1-17-26 This should be the last ‘archive’ site- why another? This week I tried to post some of the old posts from the deleted original Blog- you can find these arcvie posts at the bottom of ‘Recent sites’- abput 100 of those sections are missing from the new Blog- I just posted this week.

I realize that many old posts have political views- things that offend- I warched and researched many Youtube and Google articles this last year- covering criminal cases that I follow. These talk about violence- murder- very bad crimes. Some are history- Hitler- etc- people or groups in our day who still espouse racist beliefs- use the N word- on the documentary. Why are they still hosted by Google- Youtube? Because they are covering the history- the serial killers- the crimes and views of others- I need to post about 15 sections  of old deleted posts- these r only 2000 posts of about 1 million that were deleted- Today- 1-17-2026- I- John Chiarello am trying to simply get those old posts on-line- NOT SAYING I STILL HOLD TO ALL BELIEFS YOU SEE IN THE POSTS  Just like Youtube is not removing Hitler posts- or Videos on Youtube using the N word- or even advocating  the actual murders of serial killers- which r actually covered in the Videos on Youtube. So yes- YOU WILL FIND OFFENSIVE political views- nothing near the word NI… er- or near the acts of the killers covered on Youtube- or Google. We all understand they r hosted for educational reasons.. I AM NOT ADVOCATING  all the views of the past- I AM SIMPLY TRYING TO GET 2000 posts back online- I use my past posts when making new posts- I do not re-post or even advocate for some earlier causes- but in between those news posts I have teaching sections. So- in that way I hope to finnaly get this last ‘archive’ section up- John Chiarello 1-17-26

CORPUS CHRISTI OUTREACH MINISTRIES [A network of sites reaching the world]

New- https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/[Full post can be seen here]

New-  https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/

Sites- https://sites.google.com/view/ccoutreach87-johnchiarello/home?authuser=0

Sites-  https://sites.google.com/view/johnchiarello/home?authuser=0

Sites- https://sites.google.com/view/ccoutreach87--full-studies/home 

Links to sites- full list

https://ccoutreach87.com/1-time-w-p-update-links-to-sites-8-12-25/

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/links-to-my-other-sites.html

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/links-to-my-sites-text-this-page-is-for_22.html

https://sites.google.com/view/ccoutreach87-johnchiarello/about

Github https://github.com/ccoutreach/Links-to-my-sites/blob/main/README.md 

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2025/11/1-time-link-to-sites-update-long-version.html

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/11/1-time-link-to-sites-update-long-version.html 

Site-https://ccoutreach87.com/ [ Post every day]

Site- https://sites.google.com/view/ccoutreach87-johnchiarello/home?authuser=0

https://sites.google.com/view/ccoutreach87--full-studies/home 

Site- www.ccoutreach87.net   

 Site- https://www.ccoutreach87.org/

Stats-  https://ccoutreach87.com/stats-4-21/ 

Stats- https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/stats-text-there-is-nothing-bad-on-this.html 

Stats- https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/stats-creating-pages-from-these-1st.html 

Links to all sites- https://ccoutreach87.com/links-to-my-sites-updated-10-2018/ 

Links to all sites- https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/links-to-my-sites-text-this-page-is-for_22.html 

Links to all sites- https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/links-to-my-other-sites.html 

Linktree  https://linktr.ee/ccoutreach87

Link Tree 2nd https://ccoutreachministries.wordpress.com/2025/03/06/link-tree/

https://linktr.ee/ccoutreach873

Site-  https://ccoutreachministries.wordpress.com/   [Text post only- 3 a week]

 Site- https://medium.com/@johnchiarello  [Text post only- 3 a week]

Site-  http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/__blog.html?r=20171009095200

Site-  https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/

Site-  http://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite 

Site- http://ccoutreach87.strikingly.com/ 

Site- https://ccoutreach87.jimdo.com/ 

Site- https://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/  

Wix- 2nd- Blog https://ccoutreach872.wixsite.com/ccoutreach87/blog

Wix- 2nd- Website https://ccoutreach872.wixsite.com/ccoutreach87

Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/ccoutreach87/ [Post every day]

Site-  https://vero.co/ccoutreach87

Site-  https://www.wattpad.com/user/JohnChiarello/conversations

Site- https://www.publish0x.com/@ccoutreach87

Site-  https://www.threads.net/@john.chiarello [Post every day]

Site- https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5  [Post every day]

Site-  http://johnchiarello.tumblr.com/  [Post every day]

Site-  https://twitter.com/ccoutreach87  [Post every day]

Site-  https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-chiarello-b27340ab/ [Post every day]

 VK-  https://vk.com/id533663718  [Russia- Post every day]

 OK- https://ok.ru/profile/589985645111 [Ukraine- Post every day]

IG- 1

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello?igsh=MTRvazIwZnZmZ253bw== 

IG- 2

https://www.instagram.com/ccoutreach.87?igsh=MWkyNGE1d3h3YjRzbw==

Tiktok-   https://www.tiktok.com/@johnchiarello5?lang=en [Upload new video 3 days a week- Post every day]

Plurk-  https://www.plurk.com/ccoutreach87 [Japan- Taiwan]  [Text post only- 3 a week]

WP- 3 https://ccoutreach4.wordpress.com/

Ccoutreach93- Wix Blog [all posts] https://ccoutreach870.wixsite.com/ccoutreach93/blog

Ccoutreach93- Wix site https://ccoutreach870.wixsite.com/ccoutreach93

Site- https://sites.google.com/view/ccoutreach87-johnchiarello/home?authuser=0 

Google site- 2nd https://sites.google.com/view/johnchiarello/home?authuser=0

https://sites.google.com/view/ccoutreach87--full-studies/home [Google 3]

Ccoutreach87- Tumblr 2nd https://ccoutreachministries.wordpress.com/2025/03/15/ccoutreach87-tumblr-2nd/

https://www.tumblr.com/ccoutreach87/778110204012363776/links-to-my-sites-3-1-25?source=share

Jimdo 2nd https://john-chiarello.jimdosite.com

Linkfly 2nd https://www.linkfly.to/70318zs2hwH 

Quora -https://www.quora.com/profile/John-Chiarello-1 [Post 3 times a week]

https://ccoutreach87.quora.com/ [Group Post 3 times a week- others post on group many times a day]

https://mewe.com/i/johnchiarello [Post every day]

Pagewave https://www.pagewave.net/ccoutreach87

Reddit https://www.reddit.com/u/Virtual-Ebb-2902/s/RaohMwyxqw 

Flipboard Profile

https://flipboard.com/@johnchiarel2018?from=share&utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=share

Telegram 2- ccoutreach https://t.me/boost/ccoutreach 

Shuffles

https://www.shffls.com/shuffles/5434950074861924672?sender_id=571605515113641221

7 Streams https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/7-streams.html

IG Reels https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/ig-reels-12-31-24.html

7/8 Vids https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/01/seven-eight-list-of-vids-1-11-25.html

1 Time vids update https://ccoutreach87.com/1-time-vids-catalog-update-1-7-26/

Blog Archive https://ccoutreachjohnchiarello.blogspot.com/

New sites at the bottom of this list  https://ccoutreach87.com/my-other-sites/  

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/12/my-other-sites-new-sites-at-bottom-12.html 

See today’s full post here https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/

And here  https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/

Many more sites can be found here- https://ccoutreach87.com/links-to-my-sites-updated-10-2018/

 www.ccoutreach87.net [See home page]  Not updated

 https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/links-to-my-sites-text-this-page-is-for_22.html 

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/links-to-my-other-sites.html 

Note- Why so many links at the top? If a main site goes down- and I used that link on hundreds of thousands of posts- it creates dead links all over the internet. If I have many links at the top- at least those posts won’t be wasted.

Note- Around  9-2024 Many sites began giving me warnings, not big stuff- just minor things. It was strange that so many started doing it all at once. After a few major Blog deletions- that all stopped. I realized some group- or person was more than likely targeting us- contacting all the sites and complaining. So if you host a site by me- and you have real problems- that’s fine to contact me and let me know- but if you start getting many complaints- all at once- keep this in mind- John Chiarello

OTHER VIDEOS [These are the videos I upload nightly to my various sites- links to all my sites below]

https://ccoutreach87.com/fb-ig-tiktok-vids-7-23/ 

FB/IG/Tiktok n other vids https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/fbigtiktok-other-vids-8-24-need-for-my.html

TT/IG/FB Vids 6-25-25 https://sites.google.com/view/johnchiarello/project-page?authuser=0

IG/FB Vids 8-24 https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/igfb-vids-8-24-24-need-for-my-use-john.html

IG Bible studies https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/ig-bible-studies.html

https://ccoutreach87.com/other-videos-catalog-a-j-blogger-3/

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/other-videos-catalog-j-blogger-3.html

Reels-  https://ccoutreach87.com/ig-fb-vids-8-24-24/ 

IG/FB 8-24 https://ccoutreach87.com/ig-fb-vids-8-24-24/ 

IG/FB Vids- 10-30-24 [Links]

www.ccoutreach87.net/blog/m4upc8hdhc7b6m1zavpxgjsz9n5vtc

https://ccoutreach87.com/ig-fb-vids-8-24-24/

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/igfb-vids-8-24-24-need-for-my-use-john.html

Videos catalog 1-6

 https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/11/videos-catalog-1-6.html

https://ccoutreach87.com/videos-catalog-1-6/

www.ccoutreach87.net [See home page]  Not updated

https://www.ccoutreach87.net/tiktok 

https://ccoutreach87.com/tiktok-videos/ 

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/11/tiktok-this-is-for-page-if-no-good-for.html 

FB-IG-Tiktok- other Vids https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/fb-ig-tiktok-other-vids-10-24.html

TT/IG/FB Vids 6-25-25 https://sites.google.com/view/johnchiarello/project-page?authuser=0

IG Bible studies https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/ig-bible-studies-9-24.html

IG Reels https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/ig-reels-1.html

IG Vids https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/3523858102198414520/3404197756526011336

Other Vids- Cat A-J https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/other-videos-catalog-j.html

Youtube Shorts [reels]

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2025/01/youtube-shorts-reels.html

https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-shorts-reels/

SEVEN- EIGHT Vid’s List

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2025/01/seven-eight-lists-of-vids-1-11-25.html

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/01/seven-eight-list-of-vids-1-11-25.html

https://ccoutreach87.com/seven-eight-lists-of-vids-1-11-25/

1st Video in a long time- Maybe the last? [1-17-25] https://ccoutreachministries.wordpress.com/2025/01/17/1st-new-video-in-a-long-time-lets-see-if-the-link-works/

Rednote [Full video site- Like TiKtok] China https://www.xiaohongshu.com/user/profile/6786b7a2000000000803e51b

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2025/01/vid-links-1-30-25.html

https://ccoutreach87.com/vid-links-1-30-25/

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/01/vid-links-1-30-25.html

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2025/02/ig-fb-tiktok-vids-2-24-25.html

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/02/ig-fb-tiktok-vids-2-24-25-making-page.html

https://ccoutreach87.com/ig-fb-tiktok-vids-2-24-25/

IG/FB/TT 9-25 https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/ig-reels-12-31-24.html 

7/8 Vids https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/01/seven-eight-list-of-vids-1-11-25.html 

1 Time vids update https://ccoutreach87.com/1-time-vids-catalog-update-1-7-26/

TT/IG/FB Vids 6-25-25 https://sites.google.com/view/johnchiarello/project-page?authuser=0

7 Streams https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/7-streams.html 

HD Clips

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2025/10/hd-clips-making-page.html

https://ccoutreach87.com/hd-clips/

IG/FB/TT Vids- 11-22-25

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2025/11/igfbtt-vids-11-22-25.html

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/11/igfbtt-vids-11-22-25.html

https://ccoutreach87.com/1-time-update-ig-fb-tt-vids-11-22-25/ 

Flipboard Bible n teaching Vids

https://ccoutreachministries.wordpress.com/2025/11/26/flipboard-magazine-ccoutreach87/

https://flipboard.com/@johnchiarel2018/bible-n-teaching-videos-tmkoks7iz?from=share&utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=curator_share

Telegram 2- ccoutreach https://t.me/boost/ccoutreach [Lots of my video links here]

Youtube channels-

1st https://www.youtube.com/@ccoutreach873 [Main channel]

https://www.youtube.com/@ccoutreach873/posts 

2nd https://youtube.com/@backup-2621?si=7PS4KW0kUOEgpxDP

https://www.youtube.com/@backup-2621/posts 

3rd https://youtube.com/@backup-1930?si=5s8as-Qx0oVMP65c

https://www.youtube.com/@backup-1930/posts

Tiktok- ccoutreach87  https://www.tiktok.com/@ccoutreach87?lang=en

Tiktok- John Chiarello [Active]  https://www.tiktok.com/@johnchiarello5?lang=en

Spotify https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/john-chiarello-ccoutreach

Spotify studies

https://ccoutreach87.com/spotify-studies/

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2026/01/spotify-studies-page.html

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2026/01/spotify-studies-page.html

7 Streams https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/7-streams.html

IG Reels https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/ig-reels-12-31-24.html

7/8 Vids https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/01/seven-eight-list-of-vids-1-11-25.html

1 Time vids update https://ccoutreach87.com/1-time-vids-catalog-update-1-7-26/

 NOTE- Every so often some of my sites think I am Spam- or a Bot- I am not. My name is John Chiarello, I am a retired firefighter living in Texas, Born in Hoboken New Jersey- raised in North Bergen. I post original content [all videos and text are by me].  I post 7 videos a night to many of my sites, and text posts 3 times a week. I NEVER take money- or ask for money- ever. Everything is free- I sell nothing- to some sites this makes a difference- so I wanted to say that here. There are no buildings- staff- salary- anything. Just me teaching- doing outreach- and reaching out thru my sites. All my teachings- videos- studies are free to download from all my sites. Make as many copies as you want- they are there for you to use. Thank You- John.

NOTE- Don’t be mad if I do not respond to messages on these sites- I simply don’t have time to read them. Some sites are telling me that I have money built up from posting- I do not take money for anything- if you can give it to others in those countries or boost my posts on the platform- John.

Intro I use on sites-

 ‘Retired firefighter teach n outreach to homeless- all links r teaching by me- John Chiarello. I take no money for the ministry- there is NO INCOME at all- besides what I pay for from my retirement check [I have to add this next part- so people know ALL the finances- this is it-] I give 35 a month to childrens international [a child in Africa] and 70 dollars a month to the homeless- and I pay for some sites- all content on my sites is free to all- download- copy- and if you r poor feel free to sell it if it can hep you. I waive the copyright to everything. I was born in Hoboken- grew up in North Bergen [New Jersey] off the Hudson river by NYC. I retired from the Kingsville Fire Department [Texas] in 2008- after 25 years on the job as a paid firefighter [Not some fake thing]. I now live in Corpus Christi Texas. There is no office- building- or employees- I make the videos- write the posts- add the links- post it myself. I say this not to brag- but so everyone knows what I’m doing.

Verified? I make this note to let my sites know that I am actually posting everyday to all these sites- I do not say this to brag, but I have had problems with some sites thinking I am not doing it- they sent me notices saying this [we think you shared your password to others to do this and we don’t want that] No- I did not do that. It takes to long to verify each site- if you see the site here [ https://ccoutreach87.com/links-to-my-sites-updated-10-2018/  

Links to all sites- https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/links-to-my-sites-text-this-page-is-for_22.html 

Links to all sites- https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/links-to-my-other-sites.html 

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/links-to-my-sites-updated-10-2018.html?m=0  ] than that’s me posting to them- I am the only one who has access to the Blog and Wordpress sites- thanks- John.

Blog 3 Links-

House of prayer or den of thieves? [1st book] https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/house-of-prayer-or-den-of-thieves-text_31.html

Great building of God [2nd book] https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/great-building-of-god-text-2nd-book.html

Further talks on church n ministry [3rd book] https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/further-talks-on-church-n-ministry-text.html

Reformation  https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/reformation-text-all-studies-are.html

Philosophy https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/philosophy-text.html

1st 2nd Samuel https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/1st-2nd-samuel-text.html

1st 2nd Corinthians https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/1st-2nd-cor-text.html

1st 2nd Kings https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/1st-2nd-kings-text.html

3 books https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/3-books-text.html

Acts https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/acts-text.html

Christian recovery https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/christian-recovery-from-addiction-text.html

Classics https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/classics-text.html

Ephesians highlights https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/ephesians-highlights-text.html

Galatians https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/galatians-text.html

Galatians /John https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/galatiansjohn-text.html

Genesis https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/genesis-text.html

Haggai https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/haggai-text.html

Hurricane Harvey https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/hurricane-harvey-text.html

Hebrews 2015 https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/hebrews-2015-text.html

Historical figures https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/historical-figures-from-church-history.html

Insights from a Revolution https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/insights-from-revolution-text.html

Intro https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/intro-2018.html 

Islam https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/islam-text.html

James https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/james-text-note-9-25-24-i-am-making.html

John https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/john-text-links.html

Journal 2013 https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/journal-2013-text.html

Judges- Ruth https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/jugdesruth-text.html

Justification by faith https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/justification-by-faith-text.html

Links to past posts https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/links-to-past-posts-text.html

Modernity https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/modernity-text.html

My parables https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/my-parables-text.html 

Nehemiah/Isaiah https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/nehemiahisaiah.html

Perspectives on the Cross https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/perspectives-on-cross.html

Pope logs on https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/pope-logs-on.html

Wisdom https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/psalms-proverbs-wisdom-text.html

QM https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/qm-text.html

Radio stuff https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/radio-stuff-text.html

Rapture- 2nd coming https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/rapture-2nd-coming-2-events.html

Russia- world events https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/russia-us-world-events.html

Sermon on the mount https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/sermon-on-mount.html

NJ/NYC Journal 2107 https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/njnyc-journal-2017.html

New Jersey 2015- 2016 https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/nj-2015-2016.html 

Links to all sites- https://ccoutreach87.com/links-to-my-sites-updated-10-2018/ 

Links to all sites- https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/links-to-my-sites-text-this-page-is-for_22.html 

Links to all sites- https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/links-to-my-other-sites.html 

Links to all sites- https://sites.google.com/view/ccoutreach87-johnchiarello/home?authuser=0

Links to all sites- www.ccoutreach87.net [See home page]  Not updated

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2025/11/1-time-link-to-sites-update-long-version.html

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/11/1-time-link-to-sites-update-long-version.html 

https://ccoutreach87.com/1-time-w-p-update-links-to-sites-8-12-25/

New sites at the bottom https://ccoutreach87.com/my-other-sites/  

Blog Archive https://ccoutreachjohnchiarello.blogspot.com/ 

2nd archive [Google sites] https://sites.google.com/view/johnchiarelloccoutreach87/home?authuser=0

Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on-  Copy text- download video links- make complete copies of my books/studies and posts- everything is copyrighted by me- I give permission for all to copy and share as much as you like- I just ask that nothing be sold. We live in an online world- yet- there is only one internet- meaning if it ever goes down- the only access to the teachings are what others have copied or downloaded- so feel free to copy and download as much as you want- it’s all free-

Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.

I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is ccoutreach87@gmail.com - contact me first- thank you- John

  To the free sites I am on- Thank you for the service you provide to the public. I try not to pay for sites if I do not have to. Why? I want to build long term- and in short- when a person dies- pay sites will stop. Because the annual payment eventually stops- and the site goes down. I have said this to some of the sites over the years but wanted to have it in one place so I don’t need to say it to each site. Thanks- John

Groups- Feel free to join and post in our groups- some of our groups have others posting and interacting daily, while I only post 3 times a week and don’t have time to interact. I prefer that- for the groups to grow on their  own and for others to use them as an opportunity for ministry.

Thought this might help- last text I wrote in along time

9-11-24 Just realized the date now- and yes- that’s the way most things are for me. I just got back from seeing homeless friends for about 3 hours.

Talked to one for some time- about life- recovery and end of life to come.

Quoted and taught from the words of Jesus about a few things that he himself brought up.

He- like many others- was clean for about 4 months and had what many call a relapse.

So I tried to give some insights on how not to give up and a little more in depth view about my view of recovery.

Now- why write this note- the first in a very long time? Well- my word software does not have spellcheck at the moment- sure- I can go back and check- but this takes a bit more time.

Also- I don’t have the time anymore to write new stuff- this might be the last ‘new’ entry- ever.

Over time I hoped most people realized that I have been re-posting old posts from years gone by.

Sure- I try and check for old news comments and stuff, and if I can remove them- I do.

But I have made notes [somewhere?] that this is what you might see from time to time.

I simply am not at the time of life to write new things anymore [or make new videos] unless I have to.

If sites I’m on see a page titled ‘New Sites’ which is an old page of a few old sites which I did not change the title to yet [catalog scroll shares- for my use]- some of these sites are to the ‘right’ of the aisle- then they might think ‘These are his NEW sites- we must delete the entire blog site!’

[Which just happened to 2  sites- 1 of them was the main website from the start. Much damage was done- because I used those links in many posts over the years- these are now what we call ‘dead links’ and that’s not good at all].

No- those are my older sites- just a few of many- and it just so happens that some of them are to the right of the aisle. I am on about 375 sites right now all over the world.

So life is at times full of stuff- stuff you have to get done- stuff you need to get done- and stuff you want to get done.

For me it’s nice to hit the keyboard for the 1st time in a long time [to write]- but that’s ‘Stuff’ that I don’t do anymore [Just took me a minute to find the ‘quotation mark’- really]

So I pray God will bless you all- I will try to keep posting old ‘Stuff’ because most of the important teachings in the New Testament are in those ‘re-posted’ studies.

And I don’t have time to ‘re-write’ what I have written before.

God bless all- John

Links to sites-  

https://ccoutreach87.com/1-time-w-p-update-links-to-sites-8-12-25/

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2024/12/links-to-my-other-sites.html

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2024/09/links-to-my-sites-text-this-page-is-for_22.html

https://sites.google.com/view/ccoutreach87-johnchiarello/about

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2025/11/1-time-link-to-sites-update-long-version.html

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/11/1-time-link-to-sites-update-long-version.html 

https://ccoutreach87.com/1-time-w-p-update-links-to-sites-8-12-25/ 

New sites at the bottom of this list  https://ccoutreach87.com/my-other-sites/

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2025/12/my-other-sites-new-sites-at-bottom-12.html 

Blog Archive https://ccoutreachjohnchiarello.blogspot.com/ 

2nd archive [Google sites] https://sites.google.com/view/johnchiarelloccoutreach87/home?authuser=0

OVERVIEW OF PHILOSOPHY [updated 12-17]

Apologetics 1 [Page]

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2026/01/apologetics-1-page.html

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2026/01/apologetics-1-page.html

https://ccoutreach87.com/apologetics-1/ 

Apologetics 2 [Page]

https://johnchiarello.blogspot.com/2026/01/apologetics-2-page.html

https://corpuschristiworldoutreach.blogspot.com/2026/01/apologetics-2-page.html

https://ccoutreach87.com/apologetics-2/

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/12/03/sunday-sermon-17/ 

THALES AND THE PRE-SOCRATICS

Ok- let me do a little teaching- maybe finish it tonight.

Christianity is not simply ‘made up stories’ from some bible.

No- the history of Western Thought- Philosophy- ideas- all of the various World Views are imbedded with God- our concepts of God- and ask the ultimate question ‘where did all this come from- and why are we here’.

We usually trace the beginning of Ancient Philosophy to the 6th century BCE.

A thinker by the name of Thales sought to find ways to describe natural phenomena without the use of Greek Mythology.

Even though Philosophy deals with Metaphysics [things beyond the natural- physical realm- Physics] yet Thales wanted to find explanations for existence- without leaning on Myth.

He is considered a ‘Pre Socratic’ thinker [before Socrates] and espoused an idea that water was the key source of all things.

These guys were looking for a singular thing to explain stuff.

Sometimes referred to as a unified theory- the same thing that Einstein was seeking to find some 2 Millennia later.

So- Thales surmised that water was the key thing.

There are various ideas of why he came to this conclusion- but one reason might have been the idea of motion.

Many Geek thinkers were looking for the source of motion- where did it come from?

And to the natural eye- if you observe the ocean- rivers- etc. - there does seem to be no cause for the moving of water- so to these guys it seemed like water itself was the source- motion came from water.

Now- there were other religions who taught a sort of idea along these lines.

Some pagan religions said that the ‘god’s’ moved upon the water- and life came that way.

If you read the Christian account of creation in Genesis- you will notice that God did move upon the waters- and the account in Genesis does indeed say that he brought forth life from the water.

Thales came from for Miletus- in Asia Minor.

He was famous for the prediction of a Solar Eclipse that occurred on May 28th- 585 BCE.

The earliest account of this is found in the writings of Herodotus.

Thales is considered one of the 7 sages of the time.

Christianity was born at a time where Greek thought/ideas were a big part of society.

We do find the early apostles using the language/ideas of the Greek philosophers when describing the reality of Christ.

The apostle John refers to Christ as THE LOGOS- The word Logos- is a Greek word for ‘word’.

Jesus is called ‘the word of God’.

Now- the Greek thinkers were in fact seeking for the Logos- they used this term to describe the ultimate answer to all tings.

They were on a search for some Divine principle that could explain things.

So- the writers of the New Testament were in a way saying ‘look- we have found the Logos- the thing that you guys are looking for- it is Christ- the Divine Logos’.

We also see the apostle Paul debating with the Greek thinkers in the city of Athens [the seat of Geek philosophy- the city/state where Socrates was forced to drink cyanide].

In Acts chapter 17 he is preaching to these guys on Mar’s Hill- he says ‘In him we live AND MOVE and have our being’.

Now- today as we read this- we don’t get the full import of what he was doing.

But- to the Greek mind- the source of motion was a big thing.

Paul was a smart guy- and he was saying ‘in him we move’ showing that yes- the ‘source of motion’ [Thales water] is not found in the natural world [Physics] but the source comes from the Metaphysical world [God].

He also says ‘when I was walking thru your town- I saw one of your altars- to the unknown god’.

At the time many believed in a Pantheon of gods- and to cover their bases- they had an altar for any god they might have missed- smart thinking!

So Paul says ‘him I declare unto you’.

Notice how Paul was able to debate- converse with them- and at the end actually use their own ideas- to present the gospel.

In this chapter- Acts 17- we read of the only 2 groups of philosophers mentioned in the bible.

The Epicureans and the Stoics.

The Epicureans were an early form of what we call Hedonism today- the idea that pleasure is the principle purpose of man.

The Stoics believed in ‘stoicism’ that man should have no emotional response to pain or pleasure- that’s why we call people today ‘Stoics’- when they seem to not be moved by anything.

Ok- that’s it for now- might make some comments tonight- but I’m getting ready to fly out soon- and trying to wind down before I leave.

If I don’t write tonight- I’ll talk again when in North Bergen- God bless you all.

1Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

1Corinthians 1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

1Corinthians 1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

1Corinthians 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

1Corinthians 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

1Corinthians 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

1Corinthians 1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

1Corinthians 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1Corinthians 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

1Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

1Corinthians 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

1Corinthians 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

1Corinthians 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

1Corinthians 1:31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

1Corinthians 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

1Corinthians 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

1Corinthians 2:3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

1Corinthians 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

1Corinthians 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

1Corinthians 2:6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

1Corinthians 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

1Corinthians 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1Corinthians 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.

See? Paul the apostle had the intellectual capacity to engage with the best of them- but he knew that the core issue- was sin. That is those who reject Christianity on the basis of ‘it’s a religion of foolishness’- in reality- even if you win the intellectual argument- yet for the most part people will still not believe. In the end it is always a matter of true repentance- being honest with ourselves- and others. So- Paul didn’t rely on the ‘wisdom of men’ but the power of the Cross. When needed- he would ‘use it’ [men’s wisdom- Acts 17- Mars Hill] but he closed his argument by declaring Christ.

 THE 5TH ELEMENT.

Ok- let’s talk philosophy today- the last post on this subject I traced what we normally refer to as the beginning of Greek philosophy- a man by the name of Thales- 6th century BCE.

We said that Thales had an idea that water was the principle element- water seemed to have the ability to move [motion] by itself- so Walla- maybe water is the principle thing.

He was what we refer to as a Monist.

Monists believed that there was one principle element- responsible for all other things.

Now- the pre Socratic philosophers debated about this- some said it was air- others earth- some said fire- as a matter of fact- some said all 4 of these elements were responsible for existence.

Now- some sought a 5th element- some yet to be discovered thing that would explain it all.

A man by the name of Anaximander described it as ‘the boundless’- something that has no origin- he said it was ‘both unborn- and immortal’ ahh- you can already see the attributes of God in this [boundless- what Theologians call omnipresent- God having no limits- he is everywhere [but not everything- get to that in a moment] and ‘unborn’ that is he himself has no beginning].

Ok- this 5th element [some called it Ether- or Aether- a sort of wave theory- that light travels along this ether- this idea lasted till the day of Einstein- who showed us that Ether does not exist [in this way] but that light itself is made up of particles- photons- this was one of the major breakthroughs of modern physics].

A few years ago the movie ‘the 5th Element’- Bruce Willis- hit on this theme- sort of like the ‘God particle’- that is they were in search for some type of being that was eternal – self existent.

The term Quintessence [quint- 5] came to be defined as this 5th element- and today we use the word Quintessential to describe the pure essence of a thing- the perfect embodiment of something.

Over time the Greek thinkers would arrive at the idea that yes indeed- there was one main thing- Monism- that could be the source of all other things.

It is interesting to note that the Jewish prophets- and wisdom literature- which predates these guys- already started from the standpoint of Monotheism- one God.

Now- Monism is not Monotheism.

Monism is really a form of what we call Pantheism [in the study of religion].

Pantheism says that God is ‘everything’- some eastern religions hold to this concept.

The Christian view is that God is separate from creation- that he is indeed the original source of creation- but not the creation itself.

The Geek philosophers even described this 5th element as ‘The One’- see- they were getting close.

In today’s debates- some espouse an idea that there was no beginning point- that the universe is either eternal [something Einstein disproved with the Big Bang theory] or that there is a sort of infinite regress- that there is no one starting point- but that there have been a never ending [or beginning] series of ‘big bangs’ that go on forever.

This defies the laws of logic- and math.

Math?

Yeah- many of the great physicists were also great mathematicians [like Einstein- and Max Plank- who was first a mathematician].

If there was no beginning point- mathematically it doesn’t ‘work’.

You would never be able to arrive at the present time- if there was no starting point to measure from [I know this might sound strange- but this is indeed a proof- that there had to be a starting point].

What these thinkers show us is that even thru the ancient field of Philosophy- you still arrive at some type of ‘thing’ that is responsible for all other things.

Some Christians reject the Big Bang theory- but in my view it gave the Christian apologist the greatest tool to argue for the existence of God.

For many centuries it was believed that the universe was eternal- and if that was true- then indeed you did not have to have an outside source that was responsible for it.

But Einstein showed us that there was a beginning point- that the universe is in a continual expansion mode- and if it is getting ‘bigger’ by the second- then yes- it did have a starting point.

Many today think that it ‘popped’ into existence on its own- this is both scientifically and logically impossible- it violates the law of Cause and Effect [every effect has to have a cause also ‘out of nothing- nothing comes’].

There was a famous Christian who abandoned the faith- Bertrand Russell- he said ‘if everything has to have a cause- then God must have one too- and if God needs a cause- then why not see the universe as the cause’.

Tough Russell was a good man- he made a mistake here.

The laws of logic do not say that everything has to have a cause- but every effect has to have one.

In essence- somewhere along the line- going back to the beginning- there must be an initial cause- that has no beginning- Anaximander’s Boundless One.

Ok- I won’t do too many of these posts in a row- because as you can see- this takes time- and you lose people along the way.

But- over the next few weeks I’ll slip a post like this in- it helps when dealing with those who have sincere objections to the faith- and it also debunks some common misconceptions.

 HERACLITUS- Ok- lets pick up on my philosophy stuff.

Heraclitus lived in the 6th/5th century BC. - He was from Ephesus and his key thought was Ever Present Change.

That is he saw everything as being in a state of continual flux- one of his famous sayings was ‘No man ever steps into the same river twice’.

He is called the Weeping Philosopher- sort of like the prophet Jeremiah in the bible- also called the Weeping Prophet.

Heraclitus is known for his concept of the Logos- the Word- or thought/reason.

Now- this aspect of his thought plays a role in the development of the Christian understanding of Christ himself- in our New Testaments [written in Greek] Jesus is indeed referred to as the Logos- or Word of God.

The Greek philosophers understanding of the Logos was not the same as the Christian view- mainly expressed thru the writings of John [The gospel- the 3 epistles- and Revelation].

But- some see the Greek view as a precursor to Christ.

In the work of one of the early church fathers- Hippolytus ‘The Refutation of all Heresies’ he attacks Heraclitus view of the Logos as an early form of heresy.

The apologist Justin Martyr is more gracious- he [Like Ulrich Zwingli- the great Swiss reformer of the 16th century] viewed the early Geek thinkers as ‘pre- Christian’ or ‘Christians before Christ’.

Though many reject this view- yet there is some scripture to back it up.

The apostle Paul said in his letter to the Romans that if the Gentiles [non-Jews] do by nature the things contained in the law- then they are justified in God’s sight.

Of course these things are debatable- but I add this to show you that some great Christian thinkers did indeed view the early Greek thinkers- who did live by a moral code- as being right in God’s eyes.

And the bible does teach a theme that we will be judged according to the amount of light [understanding] that we had at the time.

I should note that Plato [one of the 3 titans that arose after Heraclitus- from the city/state of Athens] disagreed with Heraclitus on all things being in a state of constant change.

When [if?] we get to Socrates- Plato and Aristotle- I’ll try and cover the ways they advanced- built upon- the thought of the pre Socratic thinkers.

As a side note- the most famous student of Aristotle- who was the most famous student of Plato- who was the most famous student of Socrates- was Alexander the Great.

This goes to show you how great an influence Greek philosophy had on the ancient world.

A few nuggets from Heraclitus- ‘all things come to pass in accordance with this Logos’ ‘follow the common’ ‘not having their own judgment’.

Recently I covered Acts chapter 2- and we see some of these ideas in the early Christian movement.

The first Christians did ‘follow the common’ they sold their goods- and had ‘all things common’ [communal lifestyle].

The apostle Paul teaches the early church to all ‘speak the same thing- that there be no divisions among you’.

And the New Testament also says the scripture should not be given to Private Interpretation- meaning- ‘not having your own personal judgment’.

All in all- we do indeed see a sort of pre Christian thought in the pre Socratic thinkers- they did indeed speak of the Divine- God- though there understanding of him was not the same as the Christian church.

In a sense- Heraclitus idea that in life- the only ‘constant’ is the fact that there is no constant- that life itself is made up of an ongoing journey- we live day by day- not ever knowing what ‘the next day will bring forth’- Jesus.

Yeah- the man had some good points- the later Stoics would consider Heraclitus as the father of their movement.

And in the study of Philosophy- the Stoics- who had a good run from a few years before the Common Era- were overtaken in the 4th century [as the main influential philosophy of the time] by some new and lasting philosophy- started by a man named Jesus Christ- who his followers claimed rose from the dead.

Yeah- this New Way was called Christianity- and this philosophy has endured now for over 2 thousand years.

 SOCRATES

Socrates was born around 469-470 BCE.

He is famous for introducing a way of learning that engaged the students in a dialogue- the question would be put on the table- and thru rigorous debate- you would come to an understanding thru the process of questioning.

This is referred to as the Socratic Method.

Socrates came on the scene during the famous Spartan wars.

The other day I watched the movie 300- which depicts the battle between the city state of Athens against the city/state of Sparta.

As you know- the Athenians suffered a great defeat at the hands of the Spartans.

The Spartans were outmanned by the Athenians- but their motto was ‘come back with your shields- or on them’.

They were a true warrior nation- trained to fight from their youth- and this defeat sent the people of Athens into a time of disillusionment.

They questioned the power of their gods- and a sort of malaise fell over Athens after the defeat.

This was when Socrates entered the fray- when the people had many questions about life.

He was called the Gadfly of Athens- a title that would also be given to the 19th century Danish father of existentialism- Soren Kierkegaard.

They were called Gadfly’s- because they were like flies that would pester you- and elicit a response.

The leadership of Athens saw Socrates as one that was stirring up the youth of his day- and creating discontent among the populace.

He rejected the many god’s of the day- but did have a belief in a single deity- he- like the Christians 4 centuries later- would be accused of atheism- because of his rejection of multiple god’s.

He was sentenced to death in 399 BCE- and his form of execution was drinking Hemlock.

His most famous student- Plato- spoke with him before his death.

Many were surprised at how willingly Socrates faced his demise- and this willingness had a great impact on those who witnessed it.

Socrates never wrote anything- but most of what we do know about him comes from the writing of others- most notably from Plato’s Dialogues.

Plato wrote down what Socrates taught- In his writings we see Socrates engaging in this method with various people- thus the name of Plato’s works- Dialogues.

There is a debate about how much of what was written about him was actually true- Plato did add his own ideas into these debates- and the controversy about this is so strong that we actually have a name for it- the ‘Socratic Problem’.

During the time of the disillusionment of the Athenians- there were a group of philosophers known as the Sophists.

The word comes from Sophia- meaning wisdom.

Philosophy itself means The Love of Wisdom.

In our day the words Sophomore- Sophistry and Sophisticated are derived from this root word.

The Sophists were the original Pragmatists.

Pragmatism is a form of belief that says ‘do what works- regardless of the ethical implications’.

We will get to Pragmatism at the end of this whole series on Philosophy.

But for now- we see the division between what Socrates taught- and the Sophists.

Socrates did indeed teach a form of Ethics- which contrasted with the Sophists.

He said that the pursuit of virtue was better than the pursuit of wealth- much like the words of Jesus ‘what does it profit a man if he gain the world- and lose his soul’.

His most famous saying is ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’.

He emphasized the importance of mind over body- which inspired Plato’s philosophy of dividing reality into 2 separate realms- the world of senses and the world of ideas.

Socrates actually challenged the Democratic process- he believed it better for the wise men- the Philosopher Kings- to run the show.

Athens did have a form of Democracy at the time- and because of the rise of the Sophists- and the itinerant teachers- you had sort of an election process- much like in our day- where those who would attain office were those who spoke the best- and made the best public argument.

We elect judges and stuff in our day- and even presidents- not because they are the most capable- but because they ran the best campaign.

So- in a way I agree with Socrates- at times I think we need a better process of electing those to higher office- then the one we have now.

It’s important to note that even though we started this study with Thales- and in the study of Western philosophy it’s commonly understood to have started with Thales.

Yet- Socrates seems to be the Father of philosophy in many ways.

He probably has had the most influence in the field philosophy- and the 2 great philosophers that we’ll get to next come right out from the heels of Socrates [Plato and Aristotle].

Why is this important to note?

As we progress in this study- and get closer to the 19th/20th century philosophers- we will see a trend- away from the idea that there are actually any ethical values- moral virtues- or ‘right or wrong’.

These philosophers dabbled with the idea that values themselves are the cause of man’s problems [Freud].

So- keep in mind- one of the main streams of thought in the early stages of philosophy was that values were indeed the main thing- Socrates challenged the Sophists of his day- he said that moral virtue was very important- that to live life with the values of courage- honesty- self-denial- these were the things that made men good- noble.

The bible says ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ ‘those that seek the Lord understand all things’.

Christian tradition would agree with Socrates in many ways- Jesus showed us that the virtue of service to others- to love your fellow man- to honor God- that these were indeed the heart of the matter.

Socrates feared the loss of virtue in society- that if we simply lived for the present time- with no higher values [a form of hedonism] then the foundations of society will erode.

He also believed that it was good to question things- not to simply believe a thing for the sake of believing.

Over time- thru debate and the discourse of other people- he believed you would get to the truth.

The bible says ‘in the multitude of counselors there is safety’.

Yeah- as people have a conversation- as they dialogue- often times they themselves come up with the answer to the question.

The apostle Paul penned the letter to young Timothy- he said ‘preach the word- in doing this you will save yourself- and those that hear you’.

Yeah- when you engage- and even try and teach others- this will have an effect on you too- the actual act of engaging- of teaching- often brings more insight to the one doing the communicating- then the ones who hear.

Yeah- I like Socrates- he believed in what he taught- he drank the Hemlock- knowing full well that his life would pass- but he had belief- faith- that after death man would pass over into another realm- a much better one.

No- he was not ‘Christian’ in the traditional sense of the word- but he was about as close as you could get- for his time.

 PLATO

Plato was born in 427 BC- he was the most famous student of Socrates.

He is best known for his theory of Ideas/Forms.

He believed that the material world was an imperfect copy of the Idea world.

That is he believed that Ideas exist apart from the construct of the human mind- that they were the perfect forms of the things we see in the material realm.

He could also be referred to as a Realist- because he believed these Ideas actually existed [for real].  Where did he get this from?

As we study Philosophy- each one that comes down the line has been influenced in some way by those that preceded them.

There was a famous thinker- Pythagoras [his followers were the Pythagoreans] who taught a concept called the Transmigration of the Soul [a sort of Reincarnation].

They believed that the soul of man went thru various stages- and existed independently of the body.

In Greek thought the soul is immortal- it exists before the body.

In Christian teaching the Soul [mind- Spirit] comes into existence when God creates man [the bible says ‘and man BECAME a living soul’- referring to the creation of Adam].

The Greeks saw the soul as preexisting before the natural life.

In the mind of Plato- the body was a receptacle- in this life we recollect the knowledge that comes from the Idea world.

He ascribed Ontological status to ideas themselves.

In Philosophy there are 2 basic ways knowledge comes [we study this in Epistemology- an offshoot of Philosophy- which deals with how we know things].

A Priori knowledge is knowledge obtained independent of experience.

A Posteriori is knowledge obtained thru the senses- what we call Empirical evidence.

In Plato’s schema he believed that the knowledge that comes to us from the Formal world [ideas- forms] was A Priori knowledge- that the human mind recalls- and in the present material world- knowledge comes to us from the perfect idea world.

The Greeks believed that all matter was flawed- that the Body was an imperfect vessel- and after death we are released into the perfect world- and free from the material realm.

Christian Tradition does not hold to this view.

The Church teaches that the created world is good- not evil.

Among Christians there is some confusion about this- because the older versions of the bible [King James] seem to teach that matter [world, flesh] is evil.

Why?

Paul the apostle talks about no good thing being in The Flesh- he talks about the Carnal mind- the apostle John says ‘all that is in the World- the lust of the flesh- the pride of life- is not of the Father but is of the world’.

There are many references like this in the bible- but they are speaking about the sinful nature of man [the flesh] and not about the human body itself [For instance Paul says in Romans ‘present your BODIES as living sacrifices unto God- Holy and acceptable’ in Corinthians ‘your BODY is the temple of the Holy Spirit’- there are many references in scripture that speak of the Body as Holy.

When the bible says ‘satan is the god of this world’ it is not speaking of the earth- which God created- and calls GOOD- but it is speaking of the ‘world’ system- an age of wickedness.

So- at times Christians have confused this- and have held a sort of Dualistic view of matter- that is not the biblical view- but a Gnostic view- that all matter is evil.

Plato saw the unseen world of Ideas as the perfect- pure world.

He taught that in this life we obtain the knowledge of the pure- by reason of recollection- that these pure ideas come to us ‘are recalled’ in this life.

He is famous for founding the first Philosophical school- it was called The Academy- named after a man by the name of Academus.

The land was donated for the school- it was previously used as an Olive Grove- and in honor of the donation- Plato named the school after the donor.

This is why we use the phrase ‘The Groves of Academia’ today.

Plato was actually a nick name- he wrestled in Athens- in a sort of precursor to what would later become the Olympic games- and he was broad shouldered- that’s where his name comes from- Plato means broad shouldered.

So- to sum up- Plato believed that Forms [ideas] were eternal, the cause of all that is.

He believed we are born with innate ideas- these are not learned thru sense experience- but exist independently of the mind- and in this bodily life we retrieve [the body is a receptacle] these ideas.

Does the bible teach anything along these lines?

Not exactly.

Christians believe that God himself is infinite- without beginning or end.

That wisdom- ideas- ‘forms’ of things do indeed exist- prior to our own life.

But these ideas are not without a Mind- God is Spirit- and he is everywhere [Omnipresent] he knows all tings [Omniscient] - so- in a way- there are indeed ideas- forms- but they come from the ultimate Mind of God.

A good example would be the building of the Tabernacle- and later the Temple- under Moses and King David [his son Solomon actually built it].

God told Moses ‘see that you build it after the Pattern shown to thee in the mount’.

In the book of Hebrews we read that the earthly Tabernacle [Temple] was simply an image- a symbol- of heavenly realities.

That God himself had the ‘form’ in his mind- indeed- like Plato taught- the heavenly form is perfect- the earthly expression imperfect.

But these patterns- forms- ideas- are from the Mind of God- they are not Innate in the soul of man- nor does the soul of man exist before his birth.

In the past few months I have had several Christian friends tell me that they feel like they existed before this life- a type of reincarnation.

I explained to them that in the Christian faith we do not hold to this view.

But- the bible does tell us that God had a purpose for us- Predetermined- before the ‘foundation of the world’.

Meaning that yes- in the Mind of God- in a way- we did exist- but we did not have actual being [called Ontological status in the field of Philosophy] until we were created by God.

God’s purpose for us was already in the Mind of God before our birth.

The bible says that Christ is made unto us wisdom- we are not Receptacles in the sense that Plato taught.

But yes- in time God reveals to us this Hidden Wisdom- about his love and purpose for us.

And in this life we act out- we fulfil this eternal purpose.

Man [or woman] can never find true happiness- true meaning- until they tap into this purpose.

We were created by the hand of God- to bring glory and honor to him- and we in this life can ever find true fulfilment- until we make it back to God.

1Chronicles 28:10 Take heed now; for the LORD hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.

1Chronicles 28:11 Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat,

1Chronicles 28:12 And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things:

1Chronicles 28:19 All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.

Exodus 25:9 According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

Exodus 25:40 And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

Hebrews 8:5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Hebrews 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Hebrews 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Ecclesiastes 7:12 For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.

Ecclesiastes 7:19 Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city.

Ecclesiastes 7:25 I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:

Ecclesiastes 7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.

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 ARISTOTLE

Born in Northern Greece- in 384 BC.

The most famous student of Plato- attended Plato’s Academy for around 20 years.

His main disagreement with Plato was on his theory of Forms.

Plato believed that the ‘idea’ world contained the forms of all things we see in the physical realm.

Aristotle taught that substance itself was the main thing- that the forms of what we see in the natural realm come from matter itself.

He spoke about Potentiality and Actuality- that is the material things have in ‘seed’ form the final product.

The acorn has the Potential of becoming a tree- the fetus has the Potential of becoming a man- etc.

The form is already embedded in the thing itself- it does not exist in the ‘idea’ world of Plato.

Aristotle loved and admired his teacher- yet Plato had somewhat of a disdain for his most famous student.

Plato passed over Aristotle to head up the Academy- twice.

As things go- Aristotle went and started his own school- called the Lyceum.

Aristotle did not just teach Philosophy- but Biology- Logic- Ethics- Rhetoric.

Some refer to him as the first real scientist.

His development of the laws of Logic- Cause and Effect- play a key role in the Scientific Method till this day.

Aristotle taught that the main way we gain knowledge is thru sense perception and experiment.

As we study the natural order of things themselves- we gain understanding from them.

What we refer to as the Empirical method- knowledge gained thru the observation and experimentation of things.

He referred to God as the Final Cause- not the First Cause.

Why?

He believed in God [some debate this- Aristotle himself called him God in his work on Metaphysics] and called him the Prime Mover.

As I said before- a big thing with the early thinkers was the origin of Motion- who started the ball rolling- so to speak.

Aristotle credited the source of all motion to an ‘un- moved Mover’.

He gave the attributes of God to his Mover- said he had no beginning- was not material- an eternal and imperishable substance.

So- why the Final Cause?

He said God attracts all things to himself- so in his mind- motion started by attraction- not by a ‘push’ so to speak.

This is interesting indeed- in modern physics we see that the universe is undergoing a continual expansion- heading somewhere- of course we believe this somewhere is God himself- the source of all things.

Isaac Newton agreed with Aristotle on this point- he referred to it in his 3rd law of Physics.

The medieval Muslim thinkers called him ‘The First Teacher’- and Kant [who we will get to later in this study] credits him with the bulk of what we know today as the Laws of Logic.

Aristotle taught that the main activity of God was thought.

The bible says that thru Wisdom and Understanding God made things [‘Wisdom builds the house- Understanding establishes it- and thru Knowledge it’s rooms are filled with all pleasant and precious riches- Wisdom is profitable to direct- the words of the wise are like nails fastened by the masters of assemblies- as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation’- various bible verses found in Proverbs- Ecclesiastes and Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth] - in a way Aristotle was right.

One of his key contributions was the Syllogism- you start with a Logical argument- you engage in Deductive reasoning- and come to a Conclusion.

A famous example would be ‘All men are mortal- Plato is a man- Plato is mortal’.

Aristotle did not believe that something comes from nothing- a phrase that will come up a lot as we progress in this study is ‘ex nihilo nihil fit’- meaning Nothing comes from Nothing.

He was also what we refer to as a Teleolologist- he believed that there was design and purpose in the created order of things.

He saw design in the universe- world.

Many today embrace an idea that there is no purpose or design- that the design we see in the material world is by accident- and furthermore some say all that we see- CAME FROM NOTHING.

I can’t stress enough that this is simply not possible- I don’t say this from the Christian view point alone- but from a scientific one.

Science deals with the observation and testing of things- we look into the material world and come to certain conclusions based on what we see- observe.

One of the most fundamental observations that science SEES- is what I quoted above- NOTHING COMES FROM NOTHING.

That is- every effect has a cause.

This is important for our day- because many have capitulated to the view that all things CAME FROM CHANCE.

Not only is this statement illogical [chance is simply a word- this statement ascribes Ontological status to a word- which is impossible].

But it is scientifically not true.

Why?

Because science shows us that things do not ‘pop into existence’ without a cause- from nothing.

True science in no way contradicts belief in God- no- it backs it up.

Aristotle- as well as most of the great thinkers we shall cover- came to the conclusion that there had to be some immaterial thing [being] that was the cause of all other things.

Now- why did he argue for a PRIME MOVER?

Because he believed that the universe was eternal- if there ever came a time when science showed us that the universe had a beginning point- then the argument would be over.

The Theists [those that believe in God] would win.

Sure enough- in the 20th century that’s exactly what happened.

Today Physics teaches us that time- space- matter did indeed have a beginning point- what we refer to as the Big Bang Theory.

If the early thinkers had this knowledge- then the argument for a Prime Mover would be moot- because instead we would have a Prime Starter- see?

Aristotle is credited with writing the second greatest work on Ethics from the ancient period- called Ethics [the first one being Plato’s Republic].

He wrote on political theory- believed that Aristocracy [rule by the excellent] was the best form of government [sort of like Socrates Philosopher Kings].

Aristotle’s most famous student was Alexander the Great.

During Alexander’s conquests- he took a huge team of scientists with him- they collected all types of specimens from these conquests- and Alexander brought them back to Athens and they were used at the Lyceum for further study.

It has been said that this was the most expensive scientific enterprise up to the day of the modern space program.

He taught that the intellectual virtues can be taught directly- but the moral ones HAD TO BE LIVED FIRST.

The bible says ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom’.

I agree.

Proverbs 3:19 The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.

Proverbs 3:20 By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.

Unfinished study- will complete over time.

JOHN LOCKE- JESUS- AND MONEY.

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/5-22-15-john-locke-political-theory-and-jesus.zip 

 Today’s video [and post] is one of those ‘spur of the moment’ ones-

I made the video/post  yesterday- ‘off the cuff’-

I’m at the ranch as I write- and have no WiFi out here- or I’d post it now- I also don’t have my on-line concordance- so I’ll try and remember exactly where some of the verses are and add them in [I do have my on-line bible saved to the drive!]

This video/post is in keeping with some of the stuff I’ve been recently teaching.

As Christians- we often look for the things we are supposed to do.

Which is fine- but what I have learned in my experience of doing ministry for many years- is many Pastors/ministers- learn a certain pattern/form- early on-

And as well-meaning as these men are- they often unconsciously do not realize they are violating scripture in their efforts to do the right thing.

When people feel God has called them ‘to preach’ [ called into ministry] most of the times they are taught that this means ‘starting a local church’.

In the American mindset- this means starting a nonprofit 501 c3- either renting or building some type of structure to meet in-

And then teaching a form of giving- usually called ‘the tithe’ [meaning 10 percent]-

And then saying ‘the local church is this place/501c3- the storehouse- and you will be cursed if you do not tithe to the storehouse’.

And without realizing it- in the more extreme cases- actually teaching people that they will fall under the curse of God- if they do not put 10% of their income into the ‘local church’.

This verse from Malachi is often used- Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

Malachi 3:9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

And this basic idea of ‘church government’ is then propagated thru out the land.

I’ve discussed this recently- and for these short videos- I just want to note that the New Testament churches we read about in the bible- are talking about communities of believers living in your city/area.

The early Christians met in homes- and later on in church buildings-

I am not against any of these formats- but we need to be careful that we are not unconsciously telling people they will be under the curse of God if they do not ‘tithe to the storehouse’ [then applying the ‘storehouse’ to the building- and it’s 501c3 status- as- quote ‘the local church’].

The tithe was actually an income tax for the nation of Israel in the Old Testament- and it entailed more than simply putting goods/money into an ‘offering’ plate-

No- it was a system that supported 3 main things in the Jewish economy-

The Priests [who were forbidden to own property].

The poor [meeting their needs].

And for banquets-

So- in short- the churches we read about in the bible were communities of people who supported one another- and this included- yes- financial support for the minsters too-

That’s all ok-

But the balance about money in the New Testament is it is a tool to be used to help others-

And is never something we should seek after- sort of like ‘God has called me to become rich so I can fund ministries’ type thing. No- that ‘calling’ would violate many actual teachings in the bible- that warn against seeking to be rich- even for noble causes-

I’ve copied some of those verses the last few days-

So- as we continue to teach thru the bible in the next year- look at the relationship we see in these New Testament letters between giving and receiving-

How the early Christians viewed their roles in the church-

How the ministers related to the people-

The bible does give us guidelines about all of this- it actually makes it quite clear-

Ok- enjoy the video/post- talk to you soon.

1To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

Acts 20:17 And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.

Acts 20:18 And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,

Acts 20:19 Serving the LORD with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:

Acts 20:20 And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,

Acts 20:21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 20:22 And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:

Acts 20:23 Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.

Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Acts 20:25 And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.

Acts 20:26 Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.

Acts 20:27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

Acts 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Acts 20:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

Acts 20:30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

Acts 20:31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

Acts 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

Acts 20:33 I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel.

Acts 20:34 Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.

Acts 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Acts 20:36 And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.

Acts 20:37 And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him,

Acts 20:38 Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.

 Understand here- that Paul is speaking to the leaders of the church- and he told them that for the 3 years he was with them he worked- supported himself- and those that were with him.

He then says he did this for an example- to show them [the leaders] that they too are not in ministry for the people to support them-

But for the benefit of the people-

We do read later in the writings of Paul that the Christians should meet the needs of their spiritual leaders- that’s ok.

But here he is showing them- leaders- that ministry is not about collecting a bunch of money for ‘ministry projects’.

It’s giving your life for others.

1Corinthians 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.

1Corinthians 16:2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

1Corinthians 16:3 And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem.

1Corinthians 16:4 And if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with me.

 This is also a common verse to teach tithing-

Often times when ministers take offerings- they clap- do a sort of celebration-

But here Paul is saying ‘when I get there- I don't want to waste time making a big thing out of the offering- so take it up before I get there’.

This money was simply used as a charitable donation for the poor Christians living at Jerusalem- it was in no way a ‘tithe’ and it was not money for Paul.

1Corinthians 9:1 Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?

1Corinthians 9:2 If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.

1Corinthians 9:3 Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,

1Corinthians 9:4 Have we not power to eat and to drink?

1Corinthians 9:5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

1Corinthians 9:6 Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?

1Corinthians 9:7 Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

1Corinthians 9:8 Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?

1Corinthians 9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?

1Corinthians 9:10 Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

1Corinthians 9:11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

1Corinthians 9:12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

1Corinthians 9:13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

1Corinthians 9:14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

1Corinthians 9:15 But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.

1Corinthians 9:16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!

1Corinthians 9:17 For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.

1Corinthians 9:18 What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.

Here Paul clearly teaches them that they should support their leaders- yet he then goes on to say he himself would not use ‘this right’-

And he used strong language- making it sound like he would be charging them for his services- which- to him- would be wrong.

I could give more examples- but what I want you to see is we never see a type of ‘tithe or you will be cursed’ mindset when the New Testament talks about giving.

The Storehouse verse has nothing to do with the Ecclesia- it was a room in the temple- not a spiritual community of people.

John 13:1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

John 13:2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;

John 13:3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;

John 13:4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

John 13:5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

John 13:6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

John 13:7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.

John 13:8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

John 13:9 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

John 13:10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

John 13:11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.

John 13:12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?

John 13:13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.

John 13:14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.

John 13:15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

John 13:16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

John 13:17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

JOHN LOCKE-

Locke taught that each man has individual rights- and he empowers government- an elected designated body- to have rule-

Yet- that government exists solely for the benefit of the people- and when/if that government ‘forgets’ this- the people have a right/duty to revolt.

Locke’s ideas were formed at a time when his own government experienced a sort of revolution [1600’s- England].

The people revolted against monarchy- and replaced it with a sort of Democratic Parliament-

Referred to as the bloodless revolution or the glorious revolution.

The king [or today- queen] would still play a role- like a figurehead- but the power was in the people- willingly given over to a Parliament.

The political ideas of Locke influenced our founding fathers- and our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are in parts almost word for word taken from the writings of Locke.

Locke believed in natural law- that morality was indeed a universal reality [some scholars/thinkers will say that Locke does not fully embrace the Christian concept of natural/moral law].

He taught that  knowledge comes from man’s experience- the things he interacts with thru the 5 senses.

That man is not born with innate ideas [like the early Greek thinkers said] but his mind is a Tabula Rasa- or blank slate at birth.

This is an Empirical understanding of knowledge.

Locke also believed in the concept of the separation of church and state- this idea was not unique to our founding fathers- no- they got it right out of the writings of Locke [his parents were Puritans- and they obviously influenced their son].

Locke’s political views were-

Individualistic-

Egalitarian-

Contractual [social compact]-

These ideas differed from the early Greek thinkers [especially Aristotle] who held to a naturalistic view- meaning that nature itself ‘intended’ for certain individuals to have rule over others [the smarter should have rule over the ‘less smart’- and of course Aristotle saw himself in the more nobler crowd!]

Locke also believed in religious toleration- a view held by most in the Western world today.

He saw the Right to private property- as a natural right.

He believed that denial of the existence of God would lead to anarchy in the long run.

He believed that the cosmological argument for the existence of God was valid [called teleology].

DIOGENES-

I think I mentioned him on today’s video [I am writing this before I review the video and add the bullet points].

In the study of philosophy- he is not known for deep thought- or new ideas.

He lived in the 5th century B.C. - died in the 4th in the biblical city of Corinth.

Diogenes believed in ‘living with less’- he was known to have slept in a ceramic pot- he lived and ate on the streets- and was basically like many of my homeless friends.

Yet- he felt in doing this he was a sort of ‘prophetic’ sign to the world around him.

He is believed to be the first to refer to himself as a ‘cosmopolitan’- meaning a man of the world- and not identifying with any one city.

He was born at Sinope- [Modern day Turkey] traveled to Athens- the main center of wisdom/philosophy.

Attended the lectures of Plato- and interrupted them

He disputed Plato’s interpretation of his teacher- Socrates.

And had a memorable encounter with Alexander the Great.

The story goes [there are a few versions of it- maybe more along the line of myth] that Alexander wanted to meet with Diogenes- and he heard he was in town [Corinth] so Alexander went to meet him.

Upon arriving at the spot- he greeted Alexander and told him he would fulfill any request that the Cynic asked.

Diogenes replied ‘Move over- you’re standing in my sun light’.

It is said that as Alexander left- and made the statement ‘If I were not Alexander- I would be Diogenes’.

How true- well we will never know for sure.

He did live at a time- and in a place- where the famous philosophers would come from.

He believed rejecting wealth- and the comforts of life- were a statement against the society of his day.

He purposefully challenged the ‘normal’ way of life- by being different- and at times- vulgar.

It is said that he carried a cup- for drinking.

And he saw a young boy one day- drinking from the brook with his hands.

He then threw away the cup- realizing that ‘the god’s’ had given to men the basic things to survive- and he really did not need all the material things of life.

Like I said at the top - he is not known for his great thinking ability- but he was respected by the stoics-

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 PROTESTANT REFORMATION- LUTHER [Updated- 11-17]

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/11/03/sunday-sermon-13/ 

Okay- let’s start a brief overview of some church history. Over the next few weeks I want to hit on the 16th century Protestant reformation and try and cover some of the key figures of the movement.

Martin Luther- the German reformer who had the most influence in the movement was born and raised in Germany.

As a boy his parents were peasant farmers and eventually his dad became a miner and became a very successful businessman- he would go on and eventually own 6 foundries.

He sent his son to law school- and young Luther excelled. At the age of 21 he accomplished more than many of his peers. One day on his way home from the university a thunderstorm broke out and Luther was almost struck by a bolt of lightning.

In fear he cried out to Saint Ann [the mother of Mary] and said ‘Saint Ann- if you save me I will become a monk’ [Ann was the patron Saint for miners- thus Luther was familiar with her].

He was spared and off to the monastery he went. Luther eventually became an ordained priest and even though his dad initially was upset that his son became a priest- yet he was proud of his boy later on.

Luther would eventually make a Pilgrimage to Rome- on foot [a few month walk from Germany to Rome!] and what he saw devastated him. Rome- and the Vatican- were in bad shape. Many of the priests lived in open sin- and the city that he saw as his headquarters for the faith- well it was a mess.

Luther made the famous penitent walk/crawl up the stairs of the Lateran church [this church was the most famous church before the construction of St. Peters. The actual stairs of the church are the same stairs that Christ walked up during his trial under Pontius Pilate. Yes- you hear many ‘stories’ while studying church history- things like the relics or left over pieces of the Cross- well these stories are usually fake. But the stairs of the Lateran church are indeed the same stairs that Christ walked on- the early ‘church’ builders dismantled the stairs at Pilate’s court in Jerusalem and installed them at this church building in Rome].

When Luther got to the top of the stairs- it is reported that he questioned the faith- he had a crisis of faith and thought that maybe the whole thing was a sham.

Okay- as we do a few more posts over the coming weeks- I want you guys to see that the main players of the Reformation were sincere Catholic men who had many questions about what they saw as corrupt in their own church. These men did not want to start a breakaway church- they simply wanted to reform the church they loved.

Keep in mind that Luther excelled during his legal studies- he had a keen legal mind- this will be important later on when we see the debates he has with Rome over the doctrine of Justification by faith- the letters of the apostle Paul [Romans- Galatians] use lots of legal language- and his early education will help him in these debates.

Okay- that’s it for today. Maybe do a Google search on Luther and familiarize yourself a little with the history.

The ‘readings’ for this week are 2nd Samuel 6-7 and Psalms 89. See what they have in common.

[1768] LUTHER- THE TOWER EXPERIENCE

Let’s start with some church history. In the last post I covered the early years of Martin Luther- probably the most significant figure of the Protestant Reformation.

Luther studied for the priesthood in Erfurt, Germany. He would eventually wind up in Wittenberg- one of the major university cities of the Reformation. Wittenberg was actually a small insignificant town- but the political leader over the region- Frederick the Wise- sought to put it on the map.

He wanted to turn Wittenberg into a German ‘Rome’. He wanted it to become a major Pilgrimage city where Christians would see Wittenberg as a destination- just like they saw Rome.

So Frederick embarked on this plan and he searched thru all the Catholic learning centers of the time and finally recruited 3 top scholars to teach out of the university at Wittenberg- Luther was one of the 3.

Just as a side note- Frederick would succeed at making Wittenberg a major catholic center. He would eventually obtain over 19,000 Relics for the Cathedral church there [Relics were used in the ancient system of buying indulgences and making special pilgrimage trips to important Churches. If the church/city that your making the Pilgrimage to has a lot of Relics- bones or other famous material objects from church history- then the value of the Pilgrimage was high. In theory Frederick collected so many that if you added up all the ‘time off’ from Purgatory- you would get 1 million, 900 thousand years off! Some of the famous relics at Wittenberg were a hair from the beard of Jesus- straw from the manger Jesus was born in- and even a branch from the famous burning bush of Moses! As you can see- there was a lot of commercializing going on- even back then].

When Luther arrived in Wittenberg- he made a name for himself as a top scholar. Many protestants- who revere Luther- usually are not aware that he was a master Linguist [sort of like Rick Perry!]

Yes Luther mastered language- and he showed it in his teaching on the book of Psalms.

In 1515 he began his famous study on the book of Romans and as he went thru the very first chapter- something shook him. He came across the passage that says the Just shall live by faith. This verse first appears in the O.T. book of Habakkuk- and is quoted 3 more times in the N.T.

Luther was very aware of the concept of the righteousness of God- he struggled for many years trying to reconcile his own sinful nature with Gods holiness- but he never really ‘saw’ the biblical concept of righteousness as a free gift that God ‘imputes’ to the sinner.

Yes- for the 1st time in Luther’s life- after his years training for the priesthood- the pilgrimage he made to Rome- the thousands of hours he spent confessing his sins while a monk in Erfurt- he never really understood that the righteousness of God was a free gift given to those who have faith.

It was a giant weight lifted from his shoulders- Luther did not need to try any more to live up to the standards of God- in  a way that would earn for him forgiveness- but he would simply believe- and the righteousness of God would be counted to him as a gift.

Luther would go on to call this an Alien Righteousness- that is it is not found within the person who tries to do all the church works he can- or buying all the indulgences- or any other of the many religious actions he was practicing- but this free gift of being right with God- it came to those who had faith- the Just shall live by Faith- this was indeed good news for the scholar.

As time went on- Germany would get embroiled in the political machinations of the day- Luther’s top political cover was Frederick the Wise- hardly a Protestant Reformer! He spent lots of time trying to make Wittenberg the major Catholic center in Germany.

But at the time there was a political fight raging between Rome and some of the other nation/states. There was a figure head office called the Holy Roman Emperor. This office was really in name only- but it rose up during the first Millennium of Christian history and sought to replace the influence that Rome was losing.

So you had France, Spain and England all vying for the title. Eventually it would go to King Charles of Spain- but the Pope- who played a major role in nominating the person- he did not want any of these top 3 to get the position. Henry the Eighth was the king of England at the time- and these ‘3 kings’ were sort of in competition with Rome- so the Pope tried to get Fredrick the Wise to throw his hat into the ring.

Frederick just happened to be one of the Electors of this position.

His actual title was The Elector of Saxony.

So Fredrick had lots of influence- and as Rome would eventually but heads with the stubborn bull of Wittenberg [Luther] Frederick would become the major protector of Luther.

Okay- I think we’ll stop here for today. The experience that Luther had- the enlightenment that came to him while teaching the book of Romans- this is often called The Tower experience of Luther- it took place in the year 1515.

[1770] TREASURY OF MERIT

Let’s pick up where we left off 2 posts back. We were talking about Martin Luther and the events that led up to the Protestant Reformation.

In order to understand the key act that caused the protest- we will have to teach some Catholic history/doctrine.

In the 16th century Pope Julius began the effort to build St. Peters basilica in Rome. He got as far as laying the foundation and died. Pope Leo the 10th would pick up after him.

The church needed to raise money for the project- and the German prince- Albert- would play a major role.

It should be noted that both Catholic and Protestant scholars agree that the Popes of the day were pretty corrupt. They came from what we call the Medici line of Popes.

If you remember last month I wrote a post on the Renaissance- I talked about the Medici family and how they played a major role in supporting the Renaissance that took place in the 13th century in Florence Italy that would spread to the region.

Well this very influential family also played a big role in who would get top positions in the church.

At the time of Luther and prince Albert- if you had the right connections and the money- you could literally buy a position in the church.

Albert already held 2 Bishop seats- and there was an opening for an Archbishops seat in Mainz [Germany] and he wanted that one too.

It should be noted that official Canon law [church law] said you could only hold one seat at a time- Albert was bidding on his 3rd one! And he was too young for all of them.

So even the Pope and the officials held little respect for what the church actually taught at the time.

So Albert opens up negotiations with Leo- and the bidding starts AT 12,000 Duckets [money] Albert counters with 7,000- and they agree on 10,000. How did they justify the numbers? 12- The number of Apostles. 7- The 7 deadly sins. 10- The 10 commandments.

Yes- the church was pretty corrupt at the time.

So Albert works out a plan with Leo- he will borrow the money from the German banks- and pay the banks off by the Pope giving Albert the right to sell Indulgences.

What’s an Indulgence?

Okay- this is where it gets tricky.

The ancient church taught a system called The Treasury of Merit. This was a sort of spiritual bank account that ‘stored up’ the good deeds of others over the years.

You had the good deeds of Jesus at the top- but you also had Mary and Joseph- the 12 Apostles- and other various saints thru out time.

The way the ‘bank’ worked was you could tap into the account by getting a Papal indulgence- a sort of I.O.U. that had the Popes guarantee that it would get so much time out of Purgatory for a loved one.

The actual sacrament that accesses the account is called Penance [confession].

When a penitent does penance- he confesses his sin to the priest- and he is absolved by the authority of the church that the priest has. The priest usually tells the person ‘say so many Hail Mary’s- Our Father’s’ and that’s a form of penance.

One of the other things the church practiced was called Alms Deeds. This term is found in the bible and it means giving your money to the poor- it is a noble act that Jesus himself taught.

In theory- part of the sacrament of penance was tied into Alms Deeds- you can access the account thru the practice of giving to the poor- which also meant giving to the church that helps the poor- and in the hands of the Medici line of Popes- meant outright giving money to the Pope.

So now you see how the abuse worked its way into the pockets of the faithful.

Albert now had the permission from Leo to sell these indulgences in Germany- and he would pick a certain corrupt priest to sell them in a place called Saxony- the region where Luther operated out of.

It should be noted that the Catholic Church never taught the crass act of ‘buying your way out of Purgatory’. The practice of including giving money as a part of the sacrament of penance was tied into the biblical principle of giving to the poor- a good thing.

But Tetzel and others abused the official meaning of the indulgence- and did make it sound like you could by your way out of Purgatory [in theory- a loved one might be in Purgatory for so many years- and through the indulgence you are actually getting time off for them- because the good deeds of others are now applied to the account].

The money Albert would raise- half would go to Rome for the building of St. peters- and half would go to pay off the banks in Germany- it was a sad system- and a sad time for the church as a whole.

It would be wrong to judge the entire church at the time as being corrupt- you did have many sincere Priests and Catholic men and women who saw the abuses and did not take part in them.

But there was corruption at the top- and this would eventually lead to the breakup of the church- and the launching of what we now call the Protestant Movement.

As a side note- it should be said that many Catholics and Protestants are not aware of the whole treasury of merit system- and the church never officially changed her position on the doctrine.

There were 3 Church councils since the time [Trent- 1500’s, Vatican 1- 1800’s and Vatican 2- 1962-65]. The Treasury of Merit never came up for change.

Obviously Protestants don’t believe in Purgatory- and it’s not my purpose in these posts to change Catholics into Protestants or vice versa- but to give all sides a clear view of the issues that divided us- and to try and be honest- and respectful during the process.

Does the bible teach anything like a Treasury of Merit? Well actually it does. The bible teaches that the righteousness of Christ is the treasury that people can access- by faith- and become righteous in the sight if God.

The idea- applied to Christ- is good.

But in the hands of the Medici Popes- and the ambitious prince of Germany- it would lead to disaster.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com 

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John

[1773] LUTHER CLASHES WITH ROME

Let’s do another post on the Protestant Reformation. I’ll probably only do a few more before I transition into another study.

By the way- all the studies I do thru out the year are posted in the February posts of the following year.

Okay- last we left off Luther was just beginning to butt heads with the church [Tetzel] over the abuse of the sale of indulgences that was going on in Germany.

In a previous post I mentioned how the priest- Tetzel- was selling these ‘get out of Purgatory’ type coupons in the area where Luther operated out- Saxony.

Actually- Tetzel never entered Saxony itself- but was selling these out of a bordering city- and many of Luther’s students/parishioners were being hoodwinked into spending their money to rescue a loved one out of Purgatory.

Tetzel is known for a jingle he started in connection with the sale of the indulgence- it goes ‘as soon as a coin in the coffer rings- a soul in Purgatory springs’- ouch!

Like I said before- the church never taught this- they did teach the Treasury of Merit [previous post] but the way Tetzel used it was a real abuse of the teaching of the church at the time.

Now- Luther responds to the abuse by writing the famous 95 thesis. This is the act that is often associated with the launching of the Reformation- the act that got the ball rolling.

The 95 thesis were simply 95 questions challenging the whole practice of the sale of indulgences- there was no mention of the doctrine of Justification by Faith- which will become the trumpet sound that springs out of the Protestant Reformation.

Luther takes these questions- written in Latin- and nails them to the university church door at Wittenberg. Sometimes while reading church history this ‘nailing to the door’ is seen as a sort of vandalism - you know- ‘he nailed them to the door!’

In actuality Luther was simply using the system of the day that one scholar would use in order to bring up an official point of contention with the church- Luther wrote the Thesis in Latin- which was the scholars language- not the language of the common man.

But Luther’s students quickly translated the Thesis into the vernacular [German] and it was said that in 2 weeks the paper made it into every village of Germany.

The challenge was a spark in the lives of many Christians who also believed the church was off track and that someone needed to rebuke her- and they picked Luther as the man for the job.

Now- the Catholic church wanted Luther to go to Rome and discuss the situation there- Luther’s friends warned him not to go- so they agreed to meet- a few times- in Germany.

The first meeting was in 1518 at Heidelberg- Luther actually gave a great defense of his argument and convinced some other top Catholic scholars that he was right [as a side note- the church had already scheduled this meeting because of a controversy that rose up between the Augustinian order of monks and the Dominicans. They were debating over which philosophy was more consistent with church teaching- Nominalism or Realism- for those of you who have read the posts this past year- I taught this when doing our posts on philosophy].

One man- Martin Bucer- wrote a stirring account of Luther- Bucer would later influence another young Swiss priest with  Reformation teachings- his name is John Calvin.

As a side not Calvin will become one of the 3 big heavy hitters of the 16th century Reformation [Ulrich Zwingli is the 3rd].

Luther will meet again in Augsburg- and debate the leading Catholic scholar of the day- Cardinal Cajetan.

Then he goes to the city of Leipzig- and debates the leading German scholar- Johann Eck.

And his last meeting with the church will be at the famous Diet of Worms [pronounced- Vurmtz] and it will be here that Luther makes his last stand and officially will break with the church and launch the Protestant Reformation.

It should be noted that Luther held what we call a High Church position for most of this time- he still saw the church at Rome- and the Pope- as a legitimate expression of true Christianity- his beef was what he saw as an abuse of the system- by the priest Tetzel.

As time progressed- the other beliefs of Luther- founded upon the bible- did come into contention with Rome.

The main disagreement eventually became the teaching in the bible called Justification by faith. I have written a study on the topic on the blog- I have also written a bible study on the book of Romans and Galatians.

For those of you who can- try and read Romans chapters 2-4 and Galatians 2-3- these are the key chapters that cover the teaching.

Down the road I will cover the official teaching of both the Protestants and the Catholics on the doctrine of justification- the Catholic Council of Trent- referred to as the Counter Reformation- spells out the official teaching of Rome- and there are a few papers put out by the Reformers that explain their belief.

Since the 16th century Reformation there have been efforts made by Protestants and Catholics to bridge the gap as much as possible- to try to come to some common language since the historic split.

I like some of the efforts that have been made- and recently both groups put out a statement that jointly said we all believe that we are saved by Gods grace thru Christ- that’s good.

But as we get into some of the actual discussion- you will see the points at which the 2 sides disagreed- and the main one was on the act- the actual thing that happens- when a person is declared just- the Reformers said it takes place when a person has faith- believes- the Catholic church said it takes place at baptism- water baptism.

This- as well as a few other things- will be a defining distinction between the 2.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com 

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John

1775- WHAT DID HE SAY?

Let’s do a little review today. I know the history posts go a little long sometimes- and many Christians do not see the value in studying church history.

But I have found over the years that a lot of independent type churches- good men- good people- but cut off from the broader church- well these churches have a tendency to get off in a rut- a particular doctrine or style of teaching- and after a while it becomes impossible to get these good church folk back on the balanced course.

A few examples. Many years ago- as a young Pastor- I had lots of good Pastor friends who too were doing their best to do what they felt God wanted.

At the time- I began having difficulty with many of the most popular interpretations of the bible that these good men were using.

After a while I realized that some of the stuff was so off course- that if they didn’t make some major course corrections at the time- that they were going  to end up spending their entire Pastorate teaching stuff that is out right false.

I have talked a lot about this over the years- and the examples are too numerous to cover them all- but a good example is the ‘Camel going thru the eye of a Needle’ verse.

One time Jesus and his men were going thru town and a young  rich guy asks Jesus what he must do to be saved.

A pretty straight forward question- right to the point.

Jesus tells the guy to keep the law- the guy asks which ones.

Ah- now you’re digging yourself in brother.

So Jesus says to love God and his neighbor- these are the top ones.

He asks ‘and who is my neighbor’?

Jesus goes on and gives an explanation- and he also tells the guy to go and sell all he has and give it to the poor- and follow him.

The guy goes away sad  because he was rich.

Then Jesus says ‘it’s harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a Camel to go thru the Eye of a Needle’.

What?

The disciples [I think Peter?] say ‘then who can be saved’?

Jesus says with men it is impossible- but not with God- with God all things are possible.

[just a quick side note- I haven’t read all these stories in a while- trust me- they are all in the bible- but I might have mixed a few together- but the main point stays the same]

Okay- in context- what could Jesus be saying about the camel and the needle?

It sure seems like he’s using a figure of speech  that would mean ‘look- the guy is too attached to his money to fully give himself over to being a follower of me- maybe down the road he will change- but he’s not ready yet’.

Seems reasonable to me- don’t you think?

But wait- in the group of pastors/teachers that were popular at the time- one of the main teachings was how to get rich- and they saw financial increase as the main thing- I mean that’s what they focused on  all the time.

So what do you do with verses like these?

You simply change them- you make them say what you want.

So the ‘true’ explanation for the Camel and the Needle became ‘the Eye of the Needle is the name of a low passage way thru the wall into the city- and the merchants- if they have lots of stuff- well the Camel has to stoop low to get thru’.

Aha- so what seems to mean ‘rich folk will have a hard time making the kingdom’ really means something else- as a matter of fact- it means the opposite- because the Camels that have to ‘scooch’ belong to the owners who have a lot of goods- thus the Camel has to get low.

Okay- maybe as rank amateurs this stuff was not the unpardonable sin- but many of these men are still teaching this type of stuff- and this one example is the tip of the iceberg- I could go on for a long time quoting all them but that’s not the point for now.

The main point is- if Christians separate themselves from the broader church- not just talking about ‘going to church’ but talking about the broad understanding that the people of God have- the books and teachings of those who have gone before us- not just one small group- but the whole community- then we will avoid these kinds of pitfalls.

As we do a few more posts in the coming weeks on church history- we will see this was one of the things restored by the Protestants Reformers during the 16th century.

Luther restored what’s referred to as the Literal Sense- that when you read the bible- you should be able to take it at face value- as much as possible.

Sure- you also want to ‘hear God’ speak in a personal way- but if what your hearing is the exact opposite of what the text is saying- well then we do have a problem.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com 

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John

1782- PROTESTANT REFORMATION CONCLUSION

Today let’s finish up the study on the Protestant Reformation. We left off on Luther disputing with the church over the doctrine of how a person becomes just in the sight of God- is it by works or faith?

Now- to the surprise of many Protestants [and Catholics!] both sides agreed that a person cannot be justified by works.

Yes- the Catholic Church rejected what was known as Pelagianism. In the early centuries of the church there was a Catholic priest- named Pelagius- who taught that people had the ability within themselves to obey Gods law and become saved that way.

He rejected the doctrine of original sin and another famous bishop- Saint Augustine- would refute Pelagius and teach salvation comes by the Grace of God.  The official Catholic position was to reject Pelagius and accept Augustine.

Okay- then where’s the difference?

The church council that spells it out is the Council of Trent [named after the Italian city where the council took place in the 1500’s- Trento].

This council is often referred to as the Counter Reformation. The church rejected the Protestant line- but also acknowledged the need for reform and made some changes.

This is the council where the church rejects Pelagianism- and also says the position of Luther [Justification by Faith ALONE] was flawed.

The church appealed to the New Testament letter of Saint James- where James uses an example from the life of Abraham [found in Genesis 22] where Abraham obeys God and is willing to sacrifice his son Isaac on an altar.

Of course this never happens- God was simply testing Abraham- but James says this act of obedience justified him in Gods sight.

James says ‘see how a man is justified by works- and not by faith ALONE’.

The argument from Rome was Faith played THE major role in justification- but was not sufficient by itself- there had to be righteous works eventually associated with it in order for God to say ‘you are just’ [saved].

Luther disagreed and said God justified Abraham before he had good works- we find this in Genesis 15. God says to Abraham ‘look- count all the stars- so shall your offspring be’ and Walla- the bible also says Abraham was justified in God's eyes the moment he believed the promise.

Who’s right?

Actually they both are.

I have taught this a few times over the years- and it would take too much time to re-do right now.

But I believe James and Paul [the 2 who debate this in the bible] are simply looking at different aspects of salvation/justification.

Paul emphasized faith- and James showed us how true faith always has works with it.

When you read the statements that came out from the council of Trent- some of them do seem to indicate that both sides might have been talking past each other at some points.

In the heat of the day they were too quick to condemn the other side- without really trying hard to achieve unity [like politics!].

The 6th session of Trent was the one where the church dealt with justification [how we become saved in Gods sight].

Rome made a distinction between mortal and Venial sin in the council- the church said that Baptism is the INSTRUMENTAL CAUSE of justification. Yet faith is the Root- Foundation and Initial act that justifies.

Rome also taught that Mortal sin kills the grace in the soul that brings justification- and when a person commits a mortal sin- they need the ‘2nd plank of justification’ in order to be brought back into a state of Grace.

This 2nd Plank is the Sacrament of Penance [confession]. Catholic Moral Theologians use an example to show the difference between Mortal and Venial sin.

Drinking- if you take a drink [alcohol] not a sin.  If you get tipsy- Venial- and if you get flat drunk- mortal.

This is a true teaching by the way- not making this up.

Catholic scholars are not in total agreement on all the Mortal/Venial sins.

Some teach that missing Mass on Sunday is a Mortal sin.

I just threw this in to show you the debates that take place.

The teachings from Trent are referred to as Tridentine.

The Protestants [early on] rejected the belief that a person can lose Gods grace once he has it- later on the Protestants would divide- severely- over this teaching- Predestination and the Perseverance of the Saints.

But early on all the major Reformers did indeed teach this.

Luther believed in the doctrine of Predestination just as much- if not more- than John Calvin.

But sometimes in these history shows they get this wrong and say Luther and Calvin disagreed on it- that’s a common mistake that you hear every so often.

Luther actually wrote a book dedicated to the subject [The Bondage of the Will] Calvin never wrote a book solely on the subject.

Okay- as we end this brief study of the Protestant Reformation- you could also call it a primer on Catholic doctrine [short one].

Why is it important that we study this?

In John chapter 17 Jesus said that he desired unity for all of Gods people- and many of these divisions- which date back 500 years- are commonly misunderstood on both sides.

It is common in our day to run across an ex Catholic who might say ‘you know- I left the church because I don’t believe I need to confess to a priest’ or ‘the Catholic church teaches you are saved by works’.

The original Reformers did not have a problem with confession- the Lutherans carried the practice over into their communion.

And like I just showed you- the Catholic church rejected the doctrine of being saved ‘by works’ [Pelagianism] and simply emphasized the teaching found in the bible- the book of James- and focused more on James than Paul [who the protestants focus on].

So yes- there are still differences- but if we are not informed- then it makes it harder to strive for unity- and at the end of the day God does desire unity for all his people.

The other day I quoted the great Civil rights leader- MLK. In one of his famous speeches that’s played when we celebrate his life- you hear Martin say that not only was he seeking unity among the races- but also in the church.

He said he wanted to see Catholics and Protestants- as well as Blacks and Whites- sit down together- he referred to us all as Gods kids.

I think we should strive to achieve the desire of Martin- and Jesus.

Amen.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com 

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John

'HOUSE OF PRAYER, OR DEN OF THIEVES'

a critical look at the modern prosperity gospel.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 ‘YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON’

CHAPTER 2 ‘TWISTING THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER’

CHAPTER 3 ‘WHAT IS THE ABRAHAMIC BLESSING ?’

CHAPTER 4 ‘WHAT DID JAMES SAY ?’

CHAPTER 5 ‘WHOSE MINISTRY, JESUS OR OURS ?’

CHAPTER 6 ‘1 TIMOTHY 6’

CHAPTER 7 ‘WERE JESUS AND THE DISCIPLES RICH ?’

CHAPTER 8 ‘COVENANT THEOLOGY’

CHAPTER 9 ‘SOWING INTO GOOD SOIL’

CHAPTER 10 ‘IS THERE HOPE FOR FALSE PROPHETS ?’

INTRODUCTION

It all started a few years back when I was regularly listening to certain ministries who taught the prosperity gospel. Over the years I subscribed to a few of these ministry magazines and truly enjoyed their teaching, but every now and then while reading through the bible I would come across certain passages of scripture that seemed to contradict the themes of the prosperity movement. I also found it strange the way they interpreted certain passages of scripture, it was almost as if when they were done explaining them, that these passages meant the exact opposite of what they were plainly teaching.

During this season of learning, while the Lord was dealing with me about these various doctrines, I would find myself at times saying 'something needs to be done about the extreme teaching coming from this camp'. I would also deal with some of the unbalanced teaching through the small avenues of influence I had through a local radio program and various speaking opportunities. I would even go through stages where I was so upset over some of the more extreme elements of this teaching, that I would avoid dealing with it at all because of the emotional baggage that comes with having to disagree with a brother in Christ.

Then why write this book? Each time I would determine to drop the whole matter and never deal with this issue again, something would happen, or be said on Christian television or radio, or be written in a new book, that was so off base that I would ask the Lord again if He wanted me to do more in bringing about a more balanced view of biblical prosperity. The most recent incident was while watching Christian TV one night, the preacher who was speaking is a well-known prosperity preacher. Before he preached he invited another prosperity preacher to share a 'special' revelatory word the Lord had given him, as the preacher came to the pulpit he began to lead the people in a series of confessions/actions that he told the audience to imitate in order for them to experience breakthrough in their finances. As he stood on the stage he then went through the motions of pulling down an imaginary lever on a slot machine while confessing in a very loud voice the words 'MONEY COMING'. He did this three times while the audience followed. When they got to the last shout, the preacher emphasized the importance of this last shout, and as he led them in the pulling down of the lever they all shouted at the top of their lungs 'MONEY COMING TO ME'

Well to say the least this was another one of those 'incidents' that caused me to ask the Lord if I should do more about such obvious abuse in the church. A few days later, while driving to work one morning, I remembered this incident and asked the Lord if he wanted me to write a book on this subject. Later on in the day during a lunch break, while reading through the bible during a regular devotional time, I just happened to be reading through the book of revelation, and when I came to revelation 1:19 where Jesus tells John to 'write the things which thou hast seen', it hit me like a ton of bricks. So here I am today, believing that this book will serve a definite purpose in the Body of Christ and cause us to return to a more balanced view of the 'things of this world'.

CHAPTER 1 'YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON'

It has been said that the best way to spot a counterfeit is to know the real. So let’s begin with a biblical look at true prosperity. In the past, while trying to deal with this subject, I would often find people responding in defense of the prosperity gospel by saying things like 'oh, but you don't know how good the Lord is' or 'you don't know how much God wants to meet our needs' or, 'the bible doesn’t say money is evil, but the love of money'. To which I would reply 'AMEN', I agree with you. But the bible also gives us many warnings against materialism, seeking to be rich, and living for material things.

So while trying to deal with the false prosperity gospel, I would like first of all to establish the truth that God is good, he does want to meet our needs and give us the desires of our heart, and yes, he even wants to bless us financially and materially. God promises not only 'heavenly' or 'spiritual' blessings, but also earthly or material blessings as well. If you go through the bible from Genesis to Revelation you will find instances of Gods people being rich, prosperous and blessed in every way. You will find many promises of Gods provisions for us, not only spiritual but also financial and material. There is no doubt that God can, and does bless His children in all areas of life if they are obedient to Him.

We also know that there are many warnings in the N.T. against seeking to be rich, living for material wealth, and the like. So how do we harmonize these two truths?

Let’s look at the overall purpose of God for his church. We are commissioned by Jesus to tell the whole world about His love for us, so we can make disciples of all nations. The message from our lips, [and hearts] is to overflow with who Jesus is and what He’s done for us. As a matter of fact, Jesus tells us that as we proclaim and talk about Him, and seek first His kingdom, that He will take care of all the other less important things. MATHEW 6:19-24 ' LAY NOT UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES UPON EARTH, WHERE MOTH AND RUST DOTH CORRUPT, AND WHERE THIEVES BREAK THROUGH AND STEAL: BUT LAY UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES IN HEAVEN, WHERE NIETHER MOTH NOR RUST DOTH CORRUPT, AND WHERE THIEVES DO NOT BREAK THROUGH AND STEAL: FOR WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS THERE WILL YOUR HEART BE ALSO........ NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS: FOR EITHER HE WILL HATE THE ONE, AND LOVE THE OTHER; OR ELSE HE WILL HOLD TO THE ONE AND DESPISE THE OTHER. YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON. THEREFORE I SAY UNTO YOU, TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR YOUR LIFE, WHAT YE SHALL EAT, OR WHAT YE SHALL DRINK; NOR YET FOR YOUR BODY, WHAT YE SHALL PUT ON. IS NOT THE LIFE MORE THAN MEAT, AND THE BODY MORE THAN RAIMENT? BEHOLD THE FOWLS OF THE AIR: FOR THEY SOW NOT, NIETHER DO THEY REAP, NOR GATHER INTO BARNS; YET YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER FEEDETH THEM. ARE YE NOT MUCH BETTER THAN THEY? ...... THEREFORE TAKE NO THOUGHT, SAYING WHAT SHALL WE EAT? OR, WHAT SHALL WE DRINK? OR, WHEREWITHALL SHALL WE BE CLOTHED? [FOR AFTER ALL THESE THINGS DO THE GENTILES SEEK;] FOR YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER KHNOWETH THAT YE HAVE NEED OF ALL THESE THINGS. BUT SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS; AND ALL THES THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU. TAKE THEREFORE NO THOUGHT FOR THE MORROW: FOR THE MORROW SHALL TAKE THOUGHT FOR THE THINGS OF ITSELF. SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY IS THE EVIL THEREOF' Jesus is making a distinction between material things and the kingdom of God. He is saying if we seek first His kingdom, then all these material needs will be met. If the kingdom is about material things, then Jesus contradicted himself. The plain meaning and thought of this passage is that if we put God first, He will take care of us. Now say if the disciples took this to mean that the primary message of the gospel was 'God will add all these things unto you'. And say if they went around teaching all nations to quote 'all these things shall be added unto you'. And then all over Jerusalem and Judaea and unto the uttermost parts of the earth they had people quoting 'all these things shall be added unto you'. And after a lifetime of ministry they taught the people how God would give them things if they kept quoting and meditating on the passages of scripture that speak about material wealth. What do you suppose Jesus would say when He comes back? First of all the plain teaching of Jesus in this passage is to get their focus [meditation, confession] off of material things. He plainly says that the 'gentiles seek these things', and that the disciples are not to be thinking about these things all the time like the gentiles. He tells us to focus on the kingdom as opposed to focusing on material things. He tells us that as we go forth by faith to proclaim his gospel, that he in turn will meet our needs. After all, the disciples left their jobs in order to follow Christ, and he was reassuring them that they would be taken care of materially if they forsook all to follow him.

I find it troubling that some teachers use this very passage in order to justify materialism, while the plain meaning of Jesus words are the opposite. Jesus says you cannot serve God and money. So we must take our minds and thoughts and meditations and focus them on God, not worldly things!

So true prosperity can be defined as God meeting all the needs of his children as they proclaim him in all nations. True prosperity is God meeting our needs while our focus is on him [not on our needs being met!]. True prosperity is being able to preach the word of God without a covetous motive [1 PETER:5:2].

I should make note that there are some who teach that this passage of scripture [MATT. 6:19-24] actually teaches that we have a bank account in heaven with real money credited to our account! And every time we sow [give into] the kingdom of God, that we are actually building a fund in this account. And that by faith you can claim a withdrawal on your account and receive your financial harvest now. But if this is what Jesus was teaching then the entire passage is twisted into turning our attention towards money once again! Jesus plainly warned us against focusing our thoughts on the material things in life, he told us not to be like the unbelievers who have all their possessions in this life only. Jesus told us to build up treasures in heaven, which meant a life lived for eternal purposes as opposed to temporary rewards. I believe that if we get our priorities right, that God will meet our needs, and we will be so excited about God and his kingdom that we wont even have time to think about serving mammon!

CHAPTER 2 'TWISTING THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER'

While a new Christian, enjoying that early honeymoon period with the Lord, I’ll never forget the joy I experienced while learning the bible for the first time. The clarity, pureness and unity of scripture were a sure foundation for a long road ahead. While working as a house painter and listening to Christian radio all day long, it was an early introduction to the various 'streams' of teaching that were being produced in the church. One day my job foreman, who often heard me listening to Christian radio, thought I would enjoy listening to a new tape series that he had just been given. So I popped the cassettes into my radio and listened with the excitement of a new believer in Christ. The cassettes were a new teaching on the parable of the sower. MATTHEW 13:1-9, 18-23 ' THE SAME DAY WENT JESUS OUT OF THE HOUSE, AND SAT BY THE SEASIDE. AND GREAT MULTITUDES WERE GATHERED TOGETHER UNTO HIM, SO THAT HE WENT INTO A SHIP, AND SAT; AND THE WHOLE MULTITUDE STOOD ON THE SHORE. AND HE SPAKE MANY THINGS UNTO THEM IN PARABLES, SAYING, BEHOLD, A SOWER WENT FORTH TO SOW; AND WHEN HE SOWED, SOME SEEDS FELL BY THE WAY SIDE, AND THE FOWLS CAME AND DEVOURED THEM UP: SOME FELL UPON STONY PLACES, WHERE THEY HAD NOT MUCH EARTH: AND FORTHWITH THEY SPRUNG UP, BECAUSE THEY HAD NO DEEPNESS OF EARTH: AND WHEN THE SUN WAS UP THEY WERE SCORCHED; AND BECAUSE THEY HAD NO ROOT THEY WITHERED AWAY. AND SOME FELL AMONG THORNS; AND THE THORNS SPRUNG UP, AND CHOKED THEM; BUT OTHER FELL INTO GOOD GROUND, AND BROUGHT FORTH FRUIT, SOME AN HUNDREDFOLD, SOME SIXTYFOLD, SOME THIRTYFOLD. WHO HATH EARS TO HEAR LET HIM HEAR.........HEAR YE THEREFORE THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER. WHEN ANYONE HEARETH THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT NOT, THEN COMETH THE WICKED ONE, AND CATCHETH AWAY THAT WHICH WAS SOWN IN HIS HEART. THIS IS HE WHICH RECIEVED SEED BY THE WAYSIDE. BUT HE THAT RECIEVED THE SEED INTO STONY PLACES, THE SAME IS HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD, AND ANON WITH JOY RECIEVETH IT; YET HATH HE NOT ROOT IN HIMSELF, BUT DURETH FOR A WHILE: FOR WHEN TRIBULATION OR PERSECUTION ARISETH BECAUSE OF THE WORD, BY AND BY HE IS OFFENDED. HE ALSO THAT RECIEVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS IS HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD; AND THE CARE OF THIS WORLD, AND THE DECEITFULLNESS OF RICHES, CHOKE THE WORD AND HE BECOMETH UNFRUITFULL. BUT HE THAT RECIEVED SEED INTO GOOD GROUND IS HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT; WHICH ALSO BEARETH FRUIT, AND BRINGETH FORTH, SOME AN HUNDREDFOLD SOME SIXTY SND SOME THIRTY'. As the teacher taught through the parable he explained how Jesus was teaching us how to plant [sow] the word [scriptures] in our hearts [through confession, meditation, etc.] in order to receive a thirty, sixty, or hundredfold return. He then applied the entire teaching to reaping an hundredfold return of MONEY! He taught how that at each stage of the parable the devil tries to steal the word so we don’t receive our harvest. He then got to the part where Jesus says 'THE DECIETFULLNESS OF RICHES CHOKE THE WORD', I couldn’t understand how Jesus could be teaching us about reaping a financial harvest, and then say this! It almost seemed like a contradiction. Well the teacher then began to sound uncomfortable as he explained how the deceitfulness of riches was actually that old traditional teaching that says you cant be rich [or something to that effect]! Even as a new believer in Christ I just couldn’t accept this explanation, it was almost as if the teacher was trying to make Jesus words say the opposite of what he meant.

The basic plain meaning of the parable is self-explanatory. There are always obstacles and enemies of the gospel. Ultimately those who overcome these obstacles will bear good Christian fruit in varying degrees [30,60 or 100 fold]. The various hindrances to the word of God include the 'cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches'. If you want to produce fruit for God you cant get caught up in the materialistic pursuits of the world [2 TIMOTHY 2:4].

Many times in connection with this parable is the doctrine of sowing for a harvest taught. Jesus often uses planting [sowing] and harvesting [reaping] illustrations in his teachings. The main focus is usually dealing with the spreading of the kingdom of God and the message of Christ to the nations. Sometimes the seed refers to believers themselves, and other times the actual message preached [MATT. 13: 20,38]. Sowing and reaping also refer to the works we do, as well as the money we give into the kingdom [1COR. 9:11, GAL. 6:8]. While there are many ways you can apply sowing for a harvest, I find it disturbing that some in the church have focused the entire teaching towards financial and material gain. This type of preoccupation with money is in direct opposition to the warning that Jesus gave in this parable, he told us that the deceitfulness of riches could derail us from being fruitful, and the distorted teaching that applies this entire parable to money is in itself a fulfillment of the warning that 'the deceitfulness of riches' can deceive you, because it denies the very warning of Christ and makes him say something that he never said!

CHAPTER 3 'WHAT IS THE ABRAHAMIC BLESSING'

I must admit that out of all the various portions of scripture used to teach a false prosperity gospel, this is one of the most deceptive. In order for us to fully grasp the concept of the abrahamic blessing, we must do a little history.

In GALATIANS 3, the apostle Paul makes one of the greatest N.T. arguments for justification by faith versus law. I personally believe this doctrine to be one of the foundational doctrines in the N.T.

The heresy that Paul is fighting against in Galatians is the heresy of legalism that was taught by the judiazers. The judiazers were the Jewish/Christian sect that taught that gentile believers needed to be circumcised and brought under the law in order to be saved. The main argument that Paul uses to refute this doctrine is in Galatians 3. In this chapter we find Paul going back to the O.T. books in order to show that God established, by covenant, the basis of justifying man by faith without the deeds of the law. The main argument Paul uses is 'the abrahamic blessing'. Paul traces Gods promise to Abraham, made before the law was given, where God says 'in thee shall all nations be blessed' [GEN. 12:3, GAL. 3:8]. This meaning that God would bless [save] all nations through the promised child of Abraham [which would eventually be Jesus]. Paul’s point is to show that God already promised to bless all people through Abraham’s offspring [the abrahamic blessing], and not through the law. The abrahamic blessing referring to justifying the world by faith and giving us 'the promise of the Spirit by faith' [GALATIANS 3:8-14], this argument is also used in Romans 4.

Now here comes the tricky part, some teach that God covenants to make us rich trough the abrahamic blessing [or covenant]. They use this chapter to teach that Christ died so we can receive the abrahamic blessing. They then define the abrahamic blessing as the 'things' that Abraham had. But once again the abrahamic blessing as defined in Galatians 3 is referring to God justifying us by faith as opposed to the law. Paul was in no way teaching the Galatians that God was going to make them rich! He was battling for their very souls! The plain text of this passage shows us that Paul was dealing with the issue of justification, and not finances. And it would make absolutely no sense for Paul to begin to address money issues in the middle of this chapter.

Each time I came across this type of distorted interpretation, I honestly couldn’t understand how so many different teachers could so consistently apply the same passage in the wrong way. It almost reminds me of the O.T. passage that speaks of a conspiracy of the prophets [EZEK. 22:25]. A sort of network of false/distorted interpretations of the scripture that exist among certain groups of believers, and these same false opinions are then propagated again and again until after you hear them long enough they seem to become accepted truth in the church at large. We need to re-examine some of these doctrines and receive correction and make the proper adjustments in our thinking and acting [repentance!], so we don’t continue to spread these false opinions in the church.

CHAPTER 4 'WHAT DID JAMES SAY'

One of the strongest books in the N.T. dealing with poverty and riches is the book of James. Simply reading this book in context would give the modern prosperity gospel a strong rebuke! James contrasts both rich and poor, he says that God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom of God. The context also implies that these poor Christians will remain poor in this life! [JAMES 2:5] The prosperity message teaches that if you have faith in God that you will not be poor. It’s obvious that both James and the prosperity teachers of today have a difference of opinion!

Lets look at exactly what the word of God says; JAMES 2:1-6 'MY BRETHREN, HAVE NOT THE FAITH OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE LORD OF GLORY, WITH RESPECT OF PERSONS. FOR IF THERE COME UNTO YOUR ASSEMBLY A MAN WITH A GOLD RING, IN GOODLY APPAREL, AND THERE COME IN ALSO A POOR MAN IN VILE RAIMENT; AND YE HAVE RESPECT TO HIM THAT WEARETH THE GAY CLOTHING, AND SAY UNTO HIM, SIT THOU HERE IN A GOOD PLACE; AND SAY TO THE POOR, STAND THOU HERE OR SIT HERE UNDER MY FOOTSTOOL: ARE YE NOT THEN PARTIAL IN YOURSELVES AND BECOME JUDGES OF EVIL THOUGHTS? HEARKEN, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, HATH NOT GOD CHOSEN THE POOR OF THIS WORLD RICH IN FAITH, AND HEIRS OF THE KINGDOM WHICH HE HATH PROMISED TO THEM THAT LOVE HIM? BUT YE HAVE DESPISED THE POOR. DO NOT RICH MEN OPPRESS YOU, AND DRAW YOU BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEATS? How were they despising the poor and being prejudiced in their thoughts? They were treating poor people with contempt while showing honor to the rich. This is exactly what we do in the church, by teaching that poor Christians have little, or no faith, we unconsciously treat them with contempt. We teach that the poor are under a curse and are therefore not living up to all their benefits in Christ. We actually set up a cast system in the church. James says the poor have great faith! He doesn’t portray them as having small faith. He warns the rich not to trust in uncertain riches. The bible flatly teaches that financial abundance is not a measure of ones faith! We must stop teaching that if you would simply believe God you would have an abundance of money. This is not true in every case. Sometimes the abundant supply from God is the grace and patience that he gives to the believer in the face of severe trials or lack. The N.T. clearly teaches that there are believers with lots of faith who are poor! You can't deny the plain word of God. We should not suppose that a lack of financial abundance is a sign of weak faith!

Now to one of the most recent 'new revelations' that is being taught in the church. I first heard this from a very respected soul-winning evangelist. I then heard it taught from a variety of other teachers. As of this writing it seems to be accepted 'truth' in certain circles. Lets read JAMES 5:1-6 'GO TO NOW, YE RICH MEN, WEEP AND HOWL FOR YOUR MISERIES THAT SHALL COME UPON YOU. YOUR RICHES ARE CORRUPTED, AND YOUR GARMENTS ARE MOTHEATEN. YOUR GOLD AND SILVER IS CANKERED; AND THE RUST OF THEM SHALL BE A WITNESS AGAINST YOU, AND SHALL EAT YOUR FLESH AS IT WERE FIRE. YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE TOGETHER FOR THE LAST DAYS. BEHOLD, THE HIRE OF THE LABOURERS WHO HAVE REAPED DOWN YOUR FIELDS, WHICH IS OF YOU KEPT BACK BY FRAUD, CRIETH: AND THE CRIES OF THEM WHICH HAVE REAPED ARE ENTERED INTO THE EARS OF THE LORD OF SABAOTH. YE HAVE LIVED IN PLEASURE ON THE EARTH, AND BEEN WANTON; YE HAVE NOURISHED YOUR HEARTS, AS IN A DAY OF SLAUGHTER. YE HAVE CONDEMNED AND KILLED THE JUST; AND HE DOTH NOT RESIST YOU. The first time I heard this 'new' truth, the preacher said that this passage was dealing with the end-time transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor. It was explained that in verse 3 'YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE TOGETHER FOR THE LAST DAYS’ meant that the rich gathered together their wealth so it could be given to the church in the last days. While I have no problem with the idea of the world’s wealth being used for kingdom purposes, I do have a problem with distorting the word of God to prove our points! A simple reading of James 5:1-6 shows us that the reason the rich are being reproved is because they spent their lives building up financial fortunes without being rich toward God [LUKE 12:16-21]. This scripture also plainly says what is going to happen to their wealth. Is it going to be 'transferred' to us? Is it going to be given to the Christians in the last days? Is it going to be used at all? NO! It is going to canker, rust and corrupt! It is going to be destroyed! It will be of no help at all in the day of judgment [PRVB. 11:4]. It will be a witness against them for living covetous lives. The entire theme of James follows this line of thought. To read all the other things that James says about the rich and poor in this epistle, for us to then interpret this passage and say that James was now teaching the Christians that they would become rich through the end-time transfer of wealth, is ridiculous. Once again the plain meaning of scripture is being distorted in order to make it say the complete opposite of what it means.

One more thing before we leave James. The early Christian community did not equate poverty with being under a curse. They did not equate poverty with sin. There are many rebukes in the N.T. against sin in the church, but the poor in the church were praised, not rebuked! The very mindset of looking upon the poor as a lower class permeates this teaching. If the poor are cursed, not living up to their inheritance, don’t know how to apply faith principles or simply don’t know/believe the word concerning prosperity, then in essence we are despising the poor through our belief system. The N.T. plainly teaches that it is okay to be poor! We need to heed the warning from this N.T. epistle and stop despising the poor!

CHAPTER 5 'WHOSE MINISTRY, JESUS OR OURS?'

I'll never forget the time I was watching 'Christian' TV and saw a preacher holding up his Rolex watch and then teaching the people that this was an example of his faith in action! He then went on to explain that when we use our faith to obtain things, we can then show these things to people as a witness of our faith. If this is what it means to go witnessing for Christ, I think most people would be standing in line to sign up!

Over the years I have heard it taught that the only way the world would be saved is if the church becomes extremely rich financially so she could send the gospel to the world. That the world would see our extreme wealth and would ask 'where did you get all that money?' and we would then say 'from God', and the lost would then want what we have and get saved! Convenient isn’t it. But is this a biblical picture of the N.T. church and her witness in the earth?

In order to answer this question, we need first to look at what the N.T. church is. The church consists of communities of believers scattered throughout the world. All over planet earth, right now, there are believers thriving and testifying of Gods grace in all types of circumstances and situations. The community of believers that Jesus launched 2 thousand years ago is still going strong. She answers to no man or human govt. She has outlasted empires, persecutions, false religions and every other conceivable attack that can be imagined. The prophecy of Jesus has been fulfilled ‘THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST HER’ [MATT. 16:18].

As of today there has been no other single institution upon earth that has had more influence in the history of the world than the church! Now, if the church truly consists of believers [seeds], planted [sown] all over the world under the lordship of Christ, with various giftings [Apostles, Prophets, etc.] operating under the administration of the Holy Spirit, this ministry [the kingdom of God] already has the potential of a worldwide witness to all nations. As a matter of fact this worldwide gospel of Christ has been prevailing magnificently throughout the generations. This wonderful kingdom, under Christ’s rule, has been active. It has been supernaturally deploying ministers from day one [ACTS 13]. It has even witnessed for Jesus Christ when its main ministers were broke! [ACTS 3:6]. The witness of the gospel has done extremely well throughout the centuries and will continue to do so, whether or not we all become rich!

The reason I say this is because there is a mindset in the church [American mostly] that equates the witness of the gospel with the success of American charismatic entrepreneurial ministries. We have been deluded into believing that unless we all become rich, we will never be able to reach the world. The overall success of the kingdom of God has never been dependent on any budget of any ministry past or present! Most of the modern day proponents of the prosperity gospel usually head up American ministry organizations and equate the sowing of seed [finances], with giving money to help support their organizations. They then sincerely believe that unless their organization makes more and more money, they will never be able to fulfill the great commission of reaching the world.

The N.T. clearly teaches the principles of our witness for Christ, and the focus has never been extreme wealth. But on sacrificial living, loving each other unconditionally, a sharing caring community of people who are known for good deeds of charity. In the book of acts the early church had a powerful witness, and they weren’t rich financially, yet they did reach their world for Christ. How? Through great sacrificial living, through miraculous signs and wonders, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and through a bold proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not one sermon in the book of acts focused on anything else than Jesus Christ and his great work for us. Their hearts and lips flowed with the message of Christ, not money!

I find it troubling that many of the ministries who teach the prosperity gospel usually do receive extreme amounts of money, not to proclaim the message of Jesus [speaking about him], but to simply propagate a money making gospel! You can tune into some of these ministries and find them talking about money all the time. What if a lost person tuned in? Would he hear about Jesus or money? What about when Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks? [MATT. 12:34]. If someone is always talking about money where is his heart, what’s his treasure?

We need to shift our focus back to the pure N.T. message of Christ, and understand that his gospel is the power of God unto salvation! Jesus said the world would be saved when the truth is preached in all nations by a united church, not when we all become millionaires so we can finance our own ministries!

CHAPTER 6 '1 TIMOTHY 6'

I have often heard it said 'if you’re happy with just enough money to get by, you’re selfish and living in sin, you need to believe God and have faith for increased wealth so you can finance the gospel'. Is this a biblical concept? Should we teach people that being content with what you have is a sin?

Lets look at the word of God HEBREWS 13:5-6 'LET YOUR CONVERSATION BE WITHOUT COVEOUSNESS; AND BE CONTENT WITH SUCH THINGS AS YE HAVE: FOR HE HATH SAID, I WILL NEVER LEAVE THEE, OR FORSAKE THEE. SO THAT WE MAY BOLDLY SAY, THE LORD IS MY HELPER, AND I WILL NOT FEAR WHAT MAN SHALL DO UNTO ME. This scripture plainly teaches us to be content with what we have! I even heard a prosperity preacher teach that this means to be happy with what you have now, while using your faith to obtain more. WHAT! When will we stop distorting the plain meaning of scripture?

1 TIMOTHY 6:1-12,17-19 'LET AS MANY SERVANTS WHO ARE UNDER THE YOKE COUNT THIER OWN MASTERS WORTHY OF ALL HONOUR, THAT THE NAME OF GOD AND HIS DOCTRINE BE NOT BLASPHEMED....... IF ANY MAN TEACH OTHERWISE, AND CONSENT NOT TO WHOLESOME WORDS, EVEN THE WORDS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND TO THE DOCTRINE WHICH IS ACCORDING TO GODLINESS; HE IS PROUD KNOWING NOTHING, BUT DOTING ABOUT QUESTIONS AND STRIFES OF WORDS, WHEREOF COMETH ENVY, STRIFE, RAILINGS, EVIL SURMISINGS, PERVERSE DISPUTINGS OF MEN OF CORRUPT MINDS, AND DESTITUTE OF THE TRUTH, SUPPOSING THAT GAIN IS GODLINESS: FROM SUCH WITHDRAW THYSELF. BUT GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT IS GREAT GAIN. FOR WE BROUGHT NOTHING INTO THE WORLD, AND IT IS CERTAIN WE CAN CARRY NOTHING OUT. AND HAVING FOOD AND RAIMENT LET US BE THEREWITH CONTENT. BUT THEY THAT WILL BE RICH FALL INTO TEMPTATION AND A SNARE, AND INTO MANY FOOLISH AND HURTFUL LUSTS, WHICH DROWN MEN IN DESTRUCTION AND PERDITION. FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL: WHICH WHILE SOME COVETED AFTER, THEY HAVE ERRED FROM THE FAITH, AND PIERCED THEMSELVES THROUGH WITH MANY SORROWS. BUT THOU O MAN OF GOD FLEE THESE THINGS.........CHARGE THEM THAT ARE RICH IN THIS WORLD, THAT THEY BE NOT HIGHMINDED, NOR TRUST IN UNCERTAIN RICHES, BUT IN THE LIVING GOD, WHO GIVETH US RICHLY ALL THINGS TO ENJOY; THAT THEY DO GOOD, THAT THEY BE RICH IN GOOD WORKS, READY TO DISTRIBUTE, WILLING TO COMMUNICATE; LAYING UP IN STORE FOR THEMSELVES A GOOD FOUNDATION AGAINST THE TIME TO COME, THAT THEY MAY LAY HOLD ON ETERNAL LIFE. Paul is clearly teaching the concept of 'you came into this world with nothing, you cant take it with you when you die, so be content with what you have'. I have heard prosperity preachers say that this type of mindset is a religious spirit, and has no foundation in the word of God. This passage of scripture teaches plainly against the mindset of the prosperity gospel. The entire theme and thought of the apostle goes 100 percent against the grain of the prosperity movement. Paul clearly says that some will equate gain with godliness, if he is not dealing with the distortions of the modern prosperity movement, then who is he speaking about? He says that some will equate godly living with financial gain, or they will teach if you’re godly you will gain much money. This is exactly what the modern prosperity movement teaches!

He says that those who want to become rich will fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts. The craving [coveting] to become rich can either be through confessing scripture, through meditating on abundance, through the sowing of seed into good soil or any other means imaginable. The scripture simply says that if the acquiring of money, for whatever purpose [even godly purposes], has become your goal, then your motivation is wrong and you have been sidetracked.

Now the 'love of money' verse. 1 TIMOTHY 6:10 'FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL: WHICH WHILE SOME COVETED AFTER, THEY HAVE ERRED FROM THE FAITH, AND PIERCED THEMSELVES THROUGH WITH MANY SORROWS'.  I have heard it said 'brother, this says the love of money, not money' and then the preacher will go right past the warning and talk all about money, not even giving a second thought to the warning! These passages, read in their entirety, give a powerful rebuke against the prosperity movement. They teach us to' be content with what we have,' they tell us' don’t desire to be rich', they plainly state that the pursuit of material wealth will sidetrack you, and they even state that 'you came into the world with nothing, when you die you cant take it with you, so be happy with what you have!' I would exhort any person who is having difficulty breaking away from this movement to read 1 timothy 6 every day for a year and allow your mind to be renewed to the word of God!                   

One more thing before we leave this chapter, in verse 12 Paul exhorts Timothy to 'lay hold on eternal life'. He says this in the context of comparing eternal life against materialistic living. He is saying in essence 'live for eternal things, not temporary rewards [or money!]'. I just finished watching a minister on T.V. spend 30 minutes explaining how the eternal life that Paul is referring to deals with the abundance of God in the area of finances. He flatly said that Paul was teaching us to lay hold of an abundance of money! This type of extreme distorting of scripture actually takes the warnings in the word of God that speak against materialism and turns them around to teach the exact opposite! When our own interpretations of scripture go against the plain flow of the text of scripture, then we have usurped the word of God in order to teach our own traditions!

CHAPTER 7 'WERE JESUS AND THE DISCIPLES RICH?'

One day while listening to a preacher trying to prove that Jesus and the disciples were extremely wealthy, he used the common ‘proof texts’ to prove his point. He then went on to explain that religious tradition portrayed Jesus and the disciples as being poor [or average], and that the word of God teaches us that they were really rich. He also explained how important it was for us to know this 'truth', because if Jesus and the disciples were rich, and Jesus wants us to be like him, then we are in disobedience if we are not striving to become wealthy!

A simple plain reading of the N.T. portrays Jesus as someone who came with a radical message of forsaking all to follow him. He often approached people who were in business [fishermen], or were rich, and challenged them to leave all and follow him. He would reassure these followers if they forsook all for his cause and the gospel, that they would be taken care of. This same type of radical call continued into the book of acts, where the early followers of Jesus also told the people that to be a follower of Christ they had to forsake all to follow him.

If you look at the overall picture [not the prooftexts!], you see the early Christian community as a people who forsook all for the gospel. You find them living and sharing as a corporate community who took care of each-others needs [ACTS 2:44-47]. You find those who were wealthy [not all of the church, but certain individuals, ACTS 4:32-37] sharing their wealth for the needs of the Christian community. You can even trace the ministries of some of the early apostles and still find them many years later proclaiming Christ through much suffering and persecution. Not only does the N.T. portray the early Christian community in this light, but also church history confirms it. You find the apostles still learning to deal with financial lack many years later well into their ministries [PHIL 4:11-12, 2 COR. 11:27]. You see a beautiful picture of a people willing to suffer for the cause of Christ cheerfully. You also see a gracious Lord who met all their needs according to his abundant grace. You find stories where the material needs of people were supernaturally met [not by extreme wealth, but by Gods miraculous intervention [MATT. 14:17-19, 15:34-36].

Now what about the promise Jesus made to Peter in MARK 10:28-31 'THEN PETER BEGAN TO SAY UNTO HIM, LO, WE HAVE LEFT ALL, AND HAVE FOLLOWED THEE. AND JESUS ANSWERED AND SAID, VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, THERE IS NO MAN THAT HATH LEFT HOUSE, OR BRETHREN, OR SISTERS, OR FATHER, OR MOTHER, OR WIFE, OR CHILDREN, OR LANDS, FOR MY SAKE AND THE GOSPELS, BUT HE SHALL RECIEVE AN HUNDREDFOLD NOW IN THIS TIME, HOUSES, AND BRETHREN, AND SISTERS, AND MOTHERS, AND CHILDREN, AND LANDS, WITH PERSECUTIONS; AND IN THE WORLD TO COME ETERNAL LIFE. Did Peter personally posses [inherit] more houses, lands, sisters and mothers? How was this promise fulfilled in Peter’s life? In the book of acts Peter became a part of the 'Christian family' who had all things common, they shared everything and had no lack [ACTS 4:32-34, 2:44-47]. They had no lack because of their membership in the family of God. The fulfilling of the law of love in their sharing of material things was the fulfillment of Jesus promise to Peter, not making him financially rich!

Look at all the apostolic ministries in the book of acts. Wherever they went, whatever city they ministered in, their needs were always met. Why? Because when they became part of the Christian community, the homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, lands and all the other resources were SHARED by all the believers. They ministered to each other’s needs, they supported one another, they truly fulfilled the law of love by bearing one another’s burdens!

This picture of Jesus and the apostles as extremely rich 20th century American evangelists who headed up big budget ministries is absolutely no where to be found in the plain reading of the N.T.! I just don’t find Jesus and the disciples as rich evangelists going into the world with extreme wealth, while at the same time telling rich people to sell all they have to come follow him! [MATT. 19:23-24,LK. 1:53, 6:24, 16:19-31, 18:18-25]

CHAPTER 8 'COVENANT THEOLOGY'

The early settlers [pilgrims] of our nation came by faith in God, believing their new nation to be a promised land of freedom that the Lord had given to them. One of the descriptions of the 'belief system' of these puritans is called covenant theology. They saw themselves as 'new covenant' people who were inheriting a promised land, much like the old covenant people [Israel] inherited their promised land. They claimed and believed the many O.T. promises of God concerning the inheriting of nations. They took God at his word, and it worked!

In a sense all believers are covenant theologians, whether they realize it or not. It is through our covenant with God [the blood of Jesus], that we are made right with God [justified], have forgiveness of sins and are made children of God. As a matter of fact, everything that God does for us, or that 'we do for him', is based upon the bedrock foundation of the covenant of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Now, it has been taught because of our covenant with Christ, we can go through the bible and find all the promises that are good and by faith hold God to his word and 'cause the things that are not seen [not manifested] to become seen [manifested]', or to put it simple, to get the things that God has promised us by putting our faith into action. I believe this principle is both scriptural and profitable. But the covenant cuts both ways.

When people enter into covenant, the 2 parties have complete access to each-others rights and privileges. There are times were the Lord will require of the believer all that he has [leave your nets and follow me mentality]. There are even times where the Lord called people to lay down their lives in martyrdom in order to receive a better resurrection [HEB 11:35, ACTS 7]. As a matter of fact there are many examples of people of faith who have endured great sufferings even though they had great faith [HEB. 11].

So what does it mean to be a covenant believer? It not only implies going throughout the bible and claiming all the good promises and quoting them by faith [sowing], it also carries with it the meaning of laying down all that we have [in this world] for the cause of Christ [HEB. 10:34].

While the early puritans did claim and receive the promises of God by faith concerning their 'promised land', they also endured tremendous suffering and loss [many died in their pursuit!] in order to obtain a noble goal. The N.T. commands us not only to believe and teach the good parts [or the parts we like the most!], but also to heed the warnings [LUKE 12:15, ACTS 20:27]. If we reduce covenant theology to a belief system that only reads and quotes the 'good' promises, but never heeds the warnings, then we are failing to proclaim the full gospel and are presenting a distorted view of the Christian life [ACTS 14:22]. A simple overview of the N.T. shows us how the principles of the N.T. are supposed to work. For example, you never find Jesus or the disciples going around quoting the money verses in order to receive a harvest! As a matter of fact, if we teach people to 'quote, meditate, memorize and only think on the money scriptures', we would be doing the exact opposite of what Jesus said in MATT. 6:31-34. He specifically told us to take no thought [meditate, focus our minds, etc.] of what we shall eat, drink or wear [material things], the whole point of this passage was to teach the Christian NOT to focus on these things!

You also never find any of the suffering Christians acting like they 'fell short' of their covenant rights. Instead they counted it a privilege to suffer for his names sake [ACTS 5:41]. The entire flow of the N.T. goes contrary to the 'picture painted' by unbalanced prosperity preaching. The focus of the N.T. was Gods advancing kingdom throughout the nations! Their own lives and the things they could get to make themselves more comfortable ran 100% contrary to the fulfilling of their mission [2 TIM. 4:10, 1 JOHN 2:15]. A simple plain reading of the N.T. in context teaches us that the character of N.T. Christianity is one of self-sacrificial living, not a 'get all you can by faith' mentality.

CHAPTER 9 'SOWING INTO GOOD SOIL'

A simple reading of the N.T. gives us a broad picture of the life of the believer, which includes giving and receiving, Gods promises of funding the work of the ministry, the Christian concept of charity, and a basic overall view of finances and the kingdom of God. One of the most basic reasons of giving money in the N.T. is to share what we have with those who are less fortunate [JAMES 2:15-16, 1 JOHN 3:17]. As a matter of fact Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of his day for their willingness to tithe to the temple while neglecting to use their finances to meet the needs of people in need [MARK 7:6-13]. One of the most recognized passages of scripture used to describe the character of Christ is found in Luke 10:30-37, an example of someone ministering to the needs of ‘the down and out’.

Even in the book of acts the main focus on giving was to meet the needs of people [ACTS 2:44-46, 4:32-37, 6:1]. The very scripture that we use to exhort saints to put in their offerings on ‘Sunday’, is really speaking about a collection being taken to meet the needs of the ‘poor saints’ who lived in Jerusalem [1COR. 16:1-3].

This basic Christian principle of charity is a well-established Christian doctrine that most people would agree with, except for certain teachers in the prosperity movement! I remember listening to a certain teacher actually teach that in order to receive a good financial harvest, you must plant your seed [money] into good soil. He then went on to teach that good soil meant ministries, or individuals, who taught prosperity and were financially rich! He even implied that giving to prosperity ministries would make you rich, while giving to ‘poverty mentality’ ministries would make you poor [because you reap the same anointing from the ministries you so into]. The problem with this is that the bible teaches that giving to poor people [people with a poverty mentality] is good, and that the Lord will reward you for it [PRVB. 22:9,16,19:17,28:27, PSALMS 112:9].

While the N.T. does deal with Gods provisions for ministry [PHIL. 4:14-19,1COR. 9:1-14], this certainly in no way justifies perverting the gospel into a mindset of giving into wealthy ministries in order to receive a financial harvest!

Jesus, Paul and all the other N.T. ministers did receive finances and provisions from God in order to fulfill their callings, but at the same time they also warned the people emphatically against materialism. They spoke out against covetousness/idolatry, while at the same time believing God to meet their needs [LUKE 12:15, EPH. 5:3, COL. 3:5, 1 THESS. 2:5, HEB. 13:5, 2 PETER 2:3]. Were they being hypocrites? NO! They understood the difference between using the things of this world without abusing them [1 COR. 7:31]. There is a big difference between believing God to meet our needs, and twisting the entire character of N.T. Christianity into a money focused mentality! The Christian should have a proper understanding of finances, as well as physical exercise, balance in family life and relationships, dealing with the practical concerns of life. But to exalt anyone of these areas of life and to make it the message of Christianity, and then to reshape the entire image of Christianity in order to make it fit our ‘peculiar’ style of belief would be wrong.

The very fact that there are in existence today million dollar ministries [which in itself is not wrong!], that teach people to give into their ministries with the promise of a sure return, and even appeal to poor saints to give out of their lack [social security checks, etc.], while all the while propagating a false gospel, is wrong!

These same ministries use the funds collected by false pretense and then preach the gospel of money, instead of a clear presentation of the gospel of Christ! Many of these ministries sincerely believe that it is a witness for Christ to have extravagant salaries, wear Rolex watches, drive a Cadillac and be a millionaire. They actually justify this by their own belief in the message they preach. They do not see it as wrong in the sight of God to finance this type of lifestyle/ministry from the offerings sent in by poor saints and widows! Many of their supporters are average, or struggling financially, and they give out of a sincere desire to better their own lives while at the same time furthering the work of God.

I know some of these precious believers who are struggling financially while sending in their ‘widow’s mite’ with hope and faith that things will turn around for them. No where in the N.T. do you find rich preachers appealing to poor saints to give into their ministries in order to receive a harvest! This is 100% against the character of N.T. Christianity. The bible actually condemns the idea of ‘shepherds’ taking advantage of their flocks for personal/financial gain [EZEKIEL 34, MATT. 23:14, 1 PETER 5:1-2].

 The very fact that we have poor Christians sending in sacrificial offerings to millionaire ministries, often times because the preacher is appealing by the ‘word of the Lord’ to them, is wrong! Many of these ministries are using these funds to propagate a false view of Christianity to the world. They are preaching an unbalanced gospel while they themselves are bringing in large amounts of money. I appeal to the church at large to finance worthy ministries who are actually meeting the real needs of people around the world [good soil!], and to stop financing a false gospel!

CHAPTER 10 ‘IS THERE HOPE FOR FALSE PROPHETS?’

Why write this book? Over the years of struggling with these issues I would often come across an article, book or some type of testimonial that would expose many of the errors that are dealt with in this book.  Some of the books I read seemed to leave little or no room for repentance and restoration of the ‘prosperity preachers’. I not only believe that Gods ultimate purpose in exposing sin is for the restoration of the individual, but there are examples of former prosperity preachers who have seen some of these gross errors and have returned to a balanced presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What constitutes a false prophet? While there are many characteristics that we can mention, I would like to deal with one specific area relevant to our study. That area is motivation. In 2 Peter chapter 2, the apostle deals with covetousness as a motive for teaching heresy [2 PETER 2:1-3]. He states that Balaam was a false prophet who ‘loved the wages of unrighteousness’ [2 PETER 2:14-16]. Although balaam's gift was legitimate, it was his motivation [the love of money] that caused him to use his gift in a wrong way. So you can have a true prophetic gift, and yet be a false prophet because of a covetous motivation [JUDE 11]. The early church even went so far as to brand someone a false prophet if they hung around more than a few days and charged for their ministry! [Read the Didache].

As mentioned earlier, Paul and Peter warned against being in ministry for financial gain [1 TIM.6, 2 PETER 5:2, TITUS 1:11]. Jesus himself laid down a strong warning against the hireling mentality [JOHN 10:12-13].

It is clear from these warnings [and the many others in the N.T.], that the early Christians were very aware of the dangers of the love of money. I have heard it taught that this ‘fear ‘ or ‘scared’ attitude towards money is just a ‘religious mindset’ that has no foundation in the word of God. This just isn’t true! The bible contains many warnings against materialistic living and covetousness that were the foundation of the ‘healthy fear’ that the early church had towards money.

Now the scripture teaches that there will be a time when certain teachers [false prophets] who are motivated by money, will teach false doctrines [Jesus and the disciples being rich, etc.] and that these teachers would connect faith and money [gain and godliness], as going hand in hand. Now if the current abuses of the prosperity movement do not fall into this category, then who does? We just can’t deny all the evidence pointing to this movement as one of the fulfillments of the ‘false prophets’ who teach that gain is godliness! We as a church must see this before there can be any true restoration of those involved, or more importantly a preventing of this false gospel from being taught to a whole new generation of believers!

The scripture says to rebuke false prophets sharply so THEY MAY BE SOUND IN THE FAITH [TITUS 1:13]. Even the false shepherds of Ezekiels day were promised restoration and usefulness in their latter years [EZEKIEL 44:10-14].

If we begin to renounce our errors and return to the Lord [repentance], there will be true renewal in the church. Jesus warned the church to repent because she had within her those that held to the ‘doctrine of balsam’ [REV. 2:14-16]. It is possible for those who have taught these errors to repent and be restored to a pure gospel of Christ.

