When my Dad passed away last Fall I posted an open letter to him, expressing my love and appreciation for his life. My mother is still with us and I'd like to do the same for her so she can hear these words while she is still alive.
Dear Mother,
The other day I was having a conversation with a friend and the subject of eating new and different foods came up. He had been to a conference where meals were provided once a day, but he said he didn't care for the food - it was too "weird". Now this was an organic growers' conference so I figured the food was perfectly good and healthy, but because it wasn't the standard American fare my friend had turned his nose up at it. I told him that it was probably the kind of food my family liked to eat! I then went on to explain that I was raised by a mother who taught us that if food was healthy and good for you one could learn to like it. One's tastes could be developed, in other words - not a common American value, but one that you taught me to embrace. A favorite phrase of yours, Mother, was, "people just need to be taught!"
Mother, you were the first and most important teacher I ever had. You not only taught me the value of eating well but also how to prepare foods in as healthy a way as possible ("don't overcook the broccoli!"). More importantly you taught me the critical need to have a vital, living relationship with Jesus. You were a deep believer in prayer and would often respond to needs that would arise with a quiet, but firm statement, "We need to pray about that." It took a long time for that lesson to sink in, but in the last few years prayer has become increasingly important to me. Thank you, Mother, for modeling that value to me. I can still picture the earnestness on your face and in your voice as you raised your concerns to the Father in prayer.
Mother, I can remember an evening when I was with you and Dad at a home Bible Study, at the home of the Waltzes. We had been going through one of the Psalms, having an open-ended kind of a study, and I had felt free (as a high-school age person) to share some insights during the discussion. On the way home, Mother, you were quick to affirm that I had a gift. I don't know if you exactly labeled it a teaching gift, but I think it would have generally fallen into that category. I believe you have that gift and were recognizing it in me. Thank you for that encouragement you gave me way back then. I probably didn't think a whole lot of it at the time, but the memory of that has stuck with me so I know that must have been an important affirmation that I continue to take seriously.
Mother, you are nearing the end of your life. Believe me when I tell you that you have run your course well. I know that at times you have expressed concern that you didn't do this or that right in how you raised me. But I want you to know that there was only one human in history that did everything right - and that's why we put our trust in Him to save us! I have no regrets with how you and Dad raised me. I count my childhood and growing up years at home as very blessed years and I wouldn't trade them for anything. Our faith is in a loving Father who takes even our failures and turns them into opportunities to show His power to transform them into blessings. So be at peace, Mother, as you reflect back on the past. It is His faithfulness that has brought you to this place and has preserved and nurtured all the good seed that you planted, not only within me but within many others as well.
I love you Mother. I bless you for being a blessing to me.
Bruce
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
through the mouth of an ass
This has been a very unusual political season and what has made it especially intriguing to me is what some influential Christians have been saying recently about the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump. Lance Wallnau sees Trump as someone with a "wrecking ball annointing" and compared him to the Persian emperor, Cyrus the Great, whom God used to bring a remnant of His people back from the Babylonian exile. Lance points out that this is the 45th presidential election of our nation, and in Isaiah 45 God says this about Cyrus: "This is what the LORD says to his annointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: 'I will go before you and will level mountains, I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, and riches stored in secret places. . . For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me..." (Isaiah 45:1-4).
Nita Johnson, a leading and influential voice in the prophetic community, recently published this word about Trump:
Nita Johnson, a leading and influential voice in the prophetic community, recently published this word about Trump:
"Four years ago the Lord spoke to me and told me that in the next election, He would put a Cyrus in the White House...I have had several dreams and visions about Donald Trump and each time, he seemed to come out of nowhere to take on the establishment! Then it began to happen.
