God Showed Up And Young People Were Healed

April 20, 2009

Last Monday night was incredible. A couple of my friends were going to do prophetic ministry with a group of young people. It was an unusual group with about eight boys and one girl - and the girl was the leader. Most of the kids go to a Vinyard church.

My friends Flora and Larry have interacted with this group before. I haven’t, though one of the guys in the group is an acquaintance of mine.

Anyway, I went down Monday after work, we had some great tacos. After the young people finished eating, we had a wonderful time of worship.

During worship, I just heard the Lord quietly speaking that there would be healings. After the worship ended, I shared that with the group and asked if anyone needed healing. Two young me spoke up right away.

The first had a problem with his leg and had problems walking comfortably that day. I layed hands on him, prayed and the Lord healed him.

The other young man had a hip joint problem. I asked some of the other guys to come and pray for him. After some prayer I asked him if it had been bothering him during the meeting. It really hadn’t. But it was something that nagged at him periodically. I asked him if there was anyway to tell if there was any difference. He did say there were some things that he could do that would tend to cause pain and some aggrevation. He tried it out and felt no discomfort so we had confidence the Lord had touched him.

Well we had another young man who had poor vision and wanted healing for his eyese. We prayed. This was the disappointment of the evening. I so wanted this young man to experience healing. In his case though, it didn’t happen.

However his older brother came forward. He had a nagging back pain from an injuy he suffered. For some reason, I felt like my faith exploded on that one. We prayed, all the pain was gone and he was praising God for it.

I love it when Jesus shows up like that.

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Last Night’s Gathering - Jesus Was There

April 5, 2009

Last night at the simple Church I attend, things started out kind of blah. The leader was going to teach, but he was exhausted and wasn’t planning to facilitate. The worship plans fell through. The one who was going to lead worship had to work and … anyway it started out looking like a waste of time.

We put on an mp3 of worship music and in all the brokeness and tiredness -suddenly the Spirit of God just blew in. One person said she saw in her mind - Jesus walking in and taking over. It was incredible. We knew it couldn’t be a normal gathering. Too many people seemed to be in the dumps over a variety of things. Patricia Thompson, our Prophetess of Finesse :-) really had an exhortation from the Lord for everyone no matter where they were to remember all of the times that the Lord stepped into their lives. She reminded them if he did then, he’ll see them through now. It was powerful. Just that began to blow some things out of people’s thinking and mindset - then we went into an extended time of one to another ministry… tears started flowing… and laughter. God really restored people’s faith, vision, and passion. What a wonderful night as Jesus once again made both his presence, his love, and his power known to his people.

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Preaching the Gospel

April 3, 2009

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”This is attributed to St. Francis of Asissi and I hear this quoted often. It seems to be an attitude that is prevalent in the missional movement. We talk a lot about incarnating Christ - which is necessary. But the part of the discussion that seems to be lacking is the part about preaching or proclaiming the Gospel - with words. I don’t know if St. Francis was such a powerful Saint that he didn’t need the use of words, but the fact is the very one about whom we preach- Jesus used words to preach the Gospel. His original twelve preached the Gospel with words. Paul preached the Gospel with words. They also demonstrated the Gospel - but the preaching is with words.

I believe that in our reaction against what we see as “modernism” in our evangelism, that we have seen an over-reaction with the constant talk of incarnating the Gospel without actually preaching or proclaiming it. Our job as believers is to be incarnational - but we must also proclaim the good news. That’s not optional. Jesus proclaimed. John the Baptist proclaimed. The apostles proclaimed…. but somehow us super spiritual post modern missional types - all we have to do is be incarnational?

We see this in the following passages:

Matthew 4:

23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

Luke 9:

1When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Mark 16

15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

The word “preach” or “preaching” in each of these passages is the greek word kēryssō.