Jesus dealt with the ‘money changers’ of his day just prior to the establishing of Gods kingdom.  MARK 11:15-17 AND THEY COME TO JERUSALEM: AND JESUS WENT INTO THE TEMPLE, AND BEGAN TO CAST OUT THEM THAT SOLD AND BOUGHT IN THE TEMPLE, AND OVERTHREW THE TABLES OF THE MONEYCHANGERS, AND THE SEATS OF THEM THAT SOLD DOVES; AND WOULD NOT SUFFER THAT ANY MAN SHOULD CARRY ANY VESSEL THROUGH THE TEMPLE. AND HE TAUGHT, SAYING UNTO THEM, IS IT NOT WRITTEN, MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED OF ALL NATIONS THE HOUSE OF PRAYER? BUT YE HAVE MADE IT A DEN OF THIEVES. The moneychangers served as a sort of currency exchange for anyone wanting to bring any offerings or do any legitimate worship at Jerusalem, but needed to exchange their type of currency for the official currency that was accepted at Jerusalem. I find this interesting, because the function of the moneychangers themselves was a legitimate business function. But their business itself brought a type of merchandising to the temple that Jesus himself found highly offensive. I find a present day application to the moneychanger mentality in the modern prosperity movement. The movement teaches Christians to focus their attention on the return they will get on their investment into the kingdom. It causes Christians to give their offerings with the expectation of some type of return on their money. While this in itself is not wrong, for we know that God does reward his children [HEB. 11:6], the tendency of the prosperity message actually appeals to the covetous nature of people in order to make disciples of Christ! Jesus told people to forsake all to follow him, while the movement tells people if you follow him he will make you rich! I have heard it taught that as you sow your seed [money] into the offering basket that you need to 'picture' your harvest of what you are believing for in your mind  [whether healing, a new car or house, the salvation of a loved one, etc.] and then your seed [money] will produce your harvest! The very idea of exchanging your money [or changing it!] into the visualized harvest of your own expectation is just as off base as the money mentality of the first century moneychangers. This is the only recorded incident in the N.T. where Jesus was visibly angry.

REVELATION 4:14-22 ‘AND UNTO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH OF THE LAODICEANS WRITE; THESE THINGS SAYETH THE AMEN, THE FAITHFULL AND TRUE WITNESS, THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD; I KNOW THY WORKS, THAT THOU ART NEITHER COLD NOR HOT. SO THEN BECAUSE THOU ART LUKEWARM, AND NEITHER COLD NOR HOT, I WILL SPUE THEE OUT OF MY MOUTH. BECAUSE THOU SAYEST, I AM RICH AND INCREASED WITH GOODS, AND HAVE NEED OF NOTHING; AND KNOWEST NOT THAT THOU ART WRETCHED, AND MISERABLE, AND POOR, AND BLIND, AND NAKED: I COUNSEL THEE TO BUY OF ME GOLD TRIED IN THE FIRE, THAT THOU MAYEST BE RICH; AND WHITE RAIMENT, THAT THOU MAYEST BE CLOTHED, AND THAT THE SHAME OF THY NAKEDNESS DO NOT APPEAR; AND ANOINT THY EYES WITH EYESALVE, THAT THOU MAYEST SEE. AS MANY AS I LOVE, I REBUKE AND CHASTEN: BE ZEALOUS THEREFORE, AND REPENT. BEHOLD, I STAND AT THE DOOR, AND KNOCK: IF ANY MAN HEAR MY VOICE, AND OPEN THE DOOR, I WILL COME INTO HIM, AND WILL SUP WITH HIM, AND HE WITH ME. TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH WILL I GRANT TO SIT WITH ME IN MY THRONE, EVEN AS I ALSO OVERCAME, AND AM SET DOWN WITH MY FATHER IN HIS THRONE. HE THAT HATH AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH UNTO THE CHURCHES.

[#’s 1-216] TEACHINGS Part 1- This section is very long and random, if it’s your first time reading this site you might want to read our shorter books and studies first! A COLLECTION OF DREAMS, PROPHECIES, VISIONS, INTERPRETATIONS AND OTHER STUFF. ‘FOR THIS REASON HAVE I BROUGHT YOU TO THIS PLACE. SO YOU COULD SEE, HEAR AND GIVE YOUR ATTENTION TO THE THINGS I AM SHOWING YOU, AND THEN YOU CAN SPEAK IT TO MY PEOPLE’

Copy Right 2006                                                                      

John Chiarello                                                                     johnchiarello@hotmail.com   

P.O.  Box 181256                         www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com                                                                                

C.C. TX. 78480

INTRODUCTION Over the years I have had many interesting dreams, visions and ‘prophetic’ type experiences. I have shared some of these experiences thru our radio ministry and a few in our books. I felt it would be beneficial to catalog them in one place, so here it is!

 The way these types of words work is they can have meaning to the person directly experiencing the event, or they can directly speak to you at this season in your life. I encourage you to write down the numbers of the entries that have special meaning to you so you can go back later and review them. God bless you guys and I hope you get something out of it!

 I am cataloging these thoughts on an on going basis; there is no particular order [Think of it like PASCAL’s Penses]. Note; for those of you who don’t read the books or stuff I send, in this paper I share a lot of testimony stuff. Do a quick overview and stop at some of these stories, I think it would be worth it. I tell some stories about coming to Texas from Jersey, and even some things from Jersey that I never told before.

The things that are in bold type [capitalized] are scripture quotes from the bible. Many I just add from memory as I’m typing, others come from my mission statement [that’s why you don’t see me adding the chapter and verse]. During the writing of this paper in 12/06 I am just beginning to contact old classmates and friends from New Jersey that I haven’t seen or heard from in 25 years. Many of you have gotten this paper!

 I take the risk of looking like I fried my brain on drugs by sharing these ‘prophetic’ things [signs, dreams, etc.]. I really felt the Lord telling me its time to reach out and simply become friends again with many of you. Maybe some of you will become involved in our ministry in some way [not talking about money here!].

This paper reads more like a journal/diary than a booklet. Maybe you can read a few entries a day like a devotional? I just don’t want you to get bored with this paper and then not read the other booklets on this site! As this ‘journal’ grows there are whole sections that express what I am feeling and seeing at the time. So maybe if you feel ‘bogged’ down in one section, jump to number 300 and start from there. Next time start from number 200, etc.

 I SHARE THINGS IN A PLAIN AND OPEN LANGUAGE IN THIS PAPER, TO SOME IT MIGHT BE OFFENSIVE, IT IS NOT MY INTENT TO OFFEND, JUST FELT LIKE THIS STYLE WAS THE WAY I SHOULD GO IN THIS PAPER.

 Also let me challenge you guys to ‘keep reading’ even if you come across an entry that you don’t like. I didn’t realize when I started this site that there were ‘prophetic’ things that I would log in the earlier entries that would ‘fit in’ with later entries. I didn’t see this until I went back and edited the site [to be honest some of the dreams I wrote about came eerily true in ways that I could have never imagined when I first wrote them].

 So stick with the reading because you might see something later on the site that will bring clarity to something else. The entry that came ‘eerily’ true is a little too personal to get into, but in the actual entry [it was a dream] I made comments that I didn’t even think were prophetic. Then when I went back and re read the entry [months later] the ‘off the cuff’ comments were really prophetic. Its hard to tell you this without looking like I am bragging, but the reason I am telling you this is so you will be attentive to the ‘off the cuff’ comments, these might be crucial to what God is trying to say to you.

 One of the ‘radical’ things you will see on this site is that the New Testament Christian is not under the tithe, you will see this explained in depth thru this paper as well as the books I have written on this site. To keep everything in balance, read the note on entry 443 and keep this in mind as you learn.

EAT THE WORDS, IN THY MOUTH THEY WILL TASTE SWEET, BUT THEY WILL BE BITTER IN YOUR BELLY- John in the book of Revelation. You will read things in this section that will taste sweet, you will say ‘wow, that brother sees what I see’ you will also read things that will taste bitter ‘I can’t believe he said that!’ I encourage you to let God speak to you thru both means.

I pulled these first 2 entries from the paper to give a balance right here at the start.

(173)In the early church of the first couple of centuries there was a group of ‘Christians’ who were called Gnostics. These people believed in ‘special knowledge’. They felt that God revealed things to them thru spiritual means that the average Christians didn’t access. Today you have the equivalent of this in ‘revelation knowledge’. This is a type of belief among Christians that sometimes contradicts scripture, but slips in as ‘special revelation’. While it is true that God does give us prophetic insight and allows us to see things thru dreams and visions and other means, yet all of these ‘things’ are subservient to biblical authority! When things slip in under the title of ‘revelation knowledge’ we must judge it by scripture. If scripture contradicts the ‘revelation knowledge’ then we go with the Word!

CONCLUSION Let me end with a final note. Jesus said that a wicked and evil generation seeks after a sign and no sign will be given to them but the sign of the prophet Jonah [in essence Jesus was telling the Jews that until they believe in the most important sign of all, the resurrection of Christ, that they will not be able to ‘see’ any of the multitude of ‘signs’ that God has done thru Christ up until this day!]. The above scenarios took place when I was simply praying, seeking God or sleeping! I don’t feel that we should ‘seek’ after these types of experiences, but we should recognize that God is sovereign and if he desires to communicate to his children then who are we to tell him no. The apostle Paul told Timothy to ‘war a good fight by the prophecies that were given over you’. There are many believers who write down and catalog the prophecies and visions they have received from the Lord, this helps to be able to look back and see a pattern of Gods direction in your life. We should not build our lives or doctrine on these types of things, that area belongs to scripture! But we should be able to discern Gods voice over a period of time and ‘fight a good fight by way of the prophecies that have gone on over our lives’. God bless you guys!

P.S. Let me also add that there are many prophetic people that I am in contact with in some way. I feel that a lot of them agree with me on prophetic stuff, but get offended by the strong stance we take in other areas of teaching. I realize that just because a person experiences prophetic things, that this doesn’t mean he is correct in everything! It is common to hear things like ‘the end time transfer of wealth’ and themes like this from highly prophetic people. We just assume because someone is prophetic that their doctrine is correct. I really don’t want to teach here, but let me share this. The scripture does speak about the wealth of the sinner being stored up for the righteous and God ‘gives’ it to the righteous. Also the story of the children of Israel leaving Egypt and how God gave them the wealth of the Egyptians. These verses do not teach some type of windfall that simply falls into the hands of Christians. As church history progressed thru time more and more people in the marketplace and other areas of wealth and influence have become believers. As the church age progresses this phenomenon increases. Today the ‘wealth of the wicked’ has much more become ‘the wealth of the righteous’, not thru some windfall inheritance, but thru the process of God redeeming planet earth! ‘Seeing’ it this way does not violate the principles of scripture that over and over speak about the diligent being blessed and the lazy coming to ruin/poverty. There are many believers who are living in disobedience by not working who cling on to doctrines like ‘the end time transfer of wealth’ and wrongly believe that they are going to get money while violating biblical standards. Things like this need to be understood and articulated thru prophetic people before God can entrust us with more. I actually feel that the prophetic movements ‘marriage’ to the prosperity gospel has voided certain things that God wanted to do thru the movement. Balaam was a prophetic person who actually heard from God and spoke Gods words, but scripture says his lust for wealth made him a false prophet [who loved the wages of unrighteousness]. If prophets can’t receive correction from each other then God will never let them ‘correct’ [speak into] the church at large. I feel one of the pitfalls of the prophetic is to think that the goal is to ‘simply be prophetic’. I have met brothers who simply wanted to attend church and stand up and speak. God’s chief concern for all of his people [even prophets] is to carry out the great commission, to be salt and light to a lost and dying world!

John Chiarello

(1) I was praying early one morning while at work, and I ‘saw’ an image of a lion’s head, the impression was so strong that I made a mental note to see what it meant. Over the past few years the Lord has used the imagery of ‘Judah’ and the ‘Lion of Judah’ in a consistent way in my life. Well when I got home from work my wife told me that she printed some Christian materials for me from the computer. The materials were simply various prophetic words that as far as I knew had nothing to do with a lion. Sure enough as soon as I looked at the materials it had the very same image of the ‘lions head’ that I had just seen a few hours earlier. The lesson from this was simply a confirmation that there would be some valuable things contained in these prophecies that the Lord wanted me to pay attention to. The prophecies were from Bob Jones, a seasoned prophetic person with a long track record of hearing from the Lord.

(2) While praying early [at work again, let me make a note here. I don’t want to give you guys the impression that all I do at work is pray! But being I work a 24 hour shift I often get up at 2 or 3 A.M. and walk outside while I pray] I was outside looking up at the stars. After a few hours of praying I felt the Lord impress on me to ‘pray the Daniel prayer’, which to me meant pray for the Lord to send ‘divine intervention’ right now [the thought I had was God sending the angel to Daniel after he prayed, a sort of ‘breakthrough’ from heaven to earth]. Also this morning while walking and praying there was a bundle of wood recently cut from a tree. This had me thinking about the ‘God of Elijah’ and whether God could still send ‘fire from heaven’. Well I finally prayed the ‘Daniel prayer’ and simply said something to the effect of ‘God send an angel and show me your ability to supernaturally intervene on our behalf’. Well within a few seconds I saw the biggest meteorite ever, it was huge and you could actually see flames of fire [this was a real meteorite, not a vision]! Well to say the least God was confirming he still is able to supernaturally act on the behalf of his kids, and the ‘God of Elijah’ can still send fire from heaven! [Let me add, I was just outside praying and was thinking about adding this and while thinking about it I saw 2 shooting stars. One left a ‘line/stream’ for a few minutes, sort of like a planes wake. What I wanted to add is when you get up early to pray outside it is not unusual to see shooting stars. I have seen hundreds [without exaggeration] over the years. The fact that this meteorite was at least 50 to 100 times bigger than any I have ever seen was significant] ‘By thy favor you have made my mountain to stand strong’ [bible verse].

(3) While praying early one morning [in my yard at home] I told the Lord ‘I’m tired of being a Lightning Rod’. Within a second or two I ‘heard’ the Lord say ‘I called James and John the sons of thunder’ [this is in the Bible]. While at work praying it was thundering outside, but it wasn’t raining so I was able to walk outside. A very loud thunderclap and bolt of lightning struck so close to where I was praying that I felt a feeling of like being dazed [I wasn’t struck by lightning]. This simply confirmed the word that if God wants me to be a ‘son of thunder/lightning bolt’ who am I to dispute Him. I feel the ‘lightning bolt’ imagery spoke to the many ‘controversial’ subjects I deal with thru our teaching ministry. The teaching ministry often attracts ‘violent’ responses from those hearing us for the first time! A lightning rod attracts lightning by its very nature. It is mounted in a high place, it is often isolated and ‘gets struck’ while no one else is around. I also recently read a prophecy from the Elijah list that spoke of believers walking around with ‘lightning Rods’ protruding out of their bodies and being ‘struck’ by God, I feel this is also in keeping with what the Lord communicated to me thru this experience [earlier I was praying in the same area where this happened, it is about a week after I penned this, and it ‘dawned’ on me that I was standing about 3 feet from a radio tower [it acts just like a lightning rod] when this happened!]. ‘The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force’ [bible verse].

(4) Let me put this one in while its currently happening. Right now while typing this I have fox news on in the background. They are showing a live shot of the Hudson river/New York city region. I was just praying for this exact region this morning. I grew up on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. Well the reason fox news is showing this live shot is there is an old naval ship being moved up the Hudson for repairs. This is an old ship that hasn’t moved for many years. Sure enough the propellers just got suck in the mud. I have been praying for the Lord to give us a breakthrough in the New York City area for quite some time. I believe the Lord wants us to do some ‘Apostolic’ work in this region. One of the classical definitions of an Apostle is the image of a fleet of ships launching out into new territories in order to colonize new lands. Well the ship being moved right now hasn’t moved for years. I feel like this could speak to our present situation, I have been believing the Lord to ‘launch’ us for a long time in this region. The ship finally got moving and sure enough it gets stuck! Well there are always obstacles getting in the way of those trying to ‘colonize’ new regions for the kingdom of God.

(5)  I had a dream that I walked into a classroom full of people [a whole community]. They were all sitting in front of a big blackboard. On the board there was a riddle. When I looked at the riddle it seemed obvious to me what it meant. I thought that everyone should know what it meant. I got up and went to the board and solved the riddle. I asked everyone if they saw the answer to the mystery. They all responded yes. I felt like this meant there would be certain things that we would ‘solve’ or reveal thru our teaching ministry that would make things clear and plain. Though the riddle was unsolvable at first, after I solved it, it was easily understandable to every one there.

(6)  When I first accepted the Lord I attended a Baptist Church for a few years. I would often have friends call me ‘John the Baptist’. To be honest I never liked being called this. The Church was a good Church, but I always saw myself as being Christian as opposed to some denominational title. Well a few years ago my mother was visiting me from New Jersey and told me an interesting story. She said when I was a little boy [around 6-9yrs old?] that I was in some type of school play and I stood up and said ‘my name is John and I was named after John the Baptist’. I asked her why I said this, was it some sort of Christian play or something, she told me no. She just thought it strange that I would say this out of the blue. Well I felt this to mean if God wants to call you something [whether ‘son of thunder’ or whatever] that he will confirm it in undeniable ways. Also I was 43 yrs old when I found this out, it was like the Lord used me to prophesy to myself and I didn’t even know it! ‘I have raised up one from the north. From the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name. Who raised up the righteous man from the east and gave the nations before him. He will come upon princes as upon mortar and the coastlands shall wait for his law. There was a man sent from God whose name was John [insert your name here!]. Before you were born I made mention of your name. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you to be a prophet to the nations.’[Bible verses!] [You can apply all this to yourself as God directs. I don’t want to sound to self-important here].

(7) When I first moved to Corpus Christi from Kingsville, there was a political argument going on over whether or not to open an old [ancient] channel from an intercostal waterway to the gulf of Mexico. I live close to this area. This channel has finally opened and I felt like the Lord was saying ‘there are many enemies resisting the opening of ‘waterways’ but he would prevail and new waterways would open [spiritually]’. I felt like the Lord wanted me to go to this new channel and walk the jetty [which is a type of ‘wall’ strutting out into the ocean]. When I finally went I pulled up to a parking area and took off my shoes and socks and began the walk. After about a 150 yards or so I realized that I was burning my feet on the hot sand, but I decided to finish the walk anyway. I also passed a writing in the sand that said ‘I love Chris’ to which I added a T and it said ‘I love Christ’. Well I walked out on the jetty and sat for about 20 minutes and enjoyed the area. By this time I realized that I did burn my feet pretty badly but just went with it. On the walk back to the truck I passed the ‘I love Christ’ writing and saw another writing [which I didn’t see the first time] that said ‘I love Peter’. I felt that ‘Peter’ represents the ‘flesh’ and the Lord was simply confirming his love and acceptance for me [and you!] despite the many failings of our flesh! A few days later I was reading from a prophetic website [Glory of Zion/Chuck Pierce] and they share both prophecies as well as the actual things that they do during their early morning prayer time. One of the early prayer watches had a brother named John ask for a shofar, well I just attended a meeting a few weeks earlier and made the strange request for someone to donate to me a shofar. I really didn’t know why I asked for a shofar, but felt the Lord wanted me to ask for one. Well after reading the prophetic site I realized it was just a confirmation telling me to pay attention to this prophetic word. Well the word [from Chuck Pierce] continued on to speak about new waterways opening and also for us to walk on these new ‘higways/walls’ that will bring us to a higher place. The prophecy even said ‘that where you walked before and burned your feet, you will walk there no more’. Well my feet had blisters for a few weeks! Scripture says God will make a ‘way’ [waterway?] thru the wilderness and ‘rivers in the desert’. Both of these images speak of ‘cutting a road thru the sand and letting water run thru it’. Also if you add this to the ‘John the baptist/lighntnig rod/sons of thunder’ prophecy it really has meaning from the message bible, it calls John ‘thunder out of the desert’. John was a ‘prophetic blast’ that came out of [cut thru] the desert! Let me add another thing, after I wrote this, later on in the day I was watching the ‘God channel’ on direct TV. I saw a prophetic sister [Patricia King] who I never watched before. Her show is called ‘extreme prophetic’. Well it started with the verses about John the Baptist and spoke of the ‘burning man’ coming out of the desert. I thought maybe I should pay attention to this show. She spoke all about prophetic stuff and at the end gave a prophecy saying ‘the fire and lightning of God Are going to burn things out of you that don’t need to be there’ [This is not an exact quote, but the fire and lightning are!]. This experience at the channel happened in 2006, in 1980 I went to this area of the ocean at night with some friends to party [my girlfriend, who is now my wife, and my friend from N.J. who died of aids, you’ll read this later] As we were drinking and getting drunk I had the great idea of swimming out as far as we could and live on the edge of possibly drowning. A great idea! Well me and my buddy did swim out, and of course I had to go much further than him. I realized that I swam too far and the undertow was drawing me out. I’m drunk, it’s around midnight and I feel like I am going to die this night. I started swimming back frantically and finally reached the point where I could touch ground! The same places where God would speak to me years later, the enemy tried to kill me on this night! ‘For thy sake we are killed all the day long. I will pay back reproach to the islands, I will cast your sins into the sea’ [bible verses]. Let me take a chance here and confess a few things. I believe I risked death too much with some of these chances I took. There is actually a ‘thrill’ at risking your life. Jim Morrison [the doors] also had this fixation. Listen to the songs ‘the end’ and ‘break on thru to the other side’. A few years ago I was at a truck fire [pretty common for firefighters] and out of laziness didn’t put on any protective gear. I was putting it out with the fire hose when the propane tank released hot propane from the relief valve. It didn’t blow up, but it did get hot. I just stood there [from a little distance] and kept putting water on it. I know its stupid but it could have exploded and hurt me pretty bad. The friend I was with at the fire is the fishing friend you will read about in this paper. He once came over to see me because it was a while since we got together and he had a dream that I died. I realize that even working with the guys I work with [addicts and ex-cons] that there is still an inherent danger in doing this. Not to long ago I was with some guys and they were actually smoking crack at one point. I am saying this to confess that you can try to play it safe and not take risks and live your life on a church pew [boring], or you can take real risks and possibly ‘leave’ a little early, but no one ever gets out alive anyway [another quote from Jim Morrison]. Don’t take dumb risks, but don’t live too safe!

(8) These next three experiences all happened within the first few years of becoming a Christian. During this time I was attending a Fundamental Baptist Church [they were a good Gospel preaching Church!] that did not believe in the gifts of the Spirit or prophetic things.

A- One night I was invited to preach at the Church as one of the ‘preacher boys’ [a group of a few young guys who felt the Lord was calling us to be preachers]. During the sermon, as a joke [or so I thought!] I pointed out a friend and said that his secret sin was smoking cigars. Well I immediately said I was just kidding but wanted to say it to illustrate some point. Well little did I know that the ‘point’ God wanted illustrated was the fact that this friend of mines secret sin was smoking cigars! His wife and another friend confirmed this right after the message.

B- One of the friends from the above story [not the cigar smoker!] loved to listen to Brother Rollof. We all loved and admired Bro. Rollof as one of the most prominent Baptist preachers in the area. Well one day, out of the blue, I remember telling my friend ‘Brother Rollof will be dead soon’. My friend was offended that I would say this [and to be honest it offended me too!]. Well within a few years Bro. Rollof did die in a plane crash. Bro. Rollof was the type of health minded person who could have easily lived to a hundred. I believe he was around sixty years old at the time of his death, it was definitely premature. [This was simply prophecy, I don’t want you guys to think I am going around pronouncing peoples deaths!] UPDATE- I just read a memorial for brother Rollof. He died in November of 1982, less than a year, possibly only a few months from the prophetic word. I try not to over exaggerate dates and stuff, so I originally erred on the possible longer date.

C- This last one will probably be the most interesting. During this time as a new believer I was daily learning the word and truly enjoying the journey. I was working as a house painter for a Christian homebuilder. We were building a huge house for a dentist. While inside painting one of the rooms I heard a loud scream as in if someone was hysterical. I quickly went to the room downstairs where I thought the scream came from. When I entered the room I saw the mother of the boys who lived in the home had found her young boy [around 2 or 3 years old?] at the bottom of the swimming pool and he was blue and lifeless, this boy was dead! Well one of the other carpenters began doing C.P.R. on the boy. The mother was in hysterics and I started to pray. I distinctly remember the prayer. I simply prayed for God to put the boys spirit back in his body and for God to bring him back from the dead [it was not one of those ‘if it be thy will’ type prayers!]. Well sure enough after a minute or two the boy started coughing and breathing. Later on during the week the boy had told the doctor when he was dead at the bottom of the pool that Jesus had appeared to him. The doctors testified that the lack of brain damage and the recovery were miraculous. The local newspaper ran a front page story that read ‘child says he saw the Lord’ [Kingsville Record- early 80s. maybe you can find it on line?]. The boys father is still a local dentist here in Kingsville, and the boy is alive and doing well today. I would like to mention that at the time I didn’t make a big thing out of it, but there were people that I knew from the Baptist church I attended that kind of said ‘wow, what happened’ and my response was ‘oh the Lord raised the boy from the dead’. It was more of a childlike faith as a new believer trusting God to do a miracle. We have such a tendency to want to publicize these types of things that I feel this hinders the Spirit from doing more miracles. Sort of like God knows how much we really like getting the glory out of ‘God used me to raise the dead’ that this prevents him from doing it more often! [Let me add that this is the 1st time I have told this story in writing, 20 something years after the fact. And the only other time I ever shared it was on the radio about 8 to 10 years after we started broadcasting]

(9)  One of the friends I work with became a fishing buddy over the years. This friend is a Christian, but not so much into the word or real ‘active’. He’s a good friend whose part of an older type denomination. Over the years of our friendship I would encourage him to get a bible and read it for himself. One day while in simple conversation I ‘saw’ him going into a bookstore, picking up a bible, looking at it and then putting it back [let me say I ‘saw’ all this within a few seconds while talking to him!]. Well I relayed what I saw to him, and you could see the look of surprise on his face as he admitted to me that this just happened a few days earlier! I believe this to be a type of ‘prophetic evangelism’ where God uses us in simple every day settings to prophetically testify to people of the grace of God.

(10) let me put this one in here because it has to do with my ‘fishing friend’. One day I had a dream of a major earthquake. It was quite vivid and till this day I can still ‘see’ all the people running for cover and fleeing for their lives. Well a few days later I told my friend about the dream. Within a few weeks a major earthquake occurred in some part of the world and it was all you saw on the news for a few days. If I remember right they said it was the most deaths caused by an earthquake within around one hundred years.

(11)  I had a dream that me and one of the people I was trying to reach out to were on a railroad track. We were in my truck and were stuck. As the train passed by we had to jump. My friend jumped to far and needed me to reach out a hand. Out of fear and self-preservation I didn’t. Well the train passed and we were both fine. But he was offended that I let him down at this point. This friend is one of the brothers who is struggling with drug addiction [cocaine!]. Well within a few weeks he went to jail and started writing me. I have written friends in prison for many years. I would say hundreds of letters over the years would not be an exaggeration! But it was many years since I have done it. I was tempted to put the letter aside and just read it and that’s all, but then I remembered the dream and felt like I should not let this friend down. I sent him all the little books I wrote over the years and after a few months of writing I could tell that there was a change for the better. Not just because he was in jail, but he would tell me how after reading the books I sent that it was amazing how much God was doing in his life. He really felt a type of ‘baptism’ of the Spirit while reading the books. [These are my words to describe what he was telling me]

(12)  Back in the early 90s we had a prophet visit our city who was one of the original prophets from the Kansas City Prophets [this is the story of Mike Bickle and the Kansas city Church that is usually looked to as the ‘birthing’ of the modern prophetic movement]. After the service I felt the Lord wanted me to share a prophetic word with this brother. It was a personal word that could have been right or wrong [not one of those prophecies like ‘God loves you my child’ type things]. Well after I shared the word he told me that it was right on. This sounds a little like I am bragging to share this, but the reason I share this is I felt the Lord wanted Corpus Christi to ‘be on the map’ spiritually speaking. That there was a ‘prophetic’ connection that he wanted our city to have with the current prophetic movement. The prophecy said ‘you are going thru a period of disorientation, where its difficult to function. This season seems like its not going to end, but after a while the lord will stabilize you and you will feel ‘grounded’ again in order to function’. They had moved from the Kansas City area to Dallas and the wife was having these types of feelings [him too?].

(13)  When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey I lived next to a cemetery on a hill. Well this cemetery became a place to explore and have fun in. During the winter after a good snowfall we would ride our sleds down thru the headstones. It was illegal but we would also keep an eye out for the cops, we were good runners! Also in the middle of the cemetery there was a train tunnel that went from my neighborhood and exited out to the Hudson River. It came out right across the Manhattan area of New York City. The skyline where the twin towers and other historic landmarks were located. We used to walk thru the tunnel [about a mile underground] and exit on the Hudson River. If a train were going thru we would hide behind a huge pipeline until it passed. The train guys would yell at us thinking we were going to rob the train [which I did do another time with some friends at a different location]. We even got arrested once for trespassing. Also one time me and a friend were going thru with bows and arrows and we saw the lights of 2 dirt bikes heading our way. We just stopped in the middle of the tracks [it was pitch black] and had the bows drawn until they got to us. We scared them pretty bad; I guess they thought we were going to kill them. Well anyway one time this cemetery demolished an old mausoleum. I went thru the wreckage and found what looked to be a cement seashell. It was big and heavy, but I thought it would look good in my yard. So I took it home and left it in the yard. Many years later [30 yrs?] on one of my trips back to New Jersey I took this ‘sea shell’ back to Texas with me in my truck. This was the year the Lord was using the imagery of the Lion of Judah in my life. I felt like the Lord was referring to me as Judah. This also was a time where I received certain words  about increased authority to do Kingdom Works [Lions exercise great authority]. Well after returning back to Texas I placed this concrete thing in my backyard [where it still is today]. Well one day while talking to my dad on the phone I told him I took it. And he said ‘oh you took that old lions paw’. I then realized that this ‘sea shell’ was really the broken off foot from a lions statue that was mounted in the cemetery. To me this fit in perfectly with all the lion of Judah imagery I was seeing at the time. It spoke of exercising authority to do Kingdom works in that area of the country. It was a sign from my childhood that would take 30 years before it would have any significance. The ‘foot’ is significant; scripture says ‘blessed are the feet of those who are bringing the Gospel’. This spoke to me about having authority to bring the gospel to this region of the country. The friend I went thru the tunnel with was a good friend of mine while growing up. The second trip coming back to Texas as young men [18-19 yrs old] he came back with me. Eventually after I accepted the Lord I was able to lead my friend to the Lord. He stayed in Texas for a few yrs. Eventually he got married and had kids. He was a member of the Church I started in Kingsville in 1987. We were still young at the time [around 25 yrs old]. It was a blessing to fellowship as believers after all the years as good friends and doing crazy stuff. Eventually he went back to New Jersey and I found out that he discovered that he had aids. His wife also later found out she contracted it from him. I prayed for them as good friends for years. Out of the blue one day the wife called to let me know my friend died. He was around 32 yrs old. A few yrs later I received a letter from the wife and though she was sick it was a great testimony how her oldest son was on fire for the Lord and preaching the gospel in New Jersey. I never heard from them again, I assume the wife died by now. Till this day I continue to pray weekly for the boys [they had 4 boys] and pray that the Lord would continue to use them in ministry.

(14)  I had a dream that I was on the old block that I grew up on as a boy. I was talking to a friend on the block and he invited me to look into his house. As I looked in I was surprised to see the amount of space in this house. Though I lived on the block as a boy, it surprised me that it was so spacious. I felt like the Lord was telling me that I would be surprised at the open door/access that he would give us in this region. That there would be more ‘room’ to function than I presently saw. Rooms/Houses can represent families/communities [the house of David, etc.] The Lord says things like ‘I have set you in a large place’ ‘in my Fathers House are many mansions’ [Bible verses] meaning spiritual access and ability to function freely.

(15)  I had a dream that me and some friends were canoeing down a river/rapids and the friends who were in the canoe with me were seeing sights that they never saw before, they were truly like kids seeing fun sights for the 1st time. The ride was inherently dangerous [rough water] but it was a necessary danger in order to complete the course. I felt like the Lord was saying there would be many friends who would ‘take the journey’ with us even though it will be risky. Those who persevere will ‘see’ spiritual truths that they have never seen before.

(16)  I received different prophecies over the years from various prophetic people. I distinctly remember a few from well-established national ministers. One said ‘I see your right hand as possessing great authority to do kingdom works, not just ordinary authority, but special authority to function’. Another said ‘you will have great influence, not just local but worldwide’. I am paraphrasing somewhat, but this was the jist of it. I don’t want to sound self-serving by sharing these, but I do want to say that when I received these types of words there was a tendency to think they must say this to everyone. I know they don’t, but there is always that ‘doubt’ that the Lord cant really be saying this about me. I do know he says things like this to many people throughout their lives, but we have a tendency to ‘write it off’ when God wants us to pay attention to prophetic words and if we discern them to be true, then we are not to ‘despise prophecy’. I also received a word from a friend of mines daughter. We were in a service [that her father was pastoring] and after the service the girl told her father that she heard the word ‘umpire’ while looking at me. Umpires make judgment calls that often offend both sides, get a lot of people mad at them, but are necessary in order for the game to proceed! [keep this one in mind as you continue to read!]

(17)  One of my homeless friends [who now has a home] was trying to contact me because he had a vision of seeing chains falling off. Sort of like a ‘mantle’ of chains falling off and leaving his room. During this same week one of my good friends from another town who was part of our early church, and is one of the original ‘drug addicts/ex-cons’ who we reached out to in the early years. He contacted me to tell me of a dream he had. He dreamt that there were people hiding in a tunnel until a huge wave passed over. The wave was made of sand. After the wave passed the people came out and there was a huge pool/body of water. The people were required to ‘get in the water’ but were afraid and hesitant. I felt the dream spoke of a time of confusion/disorientation [sand] that would eventually pass. But after this season of disorientation is over we will be tempted to ‘settle in’ and not plunge into the continuing purpose of God. Don’t fear to go all the way into the water and allow God to carry you. The chains falling off spoke of the breaking of yokes and bondages that hinder us from fully functioning as Gods children. [Also remember the friend I went thru the tunnel with in the N.J. cemetery, when we came out we were at a huge body of water, the Hudson River. My friend who went thru the tunnel with me in New Jersey came to Texas with me. I always felt that the reason he left Texas and went back to N.J. prematurely was out of fear. It’s hard to make it in a strange state when you’re young with a family. In a sense my friend ‘came thru the tunnel’ with me, but the ‘body of water’ was to intimidating and he turned back to soon. ‘My soul is escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler, the snare is broken and I am escaped’ [Bible verses].

(18) Let me share a few signs that have to do with creation. Stars and trees and stuff like that.

A- Over the years I liked the imagery of scripture that speaks of being ‘like a tree planted by the rivers of water’. I actually bought a tree and planted it in my yard by a pond. While praying over the years in my yard I thought of the fact that this tree was planted by ‘water’ and it would remind me of Gods word. This tree is a bald cypress tree. During one of my trips to San Antonio I went to the river walk with the family. I noticed that there were lots of these trees along the ‘river’ walk. These trees were fully grown [not like the small one in my yard]. They had roots that grow down and up! I felt this to mean that our teaching ministry would ‘go deep’ and ‘go high’. This speaks of being grounded in the historic Christian faith as well as ‘going up’ into the realms of prophetic things. I also ‘noticed’ these trees in various surrounding cities that cover our broadcast area and felt like this spoke of our ‘perimeter’ spiritually speaking. I have a cousin that moved to a suburb of Houston a few years ago. I finally sent him some materials and recently felt the Lord wanted us to ‘extend’ to this outer border of our broadcast region. When I finally obeyed the Lord to ‘reach out’ to my cousin I asked my mother exactly what his address was. He lives in a suburb called ‘cypress’. God often uses trees in scripture ‘the lips/mouth of the righteous are like a tree of life’ ‘the kingdom of heaven is like a seed, after its planted it becomes a tree’. This imagery speaks of teaching, becoming established and things of this nature. Also a newly planted tree/bush requires more frequent watering [high maintenance] until its root system becomes fully established, but after it’s established it can draw sufficient resources on its own without having to be ‘spoon fed’. This speaks of the development of new converts. They often require special attention in the early days, but later on should become less dependent on others and learn to draw ‘water’ on their own. Jesus is the gardener and we are the field/garden.

B- Another tree in my yard is a mesquite tree. When I first moved to C.C. I went to the bay and pulled it up, as it was small and growing in the wet sand. This enabled me to pull it up easily and keep the roots at the same time. Over the years this tree has grown very wide [in contrast to the cypress that grows tall]. Just recently it ‘dawned’ on me that this tree was taken from the water area of the bay. It’s a tree that grows quite well along the water. While meditating on the idea that this tree represents a broad stable range of territory, I likened this to the ministry not only going ‘high’ and ‘deep’ but also going ‘broad’. This speaking of an extended area of influence. Just recently they did a study on the mesquite trees of our area. For many years they were considered trash trees [can anything good come out of Nazareth? Bible verse] but this study found the trees to be good for fuel [ethanol] were extremely durable [farmers cant get rid of them if they try!] and very strong hard wood. These are all good character traits that God wants to develop in all of us.

C- One day while shopping at Wal Mart I picked up a rose bush for the yard. Later on I read the tag and found out the name of this bush is ‘Coat of many colors’ after the story of Joseph. I can’t remember exactly but within a day or so the Lord spoke to me about Josephs coat. Josephs ‘coat’ [made from skins] represents ‘flesh’ or ‘body’. The diversity of colors represents Gods house [body] being comprised from every ethnos. God favored Joseph above every other ‘ethnic’ tribe that comprised natural Israel. This showing Gods favor resting on the Church [comprised of both Jew and Gentile] as opposed to any natural ethnicity. All the colors of this coat were worn by one man that had great favor with both man and God. In Jesus all ethnic groups are brought together as his ‘flesh’ [skin/ covering] and the fathers favor rests on us as ‘one new man’!

D- Over the years I have planted, transplanted trees. I have seen many bushes, plants and other types of growth occur naturally as well as by design. Some of the sturdiest flowers [you cant stop them!] actually grow in the wild. These are Texas wildflowers. I have bought cases of wildflower seed and tried to ‘make it happen’ in my own yard. I realized that these wildflowers could take root this way, but its not easy! Some people are under the impression because they are wild and grow in near drought conditions, that somehow this means they can easily be planted. Wrong. I like this imagery; they remind me of the Ecclesia [the Greek word in the New Testament for Church]. They grow ‘by nature’ and are hard to imitate [or make happen]. They survive and actually grow in extreme desert like conditions [wow!] and they are some of the most beautiful plants that you will notice at the right time of the year. God has many different ‘methods’ of establishing his ‘garden’. Some are natural, some are transplanted and some come from the store [the more organized type of Church/Christian] but they are all his planting and provide food and shade and other good benefits. Also the ‘wild’ ones seem to thrive the best in ‘desert’ conditions and are very hard to ‘force produce’. The Old Testament prophets actually use the imagery of the ‘desert blooming’ as a type of Gods restoration of Israel. The fact that God causes his people to prosper/blossom in dry/desolate places is an encouragement for all of us! The other day I took a ride around the Corpus Christi bay area with the family. We just drove thru a number of cities that I don’t usually drive thru. We stopped at a K Mart [Portland- this is the city you will read about later where we were going to rob a car] and went in to shop. I randomly picked up a book and opened it up to the middle and read ‘things are about to change drastically in your life, be excited about it’. I felt the Lord speak to me in this simple way. I immediately looked at another book next to it. It was a beautiful picture book called ‘the desert in bloom’. It’s a collection of many of the wildflowers and plants that blossom in the ‘southwest desert’ of the United States. I bought the book and quickly wrote the ‘verse’ that I read in the first book [I admit I wrote it before I bought the book and my kids were like ‘now dads writing in the books in stores’!]. I felt the Lord saying to many of us that he’s about to bring forth growth and beauty from our ‘dry and barren wilderness’. Scripture speaks of ‘suddenlies’ or specific seasons of drastic change and breakthrough. There are times when God works ‘drastic’ changes that set the course for the rest of our lives; we should be open and willing to allow him to do a ‘suddenly’ on our behalf!  ‘SHALL THE EARTH BRING FORTH IN ONE DAY? SHALL A NATION BE BORN AT ONCE? FOR AS SOON AS ZION TRAVAILED SHE BOUGHT FORTH HER CHILDREN. I WILL EXTEND PEACE TO HER LIKE A RIVER. WHEN YOU SEE THIS YOUR HEART SHALL REJOICE. YOUR SEED AND YOUR NAME SHALL REMAIN. LET THY WORK APPEAR UNTO YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR GLORY UNTO YOUR SERVANTS. THOU MEETSET HIM THAT REJOICETH AND WORKET RIGHTEOUSNESS. AS THE NEW WINE IS FOUND IN THE CLUSTER SO WILL I DO WITH YOU. I WILL BRING FORTH A SEED OUT OF JACOB, AND OUT OF JUDAH AN INHERITOR OF MY MOUNTAINS. THE FORMER TROUBLES ARE FORGOTTEN, THEY ARE HID FROM MINE EYES. REMEMBER NOT THE FORMER THINGS, NEITHER CONSIDER THE THINGS OF OLD. FOR I AM DOING A NEW THING, I WILL MAKE A WAY IN THE WILDERNESS AND RIVERS IN THE DESERT. YOU WILL NOT LABOR IN VAIN NOR BRING FORTH FOR TROUBLE. FOR YOU ARE THE SEED OF THE BLESSED OF THE LORD, AND YOUR CHILDREN ALSO.’ [Bible verses]

E- Let me share some ‘signs from heaven’. The bible warns us against seeking wisdom from satanic/occult sources. There is a distinction between astronomy and astrology. Astrology is forbidden for believers, astronomy isn’t! The scriptures actually contain many events where God used stars and signs from heaven in his dealings with man. The story of the wise men following the star until they found Christ. Future prophecies of the sun and moon turning into ‘blood’ and not giving off light. All these types of signs from heaven are biblical and legitimate. Over the years spending many hours outside praying has afforded the opportunity to see things in the sky while not really seeking after it. One morning I had a dream of a Christmas tree, it was the type of impression that I felt it to be significant. Over a few weeks I simply tried to be open to any type of confirmation from a tree or something to do with Christmas [it was July]. After a few weeks I let it go and really wasn’t going all out over this impression from the dream. While outside praying in the early hours [between 2-5 am] I simply looked up and saw a formation in the stars that looked just like a Christmas tree. I immediately felt this to be the sign. The day I saw the tree was July 17, my birthday. As I looked at the ‘tree in the stars’ a plane flew right thru the ‘tree’. I felt the Lord speaking to me on my ‘birthday’ with a sign from Christ’s ‘birthday’ [I know Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas]. Scripture says ‘this day have I begotten thee, ask of me and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession’ [somewhere in Psalms]. The plane spoke of sending [wings on your feet type imagery] and I felt the Lord saying he was going to ‘birth’ some new things in my life in the area of sending and going.

F- Another image I have seen in the stars is a ‘kite’. I really don’t know the actual formations of any of these stars [I couldn’t tell you where the big dipper is and stuff like that] but I simply see these formations as I pray. Also all of these formations are always there. Some times of the year you cant see them as well from where I pray, but these formations were there this morning while outside praying. I don’t want to give the impression that these are one-time events. That was true of the ‘meteor’ sign, but not with these things. Well as I saw the ‘kite’ imagery I remembered as a boy growing up in New Jersey how after flying a kite in a local park I broke the string and me and my dad drove a few blocks over and actually found it behind some house on a hill. So this image fit in with my prayer time over the northeast. From where I pray the ‘kite’ is actually located over the northeast. Also from my youth I remember going to Philadelphia on class field trips and visiting the historic areas of our country. By my old neighborhood as a boy there was a huge liberty bell as a memorial of the liberty we have in our country [Fairview]. I also have an old coin from boyhood that my father gave me with Benjamin Franklin on one side and the liberty bell on the other. Well all this speaks of freedom/liberty and the person of Benjamin Franklin. On one of my drives to work I recently noticed a billboard add for some company and it has a huge picture of Benjamin Franklin saying ‘go fly a kite’ [Ben Franklin was the one who flew the kite to see if he could harness the power of electricity thru a lightning bolt. There’s the lightning image / sons of thunder. The earlier vision of the lightning rod protruding into heaven and being struck also fits in here. Franklin was acting like a human lightning rod when flying the kite]. All these images spoke to me about sending and going into the nations. Scripture says God sets his ‘tent/tabernacle’ in the stars. Gods ‘territory/parameters’ are seen in the stars. The fact that this kite image is over the northeast spoke to me about ‘possessing this land’. Remember John the Baptist was called ‘thunder out of the desert’ showing God brought ‘lightning’ from Johns ministry out of the desert! I am surrounded by sand and ‘desert’ conditions where I live on a bluff. John the apostle wrote in revelation that he ‘saw a door opened in heaven’. John was on an island [desert/isolated place] when he ‘saw this’ sign from heaven. Putting it all together it simply means to me that its time to truly impact the northeast and bring some ‘thunder out of the desert’! Jesus said of John the Baptist that people rejoiced to see and partake of the ‘light’ [fire gives off light] for a season. Jesus understood thru prophecy that John’s time was limited. God is a consuming fire who makes his ‘ministers’ flames of fire. Scripture speaks of people at certain seasons of history as being ‘firebrands’. God ‘ignites’ people for specific purposes. Sometimes the actual ‘purpose’ causes us to be ‘consumed’ [the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up-Bible verse]. There should be a real sense of Gods purpose in our lives that goes beyond a ‘survival mentality’. We should allow God to ignite us for his purpose and be ‘used up’ [consumed] before we leave this life! ‘I will raise up a prophet among them like unto thee and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak unto them all that I command him’ [Bible verse].

G- Let me put these last 2 ‘signs in the stars’ here. I have seen the forms of both a trumpet as well as an arrow [it also looks like a cross]. Both of these speak of ‘a prophetic voice’ and ‘direction/sending forth’. John the Baptist was a ‘trumpet [horn] of salvation/ a voice in the wilderness’. God makes his ‘tent’ in the stars, Gods prophetic parameter extends much further than we comprehend! Also scripture speaks of children being like arrows in the quiver of a mighty man. Train up a child ‘in the way he should go’ and when he is old he will not depart from it. This speaks of direction and staying on course. Arrows are things you point/start in a certain direction and they stay on course until they hit the mark. The scripture speaks a lot about trumpets. Both actual and in symbolic ways. People at times are referred to as ‘trumpets’. Trumpets and ‘things giving off sound’ are actual weapons in scripture. The story of the children of Israel marching around cities and giving shouts. Israel’s history of blowing trumpets as they enter into battle. God’s people are like prophetic mouthpieces in society who carry on their lips [thru proclamation and prayer] powerful weapons that tear down the strategies of the enemy. God ‘sets’ us and points us in a definite direction [the path we should go] throughout our lives and launches us forth as ‘arrows in the hand of a warrior’ and we hit the mark [his purpose for us] and do damage to enemy territory! The arrow/cross speaks of God sending his son to earth with a purpose to ‘hit the mark’. Jesus was born to die.

H- I was reading the bible the other day and came across some scripture that spoke to the truth of all the patriarchs and saints of old having seen the stars. Things like God telling Abraham go outside and count the stars if you can. Jesus spent entire nights in prayer. It just struck me that they were all looking at the exact same stars that I see! There are not many [if any] things that you can actually look at on a daily basis that are the same things that Jesus and David and others also saw daily. I mean you can go to the shore if you live on the coast, but you still would not be seeing the same part of the beach or water that they saw [unless you live in the holy land!]. I just wanted you to have a sense of the unchanging nature and reality of our God. Scripture teaches us that creation itself is a wonderful testimony and reminder of Gods majesty and faithfulness. I would encourage you to make it a point and wake up early someday and go outside and pray under the heavens and realize that these are the exact same stars that Jesus prayed under 2 thousand years ago. I recently read a prophetic word from Chuck Pierce which said ‘the stars will be for signs and direction in the days ahead’ we forget the importance that signs and dreams played in the lives of the biblical characters. Solomon’s great story of God appearing to him and Solomon asking for wisdom as opposed to riches, you know the story, well it all happened in a dream! The story surrounding the birth of Jesus and fleeing to Egypt and God telling Joseph not to fear. The naming of Jesus and John the Baptist were words God sent from angels! I am currently doing a radio study on the book of Hebrews; the law is referred to as ‘the word spoken by angels’. God uses angels to communicate at times to man. All of these things were revealed thru dreams, angels were involved as well as signs from heaven [the star that led the wise men to Christ] we need to realize that we serve a living God, and he desires to communicate to his kids in various ways. None of these ‘ways’ should contradict scripture, and if they do then you reject the ‘sign’ and go with scripture! But we should not limit God thru our unbelief. Look at this verse ‘When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy Sons o Zion, against thy sons o Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with the whirlwinds of the south’. I like this, it contains arrows, lightning and trumpets, as well as the strategic ‘Southland’ many of the above signs can be seen here.

(19)  Let me share something that I just felt the Lord wanted me to share while outside praying. I came to Texas from New Jersey at 18 years of age. After getting into trouble in the navy I got kicked out after a few months [I like to tell my wife I earned my discharge in a few months while it took her 4 years! she was also in the navy]. After a few more months of partying and being ‘lost’ I ran into some Christians who I earlier met while in the navy and eventually accepted the Lord. As a young Christian I immediately saw the responsibility of the great commission and started reaching out to anyone who would listen. This is how I met a lot of the friends of mine who were drug addicts/ex-cons; I would go to the local jails and preach. Many of the older guys I would preach to [in their 40s] had sons who were also into drugs and stuff, these sons were my age. After I started our Church these younger guys eventually would get reached because I was friends with some of their fathers. Till this day there are a few good friends that I still keep in touch with from this group. We had various people attend our church while we rented space in an old hospital building. We eventually moved into my 2-car garage and held services there. One of the people who became a member of our church [though I didn’t have an ‘official’ membership thing for people to join] was an ordained minister who also had a background in sorcery and witchcraft. He was around my age at the time [26yrs old] and had a background of causing trouble in churches. I tried my best to let him help in any way I could, but I would notice little things that he was doing to cause trouble. Like leaving signs of sorcery/occult things around our house or the homes of some of our members. After a while it became obvious that he was here to start trouble. I always saw him as somewhat of a threat to the church, but I also recognized that maybe in some strange way we could reach out to him like anybody else. I was wrong! This person did all he could do to bother us. He started a rumor that me and him were having a gay relationship. A few people told me he was going around saying this. I went to his home with another brother in my car [who he said this to] and I asked him on his porch if he said this to so and so. He emphatically denied it. Well when the brother who he said it to got out of the car he knew he was caught. Of course this didn’t stop him. By this time I already told him not to attend the meetings anymore and tried to keep my distance from him. He would send people to my home at 2 in the morning while I was at work on a 24-hour shift. He harassed my wife and kids. He brought tainted food to my house for my family while I was not there [he pretty much confessed to this himself]. He would call the fire dept. while I was on duty and make false alarms. One time he called and actually reported a real fire in an abandoned house a few blocks away from where he lived. He was there when I showed up and acted like he had nothing to do with it. I had my tires slashed, window on my car broken while at work. It was pretty much a nonstop thing for a few years. A real pain! Over the years it eventually stopped. I did move to Corpus Christi from Kingsville and this did have something to do with it. I had to eventually come to a point where I could forgive him, which I did. Over the years he actually went down hill pretty bad and I helped him in a number of ways. I never let him get my address or phone # [which by the way he tried to get from my job once!] but I did forgive him and even prayed for him over the years. This was coming a long way from being on the verge of beating him up, as well as a few people he ‘enlisted’ in harassing me. They called me up at work to threaten me and in anger I told the guy to come on down right now and I’ll kick your @#$#@ right here. Obviously the Lord would have had to forgive me later, but it sure felt good at the time. I managed to eventually be a help to him without ever letting him get ‘to close’ to become a threat. I did pray for him a few times while at work and even visited him and prayed for him when his dad died. The last time I saw him [about a year ago] he and his son came by the firehouse just to say hi, he looked really bad. I sat with them for a while and shared some scripture with them. I prayed for my friend at the end, and an interesting thing happened. His son [around 20 yrs old] began uncontrollably crying as I prayed for his father to be restored and to return back to the original destiny and purpose that God had for his life. The father was surprised to see his son crying like this, I felt like those words I prayed were more for the son than the father. There is a verse in the bible [I think Isaiah] that says the sons of those who hated you and persecuted you will come and bow down before you. I feel this was a part of it. I believe God allowed all this to happen to me for his glory. Joseph said to his brothers who betrayed him ‘you meant it to me for evil but God meant it for good’. Joseph recognized that even though his brothers really meant evil, that God would turn it around for good. If all this stuff never happened I probably would have never moved to C.C. and started our radio ministry [which is located in C.C.] and you probably wouldn’t be reading this right now! [I’m adding this a few weeks later]. During the time between all of this happening and us moving to Corpus Christi I backslid pretty badly. Me and my wife were separated for a while. I actually did cocaine with some of the people I was previously helping, and had a few violent episodes. It wasn’t easy to recover from this, but I thank God I finally did. ‘I have seen your ways and I will heal you, I will lead you also and restore comforts unto you and to your mourners.’ [Bible verse]

(20)  One of my ‘lost’ experiences prior to being discharged from the Navy was one night me and a friend decided to go U.A [unauthorized absence] from the base in Kingsville. We left the base and went to the local bus station and forked over all the cash we had to our names. I think it was around 15 dollars. We simply told the teller ‘give us a ticket to the furthest city we can afford’. We thought it would at least get us to Houston, but it took us only to Corpus Christi. Well we hopped on the bus and went to Corpus. We had no money so we went to the local blood bank and made a few bucks. We lost it when we got ripped off trying to by some drugs. We decided to rob someone for their car and leave Texas. We managed to go to some older guys house to party. I told my friend not to worry about it, Ill beat him up, you just help me get the keys. We went to a city over some unknown bridge [I know it now to have been the harbor bridge] and went to some unknown city [Portland]. As we sat there drinking some type of German beer [it tasted strong] I simply told my friend that when the guy comes back into the room I’ll hit him with the bottle and we get the keys and take off. While I was sitting there waiting for the guy to come back, I looked into a mirror on one of the walls and saw a beautiful painting of Christ on the wall. It was a real painting on one of the walls and it struck me in my tracks. I immediately felt like God was telling me not to go ahead with the plan so I aborted the mission. We got the guy to take us back to the seawall and I told him he lucked out because I was going to mug him but changed my mind. He looked pretty scared after I said this and just took off. I see this now as the Lord giving me a simple warning thru a work of art hanging on some wall! [It can be wrong to share these types of stories. I really haven’t shared them in detail like this before, but I’m trying to hear the Lord on what to share and not to share. I felt like he said to share this one]. ‘Remember not against us former iniquities, but let your mercies speedily prevent us’ [Bible verse].

(21)  Another ‘story’ of Gods hand at work. While still in the Navy in Kingsville one night I was out partying and hanging out on the streets of Kingsville. I was new to town and didn’t know my way around. I wound up walking thru this field at night while sniffing a bottle of rush [its basically a chemical in a bottle that you take a hit from and get a quick ‘rush’]. I was totally high and disoriented walking thru this unknown town in the middle of this dark field at night. I eventually made it to a street and found my way back to the base. A few years later after accepting the Lord I had a friend who was a drug addict for many years who got converted and was a part of the church we started in Kingsville. One day while in his parents neighborhood I looked over at some ‘field’ and realized that this was the same field I was in that night. God says ‘I will save you out of all the dwelling places where you have sinned, and I will cleanse you’. ‘Get out of the city and dwell in the fields, even in Babylon, and there I will be with you and deliver you from the hand of the enemy’ [Bible verses]. God takes the places where we have fallen and gives us authority to advance his Kingdom in the ‘places where we have sinned’!

(22)  Let me share a little about the friend in the above story. He was one of the first guys I met while going to the jails to preach. He eventually accepted the Lord after many years of being a heroin addict. Many of the older guys were into heroin, while the younger ones were into cocaine. After he became a Christian he was on fire for the Lord. He eventually helped us in our church as the praise leader. He also filled in to preach every now and then. He eventually pastored the local victory outreach in Kingsville and even invited me to preach at the fellowship. He worked with the same group of addicts and ex-cons that I worked with. He was a blessing to me and the ministry. His wife and boys [he had around 4 or 5, I don’t exactly remember] were all good friends and co-laborers in ministry. One night while on duty at the firehouse we got an ambulance call and I responded with my partner. Upon arrival I realized it was my friend who suffered a massive brain aneurysm. He lived about a week and passed away. The Lord allowed me to see him go from drug addiction to serving the Lord and finally leaving this life. A few years back I ran into his wife and kids in Bishop, TX. I prayed for her and spent some time with the youngest boy. He was catching turtles down by one of the creeks. I spent some time with him though there were many ‘ministry’ things that I needed to do that day. I talked to him about his dad and serving the Lord. I felt it was time well spent. The family has had some hard times since the death of the dad, I pray for them till this day. As I’m writing this it occurred to me that I’m surrounded by art that many of these friends sent me over the years. Whenever I would correspond with them in prison they would draw beautiful biblical themes on the envelopes. They also sent me handkerchiefs and actual paintings. I have a beautiful leather bible cover from a friend who made it while in prison. It’s all leather and personalized with our ministry name, its well worth a few hundred dollars if you were to have it made!

(23)  One of the other families who lived in the same town [Bishop] had a few sons caught up in drugs and prison and the whole cycle. The one son I met first was pretty bad. He actually shot 2 cops thru the back seat of their police car when he was picked up as a boy. He spent some time in the juvenile facilities as well as prison. He also would come to our church and was a good friend of mine. He struggled with drugs and violence more than the others. I remember visiting him at his place one time. He knew he had a reputation of being mentally unstable and dangerous. While visiting him he did pick up a military type knife and was walking around with it. He wasn’t threatening at all, I just felt like it was a test. He wanted to see if I could trust him. He walked behind me at one point while I was reading something and I just ignored it. I felt the Lord said there would always be risks involved in working with people, and I would have to go for it. This friend was being chased by the cops one night. They knew his past, especially his history of shooting cops! When they caught him he swallowed a bag of cocaine and it broke in his stomach. He had a massive overdose and died about a week later. I did speak at his funeral and at least one of the younger boys who accepted the Lord during this time is still serving the Lord. I remember how the father would attend our home meetings with the boys and he was so happy that someone was spending time reaching out to his boys. The father [divorced from the mom] had a difficult past as well but became a believer before I met him and always prayed for his sons. It was an answer to prayer to have his sons seeking the Lord to some degree. Actually I just got a call from one of the ‘sons, sons’ who lives in Corpus Christi. He is doing well and just wanted to say hi. Scripture says ‘the words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seeds seed’. God thinks and works generationaly. It’s a great blessing to see the sons of your spiritual sons serving Christ! ‘I will contend with him that contends with thee, and I will save thy children. The littlest one shall become a thousand, and the smallest one a strong nation. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children’ [Bible verses].

(24)  One of the many ways God speaks to me is thru movies. Yes God can even use ‘worldly’ movies! I rented the movie ‘walk the line’ about Johnny Cash. I felt the Lord wanted me to watch it. I remember reading a ‘tract’ on the conversion of Johnny when I was in the Navy. I woke up one night around 1 or 2 am and was debating on whether to watch it or not. I very rarely will watch TV at this time. Usually if I wake up like this I will go outside and pray. I sat down and put the movie in the DVD player. As the movie is running thru the advertisements I cant seem to relax and get ready to watch it. I keep thinking of a recent trip I took to San Antonio. I am thinking of how I heard the train whistle while staying at a hotel downtown. The trains are also things that the Lord has used as signs in my life. Well as I'm sitting there unable to focus on the beginning of the movie, I hear Johnnies voice in the background singing ‘I took the train to San Antone’ and realized it was time to watch this movie! Some of the significant points were how Johnny had a turn around in his life when he started reaching out and sharing his testimony in the Prisons. This reminded me of the stages I went thru in the early years of our ministry. I had [and still have] many good friends I met while going to the jails to preach and writing these brothers as they went to prison. I usually look for some ‘prophetic’ sign while watching a movie like this. June carter gives Johnny a book called ‘the prophet’. Well there is a lot of imagery of John the Baptist and prophetic type things in my life; this was a good sign to me.

(25)  As I was just outside praying I felt the Lord leading me to share this. I was at the point of intercession where I pray for all of the people that we have ever worked with or sown seed into by either word or deed. I refer to these as the ‘Ecclesia and her children’. This covers those of you who are reading this right now! What I wanted most of all to get across is that when I pray like this I am not praying only for the success of ‘our ministry’ [I really don’t like using this term at all] but the overall success of all of the Kingdom works that Father has predestined for all of you. This actually positions me to regularly pray for the benefit of everyone who hears us or receives from us in any way. This includes the leaders/pastors who might hear us and even dislike our strong stance on what the Church is. I am praying for their overall success and Gods purpose to prevail in their lives. I am not doing this out of some feeling of ‘I am more noble than them’. But out of the reality of realizing that all who listen or receive from us are the ‘field’ that God has called us to. Seeing things this way, as opposed to your prayer time being about the success of ‘your ministry’ places you spiritually in a great posture. You actually desire the benefit of people who might not fully understand you, or even those who actively work against you. These themes are actually contained in Jesus instruction on prayer. I would encourage you to begin seeing ‘your ministry’ less and less, and focusing on the overall benefit of the people you relate to over your life. You are not here to build some type of Christian business. You are here to build the Body of Christ! Let me also add here that because of the way we see ‘church/ministry’ and the way we confuse it with the 501c3 model, that this hinders prophetic people. I have heard it said ‘you need a local church covering’ in order to be in biblical order. What most people ‘see’ when they say ‘local church covering’ is a modern Christian business. I am not totally opposed to ‘modern Christian businesses’ [I attend a fantastic local church] as long as we are not using them to ‘de-legitimize’ other functioning members of Christ’s Body. I wrote a prophet in San Antonio who I heard years earlier. He advertised his ‘church’ in the S.A. paper. He did split off from another ‘apostolic’ brother thru a disagreement. He started his own ‘church’ in order to feel and be accepted as legitimate. This comes with the whole package of ‘receiving tithes’ and everything else we see as ‘so-called’ legitimate church. I simply felt the ‘prophetic word’ for this prophet was that he was limiting himself by trying to moderate meetings and become a ‘weekly lecturer’ to Christians while this was hindering his true prophetic ability that simply functions freely in society. I don’t see any prophets in the book of Acts setting up lecture hall environments in order to receive tithes and 'feel legitimate’. Well he never wrote me back, but not to long after I noticed he stopped advertising in the paper. I feel we need to re-think the whole issue of what makes up church and ministry and re-focus on our responsibility to build up each other in love.  ‘Change the way you think and act, because Gods kingdom is here now. Don’t think you need a lot of extra equipment for this, you are the equipment. No special appeals for funds, keep it simple’. [Message bible]

(26)  I shared this dream in one of our books. I dreamt that I was going to a university. Upon arrival I noticed many classes going on with many scholars in suits and ties. In one of the areas of the school there were a bunch of professors in a circle examining something. As I got closer I realized they were surrounding a person who looked like a wounded Indian warrior. His wounds were not normal wounds. They were an extreme mutilation. I thought of the verse in Isaiah that says Jesus was marred more than any man, beyond the point of recognition. I understood part of this dream speaking to the danger of Christians being able to learn and speak on many truths while never being able to fully embrace him. I also believe this could speak to Christ being the source of all knowledge and wisdom, a ‘pool’ or fountain of revelation that can never be totally exhausted. Scripture says that in Jesus are hidden ‘all’ the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If you remember I shared earlier about John seeing ‘an open door’ in heaven [revelation]. Jesus is called the ‘door’ in the gospel of John. This is the same ‘John’ who wrote revelation. Revelation is a prophetic book that uses many types and symbols. The ‘door’ in heaven imagery can also speak to Jesus being ‘opened up’ [a spear was thrust into his side on the cross] and us entering in by faith and accessing all the riches and wisdom that are ‘in him!’.

(27)  Let me share some train ‘imagery’. When I first moved to C.C. in 1992 I would drive to work in Kingsville thru a country road. Around 2004 the Lord was leading me to take another route that would go thru a lot of the surrounding cities on a regular basis. This allowed me to pray and prophesy as I drive thru this ‘perimeter’. I immediately saw the significance of this new route. ‘GO THRU THE CITIES, SAY UNTO JUDAH BEHOLD YOUR GOD’ and scriptures like this speak about going thru the land, prayer territories and going on the ‘walls of the city’. This route actually parallels the Railroad Tracks in this area. I began to see these tracks as the ‘borders’ of our local perimeter. ‘STRENGHTEN THE BARS OF YOUR GATES/ STRENGTHEN YOUR STAKES AND LENGHTEN YOUR CORDS’. I began ‘seeing’ the ‘bars’ of our gates as the tracks, they are strong ‘bars’ of steel. I had a prophet tell us that the Lord was going to ‘explode’ in our perimeter. He used the words ‘circuit’ and perimeter. During these early morning prayer drives I also sensed the imagery of the ‘lion of Judah’ being significant. One time I saw a bobcat on the tracks and incorporated the ‘lion of Judah’ imagery in with this perimeter. Well watching TV one night I was flipping thru the channels and stopped at a show documenting Railroads. I felt the Lord wanted me to watch it. They were talking about the original railroad system in the country and how there was a ‘race’ between different people to see who could get the first railroad that would criss-cross the country. The man who accomplished this was Theodore Judah! During the time that I began driving this new route I noticed that they were replacing all the tracks thru out this area. It was a few year process. While watching the news one night they explained that the reason they were doing this was so the train speed could ‘accelerate’ from 30 miles an hour to around 60 MPH. I felt this speaking to the many prophetic words concerning an ‘acceleration’ that the Lord wants to do at this season. Also during this season of driving thru the land they built many new overpasses for the first time thru out all these cities. This allowed me to drive ‘on the walls of the cities’ for the first time ever. The view of circling new territories and ‘being watchman on the walls/early morning prayer watch’ was significant at this time for our area. God always ‘softens up’ new ground thru prayer/intercession before launching the ground campaign! Also remember the earlier things I shared about the train tunnel growing up as a boy. Both New York and South Texas have connections with this type of imagery. ‘THE COASTLANDS SHALL WAIT FOR HIS LAW’ speaks to areas where people are ‘waiting’ to hear the prophetic word. These territories are both ‘coastlands’ [the gulf coast/Atlantic ocean]. ‘God shall be with you and bring you again into the land of your fathers’ [bible verses].

(28)  I just had a dream about 30 minutes ago. Me and a bunch of people were shopping and ‘vacationing’ in some store area. It could have been an open market or something to that effect. It was winter and as we were shopping, there were people who were waiting for it to snow. There was a person there who never saw snow before. As we walked outside we began to see this commotion in the sky a long way off. As the sky began to ‘churn’ and show movement we began anticipating snow. Then the sky ‘exploded’ into an awesome multicolor light show. Even in the dream I stood back in awe and realized this was significant. As this ‘storm’ approached it caused fear in some and also great expectations. Some of us simply stood still in a praise type position and waited until it reached us. There was a strange phenomenon that occurred. As the storm reached us it sent out a bolt of lightning that also could have been a ‘bolt of snow’. Many of us gladly submitted to the experience, some for the first time [those who never saw snow before]. Also when this was happening there was a half price sale on everything in this shopping area. People were shopping like the day after thanksgiving sale. I feel this speaks to God visiting us in unique and ‘drastic’ ways in the days ahead. During these times of visitation ‘things will be purchased easily’ or treasures that were harder to access before will be easier now. The snow represents a ‘cleansing’ type experience [though your sins be like scarlet they shall be white as snow]. A few years ago it snowed on Christmas day in Corpus Christi. This was an event that hasn’t happened in 100 years or more [the snow stuck to the ground and it was all over town up to a few feet!]. Many of us have been struggling to enter in to places with the Lord, to ‘access’ divine resources from his ‘store house’. As God visits us with ‘divine bolts’ of cleansing we will find it much easier [half price] to possess the true riches that he has for us. [I just went into the house from my office and the song playing on the Christian music channel on TV was ‘let it snow, let it snow, let it snow’!]

(29)  Let me make a confession here. I often listen to the old rock songs that I grew up with. I actually sense a strange type of ‘identifying’ with this generation while interceding in prayer listening to this music. Prophetic things can be very strange at times. Well I was just listening to the song ‘comfortably numb’ by Pink Floyd and remembered this. I don’t know if it was a dream or vision or what. I remember ‘seeing’ people by a waterfall. As they stuck their hands into the fall they became ‘numb’ and one with the fall. I feel this speaks to our ‘thrusting’ in to Gods purpose and becoming one with him. You might think the ‘numbness’ being insignificant. In Isaiah it says ‘ for more are the children of the ‘desolate’ than of the married wife’ this can be interpreted as being ‘numb’.

 When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey my dad brought me home a stick [small tree] that he pulled out of the ground when he went mushroom hunting. I made a cane out of it [you use the ‘root’ end as the handle]. It actually looks like a serpent. On one of my trips back north I brought this back with me to Texas. There were times while praying and walking in my study that I would hold it and use it ‘prophetically’ to point to areas. I had the sense of holding it like Moses staff or Aaron’s rod that budded. This tree is a dogwood tree. My friend told me that dogwood was the wood believed to be used to make Christ’s cross. This could represent having authority [Moses staff displayed Gods authority in Egypt] as well as the ‘serpent on the pole’ imagery used when God told Moses to put the statue of the serpent on the pole. Jesus used this imagery in John chapter 3 to speak of himself ‘as Moses lifted up the serpent…’ Jesus is pictured in this strange way because he became cursed [serpent] for us on the cross. Jesus gives us authority thru his suffering for us. Thanks to the ‘dogwood’ we can rule and reign in life thru him!

(30)  I was just thinking about the recent ‘fall from grace’ of Ted Haggard. Basically Ted was exposed as struggling with homosexuality for some time. He was a very influential leader in the evangelical church. I immediately began praying for him and his family after this happened. I have gotten beyond the point of judging and looking for reasons why these things happen. The most honest statement I have heard in a long time is after a few days of trying to cover up his sin; Ted made a statement saying ‘I am a liar and a deceiver’ and admitted to his failure. David said in Psalms 32 that every one that is Godly would pray at one point or another ‘cleanse me from my iniquity’. There seems to be an appointment with all of us as believers at coming to a point of total honesty and not fearing what man will think of us. This happened with Jimmy Swagart and Paul Cain. Both Godly men who came face to face with their flesh. I see an identifying with Christ that these men go thru that exceeds the normal image that we try to present to people. David also said in Psalms ‘I am a worm and no man’. This was speaking of Christ’s feeling at the cross. Jesus experienced a moment of total worthlessness as he ‘drank’ the sins of the world into his very being. I believe that there are moments of feeling like this in our lives that God uses to cause us to be real and deliver us from the opinions of men. If what we are doing is truly for God then we can overcome these times of inadequacy and journey forward to what is ahead. ‘And they that understand among the people shall instruct many, yet they shall fall many days. Now when they fall they will be helped with a little help. And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try and to purge them and make them white, a time appointed by the father!’ [Bible verse]

(31)  Let me make a confession here. I have shared a lot of stories of fighting and being violent. After all these years you would think that it’s over. I don’t fight like I used to, but there have been times were I have been close. I recently was at a homeless hangout where I see friends who are quite rough. Most of them know me pretty well and I do help them in different ways. The other day I was there with some friends just sitting and reading the paper. A new guy showed up and was acting tough. He had long hair [longer than mine!] and was shirtless with tattoos all over his body. After a while he asked someone who I was. And the other guy said he’s some Christian who must not have a job [wrong] and probably lives off the offerings from the ministry [wrong again] and his wife probably supports him [strike 3]. I ignored it for a little while. Then the guy with the tattoos [who now had his shirt on] walks up to us and takes his shirt off and displays the big tattoo on his back. It was big letters that simply said F. U. Well I got the hint. As I was leaving I gave in to it. I got loud and walked up to the ‘brothers’ and told them I am a firefighter and don’t take money from the ministry or my wife. I laid ‘hands’ on his shoulder and asked if he had any more questions or any thing else he needed to settle. He didn’t. They looked humble at this point. I know this was wrong, but I felt I needed to tell this to let you guys know that I’m still real. Some of my friends know I have lost my temper before and I don’t want to give the impression that I’m perfect.

(32)  The other day I was watching fox news [another confession- I am a political junkie] and our current U.N. ambassador resigned his post. This guy reminds me of a prophetic/pastor friend I met years ago in C.C. The U.N. ambassadors name is John Bolton. The reason he resigned is because when Bush first appointed him he did it as a recess appointment [that’s when you appoint a position while congress is out of session]. Bush appointed him this way because he had a lot of opposition from the opposing party to his nomination. To be fair the guy was doing the job for about a year at the time of his resignation and many of his critics changed their mind about him. But because of petty politics [which both sides practice!] the recent midterm elections gave a majority to the Democrats in the house and Senate and the writing was on the wall. The new incoming senior Democrat stated his opposition to the ambassador and he knew his time was up. The name ‘John Bolt’on is interesting, I have said a lot in this paper about these images [John the Baptist as ‘thunder’ out of the desert. a ‘bolt’ of lightning accompanies thunder]. The fact that he initially was rejected before he even had a chance of ‘proving himself’ speaks to the churches position at large during the restoration of the gifts of apostles/prophets. Many didn’t care if people had the ability to function or not. They simply did not want these ‘ambassadors’ of the Kingdom to function! After a few years now of these ministries operating and representing the Fathers Kingdom you think it would be time for the church at large to recognize and receive them, but this hasn’t necessarily been the case. While these gifts are being accepted and received to a greater degree than before, they are still not being received in a complete way by the church at large. Jesus said if we receive a prophet ‘in the name’ of a prophet we receive a prophets reward. There is a sense of certain giftings being refused, despite the fact that they have actually functioned well in the office! The ‘majority’ will not entrust to them the legitimacy of their office because of petty things. Jesus also told his gifted ones to shake the dust off of their feet if not well received. John Bolton simply resigned and would not let Bush give him another ‘side title’ that would allow him to still be around without the full legitimacy of his office. I feel there are good and bad things that have happened in the prophetic/apostolic movements. One of the mistakes was seeing a rise in ‘apostolic covering’ type ministries. It was not uncommon to find well meaning ‘apostles’ going around convincing well meaning ‘pastors’ to come under their covering. You can go to some of these web-sites and see all the ‘churches’ that some of these brothers have under their ‘covering’. In many of these scenarios you find too many man made ideas and people/ministries struggling for ways to fit into some misguided idea of ‘covering’. To be simple about this, Jesus is our covering and all of us [apostles, prophets, evangelists, and yes even plain old Christians] should work in unity to build each other up in love. This trying to get people under my covering thing is missing the mark in my opinion. Paul’s apostolic ministry freed people from authoritarian leaders [Judaizers] and released believers into the great reality of our universal priesthood that we all equally share under Christ. We derive our legitimacy from the fact that we are the actual house of God. God literally dwells inside the people of God by his Spirit. This causes all of us to be properly related to God and one another on an equal plain. This was one of the great truths of the reformation ‘the priesthood of all believers’. No believer needs to find a ‘spiritual father’ or ‘apostolic covering’ to be in proper order. Paul told the Corinthians that he was their ‘spiritual father’. This simply meant that he ‘birthed’ them into the Kingdom by the gospel. To go around trying to make people submit to your authority is contrary to what Paul was doing here. He actually told the Corinthians that they were allowing other quasi leaders to become their authority and he was invoking his original relationship with them in order to bring them back into the liberty of Christ.

(33)  During my last year of high school, prior to joining the navy, I had a few violent and ‘drug’ induced experiences. One night at an annual carnival I told one of my friends that if I see someone tonight I’m going to #$@@ [Beat him up]. It was the last year I would attend this carnival [and if I remember it was the last time they would hold it in this park. Carnivals are supposed to be fun, but this became a place for rival schools to fight and see who could be the toughest. I remember one year where the students were actually going punch to punch with the operators of the rides and where the students turned over the travel trailers where the guys were staying] and I wanted to ‘go out with a bang’. The particular person I was looking for used to be a friend of mine, but this night I had a reason to fight. He was big and looked like a biker, but I knew I could take him. Sure enough the friend I was with spotted the guy. I think my friend wanted me to beat the guy up because over the past few years he got big and was more threatening to some of the guys in this area of the city. Well I did walk up to him and beat him up pretty severely, I was later accused of beating him with a pipe. I didn’t, but I did hit him pretty hard and even drop kicked him in the face with work boots. I was to the point of uncontrolled rage that I wouldn’t stop until one of my other friends grabbed me. Later on as we were leaving the park some of his friends [about 20 of them!] tried to jump us on our way home. They were swinging chains and stuff. My friend looked at me and asked what to do, like I could fight our way out or something. I just told him ‘run’ and we got away. The cops were looking for me for a few days and I had to watch my back after this.

Also one night me and a friend did some ‘mescaline’ [I don’t know if its spelled right, but this was a type of ‘acid’/hallucinogen] I did more than your supposed to do and began hallucinating pretty badly. I stayed at a friend’s house for a day or two until I could come out of it. I feel I overdosed pretty bad on it, and for years later I would experience ‘flashbacks’. It was having the same sensation or feeling of being ‘high’ even though you are not doing the drug. During this time the friend I was with gave me a cross that he had bought for a Christmas present for his mom. He had it in his pocket that night and knew that I was not doing well. This actually is one of the signs of a series that would take place in the next few years as a warning to get off of the track I was going on. [Let me add again that some of you that are reading our materials are not getting much out of the telling of these stories, that’s OK. I give our books away to all the people we work with, and to some of them these ‘testimonies’ can be evangelistic tools. I sometimes am concerned that our booklets and teaching might be hard to understand by some of the people we work with. So for you who get something out of this, good. To the others, just skip it and go to the other stuff. Also you notice how you never hear people testifying of how they used to be child molesters or rapists, this shows you how we tend to ‘testify’ of the things that make us look ‘cool’, be assured I have been at the losing end of a few fights myself!]. ‘ In the day I deliver you from all of your iniquities, I will cause you to dwell in the cities and the wastes shall be built. Your warfare is accomplished, your iniquity is forgiven. Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out.’ [Bible verse]

(34)  Another movie that I felt the Lord spoke to me thru was ‘Cinderella man’. This is the true story of James Braddock who became heavyweight champion of the world during the depression. The story spoke of overcoming huge odds in order to eventually succeed. I always liked boxing and did some as a boy. During the golden gloves I had the chance once to box in Madison Square Garden. Well in the movie Braddock fights in the garden. He lived in North Bergen [my hometown] and the park I was telling you about earlier where we had the fights has the name ‘Hudson County Park’, but the real name is ‘James J Braddock Park’. I didn’t realize any of these things until I saw the movie. God can take us out of seemingly hopeless situations and turn things around no matter how bad it looks!

(35)  ‘Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold I am doing a new thing. I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Those that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house unto a land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation. Fear thou not for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee and I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. I have made you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth. You will thresh the mountains and beat them small. All that strive with thee shall perish. Though I have afflicted thee I will afflict thee no more. It was good for you to have been afflicted. Before you were afflicted you went astray, but after you kept my word. In the land of my affliction you have made me fruitful. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no longer flood the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee! Thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Spare thy people O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach. All the trees of the field are withered away because joy is withered away from the sons of men. Come lay all night in sackcloth ye ministers of my God. I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten. Fear not O land, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God. And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God. My people shall never be ashamed. Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy: break up your fallow ground. For it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness on you. Therefore turn to thy God, keep mercy and judgment. Wait on thy God continually. I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help. Don’t stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely. For my anger is turned away from him. I will be like due unto him, his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be like the olive tree. I will not leave your soul in hell, nor suffer you to see corruption. For you will forget the shame of your youth and not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience thru the things that he suffered. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he should no longer spend the rest of his time fulfilling the desires of the flesh, but the will of God. When I was in distress you enlarged me. Lift up thine eyes round about and see, all they gather themselves together and come to thee. Thy sons shall come from far and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Thy people shall all be righteous, they shall inherit the land forever. The branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong nation. I the Lord will hasten it in his time. Be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail. For now thou shalt go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the fields, and thou shalt go even to Babylon. There shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.’ [Bible verses]

(37)  Earlier in this paper I spoke on the identification that takes place when we experience failure and inadequacy. When David in the psalms prophesies ‘I am a worm and no man’ he is speaking of Christ’s feeling of worthlessness and total degradation that he experienced at the cross. We seem to think that the cross in Christ’s life was an experience/feeling of victory and excitement. These are the results of the cross, but the process itself was separation and a tremendous sense of worthlessness. When you fail and sin, how do you ‘feel’? Even though God ‘legally’ does not hold it against you as a believer, yet the sense of guilt and failure are there. Though Jesus ‘knew’ he was fulfilling the Fathers will, this in itself did not immunize him from the same feelings many times fold. Dietrich Boenhoeffer, the great German theologian, was complicit in an assassination plot against Hitler. Boenhoeffer was a part of the 'confessing church’ as compared to silent church during World War 2. Boenhoeffer believed it was the church’s responsibility to do more than just exist in a time of great cataclysmic change. The events of Hitler’s third Reich would affect the world for many generations to come. Boenhoeffer took this to an extreme [in the eyes of some historians] by actively pursuing the assassination of Hitler. He wrote about this in some of his writings. He ‘flirted’ with the idea of doing something 'wrong’ and aligning with a certain type of evil [assassination] in order to fulfill Gods will. I don’t want to get too technical here, we know the New Testament says ‘shall we do evil that good may come? God forbid!’ but Boenhoeffer was ‘dancing’ with this concept of ‘becoming one with Christ’ even in his moment of ‘I am a worm and no man’ experience. This is why I said earlier that the Ted Haggards and others who have been thru these experiences can to some degree identify with Christ in certain aspects of his suffering that the average believer might not enter into. I know these ideas are controversial in the world of ‘theology’. All I wanted to express today is some of you are allowing the failures and past sins in your life to side track you from getting up and moving forward. Let God ‘redeem’ the years that the locust hath eaten and see your failure as the potential of being able to identify with Christ in ways that others cannot. Read the stories of the prophets in the Old Testament, they saw themselves as unclean and unworthy to do Gods will. God sovereignly ‘cleansed’ them, but in and of themselves they were ‘undone’. This principal is seen in the apostle Paul’s life as he ‘sees’ his weaknesses as ‘necessary evils’ in order to allow Gods will to move forward. In your weakness God receives the glory by what he’s dong thru you. You know its him doing his will thru you, because you know that ‘in your flesh dwelleth no good thing’. 

(38)  ‘The siege mentality’. While I was just outside I thought about [and felt like!] being under siege. One of the strategies of war contained in the Old Testament is for one nation to ‘besiege’ another nation. What they would do is surround the central city and ‘isolate’ them from all incoming or outgoing connections/resources. This created a mentality in the city that would cause the people to ultimately turn on themselves, and in extreme conditions even eat their own children to stay alive. I feel there are times where the enemy realizes the impact we are making and uses this strategy against us. We get to places where it’s difficult to ‘break out’ thru prayer and intercession and it’s also difficult to ‘bring in’ or receive fresh resources from the Lord. The cities and Kings [David in Jerusalem and other Kings of Israel] that would overcome this attack where those who ‘stored up’ enough resources during times of peace in order to carry them thru to victory. Either the attacking force would themselves get tired and have difficulty re supplying, or they too would be attacked at their home base while they where out attacking others [wow!]. I felt the word of the Lord to you right now is ‘strengthen the things that remain [Revelation]’ and trust in the storehouse of resource that you have ‘built up’ until this period of time in your life. Don’t think you have to ‘do as much’ during this time as you’ve done in the past. What I mean by this is you are to still reach out and go forward, but the long hours of preparation are over! Don’t feel guilty about it. Trust God to use you to ‘cast your bread upon the water’ and to ‘sow much seed’ it will not return void! Also the ‘eating of the young’ speaks to the churches mentality of not welcoming or receiving the spiritual offspring that she herself has given birth to. There are times where Christians attack and devour the prophetic people that actually have come forth from her. We ‘eat’ them by blaming them for the problems that they simply ‘saw’ coming. It’s like there being blamed for simply being the mouthpiece. Also I remember reading one time that a company somewhere in the world actually used certain parts of unborn aborted babies as a supplement in certain dietary products. If this were true it would speak to the horrendous act of aborting our children and actually ‘eating’ them in some form! Wow may God have mercy on us all [I don’t want to lie here, but the product might have been something they injected as opposed to ingesting].

(39)  I have been meaning to speak on this for some time and wasn’t exactly sure what forum to use. Well I guess this is as good as any. In the world today there is no greater singular threat posed to western civilization than that of radical Islam. I am not saying here that all Muslims are the threat, but the simple fact is the rise of radical Islam is now the most serious threat to peace on the world stage. The fact that the adherents to this religion believe they are carrying out the dictates of their ‘prophet’ has tremendous spiritual significance that the church at this time in history needs to understand. Scripture speaks of ‘false prophets’ and ‘the false prophet’ who will influence society and cause people to ‘worship the beast’ and imagery like this. American Christianity often relegates these prophecies to some future dictator and ‘Tim Lahaye’ type interpretations that miss the relevance of what I just discussed. The fact that the greatest threat to world peace today is a movement whose followers are carrying out the dictates of their ‘prophet’ has to be understood thru spiritual discernment. I know it’s politically incorrect to call Muhammad a false prophet. My intent is not to offend Muslims. The simple fact is if you look at the story of Islam and Muhammad there is no other true Christian perspective than to see him as a false prophet. There have been many thru out history to be sure, but this one is the dead spiritual leader of a worldwide movement whose aim is world domination. These radicals indoctrinate their kids in there religious schools from a very early age. The Muslim population is exploding worldwide at the time of this writing and I can’t see a better candidate at this time for the title of ‘the false prophet’ than Muhammad. He causes many people to ‘worship Allah’. Allah is not the Christian God! If they are not worshipping God then whom might it be that they’re worshipping? I know language like this is not common toady, but I agree with Franklin Graham’s assessment of this religion as being ‘an evil and wicked religion’. I am not saying this is true of all Muslims. Muslims are humans whom God created in his image and for his glory. Our goal is not to ‘kill them off!’ but to deliver them from the bondage of false religion and bring them into the true knowledge of God in Christ!

(40)  Yesterday I was fellowshipping with some homeless brothers and we had a real interesting discussion. Over a 2-3 hour time together we eventually went to whataburger and met with another Christian who regularly witnesses to anyone he sees there. During the discussion I was so impressed by the level of knowledge and understanding that some of these ‘simple’ believers had. The grasp of sharing in community [as opposed to tithing to the institution] was truly grasped by one of the guys. It wasn’t a rebellious thing; this one brother is actively serving the Lord with a local church that reaches out to the homeless. After this discussion it humbled me to think of the reality of this homeless person having a better grasp of giving and New Testament sharing of goods, then most Pastors have! These guys quoted scriptures on giving and were in no way ignorant of the subject. One of the other guys finally gave me a copy of a booklet he’s writing and I am including it in our tape and book catalog. What I feel the Lord wanted me to express thru this simple story is that Christ’s Spirit is always active and instructing those who believe in him. The verse that says ‘God hid things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes’ speaks to the humility of these simple believers actually having a better grasp on certain aspects of Christian truth then the Pro’s!

(41)  It just occurred to me that over the last week or so I have given this paper and some other stuff to a wide range of people and past friends. Many of you have been on this journey with me at various stages. Some of you are still at different points in this story! What I am feeling is some of you have been ‘left’ [not in a bad way] at these places [geographically and spiritually] for the continuing purpose of God. You are where you are to complete ‘this story’. I just was thinking of one of my old buddies from the early Kingsville days as I was driving to work yesterday. He is one of the ‘ex-addicts’ who spent lots of years in prison and who made me the leather bible cover I spoke about earlier. As I haven’t seen him in a few months I felt like I needed to get this paper to him. Sure enough as soon as I pulled up to the fire station he was waiting for me. Later I got a call from him and he already was sharing some of the stuff from this paper. I just sensed the great responsibility all of us in this journey have for each other. There are times where I have moved on from one point to the next and some of the older friends wanted things to stay the same. I sometimes also get the feeling that some of my Christian friends are excited about ‘the ministry’ and want to ‘join’ or be part of some Christian thing that we are doing. I really have no avenue or ‘Christian thing’ that we have to join. I simply try to convey the responsibility we all have to move forward in this journey and ‘I’ll meet you when this thing is wrapped up’ [when the Lord returns]. I don’t want to be rude, but I want all of our friends to embark on their journey as well. We as Christians have the tendency to ‘arrive’ at places spiritually where we get comfortable and stop truly reaching out to the world around us. I don’t want this for myself or any of you! I want to always be in touch with all of our friends, but I also want to live the journey ‘on the road’ and see you at the finish line. There will be plenty of time to sit back and go over things then!

(42)  I just saw an interview with Mel Gibson that reminded me to share some stuff. This past year Mel has been in the news because of an incident of being stopped by the cops while driving drunk and making anti Semitic remarks. In the recent interview on CNN Wolf Blitzer asked Mel about the fact that a highly influential Jewish leader refuses to forgive Gibson no matter how many times he confesses [I think Jesus told Peter if your offended 70 times 7 to forgive!]. Well this particular Jewish leader also believes it is his responsibility to destroy Gibson’s career and boycott him into ruin. All of this is being done under the banner of ‘Jewish ancestry’ and a feeling of wanting to destroy those who would in any way denigrate their race. Well its obvious that Mel was wrong in what he said, but the reaction from this Jewish leader shows the danger of seeing any natural heritage as ‘the ethnic group’ that must be defended at all costs. The New Testament teaches a balance in dealing with natural Israel outside of the Church. Paul says as far as the Gospel is concerned they are ‘enemies’ [strong words!] but as far as Gods purpose for them in history God still has great plans for Israel. The mistake the evangelical Church is making is they are not ‘rightly dividing’ these two lines. I recently heard a preacher in Israel teach a message [on TV] that spent a whole hour going back to the Old Testament promises to Abraham and arguing the fact that the New Covenant does not ‘supersede’ the Abrahamic one. This was all taught under the guise of exposing the false view of ‘replacement theology’. The underlying mistake that this minister was making was he left the impression to the Jewish people who were there that God is still dealing with them apart from the Christian gospel. While there is some element of truth to this [as God deals with all nations, even those that are not Christian] the basic flaw to this type of thinking is we give the impression that God still favors people based on natural ethnicity, which is fundamentally wrong. Gods favor today rests on the ‘new man’ made up of both Jew and Gentile [and any other race who believes!]. God said the day was coming when he would institute a ‘new covenant’ not according to the old ways. I know some are teaching that this is Moses Law [the old ways] and therefore the abrahamic covenant still exists, but the fundamental shift from law to grace is a ‘new thing’. God deals with all mankind based on there answer to the question ‘what will you do with this man’ [Christ]. Those who do not believe remain under wrath and judgment, and those who believe enter into peace. The fine line between anti Semitism and the wrongful exalting of Israel’s natural heritage must be understood. I read an article from a protestant minister who named all his kids after Israel [Abraham, Isaac, etc.] and during the interview referred to himself and other Christians as simply being saved sinners, whereas Israel were truly Gods special people. What do you think this view does for evangelism? How does natural Israel see herself when we do this? They must think that if all these Christians view her in this way, then why even think about accepting Messiah! Another view I recently heard was because all the apostles and Jesus were Jewish, therefore ‘Jewish ness’ is just as important as faith in Christ. This view doesn’t seem to understand that these Jewish apostles made statements like calling natural Jerusalem ‘Sodom and Egypt’ [referring to Israel’s rejection of Christ]. The New Testament speaks of ‘the synagogues of satan’, was this some 1st century satanic cult? This was speaking of religions emptiness apart from Christ [all the synagogues that tried to carry on religion without Christ!]. I know that this type of language is strong for the Church today. My intent is not to be anti Semitic! It is simply to be Christian. All peoples and nations will be judged on what they do with Christ. God said the days were coming when he would deal with Israel under a ‘new’ covenant, not some ‘re-vamped’ old one. Those days are fast approaching [theologically there already here!] when all Israel will ‘see him’. Israel [the holy land] has become the ‘Disney world’ for much of modern evangelicalism. We need to see her as Jesus did, when he wept over her and said ‘if you only knew the things that belong to your peace, but they are hid from your eyes’. May God open the eyes of all races so the prophecies of all nations flowing into Gods nation may be fulfilled. For we [The Church] are truly one nation under God.

(43) As of this writing I am still in the month of December 2006. I just started sending this paper [and our other stuff] to old friends from New Jersey. The images of ‘colonizing’ the north and the ‘Ports’ [both Corpus Christi and New York City have Ports] are images that I have incorporated into my prayer time for this region. I thought it interesting that the very first contact I had from the classmates site that I use to find old friends was from an old friend I use to play street football with as kids growing up [for some reason their team would always win!]. Well this old buddy gratefully sent me his mailing address and I mailed him a packet of materials [I see this as planting seed, I don’t understand why we don’t all do this. I have given away books and stuff for years, both to ‘big name’ national ministers as well as to homeless friends. Doing this thru out your life is a process of fishing for men. You can’t catch fish without bait. And the fish aren’t going to pay you for the bait!]. This friend told me he works at the Port authority of New York City, and he lives in a town called ‘Colonia’ in New Jersey [This is exactly how you pronounce ‘colony’ here in south Texas!].

(44)  I was just thinking about the times over the years where I have spoken to ministry leaders and others who found it difficult to grasp our teaching on the ‘Local Church’ and what she is. Sometimes these brothers unknowingly confirm what I believe. For instance they might criticize their Pastor for blatant ‘holes’ in his teaching that ALL LEADERS have. The fact that we have a tendency to exalt and prop up people where one individual is the main voice of the Local Congregation allows for the Body of Christ to see these faults to an exaggerated degree. It is my belief that the modern phenomenon of Christian leadership is to some degree a ‘disability’ that causes believers in general to be ‘deformed’ [I don’t want to sound too critical here, those of you who have read our stuff know what I mean]. This leads to the effect of many ‘congregants’ seeing the shortcomings of leaders simply because it was Gods original intent to speak thru the whole group corporately. When this natural flow is restricted by the limited forms of ‘Church’ that we embrace, the end result is for the ‘members’ to see these mistakes. What I wanted to emphasize is in the past while having discussions with individuals who do not see Church the way I see it, I found it interesting that they are the very same ones who ‘see’ all the faults of ‘their Pastor’!

(45)  I was just reading in Psalms where it talks about ‘the stone being smitten and water coming forth’. Also God bringing forth water like rivers from the ‘smiting’ or piercing of the stone. Well we know that Jesus is the stone that was pierced and bruised for us. God brought forth rivers of life [Holy Spirit] from the piercing of his son. I also see the language I have used earlier in this paper about the opening up of the channel and water flowing thru it. The channel is literally 2 huge stone walls strutting out into the Gulf. Bringing forth a ‘river’ of water into the dry land as well as allowing a river to flow out to the nations. The stone imagery is used of Christ in other ways as well. He is a tried stone, tested. The stone which the builders rejected. The chief corner stone. One of the aspects of ‘becoming a stone’ is the process of rejection and testing. This ‘qualifies’ us as living stones in Gods temple [Peter]. Thru process of time God brings us to a place where we finally can be trusted stones to complete the mission. What does he do with us then? He ‘pierces’ us [the cleft rock imagery] so a ‘river of water’ can flow thru us [gospel of John]! ‘He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed’ Psalms 78: 15,16,20.

(46)  I was just sitting outside praying and noticed that the only plants flowering in my yard are the roses from the ‘coat of many colors’ rose bush that I spoke about earlier in this paper. Its December and cold. Many other plants cannot ‘thrive’ in these bitter conditions. Well you get the hint, don’t you? Over the last several years the Church at large has embraced a gospel that focuses on trying to create a ‘pleasing’ environment around us. We have made ‘creature comforts’ the goal. I recently read an article about a preacher [T.D. Jakes] whom I like. He was being criticized for having a high salary and a few luxurious homes and basically being rich. In his defense he quoted the verse where scripture shows that Jesus wore an expensive coat [which he did] and used this to defend the idea that it is not wrong to become rich ‘from the offerings of many average [or poor] believers’ who give thru the TV ministry or thru the Local Church offerings. The main mistake with this thinking is the New and Old testaments actually teach against the concept of ‘shepherds’ becoming wealthy from the flock. The scriptures teach that its okay to financially support those who are giving to you spiritual food, but to become wealthy from peoples offerings is forbidden. I know people today don’t see this, but it is there! Where did Jesus get his expensive coat? Was he taking money from ‘the bag’ [treasury]? More than likely someone gave it to Jesus as an extravagant act of worship. The woman who poured the expensive perfume on Jesus did something of this nature. While I don’t want to be dogmatic about this, it proves the point that we take scriptures and develop doctrines that violate other plain scriptures. The widow woman who gave to Elijah was poor. But so was Elijah at the time! This story simply teaches the great truth of communal sharing which is taught in the New Testament. See a brother in need, meet the need! Too many preachers have taken stuff like this and have taught theologies that contradict plain scripture. Go read 1st Timothy 6. You have a hard time reading this chapter and believing this other stuff. I don’t want to re write our book on the prosperity gospel here, but I do want to emphasize the fact that God wants us to ‘thrive’ in desert and bitter conditions. It’s not wrong to be rich and have a high salary, but it can’t be from the overall aggregate giving of many poor or average saints over a long period of time! Joseph thrived and was rich and influential, but he also spent many years being unjustly accused and in prison for things that were not his fault. God allowed a life of suffering to co-exist with a successful career. He did this for the benefit of those who sold him into slavery. Joseph ‘ruled’ over his brothers at the end, just like he dreamed many years earlier. The ‘rule’ allowed him to forgive and use his wealth and influence to save his family. God will exalt us at certain seasons for the sole benefit of the salvation of others. It’s ok to enjoy the good things in life, but we are here to fulfill a mandate from heaven. Don’t get lost in the pursuits of this life!

(47)  It’s 12-24-06 as I write this. I have been listening to Christmas music for the last few days. It’s got me thinking about the incarnation and death of Gods Son. If you remember the story in the gospels, after the death of John the Baptist Jesus felt sorrowful and heavy. It’s almost as if the whole reality of what he was about was weighing on him. John was a cousin and friend to Christ. It was because of Jesus that his friend died! Do you ever feel bad when one of ‘your disciples’ falls? [By the way we all should have them. Also when I say ‘your disciples’ I mean those you are ‘discipling’ unto Jesus!]. Do you wonder if in some way you failed them or let them down? I know I do. What if they died because of you, how would this make you feel? [Let me note I realize that more people I have worked with have died then on average, my only consolation is I realize that I ‘fish’ from a ‘high risk pool’] The death of John was a necessary evil for him to fulfill the prophetic role that he played. He ‘prefigured’ Christ in his early death. Prophets don’t just have great speaking ministries; their lives also carry out prophetic themes that often cause tremendous pain and suffering. Why couldn’t John or Jesus have lived till 65 or 70 before their deaths? I know theologically why, but that’s not what I am asking [to you smart people!]. There is a real sense of sacrifice when people lay their lives down for Gods purposes at the prime of their life. True sacrifice entails giving something of value up for Gods higher purpose. It carries with it the inherent nature of living for a greater cause than for just ‘being all that you can be’. It says to God I am here only to fulfill your destiny, and if in this process I don’t reach my full potential then I will gladly sacrifice it for the greater cause. This is what I see in the Dietrich Bonhoeffer story. A brilliant theologian who dies at the prime of his life. But God took his death as seed and allowed the small volume of his writings to impact generations to come. I wonder what other great parables and ‘sermons on the mount’ that Jesus could have given if his teaching ministry lasted 20 years. But he was here to fulfill a higher calling, and this dieing on the Cross took precedence over the great future he could have had ‘in the ministry’.

(48)  What I really wanted to speak about [above] was what I call ‘the incarnational principle’. The concept of God manifesting himself thru Christ, and thru us as an extension of his Body in the earth. I will get a little technical here, but bear with me. Paul teaches [in the New Testament] that the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Historically this issue has been one that divided Protestants and Catholics. During the reformation the Protestant position was the Bible was the ground of truth and final authority on matters of conscience and faith. The Catholic Church agreed in principle to the canon of scripture as ‘inspired’ but also taught that the Church herself possessed separate authority as ‘the pillar and ground of truth’. The Catholics said the Church produced the Bible, while the Protestants believed the Church ‘recognized’ it. That is to say that the ‘Bible’ was already infallible and the Church just recognized it. Well anyway the point here is Gods people [Ecclesia] are the pillar and ground of truth. There is no other ‘thing’ in the planet that God actually lives in. Though scripture is inspired and infallible, God doesn’t actually ‘dwell’ in its pages. I know I open myself up to criticism here [for the first time, not!] but I agree with the great evangelical thinker John Stott. He sees the evangelical Church as practicing a form of ‘bibliolatry’ in the way we express ‘sola scriptura’ [the bible only]. In the earth right now the only actual place where God is literally dwelling is the Church. Not some top heavy institution, but in the people [community]. Because of this in some sense the only real hope for the world is us! God sees us as the ‘pillar and ground’ of truth. We are his ‘superstructure’ that exists in the midst of ‘Babylon’ [the world]. We live here to both testify and actually ‘dispense’ Gods grace thru the gospel. Jesus told the disciples ‘whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven’ [I don’t want to teach the Catholic/Protestant view on this here] in essence we carry the gospel in us as well as on our lips. God ‘contacts’ and interacts with the world thru us. This is the ‘incarnational principle’. In military terms its ‘ground truth’. It’s having the perspective of ‘boots on the ground’ as opposed to some defense secretary living in an ivory palace [or pentagon]. We are Gods ‘boots’ on the ground. God has entrusted us to carry out the rest of the ‘invasion’ that Jesus started 2000 years ago. The only problem is too many of us think we are in the guard and are trying to avoid ‘active duty’! [No offense meant to those in the National Guard!]

(49)  I was just thinking about ‘Job’ and the trials he went thru [I haven’t read Job in a few years, so bear with me in the details]. I remember hearing preachers try to explain why Job suffered. Some said it was because of his sin of fear and making a bad confession. ‘The things that I feared came upon me’. It seems to me that these brothers who are looking for Jobs fault [sin] are falling into the same mistake of Jobs friends who spent the whole book looking for the reason for Jobs suffering. The point of Job is ‘why do the righteous suffer’ and the answer is we are finite and God is infinite, and who are we to question God. There is no reasonable explanation for his suffering. Jobs friends said some theologically correct things in trying to find fault. They said stuff like ‘the curse causeless doesn’t come’ which is in keeping with the teaching of proverbs. But in this case ‘good theology’ didn’t cut it. God actually tells satan that Job is upright and without fault. If Job had a ‘bad confession’ or ‘too much fear’ that caused his suffering, then God wouldn’t have called him faultless. I find it troubling that highly influential teachers in the American church can’t seem to grasp these basic principles. I’m not talking deep stuff here. Just the basic ability to read literature! Well let me encourage you with the simple truth of Job. Don’t stress out over your trials. Don’t spend endless ours of regret and too much introspection. Sometimes things happen to you that you can’t control. Our response during these seasons is praise to God and a total committing of everything into his hands.

(50) A few days ago I read a verse in Psalms that spoke of ‘bringing presents to God’ [Psalms 76:11]. It was a few days before Christmas and I thought it was interesting/prophetic that I hadn’t seen this before. I ‘piously’ wrote down ‘love and devotion’ next to the ‘presents’ verse. Surely these are the ‘gifts’ God wants us to bring. Well I’ve also been ‘seeing’ and thinking about bringing in the harvest of people for the new year [2007]. I even dreamed the old football that I used as a boy. In the dream it was just lying there on the ground waiting for someone to pick it up and ‘run with it’. I also have been meditating on the image of ‘fishing in the harvest’ of people. Well for Christmas I got 2 main gifts. A football and a fishing pole. I felt the Lord said I want your love and devotion, but the gifts I want are the ‘harvest of men’. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men!

(51)  Last night I was watching a special on the history channel dealing with comets and meteors. The other day I was talking to a friend and he spoke about the emperor Constantine ‘seeing’ the form of a cross in the sky. [I actually corrected him, he thought the sign originally was used in the crusades against Muslims, and I told him it was first seen in Constantine’s raid against another emperor in an effort to unify the Roman Empire under Constantine’s control]. The ‘Cross’ that Constantine ‘saw’ is debatable. Some Christians don’t believe any of it. Others take a more open view and see God at work in a limited way. I simply want to note that the ‘Cross’ sign that I’ve mentioned earlier in this paper looks like a Maltese Cross. While speaking to my friend he reminded me that Constantine saw a Maltese Cross. While watching the history channel special they also said some believe that Constantine saw a Comet. It made me wonder if I was seeing the same thing that an Emperor saw 1700 years ago! This is not to say I am special in any way, but we should recognize that God is in charge and in control of the affairs of men in the 21st century just as much as he was in the 4th! Also I realize that there are a whole bunch of believers who don’t believe in any ‘miraculous’ occurrences at all. These Christians are ‘cessationists’. They have reasons why they believe there are no more supernatural events. I obviously don’t hold to this view, but I see them as sincere believers in Christ. I kind of feel that when I deal with ‘corrective’ issues in the Church that people might view me as a ‘critic’ of all things supernatural, or relevant for our day. Many of the prophetic people fully grasp the prosperity message and look at those who try to bring correction as ‘cessationists’. I don’t know why this is so. Prophetic people should be able to discern the difference between the reality of biblical prosperity and the distorted preaching of the more extreme prosperity preachers. Surely Jesus gives many warnings against riches and materialism in the gospels. We should have the same balance as he had. God meets the needs of his kids, but the Kingdom is about true riches and not about money!

(52)  The other day I mentioned T.D.Jakes. Let me say that I have made it a habit to contact and send materials to key influential people in the Church over the years. I do this for the sake of the church at large. I recognize that if in some small way I can influence a Kingdom person for good, then they in turn will influence their larger circle of friends and the will of God will prevail I don’t want to ‘name drop’ here too much. I remember sending Benny Hinn [who I believe the Lord uses in a great way] some stuff on the prosperity message. It dealt with modern ministers becoming rich off of the people, and how this is not right. I was surprised to get a handwritten note from one of his staff Pastors and forwarding it on to Benny. A few weeks later some news organization did an expose [not the first one] on Benny Hinn and exposed the lucrative salary and wealth he has gotten thru the ministry. I feel that they gave special attention to the stuff I sent because they knew they were being looked at in a critical way by this organization, and there was no way I could have known this. So the prophetic timing of sending these materials was in some way a message from one brother to another as correction in love. I also have had a good friendship in writing with Jim Bakker. He has personally sent me hand written notes over the years. I want to simply stress that as believers God wants us to help each other walk in truth. I don’t want to just write critical exposes on false doctrine. This is what many modern apologists do. God wants us to personally correct and warn each other in love. The times where I have struggled with impatience is when I see brothers who blatantly teach false stuff to a wide range of people and they are not open to correction. NOTE: Benny started as an ordained Word of Faith minister, he actually walked away from this ‘style’ of ministry as the years went by. He saw many faults with the movement. He said ‘I do not hold to this message any longer’. I find this interesting.

(53)  Over the years I have had friends who felt the Lord was calling them to start a ministry. I would always advise them to seek God and work a regular job until the doors open. In some cases these friends would get offended at being told to work [Paul told people this! Thessalonians]. Some feel that the Lord is calling them to start a ministry [Christian business] and seem to spend their time and effort in ‘getting it off the ground’. I find it helpful to view ‘ministry’ as something like this. We [the Church] are citizens of Gods kingdom. As citizens we are the ‘subjects’ of the Kingdom of God here on earth. While the church is not solely the kingdom of God, we are Kingdom representatives here on earth. Sort of like the Church are the citizens and the Kingdom is the country that we belong to [this is a major debate in theological circles and I don’t want to get into it here]. When we view it this way it helps us to not ‘see’ ministry as some type of Christian business that we are trying to start. But ministry becomes us functioning in Gods Kingdom. ‘The ministry’ we belong to is the Kingdom of God and we are here to extend it by carrying out the great commission. We should not be side tracked by thinking if I am working a regular job that this is forsaking my calling. You have the freedom [and responsibility] to meet the needs of your family and at the same time being fully alive and operative unto God. Paul says whatever you do, do it unto God and not men and God will reward you. So your time on the job or in the market place is not a distraction ‘to your ministry’ but it is an opportunity to extend Gods Kingdom in the earth! [This actually is an age-old debate in the church. Some early believers viewed the material world as evil and created a ‘secular/Christian’ division. They saw believers as separate from society in a way that was not healthy. The reformers allowed room in their theology for Christians to be ‘fully alive’ and active in society. Today’s mindset of ‘starting a ministry’ feeds into this secular/Christian mindset and creates a division that I feel is not good. We sort of have the ‘Christian world’ and the ‘regular world’ and never do the two seem to meet!]

(54)  I was just thinking about the difference in the openness of the 1st century Church compared to today. Paul wrote the Corinthians and told them that some were homosexual and others were openly practicing sexual immorality. No doubt he rebuked them for sin, but the fact remains that there were really no ‘hidden sins’. They all knew each other’s shortcomings. Earlier in this paper I discussed how certain gifted people  [Paul Cain and others] struggled with hidden sin for many years. In today’s Church you don’t really have an atmosphere that can openly address sin among leaders. It seems the status quoi is to struggle in secret for as long as you can until your exposed. I feel we harm each other in today’s Church because of this lack of openness about life’s struggles. If you read the Old Testament [Proverbs] the prostitute and ‘whore’ are pictured in a bad way. If a woman struggling in the sex trade of our day were to view Gods opinion of her only from this vantage point, she would have little hope of any real future with God. This mindset pervaded the 1st century religious community [Pharisees]. Women who’s only real contact with men was for pay and pleasure were totally anathema. Jesus allowed these same women to cry on his feet and touch him. This was such a taboo to the religious community. For the first time in these women’s lives they saw hope and acceptance. A real man [Jesus] allowed them to ‘touch’ him in a way that showed they still had hope. To be sure he never justified anyone’s sin, but he allowed for the affection and hope that these women could never find in the religious community. His actions said ‘I know what you have done and where you have been and I still love you’ Wow!

(55)  In our writings over the years I’ve tried to express the difference between Christian religion and following Christ. I find it odd that Jesus found himself in the midst of a religious community that ‘attended church [synagogue]’ ‘tithed’ ‘stayed holy’ [separated themselves from the world, even the lost who were in it!] and thought they were doing Gods will when they killed Jesus! [I forgot to say they also prayed and fasted too!] We can often be involved in all types of ‘church’ things and miss the real intent of God. The New Testament describes religion as ‘visiting the fatherless and widows and keeping yourself unspotted from the world’. God puts ‘separation from the world’ hand in hand with outreach. If today’s Christian thinks the fulfilling of all the above religious requirements are pleasing to God, apart from true outreach, then he is kidding himself [I wanted to say ‘deceiving himself’ but I already get too much criticism!]. I feel we as 21st century believers need to re-focus and re-organize our lives around the great commission. God doesn’t only ask of you to give money to your church to support missionaries [a good thing by the way!] but he requires all of us to lay down our lives for the gospel. Be delivered from a religious mindset that sees as its priority to do ‘religious things’ and seems to never have time to touch a lost and dieing world!

(56)  A few years ago my uncle passed away. I was up there for the funeral [Jersey] and was invited to speak at his funeral. I don’t believe in ‘preaching to the lost’ at a funeral per se. I remember hearing a preacher say he was at some gang member’s funeral and he preached how the dead guy is in hell right now and how the parents and everyone were upset [no kidding!]. Well anyway I always thought my ‘Italian’ uncle was in some way connected to the Mafia. Don’t know for sure, but it always seemed he had some connection. Well the only living relatives were me, my dad, my sister and my uncle’s daughter and her son. The funeral parlor was packed with a lot of Italians in suits and ties! I simply shared the story of Christ’s resurrection and how this is our hope. I did speak the gospel message and noticed a ‘heavy’ anointing on the words I was speaking. I noticed that someone on the first row was having ‘chills’ at the word! After the ‘message’ some thanked me, some looked uncomfortable. One guy about my age [mid 30’s at the time] was especially thankful and touched by the word. He made it a point to shake my hand. I do feel its possible that some people heard the gospel and believed for the first time. The person that was my age could have been like me [or me like him] if I stayed in New Jersey after high school. It’s funny how the Lord can bring you full circle and on the journey you might even lead a ‘mafia’ guy to the Lord. I don’t know for sure but I hope so!

(57)  The other day I was listening to an old time Baptist preacher on the radio. He is a good man who preaches the Gospel. He talked about a Pentecostal woman visiting him and how she was so deceived. He wasn’t being critical, he really believes this. We all have a tendency to ‘see’ God from the paradigm that surrounds us. We as Christians have a tendency to judge others who experience God in a different way then we do. I am not saying that ‘all religions’ lead to God, they certainly don’t! But as Christians we should leave room for those other communities of believers that might have a different history but also embrace the Gospel. This larger community of believers is what I like to call ‘the greater storehouse’. God has tremendous riches to be found in all of these Christian churches. I love studying reformation stuff, but I also like the Catholic fathers. The history of Methodism under Wesley is great, as well as the later Azusa revivals. To be able to see beyond our limited communities and embrace the ‘whole Church’ is a gift that will bring in many rewards, I urge you to partake of the table that the Lord has prepared for us in the midst of our enemies.

(58)  Being I have been speaking a little about Catholic/Protestant stuff lately, let me talk on ‘authority and covering’ issues. Recently when certain evangelical leaders fell into sin, others speculated on why this happened. Some Protestants taught that certain Prophets who fell were not ‘under covering’ or under the authority of ‘a local church’. I have spoken at length in our books and thru radio on what the Church is and what it means to ‘be part of the local church’. All I felt like saying here is our Catholic brothers historically view all Protestants as being ‘without covering’ or not under proper biblical authority. I do find it interesting that some who feel they are apostolic in the protestant church start highly independent and entrepreneurial type ministries and then preach that if people are not ‘under one of these apostolic coverings’ then they are in rebellion. Many of these ‘apostles’ have absolutely no covering or connection to the historic church and yet preach a form of authority that seems to begin and end with them! To put it simple, we as Christians are all related and responsible to each other. As New Covenant priests we are directly under the authority of our high priest Jesus. I thank God for all the gifted Apostles and Prophets in the church today, I just think we need to remind ourselves of the basics once again.

(60) Over the years of dealing with various issues facing the American church there have been times where friends who were pastors or in ministry found it difficult to break thru the practical aspects of ‘doing church’ and embrace the bigger picture. There are times in history where God desires to ‘shift’ the face of Christianity and bring her back into alignment with the historic faith. During these times of ‘shift’ or transition it is difficult for pastors or ministry leaders to evaluate the truths that God is bringing forth and rise above the practical implications of where they are presently at. Most responsible pastors will evaluate most things by ‘how will this affect my church’. These men are well meaning, but I believe the question should be more aligned with ‘is this direction that God is bringing forth true or false’. Is it really God? The natural concern of ‘keeping the meetings going’ or ‘fulfilling the goal’ must be secondary to the true revolutionary spirit that dwells in the church. God wants us to boldly embrace truth and expand his Kingdom in the earth. If the criteria we are using is ‘will this disrupt things too much’ then you have placed yourself on the side of those who opt for comfort over revolution!

(61)  I was just thinking about how we in the American church have focused on self-preservation and motivation to the point where we lose sight of the sacrifice that the Gospel calls us to. It is common to live the Christian life and to attend church and see all the ‘Christian activities’ as simply ‘self help material’. While its not wrong to improve your life, or to find all the success principles contained in the word [there are many!] yet we seem to lose sight of the bigger picture. Our short time here is for the extending of Gods Kingdom at all costs. True revolution entails a willingness to even die for the cause. A prophet showed Paul ‘all the ways that God has called you to suffer [Acts]’. We get excited when we get a prophecy on ‘this year you will become rich’ and stuff like that. We see and practice Christianity as a self-help science. We memorize all the ‘money’ verses and spend our time focusing on the things that are least important to the Kingdom. If God were to appear to us in a dream at the age of 18, and he gave us the choice to live a full life to 80 and die and go to heaven, or to live till 40 and die a martyr and effect nations by our witness. Which one would you choose? I am not sure I would choose right either. We want to get as much as we can out of life, and any ‘prophetic word’ that would entail suffering we reject as ‘false prophecy’. To be honest I am tired of all the ‘money prophecies’ that are out there floating around, you would think after a while we would all become rich or stop believing them! But then again it simply makes us feel good to think about the possibility of having the lifestyle ‘of the rich and famous’. We just don’t realize that the calling of God is so much more than this!

(62)  Those of you who have read some of our stuff may notice a verse I like to quote from the message bible ‘don’t think you need a lot of extra equipment for this, you are the equipment, keep it simple, no special appeals for funds [ouch!]’. I don’t mean to be offensive in our materials. Sometimes I get the feeling that other ministries who solicit funds get turned off by the implicit message in our writings that ‘we don’t take money’. I realize there are many good ministries that do take money, and they do so in a good and pure way. There are others who abuse scripture and take money in a way that violates the word. My whole point in doing it the way we do it is to show the average believer that we all are responsible to carry out the great commission, and it most certainly doesn’t take a lot of money! In the book of Acts Peter would raise the dead and word spread like wildfire. No budget whatsoever! God has the ability to promote and advance his agenda without our money. The verse I quoted should challenge the way we limit God. Many ‘faith’ preachers teach a doctrine that says ‘how can we ever reach the world unless the wealth of the wicked pours into the church’. I like to tell them ‘just have faith brother, Jesus said no special appeals for funds, you can do it with out a ton of money’. I find it ironic that we preach a ‘faith message’ that has no faith that we can touch the world without becoming rich! If you’re rich, fine. But lets stop limiting Gods ability to touch the world thru us. We are extremely capable of doing this, even in our present condition!

(63) Yesterday I had the chance to do some research on line. I also listened to Christian radio while walking on a treadmill. I found the level of teaching between the Internet and radio interesting. On line I read some stuff on the Kingdom of God and apostolic concerns of seeing the Kingdom in action. On the radio the sermon dealt with the practical concerns of ‘meeting in church’ and how to deal with gossip and the pastor having to ‘run off’ the gossiper and stuff like this. The contrast reminded me of the scriptures I mentioned in these last few pages. ‘I have taken you from following the sheep to the borders of my mountain’ ‘There shall be a handful of grain in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon. And they of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth’ These verses [psalms] speak to the difference from ‘following the sheep’ to ‘the borders of Gods mountain’. One concern is the order of a church meeting and how to watch for trouble, the other is concerned about seeing the Kingdom extend in the earth. While both are important at times, the danger of ‘following the sheep’ only is you begin to see the goal of God simply to be proper order in the church meeting. Gods chief concern is impacting all nations until the day comes when all nations will flow into Gods nation and bring glory and honor unto him. There is a distinction between ‘following the sheep’ and ‘the borders of Gods Mountain’. Gods ultimate goal is to bring you to a higher place than simply ‘church concerns’. The handful of grain is found ‘on the top of the mountain’. There is a lot of teaching in the church today. Much of it is good, some is not. The Lord has specific words for you ‘on the top of the mountain’. He causes the mountain to ‘shake’ and thru the shaking, grain [seed] falls to the people of the city and they flourish like grass. Be attentive to the grain coming to you from those ‘on the mountain’ [concerned with greater things than their ministries or churches]. There is a lot of grain out there; you must be ‘partial’ to eat that which is precious. Honey is good, but too much will make you sick! [Proverbs]

(64)  I was watching a special the other day on cults. They spoke on Jim Jones and others. I have researched cults pretty extensively in the past. One of the most important lessons from Jim Jones is the fact that he started well, and was even on the cutting edge of certain truths for his day. He was sincere, originally preached the Gospel and many of his followers till this day feel like they were truly seeking God. The mass suicide was done as a ‘protest action’. Jim had read this in some of the socialist materials that he studied. He saw their deaths as a protest against society. Well obviously the movement became a cult and they were wrong in the things they did. Today there are many Christian groups who have the same mindset of ‘siege’ and isolationism that Jones temple had. I mentioned earlier about being a part of a Fundamental Baptist Church in the past, while I don’t want to call them a cult, the group had a mindset that saw all other groups [even Baptists] as either heretics or backslidden. They had a mentality of ‘the worlds out to get us’ and we must separate from it at all costs. But the extreme separation they practiced caused them to ‘separate’ from the rest of the body of Christ. You can be part of a big group and still be ‘isolated’ if you see the rest of the world [Christian and lost people] as something you are separating from inside the four walls of your fortress [church or community]. As an elder of this fundamental church I remember how we had a special meeting to decide whether or not we should cut off support from a missionary. The ‘heresy’ he fell into was he became a ‘mid tribber’. He believed the ‘Rapture’ would occur after the first three and a half years of the tribulation as opposed to occurring before the tribulation starts. Well even at that time I expressed my disagreement over cutting someone off for this. The funny thing is I believe now that the ‘Rapture’ and the Second Coming are one event. So we were all ‘heretics’ at the time! The point here is when Christians develop the sectarian mindset that Paul rebuked the Corinthians for, we are in danger. I am not saying we will all commit mass suicide, but we do harm to ourselves and others. Let me add here a little on the ‘Rapture’. Just a few weeks ago I was fellowshipping with a brother and he brought the subject up. I really try to avoid it in general when fellowshipping and witnessing [which we were doing at the time]. Well he wanted to know whether I was ‘pre’ or ‘mid’ trib. I then regretfully confessed that I believe there is only one second coming, I don’t believe the ‘rapture’ is speaking of a different event at all. Well my friend, who was quite knowledgeable in the scriptures, emphatically agreed. He also said he saw only one ‘Second Coming’, but to him the rapture was something else. If you read 1st Thessalonians 4 [the rapture chapter] I can’t see how you can honestly see this as different from the other scriptures that speak of the second coming and the resurrection. I find it a contradiction to read these events as ‘separate’. I am familiar with all the arguments on the trumpets and every other little detail. I just see the overriding text being that of one event. In the discussion with my friend he jumped to all the various ‘proof’ texts to back up his belief. I simply believe the plain reading of these verses show it to be one event. You should interpret the plain meaning first, before going to lengths to defend something else. Well I don’t want to argue about this, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

(65)  I just had a dream a few hours ago. I was sitting in a room. I had a thorn bush branch sticking thru my leg. I had a pair of pruners and simply pruned the branch from both sides but had to leave the part stuck inside my leg. I seemed content and recognized that I would still be able to walk and function even though I would have a permanent impediment. I thought of Jacob, how after his encounter with the Lord he had a perpetual limp. Also Paul’s ‘thorn’ in the ‘flesh’ [this thorn branch was literally in my flesh!] how he realized that the Lord permitted things to co exist in his life in order to ‘position’ him to receive great revelation and insight. The thorn allowed him to remain humble though he was seeing at a prophetic level that was unheard of in his day. I simply feel like the Lord is saying we shouldn’t focus so much of our time and attention on making ourselves better [self help mentality] as much as simply getting to a stage where we can hear and function effectively. I am not saying God doesn’t want us totally healed, or to live with bitterness and wounds of the past. I see this more like a willingness to move forward and function without everything having to be just perfect in our lives. God wants us to get the job done. If the only thing you can do is ‘cut the ends off of the branch’ then do it! If you have to live with some scars then that’s o.k. as long as there not open wounds!

(66)  Over the years of studying the church and the various communions that exist in the Christian church, it is common for believers to separate over ‘the way we do church’. Many divisions exist both because of doctrine and practice. To be honest any sincere student of church history will see the silliness of many of these debates. I believe the whole ‘church world’ in general would benefit if our paradigm changes from seeing church as ‘something we go to on Sunday’ to a community of people that we belong to. Many of our divisions over ‘church order’ would be resolved if we realize that the bulk of New Testament instruction is given to believers to live out in community, versus a church meeting. Jesus was challenging the premise of temple and religion as being a place and style of worship. He re introduced the original heart of God by showing people that Gods chief concern was that people would worship in Spirit and truth. No longer would the debate be over ‘which mountain’ or ‘whose lineage’ to follow, but the Father would receive anyone that would meet the two requirements of ‘Spirit and Truth’.

(67)  The early church were called ‘the way’ during the first century. They carried a specific message that went along with their way of life. The message and the journey were centered on Jesus. They didn’t get lost in all the other things that we make ‘the way’. They were fresh off the reality of God breaking into society thru the great victory of his Son. They were living in a time where you were going to see his works whether you liked it or not! If you remember God told the children of Israel that they ‘saw’ his works for 40 years in the wilderness. God was either going to show them the promised land, or they would see his works in judgment, but one way or another they were going to see his works! The early church had that dynamic working with them. You were going to be confronted with this great Kingdom, whether you like it or not! We have a tendency to lose sight of this great Kingdom of God breaking into society thru Christ. We focus and specialize on the side issues [prosperity, demonology, prayer, etc.]. We need to return back to the central message and reality of the early church, and become known for following him who is called ‘the way’.

(68)  In psalms 89:25 it says ‘I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers’ I have used lots of imagery of the rivers, God smiting the rock and waters coming out. Catching fish in the ‘Hudson river’. All these images are symbols. When I read this I felt the Lord saying a few things. First he will give us authority to speak into the church at large [sea] but also have a deeper, purer prophetic stream that will speak into the church. The river to me represents the many individual streams that are flowing into the sea [church] at large. God’s intent isn’t to make the sea a big ‘river’. This would defeat the purpose. But God does want the effect of all the rivers to add to the overall ‘body’ of people/truth. Often times you will have tremendous truth flowing from prophetic sources, the intent of these truths is to bring the church back to a more pure state of existence. Sometimes we fall into the trap of trying to make the truth/revelation the main thing. Even though all the rivers flow into the ocean, they never turn the oceans from salt water to fresh. The intent of the rivers is to add and increase the flow, but not to make the sea one big river!

(69)  I was watching a brother on TV who was speaking on covetousness. They are a good church overseas who are quite large. He was defending himself somewhat from criticism of the huge amount of money the church brings in and how he heard someone speak against one of their staff people who regularly fly’s around the world to perform in worship/singing. The overall way we do ministry today seems to take 90 percent of all Christian funds and uses it for the functioning of the ‘church’. Salaries, buildings and the basic upkeep of the business. A brief overview of the New Testament would show about 90 percent of all funds being used for charitable purposes and meeting the actual needs of the Christian community. The few instances where you read about corporate collections they are being used to distribute materially to those in need. The other references to giving in support of elders and those who are ministering in the word speak about a very small percentage of finances compared to the charitable giving. Its things like this that we don’t see when we read scripture through our limited paradigms. I believe the church today should ‘re-balance’ its books to draw more closely to the New Testament model. There are many worthy churches today who are doing great things for God. We overall need to re focus our priorities from the advancement of a few [the above scenario of the pastor defending the large amount of money spent on the few highly gifted ones] to the releasing of the whole body to function. We get into scenarios where we need lots of people to give lots of money to keep the machinery going, we come up with lots of projects to do [even good ones!] and we focus our Sunday meetings on bringing in the money to accomplish all the projects. The average believer is under the impression that to be faithful simply means to keep coming to church on Sunday and giving to meet the budget. This scenario has unconsciously placed the ‘average’ Christian in a position where we don’t really expect them to personally carry out the great commission, but to simply be obedient while funding the few who do the work! We need to re shift our priorities. Church should take 90 percent of its money and use it to build up and send out the whole body, by the way this doesn’t mean the churches need to collect it all on Sunday, it could simply be a releasing of people from a mindset of meeting the budget to them actively giving and spending and doing the work themselves. Government red tape hinders the actual carrying out of projects. So does ‘the business of church’. Release people into the harvest. The harvest is plenteous but the laborers are few [this could be speaking of the few professionals that we expect to function as we finance the budget!].

(70)  I read a verse the other day in Psalms that said ‘God will exalt you like the horn of a unicorn’ I know there are myths about the unicorn as being rebellious and other stuff about them actually being a myth. I really don’t know. But what I got from this was there are certain prophetic people who God exalts [not man!] like ‘the horn of a unicorn’. I said earlier in this paper how ‘horns’ represent different things. One of the things they represent are prophetic voices. John the Baptist was a ‘horn/trumpet’ of God who would ‘proclaim’ the appearing of Messiah. John stood alone in his day in the ability to ‘see’ Messiah. It was a ‘singular’ revelation that others would not posses as of yet. John was a loner who came out of the wilderness as an absolute radical. The single horn of a unicorn represents this ‘horn/trumpet’ as being alone for certain seasons. John fulfilled a ‘rebellious’ purpose. He rebelled against the system of his day and was beheaded. The unicorn isn’t around anymore because of rebellion! John represented a type of rebellion that we don’t see anymore either. A prophetic rebellion to behold Christ to the point of death. [Some things from the net on unicorns; 1- They can’t be captured alive 2- Fierce but good 3-Selfless yet solitary 4- Mysterious yet beautiful. All these qualities are seen in Christ and John the Baptist. Tertullian, Ambrose, Jerome and Basil [early church fathers] all saw the unicorn as a symbol of Christ.

(71)  I was just outside praying and had a thought. Nothing new, but I felt I should share it. Planting Churches in the New Testament was simply the process of preaching the Gospel to people, and the people who believed became the ‘community of Christ’ in that region. The actual ‘Church’ were the people themselves who corporately made up ‘Christ’s Body’. The things that they did [Lords supper, baptism, etc.] were simply an outgrowth of being the Church. The ‘doing’ of these things did not make them the Church! The fact that they did them was because they were the Church. This truth releases all of us into the world with the potential of being ‘Church planters’. All you really need to ‘start Churches’ is the courage to preach the Gospel to people groups. The harvest is ready; will you be one of the few laborers?

(72) A few years back I heard someone say it takes a minimum of $250,000 dollars to ‘plant a church’. The business world measures success by the amount of income they bring in, as well as the amount of ‘G.D.P.’ that is what they produce and export. The church should not measure success by these guidelines, nor should we limit Gods ability to ‘plant a church’ or spread the Kingdom by limited finances. Those of you who have read all of our stuff will notice I quote a verse out of the message bible a lot. ‘Don’t think you need a lot of extra equipment for this, you are the equipment. No special appeals for funds, keep it simple’ this is Jesus instruction to the disciples as he sends them out. He was giving them a mindset to see the simplicity of carrying out the great commission. He was saying in effect ‘you all individually, as well as corporately, have the potential to change the world’. He purposely has set up his Kingdom to allow for the ‘average Joe’ to have the same potential as the big shots! When we say things like ‘it takes a lot of money to reach the world’ or ‘you cant do this without starting a big ministry’ we unconsciously are telling Jesus ‘we need a lot of extra equipment for this, and we need to make special appeals for funds’. Now do you see what I have been saying? Sometimes it takes a while for truth to sink in. I know there are big ministries who are doing great works and who do make appeals for funds. This is all right as long as they are truly preaching the Gospel. The point I am making here is we all have the potential to touch the world. Don’t simply think that your part is only tithing and giving to fund others. You can be used of God right where you are.

