty at that time, you might try reading some scripture before you go to church. At those times when I have had the most difficulty hearing from God, I have found that reading even a few verses before church seems to open me up just a bit more to whatever the Lord has for me there. It seems to even work better to read a few verses just before bed Saturday night then a few more Sunday morning before church.
"Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will...surround you and close you in on every side...because you did not know the time of your visitation.'" (Luke 19:41-44)
Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. He was not just weeping over a city though. Jerusalem was the capital of a nation, the nation of Israel. Depending on who you think is right, He was either the first or second person to fill the office of prophet in the New Testament. Some think John the Baptist was the first New Testament prophet. Others would argue that he ended the line of Old Testament prophets. (There is no extra charge here for that information.) Our position is that it really does not matter. John came as a prophet to prepare the way for Jesus. Jesus came as prophet, priest, and king. As such, He changed all the rules of spiritual life between God and man.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem and Luke is very specific as to why He did that. He was weeping because they had no spiritual insight. They did not recognize the Messiah, the promised One. Throughout the Bible, beginning with the protevangelium in Genesis 3:15, God had promised to provide a Savior for the sins of mankind. The leaders in Israel had failed to recognize Jesus even though they knew the scriptures from the inside out, forward and backward.
The nation of Israel was in distress. They were under the iron fist of the Roman Empire. They were free to exercise their religion only as long as the Romans allowed it. The Romans recognized Herod as the legitimate head of Israel. That is another teaching all together. The Jewish ruling body, the Sanhedrin, was the group that ran the Jewish religion. They were the ones who decided Jesus should die for the good of the nation. We have discussed their reasons for that in a previous post. With the possible exception of Herod, all Israel was awaiting the revelation of the Messiah on earth. They expected a king to come and throw off the yoke of Roman bondage. When Jesus came, humbly, riding on a donkey (Matthew 21:5) He did not fit the picture they had. God was building a spiritual kingdom from the ground up as He had from the time He called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. The Jews were looking for a physical kingdom to come on earth. They missed God, missed what He was doing in their midst because they erred in their theology. Let us not make the same mistake.
Where are the people who are weeping over the Santa Maria valley as Jesus wept over Jerusalem? Where are you? We know a few of you. God is seeing your tears and hearing your prayers. It took us over twenty years to get to this place. No doubt some of you have been praying a good portion of the time, possibly even prior to that. We know God called us to this city and to this valley for such a time as this. Although it took twenty years to figure out exactly why He issued that call, at least we can now say we know. These are exciting times in Santa Maria. Let us not miss what God is doing. He is at work in ways we do not yet see to demolish the strongholds of the enemy wherever they exist. We will tell you the first place to look for those strongholds in the next post.
Showing posts with label Bible version. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible version. Show all posts
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
From There to There and Almost Here
We were once again without a church home and a fairly short list of churches from which to choose. After a few weeks of visiting churches, we settled on one of the larger Pentecostal churches in the area, the Assemblies of God church, Pacific Christian Center. Shortly after we began attending the church there was a pastoral change. While not being greatly affected by that change, it may have opened up new ministry possibilities for us. We had opportunities to perform in a musical, teach a Sunday School class for one summer quarter, play on the worship team, and even preach a Wednesday evening service. I was comfortable enough that I even considered changing my ministerial credentials to the Assemblies of God from the Foursquare Church, having had just about enough of church politics. I discovered that as bad as Foursquare Church politics were, they were amateurs in comparison to the AOG.
By the time we left Pacific Christian Center, it occurred to us--perhaps Judi was the first one to mention it, that we had seen pastors come to town very committed and very dedicated to winning the lost to Jesus and building the Kingdom of God. However, after being in town for some period of time, all that did not seem to matter anymore. They seemed to place more emphasis on building their own kingdoms instead. They wanted more people, larger buildings, bigger budgets, and more renown. Undoubtedly spiritual deception enters in to cause this so it is doubtful those so affected have any idea what it is actually happening. After all how are we to build the Kingdom of God without sufficient finances? How do finances come except people
bring them in? Where do the people bring them if not to a nice facility? (Hint: Those are three largely rhetorical questions, none of which should be answered affirmatively.)