If you want a religious man, you can have that in Ben Carson. He will be good in his place, in the season God has for him. However, God has not equipped him to do what our Nation needs at this time in history. I look for that to come later. If you want a Cyrus that will turn America back to the land of promise and deal with the high-level wickedness, you must look for the one who is anointed for this purpose: Donald Trump. The man at the top does not need a Cyrus mantel to turn America around if he is a spirit-filled Christian. He does, however if he is Trump. It's the mantel of Cyrus that will do the work. The man simply will be a tool in God's lofty and wise hands. I think a great pairing would be Trump as the President and Carson as the Vice President.
Trump may have need of grace in particular areas. Nevertheless, he is not evil like those of the shadow government. He will cause many of their tall and lofty mountains to fall. I promise you, as God is through Trump, doing that very thing. Trump is like a bull out of the pen, he sees red and heads for the target. He is as fearless as a lion being robbed of its cubs. With the mantle of Cyrus and the qualities God gave him, Trump will achieve as much as we, through our prayers, make a way for him to accomplish. It will take the whole team fighting for this nation, for us to win the war.
For our modern day Cyrus to achieve God's design he will need more than just desire. He will need solid prayer covering and divine enablement. The Church cannot keep thinking that the world will take care of us just because we are the Lord's. The world wants their government, not God's. The Church will end up in a den of suffering if we do not fight now through prayer and our actions by voting for God's will.
One person mentioned to me that they thought God could just put the Cyrus Mantel on Dr. Carson. He could, but the Lord does tend to make the personality of the bearer fit the mantel. This being the case, why do we trifle with God's selection? He is so much more than our little, and fearful boxes can visualize."
Does that offend you, that God would choose a morally repugnant person like Trump to do His work? The prophet Habakkuk was similarly offended that God would use the pagan nation of Babylon to punish Judah (Habakkuk 1:12-2:1). And we're all familiar with that Bible story of God using a donkey to rebuke the prophet Balaam. That's what I call an "out of the box" God! His ways are definitely not our ways!
So the question is, how can we position ourselves to be able to recognize what God is doing if He does things so differently than what we would expect? The answer is so simple, yet so incredibly difficult. "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." The closer we are to God the easier it will be to recognize what He is doing. But how does one draw near to a consuming fire?! We are as close to God as we want to be. Are we willing to let His fire consume us?
Saturday, March 5, 2016
s.b.p. IV
A question that may have occurred to some of you, as it has to me, is, why would God bother to give us a sign like the Panthers winning the Super Bowl to indicate that revival or awakening had come to America? Wouldn't it be self-evident if revival was truly happening? Maybe not.
I've heard it said that Andrew Murray, a true man of God from South Africa, had prayed for years for God to send revival to his country. According to the source I heard this from, God sent John G. Lake to South Africa where He had a remarkable healing ministry and planted hundreds of churches. Was this the answer to Andrew Murray's prayers? If it was, Mr. Murray did not recognize it as such, presumably because Mr. Lake's ministry was not what he was looking for or expecting.
An even greater and more obvious example of a God-sent revival happening and most not recognizing it for what it was, was the coming of Jesus. As long-awaited as this present-day coming revival is, it pales in comparison to the long-awaited and much prophesied coming of Israel's Messiah. But when the Messiah finally came, he wasn't recognized! John the Baptist, the very herald of Christ, had his own doubts and had to send some of his disciples to ask Jesus up front, "Are you the One, or should we look for another?" Jesus' own disciples were filled with doubt when they saw their hopes for him dashed by the crucifixion.
When one studies the history of major, genuine moves of God, one finds that these moves are always "out of the box" and are therefore always resisted, if not outright persecuted by the status quo church.
Have you heard the saying, "God will offend our minds in order to test our hearts"? The spiritual elite of Jesus' day were offended that a carpenter's son from the sticks [Nazareth was literally a town built on a chalk hill, and the province it was in was derogatively called "Galilee of the Gentiles"] would consider himself as sent from God. Amazingly, many of them seemed able to accept that as strange a fellow as John the Baptist was, he was sent from God. But Jesus was just too offensive to their spiritual/religious sensibilities.