(73)  A few years ago it was popular to quote John’s epistle ‘beloved I wish above all things that you would prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers’ [quick quote from memory, think its Johns 3rd letter?] This verse, like all verses is good. This greeting in the first century would be like saying ‘God bless you’ today. It was a simple form of greeting. Just like Paul ending the book of Romans with a long list of personal greetings. While all scripture is given by inspiration of God, there are differences between greetings, actual doctrine and other forms or styles of speech and literature that you find in scripture. For instance a greeting is not equal to actual doctrinal teaching. The resurrection of Christ is foundational doctrine. The matter of woman wearing hats [coverings] in ‘church’ falls into the cultural context of Corinth at the time of Paul’s writing to the Corinthians. Both teachings are true and have value, but one is obviously relevant for all time, while the other is debatable. The point here is Jesus said the thing that God wants from man above all other things is ‘to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and might. And to love thy neighbor as thyself’. This is Jesus teaching doctrine on what matters most to God. To take Johns greeting in a letter [though scripture!] and to say that this is what God wants more than anything else, is wrong. God does want us to prosper, and you can find other verses stating this. But the point here is when we ‘see’ all verses as equal in authority, without recognizing the various forms of literature and speaking that all people use [even the 1st century apostles] then we create themes that contradict and we violate the mandate of scripture that tells us to ‘think and understand like men’.

(74)  The other day I ran into a few ‘homeless’ and ‘addicted’ ‘friends’. I want to emphasize why I say ‘friends’. But first let me tell some stuff. The one friend was the homeless brother that I gave some of our materials to a few weeks ago. I ran into him at Whataburger. He told me that he read our books and liked them. As I was leaving to drop off tapes at the radio station that we broadcast on, I invited this friend to go for the ride. He was glad and surprised to get the invitation. Sort of like ‘why would someone ‘important’ want to simply spend some time with me’. He actually was waiting for someone to pick him up for a day job, but said he would like to have gone to fellowship and ask some questions and stuff. He even described himself as one of the ‘pawns’ on Gods chess table. He said some are ‘kings’ while others are simply ‘pawns’. I reminded him that Jesus said ‘whoever wants to be a king in Gods Kingdom, must become a pawn’. He agreed to this. I also saw one of the girls who used to be a helper in the mission that I go to in order to visit homeless friends. I never really spoke to her, though I remember seeing her over the years serving with her mom at the mission. I heard that she got into ‘meth’ and was strung out on drugs. I felt really bad about this. This was a good girl who lost her way. As a principle I usually don’t try to help the girls ‘one on one’ because it obviously wouldn’t look right for me to be ‘meeting girls’ at the mission. Some are friends because of the friendship I have with their ‘boyfriends’ and the many years of befriending a lot of these guys. But ever since I heard about this girl falling into drugs, I really felt I should speak with her. Well I had the chance to take a few people to the driver’s license office to get new I.D.s [this is a problem with a lot of homeless people, they have a tendency to keep loosing their I.D.s] and asked if she needed to go, which she did. [She just lost her I.D. about a week before!] It took about an hour and I had a real good conversation with her. I shared a lot about the regrets we have when we fall into sin, which she had many. I told her how Jesus ‘violated’ religious protocol in reaching out to ‘the prostitutes’ of his day [I tried to be tactful here, but needed to get this point across]. And she really appreciated the help with the I.D. Before I dropped them off I gave her all of our books and stuff, and she began reading them before leaving the truck. I felt these simple stories capture the ‘lifestyle’ of going out into the byways and ‘compelling’ people to come in to the Kingdom. The mindset of ‘the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few’. When I speak about the requirement for all believers to in some way reach the lost, without simply being a ‘tither who goes to church on Sunday’ this is what I mean. Jesus instructs all of us along the journey to do things like this. Jesus said to ‘count the cost’ before taking on a project. But he also said ‘make no special appeals for funds, you are the equipment’. I think we confuse these two principles. The ‘cost’ of discipleship is living your life for others. Greater love has no man than this, that you would lay down your life for your friends. Who were Jesus ‘friends’? He was accused of being a friend of sinners! I would encourage you to begin giving yourself away for the benefit of others. Seek to become a ‘pawn’ for in doing this you are a ‘king’ in Gods eyes.

(75)  I felt I should add this here. One of the ‘costs’ of making it a priority to ‘make disciples/carry out the great commission’ is you make yourself a target of the evil one to a greater degree than if you simply are a ‘church attendee’. ‘I will contend with him who contends with thee, and I will save thy children’[ Bible verse] when you make it a priority to ‘have children’ you put yourself in a position of ‘contention’ with the enemy. This is a real cost that you must understand and your commitment to bringing people to Christ will be severely challenged, but the obedience to the command of Christ to ‘make disciples’ should supersede the ‘cost’ of difficulty and persecution.

(76)  ‘David’s rule of desperation’ I was thinking about the process that king David went thru as he learned to trust and depend on God. David’s story is one of passion for Gods heart, as well as personal failure and the result of his sin on his family and future. In Psalms you find passion and a lifestyle of ‘desperation’ for God. Many of the Psalms deal with David’s repentance after his failure with Bathsheba and the resulting effect of this opening up the door to David’s enemies. Many of the Psalms speak about David crying out to God in the midst of his enemies. David learned what it meant to ‘rule in the midst of your enemies’. These ‘enemies’ would have never been as oppressive if David never fell. Yet it was the oppression of these enemies that caused David to write such beautiful poetry. Psalms actually contains more Messianic prophecies then any other Old Testament book [except maybe for Isaiah?]. The rule of David was one of learning to rule out of trust and desperate reliance upon God. David’s son Solomon ruled out of tremendous wisdom. But David was called a King after Gods own heart, not Solomon! We learn from David the difficulty of carrying out Gods purpose despite our own failings and shortcomings. David was punished for his foolishness, but this didn’t let him off the hook from continuing to serve as King! He had to serve with the thorn of shame and open mockery from his enemies because of his sin. No wisdom could have brought him thru this low point in his life, but only a ‘desperate dependence’ on God!

(77)  I want to clarify what I see as the ‘biblical parameters’ of ministry. When I speak on the ability that God has given to all of us to spread the Kingdom, as opposed to ‘starting a church/ministry’ what I am trying to express is Gods heart for all of his kids to have direct contact with his purposes in the earth, without setting up ‘go betweens’ that hinder the people of God from functioning. John Wesley, the great founder of the Methodist church, was receiving criticism from the organized church at one time. They questioned his authority to ‘break out’ of the parameters of the Anglican Church in some of the ways he was doing the will of God. John got to a point where he said ‘the world is my field’. He broke out of the limitations of ‘where can I function, and to whom should I speak’ he saw the gospel as the authority to go into all the world. In today’s ministry mindset we often limit ourselves by ‘seeing’ our function as it relates to ‘the Christian ministry that I run’. We might not say it this way, but in many cases this is what we do. I would encourage you to see the ‘world as the field’ and you as a laborer sent from God to ‘harvest the field’!

(78)  I watched a show last night on ‘Christian’ TV. It was a good show. The speaker actually shared some things on grace that reminded me to speak on in the future. I believe that grace and our approaching God on the grounds of our acceptance with him, as opposed to our works for him, are foundational in our life with God. I know I have been critical of the whole ‘Christian TV’ scene, and I don’t want to give the impression that none of it is good. Some is. The problem I see with the modern way we do and express ‘ministry’ can be seen thru this medium. The person who spoke was being interviewed. He shared about the meetings that he was presently holding. They sang some songs from Barry Manilow [good songs, ‘I cant live without you’ sang towards God]. This very gifted teacher and singer obviously has a gift to build the church. It also reminded me of tuning in to another brother from New Jersey and seeing him ‘perform’ on the TV. We get lost today in the way we express ministry. Gifted people are placed by God in the church for the purpose of building the saints so they can be released into ministry. Today we see our gifts as the main thing. ‘Ministry’ is focused around the showcasing of our gifts. The average believer sees the fulfilling of his role as ‘going to church’ ‘paying the tithe’ and living vicariously thru the success and giftedness of his Pastor. The main thing in many scenarios is ‘us’ [the gifted leadership]. I believe there needs to be an overall shift in the basic way we do Christianity. It’s not a new doctrine to grasp, or some new conference to go to. It’s going to take some time for us as believers to return back to the simplicity and sincerity of New Testament Christianity. I don’t see myself, or any of us for that matter, as having arrived. But I see hope for us as the people of God to turn towards God once again, and to experience renewal in this season of our lives with him. [Let me note that in these 2 instances there was a sense of performance that I saw. Though I am sure these are good men at heart, we are all victims of the times we live in. The ‘journey’ towards fame and the self-promotion of our gifts and images is a part of modern ministry. In the entertainment world you simply seek success by advancing along these lines. When Gods gifted people [singers, speakers, etc.] follow these same lines they unconsciously create around them an environment that tends to promote their image. The local community around them, or the national supporters of their ministries, simply become enablers for the gifts and images of the leader to advance. The money and resources begin being used to promote the image of one person. This fundamentally violates the character of New Testament leadership that Jesus taught].

(79)  In keeping with the above train of thought, I just read a verse  ‘Your seed and your name shall remain’. I have learned and seen over the years this process play out. We went thru a time of ‘de promotion’ [demotion] where we actively pursued avenues to not exalt or promote our image or persona. I don’t want to sound ‘humble’ or better than others. It was just the process of seeing the scriptural mandate to not ‘self promote’ [I do send packets out and broadcast radio and stuff, but I try to avoid making contacts or sending stuff out for the purpose of ‘getting our name out’]. During this time I would notice every now and then people would recognize or know the name of our ministry or who we were. This was despite the fact that I stopped using the ministry name in many areas [the radio show still uses it, but in other areas I stopped]. I then made a sign ‘Corpus Christi Outreach Ministries’ to use for a home that was being groomed for a rehab facility. Though I didn’t promote the name, in this instance as well as the radio stuff, it simply was necessary for various reasons. Well I still have the sign [the home didn’t work out, yet!] and the name seems to ‘promote’ even though I actively tried to prevent it. I see in this a scriptural theme. Jesus taught these principles and lived them. John the Baptist certainly was not seeking promotion, but he got it! This seems to me the biblical promotion that comes from God and not man. Jesus actively avoided it when men tried to make him king; though today he sits at the right hand of God. There is almost a sense of you needing to really avoid and not want promotion, even though it will pursue those who avoid it. You don’t avoid it so you will be exalted; it just seems to work out that way. Jesus says the last become first. You begin to recognize the futility of mans honor, and this will inevitably bring you to a place where men want to honor you. Well when God says ‘your seed and your name will remain’ this is a type of legacy that’s permitted. You will generationaly affect the nations.

(80)  I just went into my house after writing # 79 above. It’s early, around 4:00 am. I wrote a few days ago on unicorns. They represent a type of honor that comes from God, and not man. After writing it I made a mental note to pick up some type of unicorn figurine for my shelf as a reminder. When I walked in to my house to get some coffee, I looked at a shelf in my kitchen. I don’t know why, but it seemed out of order, this shelf is a collection of about 25 pieces of little trinkets and stuff that I found in a house in Kingsville that was being torn down by the city. The Fire Dept. would go to wet it down before the city truck demolished it. I went in and found a complete collection of all these little figurines in the middle of the house on a shelf. They were sitting there like ‘lambs for the slaughter’. I picked up a five-gallon bucket and ‘rescued’ them. I’ve had them for about 5 years. Well as I went to the shelf in my kitchen to fix the figurines [its 4 in the morning, I am writing, praying and have stuff to do!] I realize there are 2 beautiful unicorns from this collection. I didn’t have to buy them at all. They were precious riches that came from a little insignificant South Texas city [can anything good come from Nazareth?] that I pastored in [‘followed the sheep’]. ‘I will take you from following the sheep to the borders of my mountain’. God promotes those who are not too high minded to give their lives for the ‘least of these’. He will exalt you like ‘the horn of a unicorn’ and give you a rule like King David all for his glory!

(81)  After saying all this I am going to ‘brag’ a little. The other day I was forced to give an explanation of the amount of stuff I manage to get done as an individual. I was asked to attend a school for the Fire Dept. that would be a 3-day school in another city outside of the local area. I really couldn’t afford the time for this. The captain wanted a letter explaining why I couldn’t attend. I simply described the time it takes to ‘run’ a regional ministry, do radio, work with addicts, ex-cons and homeless people. And to do it without staff, income or a salary! I had to add this because I wanted to show this time was not being used for another job [which can be a conflict in some cases]. I didn’t want to sound like a martyr or a one-man show, but I had to make it understood that it wasn’t for personal gain. I do believe in the principle of delegation and teamwork. I believe we all have tremendous potential to touch the world. The verse ‘you don’t need a lot of extra equipment for this, you are the equipment’ kind of fits in here. Without showboating too much, we can all accomplish things with just  ‘God and you’. God told Moses ‘I will go with you’. There’s a sense of ‘going with God’ that enables all of us to do great things with limited resources. Its not that God doesn’t have the resources [the cattle on a thousand hills] it’s that God IS the resource! As you touch peoples lives God will expand your spiritual heritage thru your seed. This is a type of ‘delegation of authority’ that we all can do, birth people into the kingdom with the gospel and you will touch the world!

(82)  Being we are talking about this let me stay on track. If you look at the life and finances of the apostle Paul, you will see enough money to simply meet his needs and help ‘transport’ him to the places where he needed to be. There really was no big budget ministry at all. We have a tendency to take the verses where Paul speaks on finances and interject them into modern ministry budgets. While its not really wrong to do this, the result of doing this takes away from the reality that Paul reached the known world of his day with the gospel without starting a multi million-dollar ministry. He simply went when the Lord told him to go, lived a life of suffering and sacrifice and God increased his influence supernaturally. Its humanistic thinking to say ‘the world will never be reached without billions of dollars’. This simply isn’t so. Now it does take money to send the gospel out to be sure. But we put a spin on it in order to fund huge modern Christian businesses! I want you to simply re-think what I just showed you about Paul’s life. God supernaturally expanded his influence by allowing his letters to go further than normal [Canon of scripture], he allowed the people that he communicated the gospel to, to have a regional influence for Christ. All this was done by the life of one man with a few simple people helping him in the journey. Simply no million-dollar budget to do this! The verses that speak about funding for projects [the Temple] and collecting large amounts of money [to distribute to meet the needs of the poor] are true scriptures. We simply make a mistake when we use these verses to teach that ‘you can’t touch the world on your own, but by chipping in with many other thousands you can only have an effect’. While the principle of joining forces and having exponential increase when there are big numbers is true. Yet we cant miss the point that we can all touch the world. The fact is God can use little old you, if your willing to count the ‘cost’ of a life of prayer, fasting, self sacrifice, risk taking and living for eternal rewards as opposed to material things! This is  ‘the cost’ to touch the world, not a bunch of money!

(83) Had a dream a few days ago. In the area where I live in Corpus Christi [Flour Bluff] there are many generations of homeless people that have come thru this area. In the dream I saw ‘ancient houses’ imbedded in the trees and woods. It was like going thru the forest and seeing an old shack that was there so long it would seem camouflaged. There were many structures like this all thru out the woods, but they were easy to overlook and ignore. If you weren’t attentive you would see nothing at all! There was a bride walking on the 2nd story of one of these houses and she fell thru the floor all the way thru the foundation into a seemingly endless pit. I feel the houses represent the generations of hopeless people and families that the enemy has tried to ‘swallow’ over the years. All people are precious to God, some of these are actually believers, which makes them Christ’s bride. How would you feel if your bride was daily living in such bad conditions and she felt like she were in a hopeless situation from which there were no escape?

(84) I felt the Lord saying ‘this is the year where many prophets need to begin to harmonize their gifts with scripture’. There will need to be a humility to accept this fact. This is not to say that the prophetic is false. But I felt the Lord saying many prophecies and words that were not in line with scripture need to be abandoned. There is a prophetic pride that refuses to receive doctrinal correction under the guise of ‘the word of the Lord cant be wrong’. While this is true, we need to be humble enough to receive the fact that prophets sometimes miss the mark and make mistakes. The prophetic will be judged on its ability to receive these course changes and return to a more balanced biblical perspective [this word is spoken in 1-21-07, but receive it as the Lord directs].

(85) One of the subjects I deal with that seems to hit a sore spot is the area of giving. I want to use the tithe as an example of how we should read and interpret scripture. A careful reading of the New Testament shows the tithe mentioned in both the Gospels and the book of Hebrews. The main reason is these books obviously have a heavy Jewish context to whom they are being addressed. This is not to say that gentile believers cant find practical teaching in them. As you read the letters written to Gentile believers [primarily Paul’s] you find specific teaching on how Gentiles are to approach giving. In every case its simple giving without the tithe [I stress every case!]. Paul’s letters actually contain entire sections where the whole theme is that believers are not subject to law or Jewish ordinances [I know there are other debates, but I think I have dealt with those well enough in all our books]. This simple careful study and look at this subject should lead any serious bible student to understand that Gentile Christians are not under the tithe. No big fight, just simple freedom in grace. You’re free to give 10-15 or 20 % of your income, but your not mandated by law! This simple example can be used on any bible subject. You read the epistles in context; you come to a conclusion based on the overall evidence. And you fall on the side of grace versus law every time. I am not condemning those who put themselves under law, you can if you want to. Nor do I advocate being a cheapskate! I just think we should have a mature understanding in all areas of Christian life, and walk in grace in every area, even the area of giving.

(86) Let me say something good about Christian TV. Last night I tuned in to a live service out of Toronto from John Arnotts fellowship. This was one of the significant churches that the Lord used in the renewal movement of the 90s. In the past I have read and studied [and attended!] different things on the movement. For the most part I came down on the side of ‘the Lord was in it’ though there were legitimate concerns from the critics. The main point I wanted to stress is in watching the meeting on TV, I really sensed and entered in to the Lords presence. Some TV ministries simply broadcast the personas of people. In this atmosphere God was being ‘promoted’. It was good. Also one of the speakers reminded me to share something. There are stages in our lives where God brings us past certain milestones. These are specific times and events that set the course for the rest of our lives. These milestones are important to understand. While Paul the apostle said he ‘forgot the things that were behind’, he also recognized the importance of ‘entering into your labors’ [to be specific ‘other peoples labors’]. The dynamic of having accomplished certain things and simply resting in the harvest. This is not to say we don’t continue to press forward, its just a realization that you have passed certain markers on the journey, and in these areas your primary responsibility is to simply give oversight. There are definite seasons of transition in our lives where God simply says ‘I am removing your active involvement in this project/area, you are going to continue to reap rewards for having faithfully completed this part of the mission, but now I am going to change you parameter once again’. I sense this not in a bad way, but in a progression with God. Even the great patriarchs in the bible had specific times of ‘great faith’ and then long seasons of waiting in/on God. Abraham had some great milestones of faith, but there were also times where he simply had to stay in the land and inherit the promise. Well you might be at the ‘moving ahead’ stage, or at the ‘waiting in the land’ stage [by the way these are not mutually exclusive!] but wherever you’re at I encourage you to trust God to complete the things he’s done thru you, and allow the milestones in your life to produce the desired result. You can’t go back and ‘make it happen’ trust God to use your spiritual children to finish the task in these areas. ‘Thru your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Those that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places and make the desolate cities to be inhabited’ [Bible verse].

(87) I just made contact with one of my old friends. This person responded to one of the emails I sent out to old classmates. This person is an atheist, but was very polite in their response. I obviously returned the favor. I also told the person I am glad they contacted me, and I would love to keep in touch, atheist or not! Recently Stephen Hawking [One of the foremost scientists of our day, also an atheist] has been attending a Christian church. When questioned about it, he said something to the effect of ‘I guess I’m looking for something more’. There have been very famous intellectuals over the centuries who have come to embrace the Christian worldview [or Deism] to some degree after many years of searching. The simple fact is, for the scientist who is an atheist; there are too many holes and unanswered questions as time rolls on. Today we know that DNA teaches us that human blood has 30 or more ‘ingredients’ that all must be present and working AT ONE TIME in order for blood to function properly. These are referred to as ‘complex machines or mechanisms’ that must have a coordinated order of function at the initial stage; we didn’t discover these things until we became proficient in DNA [This last decade or so]. These truths of science absolutely debunk the mindset of evolution, which teaches all life started from simple forms and slowly evolved over millions of years. These both cant be true. Blood couldn’t have slowly evolved; it had to have had these ‘machines’ in place and operative at the incipient [beginning] stage. Well the more intellectuals see these developments this challenges there worldview. Though the ‘average’ public school student is never taught these facts, those in the know see the inconsistencies in there thinking. This is simply one of the many problems facing the atheistic scientist today. Believe me, there are many more! I believe the church has a responsibility to answer the atheist’s questions with more than just ‘the bible says so’. They deserve an intellectual answer to their honest questions. I personally believe ‘the bible says so’ philosophy, but that argument doesn’t work with someone who doesn’t believe the bible!

(88) For the sake of my ‘atheist friend’ and any other skeptic that might read this in the future, let me talk a little more in the area of apologetics and defending the faith. One of the most ‘miss informed’ proofs for evolution is actually a ‘proof’ that it’s not true! This is known as ‘fossil evidence’. Basically when Darwin popularized the theory of evolution in the 1800’s there were many questions that would still need to be answered [and would be answered] as science progressed. One of these is the ‘fossil evidence’. Fossils show that ‘things’ [life forms] came into existence at specific periods of time, as opposed to a slow process of evolution over millions of years. We have fossils of all types of living things in COMPLETE FORM [humans, dinosaurs, birds, horses, and on and on]. In all of these cases we not only don’t see a ‘missing link’, but you would need to have whole families of ‘missing links’ between all of these ‘life forms’. The fossil evidence simply shows us that things didn’t slowly evolve, but ‘showed up’ at once [or at least in complete forms]. You would think that scientists would see this, wouldn’t you? Well they have. Some explain it by embracing the Christian worldview, and say ‘God created all things’. Deists [people who believe in God, but don’t claim to be Christian] also embrace the view that God created life. What I want you to see here is these honest scientists have followed scientific facts that led them to these conclusions. The ‘fossil’ evidence falls on the side of ‘things showing up at once’ [complete forms] versus things slowly evolving. You might say that I am biased because I am a Christian; well I must admit I am. But even the atheistic scientist sees the inconsistency in the stuff I just showed you. The scientist who still doesn’t embrace faith, knows there needs to be some type of explanation for what I just told you. Well they have one! They came up with a theory called ‘punctuated equilibria’ [wow!] this theory recognizes the lack of evidence for things slowly evolving over millions of years. This theory basically says ‘evolution happens so fast [as opposed to so slow!] that the ‘fossils’ just didn’t catch it’. What! These guys call themselves intellectuals? This argument is basically a capitulation to the biblical worldview. The evidence doesn’t show things ‘changing’ from one form to another. If the ‘punctuated theory’ brothers want to embrace this silly theory, then they must do so by faith, because the very theory admits the evidence isn’t there! [They admit the fossils missed it!]. Well I don’t want to make enemies out of my friends [or friend] who are atheists, I just want to be able to engage in thoughtful dialogue while giving a defense of the faith.

(89) I just had a dream around 30 minutes ago. It’s 2:30 am right now. It was one of those dreams that after you have, you know it’s ‘more than a dream’. I was sitting on some balcony in a lower class neighborhood. It was Martin Luther King Jr. day. There was a march going on down the street, and we were all waiting for the people to go by [and the band played on!]. As the parade approached I was sitting there with anticipation. I had some sort of a branch on my lap. I didn’t realize that people started standing in respect. It was just an innocent oversight. There were 2 preachers [who I know] that were passing by. One white, the other black. The white brother looked up at me and said something to the effect of ‘you’re to good to stand’ sort of like in a self righteous way. ‘Hey, look at me, I am concerned about black people, cant you see’! The black preacher saw that I didn’t stand right away, but that it was a simple mistake. He actually defended me by saying ‘It’s all right, he doesn’t have to stand, we are in a lower class area, and its OK’. He didn’t come off as condescending; he just meant it’s a ‘real people’ area. Well I of course stood in respect as soon as I realized my fault. As I stood the branch on my lap fell to the ground. I then saw Martin Luther King. He was part of the procession. He looked at me intently and quoted some words from Jesus. I can’t recall the exact words. Then Martin Luther said ‘satan is going to try to change your image one way or another, don’t concern yourself about your own reputation’. The feeling I got from the words from this was the realization of extreme persecution and criticism that will come as a price to pay for all revolutionaries. The ‘falling of the branch’ could represent this process. Scripture calls Jesus and other key prophetic figures branches or trees. ‘The man whose name is the branch’ Jesus and other prophetic people were ‘cut off’ in their prime. [Martin Luther, John the Baptist, etc.] This ‘casting to the ground’ was an inevitable price to be paid for the revolution. Martin Luther King day just passed. I remember hearing how Martin Luther was a communist. He was looked at in a bad way in some of the fundamental Baptist circles that I used to associate with. I held a wrong view of him until I read and heard him speak over the years. Many of his faults [he did have them!] seemed to be a result of the tremendous prophetic mantle that he carried. He truly ‘came to the Kingdom for such a time as this’. I make it a point every year on Martin Luther King Day, to catch a glimpse or broadcast of a part of his great ‘I have a dream’ speech. God took Martin and allowed satan to defame his name, chose him for present day martyrdom, and gave him an indelible voice to society today. Truly Martin is a man who ‘though dead, yet speaketh’ [Hebrews]. I am adding this a few weeks later: I just realized that I have been quoting a verse in prayer for the last few weeks. Its in Psalms ‘Visit this vine, this vineyard and this branch’. Every now and than while reading I just see a verse and naturally incorporate it into intercession. I didn’t realize I was praying for ‘this branch’ and had this dream about a branch during the same few weeks.

(90) I was just outside praying, it’s early and cold. It’s January, and it’s the first clear morning in a few weeks! As this year started I was praying for the Lord to ‘pour buckets of water [spiritually!] on all the ‘seeds’ [books and contacts] that we have planted, and to cause a harvest of people to come in.’ I actually got the image of ‘buckets of water, and the seed coming forth’ from the prophecy of Balaam contained in scripture [I think somewhere in Exodus?] I remember reading it when he prophesied about Israel. The other images of Gods word being like ‘the snow and rain that come down from heaven and water the earth’ are in keeping with this. Well any way it has rained too much in these first few weeks of the New Year! Pools [floods] all over the place! But finally this morning I have a clear sky and can see the stars again. The fact that I haven’t seen them clearly in a few weeks affected my ‘vision’. God seems to ‘grow you’ [enlarge] into the size of the vision he has called you to. Without a vision the people perish! When you dwell in the parameter that God has called you to, it enlarges your ‘fore sight’. You can see further down the road than just the immediate circumstances that surround you. The fact that I haven’t been able to clearly see ‘the heavens’ in a few weeks [overcast sky’s] has limited my perspective. But today I can see far. I would encourage you to look beyond your immediate limitations and shortcomings and ‘see’ into the larger ‘place’ that God has called you to!

(91) Just outside praying and had a football in my hands while praying. The prophetic image I sense while holding the ball is for God to deposit divine wisdom and strategy to rightly place the ball into the hands of gifted and talented receivers. Of course I am speaking of the books and contacts and stuff I send out to different regions. The precious treasure is the gospel stuff we distribute, not some pigskin. Well any way this year I began thinking in ‘quarters’ more [3 month periods of time]. I used to drop tapes off at the radio station every month. Now every 3 months. As I was praying for this first ‘quarter’ it didn’t even dawn on me that I am walking around with a football! I can be pretty dense at times! Well I believe the Lord wants us to think in ‘quarters’ or strategically. The quarterback sees the game in 4 sets of time. The other players play one down at a time. Leadership needs divine wisdom to strategically deposit the ball to the talented guy, who also happens to be ‘hot’ at the time. God doesn’t expect you to scramble [all the time] he wants you to pass it off to the right people. Work smarter, not harder.

(92) Let me go back to our intellectual readers. I talked about Stephen Hawking the other day. Stephen is one of the most famous physicists of the last 20 years. Many other physicists do not see him as the foremost authority. They seem to view him as being responsible to have popularized their field of study, but they do not see him as one of the key movers and shakers of their field. One of the reasons for this is Stephens’s idea on black holes. Well this might be hard, but let me try to explain. Black holes are ‘spaces’ or ‘voids’ in space that are created when a star dies. These holes are thought to suck up anything that comes within its range. If you get too close it will take you in. The line that that you cross, from which there is no return, is called ‘the event horizon’, if you remember this was a title from a movie a few years back. Well there is a question [in the scientific world] over what happens to the things that get sucked into the hole. Stephen said they disappear [or cease to exist is a better way to say it]. This was contrary to the law of Physics that said ‘information’ cannot disappear. It is theorized that the information in the universe cannot ever disappear completely. Most assumed that even though this information was being ‘sucked’ into this whole, it would still exist and possibly resurface at some other time [or in some other place]. Well after spending 30 years defending his belief that information ceased to exist after being swallowed by a black hole, he suddenly changed his theory! Most scientists never agreed to Hawking's first theory anyway. So he comes out at some big conference of Physicists and announces a major new breakthrough. He states a new theory that admits he was wrong for the past 30 years [scientists can be wrong, I mean really wrong!] He admits that information’in a black hole cannot truly disappear [cease to exist], but that it simply goes to another ‘parallel universe’ and exists there. What! This sounds like something from the ‘Bizzaro world’ from a Seinfeld episode! Stephen Hawking sounds more like Stephen King in this scenario. Hawking said that there are many different parallel universes, some have ‘black holes’ and others don’t. All the information lost in the universes with the holes, is later retained in the universes without the holes. When you get to this ‘level’ of theory, you are not really doing true science [in my mind]. This is a type of psuedo science that is more like a scientific philosopher.  Most other physicists think this is silly! The average person seeing stuff like this on the science channel simply accepts it as truth, not realizing that the majority of true scientists think its wrong. This is the problem in modern education. The public schools [which all my kids attend] never get around to correcting some of the errors that the kids were taught at a younger age. So the average person goes thru out the rest of his life embracing theories that are not only silly, but at times dead wrong! NOTE: Let me give another example. For years the science books had a moth that they found with spots on it. They found hundreds of these moths with these spots. The books had pictures and actually taught that these spots were proof for evolution. Years later they realized that the spots actually were coming from the pollution that the factories were putting out in the area. You could still find some of the science books with the fake story in them many years later! Kids think they are being taught truth, when they are not!

(93) One of the things I forgot to mention about Hawking is he spent 30 years ‘looking into’ a black hole [these are not my words, this is how others have characterized him]. I find this interesting. I believe there are times, wilderness experiences if you will, that feel like you’re spending a lifetime looking into a black hole! God uses our ‘death’ experiences for his glory. President Lincoln aged 30 yrs [it looked like it] during the years of the civil war. If you look at the pictures of Lincoln at the beginning of his presidency, and then near the end, the contrast is dramatic. The weight of the responsibility caused him to look severely ‘sunken’ and aged. I believe there is a level of brutal honesty with God and man that can only be achieved thru these means. Many of the great biblical characters [Moses, Elijah, Jonah] actually prayed to die. There just seems to be a level of authority that comes thru severe testing. You can’t seem to achieve it any other way. You also cant seem to avoid it, once you start going down that road you simply allow God to bring forth out of you the thing of value. The garden of Gethsemane was a place where you oppressed [I meant to write pressed and the spell check spelt oppressed!] olives. The process of tremendous pressure produced something of value. I just felt like today’s word was this, take it for what its worth. [Next day]. What I wanted to express is the concept of ‘bearing the Cross’ God uses things in our lives that ‘tare’ us. This process ‘opens us up’ [remember the earlier imagery of God smiting the rock and water coming out!] and allows deep truths to come forth. The day Jesus was crucified; scripture says ‘the veil of the temple was rent’. This veil was a covering over a room in the temple [the holy of holies] the rending [tearing] of this cloth represented us having full access into Gods presence thru the Cross. Most of us know this. But Jesus Body is called ‘the veil’ in the book of Hebrews [New Testament]. The ‘rending of the veil’ on the day of the crucifixion was a type of what was presently happening on the Cross that day. The ‘tearing’ [piercing] of Christ allowed there to be a ‘flow’ of Grace and wisdom that were unavailable until that day. The ‘door’ of heaven was opened [Jesus is called the door, his Body was ‘opened’ on the Cross] and this ‘bearing the Cross’ brought forth precious fruit that no other singular event would ever match!

(94) Update; earlier in this paper I shared the story of the ‘tough guy’ I beat up at the carnival. One of my old buddies who got this paper just informed me that he’s in a New Jersey prison for 8-10 years on multiple accounts of robbery, kidnapping and assault. I just sent the prison a request for a mailing address to contact him. Hope to hear from him soon. Pray for this guy, his name is Jimmy [chee chee]. Thanks!

(95) Let me update you guys. I started this paper [Prophecies, dreams, visions] 2 months ago. Its 2-1-07 right now. I didn’t think [or want to!] write this much this soon. I have already made some real good contacts with some old friends. The beginning of this year I sensed an urgency to get on with the task of ‘reaching’ my generation [the friends I grew up with]. I have been praying for you guys for 25 years, on a weekly basis! This year I felt like the Lord said its time. Don’t get me wrong, I have tried to witness to, or simply contact old buddies over the years. Its just I felt like the Lord said don’t wait any longer. Do whatever has to be done at this stage. I have noticed over the years that some of the people I worked with [ex-cons] and their families and friends, would seem to ‘reap’ in an intense way in there 40’s. The most extreme case was a guy from the original group of addicts I worked with in Kingsville. I personally did not know him, but a lot of my friends did. On a coke high he raped and murdered a college girl in our town. This was big news for many years. I remember praying for him as the week of the execution neared [we kill them quick in Texas!]. I simply prayed for him to have the courage to go thru it with grace, and an apology to the family of his victim. I read his statement and it contained these elements, but also a long statement on God and Christ and admitting to all his sins. It was one of the ‘best’ statements from a death row inmate that I have ever read. He was in his 40’s when he was executed. I am 44 as I write this. I pray for my generation, this is a season of reaping for many of us. God bless all of you, and thanks to those of you who have been in touch with me these last few months. I know some of our writings are a little heavy and I realize I take a chance at offending some. But this is a risk that I needed to take! [You might be thinking ‘there not so heavy’ wait till you get to the 300’s].

(96) There are 2 types of movements/ministries that are taking place today. One type is the classical idea of ministry. You are part of a Christian group that does Christian projects and you’re primary involvement is financing these projects. These groups often need thousands [or millions!] of dollars to get the job done. There are other groups of believers that simply function along the lines of volunteerism. Sort of like A.A. meetings. These groups seek to advance the kingdom thru evangelism [that is them doing it!] they often meet from house to house; some are ‘virtual communities’ who meet on line. They expand rapidly thru out whole nations with little or no money. You say how can this be. Well this is the power of the Gospel. Believers sharing their faith, reaching out to the hurting, giving to those in need. All doing this as individual [and corporate] members of Christ’s body. No ‘big ministry’ at all. Simply Christ’s Body functioning and acting like the disciples. They didn’t start their own ministries/movements. They were the movement! [That is the dynamic of Christ’s Spirit working in them]. Faithfulness in the first group is measured primarily by attending Church on Sunday and paying the tithe, faithfulness in the second group is measured by living in community relationships with each other and personally doing evangelism. Without being too critical, I find it interesting that in the judgment scenarios that Jesus gives in the Gospels, you NEVER find him judging people on whether they were faithful to ‘church’ or tithed. You ALWAYS find judgment based on how we treated fellow human beings [relational!]. ‘When I was hungry you fed me, etc.’

(97) I just saw a commercial for the upcoming super bowl. A company contracted with the fans to come up with there own commercials. The fans did it themselves without any help. The commercial I saw was good. It’s one of the few that will run Sunday. It cost a total of  $13.00 dollars [this is no type o, thirteen dollars!]. It looked as good as the ones that cost in the millions! The fan said he filmed it with his wife. No other stuff needed. Their camcorder, their car and a few bags of Doritos and a friend to record it for free. This reminds me of that favorite verse you always see me quoting ‘Don’t think you need a lot of extra equipment for this, you are the equipment, no special appeals for funds [13 dollars!] keep it simple’ When you see yourself and all that you have as dedicated to the expanding of the Kingdom, then God will use you. You’re impact can be just as real as a million dollar budget. If a fan from a football team can do it, how much more you!

(98) I wanted to mention something. After first becoming a believer, I realized that I couldn’t afford to attend college. I was 19 yrs old, had my first daughter in my early 20’s, and by my 30’s I had 4 girls! But what I did do is borrow and read tons of books from the public library. I would purchase college level books for half price at ‘half price books’. I basically utilized what was available to gain an education, without paying some professor $100,000 dollars to tell me to read a book! Now I am not demeaning those who have, I just want you to see that you can accomplish things if you want to. [Added later; I want to make a note here, I have bought books from ‘the Christian bookstore’ and from ‘regular bookstores’. The Christian bookstores have a tendency to promote pop Christian culture some of it is good, some not. The theology sections of good bookstores contain better stuff for a Christian education. You would benefit to read the classics and other fields of study that you would get if attending some divinity school from Harvard [or Notre Dame for my Catholic friends!] then to just read the pop psychology stuff being promoted today.

(99) I fell asleep last night around 7-7:30. I am on a 24 hour shift right now [firehouse] and got up around 12:30 or so. I try not to get up before 2:00 am, but we had a few runs and I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. So I just started reviewing some of our writings, going over some stuff. I forgot to tell you guys about a dream I had a while back, I just saw it in my mission statement/journal of prophecies and dreams. In the dream I saw my Italian grandmother who passed away many years ago. She was a great cook and a great person. I called her ‘Nauna’. She was in heaven and simply said ‘your famous up here on TV’ I found this strange being I have no desire to ever be on TV. I also seek to avoid the ‘famous’ mentality that exists in the church today. But what I got out of this was the teaching from Jesus on the last being first, and the least being the greatest. I believe we will be surprised at who is famous and who is not in Gods eyes. I honestly do not see myself as ‘famous’ or a big shot. But I do recognize that God wants to give us favor with God and man for his glory.

(100) Its time to tell a few more stories. Because of some recent contacts with some old friends I am remembering some things. First let me say a few years ago I felt the Lord saying ‘your testimony will be important to old friends and new ones’. I didn’t fully understand why, but I sensed an urgency to contact old friends thru ministry avenues. Well I actually have had some friends tell me ‘John, I am not interested in your Christian books and stuff, but I would like to hear what happened to you down in Texas’ and after giving them some materials they wind up reading the Christian stuff! So anyway I realize that it serves a purpose. Thru one of my old buddies I found out about the friend who is in the N.J. prison. These are both old friends. The one who gave me the Cross on the ‘mesq.’ trip I told you about earlier is one of them. The friend in jail is the guy I beat up at the carnival years ago. Well already the friend in prison is receiving a bunch of stuff from me, I just mailed out a package of stuff to the prison and hope to keep in touch. This is the first person I have had an open door with in a Jersey prison. Sometimes friends in prison are an ‘open door’ to get materials into the hands of other prisoners [books and stuff!]. Well the story I am remembering is when I first got kicked out of the Navy I went back to Jersey for a few months. I hooked up with my buddy who gave me the Cross, and my other good friend who eventually came back to Texas with me and later died of aids. Well he got kicked out of the Army and was already back in Jersey when I showed up. One day we took a drive out to the more rural areas of New Jersey [sort of like where Tony Soprano would live!]. Found some country road and just were partying and drinking and getting high. We saw some nice car parked on the side of this mountain road and decided to ‘push it’ off the mountain with the car we were in. So as we pushing it over the cliff [it was empty!] someone came down from the back area of this mountain road and began smashing the windshield with a bat. Obviously they weren’t happy about our choice of recreation! Well I opened the passenger side window and smashed a beer bottle over the hood to try and get it to break into the guys face. We all got out and realized there were 2 of them. One guy was pretty big. But there were three of us and we managed to scare them pretty bad. I pretended I had a gun in the car [either me or my friend?] and we were saying ‘get the gun, get the gun’ and the guys got scared. We totally destroyed their vehicle. It was just sitting there hanging of the side of this mountain road. We took off and about a mile down the road passed up a trooper vehicle and realized he would be on the scene in about a minute. So we drove over a hundred miles an hour for a long time to get off that mountain. We never got caught. I realize that in a lot of these cases if we were caught we would have been in big trouble! I thank God we never went to jail over this stuff.

(101) Lets get back to some spiritual stuff. Recently both of my older daughters bought homes. One bought a nice ranch with 2.5 acres, and a beautiful modular home. The entire ranch and home was on the market for $120,000 dollars, it was a HUD repo and she got it for $31,000! A real blessing. This is my 19 year old. My other girl got a nice 2 bedroom in Corpus for around $45,000. This is my 21 year old [by the way my other 2 girls are 15 and 16]. Well I really didn’t want them to be buying homes at the same time. I want to help them with everything, but sometimes there’s just too much to do! Its funny, I really wasn’t involved too much in this whole process. One of the homes I didn’t even see until my daughter closed on it. Scripture says ‘first the natural, than the spiritual’. I felt like the Lord was telling me ‘your spiritual seed will grow and posses the land, and you will rest and enjoy the harvest’. I have a tendency to be an ‘over achiever’ [at least I try!]. I know sometimes I push it too much to the limit, and I have to learn to allow our ‘children’ to grow and mature in Gods time. My older girls have good jobs [one is a veterinarians assistant, the other manages the municipal pools for the City] they both attend college [A and M university in C.C.] and are settling in to their new homes. The natural expansion of my kids lives and ‘parameters’ I feel are symbolic of many of you reading this stuff. God wants to use you and expand his ‘influence’ thru you, and I need to learn to sit back and ‘watch’ it happen. I truly believe God wants to use many of you to advance his Kingdom in the earth. No big ministry to join, just learning and growing in Gods time and allowing him to use you in some way to influence your circle of friends as well!

(102) I am watching an HBO special right now. It’s called ‘the friends of God’ its not a real critical look at Christians, but it does portray them as a little goofy/silly. One of the defenses the Christians are giving for their belief in creation versus evolution is ‘I believe the bible’. The person making this documentary [Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, the first woman speaker of the house] obviously isn’t going to interview the multitudes of scientists who also don’t believe in evolution! But some of the Christians do look silly, to be honest. Some of the arguments Christians use to defend the faith are shallow. Do you believe the bible? Do you believe it is scientifically accurate [I do], well when the bible says the ‘sun rises’ do you believe it actually ‘rises’? Not really! Most of you accept the fact that the earth revolves around the sun and rotates at the same time. Scientifically the ‘sun doesn’t rise’. The language used in scripture to describe ‘the sun rising’ isn’t lying, but it is simply using the natural flow of language that people communicate with. There are things like this that believers need to become more familiar with in our defense of the faith, or else we look like people who still believe the earth is flat! NOTE: I personally don’t like the ‘persona’ that is being put forward from some of the more strident evangelical preachers. Though I would agree with them doctrinally on many subjects, it’s just the overall ‘us versus them’ mentality that turns me off.

(103) Just here at work. Got up a few hours ago [around 2:30 am] and was praying. Walking outside I found a football that someone left a few weeks back just lying around. I stuck it in the alley where I pray while at work. I was walking around with the football and was just thinking about the concept of ‘scoring’. The quarterback gets no credit for just getting the ball into the end zone. It has to be ‘delivered’ by a person! Either he hands the ball off to a running back [one on one outreach] or he passes it [radio and other forms of ‘sending’]. Sometimes he runs it in himself! [You Pastors and leaders, don’t neglect personal evangelism. You need to win people to the Lord too!]. God gives us ‘things of value’ gifts and skills [football]. These treasures we posses only count when we successfully ‘hand them off’ to the rest of the team! Don’t hog the ball! [Note- it’s the Monday right after the super bowl, I don’t even know who won yet, the colts or bears?]

(104) Let me fill in some holes on my timeline. After the story of me going U.A from the base in Kingsville, I eventually wound up back on the base in a restriction barracks. This was a place where you were under 24 hour watch, and could leave your room only for meals. Well I found a way to get out at night through a back entrance. Got some civilian clothes and even managed to get some drugs and liquor into our area. One of the drugs was from a friend who was the pharmacist at the dispensary [I was a hospital corpsman/ Medic]. He would give us fake prescriptions and we would get them filled. The stuff he got me was a type of speed [I think it was ephedrine?] One night I took way too much, around 10 to 20 pills. I was up for a few days. For years later one of the after effects was my toes were completely numb. This lasted for a few years and eventually it went away. You can only abuse your system so much before you get lingering effects. One of the nights I snuck out, I went to a local club in town to party. We had no ride back to the base so I asked some navy girls for a ride. They innocently took me back to the base not realizing that they would have gotten into trouble if they got caught transporting someone who was on restriction. Well the next day one of the girls told her friend we were partying the night before. Her friend said ‘no way’ he’s on restriction in the barracks. Well the girl who gave me the ride back to the base eventually became my wife. This was a few weeks from my discharge from the navy. I would find myself back in Jersey for a few months. I remember getting stoned one night and thinking ‘I gotta get the hell out of this town!’ this brought me back to Texas with my buddy who eventually died of aids. Well I just thought I would fill in this part of the timeline for some of my old friends who are now reading this blog. [Note: I have used the imagery of ‘ports’ and stuff in my writings, I have referred to ‘new windows and opportunities’ as ‘ports of call’ the name of the club where I met my wife was called ‘port o call’ it’s still there!]

(105) Let me say a few things. Thank you to all the friends from Jersey who have contacted me. Feel free to ask me any questions or stuff about religion, Christianity or anything! If I don’t know the answer I’ll make one up! [Just kidding]. I am a little hesitant sharing certain ‘prophetic’ type stuff with you guys, many of you don’t even know what ‘prophetic’ means. But let me throw one in anyway. One of the images I had in mind when beginning to contact friends from Jersey was the image of ‘fishing the Hudson’. The New Testament speaks of ‘fishing for men’ meaning winning people to Christ. Making believers out of unbelievers. So the beginning of this year ‘fishing the Hudson’ was an image that came to mind when reaching out to old friends from that area. It dawned on me that the first person from New Jersey that I led to the Lord I actually ‘fished’ out of a Jersey river physically, before I ‘fished’ him spiritually. My old buddy Miguel [who died of aids] and I were racing dirt bikes down off of ‘west side road’ off of Tonnele ave. We were riding some old trails along the river [think it was the Hackensack river] as we were racing around a bend, I was in front and as soon as I turned the corner I came up on a hairpin turn that went off a little bridge that would put you right into the river. Well I couldn’t wait to see my buddy hit the water! Instead of warning him, I just stopped and waited for him to make the turn. Well he did! He flew right off the bridge [about 10 feet or so] and totally submerged body and bike completely under water. I probably should have been worried, but I just thought it looked cool. As he came up for air I said ‘look out for the alligators’ and he freaked out [I know that was bad!] Well I ‘fished’ him out of the water and we pulled his bike out [it was an Indian 100 cc motorcycle]. I pulled it back to his house with a rope and we parked it there. A few weeks later we pulled the plugs, sprayed it with WD 40 and believe it or not it started! Well he later was the first person from Jersey that I led to the Lord; I guess the Lord knew he didn’t have much time left.

(106) Let me talk to the Pastors and leaders who read this blog. There are many changes and things the Lord is doing across the Body of Christ in a dynamic way. Theologians refer to some of these movements as the ‘emerging church’. There are many other names and descriptions as well. I would just like to state the plain fact that God is challenging our mindsets in many areas of Church life. I find many Pastors and leaders who are afraid to even think about the possibility that the present role of ‘Pastor’ is really an unbiblical expression of New Testament leadership. Not saying these guys are bad or evil, just the fact that God has challenged the concept of the Pastor as the Sunday lecturer who is ‘over’ the Local Church. These ideas are changing by Gods design. Many leaders who heard me [and others] say this stuff years ago, thought we were nuts. Now it seems to be an ‘open secret’ that people cant avoid dealing with. I just want to encourage you guys to be bold and courageous, if God changes the way you function and brings you more into alignment with the biblical model of leadership, then this is a good thing! Come out of your shells of fear and timidity men! We have all been wrong and needed correction over the years, don’t see your current role as something that needs to be defended at all costs, God is changing things and I encourage you to go with the flow!

(107) When I spoke a few weeks ago on not being able to attend college, I want to clarify my thoughts on higher education. I believe one of the problems with ‘fundamentalism’ [some types of evangelical preachers] is the lack of a well-balanced education. It’s good to get a university level of education if you can. In the last century there was a movement in the Christian church that was called ‘higher criticism’. Many of the scholars that were influenced by the previous stage of the enlightenment [from Europe] taught a type of bible interpretation that denied many [or all] the supernatural stories in the bible, even the resurrection! As a result many American universities were inundated with a type of teaching that ‘old fashioned’ preachers thought was apostasy [some of it was, but not all of it!]. The American ‘fundamentalists’ reacted by simply saying ‘we believe the bible literally’. The problem with some of the literalists, was they lacked a balanced historical understanding of the times and life of the early church. They seemed to have no time to become educated on the historical aspects of Christianity. So ‘literalism’ said ‘if the bible says it’s going to happen, then it is going to happen’. Not realizing [because of a lack of education] that certain things already happened. One example of this is the present preoccupation with the ‘antichrist’ and the prevailing hobby of trying to find out who he is. Is he alive today? A lot of speculation on a person that the first century church believed to be fulfilled in the emperor Nero. Without teaching this whole subject, the early church taught and understood that there would be a person who would be a great persecutor of Christians. He would even kill those who would not ‘worship his image and bow down to him’ those who would not ‘receive his number 666 couldn’t survive’. The Roman Empire of the 1st century allowed for religious expression. There form of Government actually ‘deified’ their Caesars. You could believe in other Gods [Pantheism] as long as you bowed the knee to its emperors. Well obviously Paul and other early writers could see the writing on the wall. Early Christians were not to sware allegiance to any other ‘god’ but Jesus Christ! As the early church progressed, the apostles understood that there would eventually be a ‘Caesar’ that would demand allegiance to himself. Those who wouldn’t ‘bow’ and say ‘Caesar is Lord’ would eventually be killed. Polycarp and other early Christian leaders met their fate this way. Nero was the worst. He blamed catastrophes and other events [arson!] on the Christians, though its believed that he himself was the arsonist! Nero’s name, along with his title of ‘Caesar’ does spell out to the numerical value of ‘666’. It just made sense for the early church to have believed him to have been the antichrist! There are many other debates on this subject, and I do leave room for the possibility for the ‘antichrist’ to be a future person, but I doubt it. Also during the reformation of the 16th century, many of the reformers [Luther and others] saw the ‘antichrist’ as the pope. The book of revelation speaks of Rome and both a political and religious ‘Babylon’ as coming against the saints. It was easy for the reformers to ‘see’ the marriage of the Catholic Church with the governments of men as the culprit [The Holy Roman empire and stuff like that]. But again this view doesn’t seem to take into account that Rome of the 1st century was religious, and that wasn’t speaking about Catholics! So I believe a basic understanding of world history, along with a literal interpretation of the bible go hand in hand. Those who despise education [calling the seminary the ‘cemetery’] seem to lack this balance.

(108) Let me also say that the current popular ‘end times’ teaching that you see and hear in much of American Evangelicalism sprouted thru the fundamentalist reaction to higher criticism. In the 1800’s there were certain Christian groups in England [the Brethren and others] that took hold of ‘Dispensationalism’. The ‘Rapture’ doctrine and other scenarios of bible interpretation sprung up out of these movements. When the American fundamentalists used the Bible Conference as a tool to counteract the higher criticism being taught in the universities, Dispensationalism sort of tagged along. It became common to think ‘defending the historic faith’ meant defending ‘Dispensational theology’. This was a major mistake. The Historic faith did not teach certain elements of dispensationalism [Rapture]. So today you find many American Christians who are all too willing to embrace certain end time scenarios [Tim Lahaye stuff!] thinking there ‘defending the bible’ not realizing that some of the things there defending are not in the bible! [At least not in the way that they see it]. When you fail to read scripture thru an historical paradigm you fall into the danger of trying to fit current geopolitical events into certain Old Testament prophets, and this is dangerous. You would never want to do world politics with a view of Israel and other nations [Russia- Gog and Magog] as a type of ‘newspaper prophecy’ that speaks to every current world scenario. One of the fears of certain believers is the fact that President Bush [current President as of this writing] holds to a view like this. I remember certain end time preachers disclosing the fact that the Bush administration contacted them early on about certain end time things. I am real uncomfortable about this. Many of these end time preachers do not realize that many of these scenarios concerning Israel and other nations have played out time and again over the last few thousand years. To take these Old Testament prophets and think that they are all speaking about current affairs is misguided!

(109) I just had a dream a few hours ago. I dreamt I was in some type of government area. I was giving our books to Senator Trent Lott. As he began reading the books he became influenced to the point where he started advocating some of the positions we hold. This didn’t sit well with his political advisers. They were like ‘Its good that John is a Christian and he gave you these books, but do you have to become a fanatic too!’ When I woke up I wasn’t too sure about this dream. A verse came to my mind ‘he will teach my senators wisdom’ [I believe it’s a Messianic verse, which is an Old Testament verse speaking about Jesus]. You often find the New Testament writers using these verses interchangeably between both Jesus and The Church. God ‘teaches wisdom’ thru his Spirit speaking out of the Body of Christ. The thing I got from this dream was we were having an effect on certain Kingdom people to the point where they are beginning to advocate some of the things we teach. That’s great! I find it interesting to hear somebody teach something after I give them our stuff, and to realize that they are saying things they learned from us. No bragging, just the joy of Knowing I’m not wasting my time! Some of these men are in there 80’s, that’s interesting. It shows me the younger guys [my age!] are not as open and humble as those who have been around a while. Let me stick this in here. The other day I was at work and just emailing some old friends from the classmate’s site. We had a tractor-trailer carrying a bunch of cars catch fire. We were stuck at that scene for a few hours. When we got back I kind of prayed ‘I’m glad I got these few emails off before the run, but I need to get some better results!’ Feeling a little discouraged I guess. Well I got one return email from the 5 or 6 people I emailed that day. It was an old friend I hadn’t seen in 26 years. He responded and said he was a believer and serving the Lord and would like to even visit the ministry. Also I got a phone call from one of our old friends from Bishop [a nearby city]  who I hadn’t seen in around 3 or 4 years. He is the younger brother to the friend I told you about earlier who died from swallowing a bag of cocaine. The younger brother looks a lot like his older brother who died. Well he came by the firehouse to see me. He’s a believer and doing good. He even encouraged me by telling me I was his ‘spiritual father’. I simply felt like the Lord encouraged me this day. Also to all the friends from Jersey that want to get in touch, I have no ‘ministry’ to visit. We own no facilities; have no corporation and no staff! I try to teach and model what we teach. I simply have a bunch of friends in different places that we try to relate to as Christian brothers [sisters]. I would love to get a visit, or visit any of you. It’s just I don’t want to give the impression that there’s some big facility or some thing that I run. There’s nothing [except for people!] But I am looking for friends who are interested in doing home/house church type meetings. Any of you Jersey friends who start a bible group or home fellowship as a result of being in contact with us, I would consider as ‘part of the ministry’ in the sense that I believe this is a step that the Lord has for me on this journey. So lets get together as God leads! God bless.

(110) Let me tell a few jokes for levity. A few years ago I took my truck to Wal Mart for an oil change. I ran into a bunch of homeless friends who hang out in the front of the store. I was in the strange situation of having no money on me while wanting to buy a soda from a 25-cent machine. I naively asked my friends for some change [forgetting they are almost always dead broke!]. Sure enough a few of the guys were more than willing to give me their change. No questions asked. Just friends helping friends. But one of the guys got quiet when I asked for the change. His buddies could tell that he had some change but didn’t want to cough it up. They said this to him in no uncertain terms! Well after I got the change I then reached into my pocket to grab my check book [I had the checkbook on me, but no cash] and then proceeded to lie! I pulled out the checkbook and said ‘Now I am going to tell you guys who I really am’. They all looked a little shocked. I think they thought I was a Narc [undercover cop] and I was going to bust them! I told them ‘did you ever hear of the millionaire Percy Ross’ they didn’t! But anyway I told them this is the guy who anonymously gives away millions of dollars to unsuspecting people. I told them ‘I am him!’ I then went on to explain that I move to different parts of the country on a rotating basis [I wish!] and befriend homeless people. I try to teach them love and generosity for a few years [These guys all knew me for a few years by now, and I have taken them all out to eat lots of times]. I then said ‘and after trying to teach them the lesson of generosity, I simply ask them for some change. And whoever gives me the change proves that he learned the lesson and can be trusted with more. I then make him a homeless millionaire’. Well you can see the look of shock on their faces, they went from thinking they were going to get busted, to one of them becoming rich! Well the brother who had the change but wasn’t willing to give it up couldn’t wait to give me his change now. I then acted like I was writing out the check for the million and confessed I made it all up. Well at least they got some exercise by increasing their heartbeats to over 200 for a few minutes!

(111) One day I picked up 2 black brothers who needed a ride. I was talking to them as I was giving them a ride to some mission. I could tell that they wanted to ‘jump’ me. It was weird; they kind of sensed that I felt ‘comfortable’ being in this position. Sort of like ‘its been a while, but will do what we have to do’. It was strange. Well they didn’t jump me, I told them I was from Jersey [I think they were from New York City]. And they questioned me a little on the geography of the area. I think when they realized I was somewhat of a ‘home boy’ they let me off the hook. I really don’t know why I told this one, I was just sitting outside praying and remembered it.

(112) Just got home from doing some food shopping. On the way back I parked by the bay for a little while. Took a break and read the paper while listening to the radio. I heard a preacher defend the idea of ‘the Pastor’ as the person who ‘runs’ the church. I got upset! He went on to speak about the multimillion dollar ‘church’ that their building in San Antonio, he spoke on the biblical principal of leadership, someone having to make a decision. For example: God makes decisions in the Godhead [Trinity] and things of this nature. Then he spoke on the practical reality of one man needing to ‘make the call’ for the ‘church’ on vital financial decisions and the like. I understood his defense, but it is dead wrong! He basically was making the fundamental mistake of viewing ‘the multimillion dollar building and operation’ as ‘the church’. The Church in the New Testament are all the communities of believers in the various cities and regions where they dwell. The simple fact is there was NEVER a ‘Pastor’ who made the decisions for the whole community. This brother from San Antonio simply was defending the need for one person to make the call in a business environment, but he mistakenly called this ‘the church’. The fact is there was never a single New Testament Church [community of people] who were dependant on ‘a person’ to call the shots! Just cause someone’s on the radio doesn’t always mean that they know what there talking about! [Note; for those of you who think I should have approached him personally before correcting him, I already sent this brother all our books a few years ago, he should have known better by now!] The ‘one man’ who would run the Church in the above scenarios given is JESUS CHRIST! [Next day] Well I cooled down a little bit from yesterday [just a little!]. Let me give you some ‘regional’ history. Back in the late 80’s there were ‘apostles/prophets’ who taught strong ‘apostolic authority’ in the San Antonio area. Many of these brothers are still going strong for God, some I am not sure about. These brothers had a strong influence on the above ‘mega church’. The Pastor of the mega church tried to incorporate ‘plural leadership’ in his ‘church’. They had some difficulties. They were missing the whole point of plural leadership [elders] as being ‘guides and facilitators’ of the community as opposed to leaders who ‘run the church’. The basic mistake was they were ‘seeing’ church as the ‘Christian business’ who meets on Sunday. In this limited perspective it is virtually impossible to incorporate ‘plural leadership’. It’s like ‘who preaches this Sunday’? Or ‘who decides on the color of paint for the church’? Silly stuff like that. I refer to these brothers as being ‘building centric’ as opposed to ‘Christ centric’. Well the Pastor of this San Antonio mega church finally abandoned the whole ‘plural leadership’ mindset in order to simply ‘fulfill my vision’. Which was to have a huge building with lots of people coming to hear him speak. Also during the formative period of all these guys struggling with these issues, a ‘former pastor’ who is now one of the key leaders in the ‘house church movement’ visited San Antonio and spoke on the church as the people, as opposed to ‘the building’. He dealt with plural leadership and the role Apostles play in today’s church. Well eventually the mega church pastor opted out of the idea to do ‘plural leadership’. He needed [or did] embrace a model of ‘one man’ who is highly motivated to get this big building, and no one is going to stop me! The problem with ‘doing church’ this way is that people become assets to another goal. People are ‘expendable’ in these scenarios. The ‘thing’ of importance becomes ‘the building’ as opposed to the harder more long-term goal of ‘the people’. I believe that during the transition stage of this church, the Pastor opted for the easier road of ‘going for the big building’ as opposed to the more difficult road of helping to facilitate a move in the church where ‘plural leaders’ lead people down a road of independence versus being ‘church attendees’. Leaders often choose ‘their vision’ over the overall benefit of the people. God wants leaders to make decisions based on the future of his purpose. Not on ‘what do we want in our lifetime’. Many times Gods higher purpose entails not seeing what you want, for the sake of what he wants! [A few weeks later] I just had a dream [Its 1:22 am as I write this!] about the above San Antonio church. This isn’t the first time I dreamt about this church either. In the dream I was visiting the church, they were very gracious to me. I introduced myself as a visitor who directs ‘Corpus Christi Outreach Ministries’ [I hate relating to ministry people this way, but sometimes I find you have to do this or leaders simply wont give you the time of day!] Well the Pastor, who is a good man, kind of said ‘O this is the Pastor of C.C.O.M.’ and I kind of had to uncomfortably explain ‘well not really the Pastor’. By the way this happens so much in Christian circles, we have a tendency to evaluate people along these lines. ‘What do you do, I am a fire fighter, I do this’ we judge people based on what society believes to be important. Well the dream was all right, the Pastor was nice and well intentioned. I actually plan on visiting this church in the near future. I just felt the San Antonio connection to be important recently. I feel we are going to make some good contacts in this city. Our radio broadcast covers that entire region [as well as Houston and some other major radio markets]. Those of you up there give me an e-mail and lets get in touch.

(113) I want to go back to something I spoke on a few weeks ago. The subject of the anti christ and the destruction of the temple spoken about in the New Testament. I was having a conversation with a friend and he brought up the fact that the bible speaks about the end of the world and the temple being destroyed. I tried to place some things in historical context. I told him, yes its true that Jesus said the temple would be destroyed, and the apostle Paul wrote the Thessalonians concerning a coming judgment and falling away. But I told my friend that the Roman general Titus actually destroyed the temple in A.D. 70 around 2 thousand years ago. I realize that its popular today to believe a future temple must be built in Jerusalem in order for certain evens to be fulfilled. But it’s also possible that both Jesus and Paul were speaking about the immediate events that were to happen in the 1st century. There is a verse where Paul says ‘he that restrains will restrain until he’s taken out of the way’ [Thessalonians]. Without getting too technical for some of my readers, this verse is interpreted in some circles as referring to the Spirit of God dwelling in the church. These brothers then see the ‘taking away’ of the church [believers] in the rapture as the event where the restrainer is ‘taken away’ and then the antichrist appears. Thus developing a theology that says all Christians are removed from the planet before the tribulation occurs. Let me put some context to this. The main debate that the apostle Paul and Jesus dealt with in the 1st century was the reality of God bringing in a New Covenant thru the blood of Jesus. This new covenant would only recognize one sacrifice for the sins of man, the death of Christ! The Jewish community had a sort of ‘probationary’ period where they either would accept the final sacrifice of Christ, or ultimately God would leave their religious system. The reality was for the most part the Jewish nation never accepted the finality of the cross. They did not accept Jesus as their Messiah. During this ‘probationary’ period Gods Spirit was still with them to a degree. The book of Hebrews indicates this. It is quite possible that the ‘restrainer’ who would hold back the coming destruction of the temple and the Jewish system was speaking of the Spirit then resident in the Jewish community. In essence God was saying ‘you have so much time to decide whether or not Jesus is Messiah, if you decide the wrong way, I will leave your community [by the Spirit] and there will be no more restraining influence to keep back Rome and its government from destroying you!’ This view puts everything into context. The main thing you see here is Gods priority on the sacrifice of Christ as mans only hope. The Spirit of God would no longer reside with those who would do ‘despite unto the Spirit of Grace’ [Hebrews]. It’s quite possible that the ‘taking away’ of the restrainer was Gods Spirit leaving first century Judaism as a result of their rejection of Christ. Their probationary period was over and they rejected the chief cornerstone!

(114) Just had a dream a few hours ago. First a little background. The ranch my daughter bought a few months back has 2.5 acres. I found out you can hunt in this county, but under 15 acres you cant use a gun. So I bought a bow. I haven’t hunted yet, but do plan on it. So in the dream I was on the ranch and spotted a big buck. He was fairly close and sure enough I got him! Before he died he turned and made a run for me. He was mad. But he finally died. Without too much speculation let me give a little interpretation. Earlier in this paper I spoke on a dream of ‘catching’ a big fish. I felt like this spoke to having influence with certain key influential people. In this dream I feel the same. The buck had horns, horns represent influence and power. He was closer than I thought he would be when I took the shot. And before succumbing to the arrow he tried to retaliate! I feel some of our teaching is ‘hitting the target’ of some ‘big shots’. They initially don’t realize that there ‘so close’. They even feel like ‘coming after me’ but ultimately the arrow has its effect. Sometimes we have to die to things before we can live! Note; Let me share a funny story. My daughter saw my bow and told me it’s like the one her friends father has. He lives right off of a ranch area and when he gets a chance he shoots a deer. Well my daughter [15 yr old] was with her friend the other day and they have a cute deer that’s been coming around for a few months. His horns are getting big and the dad thought it was time to go for it! Well my daughter’s friend likes the deer. When ‘pops’ goes to get the bow, she sneaks on the other side of the barn and starts throwing rocks. The dad can’t see her. My daughter was with her the other day and she said it was funny. All you can hear is the dad waiting for the shot and then saying ‘darn [yea right] he ran again!’ Thought this was cute.

(115) Had quite a discussion the other day at the mission for homeless people. Spent a good 2 to 3 hours teaching some guys the history of the reformation [16th century] and how both the Catholics and Protestants had certain truths on each side. It got quite technical, but a few of these guys are serious bible students and they were drinking it in! I shared a little on how the ‘continental reformers’ [Luther, Calvin, Zwingli] were producing booklets [Tractarianism] and how these protestant books were ‘smuggled’ into Catholic England and were influencing certain key people in the realm. King Henry was having his own internal dispute with the Pope over getting an annulment, and he found the protestant writings to be to his advantage in the area of the freedom of the ‘nation states’ to worship God without being subject to Rome. The Protestants were wanting religious reform, but Henry was looking for a way to break from the Popes authority without having a religious rebellion on his hands. Well eventually King Henry does break away and starts the ‘Church of England’ the continental reformers have the protestant reformation. The Church of England, also known as the ‘Anglican Church’, was very much Catholic in her doctrine except for the area of being under the Pope [Henry got what he wanted!]. The reformers on the continent had varying degrees of ‘reform’ in the nation states. I find it interesting that certain Catholic scholars believed that the breaking away of these countries from Rome was a rebellion that would lead to world disaster. These Catholic scholars saw the ‘divine right of Kings’ to be the threat. They believed the Protestants were simply replacing the authority of the Pope with the authority of the Kings. That this would eventually lead to world anarchy because the nations could produce any type of theology that they wanted. I don’t necessarily agree with this, but do find it interesting that Germany, Luther’s country, eventually produced a ‘Hitler’ and Hitler actually read some of Martin Luther’s anti Semitic writings. Luther referred to Jews as ‘dogs’ and other derogatory terms in his writings. The Catholic scholars were prophetic in a way by foreseeing certain world events in this way. Well any way I had this discussion for a few hours and it was a good history lesson. These guys hung in and even asked some very intelligent questions. By the way I see all my Catholic friends as Christian! As an evangelical I recognize there are some serious doctrinal differences [Justification by faith] but take the more liberal view of seeing them as my brothers in Christ. I recognize that the Catholic Church has carried the baton in social justice areas when the Protestants were sleeping at the wheel! The Catholics also were doing missionary work for centuries before the Protestants got with it. So the point is we all need humility in this journey that we are on and our goal is towards having Christian unity as much as possible. I still remember a song I learned as young boy in Catholic school ‘they will no we are Christians by our love’. To a great degree the Catholic Church has done her best at being a voice for Christ in the nations, and her witness [along with her faults] can be found in every generation of man for the last 2 thousand years! You can’t say this about any protestant church! Well I hope this added something of value to the debate. God bless all my Catholic and Protestant friends who have made it this far on this site! Note- England continued to struggle between Catholic and Protestant views for quite a while. The rule of Henrys daughters, Queen Elisabeth and Mary [also known as ‘bloody Mary’ for her executing protestants!] both showed the internal struggle that was going on behind the scenes. There were key religious and political figures that were trying to influence the country towards their views. Many of these were sincere believers who truly felt like they were defending the faith. Some were Protestant, others Catholic. There were terrible executions and horrendous acts committed by both sides during this time. You had very dedicated Catholics, as well as Protestants, die for their faith. Obviously this was a tragic result of religion at any price. In the world today you see this in radical Islam. Some believe I shouldn’t say this, but as Christians we must take a stand against any religion that sees its mandate to convert by force or death. I find it interesting how so many social justice groups and women’s groups criticize the United States and Christianity, but wont say a word against radical Islam and how it absolutely subjugates women today. Women must cover their faces like animals, in some of these societies it’s permitted for a father to kill his daughter if she commits adultery! Give me a break, where are the voices crying out against these atrocities?

(116) I want to go back to Germany and the fact that after WW2 the United States brought over from Germany all of the scientists that eventually were the originators of our ‘space program’. The U.S. acted wisely in recognizing that the German scientists had a level of knowledge that exceeded what we had. Einstein actually gave us the technology to build the bomb that eventually ended the war. Einstein is the most well known of these German scientists [though he came over before the war ended]. Einstein truly was a genius. One of the goals he had was called ‘the unified theory’. He believed it was possible to ‘tie’ all the various fields of science together, and see a harmony that would show that everything didn’t just happen by accident, but there had to be some greater overall ‘thing’ that was at work. Though Einstein wasn’t a Christian, he did believe in God. Some of his fellow scientists came up with a theory that said chance and ‘luck’ played a role in how things work. Einstein disagreed and said ‘God doesn’t roll dice’. All of these guys held to the idea that there had to be a beginning point to all things. Today we call this the ‘big bang theory’. A basic scientific reality that things did come into existence at a certain point in time. It has been said that the fact that something exists now is proof that God exists! I know this is simplified, but let me explain. The fact that we have a creation today, sun, moon, stars and the intricacy of our planet earth. The tremendous complexity in the human body. Even the most ‘simple’ cell is now known to be highly ‘complex’. These realities lead us to question ‘how did all this happen’. If the earth were a little closer to the sun we would all burn up, a little further and we would all freeze! As science learned these complex things over the years, she has grappled with the question of ‘how’. Science has racked its brain on the beginning stage. Was there a time where nothing existed at all? And if so then how can anything exist now? If matter is infinite [which some try to leave as a possibility] then this contradicts everything else we know from science! Thermodynamics teaches that all things are ‘decaying’ from the original stage. The sun loses its strength over many years. The earth and the solar system and everything else are resources that deplete themselves. This fact shows us that ‘matter’ or things didn’t always exist. If at the beginning you had a few cells and things floating around that eventually ‘exploded’ into this tremendous organized universe [which in itself takes faith to believe!] then where did these gases and early forms of matter come from? They had to start somewhere. And if you eventually traced it all the way back to the time where this was nothing, then the scientific fact is you would have nothing today! Matter doesn’t just appear, and matter is not eternal. These simple scientific proofs lead us to the conclusion that something [or someone] outside of this present world had to initiate these things. This ‘someone’ also had to have been around forever, if not then you have the whole problem of where did he come from, what was his beginning, and all the same questions would arise. So Einstein and others saw these things. The most brilliant minds of man came to the conclusion that a greater being had to exist in order to get the ball rolling. If you took a sealed room with absolutely nothing in it, and nothing else could get in or leave. And then after a million [or billion!] years you opened it up, nothing would be there! This is a scientific fact! The process of time, in and of itself, does not have the power to create something out of nothing! Well then we wind up at the place we started, the fact that ‘anything’ exists is proof that God exists! [Note: Let me give credit to our Catholic brothers once again. Saint Thomas Aquinas ‘Doctor Angelicas’ wrote heavily on these issues long before the Protestants began looking at them. St. Thomas is considered to be one of the greatest theologians and apologists of the Catholic Church].

(117) I just had 2 thoughts that I felt the Lord wanted me to share. The first is the concept of a ‘pioneer’. God will often choose you to pioneer a thing. Pioneers are cutting a new path where people haven’t walked before. The fact that the path is being cut speaks to the reality that you will get bruised and scarred during this effort. It will take you longer to gain ground than those on the trodden path. You will look like you have been ‘thru hell’. Jesus is the prototypical pioneer. He is the progenitor of a new race of people [the Church!]. He was scarred and wounded more than any man [Isaiah] and he birthed Gods people into reality. The second thought I had was the ‘initial step’ stage. Often times God will use a pioneer to start a new thing. The fact that it is new causes the initial stages of birthing it to be harder and more difficult than picking up where someone else left off. Fear prevents the initial steps, but once a thing is birthed it sustains life by itself. There is tremendous opposition to those who take these paths, but the rewards are well worth it!

(118) I read a verse the other day that struck me ‘wisdom is better than weapons of war’ [Ecclesiastes]. Proverbs says ‘wisdom builds the house, and knowledge fills it with treasure’. I felt like the Lord was showing us the importance to ‘work smarter not harder’. Look at the apostle Paul. We [Pastors and leaders] have a tendency to read scripture and miss vital truths. Paul ‘started churches’ by going to a region, preaching Christ for a set time [sometimes only 2 or 3 times on a Sabbath day to certain Jewish brothers!] and then trusting the Spirit of God in them to carry on the work. This is working smarter not harder! These New Testament churches were self-sustaining from the get go. Paul wasn’t setting up churches that would be dependant on him [or anyone else!] to be the main Pastor that would run the show. These communities had leaders for sure, but they didn’t have clergy like we do today. God wants all of us to work smarter not harder. Wisdom is better than weapons of war. If you build Jesus into people and develop a ‘self sustaining’ mentality among them, then you have released a people that will do more damage than many ‘weapons of war’!

(119) The other day at work I was watching the news with another firefighter. The local news showed a homeless guy who was assaulted. I recognized the guy as a harmless guy I just saw a few days earlier. They then showed the 18 year old who beat him up, he was another kid that I just met and was talking to as well. When they showed the kids mug shot he looked like one of these gang kids, but in reality he seemed like a nice kid when I met him. I realized that the people seeing these guys on TV like this immediately stereotype them as dangerous and hopeless. A few months back I took a few homeless people to a local buffet to eat. One of the guys is around 23 years old. Nice kid. On our way to the restaurant my radio and C.D. player went out. I really needed it to work, I use it a lot! I didn’t have time to deal with it so I simply asked this younger brother to pray for it to work. He began praying and I knew he has prayed before. He asked the Lord to forgive him for his faults and really sought the Lord. Within a few minutes the radio started working. He knew the Lord answered his prayer. I just wanted to share how a lot of these guys are on the edge of life and society. God is eager to intervene in their lives. If you allow him, God will use to touch people that no one else can reach. These same guys you see on the news that have committed horrible crimes [a few years back one of the guys killed another with a hammer!] are real people that are close to the edge, you will have to be willing to go out on the edge with them if you want to bring them back in!

(120) Update- Recently I have been in touch with some old friends that I haven’t seen in 27 years. I realize that a lot of water has gone under the bridge [or something like that?]. Some of my friends are Christian, some not. Some are into the modern motivational type preaching. I realize that for them to read our materials is like a slap in the face. It’s not easy to be part of the ‘modern gospel’ of success and prosperity and then read our stuff [you will see what I mean as you get to the 300’s] I just walked into my study and saw one of the many success books I own and have read over the years. It’s just sitting on a table. I don’t know why its out, maybe one of my kids were reading it? I have read and been into the motivational gospel and understand the good aspects of it. I just believe that a lot of it misses the part of ‘if any man wants to save his life, he must lose it for my sake and the gospel’ [Jesus Christ]. Over the years I have had a fairly good measure of success. We have come pretty far for a high school level of education and a Navy drop out! I am not bragging, but what I want you to see is my focus has not been on ‘saving my life’ or living to be successful. I have tried to lose my life for the gospel as much as possible. I don’t believe I am even 1/100th of where I should be. Still selfish and self-seeking. When the rubber meets the road still willing to choose self-preservation over Gods will. Still have a long way to go! But the point today is I don’t want to offend any old buddies from the old days, and I realize that if some of them are into the prosperity gospel they will be offended. But maybe God allowed me to cross paths with some of you for this very purpose? Who knows, maybe I have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. [You too!]

(121) In keeping with the above, scripture says ‘Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil’. After the 40 days temptation he returned in the ‘power of the Spirit’. The main ingredient for the authority that was displayed in Jesus teaching ministry was the wilderness experience. Scripture says Jesus taught with authority, not like the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus obtained a level of authority because of his suffering, not despite it! If we spend most of our waking hours on how to avoid and by-pass difficult situations, then we are unknowingly cutting off the main source of possessing authority above that which is common today.

(122) Lets go back to the discussion on ‘motivational/prosperity’ teaching and preaching. In the Church there are different ‘levels’ of understanding and thought. All levels serve a purpose at various stages of Christian growth. The 3rd grade is important as well as high school and college. To stop at the 3rd grade is not good! To miss the 3rd grade is also not good. To explain to someone the importance of ‘elementary level’ teaching, while showing them the need to move on is not easy. Over the years I have dealt a lot with the ‘elementary’ stuff. I try to explain the importance of being motivated and having a positive attitude and good things like that. I then try to transition into the mindset of ‘seeking first the kingdom of God’. There comes a stage with all of us [university level] where God knows we have the basics down and he then calls us to another place. This ‘other’ place is an attitude of forsaking self and the things of this life to attain a higher goal. When Jesus told the disciples he was going to Jerusalem to die, Peter says ‘no way, we wont let this happen!’ and Jesus replies ‘get thee behind me satan, for you are concerned more with the things of man than the things of God’. Jesus [our example] reached a point in his life where he knew the purpose of God was not to be measured by whether ‘I like it or not’. Much motivational preaching uses this at its criteria. ‘Surely God doesn’t want his kids to suffer’ ‘where kings kids’ and things like this. I believe these things are true to a degree, but there at a 3rd grade level! [I don’t want to sound condescending, but I want you to see what I am trying to convey]. Remember, the 3rd grade is good, but not if your 21 years old! Also the university is good, but not if your 9 years old! So everything has its time and purpose. God does command us to ‘think like men’ [Corinthians] and the problem with the Evangelical church is we confuse ‘childlike faith’ with ‘childlike thinking’ [The book ‘the scandal of the evangelical mind’ deals with this]. I believe the more mature aspect of the Christian life is to advance beyond the ‘motivational’ stage to the ‘taking up your cross and following me’ stage. I just saw a verse on this Christian calendar I get from the radio station we broadcast on. It says ‘and the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends’. Its so easy to focus on self and ‘how do I get out of the mess I’m in’ mentality. Job was able to come out of this mindset and pray for others. This denying of self is what turned his situation around.

(123) Believe it or not, but those of you who are reading this paper from the start, it’s been only 3 months since I started writing! I say this for a reason. A few months ago I felt it was time to reach out to old friends from Jersey. As busy as I am I really struggled with making more trips to Jersey or some other avenue of outreach. Well thru this blog site, as well as the classmate’s site and the emailing [and regular mailing as well] I have had some good results. I just mailed the first few letters to a New Jersey prison. My old buddy wrote me back from south woods prison [Jersey] and really appreciated the books I sent and we are keeping in touch. I will probably call his family in the next few weeks. He asked me to call his wife and kids. Its strange because I knew his wife and older boy when we where hanging out as teenagers [he married and had kids young] and its like the friendship picked right up from the early days. He even told me in his letter how he used to tell his kids about me and stuff [probably like ‘that psycho from Jersey is now a preacher in Texas’] but I was glad to be in touch with a buddy I haven’t heard from in around 20 years. The books I sent him are an avenue to the prison he’s in. Books get around, people write and there you have it, a great opportunity to preach the gospel to a whole prison population without starting some ‘Christian ministry’ to do it! I just wanted to model this for you guys.

(124) WARNING: This entry has absolutely no spiritual value. But I thought I would tell the story anyway. A few years back I was visiting a friend of mine who is a wiz a computers. He had a couple of 2 by 10’s [boards] on his front steps leading down to the sidewalk. I guess he had recently moved some furniture? Well my youngest daughter and his youngest boy [around 10 years old] were riding scooters in the front. My friend, who is kind of large, had the great idea of telling them to ride the scooters down this ramp. They were hesitant, and so was I. He then proceeded to ‘show’ them how to do it! He took his sons scooter and mounted the runway. As he began going down the ramp, the front tire got stuck between the 2 boards, he went flying! I mean his hands were by his side and he landed face first on the concrete. At first I thought I might have to begin C.P.R., but it would have been difficult to perform while uncontrollably laughing! My friend was O.K., but I couldn’t stop laughing for weeks. I am laughing right now as I write this. It looked like something Jeff Fox worthy would say about rednecks or something. My friend looked a little like the red neck character from King of the Hill.

(125) I just read a verse in Psalms ‘for he shall stand at the right hand of the poor’. It’s amazing how many promises you find for those who ‘give to the poor’ ‘defend the poor’ ‘speak out on the behalf of the poor’ and so on. Jesus himself uses this language when he describes the final judgment of mankind. Over the years of learning ‘ministry’ and all the stuff that surrounds it, I have gone thru seasons as a young ‘preacher’ where older, well meaning preachers/ministers tried to ‘lead’ me in a path of what they saw to be ‘ministry’. Sort of trying to hook me up with influential people, or trying to steer me into the path of ‘the full time paid minister’. While these men were well meaning for the most part, they ‘saw’ ministry as a profession. They sincerely tried to direct me [and others] down the path of ‘ministry’. Like if I were to show some rookie the ropes of being a fire fighter. I distinctly remember during these times that there would also be opportunities to reach out to poor and hurting people. I would really sense the presence of God when simply helping others. This same ‘presence’ simply was not around when trying to advance in the field of professional ministry. Seeing ministry as a ‘profession’ to which you spend your time and energy to advance in your field misses out on the deeper aspect of being a servant to people. The whole concept of ‘the last being first’ ‘laying down your life for others’ and so on. Like the above verse says ‘God is at the right hand of the poor’ and when you’re with them you sense God because these are the people that he ‘hangs out with’.

(126) ‘Extending your voice beyond the parameter that God has ordained’. This is something that I have meditated on over the years. As ‘ministers’ have learned to ‘professionalize’ ministry, there comes with it a package of trying to get the message out to as many people as possible. Is this in and of itself wrong? No. I do this as well. But the result is today you have national level ministries that should not be national! There are Billy Grahams and others who have a great message and testimony. Then you have a whole host of others who are at the ‘3rd’ grade level that are communicating to the entire community. A few years ago one of the most famous prosperity preachers started a church and extension ministry in our city. This was well after I already dealt with this movement on the radio. I kind of felt like some of the prosperity brothers wanted to ‘strike back’ against the strong stance that we took. I remember actually ‘prophesying’ on the radio that some of these brothers were here to see a more accurate picture of Christ and the church. I was a little harsh in that I mentioned the famous guys name, but I felt I needed to. He was famous for spreading the doctrine that Jesus and the disciples were rich. This was a blatant false teaching that spread like wildfire in certain circles. Well this ministry didn’t last very long in our town. Actually there were a couple of well know prosperity churches in our area [one well known, the other did a lot of advertising]. They are gone now. This wasn’t my intent to run them off. But I felt like there needed to be a season where all of the ‘word of faith/prosperity’ churches needed to re-think and re-examine the whole message that they preach. It is unfortunate that many of these ministries have the concept down of getting lots of funds, and then they use these funds to extend there message ‘beyond the borders’ of their level of teaching. Again I don’t want to judge or sound condescending, but many of these movements are at a very immature level of understanding. It has done damage to the church at large to propagate a materialistic mindset in so many young believers. I pray the Lord would give us all grace and humility to limit our voices when he tells us to, and also allow him to ‘exalt our horn like the horn of a unicorn’ when he so desires.

(127) Let me model something for you guys. After the last entry [126] I ‘embarked’ on one of those difficult days. You know, you need to get things done and you feel like the whole day was wasted with difficulties and trials. Well this lasted until a few hours ago when I woke up. I don’t want to make too much out of my habit of getting up early, but its 3:45 am as I pen this and some days I feel I accomplish more from 2-8 am than the rest of the day! Also as an aside if you go to sleep at 8pm instead of 10, and then get up at 2 or 3 a.m. you  can get a full day of study and prayer in before you go to work. You can maximize your output to that of 2 people by simply sacrificing 2 hours of ‘awake’ time from 8 to 10 pm. Not saying you all should do this, but use your time wisely and you will get much done. Now to the other stuff. The last few days I have heard a lot of stuff on ‘speaking your world into existence’ ‘there is a miracle in your mouth’ ‘life and death are in the power of the tongue’ and so on. All good ‘basic’ principles. Jesus did say ‘if you say to this mountain be cast into the sea, it will obey you’. The main problem with the way we apply these things is we seem to get a vision of how we want our life to be and then apply all these principles to making it happen. In the scenario I gave the other day when Jesus told Peter ‘I am going to Jerusalem to die’ you could see this as a bad confession. You could say ‘see Jesus got what he said’. While it is true he got what he said, yet his saying it isn’t why it happened! The will of God for your life is primarily revealed to you by God. Over your life he ‘speaks’ to you thru various means [bible, prophecy, direction from friends, etc.] As you learn to ‘die’ to your own dreams and visions [what I want mentality] you at the same time awaken to Gods greater purpose. This whole process is a result of hearing Gods word over your life. In essence you really don’t create your world by the words you speak, in as much as your ‘world’ being a result of the words that God speaks. Now the principle of a good confession is still true, but your focus now becomes ‘moving the mountains that stand in the way of Gods purpose’. When Jesus said to Peter ‘get thee behind me satan’ he was ‘speaking’ to the mountain of ‘self-will’ that always stands in the way of ‘Gods will’. Do you see what I am saying? This is the difference between ‘3rd grade’ and ‘university’ level. I encourage you today to take the stance of Job who I mentioned a few days ago. In the midst of your trials ‘pray for your friends’, that is make your confession one of unselfishness and the welfare of others, for as you do this you are ‘laying down your life for the gospel’! NOTE; If you remember in the temptation story of Jesus being tempted 40 days in the desert, after Jesus rebukes the devil scripture says ‘the devil departed from him for a season’ this indicating that Jesus knew he would have to confront him again before he completed his mission. This confrontation with Peter is the beginning of that confrontation. Jesus had to rise above the friendship and care of one of his closest disciples and make the difficult decision to recognize the voice of satan thru one of his closest friends. Over the years during our teaching on these issues I would often find Pastors un-willing to ‘see’ or even accept the fact that they might have been influenced in a wrong way thru the ‘word of faith/prosperity’ movement. It is difficult to admit and recognize that good people can make serious errors in judgment. The issue isn’t how ‘nice’ or ‘good’ the prosperity brothers are. The issue is whether or not the ‘voice’ that has come from this camp is legitimate! It’s hard to look at your ‘Peter’ and recognize that what they’re saying isn’t really from God. NOTE: It is interesting that there were set times or seasons of temptation in the life of Jesus. These seasons didn’t last forever. Though temptation is always a reality to deal with in the Christian life, yet there is a sense of ‘task completed’ in the area of severe trial and testing. A sense of ‘assignment completed’ in a way. Scripture says ‘affliction shall not rise up a second time. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more’ this doesn’t mean you will never go thru hard times again, but a real sense that ‘this thing I have been going thru is finally over, God has brought forth what he wanted and now its time to move on’.

(128) Well I just read in psalms ‘I myself shall awake early’ and it reminded me of something. A few years back when I started this early prayer thing I read a verse one morning where it says ‘in an acceptable time have I heard thee’ and I felt the Lord was saying this time-slot of early prayer he was hearing. My immediate response to the Lord was ‘I sure hope so!’ I kind of was joking with the Lord I guess! It was like ‘Hey, if your not hearing this early prayer, I’ll do the traditional 20-minute deal’. Didn’t want to be irreverent, but kind of thought it was funny.

(129) ‘THE HINDRANCE OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT’ over the years I have had the privilege of speaking into the lives of key leaders. Sometimes I only run into them once in 5 years or so. I notice how we [Pastors/Leaders] become victims of the system. Many times in a city you will have ‘competing’ churches [ministries] who are doing there best to accomplish some goal or vision. The leaders often see and view everything thru the paradigm of ‘how do I accomplish this, who can I enlist [or hire] from the local pool of talent that will be a part of us’. Because of the ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ there is a sense of ‘every man being out for yourself’ while giving lip service to true oneness and unity. Don’t want to be too mean, but this is true. If we can get beyond the idea of ‘church/ministry’ as the business that we run and begin to see ‘church’ as the community of Christians around us, then we will make headway against the ‘entrepreneurial spirit’. I just get tired of running into leaders whose first question is ‘why haven’t you visited my church?’ This breeds an insecurity in leaders who find their identity in ‘how many people attend my church’. May God help us all; we really have a long way to go!

(130) NOTE: [this is the 3rd attempt of trying to write this entry. I tried 24 hours ago at work and the computer messed up and I lost it! I then decided to re write it and we had a big structure fire. I am now up at 2:06 am and giving it another shot, obviously this is for you! Whoever ‘you’ are!] Let me do an overview of some things. The last few weeks I have mentioned the ‘Word of Faith/Prosperity movement’. In the late 1800’s there was a preacher by the name of E.W.Kenyon. Brother Kenyon is the ‘father’ of the modern ‘word of faith’ movement. Brother Kenyon brought out some good things in his teaching. The 1800-1900s were right after the great awakenings in our country, many churches emphasized the sinfulness of man and mans need to confess his sins. Brother Kenyon took hold of the truths in scripture where we are to confess ‘Jesus as Lord’ instead of always confessing sin! The focus of much of this teaching emphasized the things we do to change our circumstances. If you ‘walk’ in the ‘sense realm’ [5 senses] you are walking by sight, but if you walk by faith you are not living by the senses. The way faith was taught was more like ‘you create your world by the things you speak’ and stuff like that. The focus was on ‘acting right’. If you say wrong things or ever admit to any problems or failure you are not in faith. While many of these things sound good, the result was you become self-conscious and begin seeing yourself as the person who is in charge of ‘changing your world’. If ‘your world’ is messed up, well it’s ‘YOUR’ fault. Biblical faith is based more on the ‘person’ of God. You are not trying to say and think positive all the time, in as much as you are depending on God even in the midst of your problems and failures. While many of the Word of Faith brothers focus on Paul’s teaching in Romans on ‘looking not at the things that are seen, but unseen’ they seem to forget that Abraham was the man of faith that these scriptures reference. Abraham did not say or do everything right! His life is not shown as someone who had this perfect impenetrable faith confession. He blew it many times. But he always had the ability to ‘look to the promise of God’ instead of his own failures. This type of faith works for you right now. You don’t see the answer in you becoming this ‘robot’ type person who can never say something wrong or even admit to failure. You simply tell God in the midst of your trials ‘I can’t make it, but you can!’ Now bother Kenyon had a background in the metaphysical cults/groups. These are the groups that believe you change reality thru thought and meditation [Christian science and others]. They believe that reality is not this material world, but what you say and think create ‘your world’. Many modern word of faith brothers don’t realize that the type of faith they espouse is a lot like these groups. I have bought and read many of brother Kenyon’s books over the years, also many of the modern word of faith brothers as well. There was always a sense of ‘mystical’ or ‘strange’ stuff I would run across. These brothers teach that Jesus was ‘born again’. They take the verse that says Jesus is the first begotten from the dead and they see this as ‘being born again’. Most Christians see this as meaning Jesus was the first to rise from the dead with a resurrection body. While others were raised from the dead before Jesus, they all died again. Not Jesus! So this is kind of a strange way to take scripture and ‘twist’ it into a form of faith that has Christian elements in it, but really doesn’t present the Christianity of the New Testament. I remember sharing with a person who was heavily into this movement. They were struggling financially for years. They were always living under this guilt of ‘creating this poverty world’ and constantly focusing on rebuking the devil and trying to ‘create a prosperous world’. I tried to show this person that they weren’t really living by simple faith and trust, but more like under a legalism that you are responsible for not being wealthy and you must do and say everything right or its your fault! I showed them 1st Timothy chapter 6. It says its O.K. to not be wealthy and not feel bad about it. I showed this person that faith was simply being able to thank God that all your needs [not wants!] are being met and if you live the rest of your life without becoming rich it’s O.K. ‘BE CONTENT WITH WHAT YOU HAVE, DON’T DESIRE TO BE RICH’ these are actual scriptures! Well this person finally saw the legalism and guilt that their understanding of faith brought upon them. They later sent me a message thru a mutual friend that said ‘tell John thank you, I am now free from the legalism that I was living under’. I do believe that brother Kenyon [and all the others] are Christians who mean well. But we need to recognize that some of our teaching has gotten off track and return to the biblical message. I know some of you are uncomfortable with these things, and I am sorry about this. But I felt it was important to drop this in. God bless! NOTE: Let me add that it was a matter of choosing to believe scripture over and above the teaching of this movement. Its fun to see yourself as rich and happy. Even spending your whole life just thinking about it can be addictive! This is what Jesus meant when he said ‘you can not serve God and money’. Affluence becomes ‘your God’ in many of these groups. I used to watch these weekend realtor infomercials because its fun to strategize and think ‘money thoughts’. In the past I have made money by investing in real estate. But there came a time where I laid that aside for a higher purpose. I am not saying you can’t be in real estate, or that you can’t be rich! Just don’t confuse biblical faith with a ‘get all you can’ mentality!

(131) ‘THE REPROACHES OF THOSE THAT REPROACHED THEE FELL UPON ME/ DON’T FEAR THE REPROACH OF MEN’ I find it interesting that when leaders fall [Jimmy Swaggart/Paul Cain/Ted Haggard/Jim Bakker/etc.] The world enjoys ‘reproaching’ them. It is interesting to ask the ‘reproachers’ ‘have you ever done some of the things that they are accused of doing?’ They of course would deny it, but scripture says ‘IF THOU O LORD WOULD KEEP A RECORD OF SIN, WHO WOULD BE ABLE TO STAND’ we know that all of the ‘reproachers’ are guilty of many of the same offenses, if not worse! But they seem to take comfort in the fact that no body knows [yet!]. All men will appear at the judgment, scripture says some people’s sins are found out now [Haggard/Bakker/Swaggart] and others will be found out later. It’s really a futile thing to take comfort in the fact that ‘no body knows yet’. This is what happened with the Pharisees who caught the woman in adultery. The fact that she was exposed and ‘caught in the act’ gave them great delight. The fact that they were just as guilty but not caught yet also gave them great delight. But the reality of being in Jesus presence, especially to bring accusation on another, also brings with it the requirement of you also being exposed. Jesus wrote something in the sand when the Pharisees were in front of him. Many speculate that he wrote the names of all the women [or men!] that they had ‘been with’ too! He might have simply written their worst sin. The point was they were taking joy in the fact that the woman was caught [Swaggarts/Haggards/etc.] not realizing that their day was coming also! All humans can hide their sins/faults for so long, some feel they really have none, but we know that all men are dust and sooner or later this too will be revealed. Thank God that the ‘reproaches of those who would reproach you’ have fallen on Jesus. The Christian has the consolation of knowing that Jesus bore the humiliation, the unbeliever will have to bare it alone!

(132) I read a verse that says ‘the stone that the builders rejected became the head of the corner’ [chief cornerstone]. I find this interesting; we have a tendency to reject those who are prominent in the building. Jesus said ‘a prophet is without honor in his own town and among his own people’. Think of it, Jesus was/is the most prominent person of wisdom and stature in the entire building of God. There would be no greater prophet of value and stature to arise! Yet in his area people not only devalued him, but they saw him as unstable. Their denigration of him got to a level where they actually put him to death for his religious views [claiming to be the Son of God]. Prophetic people are born out of environments of rejection and difficulty. The very process of ‘rejection’ causes the ‘stone to be tried/tested’. I find it interesting that the people who rub you the wrong way might very well be one of ‘the prominent’ stones needed to complete ‘your building’ [that is the things God wants to do in your life]. It is interesting to note that once they spoke against Jesus it was very difficult to be able to receive from him. They sort of had the mindset they wanted him to fail, even if the proof kept piling up that he was legitimate! When people speak against you [not talking about honest criticism] they put themselves in a position where they cut themselves off from any benefit they might gain from you. Its not that the prophetic people want this, it just seems to work out this way. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem he wanted them to benefit from who he was and the mission he was on, it’s just they cut themselves off from any value they might have gained from him. NOTE: Once a person’s character is denigrated by someone [whether right or wrong] it is almost impossible to overcome and receive from the person you denigrate [note: I am not talking about silly gossip and stuff people say about people. We are all guilty of this from time to time!] The fact that Jesus actually raised the dead, a miracle of the highest order, should have been able to silence those who questioned his legitimacy, but it didn’t! This shows you the power of ‘being rejected’ as a process from the Father. It also shows you the vanity of wanting the approval of man. Jesus says in the gospel of John that he doesn’t receive, nor seek the approval of men because ‘he knew what was in man’. What did he know about what was in man? He fully understood the depravity of mans nature from the start of his ministry, man was so depraved that the father sent him on this human journey to redeem man. And what would be the key factor in this redemption? Mans sinful nature was so consistent, that it would be virtually impossible for man to not kill the Son of God!

(133) Just outside praying and had a few thoughts. Many years ago I took a trip to Switzerland with some friends. While there I met a bunch of good brothers. One was the pastor of a church we were visiting. In regular conversation I slipped in a prophetic word. I told him ‘in the past you built your church on the Word and faith, you are now going to focus on Grace, mercy and the love of God’ [these might not be exact, but this was the jist of what I said]. The pastor was a little shocked and he kind of ‘hit’ me in a ‘loving’ way. He basically slapped me fairly hard on the chest, not in anger but in surprise. He said these were the exact words that God had told him about the church. For him to hear the exact words was a confirmation that it was truly God. Another time in the states I had a friend who was a prophet ‘in training’. He no doubt had a gift but I say ‘in training’ because I felt he wasn’t yet being responsible in meeting the needs of his family and stuff. Sort of like knowing he had a prophetic gift and not being able to hold down a job because he felt his job should be in some type of ministry. This happens a lot with well meaning people. Well any way I was talking to him after a church service and I simply said ‘the Lord is going to use your gift, but you have to ‘harness’ your life first’. The word harness was exactly what the Lord had told him before. In both of these scenarios it was ‘being exact’ in the prophesy that made the difference. I just want you to see that it is not dependant on ‘your’ gift or wisdom at all. It is simply a function of hearing and speaking when the Lord tells you to! NOTE: For a few years I subscribed to a monthly prophetic tape from Morningstar ministries [Rick Joyner]. The month I was to leave for Switzerland the tape was called ‘The call to Switzerland’ they obviously had no idea I was going to Switzerland.

(134) Yesterday I went to the homeless mission to see some friends. I ran into one of the original friends I met years ago [around 15 years ago!]. We are good friends. I think he sees me as his ‘best friend’. He is always overjoyed when I run into him. If he’s in the hospital [which happens often!] and I don’t go to see him he gets real offended. Well any way I helped him look for an apartment yesterday. He is handicapped and uses an electric wheelchair. He very rarely showers and if he sits in your vehicle or a chair it really smells bad. Some restaurants actually have told us not to come back because of this. Well when I picked him up at the mission we went inside to drop of his chair so he could hop in the truck with me. On the wall right where he left his chair there was a poster from Exodus that said ‘my presence shall go with you’. It’s what God told Moses. If you remember I just wrote on this a few weeks ago. God ‘being at the right hand of the poor’. Well we went to a few places to look for an apartment. I spent a few hours, was real tired. Didn’t sleep much the night before. One of those nights of getting up at midnight. I really hate to get up that early, but I will do work and stuff and make the most of it. After dropping my friend off my truck really smelt bad. I had the windows open and it stunk! I have even had other homeless friends who have said ‘how can you stand it’. Well as I was driving home I made a mental note to spray a type of fabric cleaner on the seat. I have done it before. I was driving home and thinking ‘you know Lord I don’t even feel upset about having to do this’. No feeling of ‘why should I put up with this’. I remembered the verse I saw earlier where it said ‘My presence shall go with you’. Sort of like the Lord said ‘I came down into the midst of the stench of mans humanity, and I put up with it because of my love for people’. Even as you read this some of you might be thinking ‘boy, I would never do this, have some bum stink up my nice ‘church’ vehicle!’ What if it was your father? Do we really view people the way God does?

(135) Just woke up and had the thought of ‘when the spotlight hits you’. What I remembered was hearing preachers over the years speak about ‘getting in the spotlight’. All well-meaning men who are being affected by the system. In the 2 scenarios that came to mind the brothers shared how in due time you too can be ‘famous’ but you have to be faithful and wait your turn. I also just read an article in the paper about a pastor who has taken his ‘deacon board’ to the state supreme court on a number of occasions in order to ‘keep his church’ [they are trying to fire him, also when I just went thru and did the spell check the option it gave me for ‘save his church’ was ‘circus’ I was tempted to leave it but that would have been a little harsh!] These ways of seeing ‘church’ and ‘ministry’ deeply affect the way we function as Gods people. First, there is a ‘secret’ element in Jesus teachings that speak to leaders in the church as not seeking or becoming ‘famous’. Also by ‘secret’ I mean it’s plainly taught but we don’t seem to ‘see it’ in the way we function. God will bring you to a place where you recognize and develop the character to avoid the ‘idol worship’ mentality that hinders the work of the Spirit. Ministry and ‘church’ are not businesses that we own and operate. They are free gifts that God deposits in his people for the benefit of the whole community. The ‘excitement’ of the New Testament churches wasn’t ‘look at this ministry that God has called us to’ or Paul recruiting people to ‘My Vision’. The excitement was this great reality of Jesus being the Messiah. ‘THE PROMISED ONE IS HERE’. Their time and focus was on the actual person of Christ, not the things that Christ was doing with them! This is why Paul teaches in Corinthians that the gifts are simply tools given by Gods grace, he shows a mentality of ‘why glory in the tools/gifts being they are all freely given?’ if we are simply vessels that God is flowing thru, then why exalt the vessel? The greatest in the Kingdom must seek to be a servant. All of these characteristics are what should mark ministry and leadership today. There are many good men who see and embrace these things. But we sometimes give the wrong impression to young believers. We kind of tell them ‘your day of fame is coming, but for now just glory in what Gods doing with me’. This is not right.

(136) Keeping in mind what I just said, now I want you to ‘see’ how the business of ministry affects all of us. When you go to this blog [as well as many others!] you can read and access all of ‘our’ materials for free. There are some sites that mean well, but they ‘tease’ you with the first few sentences of some teaching and then you have to pay for the rest. Now I am not saying that they are all wrong for doing this, but if your goal is ‘to get the word out’ is this the most effective means possible? If the Apostle Paul did this with the letters he was writing [New Testament] would this help or hurt his cause. When Jesus said ‘freely you have received, now freely give’ would Paul feel right in ‘charging’ for his services or intellectual property? Remember Paul taught that all our gifts belong to God; they are not really ‘our property’ at all! I know there are different views on this, but personally when I go to a Christian site that I enjoy reading from, and then they cut the article off until you subscribe or something. I just go to another site. Remember the goal is to get the gift God has given to us to as many people as possible. If you feel charging for your services are the way to do this, then fine! But your gift is not given to you to make a profit; it is given to build the church!

(137) ‘EVERY HOUSE IS BUILT BY SOME MAN, BUT HE THAT BUILT ALL THINGS IS GOD’ in a lot of our teaching we are trying to change the mindset from ‘building the building/ministry’ to ‘building the people’. There is an inherent nature in man to want to build something. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of building ‘buildings/ministries’ as opposed to building the Church [community of people]. As we see the purpose of God to have a habitation of ‘people’ as opposed to a ‘temple’ we transition our focus from ‘things’ to people. The excitement that the Apostle Paul was experiencing as you read the New Testament was his understanding that he was building these communities of people that would ‘last forever’. In essence he was grasping the eternal purpose of God to live in a ‘city’ whose builder and maker is God! These communities [buildings] survive till this day. You and I are this building. When we fully grasp that we are the Church that the gates of hell cannot prevail against, it is exciting to realize that God himself is dwelling in us as his habitation. In all of our efforts of ministry we need to be mindful that we actually are the ‘City of God’. We are the ‘New Jerusalem that is coming down from God out of heaven’ we are ‘born from above’. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken [the buildings of man] so the things that cannot be shaken [the building of God] may remain!

(138) Let me share 2 strange things that happened in the last few days. The other morning while outside praying I heard a loud rushing wind go over my head. It sounded like a strong gust of wind that I hear going thru the trees while I pray. I thought it strange because it wasn’t windy. I turned around and looked up and saw a flock of birds flying overhead. It amazed me that this noise was coming from them. I have seen lots of birds fly overhead before, but never heard them make a sound like this. This also was the first day that we put our blog site in the Corpus paper for people to read. I was just outside praying and was under a type of ‘pressure’. I wasn’t sure to pray or put on some music that I listen to while interceding. I walked outside and saw a gigantic bird stuck in the tree. It was huge. It was flapping and really strange. After a few minutes it let loose and flew away [it kind of felt a little demonic!] Well scripture says ‘our souls are escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler, the snare is broken and we are free’. Felt like the Lord might be saying he has released us from some things and the ‘rushing wind of his Spirit’ is going to flow thru and to us.

(139) A couple of things today. Last night on the discovery channel they aired a special on the ‘lost tomb of Jesus’. Another ‘Davinci code’ criticism of Jesus and the Church. I find it interesting that after 2 thousand years people are still gossiping about Jesus. I wonder if he’s thinking at the right hand of God ‘father you said I would be criticized, but I never thought it would last this long’. I do find the stupidity of the critics entertaining at times. First, if you spend whole lifetimes denying the existence of someone, the last thing you would do is ‘discover his tomb’ [supposedly with his bones in it!]. Second, why spend so much money and effort explaining away something that is supposedly fake. I don’t see any TV specials on denying the existence of ‘Santa Clause’. Me thinks the critics doth protest too much!

Now a word to ‘our critics’. First I want you guys to know I pray for you every day ‘Lord, let judgment come swift and fast!’ [Just kidding!] But honestly sometimes criticism can be good. I have had people tell me that my sharing of the stories of helping people is violating the principle of Jesus to ‘let not your right hand know what your left is doing’. That is don’t boast about your good deeds or else you lose your reward in heaven. This is a good point that I should not dismiss out of hand. Jesus ‘modeled’ things by example, as well as actual teaching. Many years ago I had a prophetic word given to us that said ‘thru my example many would see and understand the works of Jesus’. The whole word spoke on our ‘style’ of ministry as being unique and ‘showing’ thru example the works of Jesus. When I first started sharing stories and stuff I saw it more as the Lord telling me to do it in this way. Jesus told the story of the ‘good Samaritan’; he was speaking of himself in this parable. The main thing Jesus was dealing with when telling the people ‘don’t do things just to be seen’ was the mindset that existed in the religious community of his day. They lived for the public recognition of society around them. Their prayers and fasting were done solely for them to be seen as pious and holy. They had absolutely no intent on actually doing service to God or helping their fellow man. It was in this environment that Jesus said these things. You do find Paul having to ‘boast’ of his accomplishments in order to teach the Corinthians stuff. Well any way I thought I would clear this up. And to all my critics, take comfort in the fact that I am going to pray right now, and you are going to be in my prayers! [Still kidding a little].

(140) A few years back we had the ‘Waco tragedy’ take place in Texas. This was the story of David Korresh and the cult group the ‘Branch Davidians’. Well as a joke the guys at work would call me ‘the Branch Chiarellian’. It was all in fun, I really don’t have time to worry about silly stuff. These are all good guys. But I find it interesting on how many times in this paper I spoke about ‘branches’ and stuff. The Martin Luther King Dream. Verses that say ‘the man whose name is the branch’ [this is Jesus and also the church and prophetic people as an extension of his Body] All in all I like the way ‘prophetic’ people can get people to prophesy to them whether they realize it or not!

(141) ‘Think perennially versus annually’. Where I live in South Texas spring starts early. My yard is already blooming and growing. In my backyard I have tried to use ‘xerscape’ as a means to establish a self-sustaining/ low maintenance yard. I have learned over the years that you can plant ‘perennials or annuals’. When I found out the difference it surprised me that anyone would plant annuals. Annuals are beautiful plants that look great, but die every year and you start from scratch each new year. Perennials look just as good, cost the same and last ‘forever’ [theoretically]. So why choose high maintenance over low? Some people don’t know the difference, others simply like the process of planting new every year. I notice that the ‘new planters’ seem to enjoy the routine of ‘re-planting’. Some don’t really spend a lot of time ‘looking’ and enjoying the plants, they simply like the work! That’s fine. I am the lazy type. Hey if I can by a car that lasts one year, looks, works and costs the same as one I can buy that lasts forever, well you know! I want to challenge you to think ‘perennially’ versus ‘annually’. Seek to implement avenues of ‘ministry’ that require low maintenance. Establish ‘things’ that you can enjoy year after year without having to ‘re-plant’ each year. There are things like our radio programs and this blog site that once their initiated I don’t have to really ‘re-preach’ manually week after week to the same crowd. Now it’s O.K. for you Pastors to preach every week. I am just trying to show the difference between ‘manually’ doing it, and allowing the thing to grow ‘on it’s own’. Many churches print bulletins and send out flyers. Why not package them in such a way that people would save them? You can actually make part of it [or all of it] look like a little book that has permanent qualities [whole portions of scripture like the book of Romans or something?] And even say on the booklet ‘SAVE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE or DON’T THROW THIS OUT’. People are receptive to suggestions. Plus if the people are saving these things then they will always have the ministry information for years to come! Well these are just ideas. What I wanted to emphasize today was to use wisdom in all of these areas. Seek to establish avenues of ministry that don’t require a lot of time and money, but can have a regional influence! NOTE: for those of you who read this blog, you can start one yourself for free. If you don’t feel you have any thing to say then simply send this site to as many people as possible. This is a free avenue that once established can go on indefinitely.

(142) It’s funny how I come up with things to say. I was just outside praying and one of the images I use when I pray is ‘visit this vine, this vineyard and this branch’. I read it in Psalms and incorporated it into intercession. I was just thinking how many times Jesus used ‘vineyard’ and garden imagery in his teaching. He spoke of the owner of the vineyard coming to see how the caretakers were doing. They were not taking care of the vineyard so he gave it to others. God often sees the ‘world’ as the field. We seem to create parameters in ministry that are limited. ‘I will work with our financial partners’ mentality. We develop little childish mindsets that shrink our ‘field of influence’. God sees in ‘world wide’ terms. He ‘plants’ us with generational destiny in mind. He’s not looking at our silly little prerequisites that we deem must be met before ‘my ministry’ spends time and resources on you. Paul said Gods love constrains us. We are ‘debtors’ to the whole world. You and I are responsible to work in this field. Don’t confuse his ‘field’ with your small circle of friends and supporters!

(143) Just saw on the news the other day that the fire dept. went to a brush fire. While putting out the fire they realized that it was a woman who was set on fire. Some guy from their homeless camp is suspected of doing it. They were all homeless. This was in another part of town from where I usually go. But the campsite and all looked like the camps I have visited over the years. They didn’t identify the woman yet; hope its nobody I know. Life can be tragic at times. Do me a favor and pray for all my homeless friends. Actually I would love it if you regularly prayed for this ministry [C.C.O.M.] and all the avenues of outreach the Lord has given us. We really need your prayers, thanks!

(144) Back to something I mentioned a few weeks back. ‘Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good’ Felt like the Lord was saying he gives us specific ‘nuggets’ of wisdom that make the difference between victory or failure. You can’t afford a ‘day of sin’ because you might unknowingly be aborting your key nugget of wisdom that God was going to communicate to you in that day. It’s like the sin of abortion. Some feel you need to practice abortion for the simple reason of population control. They feel the world cant supply the growing population. But it is also possible that you might ‘abort’ the very person who would have come up with the knowledge or technology to solve the problem! So in the same way, when you choose to walk in sin you might be ‘aborting your Lincoln or Einstein’. Walk in wisdom, it is during these times of peace that God will allow you to establish your borders, so when times of difficulty come you will have a place to ‘crash’. Those who have not ‘stored up’ in the summer have no shelter during times of famine and distress! NOTE: Let me add something practical here. Many people confuse the goal of storing up for retirement with MAKING THAT THE GOAL. Don’t confuse the obtaining of resources with the goal. God wants to use you for more than just getting enough money to retire at 70 and live a few more years and die! Think strategically about your ‘retirement’ years. Don’t get lost in the pursuit of making money to the point where the making of it becomes the goal! You still have some good years left in you, even at 62, so allow God to ‘redirect’ your retirement to maximize the rest of your life towards reaping a heavenly reward. All you need is enough money to live on and free you up to go as God leads. Some of you might be there already! NOTE: I talk about the ‘sin of abortion’ because I think the way we abort kids in this country is terrible! If you have had an abortion, God will forgive you and it is not my intent to hurt you!

(145) ‘I called on the Lord when I was in distress and the Lord answered me and set me in a large place/ in my fathers house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you’. King David said ‘when I was in distress the Lord enlarged me’. God increases your ‘area’ of influence when you go thru difficult situations. Scripture calls this ‘birth pains’. ‘As soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children’ ‘a woman when in labor wants it to stop, but after the birth of the child she forgets all the pain’. God gives us ‘manifold’ areas of influence with diverse groups of people. These groups of people are the ‘places’ where God dwells. He will expand your horizon to see further than you have up until this time. Psalms says ‘I will have no rest until I find/build for you a habitation’. You see the heart of Jesus Messianic purpose and destiny contained in this cry of David. Jesus [and those of us representing him here as his body] are on a mission to find ‘a resting place for God’. David came to realize that this wasn’t some earthly temple at all. Jesus was on this mission in planet earth to redeem a bride that would actually become this ‘temple/dwelling place’ of God. He accomplished this thru extreme suffering and difficulty. Hebrews says ‘he endured the cross/ DESPISING the shame and has been seated at the right hand of God’ there was an aspect of the ministry of Jesus that he despised. The identifying with sin and shame was an ‘unpleasant’ reality that came along with the package of finding a habitation for God. I want to encourage you today, if you are feeling like your being ‘despised’ or ‘shamed’. If people gossip about you, or you feel you are being mistreated. Know for sure that God is ‘expanding your borders’ these ‘borders’ are areas of influence with different people groups [many mansions] and God takes pleasure in ‘dwelling in them’. You are literally being used to ‘find an habitation for God’. ‘ENLARGE THE PLACE OF THY TENT AND LET THEM STRETCH FORTH THE CURTAINS OF THY HABITATIONS. SPARE NOT, LENGTHEN THY CORDS AND STRENGTHEN THY STAKES, FOR THOU SHALT BREAK FORTH ON THE RIGHT HAND AND ON THE LEFT AND THY SEED SHALL INHERIT THE GENTILES AND MAKE THE DESOLATE CITIES TO BE INHABITED’ ‘THRU YOUR SEED [THE PEOPLE YOU INFLUENCE AND BRING INTO THE KINGODM] SHALL ALL THE FAMILIES [GROUPS OF PEOPLE] OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED’

(146) ‘Jesus of suburbia’ Last night I watched a dateline special on a ‘leader’ of a church in Puerto Rico. He quite obviously is a cult leader. Claims to be Jesus. He and his followers tattoo ‘666’ on their bodies and other strange stuff. When questioned on his lavish lifestyle of Rolex watches and taking huge amounts of money, he defended himself by saying ‘tradition portrays Jesus as being poor, but he was rich’ then he gave the verse that says Jesus told Peter to go get the money out of the fish mouth to pay taxes. This is a true verse; the problem is this verse obviously doesn’t prove Jesus was rich. If he were rich then why would he be going to a fish to get the money! Just cash in that jumbo C.D.! Its stupid stuff like this that gets me mad. Even the dateline interviewer said Jesus was a carpenter’s son and obviously was not wealthy. It’s sad that the reporter presented a more correct view of Jesus than the cult guy. It’s even sadder that there are very popular teachers in the American church that teach this same silliness! God help us all.

(147) ‘Jesus style’ what we are trying to accomplish is to facilitate the natural growth intended for the Church [people of God] as a living organism. There are prophets and leaders who approach ministry and the discharging of their gift as taking place in a ‘meeting’ hall environment. They schedule and have a regular pool of ‘church houses’ to preach in on a yearly basis and they view this as their profession. If you have enough ‘places to preach’ you are now ‘building your ministry’. We are trying to get away from this model of ministry. Those of you who are gifted prophetically can still function and be used, but we are trying to promote the ‘Jesus style of doing it’ go out into the by-ways and function in the ‘world’. Remember the world is the field, not the ‘church building’!

(148) ‘YOU HAVE CAST MY CROWN TO THE GROUND. YOU HAVE WEAKENED MY STRENGTH. THE DAYS OF MY YOUTH YOU HAVE SHORTENED, AND COVERED ME WITH SHAME’ this is what I like to call ‘the Jesus road to ministry’. The whole process of being exalted and humbled/shamed is from God. These are the exact elements that caused Jesus ministry to be so effective. Recognize that these processes are from God and it will exponentially advance your growth!

(149) ‘That which lasts’ These last few days I have been thinking about the ‘thing’ that endures. Gods word, his ‘seed’ [children] those that you ‘birth’ thru the Gospel. The ‘things’ that last are the people you birth into the Kingdom by the Gospel. Today’s ministry mindset seeks to cause the ‘ministry’ or ‘building’ or simply all the activities that surround what we are doing to last. God wants to re-focus our mindset. He wants us to be more ‘family’ oriented. Though all the other things serve a purpose in their proper place, Gods chief concern is to cause your spiritual offspring to ‘last’. ‘THY SEED AND THY NAME SHALL REMAIN’ ‘HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF GOD ABIDETH FOREVER’ ‘I WILL RAISE UP ONE FROM YOUR LOINS AND HE SHALL SIT UPON THE THRONE FOREVER [Speaking to King David concerning Christ]. God sees people and ‘dynasty’s’. We see ‘things and ministries’. May God help us to re-focus! NOTE: What got me thinking about this was I recently passed up a ‘church’ [small building in some side street in Kingsville]. Had a friend that was the Pastor. Noticed that they found some friends to ‘take over’. Now the friends are ‘the Pastors’. This type of handing over the ‘church’ or finding someone to ‘Pastor it’ is common among small congregations. I remember having friends in the old days who either rented or bought or built a small building and then when ‘things got rough’ were frantically trying to get someone else to ‘continue the legacy’. The problem is in a lot of these scenarios the Pastor puts tremendous pressure on the people to ‘obey your new Pastor’. The New Testament Churches [In the NEW TESTAMENT!] had absolutely nothing going on along these lines. We must re examine our motivations for doing stuff like this. Lots of times its self-ego that’s behind it. Not every case, but many.

(150) ‘I BROUGHT YOU THRU THE RED SEA, AND CAUSED THE ARMIES OF PHARAOH TO DROWN THERE’ just read this in Psalms the other day. It’s a funny thing, the stuff that we go thru as believers advances us to the next level [hopefully!] This same stuff destroys the unbeliever! The last few weeks I have had a good open door with putting our blog in area papers. The lord has used this as an opportunity to reach out in an exponential way. During this same time I have had a lot of resistance! I had an old drug addict friend, who spent many years in jail tell me ‘Brother John, every time I try to serve the Lord the devil comes after me. It’s easier to just ‘not serve God’. This was the father of some of the brothers I was working with. I met the dad by going to the local Kingsville jails to preach and later became good friends with his sons [many!] that were in my age range. By the way I consider one of his sons to be one of our key people in Kingsville. A few of the brothers from this original group are still witnessing and going strong [or at least ‘going!’]. Well the father is now dead. He died right around the age of 50 or so. Good friend, but too many years down the wrong road. It eventually took a toll. Well the lesson is ‘if you are experiencing severe trials and tests, know for a fact that you are making headway into enemy territory’ sure it makes the devil mad, but scripture says ‘THE GOD OF PEACE SHALL CRUSH satan UNDER YOUR FEET SHORTLY’ NOTE; this computer will fix the word ‘satan’ with a capitol letter during spell check, but it wont do the same for ‘God’. That old devil try’s to get into everything, doesn’t he! NOTE: In the above scenario we have people that see themselves as a ‘part of us’. Though there is no organization to join, no ‘membership’. No ‘partnering with us financially’ type thing. But like the song says ‘friends are friends forever, if the Lords the Lord of them’. The attachment to each other is more along the lines of ‘a band of brothers’. Its not some ‘you are under my ministry, how dare you visit or attend another church’ or commit the worst offense imaginable, GIVE YOUR SACRED TITHE TO ANOTHER CHURCH! All silly stuff that goes on today under the guise of ‘local church’. P.S. This stuff that I just said doesn’t only get the devil mad, but some well meaning preachers too!

(151) I am going to be as honest as I can about this. Last night I tuned in to a fairly new Christian station that I like a lot. They have a lot of prophetic people on who I like. They were doing a money-raising thing. They had one of the prophetic people that I like [Mike Bickle] and right after him another brother. This other brother used to be Muslim and is now Christian. When he was Muslim he made some money in business, but when he became Christian he got a hold of the prosperity message and made ‘boat loads’ of it. He is always talking about money. As a brother I love him, but you cant go on national television and say things like ‘there’s someone watching right now ‘GODS’ telling you to give $100,000 right now [that’s one hundred thousand dollars for those of you that might not be familiar with these appeals!] Be obedient and do it, you will get a million back’. Now is it possible that God is saying this? Sure. But is it responsible to simply say it in a forum [national TV] where anybody can hear and everyone hearing thinks its God talking to them and they ‘obey the word of the Lord’ and do something stupid? There was some military veteran living on fixed income that heard something like this on another Christian station. He donated his meager check [or savings?] and gave a few thousand that he couldn’t afford. Whoever was raising the money made an appeal like the one above. He never got ‘his return’ and contacted the ministry and asked for his money back. They said no. He took it to court in California and the state made the ministry give him his money back. Now this kind of stuff ruins our testimony to the world. We can’t keep doing this. I was feeling let down that the prophetic person that I like was involved with this. May God help us all.

(152) Just outside praying and was finishing a part of intercession where I pray for the nations. I lift up our brothers and sisters in ‘regions of conflict’ [Africa/Middle east/Iraq/etc.] I pray for those on the verge of martyrdom, that God would supernaturally deliver them. Those who were recently martyred, that the Lord would be with their families/wives/children that are left behind. You know I didn’t realize I was going to share this when I just sat down! Maybe the Lord wants to expand your ‘prayer base’? What I wanted to get to was I finished with the Lords prayer [Our Father]. When I got to the point of ‘Thy Kingdom come’ I sensed how God’s ‘Kingdom comes’. I have heard over the years how God set up the local church and how his ‘plan’ to fund it is the tithe. And how the ‘tithe’ is Gods tax for Gods people. I do find it ironic that NO New Testament church tithed [except the Jewish believers at Jerusalem, and it wasn’t like you think either. The Jews had quite an elaborate system of tithing; it wasn’t putting 10% in the offering plate on Sunday!] The ‘rules’ Jesus set up for the church were quite simple. You love each other, help those in need. If you have a brother/elder ministering to you Gods word you take care of his needs [no tithe here when Paul teaches this by the way!]. You are a ‘community/brotherhood’ of people who love God and each other and show it by taking care of each other. This is the simplicity of ‘Gods Kingdom’ being expressed thru his people in planet earth. The ‘tax’ that we ‘owe’ is to love one another. Paul actually uses this language in speaking about being a ‘debtor’ to no man, but Gods love constraining us to act. Well I thought this might help you guys today.

(153) I just put together a packet of books and stuff for one of my homeless friends. I have his booklets listed on our tape catalog. His name is Shelby. He has had an interesting life. At one time he had a bus ministry of hippies that he used to travel around with. Some good stuff. I put the packet together because he now sees us as ‘working together’ in ministry. He hasn’t seen the book/tape catalog with his name and articles listed and he wants a catalog. I made a point of putting an updated one together for him. It might be insignificant to some, but something like this makes a person feel like they are playing a part in Gods greater purpose. He was telling his daughter who was visiting the area about me and he wants to show her his booklets on the catalog. Its little things like this that God deems as important. Remember Jesus talking about receiving the Kingdom as little children. Let God use you to ‘connect’ with people in this relational way, these are the ‘things’ that build the Church! [NOTE: I didn’t get to drop the catalog off this day. I am now at work, the next day, and I just got a message on my answering service from Shelby. Just called to say hi and see where I was and when we were going to get together. I knew the Lord wanted me to encourage him yesterday, feel bad that I didn’t!]

(154) ‘RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE’ A few years back this was a popular rock group. I do like the title, though I don’t think I ever heard their music. A lot of what I have recently written on is ‘raging against the machine’. What I mean by this is in Christian circles we develop ways and modes of functioning that ‘become’ church!  Over the years Christians have incorporated ideas into ‘how to do church/ how to be Christian’ and often times the routines or systems that we set in place are necessary practices at the time in order to carry out some Christian function. [501c3/church building/tithing to support clergy/etc.] The problem is when we begin to ‘see’ these functions as the only legitimate expression of church. At that point all the ‘practices/functions’ become ‘the machine’ [the whole system of thought and practice]. Well this is when the revolutionary Spirit of Christ dwelling in the Church rises up [thru prophets and the prophetic Spirit] and ‘rages against the machine’. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN SUFFERETH VIOLENCE AND THE VIOLENT TAKE IT BY FORCE There’s just no getting around this. To be a true pioneer/revolutionary you can’t shrink back in the day of battle. Recently there has been a lot of talk/gossip about us [or should I say me!] Its funny but you learn to purposely ignore and not defend yourself. I actually had some people that were involved in it over a long period of time who ran into other people who were saying how much the Lord has done for them thru our radio ministry. The person testified of how I am reaching out and doing good things for God. The other friend kind of had to tell me how he heard a good testimony about us. But in this scenario I didn’t defend myself [it takes too much time to worry about the critics!] but someone else who I haven’t seen in 15 years defended me [this was an old Navy friend who knew me in the ‘bad days’ and then knew me when I became a Christian]. Well when you ‘rage against the machine’ the machine strikes back, but be assured that by Gods grace you will win. Remember the song from the reformer Martin Luther [not King] ‘THOUGH THIS WORLD WITH DEVILS FILLED SHOULD THREATEN TO UNDO US, WE WILL NOT FEAR FOR GOD HATH WILLED HIS TRUTH TO TRIUMPH THRU US’

(155) ‘LESSONS FROM A SCOTT PACK’ to my firefighter friends who read this blog you know what a Scott mask is, to the others let me explain. In the old days of firefighting the masks that firefighters wore didn’t have ‘positive pressure’. If there was a leak in the mask the toxic gases/smoke could get in the mask and you could get hurt or die from this. The fire service eventually developed a technology that is called ‘positive pressure’. Now if there is a leak in the mask instead of ‘stuff getting in’ ‘stuff gets out!’ The positive air flow coming in to your mask will ‘leak out’ if there is a breach. I feel like the Lord will allow us at times to be under ‘positive pressure’. Sure we all get angry and respond wrong at times [at least I do, maybe some of you super saints don’t, but if you read this blog site this far chances are you’re a lot like me!] When your are under ‘positive pressure’ and you feel like your being pierced, just remember God is allowing good stuff to flow out of you during these seasons. ‘HE CLAVE THE ROCKS IN THE WILDERNESS AND GAVE THEM DRINK OUT OF GREAT DEPTHS, HE BROUGHT STREAMS ALSO OUT OF THE ROCK, AND CAUSED WATER TO RUN DOWN LIKE RIVERS’

(156) A little more about ‘the machine’. I realize that by us having NO INCOME, NO BUILDINGS, NO STAFF, NO SALARIES, NO 501C3 that this is highly offensive to the ‘machine’. The amount of time and money that go into the ‘operation of the machine’ is enormous. The amount of thought and strategizing on how to raise funds for the machine are time consuming. To simply start a revolution of Christian volunteers who give themselves away for the cause for free is a tremendous threat to the machine. I do not see my brothers who function with all the trappings as evil or deceived. I recognize in some cases the ‘things’ of ministry are simply tools that God uses to effect change. I use radio and books and stuff too. The point I want to make is if you change your mindset from building things to building people your efforts will go a lot further and last much longer!