Spiritual deception is like ignorance--we just do not know how ignorant, or deceived, we are until we find the truth. We were blessed to be in a service many years ago where Paul Cain was the guest speaker. Paul has some history in this area from many years before we heard him and is considered by some to be a modern day prophet. Regardless of your opinion, one thing he said in that meeting that struck a responsive chord is that Satan loves to trip up the man of God with any or all of the three G's, the gold, the girls, or the glory. As nearly as we have been able to discern, the girls have not been a large problem with the pastors in this town. I am intentionally leaving the other two G's unmentioned. This might be a clue as to where the real spiritual battle lies.
Where were we? Oh yes, leaving Pacific Christian Center. We had not really intended to change churches. We had a lot of good friends there and the ministry, from praise and worship, to the sermons, to other ministry and fellowship opportunities were edifying and enjoyable. That is not even to mention we had recently bought a house and moved to within walking distance of the church. Nonetheless, when a friend, who is an excellent Bible teacher, decided to start a new church, we were there from the very beginning. It was great to be a part of something new, something different. The church was not even called a church. It was called a worship center. There was a feeling in the first months that something special was happening. The hundred or so people who were meeting together at that time sincerely wanted the Holy Spirit to be free to move in the worship and the teaching. We would later find out there was one critical element missing from that equation--The Holy Spirit Himself.
The testimonies of many people as well as of God's provision in so many ways were ample evidence that God was working behind the scenes to put that little church together. The music was very good as several, excellent musicians and singers stood on the platform Sunday after Sunday and offered their gifts unto the Lord. The Bible teaching was as good as could be found in any church in the area. I even learned a piece of Pentecostal theology that had alluded me through many years of attendance in Pentecostal churches and studies at a Pentecostal Bible college. (I will add the link here after I write that one up in case you are interested. In the meantime, ask.) We also had ample ministry opportunities in teaching, facilitating women's ministries, and guiding some of the business practices of the church. At some point, probably earlier rather than later a spiritual dullness came over that church. Had we been at the top of our game spiritually, we might have recognized it when it first crept in. Even today we cannot tell you when it had it's genesis. What we do know is that, at some point, the decay became irreversible (at least to the present) and what very well may have started out as a spiritual pursuit became a soulical endeavor.
When we left the church, within months of its eighth anniversary, there were fewer than half the people and well less than half the budget there had been at the end of the first year. It is doubtful we would have left at all had it not been for a spiritual attack that prevented us from having further ministry in that church and demonstrated to us that we really had no choice but to leave. At the time we did not realize that God was using multiple people to move us in a direction we would likely not have moved on our own. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
By the time we left Pacific Christian Center, it occurred to us--perhaps Judi was the first one to mention it, that we had seen pastors come to town very committed and very dedicated to winning the lost to Jesus and building the Kingdom of God. However, after being in town for some period of time, all that did not seem to matter anymore. They seemed to place more emphasis on building their own kingdoms instead. They wanted more people, larger buildings, bigger budgets, and more renown. Undoubtedly spiritual deception enters in to cause this so it is doubtful those so affected have any idea what it is actually happening. After all how are we to build the Kingdom of God without sufficient finances? How do finances come except people
bring them in? Where do the people bring them if not to a nice facility? (Hint: Those are three largely rhetorical questions, none of which should be answered affirmatively.)
Spiritual deception is like ignorance--we just do not know how ignorant, or deceived, we are until we find the truth. We were blessed to be in a service many years ago where Paul Cain was the guest speaker. Paul has some history in this area from many years before we heard him and is considered by some to be a modern day prophet. Regardless of your opinion, one thing he said in that meeting that struck a responsive chord is that Satan loves to trip up the man of God with any or all of the three G's, the gold, the girls, or the glory. As nearly as we have been able to discern, the girls have not been a large problem with the pastors in this town. I am intentionally leaving the other two G's unmentioned. This might be a clue as to where the real spiritual battle lies.
Where were we? Oh yes, leaving Pacific Christian Center. We had not really intended to change churches. We had a lot of good friends there and the ministry, from praise and worship, to the sermons, to other ministry and fellowship opportunities were edifying and enjoyable. That is not even to mention we had recently bought a house and moved to within walking distance of the church. Nonetheless, when a friend, who is an excellent Bible teacher, decided to start a new church, we were there from the very beginning. It was great to be a part of something new, something different. The church was not even called a church. It was called a worship center. There was a feeling in the first months that something special was happening. The hundred or so people who were meeting together at that time sincerely wanted the Holy Spirit to be free to move in the worship and the teaching. We would later find out there was one critical element missing from that equation--The Holy Spirit Himself.