Are we any different? Would we accept a move of God if it were led by a Southerner speaking like a hillbilly? ...or by a black Pentecostal preacher? ...or by a woman? ...or by someone out of the L.G.B.T. community? We have a hard time realizing how offensive Jesus was to the religious leaders of his day, but he was just as offensive as any of the categories I just suggested. He surrounded himself with "sinners (i.e.harlots, tax collectors/thieves, etc.)" and used a despised Samaritan as a hero in one of his parables. He truly did not act or speak like the kind of Messiah the Jews were looking forward to!
Are we prepared to have our minds offended, to have our hearts exposed, by this coming move of God? Revivals are messy things, not neat and tidy like we would like them to be. A lot of garbage has to come to the surface for the cleansing to happen. Those who are not offended by the smells or the sounds or the sights of dirty people coming clean will be the ones to embrace this kind of "out of the box" move of the Spirit. God have mercy on us, that we might be among those who will embrace and not reject what He is about to do. I guarantee, it will not be what we are expecting!
"Truth is stranger than fiction, for fiction is limited to what we can imagine, and truth isn't."
- Mark Twain
"When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.
Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen." (Mark 16:9-14)
I've heard it said that Andrew Murray, a true man of God from South Africa, had prayed for years for God to send revival to his country. According to the source I heard this from, God sent John G. Lake to South Africa where He had a remarkable healing ministry and planted hundreds of churches. Was this the answer to Andrew Murray's prayers? If it was, Mr. Murray did not recognize it as such, presumably because Mr. Lake's ministry was not what he was looking for or expecting.
An even greater and more obvious example of a God-sent revival happening and most not recognizing it for what it was, was the coming of Jesus. As long-awaited as this present-day coming revival is, it pales in comparison to the long-awaited and much prophesied coming of Israel's Messiah. But when the Messiah finally came, he wasn't recognized! John the Baptist, the very herald of Christ, had his own doubts and had to send some of his disciples to ask Jesus up front, "Are you the One, or should we look for another?" Jesus' own disciples were filled with doubt when they saw their hopes for him dashed by the crucifixion.
When one studies the history of major, genuine moves of God, one finds that these moves are always "out of the box" and are therefore always resisted, if not outright persecuted by the status quo church.
Have you heard the saying, "God will offend our minds in order to test our hearts"? The spiritual elite of Jesus' day were offended that a carpenter's son from the sticks [Nazareth was literally a town built on a chalk hill, and the province it was in was derogatively called "Galilee of the Gentiles"] would consider himself as sent from God. Amazingly, many of them seemed able to accept that as strange a fellow as John the Baptist was, he was sent from God. But Jesus was just too offensive to their spiritual/religious sensibilities.
Are we any different? Would we accept a move of God if it were led by a Southerner speaking like a hillbilly? ...or by a black Pentecostal preacher? ...or by a woman? ...or by someone out of the L.G.B.T. community? We have a hard time realizing how offensive Jesus was to the religious leaders of his day, but he was just as offensive as any of the categories I just suggested. He surrounded himself with "sinners (i.e.harlots, tax collectors/thieves, etc.)" and used a despised Samaritan as a hero in one of his parables. He truly did not act or speak like the kind of Messiah the Jews were looking forward to!
Are we prepared to have our minds offended, to have our hearts exposed, by this coming move of God? Revivals are messy things, not neat and tidy like we would like them to be. A lot of garbage has to come to the surface for the cleansing to happen. Those who are not offended by the smells or the sounds or the sights of dirty people coming clean will be the ones to embrace this kind of "out of the box" move of the Spirit. God have mercy on us, that we might be among those who will embrace and not reject what He is about to do. I guarantee, it will not be what we are expecting!
"Truth is stranger than fiction, for fiction is limited to what we can imagine, and truth isn't."
- Mark Twain
"When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.
Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen." (Mark 16:9-14)
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