(157) Just remembered a conversation I had with a ministry leader in our city. At the time we were discussing the prosperity gospel. I was telling him the story of how a very popular prosperity preacher wrote in one of his best selling books that he had a vision and went to heaven, and in heaven he saw King David as well as many others. King David told the prosperity preacher that one of the things he regrets was all the negative confessions he made in the book of Psalms. [To be honest stuff like this still gets me mad!] Well I surely thought the ministry leader would be as upset as I about this. Instead he challenged me in defense of the prosperity preacher and said ‘how do you know the vision is fake’? Now I got upset. How do you know Joseph Smith [the prophet of the Mormon church] didn’t find the ‘gold tablets’ in the earth [or even if he found them, how come I know there not from God?] We know by spiritual discernment. Scripture commands us to ‘test the spirits’ and every spirit that is not from God must be rejected. The simple fact that this ministry leader could not discern and willingly reject the prosperity preacher’s vision was appalling. We cannot ever accept a vision that would have a writer of one of the Canonical books basically say he wished he could take something out of the book [in this case Psalms]. The book of Revelation places a curse on those who ‘take away from the Word of God’. I finally answered the question of ‘how do you know the visions fake?’ with the answer GOD TOLD ME! To my surprise the ministry leader accepted it and seemed to submit to this Word. It was almost like this movement casts a spell on people who defend it. Sometimes it takes a prophetic word spoken in authority to break this spell! Paul told the Galatians ‘who hath bewitched you to not obey the truth?’ I have had friends who were Pastors come out and publicly defend this movement because they visited one of their ministry centers and said they ran an efficient operation. Hey, you can visit the Mormon Temple in Utah and you’ll see efficiency! But God help us if this becomes the criteria that we use to judge a thing. I really have struggled with the leaders who were not learned enough to know what they were defending, but would defend it any way. Sort of like ‘hey, I have been attacked before and I didn’t like it, therefore I will defend any one else who gets attacked’. Well I don’t like being attacked either, but leaders need the ability to see things for what they are and try to bring correction in love. I do believe these prosperity guys are fellow believers, but stuff like I just showed you can’t go unchecked. The popularity of some of these things is a direct result of leaders not taking a stand when they should have. I don’t want to offend you guys, but I felt the Lord wanted me to share this.

(158) Went thru my emails yesterday and had an invitation from a church in Africa to speak at a conference. I just prayed for Africa the other day! I didn’t accept the invitation, don’t want to be rude but I don’t ‘do churches’. There are enough people already making the ‘church circuit’. We really don’t need anymore. They can get all our stuff for free on this blog site without me going to ‘manually’ deliver a sermon. What about the offerings? Oh yea we don’t ‘do offerings’ either. Now let me get a little serious. The invitation might have been a scam, who knows? But regardless I wouldn’t have done it either way. Wisdom ‘sends out her servants’ thru the ‘sending’ of words thru Radio, Books and the blog site we are reaching a great area. You remember about ‘working smarter, not harder’. I might do something like this someday, it’s not ‘wicked’ or anything, it’s just that our style is trying to break the mold and show the ‘everyday believer’ that you too can have an effective outreach without being a part of the system!

(159) I have not told you guys this yet. But as I was praying I felt it was time. I know I have ‘strange’ sleeping/eating habits. About 5 or 6 years back [now that I think about it more like 10-12 yrs.] I started eating once a day. It kind of started like a fasting thing. I used to eat regularly and fast 1 day every week or so. The longest was a seven day fast [only water!] But now I just eat once a day. I try to eat around 3 or 4p.m. Sometimes I will have a healthy snack at night [peanuts/fruit] I had a friend tell me he wishes he had a metabolism where he didn’t eat that much. I think he had the impression that I don’t get hungry or something. Some days I feel hungry all the time! Its not about feelings, its learning to maximize your time by putting fuel into your body! I do feel as hungry as anyone who didn’t eat till 3pm. But I have much more energy by doing it this way. I very rarely break this rule. Maybe a few times a year? I am not trying to be a martyr; this ‘style’ seemed to be most effective for me. I do find it funny that John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey. Maybe having strange eating habits is a prerequisite for ‘prophetic’ ministries? Well felt it was time to share this, maybe you will at least be encouraged to fast some! NOTE: Jesus said they accused John of ‘having a devil’ [being demon possessed] because of his lack of eating and they accused Jesus of being a ‘glutton’ because of his eating with sinners, It just seems like you can never please that old religious crowd!

(160) This entry may be difficult to explain, but let me try. When I first moved to Corpus in 1992, I used to take my kids to a local lake/pond. It is called Lakeview Park. Nice lake with ducks and stuff. I haven’t been there in many years. ‘Bodies of water’ can represent groups of people both in scripture [Revelation] and in prophetic imagery. Well this week they found out that there were two alligators living in secret in this ‘pool’ of water. They don’t know how long they were there but they were just ‘exposed’. A few weeks back I wrote on the God of peace bruising satan under our feet shortly. satan gets his power thru deception; he does things in secret and doesn’t want to be found out. He likes to ‘hide’ in ‘ponds/lakes’ [groups of people who he can influence to carry out his plan/ or simply prevent Gods plan from taking root in these people groups]. I felt like the Lord was saying there were many ‘people/groups’ that he wanted us to reach, but ‘leviathen’ [devil] was hiding underneath the surface preventing Gods plan from coming forth. At this season satan's works are being ‘found out’ and it will be safe to ‘go in the water’ [fish these people groups!]

(161) ‘THE PUFFBALLS’ Let me do another one that’s not too easy to explain. Many years ago I heard an Apostle share on ‘puffballs’, that is the strategy of those weed like flowers that start as a flower and then turn into the puffball that the wind can blow on and 100’s of little parts go flying. Some of these little ‘offspring’ have been known to travel thousands of miles and ‘re-plant’ in another country and then start the process all over again. The brother [Jim Dirkin] shared how this was an ‘Apostolic strategy’ that the Lord had shown him. He had an outreach ministry that worked with many hippies during the Jesus movement, and they would send their people all over the world to establish Gods Kingdom and preach the gospel. I like this imagery. As I write this entry the puffballs are being blown by the wind in my yard right now. As I told you guys a few entries back I don’t mow my back yard, but have created paths that are surrounded by trees and plants. I do pull up any grass that comes up, or weeds. This year I saw the same ‘weeds’ that I pull up every year. But I kind of felt like I should leave them. I was on the verge of pulling them up and then stopped. Well sure enough these turned into those puffballs. It happened in February of 2007, the 20 year anniversary of our ministry. I felt like the Lord said many of our ‘seed’ [people] will grow exponentially this year. The ‘puffballs’ have reached a point of critical mass where they will continue! ‘THY SEED AND THY NAME SHALL REMAIN, THOSE THAT WILL BE OF THEE SHALL BUILD THE OLD WASTE PLACES’ Jesus said in his Parables to be careful when trying to ‘pull out the tares’ from the wheat, you might accidentally damage the real thing. I didn’t realize that I was ‘pulling out’ a weed that was actually a beautiful flower. Be careful when dealing with people, you might damage someone that God intends to be a ‘part of your field!’[if you want to look up the ministry of Jim Dirkin, it was called ‘Gospel Outreach’ they do have a site on line, also ‘Verbo’ or something like that. Jim has gone on to be with the Lord many years ago, but he was a pioneer in what has come to be known as the modern Apostolic movement]

(162) I want to demonstrate something right now. The last few hours I felt the Lord had a prophetic word for you. The word is from Psalms ‘WHEN THE LORD TURNED THE CAPTIVITY OF ZION [PUT YOUR NAME HERE] IT WAS LIKE A DREAM’ I felt like the Lord was saying an appointed time has just come for you. IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO WORK, LORD [PSALMS] A SET TIME HAS COME. I just felt like the Lord wanted to communicate to you that this is a ‘Kairos’ time for you. You have come to the Kingdom for SUCH A TIME AS THIS!

(163) My daughter mentioned the other day how she likes the mesquite tree growing in my yard. I have pruned it over the years to grow around the corner of my house. Mesquites grow both horizontal and vertical. If you prune them right they will grow very wide, almost like the branches become benches that you can sit on. Was just outside praying [during an early morning thunderstorm!] and was standing under an eve next to this tree. I was thinking how Jesus spoke of Gods Kingdom being like a small seed, but after it grows it becomes a large tree where many birds find shelter. I pulled this tree out of the Oso bay around 12 years ago [?] its so big and wide now you couldn’t move it if you tried! Maybe a pro with a truck and stuff, but not like when I pulled it up by hand from the wet sand. Felt like the Lord was saying to plant/transplant some things now, it might seem insignificant but down the road it will be a ‘mainstay’ for many people [birds taking shelter!]. ‘DON’T DESPISE THE DAY OF SMALL BEGINNINGS’.  

(164) ‘GOD GIVES MEAT IN DUE SEASON’ Just read this in Psalms, it’s also found in other portions of scripture. Paul told the Corinthians, after he wrote them the first letter, that initially he regretted being so hard on them. But later he changed his mind and was glad he was so hard on them because it produced the desired results. God allows certain truths to go forth at certain times to specific groups of people. I debate whether or not certain people are ready for the stuff we preach. If people are not ‘ready’ [mature] they can use the truths we preach in a destructive way. Some Pastors can’t handle our stuff. I don’t want to sound big headed, but this is true. God not only ‘feeds the right food at the right time’ but he also requires us to do the same. This year [2007] the Lord opened a door to a lot of my old friends from New Jersey. I have tried to contact them before, but ‘it wasn’t time’. I felt like the Lord said ‘it’s now the right time’. Ask God to give you wisdom in when and whom to speak to. Jesus said at his return he will see who is giving out meat in due season. Are you feeding the right meat to the right people?

(165) ‘I AM NOT RICH!’ Let me once again clarify some things. We shouldn’t spend time defending ourselves, unless it serves a purpose. I have mentioned that in the past I have made money in real estate. Some people seem to think I am rich and therefore we have a regional influence because I fund it myself. All the money I made has been spent! I bought a building for the guys I worked with in Kingsville, It didn’t work out so I sold it and used the money for radio and outreach. I do fund all the stuff I do [radio, feeding guys, paying for blog adds, etc.] I also put money in the Church we attend [though its not a tithe]. All this costs me a few hundred dollars a month. I do not claim this as a deduction on my taxes [nothing wrong about claiming it, I prefer not to]. So basically I make around $45,000 dollars a year [2007] and pay for these avenues of ministry out of pocket. The reason I share this is I want you to see that all of us can reach ‘our world’. The main ingredient is seeking to be a servant. We too often see ministry as a business in which we seek advancement for ourselves and the ‘church’. We innocently by-pass the ingredient of servant hood that Jesus said was the key to advancement in Gods kingdom. I am amazed at the amount of people who don’t believe/see the reality of this. Jesus said the gospel is the power. The power of exponential increase in Gods Kingdom is laying down your life for others. I realize some do criticize me for not ‘paying my way’ with the tithe, while enjoying the benefits. I struggle with this too. I take consolation in the fact that many of the Pastors of the churches I have attended over the years have benefited from our teaching ministry for free. Some have learned more from us than any other regional ministry. I am not boasting, but just showing you that things seem to even out. Well I wanted to clarify this, hope it helped. [Also I recommend the church I attend, and its other campuses, to all the people we work with in the region. I in no way teach that our people shouldn’t attend a good church, I just try to expand their mindset to ‘them’ being the church in many different scenarios]. NOTE: I want to radically challenge your mindset right now. Paul the Apostle said ‘HE THAT IS NOT WORKING SHOULD GET A JOB, SO HE CAN HAVE TO GIVE TO HIM THAT NEEDETH’ I simply want you to see the scriptural authority behind the concept of giving directly to meet the needs of people. The church today puts 99[or 100?] percent of the focus on the tithe. Paul does leave room in his theology for giving to meet the needs of Elders [Pastors] but the imperative is always towards the needs of people. Most Christians will read the verse that I just quoted and never give it a second thought. How many of you seriously work to give to him that needeth?

(166) Felt like the Lord had a prophetic word for you ‘I WILL HEAR WHAT THE LORD GOD WILL SPEAK, HE WILL SPEAK PEACE TO HIS PEOPLE AND TO HIS SAINTS, BUT LET THEM NOT TURN AGAIN TO FOLLY’ [somewhere in the bible, not sure where?] I felt like God just said to you that he’s ending things in your life that you have struggled with for years, the ‘test’ is over. It’s now time to begin the journey in a greater way. You are out of the wilderness and are entering the ‘promised land’. Beware, there are still enemies to conquer, but you will be coming after them, as opposed to them coming after you!

(167) Just got back [last night] from spending a few days at my daughters ranch. I took my youngest girl and we helped my daughter [Becky] do some stuff. These last few weeks I have made it a point to pick up area news papers and call to see if they will run our blog. When I call I let them know we are not for profit [I mean really not for profit!] and I do explain that we have no building but simply meet as a brotherhood of people. This can be hard to articulate but most people accept us as a ministry. I say most! I called some paper in the Orange Grove area, the lady sounded a little ‘country’ and was a little rude. As I began to explain our desire to put our blog site in their paper I asked if she knew what a blog was [some people who are not familiar with the word don’t know what I am saying when I ask this and I will spell out the word B L O G] well she simply said ‘I am not stupid sir, I know how to spell. If I were stupid do you think I would be running a newspaper’. To be honest at this point it surprised me that she was running one! Its hard enough to explain the concept of ‘church’ as a community versus a building to most believers, I knew I had my work cut out for me with this person. At one point she asked if we had a ‘church’ building or not. I plainly told her we didn’t. I wasn’t hiding this fact, but she simply was unable to grasp this concept. She finally let it be known that if ‘you’re a church with a building who meets on Sunday’ you can run an ad for free, even if the Pastors salary is a million dollars, you run it free because ‘you’re a church’. But if your a community of people who are in society doing the works of Jesus for free you cant run an ad for free because you don’t have a ‘church building’. This lady finally hung up on me. She kept stating she was not stupid and I took her at her word and tried to explain the Greek word ‘Ecclesia’ as ‘the Church’ and tried to give her a crash course in ecclesiology! I knew she didn’t understand a word I was saying, but frankly I was a little tired of hearing her. Well I never placed the ad, I could have paid for one, but this is a little ‘red neck’ newspaper and I really think I would have been doing them a favor to put our ad in their paper.

(168) Now back to my time at the ranch. I got up early in the morning to pray outside. I walked around for a few hours before sun up. This is the first time I was able to pray in this region. I really sensed how God precedes ‘outreach’ to an area with prayer and fasting. The night before I was at work in Kingsville and prayed at this same time over there. The Lord sees ‘prayer, fasting, sacrifice, persecution and difficulty’ as the ingredients for ministry. We often look at ‘finances, facilities, staff, etc.’ we see ‘things’ God sees character developed under fire. I remember hearing a few years back a particular preacher defend his use of private planes. Hey, if you want to use one fine. In his defense he shared that because the anointing is in him, its so valuable [true] that if he goes to great lengths to ‘pamper’ himself with expensive things he is doing it ‘for the anointing’ not for him. Its funny, but didn’t Jesus have the anointing? If I remember he didn’t spend a lot of time ‘protecting’ it, I think he even went to the cross with it! We get into these mindsets that are hard to break. We had a brother come to our area who normally charges [I think he said a million dollars?] to speak, but because the Lord laid it on his heart he would do it this time for free, thanks a lot. The valuable gifts and ‘anointings’ in us ARE VALUABLE, but they don’t belong to us! They are GIFTS! What do you do with something that you get for free, you share it with others for free! Paul said we have this treasure in earthen vessels; the valuable thing we ‘protect’ is not the vessel. We must change our mindsets from the way the world operates. Sure the world compensates its C.E.O s, but we work on different lines as Gods people. I don’t want to get into this right here [salaries and stuff] but I want you to ‘see’ things differently. We are here to get the message out at all costs, we don’t belong to ourselves, God has purchased us. We are ‘slaves’. He has ownership. We don’t get a salary for doing the things we are required to do. Do you get it? [It’s OK to meet the needs of your Pastor financially, I am talking about the mindset of ‘starting a ministry’ and being compensated before your willing to go out and give your life away]

(169) Many years ago after I first started serving the Lord I took a trip back to Jersey. My dad, a firefighter [retired Captain] got me an invitation to preach at the Chaplains church. He was a good man who was pastoring a ‘Church of God’ church. I simply preached a basic gospel message. Many years later [20?] while back visiting family I thought I would drop by and say hi. I didn’t know if the Pastor was around anymore, he was around 70 when I first met him, he would be close to 90 now. Well I stopped by the church and to my surprise he was still there. I spoke to him for a little while and told him I had preached at his church years ago. He couldn’t remember. After a while he finally remembered. I did look a lot different now. As we were sitting in his nice little apartment located directly behind the church sanctuary, his wife was in the other room mumbling. The old Pastor told me she suffers from Alzheimer’s and to just ignore it. He was polite in saying this. The old pastor was truly enjoying one of the sons [me!] of one of the fire Captains that he was a chaplain to, being able to visit and reminisce. During our conversation he seemed content. He told me though he doesn’t have much materially in this life, he is satisfied that he has built up eternal rewards. He kind of said ‘I don’t know how you feel about the modern prosperity movement, but I feel God doesn’t measure success by outward things’. Well I told him ‘Brother Wilcombs, I kind of wrote a little book on this subject’ and I dropped one off to him before I left Jersey. I received a handwritten note in the mail, he really appreciated the book. I kind of felt like the Lord gave me an opportunity to encourage a man who gave his whole life to the ministry and was feeling ‘defensive’ living in a day that blatantly measures godliness by financial gain. I never saw him again, if he’s still alive he would be nearing 100 years old. I thank God for the elders of the faith who served God so many years with their eyes on eternal rewards versus this present world [I had previously heard that he died and found out later that he was still alive. The book I gave him can be read in it’s entirety on this site]

(170) Over the years I have found it interesting that many Christians live their whole lives believing things that they feel are not true. Not talking about the basic tenets of the faith, but stuff on the ‘rapture’ or the church, or tithing. A lot of the stuff I deal with. It’s funny that Christians live their whole lives embracing things just out of fear. Some times they will admit that what they heard [read] from our ministry was something that they always felt to be true. I kind of feel like saying ‘if you knew this to be true, why would you not embrace it’. The first century believers were getting their heads chopped off for the faith, and we don’t have the courage to believe and preach the simplest things! It’s stuff like this that determines whether or not you will move on to the next level. Many preachers are seeking a national voice, looking to expand their parameters. God first wants boldness to hear and receive truth from him. Why would the Lord expand someone’s forum if they don’t have the basic ability to hear and speak truth? I am not talking about simply ‘regurgitating’ someone else’s revelation. I am talking about hearing and speaking what God is saying. ‘OPEN MY EYES SO I MIGHT BEHOLD THINGS OUT OF YOUR LAW’.

(171) For the purpose of full disclosure let me mention something. All 4 of my daughters have trust funds set up for them. While I am not rich, my kids are set up fairly well. The reason I share this is the other day when I was up early praying at my daughters ranch I felt the Lord saying he was going to expand us ‘thru our seed’ [spiritual children]. While walking around the ranch I saw hundreds of wildflowers and mesquite trees. I have a few in my yard, but these were a lot! I also realized how my daughter [19 yrs old] owns a $125,000 dollar ranch free and clear. She bid $31,000 for it and used part of her trust fund money [it was a HUD repo and no bank would finance a ‘modular home’ on a ranch, though the original owner paid $85,000 just for the house!] The nice mustang she drives is also free and clear [I bought it for $4,000 a few years ago]. I am not bringing this up for no reason. For many years people [friends/family] would tell me ‘instead of helping bums and addicts, you could work a second job [besides being a firefighter] so your kids can have more’. I have found out if you take care of Gods people [kids] he will take care of yours. To be honest, how many 19yr olds own a $125,000 ranch free and clear? See, I know God does bless people financially; I just feel the church today has blurred the lines of Christianity with gain. We as believers have a mandate to not measure ‘Godliness by gain’. Well I believe scripture says ‘first the natural, then the spiritual’ I am looking forward to hearing from you guys on how God is increasing your spiritual borders! NOTE: This is also another benefit of not taking a salary, can you imagine what people would be saying ‘that preacher went and bought his daughter a ranch, and she drives a mustang too!’ [I own a 66 mustang, it’s got a 289 in it for all you car guys] NOTE: I had an old friend in Kingsville, one of our original group, who use to kid me and say ‘for someone who doesn’t believe in the prosperity message, you do pretty good!’ I would answer back ‘I don’t believe it works for you guys, only for me’ of course I was kidding! NOTE: Let me show you guys something. I don’t ‘think money thoughts’ all the time. I don’t ‘confess money scriptures’ all day. I basically don’t believe in the main tenets of the prosperity gospel, but yet I have prospered! Why? I believe if you give your life away for others, practice giving and being generous, be EMPLOYED for most of your life, simply be a responsible person and even invest wisely. These are the things that ‘produce’ prosperity, not some tricks and gimmicks. I know God blesses his people; its just money shouldn’t be the focus! NOTE: I do find it strange that there are many Christians who are ALWAYS talking, thinking and focusing on material wealth. If I were to tell them ‘you have spent 35 years speaking, thinking and developing your entire Christian experience around money. Many of your teachers teach that Jesus was a millionaire; you have actually changed the image of God into one of your own desires. Many of the sermons you have heard thru out your life have been about money. Don’t you think it strange that someone like myself, who outright rejects and preaches against the movement is blessed’ Many of them would respond by saying ‘well, at least I died with a good confession’ No you didn’t, you died spending your whole life focusing on the things that Jesus said were not the true riches! Thanks to your preachers you spent a lifetime doing what Jesus said not to do! He said seek FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND ALL THINGS WILL BE ADDED TO YOU you my friend were seeking THE THINGS!

(172) A few years back a popular preacher in our region [Houston] was speaking about a guy who got stuck in a freezer [walk in!] He shared how even though the freezer was not plugged in, they found the guy dead in the morning. The brother said he believed the guy froze to death, because in his ‘mind’ he believed the freezer was on. I do like this preacher [Joel Osteen] but this is a type of ‘metaphysical’ belief. The groups ‘Christian Science’ and others hold to these views. The biblical view of ‘renewing the mind’ and meditating on Gods Word is a profitable thing. This type of belief [the freezer guy!] is really not biblical. We don’t ‘create reality’ with our thoughts or words. While it is good to keep a positive confession and to ‘set your mind on things above’ yet these practices don’t actually create reality! They can have an effect on our circumstances and help us in our walk with God, but in and of themselves these are simply ‘window dressing’. The basic tenets of Christian belief put the emphasis on character, faith, trusting in God, being diligent and overall ‘root’ issues. The modern focus on words and thoughts are a superficial approach. Though there is some biblical truth to them, they are not the deep issues of walking with God. What about the brother in the freezer? Well it’s possible he died of a heart attack or something, but he didn’t ‘create’ an environment with his mind that caused him to freeze to death.

(173) In the early church of the first couple of centuries there was a group of ‘Christians’ who were called Gnostics. These people believed in ‘special knowledge’. They felt that God revealed things to them thru spiritual means that the average Christians didn’t access. Today you have the equivalent of this in ‘revelation knowledge’. This is a type of belief among Christians that sometimes contradicts scripture, but slips in as ‘special revelation’. While it is true that God does give us prophetic insight and allows us to see things thru dreams and visions and other means, yet all of these ‘things’ are subservient to biblical authority! When things slip in under the title of ‘revelation knowledge’ we must judge it by scripture. If scripture contradicts the ‘revelation knowledge’ then we go with the Word!

(174) A few years ago we had an Apostle visit our area. He is fairly well known in ‘prophetic’ circles and does have a worldwide ministry. I do like him and his teaching. He was going to hold some meetings in Texas and I called his office to get directions. A few days later he called back at an inopportune time. If I am busy I will not answer my phone unless I recognize the number. I thought I would answer it this day anyway. Sure enough it was this national minister personally calling me. He didn’t know me at all! I think the Lord told him to call. I spoke only a few minutes and shared a prophetic word. I quoted ‘FOR THY SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL THE DAY LONG’ he simply said ‘O MY’. I never got in touch with him again. I did send them our books and I feel we might be a little to ‘strong’ for this brother. Many ‘Apostles/Prophets’ are really affected by the prosperity gospel and modern concepts of ‘spiritual warfare’ and I think our teachings in these areas turned them off. I do feel the Lord allowed me to speak this word to him as a precursor to sending our books. It’s like God confirmed ‘the word with signs following [or should I say ‘preceding!’]

(175) Many years ago I had a Pastor friend who pastored a church in Corpus Christi that was called the ‘Lambs Fold’. His name was Tom Reedy, his wife was Kathy. He was going to leave Corpus and was looking for confirmation on whether or not to leave. He visited one of the most accurate Prophets of our generation [Paul Cain]. He never told me what happened, but I eventually got the tape series of the meetings from someone else and I heard Paul prophesy ‘there is someone here named Tom and your wife is Kathy [I think he even said the name ‘Reedy’] it has something to do with the Lambs Fold on a coastal city’. Its things like this that convince you that the prophetic is real. Paul Cain has gone thru some very difficult times these last few years and he has struggled with homosexuality and other things. I hesitate to use Paul’s name but I felt we needed to give credit to the many thousands of accurate prophecies that Paul has given over the years.

(176) I spoke on fasting a few entries back. I remember hearing one of the most prominent leaders of the prosperity movement [he has since gone on to be with the Lord] say that he didn’t fast anymore, but God told him instead to live a ‘fasted life’. This brother was overweight and had heart problems earlier in his life. I felt it strange that he didn’t fast anymore, and the ‘fasted life’ seemed to not truly limit his eating. I don’t want to be mean, I used to listen to this brother in the early years of my Christian experience, but I felt this to be a sign. Covetousness and the more extreme cases of it that were found in this brothers teaching is a form of lust and addiction. Jesus spoke on the power of ‘mammon’ as the only other addiction that directly competes with the kingdom of God for mans affections. ‘YOU CAN NOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON’ I felt the inability to break from the spirit of mammon was seen in this brothers inability to control his eating. Eventually instead of losing the weight, he seemed to develop a ‘belief’ thru a ‘Rhema word’ [God told me not to fast but to live a fasted life] that justified the appetites of the flesh. This same scenario flowed over into the more extreme elements of the prosperity gospel. Visions of Jesus appearing to these brothers telling them ‘YOU CAN WRITE YOUR OWN TICKET WITH GOD’ teachings on commanding Angels to ‘GO FORTH AND BRING TO ME MONEY’ things that I look at now and am amazed that so many Christians cant break from this stuff. I love the brother who I just used as the example, but our allegiance must be to God first and I felt he wanted me to share this.

(177) I remember sharing some of these things with ‘leaders’ of the church in Corpus Christi and they would say ‘oh that criticism is the same stuff that Hank Hanegraaff preaches’ [this brother wrote a critical book on the prosperity movement]. The inability of this particular leader to see the true deception of this movement would later limit his voice. The brother who said this to me went on the radio station that I broadcast on. I do like the brother, I kind of had the feeling he felt like ‘I will show John some things about radio’ sort of like he was going to ‘teach us a lesson’. He lasted a few weeks on the radio [we’ve been on 11 years as of 2007] I don’t want to boast or sound competitive, I simply believe God gives voice to those who are willing to see beyond there own personal survival and speak the truth. This ministry leader was trying to build a financial support base at the time of our discussion and I felt he dismissed out of hand what God was trying to show him [thru me!] because it simply didn’t fit in with the goal of ‘bringing in the money’. If we are truly in ministry to speak what God is saying, then the ‘goal of bringing in the funds’ must be secondary to the prophetic word. We must speak truth, regardless of how it affects our income base. Well I believe the ministry leader lasted a few weeks on the radio because he had his priorities wrong, what about you! NOTE: This is the same ministry leader I spoke on earlier who defended the prosperity preacher. During our conversation he was showing me things the Lord showed him out of the bible. Okay stuff from the Old Testament, little stories about unity and stuff. I found it strange that he would spend time on finding interesting stories from the bible and yet not see all the plain scriptures in the New Testament dealing with the issues of money DON’T DESIRE TO BE RICH, BE CONTENT WITH WHAT YOU HAVE, TEACHERS WILL ARISE IN THE LAST DAYS WHO WILL TEACH GAIN IS GODLINESS FROM SUCH TURN AWAY, THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL THOSE WHO HAVE GONE AFTER IT HAVE TURNED AWAY FROM THE FAITH [shall I go on?] I just think we ‘strain at gnats’ while we don’t realize we are ‘swallowing the camel whole’!

(178) I read an article from Christianity today the other day. It was on Prophets and their role in the Church! It was an excellent article; it kind of surprised me that it was in Christianity today. Out of all the Christian magazines in circulation this is the best. I don’t say this only because of this article. I have subscribed to Charisma and Christianity today and a few others for many years. I don’t subscribe to any write now, but I read from some on line. I canceled the Charisma magazine many years before Christianity today. I felt that Charisma was making an honest effort, but the only valuable stuff seemed to be coming from Lee Grady. He only wrote a brief editorial. The bulk of the magazine was messages by popular preachers, and a lot of them on ‘you can have what you say’ and stuff like that. I actually said to myself one day ‘how many messages does it take on ‘you can achieve some goal, or get what you want’ before they move on to the ‘university level’. Well I feel Christianity today is at the ‘university level’. In the past the majority of preachers/teachers that taught on Apostles and Prophets were the charismatic brothers. I do credit Brother Hagin for re introducing this teaching to the church. I am really excited that more of the mainline Christians seem to be more open to these gifts. It’s hard for believers to distinguish between the reality that some things can be good from a preacher, while other things can be bad. I have seen so many brothers leave the Baptist faith and become Charismatic [OK] but then they view their Baptist heritage in a negative way. They seem to think the future of the church is Charismatic. The future of the church is CHRIST! All charismatics and Baptists and Catholics and every one else who names the name of Christ plays a role in this thing. The message of the church is the Cross of Christ. We are to carry the ‘evangelical’ gospel as the primary voice of the church. If you used to be some denomination and are now another, that’s fine, but don’t think that now the message is ‘the Spirit’ or ‘the anything else’. The message stays the same. Now I believe we should teach and embrace the working of the Holy Spirit, it’s just some brothers have actually said stuff like ‘when I was Baptist I focused on the Cross, when I became charismatic I now focus on the resurrection and the Spirit’ one brother even said the Cross was only for a few hours, leaving the impression that those ‘few hours’ are now over and we move on to other things. This brother is an Apostle out of San Antonio who is a true elder in the church. He has done many good things and I have received from him in many ways. He made this statement at a conference in Corpus Christi and I felt I needed to correct it on radio. I did! Paul told the Corinthians that when he was with them he knew nothing ‘but Christ crucified’. This message doesn’t mean we don’t ‘move on in growth’ it simply means the growth God is looking for is the Body to grow ‘into him’. God’s goal is for us to be mature ‘in him’. Growing is not a matter of moving away from him [or the cross!] Paul told the Galatians ‘MY LITTLE CHILDREN WHOM I TRAVAIL IN BIRTH AGAIN UNTIL CHRIST BE FORMED IN YOU’ Ephesians says we are to grow up into the full stature of Christ and allow his headship over us to fully function as we develop more into being the Body of Christ. All these images show us that the goal of Christian growth is not moving to some other belief, but moving more ‘into him’.

(179) I called the Houston Chronicle and asked them if I can run our blog in the church section, as of now I am still waiting for a response. I was up praying yesterday and heard [not audibly!] ‘Houston, we’ve got a problem’ so I began praying for the brother that I spoke to and also for divine favor. I recognize that if someone who works for these papers attends a prosperity church that they will not want to run the ad. There are obstacles in moving forward, I have given you guys an example on how one person can do great things in God, but there will be tremendous resistance. I gave you the example of my friend being on the radio for a few weeks. Though it doesn’t take a lot of money to impact regions, it does take spiritual courage. We wrestle not against flesh and blood; the adversary will come after you. Don’t want to intimidate you, just want to give you the facts. Also today we come out in the San Antonio paper, my daughter had a friend from high school that moved to San Antonio while they were still in school. He was a boyfriend/friend. I used to drive her midway and the boy’s mom would meet us and we would pick the boy up for a visit in Corpus. I gave the kid one of our books on the prosperity movement. A few weeks later the boy said his mom really liked it and wanted him to tell me. This was a nice Hispanic family. They were from a broken home, the boys ‘mom’ was really his grandmother. She was a nice woman. I kind of got the feeling that she was one of the many who hear the prosperity gospel for many years and feel a sense of guilt about struggling financially. The message has a tendency to say ‘just keep confessing and believing, surely God doesn’t want his kids to suffer and be broke. Look at us we are all rich’ [the preachers!] Many preachers don’t realize the damage their doing to the poor in our midst. James said ‘YOU ARE DESPISING THE POOR AND TREATING THE RICH WITH FAVOR, HATH NOT GOD CHOSEN THE POOR OF THIS WORLD RICH IN FAITH AND HEIRS TO THE KINGDOM WHICH HE HATH PROMISED, WOE TO THE RICH IN THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT, THEIR RICHES WILL DECAY AND HAVE NO EFFECT IN THAT DAY’ Many of the prosperity brothers simply don’t see the overall effect that the message has on people who are poor. James didn’t preach to the poor that if they believe long enough things will turn around. Paul didn’t tell the saints that they can be rich if they believe, he told them YOU CAME INTO THE WORLD WITH NOTHING, WHEN YOU LEAVE YOU WILL LEAVE WITH NOTHING, THEREFORE BE CONTENT TO HAVE YOUR NEEDS MET Now I realize that there are basic principles of believing the Lord for resources to touch the world. George Mueller was a great man of faith who started an orphanage and had miraculous stories of God providing. It’s that we just are blurring the lines too much. Scripture commands us to not show contempt to the poor. How do you think they feel when we say from our pulpits ‘Well our people are doing well, look at all the expensive cars in the parking lot’ now what do you suppose will happen to that innocent grandma raising her grandson for many years, who took the bus to church today? We don’t realize how much damage we have done. Some of you would have benefited to have listened to me 15 years ago when I started preaching this stuff, instead of telling every body ‘Oh that preacher is against the prosperity movement’ No I am FOR THE POOR GRANDMAS THAT JAMES TOLD US NOT TO DESPISE! NOTE: Many of the brothers I have spoken to over the years teach that there needs to be a return of ‘strong Apostolic authority’ like the early church had. It’s funny because when they here or read the stuff we are writing its ‘too strong’ for them! NOTE: Let me add that the preacher who made the statement about all the people doing well because they had nice cars in the parking lot, meant well. He was trying to express the fact that he wasn’t the only one doing well. This preacher is a very humble man in our city. He is more humble than me, and I don’t say this in a demeaning way. I consider him a true friend. Till this day I pray for the church he pastors as well as other area churches [the one I attend!] I consider him an innocent victim of the deception from certain elements of the prosperity movement. He did not realize that he was directly violating the scripture that says ‘DO NOT MEASURE GODLINESS BY GAIN’ Scripture plainly says you are not to use material things as a measure of ones faith. If the people were all poor and had ‘crappy’ cars, they still could have had ‘been doing well’ [spiritually] according to scripture. This innocent statement made by a good man is just one of the casualties of this teaching! Paul warned Timothy that those who would teach that gain was godliness and would make money the focus would ‘swerve from the faith’ that is they would UNCONCIOUSLY make statements and judgments that were outside of biblical parameters. The logic and reasoning of the above statement came from a good man who today realizes many of the things I am showing you, but at the time did not see how he was being affected by those who were ‘swerving from the faith’. We flippantly say things like ‘THE BIBLE DOESN’T SAY MONEY IS EVIL, BUT THE LOVE OF IT IS’ where does it say this? In TIMOTHY, the same book that I have been quoting all these verses from. People don’t realize that to make being rich your goal is forbidden in scripture. Now I didn’t say you can’t be rich, nor did I say you cant try to become rich. But scripture says that those who DESIRE to be rich fall into temptation and a snare. Scripture forbids the desire to be rich to be the motivational force in your life! BUT THOU O MAN OF GOD FLEE THESE THINGS don’t be duped into this stuff, it will cause you to swerve from the faith and God will limit your voice if you do!

(180) I have another confession to make. When I drive the regional route from C.C. to Kingsville I pray while going thru the area cities. I feel ‘constrained’ when I wear the seatbelt, so I never wear it. I know some of you will backslide over something like this, but if you have made it this far on this blog you are more than able to handle this! Sure enough the other day I was driving past the airport on the highway doing about 70 and I hit this bump and spun the truck around in the middle of the highway and did a few turns but didn’t flip over or get hit by another vehicle. I wasn’t scared at all, it was a peaceful feeling, I must admit I continued to drive without the belt. I am not bragging, I just felt like there is a sense of ‘you will not die until you finish the course’. It was a little surreal.

(181) I felt the Lord wants me to stay on this for a little while. Many sincere ‘word of faith/prosperity believers’ honestly believe that tradition has portrayed Jesus and the disciples as being poor, and they were really rich. These honest believers are already ‘swerving’ from the faith at this point without realizing it. This journey often leads them to a point where they ‘see’ the answer to world evangelism as being ‘if we return to the truth of Jesus being rich, and we become like him as scripture demands, then we will have enough money to finance the end time harvest’. So good Christians at this point don’t realize that they are violating all the other verses I went over in these last few entries. Deception is powerful. I do blame the preachers who continue on this road despite the fact that they have been reproved over and again. It’s difficult to realize you might have spent your life as a false prophet. Few make the break after achieving prominence! Jim Bakker made the break. I remember Jim saying in his book how after the Lord started showing him his faults, that it dawned on him that he was preaching for Christians to become rich. This became his message. A few months back I tuned in to one of the famous prosperity brothers as I was flipping thru the channels. I stopped, not to be critical! I haven’t tuned him in for years. I thought I would give it a shot, maybe he’s preaching the gospel now? You never know. I clicked my remote and could only leave it on for about a minute. He was talking all about money again! The sad thing is that many of the more sincere young believers, who grasp this teaching thinking it will promote end time evangelism, don’t realize that the fact that the message has become money in and of itself is hindering evangelism! If most of the money going to support the prosperity brothers [they do get a lot!] is simply propagating a self help ‘you can be rich’ infomercial type gospel, then this in and of itself is hindering the message. You could be feeding the poor, giving the money to ‘Billy Grahams’ or Larry Jones. The lust for wealth has taken the money and made ‘money’ its God. Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If all your talking and preaching is money, to the point where you doctrine officially has changed the image of Jesus Christ into a contemporary prosperity preacher, then you my friend are in very dangerous territory! I just felt like today there needed to be a ‘strong’ reproof for some of you on the edge of this stuff. Sort of like God saying ‘beware’. Jesus said to ‘BEWARE OF COVETOUSNESS, FOR A MANS LIFE CONSISTETH NOT IN THE ABUNDANCE OF THE THINGS THAT HE POSSESSES’ we sometimes need to ‘BE WARE’!

(182) Paul, in dealing with false teachers in the Church said ‘WHOSE MOUTHS MUST BE STOPPED, TEACHING THINGS THAT THEY OUGHT NOT FOR GAIN’ I know of good men who feel that addressing this issue head on is not walking in love. Over the years what bothered me was the lack of good preachers who refused to deal with these issues. Paul straight-out recognized that the teachers who were doing harm to the church had to be silenced. Not by passing some law, or thru physical restraint. But by dealing head on with the issue thru scripture! This is primarily the way ‘spiritual warfare’ is carried out. CASTING DOWN IMAGINATIONS AND EVERY HIGH THING THAT EXALTS ITSELF AGIANST THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, AND BRINGING INTO CAPTIVITY EVERY THOUGHT TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST It is the accurate presenting of Christ as well as the true knowing of him in Spirit that wars against the false images of him that are presented by the false prophets. There comes a time in the Christian preachers experience where he is commanded to reprove things, with all longsuffering. I hold out hope for the innocent victims of doctrines like this, but I sure am mad against the brothers whose ‘mouths must be stopped!’

(183) Now I want you to see how we are doing battle right now against mindsets. The verse I just showed you is scripture. THOSE THAT DESIRE TO BE RICH WILL FALL INTO A SNARE. Many believers do not realize that scripture commands us to not have this desire. If you were to tell them this, they would say ‘well you believe tradition, and I’ll believe the Word’ not realizing that this is ‘the Word’. But didn’t Jesus come to give us abundant life? Yes he did. And ‘abundant life’ is not measured by material wealth according to scripture! The heroes of the FAITH in Hebrews chapter 11 all had great faith. They were stoned, cut in half, as well as receiving the dead raised again and subduing kingdoms. Well I thought faith meant you always get the desired result. The desired result is the purpose of God. If that purpose happens to be a cross or martyrdom, then you fulfilled your purpose. The fulfilling of your purpose IS ABUNDANT LIFE! I know it takes some time for us to see these things, but for some of you it’s really time! Your SET TIME HAS COME in a way that you weren’t expecting! NOTE: One of the ways the enemy ‘steals’ from us is by convincing us into thinking that life consists ‘of the abundance of the things we possess’. In essence many people have been robbed from the ‘abundant life’ by living their lives for ‘things’ while they missed the true destiny of God.

(184) I am listening right now to a brother preaching a prosperity message. He is quoting James words on the power of the tongue. He is using this as an example to always maintain a positive confession [for wealth, victory, etc.] He is alluding to the fact that the ‘nay sayers’ who don’t believe we should all be rich are not using their ‘tongues’ right. Despite the fact that James will go on to say things like ‘God has chosen the poor of this world rich in faith’ ‘the rich despise you and use Gods name in vain’ ‘the rich will have a day of judgment where their riches will be of no value to them’. This brother really doesn’t see the abuse of the Word that this reasoning leads to. If James is teaching in this letter to maintain a positive ‘money confession’ then James himself is failing to live up to his own standard by what he is saying in the rest of the letter! This can be maddening at times! I like the brother who is sharing these things on TV right now, but we seriously need an overhaul in our understanding of scripture.

(185) The book of Numbers says ‘DON’T DEFILE THE LAND THAT YOU ARE GOING IN TO INHERIT, BECAUSE I DWELL THERE!’ Felt like the Lord was saying there were many things he allowed you to go thru. If you will ‘death experiences’. These things are now over. He is bringing you to a new place of inheritance; you cannot bring these old things over into the new land. The power of resurrection only has an effect after one has died. Many of the former things are now dead; a new man is coming forth for a new land! IF ANY MAN IS IN CHRIST HE IS A NEW CREATURE, THE FORMER THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY, BEHOLD ALL THINGS ARE BECOME NEW – REMEMBER NOT THE FORMER THINGS, NEITHER CONSIDER THE THINGS OF OLD, FOR I AM DOING A NEW THING. SHALL YE KNOW IT? I WILL EVEN MAKE A WAY IN THE WILDERNESS AND RIVERS IN THE DESERT![Bible verses]

(186) Recently we posted our blog site in large regional cities. Some of these cities host huge churches with famous Pastors. Some of these Pastors have received our books over the years. Some of their people might have heard our radio programs in the past [our broadcast reaches very far. It does go into Mexico and people from Louisiana have been known to hear the station we are on] What’s the point? I feel there was a sense of leaders/Pastors who have heard us over the years, and would dismiss what we are saying, whether it was right or wrong. They seemed to simply measure our words by the criteria of ‘how will this affect me, what will this teaching do to my income base’ or ‘Whether or not this guys right doesn’t make a difference to me, I have a goal to achieve something and his teaching doesn’t fit in with my vision’. These criteria show us how present day leadership in the Church is not really ready for revolution. Now there are some who are ready, but for the most part they are still ‘out for themselves’ [their vision, to be successful, etc.] The true revolution of a William Wallace [braveheart] has to be grasped by these men before the Lord can truly move in the earth. Many of these examples show you how we are still ruled by self-survival instead of a spirit of laying down our lives for the cause. God will eventually bring the challenge to the door/gates [of your church!] by allowing the revolutionary spirit to reach your city. When he does this survival will be dependant on your willingness to die to your goals and vision. Who knows, maybe you have COME TO THE KINGDOM FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS!

(187) Got a response back from the Houston Chronicle on putting our blog in their paper. They gave me the OK, but I have to work out some details. They even offered to run a story on my testimony and the ministry, I know they meant well, but I avoid stuff like this as the plague! It’s one thing to try and get our blog out for people to read, but the promotion of self can be deadly! I am thinking of the time in the bible [Gospel of John] where they came up to Jesus and said ‘no one does these great ministry things that you claim to be doing, and stays hidden, if your really such a big shot go SHOW YOURSELF TO THE WORLD!’ He didn’t do it. Self-promotion is different than God promotion, these two cannot co-exist. I rather have the one that comes from God. I remember many years ago I had a Minster friend who just started going to the jails to preach. I had been going for many years at the point that my friend got into it. Not too long after they were reading a letter that they got from one of the inmates, sort of like a public testimony for the church. I got the sense that they were viewing the jail ministry as a promotional tool for their ministry. I thought it funny, as to the fact that I had received 100’s by this time, and probably close to around 500 or so over all the years of writing friends in jail and Huntsville [prison]. I had a good buddy that I met here in Corpus about 10 years ago. ‘New York’ Tony is his name. I thought it cool to have been working with someone from New York. I even have met a few Jersey brothers as well. Tony has been a cocaine addict for many years. He finally gets off the cocaine by doing ‘ice’ [meth]. He thinks it’s good to get off the coke, but he’s worse on the meth! I would take Tony with me on various errands. I have had him stay over my house a bunch of times. He has never stolen from me, though he has stolen tons of stuff from Home Depot and stuff like that. These guys go into the store, walk the isles and pick up thousands of dollars of building supplies/tools and stuff. Then they go right to the customer service desk and tell the store they lost the receipt and are bringing the stuff back! Instant cash. Well when Tony got on the meth I would stop for gas or go in to a store and he was getting ready to shoplift right there, with me as the ride! I told him ‘brother, you cant be stealing with me right here’ I knew he was getting worse, he never did this before. I prayed for him one day ‘Lord, do something with Tony, I have been helping him out for years, I need some results’ Not too long after he wound up in jail for a year. He is one of my buddies that hasn’t made the prison circuit like my veteran friends from Kingsville. The Kingsville guys have done 10-15 years in Prison each. These Corpus guys are rookies at it. Well Tony started writing me and it’s been years since I wrote the brothers in jail. But I started writing anyway. He wrote me one day and was testifying of how the Lord was really using the books I sent [just realized I wrote this story somewhere else on the blog, oh well I don’t have time to review everything anymore]. I basically wanted to show that ministry is not something you do to ‘promote your image’. It is simply a function of Christ’s Spirit in you. Jesus is still the good shepherd going after the one sheep that’s lost. Leaving the 99 [church attendees] to go after the 1 doesn’t get the same applause, but it’s where Gods heart is at.

(188) Just walking in my yard and I noticed the Mesquite tree I told you about before. It’s just producing really green leaves, today is the first day of spring. It has this green fungus/moss all over it. Being I live so close to the bay, the moisture does this to the tree. I thought of the verse ‘I WILL BE LIKE A GREEN OLIVE TREE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD’ [PSALMS]. I also thought of ‘THE MAN WHOSE NAME IS THE BRANCH, HE WILL GROW OUT OF HIS PLACE [small parameter] AND BUILD THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD’ the many teachings we have done over the years have tried to show the people of God that THEY ARE THE TEMPLE! I know it gets repetitive, but God wants teachers/preachers to build the temple as opposed to building ‘a temple’. God’s people are this awesome dwelling place. If you focus your time and efforts on releasing people into their God given destiny, then YOU WILL GROW OUT OF YOUR SMALL AREA OF INFLUENCE. If you seek to increase your area of influence at the expense of the people [seeing them as tools or a financial base for goals] then you are fighting an uphill battle. [Or should I say downhill]

(189) Let me share 2 statements that stuck in my mind over the years, said to me by friends who were addicts. I was with ‘New York Tony’ one day and we were driving on some errand and he forgot his new sunglasses [nice ones] on the roof of my car. He remembered later and tried to find them. In his frustration he said of himself ‘what a @#@# waste of life’. I had another old friend from Kingsville who one day told me ‘John, when normal people get under stress they curse or get mad. When I get stressed I stick needles in my arms’. Most people view these friends of mine as total wastes that got what they deserve. Sure that’s possible. I just wanted you to get a picture of the few moments of clarity in their lives when they see themselves the same way. [I think the Kingsville friend died a few years back. He moved to another state but I read an obituary and it had his name, but no picture]

(190) A few entries back I mentioned an article from Christianity today. Part of the article spoke on the clergy’s dependence on the offerings from the people being a hindrance to the prophetic ministry. The article even spoke on the modern phenomena of Pastors/Elders being bi-vocational. That is the trend of certain leaders choosing to work a regular job and not be supported by the church. I know what the New Testament teaches on meeting the needs of those who supply spiritual food. Paul, who said this, also said that he chose to not use this right with the Corinthians. He even said by not using it he was preaching the gospel free of charge, and that was a commendable thing. So obviously there are various ways to approach this. The thing we did not see in the New Testament churches was ‘hired clergy’. This is blatantly obvious. Sure it makes us feel uncomfortable to admit this, especially if you are one of them! But the point is we need to recognize that many modern scenarios of Pastors feeling pressured to speak on topics in order to keep the salary money coming in was absent in the first century church. Much of what we do is out of peer pressure and self-survival. I want to challenge you, try doing it for free! Paul said you can, he also said those who got paid didn’t have the same joy of knowing that they were truly doing it from the heart. It’s OK to receive support, but it’s not OK to see yourself as a ‘hired hand’ who is employed by a congregation to provide services [weddings, funerals, etc.]

(191) CHANGE YOUR MINDSET Over the years as I have learned new things and ways to function in Gods kingdom, I would always think along terms of ‘how do we make this happen, who are the group[s] of people that we are to release the gifts in’ I also have read many other ministry ideas and concepts. Often what we are trying to do is produce some biblical ministry in a limited paradigm. For example, when people began learning about the 5-fold ministry [Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers] they tried to ‘make it happen in their church’ the reason it didn’t ‘happen in their church’ is because their paradigm of ‘church’ was limited. They saw ‘church’ as the meeting of believers in the ‘church building’ on Sunday. Though the belief on the 5 fold was correct, it was the limited understanding of ‘church’ that hindered what God wanted to do. I felt like the Lord was saying to many of us ‘why are you always trying to re-produce that which I show you in some building, my gifts are to function freely in society/community and you are always trying to make it happen in some building environment’. So in essence the changing of the wineskin from seeing ‘church’ as the Sunday meeting to seeing ‘church’ as the functioning community of people was the missing ingredient. Many ‘Apostles’ and ‘Prophets’ were struggling on how to get their gift to work in ‘the church’ and they were missing the great excitement of bringing the gospel to the lost world. How did the Apostle Paul’s gift operate? Do you see him going around to ‘New Testament churches’ trying to set up ‘5 day meetings’? He primarily is going into the world preaching the gospel to the lost, and these ‘become’ the churches [communities of people] that he later builds as an Apostle. We need to ‘re-focus’ our mindset from ‘building’ to people. Get your mind off of ‘trying to build your ministry’ and realize that all of our days are limited. Sell out for the cause, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature! Quit trying to ‘find your place in the church!’

(192) Just got back from seeing one of the homeless friends I met many years ago. He has had lots of struggles with drugs, but usually pot. He was what we would refer to as a ‘weed head’ in the old days. I feel kinda bad. Just talked with him for a few hours. He is so strung out on ‘ice’ that you would think he is loosing his mind. I feel bad because I really haven’t spent time with him the last 6 months or so. He is a good friend, but I try to ‘share’ the time with different friends. I gave him this blog site, he is going out of state for a while. He has listened to me on the radio before. He just gave someone else the station that we are on. I was surprised he knew it by heart [time and station # and all]. Maybe he listens a lot more than I thought? There was an older friend of mine [70 or so] that was called ‘one eyed Tony’ not to be confused with ‘New York Tony’. He was sleeping under a local overpass a few years back and some local gang kids beat him up and poked his eye out. I haven’t seen him in a few years. He used to listen to the radio show and articulate it back to me in a very intelligent manner when I saw him. He was an engineer who made a good living and was smart. Story goes he was drunk one night in Florida and accidentally killed some one in a car crash. I think it might have been a family member. He wound up living on the streets of Corpus. You wouldn’t believe that some of these homeless people were just like many of you at one time. Pray for my friends. Thanks.

(193) The other day I was with some guys and they were talking about a ‘gang/drug dealing’ family here in south TX. The name is well known. These guys were talking all about the history of this family. Shootings and all sorts of stuff. I told them how one of my buddies ‘beat the crap’ out of one of them years ago. My friend was also known from coming from a rival family. There are a few well-known names that the local ‘gangsters’ all know. My friend was the one I told you about earlier who swallowed the bag of cocaine and died [who shot the cops in the back when he was a kid]. I remember when he got out of prison I would pick him up for church. He came to the first meetings we ever held in an old rented hospital. One morning when I picked him up he looked real apprehensive. I knew something was wrong. He admitted to me that he had ‘bumped’ for the first time since getting out of prison. He hadn’t shot up for a while, and it was like he knew that he just opened a door that would be hard to close. He died not too long after.

(194) Just outside walking/praying in my yard early in the morning. It’s the 2nd day of spring. The reason I just walked inside to write is as I was walking by my rose bushes [Josephs coat of many colors that I told you about earlier] I was praying and inviting Gods presence to come into the garden and enjoy the smell of the Roses. I felt him say ‘I can only smell them thru you’. So I ‘smelled’ them vicariously for the Lord. It’s like God is telling us he can only manifest and experience his world ‘thru us’. We are the living organic Body of Christ on planet earth. He reaches people thru us; Jesus sings praises to the Father thru us. Scripture says he is in the midst of the congregation singing praise to God [Hebrews]. God interacts with society thru us. We show our love for God thru the way we treat people. HOW CAN ANYONE SAY HE LOVES GOD, WHO HE HAS NOT SEEN, IF HE CAN’T LOVE HIS BROTHER WHO HE HAS SEEN 1st John. Just felt like the Lord wanted to communicate this to you.

(195) Let me share a few things. A few years back I remember watching a ‘share a thon’ on a Christian TV station. The brother was using the verses from the Gospel of John on Jesus multiplying the loaves and fish and feeding the multitude. He shared how the station also needed to bring in lots of money, just like Jesus multiplied lots of fish, in order to feed the people. Well enough. What I get from the story is that Jesus really didn’t need a lot of ‘stuff’ before he could ‘reach/feed’ the people. In fact I think the story is more in line with what I teach. That you can ‘touch/feed’ the multitudes with very little! That is you simply bring to the table the mindset of ‘my little portion in the hands of the master can go a long way’. It’s just a matter of perspective. The brother from the share a thon saw this verse out of his paradigm. When you view ministry as the need to raise millions, then that’s what you will see when you read scripture. It’s not like the brother was a heretic or something, he was just seeing everything thru his train of thought. I believe Jesus can use a little boy’s lunch to reach the masses, what about you?

(196) It’s 3-21-07   I just read an interesting prophecy/word from the Elijah list. It spoke of the date 7-7-07 as being a significant date this year. The prophetic brother also shared how he felt it had something to do with the overthrowing of ‘Baal’ in this country. I sent him this blog site. My birthday falls on 7-17-07 this year. I think we do a pretty good job at ‘taking the heads off [removing their authority] of the ‘prophets of Baal’! NOTE: There are a lot of great prophetic people that do not like our stuff. I understand that. My strong stance against the prosperity gospel is not popular! I feel in instances like this, where the Lord actually gives a prophetic sign prior to someone reading our site, is needed to ‘wake up’ certain prophets to the need to return to a more biblical view of the church! I remember reading the date 7-17 in scripture; I think it has something to do with the story of Noah’s Ark?

(197) Just watching the news as I read and work on this blog. 2 girls were kidnapped in Texas a few days ago. Today they were freed. They were ‘loosed’ in MESQUITE TX. I have had a few more ‘mesquite tree’ signs that I haven’t even shared yet. Suffice it to say I feel many ‘2 witnesses’ [apostles/prophets- Revelation 11] will find a ‘release’ from things that have held them captive. The Lord has used the image of a Mesquite tree for this blog. I pray many of you will find release in ‘MESQUITE’.

(198) Today I have been reading a lot of prophetic brothers. I cant help but feel the Lord saying THE PROPHETIC CAN NOT THRIVE IN A DAY WHERE I AM PRESENTED IN A WRONG WAY BY THE IMAGES THAT MEN HAVE OF ME, THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT MUST SPEAK OUT PLAINLY AGIANST THESE ABUSES IN MY CHURCH I do not want to be melodramatic, but we do live in a day where it is common for people to teach that Jesus was, and is, a materially focused individual. Many innocent people are wrongfully embracing this image because the PROPHETS ARE FACILITATING IT! We must speak out for true righteousness if we seek to have a true prophetic voice.

(199) Let me try to be nice. Over the tears of seeing a lot of the abuse in the church I recognized that a lot of it existed because good men [prophetic people and others] refused to deal with the issue. Then you had ‘heresy hunters’ deal with it in a way that totally turned off the church. The prophetic people out of defense against the ‘heresy hunters’ would reject any possibility that the ‘money focus’ in the church was getting off track. So on one side you had the old time ‘defenders of the faith’ warring against the ‘prosperity movement’ and the prophets fell on the side of defending the ‘prosperity movement’. Well this whole thing is a mess. The simple fact that it is common to see a Christian preacher, wearing expensive jewelry, telling people that Jesus and the disciples lived extravagant lifestyles. Talking about dreams and visions of Jesus appearing to them and telling them ‘you can have all the money you want’ [though God can use dreams, they need to be tested like prophetic words!]. Guys having dreams/visions of biblical characters telling them things that contradict scripture, and then the prophets in the church actually lining up on the side of this movement is a tremendous hindrance to the prophetic. We shouldn’t be attack dogs, I agree! But at some point Gods prophets must be willing to address these issues. The fact that the prophets have not dealt with it [for the most part] has opened the door for the ‘heresy hunters’ to paint all of us with the same brush. I appeal to you guys [prophets] take a look at what we are doing. Are we letting the true image of Jesus fall to the ground out of fear and being defensive? How can we not see that many of the fathers of this movement [prosperity] have fallen into the category of 1st Timothy 6. Paul said there would be a time when teachers would teach that financial gain is godliness, from such turn away. I too enjoyed the faith brothers for a while. It’s just there came a time where I had to admit that the stuff coming from their camp could not be accepted anymore. I know and believe that the Father wants us to prosper and has a great future for us. But this is different from seeing Jesus the way these brothers present him. This issue must come to the forefront in the prophetic movement or else God will not allow our voices to continue in today’s church. NOTE: Let me also say that scripture tells us to ‘reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine’ Jeremiah speaks of ‘casting up, removing the stones [hindrances], tearing down and building up’. We are supposed to focus on Jesus for sure. There are times where we also bring correction in love. If leaders don’t do this, then many young believers go down a long road of finding these things out on their own. Eventually they will see the shallowness of this movement, but they could have saved a lot of time if their Pastors dealt with it in the beginning. NOTE: In the book of Acts you see Paul receiving prophecies on ‘how much you will suffer for my cause’. You find the apostles praising God that they were counted worthy to suffer beatings and persecution for the name of Christ. You see the prophetic centered around the sacrificial lifestyle that the Gospel calls us to. In today’s prophetic circles it is all to common to hear prophecies on becoming debt free, receiving financial windfalls, money will fall into your hands this year and stuff like this. Sure it’s possible that God is saying a few of these things, but the modern prophetic movement almost has no voice for the prophecies you see given in scripture. The prophetic must come into re-alignment with scripture if she wants her voice to be relevant today.

(200) I just share these things as they come to me I HAVE MADE YOU A NEW SHARP THRESHING INSTRUMENT HAVING TEETH, YOU WILL THRESH THE MOUNTAINS AND BEAT THEM SMALL AND THE WIND SHALL CARRY THEM AWAY. I have quoted this before on this blog, but while reviewing it felt it spoke to this blog site. Though I have claimed this verse for many years and we have had avenues of ministry going on for quite some time, yet I just felt like the Lord said THIS [BLOG] IS THE NEW SHARP THRESHING INSTRUMENT [in our personal case, not the actual fulfillment of this verse!]. Also I just realized I am writing this at entry 200 which is a milestone for this blog. Another verse I felt I should share is WRITE THE VISION AND MAKE IT PLAIN UPON TABLES SO HE WHO READS IT CAN RUN WITH IT. THE VISION IS FOR AN APPOINTED TIME, THOUGH IT TARRY, WAIT FOR IT. IT WILL SURELY COME Felt like many of you have made it this far on this site for a prophetic destiny to be fulfilled. There are things that you needed to learn before the vision God had for you can be fully implemented. You have just learned a lot of these things, it is now time to run with it!

(201) Just had a bunch of thoughts run thru my head. In the Old Testament the cities were surrounded by walls for protection. On these walls were ‘lookouts’ who would stand guard day and night to ‘see’ things coming. These ‘seers’ were the first to recognize danger, or even an ally coming to help. They would ‘see’ it long before anyone else. This did not make them better than the rest of the community; it simply was their job [gift]. Some seers were higher on the wall than others. You had some actually posted on the wall, while others were in ‘stands’ built off of the wall. This group of lookouts were really seeing far. It was a matter of faith for the community to prepare themselves for what the seers were seeing. Ezekiel speaks of ‘watchman on the wall’ and he says if the watchman see a threat and don’t sound the alarm, then they will be responsible for the results. If they sound the alarm and no one listens, they are not held responsible, but the ones who don’t take action will still suffer. Recently I have been able to ‘speak into’ certain prophetic groups. Many of these brothers do have real gifts, it’s just I feel that a lot of them are not ‘sounding’ the warnings along with the ‘good stuff’. To a degree they also are ‘victims’ of the materialistic mindset that has imbedded itself within the current evangelical church. Many of these prophets immediately reject any talk of correction and re alignment with the central message of the Gospel. They seem to be inundated with the concept of the ‘wealth of the wicked coming to the church’ [which is a true scripture!] to the point of not being able to ‘see’ [which is the prophets main objective!] the writing on the wall. I find it interesting that many of these prophets are on the Elijah list [a prophetic website]. I really like the Elijah list, just not enough balance. Elijah was a prophet in the midst of ‘prophets’. As a singular voice [or so he thought!] he was not in the ‘majority opinion’ of his day. This didn’t mean he was wrong, only that the rest of Gods people weren’t ‘seeing’ as far as he was. I feel there needs to be a re alignment with the current prophetic movement. Too much of it is in alignment with the materialistic gospel. How can God use the ‘watchman’ if they for the most part refuse to ever sound the alarm? Many will not sound it out of self-preservation. Like I have told you before, if ministries are trying to build a support base, there will be a natural tendency to reject any correction along these lines. Unknowingly many prophets simply say ‘I don’t see that’ in the area of all that I have been saying, because without realizing it they are being influenced by a natural desire to ‘bring in the wealth for the end time harvest’. They too have become infected with mammon. I believe the church has a glorious future. I do not hold to an end time fatalistic eschatology, but the future of the church and Gods Kingdom being expressed in the earth is vitally connected to a spiritual people who are not controlled by the materialistic mindset of the day. The prophets must make a break from these things. There is no way the Lord will permit the prophetic to have a greater impact until she learns to distinguish between that which is pure and that which is unclean I remember hearing Paul Cain speak on the 3 dangers to the prophetic ‘GOLD, GIRLS AND GLORY’. He saw the aspect of money as a danger to the movement. The kings of the Old Testament would enlist ‘Eunuchs’ to watch over their bride[s] when they were not around. The Eunuch was ‘unable’ to take advantage of the bride for his own procreation. He could be ‘trusted’ because there was nothing ‘in him’ that could lead to the procreation of his own mind and agenda [thru his seed/offspring]. Many prophets have not passed this test because they are still seeing ‘their future’. This leads them to prophesy abundant wealth year after year to the groups they are speaking into. It is an unconscious ‘self procreation’ [of their dreams and future] that are causing them to do this. I pray the Lord would help all of us [including me!] to put the concerns of the bride before ours!

(202) TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING I have been wanting to use this illustration for a long time. The time is here! I was just taking a bath. When I reached for the shampoo I had a familiar occurrence. I found myself surrounded by many bottles of conditioner, and one bottle of shampoo. There have been many times where I have had 6-8 bottles of conditioner and NO shampoo. I do have 4 daughters and 1 wife. This should explain it. There are times where you can have too much of a good thing. Many times we get inundated as Christians with the message of wealth and happiness to the point where there is no room for the shampoo. The conditioner feels good, it serves a purpose, but sometimes we just need to get clean! There are a lot of great principles of motivation and success in Gods Word. The book of Proverbs has to be the greatest business book ever written. The point is all these things come with the underlying theme of the gospel being the foundation. Simple truths of living for eternal rewards versus temporary stuff. Stories like Jesus talking about the rich man building greater barns, and that night he died. Jesus saying WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN IF HE GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE HIS SOUL. We HAVE LOST SIGHT OF THESE THINGS WHILE reaching for the conditioner! We want to feel good, which is all right, but we really need some shampoo every once in a while!

(203) To our San Antonio ‘Ecclesia’. I want to show you guys something. If you read this blog from #1 to this entry [only 4 months of writing] you can actually see prophecy fulfilled that I didn’t even realize. The stories about me being in San Antonio and watching the Johnny Cash movie. ‘I took the train to San Antone’. If you go back and read some of these things you will see that the Lord was telling me that ‘we would be taking the train to San Antone’ the train imagery also spoke of ministry. The blog posting in the San Antonio paper has given us a tremendous open door to your city. I had no idea we would be posting our blog in regional papers. It was something the Lord put on my heart a few months back. I had no idea I would be writing so much stuff on this blog! These were all prophetic signs showing that we would have an open door to your city. I just wanted you to see how prophetic things work, often times the signs are not fully understood until they are fulfilled. I WILL SHOW YOU THINGS TO COME, BEFORE THEY HAPPEN I WILL TELL YOU OF THEM, SO WHEN THEY COME TO PASS YOU WILL KNOW THAT I DID IT [Isaiah].

(204) This is kind of an interruption, but I need to share this. The interruption is I am outside enjoying this prayer time and I had to come in and do this. If you remember in the beginning of this blog I shared ‘signs’ from the stars. One of the signs was that of a ‘trumpet’. This is a formation of stars that sort of looks like a trumpet. Well I was just seeing it a few minutes ago. Something that I didn’t realize until a few weeks ago is the formation fits all the area cities that we put the blog site in. C.C./Kingsville/Alice/San Antonio/Houston/[yet to come]Laredo/Valley area. I realized if you put a circle around all these cities it would pretty much ‘map out’ the same star pattern that I have seen. Felt like this was prophetic, sort of like the Lord was saying ‘I will give you voice [trumpet] in these regions’. Also God ‘makes his tent/tabernacle in the stars’ speaks of Gods ‘perimeter’. I WILL SET YOUR FEET IN A LARGE PLACE/IN MY FATHERS HOUSE [tabernacle] ARE MANY MANSIONS [people groups/oikos]. NOTE: If you remember, Chuck Pierce, A Prophet out of Denton, TX. Prophesied that God would be giving ‘signs in the stars’ this year. NOTE: The names of these regional cities are ‘Corpus Christi’ [Body of Christ] ‘Kingsville’ [Vila of the King] San Antonio is a ‘mission’ city. Scripture says God names the stars. Many of these ‘stars’ I have seen represented these area cities, truly many of these cities have significant names. God even told Abraham ‘look at the stars, so shall thy seed be’. The inheriting of ‘regions’ is thru your offspring. ‘THOSE THAT SHALL BE OF THEE SHALL INHERIT THE LAND AND MAKE THE DESOLATE CITIES TO BE INHABITED/ THRU THY SEED SHALL ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED’ God often uses imagery in scripture to depict a ‘family’ or lineage of people. God used both stars and the ‘sand which is by the sea’ to describe Abraham’s kids. Some think the sand speaks of ‘natural seed’ [Israel] while the stars speak of ‘heavenly’ [the church/ spiritual Israel].

(205) Outside in Kingsville praying over the ‘southern district’ [the area from Kingsville over to Laredo, down to the valley]. Felt like I heard the Lord say ‘the Gospel is my divine ability to transition and interact in the affairs of men in their time and culture’. God becoming man in the 1st century Jewish context was an act of divine interruption. God is calling us to adapt and change with the culture of the time. I AM NOT SAYING WE CHANGE THE FOUNDATIONAL MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL it’s just having the ability to identify with the culture. Don’t confuse ‘the old time religion’ with the ‘old time culture’. Many of us would be much more effective if we would lay down our peculiar styles and impacted society head on, like a train wreck!

(206) I read a while back ‘MY WORD IS LIKE THE EAST WIND THAT BLOWS AGAINST THE SHIPS OF TARSHISH AND BREAKS THEM APART’ I am paraphrasing. I felt like the Lord was saying ‘to many of you I have ‘dismantled’ many of the ‘ships’ that you were trusting in. You have felt a sense of vulnerability which is good. During this season learn me and my ways again, like the early days, and I will do a work in your day that if it were told you, you would not believe it’.

(207) Look at the prophetic ministry of Jesus in the 1st century context. He claims to be showing the people the true Kingdom of God as opposed to organized religion. He gathers a group of followers who he teaches generosity and love expressed thru deeds. He teaches that the religious commands [Sabbath] were given to benefit men, as opposed to condemning him. He constantly is butting heads with the most intellectual religious leaders of the day. They all, with few exceptions, agree that his ministry is not only illegitimate, but that he is mentally unbalanced and demon possessed. When they finally decide it would be best to ‘put him out of his misery’ he finds even his closest friends dissociating from him out of fear. He is finally killed, rises from the dead. Surely they will accept me now? NOT! And you want to have a prophetic ministry like Jesus?

(208) I was just thinking about the book of James, I haven’t read it in a few years [?] but sometimes the Lord just brings things to your remembrance. James says that GOD IS THE FATHER OF LIGHTS, EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT COMES DOWN FROM HIM, HE IS NOT PARTIAL BUT TREATS ALL HIS KIDS EQUALLY This is all in context with the fact that James is one of the lead Apostles in the Jerusalem church. [Not the Pastor!] James had spiritual oversight to a large group of POOR believers. These were the same Christians that Paul was taking up the offering for in the Corinthian church. James actually defends these poor believers all thru out the book of James. Yet he makes these statements of God loving all his kids equally. He says God gives good gifts to his children. He also says many of Gods kids are POOR [hath not God counted the poor of this world rich in faith]. These statements in no way contradict the theme of James. James fully understands that the love of God for these Jerusalem saints is not to be measured by THINGS. The New Testament Apostles had a clear understanding of this. They got this understanding directly from Jesus ministry. There is an underlying theme in the New Testament that THINGS are not the way we form Gods opinion of us. You and I measure Gods love and acceptance for us based on the fact that God LOVED THE WORLD SO MUCH THAT HE GAVE US HIS ONLY SON! Paul does say if God gave his son for us, will he not give us freely all things? The implied answer is YES [Romans]. But then Paul ALSO TEACHES HE LEARNED TO BE CONTENT WITH BOTH ABUNDANCE AND LACK. This contentment came from the fact that God already proved his love for us by the work of the cross. There is no other thing that could show you your acceptance with God than this simple fact. So James can confidently say ALL GOOD GIFTS COME DOWN FROM THE FATHER OF LIGHTS, IN WHOM THERE IS NO VARIABLENESS OR SHADOW OF TURNING knowing full well that many of his ‘parishioners’ were dead broke! The father of lights gave us his SON; there could be no question of his acceptance of us based on this reality!

(209) xxx

(210) Something that has made me uncomfortable for some time is the dynamic of speaking a strong prophetic word/teaching and then realizing the aftermath. For instance the ‘judiazers’ of the first century were teaching a form of Christianity that embraced legalism. They were doing well for a season until God allowed Paul to ‘blast it’ out of the water. Once the Apostolic authority of Paul exposed the heresy, it was difficult for the Judiazers to continue. They sure tried, but Gods authority was now working against their doctrine. I recognize that there are certain truths that we teach that are contrary to the normal tradition of ‘church’. I do not teach them simply for this reason, in as much as I feel it’s time for certain things to be dealt with [like the judiazers]. After these things are dealt with, many good Pastors will continue to embrace what they have known and are familiar with. This creates a tension in the community. Many of their ‘parishioners’ will embrace the truths they have learned from us and Gods authority always falls on the side of truth. Many of the authority structures that are presently functioning in the church are not really biblical. When you have believers moving in grace in certain areas, and church authorities coming down on the wrong [incorrect] view of the subject, you then have a dynamic where Gods authority is falling on the side of the ‘parishioners’ and not on the side of the clergy. This dynamic was also seen in Jesus ministry with the disciples. It was unthinkable for the 1st century clergy to admit that Gods authority was being expressed thru this rag tag team of unlearned men, as opposed to their theological doctorates! I feel uncomfortable when this happens with us. I used to Pastor, and I do not like people who come to a community just to start trouble and cause division. But sometimes we mistake a true prophetic challenge to the status quoi, as being rebellion [Martin Luther and the Catholic Church of the 16rh century!]

(211) Just got back from an ‘incident command’ lecture. We do these every so often at the Fire Dept. It got me to thinking in terms of organizational structure and command. I think it would help to review some things I have taught over the years. First, the reason I don’t believe the New Testament teaches ‘the end time transfer of wealth’ the way many people are teaching today is because any ‘windfall’ infusion of wealth INTO THE PRESENT SYSTEM would not fundamentally change the way things are. If you poured billions of dollars into the present ‘wineskin’ it would not enable, or release into function the ‘Body of Christ’. For the most part any increase of funds would just perpetuate the current system. God wants a CHANGE in the current system. God wants to ‘release’ the army of people who are sitting in the pews on Sunday. Our current mindset has the army sitting in the barracks once a week, and thinking that this is their main function! Second, the present stage of the Church takes the few instances of Paul [and others] speaking in public forums [in Acts] and tries to duplicate this model, seeming to think that the primary way the church functions in society is by ‘sitting in church on Sunday and listening to sermons’. This is NOT the New Testament model of the first century church. The best ‘view’ of ‘church’ in the New Testament is seen in Corinthians [I did not say they were the best church, it was BECAUSE of their flaws that we are able to read about the way the church should meet!] In the Corinthian model ‘church’ is an interactive experience where Christians come together and share the love of Christ. It is plain to see that the current understanding of church today is not as interactive or ‘corporate’ as the New Testament had. So Jesus model of ‘tasking’ voluntary disciples to GO INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL is now relegated to the ‘clergy’ at the expense of the church and the lost world. This limited mindset hurts all the way around. God will take the ‘small’ seeds of influence from the ‘volunteer’ model and cause the seed to exponentially increase. CAST YOUR SEED/BREAD UPON THE WATER, FOR IN MANY DAYS IT WILL COME BACK TO YOU I just watched the movie ‘pay it forward’ and it gives a good concept of one person inspiring others to ‘pass it on’. This basic principle of all believers living in such a way as to inspire others to voluntarily give their lives away is the Jesus model. All the ‘transference of the worlds money’ will not fundamentally change the limited paradigm in which we function today! NOTE; I was having a discussion with some one along these lines. They innocently said ‘but you have to have somewhere to put all the people [church building]’ It is interesting to see that this concern never came up in the New Testament churches. They all knew that they needed to ‘sleep somewhere’ and ‘eat somewhere’ and ‘meet somewhere’ [houses!] but today’s mindset of ‘I have 1000 people as ‘church members’ where will I put them all?’ This concern is absent in The New Testament. The simple fact that the spreading of the gospel in the first 3 centuries was more of a revolutionary movement in the hearts and minds of people explains this reality. They weren’t looking for ‘places to put people’ they were revolutionizing society!

(212) Recently Pope Benedict [formerly Cardinal Ratzinger, defender of the ‘doctrine of the faith’ for the Catholic church] moved against an influential Priest for his teaching in the area of Liberation Theology. This is a popular view with certain south/central American countries. Many political leaders [Daniel Ortega] embraced this view as a part of their Socialist revolution. This view focuses on the radical aspect of Jesus ministry in the area of social justice and his identification with the poor. Most Christians feel that Liberation Theology is too closely aligned with Marxist views and therefore reject it. I simply want to note the New Testament teaching in the area of social justice and how many ‘white conservative Protestants’ dismiss out of hand certain aspects of the gospel. No form of human government is ‘inherently just’. Capitalism, in and of itself is not ‘just’. As a form of government it provides freedom in the marketplace for the free flow of ideas. It works better than most other govts. on the planet, but it in and of itself is not ‘just’. Justice is only found in any earthly govt. to the degree that that govt. is being influenced and ‘infected’ by the ‘just one’ [God] and his ‘justified ones’ [the church]. As human govts. ‘make room’ for the people of God and godly institutions, then there is a degree of justice released into that society thru the church. The book of James talks about ‘just wages’. A doctrine that capitalists don’t fully embrace. Most capitalists argue ‘whatever the market place pays is right’. They feel that the idea of free competition in and of itself is just. If you can get someone to do a days work for $5.00 and that’s the going rate, well they feel that’s OK. The New and Old Testaments don’t agree! God has lots of instruction on fair wages and the treatment of the poor that govt. should comply with. Now I am not advocating socialism, which robs people of hope and independent thought. But I want to show you how no earthly govt., even the best forms of them, are equal to the Kingdom [govt.] of God. I for the most part agree with Pope Benedict and his statement on liberation theology, but I must admit there is a part of the radical revolutionary in me that finds aspects of it to be exciting! NOTE: I would like to note that the Catholic Church has been great in the area of social justice through out the entire history of the church. During the ‘dark ages’ the church actually became the institution that nations appealed to as the highest authority in the land. Our Catholic brothers were speaking out in defense of the unborn long before the Protestants. I just wanted the critics of the Catholics to give credit where credit is due!

(213) One of my good friends who was part of the original group of brothers called me up at work last night. He asked if I could help him with some money [around $60.00] I told him no problem. I will be getting with him in a few hours when I get off of work. It’s around 4 am, this is one of those days where I woke up at 12:30 am and couldn’t sleep! I was thinking about the reality of this friend [and others] who see themselves ‘connected’ to us in ministry. Even though we don’t have ‘connections’ in the way you would be a ‘member of a church’. If you think about it, I have probably given away thousands of dollars over the years to friends. Feeding guys, doing charity and just helping with bills. I do not see this as ‘paying staff’ but these brothers are faithful communicators of the vision the Lord has given us. No matter how many churches or Pastors they have encountered in the journey, they see themselves as loyal to ‘us’. I find this interesting as to the fact that we really don’t care if people are loyal to us! Our attitude has been ‘if you got blessed thru us in the past, then go bless others’ this mindset that exists in today’s form of ‘local church’ is a type of dysfunctional insecurity. Many good Pastors try to develop criteria to ensure the loyalty of people. We read the book of Acts and try to come up with ‘rules for the church’ that would cause people to be ‘faithful to the vision of this house’. Many times the leaders are well meaning, but this type of trying to teach ‘commitment’ is really not a function in the New Testament churches. They were ‘loyal’ to the gospel and to Jesus. They were to ‘obey’ those over them in the Lord as it pertained to these basic truths. You don’t find Paul setting up ‘systems’ of loyalty that you see today. When you truly reach people for Christ and give your self away, they will be loyal like a son to a father. There will be no need to ‘check up’ on whether they have been faithful to the church and stuff like that.

(214) Let me throw some practical functional stuff in here. Over the years of studying and reading books on the cell/house church movement and Apostolic movements I see the way we are all growing in our understanding as God changes the ‘wineskin’. It was common to transition from ‘seeing’ the church building as ‘the church’ to seeing the ‘house/home group’ as the church. Some brothers simply replaced one structure with another. The true New Testament paradigm was ‘seeing’ the community of people as ‘the church’. Now, I do believe it is more practical to utilize the homes of believers as primary meeting places. If you’re a ‘volunteer’ army of people, you are not trying to raise money for the building and stuff. So practically you use the resources of the ‘soldiers’ being recruited. It’s just that the ‘soldiers’ themselves are the functioning unit that the commander is living in! I know these are not new concepts; it’s just that I feel the people we relate to need to keep this in mind. I do encourage all of our blog readers/radio listeners to sponsor a home group as God directs. Just keep in mind that this is only one aspect of ‘church’ expression. The ‘home group meeting’ is not the church, you are!

(215) A few years ago we had a ‘word of faith/prosperity church’ that used to broadcast from our city. I actually liked the program and would tune in from time to time. I remember one week they announced that they were going to have a rich Christian come in and share his faith and how money and riches do not interfere with serving God. The person who sponsored the program then did the interview with this wealthy believer. During the interview it ‘slipped out’ that this rich Christian tried to get out of doing the program because the day before they had some bad weather in their area of Texas and needed to take care of the cattle and couldn’t do the ministry thing. Well the announcer admitted that they twisted his arm to come. It reminded me of the parable of Jesus. How some people couldn’t attend the wedding supper because they had other priorities. Some had to ‘go see their land’ and couldn’t come. Even though this radio program intended to show how riches and other areas of wealth don’t hinder Gods work, they inadvertently showed the opposite. I also remember this broadcaster share at the time that God would never call someone to be a missionary and suffer on the foreign field if they didn’t want to do it. That in essence Gods will is to make us happy, and if we don’t feel we would be happy then God is not going to ask us to do things contrary to our desires. A few weeks later I had the privilege of hearing a missionary family give their testimony. They were on vacation from some 3rd world country and speaking in Corpus. The wife shared all the physical trials that they and their kids suffered. How the medical care is not good where they’re at. She went on and shared that even though in the natural her flesh says ‘why should I suffer’, that when she sees the results of souls saved that the sacrifice is worth it! It’s stuff like this that I have seen over the years that causes me to speak out on these issues.

(216) Was talking to some homeless friends the other day and was asking them if they saw Tim recently. Tim [carpenter Tim] was one of the first friends I met years ago. Tim worked regularly, refused govt. help and would avoid eating the free meals at the mission. He felt it was irresponsible to take stuff for free. Tim often invited me to his camp for coffee and fellowship. He had this ‘mangy’ dog that he really loved. She must have had at least 7 litters of puppies since the time I knew her. I would find Tim treating the dogs for fleas in a 5-gallon bucket. He was preparing them for free give away in front of H.E.B. he spent money on these animals and took good care of them. Tim was very responsible, he would get up before sun up and walk to the park to fill up a bucket with fresh water for the camp. He would try to finish his chores early so he wouldn’t be seen as some bum walking around in the middle of the day with no direction. He would often go to whataburger early in the morning to drink coffee. The retired guys would see him and give him the job section of the paper. Sort of like saying ‘get a job you bum’. They didn’t realize that Tim regularly worked. It’s just that he was homeless. He liked responding by saying ‘I am working on my career right now, my singing and dancing career!’ He figured he’d get them mad by saying this. One time Tim’s parents from out of state were coming to Corpus to see Tim. He told them they would find him in the ‘Bluff’ [where I live also]. It was funny; when they got into town they came to the bluff and were asking some homeless people if they knew where Tim was. The homeless brother didn’t know they were looking for carpenter Tim, so they said ‘sure we know your son, he goes by the name of drunk Tim’ [another Tim]. Old Tim thought this was funny. Tim had a good sense of humor. I took him and a few guys to ‘Golden Corral buffet’ for dinner. We were reading the paper while eating. Tim was telling me the story of how modern technology was a threat to the modern workforce. These new breed of ‘robots’ could put the people out of work. He joked that pretty soon they will take the place of homeless guys in the bluff. I responded ‘don’t worry brother, it wont be long before you see them holding up signs in front of H.E.B. saying ‘batteries low, need money for a charge’. He started cracking up. When Tim’s dog died he took it real hard. He literally cried for a few days. I haven’t seen Tim in a few years. Hopefully I will see him again some day and let him read this blog, he will get a kick out of it.

CONCLUSION Let me end with a final note. Jesus said that a wicked and evil generation seeks after a sign and no sign will be given to them but the sign of the prophet Jonah [in essence Jesus was telling the Jews that until they believe in the most important sign of all, the resurrection of Christ, that they will not be able to ‘see’ any of the multitude of ‘signs’ that God has done thru Christ up until this day!]. The above scenarios took place when I was simply praying, seeking God or sleeping! I don’t feel that we should ‘seek’ after these types of experiences, but we should recognize that God is sovereign and if he desires to communicate to his children then who are we to tell him no. The apostle Paul told Timothy to ‘war a good fight by the prophecies that were given over you’. There are many believers who write down and catalog the prophecies and visions they have received from the Lord, this helps to be able to look back and see a pattern of Gods direction in your life. We should not build our lives or doctrine on these types of things, that area belongs to scripture! But we should be able to discern Gods voice over a period of time and ‘fight a good fight by way of the prophecies that have gone on over our lives’. God bless you guys!

P.S. Let me also add that there are many prophetic people that I am in contact with in some way. I feel that a lot of them agree with me on prophetic stuff, but get offended by the strong stance we take in other areas of teaching. I realize that just because a person experiences prophetic things, that this doesn’t mean he is correct in everything! It is common to hear things like ‘the end time transfer of wealth’ and themes like this from highly prophetic people. We just assume because someone is prophetic that their doctrine is correct. I really don’t want to teach here, but let me share this. The scripture does speak about the wealth of the sinner being stored up for the righteous and God ‘gives’ it to the righteous. Also the story of the children of Israel leaving Egypt and how God gave them the wealth of the Egyptians. These verses do not teach some type of windfall that simply falls into the hands of Christians. As church history progressed thru time more and more people in the marketplace and other areas of wealth and influence have become believers. As the church age progresses this phenomenon increases. Today the ‘wealth of the wicked’ has much more become ‘the wealth of the righteous’, not thru some windfall inheritance, but thru the process of God redeeming planet earth! ‘Seeing’ it this way does not violate the principles of scripture that over and over speak about the diligent being blessed and the lazy coming to ruin/poverty. There are many believers who are living in disobedience by not working who cling on to doctrines like ‘the end time transfer of wealth’ and wrongly believe that they are going to get money while violating biblical standards. Things like this need to be understood and articulated thru prophetic people before God can entrust us with more. I actually feel that the prophetic movements ‘marriage’ to the prosperity gospel has voided certain things that God wanted to do thru the movement. Balaam was a prophetic person who actually heard from God and spoke Gods words, but scripture says his lust for wealth made him a false prophet [who loved the wages of unrighteousness]. If prophets can’t receive correction from each other then God will never let them ‘correct’ [speak into] the church at large. I feel one of the pitfalls of the prophetic is to think that the goal is to ‘simply be prophetic’. I have met brothers who simply wanted to attend church and stand up and speak. God’s chief concern for all of his people [even prophets] is to carry out the great commission, to be salt and light to a lost and dying world!

John Chiarello

 [#’s 217-420] TEACHINGS PART 2

(217)  There are a few different dynamics at work with us at this season. The Lord has given the ‘words’ going out from us ‘free course’. Scripture speaks of Gods word ‘running swiftly’ Jesus ‘sent his word and healed them’ and many other symbols like this. These things speak of God supernaturally promoting the words that are coming forth from you for his purpose [Chris Tucker tells Jackie Chan ‘do you understand the words comin out of my mouth’]. A common mistake that people make at this stage of God ‘exalting you’ is thinking that ‘its all about you!’ When God does these things, be assured IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM also many ministries and ministry leaders who are affected by the ‘corrective word’ become offended. Some fall into the snare of wanting the down fall and defeat of the ‘vessel’ bringing forth the word. Sometimes they cant understand why the vessel hasn’t ‘broken’ yet. They seem to not understand that It is not the ‘spirituality or holiness’ of the vessel that God is using. It is simply the providence of God. God wants people to put his concerns first, and theirs second. Too many ministries are trying to create a ‘public’ ‘national personsa’. God is simply not going to facilitate this desire. He will give great favor to those who are not seeking these things, but he won’t facilitate the desire in man ‘to make a name for himself’. I just felt like we are at a stage where God is giving influence thru the things he is saying thru ‘US’ at this season. I see all you guys as part of the US in the sense that many of you are sharing and spreading the things you have learned from the ministry this year. I want to encourage you guys to avoid the competitive spirit that the enemy wants to use to hinder Gods voice. Don’t tell people ‘look what God is doing with brother so and so’ or ‘look at the great access that God has given us’. Simply allow the word to go forth without a lot of fanfare and self-promotion. Sure we want this door to remain open, but our goal is not recognition, its effectiveness!

(218) Let me remind you guys of a few things. Often we want the results without paying the price ‘everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody is willing to die’. I shared how ‘the Lord’ woke me up at midnight the other day. I really do not enjoy getting up and praying and writing all night. Sometimes it’s enjoyable to get up at 3 or 4am and sense Gods presence. But many times it’s a feeling of ‘O, I guess I will be praying tonight’. It’s more of a ‘count the cost’ type thing. Many people want the open doors that we are currently experiencing, but they really don’t want to do stuff like ‘all night prayer’. That’s fine, just count the cost. You eventually decide the amount of influence you will have. I want to encourage you guys to be radical for the cause. Don’t be attention seekers, but be sensitive to the avenues God is opening up to you.

(217) Let me give a small example of Gods truth versus an exasperated clergy. One small area of truth that we deal with is the second coming. We teach the historical majority view. There is only ONE second coming spoken about in the New Testament. The scriptures commonly used to teach the ‘rapture’ as a different event are really talking about the 2nd coming. Now this one area [not to mention all the other stuff!] is enough to make us permanent enemies to some renown preachers in this area. Some churches call us heretics for this alone! I know this and really don’t care to be honest. It’s funny, because all the railing that they would do against us in this one area is wasted time. God’s truth is Gods truth. No matter how much time is wasted defending a so-called ‘fundamental’ of the faith, it’s wasted time for the defenders if they are defending something that is basically wrong. It’s hard for preachers to admit their wrong in any area. I know this is true with me too. I just find it funny that those who go to great lengths to defend a thing will eventually find out the truth. No big deal, just make sure your spending your time and energy on stuff that will make a real difference. Don’t waste it on stuff that’s fake!

(218) Let me talk a little on radical speech. I know many people believe I am a little too harsh in my teaching. There are some sites that make us look pretty ‘dovish’. I want to mention a strange phenomena. In the writings of Paul [in the bible!] Paul uses terms like ‘castration’ in speaking against enemies of the Gospel. The bible uses ‘dung’ [crap] in certain scenarios. Yet Paul also speaks on using good speech and not letting corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. If you read the writings of Martin Luther and other reformers you will find it shocking to see some of the language they used. I feel there are times where people are so off track that when he raises up ‘reformers’ its hard for them to separate the spirit of radical reform from the ‘lovey’ language of the clergy. It’s almost like the prophetic takes on a ‘vulgar’ aggressiveness in order to uproot the deep seated error of the time. I don’t want to make excuses for bad language; I just wanted you to see the theme of this being a reality all thru the church age.

(219) DON’T QUIT! I have noticed over the years that one of the key elements of successful ministry is refusing to quit. I have met ‘ministry’ leaders who had a poor track record of employment thru out their lives. Yet they are trying to raise support for ‘their’ ministry. Most times it doesn’t work. Why? Because they never mastered the simple requirement to ‘not quit’. They have learned ‘how to quit’ time and time again in the job market, and they are comfortable with it. Does this mean they will never be used? No. But they usually wont be. Why? Because God is still trying to teach them the importance of being faithful to a job, and they don’t want to hear this. I have heard good people on radio over the years. Some that were not ‘quitters’ in their lives. But they were on radio, off radio, back on again, and well you get it! They learned to ‘quit’ in this one area. Will God forgive them? Sure. The point is God wants to entrust important tasks to us. He wants us to follow thru on the task. If you quit before, God will forgive you. His mercy is new every morning. Maybe the thing holding your ministry back is something as basic as this. Don’t look for the extravagant ‘missing ingredient’. I haven’t confessed right, I will meditate more. Usually you have confessed too much [all talk and no ACTION] the missing ingredient is learning dependability and responsibility. All great men of faith have spent many years ‘plugging away in obscurity!’

(220) Been up since 3 AM praying for you guys as well as a few other things. Was thinking about a conversation I had a few years ago with a ministry leader in our city. He was trying to raise money for his ministry. He attends a great church that I used to attend. The Pastor is a good friend of mine. The ministry leader was asking where I attend church. I told him the church. He then criticized the church for spending money on certain things he thought could be used for other things. I just ignored it. This leader wanted to raise money to build a prayer center building. I guess it’s a worthy cause? Without boasting too much, I have been praying from 2-3 am [sometimes midnight] till around 7- 8 am for more than a few years now. I really didn’t need some ministry building to do this! In my mind the money for so many of our projects is a waste! It seems like we are too often building things to satisfy men’s egos more than anything else. God’s people are called ‘A HOUSE OF PRAYER’. God sees the corporate community of saints [all Christians, Catholics, Protestants, etc.] as a ‘building’ of prayer. Once again there might be a scenario or two where God is calling people to build these types of prayer centers, but most times he simply calls his people to prayer. He wakes you up and you pray! Where? Wherever you happen to be at the time. Religion has ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ divisions that say this is the place to perform ‘religious activity’ and this is the place for ‘secular stuff’. These divisions are contrary to the Kingdom that Jesus preached [I am not advocating a theocracy!] Jesus simply taught that the true worshipers of God would worship [pray] in ‘SPIRIT AND TRUTH’. There is this tremendous liberating aspect to the Kingdom of God that allows it to function everywhere. The church is always looking to start some 501 c 3 that can be the ‘Christian enterprise’ that takes all our time and money when God is simply looking for people to PRAY!

(221) Let me use the above example to show you a few things. As I was talking to this ministry leader we did have a fairly good fellowship. During this day of fellowship I shared many of the thoughts on the church as community versus ‘a church building’. He seemed a ‘little’ familiar with this. He said ‘O I know people who believe that way’. Which showed me the Lord has tried to show him this before! He had difficulty grasping many of the concepts, though they were true! It was later on where he got offended and actually yelled at me. He basically said to me ‘your wrong!’ I nicely told him, well I understand you think I am wrong, but I believe I am right. [I know it’s hard to believe I was calm during this exchange, but I was]. It shows how his later frustration of not being able to raise money for ‘the ministry center’ and things of this nature were an outgrowth of seeing ministry as ‘this thing I need to raise money for so I can run it’. If this person learned the lesson of not seeing it in this limited way, he would not have been so frustrated. It’s like the answer wasn’t ‘a transference of wealth’ in as much as a ‘change of thought’. He needed to see the new ‘wineskin/paradigm’ that God is trying to bring forth. These truths are being seen and practiced on a worldwide basis as I write this! Wolfgang Simpson says ‘God is not trying to start lecture halls across the world’ This seems to be the current understanding of ‘planting churches’. We seem to think ‘setting up buildings where people come and listen to bible words being spoken’ is the local church! We really need to be delivered from this mindset!

(222) Being I have been speaking on ‘prayer centers’ and stuff, let me share some stuff on prayer. A lot of the ‘prayer centers’ focus on a type of prayer that I feel is really not biblically based. If you read the New Testament you see stories of casting out demons and stuff. You also see where the disciples are praying to God on many occasions. You NEVER see any person casting ‘demons’ or ‘territorial spirits’ out of the sky. There are certain passages of scripture where modern advocates of ‘spiritual warfare’ use to justify this practice, I just feel based upon what I just showed you that prayer is fundamentally focused on God. You do find Jesus rebuking the devil, and like I said you see the Apostles casting out demons. It’s just the demons are IN PEOPLE, there not taking up residence in the sky! I know this is another one of those hotly debated subjects, but if we can just stay focused on God we can make much headway. James said a lot of times we are not receiving because we are not asking in faith, or we are asking selfishly. It’s not so much that we haven’t mastered certain elements of spiritual warfare, it’s that we haven’t mastered UNSELFISH PRAYER!

(223) ALL THAT WAR WITH YOU SHALL COME TO NOTHING/ I WILL GIVE THEM AS STUBBLE TO YOUR BOW I was reading this in Isaiah and felt like I should share this. When I first moved to Corpus and went on the radio I knew there were prosperity preachers that were offended at us. I liked a particular prosperity ministry and even attended their events [Valentine Banquet]. I regularly encouraged my wife to attend a women’s fellowship that they held monthly in our city [Women by Design]. I tried to not allow the strong word coming from us to become personal. I was very familiar with this church and even visited when they had a national Minister come [Jerry Savelle]. I never desire the failure of another brother in the Lord. If God gives you a mandate to speak a certain word, and you don’t, then your are in trouble! This church obviously eventually knew that there was a preacher on the radio going ‘against’ the main tenets of their church. This was never my intent. Though this church was a fairly well known regional ministry in our area, with very influential connections with national ministers, they eventually folded and left town. I did not rejoice over this. I liked going to the banquets and never threw out the invitations they sent regularly to my wife. I think I even sent the women’s thing a small offering of support? When God chooses to speak a prophetic word at a certain season, it’s not a matter of individuals or personalities. It’s a matter of truth. As much as I love Bro. Hagin and others, there were just too many obvious things that couldn’t go unchecked. Blatant visions and dreams that were highly offensive to Christ’s image. Portraying Jesus as saying things that he wasn’t saying. Many of the advocates of these national leaders simply defended these things irregardless of any spiritual discernment. When any one [even me!] begins to defend the images of people over the image of Christ, God ultimately reduces your voice. I pray this ministry is doing well today. They did move to Houston, but I wanted you to see that these issues go much deeper than personalities and loyalties to friends and culture. God will speak a word and sometimes its like ‘STUBBLE AGAINST A BOW’. Eventually the stubble will come to nothing! [I WILL BEND JUDAH LIKE A BOW the prophetic isn’t always fun, God often ‘bends’ you so you can deliver the word with pinpoint accuracy! Bowstrings are under great pressure all the time. Divine tension!]

(224) WHERE ARE WE GOING WITH THIS?  those of you who have read all our stuff will remember that the first book I wrote [which you will find on this blog] dealt with Jesus and the moneychangers. I felt his making the whip and ‘cleansing the temple’ spoke prophetically to a time period in the church where he would once again ‘cleanse the temple from mammon’. The simple fact that all of this stuff we have dealt with was so engrained into the leadership of our day, was in and of itself a tremendous hindrance to the work of the Spirit. Many leaders [Prophets included] refused to deal with these issues out of pride. They truly felt that the ‘preaching against mammon’ was a traditional deception of the ‘orthodox’ church that was hindering the gospel. They saw any attempt to ‘cleanse the temple from the moneychangers’ as a traditional push back against the new move of God. We are at a point where God is simply radically re organizing our mindsets. You [Christian] do not exist for the purpose of being told what is right or wrong by some man. The Spirit of God in you will bear witness to truth. Many of you are doing well on this journey. You will be used as a witness of what it means to ‘take up your cross and follow Jesus’. There needs to be a radical re focusing on the basic elements of the gospel. We need to overhaul all the ‘dung’ [I’ll be nice!] and get back to scripture. If leadership is so ‘self consumed’ where they cant see beyond their own desires to be happy and have a successful career, then God will by pass them and work directly thru his body. Many are still defending a ‘rich Jesus’ who gives them dreams that deny scripture. I urge you to be faithful to the Jesus of the New Testament. You will know him in Spirit and truth, but he is the same historical person who MADE A WHIP AND DROVE OUT THE MONEY CHANGERS!

(225) IS THIS ACCUSING THE BRETHREN? Paul the Apostle dealt harshly with the Judaizers of the 1st century. He said very strong things against them. He said ‘whose mouths MUST be stopped’. The Judaizers did believe in Jesus! But they added other unbiblical doctrines that were contrary to the gospel. One of the definitions of satan is ‘the accuser of the brethren’. Scripture says ‘God casts him down’. I want you to see a subtle thing. satan is very ‘subtle’. Many of the doctrines that we have exposed actually ‘accused the brethren’ unwittingly. Many poor and struggling saints have been told ‘surely God doesn’t want his kids to suffer’ ‘how can a father not give good gifts to his kids’ and in the more extreme cases I have even heard it taught that the parents of children who have died did something wrong in applying their faith, that the ‘fault’ was on the side of the parents, not God. These forms of doctrine are the most extreme cases of accusation that can ever occur. Especially the last one! What we are actually doing thru our teaching is ‘casting down the accuser of the saints’. God defends THE POOR and needy. Both Jesus and the Apostles were very hard on the religious leaders, yet very merciful on people who were struggling. I simply wanted to show you that one of the functions of the prophetic is to ‘open eyes’ I hope you see what I just told you. NOTE: by the way we do believe in spiritual warfare, I think what I just showed you about ‘casting down’ the accuser is a good example of it. We accomplish it thru prophetic teaching and preaching, not thru yelling into the sky!

(226) In Isaiah 41 it speaks of ‘God raising up the righteous man from the east and giving nations to him, coming upon princes like mortar, the coastlands shall wait for his law’ [paraphrasing from memory]. Then it says ‘the islands feared and every man strengthened themselves and propped up each others idols’. There have been other significant seasons in the Body of Christ where the Lord dealt with many of these issues. The natural response was for the larger national ministries who propagate these doctrines to ‘prop each other up’. To simply use the tremendous financial store [which they do have!] to defend each other. This was not only a wrong defense of people out of ‘self preservation’ but much of the money that was used to ‘push back’ the reproof actually came from Christians who give sacrificially to these ministries. I couldn’t give in clear conscience to a ministry whose main leaders are making around $500,000 to a million a year from the offerings of many low-income people. But the point is there is a natural response to ‘join hands and strengthen each others idols’ because you know you are all ‘in the same boat’. This response is unfortunate, but it does happen!

(227) Let me try and do this. I just kind of had an ‘overview’ of old testament history and the ‘history of the church’ run thru my mind in a few minutes. A lot of the stuff I am going to share is from many years of memory. So bear with me with the little details! In the Old Testament Gods people were represented by the nation of Israel. During the journey of Israel from captivity in Egypt to the Promised Land God deposited certain ‘sacred/religious’ rituals into their society for the ultimate purpose of revealing the gospel and reality of Christ’s sacrifice for all people. During this journey Israel ‘divides’ over certain issues. Israel has a northern tribe [Israel] and southern one [Judah] The northern part develops a separate priesthood under Jeroboam, and the southern keeps the original priesthood under Reheboam. The inheritance being divided during the possessing of the Promised Land becomes a theological issue for Jewish orthodoxy. The ‘jeroboam’ group identifies with the altar of worship deemed ‘unorthodox’ while the southern group has the ‘true’ place of worship. By the way this was the issue seen in the gospel of John chapter 4, when Jesus speaks to the woman at the well. She was a Samaritan, part of the ‘unorthodox group’ and was asking this exact question! So the history of natural Israel is one of division and ‘who has the real priesthood’ [sound familiar?] It is interesting to note, that though theologically the southern tribes are more ‘correct’ God later reproves them for their ‘correctness’. The prophets will eventually address Judah and say ‘thus saith the Lord, you pride yourself on being more faithful than your sister [northern tribe] and yet you are worse!’ So already God is dealing with the aspect of pride that comes along with theological correctness. Today the church historically is divided. Most evangelicals think of the 16th century reformation as the ‘dividing point’ but historically it’s the division of the 11th century between our Catholic and Orthodox brothers that is seen as the ‘great schism’. Either way you have the Catholics/Orthodox representing historic orthodoxy and the protestants/evangelicals on the others side. The debate rages on who has the more pure form of orthodoxy. We are like the woman at the well, we are asking Jesus ‘who’s right?’ and Jesus simply tells the woman ‘I am not here to take sides in your theological arguments, I am here to call you to repentance and lead you into true worship with God’. So we find ourselves in a place in history where truth does matter [at least to me!] but where Gods prophetic voice is calling all of his people back to true worship. Sort of like the Sienfeld episode where George is going to convert to the Orthodox religion so he can date some girl. The orthodox priests are questioning George on his reason for conversion and George replies ‘I like the hats’ to the dismay of the priests who were wearing these religious looking hats! We try to come up with reasons to why we associate in our divided groups, and sometimes it’s as silly as the hats! Well I know I got a little theological with you guys today, but I felt the Lord wanted to get you to thinking on these things. God wants unity, and all sides have to display ‘humility of mind’ in the process!

(228) Just got this thought, it must be for you! I talked about not quitting a few entries ago, I got the sense that some of you are under condemnation for quitting. When a person ‘fails’ [Peter] it is often a precursor to great things. During the failure you learn the inadequacy of yourself and others. You see the shallowness of mans glory. You learn that living for the approval of men is a vain enterprise. You also learn the reality of ‘doing ministry’ for God alone. Everybody remembered great Peter’s denial of Christ, even in the midst of Peters ‘ministry’ of raising the dead! At that stage you realize what your in it for. If raising the dead cant ‘overcome’ the denials [in the minds of people] then you might as well give up on impressing people! God takes ‘quitters’ and restores them to usefulness. It’s true that the areas of ‘quitting’ are not Gods purpose, but God has this strange way of ‘working all things for good to them who love him and are called according to his purpose’ [I think I read this somewhere?][Just kidding, it’s in Romans]

(229) Xxx

(230) THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH. REALLY! Over the years of preaching and being involved in ministry, you notice the ‘stages’ and fads that the church goes thru. I feel the Lord often has a purpose for these ‘fads’ even though they sometimes are unbalanced. One of these areas is spiritual warfare. I was recently looking at an Apostolic website out of San Antonio, I couldn’t help but notice the teachings on ‘we are warriors’ ‘destroying strongholds’ and stuff like that [hey, I’m just trying to get thru to God!] I also saw a conference being held somewhere that was called ‘a gathering of champions’. I remember seeing one years ago called ‘a gathering of strong and mighty men’. All these images are biblical to a degree. The New Testament does speak of us being children of God and overcomers and stuff like that. The biblical witness ‘couches’ these truths to be contained in humble broken people. Jesus taught us to be radical, but warned the disciples to not glory in their ability to cast out demons [spiritual warfare] but rather to glory in the fact that their names were written in heaven. I just thought it was worth reminding you that the MEEK INHERIT THE EARTH not the strong and mighty warriors!

(231) I thought I saw an ad for a pre season football game last night, it seems early? The other day I watched ‘invincible’ the true story of Vince Pappale, who played for the Eagles in the 70’s. The new coach of the eagles had open tryouts for anyone who wanted to try out. Out of 70 or so people, Pappale made the team! He was a bartender in South Philly and never played college ball, just ‘sandlot’. I loved playing street football in Jersey. Full tackle without gear. The problem was we liked to ‘hurt’ the other team. Well the movie is a great movie. Pappale plays a few seasons with the Eagles and does make history. The scenes of the street games remind me a lot of my youth days. Even the scenery of south Philly looks like Jersey. Pappale lives in Jersey today. There are times when you run with the ball, and times when you pass it. When running with it you become the focus of attention. Everyone wants to get you. At that time your only goal is to ‘not lose the ball’ and either run, pass or hand off. You are at certain seasons required to run with it! A lot of people will be coming after you, don’t take it personal, it’s not you their looking for, they want that ball [the thing of value]! NOTE; I do remember another time playing a game, someone on the opposing team did something [?] and the next chance I got, during the game, I ‘jabbed him’ about 5 times in a row with a ‘left jab’. Which means a direct punch in the face without gloves on. We played the type of street ball that incorporated many sports at once!

(232) EMBRACING A RADICAL PROPHET Most of us today are not willing to hear and see on the university level [spiritually speaking] we seem to forget the radical departure that the early followers of Christ had to make in order to embrace him. The concept of Jesus being Gods son, making himself equal to God was a drastic step of heresy for the 1st century Jew. Even today most people don’t realize that many Messianic congregations are not comfortable with the historic language of the Trinity. To embrace Jesus was a very radical theological departure from the norm! Now I am not advocating that we ‘depart from the norm’ today. In the sense that we have been handed down the historic faith that scripture says ‘has once been delivered to the saints’. But we often mistake our own peculiar convictions for ‘the historic faith’. God is calling us today to radical revolution. We live in a day where Christians are being killed for the faith! Most western believers don’t seem to understand this. We need to at least be radical enough to forsake the world and its creature comforts for the gospel. I am not advocating ‘self martyrdom’ but can we at least be willing to walk in a way that might seem contrary to the norm!

(233) A few months back a prominent prophet, who I have tried to ‘correct’ in some ways, gave a dream he had. Part of the dream spoke of a creature with a ‘TV’ as a head. He said how he felt the ‘creature’ was trying to ‘suck him in’. Though this strange creature was pathetic [made you want to stay out of sympathy] yet he knew it was something to be avoided at all costs. I forget the interpretation he gave. I like this one; many of the abuses I have dealt with are prominent in much of today’s Christian TV circles. Many of the proponents have advanced their cause thru this means. Many ‘have been seduced/sucked in’ thru sympathetic pleas and figures. A key strategy of the enemy is to get you to embrace deception out of a ‘soul felt’ friendship or actually ‘feeling sympathy for someone’. While sympathy is a God given quality, true sympathy loves someone enough to speak the truth. I do find it interesting that this brother has in some ways been influenced, sympathetically, to embrace these ‘TV’ type personalities. I feel the Lord was telling him thru this dream to ‘run from the creature!’

(234) Just reading Isaiah 42, it says God anointed Jesus [and the Body of Christ] to bring forth judgment. He shall not cry nor cause his voice to be heard [self promotion]. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He will open blind eyes and show people aspects of truth that they have never seen before. The ‘coastlands’ shall wait to hear the word the Lord will speak. They will be ‘fascinated’ by the Spirits ministry. The Lord will go forth ‘like a mighty man, he will shout like a woman in labor’. For a long time he held his peace, but finally said ‘it is enough, I cant sit by silently and let this go on’. Those that trust in graven images [idolatry- the old testament equal to covetousness] will be greatly ashamed and distressed. They will see themselves being reproved and corrected like never before. God’s people are like prey, they were ‘preyed upon’ and used as guinea pigs in the laboratories of men’s doctrines. None delivered, none said RESTORE! God will dry up their pools [the polluted sources that were making them sick. The ministries and avenues of ministry that were hurting them] God does all these things with the purpose of restoring and bringing us back to the Cross. God says I will not give my glory to graven images [men’s hearts rejoicing in materialism] but thru this whole process you will feel disoriented. Many of the leaders and sources of the past ‘will dry up’. God will begin to feed you again like the early days. You will hear his voice again, like at the beginning! NOTE: This chapter also says the Lord will roar like a Lion. I have spoken a lot on this blog about the imagery of the ‘Lion of Judah’ there are prophecies I have read this last year that spoke of the Lord roaring, disintegrating obstacles. I feel the ‘roar of the Lion’ can be the prophetic ‘roar’ coming forth from the prophets at this season in the Church.

(235) While reviewing my mission statement I came across a dream that I forgot to mention. In 8-06 I had a dream that I was in a ‘composite’ type city. I wrote ‘Houston/San Antonio/Dallas’ as the cities that I saw. I also saw many friends from different areas and times in life. I saw Navy buddies, New Jersey friends and friends from Texas. I felt this spoke to God giving us open doors to many different people groups. God calls his people ‘the New Jerusalem’ we are called ‘the City of God’ we are the City [that is the people of God] whose builder and maker is God. I thought it was important to share this. I had no idea we would have such an open door to many of you in these cities. The Lord ‘shows you what’s going to happen before it happens’.

(236) A while back I mentioned how the prophet Jeremiah [and others] spoke about ‘tearing down, removing obstacles and building up’. I have been in the ‘demolition stage’ for a while and want to do some ‘building up’. I spoke on the extreme forms of ‘renewing the mind’, things like focusing all your thoughts on money verses, quoting scriptures that seem to focus on what you want out of life. These types of ‘mind renewing’ are not primarily what the New Testament is talking about when it speaks of renewing your mind. Paul the Apostle, who most frequently uses this image, had a basic thrust to his theology JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH Paul was a radical Apostle with a message of God accepting us freely as we believe in his son. Paul knew the terror of legalism and trying to keep Gods commands in order to be saved. The entire Old Testament Jewish law was a complete drain on the human psyche. Man over and over again would attempt to ‘live up to the standard’ to no avail. God allowed the sacrificial system of animals to temporarily ‘cover’ their sins as a future sign of the one sacrifice that would pay for all of mans sin. The Apostle Paul lived under this condemnation for most of his professional life. Paul was a Pharisee who taught Jewish law and was enmeshed deeply into this system. The revelation of being ‘saved’ thru simply believing in the single sacrifice of Christ was a tremendous ‘paradigm’ shift from legalism to grace. It was hard for someone of the Jewish faith to make this transition. It was almost as in if it were too good to be true! This is why Paul says things like ‘If there were a law given that good have made us right with God, then we would be made right by it. But being there is no such law, God has chosen to justify us by faith’. You find this singular theme repeated over and over again in Paul’s writings. Faith in Jesus is not only the way we get into the Kingdom, but it’s also the way we grow and mature once we get in! ‘HAVING BEGUN IN THE SPIRIT ARE WE NOW MADE PERFECT BY THE FLESH [LAW]?’ Galatians. Now with this underlying theme of grace, always warring against the mindset of law, Paul speaks of ‘renewing the mind’. It was a battle to keep at the forefront of the early believers this central reality of the gospel. Paul was continually warring against other religious leaders [Judaizers] who did not walk in grace. This is primarily what the New Testament is speaking about in the area of renewing the mind. Some actually teach the renewing of the mind in a legalistic way. They make you think that you have to change your circumstances and ‘world around you’ by some type of mental gymnastics. You fall into this type of ‘mind renewing’ that puts the pressure on you to change things. This is not the biblical image of renewing the mind! The biblical image is seeing all the great things that God has done for us thru the Cross, and living our lives out of this radical gratitude that causes us to lay down all of our agendas for Gods agenda! The fact that this legalistic mindset of trying to live up to some religious standard is now over, this releases us into a radical way of life that makes Gods Kingdom the priority. As Paul teaches this radical good news, he clearly says ‘you are not saved or accepted with God based on your performance. You are accepted because Christ died for you’. Many people in society today don’t know this! They see the ‘church’ as a bunch of ‘moral hypocrites’. They don’t realize that God is not holding things against them. The account has been paid. God is not requiring them to join some church, or convert to some religion. He is simply trying to get this message to them. Why isn’t it getting to them? O that’s right, when they tune in to our TV shows they see us talking about money! [I forgot, I wasn’t going to tear down today]. You see, the thing that should be compelling us to go into all the world with an urgency to preach Christ is a gratitude for what he’s done for us. We don’t have the right anymore to live for ourselves; we have been bought with a price THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY AND IN YOUR SPIRIT, WHICH BELONG TO GOD.

(237) I want to share a few more ‘funny’ stories, but I also have a lot of serious stuff to get to. The last entry is the heart of the gospel message. The radical ‘reconciliation’ of man back to God thru the Cross is the message. The reality of knowing that you, personally, are forgiven and totally accepted is radical. I have friends who read this site who are not Christian. Some are offended at me because of the strong Christian message that we proclaim. We openly say ‘you can only be saved thru Jesus’. I teach that all Jewish people, all Muslim people, all people every where can only be saved thru Christ. This does offend the modern liberal mind, to which some of our blog reader’s posses. The message is as simple as ‘all men need the sun to live’. Well how could you be so arrogant John. There are many opinions on this. Who do you think you are in making such a statement. How could a so called ‘just’ God require all humans to receive ‘sunlight’ to live. Be open-minded! The fact is God has made his sun [Son] available to all humanity. Some live their whole lives under it’s benefits, without ever giving it a second thought. It is not ‘bigoted’ or close-minded to accept the fact that Jesus Christ is the savior of all mankind. God has reconciled the world back to himself thru his Son. This central message is available for all men to receive. There are things in life that all people need to survive [food water, etc.] the simple fact is all men need Jesus. Don’t get mad over this. You don’t have to become a religious conservative [I’m not!]. You can even look like a radical hippie from the 70’s [I do!]. It’s just a matter of truth that you have been forgiven, why wont you accept this!

(238) Now to the funny stories THE CRACK PIPE AND THE LAPTOP I have my office set up like those basements in the 70’s where teens would hang out and get high. A bunch of ‘doors’ and Beatles posters. Lava lamps [in the living room] a throwback to the 70’s [sort of like the afro looking guy with the leisure suit in ‘that 70’s show’ I crack up just seeing him]. One day I saw one of those corncob pipes they used to sell in the candy stores up north, I thought ‘I need to get one for the study’. Sure enough I am driving my daughter home and I see this head shop [place where you buy bongs and stuff to get high] I thought I will stop real quick and make this Christian purchase. I go in and innocently ask this high school kid working the counter if they had this pipe. He’s sitting there studying for school, trying to make a buck by servicing all the local crack heads needs. He looks at me with disgust and points to the jar filled with pipes on the counter. In ignorant joy I am happy to have located this addition to my office. I do have long hair, look raggedy and am sometimes mistaken for a homeless guy. As I make the purchase I tell the kid ‘I am not going to smoke crack or anything, I just want it for my room’ to which he simply gives me the look ‘yea right’. I went to buy a laptop a while back. While looking at the different ones the young salesmen [another kid looking like he’s working his way thru school] is helping me choose one. I finally get one and am asking him if it’s ready to go online and all. He asks me what kind of Internet connection I use. I reply ‘wal mart’, which was true. We used a service for 10 bucks a month that came from wal mart. The kid asks again in dismay thinking ‘surely this guy doesn’t use wal mart’ I re assured him that it was true, wal mart does carry this. He kind of had a look on his face like ‘wait till I tell my buddies this one’. After the purchase this innocent kid goes thru the whole sales pitch to sell me a case and all the other accessories and stuff, he wants commission! I then simply tell him ‘kid, your looking at someone who uses wal mart dial up, what are your chances your gonna sell me all this others stuff’ to which he replied ‘yea, your right’ with a look of resignation on his face.

(239) I heard a couple of sermons [TV] from good Pastors who were actually teaching some stuff like I teach. One has received from our ministry and I think his teaching it was a direct result of hearing us. In these scenarios the message was focused on the limited perspective of ‘church’ and Christians thinking that ‘going to church’ was their only responsibility. One of the preachers [national guy] is a good Baptist preacher out of Houston. His message contained many good elements, and after ‘raking’ the people over the coals for thinking ‘coming to church’ is what God wants from them, he then dismissed the congregation and all things return back to the present system. The people are still required to work secular jobs and tithe. The Pastor and staff will spend the week running the church, and after all is said and done, nothing really changes. It’s difficult to ‘change the system’ from the inside out. Many reformers in church history found this out. It does take time to truly reform things, especially on a large scale. I don’t advocate total ‘destruction’ of the present system, and I am glad to see some stable Pastors teach along these lines, it’s just that we [Pastors/Leaders] have to realize that most people are still too dependant on us to make the break on their own. Leaders have to lead by example, some are called to radically change the way they function and operate. To simply preach reform from the present system/pulpit is not really adequate. Leaders themselves have to change.

(240) Let me share something, a few months back I took a ride to one of the fishing piers where I live. Brought the paper, tuned in to the radio. I was able to pick up a San Antonio church that I like [Eagles Nest/ Rick Godwin]. Some of the things from the message kind of stirred me up [got me a little angry]. I shared this earlier on this blog. A few weeks later some of the things I wrote about it on the blog became widely available to the entire city of San Antonio on a huge scale. At the time of writing the entry I had no desire or inclination of reaching so many people with the blog, it just happened. It was like the ‘prophetic Spirit’ rises up at set times to speak into the church, if you are faithful to a few [small area] God will then launch you to a lot [large area]. At the time of me responding to what I heard from San Antonio, I wasn’t mad at Rick. I was angry at the limited perspective of church that he was embracing in the sermon. Nothing personal, just God wants change. Don’t look for a national voice; be faithful in the small things. If God desires he will promote you, don’t do it yourself!

(241) Now a little overview. The idea of ‘church’ as the place where we ‘put all the believers’. I mentioned how in the New Testament, no matter how many people were coming to the Lord, the Apostles never thought along these lines. ‘O my God, all Galatia is turning to Christ, where will we put them all?’ NOWHERE! I am thinking of the verse ‘THE SEED IS YET IN THE BARN’ Gods people are the seed. We are always trying to build bigger barns to ‘put them in’. We need to understand it is not the responsibility of leadership to ‘find places to put all the people’ it is the responsibility of leadership to FIND A PLACE TO ‘PUT GOD’ [that is to win people to Christ and these people become the HABITATION OF GOD]

(242) Doing THE FOOTBALL THING again [in the yard praying, walking around with the football]. Got the image of ‘screen pass’. A while back I read a prophecy from Patricia King [extreme prophetic] about the image of water balloons, or some type of ‘bomb’ landing in areas. An image of words and ministries ‘hitting’ areas and having great influence. I had already seen this myself. One of the ‘prayer’ images I use is ‘throwing the football’. I kind of see the Lord ‘launching’ the radio/blog into large regional areas and ‘hitting the ground’ with great influence. I ‘see’ the ball landing in large influential cities and having a wide impact. But I just got the sense of the ‘screen pass’ as well. Sometimes you get so caught up in the ‘hail Mary pass’ [our Catholic friends will like this one!] that you forget to throw the short screen pass. Sometimes you have done all you can do in launching the ‘bomb’ and as you wait for the results you might as well gain a few yards here and there!

(243) A lot of the stuff on this site is ‘prophetic’. That means if you go back and re read you will continue to find new and relevant things that didn’t make sense the first time around. I have quoted the verse THE MAN WHOSE NAME IS THE BRANCH, HE WILL BRANCH OUT OF HIS PLACE [small area of influence] AND BUILD THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD These verses speak of ‘building Gods temple’, literally ‘a place where God can dwell’. In the book of Acts it says ‘God doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands’ [I believe Stephen said this in Acts: 7?] This is a quote from King David in the book of Psalms. David is prophesying the heart of the Father to ‘dwell in humans as the temple’ as opposed to man made ones. The early church had the underlying theme of NOT BUILDING HUMAN TEMPLES This is why you don’t see any ‘church building projects’ until the 4th century of church history. Knowledge can be dangerous, some enlightened people who have seen these truths then used it in a wrong way to condemn all Christians who meet in ‘church buildings’. Buildings are neutral, they are simply tools. You are not deceived to meet in or build a ‘church building’. It’s just that we need a radical re organization in thought and function at this time in church history!

(244) I remember many years ago I was in a large church service; the Pastor is a friend of mine. At the end of the service he asked me and some elders of the church to come up and pray for peoples needs. I was about 29 years old at the time. Well any way the guy I was going to pray for was around 50. He was a smart ‘alec’ [cant curse!] I guess he thought it was beneath him to have some ‘rookie kid’ pray for him. So when I asked what he would like to pray for, he said ‘I want you to pray that I will have a million dollars and become 6 feet tall’. I felt like ‘slaying him in the spirit’ right there! Well I began praying ‘father, bless this man and let him know that he is valuable in your eyes, worth more than a million dollars. Teach him that he has great stature in your Kingdom, that which cannot be measured in physical height’. I went on for a few minutes. I did feel the anointing. When I was done he looked shaken and pale. I guess the Lord shook him up for me!

(245) Being I mentioned Eagles Nest in San Antonio, let me say a few things about another worldwide ministry out of San Antonio. I wont say the church, but they are one of the biggest in the City. This church is a good old time Pentecostal gospel preaching church. Every now and than you can catch the Pastor on his TV show teaching on Armageddon being right around the corner [hey, how many times can it be right around the corner?]. This brother thinks its heresy to not believe the rapture as being a separate event from the second coming [even though most Christians thru out history have not believed the rapture, and the majority of believers today do not hold to this view!]. The whole end time scenario of ‘scare tactics’ that this church preaches is not my cup of tea. Is Jesus coming again? Yes! Will there be an end of the world some day? Yes! Do I know when? No. But neither do you! The whole point is when we become isolated in our understanding from the rest of the historic church, we are then in danger of missing the ‘whole counsel of God’. It amazes me to hear preachers who are just beginning to reject the rapture publicly. Some who have heard me speak it are now becoming more comfortable about ‘coming out of the closet’ with their own doubts about this doctrine. But when they come out with it, they sound as if they are going against the world. I feel like saying ‘brother, most Christians today know how silly the doctrine is, it’s only the isolated camps that are not aware of the doubtfulness of this doctrine’. Now I am not saying all Christians who believe the rapture are isolated or ignorant. They certainly are not! But some believers think that the probability of ‘the rapture’ as being fake is a secret that only a few know about. Hey, most Christians and theologians worldwide are familiar with the majority of believers not embracing this doctrine. But if all of your education is coming from a good Pastor, who does preach the gospel, but holds to less than ideal views of the end time. Then you are in danger of believing things out of a lack of getting ‘the whole counsel of God’. You cannot access the ‘whole counsel of God’ unless you know what the ‘whole church believes, and has believed for the last 2 thousand years’. God expressly manifests his mind thru the church. We are the ‘Body of Christ’ we possess the mind of Christ as his representatives on earth. Is the majority report always right? No. But if you don’t even realize that there exists a ‘majority report’ then you will be in danger of living your whole Christian experience with the small perspective of some preachers ‘end time charts’. NOTE: I have tried to explain in a lot of our teaching why I don’t believe in the rapture [that is that Jesus comes back in the air to secretly take us to heaven, then comes back later, 7 years for most, 3.5 for others, in another event called the 2nd coming] without getting to technical let me leave you with this thought. In the gospel of John, chapter 17 Jesus says ‘FATHER, I AM NOT PRAYING FOR YOU TO TAKE THEM OUT OF THE WORLD [rapture!] BUT FOR YOU TO KEEP THEM FROM THE EVIL THAT IS IN THE WORLD This one statement alone shows you the purpose of God for the church. We are salt and light to the world. The salt does no good if it’s not on the table!

(246) Woke up this morning and was thinking of a verse YOU HAVE NOT CHOSEN ME, BUT I HAVE CHOSEN YOU AND ORDAINED YOU TO BE A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS [the ‘prophetic voice’ applies to all of us]  Then got into the bath tub and put the Christian music station on the radio. Sure enough that was the verse ‘for the day’ [the verse on the radio was from Johns gospel ‘you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you’ the verse I heard was a composite of John and Jeremiah]. I want to share some stuff that might be hard to explain? This year 2006/2007 brought together a 10-12-and 14 year ‘set’ of times for me and the ministry [a ‘set’ time has come, Kairos]. I moved to C.C. in 1992-14 yrs. The 10 and 12 represent trials and things we went thru during the process of ‘being in the desert’ [I literally live on a sand bluff, right off an Island!] The past few years I would notice the number 8:44 a lot. I kind of didn’t like this sign. Without even reading it I knew John 8:44 said ‘you are of your father the devil’. Its kind of one of those signs that you try to avoid! I heard a prophet in 2006 share how the Lord had said ‘14 years is enough’ and another who said God brought him out of a 12 year wilderness. Luke 8:44 says that a woman who had an infirmity of bleeding was healed by Jesus, she was sick 12 years. Felt like this was the 8:44 significance. The angel appeared to the Virgin Mary and told her words that caused her to ‘birth a Divine Son’. Some scholars believe Mary was around 14 yrs old at the time [some as young as 12!] Well if you put all of it together it’s like the Lord was saying a ‘set time has come’ [literally a set of times all meeting at once] That the Lord has chosen you for special things. His word to you is causing a ceasing of the ‘hemorrhaging’ that has been going on for quite some time. He is ‘closing up the breach’. His word to you is going to cause you to ‘birth a divine thing at this season’. You simply must believe his Word! NOTE: Yesterday I was going to mow my yard and first had to drop my daughter off at school. On the way the sky was turning real dark and you can see a strong storm moving in. I didn’t think I would get to cut the yard. I hurried and managed to cut it. The sky was black and stormy both to the north and south. It rained very little at my house. While watching the news that night it flooded Houston and Kingsville [our ‘perimeter’ cities] The rain collapsed a roof on one of the buildings we use for the Fire Dept. The ‘recycling center’. Felt like the Lord was saying he is going to pour out on these areas and the ‘structures of men’ will be unable to contain what he is going to do. His ‘rain’ will break thru ‘ceilings’ [limits] that men have put on my people and they will ‘flow out of the buildings and flood the streets!’ He is going to ‘recycle’ [restore and put back into service] many of you.

(247) Let me give a little example. The fact that the Lord has permitted us [me] to actually have a ‘footprint’ [spiritually speaking] in a large area has baffled some ‘clergy’. Some sincere men have spent many thousands of dollars to try and create a ‘presence’ in other areas. I just want to share something to help you guys. I try not to think of ministry as holding a church meeting and getting as many people to come and support the growth of ‘the church’. I feel this mindset is limited. If you see ‘blog sites’ or ‘radio’ or any other means of communication as simply a forum to advertise ‘church meetings’ then you are cutting your influence off without realizing it. I have gone to ministry web sites that I wanted to read and study from. Some are simply set up to offer products for sale, or to invite you to attend ‘church’. Say if the primary means of communicating the gospel in the 1st century were taking this approach. The letters of Paul and the oral preaching were used to directly get the word out to groups of people. Say if you received a letter from Paul, or got the New Testament canon in the 4th century and opened it up to find an ad from some Apostle inviting you to a service. Or you read the 1st chapter of Romans and then it said ‘to read the rest of this article send 15 dollars to Apostle Paul outreach ministries in Rome’. Now I am not trying to be critical, I am trying to show you how we limit our own effectiveness by seeing ‘church’ as the Christian business that we run. I have gone to some web sites of old Baptist friends to see what’s going on. Some have the ad for their church, a picture of the building [maybe can hold 200 people?] and an invitation to ‘come to church’. Now these sites have the potential of reaching the entire world. Why would you make such a limited invitation? Utilize the thing to get the gospel out brother! Well I just wanted to help my ‘fellow ministers’ to see how its possible  to have a large regional influence. Don’t use the tools to simply invite people to your church meeting, use the tools to start a revolution! NOTE; another ingredient in having a ‘large footprint’ is not desiring to have a ‘large footprint’.

(248) I was just thinking about this, even though I haven’t read these books in a while. If you go to the ‘restoration’ books of the Old Testament [Nehemiah, Ezra] and the Prophets who prophesied during this period [Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel] you will find the interesting story of Israel and Gods judgment on them, the destruction and desecration of the temple, and finally the restoration of Israel back to their land and the rebuilt temple. The rebuilding of the city walls and the temple are a beautiful picture of Gods restoration. In the New Testament the Church is called ‘the city of God’ and ‘the Temple of God’. In the Old Testament temple you had the ‘cornerstone’ as the part of the foundation that the whole building was measured on, and you had the ‘capstone/headstone’ that was the finishing stone at the top of the building. Jesus is called the ‘cornerstone’ in the New Testament; he is also the ‘headstone’ the head of the Church who derives authority thru his death for us. A ‘headstone’ is the marker showing that one has truly died. All the New Testament Church are measured and built from the cornerstone Jesus. He is the foundation of the Church. Jesus is also the head stone, finishing stone. He is not only the ‘beginning’ of our faith, but also the ‘finisher’ [Hebrews calls Jesus the author and finisher of the faith]. This shows us that Gods ultimate purpose is to have a mature completed Temple that shows the fullness of Christ to all the universe [Ephesians]. As we develop and grow in [to] him, we don’t grow ‘away from him’ [as some teach when they speak of moving on from the Cross] but we grow more ‘into him’ that is becoming more fully developed as the Body of Christ in the earth. Our headstone derived his authority thru his death and resurrection, so like wise the whole building will derive its authority as we die to ourselves and become more alive unto him and his purposes in the earth.