The testimonies of many people as well as of God's provision in so many ways were ample evidence that God was working behind the scenes to put that little church together. The music was very good as several, excellent musicians and singers stood on the platform Sunday after Sunday and offered their gifts unto the Lord. The Bible teaching was as good as could be found in any church in the area. I even learned a piece of Pentecostal theology that had alluded me through many years of attendance in Pentecostal churches and studies at a Pentecostal Bible college. (I will add the link here after I write that one up in case you are interested. In the meantime, ask.) We also had ample ministry opportunities in teaching, facilitating women's ministries, and guiding some of the business practices of the church. At some point, probably earlier rather than later a spiritual dullness came over that church. Had we been at the top of our game spiritually, we might have recognized it when it first crept in. Even today we cannot tell you when it had it's genesis. What we do know is that, at some point, the decay became irreversible (at least to the present) and what very well may have started out as a spiritual pursuit became a soulical endeavor.
When we left the church, within months of its eighth anniversary, there were fewer than half the people and well less than half the budget there had been at the end of the first year. It is doubtful we would have left at all had it not been for a spiritual attack that prevented us from having further ministry in that church and demonstrated to us that we really had no choice but to leave. At the time we did not realize that God was using multiple people to move us in a direction we would likely not have moved on our own. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Monday, May 25, 2009
Present Day
The purpose, then, of this blog is to bring the reader up to date on the events from late 1987 to the present (not to worry, we are not going to give you minutia). We feel it is important that you, the reader, understand how we came to be in the place we are, doing what we are doing today.
Many people over the years have commented that I seem to have greater spiritual insight than the "average Christian" (whoever that is). I believe that to be true and the best way to explain why that might be so is by way of scripture. Jesus Himself said, "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward..." (Matthew 10:41) (Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations in this blog are taken from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.) It is our considered belief that the prophet's reward spoken of in the above verse is the ability of the prophet to see into the spiritual realm with greater frequency and accuracy than is considered the norm. Does this mean we will always be right in the present day? One would hope that is true, but it seems unlikely. New Testament prophecy comes to give, "...edification and exhortation and comfort to men." (1 Corinthians 14:3) New Testament prophecy can be a foretelling of future events, but it is much more often simply God speaking to someone through another person to answer a question or need in that person's life.
Having said all that, the prophet I relate most closely with is Amos. Amos came to Israel at a time when the nation was not living according to the Word of God. Shortly after he began to call Israel into account for their transgressions, he was told by the king to run away and not to prophesy any longer. His response was that he was not a prophet or a prophet's son, but God had told him to prophesy. I teach. That is what I do. But occasionally God does give me a message for someone else and I would be loath to contain it. In those times, my sole responsibility is to make God's present word, his rhema, known. It is the responsibility of the person to whom that word is given to decide how to respond to it.
Many people over the years have commented that I seem to have greater spiritual insight than the "average Christian" (whoever that is). I believe that to be true and the best way to explain why that might be so is by way of scripture. Jesus Himself said, "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward..." (Matthew 10:41) (Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations in this blog are taken from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.) It is our considered belief that the prophet's reward spoken of in the above verse is the ability of the prophet to see into the spiritual realm with greater frequency and accuracy than is considered the norm. Does this mean we will always be right in the present day? One would hope that is true, but it seems unlikely. New Testament prophecy comes to give, "...edification and exhortation and comfort to men." (1 Corinthians 14:3) New Testament prophecy can be a foretelling of future events, but it is much more often simply God speaking to someone through another person to answer a question or need in that person's life.
Having said all that, the prophet I relate most closely with is Amos. Amos came to Israel at a time when the nation was not living according to the Word of God. Shortly after he began to call Israel into account for their transgressions, he was told by the king to run away and not to prophesy any longer. His response was that he was not a prophet or a prophet's son, but God had told him to prophesy. I teach. That is what I do. But occasionally God does give me a message for someone else and I would be loath to contain it. In those times, my sole responsibility is to make God's present word, his rhema, known. It is the responsibility of the person to whom that word is given to decide how to respond to it.
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