Strong’s G2784 - kēryssō

to be a herald, to officiate as a herald

to proclaim after the manner of a herald

always with the suggestion of formality, gravity and an authority which must be listened to and obeyed

to publish, proclaim openly: something which has been done

used of the public proclamation of the gospel and matters pertaining to it, made by John the Baptist, by Jesus, by the apostles and other Christian teachers

It really is hard to get past the meaning that it requires proclamation - not just good works or demonstration. If you do a good work, unless it’s told who did the good work, how do they know? It could be by Christ or some new age guru. After all, demons and the kingdom of darkness has power as well and the ability to appear to do good. Does it really suprise anyone that proclamation is part of the process. Afterall, God spoke the world into existance. Before Jesus was known as the Son of God he was known as the Word of God.

In Matthew 11, one of the proofs that Jesus offered to John that he was the messiah is that the poor had the Gospel preached to them. No doubt it was demonstrated, but it was also preached - again, a verbal announcement of the good news.

Matthew 11:

4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

Strong’s G2097 - euaggelizō

to bring good news, to announce glad tidings

used in the OT of any kind of good news

of the joyful tidings of God’s kindness, in particular, of the Messianic blessings

in the NT used especially of the glad tidings of the coming kingdom of God, and of the salvation to be obtained in it through Christ, and of what relates to this salvation

glad tidings are brought to one, one has glad tidings proclaimed to him

to proclaim glad tidings

instruct (men) concerning the things that pertain to Christian salvation
When Jesus sent out the seventy, he told them to” tell” them the Kingdom of God is near you. Again, we have proclamation. By the way, anytime you are proclaiming the Kingdom you must proclaim Jesus because he is the King that reigns over the Kingdom.

Luke 10:

8″When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’

Strong’s G3004 - legō

to say, to speak

affirm over, maintain

to teach

to exhort, advise, to command, direct

to point out with words, intend, mean, mean to say

to call by name, to call, name

to speak out, speak of, mention

I believe many in the missional movement have been offended or embarrassed at the way the Gospel has been proclaimed in the past and the desire to be incarnatioanl is commendable. But doing good works without the proclamation of Jesus Christ is not the way the one that we want to incarnate carried out his Father’s mandate. Neither is it the way his disciples caried out the mandate. There are some who seem only interested in relieving the suffering of people today - and are not concerned about their eternal destiny. Jesus himself asked the question what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul? We must be about our Father’s business which includes demonstration of the Kingdom (being incarnational) and preaching the Kingdom (telling or proclaiming ) the Kingdom and the King.

Romans 10:

13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
” How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

For people to come to faith in Christ, they must “hear”. They can’t hear unless it is preached or proclaimed. I understand that the world needs to see more of Christ in us. But they need to hear us proclaming Christ as well. I’ll be the first to admit - this is often where I have failed or chickened out. I can do good things to help people, but at times I’ve been afraid to talk to them about Jesus other than saying “Jesus loves you.” That’s not enough. Jesus is their only hope of redemption and their only eternal hope - yet I often fail on this point.

Does this mean that we should always preach Jesus every time we meet people? No. I don’t think that at all. But we should always be looking to see and listening to hear if God is opening the opportunity - if the Spirit of God is at work in their lives then we should preach Jesus. They need to hear about our King and our God who can bring real hope and real transformation to their lives - beyond whatever bandages we bring with our efforts. Without proclamation of the Gospel there is no “missional.”

If we don’t get this right in the missional movement, then it will fail and we will have become nothing more than another “social justice” movement. For it is Christ and him alone that can bring hope, change, and true redemption.

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Churches Receiving More Calls For Help

March 30, 2009

Pleas for help — spiritual and financial — are flooding U.S. churches, from tiny congregations to megachurches, as recession woes seep into the pews, a new survey finds.

Pastors say they’re giving out benevolent funds in record numbers, increasing ministries to the unemployed and the financially fearful, even reaching into their own pockets more to help.

Nearly two in three pastors (62%) report more people from outside their church asking for help, and nearly a third (31%) see more such requests from church members, according to a survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors.