(249) I, EVEN I, AM HE THAT BLOTTETH OUT THY TRANSGRESSIONS FOR MY OWN SAKE, AND WILL NOT REMEMBER THY SINS The Lord says there are past faults that are holding you back, he forgives you and will not remember these. Not as some favor to you, BUT FOR HIS OWN SAKE! He has created you with a purpose in mind, and he needs you to fulfill it!

(250) Just woke up, I am at work. It’s real early and I felt like we should overview some things. In the old days when I pastored I would get a thought/idea and then research it and develop it over a 2-4 day period and then preach it on a Sunday [OK]. To just wake up and start writing from scratch allows me to cover a lot of territory, but also risk missing a fact or two. Nothing major, just maybe a side detail. So to my critics, hunt and you will find. To my friends I hope we are breaking thru. A few days ago I spoke on Paul and the underlying theme of our acceptance with God by faith. As a religious teacher of the Jews, Paul was well instructed on the life of Abraham. The Jewish people looked to him as ‘the father of the faith’. In Genesis chapters 12 and 15 you find stories that become the basis of Paul’s theological argument for Justification by faith. Even though Paul and the other Pharisees knew about these stories, it never ‘dawned’ on them until the Spirit of God revealed it to them. Paul will go to these time and again. The books of Romans [4] Galatians [2-3] and to the surprise of some, even Hebrews [11] are actually ‘justification by faith’ arguments. [I will develop the Hebrews argument at another time, but it ‘dawned’ on me one day that this was Paul’s ‘open letter’ to the Jews of his day. This is why it’s unsigned. The Jews would not read something from Paul after all the slander he received by the Judaizers. Hebrews ‘theologically’ bridges the gap between the book of James and Paul’s epistles, a lot can be taught right here] Paul lays out for the Jews the simple fact that God counted Abraham righteous [accepted and just] when Abraham ‘believed in God’. It was AFTER he believed in God that he then was circumcised. The law of Moses [10 commandments] weren’t even around yet! This simple truth showed the religious community of the 1st century that acceptance with God was not a cultural [circumcision] or religious/legalistic [10 commandments] thing. God was already receiving people based on their belief in Him years earlier. Now Paul does some tremendous ‘brainwork’ on revealing things from The Old Testament and showing how they were ‘precursors’ to Christ. But I want you to see this simple truth today. One of the main teachings of the New Testament is that God accepts you when you believe in his Son. This is no excuse to go out and sin, but your living different is a result of your free acceptance with God. It is not the CAUSE of it. I find it interesting that the bible actually says that no person can ever be saved by trying to live good, go to church, obey the commandments and all the other things we put on people. Paul actually makes the statement [Galatians] IF A PERSON CAN BE MADE RIGHT WITH GOD BY DOING SOMETHING, THEN CHRIST DIED IN VAIN. Think about that. If there were some other way to ‘get saved’ and go to heaven [now God wants a lot more than this!]Then why would he have given his Son to die? If you owed 100 dollars on some debt and the creditors were calling. Would you say ‘well I guess I will go and die for the payment’. Not if you could get out of it by paying the 100 dollars! So this is one of the arguments that Paul uses. He then goes on to explain ‘why did God give us the 10 commandments’. He teaches that God gave us the law to REVEAL MANS SIN TO HIMSELF. Some believers are not as clear as they should be on this. Even if we could get all the 10 commandments posted in all the schools of the world, this still would not fundamentally change the way kids act. I would rather post John 3:16! I am being a little sarcastic. The point is God gave man the law [10 commandments] so after a few thousand years of ‘trying to be good’ he would come to a point of utter failure. The law did its job; it showed man his need for a savior. This is the New Testament argument. Today I want all my readers that are not really Christian to see this. I can argue all the merits of Gods existence and all the proofs from natural law and every other angle there is. But I want you to see that Christ died for you. God is not telling you to become a religious conservative. He is telling you you’re forgiven and accepted, IF YOU WILL ONLY BELIEVE. [Read Hebrews: 11 commentary on this site!]

(251) Xxx

(252) LOYAL TO WHAT? I remember hearing Brother Roloff say that you had all these preachers being faithful to this thing or some cause. He said it in a way like ‘we are trying to be faithful to all these things, and God wants us to be faithful to him’. I want to share this for practical reasons. We are beginning to re connect with many friends and brothers from the past. God says I WILL BRING YOUR SEED FROM THE EAST, I WILL GATHER YOU FROM THE WEST. I WILL SAY TO THE NORTH GIVE UP, CALL YOUR SONS FROM THE SOUTH. As the Lord brings people ‘our way’ we are not seeking to get them to ‘commit to us’. If God is hooking you up to us relationally, great! Maybe you will sponsor a home group? Maybe you will start a local jail outreach? We [I] will try to get together with you on a monthly/bi monthly or annual basis. I am not trying to recruit people! We want to start a revolution in the Church [Body of Christ]. God has called all of you to much more than living vicariously thru your Pastor[s]. As a believer you are to experience this adventure with God, and Christian leadership exists to help you get on course. The leaders give you ‘kayaking instructions’ but you are not to spend the rest of your life taking the instruction course, you are supposed to eventually launch! I look forward to meeting those of you who are being ‘revolutionized’. I want to be open to those who desire to sponsor home groups in your cities/states [NATIONS]. Most of all I want you to be loyal to the call of Christian growth and responsibility that you are learning at this time. I am not asking you to support me, I am asking you to ‘imitate me as I imitate Christ’. Join the revolution!

(253) THE HIGHLY MOTIVATED LEADER IS NOT THE PATTERN I was reading from a church site [you can learn a lot by just reading the actual teaching catalog, at least from ours you can!] and the majority of the messages were on ‘overcoming obstacles’ ‘taking your mountain’ ‘destroying obstacles’ ‘crushing the devil’ and stuff like that. We too often present a model of Christian leadership that would be next to impossible for everyone to live up to. I know we don’t mean this, but it happens. In today’s highly motivated mega church environment we often present the highly motivated Pastor in a way that most average believers could never attain too. I think of the grandma who attends the ‘composite’ church that I referenced above [a group of all the highly motivated preachers all rolled into one]. After going thru all the devil crushing, mountain moving, unceasing unrelenting sermons from the above average high achieving mega church Pastors. I think grandma would be ready for the nursing home! Now, I believe and know there are great mega churches out there, doing great things for God. We also need to be aware of that part of the gospel that says ‘my yoke is easy and my burden is light’. I too fall into the category of ‘non stop’ at times. I am just as guilty as the rest! We need to re evaluate the picture that we are painting for the disciple of Christ. The revolution that I want you to join is the simple reality that we can all effectively live the journey. Not just a few exceptional leaders, but all of us!

(254) BRINGING MANY SONS UNTO GLORY The intent of the ministry of Jesus is to bring many sons to a place of interdependence and maturity. The language Jesus uses in the gospel of John is striking. He tells the disciples ‘I don’t call you servants, but friends, brothers’ ‘you have come to me, but now you can go directly to the Father yourself and ask him’. The present development of the role of Pastor has been understood to not be the ideal in Christian community. It is becoming common knowledge among a broad base of believers that the role of Pastor, as the singular voice of the congregation who is looked at as the hired minister, is not found in the New Testament. Does this mean we are all in rebellion? No. Does this mean that all churches must now close and start from scratch? No. But it does mean that as fellow believers we begin to maturely address these issues of form and function as God directs. The fact that the word ‘Pastor’ is found one time in the New Testament [Ephesians] but yet other words are found a lot [Apostle, Elder, Brethren, etc.] shows us that somewhere along the line we introduced a role that wasn’t the original intent of God. We have a tendency to take biblical words and attach our own definitions to them [Bishop, Pastor, etc.] As we see the progression of language in the New Testament itself, we begin to grasp the heart of God. John’s letters are some of the latest written in the New Testament. In John’s epistles you find the language of children and brothers more than elders and Leaders. This showing that as the early church matured she moved away from authoritarian titles, and moved closer to family terms. In Gods desire to ‘bring many sons unto glory’ there is a necessity of top-heavy leadership models to come down. Jesus washing the disciple’s feet and images like this. Blatantly telling the disciples that in the world leadership is based on being in charge, but in the church it is based on not being in charge. Being a servant who grasps the admonition of John the Baptist HE MUST INCREASE AND I MUST DECREASE. As the church progresses down this path the natural result will be for the ‘many sons to come to maturity’. I am sure it felt strange for Jesus to tell the disciples ‘you came to me before, but now you go to the Father yourself’. This is a true act of biblical leadership. People in the beginning depend on leaders a lot; it is incumbent on Godly leadership to let them come directly to the Father.

(255) Lets go back to an original thought. I want to throw this out to our intellectual readers. The whole idea that Paul wrote Hebrews, and specifically chapter 11 as a way to bring the truth of Justification by faith to the Jewish church is what I want to propose. If you read Romans and Galatians you see Paul’s entire argument for justification by faith as seen in the Genesis 12, 15 story of Abraham. When James teaches Abraham in the book of James, he is primarily seeing the view from the story of Abraham offering Isaac on the altar [Gen 22?] James is seeing ‘actual, experiential justification’ Paul is seeing ‘judicial, declarative justification’. Paul says ‘God declares you righteous at the moment of faith, before you ever see it actually working out in the life of the person.’ James doesn’t contradict this, but James says ‘look at Abraham, when God declared him righteous [Gen 15] he eventually became what God declared! [Gen 22 Actually doing right things, offering up his son]. Now where most Christians [including theologians] miss it is when they try to bring these 2 truths together. They usually say ‘what James is saying is active faith saves you, not works’ If you read James carefully he is not saying that! He actually says ‘see how a man is saved by works, not only faith’. I believe the truth is James is seeing God declaring a person righteous when he actually does a righteous thing. Now this can get hard, but in Paul’s view Abraham became justified in Gen 15, true. And in James view when Abraham actually did the work of obedience, God also said ‘well done, you did good!’ In essence God has the sovereignty to declare you ‘right’ whenever he wants. Now we know the only reason a person can ever get to the point of ‘doing right’ is because he already passed the point of ‘being declared right’ [Gen:15 versus Gen:22]. It’s just that the Jewish church was emphasizing the ‘actually righteous’ part, where as the gentile churches were focusing on the ‘believing and being justified’ part. No contradiction, just seeing at a different timeline. This is also one of the main areas of division between the Protestants and Catholics. Luther was seeing the Gentile view [Romans/Galatians] the Catholics were seeing the ‘actual’ view [James]. The Catholics actually called Luther’s [and Paul’s!] view ‘a legal fiction’ they said Luther taught a man can be legally Justified without ever showing it. Luther really didn’t teach that, but he did say once God justifies you, it’s not up to your works to save you. Many don’t realize that Luther also strongly believed in predestination. All the major reformers did as well! Now you read Hebrews 11 with this in mind. All thru the chapter Paul is saying ‘look, all these heroes of faith acted by faith. They actually did works of righteousness by faith. They ALL obtained a GOOD REPORT [declared right!] by faith’. Read this chapter with this in mind and you will now see the whole point of the chapter. It’s Paul’s treatise of ‘justification by faith’ written anonymously to the Jewish nation. Here my friends is the solution to the problem. This view bridges for the first time [I believe] the whole problem of the book of James and the epistles of Paul. It also helps bridge one of the major divisions in the church today. Take this and run with it! NOTE; Luther called the book of James ‘a straw letter’ and at one point thought it should not have been added to the canon, though later he did include it in his bible versions! Also Paul includes Rahab the harlot as someone that was justified by faith, showing it didn’t matter how many sins you have committed in the past, if you believe you too will be justified. [see Hebrews 11 on this site]

(256) I am up early at my daughters ranch, walking outside and praying/prophesying. I do realize if someone hears me they will think I am crazy, it wont be the first time! It’s the Saturday right after Good Friday. I will celebrate Easter today. I am working tomorrow. Just remembered something, the religious leaders were always condemning Jesus for ‘working on the Sabbath’. In death he finally shut them up. Can you imagine what they would have said if he rose on the Sabbath day! Well I wanted to share this. There are at this season many Apostles and Prophets who are thoroughly mad at me. I realize why, let me explain. Over the years there have been many ‘cessationists’ that later on saw the truth of the gifts of the Spirit and the ‘5 fold’ ministry. A lot of these brothers cant grasp the fact that even though the Lord has used them to prophesy and even do great miracles [by the Spirit] that he is also tremendously ‘jealous’ for the gospel. God will even allow ‘cessationists’ [I am not one myself] to reprove the more extreme elements of the Charismatic/word of faith movements. It’s like the Prophets feel like ‘hey, I have spoken great words. The Lord has used me to do mighty deeds. Who do you think you are in bringing correction to me’? I don’t care who you are, to be frank about it. Neither does God! Don’t mean to be mean, God is no respecter of persons. When anyone permits really off the wall stuff to slip in to the church, and then not only refuses to ‘prophesy’ against it, but actually defends it. Then at this point God will raise up anybody who is willing to come against it. Listen to the radical contemporary Christian rock of our day. They say things like ‘don’t live for the stuff of this world’ ‘don’t fall for the American dream’. God is using these young kids to prophesy what I have been preaching. Look at the ‘emerging church’ today. The same thing. God is not concerned about defending your Apostolic/Prophetic ministry. If you guys refuse to speak truth, then it will come from another direction. I just wanted to speak this. The Prophetic/Apostolic pride is preventing the Word of the Lord to have free course.

(257) Now that I’m getting into it, let me discuss the role of Apostles and Prophets and how they fit into the Church. During the restoration of Apostles/Prophets in the last quarter of the 20th century there were a lot of mistakes made in the area of ‘function’. It was common for Apostles to see the list of ‘5 fold’ that Paul gives ‘first Apostles, then Prophets, etc’ and to read it in an authoritarian way. Apostles would try to form ‘relationships’ with various Pastors and teach a submission that was not biblical. It kind of went like ‘I am now the Apostle who ‘covers’ your Pastor, Your Pastor covers you and the people are under all these levels of ‘covering’ and the view to God was getting ‘cloudy’. Paul wrote the list of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists Pastors and teachers. Paul did say ‘first Apostles, secondarily Prophets’ some feel this is simply stating the order in which they appeared. First God brought in Apostles, Then Prophets [New Testament ones!] etc. This view has truth to it. But even if you took it the other way, Paul later says God has counted the Apostles last. He tells the Corinthians this. Well how can they be first and last! Surely Jesus never taught any thing like this? Here we go again. Lets just say in general all Gods gifted 5 fold ministers exist to bring you to maturity as Gods people. Any view that has all these authority structures is really not the intent. Some of these brothers don’t even realize the ‘Pastors’ who they think they are covering are not even a biblical position in the way they function today. So Apostles and Prophets and all these gifts do exist [at least in my mind!] but they exist to release you into your full inheritance in Christ [Not talking money here!] As these gifts are restored and recognized, lets keep in mind that Jesus taught the first would be last and the last first!

(258) THESE ARE THE PEOPLE IN THE SYSTEM, WE ARE HERE TO FREE THEM FROM THE SYSTEM. THEY ARE UNAWARE THAT THEY ARE IN THE SYSTEM, THEY ARE SO DEPENDANT ON THE SYSTEM THAT THEY WILL EVEN FIGHT TO DEFEND IT  Morpheus said this to Neo in the movie the Matrix. Good Stuff! This applies to the lost as well as to the saved [even the Leaders!]

(259) Recently a good preacher died. Bishop Patterson, he was a real good black preacher. I liked him. I remember when I wrote the first book against the prosperity gospel [HOUSE OF PRAYER OR DEN OF THIEVES which you can read in its entirety on this site] I used an example of another black preacher [who I don’t like, but have to love as a brother!] Leroy Thompson. The example was he started preaching for Christians to say ‘MONEY COMING TO ME’ and I remember hearing friends of mine from a local Assembly of God church going around doing this [at least I remember they were confessing money a lot] I don’t know if the Pastor fell for it or what? But when I wrote the book I had to deal with it because it was such an obvious abuse of the Word. Well anyway I later heard Bishop Patterson say the same thing that I said. He had the guts to publicly say ‘you have all these Christians going around saying ‘money coming to me’ and this is wrong’. Kudos to brother Patterson for breaking cultural lines in order to be faithful to the Lord! NOTE: To ‘not like’ bro. Thompson means I do not like the way he distorts the gospel, our confession is supposed to be JESUS not MONEY!

(260) It’s Easter morning, it’s early and I will be driving to work in a little while. Felt like I needed to say some stuff. First: I thought I heard the Lord say to you A JUST MAN FALLS SEVEN TIMES AND GETS UP AGAIN, A WICKED PERSON FALLS ONCE AND STAYS THERE The word to you is “you have experienced a ‘perfect’ [7 times] season of ‘falling’ [failure]”. It was in my plan to allow you to “be in the grave [yesterday was the Sabbath before Easter]. I am now going to ‘perfect’ [7] that which I have destined you for”. Scripture says MANY WITH UNDERSTANDING, WHO INSTRUCT MANY, SHALL FALL FOR MANY DAYS [Daniel?] The amount of ‘down time’ that you have experienced is directly related to the amount [area] of people you will instruct [many]. There was a season where you were alone [one] and when one is alone, if he falls he has no one to help him up. You have been there many times and have learned to get up on your own, though it was difficult. Where 2 are, one can help the other up and a 3-fold cord is not easily broken, be open to the ‘3 fold cords’ godly connections in ministry and relationships that I am bringing your way. Just as it was difficult to ‘break’ ungodly alliances, so will it be difficult to break the thing I am going to do thru you. The Divine 3 fold cords are not easily broken.

(261) I want to be careful in sharing this. I had a friend who was either ordained or sponsored by a large regional church [Houston]. Over a period of years I taught this person some of the things I have shown you guys thru this blog. It was difficult for this person to choose scripture over the strong word of faith background that they had. This person even told me ‘well you and Paul [Apostle] can believe your way, I’LL believe mine’. They said this after I simply read 1st Timothy chapter 6 and showed them how the mindset of the New Testament was directly opposed to the peculiar style of belief they were taught. At one point this person began to forsake many of the doctrines they previously held. Then I could tell they went back to their old beliefs and were telling others that I was a false prophet. I do find it strange that someone who preaches a radical message of forsaking all for Christ is a false prophet, but many of the teachers this person listened to routinely distorted the image of Jesus and taught that Jesus and the disciples were some of the wealthiest people of the first century. A total and complete distortion of the New Testament record. Well I am sad to say this person died soon after this. They were in there 40’s and I was not glad to have heard this. I am not saying they died as a direct result of calling me a false prophet. I do believe God allows certain abuses to go on for so long [like the teachings of this movement] before he says ‘enough is enough’ [FOR A LONG TIME I HAVE HELD MY PEACE AND BEEN SILENT, NOW I WILL ROAR LIKE A WOMAN IN TRAVAIL-Isaiah] There was a time where the Lord ‘overlooked men’s ignorance’ and then says ‘I cant let this go on any longer’. I felt the Lord wanted me to share this. The primary job for the preacher of the gospel is to present Jesus, when you blatantly present ‘another Jesus’ [Galatians] God will eventually deal with you. NOTE: I find it amazing that one of these preachers used to regularly come on T.B.N. wearing very expensive jewelry and teach how Jesus was just like this. You can’t be so obviously wrong and spread this stuff to hundreds of thousands of young believers. It’s the devastating effect that these guys have on the new believers that is tragic. This brother eventually tried to start a branch ‘church’ in Corpus Christi. I actually called him out publicly, by name, on radio. I know this was strong, but the amount of blatant heresy had to be confronted. Their church, as far as I know, never made it. NOTE: In the early days I had Pastor friends who heard the stuff we were preaching and without fully realizing the heresy these guys were spreading, would defend them from the pulpit. This directly limited the intended growth of their churches. God is much more concerned with the accurate preaching of his Son, than with the size of a church. Many of these brothers would directly reject our message because they were believing for lots of money at the time. It’s OK to trust God for great resources, the problem was they were believing for the resources and defending the false teachers at the same time. You can believe God for money without defending heretics! NOTE: I remember showing some of these truths to a Pastor in Corpus. He then said ‘the bible speaks of God blessing us financially’ which of course is true. The inability of this leader to be able to distinguish between being blessed and ‘those that teach gain is godliness have swerved from the faith, avoid them’ is a problem in leadership today. The level of discernment is severely lacking.

(262) I saw a good message from Rick Warren, he was speaking at a Hillsong conference in Australia. He basically preached what I preach on money [of course not as strong!] He was quoting Jesus on ‘A MANS LIFE CONSISTS NOT IN THE ABUNDANCE OF THE THINGS THAT HE POSSESSES ’ It was interesting, as they panned thru the front row they showed a major prosperity preacher listening. The message was a great message, but you can tell it didn’t fit in with the usual fare. It’s like you could see that the prosperity crowd would not really ‘draw’ from this message. You kind of get ‘programmed’ to want to ‘receive stuff’ when your in the movement. When someone comes along and preaches the real gospel, it’s ‘strange’ to the prosperity brothers.

(263) PETER CAST THE NET AT JESUS WORD AND BROUGHT IN MORE IN ONE CAST THAN THE ENTIRE NIGHT I haven’t read this story in a while, but I remember that in the King James Version Jesus tells Peter to let down the nets, and Peter only lets down ‘the net’. You get the sense that Peter was up all night trying to catch fish, he cleaned the nets already and he figured ‘poor Jesus means well, but he just didn’t understand that fishing is poor right now’. Well old Peter didn’t understand the difference between fishing in the flesh and fishing in the Spirit! It was his patronizing attitude that caused him to let down ‘one net’. Jesus said ‘put them all out son’. When the Lord tells you to cast, CAST! You will bring in more in one shot than all the nights you spent in your own efforts!

(264) A few years ago I did a radio series on the book of Exodus. One of the things we brought out was the story of the children of Israel giving freely of their riches and wealth in order to make the calf. The calf represents idolatry/covetousness. I was trying to show how certain forms of ‘giving’ are actually idolatry! For years giving was taught in a way that focused on ‘the act of giving’ as opposed to the ‘actual need being met’. People were only excited about giving, like being excited about investing in a stock or 401 K. The motive for giving was covetousness. There are many people today who ‘give’ willingly to an investment. The excitement is watching it grow. This is not New Testament giving. This is investing. It’s not wrong per se, but it’s not giving out of love. Even though the children of Israel ‘gave’ it wasn’t glorifying God! I remember many years ago being in a restaurant with some friends, preachers and stuff. One of the brothers was a prosperity preacher, he had just finished preaching and we were out fellowshipping. He was so excited about ‘giving’ that at one point he took off an expensive watch and ‘gave’ it to my friend [a prophet]. My friend accepted it, but you could tell the preacher then started regretting that he did it. This is a type of ‘giving’ that glorifies the ‘giving’ part, without actually meeting the true need of a person out of compassion. The New Testament model of giving is based on compassion for your fellow man, not on some investment scheme! NOTE: Just felt like I heard someone say ‘so what’s the point’? The point is when Gods people get free from idolatry [covetousness] we can then move on from our ‘golden calves’ to the true worship of God! NOTE: The prophet friend was one of those types who would ‘butt heads’ with Pastors and leaders. I was challenged this night by him in some way [?] I remember responding, like not letting it get to me and answering whatever challenge he gave me with wisdom. He was familiar with ‘pushing the buttons’ of Pastors and making them feel uneasy and stuff. By this time I had already been thru so much stuff, his little ‘attack’ didn’t produce the desired results. He kind of looked at me and said ‘you’ve been thru this before’ which was correct. NOTE: the ‘calf’ was made out of GOLD and they worshipped it as a god. This is the heart of idolatry, to ‘re fashion’ the image of God into the image of what men desire [Romans 1-2]. Eventually if a person insists on ‘seeing’ the ‘Jesus’ of his own imagination [rich, etc.] then God will ‘give them over’ to that image. In essence their ‘god’ will become a ‘golden calf’ an image of wealth that does disgrace to the true image of Christ! [OUCH!]

(265) A few months back I had a dream. I dreamt I was leaving a church service and met the Pastor in the parking lot. He asked where I was going and invited me to go with him to the new church building they were constructing at the time. He asked if I needed some wood for ‘my structure’ and he told me they had extra to give me. As I was getting in his car there wasn’t enough room so he said ‘take your truck’. Vehicles represent ‘ministries’ in prophetic imagery. They ‘carry’ you to the place of destiny. Wood represents the ‘people’ you build. Scripture says ‘go up to the mountain [intercession] and bring down wood for my building’ [the church made up of people]. The significance of the Pastor telling me he had plenty of ‘wood’ and to get it in my ‘vehicle’ shows me that the Lord has given us an open door to build many of his people in our [your] city. These people don’t have to hear me speak in some church building [the Pastors vehicle] it would be ‘too small’ any way. But these people will be freely built thru the open course the Lord has given us thru Radio, Blog, etc. THE WORD OF THE LORD HAS FREE COURSE. I was listening on line to an old Pastor friend who Pastors a great church in our city. I haven’t heard him in a while. The last 2-3 sermons I heard him give focused on the Kingdom of God and how it was not about material wealth at all. I cant help but believe that some of his people [wood] have been listening/reading our stuff and it has influenced him in a good way.

(266) I remember hearing a famous prosperity preacher say how he was overseas [England?] and he was approached by many believers who sincerely told him ‘your preaching on money is so extreme, you have fallen into the category where Jesus warned  ‘the love/lust of the things of this world would prevent the seed from growing’ [this by the way is the correct reading of the parable of the sower]. I heard this preacher, on T.B.N. tell the story. He then went on to explain how these Christians who were warning him were the one’s who were deceived. He went thru some tortured explanation of the parable of the sower and when he was finished he had the parable talking all about money. The hosts of T.B.N. were all awed and in agreement with this ‘new revelation’ and it was communicated to the worldwide audience who tuned in. The deception was so obvious it wasn’t funny. The fact that all these believers from another country, with one voice [which I call ‘the whole counsel of God’] were sincerely telling this man that he was absolutely twisting Jesus words was a rebuke from the Body of Christ to that which is not of Christ. It’s natural for the ‘Body’ to ‘expel’ harmful agents. The fact that this man in his rebellion would not receive this correction, and the fact that the worldwide audience of T.B.N. were also fed this lie is appalling. God is going to ‘dry up’ the resources of major Christian networks if they do not deal with stuff like this! [YES, THIS IS A PROPHETIC WORD!]

(267) Let me exhort you guys to become a student of the bible. “Brother I read the bible” that’s not what I said. Jesus often rebuked the religious leaders for knowing the words of scripture, without understanding the intent! In many of the things you guys are learning from this blog, you ‘knew’ these verses, it’s just you are seeing them in a different way, the CORRECT way. To be a student demands that you know the history and context of scripture. Read good books on church history. Read the classics. Don’t waste all your time reading much of the popular motivational stuff of our day. Some is OK, but a lot isn’t. I have a prophetic way I learn; before I go to bed I find a great book from my study. I put it under my pillow, and when I wake up in the morning I have absorbed all of its contents. NOT! It takes work brothers STUDY TO SHOW THYSELF APPROVED, A WORKMAN THAT DOESN’T NEED TO BE ASHAMED if you do this you wont make some of the ‘shameful’ interpretations of scripture like the last few entries exposed.

(268) To my Pastor friends who read this site, I know I have been rough on you guys. I felt the Lord had a word for you right now BEHOLD MY SERVANT WHOM I UPHOLD, MINE ELECT IN WHOM MY SOUL DELIGHTS God delights in you. If you have a church of 500 members and wanted 1000, God delights in you. If you have a church of 10,000 and were only expecting 8,000, God delights in you. God simply delights in you. It’s not about the numbers! I HAVE KNOWN YOUR SOUL IN ADVERSITY, I HAVE SEEN YOU IN THE DESERT. I WILL MAKE A WAY IN THE WILDERNESS AND RIVERS IN THE DESERT, I WILL NOT LEAVE YOUR SOUL IN HELL, NOR SUFFER MY HOLY ONE TO SEE CORRUPTION don’t despise your desert; I have called my Son out of it! [Jesus came out of the desert in the POWER of the Spirit. You now have POWER that comes from God. A SPECIAL WORD TO ALL OUR Corpus Christi leaders, guys we live right off an island [desert conditions] God brought forth great revelation from John when he was on the ‘island’ of Patmos. God is putting Corpus Christi on the ‘map’ rejoice! NOTE: The island we live off of is ‘Padre [Father] Island’, that’s more prophetic than Patmos!

(269) Xxx

(270) I forgot to mention that during the restoration of the walls and the Temple, Nehemiah was a type of an Apostle. He had great organizational wisdom The Prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied strength into the hands of the builders. This is a great picture of all the 5-fold working together to build the ‘City of God’. The book of Acts says ‘the heavens must hold Jesus until the times of the restoration of all things spoken by the Prophets’. The job of Prophets is to speak the word of the Lord.

(271) Another thing from the movie the Matrix. Morpheus tells Neo ‘you have been looking for me for a few years, I have been searching for you my whole life’. It says of John the Baptist ‘he was filled with the Spirit from his mothers womb’ Prophetic people have a destiny from birth. God picked you, knowing full well all the stuff you were going to go thru. Don’t ‘reject’ yourself because of failure and sin; God picked you knowing all this stuff from the start!

(272) Xxx

(273) Let me speak on abortion. I mentioned earlier on this blog about the Catholic and Protestant divide in the 16th century. One of the fears the Catholic Church had was the fear of the divine right of Kings. That if nation states ‘broke away’ from Rome that eventually the states would do whatever they wanted. Some look at the atrocities of Hitler and point to this as a proof. I personally don’t hold to this view, but I do find it interesting that Hitler came along after Darwin and Eugenics. Eugenics is the science that teaches certain races are more ‘pure’ and others are less pure. It taught a type of ethics that said if you get rid of the weaker ones in society that eventually you would have a healthier, purer race. You saw this mindset in Hitler’s attempt to have an ‘Aryan race’. The man who came up with this ‘science’ was a relative of Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin was the ‘popularizer’ of Evolution. If someone truly believes that all Humans are simply an accident of evolution; there is really no moral grounds to value life. If we are all simply blobs on this experimental earth, then why not eliminate the weaker ones for the benefit of the whole race? After all we know this to be true, science teaches it! There you have it, a slippery slope down a course that ultimately leads to a time in our country where we actually allow, by law, a woman to come to a clinic/hospital. Walk in at 7 months of pregnancy, get an appointment with a Doctor and get a ‘partial birth’ abortion. This procedure allows for the actual baby, living and feeling safe in the mother’s womb to be ‘partially’ delivered, leaving ‘part’ of the baby inside the mother. The other ‘part’ sticking out and the Doctor kills the baby. By law it’s not murder, the baby still has a ‘part’ in the mom. The only difference between this child, and others who are born and live a wonderful life, is a few inches. The procedure is defended by politicians who say ‘I personally am against abortion, but I am for a woman’s right’ What about the right of that beautiful little baby girl who you just destroyed in a manner equal to Hitler’s holocaust? This little girl has rights too. Some of our Politicians couldn’t care less about the ‘right’ of the woman; they allow murder for the political expediency of their constituents! Thank you Pontius Pilate. I recently saw on the news a state that is trying to pass a law that would require the mother to see a sonogram of her baby before she gets the abortion, they are persuaded that if a woman ‘looks at the baby’ that she will of her own free will decide to not kill it. They then had the opponents/proponents give both sides. Those against it said things like ‘ we don’t require a person to look at a tumor before its removed’ babies are not ‘tumors’ or any other type of ‘matter’ that you dispose of at will. I once had actual pictures of ‘buckets full of babies’ that were taken outside of some abortion clinic back in the 70’s. These buckets were filled to overflow with burned, chopped up, mutilated little babies. Just sitting there waiting for some dump truck to haul them to the local incinerator. Now we have cleaned up our act, we ‘burn’ them before they get a chance to be spotted by the public eye. God forbid that we would force society to look at ‘these tumors’. May God help us all. NOTE; a few years back there was an abortion doctor who took an actual sonogram of an abortion procedure. They later made a video. The picture was front page on one of the national magazines of our country. It was called ‘silent scream’ it showed the baby actually grasping hold of the instrument that was inserted into the mother’s womb, and the baby was trying to keep it from stabbing it. The babies face could clearly be seen screaming bloody murder. This doctor, who was not a Christian, could not continue performing this procedure no matter how many politicians call this ‘a woman’s right to choose’! UPDATE ON PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION  # 305

(274) As believers we need to look at our role in society as it relates to abortion. Paul Hill, a protestant Minster, became infamous for his killing of an abortion doctor. Paul saw himself as a modern day deliverer who would give his life for something equal to the attempt to assassinate Hitler. As I watched the trial and group of radical Christians who were a part of this group, there was a real sense of seeing the abortion doctors as murderers. Just like seeing someone kill a baby. Well most preachers, and others who gave commentary on this program, divided between how much civil disobedience was warranted to stop abortion. Operation Rescue with Terry Randall practiced a form of it that other believer’s thought was wrong. No one defended the killing of the doctors involved, and some preachers actually said no civil disobedience was warranted at all because abortion is the law of the land. I do want to submit this, if the killing of 1 hour old new borns was the ‘law of the land’ would we do nothing? Then 6 month olds, or all the way to 5 yr olds being taken right out of a pre school and being executed in public? If these were really the law of the land, what would you do? I certainly am not advocating the murder of Doctors or anyone else, but if these preachers who were being interviewed for the story really believed that abortion was murder, equal to all other types of murder, then I think civil disobedience would be warranted. The people surrounding Paul Hill came to their extreme positions as logical deductions based on these facts. They did wrong in killing for sure, but if you yourself were standing by as someone was discriminately killing babies from a hospital nursery, then I would wonder about the sincerity of your belief system.

(275) In scripture there are 2 recorded ‘mass killings’ of babies. The first is the story of Moses in Egypt. The children of Israel were multiplying so rapidly that Pharaoh decided to wipe out all the little baby boys in order to slow down the rate of Israel’s growth. It was a demonically inspired attack, legitimized through law, to kill a whole generation of people. God knew that there was a Moses in this group, a great man of destiny who would come forth and be a great deliverer of Gods people. The enemy knew this as well. Also in the New Testament during the time of Christ you had the mass killing of young children, once again ordained by law [King] in order to wipe out the Messiah. In this instance as well it was a demonically inspired political expediency that allowed it to happen. The King was feeling his position and authority were threatened by this ‘King of the Jews’ so he simply decided to wipe them all out. Our generation has seen the ‘blood lust’ attack to go out and destroy with abandon a whole generation of youth. God has a tremendous destiny for this generation, the enemy knows this and he’s trying to wipe them out, it’s a shame that once again political expediency is giving cover to one of the greatest ‘genocides’ on the history of the planet! NOTE: Scripture speaks of the blood of innocent murdered people ‘crying out from the ground’ [Cain and Abel] God ‘hears’ the cries of innocent people who were wrongfully killed. God judges nations and societies based on their treatment of the widows and children. The present state of ‘politics’ today [2007] is unbelievably childish and irresponsible. You have national leaders of one party going to do their own diplomacy, with terrorist nations like Syria, over the objections of the President in order to show their own political weight, even at the expense of national policy. Sorry, I don’t care if it’s a Democrat or Republican. When you get to the point of your party leaders deciding they will have their own shadow presidency, that’s bad. Now I say this for a reason, the BLOOD of innocent children cries out from the ground. A society will not continue to exist as it ‘builds a foundation’ upon the blood of innocents. The political division that is leading to real trouble for this nation is a judgment of God upon the same political system that time and again gave it’s voice to allow for the murder of innocent babies. This system cannot continue to stand with all the ‘blood’ that it has spilled on the ground! NOTE; you must see that we are not simply speaking about a woman’s right to choose or some medical procedure. We are dealing with an entire generation of little children that we are wiping out at a tremendous rate. More minorities than whites. What more of a racist act can occur than the systematic destruction of your culture and heritage by the wholesale murder of your babies? Whenever you had a time in history where a whole group of people were being killed or enslaved by another group, you eventually had enough voices ‘from the other groups’ of society that would hear the atrocities from the victims themselves. The Holocaust survivors and the slave trade of this nation. The ‘voices’ of desperate pleas for help would eventually leak out into society and humanity would come to the defense of the oppressed. In the case of abortion it is the inability of the child to speak that has allowed this genocide to continue for so long. It is incumbent upon humanity [not just the church!] to see this atrocity and to speak for those who have no voice. We speak out on the murder of seals and animals, we even show the endangered eggs and embryos of animals, but yet the actual ‘embryos’ of humans are treated like trash. Atrocious acts of violence need explicit language to fully show the horror of it all. NOTE: during the debate on the floor of congress a few years ago, they were debating the ban on partial birth abortion. During the debate someone had a baby in the building. In the midst of the debate you could hear the baby crying. The floor went silent for a second. This was the one time where the ‘voice’ of a potential victim was heard!

(276) The last 3 entries on abortion [275-277] were just written from 2:30 am to now, 5:40 am. I woke up this morning with no thought of any subject. As far as I knew I was not going to write anything today. I will be going to work in about an hour and had no plans to speak. I did ask the Lord during prayer and waking up if he had anything to say today, and I wrote the last 3 entries off the top of my head. God wants us to speak when he tells us to. He is not concerned with simply giving us a voice and forum so people can ‘hear us speak’. To a great degree the church has made the ‘public speaker’ a position of performance to titillate the audience. We ‘worship’ preachers like the world worships rock stars. God simply wants to have people give voice to his concerns; he is not looking for ‘superstars’. NOTE: I just walked back outside to finish praying and saw the sky a strange color of red/orange. I don’t remember seeing it quite like this before. I immediately thought of the verse ‘the moon shall turn to blood before the judgment of the Lord’ and others like this. Couldn’t help but see this as a sign of the things I have been writing the last few hours. Sort of like God was saying ‘these things are reaching a ‘full cup’ stage and my judgment is near’ don’t want to sound melodramatic, but thought I should tell you this. NOTE; the violence of this act is unbelievable. The deception of those Senators and supreme court justices who allow for the actual dismembering of 5-8 month old babies in the womb under the guise of a ‘woman’s right’ is appalling. The infamous Dredd Scott decision by the Supreme Court was a wrong decision that allowed for the discrimination of our black brothers. The decision of Roe V Wade allows for the mass extermination, by tortuous dismemberment, of an entire generation of babies. Surely every Politician and Jurist that has given voice to this atrocity will give an account to God. NOTE: Let me show you how deception works. The political landscape of our country has the ‘right wing conservatives’ with their patriarchal suits and ties defending the unborn. The political left has the ‘open minded, right for a woman to choose’ defending the freedoms of all people as they hunt down these babies in the womb with abandon. Many of the women fight for years for this so called right, only to arrive at the day where they are on the operating table destroying their beautiful baby. This whole process must have satan laughing with all his heart. There have also been proponents of abortion who will testify that after they had aborted their first child, no matter how many people aligned with them politically, they could never forget or escape the maternal love and guilt over what they did. They were told over and again ‘don’t let that conservative bunch make you feel guilty’ finally coming to the place where they were alone in some apartment and simply realized that they allowed the framing of this whole argument lead to the atrocious murder of her little baby. They realized that ‘winning’ was not really defined as a woman’s right to choose, but it was defined as actually killing the baby. The mindset of the so-called ‘right to choose’ crowd was really looking for the kill. Most women who were counseled by the Planned Parenthood counselors really felt an environment that made you feel inferior if you didn’t ‘choose to abort’. If you were thinking of actually having the child, the mindset of the right to choose people would turn against you. This showing that its more of a political game of which side will win, its just a shame that the way they keep score is by counting the dead bodies of babies!

(277) A while back I sent a packet of books and stuff to a fairly major prophet in the U.S. I have done this a lot over the years. Many of you wouldn’t recognize the name, some might. In ‘prophetic circles’ he is widely known and has a worldwide ministry. I later found out that he and his wife were battling cancer, I didn’t know this when I sent the stuff, but sent another note and have prayed for them to be healed. This particular prophet never wrote me back [that’s OK] but others have, thanking me for the books and stuff. [Now that I think about it Eagles Nest sent me a nice thank you note a while back after I sent them some stuff] But anyway I felt like sharing something from this. As this brother and his wife battle cancer, I have gone to their site from time to time to see how they are doing. The brother is a good man; they are really fighting hard, lots of warfare imagery. Confessions that this could never be Gods will and sincere things to get healed. I kind of feel bad that this brother has been warring and ‘not believing’ the bad reports and all sorts of strenuous warfare to get healed. I don’t mean to be critical; I love the brother and have prayed for them on more than a few occasions. I simply felt there was a type of ‘spiritual warfare legalism’ that causes us to lose our rest in Christ. The healings of Jesus in the New Testament were primarily gracious acts of healing that the Lord ‘carried the burden for’. A sense of God taking the warfare himself. I know there is credence to confessing scripture and claiming the healing verses, I have done this myself and it does work. I just felt sometimes our battle is simply learning to rest and trust in God, without a whole bunch of ‘spiritual energy’ being displayed on our part. I remember reading the stories of other believers who might not be as charismatic or ‘prophetically’ inclined as this brother. They seemed to live their final days simply writing and speaking of Gods grace and simply recognizing the shortness of life. I am not saying we should accept with resignation our mortality and die before our days. I am just showing you there is an overall theme of the shortness of our days spoken about in scripture, sometimes it is a tremendous testimony to watch a believer ‘finish his days’ with grace and rest. Sometimes God miraculously heals. I don’t fault anyone for doing all they can to see them or their loved ones healed. It’s just sometimes we don’t see all that we want, and to finish gracefully can be a ‘seed’ that will go on and produce fruit for many years after we are gone.

(278) Scripture actually speaks of ‘speaking out on behalf of the poor and oppressed’. There is a fundamental principle of speaking up for social justice issues and defending the innocent. This is why it was a prophetic ministry when Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement. There were many ‘southern denominations’ that did not grasp this reality. The church doesn’t just exist to ‘get people saved’ she exists also as a voice for justice in the earth. Today one of the ‘unseen’ forms of institutional racism is economic oppression. For various reasons you have entire groups of people that have been ‘left behind’ as society around them progressed. This is also why you have certain black preachers who honestly preach the prosperity message, thinking they are speaking economic justice into the black community. They mean well, but preaching materialism isn’t the answer, preaching biblical responsibility and racial equality is. Today you have some black leaders, like Bill Cosby, who are taking a real stand by coming against the ‘victim mentality’ that certain leaders embrace. Cosby says it’s time to teach responsibility and ethics to the young generation of black kids coming up. I do agree. I believe it fundamentally hurts racial reconciliation to teach affirmative action. To simply look at 2 black kids, and one white. And to flat out say ‘these 2 get 5 points on their application for their gene pool, and you, the white kid do not get the points because you are white’ is racist at it’s core. I do understand the tortured reasoning that leads people to do this. They feel this is the answer to undoing the years of institutional racism that has locked the door to many blacks in the past. Some feel that the opportunities were closed for so long, that to be neutral now still doesn’t open the door. The main problem is to give anyone ‘extra points based on genes’ is racist. Even if you think it is for a good cause. Racism is racism no matter what. Doing ‘reverse racism’ leads to the growth of white supremacists and others. They see the obvious racism of what I just told you. They see the politicians unwilling to admit it, and this leads to an extreme response. You have ‘the black congressional caucus’ in congress. You would never get away with a white one. All representatives should represent all people. If a white guy said I am elected to look out for the rights of white people, this would be wrong. In the fire service you have the ‘Hispanic firefighters union’ of course you couldn’t have a white one. These things are unequal. Some believe we should be ‘unequal’ in order to even the playing field, but this simply discriminates against one race for the benefit of another, which my friend is what I call ‘racism’. NOTE: I also am aware of the black leaders who teach it is impossible for a black person to be racist because he doesn’t have the institutional superiority to affect it. All you have to do is listen to a Farrakhan or many of the past comments of Al Sharpton to see that racism isn’t a sin evident only in the white community.

(279) Lets jump out of character a little. During a discussion I had with a ministry leader in our City, I shared the function of the church at Corinth and showed him how during their gatherings they all shared and functioned. I showed him this to explain that I felt the Lord is changing the practice of church from an environment of people who come and listen to a Pastor preach, to an environment of all Gods people sharing together. This doesn’t mean there will never be an instructional time where a Pastor or Apostle or another gifted person can share or preach a sermon, but it shows that the original intent of God for the church was one of interactive involvement of all it’s members. My ministry friend disagreed and said that Paul was just dealing with the ‘home group’ here, and the ‘regular church’ was another thing/place. The mistake my friend made was ‘seeing’ scripture thru the paradigm of church as we practice it today. He sincerely took scripture that addressed the ‘church at Corinth’ [all the believers at Corinth] and read his own mindset into it. The scriptures in Corinthians that deal with how the believers were meeting IS THE CHURCH AT CORINTH. There was not ‘the home groups’ and ‘the main sanctuary meetings’ now if your church has this distinction, fine. The point I was making to my friend was Paul was addressing THE CHURCH when he gave them instructions on how to meet practically. When believers meet anywhere and share the love of Christ and mutually build each other up, that is church in its most simple form. To read Corinthians and ‘see’ another sanctuary service ‘down the road’ is a good example of how we read scripture thru the lens of our own understanding. Let me also say it’s a common mistake among modern cell church movements to read the meetings of the Church at Jerusalem at the Temple [actually they ‘held’ services in Solomon’s Porch, which was an outside courtyard!] and to read into this that the early Christians had ‘sanctuary’ services and ‘home meetings’. This isn’t so. The only Christians that had ‘temple’ services were those at Jerusalem. All the gentile churches [Ephesians, Corinth, etc.] met in homes. This is a fact that doesn’t change. Does this mean all gentiles must only meet in homes? No. I am just showing you there was no pattern of ‘temple’ and ‘home’ groups. Also some advocates of radical reform see Paul’s warning to the Ephesian elders in the book of acts as a warning against the modern clergy system. Paul told the Ephesus church that AFTER MY DEPARTURE, WOLVES WILL RISE UP FROM AMONG YOU [from the believers] and will draw away disciples after themselves. Some see the rise of the ‘singular Pastor’ as a fulfillment of this scripture [I don’t necessarily hold to this view, but I do see some credence to this speaking of the strong personality worship that exists in the church today] Others also use 3rd John and the example of Diotrophes as one who ‘loved to have the preeminence’ and would not receive the brothers. Some see in these examples a strong warning from the early Apostles to avoid strong singular authorities who are looked to as the authority of a local church. I do believe there is some truth to these insights. My goal today is to simply challenge your present understanding of ‘going to church on Sunday’ to seeing yourself as the actual ‘temple of God’ that moves and interacts in the world around them. God brought his presence out of a Temple made with hands and put it in his people, we must not lose sight of this great reality! NOTE: In the book of revelation it says the ‘City of God’ is ‘as a bride adorned for her husband’. We also know that the New Testament calls us ‘the New Jerusalem, the Zion of God’ basically John is writing prophetic imagery in Revelation. It also says ‘there was no temple in it, God himself and the Lamb are the temple’ [we dwell in God] but it also says the Lamb is the light of the City. The only logical way to fit all these images without contradicting is to see the City/Temple being the Church of the living God. As the ‘body of Christ’ we are a real extension of ‘the Lamb’ so the Lamb can be the City, the Temple or the Light of the Temple. Jesus is the light of the Church, he illuminates us by the Spirit. It’s important to grasp this major change of thought from the earthly Jewish Temple, to the heavenly spiritual one. If you don’t rightly see this you will not interpret scripture properly! [By the way I do believe in a literal heaven!] NOTE: A common mistake amongst Apostolic ministries is thinking that it is a biblical mandate to have ‘a spiritual Father’ [and Mother]. I was reading from an apostles site and it gave some testimonies from Pastors Who said the reason they now have a spiritual Father and Mother [speaking of the Apostle and his wife] was because the bible teaches we have natural ones, therefore we should have spiritual ones. The ‘spiritual’ father is God and the mother is the ‘church’ according to Paul. He says ‘THE NEW JERUSALEM IS THE MOTHER OF US ALL’. Paul does tell the Corinthians that he is their spiritual father. But he is basically saying ‘I birthed you guys into the Kingdom; you are the fruit of my Apostolic ministry. Listen to me for correction, not all these others who are trying to bring you under their authority’. Paul was not advocating for people to go out and find Apostles and make them and their wives their ‘spiritual father and mother’.

(280) Reading Isaiah 44. The Lord says the people made idols out of that which God provided for their sustenance, that is Gods resource to them [trees in Isaiah, money and Gods provision now].  They ‘deck it with gold’ [in Jeremiah?] they worship that which God gave as provision and made it their God. They ‘prayed to it’ and saw it as the answer to their dilemma [if we just had this transference of wealth we could accomplish our mission!] They became just like that which they worshipped. Their idols were blind and deaf and dumb. They became blind [unable to perceive] deaf [unable to hear reproof] and dumb [God took away their voice from society, the church at large]. Because of their worship of the idols they ‘became foolish in their understanding and were ashamed’ their foolishness was seen by all [many even from the secular media have said ‘how can you think Jesus was this money focused mega star, he was a carpenters son!’ Even Larry King, a Jewish talk show host said this about the modern money preachers] HE FEEDETH ON ASHES, A DECIEVED HEART HATH TURNED HIM ASIDE The fact that they ‘fed’ off of their own shallow belief system, caused them to become shallow in their understanding of scripture, unable to see the most obvious things! GOD FRUSTRATED THOSE WHO WERE LYING AND TURNED THESE WISE MEN BACKWARD AND MADE THEIR KNOWLEDGE FOOLISH and at the end God forgave those who were willing to repent and he restored them. First comes strong rebuke, but then a true restoration to the original purpose of God. NOTE: It says they fell down and worshipped THE STOCK OF A TREE paper money is made from the ‘stock of a tree’ the way you worship something is by seeing that thing as your goal, confession, desire. Just thinking about it gives you great satisfaction. You spend a great amount of your thought life strategizing and dreaming about making more of it. It’s a deadly pursuit. Jesus says you don’t have time for God and mammon, the worship of mammon consumes too much time! NOTE It also says that a judgment on those who are held captive by idolatry/covetousness is they are unable to see the most obvious things in scripture. One of the strangest things I have seen from the more extreme prosperity brothers is the inability to read the passages of scripture that PLAINLY deal with covetousness and to SEE what these passages are saying. I heard a brother teach on 1st Timothy 6 [both a local brother and 2 national ones] I guess they were getting some heat from guys like me who tell people that 1st Timothy 6 totally deconstructs the modern prosperity gospel. When they were done trying to teach the chapter they were making it say the exact opposite of the plain meaning of Paul’s words. Paul in Timothy warns Timothy about a ‘coming’ group of preachers who will teach that gain is godliness. At one point Paul says FLEE THESE THINGS AND INSTEAD LAY HOLD ON ETERNAL LIFE. The context of this passage was explained by a prosperity guy to mean Paul was telling Timothy to ‘lay hold of abundant material wealth’ he exegetes the word ‘eternal life’ and showed that one of the definitions speaks of ‘wealth in every area’ he then made the conclusion that Paul told Timothy to ‘lay hold of wealth’ This brother didn’t see that when you exegete [study the meaning] of a word you can find many different definitions that apply at different times [Jesus says ‘save a sheep’ or a coin in his parables. This is the same word for ‘save a soul’ in salvation. The text shows you that Jesus isn’t saying ‘save’ in the same way when he talks about sheep and humans] this basic mistake caused the prosperity guy to take the actual warnings in scripture that deal with covetousness and made it teach covetousness. I have seen this twisted interpretation over and over again from many of these guys. This is a judgment from God on those who choose to preach a wealthy Jesus. God says those who distort his Sons image are committing idolatry. One of the judgments on those who commit idolatry is that there wisdom becomes foolishness; they are held captive by their own distorted views. I do pray that these brothers would repent from this stuff. I have personally sent them books and things over the years. It’s just it got to a point where they refuse reproof and we are now at a stage where we are trying to keep a whole new generation of believers from going down this path.

(281) Lets overview a few things. We have covered verses that said ‘the people go out and cut down a tree a make it into the form of a man, they also cover the tree/idol with gold, they worship the image of their mind’ idolatry is forming a ‘man’ into the image that you desire, and blatantly ‘decking him with wealth’ OUCH! [Remember we mentioned in Galatians Paul said some were preaching another Jesus, this ‘other’ Jesus that some preach today is ‘an image of a man’ that is adorned/decked with expensive jewelry and wealth!] Also the image in my mind this morning [its 2:37 am at the fire house] is that of dismembered baby parts all thru out this country. Understand many of these dismemberings took place on the ‘altar of convenience’ i.e.: ‘we can’t AFFORD this child right now’ God have mercy on us as a people. A few scriptures that are coming to mind. I WILL POUR WATER UPON HIM THAT IS THIRSTY [you Pastors and leaders specifically] AND FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND. I WILL POUR MY SPIRIT ON YOUR SEED AND MY BLESSING UPON YOUR OFFSRPING Some of our readers have known us forever, and you guys are still getting ‘poured on’ Great! But I want you to start POURING ON OTHERS. God is going to ‘pour’ on key Pastors/Leaders and allow for you to attain great influence and open doors in the nations. Many of the things these teachings are going to rapidly advance thru the land. GOD IS GOING TO FLOOD THE DRY GROUND There is an individual ‘pouring’ on ‘him’ that is thirsty. You thirsty  leaders are drinking much from this place/site, but God is also ‘pouring’ regionally. Some who have heard us in the past have thought ‘thank God this brother doesn’t have a lot of influence’ well the Lord seems to have changed that. Not for personalities sake, for his purpose. Be a part of pouring the stuff out that he has poured into you! God pours on individuals that are thirsty, so they can be rejuvenated to help pour out on the seed [corporate community] God pours ‘buckets of water’ on the dry ground. One person can only haul so many buckets. 2 can haul more, but a 3-fold cord is not easily broken. Once a ‘grouping’ of Prophetic/Apostolic brothers start disseminating new/fresh revelation, it becomes very hard to stop it at that point THY SEED AND THY NAME SHALL REMAIN. THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH YOU, MY WORDS THAT I HAVE PUT IN THY MOUTH SHALL NOT DEPART OUT OF THY MOUTH, NOR OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THY SEED FROM THIS TIME FORTH AND FOREVER MORE. Many of our leader friends and ‘regular’ friends for many years, run with the things the Lord has showed you. I have been running myself for a long time with these things, take the baton! BE STRONG AND OF A GOOD COURAGE, BE NOT AFRAID, NIETHER BE THOU DISMAYED, FOR THE LORD THY GOD IS WITH THEE WITHERSOEVER THOU GOEST Go somewhere! GET OUT OF THE CITY AND DWELL IN THE FIELDS, EVEN BABYLON. THERE I WILL BE WITH YOU AND THERE I WILL DELIVER YOU FROM THE HAND OF THE ENEMY you have to be in enemy territory to be delivered from enemies! THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST THE CHURCH [ecclesia]. We too often read church as the stagnant place. But read it as ecclesia, the mobile force and community of God. When we ‘mobilize’ and ‘set up camp’ in enemy territory it becomes an outpost for God. We are the ambassadors representing the Kingdom in that place. Before too long the inhabitants of ‘that place’ become citizens of the Kingdom we represent and we have taken ground for the kingdom. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN SUFFERETH VIOLENCE AND THE VIOLENT TAKE IT BY FORCE The concept of one nation taking up residence in another land and then influencing that society for God is seen strongly in the Old Testament nation of Israel. God allowed for ‘proselytes’ and foreigners to come in and be part of Gods society. This is voiced in Ephesians by Paul. Speaking of us being strangers to the covenant, and now thru Christ being adopted in. Also in the book of Acts it speaks of ‘God Fearers’ this wasn’t a reference to people who just ‘feared God’ it was speaking of outsiders who were embracing Judaism but were not fully converted yet. So we see the intent of God to first reveal himself to a group/nation of people. But that nation is not supposed to ‘contain’ him, but reveal him to all the surrounding nations. The light under a bushel and not being on the candlestick were images that Jesus used to reprove the Jews of the 1st century. They took Gods glory that was specifically given to them to share, and they became ‘self righteous’. They chose to ‘separate’ from society in a legalistic way that said ‘we are better than you, stay away’. Jesus would rebuke this mindset over and over again in the parables. Many Christians today, in certain isolated forms of church, practice this kind of legalism. They view ‘church’ as a place to go and stay clean from the world. They miss the original intent of God, which was to influence the world. Get that light out from under the cover; get that salt out into society. It wasn’t given to us so we could ‘dig a whole and bury it in the ground’ [I think I heard a popular speaker say this once?]

(282) I remember being at work one day and a friend of mine was on the phone with his bank. I could hear him arguing about the fact that they messed up his account balance. He was supposed to have around $20.00 dollars, instead it was showing his normal balance of $1.oo. After he hung up I told him I also had problems with this bank before. I threatened to take my money and do business with another bank. I told him I would have advised you to make the same threat, but I don’t know if it would have much clout, considering the average balance you run in your account! Yesterday they fired the radio guy [Don Imus] that I mentioned the other day. One of the reasons is Al Sharpton and others convinced the sponsors to pull the ads from the show. I said earlier [before others were saying it!] that I thought he should be fired because of his racist remarks. Well now you have both sides [black and white] arguing over race. I do believe Sharpton is a major hypocrite as trying to be the voice in this. He, till this day, oppresses innocent people publicly over the Tawanna Brawley case. Not only did a grand jury clear these white men who he accused of raping a black girl, but the jury said it was all made up. There’s a big difference between being found not guilty, and a jury saying the charges are proved to be false. Not only does Sharpton not apologize for ruining these white guys lives who he racially accused, he still says he believes one of the guys is guilty. This isn’t an O.J. Simpson ‘not guilty’ verdict. This is a real obvious persecution of this white guy. Jesse Jackson refused to get involved in this case at the beginning because all the local ‘in the know’ leaders, even the black ones, knew this was a fake charge made by a scared girl who spent the night out with a boyfriend and made the story up. I really don’t blame the girl; I blame Sharpton for building a civil rights persona at the expense of falsely accusing a white guy. He is obviously a racist. Now, to admit that there are racists on both sides allows there to be reconciliation. To deny it perpetuates the problem. The money story about my friend shows how if you can effect an organization, because you have the money to do it, then they will listen. If you don’t, then they will not [most times]. These organizations [C.B.S. and N.B.C.] who only fired someone because of the money are certainly not moral authorities, don’t fool yourself.

(283) A few years ago I read the autobiography of Bob Dylan ‘Chronicles’. It got great reviews and I am an old rock and roll fan. I love going to the rock stores in the malls and checking out the stuff. Recently Brad Delp committed suicide; he was the lead singer for ‘Boston’. I read a statement from a family member. It said ‘he gave all he could give and was tired’. Others said he was the nicest guy in rock and roll. He was one of the few who didn’t party or drink. He was health conscious, his lyrics were uplifting, a lot of old rockers wont admit that the group was good, it’s sort of being wimpy to like a group who isn’t radical. Its like ozzy Osborne said to his wife when he walked in to the auditorium where they were giving the concert that night. His wife Sharon had fixed up the special effects where some machine was blowing out bubbles. Ozzy says ‘I cant have this Sharon, I’m supposed to be the ‘bleep, bleep’ prince of darkness, and you have bubbles blowing out’ [I saw this on their reality show on MTV]. I have a John Lennon poster hanging on my wall. I read an article on Lennon how in the 70’s he was watching a famous T.V. evangelist and accepted the Lord. He was actually going around for a few months witnessing for Jesus. His wife Yoko, who isn’t Christian, revolted against this. She convinced him of all the ‘horrors’ of Christianity and he eventually walked away [thanks again Yoko!] He even wrote a song about this, how his wife ‘opened his eyes’ to the wrong path he was going down. Dylan also accepted the Lord and even made a Christian album, Slow Train Coming [you know I like train imagery!] I found it interesting to know that Lennon was actually preaching for the Lord in 1977 in New York City, while I was getting stoned about a half mile away on the other side of the Hudson River listening to his music! In the Dylan book he talks about coming to New York and having some friends who he would just ‘crash’ at their houses and live this nomadic existence as he was learning about life. A lot of the underground music scene was thriving in the City at the time. One of his buddies had a great collection of all sorts of philosophers and historical books. Dylan spent hours reading all these ideas and concepts and reasons for society. It was like having a ‘Google’ in written form. I have spent years reading and buying books. Accessing the Library and becoming a student this way. The last 3 years I have done a ton of research on line. You can’t beat Google for an exhaustive search on any subject being right at your fingertips. But the many years of manual study adds a depth to your understanding that doesn’t come with a Google search. I felt like the death of Delp [Boston] was prophetic for me. I used to play an old Boston C.D. when I first moved to Corpus. I hadn’t played it in a long time and just recently started listening to it. Then Delp died. This is 2007, a year where I felt the Lord said we would ‘die’ to many old things and familiar surroundings [things that we rely on] and we would ‘come alive’ to other things. I still love ‘More Than a Feeling, Long Time’ and a few other Boston hits. Sorry Ozzy.

(284) When God wants to do a reform/revolution he does it at many levels at the same time. The difficult thing for the reformer[s] is you get those ‘being challenged’ all mad at you at one time! It does take ‘guts’ to be a pioneer. One time when Jesus was rebuking one group, the other group said ‘don’t you know you are offending us too’ [Pharisees and Lawyers] Jesus said he didn’t care. Let them get offended. Every plant that the Father didn’t plant will be uprooted. It’s funny because we have a lot of Apostles/Prophets upset with us. Though we all believe and function in these gifts together. Then we have the whole crowd of old time churches who simply think we are heretics because we believe in Apostles! It can be funny at times [or if you don’t have boldness you could describe it like the Governor of California says ‘girly men’ it wont be ‘funny’ you will be scared! I would attempt to spell Arnolds name but I don’t have time to spell it right!] So lets do a little ‘reforming’. Recently those who are feeling challenged in the whole area of ‘going to church’ have resorted to the classic verses to defend ‘going to church’ FORSAKE NOT THE GATHERING OF OURSELVES TOGETHER AS SOME. HE THAT SEPARATES HIMSELF SEEKS HIS OWN DESIRE lets put some context. Those in the radical ‘out of the church building on Sunday’ movement for the most part practice the ‘assembling of themselves together’ in a more scriptural way than ‘Sunday church’. Also Paul wrote this to the Hebrews, the Jews had a custom of meeting on Sabbath; Paul is simply saying when you transition into this New Covenant keep getting together! You are forsaking old sacrificial ways and law, but keep assembling. This is also why you find the ‘congregation’ and assembly mentioned in James. The Jewish context of those being addressed required them to deal with ‘assembling’ because they already ‘assembled’ as Jews. Also to use these verses to ‘push back’ against the Body of Christ finding freedom and maturity is simply a result of Pastors responding to reform out of insecurity. You can ‘go to church every Sunday for the rest of your life’ and still be ‘separating yourself’ from the purpose of God. When old time preachers do this kind of defense, I know they are sincere, but we must be willing to change!

(285) I had a friend who was investing in some real estate. He kind of asked for advice. Didn’t want to be obvious about it, but he knew I had done this in the past and wanted input. I gave him some, he didn’t listen and I think he is suffering for it, oh well. During the conversation he was telling me about the houses he will keep, and the ones he will flip in about 15 years. The others he will pay on for the full 30-year mortgage and pay them off. He was around 50 years old at the time of this discussion. I told him that one of the other mistakes people make when investing is to not count their own mortality into the scenario. You very well might be dead in 30 years! I am even bold with financial advice! I wasn’t really rude, but you could tell that my friend who was all consumed with having a few million for retirement, strategizing on more money, taking courses and studying on investment schemes. He wasn’t calculating in his own mortality. He doesn’t have kids. All you need is enough money to last for a few years, sorry if you don’t like to hear this, but it’s true. Financial advisors will tell you that people often make this mistake. They calculate in the million dollars they need at age 70. They look at how much interest they need to generate off the account, and they do not calculate the eventual need to withdraw the principal over a measured period of time in a responsible manner. Why? Because there is a natural tendency in man to avoid the fact that you will die! Be smart in investing and build a nest egg, that’s all right. Just don’t be buying houses at 50 and think you might flip it in 30 years. You might not be around to ‘do the flipping’! NOTE: as you see I live in a world of extremes, one day my friends are thinking like this, the next day I am working with the guy who runs the $1.oo balance in his account! [He does run more I am sure, I just caught him at a bad time]

(286) My daughter who works for the Vet. brought home a blind dog the other day. The owners were moving to Iraq and couldn’t take her. So they dropped it off to be put to sleep. Sad. Well now she lives with me [2 dogs 10 cats] she is old and cute. Her eyes are ‘cloudy’ like when it says in the book of Acts that Paul had ‘scales’ on his eyes. I left her in my yard for a few minutes and went inside. Came out and she was all wet. She obviously baptized herself in my pond! A strange thing happened. Her cloudy eyes were completely clear accept for the pupils. I have no idea if this was do to the adrenaline rush or what. This pond is fixed up to look like the Hudson River area where I grew up. When praying in my yard I pray for all my friends up north while walking past this ‘pool’. Pools and basins of water do represent healings and cleansings in scripture GO WASH IN THE POOL OF SILOAM and the LAVERS surrounding the Tabernacle in the Old Testament. And yes, the Baptism of John in the Jordan! I like the symbol of this new dog to the family. She was ‘at our table’ for a few days and got a ‘baptism’ that caused the ‘scales’ to fall from her eyes. Isaiah said the Spirit of the Lord was on Jesus to OPEN BLIND EYES I trust you new additions to our ‘family’ are getting your eyes opened, it can be scary [the dog was terrified after falling in] but it’s a new day for many of you!

(287) Reading Isaiah again, some stuff from chapter 45. God says his anointing subdues nations [large regions] looses Kings [leaders] from captivity [things that they didn’t even know were holding them back].  God goes before his anointed and breaks in pieces the gates and bars that people trusted would protect their borders [territory]. WOE TO THOSE WHO STRIVE WITH THEIR MAKER some will fight back against what God is doing and it will be harmful to them. Pride will cause them to see the reproof as ‘Oh, it's those critics again’ not realizing that this time certain things have come full circle and the Lord will not let certain things stand anymore. Those whom God anoints will LET GO THE CAPTIVES, NOT FOR PRICE OR REWARD there only motivation is to free the people and finish the purpose of God. THEY SHALL GO TO CONFUSION TOGETHER THAT ARE MAKERS OF IDOLS In the past when they were reproved they were able to ‘whether out the storm’ but not this time. They go into confusion together this time; the only hope is to finally truly address these same rebukes they have heard thru out their lives. I HAVE NOT SPOKEN IN SECRET, OR IN A DARK PLACE God says I have made these things plain, the only thing preventing many from changing is spiritual pride. LOOK UNTO ME ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH/ EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE CONFESS all people involved will find harmony and peace when there is mutual submission to the Lord ship of Christ. All will bow! MEN OF STATURE SHALL COME OVER TO THEE AND THEY SHALL BE THINE Some influential Kingdom leaders will be persuaded this time around. They themselves have questioned many of these things but this time they know for sure which path to take.

(288) I am up early at work. I want to share a little on ‘territorial expansion’. Since 2004 I have been doing early prayer. Sometimes getting up at midnight, other times around 2:30 AM [like this morning] it’s been 3 years now and I believe this is a permanent thing for me now. This preceded the Lord giving us regional expansion. As a ministry who has no income [I pay for the stuff I do, others volunteer as family] the Lord has given us a lot of area. I have been praying over an area that covers our radio audience for a while. That’s from Houston over to San Antonio, down to Laredo thru the Valley and back up to Corpus. I kind of was happy with ‘staying’ in this perimeter [plus New York area]. I kind of felt the Lord saying ‘go to Dallas, Fort Worth’ but I really felt comfortable with the area we are in. I finally incorporated Dallas/Fort Worth in. While our program doesn’t reach Dallas, I do want to advertise this blog site there. It’s sort of like when I wrote about Jesus telling Peter to ‘cast the nets’ he was telling Peter ‘this is a time of multiple castings you will need to multi task at this season. If I say ‘nets’ don’t think ‘net’. I just felt like there are times when God opens many doors at once, in our fear and lack of faith we have a tendency to want ‘survival’ when God is speaking ‘expansion’! NOTE: While I was at work debating whether or not to add Dallas to our ‘perimeter’ I also had a list of some of our key people opened, I was just starting a new page in my address book that will list all the cities and people who are sponsoring a home group. Just as I started writing the list one of our key people showed up at work. He is one of the original drug addicts that we reached out to 20 years ago. He has been clean for a long time. He is just getting ready to graduate with a degree from A&M University. Today we will be getting together and this week we will launch a group in Kingsville, our original city. This all happened while debating whether or not to reach Dallas. Remember; when God is speaking ‘nets’ [multiple] don’t think ‘net’. Also I want to remind you of a verse REMEMBER THE WORD WHICH MOSES THE SERVANT OF THE LORD COMMANDED YOU, SAYING THE LORD YOUR GOD HAS GIVEN YOU REST, AND HAS GIVEN YOU THIS LAND. YOUR WIVES AND LITTLE ONES SHALL REMAIN IN THE LAND THAT THE LORD GAVE YOU ON THIS SIDE OF JORDAN, BUT YOU SHALL GO BEFORE YOUR BRETHREN ARMED, ALL THE MIGHTY MEN OF VALOUR AND HELP THEM UNTIL THE LORD HAS GIVEN THEM REST LIKE YOU God permits you to have a ‘home base’ of security and stability, so you will branch out and help others expand the kingdom. Don’t stay comfortable in the land, if you ‘store up too much Manna’ it will rot!

(289) As I have been reading sites from other areas where we are reaching out to, I recognize some of the names of people. Around 15 years ago we had a good brother come to corpus to preach at a conference. I remember him saying how he was ‘seeing’ all the deceptions of the prosperity movement and he had to back down because of mercy and love. You got the feeling that he was seeing some stuff, and for young guys it’s hard to believe that so much teaching can be so wrong. I could tell that he was seeing a lot of the stuff you see from this site, but out of fear couldn’t make the leap. He was around my age at the time [30]. Later on during a dinner with some of the preachers, I was invited. I didn’t ‘reprove’ or argue. I was just fellowshipping. Some how the prosperity gospel came up. I told him I just spent a year making radio tapes exposing the flaws of the movement. You could see that he was a little shaken. Sort of like realizing all the things he really wanted to say, but didn’t, were right! He also argued a little with me over some of the money verses. THOUGH JESUS WAS RICH, HE BECAME POOR SO WE COULD BE RICH he made an honest effort to say ‘it might be talking about money’ I just said ‘no it’s not’. Paul is the same guy who wrote all these other verses you see me teach on, there is NO WAY Paul is telling the Corinthians that Jesus died to increase their portfolio! Being we were both the same age and all, and being he himself knew I was right, it kind of shook him up that he didn’t preach this stuff at the conference, you could tell it. By the way you can take the verse I just quoted and make it say MONEY if you want. But you would have to go thru the same distorted way to interpret that I have showed you before on this site. Just about every cult in the world has bible verses, this doesn’t mean they are right! NOTE: to our critics, I was recording tapes for our radio program on KCTA prior to launching the show. I was also broadcasting on smaller venues already. NOTE during the phase a few years back when a lot of this stuff was first being dealt with, there were a lot of sincere brothers who didn’t want to face these issues. There is almost a sense of ‘if this stuff is as deceptive as it looks, it’s too bad to even admit it’ I remember hearing a national minister say at the time ‘ a lot of people are criticizing the prosperity movement, the lord told me when you get to heaven and see all the souls that were won by the money they brought in they will have great rewards’ [p.s. he has since changed his stance]. The problem with this reasoning is Paul and Jesus warned over and over again about the dangers of materialism. The leaders needed to speak with a clear voice many of the things I was saying. This cloudy view was making it difficult for those involved to break free.

(290) Let s go thru some stuff. I woke up yesterday at 3:00 am, felt like I needed to do some specific prayer. Some times I include about an hour and a half of specific intercession while doing ‘all night’ prayer. This list of things has grown and evolved over the last 20 years, but it has kept the basic structure for the most part, Family, Nations, Fellow believers and even old friends from Jersey. I have actually been praying specifically for you guys, often by name, for over 20 years! Well I didn’t get to do the ‘specific set’ yesterday, so I am now up at 2:45 am, been up since 1, and will make a second attempt soon. First lets do some stuff. I recently read an overview of the first book the Pope put out since becoming Pope. I will get it when it comes out in English. He wrote exactly what I have been speaking on the last month or so. He speaks on the dangers of Marxism [communism] as a form of govt. that pushed out God, though it had noble designs in its attempt to have all people ‘equal’ in society. He spoke on the dangers of capitalism as a type of govt. that can fall to the temptation of materialism. He spoke on materialism as an enemy of the church and how western society has fallen into this sin without realizing it. These themes are almost exactly what I have taught! It’s humbling to see God speak the same thing to an insignificant  preacher on the gulf coast, as he is speaking to the Pope in Rome! During the time of slavery in this country there were many southern preachers who defended slavery from scripture. Many of these men were sincere, some were not. The sincere ones even had reputations as Christians that their own slaves vouched for. Some slave holders were cruel and abusive, some were actually good to their slaves [as good as you can be considering you have a slave!] The Christian slave holders read the actual verses in the New Testament where Paul writes to slaves and says SLAVES BE OBEDIENT TO YOUR MASTERS IN EVERY WAY, SO YOU DON’T GIVE THE GOSPEL A BAD REPUTATION the slave holders who were truly Christian read the other part that said MASTERS, TREAT YOUR SLAVES WITH LOVE AND RESPECT, KNOWING THAT YOU ALL ARE FELLOW BELIEVERS OF GODS GRACE. Now to read these real verses during the Civil war caused many sincere preachers to say that slavery should not be ‘undone’ because God addressed both the slaves and the masters this way. To be real honest, many of you who hold to a literalist view of scripture [I hold to a literalist view to a great extent] would see these verses the same way. It is the overriding purpose of the Gospel that causes one to fight for freedom despite the ‘verses’. Jesus primary goal in redemption was to set slaves free [spiritually] for this spiritual redemption to follow thru to a ‘physical’ one was only logical. To form your views at the time based on the overriding ACT OF REDEMPTION would trump any specific direction given, even in scripture, to a 1st century slave holder. Context tells us that Paul was addressing slaves under a different time and economy of societal rule. These 1st century slaves were governed by many Old Testament decrees that God allowed, for a multiple of reasons, to exist. It was easy for the ‘literalist’ preachers to say THE BIBLE SAYS SO in defense of keeping slaves; it was proper and just to free them as an extension of Gods purpose in Redemption! It takes courage and boldness to stand against a particular reading of scripture, that is popular at the time, in order to see and move down the bigger road of Gods overall purpose. Many today can’t follow this theme. Its possible to go to Old Testament scripture and find verses on putting to death kids who curse their parents, women who have cheated on their husbands and even those who live the Gay lifestyle. While none of these practices are considered good, even amongst most Christians today, yet to kill them is not an option! [Except maybe for that Westboro Baptist Church bunch of nuts who are going around picketing dead servicemen at their funerals!]. Christian’s today practice tithing under the same reading of scripture, many of them don’t know this, but its true. You can read the verse on robbing God in Malachi and scare people, just like if you read the verses on putting Gays to death. If you read that verse over and over every Sunday you could be persuaded of it. If you read Malachi and tithing as you read other Old Testament verses [with a spiritual truth behind the verse] then you would err on the side of grace. The old testament teaching on tithing shows us that God not only wants the ‘10 %’ of a persons income, but he wants the whole firstfruit. Spiritually we ARE the first fruits unto God. He wants ALL of us, we are his tithe! Simple, isn’t it. Now if you give 10% to your church on Sunday, fine. You shouldn’t read Malachi and tell New Testament Christians their under a curse if they don’t put 10 % in the bucket. The way people ‘rob God’ according to Jesus is by not meeting the actual needs of society WHEN I WAS HUNGRY YOU DIDN’T FEED ME, NAKED AND YOU DIDN’T CLOTHE ME, etc. Robbing God is not done by ‘not tithing’ it is done by not obeying the New Testament mandate given over our treatment of ‘our neighbor’. Now this is supposed to ‘leak’ over into society at large. That’s also why you see certain elements of catholic teaching that harbor illegal aliens [the sanctuary movement] they are responding out of this basic concept of ‘treating your neighbor well’. Neighbor in the 1st century context also meant ‘alien’ those who were living ‘in the land’ but were not really part of Gods covenant. God had specific instructions on how to treat ‘illegals’ and it was WITH GRACE. Sorry Sean Hannity! Well any way I felt the Lord had this word for you guys, hopefully I will get thru this prayer thing without coming back to write, many times I will write in spurts while right in the middle of prayer. Could it be that this is why the Lord allows these ‘words’ to have a big impact? Prayer is more important than ‘pulpit performance’ seek to speak what God is saying and the Lord will give you an audience. NOTE: When Paul was addressing the early believers and basically telling the slaves to ‘submit’ this was a practical reality that Paul was trying to instill in the new revolutionary movement called ‘church’. There were other messianic groups in the first century, some of these were called ‘zealots’ these people practiced a radical type of reform. A type of civil disobedience that Paul didn’t want the new believers to be associated with. Paul wanted the early believers to be seen as good citizens in society, not zealots. This explains the practical instruction on slaves being obedient. Paul wasn’t justifying slavery for all time!

(291) Well I didn’t make it too long. The other day I was fellowshipping with an old friend. He is one of our ‘first fruits’ unto God. Many years in Prison, doing drugs, robbing places. One of the ‘veterans’ of the Prison group. These guys have been with me from the start. They have seen us go thru transition and all types of changes and things over the years. I was reading the Saturday papers that our blog comes out in. He showed up at work and I gave him all the blog pages from these Texas papers to hang up as a prayer reminder. By the way if you guys see our listing in your city paper, do the same! I was sharing with my friend about some new cities we are going to reach out to. New territories and ideas, always thinking strategically. After talking a few minutes he was feeling a little apprehensive. He was telling me about his brother, also an old friend of mine, and how he’s back on ‘the stuff’ all strung out living in Robstown. I was like ‘yea, I will pick him up for the home group on my way to Kingsville’ my buddy was around when I went thru a lot of hard times in the past. He was like ‘ slow down brother, you know the devil starts coming after us when we try to reach out and all’. These guys have been shot at, shot at others. Been involved in the ‘Mexican Mafia’ in prison. Done all types of crazy stuff, and yet the devil still has them scared to reach out. I do understand what my friend was saying, I even remember his dad tell me this 20 years ago, the devil wants to intimidate us [and you!] Hey, we are all gonna die some day, might as well ‘go out in a blaze of glory’.

(292) Still praying [last 2 entries] and felt I should share this. I am at the point of prayer where I pray for all of you. Part of this prayer has me INVOKING THE BLOOD OF JESUS on all of you. I usually feel the anointing at this point [also when praying for the martyrs families and abortion I sense this feeling] Just now I prayed I INVOKE THE ETERNAL BLOOD OF THE UNIVERSE OVER ALL THESE PEOPLE and was looking straight up at the stars and there was this awesome gust of cool wind and a sense of God cleansing us. Add this to you’re prayer list!

(293) Many years ago while visiting Jesrey I would look up old friends and try to visit and tell them about what the Lord was doing. The first few years I would still find old buddies living in the same houses where they grew up. One time I found an old friend, Tom Roming. Another friend told me how he became a heroin addict [Revelation speaks of a rider on a  horse whose name is death, some think the reference to heroin as ‘horse’ applies.] I found him staying at his mom’s house. I guess we were around 25 years old at the time. In the last 5-7 years out of high school I covered a lot of territory, it was sad to see that some of my buddies spent that whole time at the end of a needle. Tom was surprised to see me, the way he introduced me to his mom was ‘this is chiarello, he was one of those guys who was always beating some one up’. I thought about this later, how even in high school I had a buddy; frank Romano, who would hang out with me. One time a jock had punched him out. He knew he had to make it right. He didn’t have the same ‘ability’ to just walk up to someone and ‘whack the hell out of em’. The key to this strategy is you hit someone on the first shot with all your might and if you don’t knock him out, you already have a great advantage. Well Frank knew he had to do something. So I ‘coached’ him for the big day. I do remember being upstairs in North Bergen High School and meeting Frank. I was his ‘moral support’. When the Jock came out of the class, I told Frank ‘go for it’. He walked up and punched this guy in the face. It was quite wimpy! They fought and it was over. A few weeks later he saw some of these guys at some school function [without me around] and he told me he felt bad because he had purposely ran away. I said don’t feel bad Frank, you whacked him already. He said ‘yea, but you were there, and all those jocks know you would ‘kick their #$@#$ if they did something’. I never realized that I was viewed that way. Well one of our other ‘friends’ made fun of my friend when he first got whacked by the jock. He kept telling Frank ‘you saw the stars’ the other day. Not long after, right in class I told this guy ‘as soon as the bell rings, I am gonna whack the $^%# out of you right here. I am giving you fair warning’. I remember the bell ringing and I calmly stood up and ‘whacked’ him so hard I smashed his glasses into his face. He really got knocked out on fell on the floor [this was the only time someone actually got knocked out]. The Puerto Ricans in the class were always scared of me after this. It’s like you had Italians and Puerto Ricans and Cubans. Well Frank was able to tell this guy who I hit ‘I heard you saw stars too!’ Actually I see the name of this guy who I hit on the classmates site. I do want to email him and apologize and invite him to the site. I am not sure if I should. Well my drug friend Tom Roming invited me in and we had a good talk. I shared scripture with him and really had a good time. A few years later he was dead. I hope he accepted the Lord. NOTE: The class I was in was New Jersey History with Mr. Norris as my teacher. The teacher found out that I actually knocked him out after everybody left the room. The next day he really didn’t say anything, he actually looked scared! I found out my friend Frank had actually told him something like ‘John will kick your #%$@ too’. I wouldn’t have, but thought this was funny!

(294) GOD HAS THE ABILITY TO MOBOLIZE AND EXPAND ON ALL FRONTS AT ONCE!

(295) I have a captain friend at the firehouse who is a liberal Democrat. One day we were talking and the secretary pages the Captain to pick up the phone. I forget how she said it, but it was in a way that we knew it was Dick Cheney’s office calling to set up our ambulance service to provide for a local hunting trip that Cheney makes every year. He kinda said ‘damn, what’s Cheney want now!’ I thought it was funny. This Captain was rooting for Kerry to win the election against Bush a few years back. There were a bunch of guys hanging out and he was challenging the ‘non Kerry’ guys. I stuck my hand out and bet him $50 bucks that Bush would win. He went for it. Sure enough I won the 50 and he paid up. He was mad that Kerry lost, and he was taking it out verbally on the union guys who voted for Bush. He said ‘I cant understand how you labor guys could vote for a Republican, there out for the rich, what money has Bush ever gotten you?’ I answered ‘Well, he just made me 50 bucks’ this didn’t improve my Captains mood too much! NOTE: I am not a Republican or Democrat. I initially was against the Iraq war. I voiced my fear that we were trying to do too much and we were going to spread ourselves too thin. I said this from the start. Just thought I would mention this. Also many people don’t realize that Saddam was ‘friendly’ to Christians. Being he was a ‘secular’ Muslim, and not a radical one like Iran’s Ayatollahs, Christian evangelism and other aspects of Christianity had more of an open door than in Iran. I am not defending Saddam, he was a tyrant! Just thought you should know this.

(296) Let me overview some history from the Fundamental Independent Baptist Church and its beliefs. I used to attend a good one that did preach the gospel. I do want to share in love some examples from this peculiar type of Christianity. The church I attended had a sign that said FUNDAMENTAL, INDEPENDENT, PREMELLINIAL, PRETRIBULATIONAL BAPTIST CHURCH This ‘sign’ was in itself a sign of the danger that Christians fall into when they isolate themselves from the rest of the Body of Christ. While I understand this view and style of belief, I also see a type of theology [eschatology] that can develop when you truncate yourself from the mainstream churches. There are so many things that you can put on a ‘church sign’ why clutter it up with certain end time views [which in my view are actually incorrect!] You can put THE BLOOD OF JESUS WASHES AWAY SIN or John 3:16 or some other way to define your belief system, but this type of Church sees itself as THE ONLY truly Christian church today. Some are not this extreme, but even those have a ‘cultic’ spirit that sees everyone else as ‘straying from the faith’ while they are the true carriers of the faith. I was with a friend at work who is a Christian. I recently recommended the church I attend in Corpus [a great mega church] to him. They have a ‘branch’ church in Kingsville where I work. One day while I was reading the bible during lunch a city inspector came by to take care of business. He noticed I was reading the bible and started talking. I found out that he is a good Christian who attends a fundamental Baptist Church. I gave him some of the books I wrote and told him I am a little ‘radical’ but hoped he would get blessed [to be honest for a Fundamental Baptist to read this entire site would probably give him a heart attack]. It was good fellowship. He shared with me and the other fire fighter how he and his wife travel about 4 towns over [50 miles] to attend a Fundamental Baptist Church. It’s probably a small Church with around 50 people [OK] my friend later thought it strange for someone to do that. After all there are so many good Christian churches right here! I explained to him a little of the legalism that causes this. To see your ‘peculiar style’ of belief as the only ones you can truly worship with. Many Christians suffer from this. Some are more extreme than others. By the way my fire fighter friend did start attending the church I recommended, and he loves it. One day at work we were watching the history channel and they were doing a thing on the Mormon Church, my friend said ‘wow, I would never be a Mormon’ I looked at him with a real serious face and said ‘what do you mean’ he said ‘look at all the stuff they believe, I could never believe that’ I said ‘[my friends name] we are MORMONS! Bay Area Fellowship is Mormon!’ He was shocked, then I told him I was just kidding. I thought it was funny at the time.

(297) Some things from Isaiah 46. THE IDOLS WERE UPON THE BEASTS, THEY ARE A BURDEN TO THE BEAST Idols wear you down, they put the responsibility on you to change your world. Sooner or later they will weigh you down. I HAVE MADE AND I WILL CARRY YOU AND DELIVER YOU True Christianity puts the ‘burden’ on God to pull us thru. HIS YOKE IS EASY AND BURDEN LIGHT   THEY TAKE GOLD OUT OF THE BAG, AND WEIGH SILVER IN THE BALANCE. THEY HIRE A GOLDSMITH AND HE MAKES IT INTO A GOD God will not let this stand CALLING A RAVENOUS BIRD FROM THE EAST, THE MAN THAT EXECUTETH MY COUNSEL FROM A FAR COUNTRY. I HAVE SPOKEN IT AND I WILL BRING IT TO PASS. I HAVE PURPOSED IT AND I WILL DO IT HEARKEN UNTO ME YE STUBBORN OF HEART God says this time around I will perform my purpose to bring true reform. Many times you have been reproved and shown the error of idolatry, you have for the most part ignored it and have not allowed for true reformation. This will not stand any longer. The people are tired of the burden it brings and they will flee to God so he can ‘carry them’. NOTE: I have memorized the ‘ravenous bird from the east’ for over 20 yrs. I always took it personal. Coming from the east and all. ‘Blinded by the light’ song says ‘preacher from the east’. American Pie from Don McLean says ‘the 3 Men I admire most, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, they took the last train for the coast’ you have the train imagery and the coast. And the image from the gospel of John on ‘in my fathers house are many mansions’ speaks of people groups. Well Springstein says ‘ every body’s out on the road tonight in a last chance power drive, took highway nine to the mansions of glory’ I have driven highway 9, as you can tell I still like the old songs!

(298) I AM BRINGING IN A TRAIN FROM HEAVEN, IT IS COMING WITH POWER I forgot that chuck Pierce prophesied this around a month ago, I like the train stuff!

(299) Was just thinking about a show I saw a while back. Larry King had a bunch of preachers and Priests on his talk show. One preacher was a ‘fundamentalist’ he was doctrinally correct on a lot of stuff, but you could sense an arrogance. Another brother was a well-known Christian author, I liked him the most. He stood strong for salvation being thru Christ, but was humble and real. The Priest was a little to ‘liberal’ for me. He kind of had the mindset that all people who believe in ‘a’ god are all right [not all Priests are liberal!]. He even had a famous guy who is very popular today, he teaches ‘eastern mysticism’ though they really don’t call it that. It’s easy to fall into categories. I believe true Christianity should be ‘served’ with humility and grace. This doesn’t mean that we give in to extreme liberal views on salvation ‘all roads lead to heaven’ type stuff. One road leads to heaven, his name is Jesus. You can be Catholic, Protestant or any other group, but you must believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Gods Son. God is not asking people to change their cultural heritage, but he is compelling you to ‘get in the lifeboat’ [Ark!]

(300) A WHEEL WITHIN A WHEEL [bible verse- Ezekiel’s vision of God] A few years ago I flew to Jersey. At the airport I went to a gift shop to get some stuff for my kids. I saw a shop from the Smithsonian institute. They had all sorts of stuff that I remember seeing as a boy taking field trips to Philadelphia and stuff. I picked up a gyroscope. It’s like a ‘wheel within a wheel’ type thing. They function like a top. I know this isn’t what the above verse is referring to [to my Jersey friends, the wheel thing is in the bible in Ezekiel. Also Philadelphia is a word from the book of Revelation describing one of the 7 churches. It means ‘city of brotherly love’] but I like the image. As you wrap the string around the Gyroscope and spin it, it stays in ‘motion’ and doesn’t fall as long as it’s moving. This represents a ‘Divine gravity’ a ‘staying up’ as a result of moving in the Spirit with the Lord, stay in motion! [WALK IN THE SPIRIT AND YOU WILL NOT FULFILL THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH]

(301) Was just praying while listening to ‘Fleetwood Mac’ [yes it’s possible!] and had an image go thru my mind ‘Son of man, thrust in your sickle and reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe’ [Revelation] Also Jesus words on the ‘harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few, pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into the harvest’. This prayer can be dangerous, like praying for patience! God just might send you! Why don’t you Christians sell out while there’s still time? Jesus said walk in the day while there is still light, but a time of darkness is coming in which no man can work. God gives you seasons of grace and opportunity, if we are always living for ourselves we will miss these open doors. You will later on change your mind and say ‘Now that I have lived MY life I am willing to do Gods will’ but it will be too late. The time is now; no man can pull it off if he misses his season. The goal is not self-preservation or longevity; it is completion of the Divine mandate! Note: Just went back out to pray with this home made C.D. heard ‘when September ends’ by Green day. 7 years has come and past, wake me up when September ends. 20 years has come and past, wake me up when September ends. Thought it fit in pretty well.

(302) I had a couple of thoughts that ran thru my mind. Jesus was being praised by the people at one time in the gospels. The religious leaders were jealous and said ‘tell them to stop’ Jesus responded ‘if I stop them, the rocks themselves would cry out’. This response was primarily to the 1st century religious Jew. Their whole destiny was at a critical point in history. They were created for the sole purpose of revealing God [and ultimately Messiah] to all the ‘rock’ nations around them. Scripture uses images like ‘precious stone’ ‘wood, hay, stubble’ and things like this to denote value and worth. The religious Jew of the 1st century saw themselves as ‘precious stones’ they derived this from their Old testament books [Isaiah, etc.] The prophets referred to Israel as ‘special and precious’. Jesus response to them by saying ‘if these don’t praise me, the rocks will cry out’ was a prophetic image. He was in essence saying ‘Israel, if you withhold the rightful praise due me as the true Messiah, there will rise up another Temple made of all these gentile stones, they will give to me the honor that I deserve’. Also I was thinking of the judgment verse where Jesus says ‘when you didn’t feed me, clothe me, visit me, etc’ and the people said ‘when did we not treat you well’ and Jesus responds ‘when you didn’t do it to the least of these, you didn’t do it to me, depart from me, I never knew you’. We often read that to mean Jesus is in heaven, we are here on earth and these outcasts of society are number 3 on the list. When Jesus says ‘I never had a friendship/relationship with you’ he is saying this to those who ‘prophesied’ and did many wonderful religious works. He is speaking to those whose experience of God is truncated from social justice issues. Those who ‘see’ God and their Christian responsibility as a separate culture that is to be enjoyed ‘outside’ of society. Jesus response wasn’t saying ‘I didn’t know you because you didn’t help others’ he is saying ‘the only way you could have truly known me was THRU these people; I was represented in society in these outcasts. You had a whole lifetime to have in some way reached out and gotten to know me, you never did, therefore I NEVER KNEW YOU’. This should change our mindset of church and ministry, it should compel us to come out of our safe cultural environments and touch the world, for in doing this you touch God.

(303) Today is 4-19-2007. I wrote the entries on abortion [277-278] a few days ago. I never wrote on abortion until that day. Within the next few days major events happened that I was not aware of. First; The Supreme Court just upheld the Bush administration and congresses law against partial birth abortion. This is the first major ruling affecting abortion since roe v wade. It was like the morning I woke up and wrote on the horrors of abortion, I didn’t realize it was like a prophetic intercession [along with many others!] crying out to stop this atrocity. The other acts are still being performed [the murder of babies!] but at least the partial birth ones are not. Second; When I wrote on the atrocity of this act, there was a real sense of violence and murder associated with this act that I couldn’t really express. I wrote about Moses and how this same violence was released in the land during his time. The last 2 days the news has been focused on the worst mass murder in U.S. history. The murder of more than 30 people at Virginia Tech University. The news is full of the horrendous violence of this act. Many questions on how things like this could happen. When I wrote on abortion, I was trying to show how we are ‘de sensitized’ by the violence of this act. About an hour ago I saw the video that the killer made. He said he saw himself as a modern day ‘Moses’ who was striking back at what society has done to the harmless and vulnerable that are in it. In no way do I justify, or see what this disturbed kid did as an act of God. I do find it prophetic that it happened so close to the entries that I penned on this subject. NOTE; I see this more like letting down the ‘natural barrier’ in society that exists against violent acts towards humanity. When society gets to a point where the act of murder against unborn children becomes not only accepted, but looked upon as ‘progressive minded’ then you have lowered the inherent barrier that exists in most societies and this opens the door to horrendous acts all thru the spectrum.

(304) The other day I was listening to a good preacher on the radio. Sort of a ‘reformed’ thinker who frequently calls the church back to the Puritan days. I love Puritan history and writing. Many of these brothers would agree with some of the stuff I teach in the area of the church being self centered and materially minded, but they would absolutely reject our prophetic stuff. God’s intent for the church is more than ‘the church’. Jesus spoke on the Kingdom over and over again, very little on the church. The reason we exist as ‘the church’ is to invade and impact all areas of society until Christ returns. There are certain ‘old time’ defenders of the faith who cant get past ‘church’ being ‘the old time model’. They stumble over the current mega church expression. Many have gone after Rick Warren and his purpose driven church model. Our radical teaching on the church being the actual mobile community of God ‘journeying’ thru every generation till now, leaves room for the unique expressions of meeting that would go from the simple ‘home based model’ all the way to the ‘mega church’ and even to the Catholic brothers! Our purpose isn’t to meet and argue over the many ways to meet, our purpose is to advance and communicate the gospel of the Kingdom into every arena of man. Some confuse my strong preaching against materialism with a call to come out of the market place. Nothing could be further from the truth! When Christians are able to live above the concerns of the unbeliever, and to do it in a way where they are so intricately involved in society, this itself is a testimony to them. Over the years I have had Christian friends try to tell me ‘why don’t you leave the Fire Dept. and get a building and be faithful to your calling’. I see now that some of them were saying this out of self-guilt. Many of the other Christians in the market place were feeling ‘threatened’ that a so-called ‘preacher’ [to which I hold no claim] would be working and holding a job like them. Sort of ‘well if this guy can do it, then I am responsible to be more than just a fire fighter’. Then you would have those in ‘full time ministry’ who would get offended that we didn’t take offerings or money. After all they would make the ‘offering time’ 25% of the Sunday meeting. The fact that we weren’t even doing it was offensive [we did take offerings at one time, but I never took a salary from day one]. These examples show you that society is comfortable with secular/holy divisions ‘just keep the church in the church’ and they will be happy. Now to the point of the believer being highly involved in all aspects of society, even economically. It is most definitely Gods will for believers to excel in the stock market, real estate world and all other avenues of finance and influence. Its just we need to distinguish between a message of ‘the Kingdom invading society’ and making the Kingdom about money. This is a real distinction that needs to be taught and understood. Many prophetic people who advocate these things are not yet able to articulate this distinction in an effective way. They will read so far on this blog and think that we are against being progressive, which is not the case. Jesus instituted the Church so the Church would be the key vehicle for expressing the Kingdom in the earth [as well as the whole universe!] We are about much more than which particular style of church or meeting we should have. The style or methods are really un important in my mind. The goal is to harvest enough people who we can then turn out into society to affect it for Christ. The Kingdom starts as a little seed [our small church mentality!] and eventually moves out to cover the earth!

(305) I was watching a prophetic TV show last night. The sponsor of the show, who also has a prophetic web site, was interviewing another prophetic person. I have sent our stuff to both of these brothers over the last year. Whether they read this site or not I don’t know. I found it interesting that as the host was interviewing the prophet; he said how the prosperity movement not only was unbalanced, but possibly not of God at all! The prophet kind of looked a little uncomfortable. I can’t help but think that the host has read our stuff. Their web site would never express this point of view before. I have sent this blog to many of the prophets on the site. I don’t want to be conceited, thinking that I am the only one who might have had an influence on this brother, but I think we did! NOTE: I find it interesting that I have sent our stuff to a lot of the prophets on this web site. I only got a good response from one of them [never got a bad response, just none!] But the fact that the brother who runs the site actually is ‘seeing things our way’ is the key. I sort of get the feeling that a lot of the ‘prophets’ just ignored us, but the sponsor of the site didn’t!

(306) Just remembered something that I wanted to share. I heard a brother speaking on Revelation. One of the rebukes to the 7 churches is they held to the ‘doctrine of the Nicolatians’. There have been different ideas about who they were. Most commentators agree that it speaks of ‘those who would rise above the saints’ or the rise of both early ecclesiastical offices [Bishop, Priests, etc] as well as later protestant titles [Pastor]. Some feel that the unscriptural foundation for the way these offices function are what this ‘doctrine of the Nicolatians’ is about. You can interpret many of the passages that deal with authority in either ‘family’ terms or ‘authoritarian’ terms. A famous, well respected evangelical scholar [reformed] actually did a whole book on the King James translation and how they chose to interpret many of the words in authoritarian language as opposed to family language. OBEY THOSE WHO HAVE THE RULE OVER YOU and other scriptures that could have said FOLLOW THE GUIDANCE OF SPIRITUAL ELDERS IN YOUR MIDST. Some feel the reason the most popular version today [King James] opted for this way of translating was for political necessity. The Church of England chose to use this terminology to reinforce the mindset of ‘submission to authority’ that is the authority of England and it’s ‘church’ as they were blatantly moving out from under the ‘authority’ of Rome. Sort of ‘you can have your cake and eat it too’ type deal. The historical background to the political motivation of this is no secret. I usually don’t approach it from this angle because it challenges the strong ‘King James only’ crowd a little too much. I believe exposing the simple fact of the New Testament not showing the modern role of ‘Pastor’ as we practice it today is enough to cause us to re think the ‘ruling’ offices in the church. I do believe the Lord has Elders/leaders that function in the Body of Christ, but I also see truth to the fact that many modern offices have been developed outside of the original intent of the Spirit of God.

(307) ISAIAH 47 Here this, thou that are given to pleasures [who see Christianity as a means to self indulgence, getting more and more] You who say ‘I shall never suffer the loss of children’ [those who have followed our belief system will always remain faithful to us] Thy wisdom and thy knowledge have perverted thee [the intricate systems of teaching and the lengths that you have gone to in order to get around plain scripture] stand now with all the formulas and gimmicks that you have performed from your early days, see if they will replace true repentance and open turning back towards the truth. Thus shall be all those who you have merchandised with from your youth, every one shall wander to his quarter [try to find refuge in abiding only in those groups who agree with the distorted views that have been perpetrated on the saints] none shall save thee [you will find that all the assurances of the past will no longer work. The obvious error that has been passed down from the leaders who have gone off course will be very plain to the new generation of believers that God is raising up. Many of the ‘children’ with love and respect for their ‘fore fathers’ will choose faithfulness to the Lord over carrying the ‘torch’ for the fathers of their movements. God will save the day!]

(308) Recently I heard 2 people speak on the hill of Caleb. Caleb and Joshua are the 2 spies that believed they could take the Promised Land. Caleb waited 44 years before he finally possessed his ‘hill’. Hills or mountains in scripture represent things that stand in the way, they represent territory or Kingdoms that are competing. Scripture says the Lords ‘mountain’ will be on top of all other mountains. We are called ‘mount Zion’ in the book of Hebrews. Don’t overlook this. In the Old Testament it was an actual dirt thing, today it is the Church! For the past 4 years I have been driving past this ‘hill’ on the way to work. Here in south Texas you have no mountains. But there is this little dirt hill that I pass on highway ‘44’. A few weeks back I took a picture from my camera phone of a train passing the hill while driving to work. I haven’t snapped a train picture in a long time. I do have a few that I use as the background on my phone. When I got to work I went to a prophetic web site and saw a prophecy on 2 trains colliding. It spoke about a season of faith and favor coming together. The hill represents the promises and the obstacles. Often times we see the obstacle as the hindrance to the promise, God sees it as the actual process that we go thru to inherit the land. Its like running with ankle weights, when you finally take them off at the real competition, you fly! Caleb took his hill after 44 years of waiting; I drive past this hill on highway 44. I will be 45 in 7 –17-07 [a few months] Holy field who is 44 years old just fought in Corpus. Feel like the lord is going to bring forth some fruit from his ‘Holy field’ at this season. The time is ripe for many of you to take your hill. You have been running into it for a long time, but you are about to ‘thresh’ that thing into dust and the wind will blow it away. The Divine Favor of God is going to impact that thing like a train wreck and you will come forth on the other side ready to fly! NOTE: Typing this right now I here the train whistle blasting in the background. Prophesy to that mountain, it will turn to dust! NOTE: The church I attend used an outline that I liked in the Sunday message. It quoted the verse ‘The little foxes spoil the vine’ but it was a modern translation that said ‘during the time when the field is blooming the foxes can eat the harvest’. I like this. It’s like the Lord is saying there are dangers that are inherent to the harvest. I want the harvest, I would prefer you to take a chance and plunge yourself into the harvest, but be ware that this is the time when the enemy wants to ‘eat the blooms’. Don’t fear, just realize he is feeling threatened and he knows once the harvest comes in it’s all over for him. He knoweth that his time is short.

(309) I am up early at work. I thought of a few funny things. One morning as I was praying early, one of the other guys woke up later and confessed that he was dreaming of God and stuff. He didn’t describe everything but I got the sense that he was having prophetic dreams. He was quite shocked. Another friend told me he was dreaming that he had gotten stuck in the bathroom and was banging on the wall for me to come help, but I just ignored him. I told him ‘this, my friend, is one of those prophetic dreams that speaks much truth!’ thought it was funny. NOTE: Even though this was funny, it actually is prophetic! This speaks of my friend feeling ‘bound/captive’ and calling out to me for help. I rarely witness or preach to the guys at work. Every now and than I can tell that someone wants to spark up a conversation or is really searching. I have prophesied specific stuff to a few and they have said it was right on, but I kinda take the position that ‘you do what you gotta do, and I’ll do what I gotta do’. I realize that people know that I have been known to be on the verge of ‘fighting’ and stuff, I don’t hide it. There have been times over 25 years as a firefighter that I have been close to ‘getting into it’ with a few guys. So I don’t try to come off as some ‘holy preacher’ or anything. But some times people are really searching for answers, and they see this psycho up praying all night. Maybe this affects them? I don’t know, really I don’t care.

(310) Talked about my blind dog a few days ago. Scripture says ‘who is blind like my servant’ Jesus told the religious leaders ‘if you were blind, I could help you, but because you say ‘we can see’ your sin remains’. The dog has learned to walk the paths in my yard. The first few days she simply had to follow the voice of my daughter to learn the way to go. God leads people who are humble and vulnerable. People who recognize that they ‘cant see’. You will eventually find your ‘sea legs’ under you once again, but you will know that is was the grace of God that brought you here. NOTE: I used imagery earlier on this blog about the Lord opening channels and waterways in this area. One of the channels is called ‘HUMBLE CHANNEL’ The Lord flows thru those who have been thru this process. Some believe the Apostle Paul was almost blind. He without a doubt was bringing forth some of the greatest revelation of his day, yet he himself could not see!

(311) A strange thing happened. We just started speaking into San Antonio in a strong way. Our broadcast has been going there for over 10 years, but recently we have had greater authority for that City. I noticed one of the most influential churches who we kinda ‘corrected’ over the air is no longer on the radio. I know they are doing well. They are in the process of building a huge sanctuary downtown [even though I like where they are at now]. I don’t feel they went off the air because of us. I feel the Lord will allow certain voices to speak at certain seasons, and will allow others time to ‘re group’. When God corrects things it is for the purpose of restoration, not destruction! I actually feel a little bad about them going off the air. They have been on the radio in San Antonio for a long time [years], I did enjoy the show. I believe they will be back with a clearer voice and vision for what God wants to do in his Church.

(312) CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP DOES NOT EXIST FOR THE PURPOSE OF SELF ADVANCEMENT AND UPWARD MOBLITY AT THE EXPENSE OF THE ‘LAITY’ we need to re think our function in this area. Paul and Jesus were not going around promoting what God was doing thru them, nor were they recruiting ‘financial partners’ to simply experience the Kingdom vicariously thru the gifted leader. They were depositing into the people and releasing them to function on their own. You find Paul and Jesus receiving financial support to send them and help them in their traveling ministry, but today’s mindset of the Leader being ‘sent’ all over the world while the saints sit back and wait to hear all the stories was not the normal mode. Paul did share what God was doing, don’t get me wrong. But today’s mindset sees the people as promoters of the leaders lifestyle and gift. This is why you have well meaning Ministry leaders who live in multi million dollar homes while the average supporter of the ministry lives in a $100,ooo dollar one [or rents an apartment]. It’s OK to live in a million dollar home, but it’s hard to appeal to supporters who are on fixed income, and to ask them to give out of their lack while doing this. The leaders have simply become victims of the western mindset of ministry that pools 90 % of the funds from the average person. While many of the leaders do use the majority of the funds for good things [Christian TV] they seem to justify a lifestyle of wealth and happiness at the expense of the sacrificial giver by their reading of the prosperity scriptures. ‘If God wants me to have wealth, then it’s OK’. They truly don’t see the rebukes in scripture to the ‘shepherds’ who have become wealthy at the expense of the sheep. Being wealthy is OK, you are not allowed to do it from the overall aggregate giving of many average income people. Scripture does forbid this in many places. NOTE: If the leaders salary is equal to those who are sending in support then it’s OK. If the leader is more frugal, a better investor and manages thru time to buy a million dollar home then that’s fine. I am speaking of those who run large ministries and their ‘salary’ including all the perks is in the millions. They often have their family members on the payroll at large salaries [500 thousand] while they really don’t do that much. These leaders look at the average CEO of a large company who makes millions more and justifies it this way. The reason you shouldn’t do this is because the non-profit ministry is really not ‘producing a product’ or commodity. The way they are bringing in millions [or billions] is thru outright giving. This is different than a for profit business. So the way to measure salary shouldn’t be thru the abusive CEO pay, but thru what I just showed you. Paul was reaching the entire known world of his day, pretty much single handedly. He found himself making tents at times to support himself. He traveled like the average person and lived in a lifestyle commensurate with those he was reaching. Jesus also. This is why you read Peter saying ‘desire to be an elder, not for filthy lucre’s sake, but of a ready mind’. This is why it is so important for us to have a good understanding of scripture. A friend of mine was attending a local word of faith church. And right from the start the preacher was confessing ‘you wait and see, my faith is going to produce a Cadillac by the end of this year’. Well this brother means well, he just doesn’t see all the things I just showed you. And when you try to correct this stuff, they will not listen! NOTE: What bugs the ‘hell’ out of me is the inability for prophetic people to see this. It’s like when you try to show a ‘prophet’ something he dismisses all the verses and warnings about this because he knows the other verses on prosperity. Heck [Ill’ be nice] I know them too!

(313) Jesus suffered irreconcilable loss. The tragedy of Judas betrayal and damnation caused more pain to Jesus than to Judas. Judas went to the place where he was destined to go. Jesus knew from the beginning that he could ‘keep’ him for so long. Jesus called Judas friend. Jesus wasn’t lying. He knew that his relationship with Judas was only for a short time. Why would you let him get so close and be your friend? I guess he just couldn’t help it. He lost his friend forever.

(314) A few years back a prophet gave a public prophecy on a Christian TV station. Basically it was a major thing that didn’t happen. I do like this brother and just believe he missed it. The problem was he couldn’t admit it. He went thru all types of excuses to get around the obvious ‘miss’. Then you had the ‘apologists’ come after him. So you had the prophetic people, being supported by a lot of the TV guys who are messing up in the money stuff, and this got the prophets siding with the prosperity guys against the apologists. The problem was the prophet missed it. OK so have I. The Lord is out for truth. Whether you’re the apologist guy [who is an attack dog] or the prophet group. Ultimately we need to align up with what the Lord is saying. It’s stuff like this that confuses the issue. I hope we can get past this.

(315) THE LAWNMOWER MAN many years ago I used to watch a famous prosperity preacher out of the Fort Worth area. At the time I liked his teaching and was attracted to it. I regularly watched him and listened to others as well. One time on their daily TV show they showed a testimony. The story was about someone who got saved and began winning people to the Lord. It showed how this brother spent a few years after his conversion giving his life away for the gospel. It then showed how one day he heard this preachers teaching and it ‘lured’ his interest. He then became a supporter and believer in the prosperity gospel. He started a very successful lawnmower business, made lots of money and that’s it! I thought the story would end with the guy using all this money to reach more people, or some kind of ‘spiritual’ point at all. Nope, That was it! Paul the Apostle made an interesting statement when reproving false prophets, he said ‘they testify themselves that they are false, and their testimony is true’. Over the years of myself and others sincerely writing and confronting these brothers in love, you would think that there would have been some attempt at change, even a little. But over a period of time everything about this message stays the same. You try to be patient and love and forgive, but then you have to seriously ask yourself ‘if these brothers refuse to stop doing this stuff, then it’s our responsibility to tell people ‘beware’. I don’t understand the motives of this anymore. I know that pride and rebellion are at the heart of unrepentance. I just see the age of some of these men, they have been ‘steeped’ in this for so long they cant seem to see their way out. I really am trying to change the course of the younger generation of believers coming up. These preachers who continue teaching people to live for finances instead of spiritual riches will give an account some day. The TV stations that broadcast these shows out of love and a real feeling of friendship towards these people will also give an account. I know many well-meaning people. Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness and many others. They do good things. The Masons are wonderful people who help burned children. I take my kids to their Circus to support them. The children’s ministry that they do is great. But I can’t allow the obvious goodness of many of these groups to take precedence over biblical truth. The simple fact that many of the prosperity preachers cause believers to live for wealth is really wrong. I know these brothers are Christians, but this has to stop. NOTE; A few years back a lot of these teachers were dealt with the first time around. I remember hearing one of them give a defense by saying ‘some people accuse me of being a money preacher. Well that’s right, I am a money preacher’ Now he said this in a way where he thought he was doing right by saying it. Sort of like saying ‘that’s right, I do believe all the stuff we teach is new revelation’. He didn’t realize he was actually fulfilling the verse where Paul says the false prophets testify themselves that they are false. In the actual statement ‘I am a money preacher’ you are actually saying ‘my God is money, I preach it. I confess it. My Jesus was a 1st century Donald Trump.’ They don’t realize that this is what they’re doing, but they are fulfilling Paul’s prophecy in the bible!

(316) Was just outside praying and kinda prayed ‘Lord, disrupt and deconstruct all the structures that are in place that are hindering your ‘structure’. Have mercy on all those who run these structures [ministries] deal in love and grace with them and their families, they didn’t know what they were really doing, but the time is now come for these ‘structures’ to come down’. We often defend ‘our ministries’ as the way a CEO would strategize and defend his company. God is concerned for his people; he is not defending ‘Christian businesses’!

(317) The enemy uses systems and structures of speech and thought that are closely related to godly avenues in order to sidetrack people. When the serpent came to Eve in the garden, he is using speech [confession] scripture [the words God spoke, though distorted] and the form of communication that God initially established for his purpose [by the way, those involved in Christian TV networks, many of you do broadcast very good stuff. I was just watching God TV last night and enjoyed a Rick Joyner meeting, also I like the I.H.O.P. meetings with Mike Bickle and many other good prophetic ministries. It is the enemies strategy to ‘mix’ the good stuff with the ‘bad’ wheat/tares strategy] The fact that the enemy uses the means of communication that God initiates should cause us to be more selective in discerning that which is holy [good] from that which is not! Pastor[s] can feel like I am ‘threatening’ their livelihood. I understand this. This is a direct result of the modern day phenomena of the ‘full time minister’. Paul and the other New Testament leaders were not trying to ‘defend their jobs’ they were laying their lives down for truth. Sometimes literally! True reform is difficult. People are happy and comfortable with a steady income stream. Regular supporters who are really blessed by other ministries who might broadcast thru the station. All the natural feelings of being threatened and losing that sense of security are involved with reform. Many Catholic Priests were shaken during the reformation. It was a time in history where God said ‘I am going to change some things permanently in the history of the Church’. I am not saying everything the reformers did was right. But the time had come for a shift to happen. Shifts are very uncomfortable. They cause you to re evaluate all that you have known and held onto in the past. Shifts are necessary. No chastening at the present time seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it produces right things as well as peace. To some it brings destruction. That’s not the purpose of chastening, but some are steeped in rebellion to the point where they have staked their lives on it. NOTE: Let me try to help some of you who are sincerely worried. The reality of God being our provider. The truth behind all the scriptures of God wanting to prosper us and God being a good God and all of these things are true. They were true for Paul who said ‘Preachers will rise in the last days, preaching that gain is godliness. From such turn away’ they were true for Jesus who said ‘be ware of covetousness, a mans life doesn’t consist in the amount of things he owns’. These scriptures of God being our provider teach us that God is good and will most definitely meet our needs. This is a far cry from the other stuff I am trying to ‘root out’. God being our provider is one thing. Making the entire gospel and kingdom about money is something forbidden in scripture! Discern this guys. Especially you Pastors and Leaders, you cannot keep getting away with letting this slip thru to your people. Ideas and wrong teachings have long lasting results. Don’t let your people go down this road! Teach them about the goodness of God, but don’t let them get ruined by this stuff! NOTE: The serpent actually accomplished his goal thru the speaking of Gods word in a distorted version. He ‘marred’ the image of God that was in man. Man continued to exist, but his ‘image’ was not the complete original intent of the Father. This is what I showed you earlier about idolatry. Many in this movement ‘believe’ in Jesus, but the true image of Christ is ‘marred’ by the distorted view of scripture!

(318) DON’T BE AFRAID! God has a great future ahead for you guys [and gals]. A lot of leaders are seeing all the stuff we have spoken on, many know it all to be true. Some are scared. Don’t be. Simply acknowledge that the church went thru a stage where we fulfilled aspects of 1st Timothy 6. Paul said if you rebuke false prophets sharply they will turn to truth. OK now lets move on with the great future ahead. Some of the more notable brothers will not deal with any of this stuff out of fear. Fine. I love them. We showed them what the Lord said. If they don’t listen that’s their problem. Will everything be smoothed over? NO! But they will give an account to God like everyone else. At least you guys who were sending in your ‘seed’ to the TV stations and ministries who were promoting this stuff have gotten wise. Give your money to ‘feed the children’ or Billy Graham or the church you attend [if their not a prosperity one!]. Time rolls on, we have a destiny to fulfill. Get on with It!

(319) AFFLICTION SHALL NOT RISE UP A SECOND TIME, THOUGH I HAVE AFFLICTED THEE, I WILL AFFLICT THEE NO MORE Over the years I remember discussing many of these issues with national ministers who have come to Corpus. I remember at one event there were many ‘word of faith’ people who attended and would absolutely be against the stuff I preach. They really enjoyed the meeting that the minister spoke at. Afterward I had a chance to fellowship with him. I was honest with him about the issues that I deal with thru our ministry. He told me he could sense the ‘word of faith/prosperity’ type teachings as being a real stumbling block to what he felt the Lord was trying to do at the meeting. I have often seen examples of leaders who were beginning to see a lot of this stuff, and I could tell they didn’t know how to deal with it. I remember hearing one of the Fathers of the movement begin backtracking on stuff that he knew was wrong, it was a sense of trying to undo some of the stuff. It was a good effort, but way too late. He has since died. His son now heads up the ministry and I remember hearing his son [a major word of faith figure] telling the people ‘you have all these people going around afraid to make a bad confession, thinking any bad statement will change their world for the worse. It’s a little legalistic’ [in so many words]. Another very famous black prosperity guy said ‘you have those in the ‘ultra faith’ camps’ and he went on and tried to say that he wasn’t one of them. He is one of the WORST! But it was stuff like this that shows me there is a ‘behind the scenes’ reality of the falseness of this whole movement. Many key leaders know this. The ‘laity’ at large do not realize this! Don’t have faith in men and movements, they will fail. Trust in God! For many of you having to re evaluate all this again has been painful. God is saying deal with it this time around and AFFLICTION WILL NOT RISE UP A SECOND TIME.

(320) I am trying to hear God right now. Felt this is for someone. Many people use as a defense ‘well, I know it works brother [prosperity gospel] because it has turned my life around financially’. This very well might be true. Napoleon Hill, one of the original ‘think and grow rich’ teachers taught a highly successful method of making money. I have read and listened to a tape of him speak [I do have a classic cassette tape from him!] I used to be into studying lots of motivational stuff. The things Mr. Hill taught definitely worked. He taught a type of meditation that said if you think money thoughts all the time, eventually you create an atmosphere around you that brings in wealth. This does work. The only problem is many who try to ‘christianize’ this teaching are violating the teachings of Jesus who plainly said ‘seek first [think on] the Kingdom of God and all these other things [money and stuff] will be added unto you’. So the defense that says ‘well you got what you confessed, and I got what I confessed’ isn’t a real defense. You might well have gotten a lot of money by following this movement. Getting a lot of money is not the criteria you use to judge whether a thing is right or wrong. You judge it by Gods Word! NOTE: Felt like the Lord just freed someone from this movement. Sort of like the straw that broke the camels back. Those of you who are not familiar with Napoleon Hill, he was a very successful turn of the century [1800-1900] motivational teacher. Many in the Word of Faith movement know that Mr. Hill was cultic. Mr. Hill had ‘spirit guides’ who brought these ‘teachings’ and stuff to him. Though many of the prosperity brothers will deny that they have his influence in their teachings, they do have many disturbing aspects of it. E.W. Kenyon also has influenced the main Father of the word of faith movement, Kenneth Hagin. Brother Hagin often would deny this. I do think brother Hagin was a good man who became a victim of deception. I never studied any of these guys out of trying to find fault. I was really into this movement at one time and studied it as a student [I know this statement offends people. I don’t know how else I can say that the visions brother Hagin wrote about are false. Did he really see ‘Jesus’ in these visions where Jesus says ‘you can write your own ticket with God’ Brother Hagin might have thought it? He might have seen ‘someone’? But for me or any other ‘preacher’ to not be able to flatly say ‘this was not Jesus Christ’ is being unfaithful to our calling!] It bothers me to hear Pastors that I like quoting ‘I am creating an atmosphere of money around me with my words’. I feel for these guys, I know their headed down a path that is not good. NOTE: If you read this whole passage from Jesus he plainly teaches the disciples to ‘not think money thoughts’. He says ‘the gentiles are always THINKING/WORRYING about the things of life’. Food, Clothes and money/material goods. Jesus says the Christians aren’t supposed to have these things at the forefront of their thoughts and meditations. Now I do realize that Jesus isn’t teaching irresponsibility. It’s fine to invest and have a financial plan. But he is going against the strong prosperity teaching that causes material things to be meditated on all the time. I had a Pastor friend who would come out and defend these guys at the same time the Lord was trying to undo this stuff. He would make statements in defense that would make it hard to undo. I realize they now see a lot of this stuff. At the time they weren’t ‘studied up’ like I was in all of the verses and stuff. To be frank about it, I work full time, do a lot of actual charity work on the streets, don’t take a salary [or even offerings!] and these brothers are like ‘we didn’t have time to study these verses like you’ What! You guys are in ‘full time ministry’ your main job is TO STUDY. Don’t want to be mean, but give me a break. Also if you use the argument that ‘you got what you confessed, and I got what I confessed’ look at Paul. He preached directly against this doctrine [1st Timothy 6] he was not wealthy at all. He suffered a lot. It would be easy to say Paul got what he confessed. The point is Christianity is not about ‘thinking money thoughts’ all the time. Creating some type of ‘financial vacuum’ around yourself. It’s giving your life for eternal rewards. I heard a Pastor say he was being reproved by someone on the dangers of the prosperity gospel, and later the person needed money for bus fare. Therefore the reproof must have been wrong because this person didn’t have money. I guess you could have said this about Paul and the other New Testament Apostles. Peter made a bad confession when he told the cripple guy ‘silver and gold have I none’ but still God used Peter mightily and performed a miracle. This miracle brought as much ‘advertisement’ as a million dollars of ad space! We need to stop judging people or ministries based on the amount of money they have, this is not the criterion!

(321) I have recently noticed some good prophetic people becoming more aware of some of the things we are saying. Some have seemed to respond in a way that might be like ‘we have secretly known of these major problems for years. We have ‘quietly prayed’ and tried to address these concerns. Don’t be so hard’. No one has specifically told me this [actually now that I think about it someone has!]. Let me say, I don’t want to ‘start a war’ among the ‘prophets’. I like the brothers and really receive direction from a few. The main problem with ‘not going public’ and trying to deal with it quietly is the fact that so many new believers are slipping right past the ‘quiet correctors’ and spending 40 years in the wilderness needlessly. Most of the ‘quiet correctors’ never warned any body away from this movement. There are a variety of reasons, and I can’t judge their motives. Suffice it to say that scripture COMMANDS us to confront these things publicly. Paul said WHOSE MOUTHS MUST BE STOPPED, THEY DECIEVE ENTIRE HOUSEHOLDS while speaking of the false teachers who were doing it for financial gain. I understand the feelings of the ‘behind the scenes’ reformers. It’s just the ‘reform’ never seems to take place under this strategy!

(322) ISAIAH 48  ‘ hear this O house of Jacob [my people listen] which sware by my name, but not in truth [you say JESUS IS LORD but are denying my image constantly] I have declared these things before, these things went forth out of my mouth many times over your life. I knew you were stubborn and would not listen the first time I warned you. I have now once again showed you ‘hidden things’. I knew you would deal deceitfully, and were called a transgressor from the start. For my sake I will hold back my anger and give you another chance to make it right. I have chosen to correct you in the furnace of affliction. I know it’s hard, but how can I continue to let my name be polluted. [You use my name and say ‘Jesus is Lord’ and I have no idea who this image belongs to that you confess!] I have raised up the ‘spirit of prophecy’ [thru many, not just one voice!] I will make HIS WAY PROSPEROUS. I am the Lord thy God which TEACHETH THEE TO PROFIT [godliness with contentment is very profitable, but they that seek wealth come to confusion] O that thou hast listened to me before, your peace would have been like a river. There is no peace saith God to the wicked [wicked is a word that denotes a ‘twisting’ {wicker} when you twist scripture and the truth of Jesus Christ there is no peace. God knew from the beginning that many would take this path. He chooses to call them to repentance so they will now have peace like a river. True peace in God.]   NOTE: I remember when I used to regularly watch the brother from the Forth Worth area. He did a whole week or so on finances, and he would end the prayer by praying to ‘our great Lord and financier’ I thought of the verses where the brothers are fighting over their inheritance and they ask Jesus to settle their financial dispute. Jesus says ‘who made me a judge over you in these matters’. Jesus was saying ‘who taught you to come to me in this way and view me as your financier; I am not here to settle your financial disputes. I am hear to fulfill the purpose of my Father’. No mountain will stand in the way this time, even one who calls himself ‘eagle mountain’. THOU HAST HEARD, SEE ALL THIS. AND WILL NOT YE DECLARE IT. I HAVE CALLED YOU, I HAVE SPOKEN THRU YOU AND I SHALL MAKE YOUR WAY PROSPEROUS.

(323) At work right now. Getting ready to pray. Was reading some verses from my mission statement and remembered something. I recently dreamed I was blowing a trumpet. There were a few different styles and I was enjoying the ‘blowing’ of these trumpets. I just read the verse ‘I will bend Judah like a bow, and raise your sons o Zion [I like to put ‘John’ for Zion and make it personal] against thy sons o Greece, and make you as the sword of a mighty man. His arrow shall go forth like lightning [I have had both ‘bow’ and ‘arrow’ and ‘lightning’ images as signs these past few years. Also ‘JUDAH’] and the Lord God shall blow the TRUMPET and shall go with the whirlwinds of the south’ Zechariah 9 13-14. I am seeing the Lord do things thru those who are being ‘birthed’ thru our blog site. Many people know all the things we are saying are true, but there was an ‘intimidation factor’ holding them back. It’s like a feeling of ‘who do you think you are, these preachers have been around a long time. The stuff they are preaching must be true. How dare you speak against it’. Now that many of you guys [gals] have seen us deal with it, you are like ‘arrows of lightning being shot out of a bow’ you are like ‘trumpets’ that God is going to blow thru. You have been stirred up from this site that has blown like whirlwinds out of the southern gulf coast and you will be like the sons of Zion coming against the sons of Greece [worldly wisdom and philosophies of men, men’s systems of thought and ‘theology’ that directly contradict the clear meaning of scripture]. NOTE: God blowing thru the ‘trumpet’ speaks not only of a prophetic voice, but also of  ‘prophetic offspring’. I have shared images of ‘lightning’ and arrows. The Lord seeming to refer to us as ‘sons of thunder’ and the name Judah. I felt like these things referred to having special authority to do certain things. Ministry is not a tool for self promotion. In this scripture it speaks of ‘sons’ being like lightning, I see the people as the ‘trumpet’. All these images speak of you guys being empowered and released to do tremendous things. These images are not speaking of me as an individual who will be the one ‘sent forth’ as you watch and wait. But we are all being ‘sent forth’ at this season. I really urge you guys that are from my generation [mid 40’s] to get past the ‘mid life crisis’ and the stage of feeling like ‘you missed the boat’. You didn’t miss it yet. God still has a great purpose for you. The boat is launching, take a risk and jump on that thing now. There’s still time! Kansas [the rock group] says ‘ looking for men to show the way and leave today, how long till the point of no return’. NOTE: During the period between Malachi in the Old Testament and the Gospels there is a 400 year ‘gap’ where there was no prophetic word given The Catholic bibles have the apocrypha in this place. One of the books of the Apocrypha is ‘Maccabees’. The Maccabees was a revolt from the Jewish nation against the rulers that occupied them at the time [Many of whom were products of Greek wisdom]. This Maccabean revolt is the ‘sons of Zion rising up against the sons of Greece’ historically. It was a time in Jewish history where Gods people were under bondage to a ruling empire that was known for its worldly wisdom and philosophy. Many of the great philosophers came from this time period. Later in the New Testament book of Colossians the Apostle Paul warns against the early believers coming under the influence of the philosophies of men. I find the Spirit of God rising up at different times in history to ‘cast off’ the ‘thought structures’ of men that come against the wisdom of God. These ‘systems of thought’ are not shallow. Many intelligent men are truly taken captive by the close relationship to truth that they espouse. It takes a ‘prophetic revolt’ to break off the ruling influence that these false systems hold over the people of God. Till this day the Jewish people still honor the Maccabean revolt as an important holiday in their tradition. The name Maccabees comes from the family who led the revolt. The dads name was JUDAH! [I actually read his name ‘Judah’ in an article. I also read his name to be ‘Judas’. So if the ‘Judah’ article got it wrong, it was still prophetic! The feast the Jews celebrate to this day is Hanukah. This feast commemorates the revolt against the Syrian king who tried to force Hellenization on the Jews. Trying to force Greek language and culture on the Jewish nation]

(324) Two things I want to say. There are many ‘prophets’ and other ministry leaders who’s chief concern is the functioning and success of their ministry. They view all other things from this paradigm. They sincerely have a prophetic gift, no doubt about it. It is the mindset of seeing and acting out of the view that the success and financial income of their ministry takes precedence over what God is trying to do in the corporate people that is causing them to come against what the Spirit of the Lord is trying to do. Many are acting and responding out of a desire to ‘survive’ first, before any other thing. Many are good men who do not hold to the errors that we are trying to uproot at this season. It is their friendship for these other groups that is causing them to hinder the work of the Spirit. The Old Testament has a story of a young prophet going and giving a word. After he gives the word the Lord says ‘go straight home and don’t stop for anyone’. On the way home he runs into an older Prophet who says ‘come back with me’. The young prophet says ‘the Lord told me not to’. The old guy says ‘I am a prophet too, and the Lord says come eat [fellowship] with me’. Sure enough the Lord judges the young prophet for this. The current prophetic movement in our country started in the late 80’s. Many who are now truly gifted are really the ‘younger generation’. Many of the prosperity guys are from the older ‘prophetic group’. The young guys are feeling ‘I like these older ‘prophetic’ guys. They were truly at the forefront of certain prophetic things. I want to sit at ‘their table’ and enjoy their fellowship’. God is saying NO MORE! The other thing I want to share is an example of the intricate systems of thought that have gone into the defense of the false prophets. One of the key chapters that I and others use to root out this doctrine is Hebrews 11. This chapter shows how people of FAITH have not only been described as those who were overcoming and getting what they wanted, but it also shows many people of faith who suffered and went thru hard things. I heard the Fort Worth teacher explain that the people of faith in Hebrews 11 that suffered were still part of the group that was Old Testament. He even used verses from Hebrews to show that these people were not ‘perfected’ yet until the Cross. This is true. He then ‘crossed the line’ and taught that the ‘perfection’ was financial and material well being at all times. He basically used an excellent biblical reasoning to explain away the plain meaning of the chapter. The fact is Paul would later go on in the New Testament and teach that many believers who are ‘perfected’ under the New Covenant would also suffer many things. But the false teacher taught it in a way that would ‘catch you’. I have come to believe there has to be a degree of demonic deception going on with these guys. They have ways to explain away every single verse in the bible to teach what they want. That’s why I understand how the ‘average level’ preacher [don’t want to be rude] can fall for this stuff. That’s also why the ‘quiet correction’ approach isn’t going to work anymore with these guys.

(325) There are a lot of things that I want to share. The other day I was quite strong in a particular ‘prophetic word’. I mentioned ‘Eagle Mountain’ as a mountain that will not be able to stand against Gods ‘mountain’ [purpose at this season]. I am uncomfortable with the whole ‘persona’ and time period that I am in at this season. This ‘eagle’s mountain’ is actually the physical location of one of the major prosperity churches in the country [here in Texas]. Those in ‘the know’ knew what I meant when I said this. This area is also right around Denton where I have felt certain ‘prophetic correction’ going into that area. Sometimes when I speak a strong word towards a certain area I will notice a ‘weather’ event happening right after I speak the word. The ‘word’ towards eagle mountain/Denton area was a little strong. Yesterday I was watching the Texas news and one of the worst Tornadoes ever hit a region called ‘Eagle Pass’ [Located on the border of Texas/ Mexico]. The Tornado was 4 miles wide and it caused tremendous destruction, 9 people dead. Devastating [the warning alert system did not sound, this left the people vulnerable to what was coming. Much like the watchman in Ezekiel who refused to speak out on the dangers that were coming] I know God isn’t to blame for the loss of life. There are times where certain religious movements are devastating towards the people of God. When God says ‘no mountain can stand in the way’ he has the potential to ‘clean house’ [I felt it a little significant that the town was Eagle Pass. Sort of like God saying ‘the Eagle is coming into judgment’]. Let me say a few things about the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The last time I was there I was partying in Fort Worth, drunk and pulling off the road puking [throwing up] on the side of the road [20 yrs ago], I also remember being in Milwaukee after boot camp and drinking around 12 shots of Rum at some bar. Walking out to the street and passing out. I remember some navy guys picking me up [I was in uniform] and bringing me back to Great Lakes [Illinois]. I was thinking of the verse that says ‘I will save you out of all the places where you have sinned, and I will cleanse you’. I am very uncomfortable with the present ‘place’ where I am at. There are times where you journey to different levels and places in life. As you ‘proceed’ to the next place it often entails great death. We seem to think that if we can just master our lives and get it all together, then we can present this image to people and we have succeeded. I see it more like you are called to go thru things, often the things you go thru are very difficult. It is in the crucible of Crucifixion where you bring forth much fruit. ‘Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it will bring forth much fruit’ [Jesus]. One of the most accurate Prophets of our day is still living [he has been sick and some think he will die soon]. His name is Paul Cain. I remember hearing Paul on tape share a story of how he was approached by a nice looking gentlemen when he was younger. This man was offering Paul a career and fame in ministry. Sort of telling him he would promote his image [death to any prophet!] After a while Paul asked him to confess Jesus as Lord. He would not. Paul at that moment recognized it was satan. I remember having this happen one time in my life. It was early on as a Christian and we were going to see a friend who got caught up in a cult. They called themselves ‘Gods Angels’ and were traveling around in robes and sandals. We went to visit a friend who joined the group. The main leader was there and after a while I asked if he could say ‘Jesus is Lord’. He gave the same response that the person in Paul’s story gave. I then felt a demonic presence hit me and I felt like I was having an acid trip. I lost all sense of where I was and it felt just like a ‘mesq’ flashback. I find it interesting that today we know that this person in Paul Cain’s experience came back time and again thru out his life. Paul never told us this, but we now know it. When Jesus was seeing this same person in his life he knew that there would be a tremendous cost involved with the completion of his mission, that’s why I don’t understand the lust and desire for fame and success. God often withholds true prophetic ministry for the sake of the individual. He realizes that there is a severe cost involved, and those who are really enjoying their lives don’t realize what the calling will carry with it. NOTE: I do realize that this stuff makes people very uncomfortable. The reason why ‘Eagle Mountain’ needs to come down [either close or repent and become a tool of deliverance in Gods hand] is the fact they disseminate so much of the heresy that I have exposed on this blog [thru books, tapes, TV, etc.]. You cant keep doing disgrace to the image of Christ no matter how well spoken and good hearted you are. No matter how much money you give to missions, no matter how many good works you do! NOTE: Crucifixion is an event where you have no say or control over what’s happening with you physically, it is the process of saying ‘God, if its possible for this cup to pass, please help me come out of this’ and then arriving at the point of saying ‘whatever you want, I will go thru it’ and it concludes with ‘MY GOD, MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME’ in today’s terms ‘I cant believe the desolation I am feeling at this time in my life’. NOTE: I just went outside to continue praying; I kind of felt that presence of the evil one. Sort of like ‘how dare you expose me like this’. NOTE; I just spoke to one of our original ‘ex con/addict’ friends in Kingsville. He is one of our key men. I told him about the Eagle word and the Tornado. He told me that a day or two right before the tornado he dreamed of 2 devastating tornadoes coming towards him and his family. He woke up and told his wife of the dream. Within the next day or so the tornado hit. This is one of our ‘prophetic’ people who have often had dreams and impressions that were significant over the years.

(326) BE STRONG AND OF A GOOD COURAGE, FOR TODAY [RIGHT NOW] I WILL BRING YOU IN AND YOU WILL INHERIT THE PROMISE I read a statement form a prisoner being put to death here in Texas. He said ‘lets rock and roll’. I think we need to thank God for his mercy and move on. Don’t keep debating stuff he is clearly saying. God forgives all of us. LETS ROCK AND ROLL.

(327) Let me make another note. About 6 months or so when I pray early [every day] I began ‘seeing’ myself in Prayer with the Denton brothers [glory of Zion] as well as the other churches who are regionally praying during the 4th watch [3-6 am]. I believe my ‘joining with them in prophetic intercession’ gave me authority to prophesy into the land. Prophets don’t just give prophetic words, they intercede. I believe it says of Abraham ‘he is a prophet and he will pray for you’ I know it says this about one of the patriarchs.

(328) Understand that Jesus is the lion of the tribe of JUDAH. Any prophetic expression of Judah is actually the Spirit of God thru the prophets rising up in rebellion to cast off the wisdom of men that comes against the true knowledge of God in Christ. These last 50 years the enemy has laughed at how he was able to mock the true image of Christ thru these false systems. The purpose of the prophetic was to lead a ‘revolt’ against the ‘occupiers’. Revelation says ‘the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed’ he ‘opens seals/ opens the book’. It is the ‘opening’ of Gods word that does war against the wisdom of men. This is primarily a prophetic act. The wisdom of men cannot accomplish this. When the Lion of the tribe of Judah begins this process thru the prophetic, the enemy no longer laughs, because his day has finally come.

(329) Many years ago in Texas I used to watch a good preacher out of the Rockwall area. I did like his ministry. I felt a little uncomfortable about the type of ‘spiritual warfare’ that a lot of us were espousing at the time. I remember watching this brother during a message. He was walking back and forth on the stage of a large auditorium [now that I think of it, he was at a James Robison bible conference in Fort Worth] as he was walking back and forth he was into the whole image of ‘look at this, I am a spiritual warrior’ he kind of was so into it that he was almost falling off the stage. It was normal fare for the time. Later ‘prime time’ news magazine did an expose on him, nothing really scandalous, but showing him to have been less than honest on some money appeals. The fact that we want the spotlight opens us up for attacks. True warfare is usually done behind the scenes with humble people. When we ‘strut’ and boast and openly ‘mock the enemy’ he laughs. He knows he’s setting us up with the glory of men. The same temptation he used on Jesus. When we give in to the lie of ‘it’s all about me, look at me, look at the great thing God is doing thru me’ he has us hooked and we don’t even know it. [Watch the end of the movie ‘the devils advocate’ with Al Pacino. It really brings this out well. Also they play the song ‘sympathy for the devil’ from the stones. It’s amazing how Jagger describes the craftiness of satan in this song]. NOTE; I went back and read some stuff on this brother. His wife said when Dianne Sawyer first contacted them to do the show, they tricked him by saying ‘we want to interview you. You are said to be the next Billy Graham. Can we do this interview?’ The network new the lure of fame and recognition would get him on the show. I do think these networks are really hypocrites themselves. This show [primetime] has been caught lying about stories [planting explosives in vehicles and having them rear-ended to make it look like it blew up easily. Then trying to defend doing it!]. The real point is they knew if they appealed to his ego he would do it.

(330) Man was ‘built’ with the inherent desire to ‘storehouse’. This is a need for man to ‘build up, store up, increase wealth’. This desire was originally intended to manifest itself thru the ‘saving’ of eternal rewards. When God made man in his image, this desire was originally sanctified and was to coincide with Gods original intention to give man dominion over all the earth. Man would ‘collect’ if you will, all created things under his dominion, man would corral these things and provide safety and a hedge around these things for the glory of God. In essence the same mindset is seen in the New Testament with the stories that Jesus tells about God giving his ‘vineyard’ to people to take care of and things like this. It is inherent for man to want to storehouse and build the resources of things. This is why Jesus warned against the strong draw that ‘mammon’ [lust for financial increase] would present to the purpose of God in the church. There are verses in the Old Testament that say men build up their financial fortunes and say to themselves ‘when I die I will pass this legacy on to my kids, and MY NAME will endure thru the heritage of this financial legacy that will continue to operate after I am gone’ [King Ranch]. Now scripture says a good man leaves an inheritance to his kids, so this concept is not wrong in and of itself. It’s just that Jesus knew how strong this pursuit of wealth can become and he chose to teach that it is the singular most competitive threat to the purpose of the Kingdom. Many fall into this trap by seeing the purpose of God to invade all areas of society, even financial institutions. They see the ‘surface’ level of teaching on finances in scripture, and then go headlong into this twisted interpretation of scripture that finds ‘proof texts’ that eventually leads them to preach a wealthy Jesus who fits the image of the modern day televangelist. You then find people [like us] who try to bring back into alignment the distorted view that many of these brothers espouse, but those ‘taken captive’ by this insatiable desire for wealth cannot see beyond this strong inherent desire that God originally put in man. You can present plain scripture to them, and they will even argue that Paul and Jesus were not really saying what they said. This is caused by the lure of covetousness that has replaced the original intent of God to ‘storehouse’ with the less noble desire of ‘building wealth’. NOTE; this same mindset can be seen in the desire to ‘build’ a ministry. You begin focusing your energies on using your faith to bring in the finances to operate. You ‘see’ the increase of income as the answer to the noble intention of carrying out Gods purpose. But when this desire begins to take precedence over the actual preaching of the gospel [by distorting the image of Christ to fit into the mindset of bringing in the wealth] then the enemy has tricked you into preventing the original purpose of God to manifest thru you. At the end of the day you might bring in the desired income stream, and with this a sense of ‘mission accomplished’ you might even reject guys like me out of hand because of this desire to ‘bring in the resources at all costs’ but when all is said and done, if your not really preaching the biblical gospel, the enemy wins, even if you funded the ministry! NOTE; over the years people have confronted the leaders of Christian TV stations. There are a bunch of brothers who regularly preach covetousness to an extreme. Most of the presidents of these stations are not ‘full blown’ money preachers. But they have seen God work in areas of finances, and they have seen the uprightness of many of the prosperity brothers. Some [like the Fort Worth brother] are very good people. They do not ‘splurge’ in outwardly fancy lifestyles. It’s just that somewhere down the line they got ‘hooked’ by the lure of these things. The leaders of the networks have seen how the apologists went after these guys, and out of sympathy the network presidents for the most part decided to air their programs. These presidents are going all over the world, trying to start stations in many countries. Doing noble things for the cause of the gospel. Some of the wives of these great stations actually graduated from Rhema [a major word of faith college]. All these people are good people. The TV leaders see the good heart of those who they have known in the past that were ‘prosperity/word of faith’ teachers. It’s a matter of real humility to see the things that I am trying to say, and to fall on the side of ‘truth in love’. I do believe if these stations continue to run these programs, the Lord will do something about it. But those stations who actually ‘make the hard decisions’ in love, will remain and be much stronger for the gospel.

(331) When Jesus overthrew the moneychangers in the Temple, it was a violent prophetic act. When Paul warned against false prophets he was ‘negative’. When Jude [a bible book in the New Testament] warned against false prophets he spent time dealing with a problem. Some [prophets] believe the way to deal with all the problems in the church is thru praise. That if you simply always say positive things and praise God, that the weapon of praise and a positive confession will correct everything. The New Testament disagrees.

(332) Lets tell some stories. I remember one day at work we were doing a mutual training thing with the Corpus Fire Dept. [though I live in Corpus, I work for the Kingsville Fire Dept.] We had a couple of Corpus Firefighters sitting on the bumper of the ladder truck. The ladder truck has a button for the horn on the floor right under the seat. The guys were always accidentally stepping on the thing. I remember one time we were driving to the park for some function and the guy who was driving kept stepping on it not realizing it was there. Every few blocks he would stop to get out and the horn would stop blowing, he couldn’t figure out why! Well I accidentally blew the thing with these other guys on the bumper. It scared the ‘Hades’ out of them. It was an accident. I got out and truly told the brothers I was sorry. I might have had a little smirk on my face, it was funny! The one guy was a Corpus Captain who was originally from New York City. He was mad. I kinda said I was sorry, what else can I do. He indicated ‘lets rock and roll’ [don’t you just hate these Yankees who are always looking to fight!] He said it in a way that I knew he was serious, but I could tell that most guys usually don’t take him up on the offer. His friend was familiar with his Captains character. I didn’t get mad, but it was one of those offers I just couldn’t refuse. I kinda laughed a little and said ‘brother, if that’s what’s gonna do it for you, then OK’. Well his friend saw I was OK with it and got in the way. It was funny to me, running into one of those Yankees who are always looking for trouble.

(333) Was just listening to ‘simple man’ by Skynard. ‘Momma told me when I was young … forget your lust for the rich mans gold, all that you need is in your soul…don’t forget there is someone up above…all that I want for you my son is to be satisfied…don’t you worry you’ll find yourself…you can do this if you try…be a simple kind of man, wont you do this for me son if you can’. It’s sad that Skynard is more prophetic than many of the prophets.

(334) A few years ago I was dealing with these issues [money gospel] and I particularly took issue with a brother out of Louisiana, I like the brother. Many years ago I took our church to see him speak in Corpus Christi when I was living in Kingsville. He is the brother who wrote in his book about going to heaven and king David telling him he regretted the negative confessions that he made in Psalms [ouch]. I have openly rebuked this, not by using his name. The year I came out fairly strong on him was the same time period that one of the gulf coast hurricanes, either Katrina or Rita, hit the gulf coast. I later found out that his ministry ‘headquarters’ was hit. He was on TV asking people to help support the ministry. He still is active, and I don’t want to give the impression that he got wiped out. This was just another ‘weather event’ that coincided with a strong prophetic word. I remember studying the Azusa street revivals years ago [the early 1900’s] and how there were some prophetic words of judgment and certain earthquakes and things happened that were major. There were brothers who took the position that these events had nothing to do with God. They were clearly the work of the devil. Others produced tracts [small booklets] showing all the verses in the bible that speak of God acting thru these events. There are a lot of them, particularly in Psalms. Frank Bartleman, a very well respected brother who was a journalist during the revivals documented this. I remember reading in his book ‘another wave roles in’ [an excellent book] the scriptural proofs given for weather events to have been from God. The argument was made fairly conclusively. I am not saying Katrina or the deaths of innocent people are an act of God. I am saying that there were many scriptures that were brought out at this time that seemed to show Gods hand in weather events that coincided with the things he was doing at the time. Before Katrina hit the gulf coast and wiped out New Orleans, a prophet in the US, Kim Clement, prophesied of it. I do not endorse everything Kim says, but he did prophesy this event. Many in the Body of Christ were quick to come out with articles on how ‘God was not in this’ ‘it was a demonic thing’ and all sorts of stuff saying there is no way God would ever bring judgment in this way. The ‘pastoral’ part of me says the same thing; the ‘prophetic’ part of me differs. I dreamt yesterday that I was going to see my prophetic friend [the ex addict who is prophetic] and as I was leaving his block I was running to the corner, I don’t know if I was feeling attacked by the enemy or what. I dropped the cassette tapes on the street [the ones I drop off at the radio station] and some vehicle ran over them. I tried to salvage them but couldn’t. I felt this was a prophetic dream telling me that the enemy is ‘coming after’ me because of the ‘seed/word’ that the Lord has deposited in me at this season. The experience of feeling attacked the other day was quite severe. It was the same feeling of ‘loosing my mind’ that I felt many years earlier when confronting the ‘cult guy’ [gods angels group, by the way scripture says the devil disguises himself as an ‘angel of light’] When this happened the first time I was rocked. This time I managed to pray thru and simply stand ground and say ‘get behind me satan, I rebuke you’. This comes from years of experiencing Cross experiences. Arriving at a place in your life where the goal isn’t to live, but to get the word of God out as much as possible before you ‘depart’. A sense of ‘at least I posted this stuff on the blog, now if you try to kill me at least the word got out’. In the world I believe you would describe some of these ‘emotional’ ups and downs as depression, nervous breakdown and stuff like that. Then you wind up getting medicated and you abort the process of discovering the true hidden secrets of the Kingdom that come to those who have ‘descended low into the pit’. There is an actual truth to identifying with Christ in severe trials that allows you to go so low that you can ‘retrieve treasures’ that are only found in that place. An identifying with Jesus in his actual descent into hell. It was there that he ‘took the keys’ and led a troop of captives out of captivity. You must go to ‘that place’ in order to set captives free. NOTE: I want to stress the prophetic image of Jesus being in Hell and taking the keys of death from the devil. To me this experience shows me that there will be times where you will have to be face to face with the enemy. These experiences are not ‘flashy warfare experiences’. You could describe them as ‘terrifying’ but that’s what the enemy wants us to feel at those times. The best way to describe this is God wants to bring us to a place where we don’t fear death. [Don’t fear the reaper-Blue Oyster Cult] The main ‘button’ of fear is death. When you have settled this issue it enables you to have these ‘times’ where by necessity you will have to go to a ‘low’ point and stand face to face with the devil. You will not glory in your spiritual authority at this point. You will be vulnerable and understand that it is Jesus who is ultimately doing battle at this point. When I first got saved I remember having experiences in prayer that I thought were normal. I would sit on the bed early and just pray. I experienced a sense of ‘being out of my body’ and kinda going into space. It was quite surreal. I knew if I wasn’t a believer it would be too much too handle. There was a total loss of control. You might well have been dead and not even realized it. This is what it felt like. These were not demonic things; these were experiences with God that caused you to ‘fall on your face as one that is dead’ [it says John did this in the book of Revelation]. It takes years of walking with God and experiencing severe ups and downs that enable you to go thru these things without fear. I read how the brother from Rock Wall that I spoke on earlier went thru a lot of this stuff after the ‘prime time live’ show ‘mugged’ him. Even though he divorced his wife and suffered severe depression/bi-polar disorder, his wife still spoke well of him. She testified that even when all was lost in his life, even his mind, that he still prayed regularly. I identified so much with this. God brings us full circle and we get to a point where we are not concerning ourselves with ‘looking good’ or presenting a ‘package’ to people. You at that point say ‘if I can just finish the course I will be happy’. NOTE; I know I have mentioned a lot of prophets on this site. Let me say I do not endorse everyone I mention. I like Bill Yount, John Paul Jackson, Patricia King, Bobby Conner and a few others. I like them all, but some are putting stuff out right now that isn’t for a worldwide [or national] audience. They might be OK words, but they are meant for the local church only. Others are too quick to say ‘I heard an audible voice from God’ while this is possible, it is extremely rare. The purpose for prophetic insights and gifting is for God to communicate with us thru his Spirit to the whole Body. The ‘audible voice’ is a form of communication that is not primarily ‘spirit’ it is by definition ‘physical’. I know these things have happened in scripture, I just am a little uncomfortable with the level of the brothers who are saying this to a national audience at this time. NOTE; The principle of going ‘so low’ and ‘so high’ emotionally is called bi-polar. Some feel that true genius is associated with those who have had the ability to ‘obsessively compulse’ on things. Einstein, Luther and others had things like this. The great mind in math, John Nash [beautiful mind] suffered from severe schizophrenia thru out his life. Lincoln was a manic-depressive. I am not saying I am a genius, but I remember as a boy memorizing all the license plates on the block as I walked to school. Also having ‘ticks’ where I would have to turn my head and stuff like that. Years later my family [wife and kids] would see the shows on TV and say ‘that’s dad’ I know it is, I kinda joke about it. I have these stupid ticks with my hands. I will be ‘extending and twisting my fingers all the time’ I do joke about it. I was pruning the roses and actually cut my finger. My kids thought it was funny. It was the stupid tick that made me stick the finger out and cut it. I feel for the turrets guys [I actually think I have some of this to be real honest, I don’t like being this honest] who have this uncontrollable urge to use racial slurs when they are around black people. It would be hard to live in Newark with this one! NOTE: In the story of John Nash you find him avoiding medication because it not only dulled the ‘other voices’ he was hearing, but it also ‘dulled’ his ability to think critically and hear ingenious’things. When people are diagnosed with certain things and they also have great ability to understand, they choose to deal with the ‘other stuff’ so they can continue to hear God in a special way. It’s like one of the strategies of the devil is to speak to you so much that you will choose to medicate out so you wont hear anything. Jesus said the sheep ‘hear’ and know the voice of the Father, they will not listen to the enemy. But inherent in the ability to discern which voice is which, is the fact that when you start hearing from God at a higher level the enemy will also speak louder! [If you are diagnosed with a disorder I am not telling you not to take medication, that is between you and God].

(335) I was talking to a friend the other day and we were discussing certain end time things. I showed him how the first century Christians had their heads chopped off, were burned at the stake, eaten by lions and all sorts of stuff. How our black Christian brothers in southern Sudan are being wiped out by the oppressive northern Muslim regime. How Christians have gone thru these things and will go thru them till the end. I told him this in answer to the question ‘do you believe Christians will go thru the tribulation’. I said it must look funny to all our brothers who are in heaven looking down, thinking ‘these American 21st century Christians are the only ones who will escape this stuff, that sure doesn’t seem fair’!

(336) Picture if you were playing some board game. The game lasted one hour. The object of the game was to collect as many rewards as possible within the hour. During the game you and others learn certain ‘secrets’ along the way. One of the secrets is, at the end of the game the only rewards you get to keep are the ones you didn’t show off during the game. The temptation to ‘show them off’ was strong, but if you wanted credit after the hour you just had to ‘hide’ yourself until the hour was up. Many others who had collected wonderful treasures assured those who were waiting ‘don’t worry about it, we all show our treasures now, it feels really good, we all do it’. Most of us today don’t realize we are not ‘waiting the hour’. NOTE; just walked outside and heard the verse ‘could you not wait for me for one hour’. Jesus said this to the disciples right before the Cross. Note; scripture says Jesus descended lower than any man, and then ascended higher than any man. It is the actual experience of being in the lowest pit that qualifies you for great revelation. The New Testament says Eve was deceived when she ate of the fruit, not Adam. Some see this to be chauvinistic. I believe it is prophetic. Scripture calls Jesus the last Adam. The first Adam willingly chose to cut himself off from the presence of God so he could be with his wife. Jesus endured the cross for the joy of knowing we would be with him. In essence Jesus walked willingly away from the presence of the Father so he could be with his wife! [All Christians are called ‘the bride of Christ’].

(337) Lets try to undo some stuff. One of the other areas where Christians have been ‘taught wrong’ is the area of suffering and difficulty. I remember the elaborate explanations that the Word of Faith/prosperity preachers would go thru to contradict the plain meaning of verses. I don’t want to harp on this, but thanks to the worldwide voice that these brothers have had thru Christian TV there are lots of people who are taught wrong. First; There is a verse in Corinthians that says ‘I sought the Lord 3 times to take this away from me and the Lord said ‘my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness’. The old time churches teach that Paul was sick and God wouldn’t heal him. Of course the prosperity guys would never go for this so they taught that God was telling Paul ‘I have given you the authority, you rebuke it and make it go away’. First, whatever it was that Paul was asking God to take away, if you read the whole passage you will see that the lesson Paul learned was God was allowing this thing to co exist for the purpose of humility. God was bringing great revelation from Paul and the fact that God would not remove the problem was what happened here. Like I said before, it is almost ‘demonic’ how the word of faith preachers get around every single verse like this. It is amazing. Now what do I think the ‘thorn’ in the flesh was. Paul said he asked God to remove the ‘messenger of satan that was sent to disturb him’ it is possible that the ‘messenger’ was an actual person [maybe the main Pharisee out of the Jerusalem church who was going around infecting Paul’s churches with legalism?] It is possible that an actual ‘messenger’ was really what Paul was talking about. To interpret this passage by saying God was telling Paul to remove the problem ‘with his own faith’ is false. Just wish the Christian networks weren’t letting so much stuff like this ‘slip thru’. The word of faith group also teaches that the Lord would never use actual sickness to chasten ‘discipline’ his children. For the most part I kinda agree with this. The old time churches used to have the attitude ‘if I am sick then God is trying to teach me something’ so the prosperity guys go to the other extreme and say ‘if you are sick, somehow it is your fault. Sooner or later you will see you did something wrong, didn’t have enough faith, etc’ There is an interesting verse in Corinthians that says ‘for this cause many are weak and sick among you, and some have died’ and then ‘if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged, but when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord so we will not be condemned with the world’. Believe me I am familiar with all the arguments around these verses. To be honest, in this context the word ‘sick’ and God ‘chastening’ go hand in hand. Can I explain how this is true along with the truth that God heals and the enemy kills. I can go thru a few pages on it, but for now simply go check these scriptures out. I am not saying Christians should sit idly by and accept sickness. God’s word says ‘by his stripes I am healed’ and I believe that. I am just saying we don’t have to go thru the bible and find ways to explain away everything that we don’t like or understand. And finally ‘Is it ever Gods will to suffer’ well the word of faith preachers teach no. They say all suffering, chastening and discipline that God does is limited to ‘the word’. To be honest once again they have a real intricate system of ‘theology’ that seems to explain away all the plain verses on suffering. They will take you to the suffering/discipline verses and say ‘the suffering spoken of here is the ‘pain’ you experience when Gods word shows you that you are wrong’ [I guess sort of like what we have been doing!] and then they also extend the ‘suffering’ to the idea that when all Christians are wealthy and healthy and every thing is full and good, that when others talk about them, that in essence this is the ‘persecution’ that arose ‘because of the word’. That is because they have appropriated the word to arrive at this level of ‘fullness in all areas’ that any one who disagrees is actually fulfilling the suffering verse. Well it does get tiring after a while. First, Peter says [in the bible] that Jesus suffered and left us an example on how to suffer also. Did Jesus suffer by everything going well and people just talking about him? I mean heresy is deceitful because it can be believable. I think it was Hitler who said if you tell a lie long enough people will begin to believe it as truth. The New Testament teaches there are Christians who in Gods will suffer. These prosperity guys even explained away the martyrdom of Stephen in the book of Acts. Cant go thru the whole thing, but they taught basically that it was Stephens choice to believe for deliverance or go thru martyrdom. He chose martyrdom. I guess you can say we all choose whether we will be obedient to Gods call or not. And in some cases people do choose to ‘opt out’ of the suffering. But this is not Gods will. Many of these preachers who preach this have actually ‘opted out of Gods will’ by choosing to embrace these things. They have managed to get around the ‘cross experiences’ thru these elaborate schemes and will have to answer to God for teaching this to so many people. So today we learned that sometimes we are called to go thru hard times. We don’t accept everything that happens to us with a fatalistic mindset ‘whatever will be will be’ like the Calvinist who stubbed his toe real bad and said ‘sure glad that’s over’. But we do understand that sometimes the will of God is ‘my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness’.

(338) There are so many things to say right now, I really wanted to take a break. I read an article from a book on business and fulfilling life’s goals. It wasn’t a Christian book, but I liked the principle. The author shared how she learned that one of the major obstacles to doing what matters in life is YOU! That is we have a tendency to become ‘stagnant’ and live our lives in the parameters that we are familiar with, in the same ‘scenery’ we have been looking at for years. When we decide to step out in faith and ‘remove’ ourselves from familiar surroundings, this act in and of itself creates the new ‘route’ and way to see beyond the present [actually a lot of this wasn’t in the article]. Biblically God calls us at times to ‘Abrahamic’ faith. ‘Get out of your country and from your kindred and from your fathers house and I will make of thee a great nation’ this last year my children moved out and bought homes and ‘resettled’ in new land. If you were to ask me at the beginning of the year to have helped them ‘re camp’ and move out and everything, I would have said ‘no way’ you guys are working full time, attending college and stuff, you are biting off more than you can chew! But now I actually enjoy going to my daughters ranch and spending the night. It’s ‘new territory’ that my ‘seed/offspring’ walked into and I am in a sense entering in to their harvest. I read online some stuff on the prosperity brothers. I really cant ‘stay there’ too long. I know you guys think I am hard on them, but there a lot of critics who really personally attack them with name calling. We look ‘tame’ compared to them. I feel like the reason I am not a ‘theologian’ or even a ‘suit and tie’ preacher is because the Lord wants us to reach a lot of the younger generation of kids who are ‘lost’ in this movement. Most people that finally meet me after hearing us for years don’t realize I really look like some throwback ‘hippie’ from the 70’s. I am not purposely doing it; I just am more comfortable with jeans and raggedy clothes then with the whole ‘ I am a preacher’ type look. I feel many of the kids in these movements have not been effectively reached because the ‘reproovers’ have been the old type guys, and some have been way to personal. I was watching an old show from some businessmen who were Christians. The whole time period and persona of these brothers was another time and place. They were sharing on their experiences of coming to faith in Christ. Very successful and well-known business guys. As one of them was sharing on what the Lord showed him in the parable of the sower, he made an off the cuff remark that the parable wasn’t about money ‘30-60-100 fold’ but about spiritual truths. I thought how sad, that this brother is right, but this false interpretation has been going around for so long that it even reached these brothers from ‘another time and place’. I recently read a vision that a prophet had, part of it dealt with God doing a mighty deliverance among his people. There were some other personal things that led me to see our role in this. I pray for you ‘young guys’ God is asking you to step out and re position yourselves spiritually, you are required to ‘leave your fathers house’ [the old stuff you were taught from men you respected] and move to another place.

(339) THE MAN WHOSE NAME IS THE BRANCH, HE WILL BRANCH OUT FROM HIS PLACE AND BUILD THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD Was just praying and seeing Gods purpose. A tree will ‘reach’ out to certain areas/spaces. The tree will drop acorns/pecans etc. the seed has the potential for another tree. God wants you guys to be trees, not just ‘seeds’. We often view our selves as simple ‘little parts’ in a big plan. Modern churches/ministries often tell you this ‘what can you do on your own? But if you join your little part with this big ministry then you can touch the world’ I am here to tell you that you CAN touch the world with your little part. I don’t want to ‘re produce’ other ‘corrective’ ministries. I want to ‘re produce’ Jesus followers who are willing to lay down everything for the gospel. I don’t want you guys coming to this site for interest only, sell out too! Join the revolution!

(340) I read a prophecy a while back that spoke of 7-7-07 being a significant time. I emailed the brother and told him my birthday falls on 7-17-07 this year. [Who knows, maybe he missed it by 10 days?] Also 10 days represents a time of intense trial and difficulty. ‘The devil will cast some of you into prison for 10 days, be faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life’. While studying on line, I noticed that the major prosperity church here in Texas started their ministry in 1962, the year I was born. God in his mercy knew that there were things that would be taught in Texas that would do damage to the Body of Christ. He knew that one of the major propagators of this ‘doctrine from Balaam’ would arise in Texas in 1962. Maybe the Lord had a person ‘of violence’ born that year from the North [I was born in Hoboken, Frank Sinatra’s turf. A ‘voice’ that would touch a generation] that would eventually come down to ‘root it out’ [I will raise up one from the north, he will come upon princes as mortar, and the coastlands shall wait for his law] maybe the year 7-17-2007 was a time appointed by God, maybe we have come to the Kingdom for such a time as this? Just maybe. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN SUFFERETH VIOLENCE, AND THE VIOLENT TAKE IT BY FORCE. I HAVE RAISED UP ONE FROM THE NORTH, FROM THE RISING OF THE SUN SHALL HE CALL UPON MY NAME [early prayer] HE SHALL COME UPON PRINCES AS MORTAR AND THE COASTLANDS SHALL WAIT FOR HIS LAW. [Isaiah] NOTE: Some of the brothers speaking on the date ‘7-7-07’ are saying this date will not happen again for 1000 years. I understand what they mean, but they are actually saying ‘7-7-07’ will not happen until 1000 years. Well it will happen 10 more times in this period. 7-7-[21] 07, 7-7-[22] 07, etc. I don’t want to just be critical, but the problem of Christians not thinking things thru when they say them makes us look silly to the world.

(341) The western church [you and me] plays a major role in the purpose of God at this time. We are extremely immature in our thinking. We are extremely materialistic in our view of the churches role in society [read the Popes recent book-2007] we see ‘the answer’ to world evangelism as bringing in more money. God sees the actual people as the ‘riches’ of the nations. ‘Ask of me and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. Your sons shall come from far and your daughters from the ends of the earth’ Many truly do not see what we have done in the American church for the last 50 years. Jesus is prophetically ‘turning the tables of the money changers over’ he is entering a time period in the western church where he is dealing with and judging ‘our god’. One of the major tools that he raises up to use for tasks like this are prophets. It was a crafty strategy of the enemy to cause the prophets to ‘worship gods of gold’. In doing this the enemy for the most part removed the key tool that our Father wanted to use for this work. This work of dealing with idolatry in the western church is a major [if not the major] prophetic work that needs to be done in order for the nations to say ‘Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’. Jesus wasn’t just dealing with 1st century moneychangers. He was signifying the future ‘cleansing’ of his people from this mindset. Right now the Spirit of God is doing a ‘violent’ work in many key prophets thru out our country. Many were not dealing with these issues out of pride. They put their ministries and the success of their personas at the forefront of their concerns. They saw any reproof in this area as wrong. They were not humble enough to realize that the Spirit of God shows no partiality. God commands all men everywhere to repent. He does not come to take sides in arguments. He comes in power so he can reap the riches of the earth. We must be free from the riches of the world in order for him to do this.

(342) There are tremendous worldwide movements taking place right now in the earth. China is being brought to Christ at a tremendous rate. Some estimate 1200 people an hour are coming to Jesus. I remember hearing a testimony from some Pastor from an overseas country. Many of the Pastors in this country [it was a 3rd world country, I cant remember what one] were looking at the money gospel that we were pumping into their country. They all with one voice joined in an outright rejection and rebuke of these American heretics. They plainly saw all the things I have shown you on this site and flat out rejected it. There is a mindset that comes from these ministries that sees the ‘doctrine’ that they are putting out as ‘deep truths, the meat of the word’ they have deceived themselves into thinking that all of these obvious errors are really the true mysteries of God. Pride is very destructive. It was really humbling to see instances where sincere leaders and believers from the world over have at times openly rebuked the obvious error of these things. The instances I recall were like the people were saying ‘cant you see how deceived you American preachers are’. I realize that all American preachers are not like this. But these worldwide Christians see a regular dose of this kind of Christianity from the Christian networks. I see this as the Spirit of the Lord rising up within his people to correct the Body. I do remember watching the Fort Worth brother teach a series on Hebrews and teach that the meat of the word of God was being able to ‘rule your senses’ to a point where you only hear the promises of abundance and become rich. Any one who can’t ‘rule his senses’ and listens to the ‘nay sayers’ has weak faith and therefore is not financially rich. The amount of deception that was broadcast worldwide form this program is unbelievably harmful to the church. These verses from Hebrews were saying nothing even remotely close to this. It was so obvious to the average believer. But the leaders of this movement are so steeped in this stuff they simply cant see it. NOTE; I have written to some of these networks, as others have done. At times I feel like saying ‘I can’t believe you guys are allowing this to go worldwide’ but I guess they feel like they should. NOTE; Many of these verses that they use to do this are either taken from chapters or books of the New Testament that are actually warning against covetousness. Sometimes the actual verse says something like ‘avoid materialism, seek spiritual riches’ and these guys will take that verse and say ‘the word for ‘riches’ speaks of abundance in every area. Therefore God is telling us to seek wealth and money’ the amount of deception is quite unbelievable. [That’s why I can’t understand how my ‘prophetic’ friends do not only remain silent on this stuff, but they often perpetuate it. This takes the tool that God wants to use to up root this [the Prophets] and actually causes it to line up in agreement. This cannot stand any more.] NOTE; When these guys do this stuff, it’s like the bible and the true person of Jesus are tools to do what they want with. To say ‘Jesus is Lord’ after doing all this makes you think of the verse ‘why do you call me Lord and not do/say the things that I am saying’. This same preacher also taught that Hebrews says ‘Jesus is the Apostle and high priest of our confession/profession’ he actually taught that this meant ‘Jesus is the SERVANT of what we say, if we confess ‘car/money/etc.’ then Jesus as the priest of our confession goes and says ‘yes sir, I will now go to the father and cause the things you spoke to manifest’ This has Jesus ‘being Lord/High Priest’ turned completely around. The verse means we obey him. As our high priest he mediates for us. Because we have entered into covenant with him, we are debtors to him. We lay our lives down for him. To be honest the way this preacher actually showed Jesus in a way that made him look like a servant was truly offensive. He kind of showed Jesus as a slave to our desires. You guys defending this stuff, times up, don’t defend this anymore.

(343) Just ran our blog ad in the Dallas Morning News. Thought about the event that put Dallas on the map. The killing of President Kennedy. John Kennedy was killed in 1963. Right around the dates I have been discussing. It’s like a demonic spirit was coming against ‘John’ as the enemy was ‘planting’ a work of deception that would do harm to the person of Christ for generations to come.

(344) I am up early right now, there is this tremendous wind/lightning storm going on in my area. Usually I have to get wet when this happens. Being outside praying during a thunderstorm is surreal. This time the rain is limited to the gulf, so I can walk without getting wet. The view of the lightning is great. I am typing this without power right now. Working on batteries because the storm knocked out power. I have a lot to say so I hope I get power back soon. We should have our blog posted in the Dallas Morning News this Saturday. At first I had no intention of ‘biting off more than I could chew’ but I felt the Lord gave me some signs to go to Dallas. This area houses a lot of worldwide ministries. Some of the leaders are seeing the things we speak on. There actually is a type of spiritual warfare going on in the ‘intellectual community’ of charismatic/evangelical ministries. I put ‘intellectual’ in quotes because I hesitate to use this word. The normal level of study and thinking among these ministries is really shallow. All the obvious things we have dealt with could have been avoided if key leaders simply new how to read and interpret scripture. A few years ago I spoke to a national ‘level’ prophet. He actually had opportunity to personally witness to Saddam Hussein before the war. I share this not to brag, but to show that God wants the prophets and the church to see and think on a level that we are not at yet. Most American ministries are simply Christian businesses that are set up to teach their peculiar view/style of Christianity to a passive audience. The intent of the prophetic voice of the church is to speak into society at large and influence it with the reality of God. Some of the silly end time scenarios you see espoused on Christian TV are not only wrong, but also dangerous. All the governments of men [even Israel] that operate outside of Christ’s rule are simply the governments of the world. While God has great plans for Israel, this does not supercede what I just told you. The fact that we have well known evangelists siding to the point of military action from one side towards another is blurring the lines. While I in no way support the Hammas groups of Palestine, to actually advocate military violence towards any group is wrong. I recognize the right of all nations to defend themselves against terrorism, yet Gods Kingdom operates on a different level. These end time preachers really think you can open up the books of Daniel and Revelation and read the newspaper as commentary. This level of ‘thought’ is not only shallow, but deadly. The Christian preacher should never place him self on the side of any human govt. against another group of people that actually has Christians living in the country. If you advocate violence thru the reading of these prophetic books, you don’t realize that you might have joined sides with a govt., no matter how ‘good’, that rejects Christ and actually kills Christians as collateral damage. Now am I saying we should have no voice in world affairs? NO! But the churches voice loses credibility when it does not see these distinctions. The former Soviet Union was an oppressive form of govt. the people were ‘robots’ that functioned as tools of a greater purpose. The problem was no one developed into independent people/thinkers under this model. Though the original designs were noble to a degree, the fact is this type of govt. was repressive. The church in general has functioned this way for generations. Most modern forms of church tell people that their job is to be an audience and be passive and bring your money and GOD FORBID THAT YOU WOULD THINK ON YOUR OWN. Then you have the radicals like me who challenge the system and at times have succeeded in a small way. But the people, just like the Russians, were co dependant for so long that they cant really function well when true liberty is given them. Many had high hopes for the former Soviet Union [The Beatles actually wanted to get back to the USSR, you don’t know how lucky you are] the reality is the people could not function well in a Capitalistic form of govt. because they were ‘held captive’ for so long. God wants the prophetic voice to bring his people to an ‘Exodus’ from limited mindsets and practices. The problem seems to be that they have been ‘held captive’ for so long, they really don’t know how to deal with it. NOTE; the simple fact that the transition from natural land [Israel] to spiritual land [the church] as one of the major ‘shifts’ in the minds of the first century JEWISH APOSTLES should cause us to question the strong GENTILE EVANGELISTS emphasis on natural Israel. This development of end time views revolves around specific scripture. The disciples asked Jesus one time ‘are you going to restore the Kingdom to Israel now’ and Jesus says ‘it is not for you to know the times and seasons that the Father has put in his hand’. The future return of Jesus and the fact that scripture speaks of Christ’s return to this land [natural Israel] is significant. You cant ‘spiritualize’ everything about natural Israel. The fact also is that Gods chief concern and purpose for humanity is located in ‘the true Israel of God’ this is a Bible reference from the Apostle Paul speaking about the Christian Church. Paul made a division between Gods natural purpose for natural Israel and Gods eternal purpose for spiritual Israel. Paul also spoke of a day when all Israel will fall down in repentance and acknowledgement of Christ [book of Romans]. The Old Testament prophets speak of a day of great humiliation when Israel will ‘look upon him who they have pierced’ they will say ‘how did you get these wounds’ and he will answer ‘in the house of my friends’. The biblical characterization of Christ appearing to natural Israel is not one of militaristic vindication. It is one of national ‘rebirth’. At this time in the future when this happens, it will not be a vindicating of Israel over the church. It will be a humiliation and repentance as she is added unto the church. At this moment in history she will at one time have fulfilled her long awaited destiny, which was to present Messiah to humanity. She will be fulfilling this event as spiritual Israel, not natural! This level of understanding is not common today; we need to attain to these things long before Christ’s return. He will not return in a way that would seem to justify the American evangelists repression of other believers thru their distorted view of natural Israel. To put it bluntly [as I have been known to do] it would rock these American end time preachers for Jesus to come back and blow away the image and mindset that they have espoused. To a degree some of them have unknowingly sided with the kingdoms of men against the Kingdom of God. All natural govts, outside of Christ, are the Kingdoms of men. All believers on the planet are in the Kingdom of God. Some of these evangelists have given voice, thru their interpretation of scripture, to the kingdom of man coming against the Kingdom of God. It would be devastating to some of these preachers to think that Jesus is coming back to lead a military campaign in the natural, only to realize that they have sided with a human govt that has actually killed a fellow believer [possibly Palestinian] and in so doing have fulfilled the verse that says ‘I have received these wounds in the house of my friends’. Many evangelists don’t realize that the actual killing of another believer is the worst ‘wounding’ you can inflict upon Christ’s Body. To have done this thru a distorted view of scripture would be too much to handle for these guys. God in his mercy is not returning just yet. NOTE; scripture says a time is coming when those who kill Christians will think that they are doing Gods service, most don’t realize how true this can be!

(345) Let me deal with certain things that inevitably come up when you discus these things. Jesus said in the gospel ‘destroy this Temple and in 3 days I will raise it up’. The mistake that caused the hearers to later accuse him [the Body of Christ] was thinking that he was speaking about/ concerned with the natural Temple. The leaders would later bring this up at his unjust trial. The fact that they were unable to discern between Gods purpose for the spiritual temple [the Church/Body of Christ] with the natural temple was one of the ‘hinges’ that would cause them to side with human govt. [Rome] against Gods govt. [the govt. shall be upon his shoulders]. Today we make the same mistake when we view the natural temple [yet to be built] as the ‘hinge’ of end time events. I have heard the most elaborate scenarios of things that will happen and the temple being the key factor. The key factor for Christ’s return is the condition of the spiritual temple, not the natural one. Scripture clearly says that Christ will return for a glorious temple without spot or wrinkle. This is speaking of us, the true Body of Christ. Those who have focused on the natural temple have unwittingly missed the key element of Christ’s return, which of course is the condition of the spiritual Body of Christ. When Christian leadership in the church is able to ‘rightfully divide’ the word of truth, then we will have come a lot further towards the return of Christ. God loves all nations. Muslim ones, Jewish ones, Gentile ones, etc. His chief concern since the Cross is to bring all tribes of humanity into this one new nation called ‘the Church’. His kingdom is not of this world, or else we would be fighting and crusading against the ‘infidels’. But because his kingdoms boundaries are spiritual, we fight with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We ‘take dominion’ and inherit the earth thru acts of love and charity. These radical Muslim nations who want to kill us, see us feeding their children at the risk of our lives, while we bomb the hell out of them from the air. Which strategy fits in more with Christ? These Palestinians and Israelis see our charity workers risking their lives on the field while our American evangelists are advocating violence and expound on ‘smart bombs and patriot missiles’, which do you think is representing Christ’s concerns? We have not done justice to our King who said ‘if my Kingdom were of this world my servants would fight’ If you look at the mindset of ‘his servants’ it makes you wonder. NOTE; I am not a pacifist. I do believe in the historic Christian doctrine of ‘just war’. There are times where it is noble for human govts to war against other govts for the purpose of justice [WW2]. The point I am making is the ‘line’ between the Church and the ‘warring nations’ should be clearly seen. The tremendous damage that is done when a radical Islamic Nation is able to portray their terroristic advances as ‘Muslim against Christian’ is helped when American evangelists don’t rightfully distinguish between the two. It also doesn’t help when the American President actually uses the word ‘crusade’ when describing what we are doing!

(346) Let me note that these last 2 entries were written right after one of the ‘worst’ days I have had in a long time. When you go ‘low’ you can get the ‘keys’ from the adversary that will unlock many doors.

(347) Just felt like I heard the Lord say ‘I am coming at this season to remove certain things that have embedded themselves within the church, align with my purpose. I am the Plumb line’. Felt this especially for the Prophets.

(348) There were certain prophetic people whom God raised up at specific times. The history of Gods Old Testament people showed that they time and again were not recognizing the significance of what God was saying thru them at the time. This is what scripture means when it speaks of Israel saying ‘they rejected the chief corner stone’. Lets be real. I am not saying ‘our voice’ is the singular fulfillment to these things. Many prophetic people have gone really off course by viewing themselves as the 2 witnesses of the book of Revelation. I fall on the side that sees these types of verses as speaking of ‘companies of people’ the restoration of offices ‘Apostles/Prophets’ more so than specific people. In saying this I also see that God has real destiny for each of us. There are ‘prophetic’ voices that he does use to speak at set times. Martin Luther King and others. What I felt the Lord saying is ‘don’t despise the people that I set in your midst’. We are often looking for ‘prophets’ and prophetic words from ‘far away’ ‘I went to this Prophets meeting and he said this’. That’s fine, but the scripture shows us that we have a tendency to ‘reject’ the prophetic voices from our home turf. Jesus said a prophet has honor except in his hometown. Now I don’t want to be too self-serving to all my ‘hometown brothers’, just wanted to say in general that we miss important things because of the ‘familiarity’ of prophetic people. ‘Oh I know him, he said or did this. Can you believe it’. Jesus ‘offended’ people by his familiarity. ‘This is the carpenters son. I had that kid fix my back porch 15 years ago. I brought him iced tea for [his name!] sake! If I want a prophetic word, it wont be from him’. Know no man after the flesh. Look at what God is saying. John the Baptist ‘knew’ Jesus as a cousin his whole life. Yet when it came time to officially recognize him and present him to Israel at his baptism, scripture says that John ‘knew’ him by the Spirits testimony. He did not act out of familiarity, he knew he had a destiny to fulfill, and true humility enabled him to do this.

(349) The rise of the Islamic religion came as a direct result of the Christian churches idolatry. 1400 years ago the prophet Muhammad saw the actual idolatry of the church in having statues and Christians actually bowing down in front of them during ‘church’ services. Muhammad led an iconoclastic revolt [image smashing] and felt that God was using him to judge idolatry in the church. In essence ‘radical Islam’ is sort of a type of ‘Babylonian’ judgment that God allows to come against the church when she becomes idolatrous/materialistic. Today radical Islam looks at all the TV and entertainment that is being produced from ‘western’ Christianity, and sees herself once again as an instrument in Gods hand to ‘judge’ idolatry/materialism. The western church doesn’t yet realize the significance of not being materialistic. Many of the mindsets say ‘this is what Christianity is all about, God is a good God [true] and therefore we are all bout ‘accumulating stuff’ [false]. This ‘idolatry’ of things has once again opened a ‘spiritual portal’ that allows ‘pagan’ nations to judge Gods people. In essence God uses wicked govt. and religions to come in and attack the ‘secure’ feeling of those who find security in ‘things’. The significance of the worlds 3 great religions [Christianity/Islam/Jew] at this time in world history is at a critical point. The reason why ‘spiritual Israel’ [all believers] will be the ‘body of people’ that Christ will return to and vindicate is because these have been the servants of all these other nations during these conflicts. Jesus said the last will be first. These humble believers who have been risking their lives reaching out to all these communities and trying to feed and help these nations are the ones that Christ returns to and ‘shows’ himself. In essence the humble church do inherit the earth. Natural Israel could not do this. The Israel of today is a govt. built and established on Old Testament truths. They still have embedded in their minds the concept of ‘animal sacrifice’ and obedience to law as the nationalistic ‘glue’ that holds the fabric of their society together. The return of Jesus will be an event where all nations will see and fall down and confess Jesus as Lord. It will be humbling to realize that at this moment God is not vindicating the thoughts or religions of men, but instead he will be vindicating the Lamb and his followers. Judgment will be given over to the Lamb and the humble ones who have been following him for 2 thousand years. The world will be relieved to see judgment in the hands of those who truly loved and gave themselves for them. Paul said we shall judge the world. Jesus said whosever’s sins you forgive will be forgiven. There is an aspect to the final judgment that is given to the Saints. This will not be an arrogant thing. Jesus is waiting for the saints to be mature enough to return and entrust this to them. You wouldn’t give your car to your 10 year old. But when they are mature enough you will entrust it to them. So a major aspect of Christ’s return is for his people to be mature enough to not want to judge and condemn, but who will be willing to ‘suffer these other nations to come unto him’. After all redemption was his purpose from the start. [I am not advocating universalism, I am showing you that at Christ’s return he wants his people to be able to handle in grace and mercy the role we will play in the judgment of the nations].

(350) I was watching a prophet the other day on TV. He seemed to be really enjoying the limelight. Just basking in Gods presence while ‘broadcasting’ his image worldwide. At one point he quotes a major money preacher. He quotes him in a way that justifies and aligns himself with this man. This is the same brother I have spoken about who routinely abuses Christ’s image and people. There was a sense of this prophet really enjoying God during this encounter, without truly putting the concerns of Gods people first. To have used this worldwide medium [TV] in a way that will eventually have to be undone was offensive to me. The arrogance of ‘self enjoyment’ ‘my ministry is going well, I have a worldwide persona, I regularly broadcast much revelation to the world, and oh yes, I just endorsed a person who does harm to the image of Christ’ We must put our ministries and our personas away [or at least far behind!] it’s having wrong priorities that causes these things to happen. First priority should be, if God gives you a worldwide audience, how can I best advance the cause of Christ? Maybe you are not called to be as radical as me in these areas. But at least stop endorsing these terrible views to a worldwide audience! Stop it now! NOTE; the quote was something like ‘so and so says ‘faith is the absence of fear’ True. There is a strange thing that happens with these brothers. They see simple truths, they focus intently on them. They proclaim them as tremendously deep revelation. They then go right past the entire plain body of truth taught thru out the entire Word of God. It is an amazing ‘deception’ to strain at nats while swallowing camel’s whole!

(351) While outside praying, I was praying for the area where our radio program broadcasts. The southern part of Texas as well as up and down the gulf Coast. I also was praying for the ‘blog’ cities where we post. From Texas all the way to the New York area. There is an ‘overlapping’ area where both ‘trumpets’ blow. I sensed the Lord saying ‘I am going to do some overlapping things, some manifold things at one time. A wheel within a wheel. A territorial advance that will be unstoppable’. I have for a long time ‘seen’ the image of ‘3 fold cords’ not being easily broken. This year I kind of see it like the Radio [spoken word] Blog[written/virtual word] and People/Ecclesia [living epistles]. Felt like you guys are to play a major role in this thing. Let God use you to extend the Kingdom. Break the limited mindset of ‘getting people to support my ministry/come to my church’ type thing. Enter into a ‘brave heart/Patton’ mentality. ‘I will risk my life to be at the fore front of this revolution’.

(352) ‘What did you expect to find, was it something you left behind? Don’t you remember any thing I said when I said ‘don’t fall away and leave me to myself, don’t leave love bleeding in my hands, in my hands again. Love lies bleeding. Don’t you remember? But I do, you never even tried’ [Jesus says we are marked in his hands]. The song Hemorrhage from the group ‘fuel’. You can also find this in scripture! We are so plastic in the eyes of the world. The limelight sucks the anointing out of Gods Prophets. In 2 thousand years we went from Jesus instruction on church leadership as washing each other’s feet [servant hood] to today’s mindset that has the singular most important piece of ‘church furniture’ as being the stage. God help us. I feel so tired right now, totally drained.

(353) Let me ramble a little. I was watching the Republican Presidential debate last night. One of the candidates said of abortion ‘I am against it personally, but it is a woman’s choice. She has a right to her own conscience’. Was it the ‘slaveholders choice’ to do what he wanted? Were you personally against slavery, but respected the ‘free choice’ of the slaveholder? Bunch of lying hypocrites. Choice ends at the line of another human beings right to live. No person has the ‘choice’ to dismember a baby’s body inside a womb. I heard the reading of one of the transcripts from the recent Supreme Court ruling against partial birth abortion. The Judge was asking one of the Doctors who gave testimony to describe the procedure. The Doctor is saying ‘we pull the babies legs out’ the judge asks ‘are the legs kicking’ ‘yes’. We insert the ‘tongs’ type instrument and place it over the babies skull. ‘Are the legs still kicking’ ‘yes’. We squeeze the instrument and crush the skull. ‘The legs are not kicking anymore’. You call this a woman’s right? I don’t care which political side you fall on, how dare anybody be so blind to call this a woman’s right, and to approve of this for someone’s vote. To want power and position so bad, that you would do it at the cost of giving voice to the singular most horrendous act of ‘infanticide’ that has taken place in 2 thousand years. Never has there been a time in history where the amount of babies that have been killed can equal what we have done. The wonderful Democrats are right now trying to undo what the Supreme Court has banned. They have certain things they feel they can do legislatively. Thanks so much. I actually like one of the Democrats who is running at this time. He is a Black American, well spoken. His favorite philosopher is Reinhold Niebuhr. A great Christian Theologian. His son [Ralph- I think it’s his son?] is on the cutting edge of Christian thought in our day in the area of ‘Ecclesiology’. A lot of the stuff you read on this site in the area of church form and structure are things he would agree with. I think it’s great for a Black Democrat to have his father as one of his favorite thinkers. Could I vote for him? No. Why not? He believes the murder of little babies is a woman’s choice. Would you vote for someone who believed slavery was the slaveholder’s choice? Don’t vote for people who believe the life or control of another person is in the hands of those with the power to take their life. The fact that this is being done is wrong. Don’t side with it. [Also, as we speak out for the unborn. Lets do what we can to save the hundreds of thousands of little black children dying in Africa and other parts of the world].

(354) Just thought of Isaiah. Haven’t read it in years [at least the first 39 chapters, I do read chapters 39 to the end regularly]. God appears to him and gives him this wonderful prophetic ministry. God ‘touches’ his lips with fire [a prophetic image from Revelation that says ‘fire proceeds from their mouths’ not real fire, Gods voice. God is a consuming fire.] Isaiah then sees his own life as being undone. He sees himself and the time period he is living in as ‘unclean’ [out for their own pleasures and concerns]. There is this ‘realization’ that just about everyone involved, including himself, are so far behind. He ascends to this place of ‘seeing’ the Lord. At the same time he is at the lowest emotional and spiritual point in his life. The fact that God has given him this door to speak, brings with it this ‘prison’ of going high and low. An aspect of Jesus ministry, who ascended higher than any man, but also lower than any man. Isaiah begins to see the vanity of everyone involved. I read something from John Paul Jackson. It was either a dream or vision. God showed John the present state of leadership in the church. There were 4 levels. One of the levels was very shallow. No one from that ‘time’ was actually mature. They were all victimized by pride and showmanship. They meant well, they just couldn’t truly see the condition of themselves as well as the church. God told John that this was the present level. Isaiah thought they were at the 1st level, until God opened his eyes. It was hard to swallow what he was ‘seeing’. NOTE; Bible says ‘eat the book/words’. In your mouth it will be sweet [prophetic flow will be life giving] but in your belly bitter [it will be required to ‘ingest’ stuff that wont taste good. Things that are ‘hard’ to swallow. It says this of the prophet John in the book of Revelation]

(355) I kinda see it like this. Say if we were all in the 3rd grade [lets stick to our earlier analogy] but we didn’t realize it. We were all doing ‘stage plays’ and assignments and regular school activities. Some of us were smarter than others. But we were all still at the 3rd grade level. The real achievers among us, those who really stood out, were very well known. All the others classmates knew how smart they were. But the truth was they might have been at the 4th grade level, maybe 5th. But in the overall scheme of things everybody is still immature. Then one day the Lord reaches out to little Tommy. He tells him ‘Little Tommy, I am going to reveal to you university level stuff, but first I am going to show you how everyone is really in elementary school though they don’t know it’. God then pulls back the curtain and shows little Tommy the vanity of it all. Tommy realizes that though the Father loves them, they are all little kids acting like adults. The fact that God decided to show Tommy these things doesn’t really change Tommy’s level of maturity. Tommy is just like everybody else [I am a man of unclean lips in the midst of unclean people] the only difference is God chose Tommy for this task. The problem is because they are all still immature, even Tommy, this will lead to the other classmates saying ‘did you see Tommy’s scores the other day? He is really smart; lets make Tommy the most likely to succeed. Lets make him class president’. The only problem is along with the ‘ability’ to see more than his classmates, comes with it the obvious vanity of the whole thing. It’s sort of like Tommy realizes he might very well be the most influential kid in the class. But a time is coming [maybe after Tommy and all his classmates are gone] that all the other students are going to realize that Tommy and all of his contemporaries were only at the 3rd grade level. This causes Tommy to feel like ‘why even waste all this time in the 3rd grade?’ [Paul said he had a desire to depart, which would be much better, instant university level, but to stay with the 3rd graders was needful. Remember with the gift that Tommy had came also the realization that he too was in the 3rd grade] Even though Tommy’s friends ‘idolized’ his ability to see down the road, Tommy realized that this fleeting moment of glory was an absolute waste of time. Tommy even wrote in his letters about the vanity of the whole thing, but the other students would keep exalting Tommy, even though he wrote that we shouldn’t do this. There finally comes a day when Tommy will have to leave. All his friends will go their ways. Eventually Tommy will see them again, at that time everyone will realize that what Tommy was saying and seeing didn’t make him better in any way. They will realize that they were all childish. That even though they now see that Tommy knew a lot of this before them, yet somehow this doesn’t matter anymore. They all see everything at the same level now. Tommy knew all along that this future re union was coming, a day when everyone would all see at the highest level. At that time they will realize that to glory in each other’s knowledge and wisdom was just a childish game that they all played at a former time. This is why Tommy could never ‘get on with the program’ the same ability to see a little further than his classmates also brought with it the futility to glory in men. IT IS SWEET IN YOUR MOUTH, BUT BITTER IN YOUR BELLY. NOTE; One of the worst things that came along with Tommy’s gift was every once in a while some of the students would pretend to have very deep truths. They would tell the others students ‘this is university level stuff’. Out of pride the others students would learn these basic teachings and spread them to the whole school. It was easy for Tommy to recognize that this teaching wasn’t really university level. Tommy could see this because of the gift, not because he was smarter. It was really hard on Tommy because when he would warn the other students of the obvious 3rd grade level of their teaching, they would take it very personal and say ‘who does Tommy think he is, he’s just a carpenters son [a ‘secular’ un ordained laborer] I think maybe we should even kill him’ this made Tommy really tired of the whole thing and would cause him to want to graduate real fast. NOTE; Sometimes Tommy would feel like the whole thing was a big game. He knew it was wrong to feel this way, as being God chose him to see at a higher level. Tommy would feel bad about being cynical at times. He sometimes thought that maybe this was part of the price. Maybe God allowed Tommy to feel this way as part of the gift. Tommy knew there was a man named Paul who used to pray that certain things would go away and God told Paul I am allowing this thing to remain because of the gift. This made Tommy wonder why so many of the 3rd graders wanted to be on stage so badly, Tommy knew that to really be ‘on stage’ was something different than they thought. Tommy knew that the piece of furniture that God uses is called the Cross. That to be ‘lifted higher’ meant something different. The 3rd graders used to sing a song ‘lift Jesus higher, lift Jesus higher’ they took the words from the bible, but being they were only in the 3rd grade they didn’t realize that this spoke of crucifixion, not fame. Tommy felt this to be a prophetic sign that spoke to the level of maturity that they were all at. NOTE; The rock opera ‘Tommy’ by the Who spoke of a blind kid [who is blind like my servant] who kept hitting the pinball just right. I have a cat named ‘Tommy’. We thought she was a boy at first, then she had babies! We had to get her leg amputated when she started coming around. She got hit by a car. Poor thing, she had 3 kittens [more are the children of the afflicted!] and spends a lot of time by her self. Sometimes it’s like she’s waiting to ‘depart’. The cool thing about prophetic things is they are so prophetic! [3 kittens/3 legs] 3 fold cords are not easily broken!

(356) Lets line up with scripture. God is going to allow us to ‘posses the land’. God has tremendous Abrahamic fulfillments that he wants to do thru you. The first century Apostles lived in a time where the actual inheriting and purchasing of land was a very real biblical act. Yet not one single New Testament Apostle raised money to purchase land or property. Funny thing? All the verses dealing with the purchase of land in the Old testament [I stress all!] were ‘spiritualized’ by Paul to mean ‘people groups’. Not once, not twice, every time! You think this would affect the mindset of the modern minister. God wants you and me to begin ‘possessing land’. If you do it the way Paul and Jesus did it, you will ‘run rapidly thru the land’. If you refuse to ‘transition your mind’ and attempt to fulfill these promises in the natural, it will not only slow you down, but you will be spending too much time with the cares of this life ‘I have bought land and I need to go see it’. Build the way EVERY New Testament Apostle did. Not a single appeal for money to buy ministry property or land. The only ‘land’ transaction you see taking place is the actual selling of it to meet the needs of the saints [Acts]. There was a very real sense of ‘inheriting the land’ that the Apostles took to mean the people who lived in these regions [Ephesus, Galatia, etc.] NOTE; To the ‘local’ Pastors who read this site, I don’t have you guys in mind right now, if it fits, fine. But I was reading some stuff on line and kind of felt like this was for some not in this area!

(357) Just woke up at work. Was dreaming I was in Jersey. This means God is doing a work with some of my generation, the old friends who I ‘re attached’ to this year. I had the sense that God was saying ‘all things are in place, I have ‘manipulated’ the environment to be favorable towards you. All you really need to do is stay on the board [game board] and you will begin hitting boardwalk/park place’. Guess I cant get away from board games right now. Did you ever feel like you were ‘in the game’ but not really? Your rolling the dice, your going around the board, but you just can’t seem to hit the favorable ‘real estate’. I felt like God was saying you are going to start hitting the ‘good land’. It’s always been there, but certain things prevented you from possessing it. You are about to start hitting the good spots. Don’t think ‘linear’ think ‘buffet table’. At the risk of going a little too deep, let me share some stuff. Some theologians feel that when the bible was interpreted from Greek/Hebrew to English that we lost something. Greek and Hebrew thought carried with it a type of learning that was like a buffet table. You would communicate many things at one time. These truths were not meant to be ‘put in a row’. You were not supposed to read them ‘in a line’. For instance you can read the book of Revelation as ‘consecutive’ events that happen one after another. Or you can see it as ‘concurrent’, that is a broad overview of many things, some are happening as we speak. This is a very debatable subject in the field of theology. Clark Pinnock, a contemporary theologian, actually says theology is like a buffet table. The more reformed thinkers reject this out of hand. They feel this is heresy. So without going to deep, lets say there is an aspect in God where he ‘spreads out the table before us’. Everything we need is really there [don’t think materialistic here!] the only thing that has been keeping us from ‘possessing the land’ is we have not been walking in divine favor. We haven’t been landing right. We are so used to ‘missing’ park place, that we are not even expecting to hit it anymore. We are happy to build motels on Baltic! God’s favor is the ‘transition’ stage that causes you to start landing on favorable real estate. You will begin to ‘inherit the nations’. God will allow you to influence people groups with the gospel. Don’t forget, to ‘inherit’ the nations is to bring in the harvest. In Jesus teaching those who were actually buying land [just developing material wealth] were actually disqualifying themselves from laboring in the real harvest. Don’t get too caught up with the acquisition of stuff. Be free to labor in the fields, they are ripe and ready to harvest [if you will, the buffet table has always been there].

(358) I was up praying early. I was actually saying to myself ‘you can go so low in the pit to retrieve treasures, that it becomes dangerous’. I had a sense of a Hollywood schema that would have the ‘hero’ saying ‘I will go and risk my life to save the damsel [or some other corny thing]’ and the others standing by and pleading with him not to take the risk. Sort of like Peter telling Jesus ‘don’t go to the Cross’. As I was actually ‘muttering’ the words about ‘a very low pit’ I heard on the radio the days verse ‘he reached down and took me out of the most horrible pit’ it was a contemporary version from Psalms. Lets share some treasures that were just mined from a low place. On this blog I discuss a lot of controversial things. One is the end times. I don’t hold to a lot of the popular end time scenarios. For instance I recently showed you why Christ’s return will not vindicate natural Israel. The answer was Jesus could not ‘vindicate’ any system outside of the true gospel. So the ‘key’ to seeing this is actually the Cross! You will find this to be the key to everything. All truths must ‘filter’ thru the Cross. You will not rightly divide scripture until you master this. One of the controversial ideas I have espoused is Nero being the ‘beast’ of Revelation. Many evangelicals disagree. Lets open a door using the ‘key’. One of the New Testament books that Paul wrote speaks of Jesus ‘destroying the antichrist’ at his coming. With a total destruction. Some who believe Nero was the beast say this ‘coming of Jesus to destroy’ was a ‘coming’ in judgment in AD 70. They ‘spiritualize’ the 2nd coming to make it fit. The modern evangelical who holds to the Tim Lahaye stuff sees this as an excuse to prove a point. They say ‘see, if Jesus totally destroys antichrist at the 2nd coming, then obviously Nero wasn’t him!’ I do want to note that early historians will tell you that one of the ‘nick names’ for Nero was ‘the beast’. Here’s a ‘key’. In Revelation you see many things happening at different times. You also see many spiritual truths that are concurrent [remember what I showed you the other day]. There are images that show the beast and the antichrist being bound for a period of time. I also showed you on this blog that Hebrews says ‘Jesus destroyed him that had the power of death thru dieing himself’. This ‘key’ of Christ’s death teaches us that the devil is already destroyed by the Cross. It’s not ‘really’ a future event. The 2nd coming is a ‘culmination’ and ‘crowning’ of the Cross’s work. So the image in Revelation of the antichrist being ‘bound’ might very well be speaking of what happened at the Cross. In all the generations of man, since the Cross there has been more light and freedom than at any other time. The enemy, as well as the antichrist, can very well be described as ‘bound’. Now you also have images in Revelation that show this ‘binding’ as being a ‘waiting stage’ for ultimate destruction. The ‘contents’ of death and hell are finally ‘poured’ into the lake of fire. Peter in the New Testament gives images of rebellious angels being ‘held in chains’ until the final ‘destruction’. So with all this in mind, here’s a key. Nero is being ‘held’ right now, with Hitler and every other wicked despot that has ever lived. They are waiting for the 2nd coming. At the real 2nd coming [not AD 70!] he will really be ‘destroyed with total destruction by the presence of the Lord’. This my friends is the key, Jesus and his Cross.

(359) I was ‘seeing’ some people from Jersey again. I saw myself going thru the Tunnel in the Fairview cemetery that I wrote about earlier in this blog. I kinda saw a light at the end of the tunnel. I was hoping I was finally getting there. Then I realized I was at the midway point! Ouch!! In the middle of this tunnel in Jersey we found a ‘smoke stack’ that was huge. I guess it was a midway point to let steam out? We would look up and see sky. We wondered where it came out. One day walking in Fairview we found the stack shooting up a few hundred feet in some ones yard. It was huge. From inside the tunnel it was hard to ‘see’ where you were at on the terrain. From outside your perspective changes. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel for you [3rd day, a Christian group. I do listen to all types of music, even Christian!]

(360) Let me clarify some things. To ‘exalt’ people because of their gifts is a sickness that the church suffers from. This is imbedded in the current level of maturity that we are at. It will take time for us to out grow this. To ‘recognize’ the gifted ones in our midst is also an act of humility. While we live in a time of exalting men’s images, we also live in a time of ‘not receiving’ the prophets. To ‘receive them’ means to simply recognize and accept the things they are saying by the Spirit, while at the same time seeing them as ‘equals’ in the Body of Christ. To understand that the priesthood of all believers supersedes the gifts. Gifts are free ‘presents’ that God gives us for everyone’s benefit. The fact they are gifts should cause the ‘gifted ones’ to be humble about it. It should also cause the others receiving the benefits to understand that they are all sharing from a gift that no one has earned. To understand the difference between the exalting of men and the receiving of gifted ones is a level that we are not at yet as a Body of people. Now some things about John the Baptist. John had this incredible singular ability to ‘see Christ’. He was humble enough to recognize as Christ increased, he would decrease. John also had this ‘knack’ for offending people in authority. Poor John just couldn’t stick with the positive confession! John preached against the Kings marriage to his brother’s wife. He spoke out against an obvious sin that others had come to accept. The kings wife eventually would have John beheaded. The beheading of John was accomplished by the wife manipulating the Kings authority to come against the prophet. She had her daughter dance a sensual dance for the King, The King said he would give her anything she asked. The mother told the daughter ‘I want Johns head’ she got it! The story of Jezebel in the Old Testament carries the same theme. The prophet Elijah [whom Jesus compared John to] was attacked by the King of Israel’s authority being used by his wife. Jezebel had ‘power’ to come against Elijah because of her position to the King. The book of Revelation speaks of the spirit of Jezebel. God warns one of the churches that ‘she was allowing Jezebel to seduce her people’. In the charismatic world whole books and conferences revolve around this theme. A problem with the church, we take stuff and blow it out of proportion. I see this ‘Jezebel’ as the power of the enemy to manipulate authority to come against Christ’s Kingdom. The crucifying of Jesus. It was accomplished thru political manipulation. Pilate and others using govt. and their place in it to position themselves. Being so caught up in trying to gain the approval of their constituents that they allow an ‘innocent man’ to slip thru and be put to death unlawfully. The enemy knew that an outright attempt to take innocent life would never fly, but thru these manipulative means, he could use secular authority to come against Gods people [Both John the Baptist and Elijah]. So today we have the act of abortion. It is accomplished because human govt has been manipulated by those who want position. The leaders were more concerned with power than justice. The enemy manipulated leaders to a point where the supreme court put its stamp of approval on infanticide, could a human being on his own go around killing babies? No. But the ‘voice’ of govt. behind the scenes allows this to happen on a broad scale. Jezebel [the manipulating of power] rears her ugly head. The fact that John spoke out against the wicked lifestyle of the King [authority] brought with it the inherent danger of Jezebel. John graduated early! NOTE; I feel like ‘to suffer that woman Jezebel to seduce Gods servants’ speaks more of a rebuke towards the church getting to a stage where she is so comfortable in society that she loses her prophetic voice of justice. When believers are under the ‘spell’ of Jezebel, it is not so much a demonic thing to me, as much as a ‘seduction of silence’. Things are going well for our ministries, we are experiencing joy, fame and growth. God is a good God, we are ‘changing our world with our words’ [which means we are creating the lifestyles that we want, while never truly impacting society] in a nutshell ‘we are suffering jezebel to seduce us’ while we sit around quietly as the King blatantly struts around with his brothers wife. Everyone knows it’s wrong, but there is this ‘conspiracy of silence’. That is until old John comes along. You know he’s got this great prophetic ability to ‘see Messiah’ the Old Testament prophets actually spoke of John, they said he would be someone who ‘came in the power and spirit of Elijah’. You know what he went and did? Old John had to go open his mouth one too many times. He felt like ‘the Lord’ wanted him to speak out on the obvious sins of the time. Poor old John went and got himself killed. We are still around to enjoy the benefits of Roman society; we are very ‘posh’. Just don’t talk too much about our King, he is an embarrassment that we are willing to put up with for now! [Old Jezebel had a good run in 1st century Rome]

(361) I was parked down by the bay/gulf the other day. I was listening to Christian radio out of San Antonio. I heard a church from the area. The Pastor was real nice, kinda reminded me of our early days. A little ‘too nice’. A good word, but very apologetic. Sort of like ‘we have a very nice church, very loving people. Our childrens worker is really nice. We have a very loving family’ all of it was good and true. It sounded like the early tapes I recorded the first few years of ministry. I remember going thru them years later and throwing them out. A lot of the stuff was OK, but there was a lot of ‘word of faith’ mixture that I was uncomfortable with [I used to actually say ‘we now know it’s Gods will for us to all be rich’. Ughh!] There was also a lot of ‘good morning everybody, I hope you had a very, very wonderful week. We are going to have so much fun today’. Ughh again! This just reminded me of how we have lost our prophetic voice. We do sound like wimps to the world at times.

(362) When I was a kid I had a chance to see Pink Floyd at the Jersey shore [Springsteins turf]. I missed the concert. It was ‘the wall’ concert. ‘All in all were just another brick in the wall’. Just had an impression of running and hitting and doing damage to a ‘wall’. It’s like others have ‘hit’ it before, but there was a sense of going so far and being a little scared. Like you reach a point where for a season you find yourself all the way up the wall, and you look back and realize you’re in trouble. I remember going to the Jersey shore with a friend. We were about 16 yrs old. He ‘hired’ me to go with him as protection. Me and one other guy. We went because he was going to beat up the guy his girlfriend was seeing. We got to town in this Chevy Nova. I asked my friend where he got the car. He ‘found it’ with the keys in it and running! We wound up at dusk in some baseball field asking for the guy. Some kid shows up and offers to smoke some free pot. Sure, why not? Now we are totally wasted in some strange town looking to ‘kick someone’s @$#@’ Sure enough the kid that got us high starts walking back to around 30 kids making their way across the field. He was just ‘prepping’ us for the kill. This is how I just ‘saw’ the wall image. I feel like there are certain ‘walls’ that have needed to be dealt with for some time. Dealing with them can be dangerous. You feel like you’re in the middle of some strange town and outnumbered. This is why scripture says ‘those who did not love their lives unto death received a reward’. We must advance beyond the point of security and self-preservation. The ‘wall’ is high; you will at times be by yourself way up the wall. At that point you might as well go all the way.

(363) ‘To obey is better than sacrifice’ at this stage in what we are doing, some people have truly questioned the whole concept of what they have been preaching and believing for years. Some times when we question these things there is a tendency to use as a cover ‘my ministry has done good things, we might not be as pure as we should be in the gospel, but we have done good things’. This is thinking to ‘sacrifice’ is better than obedience. I do understand the difficulty that ministries go thru when they do an inventory and realize that 99% of their teaching was ‘missing the gospel’. I heard a testimony from a word of faith/prosperity preacher. He was/is pastoring a church. For many years he focused on the prosperity gospel. He was convicted over a period of years by seeing the many things I have shown you. He realized that his library was consumed with the teachers of the movement. That most of his focus was not really the true gospel. It was not easy to admit this to himself. He finally threw out his entire library and got back to focusing on the Bible. Jim Bakker went thru this same thing. A realization of ‘what have I been teaching and preaching’. The point is God is happy when we ‘sacrifice’. Do good things. Give money to Christian things. But all the sacrificing doesn’t trump obedience. Get back to the gospel of Jesus, and continue doing ‘the sacrifice’.

(364) The New Testament teaches believers to ‘defend the faith that has once been given to the church’. This ‘one time deposit of faith’ is not speaking about ‘guarding your personal faith in Jesus’ [as I have heard it taught]. It is speaking of guarding the basic Christian doctrine of God and the Gospel of Christ. Basically God calls us to ‘remain in the truth’. This ‘truth’ is the simple reality of us being saved thru Christ. It is the message of the gospel. It includes the basic tenets of the faith [things that you would find in the Apostles creed] and the basic ‘stuff’ of foundational Christianity. Often times you will find believers identifying with peculiar beliefs or offshoots of Christianity [I know some think we do that!]. Many legalistic  groups have this mindset. They will view ‘leaving their style of belief’ with apostasy. God requires us to be faithful to the gospel. Not to some group that sees itself with ‘special knowledge’ that the church at large doesn’t posses. For centuries the parable of the sower ‘30-60-100 fold’ was easily seen to be speaking about Christian truth bringing forth fruit in a persons life. You then had a movement who taught that this really wasn’t what it meant, but it really meant bringing in a ‘100 fold’ of money. This is a direct departure from what it clearly said, as well as what all Christians seemed to understand for centuries. When ‘being faithful’ to the ‘faith’ that was once delivered to the saints, you have to basically know what was once delivered!

(365) Isaiah 49-   ‘The Lord called me from birth, he made mention of my name from my mothers womb. He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me’ God combines ‘hiding’ with authority. Elijah not only had a strong prophetic ministry, he also had the ability to go in hiding for 3.5 years. ‘Then said I, I have labored in vain’ in context this is speaking of Israel’s national re birth at the 2nd coming. She says ‘I labored in vain’ in the context of ‘laboring under law’. At the appearing of Christ she will realize she spent thousands of years trying to legalistically gain Gods approval when all the ‘work/labor’ had already been done. ‘Your warfare is accomplished and sin forgiven’ [we will read this later on in Isaiah]. ‘Thus saith the Lord to him whom men despise, nations hate and a servant to rulers. Kings [leaders] shall see new things and rise. Princes also shall worship’ I see this as a type of God giving authority to those who have felt rejection. If you want authority to influence ‘kings’ then you will experience rejection on a large scale. ‘I will contend with him who contends with thee and save your children’ the fact that you are being ‘contended with’ is a sure sign that you are ‘birthing children’ winning people to the true cause of Christ.

(366) While praying I had a thought. The purpose of the Trumpet [all the various aspects of preaching and declaring Gods Word/Prophetic voice] is to ‘alarm’ the people to action. The Trumpet exists to cause the people to rise up as Gods mobile prophetic community and to advance thru society as his witnesses. This requires a willingness to ‘die to self’. The word for martyr means witness. Today we organize all the people around the ‘Trumpet’. We polish it, we come to look at it, every now and than we let the laity ‘blow’ it. But the focus is really the trumpet [gift/ministry]. Remember, the purpose of the ministry is to so enable you with a revolutionary mindset, that you would in turn revolutionize the world.

(367) About 4 months ago I consciously stopped making radio tapes. I was in the middle of teaching the book of Hebrews and was over 2 years ahead of actually broadcasting the tapes. I usually don’t prepare anything; I just read the bible and share as God leads. I stopped because I was only half way thru Hebrews and I was seeing a lot of stuff. I wanted to put ‘speaking’ on hold [remember Elijah had the ability to ‘not preach’ for 3.5 years]. I am not Elijah, but I didn’t want my ‘identity’ to be preaching. The month I consciously stopped preaching I started reading Isaiah as devotional material. Sort of like putting things on hold. Then we started this blog and I have been ‘speaking’ ever since! I share this to let you know I really am not looking for avenues to speak, I kinda feel like when Paul told Timothy ‘in doing this [preaching] you will save yourself and those who hear thee’ It’s a necessity. I just heard on the radio a preacher talk on ‘the name that is given to us that no man knows, but he who gives it’. This is in the book of Revelation. He innocently gave the ‘common’ commentary on ‘I wonder what my name will be, the bible says no one knows’. I kinda think it would make us feel uncomfortable to wake up in heaven and to find out my new name is ‘Youseff’ or ‘Zerubabael’ or some other weird thing. Maybe all the northeast liberals will be given ‘bubba’ type names, all the southerners wake up with the name ‘Al Sharpton’! We can be stupid at times. Lets use the key. What did I say the key to everything was? Jesus and his Cross. The book of Corinthians tells us that no man can say Jesus is Lord but by the Spirit. Also no man can ‘know’ the name Jesus [intimately] unless he is in ‘the Body of Christ’. Only God ‘knows’ this name, and only those whom God chooses to reveal it to. We are presently called ‘the Body of Christ’. We right now bear the name ‘Jesus Christ’. No body truly knows this name but those to whom it is revealed [all Christians]. We truly have a name that no man knows, but he who gave it! NOTE You can still go around wondering what this new mysterious name is, but if this didn’t ‘turn the lights on’ then you deserve to wake up with the name ‘Al Sharpton’.

(368) Just had a dream. I was at some type of flea market. Lots of salesman trying to get you to their stand. A doctor was running one of the stands. As people were walking around and engaging in ‘market type’ activities, I saw someone from the past. I don’t really recognize this person, I just no he looks familiar. His mom brought him to the Doctors stand. He was supposed to ‘work’ for the doctor. I got the sense that the mom was trying to get her son a job. He is getting older and kinda lives in fear. As I was looking at the trinkets and stuff the doctor was selling, I saw the mom make excuses for the son to not work. ‘Doctor he says his foot hurts, I can’t risk him getting an infection’ [he cant work hurt!] At the same time the mom is berating the son. ‘Your foot will sure be OK later to go visit your friends’. She was both rebuking him and enabling him at the same time. The doctor is a doctor. He looks briefly at the foot and kinda sees there is nothing wrong with it. The ‘enabling’ worked and the kid got out of ‘the doctors harvest field’. As I was going thru the doctor’s stuff to see if I wanted to buy something, another ‘stand owner’ was interrupting. Trying to get me to go to his stand. I finally refused and kept shopping. I found a little bag of jewelry. In the bag I spotted a little trumpet. I knew this was what I had come for. I bought the trumpet and walked away. I had previously injured my foot, and was walking with a bad limp. The act of walking with the limp was in and of itself an indictment on the other son who got out of the market with his excuse. I simply felt like the Lord was saying there are many things trying to prevent you from ‘finding your trumpet’ [voice and purpose in life]. We often eliminate ourselves by creating false disqualifiers ‘how can I work while hurting, it wouldn’t be right’. You will never find the perfect atmosphere to labor in! There will be other ‘tradesmen’ who will try to ‘sell you their wares’ in order to distract you from the trumpet/purpose of God. Don’t get side tracked! Eventually you will find that ‘item of value’ from the great Physicians stand. You might have to walk into the ‘market’ with a limp [Jacob/Paul] but that’s all right. All you need to do is get in the right place and blow that trumpet [I just went back to edit this site. I read a dream I had earlier. I dreamt of me having a thorn bush branch sticking in my leg. I had totally forgotten about this. It’s like the prophecies and dreams are a separate world of reality unto themselves. Sort of like a series of events that fit in, whether I remember them or not!] NOTE; To those of you waiting for the right environment before you will work in Gods field, even as I type this the last thing I feel like doing in my life right now is THIS! God wants to bring us to a place where we function thru difficulty. I do not want ‘hurt’ people to ‘hurt’ other people. I am showing you that the purpose of God is not always the exciting vision or dream of ‘ministry’ that you have in mind. Often it is the faithfulness to finish the task in the midst of personal turmoil. I think we used to call this ‘the Cross’. NOTE; Paul said ‘I desire to DEPART and be with Christ which is far better’. Moses and Elijah and Jonah all expressed feelings of ‘now go ahead Lord, take my life I am ready to depart’. These were real feelings of wanting to leave. I am not saying suicidal feelings are from God. It’s just important to understand true ministry is not necessarily your long-term existence on this planet. It is a mindset that struggles with wanting to ‘wrap this thing up’ while at the same time realizing you need to finish the course. Most of us don’t realize the reality of this. You [and I!] don’t decide when ‘to wrap it up’ God does. Sometimes you really feel like its time to depart, and it can be a struggle to realize your only half way thru the tunnel! NOTE; Me and a friend at work get a kick out of a story of one of these fakers who pretend they are hurt to scam the Social Security system. The guy pretended he got hurt some how [no one we know, this was on TV] The ‘injury’ caused him to act like a big baby [prophetic!] he would go around for years talking baby talk and acting just like a 30 year old baby. They finally busted him on tape. The cop car is driving him to the police station and he is in the back of this car pretending he is a baby again. He is being taped. The wife finally says to him ‘O shut up you big baby, the gig is up!’ You kinda got the feeling that the wife was tired of his whining and was glad he finally got busted.

(369) I just heard a word from God ‘don’t define me by your experience of me, I knew you and had a purpose for you before you even knew me’. I felt like God was saying ‘I chose you even when you were not following me, even as you were in active rebellion. Your religious experience which some of you now despise [previous church affiliation] I was with you thru all that. Don’t despise others who are still there. Your whole experience of me is very limited. Don’t judge me or others based on this experience, even if you call it ‘born again’ for I knew you before you were born’.

(370) A few entries back I spoke of the King that John the Baptist ‘exposed’. His name was King Herod. I don’t think I have ever written on him before. I am sure I have mentioned him on radio. The next day [or the same day?] I was watching the news. For the first time in 2 thousand years they found King Herods tomb. Prophetic things work like this. The significance of finding the tomb holds a spiritual truth. The ‘exposing’ of Herod was a prophetic act that said ‘you can’t continue to manipulate and hide behind authority to accomplish your agenda’. The last few weeks the Supreme Court upheld the law banning partial birth abortion. For a long time it was the manipulation of this system [Supreme court and human govt.] that allowed for this act of murder to take place. This act was openly described in testimony before the court in such a way that just reading the transcript would offend you. Its like time was up and ‘the King’ was exposed.

(371) Was reading in Isaiah ‘is anything too hard for me? I am God. I created everything. I can do anything’ I have heard it taught that God saves us, but basically that doesn’t change us. That we are really still the same. Our minds and everything else about us are still ‘unredeemed’. After getting ‘saved’ we are now beginning this long process of renewing our minds and bringing our bodies under control. It is biblical to renew the mind and it is also biblical to ‘bring the body under control’. It’s just we need to keep in perspective that the ‘act of redemption’ itself was God changing us at the basic ‘DNA’ level in such a way that all the other ‘trimmings’ could never accomplish. We don’t want to turn ‘redemption/salvation’ into an act that basically doesn’t do anything. It does a lot! God has acted on our behalf to accomplish changes in us that could not have been done any other way. The whole attempt of man ‘changing himself’ was tried under the law. He would ‘renew his mind’ he would ‘bring his body under’. The law was man saying ‘God has given me these tools, and now it’s basically up to me to implement them’. Man tried this for thousands of years until the Cross. At the Cross God said ‘I am God, I can do anything. Nothing is too hard for me. I will do for you what you could never accomplish thru your efforts’. Renew your mind, fast and bring your body under. It’s all good. Most of all understand that God has saved you. He has done stuff for you that all the disciplines in the world could never accomplish! NOTE: ‘and you who were enemies and alienated in your minds by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled thru the Body of his flesh by death [New Testament]’ See this. The act of the Cross has already ‘reconciled’ your mind. There truly has been a fundamental change in your mind. You shall know this truth, and this truth shall set you free!

(372) I am up praying early at the firehouse. I walk outside and pray silently! Don’t want you to really think I am too crazy. I am working off a street called ‘Armstrong’. It’s the first [or 2nd] place I lived when first moving to Kingsville. A few blocks away my friend Miguel lived right down the block. Actually it was off of this street 25 years ago that I led Miguel to the Lord [my first convert from new jersey]. Right around the corner one of my Kingsville friends lives. Just praying and thinking about him and his boys. Many years ago I used to preach to his dad at the jails. I eventually met him and his brothers. All my age. Actually I backslid pretty bad with these guys years ago. They all have these reputations as ‘bad guys’. I remember having to ‘show them’ what ‘bad’ was when I backslid. I actually beat one of the brothers up. The other one [my good friend] I would ‘box’ in fun [no gloves] and I could tell that he tried to avoid me when I was drinking. It’s all in the past now. It was something in me that had to say ‘I don’t care how tough of an ex convict you are, I’ll kick your %$@#.’ All stupid stuff. Not too smart either. I was a ‘lone ranger’ and these families have lots of brothers and fellow drug/gang friends in these towns. As I was praying for these friends and their sons and realizing I am just a few blocks from where all these many experiences took place, it felt surreal to realize thru it all God has worked. Now many years later some are doing well, some are dead. I am even praying for the Jersey friends I contacted this past year. ‘I will bring your sons from far, your daughters from the ends of the earth’ [Isaiah]. It’s like you can be in touch with all types of people groups thru prayer. Now this blog enables me to communicate within a few days time. The radio ministry is good. But some times I would say something important and depending on the timeline it might take over a year before the tape gets played. Thru the blog I can actually write and post to all of you in minutes. I felt like God ‘shortened’ the delay. Hopefully eventually I will get with you guys in a bible study environment and there will be no delay! Well just felt like I needed to communicate this to you. Pray for all of the people who are part of this ‘on line’ community. Read the bible on your own. Seek the Lord. I don’t want to offend any of my old friends by thinking ‘who does John think he is by saying he’s trying to reach out to us, he’s got problems too!’ This surely is true. Pray for me too. Lets all see what Gods got in store. Thanks.

(373) Woke up with thinking I had nothing to say. Then had a thought. The book of Hebrews [bible] says that the era of Christ’s 1st century appearing is called ‘the times of reformation’ this obviously is not speaking of the 16th century movement. This is speaking of Gods ‘reformation’ from Old Testament patterns to the actual reality of Christ. This ‘time’ is described by the angels as a time of ‘peace towards men and good will’. Yet Jesus will later say ‘don’t suppose that I have come to bring peace, but a sword. My ‘coming’ at this time [1st century] is revolutionary. Many upheavals will take place’. And yet later in the New Testament the scripture clearly teaches that we have peace with God thru Jesus Christ. Like Doug Heffernen would say on the King of Queens ‘huhh!’ The process of God reforming and bringing in a new era under the New Covenant was a wonderful event. God was forever changing the economy of Gods Kingdom from one of ‘self righteousness’ and legalism, to one of Fullness and Grace. This singular time period would forever change the history of man. The benefits of this ‘reformation’ are unbelievably great compared to the law. The conflict and difficulty in making the initial transition was not fun. Many followers of God who were faithful for centuries were being told ‘now its time to leave all the doctrines and beliefs that have become your cultural identity. All the great fathers/leaders of your religion served a purpose. You can no longer ‘dwell’ in their heritage’. This was the ‘sword’ part. Peace would later come to those who would accept the ‘sword’ in cutting off religious heritage and moving on into the New Covenant. God will even allow those who leave their old heritage to embrace a new one [the faith once delivered to the Saints] but first the sword! Those who would be willing to die to all the old mindsets and ways of seeing things would be on the cutting edge of this new movement called ‘the Church’. First the Sword! I feel God is challenging the church today in this way. He is not asking us to leave the fundamental faith that has been given to the church. He is asking us to lay down old models and systems of thought that are ‘passing away’. We too often confuse ‘faithfulness’ with standing true to the ‘faith of our fathers’ but we think the ‘faith of our fathers’ is either some cultural thing, or some peculiar belief that old ‘poppa daddy’ passed down to us. Hey, let the sword of the Spirit [Gods Word] sever that old stuff. It will be uncomfortable to go thru this ‘spiritual circumcision’ but that which you produce from your seed/heritage will be a genealogy that is on the cutting edge of a new millennium.

(374) Many years ago a preacher visited Corpus. He was speaking here locally. I enjoyed him; you could see that he was going thru difficulty. He even questioned some of his beliefs in an open and honest way. He shared from the book of Romans [bible; p.s. to our Christian friends, you know these are bible books. I realized that a lot of my old friends don’t know this. They already think I am a little ‘unhinged’ by the prophetic things I share on this blog, I don’t need them thinking I am quoting things out of ancient books that nobody knows about!] He spoke on the verse ‘all things work together for good to them that love God’ and he openly challenged his ‘word of faith/prosperity’ roots by saying ‘I know we often teach this to mean that ‘all’ things are not really working for our good [the bad stuff] but I am tired of trying to ‘get around’ all the verses that say stuff like this’ [I am paraphrasing]. His church is ‘covenant church’ in Carrolton, TX. He is a good man, and I don’t think he would describe himself as ‘word of faith’ its just I could tell he has been influenced by this teaching. Anyway this first time he spoke there was a realness about him. A ‘prophetic’ cutting edge that comes along with difficulty and trials [you could tell he was really struggling in his life]. A few years later he came back. Still preached well. But he was different. He even looked ‘sufficient’. Sort of like ‘I am now back to the believers authority and this self sufficiency that you didn’t see last time’. He was not arrogant, it was just you could tell that his ‘return’ to the classic word of faith/prosperity type system drained the ‘reality’ he had the last time he was here. He sort of went back to the interpretation of ‘all things work for good’ doesn’t mean the bad stuff. If I remember right I think he even said this? This just was a lesson to me on how God speaks from our reality and difficulty. When we embrace doctrines that reject these aspects of Christianity we lose the ‘cutting edge’. The brother held a few meetings. He did all right. He never came back to Corpus. I think he was on the verge of ‘reformation’ the first time I heard him. Then when he came back you could kind of sense that he never really made the transition.

(375) A few entries back I spoke on not judging God or others based on our own experiences. I have noticed over the years how a lot of believers who might have had a Catholic background became very ‘anti catholic’ after being ‘born again’. I do believe in the New Birth. I believe all who believe in Jesus Christ are Born Again. In 1st John it does say ‘whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God’. Some times we associate ‘being born again’ with our own evangelical experience. ‘Have you asked Jesus into your heart?’ If not, then you’re not BORN AGAIN! This is what you would call ‘reductionism’ reducing everything to a simple ‘me and Jesus’ format. You know none of the Apostles ‘asked Jesus into their heart’ [the original 12]. It would sure seem like an awkward thing. ‘Jesus’ ‘yes Peter’ ‘would you come into my heart’ ‘I have been with you from the start, you will soon believe in my death and resurrection. You will be one of the key figures in the founding of my church’ ‘I know all this Jesus, but if I don’t get saved I cant go to heaven’. The point is simply, all the Apostles and every other believer since has had one thing in common. They have all believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They believe ‘he is the Son of God’. Don’t use your own personal experience to exclude others who might not have come to the Cross the same way. We all come by faith, the peculiar aspects surrounding the event are not what saved you, it was Jesus who saved you. Also it is a common hobby for the more extreme fundamentalists to question whether or not ‘you are really saved’. They often use verses like ‘you should know whether you are in the faith or not’ [Corinthians]. But they use them in a way that’s not really in context. Paul uses these verses to question Christians who were doubting the physical resurrection. He is not using these verses to ‘micro examine’ every little detail of their conversion experience! God gave his son to save the world; it would sure be strange to find out that the majority of people who believe in Jesus didn’t make it because of some technicality! God wants to save people, people need Jesus to be saved. Don’t make it harder than this! NOTE; Now that I mentioned ‘reductionism’ let me say a few things. In the world of theology reductionism refers to the ‘reducing’ of Gods greater corporate and societal purposes [the Kingdom of God] to the simple act of ‘getting saved’. There are whole churches and movements whose entire ‘thought life’ is centered on ‘am I saved’? If so I will find a church that tells me this every Sunday, and often these same churches will convince the ‘saved’ that they really didn’t get it the first time. And there you have it ‘they get saved for real this time’ and then the whole cycle repeats. The more ‘communal’ churches see salvation in a broader way. They often quote St. Augustine’s famous words ‘there is no salvation outside of the church’. Many good theologians hold to this. I believe this is true to a degree. In Paul’s teachings ‘the church’ are all the communities of people who have come to Christ. Paul does teach a form of corporate salvation. That is ‘if you’re in the church you are saved’. It’s just there is a tendency [Augustine] to see ‘church’ in an evolving way that restricts ‘church’ to the specific community that YOU personally relate to. So in Augustine’s mind [as well as other great Catholic theologians] to be ‘church’ is to be Catholic. Now after Vatican 2 [1962-65; The year I was born] the Catholic Church officially acknowledged the Protestants as ‘separated brethren’. A big step for them to have made. Some more liberal Catholic thinkers see ‘all religions’ [Muslims included] as being ‘saved’ thru the grace that is resident in society thru the Catholic Church. Sort of like ‘Gods grace to reveal God to people is activated by Gods Son. The only ‘true’ church that is ‘transmitting this grace’ is the Catholic Church. The fact that all Muslims are believers in God is a divine sacramental act that is taking place in society thru the Catholic Church. Therefore the fact that Muslims [or any one else] are truly in communion with God is a real work of grace that has been generated thru the one true church’. Now I don’t hold to this. All Catholics don’t either. This is to show you the broad range from ‘me and Jesus’ to that which borders on universalism [the doctrine that says eventually everyone gets saved. Some very intelligent church fathers believed this. Origen was one of them. Though Origen is not considered ‘Orthodox’. He was a very influential teacher and figure in the early church. He actually taught that satan would ultimately be saved. He was a real Universalist. Some Universalists don’t deny the blood of Jesus, contrary to popular opinion. They actually believe the blood is so powerful, that it will ultimately ‘save all people’. There are very smart Christians who do believe this. I personally do not believe this. But I find it interesting that modern evangelicals do not for the most part see ‘universalists’ as other Christians. There are different types of them, the ones who believe in Jesus are Christians, even if they believe all people will ultimately be saved. The other types who reject Jesus are not Christians] NOTE; I remember hearing a story about one of these evangelists that preached one of these ‘you think you are saved, I’ll show you you are not!’ type sermons. The sermon was so ‘convicting’ at the end of the meeting he went down to the altar and had the Pastor ‘lead him to the Lord’, that’s strange. If his own sermon that he preached got him ‘saved’ then that means he ‘got saved’ from a lost mans message. That would mean ‘he’s not really saved’ wouldn’t it? This stuff gets ridiculous after a while.

(376) Let me give a little example of the ‘overriding act of redemption’ trumping any little verse or experience. Paul actually tells the Corinthians ‘if the dead are not raised, then why are you baptizing people in ‘proxy’ for the dead?’ This is tough stuff. Let me give you one way to see this. The ‘baptism for the dead’ seems to have been a real cultural thing that took place in a specific time and setting [like the slavery verses I mentioned earlier]. There seems to have been a concern specifically to the 1st century church that said ‘this new doctrine of Jesus is great, but being its only been around a few years, and you are telling us [Paul] that you must embrace it to be saved. Then we have a problem. A lot of our loved ones never got a chance to hear. How do you expect us to quell these concerns?’ And it’s possible that the ‘baptism’ by proxy [like a father or son getting baptized in the place of the loved one who died] was a 1st century cultural thing that grew out of this. The fact that they were doing this does not mean that Paul the Apostle was condoning it. Paul was simply saying ‘if you guys really don’t believe in life after death, then why are you bothering with this rite?’ Its like Paul was using their own cultural thing to show them the inconsistency of their thinking. He wasn’t really teaching the baptism for the dead. [This is my view, Mormons believe different. They do practice this today and they use this verse as justification].

(377) I went to sleep at around 7 pm [early] woke up at around 10 pm and was mad. I felt like I was going to get up and do another all nighter. I have to work today and frankly I was telling the Lord ‘this is ridiculous, if I had some sleeping pills to take I would’. I was complaining and feeling like God is asking too much from me. Not that I am some great one-man show. Just that I felt 2-3 hours of sleep cant cut it. Getting up at 2 am seems to be the norm. I really am fine with that. Before midnight is a total drain on me. Well anyway I fell asleep and woke up around 2:30 and had a dream. I was in some type of ‘portable/temporary’ building. It was like a combination church/counseling facility. I saw some friends from the past. Christians who I haven’t seen in years. I said hi and they ignored me. I stopped them to see if they recognized me or what. They seemed to, but they have gone thru so much disillusionment that they didn’t care anymore. I saw some staff people from the church I attend. Some were doing well, others seemed to be ‘trying to fit in’ and all, but they seemed to be ‘punching the time clock’. Nothing bad, just a sense of ‘I am a Christian, I am on staff at a great church. I should be happy and fulfilled. There’s something missing’. I also was doing some counseling and ministry stuff. I saw a kid named ‘Tommy’ [I originally just ‘picked’ this name out of the blue when I told the story the other day. It now seems to have been prophetic]. He was a nice kid, sort of roaming the halls. We went into one of the study rooms and were both studying. He was very isolated and withdrawn. I told him I was a lot like him. I managed to have a good friendship with him. Later I went to another room where there were 3 kids who I was going to counsel. Tommy was there again. I don’t remember asking for the other kids names [or I don’t remember what their names were] but I must have asked Tommy 2 or 3 times. It was embarrassing to keep forgetting his name [identity struggle]. It’s like I should have known him by now ‘get on with the program John, how long will it take you to come out of this feeling of isolation and identity crisis’ type thing. I woke up and realized that I was probably ‘Tommy’. Its kinda hard to admit stuff like this on the blog. I realize that the Lord wanted this blog to be real. I would have NEVER been this real a few years ago. I just am at a point in life where I felt this is what God wanted and I do have a lot of struggles so what the ‘heck’ [Ill be nice!] I don’t think I need to explain this dream too much, you should be able to ‘find yourself’ somewhere in it. Just apply what you feel fits. NOTE The Cross experience in Christ’s life was one of going thru things for the benefit of others. Though these things were a direct result of Gods redemptive purpose for these people, they would say ‘look at you, you claim to be from God and have this great calling. It doesn’t seem to be working for you, you are a major hypocrite. Even our religious leaders have said you are way off’. They judged him by the reality of his difficulty. They seemed to not perceive that his ‘difficulty’ was for their benefit. The things he was publicly going thru were for them. The fact that they judged him by these difficulties was part of the Cross. The Cross was public humiliation on a major scale. His family and friends were watching him go thru this very open humiliation. This was no time of ‘me and my successful ministry’. Now you do have the vindication at the resurrection. The problem is Paul wrote in one of his letters ‘we have struggles now, while our persecutors have it easy. This is just a sign, our temporary affliction will bring forth great vindication and glory in due season, AT THE APPEARING OF CHRIST’! The time of our vindication is at the resurrection! [Ouch!]

(378) ‘Truth trumps authority’ [or actually ‘truth and authority co exist’] Many years ago when I attended a Fundamental Baptist Church they viewed the ‘Assembly of God’ church down the block as a cult. They had speakers come in and give revivals and they would say that the ‘tongues talkers’ are a cult. They would give examples of people who were speaking in tongues and some one who knew the language actually said they were cursing God [by the way this is possible. There very well might have been a ‘demonic’ infiltration like this. There are incidents of possession that have had a type of demonic thing like this happen. The problem is you can’t paint all ‘tongues speaking’ with this brush. Many ‘tongues speaking’ people are the ones who brought these things out] the point is when I eventually left this church, they were a little ‘cultic’ in their mindset. They challenged leaving their group. But when the Pastor [a really good man who I respect today!] saw that I was going to leave to start a church, he also knew I couldn’t go along with the ‘anti charismatic’ stuff anymore. He then appealed to ‘authority structures’ to challenge my decision. He basically said ‘well if you are leaving to become a preacher, and you think the charismatics are OK, then even they agree with us that you must follow the guidelines of bible school and ordination and all these things. You cant just go and preach!’ I found this interesting, though they viewed the ‘assembly of God’ as a cult, they then resorted to the mutual agreement that they all had that said ‘how dare you try to function outside of the standard norms of authority’. They all saw authority as a process you go thru to gain legitimacy. The simple act of being equipped with truth and declaring that truth [The Gospel] wasn’t really sufficient, unless you ‘jumped thru the hoops’. In scripture you do find ‘lines of authority’ biblical mandates to ‘obey those who care for you’ and things like this. Paul himself taught stuff like this. Paul also challenged the ‘normal lines of authority’. Paul became an Apostle after the original 12. The early church had a hard time with accepting his authority. The Jerusalem leadership actually had the mindset of ‘we were in this before you. You don’t have the legitimacy to preach this gospel to gentiles. You have gone ‘outside’ of the accepted norms to be ‘ordained’ and recognized as one who has authority.’ You read this in Acts chapter 15 as well as Galatians chapter 1. Paul eventually says ‘I don’t care who these guys think they are. It doesn’t matter to me. I am sent to preach the gospel, and if their ‘authority structures’ have been by passed, then the ‘authority of truth’ trumps them’. This is the same reformation spirit you see in Luther in the 16th century. Basically we all have times of growth and development where we learn to respect Elders and those whom God has been using. They have truly earned biblical respect. It’s when these guidelines of authority and leadership try to ‘trump’ truth that truth trumps the ‘structures’ [both the protestant reformation going over Rome’s head, as well as what Paul did in the 1st century]. Paul will actually rebuke Peter face to face in the whole area of Gentile acceptance by faith. The fact that Paul was right in doctrine, made him right in authority. The challenge from the Fundamental Pastor sounded good, but it was fundamentally flawed [note: he meant well, I am sure he realized how young and immature I was at the time and simply tried to steer me towards a path that he thought would help]. He basically tried to say ‘even if we view the other church as a cult, we all agree that you cant preach/ start a church without going thru the accepted structural procedures’. Basically if you are called of God and are walking in truth you have authority. If you ‘depart’ from truth along the way, you lose authority. Though Gods giftings and callings are permanent, when you step out of truth you are ‘temporarily’ setting aside your authority. I feel this is important for those who feel like they have really learned truth from us this past year. Don’t stay faithful to systems of thought and belief that are operating on the ‘fringes of truth’. You have the right to walk away from that stuff. Keep loving the people, they are good people [Jerusalem church] but you have a mandate from God, walk in it!

(379) The most amazing thing about the ministry of Jesus. God chooses him to bring in this great reality of the Kingdom ‘the Kingdom of God is here’. He gives him the message of the Kingdom on forgiveness, leadership, the last being first. All these great truths that seem to go against the grain of society. Even their religious understanding said ‘en eye for en eye’ but Jesus says no more. The central ‘ingredient’ to the establishing of the Kingdom will be the Cross ‘except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it will bring forth much fruit’. The only problem is this message will become ‘fleshed out’ thru the key preacher of this new Kingdom. That’s the tuff part. I wish we could just have this great message and simply proclaim it and go home and enjoy everything. Jesus understood that he had come to the Kingdom for such a time as this. There were many shameful things that he despised [Hebrews] there was stuff that he ‘endured’ but he recognized that the simple ‘indoctrination’ about this new Kingdom wouldn’t suffice, it had to be ‘nailed down’ at the Cross. The only problem was he would be at the receiving end of the nails.

(380) In the writings of Paul [New Testament] you see him fighting against the Judaizers [trying to convert Christians to half law/grace] he describes them as ‘enemies of the Cross’ he actually says they ‘preach another Jesus’ and that even if an angel appears and brings this new ‘Jesus’ that you are to reject it. Paul was strong for the gospel. It’s perfectly possible for believers to develop an experience with God thru Jesus that leaves out the crucial elements of the Cross. When people ‘choose’ to focus on the other aspects of Christianity that are on the fringes of the gospel, they choose to opt out of the Cross. I have said before, you do ‘get’ what you focus on. This is a true principle that works whether you are a believer or not. If people choose a form of Christianity that says ‘we focus on comfort and happiness’ they for the most part will get that. If challenged by the message of the Cross [which includes both redemption and the call to self sacrifice] they can actually choose to reject it based on self-preservation. The choice of thinking ‘I do not want to hear the possibility of me suffering and going thru difficulty. The old time churches taught this and our current teachers showed us they got what they confessed’. So you begin to believe in a ‘Cross less’ gospel, and you justify it by the actual fact that you are materially doing better than the old time Christians ‘our teachers must be correct, look at how much better we are doing materially than they were’. The fact that all of this might very well be true does not mean it’s the biblical gospel. Inherent in our call as believers is the fundamental ‘counting the cost’ mindset. The cost of radical revolution is to put self and the concerns of ‘creature comforts’ away. The many learned men who have seen much truth in the areas of wealth and finances have ‘crossed the line’ in not rightfully submitting these truths to the superiority of the Cross. The many sayings of Jesus on ‘you can’t serve God and money’ are seen as ‘old school’. You then have someone like myself that comes along and preaches the Cross. I am then seen as an ‘enemy’ to this peculiar belief system. The ‘system’ becomes that which you defend, as opposed to the true message of the Cross. Paul nailed it down fairly well when he said ‘even if an angel comes and declares a different Jesus to you, let him be accursed’. Paul knew the stakes were high. Jesus went thru too much for the church to sit idly by as the parade of new teachers slowly erases away his central message.

(381) When I was a Pastor I had a friend who was a ‘word of faith’ preacher. He would attend some of our services. I also let him preach every now and then. I spoke on prayer once. I used the verse from the book of James that says ‘we ask and do not receive, because we ask amiss that we would consume the things we want out of lust’ [paraphrase]. Basically the verse is saying selfish prayers are not answered. My friend tried to explain to me that this was not what it was saying. He was taught this verse in a way that said ‘the reason you are not obtaining the wealth and things you desire is because your are not aiming your prayers in the right direction’ he told me it was saying to ‘aim’ at the proper trajectory and you will get all you want. This was another one of those examples of how we take verses and make them say the complete opposite of what they are saying. Jesus did say ‘when you pray, believe that the things you are saying will happen, and you will have what you say’ I do believe this verse to be true. You will find Jesus and Paul ‘saying’ things this way. Jesus said to the fig tree ‘dry up and die’ it happened. Paul would say to the person who was possessed ‘you are a hindrance to the gospel, be blind’ and it happened. Basically this teaching from Jesus is to fit in with the whole counsel of God. Paul used this truth to spread the gospel. You never found Paul or Jesus using these things ‘to get what they wanted’ in a self serving way. They ‘had what they said’ because they said things in the will of God, not to ‘consume stuff upon their desires’. Jesus would say ‘I am going to go to Jerusalem to be killed’ Peter didn’t like this confession. It didn’t line up with what Peter wanted. Jesus didn’t ‘get what he said’ simply because he said this. He said this out of the reality of fulfilling Gods purpose. He ‘got what he said’ because what he said was the unselfish will of God concerning the Cross. We as believers need to be at a higher level than where we are currently operating. It’s like I could go thru all these types of verses and debate the real meaning of them. Others will stick with the ‘fake’ meaning. You can spend years trying to undo all this stuff. Until we get to ‘another place’ of putting our lives at the foot of the Cross, we will never really see these things. God will give you good things, don’t get me wrong. Just allow all these truths to be filtered thru the Cross.

(382) ‘You have been faithful over a little, I will now give you authority over 10 cities’ Jesus says this to the disciples. Sometimes in our minds we picture the Apostles as ‘city managers’ over future cities. Remember in Jesus teaching authority was not ‘being over people’. We know Jesus taught stuff like this, yet we read him saying stuff about authority and we see it as ‘being in charge’. How did the apostles ‘have authority over cities’? By bringing the gospel to these regions and the people who believed became their ‘spiritual children’. Paul told the Corinthians that he had apostolic authority ‘over’ them because he birthed them thru the gospel. Being ‘faithful’ over a little. What’s this? Many of you who have made it this far on this blog have read things that you personally knew to be true before you heard me say it. Yet until you heard me say it you never really were able to truly make the break. It’s like we go thru a process of hearing and seeing before we are ‘faithful’ to what God said. Some of the things I have shown you guys are obvious mistakes that even a child could see was wrong. Yet the peer pressure of being in an environment where others hold to certain things, though obviously wrong, is hard to break. Once you learn to ‘be faithful in the little areas of hearing and obeying’ then God allows you to ‘have authority’ over 10 cities. That is he gives you influence in his Kingdom for his purpose. Many times we seek to have a voice/forum in the Kingdom. We do things to ‘make our voice heard’ but God is primarily looking for people who will speak truth when they see it. Learn to be faithful to the things God is plainly showing you, then he will ‘put your feet in a large place’ [of influence]. NOTE: In my own life I have gone thru stages where the Lord will increase my area of influence from the present one to ‘another place’. When these events happen I can tell before hand. It’s sort of like the excitement from the present region ‘wanes’ a feeling of ‘this present parameter is too small, don’t despise the ‘day of small things’ but I am bringing you to a larger place’. When this happens with me it’s like a feeling of ‘the people we are presently reaching are still valuable, but you are moving to another place. That which I have done thru you and for you are ‘seeds’ that will continue to bear fruit long after you’re gone. You have been faithful over this little area and now move on’. Even if the area’seemed big a few years ago, when I sense this type of transition, it seems ‘small’. I also make it a conscious point to NOT DESPISE or think condescending towards the previous land marks. I feel this in itself enables me to gain authority in a larger region. Also the amount of ‘pain’ associated with the larger area of influence [for as MANY as were astonished at thee, so shall you touch MANY nations] keeps you from lusting after the influence. Scripture says Jesus ‘despised the shame’ associated with the Cross [Hebrews] but endured it realizing that the ‘regional impact’ would be directly related to his suffering. The MANY who were astonished equals the MANY who you will have influence with! Also in Isaiah it says the children that you will have, after you have lost the other will say to you ‘this place is too small for me’ and you will respond ‘who birthed all these children, I was in captivity, I was going back and forth, I was suffering. How in the world did I gain such a following?’ It’s almost like the fact of the extreme difficulty was actually producing the children/converts. This is an amazing thing that you will see thru out scripture. ‘More are the children of the desolate, than of the married wife’. Look at the covenant women in scripture, they are for the most part barren [forsaken] and yet give birth to these tremendous prophetic people [Samuels mother, John the Baptist, Sarah].

(383) A few things from Isaiah ‘I have seen your ways and will heal you, I will restore comforts unto you and to your mourners’ I spoke on the Cross a few entries back. One of the hard things was Jesus would say to the disciples ‘you must also take up the cross and follow me’. A central area of identifying with Christ was going thru the Cross. This is a difficult thing. There are times in life where all seems to be going well. You have your life organized and happy. The ‘dose’ of Christianity that you have embraced is just strong enough to insure that all your needs will be met. You have the verses down and all. Then there comes some ‘strange’ preacher you never heard of before. He seems to be a little different. He is speaking the same language and all, it’s just different ‘Jesus spoke with authority, not like the scribes’. The average people could really identify with him. He rubbed the elite class the wrong way. One of the main parts of his teaching was those who were ‘well off’ now, would pay later. Yet the poor would inherit the earth. This didn’t sit well with the ‘well to do’. The religious leaders were getting tired of him. Every time he opened his mouth it seemed like he was teaching stuff that was right on, and it often reproved the systems of belief that the average preacher was ‘hawking’ at the time. Then the day comes where his zealous followers are going to prove to everybody that Jesus is the Messiah, they have been waiting for a few years to be vindicated. Peter was this zealot type reformer who was tired of the oppression of Rome. Being treated as some type of ‘illegal alien’. ‘You wait and see Rome, our Messiah has finally arrived. It was even prophesied that he would deliver the Jews from Rome’s oppression. Our day is here’. Then a funny thing happened. The road to Jerusalem is nearing, our vindication day. All the prophets spoke of the triumphal entry of the Jewish King to take David’s throne. This obviously will be fulfilled in Jerusalem, the city of the great King [David]. Well as the day approached, Jesus started talking about death and leaving us. We couldn’t grasp what he was saying. We gave everything to him; we looked like fools following him against the opinions of the preachers of our day. Jesus doesn’t seem to understand we can’t have him dieing now. It will ruin our ‘day of getting even’ with all those who spoke against us. If he dies now we will feel like we have allowed the enemies to win. We want to win! Then they remember the teachings of Jesus. He told them the Cross was not just something he would experience. He told them a day was coming where they too would identify with him in this process. A day of humiliation and defeat. Those who would experience it would be different on the other side. Peter swallows hard and readies himself. “Though all the others forsake you, I wont’’ He even cuts off the ear of one of the company who come to take Jesus. A very brave thing to do, knowing your out numbered and all. I guess he really wanted to show that he was willing to die this day. But this wasn’t his day to die. Then the hour comes. Jesus begged the Father if there was another way please help me find it. He determines to allow the Cross to take full course. He sees Peter cursing and denying him. Peter tastes it too. They drive the nails thru his hands and prop him up over this hillside. It looks like something out of Hollywood ‘the place of the skull’. Something strange happens. The sky turns dark. It’s eerie, the people were just making fun of him and now they are terrified. One of the others being crucified that day decides to ask Jesus if he could be with him in Paradise. Jesus has so much on his plate right now. The ‘weight of the world’ and yet has time to pray for him. ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise’ still putting others first. As the sky darkens the earth shakes. Later we find out that the tombs of believers broke open from this event and after the resurrection many saints rose from the dead and were seen witnessing in the area! A Roman guard is seeing all this, he sees this strange religious leader cry out to his God ‘O my God why did it come to this. You have forsaken me. Into your hands I commit my spirit’ the soldier simply says ‘truly this man was the Son of God’. He is taken down and put in a tomb. Others will come who will teach that Jesus was part of the ‘aristocracy’ that he was from the ‘rich class’. They put him in a ‘rich mans tomb’ but it had to be donated! His followers are distraught. Especially Peter. Peter was thinking ‘what have I done, I cant believe the weakness of my flesh. All that I worked for in this revolution is now lost. I will be remembered as the one who failed. My image is forever stained’. Jesus appears to the women who were his followers after the resurrection. A strange thing for sure. If someone were writing this story and it was all made up, you wouldn’t have Jesus going first to the women. It would take away from the ‘believability’ of the story. 1st century Rome was a bit patriarchal you know. The women are amazed. Jesus did it. ‘Go tell the disciples I am alive. Especially Peter. I know he gave it all he could to not deny me. But it had to happen. It was part of his Cross’. They go and tell the others. The disciples will go on and found the greatest religious movement known to man. Peter will gain his boldness back. History even tells us that when they crucified him he asked to be killed upside down, because he wasn’t worthy to die like his King. They finished well. God restored comforts unto Jesus and to his mourners. But first the Cross. NOTE: The martyrdom of Peter. Jesus tells Peter one time ‘where I am going [the Cross] you cannot follow me at this time. Later you will follow me, but your time has not come yet’. Jesus knew it was necessary for Peter’s denial to still take place. Peter had an ‘appointment’ with failure. Peters desire was to be a martyr for the cause. He was a ‘zealot’ a political activist of his day who would have been willing to die for freedom. He tried to show this at the point when they came to take Jesus. The act of cutting off the ear of a Roman soldier is something that you get executed for. The 1st century means of execution was the Cross. Peter actually took a step towards martyrdom with this act. Jesus interrupted the process by miraculously putting the guys ear back on! Its like Peter wanted death, but Jesus already told him it wasn’t yet time. You find Peter after Pentecost preaching to the Jews in such a way that it seemed like he was back to the ‘martyrdom complex’. He says things that could very well get him killed. It’s like he can’t wait to pass thru the ‘tunnel’. When the day finally comes he does get crucified upside down. He never really overcame the guilt of his initial denial. He still felt unworthy over what he did. The early church had a movement where Christians were wanting to get martyred. They read verses like the one in Hebrews 11 that says ‘those who are martyred receive a better resurrection’ so this group of ‘Christian zealots’ were actually doing things to get executed for the faith. The early church fathers/Bishops had to put a stop to it. These guys were like Peter after the resurrection! There was a real sense of ‘I want to get killed for the faith’ that some of these brothers had. What a contrast to today’s gospel. We appeal to people by telling them your gonna get rich if you follow Christ. Things will be great. We seem to appeal to the flesh of people. The early followers knew if they embraced the faith that there was a chance that you might get killed.

(384) A few things. I was reading the verses in Isaiah and ‘saw’ the theme of ‘I have put my words in your mouth’ ‘I have made you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth, you will thresh the mountains and beat them small and the wind shall carry them away’ ‘I have hidden you in my hand’ [this hidden part comes after both the above verses]. I felt like the Lord was saying there are seasons where he speaks thru people. It’s important for those people to understand the principle of ‘being hidden’. I feel this ‘being hidden’ is a voluntary act where Christians [prophetic people] follow the example of Jesus in the gospel. When they came to ‘make him King’ [exalt him in their way] that he refused! I believe Jesus was showing us that when God chooses people to carry certain prophetic messages at reformation times, that there is a temptation to allow people to ‘make them Kings’. Often times well meaning humble men fall into this snare. It is not always pride that leads to self-exaltation. Sometimes it is humility! A feeling of ‘I really don’t want to be exalted, but the people really want this, so what the heck’. Scripture gives us examples on how to deal with this. FLEE! I also just addressed an envelope to a Texas jail. Got the letter yesterday from one of the sons of one of the addicts/ex cons who has been a friend of mine for 20 years. I remember this son coming to our church meetings as a little boy. I haven’t seen him in years. I knew he was doing bad. Into drugs and all. Kinda happy to get the letter. Sad that he’s in prison. I will send him some books and stuff in a few days. Something about the Cross experience. It must have been hard on Jesus to realize that his friends and disciples were ‘experiencing’ the cross because of him. If Peter and Judas and all these guys never met or knew Jesus, then the whole drama of agony and defeat [and damnation!] would have played no central role in their lives. I am not saying it’s our fault when things happen to people. It’s the reality of knowing that those who are ‘recruited’ into the game by you, if they get ‘hurt’ during the game, it’s you who recruited them! This part of the cross is difficult for me to swallow. I do struggle with self-guilt when things like this happen. NOTE: I just read the letter, my friend is seeking God and getting restored. The main question that he asked me about was how to deal with all the ‘self guilt’ and depression that he is experiencing at this time in his life. I will print this blog for him and send it!

(385) ‘You think the people exist to provide you with possessions, I think the possessions exist to provide the people with freedom’ William Wallace [braveheart] to the tribal elders of Scotland! The people [Christians] do not exist for the welfare/benefit of the clergy/ministries/churches; these things exist to release Gods people to walk in freedom!

(386) I was talking to some friends the other day. They brought up evolution. Some were against it, others for it. I mentioned how science today has advanced to the point where evolution has been disproven. There are some die hards who won’t admit this, but there are entire schools of science that do not hold to this theory any more. Many of these scientists are not Christian. They simply see the level of scientific truth and cannot truly hold to the immature level of thinking that Darwin espoused in the 19th century. Darwin was a good man, his wife was a very active Christian who did many works of charity. By all accounts they were very good people. In the discussion I mentioned how in Darwin’s day they did not know things we now know in the area of DNA testing. Today we know that the function of human blood has 30 or more ‘complex machines’ that must be present at the start for blood to function. The idea that people could have evolved slowly over millions of years cannot scientifically be true because of this. This is not a ‘religious’ belief. This is not ‘faith’. This is science. So any honest scientist seeing this fact has to reject the concept of human blood slowly evolving. However man appeared, we scientifically know that his blood had to have ‘showed up’ in a complex form, not a simple one. Evolution loses based on scientific truth. Sorry to all you intellectuals that are wrong. Now one of the guys said ‘but it’s still possible that chance did this’. No its not. If you flip a coin ‘chances are’ it will land on heads or tails. What are the chances that it will land on ‘feet’? Absolutely none. The point is ‘chance’ cannot go against fact. In the area of science certain things are fact, others theory. The ‘facts’ have to shape the theories, not the other way around. Darwin held to a level of scientific understanding that was OK for his day. The level he was at was highly ‘immature’ compared to where we are at today. If you will ‘science has evolved to the point where evolution is no longer viable’ [threw that in for all the smart alecs]. Darwin believed that life ‘appeared’ by random acts of chance. The maggots that would ‘show up’ in something rotting and the appearance of fish in bodies of water that pooled after a hard rain were thought to be processes of ‘evolution’ that proved that things [life forms] can just show up without any creative cause behind it. Today every scientist in existence knows this to not be true. The birds would carry ‘larvae’ and eggs by transmission into the pools. The bacteria and transmitted ‘debris’ from flies and other things landing on the dead bodies of animal’s accounts for the maggots. To continue to hold onto Darwin’s beliefs in these areas is ridiculous. He was an honest man operating at the level of science for his day. I heard a priest [who I like] defend evolution [they are called theistic evolutionists]. These believers honestly view evolution as fact and they feel the church is behind the times like in the days of Galileo. They make an honest effort to teach that God started the ball rolling and he used evolution as a means to create. The only problem with this theory is that evolution is scientifically false! This Priest used the ‘commonality’ of present life forms to prove his point. He said if you look at monkeys and other created animals you will see that they have similar ‘structures’ to humans. Therefore all humans came from monkeys! That’s a big ‘therefore’. The fact that animals and humans share common traits [eyes and ears and stuff] prove a common creator, not that they all came forth by evolution. Actually these ‘common traits’ disprove the theory. Evolutionists can’t explain why the eye of a fish, a dinosaur a monkey an insect and a human are all alike [for the most part] yet everything else about them is so different. Why didn’t the ‘common traits’ evolve like everything else? The creationist uses this argument to prove the idea of a ‘common creator’ the concept of one being making everything and choosing to use the same structures for some parts while the other ‘parts’ being unique. Well any way I thought it was worth throwing this entry in today. NOTE: True science is the practice of ‘looking’ at things and observing them and seeing how things work and then basing conclusions on these facts. Theory is a part of scientific study, but the theories must come from the facts. In all ‘observable’ data, there is not a single incident of one species ‘evolving’ into another. Not one! All observable data show that complex things come from design, not chance. All things that are complex in our industrial world were designed and created by a higher form of intelligence [watches, cars, etc.] The enormous complexity of man, the Solar system, the planet earth and the amazing intricacies of living things all show a level of design that is absolutely incomprehensible. For all of these things to have come from a point in history when there was nothing in existence, accept a few unexplainable gases floating around for eons of time. And then without any pre thought or design, over billions of years thru some unexplainable explosion, to have then produced this unbelievable amount of intricate design is scientifically impossible. Why? Because science [the observing of things] never shows us any thing like this. The Christian worldview teaches ‘something’ from outside of the natural dimension, that always existed [God] acted upon creation and brought into existence all things. A true scientist would have to come to this conclusion eventually. Because all other observable complex things have had prior forethought and design. This is why when believers debate evolution, they should not do it from the standpoint of faith, they should debate it from the standpoint of scientific fact!

(387) Let me jump back to a small group of our readers who are from the ‘fundamentalist’ background. A lot of the issues on the Rapture and end times and ‘getting saved for real’ that I deal with is helpful to this part of our ‘on line’ community. One of the other areas that I saw when I was attending a fundamental Baptist Church was the inability to see or accept the fact that some of the heroes of the faith were not like them. Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield and other great revival leaders who were part of the historical great awakenings of this country were presented in ways that were intellectually dishonest. The Pastors didn’t mean to be dishonest, it was simply a result of the sectarian mindset that works within this group. The church I attended described classic Calvinism as ‘hyper Calvinism’. The above preachers all believed in classic Calvinism. They honestly held to the historic doctrine of predestination as taught by the Apostle Paul. Now the groups who do not hold to ‘predestination’ in the classic way are called ‘Arminians’. Most of the Evangelical church in America fall into this group. The point is when the Fundamental Baptists spoke on these historical preachers they taught that they were all like them. They would say ‘some are trying to teach that Edwards was a hyper Calvinist, we no better than to believe this’. The fact is Edwards was actually a ‘hyper Calvinist’. The point I am making isn’t to debate the different positions of the fathers of the faith. Whatever side you fall on is up to you. But no matter how you believe, this doesn’t give you the right to distort or misrepresent history. To some of the brothers the simple reality that there were great heroes of the faith who actually believed in ‘hyper Calvinism’ was too much for them to handle. This grows out of being insecure and sectarian in your faith. In order for believers to be able to embrace the other parts of the church that they are unfamiliar with, there needs to be a basic security of accepting the fact that others are not like you. You can still teach about them and the historic movements that they were a part of, but to deny the reality of what they taught and believed does a disservice to true Christian learning.

(388) I watched Brave Heart the other day. People need something to die for. Would you die for stuff? Would you die for doctrine? Would you die for someone who died for you? We have lost our soul and passion. We have sold our selves for ‘nought’ [Isaiah].

(389) ‘As many as were astonished at you, so shall you sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at you. They will see things they have never seen before. They will consider things that they never considered before’ rough quote from Isaiah. Chapter 50 something? I felt like God was saying he is going to produce things from the shattering of our lives. The ‘broken pot’ imagery. He will bring forth things from the act of ‘crucifixion’ that could not be produced in a thousand years of our own intellectual capacity. Our gifts and talents don’t produce. The ‘grain’ of wheat must fall into the ground and die. They said of Jesus once ‘this is a hard saying, who can receive it’ I guess those for whom it is meant.