The survey, by LifeWay Research, a Christian polling firm based in Nashville, finds that 40% of pastors say they have church members out of work, and 37% say their church has increased spending to help the needy. (The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.)

For entire article check here.

This is a great opportunity for the church to shine. What can be done to help those struggling in this economy.

1. If the church has the resources, buy groceries for people or help with electric bill, a mortgage payment, rent, water bill or gas bill

2. Provide financial counseling if you have those in your church capable of doing that.

3. Provide help with resume writing and interviewing skills. See Rick Meig’s (Blind Beggar’s) piece here. A lot of times your local unemployment office will have people who can help with things like this.

4. You can always pray for people.

What other ways can you think of to help. I’m trying to figure out how we can help people in the Lake Como community - looking for more ideas.

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FRIDAY MISSIONAL STORY: MISSIONAL REBOOT

March 27, 2009

Last September my friends Adam and Diana Clay spent a weekend at a bed and breakfast in Fort Worth. As they talked the owners who are Christians found out that Adam is a church planter. They had purchased an old Church of Christ building and set it up as a wedding chapel (Lockhart Chapel).

They had been trying to get someone to start a church in the building. They had approached Southwestern Theological Seminary, but the seminary never got back with them. They asked Adam to pray about it. They felt there should be a church in the neighborhood, but didn’t feel like it was there role to begin one.

Adam brought it to the City on a Hill Connection team. We prayed. We prayer walked the community. As we did, we felt that God did indeed want us to work in that community.

The struggle began and we discussed it before we said yes. Would having a church building change the way we see our mission? Would we be able to keep our DNA? Did God want us to look beyond our ideas of models?

Our first event was in December 2008 just before Christmas. We held a community Christmas carnival. Since then we did a superbowl party pack, and had a prayer clinic. In all of that God has brought in two folks from the community, both believers.

A little over a week ago, I started feeling like we were drifting from our mission. We were becoming to oriented to the Sunday gathering rather than our mission. I felt that we really had not spent the time and effort that we really need to with the two people that God had brought to us. If they were there, they were there for a reason. Both are having some significant struggles in their lives.

Last Sunday, all of us that God had called into this effort, had the opportunity to huddle. Neither of our regular folks from the community had come, which really was an answer to my prayers. I wanted to spend time talking to Adam, Diana, and Lou.

As we did, I found out they were having similar concerns. We were drifting away from the things that we value. We were letting the two guys that God had given us down and we were too focused on the Sunday afternoon gathering.

So, what does that mean? After Easter, we will re-orient. We will be hosting our network wide Easter gathering, so we don’t want to try to do that while shifting our approach and work in the community.

The Sunday gatherings will be a time of worship. We’ll still have them so that if someone in the community comes in they’ll find us. Most of our energy will be dedicated to developing our relationships with the folks that God has brought into our lives. We’ll meet with them during the week as well. This will involve more time and effort as most of us live quite some distance from the neighborhood. Our efforts to reach the community will begin with our two guys and trying to reach their neighbors and friends.

We are not disappointed in what’s happened so far. But it’s good to re-examine and make sure we are tracking with the Lord. In this case, we believe we had drifted off course. Fortunately, God is able to re-0rient us.

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Penn of Penn and Teller and a gift of a bible

March 23, 2009

There is a great video - from Penn’s ( of Penn and Teller) blog. A believer who made a real impact on a self described Athiest.

http://rawreligion.com/853/insight-into-atheist/comment-page-1/#comment-183

What really got my attention is that Penn said he doesn’t have respect for people who say they really believe something but don’t tell because they are concerned about it being pushy. I think this is important. And I believe it is a reminder for us. In our efforts to be missional - the focus MUST always remain focusing on Jesus. We’re not just talking about people’s lives in the here and now - but for ALL eternity. If we love people - we must want them to come to know Jesus so they can be saved.

IN THE WAY