(390) I spoke a while back on the Pastor friend that used to attend the church I Pastored years ago. Let me share a few things from this experience that serve to illustrate a point. One time this friend was struggling financially [actually all the time] I used to advise him to get a job until he felt like ‘the ministry’ would support him. He seemed to fall into the mistake that sees ‘ministry’ as a trade, and therefore getting a job would be wrong. He would get offended when I told him stuff like this. One time he had put some pens he had made with scripture on them into the offering. He later told me he had no money to give, but by putting the pen in, with scripture on it, he was ‘exalting’ the Word and God would see this ‘seed’ he planted and give him a return. All of this was symptomatic of the way the Word of faith movement would approach scripture. In this case my friend was violating all the verses that speak of being diligent, working and stuff like this. He then felt ‘honoring the Word’ was doing what he did. Many in this movement teach that to be a ‘doer of the Word’ means to ‘speak the Word’. Speaking the Word is a good thing, but being a ‘doer’ is contrasted with being a ‘hearer/speaker’. This actual teaching comes from the book of James and James is saying ‘don’t be a hearer only, but be a doer’. ‘doing’ in this context is not ‘speaking’ it is ‘doing’. James says if someone comes to your door and is in need and you say [confess] ‘be warmed and filled’ but you don’t actually meet the need, then you are only a ‘confessor’ and not a ‘doer’. It’s another one of those strange interpretations where these brothers found a way to teach that ‘doing the word’ means ‘saying the word’ even though ‘saying the word’ is what is being contrasted with ‘doing the word’. Jesus did say ‘say unto this mountain’ and the Word of God teaches the principles of confession and speaking truth, the problem is these things are simply tools to help us along the road. They are not to become the road! To simply learn and put into effect all the biblical ‘techniques’ and watch them work does not mean you are in the will of God. Many people have excelled in finances thru the use of biblical principles. Some of them were called to other things and instead chose to become wealthy. They might have even attained the wealth thru ‘diligence’ [a biblical principal] but if that truly was not Gods purpose for them, they failed. I find the focus on techniques and ‘windfall’ inheritances less than profitable. Many who hold to the ideas that my friend held to will see the truth of God giving the ‘wealth of the heathen/Egyptians into the hands of Israel’ and will use this to justify a lazy lifestyle. The above friend believed that God was going to ‘give him the wealth of the heathen’. Does scripture say the ‘wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous’ you bet! But it continues to say ‘and God will give it into the hands of those who are upright in his sight’. Is being lazy upright? Is sitting around spending your life waiting for some windfall upright? God gave the children of Israel the wealth of Egypt because the children of Israel labored for years as slaves, they were not being compensated justly for their work. They got paid for their work by leaving Egypt with their wealth. God did not give an inheritance to his people who weren’t working! Well the point today is don’t use scripture as a ‘technique book’ that if you master you will get more than the next guy. Scripture is a book that brings us the truth of the gospel. We enter into covenant with God thru this gospel. We become ‘debtors’ to this great God and Father. We seek to serve him all our days. We are not looking for schemes to ‘get rich quick’. NOTE: In Jesus teaching he says ‘why do people confess me as Lord, but do not do what I say’ ‘many people will come to me and say ‘Lord, Lord’ and I will say ‘I never knew you’. I am not saying these brothers are not Christians, they are. I just want you to see that Jesus really put the emphasis on ‘doing the works’ more so than on ‘what you say’. The ‘saying of things’ is a part of it. But this is not the ‘heart of the matter’.

(391) I felt like the Lord wanted me to share some things, I do not ‘feel’ like doing this at all. These last few days have been real difficult for me. This is an example of ‘doing what God says despite your feelings’. I want to speak on the Kingdom of God. The Christian church has had various ways to ‘see’ the Kingdom of God. For many centuries [19 of them to be exact!] the church for the most part taught ‘amillennialism’ a type of view that saw the work of the Cross as the significant event that ‘triggered’ Gods Kingdom. In effect believers saw the fact that Jesus died and was resurrected to be seated at Gods right hand as Gods Kingdom already being in effect thru this event. The giving of the Spirit to the church was Gods ‘program’ of expanding the Kingdom in the earth thru the growth of Christianity down thru the centuries. Some who held to this view [which for the most part I agree with] also ‘spiritualized’ all the verses of God dealing with Israel and the event of the second coming in a way that denied the literal return of Jesus to David’s throne. During the 20th century you had the rise of ‘fundamentalism’ and dispensational theology that saw the truth of the real second coming and Jesus actual return to Israel to be seated on David’s throne [John R Rice and other fundamentalist preachers brought out much truth in these areas. These brothers would come to be seen as ‘premelliannial’ in the sense that Jesus must first return and take David’s throne in Jerusalem before the ‘millennial’ rule of Christ can come] The divisions between these ways of seeing Christ return are strong. Some from the latter camp began to hold to a view of the Kingdom that said ‘man cannot bring Gods rule in, only Jesus. Therefore until he comes back all the church can do is win souls’. The other camp said ‘ we are here as Christians to initiate Gods rule. We are salt and light and therefore we have Christ’s Spirit in us to bring Gods rule in’. Both of these groups have truth. The fundamentalist for the most part rejected the reality of God initiating his rule thru Christ the King who is already seated at Gods right hand [the position of rule] and is working thru his subjects [the church] right now. In reality man cant change the world, but the church thru the present ministry of Jesus at Gods right hand does have the ‘ability’ thru Gods Spirit to bring in Gods rule. The idea that the second coming is the ‘event’ that God will use to bring about world change denies the reality of Christ’s rule right now. The American president is the president right now. He has certain abilities to effect change by this fact. He is ‘seated’ in the nations capital, you might never actually see him in person, but the fact of his authority is a real thing. The fact that Jesus rose from the grave and is seated at Gods right hand is the event that gave us the authority to affect the world thru the church. This is Gods idea, not mans. It is also true that Jesus will come back and literally return to Jerusalem. But the seat of authority that he now holds at Gods right hand is much greater than David’s throne. There are actually scriptures that show that Jesus has already ‘inherited’ the throne of David by virtue of the fact that he ‘sits on top of the mountain that trumps all other thrones’. The dispensational brothers will look to the world wars and other major events and say ‘see, this is proof that man cant change the world. Until Jesus comes back things will get worse’. The Bible says those in darkness will continue to get worse, those in the light will get brighter and brighter. The Idea is as Gods ‘citizenship’ increases [thru evangelism] more people become children of light. So even though the world is getting darker, the church isn’t. The more people who become ‘members’ of the church will become ‘brighter’. This obviously will affect the world for good. So man in and of himself cant bring in ‘Gods rule’ but the fact that Jesus is presently reigning [though you don’t physically see him] is where the real power of ‘world change’ is located. So for people like myself, I would answer the strong dispensationalist with this fact. Now to the Parables of Jesus. The strong dispensationalists have a ‘strange’ way they interpret some of the Parables. The one on ‘the kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven that someone took and hid in 3 measures of meal until the whole loaf was leavened’ this Parable, as well as many others show the concept of Gods kingdom invading the planet in a small way at the start [Jesus and the 12] and eventually effecting all the earth. The dispensationalist’s teach that Leaven is always a sign of something unclean and because the ‘law of first things’ [the first time a certain theme is used in scripture will define it for the rest of scripture] that therefore the leaven here is wickedness, and that the Kingdom of Heaven is different than the Kingdom of God [they are the same by the way!] that what Jesus is actually teaching is that wickedness will eventually invade all of the ‘church world’ [which they say is the Kingdom of heaven-silly] and therefore when Jesus returns he will fix everything. To me this would be a failure of what Jesus is trying to do. He left all authority on earth to the disciples by saying ‘go into all the world’ after he said ‘all authority is given to me’. He commissioned the church to ‘invade the world’. If the evil in the world wins until Christ’s return that would basically be a big failure on the part of the church, which represents Christ Kingdom now! The first century religious mind had a view of religion that was based on Old Testament ideas. In the Old Testament, if a Priest who was ceremonially clean, touched something unclean, then the priest would become defiled. The ‘transmission’ of holiness to unholy things didn’t work. But the ‘transmission’ of unclean things to holy things did! This is why the Pharisees had such a hard time with Jesus ‘contact’ with sinners and prostitutes. The Pharisees saw the ‘church’ as an institutional fortress ‘flee into Gods community and be separate from society’. Now the New Testament gives a mandate for believers to ‘come out from the world’ but this is speaking about not partaking of the sins of the world while being salt and light in the world. Jesus instituted a type of Priesthood that transmitted ‘holiness to unclean things’. A better priesthood [Hebrews]. Scripture says ‘light came into the world and the darkness couldn’t overcome it’ [John] So in Jesus rule you find the ‘Priests’ [all believers] having Christ’s Spirit in them for the purpose of affecting the world with righteousness. Now the church has too often grasped a mindset like the Pharisees. You see this in the strong conservative elements of Christianity ‘the moral majority’ ‘the center for moral clarity’ and all these other silly institutions. These guys mean well, but they are dividing society into ‘sides’ that has the gay lobby and others fighting against the ‘moral crusaders’. In essence this is a return to the ‘Pharisee mindset’. But there is also a movement in American Christianity [by the way we are only a small part of world Christianity!] that is appealing to the other side of the political spectrum Sort of like liberal ‘yuppie’ type Christians who might vote democrat or republican. They don’t hold to the ‘religious right’ persona. They are concerned with environmental issues and stuff [they might even still go to rock concerts, amen!]. I see this movement as great. God can recruit from all sides of the political spectrum. This is Gods ‘leaven’ affecting the whole lump. [By the way, leaven can represent something that starts small and invades everything. Sin can be described this way, or Gods Kingdom. Leaven is simply a ‘material’ that God can use in symbol any way he wants. Just cause it was used for an ‘unclean thing’ doesn’t mean Jesus cant ‘re use’ it for a clean thing. This actually can be a sign in and of itself. Jesus took a natural thing that was ‘sinful’ in scripture [man/leaven] and turned it around into something clean!] Basically what I am trying to get across today is Gods kingdom was not ‘postponed’ in its entirety. Certain aspects of its ‘revealing’ in regard to natural Israel are ‘hidden’ right now. At the second coming all Israel will see that Jesus has been ruling and reigning for thousands of years already. He will appear to natural Israel some day, but remember its not always the way we think!

(392) I took my kids to the beach yesterday. It’s the beginning of summer vacation and we live about 2 miles from the gulf. Growing up in Jersey I loved the shore. My kids don’t always realize what a blessing it is to be so close to the ocean. One of them [my oldest] does go regularly, she surfs and all. Well this was the first time I had a chance to swim at the Packery Channel, since they opened it up. It has these 2 huge jetties strutting out into the gulf. It was sort of strange, a huge storm blew in, a cold front and all. I don’t remember seeing something like this since first moving to Corpus. That is while actually swimming in the ocean! It felt surreal. I kinda felt it to be a little significant. I spoke earlier on this blog about this channel having significance to me. I also read in Isaiah where God says ‘this is my servant, I will open up before you the 2 leaved gates that no one will be able to shut. You will crush the bronze gates to dust’ Sort of like God saying ‘I have opened up a door for you that no man can shut’ [John in the book of Revelation]. We had a huge flash flood from the storm. When I got home I realized that my study roof wasn’t leaking any more. I have tried to fix it for years! I actually tore off the roof twice and re did the whole thing with role roof [twice! I do have a tendency to overreact at times.]. I couldn’t fix that ‘darn’ leak for years. Finally one day I resorted to the ‘last resort’ you Christians know what this is. Prayer! I don’t know why we do stuff like this. You think it would have been easier to have prayed first before re rolling the whole roof twice! [It’s only a 200 sq. foot section] Well even after prayer I felt it wasn’t yet fixed. Sure enough it rained one day and it was still leaking. But I kinda felt that something did happen when I prayed. One day I got up on the roof to trim some branches [pruning] and noticed 2 small wet spots. It wasn’t raining, but the sun wasn’t out and this created an environment where any small hidden wet spots would be exposed. I have checked for holes and leaks many times, never could find anything. It’s just this time the Lord supernaturally gave me an environment where I would clearly be able to ‘see’ the leaks/breaches and be able to ‘seal up the breach’. Well when I got home yesterday from the beach the flash flooding was enough rain to check for the leak. I got home and realized for the first time that the leak was fixed. Over a period of a few years! Felt like God was saying he will open up ‘breaches/leaved gates’ that we were unable to open before. And that he will also ‘close up’ areas where we have been leaking for years. It was the ‘rain’ that allowed me to finally ‘see’ that the breach was fixed. It actually was really fixed when I sealed up these 2 little holes a few months back, but it took a period of patient waiting to see if it really worked. Be sensitive to the Lords timing. Don’t expect him to do ‘all the leg work’ in the sense that you prayed and just sat idly by. Remember faith without works is dead. In my scenario I prayed and ‘accidentally’ found the leaks by God creating a type of atmosphere that allowed me to see what I couldn’t perceive before. It still required 2 little dabs of roof tar, but these dabs were nothing compared to all the re roofing efforts I had done in the flesh. When God changes your environment to see things differently, your labor will go a lot further. Be open to these signs. NOTE scripture says when Gods people were in rebellion that they brought home their paychecks and it was like putting money in a bag with holes in it. It’s like the bag had leaks. When you align yourself with Gods purpose the bag ‘stops leaking’.

(393) While watching Brave Heart the other day, there is a scene where Mel Gibson steps back onto the land of his heritage. It shows Gibson/Wallace standing on the land and breathing in the air. Sort of like ‘this is the place of my destiny’. I am reminded of the verse that says ‘stand and feed in the strength of the almighty’ ‘I will raise up one from the tribe of Judah and he shall inherit my holy mountain’. God has planted within us the DNA to ‘inherit the land’. This is not some real estate inheritance; this is entering in and ‘breathing’ in the environment of your destiny. There are times when we are surrounded by the ‘practices’ of life. We go thru the motions. We pray [I hope so!] we seek God, do evangelism and all the other stuff. Then there’s that thing in us [or at least me] that says ‘risk it all again’. Jump into the ocean. The big leaps of faith aren’t finished yet. STAND AND FEED IN THE STRENGTH OF THE ALMIGHTY once again. I just sense that God has destined us for more than having enough money to retire on. There are times where we are surrounded by the mundane things of life, during these times the only way out is ‘jump’. God does tell us to ‘go all the way into the river until it goes over your head’ [Ezekiel?]. It’s time for some of you to ‘go over your head’.

(394) Some things from Isaiah 53. ‘He is despised and rejected of men, we hid our faces from him’. Funny thing, never did or said a single wrong thing. Theologically correct 100 % of the time. How did we view him? We HID from him when we saw him coming. The gossip was so bad about him we couldn’t even face him. ‘We esteemed him not’. We said ‘I don’t care who he thinks he is, do you know what I heard’? ‘He was wounded for us, bruised for us. The price to obtain the things that would bring us peace was on him’ all the things that caused us to look down upon him were actually part of the price he had to pay for our benefit! ‘He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, he was like a silent lamb being killed’ I don’t have what it takes to be silent when I am being talked about. There was a sort of oppression that kept coming against Jesus. It was like men will keep doing whatever it takes to ‘get to him’. Pilate says ‘don’t you know I might actually have you put to death’ they kept pushing all the buttons. What was it again that they found wrong with him? O yes, he said ‘I am the Son of God’ in so many words. That’s right, now I remember. The great crime that led us to this point of killing him was HE TOLD US THE TRUTH! ‘He did no violence, nor was there ever any deceit in his mouth’ I cant say the same about me. ‘Yet it pleased the Father to bruise him, HE HATH DONE THIS TO HIM’ it’s so hard to comprehend this. You are not only allowing these things, but actually doing them by your great purpose! I thought any thing like this was the work of the devil. I thought I was suffering because of something I did wrong. I have been trying to get out of this difficulty. Everyone today preaches ‘if he were from God surely this wouldn’t be happening’. ‘He will see of the pain in my soul, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many’ the things I will bring forth from your pain will ‘justify’ [bring into alignment] many. The pain first! ‘I will divide him a portion with the great [he will share the fruits with many well known people, those who thrive on fame]. He will divide the goods with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death. He bear the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors’ in the midst of this personal turmoil he was faithful to continue interceding for others. He did like Job who ‘prayed for his friends’ and then the Lord turned his captivity around. He learned to be faithful in intercession even when his life was being poured out. Who can live up to this? Jesus is the perfect man. NOTE this chapter starts with ‘who hath believed our report’ I was just ‘worrying’ about how many people are accepting/believing the things on this blog. A feeling of like ‘am I crazy, is nobody getting reached in a lasting way?’ Then I read the part of ‘our report’. I felt like the Lord was saying don’t worry about whether or not you are accepted. If you speak the things I am saying, then it’s ‘our’ report. Sort of like when scripture says to the prophets ‘they have not rejected you, they have rejected me’. I don’t want to come off as everything I say is right. I just felt like the Lord was saying when you speak in his will, it’s up to him to deal with the problem of whether or not the ‘report’ is being believed. Sometimes it’s in his purpose for reports to ‘not be believed’ so he can get to the next step.

(395) I saw a ministry out of Texas [We sure seem to have a lot of em!] who again preaches money all the time. I have read and listened to tapes from him before. He does have a tremendous amount of wisdom and Knowledge in areas of business and finance. His teachings were some of the best I have ever heard in these areas. He himself testified of how when he became a believer he later began to be ‘fascinated to an extreme’ with rich people. He studied and researched and could not get and consume enough information on these rich and wealthy people. The way he described it sounded like an unbelievable obsession with wealth. He used this description to explain how he became so knowledgeable in these areas. I saw it more of falling into the danger that Jesus warned against ‘Beware of covetousness, for a mans like doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things that he possesses’. I like this teacher, he does have great wisdom. It’s just he advocates so many of the things I have shown you to be wrong on this site. He would never admit it, he is brilliant. Scripture says ‘thy knowledge hath perverted thee’ it is possible to learn the most intricate truths of success from scripture. To apply them in such a way that you become highly successful and wealthy. It is possible to teach this system to others with a PURE HEART, that is you truly are not trying to take advantage of people. All of this in and of itself does not justify the obsession with wealth that these types of teachers promote. Their ‘wisdom’ has truly perverted them. NOTE: Many of these brothers are not ‘crooked’ fakes. They are sincere and honest in their dealings. They give extreme amounts of money to missions. Because of this they do not see themselves like the obvious fakes. There have been blatant deceivers who have robbed people; these brothers do not fall into this category. Because of this they cant see that they have fallen into the snare of desiring to become wealthy, which scripture forbids [1st Timothy 6- go read it!]. This is what makes it so difficult when you try to uproot this teaching from the church. NOTE: Let me show you how humility and truth trump wisdom. Though the above teacher is extremely wise, he also uses the ‘proof texts’ to teach that Jesus was also rich. The many verses I have shown you on this site. You can honestly show these brothers that these ‘proof texts’ do not trump the overall character of Jesus that comes to us from the testimony of the gospels. The gospels plainly show us an itinerant preacher who gathered a rag tag team of disciples and led a radical life. Sure they had a ‘bag’ [treasury] and Jesus wore an expensive coat [more than likely donated!] but these verses do not teach a wealthy Jesus! It is next to impossible for these guys to ‘see’ this. Knowledge can pervert you. These guys have seen real truth [knowledge] in areas of finances that the historic church has overlooked. They see how they know more than the traditional church in these areas. The fact that they posses true knowledge is a stumbling block to trying to show them these other areas of false teaching. They seem to think that all critics are traditional thinkers who do not have revelation knowledge. Deception is deceitful, that means you don’t know you are being deceived! NOTE: I know I have ‘harped’ on this a lot. I do over emphasize this area of correction because there have been so many leaders who have refused to deal with it over the years. Many innocent Pastors who are not familiar with the extreme elements of some of these teachings have inadvertently taught or condoned these teachers by mentioning their names or teaching a small aspect of their doctrine, like Jesus being rich because he had an expensive coat, or the teaching that the parable of the sower is speaking about finances [it is not!]. So in general this area has affected a lot of innocent Christians who are truly not aware of these things.

(396) Been studying some ‘apostolic movements’ [ministries that re produce many off shoot churches]. Some of the groups are very anti college. They feel that the Bible teaches a form of learning that is opposed to the university format. As someone who has never been to college myself, I can identify with this. But I don’t fully agree. The ‘Bible’ itself is a product of ‘formal education’. Jesus himself never penned a book, there is no epistle written by Jesus. Yet we do have the gospels that record his teachings. I guess you could argue that because Jesus himself never wrote a book, then all ‘book learnin’ is ‘un biblical’. The point is it’s all right to use formal means of education. There are definitely colleges that do harm to Christians. There were many liberal Christian universities that taught in a way that absolutely undermined Christian faith. I remember studying on how the 4 gospels were all written from 1 source. The ‘theologians’ surmised if you looked at all the differences and similarities in the gospels that the only logical conclusion was they all were written from another book. They called this single source ‘Q’. They taught this in a way that denied the writers accounts of actually being eyewitnesses to the things that they wrote about. A sort of ‘undermining’ of the trustworthiness of the gospels. Were all the gospels taken from one source? Yes. His name is Jesus. It is possible to be too smart for your own good!

(397) In the Bible you find stories of Jesus healing people. He casts unclean spirits out of people. In some of these scenarios you see the person who is healed respond violently. He will fall or give some type of indication that the ‘unclean thing’ that is ‘lodged’ in him doesn’t want to go. Its sort of like the enemy has strategized for years to ‘hook’ people. He has spent an enormous amount of ‘thought time’ coming up with schemes to entangle you. In some of these instances he has tricked you into allowing him to snare you. Sort of like you voluntarily opened the door, and in a way he had ‘a legal right’ to ensnare you. Then Jesus comes along and ‘un does’ in a moment that which the enemy took years to build. Jesus does this despite any legal right or ‘generational curse’ or any other thing that claims a right to attach itself to you. Its like the enemy gets mad because he thinks he earned the authority to have beaten you over this 9-inning game. He has worked hard to develop the series of attacks thru out your life. He feels his team [of demons!] has played hard and its only fair that he wins. Then this Jesus comes along and simply manipulates the environment to be favorable towards you. Don’t get me wrong, Jesus isn’t cheating. He has all the authority to rightfully do this because of the Cross. It’s just the enemy feels cheated in a way. This is why you see the violent responses when Jesus is casting these things out. Its like Jesus shows up and the other team is saying ‘man, this guys gonna ruin it for us again!’ [Too bad Jesus couldn’t show up to the Dallas games more often!]

(398) ‘Its not the perpetuation of our personas that we are looking for, it’s the impartation of the gift, in order to bring to maturity the Body of Christ’. A crucial aspect of this is the season of recognizing that you have effectively planted the seed. Then to purposefully withdraw your image and ‘preoccupation’ that people will have towards your gift, and to allow Christ to increase as you decrease HE MUST INCREASE, AND I MUST DECREASE [John the Baptist speaking of Christ]. As Jesus ‘increases’ into maturity thru the Church becoming more self sufficient, we must decrease in proportion. If we don’t properly make this adjustment then the people of God will never fully develop. This means ‘Christ didn’t increase’ [as being fully formed thru his people] as a direct result of our not ‘decreasing’. NOTE; There are many modern scenarios where the Pastor is totally frustrated with the inability of his people to grow. They fall into a trap where they see this year after year and this develops a ‘dysfunctional family’ where the well-meaning Pastor begins to berate the ‘children’ for never rightfully transitioning into adulthood. The saints ‘come to church’ and the ‘Pastor’ basically yells at them for not growing. They don’t seem to see that the reason they are not growing is because the system depends on them to stay the same. The system [modern church] needs them to be faithful tithers in order to fund the system. Before there can ever be any real change, there has to come a paradigm shift of what ‘being the church’ really means.

(399) One of the hindrances to the development of the Body of Christ is the present mindset of ministry. Most good men who feel God has called them into service usually wind up in a scenario where the main thrust of their life is preparing messages to preach on Sunday. All good men, I too have been there. There are many prophetic people who have had the same types of experiences that you have read on this site. Many leaders who have seen greater things than me. Why aren’t you as familiar with these brothers as me? Why aren’t you growing thru their gift as was intended? For the most part it’s because the average Pastor is consumed with the functioning of his ‘church’ [Christian business]. He sees his responsibility as primarily servicing the people. Marrying, burying, getting the message ready. Stuff like this. Nothing really wrong about it, its just too much time is spent with these things and he never sees himself primarily as a vision implanter into people. Now some Pastors have written books and have done some long term planting. But for the most part the average Christian Pastor falls into this role of ‘full time minister’ that is to be found nowhere in the New Testament! Think long term my friends. If God is revealing things to you, write them down. Give time and attention to the specific areas of revelation that he has shown you. You don’t have to come up with something new to preach every week. Just allow the Spirit of God to use you to shape people into what God has for them. Try to break out of the mold of the modern Pastor who for the most part spends his entire life speaking to the ‘laity’, while spending 1% of his life hearing them. This is not a biblical model! Well that’s all for now, felt this word was for someone [I have no one in specific in mind]. NOTE: As this blog becomes known, I kinda sense the feeling from some Pastors who hear about us thru their ‘parishioners’ that they feel ‘we have a web site too’. Sort of in a defensive way. ‘Why don’t you go to our site?’ type thing. I don’t get into this type of competition stuff; I want all people to go to all web sites and every other thing the Lord is using in the church. The reason why some of these ‘church web sites’ are not popular is because many of them are geared to either promote a book [I am thinking of an out of town site that I went to and they simply showed the picture of a book for sale, if they actually published it on line many people would be able to tread it!] or to invite people to ‘church’. People are hurting and starving for real truth. See your web site as a radical means to get the message out. If all you are doing is advertising for church meetings, people are looking for more. This might be the reason that some Pastors are wondering why their sites aren’t as popular as they want.

(400) Let me clarify something. It is hard to fight too many battles at once. There are financial planners and other good Christians who absolutely disagree with me on tithing. Some misunderstand what I am saying. Also as humbly as I can put this. The ‘teaching authority’ that God has placed in various ‘elders’ [Apostles/ Prophets] absolutely trumps the best intentions of Christian counselors. I know some are mad, o well? Many well meaning Christian counselors say ‘it’s too late to convince me that tithing doesn’t work, I have been counseling people for years as a responsible financial planner, it works!’ Without rebuking you guys too much, here’s what you are wrong about. First, the ‘tithing’ as taught in the bible is not what you guys are teaching in the first place. So when you appeal to Malachi [the Old Testament book that says Gods people are robbing him by not tithing] you are not even speaking of the same thing. Go do an Old Testament study for ‘crying out loud’ and realize you are not teaching Christians tithing! Number 2, what you do teach works because YOU ARE TEACHING GIVING! Giving always works. The simple fact that you guys [Pastors and financial guys] are teaching Christians to give of their first fruits unto God works. Now if you give a lot [more generous] God returns a lot. If you give a little [cheapskate] then you get a little. Got it? In no way, shape or form is this the biblical doctrine of tithing. This is giving! It works not because you are teaching tithing, but because you are teaching giving! Well brother we teach it has to be 10% or you are under the curse. Well you asked for it. You guys are 100% wrong on this. Good theology trumps financial planners authority, sorry. There is NOTHING a believer can do to actually ‘get cursed’. Theologically impossible. Go read Galatians. Now its possible to go back to the mindset of law, and bring upon yourself the judgment of legalism. Feeling guilty and condemned if you don’t live up to certain standards. But this is what the so called TITHE does, not giving! In general all Christians should give. If its 8-10 or 20 percent, that’s between you and God. But for sure you are free from the curse because of Christ. Well to all my Pastors friends and Christian financial planner friends, sorry to have ‘trumped’ your authority on this one, I know it hurts. NOTE: Many preachers use this verse in Malachi to teach if you don’t put 10% of your income into the offering plate on Sunday that you are ‘robbing God’. Remember Jesus taught in his judgment scenarios that when you didn’t feed the poor, or visit those in jail, or clothe the naked. That this was how you were ‘robbing’ God. So in effect the way a person ‘robs God’ is by not ‘giving’ to meet the needs of society/brothers in need. This is also what Paul was doing in 1st Corinthians 16 when telling the Church to ‘take up a collection on the first day of the week’. This collection was to meet the needs of the poor saints at Jerusalem. So to ‘rob God’ is to not give to people [who are the New Testament Temple]. NOTE; there is a very popular Christian financial counselor on Radio today. I like him, most of you would know him. He is basically OK. I have a real problem when he says ‘this program is about making gobs of money’. He also uses language like me! He says ‘crap’ on the air. I kinda put his statement on ‘gobs of money’ in this ‘crap’ category. I actually think that some of his financial advice is wrong. Not even talking scripture here, just basic financial advice. The point is there are lots of experts in many fields who are Christian and for the most part do a good job. As believers we all have the right to question and come up with our own ideas on how to approach subjects. Take what’s good from these guys, and leave the rest alone.

(401) Might as well go a little more, being some guys [Pastors] are already mad. The area of the Second Coming. If there is any doctrine in the New Testament. The Cross. The Second Coming. Any major theme that is specifically defined as ‘an event’. For example; the ‘event’ of the Cross. The ‘event’ of Christ coming ONE more time. When you have something defined this way. No matter how many other end time scenarios you come up with, it has to stay faithful to the event. There are different ‘looks’ at the Cross in the gospels. There are different views of certain major miracles. There are different words that describe the Kingdom of God [One writer says ‘Kingdom of Heaven’]. When you read the different ‘angles’ you are seeing the same event from different perspectives. If one writer shows the events surrounding the Cross in a little different light, you don’t say there were 2 Cross events! That’s just plain common sense. If Jesus says to Peter in one gospel ‘you will deny me 3 times before the rooster crows’ and then in another gospel ‘you will deny me 3 times before the rooster crows twice’ are there 2 separate events when Peter did this? NO. One writer is just giving a little more detail about the event. So when you see in the New Testament various ‘angles’ to the second coming, no matter what, you don’t have the option of turning it into ‘2 more second comings’. Those who teach this say ‘we believe in one second coming. It’s just in 2 stages’ come on man! If I told you I am coming to visit you. I come. Then I say I will be back ONE more time for dinner. You don’t know when it will be. But watch, because I am coming back ONE more time. 5 years later I show up, I take care of business. I do some stuff. You would assume I came back for the last time. If I left and showed up again after 7 more years and said ‘this is the second part of the last coming’ this would be a little confusing. If there’s a ‘second part’ then that means I came back 2 more times. So you would have the first visit, the second time and then number 3! If you tried to tell me the last 2 times were one event split by 7 [or 3.5] years I would say ‘then why don’t you call all 3 of your comings 3 separate parts of ONE COMING’. We are silly at times! Jesus is coming back again. All the saints will meet him in the air. 1st Thessalonians says this. Will they ‘disappear’ for 7 years? NO. We meet him, the great inauguration day, the wedding supper. What ever you want to call it. We then return to the earth [that’s why you see images of Jesus coming back with his saints] not 7 years later, the same day! A lot of stuff happens for sure. But you cant turn this major historical belief into 2 separate events because it seems to fit better into your end time prophecy charts. Jesus will come back ONE more time according to the New Testament. It will be a great day for sure. He is not coming back 2 more times. That would make it the ‘third’ coming of Christ, not the ‘Second’. NOTE: To all my ‘regular’ readers. Many Christians teach that Jesus will come back again 2 more times. They call the next time ‘the Rapture’ which comes from the phrase ‘to catch away/ caught up’ found in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4. They then teach Jesus takes all the Christians away for 7 [or 3.5] years and comes back for a 3rd time at the ‘revelation’ [that is ‘his revealing]. There are many reasons why this teaching developed in the church. It’s not really heresy; I refer to it more as ‘silly’ [I would say stupid, but Christians are not supposed to use that type of language!] NOTE; I do find it a little ironic that many of the fundamental churches who believe this doctrine don’t seem to realize that more than likely it originated from a prophecy that a woman gave in a ‘brethren’ church back in the 19th century [this comes from some exhaustive research on this doctrine] it became popularized by some good men, gained a ‘foothold’ in the fundamentalist/bible conference movement of the 20th century and is taught today in some good bible schools [Dallas theological Seminary is one]. The point is some of these churches who embrace this would be the last ones to accept the ‘prophetic’ movement, and they would be apoplectic if they knew that one of their major ‘doctrines of the faith’ came from a woman’s prophecy! God does have a sense of humor! NOTE; Some teach that Jesus comes back ‘secretly’ at the event seen in 1st Thessalonians 4, they teach that Jesus comes all the way back to earth but just stops short [his feet not touching the ground] and is hidden and takes all the Christians away. They see the ‘taking away’ of Elijah and Enoch in the Old Testament as a ‘type’ of this. If God wanted to ‘take away’ all the Christians out of the planet, why would he have to come all the way back and stop short? To truly follow the model of Elijah and Enoch he could just take all the Christians while remaining seated at Gods right hand. I really don’t see why he would have to come all the way back and stop short in heaven [the air] to do this. The simple fact is when he returns we will be ‘caught up’ to meet him in the air and will from that moment forward forever be with him. This event as described in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 is without a doubt the resurrection. There is no ‘secret’ resurrection spoken of in scripture.

(402) In 2005 Indonesia put 3 Sunday school teachers in PRISON for converting Muslims to Christians. The parents of the children willingly permitted their kids to attend the Christian church, but these wonderfully tolerant Muslims put the Christians in PRISON. You often hear of the tragedies of the Christian church. The inquisitions, that of course were wrong. How many people were killed again? Do you remember? Was it around 6 million? O no that was the Holocaust, that’s right. It was less than 3 thousand! [some say 30 thousand, either way it was small in comparison to the holocaust]. Any loss of life is wrong to be sure, but it sure seems strange that historians would make you think it was something equal to the Holocaust. Saddam took this many people out in a day! Now this wonderful Muslim religion, you know, this tolerant group of fanatics, they took out 3,ooo in one day also. I think it happened somewhere up North? Do you hear all these rights groups speak on the fact that this religion is still killing and imprisoning people TODAY? No, what you see is the UN blaming the US as one of the worst human rights violators on the planet. Where are the voices speaking out against the actual Muslim countries killing and imprisoning Christians right now [Like the northern oppressive Muslim regime who are committing genocide right now against our black Christian brothers in the south of the Sudan!] I just find it strange that the liberal groups want to blame the US for the events of 911, while they still uphold the inquisitions as the worst human rights violation in history. O that’s right, I forgot. How many Irish Catholics were on the Planes that killed 3,ooo people? How many Protestants? How many Christians? These wonderful 19 hijackers all worshipped Allah and thought that they were following the dictates of the prophet Muhammad. It’s funny, these human rights groups never seem to want to discuss ‘current events’. NOTE: All Muslims are not terrorists. The point is if you had right wing Christians all on a plane, crashing into buildings while believing they were doing it for God, and then you had a Christian country regularly imprison and kill Muslims, these human rights groups would be the first ones to make the connection of their religion with their fanaticism. But they want to treat the radical Muslim as if his religion has nothing to do with his radicalism.

(403) Isaiah 54 ‘sing O barren, thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing. For more are the children of the desolate than of the married wife’ God says those who are empty and feeling ‘numb’ are reproducing spiritual children in abundance. We recently read how God ‘saw’ the pain in Jesus soul and was satisfied. How those in bondage and captivity brought forth children and said ‘where did these come from, I was in pain and affliction’. God seems to bring forth fruit from our lives during seasons of weakness and failure. Paul saw this and learned to ‘glory in his weakness’ because when he was humanly weak and incapable of the task, God would then step in and do for him what he was not able to perform. ‘Enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes’ the ‘them’ are the promised offspring that are coming. God says ‘make preparations’ you will have many spiritual kids. The Lord also says ‘lengthen your cords’ and then ‘strengthen the tent posts’ we usually want to strengthen first, sort of have everything pre prepared before we ‘expand’. The order here is different. God says ‘go for the growth first, and then I will strengthen what needs to be stronger’. I am not saying don’t make preparations, but sometimes we spend our whole lives ‘preparing’ and we never grow! ‘For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and your seed shall inherit the gentiles’ ‘for a small moment have you felt forsaken, but with great mercies will I gather you. In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with never ending kindness will I have mercy on you’ The ‘down’ times in your life seem forever, but compared to the fruit and grace that are coming, they will seem like small moments of history in my overall plan. ‘For this is like the waters of Noah to me, just like I swore that I would never flood the earth again, so I promise I will never be angry with you again’ the Cross removes any future wrath and anger from God, all future dealings will be as a father who disciplines a son. Can you imagine an earthly father truly hating or refusing to stop spanking his son? [I know some who have been abused can imagine this, but God is different!] How much more is God willing to correct you and let you move ahead? Quit beating yourself over the head because of your failures, God is not holding this stuff against you anymore! ‘The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed. But my kindness shall remain’ God is going to change your ‘scenery’ the things you have been ‘seeing’ and the obstacles obstructing your view are coming down. The mountains and hills in your way are being ‘threshed’ and God is going to restore to you ‘fore sight’ an ability to see down the road. Without vision [prophetic insight] people perish [have no controlling destiny, have no reason to be restrained and disciplined]. God is removing the things that were blurring your vision and you will see clearly again! ‘Thou shall be far from oppression, for you will not have fear, and from terror, it shall not come near you’ ‘whoever comes against you will fall for your sake’ In another place it says ‘I will give men for thee’ God favors you to the point of ‘manipulating’ the environment to be favorable towards you. You don’t deserve this to be sure! But he is doing it for his own glory, you already bear his name! NOTE: The verse ‘more are the children of the desolate’ Paul uses this in Galatians to show Gods promised children are the ‘spiritual Jerusalem’ all those [both Jew and gentile] that would receive the promised Spirit by faith. He basically says ‘the mother’ [heavenly Jerusalem-the church] that has no ‘physical children’ [desolate] will have more offspring/seed [all the spiritual children] than the nation/mother [natural Jerusalem] who has many offspring! NOTE: For those of you who have made it this far on this blog, if you keep reading into the later 400’s you will find that I have become very sick. I won’t go thru it all here. But I want you to see something prophetic. This chapter [Isaiah 54] has been one of the key chapters for me for over 20 years. As a matter of fact from Isaiah 42 thru the end of Isaiah have been the most prophetic words the Lord has given me about our ministry. Part of the sickness I am going thru is numbness to my right leg and extreme dizziness/vertigo. The only time I don’t feel dizzy is when I am looking far away. Like my habit of praying outside and looking to the stars, or even during the day looking at a distance feels fine. Being in the house and other confined spaces feels very disorienting. In this chapter, which I wrote about a month or two before getting sick, it says ‘blessed are those who are numb’ [right leg].  That God is going to ‘change our scenery’ [that which we see]. That God is going to remove things that are blurring your vision [vertigo/dizziness]. I even said ‘God is going to restore to you fore sight, an ability to see down the road [seeing ‘down the road’ long distances, is the only ‘seeing’ that doesn’t get me dizzy!] I find the prophetic word interesting, especially when you prophesy about yourself and don’t even know it!

(404) We all have a tendency to ‘take refuge’ in a ‘completed’ belief system. We want to have every answer down pat. We decide to believe one way or another on certain doctrines [not talking about the basic truths of the gospel!] and then we move ahead in the journey. Whether we are right or wrong doesn’t seem to matter. We have already decided, we have preached it to others, and there is no way I can admit that I have been wrong. It’s funny because many who act like this are the same ones who will criticize the Catholics for holding on to tradition. These guys are worse! God is calling us to take refuge in him. For him to be the ‘rock of defense’ the ‘fortress and one who never changes’ our stability should be in him, not some system of doctrine that has come to us from men. Now the faith that was once and for all given to the church is not what I am talking about, but the other silly stuff we find ‘refuge’ in. Am I pre trib, mid trib or post? Well if there is only one second coming [and there is only one] then you don’t have a lot of choices, do you? ‘But I have been taught this historic doctrine from the great men of faith of days gone by’ no you haven’t, you believe in something silly that is not true. ‘Well I will believe my way, and you will believe yours’ I know that already, but the point is you guys are the same ones that get apoplectic over the Catholics! Just thought I would show you what a bunch of hypocrites you are. NOTE; Let me show you what I mean. If you read the passages in the gospels when Jesus is speaking on his second coming and the end of the world. He says ‘there will be tribulation like never before’ he talks about the obvious events of the great tribulation. He then says ‘after these things you will see the sign of the coming of the son of Man’ the pre tribulation brothers call this ‘the revelation’ part of the second coming. The ‘second part’. You then also have Jesus say ‘then one shall be taken and the other left’. Now he specifically says this ‘one taken and the other left’ is after the tribulation, at his second coming. This seems to make it real simple. Jesus will come and ‘take some and leave others’ at this event, which happens at the ‘second coming’ and his return. The Rapture guys say this is not the event of 1st Thessalonians chapter 4. Even though if you read that chapter Paul says when Christ returns some will be taken and others will be left [the unbelievers]. The rapture guys say this is a ‘different’ taking of people at a ‘different’ second coming. Well I think I could accept the doctrine of Peter being the first Pope before you could convince me of this one!

(405) Been studying an apostolic movement. I am familiar with this church. They have a few of them in our area. A lot of stuff on line says they are a cult. They really are not one in doctrine. The leader of the movement has a legalistic background from an old time Pentecostal church [four square] and it seems to me that the movement, though Christian, has embraced a lot of the mistakes from the ‘Shepherding/Discipling’ movement. I am not studying what the so called ‘cult researchers’ are saying about them. I am reading from their actual story on line. It really is a great story. One of the limitations of these movements are the limited way they see ‘church’. For the most part these groups see church as sending someone to a city, either renting, buying or building a building [too many of us still cant get past this building centric mindset- none of the disciples or New Testament Apostles EVER did this!] They then set up ‘a Pastor’ to ‘run’ this ‘New Testament Church’. And then the strong authoritarian types will basically teach a strong doctrine of submission to this ‘New Testament order’ and anyone who questions this very limited/unbiblical view of ‘Local Church’ is ‘out of order’ and seen to be ‘departing from the faith’. We need to get back to the biblical model of Jesus and the Apostles. Jesus sent them out ‘2 by 2’ to go and bring this message [the gospel] to the cities and towns where they were sent. Later you see Paul doing this same thing. The ‘planting of churches’ was the actual speaking the gospel to people groups. Those who would believe and get baptized became ‘the church’. These believers were encouraged to get together, have fellowship meals [the original pattern of the ‘Lords Supper’] and to basically be ‘Gods Ecclesia’ in their town. They were seen to be Gods ‘dwelling place’. There was no ‘church’ that they were going to on ‘Sunday’. Paul told the Corinthians that when they got together on the 1st day of the week they were to take up an offering. We take stuff like this and turn it into a commandment. We teach Sunday as some type of New Testament Sabbath [it is not!] and we say ‘go to church on Sunday, obey your Pastor [singular] and put in a tithe’. This is permitted to a degree, but in no way is this some type of mandated New Testament order. That’s why those Pastors who lean towards grace and liberality are seeing growth. They are operating in this system while not teaching that this system ‘is church’ to the same legalistic degree as the other guys. Now when you take this limited way of seeing church, and you put it into the hands of strong authoritarian types. Then you have the ingredients of a ‘cult like’ culture within the group. You find well-meaning Pastors telling Christians ‘how dare you challenge my biblical authority, you are under me’ well this is an abuse of the grace of God. These well meaning guys have taken a pattern of ‘church’ that is common for our day, and have turned it into THE MEASURE of a person’s faith. Any question from the parishioners is seen as rebelling against ‘Gods Man’. Well just remember Paul was not teaching this strong Sunday church, tithing to the church, obey your Pastor mindset. Paul actually teaches [Romans] that the weaker Christians [in faith] will observe certain days and foods and stuff as clean or unclean. He then teaches those who are stronger [more mature] in the faith don’t do this. So for believers to meet on Sunday and to give offerings and to share in Gods grace is a good thing. But to teach that a limited system where you are under ‘a Pastor’ for the rest of your life can become ‘cult like’ in its expression, especially if you have a legalistic background to begin with. [The movement I am studying is known as ‘the door’ or the ‘Potters House’, not to be confused with T.D. Jakes]. NOTE: A few things that I want you to see about the biblical mindset of every believer having the potential to go and evangelize the world. When a believer goes forth with the gospel and brings the good news of Gods forgiveness and acceptance thru Christ. Others want this. To simply see ‘church planting’ as a natural outgrowth of evangelism allows for there to be a rapid increase of the gospel thru out a region. Everybody can ‘pass it on’ to everyone else. You are not viewing ‘church planting’ as going somewhere to start an organization that will need lots of money to function; you are simply preaching the gospel. Those who believe get together, there will be elders [more mature ones] that will have special ability to ground these new believers. But for the most part the only ‘finances’ needed to do this is enough money to get you to the place of ‘sending’. You then teach these new believers to share of their resources with the less fortunate. This is actually the biblical model of church planting. This is why Paul could evangelize large territories in his day. The modern idea sees the need to raise tons of money to support ‘other pros’ who are doing it for a living [missionaries]. They see church planting/evangelism as the ‘job’ of those in ‘full time ministry’. The average believer is told ‘your primary responsibility is to work in the secular world and bring in the finances for the ‘church’ [Christian business] to have enough money to pay the pros’. We have effectively ‘de clawed’ the average believer from the divine mandate to go and preach the gospel to all nations. That’s why when the well intentioned Pastors get mad at me for preaching against tithing, they really can not see how the ‘law of the tithe’ has actually put people back under bondage. The average believer is under the bondage of seeing himself as the ‘resource pool’ that brings the money in for others to do the ‘ministry’. This is actually a form of legalism that puts believers under bondage. Every so often you get a radical believer who breaks the mold of simply being a ‘funder’ and then he goes off and enters ‘full time ministry’. He is then taught all the above and the cycle repeats! The Pastor feels like he is doing right because he now is so fulfilled [it cant be wrong if it feels so right]. But he doesn’t realize the fulfillment he is experiencing is to a large degree the sense of well being that God intended for all the saints to experience as they express themselves and give themselves away for the gospel. In essence the Pastor had the courage to break the mold and step into the journey, but where we have failed is to then take that person and make him into a propagator of the current system. God wants a change in the current system. God wants all his kids to see that we all have this freedom to run the race and be active. It is not limited to the ‘full time clergy’! NOTE: When the well meaning Pastor in the current system looks at the statistics ‘only so many percent of all Christians tithe, therefore we are not reaching the world’ he is seeing ‘reaching the world’ from his limited paradigm. This type of Pastor truly believes it is the lack of tithing that is hindering the gospel. It is not the lack of tithing that is doing this, it is the above system that is limiting the gospel! NOTE; The other day I was trying to open some bag of lunchmeat or something. I remember how hard it was to get the bag open. So of course I thanked the Lord for this obstacle and praised him as I looked for a pair of scissors [I am lying]. I did think to myself ‘what a wonderful product. I am sure it will taste good. I am sure the producers went out of their way to produce the product. Much thought went into the marketing of it. They only forgot a very small thing, they made it next to impossible to actually access the thing!’ This is what we do in modern church. The most valuable asset are the People of God. They can do unbelievable things in the area of reaching the world. We have made it next to impossible to ‘get the product out of the package’.

(406) NOTE: The reason you see me quoting old movies on this blog is because when I spend a few days at my daughter’s ranch [Jim Wells county for all you local guys!] she has no cable or Internet. I do get up early to pray, but during the day we put on all the old movies we have. Lots of DVD’s and VHS tapes. LION KING The father Lion tells the son when he is in hiding ‘YOU ARE MORE THAN WHAT YOU HAVE BECOME, YOU ARE MY SON’ the dad Lion is dead and he tells his son this in a vision. The son returns to his ‘land’ of destiny and fulfills his purpose. The son was anointed king as a baby cub, he enters his true destiny after much failure and fear. The father also told the son that the stars in the sky represent past kings who have gone on [I know this isn’t Christian, but let me use it]. In Hebrews it says the heroes of the faith have gone on before us and they are looking down from the bleachers cheering us on to finish this great destiny. I want to encourage you to realize ‘you are more than what you have become. You are your Fathers son’ God chose you for destiny when you were a child, its time to overcome your fears and stop living in obscurity. Fulfill your destiny while there is still time.

(407) Didn’t get a chance to ‘go to church’ Sunday, so I made a point to catch a brother out of Dallas [you all probably know him] that I like to catch on TV   every so often. He usually has a real prophetic word that you can tell is being produced out of trials and stuff. This week he was at some ‘preacher conference’ and he was using Romans 12 as a text. He then proceeded to go from chapter 1 thru chapter 12 by memory, hitting the high points from each chapter. I have a pretty good memory, I actually memorized large portions of Romans in the past. I kinda saw that he was going to do this. It felt more like a performance than the usual real word that he speaks. As he began going to chapter 2, then 3, etc. I jumped ahead in my mind and could almost quote the entirety of the rest of the book as I was ‘testing’ my memory. I found out I could do as good as him in this mental exercise. It didn’t mean anything, because I could sense it was sort of showing off at this conference. I changed it to Fox news.

(408) I want to talk about the reality of gifted Prophetic/Apostolic people in church history who had real gifts, but embraced false doctrine. This is an area of stumbling for those who are trying to break away from false movements. The Mormons are good people, whenever they come to my house I have real good talks with them [a little too good, after a few visits they go back to their elders with questions and they never come back!] I actually become real friends with them. I honestly discuss their movement’s history and I give an honest evaluation of the Prophet Joseph Smith [the founder of their church]. I do not demean them in any way. I simply acknowledge that the giftings of Joseph Smith were tremendous in the area of pioneering a religious movement. I also challenge the belief that Joseph was the prophet that the Lord chose to restore the true church. I find agreement that the true church are all those who have come to embrace the sacrifice of Christ [which they believe in] and then I explain how Jesus said the gates of hell would never totally prevail against the church. If Jesus words were true [they were!] then there never was a time since the 1st century that the church didn’t exist in some form. The gates never prevailed against her. Therefore Josephs teaching on him being the restorer of the church to the degree that God supposedly told him there was no true church left, has to be wrong. I do make headway with the younger guys. Once you honestly become true friends with people, you can have influence. My position on all the extra biblical doctrines and visions and other so called supernatural things [finding gold plates in the ground!] I simply ‘compromise’ to the point of saying ‘it is possible that Joseph [or any other leader of any other movement] had visions or experiences that they felt were true. They might have actually saw someone/something’. But we go back to the reality of Jesus being the way to God, and we put these other things at the foot of the Cross. The history of the pioneering Mormons is tremendous. The people are all good people [for the most part] there are strides being made right now to influence certain key leaders of this movement and to bring them back into alignment with historic Christianity [like what happened with the seventh day Adventists on the west coast. A few years back some evangelicals established relationships with key leaders and certain seventh day groups came back to the historic church- The worldwide church of God group [not the Pentecostal church of God] had a total reformation from the top down!] The point is, it is possible for certain religious groups to experience great success. In some strange way the fact that there is a small degree of the gospel present within the system [remember the leaven affecting the whole lump?] enables a certain degree of success until the time comes for true reformation. This approach can be seen with the more extreme word of faith/ prosperity teachers. Many were good men who did good things. We should not allow this to be an open door for the other doctrines and stuff that are wrong. Acknowledge the good, and honestly face up to the things that went off track. God requires all of us to do this at certain times. NOTE: After a few talks with these Mormons they see that I am a Christian; I know the bible and am even aware of their history. I use this fact as an example of God revealing himself to people without them joining or identifying with some religious group or organization. One of their beliefs is God has a true real church in society [true] and therefore which one is it? I try to show them that I too believe there is ‘one true church’ and that this church [society of people- not an organization or denomination] is actually made up of all those who have come to the reality of God thru Christ. They will challenge this view [as do some Christians!] and say that it is wrong. That how could people just come to a true knowledge of God unless they are in the true church [which to them is Mormon] I then bring them back to the fact that we have spent hours discussing and sharing many truths about Jesus. We all know many of the same verses [to be honest I usually know more by memory than them] and we have been discussing all these truths of God and his purposes and redemption thru Christ. And yet I have never met you before. I am not Mormon. How did God break thru to me and show me all these things that we have been sharing? It wasn’t thru some organization; it was the fact that God is revealing himself to mankind thru Christ. All who have come to this reality ARE THE TRUE CHURCH. Therefore everyone who worships the Father thru the Son are the true church. This leaves room for them and all others. I don’t whitewash the many wrong teachings of Mormonism, I simply try to bring them to the reality that even if Joseph Smith never existed that the reality of all of us [I include them] right now believing in God and the sacrifice of his son would qualify us as the ‘true church’ you don’t need Joseph Smith for this!

(409) I watched the second Republican debate for 2007 last night. It was interesting. One of the questions [from Wolf Blitzer] was to Rudy Giuliani. Wolf asked him to respond to the recent comment from A Catholic Bishop that compared his abortion stance to what Pilate did in betraying Christ. Basically Pilate allowed Christ to be crucified, even tough he was ‘personally against it’ Pilate knew Christ was innocent but permitted his execution to appease a political constituency. As Rudy responded it began to lightning, this caused his mic to go out and you couldn’t hear a word thru the TV. Rudy joked about it. Sort of like ‘I guess God is trying to tell me something’. A few other candidates kidded also. As Rudy talked the lightning kept cutting out his remarks. Everyone just took it as a joke. The ‘funny’ thing was as the other 9 candidates spoke [all pro life!] this ‘interruption’ didn’t happen. As soon as the mic went back to Rudy it started again. You could almost see in everyone’s faces that this wasn’t a joke! Rudy is the only ‘pro choice’ candidate in the Republican field. Also this debate took place in Hew Hampshire at a Catholic University ‘Saint Anselm’. the moderator harped on asking a few of the Christian candidates their view on evolution [which should have nothing to do with whether or not you make a good President!] It was asked in a way to make these guys look like idiots. One of the candidates answered wisely. He basically said he doesn’t know if God created the world in a literal 6-day period or longer, he affirmed the scientific reality that all creation could not have simply come by mere chance. He gave an intelligent response to the question. He also challenged the question. He believed it really shouldn’t be in a Presidential discussion. Though he defended himself well. Wolf Blitzer wanted to make these guys look like idiots. So after the answer he says ‘you were asked whether or not you believed in a literal 6 day creation, you dodged the question, answer it’. The candidate told Wolf ‘I did not dodge the question, I told you that I don’t know if the literal account in Genesis is speaking about periods of time or 24 hr days’. Wolf looked like the idiot! The point is they were so obsessed with getting a certain response that Wolf didn’t ‘hear’ the answer. When it’s your main job [moderator] to ‘hear’ the answer, and you don’t hear it, you look stupid. The ‘after’ show that discussed the debate brought up ‘why are all these candidates injecting God into it’ and then ridiculing them for various reasons. Even though it was obvious that these candidates were not bringing the ‘God issue’ up on their own, they were annoyed to be getting these questions. The Democrats actually are bringing it up more on their own because they are trying to appeal to the Christian vote in a greater way [which is fine]. I think Rudy is a good man, I like him. I am an Italian that grew up where he was mayor. I don’t think God was necessarily ‘judging him’ by the lightning. I felt it more to be a prophetic sign that said ‘If you refuse to speak up for those who have no voice in society [the unborn] I in turn will remove your voice from society’. NOTE: The obvious bias of the media is seen clearly in these types of things. It would be like me asking you ‘do you believe in Hitler and the oppression of Jews’. And you would respond by saying no, and then begin to explain the atrocities of Nazi Germany. Then later I had a discussion with a panel and said ‘can you believe they were even discussing Hitler? I know, what a bunch of racist bigots!’ For the media to do this is an insult to the average American. These elitists truly think that Christians are ignorant idiots. They then show their blatant bias by doing this. NOTE: God takes men and turns them into fools when they willingly reject him. These people who look at creationists as ‘back water’ idiots, believe that at one point in time there was nothing. From nothing gases ‘showed up’ one day [this is a scientific impossibility!] these unexplainable gases had an unexplainable explosion. From this all creation came into existence. Now science does show us that there was a point in history where all the worlds ‘mass’ or matter was at a beginning point. And that from this point thru an unbelievable event all creation came. This is scientifically accurate. But for this to have occurred from nothing is scientifically impossible. There had to be something from outside of the material realm that had the ability to act upon the material realm in order to make this happen. Whether you believe this something is God or not is irrelevant to this argument. The FACT is all created things could not have come from nothing! For the unbeliever to hold to this obviously childlike explanation of all things is absolutely foolish. But they see their belief in this as being intellectual. God has truly changed their wisdom into total foolishness. If you had a point in time where nothing existed, it is scientifically impossible to have matter now. The only scientific explanation is something else had to act upon this ‘void’ in order to bring about matter. This is not religious belief, this is scientific fact!

(410) A few years back before 9-11-2001 I was at work at the firehouse and noticed a Muslim walking thru the truck stalls. He was dressed in full fashion. You could tell he was a Muslim! I went out to see what he wanted and he said he was just doing research for the University on ‘fire houses’. This station is right across the street from a University and there are lots of exchange students. He did look suspicious. I began talking with him. We did get into ‘religion’ and the way Muslims view Western society. He shared how all the Muslim world sees the United States as Christian hypocrites. I then explained how all westerners are not Christians in reality. I am aware that the Muslim world doesn’t make these distinctions. I then ‘taught’ a 30-45 minute overview of the history of Abraham and his sons [Arabs claim their genealogy from Ishmael the son of Abraham, while Jews trace their lineage to Isaac]. I went thru the historic development of these groups and shared how though Jesus was a descendant from Israel, that it was Gods design to redeem all heritages thru Christ. That God has a great purpose for ‘Ishmaels’ descendants and Jesus transcends all of these ethnic stereotypes and makes all nations ‘one new heritage’ in Christ. I was surprised to see this Muslim was not aware of this. He looked like he was glad to really hear the truth of the gospel. You could tell he never really heard the story of redemption in this way. The world is so caught up on taking sides for political reasons, that this central message and appeal to people’s real need is being overlooked. He left that day seeming grateful to have heard this truth. Not long after 9-11 happened. We were then warned by the F.B.I. to take extra precautions in securing our truck bays, because intelligence came down that showed certain radical groups were going to try to ‘car jack’ fire trucks and use them for terrorist purposes! NOTE: The 2 sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, were to be used as a sign of strife that would arise for many generations to come. Many evangelicals use this to point to the strife between Israel and the Arab world. This is true to a degree. Paul in the book of Galatians uses this to speak of the strife between Law and Grace. In essence Paul says the Jews who are fighting against the believers are what Ishmael and Isaac represent. He did not see it like we do today! In reality it is possible for natural Israel to persecute a believing Arab, and in this context Israel would be ‘Ishmael’ and the Arab would be ‘Isaac’ the ‘spiritual’ offspring. Remember, Paul says the ‘children of the promise’ are counted as the kids, not the children of the law. The point being all who are Gods kids by faith [both Jews, Arabs and every other group] are Gods kids. So any other group who are not ‘in Christ’ [even natural Israel] are not counted as ‘the seed’. Seeing these things thru the ‘lens’ of the Cross overcomes racism. It’s wrong for any ethnicity to war against another. God is no respecter of persons. When Christians use scripture to take sides in actual warfare, this does harm to the true intent of God.

(411) I had a friend years ago who worked with me at the Fire Dept. He was ‘sort of’ an Atheist. He did ridicule Christians a lot. He would challenge them on all sorts of stuff. I remember discussing something with him one day. Some type of challenge. In the middle of the argument I simply said ‘if all of this you are saying is true, then why do you believe in God’. He was shocked. He couldn’t answer back. It was like the Lord knew he always held to a secret belief in God but never revealed it. I guess he never thought anyone would ‘see this secret of his heart’ [prophecy].

(412) I was just wasting time today. Too much TV and being unfocused. I hate these days! I was watching ‘mad TV’ and flipping the channels. I also was thinking about a mayor from a small town directly on the other side of the Corpus bay from where I live. I live in Flour Bluff and he lived in Ingleside. I have no idea why I was thinking about him. He was convicted of murder about 9 years ago and has been in prison. As I had enough of Mo Collins and Will Sasso, I flipped to A and E and saw City Confidential. I pressed info on my remote controller and saw that they were doing a show on Mark Crawford, the Mayor who I was just ‘thinking’ about. This ‘thinking’ was actually ‘seeing’ the mental image of the crime he committed. He gassed some guy and buried him in the ground [he actually had an accomplice do it]. The show talked about Marks life. He grew up in a dysfunctional family. Joined the Army and eventually wound up in this area. In 1988 he woke up one day and made a decision to change. He quit his job and ran for Mayor. About the same time I was living in Kingsville and ‘quit’ the church I was going to in order to start one of my own. Mark became very involved with the Baptist church and led the youth group. I was reaching out to addicts and ex cons [I also was the youth leader at my Baptist church]. Mark went astray and got into business and got involved in some shady dealings. Mark became well known and eventually everything fell thru when in 1996 they found a dead body buried in a deep whole in his yard [remember the dream I had about digging a deep whole and putting a body in it?]. In 1996 I started our radio ministry out of Corpus, Mark might have been listening during the year he ‘buried this body’. At the end of the show I wasn’t too sure why I was watching, I knew I was supposed to. Maybe I will write Mark and see if he wants to be used for outreach in prison. I know he claims to be innocent, and you have to be careful because some ‘brothers’ want to use their contacts with someone ‘famous’ or who has influence in order to try and get out. I believe it’s possible for Mark to have done this crime and yet for the Lord to use him. I am not in the camp who always defends the Christians and thinks they can do no wrong. I know better! I feel Mark was a lot like me. Willing to take too many chances in order to break the monotony of life. Striving for something more. Not being content with just ‘going to church’. I believe God has a destiny for each of us, even those who have gone off the deep end. P.S. Mark, if you ever read this [by me sending this to you, or someone from the area who knows you sends you this blog] you made some bad choices my friend, the only excitement left in the journey is to radically sell out for the Lord one more time. NOTE: I also read David Berkowitz’s testimony on line [the son of Sam] he has some story. Google his name and see if you can find it [just looked it up, its ‘www.forgivenforlife.com’]. God uses the worst of us. I do not see myself any more worthy than any of these guys. NOTE; If you follow the ‘self image’ that the Apostle Paul had of himself you will see something interesting. Paul ‘sees’ himself as an Apostle, then as the least of the Apostles. He then sees himself as a sinner, then near the end of his writings he sees himself as the ‘worst of all sinners’. I do not see this as ‘false humility’ it is more of an understanding of the sovereignty of God. All people are capable of all things at one time or another. Also when I wrote on Peter. I always felt he carried the self-guilt of his denials of Christ. When you see Peter in the Book of acts confronting Christians who lied about selling their property and saying they gave all the money to the Lord. Peter had the choice to ‘meet out’ strong discipline or not. He was the key Apostle at the time carrying the prophetic authority of the Kingdom. If he chose to forgive and ‘let it slide’ he could have. This is where you see the teaching of Jesus come into play when he said ‘whoever’s sins you forgive, they are forgiven. Whoever’s you don’t forgive will not be forgiven’ in this area of Peter dealing with these believers he chose to NOT FORGIVE. He says to these Christians ‘you have lied to God and his Spirit’ and they fall down and die as the judgment for what they did. Why was Peter so hard? I think he saw that part of himself in them that causes us to lie and present a false image to people. He was reminded of his duplicity and released judgment instead of forgiveness.

(413) I want to talk a little about ‘Local Church’. As I am reading on movements who ‘plant’ Local Churches, it is reminding me of some things. First, nowhere in the New Testament is the command given to ‘go and plant New Testament churches’. Now I don’t want to be picky here. I want you to see why this is so. Protestantism has developed an understanding of ‘Local Church’ that is really unbiblical. I recently read about a movement that ‘sends out churches’ to cities as opposed to ‘sending out missionaries/evangelists’. They see the sending of a person to get a building and preach on Sunday and get the tithe and for people to be ‘faithful’ to the ‘local church’ as the right way to evangelize because ‘this is Gods plan’. Then another group says ‘we are a ‘local church’ with a worldwide vision’. The more extreme brothers will teach ‘you are not in right relationship with God until you submit to his plan, which is ‘the Local Church’. All these brothers mean well. They are just expressing views that are un biblical. The ‘local churches’ in scripture were all the believers living in a ‘locality’. In these ‘communities of believers’ there were gifted men who God placed there for the growth of ‘the local church’ [all the Christians]. Today’s idea of every city having 100 to 200 local churches, all with the office of ‘Pastor’ who is the authority over that specific group is no where to be found in scripture. Now all the brothers doing these things are not heretics [notice I said ‘not all’]. But when you take this limited view that sees ‘the local church’ as the separate organization that you start in your area. And then you teach a form of ‘being in submission’ as tithing to that thing, you are in essence usurping Gods authority that is being released thru a wide diversity of gifts in your area. God sees ‘the local church’ and its ‘members’ as those who are called out of the world unto Christ who reside ‘locally’. So you are ‘part of the local church/group of Christians in your area’ by virtue of the fact that you are all ‘partaking spiritually of the Body of Christ’. The outward sign of this is the Lords Supper. So for you to view your ‘membership’ with a particular group [among 100’s] and then to say ‘I am faithful to ‘my local church’ [the Sunday meeting I attend] and to not see the reality that all the believers in your area are ‘local church’ actually harms the church. Most Protestants do not realize how this limited view ‘colors’ the way they read scripture. In the book of Revelation you find the letters to the 7 churches. These ‘churches’ are once again all the believers living in different locals. God is speaking to the ‘Angels’ of these churches in this book. ‘To the Angel of the Church of so and so’ the word for angel is ‘messenger’. You have the majority of Protestants teaching these angels are the ‘Pastors’ of these ‘churches’. There was NEVER a Pastor over all the believers in these locations. Sardis, Ephesus, Thyatira, etc. When I do the radio ministry. It is not a ministry ‘to the radio’. When I speak into the cassette recorder, I am not ‘speaking to the recorder’. In scripture Angels are messengers. They receive and transmit the message from God. These ‘angels’ of these 7 churches were simply that! God is speaking to the ‘messengers’ and saying ‘if you don’t repent I will remove your candlestick’. These are not messages to Pastors over churches [see how your view colors this!] these are Gods words spoken to his ‘transmitters’ and therefore he is saying it ‘to the angels’ just like I preach ‘into the radio’. Now all of this is for the purpose to show you that God doesn’t send people or movements to go and ‘plant churches’ per se. He sends people to preach the gospel to people groups [Gods idea of ‘churches/ communities’]. These ‘groups’ of people who believe become the ‘local churches’ of the New Testament. When Paul writes to these ‘churches’ he is addressing ‘all the believers’ in the locality. If there were an office of Pastor like we practice it today, there would be no way that these letters would not contain strong instructions and rebukes ‘for the Pastor’ [by name if they were singular authorities]. For the ‘churches’ in the book of Revelation to have had ‘Pastors’ over these entire regions, and for us to not know their names is unthinkable! All the major figures [Paul, Peter, John, etc] were well known leaders in the first century church. To have had ‘Pastors’ as the singular authorities of entire regions, and for them to have remained anonymous till this day would have been impossible! So in essence you are not going around setting up some type of organization that people need to submit to in order to be in ‘proper order’. Gods ‘proper order’ is to be ‘under Christ’. This does carry with it the humility to accept and receive the gifts that God has placed in our communities. The Pastors and Prophets and all the other gifts. These are gifts to the entire community to build the people up. When you have ‘church planters’ who are going around [with a good intent] teaching believers that they must ‘submit to the local church, because this is Gods program for reaching the world’ they are seeing ‘local church’ in a way that is really unbiblical. God is sending all of us out into the harvest field to preach the gospel. I don’t see all the ‘Sunday Local Churches’ as wrong or in rebellion. I see that overall we are all Gods kids who are doing our best to please God. When we deal in grace with each other God works. When we use limited forms of church to the degree of seeing those who don’t fully operate in that mindset as being in rebellion, then we are not truly building each other up in love. NOTE: One of the faults with these strong authoritarian church planting movements is they use verses like ‘follow me as I follow Christ’. They use this to push back against their critics who say they are too authoritarian. ‘Hey, Paul told people to follow him’. Yes he did ‘as I follow Christ’. How did Paul ‘follow Christ’ well he certainly wasn’t setting up ‘local churches’ with Pastors ‘over the people’! NOTE; The first 3 centuries of Christianity you didn’t have ‘church’ as the place you go to on Sunday for religious worship. This mindset developed over time. Our Catholic friends developed a way of doing church that saw the ‘priest’ as the ‘minister’ empowered by Christ’s grace to ‘oversee’ the Mass where the Eucharist becomes the means of grace whereby God ‘infuses’ grace into the souls of the faithful. Basically the Catholic chapter for their belief is centered around John chapter 6 ‘unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood you have no life in you’. While I do not hold to the doctrine of transubstantiation I do not see my Catholic brothers as wicked devil worshippers for this. I see it more as an historic belief that did develop out of an ‘infancy stage’ of Christianity. Holding to Jesus words literally [which Luther himself held to in this area of disagreement with Zwingli, the Swiss reformer!] with a childlike belief that many Christians embraced. During the reformation of the 16th century you had many doctrines questioned, but for the most part the Protestants simply changed the office of the priest with the office of ‘the Pastor’ as the ‘clergy person’ who will administer this ‘protestant office’. This ‘office’ does not exist in the New Testament! So today we are seeing the Lord move in an area of ‘reformation’ [a process, not a one time event] concerning church form. Something that really wasn’t adequately dealt with in the 16th century movement. So we move on to maturity as we accept the good things of the church Fathers [even the Catholic ones!] and we ‘move away’ from forms and styles that are not mandated in scripture. We should not be ‘anti Sunday church/Pastor’ as much as we should be ‘pro Body of Christ’. Wanting to see the people of God fully functional under the headship of Christ. NOTE: This causes us to deal in grace with our fellow Christians. I have heard Protestant preachers say ‘the Catholics teach for doctrine the commandments of men’ while all the while they are declaring a ‘form of local church’ as THE SINGULAR TOOL OF GOD TO CHANGE THE WORLD that is nowhere to be found in scripture! NOTE; ‘Enlarge the place of thy tent and LET THEM stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations’ I spoke on this verse from Isaiah a few entries back. The LET THEM speaks of releasing your spiritual offspring to continue the growth of the spiritual lineage that God permits us to ‘birth’ into the Kingdom. This ‘letting them’ is a voluntary act of leadership releasing people to continue the journey on their own with Jesus becoming their ‘Chief Pastor/Shepherd’. In today’s ‘Local Church’ environment we do not practice the ‘letting go’ part well. NOTE; I have taught the term Ecclesia in our books. Let me mention that the way we view ‘Local Church’ rides heavily on how you interpret this word. The word ‘ecclesia’ is the Greek word in the New Testament for Church. In the early centuries we see how the believers understood this to mean a ‘called out community of people’, not necessarily ‘those called to the building on Sunday’. Later Christians [and theologians] began to develop a type of ‘ecclesiology’ [church form] that fit into the limited mindset of Church being the place where Christians go on Sunday. While it is true that the word ‘Ecclesia’ can describe a ‘city council meeting’ or other types of public assemblies. The true intent behind the ‘called out people’ are those who have been called out of society [separated in the biblical sense] and have become citizens of another country/Kingdom. So to limit the ‘church’ to the actual place of meeting is really not scriptural. The term for church was simply the best word to use at the time. Words are limited. It takes the Spirit of God to truly convey the meaning of them. We do not contradict the words that are used in scripture to make up our own definitions [which is a common hobby today] but we allow the Spirit of God to reveal to us things that the ‘surface reading’ can’t fully show us. NOTE; You never had a scenario where Paul would address the ‘church of Corinth’ or another area and say ‘and to you who live in Corinth, but are actually members of the church at Ephesus, because you have chosen to have membership there’ You were part of the church at Corinth by virtue of the fact that you lived in Corinth and were a believer. You didn’t have the idea of joining a separate entity [group] like the ‘Elks’ lodge or something of this nature. We have developed a way of seeing church that seems to tell believers you must join a specific ‘church’ in your city, out of the 100’s of ‘churches’ that exist there. While it is fine to ‘go to a church on Sunday’ we must not see them as actual ‘local churches’ in and of themselves, this cause’s a division to the Body of Christ that is not seen in scripture.

(414) Let’s talk about divine healing. Over the years I have heard different ‘angles’ on this. I absolutely believe God can and does heal. If you do an in depth study of scripture there is no question about it. ‘He is the God who healeth thee’. The problem, like anything else, is we have a tendency to go to ‘extreme views’ on this. Recently in some of the movements I have been studying I have seen the idea surface that ‘if you did not act by faith in the healing, it’s your fault’. These sincere people get to the point where they teach if someone is in a wheel chair, and you say to them ‘arise and walk’ and if they don’t do it, they didn’t obey [act upon the word] and it’s their fault. Surely it can’t be Gods? Well you then develop a healing theology of condemnation. You begin teaching ‘if you are not healed you have done something wrong’. All redemptive purposes are in Gods plan. The most obvious one is to redeem man from actual death. 'O death where is your victory’. Jesus is the resurrection and the life right now. He said this to Lazarus sisters. ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God’. It was not Gods will to heal him during these 3 days. In Gods sovereign plan he chose to allow death to happen so he would be glorified in raising him. So even though healing and the defeat of death are parts of God purpose in redemption, we do not understand why all of the aspects of it are not fully revealed now. We should not develop a teaching that says to the person in the wheel chair ‘if you don’t ‘get up’ when I say ‘get up’ then you didn’t obey the word!’ This has been done more times than you know, in various scenarios. I have used the comparison that if it’s always something the person is doing wrong, then what about raising the dead? Jesus taught healing in the great commission just like raising the dead. He said those who believe would even raise the dead. Raising the dead has happened and does actually happen. Why don’t we go and raise all the dead all the time? I actually heard a brother on the radio who was defending the teaching that every time someone isn’t healed there’s something wrong. And he defended the idea that the person being healed is not believing right or else they would be healed. He then gave an example on ‘well why then are not all people raised from the dead?’ He actually taught an experience he, or someone else had, where the Lord showed them that when a dead person is told ‘rise from the dead’ that the spirit of the person hears it, and if they don’t ‘obey’ well there you have it. As you can see, when preachers want to be extreme, they are like kids. They will come up with the most elaborate schemes to make themselves right. Lets just say all of Gods purposes are not fully revealed yet. Even the promise of ‘never dieing’ does not mean we will ‘never die’. It just means that we will win at the end. I believe God is the healer; all of our doctrines and teachings are for the benefit of man. If you turn them into something that condemns man, then you have defeated the main purpose of God. Like what the Pharisees did with the Sabbath. Jesus said the Sabbath was given for man, not man for the Sabbath. We worship our doctrines and put them on pedestals and we make man fit into them. If we can’t find a satisfactory explanation, we then make it mans fault, surely it couldn’t be Gods?

(415) Being I just discussed healing, lets talk about the ‘baptism of the Spirit’. When attending a Baptist church they taught the Baptism of the Spirit occurred at the new birth. When you are born again you ‘got it’. Every believer most certainly has the Holy Spirit. The Assembly of God friends taught ‘you got saved, but you didn’t get the Baptism until a separate experience’. This too can be found in scripture. If you look at the book of acts [which I haven’t read in years!] you see in chapter 10 the Gentile converts. The fact is ‘they got it all at the same time’. Sorry to my Pentecostal friends. But you can look at Acts 19 and see Paul saying ‘have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed’ to some disciples. They tell Paul ‘we haven’t even heard of the Spirit’. Now I do want to stress that many Pentecostals do read this to show its possible to believe and ‘not have the Spirit’. Actually if you read this passage you will see that they were ‘baptized with Johns baptism’ they were only disciples in as much as they received the initial message of repentance that John the Baptist preached. Paul tells them ‘he preached about someone who was to come later [not the Spirit, but Jesus!] and then after they heard this’ [not the message of the baptism of the Spirit, but the gospel] then they were baptized and Paul laid hands on them and they prophesied and spoke in tongues. The point is these believers were not believing in Christ yet. They didn’t hear the ‘rest of the story’ until Paul preached it. I am not siding today with either side. I am showing that the book of Acts is ‘Gods diary’ if you will, it is a compilation of the ‘experiences of God with men’. It certainly is doctrinally sound, don’t get me wrong. But it shows Gods primary purpose of redemption and how he is sovereign. If he chooses to ‘give it all at once’ in chapter 10. Or to ‘give it thru the laying on of hands’ in chapter 19. He has the right to do whatever he wants. He is God! It is perfectly biblical to have both ways of operation in existence. It’s possible that the Pentecostals are right and the Baptists! You mean God actually might have been experienced in different ways by different groups? Yes! Scripture shows that this is possible. Now I want to make my self clear. I believe in the gifts and operations of the Spirit. You can actually develop a doctrine of ‘multiple baptisms’, times where the Spirit shook and ‘baptized’ groups on more than one occasion. God is God, be open to his reality. Don’t take one part of a chapter and try to make it fit for everyone. Both sides are guilty of this. The Spirit of God is alive and active. John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from his mother’s womb! You mean before he got saved? Now go and rack your brains on this one.

(416) There were a couple of things I felt like sharing, but I was waiting until I cover the book of Hebrews. I hope to overview it on this blog. But I just had a prophetic dream and it dealt with sharing it. The dream was I was on a roof with a friend of mine from the Fire Dept. This friend has learned stuff from me over the years. He wouldn’t be what you would call ‘a real active Christian’. Just a friend who has been kind of interested in all the stuff I do. Well while we were on the roof [sort of like a roof you might be on to ventilate during a fire] there was an authority figure [a military guard] that was keeping him on the roof. Not like he was breaking the law or being in a judgment type situation. Just the sense that the ‘authority’ figure was not permitting him to leave this post yet. I shared a few things and repelled down with a rope. I then was teaching some stuff [the stuff I was going to wait till I got to Hebrews to share] to one of the younger firefighters. He was sort of a rookie and was just beginning to learn some stuff. He had to go and I was not able to finish the teaching. I told my friend [who was now on the ground] to finish teaching him. He was not the type of person who would normally share his faith. But he knew exactly what I was teaching the other guy, and sort of said ‘yea, I’ll tell him John. I know what you mean’. Well let me share the stuff and maybe get back to the dream. The other day I spoke on the concept of ‘Sunday church’ and how we get this from Paul telling the Corinthians ‘upon the 1st day of the week take up a collection’ [1st Cor. 16] The early church began to practice meeting on the first day [as well as every day!] in memory of the resurrection of Jesus. Nothing wrong about this. As the church ‘lost’ her family/community mindset and digressed into a ‘Sunday church building’ mindset, it just became natural to develop ‘Sunday as the New Covenant’ Sabbath. This is not a biblical doctrine. There is no ‘New Testament Sabbath’ in this way. Now there is tremendous truth to what God wants to teach believers thru the Sabbath, but when we simply teach that God changed one religious day to another [Saturday to Sunday] we lose the truth. The mature believer does not ‘hold’ one day above another. It’s fine to ‘go to church on Sunday’ but to see Sunday as the old covenant Sabbath, and all the blue laws and stuff associated with it, is to not ‘see’ the truth behind the shadow. All people who are in Christ, who are new covenant believers have entered into a ‘place of rest’ where they have ceased from their own works [efforts to make themselves righteous before God]. This ‘place’ is the ‘Sabbath’ rest of God. It is not a day, or a mode of religious worship. It is an eternal ‘age’ of rest that comes to all those who are in Grace. Now Paul actually teaches this in Hebrews. I can’t do it now, but scroll down to the tape/book catalog on this site and read the descriptions on Hebrews. I cover some of it in there. Paul teaches that God created all things in 6 days, and rested on the 7th. He tells the 1st century Jewish community ‘you must cease from your own works too [the law, and trying to please God legalistically] and come by faith to the Cross’ Paul teaches it in a way where he says ‘if God rested on the Sabbath, so you must enter into this rest’. He does do a lot of spiritualizing of scripture. But it must be right, it is inspired! So basically the ‘Sabbath rest’ is entering into the New Covenant. The ‘age of Grace’. But as the church lost the family mindset, it just became easy to teach that Sunday is now the new day for religious things, as opposed to Saturday. You then have all the 7th day groups [7th day Adventists and others- there are whole regions in this country where the Baptists are 7th day Baptists. They hold to Baptist belief in every area, but they believe the same way the 7th day Adventists believe. That the Catholics changed the ‘Sabbath’ to Sunday, and that in so many words this is the ‘mark of the beast’] using scripture to prove that Saturday is the Sabbath and not Sunday. Now Saturday has always been the Sabbath Day. This has not changed [It’s just that in Christ the law has been fulfilled and we are not under any legal requirements in this way. We are in grace and not under law]. The issue isn’t ‘what day is church day’, the issue is once you enter into Gods grace and rest [the Sabbath] you are fulfilling the Sabbath by resting in him. In essence you have found Gods rest. This isn’t saying ‘church day’ is Saturday, or Sunday. ‘Church’ day was every day in the 1st century church. But you see how easy it is when you function out of the ‘going to church on what day’ paradigm, it becomes natural to go thru the bible and try to find ‘the right church day’. We do this with the tithe and all sorts of stuff. Well in the dream I felt like the Lord was saying that many of my friends over the years, even the ones that usually don’t view themselves as ‘preachers’ are going to be used to pass along some of these truths that they have learned from me. The ‘authority figure’ was simply God saying to these friends ‘you are to remain here [at the fire dept?] after John leaves and you are going to be responsible to pass along these things’. I also felt like some of my buddies at the dept have felt like the lord wanted to use them in a greater way, but maybe they felt constrained to be working there. To these friends, let the Lord use you by doing the things you have seen me do in ministry over the years. Use this blog. I share some stuff on the Kingsville fire dept. this will give a sense of purpose for the guys who feel ‘stuck’ at a menial job. The older brothers can use this blog and any other tools to pass stuff along to the new guys. In essence you haven’t missed your chance to have an impact in the Kingdom, maybe the Lord left you there by Divine appointment! NOTE; The 7th day brothers will make some arguments like ‘as believers we keep all the commandments, why not Saturday?’ They also point to the fact that one of the Catholic fathers actually taught that the proof that the Catholic Church has the authority to change ‘laws’ and establish new ‘commands’ was the fact that they changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. This is a true argument that a Catholic scholar has made. So this re enforces in the mind of the 7th day brothers that they must be right. Look at all this proof! Well to be honest, if the issue was ‘what day is church day’ as far as what day has God ordained as ‘the special day’ I think the 7th day guys would win. But I believe the truth on this is in the new covenant there is no ‘special day’ because ‘church’ isn’t a ritual at all. Paul actually told the Colossians that the Sabbath day[s] were shadows of truths that were seen fully in Christ. Sort of like what I just told you. The 7th day brothers say Paul was talking about ‘days’ not ‘day’. The point is when you are resting in Christ you don’t kill, steal, and all the other stuff mentioned in the commandments. Well what about the Sabbath? If Christians are ‘keeping’ all 9 commandments, how do you justify not keeping this one? We are keeping it! When you are in Christ you have ceased from all the religious works of the law and are being made righteous by faith. You are keeping the Sabbath like all the other laws. It is a natural outgrowth of your new nature In Christ. It is not ‘going to church on Sabbath day’ you silly Christians! It is daily walking in Gods free grace, being in right relationship with him by faith. You are in essence ‘keeping Sabbath’ because you have ceased from you own works. It is not some type of ceremonial thing you do on Saturday! NOTE: To all my radical readers [Apostles, Pastors, etc] I too believe that the kingdom involves radical continuous action. There are times where we are ‘non stop’. There are others [not like us!] who lay back and experience their Christian life by really not doing anything. They sort of justify it by ‘entering the Sabbath rest’; they think God requires no action. Let me put some perspective. When God entered into the 7th day of rest in creation, it was a time where he initiated 6 days of tremendous SELF SUSTAINING life and then allowed that creation to reproduce as he ‘sat back’ and enjoyed his heritage. So Gods ‘rest’ is not a ceasing of activity, in as much as it is a period of watching the things you ‘planted’ grow. So for you radicals, lets operate in grace and see the things we are planting ‘grow on their own’. Don’t think you need to be involved in all the ‘re producing’. Jesus said faith in the Kingdom was like planting seed and as you sleep and rise the seed is growing, but you DON’T KNOW HOW THIS IS HAPPENING. So be faithful to plant, and let God nurture and sustain and cause to grow [Paul said some plant, others water but only God can cause actual growth]. NOTE: Let me say a few things on cults. Most true Christians see the major cults as the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witness groups. I must admit I too see them as cults. The Jehovah’s primarily because of their denial of the deity of Christ. Their bible translation purposefully misinterprets the passage in John chapter one that says ‘in the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the word was God’ they change it to say ‘the Word was a god’ a big no no! Simply put, this puts you on the ‘cult list’. The Mormons [Latter Day Saints] are a little more difficult. Their main reason why they make the list is because of the extra biblical book [book of Mormon] as well as the unbelievable amount of extra biblical doctrine that can only fit into the characterization of ‘fantasy’. A lot of Christians do not realize the amount of truly weird stuff they teach. They teach God was like us at one time. He basically ‘evolved’ to where he is now, and we are on this journey. Eventually we will be gods populating our own universe with the many wives [therefore plural marriage was originally part of the plan, but not any more! The only ones who still embrace plural marriage are the fundamentalist Mormon groups who believe the church ‘apostatized’ when it officially rejected this doctrine]. So besides all the other historically un true stuff [the whole so called civilization that Jesus appeared to in the Americas] the group has way too much extra biblical stuff to fall into the class ‘Christian’. The one caveat is they do believe in the sacrifice of Christ for man, it’s just how do you balance that with all this other stuff? Sorry, I do call them a cult. Now, I like Mormons and Jehovah's Witness as people. I do not personally demean them! But the facts are there. What about the 7th day Adventists? Too many evangelical friends of mine have classified them as a cult too quickly. I am aware of the few strange teachings they hold to. Nothing even close to the Mormons. I am concerned about the credence they give to certain past ‘founders’ and stuff. Overall I see them as Christian, though they fall into legalism with the classic belief that they are the true church because of the 7th day observance. They say all others who ‘go to church on Sunday’ have received the mark of the beast. Basically I do have disagreements with them, but I do not see them as a ‘classical cult’ the way I see the other groups. I find it troubling that I have had evangelical friends who classified groups as ‘cults’ because they didn’t believe in the Rapture. They don’t even realize that the ‘Rapture’ is basically false! At least the way they teach it. So you can see that it is easy to label groups as ‘cults’. I don’t want to judge any of these groups, I just needed to be honest about these groups and try and share this stuff in love. I am grateful for all the Mormons and any other groups who read this site. I don’t want to lose you guys! God bless you all.

(417) Lets do one of no spiritual value. I got up the other morning and began my routine. I started with my first cup of coffee, I do drink 3 cups or so every morning. I also have a habit of losing the cup I am working on and going to start a second. You think you would need to be a little more organized to run the ministry, but I do stuff like this all the time. I was eating on the couch last night, watching TV and lost my fork! Well as I finished my first cup I started on another cup [a new cup, not just a second drink!] I then went into the living room to put the radio on the Christian channel as I get ready to go outside and pray [which I am going to do in a minute]. I then go back to the kitchen and forget where I put cup number 2. I then see a cup on the stove and realize this must be it. But it’s empty. Oh well let me get a clean one anyway. So I grab another cup from the cabinet and fill it up and put it in the microwave for a quick nuking. As it’s being warmed I think to myself, wasn’t I just doing this with another cup a minute a go [not the one on the stove]. Sure enough I look on the kitchen table and there it is! Cup number 4 is full and waiting to get nuked. O well at least it will be ready when I finish cup 3, that is if I remember where I put it.

(420) ‘Avoiding extreme forms of isolation’ my background with the Fundamental Baptist church allowed me to see how pride and sectarianism affect true corporate unity. There was always a sense of mockery when it came to any type of unity. It was truly deemed ‘part of the one world church that the antichrist is setting up’. Regardless of your views on this, the simple fact is Jesus prayed in John 17 that all believers would be one. If you were to study the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation and were looking for all the times where scripture speaks of ‘one Kingdom’ and ‘unity’ you will see that Gods purpose for this ‘one Kingdom under God/Christ’ and the unity of the church would far out number the times compared to the ‘one world church’ idea. Now there are a few instances where scripture speaks of the unity of lost men and how lost man does come up with religious ways to appease his conscience [tower of Babel]. But the overall truth is God speaks of ‘one Kingdom’ in a right way many more times. So this preoccupation with these isolated Christian groups is simply a sign of extreme immaturity. I remember stopping one time at some highway shop to purchase some lawn ornaments. I talked to the brother who was selling the stuff. I noticed he was listening to cassette tapes of some Old Testament book [Leviticus?]. We fellowshipped a little while. I kind of got the sense that he was one of these brothers who will spend hours listening to bible tapes, but would never partake of anything the Lord is presently doing in the church. Many of these groups wont even study church history or any other Christian writings. This causes there to be a total lack of understanding on how Gods Kingdom has been operating for the past 2 thousand years. Jesus never intended the doctrine of the completed cannon to cause us to not partake of all the great things God has been doing in society for the past 2 thousand years. Well I felt the Lord wanted us to be challenged to come out of our religious shells. Don’t be so consumed with the ‘one world church’ that you never partake of Gods ‘one world Church’!

 [#’s 421-585] TEACHINGS PART 3

(421) Isaiah 55 ‘I have given him [you] for a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the people. You will call a nation that you do not know. And nations that do not know you will come to you. This will happen because of my choice, I have exalted you’ God chose you to have great influence in the Kingdom. There will be large people groups [nations] that you will influence and you won’t even know of the impact you are making until the coming of the Lord. For the most part you will remain ‘faceless’ [you will not know them and they will not know you] but the gift I have put in you will have great influence. NOTE: these verses are primarily speaking of Jesus calling gentile nations, and gentile nations coming to him. We are called the ‘body of Christ’ so allow these verses to speak to you as an extension of Jesus Body in the earth today. ‘For as the rain and snow come down [remember the vision I had about ‘bolts of snow coming down’? It is on this site] and water the earth and cause it to bud’. So shall it be with my words, the things I am specifically communicating to you at this season of your life. These words shall accomplish my purpose in you. I have sent these words out to you, they will prosper in the areas that I desire. ‘This shall be for a sign that shall not be cut off’ I have given you signs this past year. You have seen me work before, but many times you later forgot what I said. Sort of like the signs and things were real but you couldn’t ‘retain’ the awesome things I was showing you. Not this time. This year I have given you signs that will last for the rest of the journey, just like at the start.

(422)  watched a special last night on the gang ‘MS 13’. I have seen it before and felt like the lord wanted me to speak on it. I do realize that there are things that I have spoken on that are not safe. I advertise this blog in North Bergen, N.J. This area is full of Muslim radicals. The type of ‘brothers’ who would kill you for speaking against Islam. I basically have taught that Allah is a false god. And Muhammad is his prophet. I have to be careful if I get an invitation to do a ‘cell’ group in this area. It might be a Muslim cell wanting to ‘fellowship’ with me! I also have mentioned the ‘Mexican Mafia/Texas Syndicate’ on this site. I had a good friend who was a member [he is dead]. This ‘gang’ is one of the most serious gangs in the prison system in Texas. They make these ‘kid gangs’ look like punks. So speaking on these groups is dangerous. The show I saw last night showed how the gang MS 13 started in L.A. as an innocent young gang. It expanded from L.A. to other parts of the country [Texas] and when the prison system deported a bunch of them back to El Salvador, it spread like wildfire. Gangs are the enemies’ imitation of what the Ecclesia was supposed to be. A group/family of people [brotherhood] who would find identity as a family. Many gang kids see their membership ties in a stronger way than they see their family. The gang is their family. The rapid spread of these gangs is an organic thing that is out of the control of their founders. The church was intended to spread this way. They have no ‘gang houses’ that they call ‘the gang’ [Christians call the ‘church’ building the ‘church’]. Their strength is in their identifying as a family. When we first started our ministry in 1987 I had some of the original group of friends [addicts] that wanted to extend the ministry with ‘outreaches’. We were grappling with the way the Victory Outreach does it. We actually bought an old lumberyard building and were going to set up a drug/outreach type thing. All good stuff. I feel one of the reasons these things never got off the ground was because the Lord was going to change my understanding of church to the family/brotherhood mindset. I was too ‘building centric’. Trying to start programs instead of seeing our guys as a brotherhood. It’s OK to start these types of things, but as the lead vision implanter I felt the Lord wanted to transition my vision into one of rapidly spreading the Kingdom by influencing people as a brotherhood. Today I have friends who see themselves as a ‘part of us’ even though we don’t identify around any particular building or ‘church meeting’ environment. If you study movements like ‘the local church’ which is an apostolic movement started by Watchman Nee, you see some good stuff. Watchman Nee was a Chinese Apostle who got a hold of many of the things you see me write on. He spread the ‘local church’ movement thru out China as an underground church. No official denomination or recognition of ‘clergy’ but a movement that was persecuted by the communists. They spread worldwide and have many churches in the U.S. today. They also erred [in my opinion] on the side of strong authoritarianism and began to see themselves as ‘the Local Church’, that is they viewed their group as the true restoration of the Local Church. While I do not view them as a cult [like other cult watchers do] I do see the mistake as seeing their group as the true group, as opposed to all the other ‘groups/churches’ in a city. The sectarian mindset. The true power behind these apostolic movements is the instilling of vision into people. People see the church as a brotherhood [like the gangs] and they are not identifying with programs that their ‘church building/business’ is doing. They are identifying along the lines of a ‘gang/brotherhood’ in a noble way. The same thing that the Victory Outreach or the Door does. Things that I see as good. Recruiting people into a brotherhood mentality. The danger is becoming ‘cult like’ in your view of seeing your group as ‘thee group’. These underground churches cannot be stopped thru persecution or the ‘closing down of their churches’ like other denominations have experienced. Communist govts. have been able to oppose the organized church because all they had to do is shut down the church building and remove the Pastor/Priest and the functioning would stop. You can’t do this with a brotherhood. Just like the gangs. They will thrive whether you put them in prison, shut down their ‘meeting houses’ or anything else. Their secret of survival is in their brotherhood mentality. Jesus obviously knew the power of this, that’s why he said ‘the gates of hell will not be able to prevail against the church’. He knew the movement that he was founding would have the allegiance of a brotherhood. It would not simply be a social club. When human govts came against the 1st century church, it couldn’t stop them. Rome even said that as they spilled the blood of the early believers, it was like seed falling into the ground [a bit prophetic, Jesus did say that martyrdom was like planting seed ‘Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and DIES it abides alone, but if it dies it will produce much fruit’] so man could not stop a true movement of people. Man can stop a denomination who needs the ‘church building’ and the clergy to function!

(423)  I want all my evangelical friends to listen closely. There are many radical and unpopular things I teach on this site. Everything we teach has to be seen thru the Cross. I am listening to a radio message. I stopped to do this. Often times Evangelicals go to great lengths in their defense of natural Israel. The things that I have said on this site concerning Israel has made us deadly enemies in certain camps. The message on the radio is dealing with Esther and how God will go to great lengths in order to preserve Israel. Many of these types of sermons speak against people like myself, who teach that Israel’s only hope is to find her identity in Christ. This type of message that I am hearing is OK. They simply need to understand that God HAS gone to GREAT LENGTHS to preserve Israel. He gave his Son for this purpose. The only way any nation [Jew, Muslim, ‘Christian’] can ever be preserved is in Christ. The promise of everlasting preservation is in Him. Those who defend natural Israel to the point of teaching that God has a covenant with Israel APART from Christ are doing harm to her preservation. Scripture says ‘he that doeth the will of God shall abide forever’ [1st John] it also says ‘this is the will of God, that you would believe on him that God has sent’ [the gospel of John]. John [the disciple/not the Baptist] was a Jew. He knew Israel and her customs well. John knew that the only way to preserve her was thru her Messiah. All the other Apostles died for this belief. John was the only one to escape martyrdom. He lived to around 90 years old. He got stuck on some island called ‘Patmos’. They tried to kill the guy by boiling him in oil [so the story goes]. As an old man he gets one last chance to speak to Israel. He writes this tremendous prophecy [Revelation] and he presents Jesus as the Lamb who is sitting on the throne. John knew the truth.

(424)  I WILL MAKE THY WINDOWS OF AGATES, THY GATES OF CARBUNKLES, AND ALL THY BORDERS OF PRECIOUS STONES [Isaiah] Windows speak of ‘portals of sending’ [like this blog! Or radio and stuff like this]. I felt like the Lord was saying he is going to bless your ‘portals’ of sending. ‘Cast your seed upon the water, for in many days it will come back to you’ [message in a bottle- the Police]. God is going to increase you. He will expand your borders. He will not only ‘bless your gates/borders’ but he will ‘bless your windows’. Windows let light out of a house. They allow the ‘brightness’ to go out into the dark. They also allow light to come in and lighten up a room in a way that no ‘man made’ light could do. God is going to bless ‘your windows’. You will see things that you have never seen before, and you will reach places that are far away with the light that is ‘in your house’. ‘I have given you an open window that no man can shut’ God to John in the book of Revelation.

(425)  The other day I heard one of the few [only?] prosperity preachers in our city say ‘we don’t have the right to talk about any other preachers’. I got the sense that word has gotten out that we are uprooting this stuff from the church. This level of discernment that teaches we shouldn’t deal with false prophets is extremely lacking in wisdom. I can say this about any cult. Joseph Smith [Mormon] did good things. It would be absolutely irresponsible to say ‘you don’t have the right to deal with Mormonism’. All false doctrine and teachers need to be dealt with by Christian leadership. This doesn’t give anyone the right to be a ‘self proclaimed’ judge of other believers. It’s just a basic guideline that when teachers go way off track [teaching that Jesus was a millionaire, he died to get money to you, and these same preachers seeing their goal as to reap lots of money!] then we as leaders MUST come against this. I didn’t realize how many of these ministries are in Texas. I would say Texas is the main propagator of this stuff. The Lord is dealing with Texas at this time. Corpus Christi bears the name of Christ. I just think it’s prophetic that the Lord would use our city as one of the major places where he will ‘regain’ his image back in the church. Those in this area who do not line up with Gods agenda will have no future in what he is doing at this time. You guys teaching this stuff still. God will remove your candlestick if you don’t stop it. NOTE: Remember what I said about the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist? He not only had the ability to recognize Jesus in a way that others couldn’t see yet. But he also could not remain silent on the obvious ‘sins’ of the day. He spoke out on the King and his adulterous marriage. Many ‘believers’ of his day grew comfortable with an obvious abuse of leadership. They knew in their hearts that what leadership [King] was doing was wrong, but they had other things on their agenda. To deal with the Kings abuse of his authority would bring difficulty and affliction. John simply felt this to be a carrying out of his Prophetic ministry. To John it was like ‘how can we not speak out against this’. John also paid a severe cost. Note: If you use as a ‘measuring rule’ to be ‘how do I feel’ or ‘does this doctrine benefit me financially’ then you have lost your prophetic edge. I have seen many of these obvious abuses go on with the Christian TV networks. Some of these networks are good, some are not. Why the good ones will permit these abuses to be on is beyond me. They either feel that these brothers are paying well, or they feel like they bring in lots of money during the ‘sharathon’. These brothers are using a measuring line that says ‘if it brings in money, then I don’t care whether or not they preach that Jesus was a millionaire who died to make people rich’ they seem to see the bottom line as the criteria of whether or not to allow them to have influence. This IS NOT THE CRITERIA! Jesus is the ‘plumb line’ if things don’t measure up to him they must be abandoned!

(426)  I was just thinking of the verse that says to the Virgin Mary ‘this child is set for the rising and falling of many in Israel, a sword shall pierce thru your own heart also that the thoughts of many hearts can be revealed’ [I don’t know where it is, a rough quote from memory]. Jesus prophetic aspect caused many to question and wonder about their own beliefs. He also caused people to be honest with each other and sometimes this honesty caused division. There ‘possibly’ have been scenarios where preacher friends or ‘church attendees’ have gone to their Pastors and said ‘can you believe what John is preaching now, he doesn’t believe the rapture!’ and for the first time the Pastor has to admit that he doesn’t believe it either! So what the ‘well meaning’ person thought was going to happen ‘talk about John’ really didn’t happen. Instead the ‘thoughts’ of his Pastors heart were revealed. I like stuff like that. Many of you guys are going to have ‘a sword pierce thru your heart’ in the sense that there will be things that you questioned earlier as a believer and learned to ‘silence’ the questions. At this season a lot of the prophetic preaching is ‘re opening’ these old wounds. They were never meant to become ‘wounds’. God showed you a lot of this stuff at the beginning of your journey. The ‘sword of the Spirit’ has opened these questions up again, and the thoughts of your heart are being revealed. This is reformation my friends. We often pray for it, but when it shows up it looks different than what we expected. Sort of like Jesus appearing to the 1st century Jew. It wasn’t what they expected!

(427)  It is common in the modern world of ‘church’ to have a scenario where certain people [deacon boards and stuff like this] rise up and come against ‘the Pastor’. You then have a dynamic where the ‘Pastor’ is in a struggle for ‘control over his church’. Then the fight rages on. All of this is absent from the New Testament. Paul fought against the false teachers who were trying to influence the ‘churches’ [communities of people] with false doctrine, but this power struggle over the ‘control of my church’ [501c3 Christian business who meets on Sunday] did not exist. Recently I have heard/seen a few scenarios along these lines. There actually are scenarios where those who are fighting the Pastor are like what you would find in an abusive relationship. A type of manipulation that says ‘if you don’t say stuff that makes me mad, I will behave’. Then the Pastor feels like ‘I stood up against the opposition and God was with me’. Even though the whole ‘atmosphere’ of stuff like this is unscriptural. This type of stuff is what you see in the world of corporate takeover. The rising up of stockholders and stuff who are ‘dethroning’ the CEO’s who are making millions while the stock is falling. I just want you to see that when we view and function in limited paradigms; this affects the way we carry on with the journey. Jesus taught a type of ‘prophetic preaching’ that said ‘if people don’t receive the gift, go to the next house/city’ I am not saying all Pastors should leave their churches when strife arises. I am saying that the whole scenario is really not of God. Even the part where the well meaning Pastor ‘fights for the control of the church’ [Christian business]. Being the true New Testament Churches were communities of people, as opposed to ‘501 c 3’s’ you never had these types of situations. NOTE: I really don’t blame the Pastors for functioning out of this limited mindset. We send guys to College and they are taught all types of stuff under the guise of ‘Pastoral’ administration. We basically teach them that this means running and administrating a business. We teach a form of ‘deacon board’ and all other types of stuff that are simply bible names given to 501c3 corporations and their boards [Roberts’s rules of order!] The New Testament shows all these ‘gifts’ [Pastor, Deacon, etc.] as gifts that function in a community environment. The modern Pastor is taught in a way that he simply replaces the idea of ‘board of directors’ with ‘Deacon board’. If you try to show these brothers that they are simply putting bible names on an American corporation, they will tell you ‘well brother, the bible speaks of deacons’. True, but the bible speaks of Bishops and Pastor and we think that justifies us putting our own definitions to them. God has placed gifted individuals in the ‘church’ [community of believers]. These gifts are primarily given to build up people. If in this process you need a building, or a ‘501c3’ or a ‘radio/blog ministry’ that’s fine! But your gift is not primarily given to administrate the tool [the whole business and stuff that arises out of modern ideas of church] but the gift is primarily given to facilitate growth in the community of people. Because we don’t really see and function this way, we inadvertently accuse the saints. We say ‘if you don’t put the tithe in on Sunday, you are cursed because you are not submitting to the Local church. Which after all is Gods plan to change the world’. Well it is Gods purpose to function thru the ‘Local Church’ but once again this simply means ‘all the believers residing locally’. It does not mean the whole 501c3 organization that functions in the building on Sunday. You see how easy it is to read the verses on ‘bring all the tithes into the storehouse’ and then to mistake the ‘storehouse’ for the 501 c 3 that owns the ‘church building’. The storehouse are the corporate people. Jesus said ‘my house shall be called a house of prayer’. We are his house! We are a ‘corporate house of Prayer’. Well I have taught all this stuff before, just felt like you needed a reminder. NOTE: I have heard over the year’s well meaning Pastors say things like ‘I don’t believe in Bible college, that’s the job of the ‘Local Church’ or others who might denigrate a ministry because ‘it is not under a local church covering’. The mistake these brothers are making is once again ‘seeing’ the ‘local church’ as the building and all the operations surrounding it. What do they mean when they say ‘it’s the job of the local church’? They seem to be implying that the actual instruction should take place ‘on the grounds of the 501c3 organization’ or in the actual building where the Christians meet on Sunday, after all ‘it is the Local church!’ UGGH!  They don’t seem to realize that if the college or other ministry that they are talking about is something that was a God ordained thing, and that ‘thing’ is being administrated or ‘run’ by ‘local believers’ then it is part of ‘the local church’ [community]. But when you ‘see’ local church as the 501c3 building/organization that Christians meet in on Sunday, then you inadvertently ‘accuse’ the brethren by saying ‘you are not under the local church’. God does not vest authority/legitimacy in a ‘501c3’ corp. He vests authority in his people by his Spirit. When you do not see this you accuse the ‘local church’ [the local believers] by thinking that ‘the local church’ is something that its not! Let me also add that I have had friends over the years who ran ‘Para church’ organizations [a misnomer!] some of these brothers have jumped thru all sorts of hoops to gain legitimacy with the ‘local churches’ [organizations] when these brothers see that I am ‘functioning’ as a believer with Gods authority, they do get offended. Sort of like ‘I have jumped thru these hoops for years. Tithing to my ‘church’ and all sorts of things to be in proper order. How dare you come along and challenge the legitimacy of ‘the local church’. The point is God wants all of his kids to function freely under his headship/authority. It’s OK if your ‘Para church’ ministry is working along side a ‘local church organization’ but to then try to make everyone fit into this limited paradigm is out of order. If Jesus taught us anything on authority, he taught that servants gain authority in Gods Kingdom. If you want authority my friends, then serve! Don’t think it comes from being ‘under the covering’ of some man made organization. NOTE: If the Kingdom is not about ‘being over people’ as Jesus taught, then why even ‘have authority’? Those who are being used in the Kingdom to build up the Body of Christ realize that there is no greater joy than to actually ‘wash the feet of Jesus [serving him]’ by building up the Body of Christ [the Local church/community of people]. You build so far and then you need more ‘skills’ to complete the ‘building’. At that stage ‘more authority’ is given for this purpose. The ‘minister’ is rejoicing because God has given him more adequate tools to complete the mission. Further ability to serve! Paul told the believers that God gave him this authority to build them up, not to ‘rule over them’. In today’s environment of success and trying to feel legitimate, people unconsciously fight for this recognition [authority] thinking it will bring them some sort of fulfillment. In the more extreme cases this can lead to ‘authoritarianism’. An ongoing battle between the ‘congregation’ and the ‘Pastor’ for control. So here you see how the limited paradigm affects everything else. In the New Testament churches you did not have scenarios where ‘Pastors’ were trying to be over the people for long periods of time. The shepherding process [discipling] was done over a short time until the new believers were mature enough to be ‘launched out on their own’ [under Christ’s headship]. When you have unnatural environments where men are fighting for control or authority simply for the purpose of ‘having authority’ then this causes an abusive situation for the people of God. Not all Pastors do this, but the unnatural environment lends to this happening more often than it should. The giving of ‘more authority’ is primarily for the continued function of servant hood, to continue to build the people up. It is a violation of biblical authority to see your position as one of singular authority over the people of God [see Diotrephes mentioned in the 3rd letter of John].

(428)  I kind of am hesitant to do this, but I felt it was time. I have had a radio listener who is a prosperity guy. He has written me ‘re proofs’ for years. I am surprised he still listens! He recently sent me a few more letters. He actually liked what I was teaching and did thank me. But he usually sends pages of stuff to teach that Jesus was a millionaire [actually the richest man who ever lived]. He basically has been taught an exhaustive doctrine [that goes on forever!] that traces Jesus roots thru King David to Abraham and goes thru these pages of explaining how Jesus was the natural heir of David and therefore truly owned all the wealth of Jerusalem. He has been taught [or taught himself] an intricate bible system that is absolutely consumed with mammon. The simple fact that Jesus was a carpenter’s son and lived that way escapes these guys. The fact that Paul taught ‘you came into the world without material wealth, when you die you will not be able to take wealth with you. Therefore be happy with your needs being met’ [1st Timothy 6]. Why didn’t Paul teach Timothy that he needed to believe for all this wealth so he could reach the Roman world? These poor brothers who are so consumed with wealth have gone to extremes to search the scriptures and come up with unbelievable teachings that are consumed with mammon. I have come to believe these guys are under a ‘spell’ [Paul says this in Galatians- ‘who hath bewitched you’]. I am glad this guy still listens to the program, maybe he will get free someday? Also for the sake of this brothers argument. Jesus was from the line of King David. The fact that he was ‘conceived’ by the Spirit, a major Christian doctrine, shows that Jesus ‘in the natural’ did not come from the line of natural David [the actual ‘seed’ of David, don’t want to get to explicit here!] because of this Jesus would teach things like ‘my Kingdom is not from this world’. Jesus showed us that his actual lineage [really] was from the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit caused Mary to conceive! This isn’t a problem for most Christians, but this guy has sent me these arguments for years and for his sake I thought I would do this. NOTE: this note is for the last 2 entries. Both the idea that the ‘church’ is the actual 501c3 corp. who meets in a building on Sunday, as well as the teaching on lots of money go hand in hand. It is only natural for the Pastor/CEO mindset to fall into the snare of seeing how ‘if we just had more money’ if Gods people were not disobedient in bringing the tithe to the ‘storehouse’ then we could accomplish ‘the ministry’. These well meaning Pastors get allured by this need for money, they then fall into the extremes of the prosperity gospel. They truly feel unless tons of money comes into the ‘local church coffers’ [which they see as the 501c3 machine!] then the world will never be evangelized. Its easy to look to the examples in the New Testament where Paul is receiving support, or where all the believers gave sacrificially and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles feet. In these scenarios you had the concept of communal sacrifice and giving that ‘equaled the playing field’ and fulfilled the Old Testament type of Manna. Those who gathered what was enough for their families [be content with having your needs met] were provided for. Those that gathered much for the greater need had enough. Those that gathered little for their need had enough. God specifically rebuked hoarding and a covetous mindset by showing that those who took too much, the Manna ‘bred worms’. So in these examples of extravagant giving in the book of Acts, we are seeing Gods family voluntarily [no tithe!] give of their wealth to meet the needs of their brothers and sisters. When the modern minister uses these verses to either teach a doctrine of becoming rich, or to bring in ‘the tithes to the storehouse’ he is not rightly dividing the Word! NOTE: Just read an article in the paper on someone starting a ministry. They showed the facility. Talked about the renovations needed. The eventual staff. The need to obtain I.R.S. status. This is typical of the way we ‘see’ ministry. Our mindsets see a project, a facility and the functioning of some type of a ‘service’ that we will provide. The New Testament mindset was taking the message of the Kingdom and simply proclaiming it to people groups. The fact that the message of the gospel has within it the inherent power to change society caused there to be a mindset that said ‘if I can just plant this Word in the hearts of people, I will have been faithful to the task’. You don’t see Paul going to cities and setting up anything! He is presenting the gospel, and the actual act of the gospel being believed becomes the completed task. The communities of people who believe become the ‘Local church’ that is the ‘outpost’ of God in that region. The people are the ‘facility’ that God takes up residence in by his Spirit and this is the work of the Apostle or believer carrying out the great commission. We focus too much on ‘starting something’ instead of ‘declaring him’! NOTE: It is also a common mistake for Christians to ‘attend church’ and debate the fact that ‘everything our church does is scriptural’. They will mistake the function of someone ‘preaching’ bible words [either the Pastor or Evangelist] as ‘being biblical’ even if the entire mindset of ‘the church I am attending’ is absolutely no where to be found in scripture! Now I don’t want to be too ‘iconoclastic’ [a destroyer of idols] here, but I want you to see that many Christians see ‘being scriptural’ as simply ‘speaking from scripture’. To be truly ‘scriptural’ is to function as the New Testament churches [communities of people] functioned. They lived lifestyles of community that did not view the ‘Sunday service’ as the ‘place I attend and put in my tithe’. When we as Christians view ‘church’ in this limited way, we are being UNSCRIPTURAL, even if we preach from scripture while doing it!

(429)  I will do one of no spiritual value. I had a homeless friend who visited me one day. I had the news on. They were talking about some type of government entitlement program. My friend asked what they were talking about. I told him they are thinking of giving a free check to everyone who is homeless. They will simply get a free check every month. No food stamps or stuff. He told me that this was great, he has been waiting for something like this for years [I knew this, he used to tell me this. That’s why I came up with the story]. I then told him I was kidding. Well they then started talking about the death penalty, he asks ‘what are they discussing now?’ [You think he would have learned not to ask me this]. I then proceeded to tell him That Texas is trying to extend the death penalty to include all those who are ‘unemployed’ for more than a year. That the state is going to keep records, and if it shows you haven’t been working for a year or more you get put on a ‘death row list’. Well you could see the look of worry on his face. I told him I was just kidding again. This poor brother went from getting a free check for the rest of his life, to thinking the state was going to execute him if he didn’t find a job! I thought it was funny at the time.

(430)  Let’s review a few things. In Isaiah it says ‘my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways’. A lot of the stuff I have been showing you on ‘Local Church’ is simply a process of changing our thoughts [ways of seeing things] to Gods thoughts. As you see this stuff you begin to see that ‘knowing scripture’ is different than just memorizing verses, or being familiar with the text. It means having a general understanding of the whole flow of what God means. As you simply ‘see’ Gods thoughts on ‘Local church’ it allows for there to be a ‘grid’ that puts everything else in context. When Jesus debated the Pharisees, they had this ‘obsessive’ ability to memorize scripture. They actually had a ‘profession’ that copied the Old Testament to the tee [scribes]. These ‘brothers’ were obsessed with the technicality of the Word! Yet Jesus would rebuke them for not truly grasping the meaning of the ‘text’. Sort of like not being able to see the forest because of the trees. This ultimately led them to crucifying their Messiah. They couldn’t ‘see the Body of Christ’. So today when we don’t ‘see’ Christ’s Body properly [thru the Church] we also do harm to it. Let God replace your thoughts for his. NOTE: I don’t mean to be picky here. But when we don’t ‘discern’ the ‘Body of Christ’ [the church] we do unconsciously accuse her. Paul writes ‘I have shown you these things so you would know how to behave in the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth’. We read ‘how to behave in the church building on Sunday’ [our thoughts] when what it is really saying is ‘how to behave in the family of God’. We say things to believers who are ‘functioning locally’ ‘you need to be under a covering, you need to be in submission to ‘a local church’. We often are using a ‘form’ of local church that isn’t to be found in scripture when we say this. In essence we are doing ‘damage to the Body of Christ’ when we do not properly discern her.

(431) Isaiah 56  ‘Keep judgment and do justice, for my salvation is near and my righteousness is ready to be revealed’ God says he is about to do some major things. He wants you to ‘judge right’ actually stand strong in discernment with mercy. It’s easy to give up on the things God has shown you and to fall into the status quo. God says stay true to what I showed you because it’s for a purpose. ‘Blessed is the man that doesn’t pollute my Sabbath and keeps his hand from evil’. Remember what we recently said about the Sabbath? God says ‘blessed are those who remain in my rest. Those who abide in me and allow me to bring forth the fruit’ this is the only way we can keep our selves from ‘doing evil’. In Gods grace! ‘These are the ones I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in MY HOUSE OF PRAYER’ we also just discussed Gods house of prayer. God will gather all those who are in grace and make them ‘joyful’ as they join in intercession for the nations. You are a ‘house of Prayer’ you will only be fulfilled when you are doing what you were created to do! Remember, we are corporately his facility, our ‘use’ is to be a habitation thru whom God intercedes. ‘His watchman are blind, they cant see. They are greedy, they can never have enough wealth. They are all out for personal gain, they look for it to come to their areas. They say ‘tomorrow will be much more abundant’. Here God rebukes the leadership for always wanting more finances. They live day by day with the goal of ‘great material abundance’. They have usurped Gods purpose for his ‘house’ and made it into a den of thieves! [These are the leaders who teach it obsessively, they have made the goal ‘material wealth’ not so much the Pastors who are raising money for unselfish things! Also see the specific rebuke to those who say ‘tomorrow we will have more wealth’ the actual confession and excitement of seeing more wealth as the goal is being rebuked here!]

(432)  I am continuing to study on apostolic movements. I read a book years ago on these movements [reinventing American Protestantism-Donald Miller] and have read lots of stuff over the years. I just looked at the ‘Calvary Chapel’ with Chuck Smith and the ‘Vineyard’ with the late John Wimber. I also looked at the Victory Outreach and the Door. I would have to say the Calvary Chapels and the Vineyard are ‘more mature’ in their understanding of what God is doing with them. The ‘door’ is a little too ‘sectarian’ in their mindset. They actually expressed things on their site that seem to say they see ‘their movement’ as ‘thee’ restoration of ‘the’ Local Church. This type of stuff is dangerous. But overall these movements are great. The book I read from Donald Miller referred to these churches as ‘new paradigm’ churches. I don’t really see them as ‘new paradigm’ they still function out of the ‘paradigm’ of local church being the Sunday 501c3 corp. but they are ‘new’ in the sense of the way they branched out thru outreaches. I commend these works and these men, both Wimber and Chuck Smith are good men whom I respect. A lot of the critics don’t see them this way, but I see them as truly being used of God. I think we are at a stage in the Body of Christ where God wants to ‘join’ the dimension of rapidly expanding thru ‘church planting’ with the whole concept of the church as ‘family’ as opposed to ‘the building we meet at’. What this ‘new paradigm’ will do is release all the Body of Christ into seeing themselves as ‘church planters’. Everyone has the ability to speak the gospel to people groups in various locations and settings. Too many of the older type movements were looking for ‘church sites’ ‘what property should we purchase?’ And stuff like this. The ‘new paradigm’ will be looking to ‘people groups’. ‘Shall I go to Macedonia today?’ ‘I wonder if the Lord will send me to Galatia?’ Things like this. Instead of ‘seeing’ the setting up of an organization, you will be ‘seeing’ the open doors to reach people groups. ‘Where will we have church than?’ everywhere! You can meet in a park, home, whataburger, even in a CHURCH BUILDING! The point is God will provide many ‘places’ to get together. Quit being so focused on ‘the place’. Didn’t you have friends growing up? You had a ‘bunch of people’ that were your ‘clique’. You played ball, went places, did things. Were you always looking for the ‘building’ to meet in? NO! You were a group of people with a common identity. You gathered around mutual interests. So begin to see this ‘new paradigm’ and operate along these lines. This reduces the current need for great finances, and allows for the simple expansion of the Kingdom thru simple disciples carrying the great message of Christ. NOTE: it is common for the average Pastor to fight against this way of seeing ‘church’. You will often hear the verse in Hebrews ‘forsake not the assembling of yourselves together’. This verse cant be used to defend a form of ‘Local Church’ that is no where to be found in the New Testament! If you stopped ‘getting together’ with your friends in the above scenario, your parents might say ‘what’s wrong with you Johnny? You are becoming too isolated. Don’t STOP GETTING TOGETHER WITH YOUR FRIENDS’. In essence this is what the writer of Hebrews is saying. Don’t use stuff like this to justify ‘going to church on Sunday’.

(433)  GO WASH IN THE POOL OF SILOAM [Jesus said this] this summer [2007] I have taken my kids to the beach a lot. I usually can’t get them to go. It’s one of those things like you live so close, you never take advantage of it! Like growing up by New York City, a lot of my friends never went to the Empire state building! Well the area where I have been taking my kids is right next to the north jetty of the Packery Channel. This is the channel that the state opened up after 50 years of it being closed. I have shared lots of stuff on this site about it. If you remember when it first opened I shared how one day I took a walk [south jetty] and walked the beach to the jetty. I burned my feet that day. Well this summer I walked the north jetty for the first time. Its beautiful and provides an ‘atmosphere/environment’ where you can walk out and see a view of the coast that you never saw before. The ‘jetty’ is like a highway that has been created by an opening of an ancient waterway. I felt like God was saying he has opened up new ‘waterways’ for you. These new channels will provide a ‘highway’ for you to go places and see things that you have never seen before. These new openings/highways will also create a ‘pool’ environment that will allow your ‘children’ to enjoy for many years. When God opens up new opportunities for you [highways] it is your responsibility to ‘go for it’. Sometimes you walk out on the wall, other times you ‘jump in’. But either way you must take advantage of the opportunities when they are there. Don’t be like the friends who never went to the Empire state building. It’s those who are ‘closest’ to the kingdom that have the greatest risk of not entering in! ‘The children of the kingdom were cast out’ Jesus said this to the Jewish nation as they were on the verge of rejecting him. This new ‘wall/highway’ will also ‘cut off’ access to the old desert that got you burned in the past! The channel actually creates a waterway that ‘cuts off’ the old section of island/desert. When God opened up the Red Sea for the children of Israel it gave them a way out of Egypt, but it also cut off access back. There are things that you will never get ‘clean’ from until you ‘wash in the POOL of Siloam’ [plunge into the purpose of God]!

(434) I woke up today with nothing to say. I actually thought I would take a break. I made the mistake of asking the Lord if he wanted me to speak, and here we go! A few years back I had a Pastor friend who was an ex addict/convict. We ran in the same group of guys. He was ‘solo Jesus’ [Jesus only]. All these brothers are Christian! Let me talk a little about this way of seeing the Trinity. In the gospels Jesus says ‘go and baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost’. If you look at the actual baptisms in scripture [Acts] you will see that every time they mention the ‘name’ as they baptize, that it is ‘in the name of Jesus’. So what you get from this is when Jesus said ‘baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ he was actually saying that there is only one proper name given in the New Testament for any of the Godhead. Father, Son and Spirit are not names, they are titles. So the reason why the Apostles baptized in Jesus name was because of this. Now the ‘Jesus only’ groups got hold of this as well as other truths and are identified as ‘Jesus only’. I believe in the doctrine of the Trinity as stated in the ancient creeds. I am not a ‘Jesus only’. But this shouldn’t prevent us from seeing truth. Basically the Jesus only groups teach that in heaven you will see ‘Jesus only’ on the throne. God is a Spirit, is he a different Spirit than the ‘Holy Spirit’? Jesus is the only person in the Godhead with a Body. Does Jesus have a spirit? Well if God is a Spirit and all the fullness of God is in Jesus bodily, then they teach you will not see God in heaven as a ‘disembodied Sprit’ that you will see Jesus on the throne, and he will be the express image of God. This is surely interesting. Do I totally hold to this? No. But I wouldn’t classify someone as a heretic for this. I believe there is truth that God gives us from many camps. The problem is as the church developed thru the centuries they had debates over the nature of Jesus and the creeds came down on a certain side. I agree with the creeds, but they had a tendency to say ‘take one side, if not you’re a heretic’ so some of the early fathers had no choice to express other views on these things. I mentioned the ‘Local church’ movement that started under watchman Nee. His disciple that carried the torch after Nee died was ‘witness Lee’ this brother has been fighting the old time apologists for years over this issue. Witness Lee sees some of this stuff. He actually was called a heretic by the apologists for saying ‘Jesus is the Father’. The apologists say ‘you are rejecting the historic Trinity’ the apologists argued with him over the verse in Isaiah that says ‘His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God the Everlasting Father’ this verse is no doubt speaking of Jesus. Lee says ‘see, Jesus is the Father here’ I agree! The strong Trinity guys [of which I am one myself] say that in this verse ‘the Father’ is not God the Father, but a reference to Jesus as the Father of a new race. Lee shoots back and says ‘then you believe in 2 Fathers’. I fall on Lee’s side here. The ‘Father’ reference is speaking of God. The fact is Jesus is the revelation of the Father to us. Scripture says ‘all the fullness of God is in Christ’. Jesus told Phillip ‘if you have seen me, you have seen the Father’. I just think we take revelations from God, like the Trinity, and we cant fully comprehend all there is in it. And then we come to limited human understandings that get us into trouble. It is obvious to me that the strong apologists who are fighting Lee in this one verse are wrong. They are trying to make it fit. It’s hard to make God ‘fit’. God has revealed great truths to the church thru the centuries. I don’t advocate ‘undoing’ the creeds. But we have to be open for further insight into things that we don’t fully comprehend. I remember telling some friends this once. I explained that it isn’t real easy to understand all this. I shared how God is a Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit is God. And God is one. Are there 2 different Spirits? As you can see it’s not easy. So for all my Jesus only brothers, they do have truth. For all those like me [classic Trinitarian] we also have truth. But I also am able to see the truth about all the references in the book of Acts on being baptized ‘in the name of Jesus’. They actually did do this! The strong Trinitarians say ‘that’s right, because Jesus is God, so we should say ‘Father, Son and Spirit’. The point is, because Jesus is God, that’s why they all said ‘Jesus’ at the actual baptism! It’s like if I told you ‘go and cash this check [baptize] in the name of my father, my son and my spirit’. And you went down to the bank and put ‘my father, my son and my spirit’ on the check. They would look at you funny. You would understand that I meant the name ‘Chiarello’ not the title’s ‘my Father, Son and Spirit’. I really don’t see why Christians kill each other over this stuff. I am not advocating re baptizing everyone who did it the historic way. I also think it is more scriptural to say ‘Jesus’ when doing it. Frank Barltleman, who I mentioned earlier on this blog, was one of the smartest Christians at the turn of the last century. He documented the Azusa street revivals and wrote the book ‘another wave rolls in’. He actually saw a lot of this and became identified as a ‘Jesus only’ and lost a lot of influence in the church because of it. I think its good to see it like this. ‘Jesus is the only revealed proper name given to any of the Trinity in the New Testament. He is the singular revelation of God to humanity. All that we ‘see’ and know about who God is and how he reacts is seen thru the incarnate God/man Jesus Christ. When he told the disciples ‘go and baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost’ he was once again speaking of himself in the 3rd person [like in John chapter 3, Jesus says ‘God so loved the world that he gave his son’ He didn’t say ‘that he gave me’ he spoke of himself in the 3rd person because it is the work of the Spirit to actually reveal Christ to man. Jesus was letting the Spirit reveal him, he wasn’t doing it thru self proclamation] The reality of the baptisms being done in the book of Acts under the name ‘Jesus’ is a revelation to us that Jesus is the only revealed name of the Father, Son and Spirit given to us in the New Testament, he is the express image of God to man’. So instead of labeling everyone a heretic, we need to see Jesus more fully! P.S. I believe 100 % in the Trinity! NOTE: It’s OK to say ‘Jehovah’ or ‘Yahweh’ or other names of God. But it’s important to see that because Jesus is the revelation of God given to man, that in the New Testament the name ‘Jesus’ is the only proper name given to describe any of the Godhead. This doesn’t mean that there is no Trinity, it just shows us that all of God was in Christ. Not just one third! Also to be a little technical, Jesus said ‘baptize in the NAME’ not NAMES. The Jesus only groups will tell you that Jesus was speaking of a singular name here. The fact that all the baptisms in Acts that give you the reference to the name being used, it’s always the name ‘Jesus’ it never shows an example of them saying ‘in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit’ when they are baptizing someone. The churches that do use this formula will say ‘well, we know they must have said it, because Jesus told us to say it’ he really didn’t tell us to say it, he did tell us to use the NAME of the Father, Son and Spirit, so the fact that they said ‘Jesus’ when they baptized shows us that he told them to use his name, he obviously was referring to himself in the 3rd person. There really isn’t a better explanation for this. It just seems to me that this is a truth that you can’t get around.

(435)  This fits in with the last entry. It is important for Christians to form their view of God thru Christ. You often hear good reformed theologians [whom I like] focus on the holiness and transcendent nature of God. Some will even teach that the reason the church is in a ‘worldly’ state is because we preach the Gospel without the Law. They seem to be saying if we preach God in an Old Testament way, and we preach the law, that this will bring the church back into holiness. The message of God thru Christ was one of reconciliation. There is no doubt that Jesus was against sin. The times he taught that if you looked upon a woman with lust you were just as guilty as committing adultery. These statements were intended to show mans inability to reform himself. Many of the law keepers were counting on their ability to not commit outward acts of sin, even though in their hearts they were just as lost as the prostitute and drunkard. Jesus was not ‘exalting’ law here. He was showing those who trusted in their own righteousness that they didn’t have a chance at being accepted this way. He then of course would die for mans sin and man would receive this ransom freely. This is why you see the Apostle Paul stress justification by faith. I feel we do damage when we believe the answer to ‘worldliness’ is to preach more law. The preaching of law has a tendency to appeal to mans sinful nature. It actually stirs up in man a feeing of ‘I will now go and do what I was told not to’. When you mix this in with an Old Testament revelation of God [one of wrath] this doesn’t produce the desired result of holiness. It is the unconditional message of grace that people need. Not an ‘easy believism’ type thing, but a radical view of Gods mercy as seen thru the incarnation of Jesus. The way Jesus treated sinners and unbelievers gave them an avenue to approach God. His ‘exalting’ of the law was for the purpose of bringing man to him, in some of the reformed circles they think that if you exalt the law it will bring a degree of ‘self restraint’ to the church. I do not see this as a New Covenant function. Once you are in Christ it is the ability to rest in him that brings ‘holiness’. If people aren’t ‘holy enough’ the preaching of the law and the focus on Gods holiness will only increase the level of condemnation. All righteousness comes by faith in Christ, we are to form our ideas about the way God sees us thru the actual way Jesus lived. This is the revelation of God to us. Jesus did not condone sin, but he functioned in such a way that sinners did not see God as far away and ‘transcendent’ they saw God as close and accessible to meet man where he was at.

(436)  Let’s go back to the ‘Jesus only’ stuff. The Jesus only brothers will take the verses that say ‘Jesus is God’ and combine them with the verse that says ‘Jesus name is the Everlasting father’ and come to the conclusion that ‘Jesus is God’ well he is! They will then say ‘when you go to heaven, you will see ‘Jesus only’ because God the Father is a Spirit, and this Sprit lives in Jesus’! Now on the other end of the spectrum you have whole groups of Christians that say ‘Jesus is the Son of God [true] but not God [untrue]’. Even in the first 3 centuries of the church this became a debate. Some priests and Bishops  said ‘Jesus is Gods Son, but God is the only God. God is 1, not many [3]’ These brothers will show you how Paul addresses the Christians in his letters and says ‘God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ but Paul never says ‘Jesus, the God of the Father’. So they simply say ‘Jesus is Gods Son, but the Father is God’. Now there is truth to some of these things, but not all. Then in the 4th century under the Emperor Constantine, he calls a worldwide Council of Bishops and they come to the conclusion of the historic Trinity and the Divine nature of Jesus. Those who disagree will show you that Constantine did this for political reasons [calling the council] and therefore will see the ‘Trinitarian formula’ as a false doctrine from ‘Rome’. There are whole groups of Baptists that also believe this! I had a friend of mine who joined the Air force, he attended the Fundamental Baptist Church I went to. He got stationed somewhere and found some ‘Independent Baptist churches’. They were just like the one we attended, except that they all taught that the Trinity was a false doctrine that was invented by the Catholic Church, and that all the other Baptists that believed it were in apostasy! Now these brothers will point to all the scriptures that say ‘God is one’ and tell you the language for the Trinity ‘God in 3 Persons’ is unscriptural. The Jesus only brothers will do this too! So as you can see it’s not easy to explain this stuff. The New Testament tells us ‘God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen on by men, received up into glory’ Jesus is God. We know this. But it is easy to see how when you look at certain ‘angles’ of truth, that it’s also easy to fall into categories where you make the other side a heretic. Let me say also, the reason why we form our view of God thru Christ is because God chose to reveal himself to us in this way. I do believe the ‘God of the Old Testament’ is God. The reason he is seen as wrathful and ‘transcendent’ is because this is how God is, apart from the Cross. In the Old Testament you see God dealing with man based on mans attempt at making himself righteous. Man couldn’t come close, so you ‘see’ God as wrathful and far away. In the New Testament you see God relating to man on the basis of the Cross. God’s wrath and anger are appeased and he is seen as someone who is not ‘far away’ anymore. Some historical Christians actually taught that the God of the Old Testament was a different God. One guy even came out with the first ‘cannon’ of scripture. It basically left out the Old Testament and contained only Paul’s letters, I think his name was ‘Marcion’ if I am remembering right? There are not 2 different Gods, the God of Israel is the same God as ‘the God’ of the Christians, it’s just you cant ‘have him’ without having his Son! Jesus did teach this. Now what about ‘Allah’, isn’t he also the same God with a different name. No he is not! This is why when we try to strive for unity and pluralism in society [all Muslims should have the right to worship as they please!] we also should be able to discern between Christian and Muslim belief. Allah is the ‘god’ of Islam, this is not the same God of Israel or Christians. NOTE: I have a friend of mine who is a Christian, but not real active in ‘churchy’ type things [sort of like Nacho Libre/Jack Black  ‘a real religious man I am’!] and he says to me ‘What about those Mormons [we had a mutual friend who was Mormon] they believe in some God called ‘Yahweh’. I told him ‘this is not only the Mormon God, but ours too!’ Yahweh is the Name of God in scripture! Thought this was funny.

(437)  About 15 years ago I hurt my back at work, we were lifting a football player from A and I university [A and M is now the name]. I slipped a disk or something. It was bad, couldn’t walk for a few weeks. Over the years this same area of my back has had a ‘reoccurring’ feeling of pain. I am irresponsible in the area of doctors. I haven’t done doctors check ups and stuff like you should. Recently its been killing me, I usually wait it out and eventually it gets better, it got so bad the other day that I went to the Emergency room [couldn’t wait till morning] and had to get something for the pain. They gave me some Valium and a direct shot of something into the lower spine area. After 30 minutes the pain never went away, it was that bad. Well I am off of work for a few days and the pain med’s along with the other prescribed meds seem to be helping. In the past guys with this type of injury would take months off, I plan on going back in a few days. Not bragging, just have too much to do to take months of down time. So this got me thinking about ‘healing’ again. I was thinking of the scenario in the Old Testament when the Israelites were in the wilderness and God sent snakes [fiery serpents-King James] to bite the people for their rebellion. As the people were being bitten they are dieing. God tells Moses to make this brass/bronze statue of a snake and put it in a poll. Whoever looks to the pole after they are bitten will get healed. Later on in Israel’s history you read an insignificant verse [I forget where it is, you can look it up in a concordance] where this statue had to be destroyed because the children of Israel went and idolized the thing. Now Jesus in John chapter 3 describes this story to Nicodemus. He basically says ‘as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, so whosoever looks to him will be saved’ The reason Jesus would describe himself as a ‘serpent’ was because in Gods eyes Jesus became ‘accursed’ for us. The serpent in the Garden of Eden story is a cursed thing. Satan is called a serpent. When people are in need, they look to Jesus to get healed and forgiven. He was cursed on a pole [Cross] for us and we look to him for eternal life. Those who fastened their eyes on the serpent lived. Those who look to Jesus live. He is THE LIFE. God didn’t give you an experience that gave you eternal life, God gave you his Son so you would forever ‘look’ to him [an ongoing relationship versus a ‘1’ time deal!] and live forever. The verse in Hebrews says Jesus lives forever and because of this he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him. Many times preachers say this means ‘guttermost’ or that Jesus saves people who are at the worst end of the scale [uttermost]. While this is true, this is not what this verse means. This verse is saying all who are in Christ have a never-ending Priesthood of intercession that Jesus forever carries out on our behalf. The ‘uttermost’ is referring to Christ’s present intercession for us that will last FOREVER; this is why he saves us to the uttermost [never ending]. Now the reason why the serpent on the pole had to be destroyed was because people take the things that God uses as examples or as tools and we make idols out of them. We do this with Pastors, Prophets and all the other gifted servants in the church. We seem to forget that we are just ‘objects/tools’ that God chooses to use as a means of getting people to Christ. We are just  ‘Poles’ that are lifting Jesus up. After a while we have a tendency to ‘exalt the pole’ or worship the ‘statue’. Now we are to worship Jesus, but God doesn’t want us to make idols out of the means of communication that he uses. It’s hard to put this in, but let me try. Even the cannon of scripture is a tool to bring us to the reality of Christ. Some Christians would have you think that the tool is more important than Christ! I know I will get criticism for this, but I want you to see that it’s possible to have the tool, memorize the tool, even prop it up on some ‘pole’ but if you don’t have an ongoing relationship with God thru Christ, then this ‘tool’ can become your idol!

(438)  This last week I have had an old injury from work ‘re surface’. I hurt my back years ago while on duty and it has been an on and off problem ever since. Recently it’s been causing severe pain. I finally went to the E.R. because the pain was so severe. They gave me Valium and a direct shot of painkiller into my lower spine. After about 30 minutes I got a rush, but it did nothing for the pain! I have been on some meds since [a few days] and the pain got better but I am left with a severe limp! I guess I did some damage to the nerves in my right leg, it feels totally numb. I thought this to be interesting, I had a dream a few weeks ago that I injured my leg and was walking with a limp! This reminds me of Jacob. After Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord all night, he later had a permanent limp. This was not so much a sign of judgment as it was a sign of Jacobs’s determination. Jacobs name gets changed to Israel and he is someone who prevails with both God and men. If you will Jacob had ‘war wounds’ that went on his ‘resume’. Sometimes in the Kingdom we see talented people, that’s good. But often times you don’t see determination. Much of the modern church is built on ‘performance talent’ and personality. People want to look good! Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of his day because they loved the acclaim that came along with religious position. The Kingdom needs people who will persevere [by Gods grace] whether they look good or not! I like the story of Jacob. I know he did some crafty things [supplanter] but this didn’t seem to bother the Lord as much as it bothers us. God is not looking for perfect people in as much as he is looking for ‘persevering people’. Let me exhort you to finish the race and endure by Gods grace to the end of your mission!

(439)  Just opened up my newspaper. First thing I saw was ‘man dies swimming at Packery channel’. A 23 year old drowned right at the site that I have been swimming at the last few weeks. It is the first reported drowning this year off of our coast. I do not want to take lightly, or use the death of someone lightly. I want to show you that this channel, which I have spoken on a lot, represents  ‘dieing to old things, and a coming alive to something new’. I felt like the Lord was telling me that the old person is passing away for many of us. The old ‘patterns/routines’ are being left behind only as you move ahead to new territory. You must access the ‘channel/highway’ that God is opening at this time, it will mean ‘death’ to the old man. Go and wash in this new open door I am giving you [Siloam/sent] your ‘sending’ will provide a cleansing avenue that will be found no where else!

(440)  I was listening to a preacher on the radio; he is a great grace preacher. He is also a ‘cessationist’ someone who believes that the gifts of the Spirit and the 5 fold ministries passed away [the 5 fold refers to Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers]. We know there are no more Apostles in the sense of the ‘12 Apostles of the Lamb’ these are a category unto themselves. But scripture says ‘after Jesus ascended on high, he gave gifts unto men; Apostles, Prophets, etc.’ so this category of ‘Apostles and Prophets’ never even existed until after the ascension! Also this is speaking of Prophets that were made after Jesus ascended. So the original 12 and all the Old Testament Prophets are not even in this category. Also some teach that when Paul said ‘Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers’ and then he says ‘God gave them to the church until that which is perfect is come’ [Corinthians, Ephesians] some say ‘that which is perfect’ is the completed canon [the Bible] and since we now have the bible we don’t need Apostles and Prophets. Well simple grammar tells you no matter how you interpret this verse, that all 5 of these gifts are clumped together. If you don’t have Prophets, then you don’t have Teachers either! This verse is actually speaking of the perfection of the Bride of Christ that will take place at the second coming ‘for when we see him we will be like him, for we will see him as he is’. So to me ‘that which is perfect’ is not the bible or the second coming, but it is speaking of the Body of Christ coming to maturity [perfection is used in this way in scripture, and this will happen at the second coming, but the ‘perfect’ part is speaking of the bodies maturity at that event. John says ‘when we see him we will be like him’ 1st John]. Also to those who believe the gifts passed away. Peter quotes Joel in the book of Acts and says ‘In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy’ This verse specifically says ‘people will prophesy in the last days’. I know some say ‘this is simple preaching’. But if you continue thru the book of Acts, which Peter describes as ‘the last days’ you will find examples of Prophets ‘prophesying’ and it isn’t simple preaching or exhortation, it is ‘predictive/prophetic’ speaking. The Prophet Agabus takes Paul’s ‘girdle’ [clothing] and says ‘whoever owns this coat will be bound and taken captive’. The Prophet says this as he is ‘Prophetically’ wrapping it around him. Now this isn’t simple preaching or exhortation. I know the critics say ‘this is before the bible is finished’ the point I am making is this defines the actual type of prophecy that Peter spoke of. And it wasn’t PREACHING!

(441)  I am going to share a dream, but first this. The main reason the 1st century religious leaders did not receive the prophetic ministry of Jesus was because of their understanding of THE PROPHETS. They truly prided themselves in the fact that they were the keepers of the Old Testament, and that they possessed singular wisdom from the prophets that no one else could see. The great irony was that Jesus was the GREATEST prophet ever, all the Prophets pointed to him! Yet in their religious pride the Pharisees could not see ‘him’. Often times God will use people at certain periods in church history. These ‘prophetic voices’ are not meant to be worshipped or revered [only Jesus] but you will find the most ‘enlightened’ leaders of the day rejecting what they are saying because of their understanding of ‘the prophets’ [Word of God]. Often times these are the biggest obstacles to what God is doing. Jesus said the ‘sinners’ were much more open and willing to receive him than the religious leaders. All these people looking for spirituality in the New Age movement and psychics and stuff. Many of them are really open to the prophetic things of God. I am not saying these ‘spiritual counterfeits’ are prophetic, but people are looking for something real. They don’t find it in these ‘quasi movements’ they find it in Jesus. The woman at the well [John 4] said ‘come see a man that told me my whole life’. The fact that Jesus ‘saw into her heart’ caused her to go and testify of him. A woman who was steeped in sin. The Pharisees avoided and condemned her thru out her life. She was even from the wrong side of the religious world [Samaritan] yet in one prophetic encounter with Jesus she gets converted! Something all the Law and religion of the day could not do! Something that even the religious leaders were unable to receive. They had their views formed by their interpretation of the ‘prophets’ and nothing was going to change that, not even the greatest prophet who ever lived! Moses said ‘the Lord is going to raise up a prophet like unto me, those who will not hear him will be destroyed’. In the book of Acts Jesus is identified as ‘this prophet’. Moses brought the people on a spiritual journey that at first seemed exciting, then it seemed to ‘off the wall’. They found themselves living in the wilderness dependant on this ‘bread’ [Manna] that is coming down from heaven. The name ‘Manna’ means ‘what is it’ they survived on food that was strange to them. The disciples followed Jesus for 3 years and many said ‘who in the world is this guy’ [Manna- ‘what is this?’] Jesus had the audacity to say ‘I am the bread that comes down from heaven, whoever eats of me will never die’ this was too much for the leaders to hear. They would eventually kill him. DREAM; I just dreamt I was in a store. I had a complaint about something and went to tell the manager. The manager said ‘don’t you know that I can call the police on you’ she seemed like she knew the complaint was legitimate, but so what, what can you do to right this wrong. I said I too can call the law. It seemed like a confrontation with ‘Jezebel’. I called on my phone and she called on hers. She seemed like she was used to this challenge to her authority, this time was different. A few minutes after I called the sky started getting dark. It was a warm day, but a storm began to blow in. Everyone started getting scared. As the storm approached it began to snow [I have had snow before in dreams] and it became like hurricane conditions. Everyone began running for their lives. I too was running, but I wasn’t scared. It felt like when I pray outside during a thunderstorm. I was comfortable with it. I did have to avoid things blowing around and all, but it was like calling in ‘friendly fire’ during a war. You ask your own army to bombard your area. You know you might get hit too, but there are so many enemies surrounding you, that you go for it. As the winds and snow and storm got severe, a flash flood came in and covered the ground. I had to climb up a wall. I felt like the woman who challenged me by calling the authorities was like Jezebel. She has been seducing the people of God for so long that the church and its leadership got to a point where they would ignore her. In the past whenever some so-called ‘prophet’ would challenge her, she was able to ‘make them run’. She didn’t count on me ‘calling in friendly fire’ this time it was every man for himself, even her! There were some other parts to the dream that I don’t recall as clearly, but I think they dealt with a warning for those who are seeing stuff from our site [sight!] I felt the Lord said to be careful in dealing with ‘the weeds’ because you might accidentally pull up ‘the wheat’. It is easy for people to see real truth from this site, the intent is for reformation, not destruction. Sometimes ‘Jezebel’ is so rooted in the church that it takes a violent act to root her out. Jehu drove furiously, but he had a job to do! I want all our readers to be careful as you try to ‘root out Jezebel’ in your area [cities/states] she has been ‘welcomed’ for a very long season, she will not leave politely! Revelation- ‘I have something against you, you have suffered that woman jezebel to seduce my servants and commit fornication’ Jesus said this to one of the churches. James says ‘don’t you know that your love of the world is like committing adultery, your heart and desires are in things where God doesn’t dwell’ paraphrase. We suffer ‘Jezebel’ by truly loving the things of the world; we make pleasure and success our god. NOTE: Isaiah says ‘as the snow comes down from heaven and waters the earth, so is my word that goes out of my mouth. It will water the earth and make it bring forth. It will accomplish the purpose for why it was sent’! NOTE: Too often in the church we have labeled women as ‘jezebel’. Sometimes we put this label on women struggling in the ‘sex trades’. Remember, Jesus did not approach the Samaritan woman in this way, he gave her hope and forgiveness! Jezebel to me is more of a ‘seducing spirit’ she [and others] know she is ‘seducing’ the saints, but they allow her [suffer her] to continue! NOTE: The ‘snow’ images I have seen and shared on this blog speak to me of God covering areas with his prophetic word. A few years back it snowed in Corpus. I have pictures of this area covered with snow. I also saw an aerial view and it covered this entire southern coast and spread inland. In the above dream I feel the snow represents God permitting a prophetic word [words] to come from this area and to affect the state, nation and the world! Only God can cause the ‘snow’ [word/seed] to ‘cause the earth to bud’. There are seasons where God desires to bring ‘adjustment’ to the Body of Christ, these times are usually not comfortable! Also a few entries back I spoke on the strong ‘apologist’ movements who seem to only be looking for fault in the church. This has caused good men to go to the other extreme and to never bring correction or reproof at all. This is why you have many good Pastors today who are ‘shaken’ when true correction comes. Its not that they are all ‘wimps’ it’s just the present level of corrective reproof in the church is very low. When children have not been disciplined in a long time, they react violently when you try to correct them. I don’t want to sound demeaning, I am just trying to show you that ‘when it snows’ those who are unfamiliar with it have a hard time. When it snowed in Jersey, the street workers were out and the streets were clean and ready to drive. Not here in Corpus! We were not ‘used to’ snow. Hebrews says when people are ‘chastened’ [disciplined] it does not feel good at the beginning, but afterward it produces righteousness in those who accept it. Let the ‘summer snow’ do its work, it can be refreshing if you receive it in the right spirit. Also I used to have some music from Keith Green [I still love his music, but I gave the CD’s away to a friend!] he sang a song called ‘summer snow’ this verse is somewhere in the bible [Proverbs?] I kinda remember it saying something like ‘as snow to someone in summer’ speaking of a refreshing surprise visitation that ‘feels good’ and refreshing. Keith sang it to show the ‘surprise’ return of the Lord, that people wouldn’t be ready or expecting it. You usually get ready for the winter months while living up north. You don’t get all the snow gear in stores and stuff during the summer! So Jesus return will take many by surprise. A few years ago I took a drive to Jersey. I know it’s long [1800 miles!] but I am one of those road warriors that drives 1100-1200 miles in day one, and then finishes the rest on day 2. [I am also one who will drive wrong for 100 miles before I will ask for directions!] While there [February] we got a severe snowstorm, I loved it. I took a bunch of pictures of my truck being in a few feet of snow [vehicles represent ministries in prophetic imagery] I developed the pictures when I got back to Texas and lost them! They were missing for a few years. As I looked for them on many occasions I realized it was going to be a sign. Sometimes this will happen with me loosing things, when they show up later I know it was for a reason. Well after looking for them for a few weeks, I told the Lord ‘I know they will show up some day, for now I will let it go’ [not by might, nor power, but by my Spirit says the Lord] after a year or 2 [?] one day I walked into my study and they were laying out in plain view on a desk. I never asked who put them there or anything. I took it as a sign from the Lord. The year I found them was 2007, the same year the Lord allowed us to ‘snow’ on the North East. This year was the first year our blog and radio program reached Jersey. The radio station we are on broadcasts on line, so all my old buddies can read the blog and hear our program for the first time. Remember ‘snow’ is an image of Gods word ‘blanketing’ an area! Note: The last few months I debated on what towns we would post our blog. It is a little expensive and I do pay for this stuff out of pocket. I finally decided to ‘skip’ the Dallas/Fort Worth area. They wanted $170.00 for 1 day a month! The area we blog/ broadcast finally ended up being from the valley area, over to Laredo, back over thru the San Antonio/Corpus area, and instead of Dallas we just ‘shoot’ straight over to Houston and even hit Louisiana on a clear day. Plus we blog the New York area. I have this area ‘posted’ on all the maps and stuff that I use as ‘prayer reminders’. I just found the ‘aerial’ shot of the snow in 2004, it is an exact picture of the areas I show on the maps [except for the New York area] I forgot how accurate prophetic things can be! Also I forgot to mention that it snowed on Christmas day. Christmas was a sign of sending for me a few years ago, I saw the ‘tree’ in a dream and in a star pattern that year. So this would signify God ‘sending us out’ thru the various avenues of speaking/prophesying the word. As I just re read the details on the snow of 2004, it was the most snowfall ever recorded for this area. Claim these promises for yourself as God directs, his purpose is for all the Body of Christ to be actively involved with spreading the word! NOTE: see entry 454 as the fulfillment of the dream of flash floods.

(442)  I am going to speak this as I just ‘heard’ it. God is requiring some of you to take action like a ‘Samson’. I felt like the Lord was saying that some of you have been preparing for ministry for years. You seem to be stuck at a place where you need to find one more answer, or settle just 1 more issue before you take the plunge. Some of you feel like you need a ‘track’ record of good days before you will act. Samson reached a point in his life where he was reaping what he sowed. His reputation and personal future was beyond repair. He was being mocked regularly while he struggled with ‘bondage issues’. One day he saw an opportunity to commit a single act of bravery that would mean martyrdom for him, but he knew it would be his last chance to ‘make history’. He could have never done what he was going to do. If ‘survival’ and existence was the measuring rule, he would have just been happy by living day to day as the but of the enemies jokes. The court jester if you will. He got tired of that existence. One day as he is being mocked he ‘positions’ himself in a strategic place, it almost looks like a ‘Cross’. His arms are placed from one pillar to another and he ‘goes for it’. Everything comes down, even on him [friendly fire!] but scripture says he killed more of the enemy in his death, than in his entire life [a bit prophetic, don’t you think?] Hebrews 11 records him as one of the heroes of the faith. That’s funny, God didn’t ‘remember’ his bad track record, God saw his act of faith! What are you waiting for? NOTE: I am going to share this as I just ‘heard it’. ‘Your whole life, in Gods eyes is as a single day. God’s mercies are new every morning. If you woke up today and found out that every failure you have ever committed, every wrong thing you have ever done. All the mistakes you might have made in ministry, the friendships that have parted, possibly because you were the one at fault. Your own personal failures and weaknesses. Those of you who have been divorced, had abortions and have done the most horrendous things imaginable. If you just woke up and realized that it was all a dream. That as a matter of fact this is the first day of your life. You were like the guy in ‘it’s a wonderful life’ and you really had a bran new start today. This is how God sees you. Your whole life, all the successes and failures, every single thing that has happened up until now has only been a ‘blip’ on Gods radar screen. Your whole life is like a single day in the mind of God. If your kid woke up today and disobeyed you, you might punish him and send him to his room. By the evening he forgot all about it and wants to throw the football or ride his bike. How do you view him? Do you really hold that ‘one day mistake’ against him? This is how God sees you right now, in his mind none of this ever happened. He really sees you as the little boy/girl who made a ‘one day mistake’ and he wants you to finish the day with him. The night is almost here and you will be sleeping soon, have some fun.

(443) Jesus never used his tremendous wisdom to ‘trick’ or baffle the average person. But he did do this with the religious leaders who were proud. It is easy to fall into the category of ‘wanting to win the argument’. God wants us to be right, but the end goal is to ‘win the person’. I like studying intellectuals and the current trends in theology, I think most Pastors/Leaders are too lacking in these areas. I will notice sometimes that ‘theologians’ will fall into the trap of speaking for hours with such intellectual language that when they are done you have no idea of what they were saying. I have read books like this. They seem to see that as a badge of honor. Jesus only did stuff like this when dealing with the proud ‘preachers’ of his day. ‘Who is the Messiah? Is he the Son of David? Then if this is so, why does David call him his Lord in the Psalms?’ The Pharisees were baffled. The answer is common today. Jesus was before David [John 1:1] and he became ‘incarnate’ after David. It is a theological answer to be sure, but none of the Theologians knew it. But later Jesus will plainly reveal the Love and Mercy of God to man. I do think there are times to be ‘intellectual’, but mostly when dealing with religious leadership who is steeped in their knowledge, they often need to be ‘out trumped’ before they will change. The main message of the Cross is meant to be simple and relevant. Paul had the opportunity to ‘dazzle’ the Corinthians, but he said he stuck with the message of the Cross so their faith wouldn’t be in some intricate system of thought, but in Christ! NOTE: Let me show you how easy it is to ‘not see’ the obvious. The New Testament speaks specifically about the area of giving of finances. If you go to all the direct portions of scripture that deal with it [not simply to the few verses that mention the tithe that are found in the gospels and the book of Hebrews, when the ‘tithe’ is mentioned in these verses it is not speaking on giving in the New Testament church] you will find Paul teaching giving in a ‘non compulsory’ way. Why did Paul actually say ‘ give, not by compulsion, but of a willing heart’? Because the first century Jew knew of only one way to give, and that was by compulsion. The Tithe was by compulsion, no way around it. The teaching in Malachi says to the Jew ‘if you don’t tithe, you are under a curse and are robbing God’ this my friends is compulsion. Now when we in the church teach people ‘if you don’t tithe God will get it from you one way or the other. Either your kids will get sick or you will pay it out at the hospital’ this is also compulsion! So to be contrary to this mindset that was imbedded in the law, Paul purposely teaches the opposite. The fact that the New Testament teaches to give not by compulsion is just like saying ‘don’t give with the tithe mentality’. It actually is very clear! Just like it was clear to Jesus [and to us today] that Messiah was not only the Son of David, but also David’s Lord. Things become obvious when you are taught them by God. Now the New Testament gives a lot of instructions on how Christians should give, this is not a secret! But like anything else we read scripture with preconceived ideas and then we make scripture fit. We are all guilty of this, I just wanted you to see how we are just like the Pharisees in many ways. Thank God that he is a God of mercy. NOTE: It is not our intent to get Christians to stop supporting the ‘church’ they are currently attending, if you dedicated a certain amount of giving then keep doing it. If the church you attend has made certain budget decisions based on what you said you would give, then out of simple integrity to your word try and fulfill these promises. I even believe that certain Pastors can still encourage the people to give 10% without using the ‘tithe’ as the ‘trigger’. Just appeal based on grace. If you as a believer are currently learning these new truths from us, but you don’t effectively share financially thru avenues the Lord has shown you, then continue to support the church you are attending. Truth and reformation are processes that take time. Even though I believe the church is not under the tithe, yet it is not Gods purpose to ‘undercut’ the budget of well meaning Pastors/churches by you seeing this new truth. Let God lead, I don’t want to be the one who gives Christians excuses not to give.

(444)  Today its June 25th, 2007. It’s been 6 months since I started this blog. Today is the day the Supreme Court outlawed prayer in Public Schools, this day in 1962 [the year I was born]. Yesterday I took my youngest daughter to church. My wife and other kids were busy, 2 of my daughters went on their own. After church I took my girl to see ‘Evan Almighty’ a good movie that does a spoof on the story of Noah’s Ark, but it is good. I told you guys once about my study, it is set up like a throw back to the 70’s. I have a lot of old stuff. One thing I have is the original ‘Gumby’ rubber man. I saw it once in a store and bought it as a collector’s thing. This week for some reason I was thinking of taking it out of the plastic that it’s in. I have no idea why I would be thinking of Gumby. Yesterday [the day I went to see the movie] I also was looking in the paper and saw some Dell Laptops, this week I have been thinking of getting one. They had a flyer on them in the paper so I was looking at the prices. Last but not least, as I am praying in my study I keep noticing this poster of John Lennon, it is a real charcoal drawing that someone had made. My wife found it in an abandoned apartment that she manages. I have had it for a few years. I was thinking of maybe taking it down, because as I am praying it kind of was distracting me, it’s got these real looking eyes that seem to pierce your soul. Well how in the world can any of this make sense? As I go to the movie I am looking for some signs or stuff the lord wants to say. The God character [Morgan Freeman] has the first conversation with the ‘Noah’ character [Steve Carell- ‘the 40 year old virgin’] and God convinces ‘Noah’ that it is him speaking to him by bringing up a childhood memory, he mentions ‘Gumby’. As the story moves ahead Noah grows hair and a beard, the son calls him ‘John Lennon’ and they play some Lennon music as well. Steve Carrel is doing all his work on a ‘Dell computer’ [a form of communication, like what I am doing on my laptop right now!] I did feel like the Lord showed me a few things. I have seen in the past certain things from Lennon and Dylan. Lennon was shocked by the effect that his words were having on a generation, Dylan was real uncomfortable about being a ‘prophet’ to his generation. If you read or watch stories on these figures, it was like the Lord was giving exponential ‘influence’ by the simple words they were speaking. On one MTV/VH1 special I saw Lennon confront a fan from an old video. Lennon was trying to tell this fan who was obsessed with the words from his songs ‘I am just a man, I am just writing my thoughts in my songs, don’t be so enamored with it’ it was like the Lord allowed certain ‘prophetic/rock’ voices to have tremendous influence, whether or not the ‘prophet’ wanted this attention or not. In the movie Steve Carell builds the Ark and is waiting for the rain, it rains a little, but the flood comes form a broken damn instead. This didn’t really fit in with the prophetic stuff I have been ‘seeing’ recently. I just dreamed of a huge storm the other day, where’s the storm? As we left the theatre my daughter says ‘look at the sky dad, a huge storm is moving in’ on the way home it was one of those flash flood storms that covers the sky and looks eerie. I got home and started writing this stuff on my mission statement, it was pouring at the time. NOTE: The reason God shows up is that Evan becomes a congressman and promises to ‘change the world’ God teaches him that you can change the world by ‘one random act of kindness at a time’ this fits in with my philosophy on the church and ministry. The biblical idea of church is for all believers everywhere to see themselves as the actual ‘fire starters’ of this Jesus revolution. It’s not the multimillion dollar ‘church organizations’ that are always appealing for money that will change the world, its all the ‘simple believers’ who have been told their whole lives ‘you cant have any influence yourself, send your money to us’ that are going to do it!

(445)  A while back I read a vision from a prophet. It spoke of a huge wave that was leaving the coast, as it left it exposed the sins and shortcomings of Gods people. The wave ‘covered’ them for a while, but when it left, the people were exposed and suffered shame. Many who were on the ‘coast’ [beach] left out of fear and shame. A few remained and sure enough the wave came back. As it came back it then flooded the entire coastal region. There are verses in the Old Testament prophets that speak of stages where God dealt with the sins of his people. There are specific references to those who ‘fled’ the city [place of destiny]. It speaks of a ‘remnant’ that didn’t flee in the face of their own failure and fear. These were the ones the Lord would use to bring in the harvest. I don’t want to say that everyone who ‘leaves Corpus’ [or your city] is guilty of this, in scripture ‘here we have no continuing city’ the city imagery speaks of your purpose in the Kingdom. God is saying ‘those who stay in the destiny that I have called them to, despite the shame and failures that they have gone thru, will be the ones who will usher in and partake of my wave’.

(446) A few years ago I had a Pastor friend who kind of competed with me in ‘getting’ the addicts/ex-cons to ‘go to his church’. I knew this brother for years. He got saved in his 50’s [?] and started preaching at the jails when I was going in my 20’s. Eventually he left the Pentecostal church he attended and ‘started his own church’. I knew he would talk about me every now and then, and to tell you the truth, it really didn’t bother me. It’s like when you go thru rumors that your are having a gay relationship with an ‘ordained minister/sorcerer’ who started the rumors himself, you kind of don’t mind about the regular normal gossip. I chalked it up to his immaturity in the Lord. Even though he was a good 25 years older than me, he meant well and was going thru the silly games preachers play when they first start out. He did invite me to preach at his church once, and we had a good service. But being he would gossip to me about the Pastor and church he had formally attended, I knew it was only a matter of time before he would get to me! I never even confronted him or anything, I just let it slide. One day he saw me at a restaurant with a brother [ex-con/addict] you could tell he was a little jealous that the brother was with me and not him. I don’t even ‘have a church’ but in his mind he was at the childish stage of ‘why don’t you come to my church’ type thing. This Pastor read my first book ‘house of prayer or den of thieves’ and I think it might have been a little strong. I never gave him my 2nd book, and as we went to the parking lot to get it, he started gossiping about the ex- addict brother who we just left to go into the parking lot! Well I gave him my 2nd book, which challenges the whole concept of ‘local church’ and the role of ‘Pastor’. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he would read it, and more than likely I would become the talk of the town by this Pastor in his 60’s who would probably call me a heretic. I just didn’t worry about it, I figured I would give him the book and just leave it at that. We did have a mutual Christian friend and I finally asked him how Pastor ‘so and so’ was doing. In a nice way, I kinda figured the Pastor might have already gotten to my friend and told him what a heretic I was. My friend said the last time he saw him he was in the hospital and it looked like he was going to die. I don’t think it was because he more than likely talked about me, it was just something that happened. I later thought about it, how so many of us [Pastors/leaders] see people as simple tools in a big game. To try to challenge the present mindset of ‘Pastor’ and ‘church’ is a difficult thing. To be sure all Pastors don’t fall into the category of my friend, but the system itself has a way to bring this type of stuff out of us, even the best of us. NOTE; he died a few months back, the same day I read of his death we had a strange phenomenon in the gulf where I live. We had a real clear ‘water spout’ that the local channels picked up. It was a perfect ‘tunnel’ type spout that showed the water going right up to ‘heaven’ thru this tube. I took it as a beautiful sign of my friend’s home going. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints!

(447)  It is difficult for the American church/Pastor to ‘reform’ his understanding of church from one of ‘the 501c3 organization that raises funds to do projects and support ministries’ to that of a free community of people whom Christ’s Spirit dwells in to ‘reform and effect’ society around them. I remember hearing defenses of the ‘Local church’ from the fundamental Baptists that said ‘some people speak of the ‘invisible church/universal church’ well the bible never speaks of a church ‘you cant see’. While there is some truth to this, what these brothers were saying is ‘the local church is this ‘church building’ and all the functions that surround it’! God has his people strategically located all over the earth. When the Bible speaks of ‘local believers’ versus ‘the universal church’ it is not speaking of 2 different things. It is speaking of Christians who reside locally and to the believers who reside ‘universally’. They are the same thing, just in different locations. We have a tendency as Pastors and leaders to want to do some project, complete some goal. This is good. But it becomes ‘not good’ when we view Gods people at large as the primary ‘funders’ of the ‘big project’. This ‘projects’ a mindset into the people of God that is contrary to the function of the church. Moses, Paul and all the other biblical leaders were men with vision and destiny. Moses did ‘collect funds’ for certain godly purposes [the Tabernacle] while leading the people, but the primary thing they were doing, their ‘vision and destiny’ if you will, was bringing the people of God along a journey that led them to a place of self sufficiency/rule under the headship of God [Christ] that released them into a functioning society of people. You never see Paul or the other Apostles  primarily relating to the people along the lines of ‘God has given me this vision, if you Galatians, Ephesians, etc. were simply obedient to fund it, then it would happen’ the vision was not some project or thing apart from their own function and growth. They were not following Paul’s leadership to accomplish something apart from them. What Paul [Moses] were doing was bringing them into the reality that God wants to express himself and who he is thru a people that bear his name. The fact that Israel [or the church] were being governed by God and representing him in the earth gave God ‘opportunities’ to act and show himself strong on their behalf. Society around them were not going to be influenced by the great things they were to build [Babel mindset] but they were to be influenced by who they were and their real relationship with God as a nation. So when we ‘see’ the church as ‘this visible 501c3 organization’ and the people as ‘taxpayers’ [tithers] to the projects and goals of the organization, this causes both the Pastors and the people to fall into roles that are not the primary expression of what God really wants. The people are faced, week after week, month after month, year after year, with leadership saying ‘you are not obedient enough in the area of raising funds’ and the primary challenge to the average saint in the pew is ‘I will give more diligently this time’ and his whole function is measured by this rule. Then leadership reinforces the ‘scriptural mandate’ of this dynamic by appealing to the few areas in Paul’s writings that speak on giving. Though Paul was not primarily dealing with it in the same way. We truly ‘see’ the function of the motivated minister to set goals and somehow inspire people to fund these well meaning goals. This is a very small part of what New Testament leadership was doing. In the very verses we use to justify ‘giving on Sunday’ in a legalistic way, Paul actually says ‘take up the collection before I get there [Corinth] because when I get there we have real important things to do, I don’t want to waste time dealing with the money stuff [1 Corinthians 16]’ so we take these verses that are teaching the small role that finances play in the functioning of the church [to support laboring elders/Pastors and to meet the needs of the less fortunate] and we turn these verses around and teach them in a way that giving becomes thee number 1 measurement of a persons faith. We give the mindset to the average believer that his main function is to ‘attend church and give money’ and he measures his faithfulness this way. And he is taught ‘God highly values the ‘local church’ if he loves it so much that he gave his life for it, how much more should you value the local church in your life and give it priority’ But we seem to be telling the poor people that the ‘it/local church’ is the organization and all that surrounds its ‘corporations life’ [versus corporate life]. Yes God does love the 'local church’ [community of believers] and he did give his life for it [them and you!] and this is why you see biblical leadership so unfocused on some ‘vision to accomplish something’ and so focused on ‘seeing the people of God come to maturity’. They were giving their lives for the thing of value, which were the people of God [the LOCAL CHURCH!] NOTE: This is why you can see Paul in prison, writing letters to the churches and being totally fulfilled while doing this. His purpose was not to be in such a ‘state’ of outward self sufficiency and having all the money to accomplish some goal, he was actually doing the purpose of God by building the church, even though his outward man [and all of its expressions] were ‘passing away’. NOTE: the materialistic mindset in the church, along with the confusion on what [who] the church is, causes us to be unable to grasp how Paul could be ‘fulfilled’ even though he was not ‘building’ a ‘ministry or organization’. Paul was the one who said ‘we look not at the things which are seen, but unseen’ also ‘Abraham believed that the things that God said would come true’. We use these verses to bring us to a point of ‘making things seen’ or building outward stuff. In these verses God was defining faith as actually living in such a way that you knew after your departure that your ‘seed/lineage’ of spiritual children would ‘inherit’ the land. In essence ‘faith’ in these stories is the ability to die without actually seeing or possessing the physical promise in this life. The patriarchs are defined this way in Hebrews 11. They died as they blessed their offspring, believing that God would make a great ‘family/dynasty’ from their offspring. So Paul in prison is ‘unstoppable’ because he knew the Word of the Lord would have free course. He knew ‘by faith’ that these outward things were not really where the Kingdom was at. He knew by faith that after his death the ‘everlasting gospel’ would prevail and that by Gods grace his ‘spiritual seed’ would go on forever. That’s why I am writing about him now, and you are listening!

(448)  I read an article the other day that illustrates this stuff. It was about a ‘bi-vocational Pastor’ who was ‘Pastoring’ 3 churches at a time, because the churches were too small to ‘afford a fulltime Pastor’ and there was a need for someone to ‘administrate the ordinances’ so what else could they do? The well-meaning Pastor was in his fifties and was a fulltime military man. And it showed a picture of him innocently ‘manning the pulpit’ as he fulfills this ‘office’ every Sunday for these 3 churches. It showed how much our present mindset of ‘church’ and the protestant office of ‘The Pastor’ is really an unbiblical role. I know this sounds ‘mean’ but for heavens sake lets move on with the program. God has been dealing with the Body of Christ for quite some time. He wants to release/empower us to ‘be the church’ [the mobile community of God functioning and flowing in all areas of society] if we can’t get past ‘how can our church function unless someone is pastoring it?’ then we still have a long way to go! NOTE: My ‘spell check’ is prophetic. When I wrote the word ‘unbiblical’ above, it actually fixed it on it’s own to say ‘umbilical [cord]’ we cant seem to ‘break’ the ‘childish’ connections that we have towards these ‘lifelong ties’ to a ‘Pastor’. God never intended any of his gifted ones to be the ‘lifelong’ overseer of anybody. These gifts [Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers] were all given to play a role at various times in your development to bring you to maturity, none of them were to fulfill the co-dependant role that the protestant office of ‘the Pastor’ has become! I think ‘umbilical cord’ was probably the right word! [Sorry, but I just couldn’t help it!]

(449)  ‘recognize, don’t organize’ Chee Ann said this [a Pastor/Apostle]. I like this. In business you are taught to set ‘long term goals’ a good thing. Often time’s people in ministry find it helpful to do this. OK. But God has more to give you than just a ‘10’ or ‘20’ year plan. God reveals his ways and purposes to us thru out our lives. If you try to really seek God at the early stage of your walk, he will reveal himself to you. But he will not give you a ‘20’-year plan in full form. Why? Because much of what he wants to do thru you, and show to you is a process of you becoming like him. It is not simply information! If your 5 year old asks you about life and what he should be when he grows up, you will give him basic desires and hopes to shoot for. ‘I want to be a fireman’ or whatever. But if he took the broad overview of what you said, and refused to ‘adjust’ along the way, he would be in trouble. You realize that you are revealing to him basic goals, but that he is really not ‘grown’ enough to fully understand or receive all that you want to show him. God works like this with us. He shows us things by bringing us to different levels of growth. When you reach these different ‘places’ in him, you begin to see and function on a ‘higher’ plane. It’s not so much ‘more information’ in as much as it is ‘more formation’. Set goals, this is good. But be moldable and shapeable along the way. It’s not being unfaithful to adjust as you grow in him. He really wants us to grow into his image along the way; it’s not so much just a task that he wants us to perform.

(450) I was listening to a preacher telling his testimony. I have seen and read his writings before, but never heard him speak. The opinion I had from seeing/reading him was one of a very motivated professional minister. Nothing wrong, just the ‘jet set’ highly mobile successful mega church image. An image that often times is hard for the average person to relate to, though they are still very successful and accomplishing good things in the kingdom. As I finally heard him speak he sounded so much like me. He shared how he grew up in the 70’s, got high, listened to rock music and went to ‘deep purple’ concerts; it was a very real sounding testimony. You almost had the feeling of the voice not fitting the person [I know people feel this way when they see me too. I do not look, or come off as someone who teaches on radio and writes books and stuff]. The point I am making is sometimes the ‘environment’ of professional  ministry hinders the ‘realness’ that God intended for the gospel to have. Jesus was very real and human in his lifestyle. Very different from the image/persona of religious leadership. There was no sense of ‘watch what you say, the Pastor is here’ type thing. I think it would do us good if we can be real people with real struggles with real friends. The unbelieving world has so many questions, but the ‘church world’ is so unapproachable that they look elsewhere for the answers. NOTE; In the early church Christianity was not a separate field or vocation like it is today. Today Christianity is a ‘world/business’ unto itself. While God did intend the church to influence all areas of society, he didn’t intend the church to have its own ‘culture’ of Christian things [Christian restaurants, Christian mechanics, Christian bookstores, and on and on] while these types of things are well intentioned, we unconsciously create a separate culture when we do this. The early believers lived and functioned as real people in society, even the Apostles! [Tent makers]. We sort of have developed a society within the church that has young believers seeing ‘the ministry’ as a profession. ‘God has called me to start a [some Christian function] ministry’ and then you have an entire sector of society whose profession and identity becomes defined by ‘full time Christian service’. The New Testament teaches whatever a person is doing as a vocation, he is serving Christ. It does a disservice to the testimony of believers when we make these secular/holy divisions. Christians are to discern between what is evil and what is good, but this does not mean we withdraw from the marketplace of influence, it also does not mean that we influence the market place by ‘Christian stuff’ [holding huge Christian festivals that draw millions of dollars, trying to show the world that we have influence. This really isn’t influence. Though millions are being spent, it is money basically generated by a ‘vacation/tourism’ mentality. While it is beneficial for believers to have times of refreshing, this type of economic impact is not the same as believers actually being owners of the motels and the other establishments that are benefiting from the festival type atmosphere]. I hope you can see what I am saying. It’s OK for a T.D. Jakes to do a ‘mega fest’ but this is not primarily what the scriptures are referring to when it speaks of believers affecting the world by ‘remaining in it’. We affect it by actually being the ‘prime movers’ and shakers in all areas. We carry the Spirit of God within us, we speak the gospel of hope to those around us, and we interact successfully with society, we don’t ‘withdraw’ into some ‘full time ministry’ mentality that causes the church to always appeal for funds [when I say church, I mean believers] because we feel like God has called us to not be employed and instead to make our living by offerings, this really is not a viable Christian testimony.

(451)  I want to put some perspective and balance in here. Many people can’t understand my last entry, and how I also can preach so strongly against materialism. I believe there is a big difference between materialism and responsible Christians in the market place. I wont ‘re preach’ it all, but if you read all the stuff on this site you will see what I mean. I also do struggle with the fact that I have made other believers uncomfortable by my dealing with it, I ‘feel’ for the preachers and their kids, I know that because of certain aspects of my calling these individuals have experienced difficulty. I also believe preachers in general have let certain abuses go on for so long, that the Lord allowed our ‘voice’ to be so strong. I like the movie ‘a river runs thru it’ I catch it every now and then. At the end it shows one of the sons who outlived everyone else. His parents have died, his brother is gone and his wife as well. It shows him old and at the end of the journey. He is back home fly-fishing and he is all alone. It puts into perspective the un importance of material things. We will all depart some day, I hope and pray that I will have truly preached eternal things versus temporary stuff. I heard the late J Vernon Magee [sp?] say ‘Now that I have cancer, stuff doesn’t mean so much to me. I have a new reel for my fishing pole that I bought before I found out about the cancer. I was excited about it. Couldn’t wait to use it. Now I look at it and it doesn’t mean anything anymore’ [I am paraphrasing somewhat]. Jesus taught often about the brevity of life. He spoke of the rich man who pulled down his barns to build greater storehouses and have much goods for many days. The mindset of the rich man was his security was in things. Jesus said he would die that night and who then will get his stuff? His family will probably fight over it in probate court. Jesus often pointed to things like this. The Bible teaches financial responsibility and being involved in financial matters, its just Jesus put it all in perspective. I also have heard preachers say ‘the bible speaks more about money than salvation’ [or some other important subject] and the inference is ‘therefore lets make money our top priority’ well if you use this logic, the bible also speaks more on hell [judgment] than heaven, but that doesn’t mean God wants us all to go there! Well anyway I pray that if I outlive my family and friends and make it to a hundred, that if I find myself standing on the end of the North Jetty [Packery channel] that I will have done more then packed away ‘gobs of cash’. P.S. I haven’t been feeling well lately, not only the leg injury. I just saw the x-ray yesterday, one of the discs in my spine is almost completely gone. I was a little surprised to have seen it was really that bad. As of today I think I will have to retire with 25 years as a firefighter. I will be 45 next month, but I didn’t plan on retiring just yet. I really don’t look bad [I hope!] I mean I still look in shape and athletic, but the limp has been giving me away. I also tried to run and realized I cant anymore. I kinda felt a little depressed about that. If I knew that I wouldn’t run again I probably would have done as much as possible this last year. I would appreciate you guy’s prayers, thanks! NOTE: I don’t want you to feel sorry for me, I want to be real with you and get you to pray for me! Because of the way we ‘do church’ it is common to have scenarios where the main leader [Pastor] is overburdened with ‘the pressures of a big ministry/organization’ and the people see this and feel for him. In some more severe situations [where it looks like the Pastor is on the verge of a nervous breakdown!] you can develop really unhealthy environments where week after week the ‘stresses’ are so obvious, and the peoples main relationship with the Pastor is one of ‘I really am trying to do all I can to support you’ even if it means ‘enabling’ situations that are not good. This is an outgrowth of the unnatural environment of the position of ‘the Pastor’ that is not really seen in the New Testament. You did have scenarios of believers [leaders and others] who were struggling and needed prayer. But because there really was no office of a ‘Pastor’ that was the primary speaker [Sunday after Sunday for 30 years in a row] of the local church, therefore you didn’t develop these long scenarios of ‘enabling’ someone and also the co dependency that sometimes can surround the situation. To be sure not all Pastors fall into this category, but I wanted to show how the present model of the Local Church is more prone to allow these things to go on.

(452)  Let me give you a little example of how ‘so not in control’ I am. I have been trying to post this blog site in the Bergen Record for a few months. As far as I know they have posted it a few times already [at least I know they deducted the payment from my checking!] Well I finally got a hold of the person who does the church ads, she is a nice lady. But I was kinda concerned because I didn’t get any ‘hard copy’ of the ad, and you cant find it on the papers web site. So after weeks of trying to get this straightened out, I finally got her to send me a page of the paper thru the mail. I was looking for it for a week or so and it never showed up. Then my wife finds it last night in a stack of junk mail [by the way ‘junk mail’ is the name I use to refer to all types of stuff. Critical prosperity brothers who send me rebukes, bills and all sorts of stuff!] I am happy to realize it made it to my house; they did have the wrong zip code on it. I was tempted to open it up while sitting on the couch trying to recuperate from some hard days I have been having. I already have learned to not open mail unless you are prepared to deal with whatever problem might arise. It’s like just picking up the phone when it rings. I NEVER answer my house phone [maybe one time out of 500 hundred]. I will be sitting right next to it, reading the paper or eating. It can ring 50 times [my wife and daughters friends must have the same genetic problem that causes someone to do this!] and I refuse to even look at the caller I.D. I always carry my cell phone and my family knows if they need me to call me on it. Sometimes my kids will see me sitting there as the house phone rings 20 times, they will be in the restroom or something. They will be upset that I didn’t even care to look at the caller I.D. Well anyway the principle is if you allow any interruption to hit you at any time, you will not accomplish much. So even though I was excited to finally have a chance to actually look at our ad that has been running for a few months, I figured let me wait until the morning before I open the envelope, my wife cant do stuff like this! So anyway I just opened it, the religion section looks great. I haven’t read a ‘hard copy’ from a Jersey Paper in a while. I enjoyed seeing all the church ad’s and stuff. I am kinda expecting our ad to be wrong, which would mean I have been paying for a wrong ad for months. It wasn’t wrong at all. As a matter of fact it wasn’t even there! O well, I knew I wasn’t supposed to look at it last night. NOTE: At least all you tithers can now say ‘we told you the Lord was gonna get it from you one way or another!’ NOTE: I know some of you think it’s irreverent to even kid like this. In the New Testament ‘the tithe’ wasn’t the main ‘standard’ of spirituality as it has become today. The main standard was the Sabbath. The Sabbath became the key tool of measurement that the Pharisees would use to judge Jesus. You could have said that Jesus actually ‘was in their face’ on this issue. Jesus purposefully would heal on the Sabbath. In today’s mindset you could have thought ‘well, we know the Pharisees were wrong in the way they elevated the Sabbath to something that it wasn’t, but we do live in a pluralistic society, and in keeping with the respect for all religions, Jesus could have simply avoided healing on the Sabbath. He still could have healed as many as he wished and he would have also been making the gospel more ‘acceptable’ to the religious mindset of the day’ Jesus would have none of it! Why? Because one of the major barriers that would stand in the way of the fledgling church would be legalism. Jesus wanted to be the ‘first’ prophetic sledgehammer that would open the way for the other ‘grace preachers’ who would come after him. In essence Jesus HAD TO HAVE DONE THESE THINGS ON THE SABBATH or else it would not have offended the religious mind enough to provoke it into reformation!

(453)  I have recently been thinking on the shortness of life. Not only do the toys we have rust [like my 66 Mustang] but our bodies ‘die daily’. I feel sad for some of the teachings in the church that really are obviously wrong. I really don’t know what else I can do to bring to our attention the need to live above ‘stuff’. As I was just outside praying, not feeling too well, I thought of the time I heard it taught that when Jesus said ‘Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where moth doth not corrupt, or thieves break thru and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also’. I know you guys are tired of hearing me, I am tired too. I really am not in ‘a rebuking’ mode at all right now. I am physically and emotionally drained and tired of the whole thing. It was taught once by the prosperity teaching that this meant ‘when you give by faith, you are actually building up an account in heaven [sort of like a bank book/ledger] and this is what it means to store up treasure in heaven. And then when you have built up a huge account, by faith you can make withdrawals on it here. Your faith is ‘causing the things that are not seen [the account in heaven] to manifest the into things that are seen’. I really feel at times I am at the end of my rope explaining these things. You will be surprised how many intelligent influential people cannot see this as wrong. Do I really need to tell you that this is obviously not what Jesus is teaching. Why do all my prophetic friends not deal with this? Why do you brothers/sisters not give me some help in trying to bring this thing back on track? I don’t think these types of interpretations are funny at all anymore. A lot of my prophetic/pastoral friends will ‘wince’ at stuff like this in private. But in public say things like ‘well, God is happy with all the people who have been won to the Lord thru all the money that the prosperity gospel has brought in’. Just give me some help guys, stuff like what I just showed you is taught en masse thru out this country today [and the world]. I do not want to be an alarmist, I just feel like we need to really build up treasure in heaven, lets not live for this world anymore.

(454)  I haven’t Picked up the San Antonio paper in about a week, I got it today on my way to the spine doctor, the headlines were ‘CENTRAL TEXAS GETS DRENCHED’ We have had more flooding this month [6-2007 for those who read this stuff in 10 years from now!] in certain parts of Texas than since 1970. The state is getting ‘poured on’. I told you guys earlier this year that the Lord led me to pray ‘pour out water upon him that is thirsty and FLOODS upon the dry ground’. I also felt like we started ‘flooding’ the dry ground this year more than any other year since we started the ministry. Actually the image I have had while praying outside in the mornings [3 am type mornings!] is God ‘blog spotting’ the state. Pouring out thru the various means that he has given us [you also!] thru his Word like rain and snow. I just quoted the other day in a dream the scripture in Isaiah ‘As the rain and snow come down and water the earth and make it to bud, so is the word that goes forth out of my mouth, it accomplishes the thing for which I sent it’ I just felt like the Lord is really pouring out this year on Texas, especially San Antonio for those of you in our ‘range’. NOTE: I really try to ‘not exaggerate’ when writing, I just heard on the radio, the City of Austin [our Capitol] has had more rain this week that at any other time since the state has kept records [1870]. One city had 19 inches in one day. NOTE: read entry 441, I had a dream of flooding a few weeks ago. These recent floods have been on the news and in the papers. I have been seeing images of entire roadways and regions flooded in ways that I have never seen before in Texas. I have been here for 27 years and have never seen it like this.

(455)  I felt like God just had a prophetic word for you ‘There are times in my will where your scenery [that which you see] is going to change. These are transition times. When this happens it is your responsibility to recognize it and allow the scenery to change. You don’t ‘change’ it by any thing you do, you just recognize that things are changing and allow it to happen’. If you don’t transition when these seasons are upon you, then the world will provide a destiny for you [Larry Randolph].

(456)  Recently I have been struggling a lot with nervousness and depression. I know leaders are not supposed to say this, but I want to be honest with you, also I need your prayers! I read a story in the paper the other day on some guy who started some Christian paper in California. It works with needy people and all. The story was great. He had suffered the loss of three children thru various mishaps and was mad at God for years. One day he read a verse in Corinthians from the message bible, I don’t have it in front of me, but it’s the verse that says ‘When we go thru struggles God comes and comforts us, so when others struggle we can comfort them with the same comfort God has given to us’ It says ‘God comes along side us’ this is the name of the Holy Spirit, he is called the comforter. During my recent struggles I have felt really desperate. All the verses on Peace that I have memorized over the years are really helpful to me at this time. This is why David says in Psalms ‘thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee’ Also Jesus says to the disciples ‘the Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance all the things that I have told you’. Wow, I didn’t even realize as I just sat down to write, that I was going to even say this. As you look at it this is one of the ways the Holy Spirit comforts us, by bringing to our remembrance these words of Jesus on Peace ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid’ ‘Do the things that make for peace’ ‘he is our peace’. One of the things I am re learning is the importance of thinking and meditating on the Lord. The Christian music channel is on 24 hours a day in my home. A few nights I have just prayed all night, many times the songs are actually psalms of intercession that I simply agree with in prayer. These next few weeks I will try to share things to comfort you as God comforts me. I have had times in the past where I have battled these types of things, it helps me to be more merciful towards others when I go thru this. I realize I have been hard at times, if I have offended any of you guys [needlessly] then I ask for your forgiveness. Thanks, John. ‘Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee’ ‘trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto thy own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths’. Christianity isn’t always about climbing the next mountain, sometimes it’s learning to trust him in the valley. ‘thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear. And from terror, for it shall not come near thee’ ‘be not afraid of sudden fear, for the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken’ ‘this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God’.

(457)  Some of this feeling of disorientation that I am going thru is due to the fact that I haven’t been doing my normal routine that I have been doing for the last 24 years! I have been off of work for a few weeks, and I haven’t been driving thru the towns and praying in that way [though I am still praying]. This is a sense of ‘spatial disorientation’ [I don’t even think this is a word!]. I kind of feel disorientated because of change. This sometimes happens with believers. During times of personal transition as well as corporate [reformation] there is a feeling of unease and upheaval that comes along with change, even if it is God ordained! The natural tendency of the flesh is to rebel against this. Sometimes we mistake the feeling of ‘uneasiness’ as a sign of God not wanting the change. I think it’s more that we often don’t feel comfortable in new environments. That’s why I do understand when certain individuals feel fearful and uneasy about transitioning in the area of moving on with God. I still feel a sense of ‘comfort’ and peace when I visit a Catholic church. It reminds me of my boyhood and provides a sense of ‘attachment’ to my roots. Does this mean I should become Catholic? No. But it shows how in man he identifies his experience with God thru the external environment that he was brought up in. When God ‘changes’ that environment we often measure what we will do based on comfort. If this ‘truth’ [whatever area God is dealing with] makes me uncomfortable there is a natural tendency to return to the ‘environment’ that we are familiar with. We identify it with God. I do not fault people for this, it’s just when God leads us to ‘move on’ we need to take the steps he shows us and trust him along the way, it truly can be scary.

(458) The other day I was feeling so disoriented that I went to a doctor clinic to see if they could give me a temporary sedative, something that could help at this time. Years ago I had gotten a shot of something and it helped. The doctor checked me out and prescribed some medication for anxiety that she said ‘once you get on it, you can not stop taking it’. In essence ‘we will give you something to make you an addict’ gee thanks. I took it for 2 days [2 pills] and looked on line for natural sedatives. I do take around 7-8 supplements every day. Vitamins, natural oils [fish, flax seed] and the other basic good supplements that I have read on. I do believe the ‘leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations’ [bible]. I saw the 2 top natural remedies that were agreed on by most people. They were ‘St. Johns Wort’ a combination of herbs made from a ‘yellow flower’. And ‘Valerian’ another plant that is used widely in Europe. I was going to go with Valerian, I am trying to hear God on this. This last year I have had signs about the ‘yellow sunflowers’ they are the ones in my yard that turn into the ‘puffballs’ and I have had signs about them this year. As soon as I read that St. Johns Wort was made from yellow flowers, I knew that was the way to go. To show you how ‘dense’ I can be, it never dawned on me that my name is John and one of the supplements is ‘St. John’ it’s like God can hit you over the head with a sign and you don’t even see it! Now let me give some spiritual stuff. I just quoted a verse ‘the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations’. God speaks of people as trees. Your life and mine are to ‘take root’ and ‘spread out’. God wants to flow thru you as an extension of his Son in the earth. Jesus is called ‘the branch/vine’ also the old testament has a verse speaking of a person who God has called, it says ‘the man whose name is the branch, he will branch out of his place and build the temple of the Lord’. The tree itself is not ‘for the touching of the nations’ in these images. The tree will produce fruit/leaves/acorns that drop down and others partake of the ‘leaves’ and they are the direct contact points to the nations. God wants our lives to touch others, and thru these ‘leaves’ [people/disciples] he will touch/contact the nations. Our lives and ministries are not for the purpose of us individually [us meaning key leaders] to do all the ‘touching/impacting’ but we do ‘touch/impact’ a key group of people [Jesus had 12] and they in turn go and touch others, and so on. These are the ‘leaves’ of the tree. Let the Lord use you to be a consistent ‘tree’ [mainstay of wisdom] in the lives of key people, and they will carry on the purpose that God has ordained for your life.

(459) ‘ISAIAH 57’  ‘the righteous perisheth and no man takes it to heart, none considers that he is taken away from the evil to come’ God has/is removing some of you from familiar territory. This ‘land’ has been a source of provision in the past, he is now moving you away from it. You seem confused as to why others can receive income/resource from this land, but you cannot. God is saying ‘I am removing you from these sources because they will not be their for ever, they will dry up. Others put their trust in them, they will fear when the source dries up’. ‘He that putteth his trust in me shall posses the land and shall inherit my holy mountain, and shall say cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people’ those who trust in the Lord as opposed to their own wisdom will be used to remove the things that have been causing Gods people to stumble. Don’t rejoice in the fact that you see it when others don’t. You only see these stumbling blocks because of Gods grace, a man can receive no ministry unless it was given to him as a free gift from God. ‘I dwell with him that is humble and contrite, I will revive them’ ‘I will not contend forever, nor always be wroth’ God says there are things he wants to remove and change in us. The things he has shown us should produce humility and a contrite spirit. Don’t ‘kick against the pricks’ don’t rebel against the things God has shown you to change. Don’t blame the prophets, they are just seeing/saying the words of God. ‘For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him. I hid [stopped correcting him for a season] and he went on forwardly in the way of his heart [this part of the Body excelled and went forward in the ways that they chose, even though the Lord had previously said no more] I have seen his ways and will heal him and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners’ Many who have become renown in the area of ‘covetousness’ will be healed. They will see how off track they have been and God will forgive and restore and continue to use them [Jim Bakker] but first there will be a humbling. NOTE: All true ministry is really not about us ‘fulfilling our dreams’ or ‘achieving our goals’ it’s about being faithful to God. Saying and doing the things he wants. You will be fulfilled by doing this, but this is a result, not the goal.

(460)  I have my original King James Bible that my wife bought me when we were first saved. I gave it to my friend Miguel [the friend who came to Texas with me from New Jersey] and he used it for a year or two. He eventually got a new one and returned it. He later would die of aids. Many years later as I looked thru this ‘keepsake’ I saw the notes he wrote in it. He would underline stuff and write ‘ask John about this’ and stuff like that. I felt the Lord allowed me to have a reminder of our ‘first fruits’ from Jersey. Miguel was the first Jersey friend I led to the Lord. These types of things are where the true riches are found. Don’t worry about who will run the ministry/church/501c3 corporation after you are gone. This isn’t the legacy at all. The legacy is the children of God that you will meet on the other side, this will be a great family reunion for sure. Have you sent any treasures on to the others side?

(461)  Felt like I just heard the Lord for Pastors/leaders. Don’t struggle for the success of your ministry/church/organization, but look for the opportunities to simply impact people. Paul rejoiced when God gave him an open door to preach the gospel to various people groups. The New Testament apostles weren’t rejoicing over the success of ‘their ministries’. Don’t spend all your time and focus on the function of the organization, simply build into the people.

(462)  Let me share a key with you guys. Over the years there have been times where I have gone thru drastic upheaval and difficulty. Thru out these times I also have consistently prayed a regular intercessory type prayer time for others. Just now I finished a few hour intercession time that goes thru a variety of things. During this time I will quote lots of scriptures that come to memory every time I do this. I have also noticed recently that when you go thru periods of anxiety/depression that it is very hard to focus on things. Watching TV and other things is difficult. At least in my case I find it hard to maintain a long lasting rest. But when I do the regular prayer that includes a continual routine of scripture quotes and intercession, its like the practice of disciplining the mind for over 20 years has benefits. How many people live their lives with no mental discipline? When they go thru a time of testing in the area of the mind, they do not have a ‘stronghold’ of many years of ‘prayer’ practice. This time of a few hours [sometimes more] is a focused time of thought where there is no external media giving you a message. It is also not a desperate cry for help [which is OK by the way!] but it is a consistent act of mental integrity that has been engrained in the mind of the intercessor that makes it easy/routine to have no other thoughts but God during this prayer time. If you haven’t already developed this practice years before, you will not be able to master it when the trials hit. God will still hear you when you pray, don’t get me wrong. But the actual mental discipline of a few hours of focused consistent prayer over a 20 year period provides a ‘marathon’ of mental focus that comes as routine for those who have partaken of it thru out their lives. If you don’t presently do this, then start now! Scripture says that in the end time’s men’s hearts will fail them for fear, today’s # 1 prescribed drug [if I remember right] has to do with rest and overcoming anxiety. Learn this discipline now, cause when anxious times come, it will be impossible to train your mind at that time. NOTE: scripture says the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. People don’t pray for others during times of severe trial unless they see it as a function of their responsibilities before God. Job didn’t all of a sudden pray for his friends during his trials, Job had a lifestyle of prayer for others that he saw as a responsibility before God. He prayed for others because during your most trying times you still try your best to do the basic requirements of life, the things you see as necessity. The intercessor naturally sees his time of prayer as one of these basic necessities. He doesn’t view prayer as a religious function. As he lives up to this responsibility before God he unconsciously will continue to pray for others as has been his custom, the turning of the intercessors captivity is a ‘side’ effect of his prayer. He doesn’t realize that as he begins interceding for others that God is actually using this as a tool for his own deliverance, he just realizes it afterwards. Only a true intercessor will find himself in this position. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than receive. The intercessor finds true deliverance as he gives himself away in prayer for others, God comes along side those who stand in the gap for the world. The ‘comforter’ will come when you least expect him [that is for your own benefit].

(463)  Let me remind you guys of something. I just had the dream of Jezebel and the friendly fire incident the other day. Within a week all hell broke loose. I just thought I would remind you.

(464)  I was just hearing the Lord on transition and change. When God sent Moses to deliver the people from Egypt, this was done out of an answer to their prayers. God said he heard the cry of his people who were in bondage and he raised up Moses. What was one of the bondages they were under? They were forced to build bricks for the ‘buildings of men’ [I don’t relate this to ‘church buildings’ in as much as to modern ministry mindsets that see the people as producers/suppliers to build ministries and other things. We often see Gods people as simply funders of Christian projects]. So God answers their prayers, great! This must mean things get better. O really! One of the results of Moses ministry is Pharaoh makes the children of Israel work twice as hard, and he doesn’t even give them the supplies to do it. Basically the initial result of the answered prayer is difficulty. It just seemed like things got worse. Thanks a lot Moses. Who do you think you are any way, coming to us with this great vision? We think it’s your fault. Moses was thinking ‘hey, you guys have been whining [praying] for help. God took me away from my ranch and comfortable lifestyle as a result of your prayers and now you guys are blaming me!’ You will see this scenario play out time and again with Moses and the people. I see prophetic ministry [the book of Acts calls Moses a prophet] as one of upheaval and transition. Often times we as Christians settle into comfortable places in God. We ‘exist’. We think this is Gods purpose. But we also know there is something more, some destiny in God that he wants for us. We pray for change, we ask God ‘do something’ and then he shakes things up. How do we respond, we want to kill the messenger! Moses was a type of Christ. Jesus showed the high cost of change. He introduced a tremendous transition from old law to new. The message of God accepting us freely based upon Christ’s death and resurrection is a wonderful message. The transition was so great that it instigated the death of the Son of God. Let’s be careful when God uses individuals to shake things up, it might just be an answer to our prayers!

(465) A few years ago I had a knock on the door. I was sleeping on the couch in the middle of the day and got up to get the door. Sure enough it was some Jehovas Witnesses or Mormons [I forget]. I usually do have good talks with them. I also have been rude at times. One time I told a salesman that whatever he was selling was against my religion, and he left. This day I answered the door and saw the surprised look on the face of the brothers. I just knew I must have looked like Moses coming down from the mount when his face was shining. Or maybe it was the strong prophetic anointing on me? Well after a few minutes they left, seemingly without a fight. As I walked back to my living room I caught a glimpse of myself in the hallway mirror. My 2 little girls had put beautiful bows in my hair as I was sleeping. Gosh darnet, I thought it was the anointing!

(466)  A few years back I visited my mom in Jersey. She has a good Christian friend [Catholic] that she has told about me over the years. You never know what people think ‘my sons a preacher in Texas’. People think ‘cult/Waco’ and all sorts of stuff. I finally met this nice lady [Joan] and we did have some good fellowship. She had some questions and there were even some prophetic things that happened. I answered a few questions before she asked them. She would say ‘how did you know I was going to ask that?’ I like it when people are not familiar with prophetic things and just respond in childlike faith! Well I do kid a lot. She finally is feeling comfortable with me and asks something about Oprah Winfrey. She then says ‘you do like Oprah don’t you’ and I said ‘we teach that Oprah is the anti christ’ she simply looks at me and says something like ‘o you do’. I of course told her that I was kidding. Thought it funny that she was willing to go along with my doctrine for a few seconds!

(467)  Many years ago one of the first friends I met was a drug addict who lived with his aunt. I met him while going to the local jails and preaching to the inmates. He became a good friend of mine and was one of the original guys I worked with. He is dead now, he died while serving the Lord, but reaped many years of physical abuse of his body. He died of liver problems, something addicts deal with. This is not the friend I told you about earlier who also was an addict and became a preacher and later died as well, his name was Elias, this brother’s name was Emmett. He had a son [Emmett Jr.] who is still a good friend of mine till this day. The aunt who raised these boys was a wonderful woman. She was an older Catholic lady in her 70’s and I got to know her as I would pick up her nephews for our home meetings we used to hold. She became a very faithful attendee to our little church. She would tell me stuff like ‘brother John, my Catholic friends ask me “why do you go to brother Johns little church, you are Catholic” and she would say “ I learn more from brother John than from the Mass” now I love the Catholic people and am definitely not what you would call ‘anti Catholic’. I found it interesting that this older woman, who I called ‘Aunt Bee’ was a schoolteacher for many years. She taught famous people from our state as they were growing up. She had Senator Carlos Truan and Representative Irma Rangel as her former students, key influential people who came from a small town in Texas [Kingsville]. It’s funny how the Lord would allow a teacher of leaders to learn from a little insignificant preacher who was doing his best to reach out to addicts. God works in strange ways. He will often open doors of influence to you when you are not looking for them. I have found the friendships made along the journey are the things that really matter. The connections with people as you are ‘doing ministry’ become the thing of value down the road. The ‘act/function’ of ministry is often the side detail, while the valuable things are the friends who are on this road with us. I had someone recently tell me that they heard some of my old cassette tapes that I made years ago [during this time of doing home meetings]. I have had others tell me this before. These old tapes are not at the ‘level’ of thought and understanding that we currently teach at. I actually have told people ‘o, don’t listen to those old tapes, they were at an immature stage of teaching’. But then I stopped saying this because I realized that God speaks to people at the level of where they are at at the time. I don’t want to sound condescending, but God uses us, he is not primarily concerned about whether we look good, or are at our best. He simply desires functional fruit. If a simple tape from days gone by is what he chooses, than that’s fine with me. They don’t have to hear my ‘best’ stuff, that’s not what’s important. Well I find it interesting to realize that God will allow you to be a teacher of ‘teachers’ if you will humble yourself and become a servant of men.

(468) ISAIAH 58 ‘Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins’ When prophets go thru difficulty, the first thing they question is ‘have I been too hard on your people?’ God is going to deal with this in this chapter. He starts by first of all telling Isaiah ‘I have called you to reveal to my people their sins, it is my calling for you to show them the areas they don’t fully see yet. Their ‘sins’ of ignorance. They often ask for me. I am going to show them things about church and the way they worship me that are limited. Showing them ‘their sins’ is not a function of judgment, it is a necessary ‘uprooting’ that they need in order for their prayers to be answered.’ God is basically telling Isaiah ‘when things are hard and difficult, don’t question my basic revelatory ministry thru you. You don’t have the right to stop speaking what I am saying!’ ‘Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, they ask of me the ordinances of justice and take delight in approaching me’ we as believers take the act of seeking and asking and learning, and we turn it into ‘doing what God wants’. In essence we have developed a mindset that says ‘I go to church, I learn all the bible tricks on how to have a happy and prosperous life. If I am ever confronted with teaching that doesn’t appeal to me, or requires sacrifice, I have already learned to ignore it, you cant fly with eagles if you think like a turkey’ we basically have bypassed the instructions on self sacrifice and giving our lives away for the Kingdom. We simply think the ‘acts’ of going and learning from bible truths, even if it is all based on self, that this in itself is pleasing to God. God says why do my people by pass all my instructions and then delight that they are going to approach me? It’s because our ‘approaching God’ in the present mindset of the western church is simply for self-fulfillment. We approach him like a cosmic Santa Clause and this delights us. God says I want to show you things that I require from you and I want you to do them. Don’t simply think that you are pleasing me by ‘approaching me’ I want the action/obedience to be the fruit of your ‘approaching/church going’. [NOTE: It is not totally wrong to seek God for self help/improvement. It’s just many of us in today’s church have made this the priority. When people watch the ‘get rich and famous’ infomercials on the weekends, there is a feeling of ‘hope and self fulfillment’ that simply comes from surrounding yourself in an environment of ‘maybe that can be me someday’. Its OK to hope, but scripture does teach us [1st Timothy 6] to ‘not desire to become rich’ as well as Jesus many other warnings in the gospels. So I just want to warn you to not fall into the trap of making ‘church/approaching God’ a format for self help. It might ‘feel good’ to see Christianity thru this materialistic lens, but in the end it can be dangerous] ‘Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free, that you break every yoke. Is it not to feed your food to the hungry, that you bring the poor to YOUR house. You should clothe the naked, and help your own natural family. If you do these things you will get healed, your goodness will shine like the morning sun. You will call to me and I will hear. Take away from you the bondages, the blaming of others and speaking vanity. Draw out your soul to the hungry, feed them and satisfy them [even with your ministry/teaching] and your light shall rise in obscurity and your darkness will be like day’ you find all the elements of Jesus earthly ministry contained here. The Pharisees lived for religious ritual. They fasted and afflicted themselves [and others] Jesus reached out in love and poured his soul out for the needy, Isaiah is prophesying the heart of Jesus here. God accepts a lifestyle of giving your life away for others. Jesus would teach that this type of love is the greatest commandment. Here we see the heart of ministry. I want to challenge everyone [especially leaders] to re examine your ‘ministry’ does it contain these most fundamental elements? Do we carry out ministry in a way that simply tells the world ‘hey, look at us, we are a highly motivated business and we can compete with any other organization in our area’. Do we view ministry this way? Jesus values the souls of those who lay their lives down for others, don’t fall into the trap of establishing religious functions for the purpose of impressing men. This is what 1st century religion digressed to, even though one of their own prophets [Isaiah] warned against it centuries before! ‘thou shalt be like a spring of water who’s waters fail not. They that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places and make the desolate cities to be inhabited [I added this last part from another place, I am so used to saying it like this] Thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in’ God is saying when you give yourself away for others, when you obey him. When you show compassion. When you do not view ‘ministry’ as trying to attain some degree of respect in the ‘corporate world’ when you approach it like Jesus, then the Lord will allow your influence to go far. The people you impact will be used to spread the Kingdom to various cities. The people will be ‘faithful to the things you spoke’ because they are enjoined to you like a ‘band of brothers’. There memories of you will truly be that of a friend who gave himself away for them. These also will ‘repair breaches, restore paths’ there are so many true Christian values and principles that Jesus taught were the foundations of his Kingdom, things like self sacrifice and laying down your life for others. God will use your ‘seed/offspring’ to restore these ‘lost’ teachings back into the Church. We are so consumed with ‘self help’ that we have lost the foundational principles of the Cross. ‘ If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing what you want on my holy day’. In context God is saying ‘if you rest in me, and stop doing your own works in my day of grace, then I will move mightily on your behalf’. If you remember I already showed you on this blog how the Sabbath is a type of entering into the covenant of Grace. When you cease from your own legalistic attempts to do Gods work, then God will come in and do them thru you! ‘not doing thine own ways, nor speaking thine on words’ much of modern ministry [especially Pastoral] is under the burden to ‘come up with something to speak on for an hour on Sunday’ many of these brothers are well meaning, but because we have structured the church in today’s world around the ‘Sunday meeting’ it has put a burden on Pastors to come up with something to say every Sunday at a certain time. The New Testament churches didn’t function like this. Therefore we have a lot of ‘speaking our own words’ we don’t realize that we are doing this, but in essence we are. I would simply encourage all Christian teachers/speakers to speak only what you hear God saying. If God has a certain vision or direction that he has planted in your heart, then build that into the people. Don’t go thru 20 verses all over the bible and then try to make them fit some theme. The bible has plenty of ‘themes’ already. Focus on whole portions of scripture and teach them as God directs. A lot of the unbalanced teaching in the church today is a result of teachers jumping all over the bible in a 30 minute time span and then making the bible say something that it never meant! ‘If you do all this, then I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth’ lets conclude this chapter with an overview. If you do all the things in this chapter: give yourself away for people. Have true religion as described in the book of James. Don’t point the finger in accusation at people, when reproving, which is a function of the prophetic, do it in love. When you speak and do what God is saying, instead of coming up with your own ‘peculiar brand’ of seeing everything, then God will exalt you to a high place. In essence this is the ministry of Jesus, who lowered himself more than any man, who did all the things you read about in this chapter and then God gave him a name that is above all others. Do the will of God my friends and he will exalt you in due season.

(469)  Just had a dream. I was in a classroom and the teacher had to punish me. The punishment was I had to leave the class and go fishing. I was fishing off the side of a wall and it was a little scary. I felt like the Lord was saying some of us have remained ‘too long’ in the classroom environment. We have made a ‘career’ out of waiting and learning. God says he is more than pleased with the amount of preparation time you have put in, it’s been more than most. Your inability to ‘break’ from this environment of waiting is no longer you being faithful to what God is saying, but it is now more of an insecurity and fear. You have learned to ‘feel comfortable’ in this ‘place’ and God is saying ‘get the seed out of the barn/ cast your bread upon the waters now so you will have some of it come back to you at a future time’ There is a time and season for every purpose. Even a time to cast things away. Be faithful to this time of transition, I will close up old storehouses and open up new ones, I am God! NOTE : The message bible says ‘change the way you think and act because my Kingdom is here now’ The Lord is saying you are so intricately connected to my purpose that you are already being used in a great way to affect my church. This is happening by virtue of the fact that you are a part of my Body. I am changing [giving Grace for this] the way you think and act for your own protection, your own survival. You cannot exist as a functioning part of my Body with old thought patterns and ways. This ‘uneasy’ time of change is for your benefit. You have been co dependant for so long on certain things that your Body and mind are ‘rebelling’ against my divine act of breaking these things off of you ‘your soul is escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler, the snare is broken and you are escaped’! PRAISE GOD FOR THIS!

(470)  I just went into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee [decaf now!] and caught an interview with a well known Christian leader. He was asked ‘what is your favorite city in all the world’ [they were in Jerusalem] and he said ‘of course Jerusalem, isn’t that the favorite city of all Christians?’ Let me show you how I would have answered; ‘my favorite city is what Paul described in Galatians as the ‘New Jerusalem’ John also calls her ‘the City that comes down from God out of heaven’ [Revelation] he then says this city is ‘the Bride, the lambs wife’. John also records in the gospel he wrote, chapter 3 ‘He that is born from above’. All this imagery speaks of the Body of Christ being Gods favorite city. This includes all nationalities who believe. Jews, Palestinians, Arabs [I didn’t say Muslims] and every other ethnic group on the face of the earth. For a Christian leader to pick any human city [govt.] and to make that the ‘all time favorite city’ is being ‘unequal’. Does natural Jerusalem ever kill Christians? All natural govts have executed people falsely, whether they meant it or not. Does natural Jerusalem ever persecute innocent people? All human govts, no matter how well intended have done this. Than brother, who is righteous in your eyes? The city that comes down from God out of heaven, she is the FAVORITE city, the apple of Gods eye.

(471) I just woke up from a dream a few minutes ago. There was a black man who was experiencing disillusionment from religion and the various streams and divisions in the church. He reminded me of Forrest Whittaker [the actor, I just saw him in the ‘last King of Scotland’ this is a great movie!] This brother was going from town to town in search of answers. He winds up riding along this deserted country road to a little church on the ‘prairie’. He walks in and I see him only sitting in the back row of this empty church. I can hear clearly the voice of the preacher but I do not see him. I only see the black brother. I recognize the preacher’s voice, I haven’t heard him in years, but I am very familiar with the voice. It is Kenneth Hagin. He is preaching on the legitimacy of the gifts of the Spirit, an area where I have credited brother Hagin for doing good. This black brother goes from sitting in the pew and getting up and kneeling and praying. It seems he is still disillusioned and is going thru difficulty. I am not sure what this dream means. Some of it deals with the church in general. Many believers [and many of our blog readers] have questioned things that have been difficult. Areas that you wish you never ‘ran’ into. Some have gone back and looked at the ‘fathers of their faith’ and have had to come to hard decisions. You have gone between sitting and listening and receiving the good things from your past, but you have also had to ‘get out of the pew’ [a place of passive receiving] and PRAY! God will honor your ‘royal courage’ in this and bless you. I also have had some of the most difficult weeks in my life recently. I felt like the Lord was saying to me ‘blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’. This one area of credit that I have given to brother Hagin has allowed God to be merciful to me. Too often in prophetic correction it is easy to denigrate the people you are reproving. It is too common to attack them personally and be mean. I feel the lord wants us to be merciful as we come out of past errors. God will be merciful to you if you plant ‘seeds of mercy’ along the way.

(472)  A few weeks back my wife told me about a dream she had. She was in our local Christian bookstore and was looking at the list of the top ten Christian books. Our materials were on the list. There was a preacher their [who is a friend of mine] and was saying ‘yea, but it doesn’t mean anything, you have to sell them’. A sort of demeaning of our materials because they are free of charge. I have dreamed myself on a number of occasions that we were having influence in this mans life. I feel like there are times when leadership feels insecure or threatened in some way. This exists among good men in the Kingdom. We unconsciously denigrate others [not legitimate reproof] out of this environment of competition. We measure how well we are doing by how well others are doing ‘gee, if they like Johns books, or Johns blog, don’t forget about our church, we have a blog too’ which comes from a sense of insecurity. I do believe the Lord has given us influence amongst key men ‘gentiles shall come to your light, and Kings to the brightness of your rising’. I pray for both the ‘gentiles’ and the ‘Kings’. NOTE: scripture says when a woman is giving birth, the pain is so severe that she wants to ‘undo’ the process, but after the son is born, her joy causes her to forget the pain. There are times where I have felt this way. I would be more than willing to abort the process to just get the pain to go away. I have learned that this doesn’t work! God wants to bring you to a place where he can entrust you to be faithful to what he is doing thru you. Many prophetic people feel insecure in receiving reproof in the areas where they might have prophesied wrong. We need humility in the prophetic. We must continue to speak what God is saying, in love, even if our ‘speaking it’ is the actual source of ‘the birth pains’. God is going to get that baby out of you one way or another, but he doesn’t do ‘C-sections!’

(473)  Yesterday I watched a few Catholic services as well as a few Protestant guys. The Lord did speak to me thru the Catholic Church more so than the others. I share this to let you know I am not too proud to receive from any Christian church. Now the other day Pope Benedict ‘clarified’ some things from Vatican 2 [the council from 1962-65]. In this council the Catholic church made a big step towards Christian unity. It for the first time acknowledged other Protestants as ‘separated brethren’ in this statement the church was not teaching that all Protestant churches are viable ‘churches’ it was simply saying they recognized these Christians in these churches as ‘separated Christians’. That is separated from ‘the one true church’. Now Benedict simply clarified this, and many are saying he is going back from the changes that were made in Vatican 2. So I just thought I would ‘clarify’ this as well. Why do Catholics, as well as other Protestants, do this? In the world of theology it is common to try and trace the natural roots of your communion to the original church. Many do this. To be as honest as I can, if this is the rule for ‘orthodoxy’ then I think the Catholics would win this argument. Why? Because the church in her early stages [1st few centuries] did digress into a ‘Catholic form’ early on. This is not to say that all believers took on this form. Nor is it to say that there wasn’t a ‘remnant’ of faithful believers who stood closer to the original intent of the church. This is saying that much of the historical evidence points to the church as being ‘Catholic’ in its expression early on. This is why you find thru out history famous brothers ‘returning back home’ to the Catholic church. I see all these communions as Christian though I certainly find disagreements in certain areas. Paul tells us in the New Testament to ‘no know man after the flesh’ I see the whole exercise of tracing your churches ‘roots’ back to the original Apostles [Apostolic succession] as fruitless. Scripture tells us that even the early Apostles made drastic mistakes that would be rebuked by Jesus saying to Peter ‘get thee behind me satan’ or later Paul rebuking Peter to his face and calling him a hypocrite. So if the ‘rock’ could have made such historic mistakes, you might simply be tracing your roots back to ‘the mistakes’ which I believe some of us have done. I see the true church as every one who names the name of Christ [Catholic, Protestant, etc.] but I do put the limit on having to ‘name his name’ that is I am not so ‘ecumenical’ that I believe all religions lead to God, this is not true! You must embrace the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father to get in. Well if you are trying to trace your roots, go ahead and trace them to the man whose name is the branch. John calls him the Vine in his gospel. If your ‘roots’ go back to him you will ‘abide for ever’.

(474)  Just had a dream. I was in a study hall area of some college, there was a girl there who was the daughter of a friend of mine. She had a question about the meaning of a word. She asked me what the word meant. I told her, but I also kidded her a little ‘what level of college are you at’? She said she was in her first year. There was another student nearby who kind of smirked at me giving an answer to someone, being I myself have never been to college. This other student said ‘he’s wrong, that’s not the answer’. So I said ‘go look it up for yourself, google it’. She then found that my definition was fully right, while what she thought the definition was, was only a very limited view. The complete definition had all that I had said, while her understanding was only one sentence out of around 5 or 6 possible meanings. She finally had to admit that I was right, and she did not want to admit it. Over the years I actually have had this happen to me. Someone would ask me ‘how do you spell this’ or ‘what does this word mean’ and I actually remember giving a definition or spelling and the person would look it up on line and not say anything. I then would ask ‘well, what did you find’? And they would reluctantly admit I was right. I feel like the Lord is saying many of you have held onto certain limited truths. You had a small area of ‘revelation’ but were not fully seeing the whole picture. Some of you have said ‘who does this guy think he is, he has never even been to bible school/college’. You then looked the stuff up on your own and have found us to be ‘more fully correct’ in our understanding of the ‘teaching’ in question. Even after your own studying has brought this out, you were still reluctant to receive it. You must overcome this pride of ‘being corrected’ and move on to the next level. All correction and rebuking is for the purpose of restoration and continued usefulness. Don’t allow the enemies tactic of pride to stop you from receiving your full inheritance. God has great things for you, who cares whom the Lord uses to ‘instruct us in a more perfect way’ just overcome the personas of men [even me!] and move ahead in Gods purpose.

(475)  One of the health problems that I have had for around a month now is extreme dizziness/vertigo. If you read the first few entries of this blog you will see that I have used the imagery of Apostles launching out into ‘new’ territories as the commander of a fleet of ships launching out to colonize new nations. When a ship launches on a long journey like this, one of the initial reactions is feeling ‘sea sick’ or a type of ‘motion sickness’. A period where the body needs to adjust from loosing its ‘footing’ on dry ground [or in dock] and re adjusting to a new type of ‘footing’. Where you learn to walk ‘on the water’ if you will. As God transitions some of you from a place of ‘secure footing’ to a more adventurous place of ‘walking on the water’ I want to encourage you to endure thru the voyage. Many turn back at ‘midstream’ out of fear and ‘cultural identity’ they feel ‘homesick’ and want to return to familiar territory. These types of people are just waiting for the next port to get off. They will never see the ‘new land’. Those who endure to the end [of the journey] will not only ‘save their own lives’ but they will be used to colonize new lands. You will truly be a ‘father of many nations’. NOTE:  don’t despise those who left out of fear. The children of Israel treated those who didn’t fully fight the same way as those who went out to war. The ‘punishment’ for those who ‘get off early’ will be there own regret at not having fully finished the course. Those who fully finish will receive a full reward. Leave the ‘judging’ up to God! NOTE; For those of you who have read all my recent entries on my health, go back and read the last note on entry # 405, I think you will find it interesting.

(476)  I just got a letter back from one of my friends in jail. He is the son of one of the original ‘addicts/ex-cons’ that were a part of the ministry in the early days. I sent him a package of books and stuff and he was real grateful to have heard from me. He gave the books to some fellow inmates to read [which is why I send the stuff!] and he was telling me how one of the guys was really ‘impressed’. This sounds conceited, but when I hear this I realize that someone who has been a Christian for a while and has had questions about stuff has found our little books to have revealed some real answers. I am going to send him another packet soon. He also told me one of the guys knows me. I do not remember the brother by name, but I have had so many buddies over the years that have become friends that it doesn’t surprise me. I know some people think ‘well, what are they doing in jail?’ Not all go back, but the reality is some do. I also reconnected this week with a homeless friend who I haven’t seen in a few years. I saw him walking down the road and stopped to say hi. He was real happy to get together. I invited him to go catch a lunch. He insisted he would pay, he really did try to, but I wouldn’t let him. It was only around 10 bucks, I didn’t eat. Just had a tea, but I wanted to buy. He did tell me I have taken him out to eat hundreds of times over the years and it was his turn. I think I probably have taken him to eat around a hundred times over the years. This is not ‘speaking evangelistically’ if you will! Being I have felt real sick these last few months I was glad to have had some good ministry time. I believe God wants us healed so we can finish the race. We often make ‘well being’ the goal. The goal is the completion of his will, well being [in all areas-health, finances, etc.] are simply tools for the purpose of doing Gods will. The American church is still at the stage of ‘well being for the sake of well being’ we will need to get past this before we can see true revival in our time.

(477)  I am walking in my study praying. I sense the Lord telling me to contact 2 friends of mine and give them the blog site. These are friends I have known for 20 years or more. One is in New Jersey and the other in Michigan. They already are familiar with the ministry and at least one has read my books. As I am praying I am asking the Lord ‘is this of you, is there any connection to these 2 names and why they are coming to mind’? I am sort of asking ‘what’s the connection Lord’ to show you how dense I am, as I pray there names [both first and last] it finally dawns on me that their last names are almost identical. It’s like you can be so dense at times you don’t ‘see’ the most obvious things. Note: These are not common last names either!

(478)  The other day I read a testimony from Tony Snow [the white house press secretary] he has been battling recurring cancer and when he returned back to work as press secretary a few months back, people were surprised. Not that he was healed [he’s not] but that he decided to live out his days doing what he felt called to do. The testimony was in Christianity today and it gave God glory. Ever since I heard of him getting cancer [a few months back] I actually have been praying for him by name. Yesterday I saw a picture of Tammy Faye Messner [former Bakker] in the paper, she looked like she was on her deathbed. It said she was 65 pounds and was recently on Larry King. Tammy has always maintained a Christian confession ever since she was well known for PTL and I have written her ex husband over the years [Jim Bakker] and he has sent me hand written thank you notes for the little books I have sent him. I just prayed for Tammy a lot yesterday. I even told my wife how bad Tammy looked and asked her to pray for her. My wife told me later that evening [I fell asleep around 8!] that Tammy passed away. I was glad I spent the day praying for her. I don’t want to make light of it ‘hey don’t pray for me too!’ type thing. I sort of had the feeling that it was too late for her healing. Not that God couldn’t do it, but the prayers were more in line with Gods grace being with her yesterday. It was!

(479)  Just had a dream [15 minutes ago] and part of it had my old area from North Bergen in it. Me and a few friends [from the present time] were walking past an old friend’s house. We stopped to look at the beautiful stained glass windows in the house. I told my friends ‘this is my old friends house [Billy Pokluda] he has a sad story. Both of his parents passed away when he was young. His dad used to make these stained glass windows [which was true!]’ I have had 4 dreams about old Jersey friends these past few weeks. In another dream I was with some old friends and we were having a home prayer meeting [which I am hoping to start some soon!] and I was praying ‘Father pour out your Spirit on all flesh’. I felt these dreams are speaking to God really working with some of our ‘blog community’ from Jersey. Any of you guys reading this, e mail me or write some comments in the tape catalog section of this blog. I would like all of our ‘blog community’ to interact this way. Some of you can e mail me for the address of my friends in jail, you can write them! Guys in jail need this, and it would help me out too!

(480)  I watched a prophetic conference the other day. I liked it. The brother is a well known ‘Prophet’ in prophetic circles. He did make a statement that I disagree with. He said ‘put behind you all doctrine, theology and creeds and just come to me’. He said this more than once. I do understand that there are times where God says ‘I am God, don’t look to yourselves for help’ I see that there is merit at times in ‘putting all you have learned behind you’ but the overall idea of disregarding theology, doctrine and creeds as ‘old stuff’ is not really biblical. Paul did say ‘hold to the traditions that I have taught you’ it is a funny thing that Paul’s ‘tradition’ in this passage [go and look it up, I forget where it is right now- either 1st or 2nd Thessalonians] is the tradition of ‘getting a job’. He actually is teaching if someone is not working, then he is a troublemaker! The point is ‘all tradition’ is not wrong. Its only when the ‘traditions of men’ usurp the Word of God. This is what you see Jesus rebuking in the Gospels. He says ‘by your traditions you have made void the Word of God’. So anyway I just wanted to clarify that true Christianity doesn’t mean you leave your brain behind you. It does mean that faith in God, even when you don’t understand it, takes priority. The ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ was forbidden to Adam in the garden. This didn’t mean Adam had no wisdom or knowledge,   to the contrary he was extremely intelligent. He named all living creatures off the ‘top of his head’. But not eating of the tree meant Adam was not to live his life based on his own moral criteria. His own ability to ‘think things out’. God would be his provider and sustainer. He had full access to the ‘tree of life’. The day Adam made the ‘knowledge of good and evil’ his standard, in that day he died! NOTE: Now look at something prophetic that is going to happen. I just remembered at the end of the above meeting, the Prophet shared a story about Elijah and the woman who was barren. I heard him share this a few times thru the meetings I have caught on God TV this month. The story emphasized ‘making room for the prophet’ at the end of these meetings. This GOOD, WELL MEANING brother is sharing this and saying how the people need to give money into the ‘prophetic’ in order to receive a blessing. This brother is Prophetic, no doubt. He is not a ‘crook’ or ‘fake’, I actually like him. The New Testament leaves NO ROOM for the receiving of money [whether offering/tithe/whatever] directly after the prophetic word. For some reason the early church abhorred doing this. The teaching from Christ about ‘freely you have received, freely give’ is really dealing with the ministry gifts deposited in the people. The earliest writings of the Apostles [early church] that we have today, apart from the bible are called the ‘Didache’ [the teaching of the Apostles]. Though this book is not scripture, it gives us  insight into the way the believers dealt with certain things. In the Didache it says ‘if a prophet stays around for more than a few days and is charging money, he is a false prophet’. Now I personally am not that hard. The point is today’s environment of ‘professional minister’ especially as it relates to the prophetic, is not seen in scripture. Though the New Testament leaves room for the financial support of laboring elders [Leaders] it does not permit the direct asking for money right after prophesying. The instance of the guy in Acts, Simon, who thought he could ‘purchase the gift of God’ with money is strongly rebuked by Peter. This guys name later came to represent the abuse of money and Gods gifts and not rightfully dividing the two. The definition of this is called ‘Simony’. The whole point is the above Prophet is a truly gifted brother, he does not see that the direct asking for an offering, and appealing to people to ‘give into the prophets ministry’ is really not scriptural. Though you can use the story of Elijah and others who did get material needs met thru people, the overall teaching that has Prophets actually prophesying and then seeing this as ‘well, I used the gift to build the church, therefore I am worthy of my reward’ and then correlating giving directly into the ministry with ‘giving to God’ is something the first century church would not permit. I am not saying this brother is not a Prophet, or that he is not being used of God. I am saying the Prophets today need to re think what it means to be in ‘Prophetic ministry’ and to bring their gifts more in line with scripture. That is if you ‘didn’t leave doctrine and creeds and theology’ at the door when you came in! NOTE: I have been following the restoration process of Paul Cain. Paul was the Prophet I told you about earlier on this blog. Paul is an older man who is sick and also takes care of some family members who are sick. In following Paul’s restoration I saw how the Christians who are helping him thru this were trying to explain why they feel Paul should start ministering again. Even though others feel he should stay low for a while. One of the reasons was for salary. The team of Christians working with Paul explained that Paul’s only [main] source of income was his prophesying. Therefore he realistically needed to start ministering again. I use this as an example only. I love and pray for Paul Cain. The point is we ‘see’ our gifts as our source of income. This is no where to be found in the New Testament. Again, the actual teaching from JESUS CHRIST was ‘freely you have received, freely give’. The early Christians took this seriously. The teaching from Paul on ‘laborers being worthy of their hire’ was simply showing us that it is all right to support, voluntarily, those who are giving themselves to the word and prayer. There is a big difference between the biblical support of elders [ministers] and seeing our gifts as a means of financial gain. Peter wrote in his letter for elders to not go into ministry for ‘filthy lucre’s sake’. So the idea of a prophetic gift bringing in money, right after the gift was used, is not good. The present church is so inundated with the prosperity gospel that she really doesn’t see or understand this principle yet. When we give, Jesus did say men would give back to us. But these verses must fit in with all the other ones you just saw me quote. Prophets should not ask for money after they prophesy, the New Testament has NO examples of this ever happening. And there is proof that the early church saw it as wrong. It is too common for the modern professional minister to apply ‘sowing into good soil/ giving to God’ to their specific ministry. Over 90 % of New Testament teaching on giving is actually giving to the poor. Meeting the real needs of people. In today’s environment, whether Christian TV or ‘pulpit ministry’ we constantly equate the believer’s faithfulness with giving to US. It is highly irresponsible for so many professional ministries/ministers to continue to do this. We need to redirect our appeal to the church at large and instruct them to give/sow into the needs of the world around us. It is a blatant misuse of scripture for the average believer to hear over and over again that ‘giving to God’ means giving to a ministry or minister. I have tried my best to explain this in the past [the store house being the actual people of God as opposed to the 501c3 church building] but I felt like we needed to be reminded of this.

(481)  Let me talk a little on ‘revival’ and ‘revivalism’. In the above meeting there was a real desire to ‘encourage’ the people to get aggressive. A sort of ‘up beat’ tempo that was trying to stir the people up. There is nothing really wrong about getting ‘hyped’ for the big game. There just needs to be an understanding that the locker room hype is only for a short time. The majority of the game is played and won by the consistent diligence of the players. Revivalism describes the rise in the 18th/19th century of strong ‘movement’ ‘revival’ type ministers. This country experienced great revivals during this time. Jonathan Edwards as well as Charles Finney and George Whitefield are well known ‘fire starters’ of these great awakenings. Today you have ‘old time’ preachers who still look for the ‘revival’ as the goal. Then on the others side you have the more refined preachers/theologians [who also can be seen as ‘old school’] who tend to lean more towards the classic strain of Christianity as seen in the creeds of the church. This is why when the ‘more refined’ brothers hear statements like ‘leave behind your doctrine and creeds’ they cringe at that. The strong revivalists are focusing on a repeat [or greater] of the great awakenings. The orthodox brothers keep plodding along at a slower pace, but do seem to have some truth about the turtle finally passing up the rabbit. The strong ‘hype’ type Christianity can really burn you out. Christians cant live on the hype plane of meeting to meeting and getting this adrenaline rush all the time. God does have a few occasional ‘mountain top’ experiences for you. There are set times of drastic change and mountain moving faith. But if you find yourself needing to live daily on a miracle, then something is wrong. What would you think if your kids depended on you like that. ‘Daddy, Daddy, oh please feed me today. I don’t know if I can live another day without you feeding me’ You would say ‘what’s wrong Johnny, you know I have fed you ever since you were a baby. You are now 55 years old, I was hoping you were going to get past this!’ [sorry, I couldn’t help it]. So in reality it is good to expect God to move miraculously on our behalf, and he does! But eventually we need to see that ‘revival’ is not a state of being where Christians live in this ‘high’ atmosphere continually. Pentecost was a good thing, a great thing! But the church eventually settled down and continued STEADFASTLY in the Apostles doctrine. They didn’t ‘put doctrine behind them’ after revival, they allowed the revival to charge them up for the next level of Christian growth.

(482) Last week I watched one of the most famous prosperity preachers do a conference on the west coast. I do not watch to be critical or look for faults. I feel sometimes the lord wants me to watch in order to learn whether or not there are true changes being made. As I watched I kind of felt a little sorry for the brother [for real!] it seemed as if there ministry has taken a toll over these last few years. Many on the west coast have become familiar with the extreme errors of this teaching, and it did look like it was taking a toll. I don’t rejoice over this. I enjoyed the praise and worship part of the meetings. I really felt the presence of God. I also was glad to hear the grandson [?] of the main preacher of this movement. He really preached well and had a greater passion for truth than the leaders of the movement. I watched just long enough to see what the founder of this group [from the Forth Worth area] was going to preach on. There have been times where I have seen brothers truly repent of the more extreme teachings from this camp. Sad to say the brother preached from Corinthians and took a small portion of Paul’s teaching on ‘whoever sows will reap’ and sure enough the whole focus was on getting money. Despite the fact that Paul will later teach Timothy [1st Timothy 6] that in the last days teachers will arise and teach that ‘gain is godliness’ from such turn away. It’s like the most obvious warnings from scripture are consistently overlooked, while we spend entire conferences teaching the side verses of scripture without truly getting to the heart of the matter. I do pray that the next generation coming up will return back to the pure exposition of the Word of God. NOTE: People don’t seem to understand the difficulty of turning from a way you have been taught your whole life and repenting back to the truth. Even when people are faced with indisputable fact, they still will not repent. This is something in man. The root of it is pride. We are all susceptible to this. When Jesus confronted the 1st century religious mind, he did it with absolute undeniable truth. No one could say he was wrong or had a fault. In today’s prophetic environment, you can always find fault with the Prophet. This tends to be the reason why the religious mind today is less open for correction. I have found it utterly amazing that intelligent leaders still dispute the fact that Jesus lived a simple itinerant lifestyle. Some will absolutely teach that Jesus actually was one of the richest men of his day. That he owned an expensive house and bought the most expensive stuff of the day. They will teach that his treasury was so wealthy that he and the disciples were the highest paid ministers of the day. Despite the absolute plain historical, biblical truth to the contrary. The deceitfulness in mans heart is a very hard obstacle to overcome. I do not take it personal when people don’t repent. Paul did instruct us to leave them alone after the 3rd warning of heresy. I still will warn the new believers to avoid it, though I have given up on trying to correct those who have seen the plain error of their doctrine and refuse to repent.

(483)  There are a lot of teachings I have done thru the years over radio. You can get an overview of them by reading the tape catalog on this site, but you don’t really get all the teaching unless you listen to all the programs. This would take years! So let me share a little old stuff that I think is relevant. A few years back I was working on my classic mustang in the garage. A couple of Jehovah’s witnesses stopped by. I was dirty and under the car, but I got out from under the car and had one of my good conversations with them. I tell them right off that I do embrace the new Kingdom on earth that God will establish in the future [all Christians do believe this whether they know it or not!] and then I shared how all who know Jesus by faith will have an inheritance in this new Kingdom. Partaking of it is a gift thru Christ, it is not only given to those who join some group. During this particular discussion the lady [they were a couple] mentioned something about the bible, to which I agreed, but I also told her that the 1st century church had no bible [like we do today, they did have the Old Testament and the early epistles were being written] and yet they were a strong church because they were established on the actual person of Christ. Jesus was building his church and this was a real living relationship that he had with his people. To my surprise the husband totally agreed with me. It was like one of those moments where someone has believed something for a while and someone else comes along and confirms it. It was funny, because both me and the husband were agreeing while the wife was ‘on the outside’. The point is we often confuse what the book of Acts describes as ‘they preached the word’. When Acts uses this terminology, the ‘word’ is expressly speaking of the message of God to man thru Christ. The ‘word of reconciliation’ if you will. That Jesus [the word] has now become the fulfillment of all the promises that were made thru the Prophets to Israel. This central message of Jesus gospel is ‘the word’. Now I do believe in scripture and the inspiration of it, but I want you to see that the actual reality of Jesus rising from the dead was the power behind the New Testament church. It wasn’t all the wonderful bible stories that we have today. You didn’t find them preaching on Jonah accept how it would relate to Christ [Jesus says ‘as Jonah was in the belly of the whale, so shall the son of man be in the heart of the earth’] so all scripture, especially the Old Testament, was now presented in a way that pointed to Jesus as the way to God. We often think ‘preaching the word’ is simply going to all these great bible stories or teaching some great bible principle. While these stories and principles are good for learning [Paul taught that all scripture is profitable] they are not the foundation of the church. The church [Spiritual community] is actually built upon the reality of the person of Christ. Jesus was actively administrating the growth of the New Testament church thru his Spirit. He said in the gospel of John that he was leaving them for a little while and then HE would come back. In this text he was speaking of the Holy Spirit. So the message [which by the way the gospel can also be called ‘the message’] was the actual person of Christ. Once the reality of the simple gospel began to spread in the 1st century, there was no stopping this simple truth. They did not have the availability of bibles like we do today. It was not until many centuries later that all Christians would have there own copies of the bible. Yet these ‘bible less’ churches were unstoppable! Lets ‘preach the word’ again like they did in the old days and we will see the same results! NOTE: In all these conversations I have with the Jehovah’s and Mormons I do what Paul did ‘I become all things to all people that I might save some’. I do not compromise to the points of heresy that these groups do embrace, but after a few minutes of talking with them as friends, and them seeing me quote both scripture and the histories of their movements, they begin to see me as one of them. I actually have had some tell me ‘wow, you know all the stuff we know’. One innocent ‘elder’ from the Mormons made the mistake of telling his ‘overseers’ this and he never came back! The point is I truly relate to them as real people who are on a quest for God. If they weren’t really seeking God do you think they would be going door to door for what they believe is Gods truth? Paul preached a sermon in Acts [I think Mars hill?] and the people were ‘superstitious’ which means ‘religious’ in this context. They believed in many gods. Greek culture had this type of Pantheism where all gods were welcome. Rome [who was heavily influenced by Greek thought- the word for this is ‘Helenization’] allowed you to have other Gods. You just had to worship the roman Caesar as ‘lord’ and this is what got the early church in trouble. While Paul was preaching to these ‘religious’ people, they had an altar to so many gods in their town, that to play it safe they even had an altar to ‘the unknown god’. They figured ‘hey, if we missed a god, this will cover it’. So Paul uses this ‘unknown god’ and tells this group ‘I am declaring to you who this unknown god is’. Paul took this opportunity of their religion and used it as best as he could to preach the true God. I see this in my approach to these groups. Identify as best as you can with them. They often don’t have real good conversations/friendships with true believers. If you are solid in the faith, become friends with them. Get the conversation back to ‘who there god really is’ and you will see God reveal himself on the ‘altars’ of religious people!

(484)  In a few weeks we will probably be finishing my overview of the last few chapters of Isaiah. As I was just praying I felt the Lord wanted me to speak a little more on ‘freely you have received, freely give’. There is a verse coming up in our Isaiah study [unless we already passed it?] that says ‘come, let him drink. Buy good stuff, without money and free of charge’ [my paraphrase]. Modern ministry is structured along the contemporary way we function in the corporate world. I need to make a distinction here. There are old time preachers who will criticize the church I attend because they play hard rock Christian music [hey, I listen to hard rock ‘unchristian music’]. I don’t want to be flippant here. I have absolutely no problem with modern ministries progressing and doing whatever it takes to get the gospel out. I am not in the camp of these old time brothers who are fighting for the ‘old time gospel’ but are really just defending a culture/heritage that has nothing to do with the gospel. I have already made plain thru all our teaching that the way we normally practice ‘church’ today is not in the New Testament. Now, as we progress as Christians [Pastors/leaders] we normally fall into the same mindset of the corporate world that causes us to ‘get our name known, be at the top of the charts, and publicize our personas for the sake of the ministry’. I just recently spoke on God exalting us in due time for his glory. Fame that comes from God is OK [Billy Graham]. It’s just the modern idea of going after it is so engrained in the way we do business that it’s hard for us to not violate the principle of Jesus when he taught ‘servanthood leadership’. The question of who would be greatest and rise to the top in Gods Kingdom was dealt with by Jesus in the gospels. He tried to change the thinking of ‘roman hierarchy’ to that of being last. It was hard for the disciples to truly grasp this principle, but he basically showed them that the normal idea of every man for himself as he works his way up the ladder was not the way the Kingdom would operate. So today we see nothing wrong with having highly famous people who Christian’s pattern themselves after to the degree where we have the ‘cult of personality’ operating in the Body of Christ. It is common for the universities of our day to put out Pastors/leaders who are looking to advance a business, and to see the ‘pastoring part’ as simply part of the whole package. I will serve these people [Marry, bury, etc] and they will tithe and together we will see this thing grow. The mindset is engrained into the way we function. We see ‘hired clergy’ as a vocation like we see ‘carpentry’. ‘Hey Pastor, you were hired to build this ‘house’ and if we think you are doing shoddy work we will fire you and get another contractor’ we function along these lines that Jesus expressly taught his disciples not to partake of. I just want to encourage all Christians today to see themselves as needed parts of the overall purpose of God for his church. We all are ministers who have gifts in us that are to be used to build up Gods people. Pastors, don’t see yourselves as punching a time clock. Give your self away for the world. Empower your people to do the same. We are not in this to make a name for ourselves, to impress the community around us, we are in this to fulfill his purpose and destiny. God highly values those who lay down their lives [their own desire to be ‘great’ in the eyes of men] and become the least in the Kingdom of God.

(485)  ‘Parable from a laptop’ A Few months back I started having problems with my laptop. It was slow and I couldn’t access my hotmail account. I recently told the Lord ‘Lord, I really need to speed this computer up, and I need to access my email, fix it for me’. Now I have tried to ad memory before and the local computer stores tried 4 or 5 different brands of memory and they told me there is something wrong with the computer itself and it will not take any new memory sticks. So I just prayed about it. You know how the Lord answered my prayer? My whole computer crashed! I took it to a friend who does the work on my computers and we put in a new hard drive and all sorts of stuff. It was down for a few days and I had to re learn some new tricks to get everything working right [I am very bad at computers. Though I have typed the lettering off of my laptop with my much writing, yet I am not good with them. Until recently everytime I scrolled down to the end of this site I used to simply do it the long way. One day my youngest daughter shows me something and scrolls all the way down the fast way. I told her I was doing it the other way and she couldn’t believe it!] The Lord answered my prayer by allowing the computer to go thru some drastic ‘down time’ and to come back stronger than before. I feel like the Lord is doing the same with many of us. He knows we have been asking for him to change things in us, it’s just that we never expected to ‘crash’.

(486)  I woke up this morning thinking about the incredible teaching/prophetic ministry of Jesus. No one could match his talent. He gave these stories [parables] that contained tremendous hidden truths. He had the ability to stump the greatest theologians of his day, and yet be the most approachable, merciful person that walked the earth. You would think someone with this tremendous talent would ‘protect his anointing’. In today’s environment he would be behind one of those glass bullet proof things, maybe ride in a ‘Pope mobile’. You know what he went and did? He risked all of these tremendous gifts that God gave him and went and hung out with the Lepers! These little kids came up to him one time and the disciples said ‘he doesn’t have time for such childish things, he has a great calling’ Jesus would have none of it. Then one day he shocks his friends. He says ‘I am going to go to Jerusalem to be killed’. What! What on earth gave you such a stupid idea [in so many words this is what Peter said to him]. Jesus understood that the greatest gift he carried was his ability to lay down his life for his friends. He had the greatest love for man than any other human. He did not see his death as an obstacle in the way of a successful ministry. He saw it as the key ingredient to all that the father called him to do. ‘Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies it will bring forth much fruit’ would you really die for God? NOTE; God wants a living sacrifice. People who walk the earth as ‘dead men’. Paul said ‘I die daily’ ‘I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ who lives in me. The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me’ we are indebted to God to lay our lives down for others.

(487)  The other day my wife’s friend dropped her 10 year old boy off at our house when she went to the doctor. She has been sick for many years and the doctors told her ‘you aren’t going to live much longer’ she said ‘I know, I just need to make it till my boy is 18’ the doctor said he didn’t think she would. She is a single mom with lots of struggles. She is sort of like the homeless friends that I have, it’s my wife’s ‘ministry’ if you will. I do like the little boy, he is very hyperactive and really does have A.D.D. I gave the boy a few dollars and an old ‘lost in space’ video. A few years ago I gave him our old Nintendo with some old games, they became his favorite games. I asked the boy ‘where did your mom go today’?[I knew]. He told me she went to the doctors. I asked how he was feeling about it. He said ‘I am very worried John, I don’t want to lose her’ I asked him to  pray with me for his mom. I prayed the verse where it says ‘by his stripes we are healed’ and I graphically explained the scars and marks that Jesus received were a part of our healing. I told him to pray this as often as he can for his mom. It will be a great day when death has no more dominion over man. Jesus looked it in the face and came out on the other side. NOTE: Let me tell you guys a few cute stories about this kid. One time after we took him to church he came to spend the day with us. When we got home we had a few movies we had rented and I tried to get him to sit and maybe watch a few movies. He likes to get on my kids play station /game cube games and will play for hours. But he is so hyper that he pulls the whole game off the shelf! So as I am trying to convince him to watch the movies he says ‘John, I can’t watch those. They are scary and my doctor [?] doesn’t want me to see them’ [something like that]. So he goes ahead and plays the games. Later we do put the TV on and as I am flipping thru the channels he says ‘stop’ and I stop on the show he is interested in. Sure enough its some thing on the ‘the top 100 scary movies of all time’. As he is watching he is naming every character to all these movies. He knows them like clockwork. I say ‘Chris, for someone who never watches scary movies, you sure know the names of a lot of them’. After a few minutes of me teasing him he says ‘all right John, so you caught me!’ Also when I gave him the ‘lost in space’ video he was real happy. As soon as he saw his mom he showed her the video. She says ‘wow, are you sure he gave it to you’ the boy says ‘yeah, I know mom. It is a collector’s item. It must be worth money’. It was funny because the mom is the exact same way. She will find old costume jewelry and stuff and tells my wife ‘I have to take it to the jewelers; I don’t know what I got here’. They both thought they hit the jackpot with these simple gifts.

(488)  I was praying and writing this morning. I have been taking a month off from ministry stuff, like getting with my friends, because I felt the Lord wanted me to. Not because I have been sick, to the contrary I feel much better when I get out and interact with the brothers. But I just felt the Lord wanted me to take a break. Well one of my buddies rang the bell [a very rare thing] and it was the first real ministry day in over a month. We ran into one of my old friends in town whose is wheel chair bound. I would have taken him to eat with us, but he can’t get out of his chair anymore. It’s a motorized one that ways around 300 pounds, I have tried to put it in my truck before, you cant! He asked if I could help him with 10 dollars, I gave him a twenty. He does not drink, he will use it for stuff he needs. I took the other friend to eat. I felt the Lord wanted me to give him a few dollars too. I gave him a ten and he was really grateful, he said he was going to ask if I could lend him 5 dollars. This friend also will not use it for drugs or drinking. I know both of these guys well, around 15 years. They are real old friends. I later got home [right now!] and thought it interesting. I ‘unknowingly’ gave them 30 dollars. Twice the amount of what they wanted, or asked for. I am actually believing the Lord to work out my retirement where I will bring in around 3 thousand a month. I need a  few more things to work out, but I didn’t even realize that I ‘unconsciously’ gave a ‘hundredth’ of that amount. Jesus says some will get 30, 60 and a hundred fold. I have ‘unknowingly’ given the amount that I need to see a ‘hundredfold’ return on. I also spend right at $300.oo a month for radio and news paper ads. I have been ‘tithing’ [though I don’t believe we are under it!] unconsciously on a 3 thousand dollar income. I find it funny that I have been doing all this voluntarily for many years, not even looking for a return, yet God seems to ‘return’ what you need when you don’t do it for money. Jesus said some will say at the judgment ‘Lord, when did we feed you and visit you and clothe you’ the righteous were ‘unknowingly’ doing the things that God wanted. They weren’t doing these things with the return in mind. I thank the Lord that he led me to give away the money, I think he was setting me up for the return! NOTE: My friend reminded me how a few years back we were driving to the other side of town with a bunch of homeless guys, we passed up a guy on the corner with a sign begging for money. One of the homeless guys roles down his window and yells ‘get a job you bum’. These are the same guys who hold signs on my side of town!

NOTE; I just went back and read the last 3 entries. I write these things off the top of my head with no order or thought. # 486 speaks of Jesus ministry to ‘lepers’ [outcasts] and little children. #s 487 and 488 speak of me reaching out to outcasts and little children. Prophetic things are so ‘cool’.

(489)  I couldn’t sleep too well last night. I was lying down and just praying for a lot of my friends who are having hard times. I was thinking how earlier in the day I dropped off my homeless buddy at the area of brush that he makes his home in. He showed me how to get to his spot, I used to visit him years ago at another campsite and he would make me ‘hobo’ coffee right over the fire. I kinda felt bad for my buddy today. His spot is back behind a bunch of swamp land. He had to get back and cut some trees and stuff so he would be able to burn them to keep the mosquitoes away at night. It is a hard life. I thought how hard it must be when they struggle with depression and stuff. Being in that type of environment for most of your life. During the day as we went and ate and checked out some of the new development in the Corpus area [new overpasses and Whataburger field [our local baseball teams field] these guys don’t have cars so they don’t get around town to see this stuff that often] he was telling me a few verses that he has put to memory and how he is trying to follow the Lord. Last year one of the other guys beat him up pretty severely. He has seen him recently and was battling the temptation to get even. He told me how he realizes that it’s just pride. He quoted the verse in Proverbs that says ‘don’t make friends with an angry man, because you will get in trouble and have to help him out of trouble over and over again’. He wasn’t sure where this verse was, I told him I thought it was in proverbs. He realized that he didn’t want to be ‘this angry man’. He even remembered the verses from one of the little books I wrote. He read it years ago and still was quoting it. I gave him new copies of all the books and stuff again. A few years back one of my original friends from Kingsville [a whole different time and group of friends/ oikos- God will allow you to impact different people groups thru out your life] came to see me. We were reminiscing about the old days. I was surprised how he would remember the things that I thought were insignificant. I was thinking they would remember all the great prophetic stuff, or the teaching and stuff. He remembered the time he was strung out on dope and I spent the early morning [2 or 3 am] in front of his family’s home in government housing just talking to him about the Lord. He remembered the real times of friendship and stuff like that. I guess that’s why Jesus put such a high priority on loving our neighbor, he new these were the most effective ways of bringing people into the Kingdom. Of having long lasting impact that they would remember for years to come. God wants these things to be our legacy. What good is it if we have the greatest knowledge in the world, or the greatest prophecies? Or even if we do great charity works. If we do it all without true love for people it profits us nothing [1st Corinthians 13], people don’t remember all the great prophetic things. There a dime a dozen. They remember true friendship. NOTE: One of the dangerous mindsets that works against the Kingdom is prejudice and ‘class warfare’. In today’s ‘radio’ environment, it is all too easy to spend hours listening to all the legitimate reasons why we shouldn’t help illegal aliens, or why the poor are ‘getting what they deserve’. In Jesus teaching to us, he instructed us to help the poor. To treat our neighbor with love and respect. These concepts are real ways we spread the Kingdom. Jesus knew that ‘the poor’ were very often people who ‘got what they deserved’. There were obvious reasons why they wound up as the outcasts of society. Jesus told us nevertheless to help them. It is an act of mercy and compassion to treat them with love and respect. Even if they don’t deserve it. It breaks our pride and prejudice to give freely to those who don’t deserve it. This is done because of Gods treatment of us. We were/are undeserving of all the good gifts he has given us. We didn’t get mercy because we deserved it! God requires of us to lay down our lives for others who don’t deserve it. This is how they, and others, will experience Gods GRACE and MERCY. They will see it thru us.

(490)  I am adding this note for those who have been following my health stuff. After over a month of extreme vertigo and non stop dizziness, I have learned from my own research [the doctors do their best] that I have acute Labyrinthitis. A problem with the inner ear. Mine is obviously from a viral infection. Because the antibiotics that I finished taking a few weeks back have had no effect on the problem. This was an important part of my struggle, as to the fact that the back problems and the associated anxiety of everything else was being added on to this unexplainable continual dizziness and vertigo. I have researched a lot on all the other stuff, but to be honest this inner ear problem is without a doubt the most disorienting. I am ‘high’ 24/7. I used to think that this would be a good thing! But to be continually disorientated 24/7 is not good. I basically found out that this is what I have thru extensive on line research. There is no doubt that this is one of the problems. I am trusting God to heal this. I can live with the leg/back problems. But this thing is too debilitating. I would appreciate you guy’s prayers, thanks.

(491)  ‘No chastening for the present time seems to be joyous, but rather grievous. Nevertheless afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who go thru it’ ‘It is a good thing that you were afflicted, before you were afflicted you went astray, but afterward you kept my word’ ‘for this cause many are weak and sickly among you, for if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged we are being chastened by the Lord so we will not be condemned with the world’ this is the Word of the Lord unto you today. The hard things that you have been going thru are for my purposes. I have done things thru your suffering that were not being produced any other way ‘though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience thru the things that he suffered’ ‘think it not a strange thing, the fiery trials that you re going thru, as if some strange thing is happening to you. But rather rejoice, knowing that these same afflictions are being accomplished in your brethren thru out the world’ the things you are going thru are not unique to you alone. You are receiving these sufferings as my servant Paul did when he said ‘I am filling up the rest of the sufferings of the Body of Christ’ Your difficulty is part of the overall birthing process of what I desire to do in the earth at this time. Rejoice that you have been counted worthy to suffer because of the name of my Son.

(492)  I have a book I was going to read sitting here in my study [I have a few that I have picked up these last few years and haven’t gotten to them yet]. It deals with the story of a large ministry [not in the U.S.] and how by faith the Lord has given them millions of dollars and has truly opened up many doors thru finances for this good work. In today’s environment we often see God thru the lens of ‘you can give me the finances to do this great work’. Many times these are sincere believers whom God does really work in this way on their behalf. We also hear often ‘do you need a financial miracle’ or ‘who needs healing in their finances’ [though Jesus never healed anyone from ‘financial sickness!’] The point is God definitely works in all areas of life. He is our provider and source, the God who is more than enough. It’s just that we really don’t treat him that way. Let me show you what I mean. When the apostle Paul said ‘I have learned in whatever state I am [Texas?] to be content. I have learned to be in need and to be full. I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me’ we often see ‘doing all things’ as the ‘full’ part. We very rarely see it as the ‘being in need’ part. Because God is truly our source, we don’t always need the financial miracle to see something happen. We actually need him! He has done and will do tremendous things with simple people who do not have lots of money. ‘Well brother how can we reach the world unless we all have lots of money’? Well there goes your lack of faith! Jesus said the gospel is so powerful in the hearts and lips of his people, that the world can and has been revolutionized thru the simple saints thru out the ages. Jesus has truly taken ‘the few loaves and fishes’ and has MULTIPLIED the seed to reach the multitudes. We would have been praying ‘Lord, before we go to the 5,000 people we need to raise lots of money for food. It wouldn’t be responsible for us to have all these people come out and hear you preach until we have the great supply in our hands’ We would have been asking Jesus to give us the actual resources ahead of time in order to ‘reach/feed’ the people. We need a financial miracle Jesus! As a matter of fact that is what the disciples tell him when he says ‘have the people sit down and we will feed them’. The disciples are like ‘we don’t have enough money in the treasury to do this [by the way this also reproves those who teach that the treasury/bag that Jesus and the disciples had was really rich. The disciple in this story plainly states that they didn’t have the treasury money to cover it!] Jesus doesn’t give them a financial miracle in the way they expected. What he does do is he takes the very limited resources of a little boys sack lunch and he multiplies it as they give it away. We don’t really need to be ‘healed financially’ we need to begin giving ourselves away, Jesus will multiply our ‘seed/bread’ [the influence of our lives] when we do this.

(493)  It’s Sunday morning. I am watching a few local churches on TV. I caught one of the non denominational guys. Good message [I guess?] a little too much of ‘I am your Pastor. You need to be submitted to me and be under my authority’ he meant well, just doesn’t see the overall view. Basically everything I have taught [and others!] about the office of Pastor and it not being a singular authority position over ANY OF THE CHURHCES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT! I switched to the Catholic mass. They were much more humble. They had a deacon sharing on forgiveness; they then cited the Apostles creed. It got me to thinking about the brother who I wrote on a few weeks ago who said ‘leave behind you the creeds and doctrines’. The contrast between these 2 ways of ‘doing church’ are tremendous. While I do not embrace all Catholic teaching, it is obvious to see that the Protestant brothers meetings were saturated with them. You see their gifts, their abilities. The whole service is really about them. They don’t mean for this to be so, its just the result of ‘doing church’ thru the lens of ‘I am the Pastor, my job is to speak to you every Sunday for the rest of your life. Your job is to come and listen and put the tithe in. Anyone who disagrees is in the camp of those who challenged Moses authority. The earth might just open up and swallow you’. Now, I am being a little sarcastic. The point is ‘church’ is supposed to be the healthy gathering and communing of all believers around the reality of Christ. It was never intended to be a ‘place’ where people are spectators in an audience who are watching others perform. It is very obvious to see how the Protestant church has allowed herself to become ‘personality oriented’ as opposed to Christ being the real center of attention.

(494)  To be honest with you guys, I feel like I have been on a acid trip for over a month. It is the most nerve wracking thing I have gone thru in years. Before I realized that the ‘Labyrnthitis’ causes you to see everything thru a ‘glass’ type image [now we see thru a glass darkly- Corinthians] it was unreal to wake up one day feeling totally wasted, nonstop! Well now that I realize what it is, it is not as nerve wracking. I am reading the autobiography of Brian ‘head’ Welch, the ex guitarist of the rock group ‘Korn’. It is real interesting. It reminded me of a few things. Many years ago [around16] I backslid pretty badly. I was already preaching and had pastored our church. But I spent about a year being ‘lost’. During that time I was separated from my wife and was ‘hanging out’ with all types of people. One night me and this ‘girl friend’ who was a full blown junkie wound up off of some street in Corpus Christi [I didn’t live there yet]. It was in a real bad section of town. By the Morgan/Baldwin area. If you’re a white guy, you aren’t supposed to be around there. I remember shooting pool one night in one of the clubs and I was the only English speaking person there. The bartender didn’t know what I was saying when I ordered a drink. I was shooting pool, waiting for my ‘friend’ to get back. I really am surprised I didn’t get shot. Shootings happen weekly in these areas of town. Well when we were at some house not far from there, people were mainlining right there. The girl I was with was getting her fix. Somehow as she introduced me to her Hispanic friends [I really took risks by being there] she mentions ‘John used to be a preacher’. Sure enough one of the guys starts repenting towards me. He’s telling me he feels the Lord sent me there that night as a sign. He says I am like the angel in the show on TV [Michael Landon played an angel, I cant remember the name]. This was pretty surreal. I don’t know why I just thought of this story, but I did. This poor girl, one day a few years later I went to work and they told me some ‘chick’ was dragged by some guy leaving the bar the night before. We all find out if there were any deaths and stuff when we go to work. ‘You guys have any fires or shootings last night’ stuff like that. It winds up that this girl was stuck in the car door with some guy she was fighting with, he drug her a few blocks before he realized she was stuck in the door. When the ambulance got there the skin was ripped from her. Everyone thought she was already dead, then she simply looked at them for help. They did all they could do and she died. Sin is so devastating. May God forgive me, and everyone else who has made these terrible mistakes in life. ‘There is a redeemer, Jesus Gods own Son, precious Lamb of God messiah, holy one’ Keith Green.

(495)  When I picked up my homeless friend the other day, we had a good discussion on the ‘Temple of God’ being the people of God as opposed to a ‘place of meeting’. I always emphasize that it is not wrong for believers to meet in buildings, but that the great transition from the Old Testament mindset to the New Testament was one of transition from an actual Temple to a Spiritual one. That is the people of God would become the actual dwelling place and mode of operation that the Father would work thru to establish his purpose in the earth. The famous Old Testament story of ‘Jacobs ladder’ was an encounter that Jacob had with God. When he awoke he said ‘this is the House of God’ though there was no building for miles! It was a preview of Gods house as seen thru the meditation of Christ. The Ladder had angels ascending and descending. It was a type of Christ who would give new access from heaven to earth and from earth to heaven. Wherever you would find this ‘ladder’ being set up in the future, there you would have the ‘house of God’ [all New Testament communities of people]. There was a time in Israel’s history where they came to depend on their temple. They were saying ‘the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord’ and they were rebuked for trusting in this earthly piece of furniture and not trusting in the living God. And of course Jesus prophesied of the temples destruction in the Gospels. The whole point I made to my friend was that God’s mode of operation was to express himself thru a living community of people who would not be limited to a ‘place of worship’ but who would carry this presence of God wherever they go. In essence wherever people were experiencing the reconciliation of the Cross, there a ‘ladder’ [the Cross] would be ‘set up’. God would be setting up these access points from heaven to earth all over the planet. No more ‘dwelling in temples made with hands’. Now the fact that believers do have this ‘atmospheric influence’ wherever they go, means that even if they are in the ‘church building’ or home or park or anywhere, then God will manifest himself there. Not because of these buildings, or because of the lack of a building. But his presence is solely based on the fact that people are there who have accessed ‘Jacobs ladder’ they have access with God thru the Cross. I would encourage you today to ‘plant that ladder’ everywhere you go. Allow God to use you as an access point from heaven to earth. Those you come in contact with, set up that ladder of hope for them. Let them see how simple it is to approach God thru the finished work of the Cross. Let them know that after you leave, that truly ‘this was the House of God’.

(496)  I have been interceding for a while this morning. I have been praying for 22 Korean Christian hostages who were taken by the Taliban in Afghanistan for a few days. Today is 7-30-07, I don’t know what has happened to them yet. The other day they killed the 42 year old Pastor of the group. They are South Korean Christians who were there doing charity work. I also was watching a big Christian meeting who gathered conservative Christians from all over to ‘unite for Israel’ these brothers have interviews and meetings with Israeli leaders. They glory in her as a natural nation. They call for more financial support of her military. There is always a danger in supporting any natural nation to the degree where you side with her and almost justify military action to the point of killing other people. Does Israel have a right to defend herself as a Nation? Yes. Do all nations have this right? Yes. Have there ever been scenarios where Christians on the other side [Palestinian or whatever] found themselves stuck in the nation that was on the opposite side? Yes. Is it possible that there might be 10 righteous Christians in the other nation who we are advocating violence against? Yes. So John what’s the answer? Well it certainly isn’t starting some Christian movement where you actually advocate for the build up of Israel’s defenses and you seem to be approaching end time scenarios with this bloodlust to attack other nations. I don’t care what your eschatology is, pray for the peace of Jerusalem and pray for the peace of the ‘Jerusalem of God’ as well. Paul defined this Jerusalem as all Christians. Even those who might be huddled in some corner of a Palestinian home waiting to get the hell bombed out of them from the others side. I just hope they weren’t watching the Christian conference [from San Antonio] who were glorying in a nation’s natural heritage right before they get bombed to death!

(497) Pride hinders the growth of the New Testament church. The way the early Christians ‘did church’ is described in the book of Corinthians. The meeting of believers was a simple informal format of believers gathering together from house to house and sharing with each other. The role of ‘Pastor’s or Elders was simply the oversight of more mature believers living in the city, who gave guidance and direction to the younger believers as they developed in the Lord. The growth of home/cell based churches is basically a return back to a more biblical form. Now pride is the arrogance of any man, who looks at this pattern and says ‘you are not under the local church, or a Pastor. You are out of order’ So here you would find the well meaning Pastor, judging a form of church that is much more in line with the New testament, and actually seeing his understanding of church as the only legitimate pattern. So in essence the humble cell group could actually respond by stating ‘you, Pastor, are holding a title/office that is no where to be found in the New Testament. You coming against us by saying ‘we are not submitted to you, or others like you’ is actually usurping the headship of Christ over his body. And you are placing yourself as Diotrophes did in 3rd John’. Now, I do not see all Pastors like this, the point is the cell group are much more in line and in biblical order than this Pastor. This shows you what happens when man holds on to a limited view of church and then adds to it a strong authoritarian mindset of ‘Pastor’ that is not biblical. God deals in Grace with all of us, it would do us all good to see him thru his various operations, and not try to make a particular mode of worship ‘the only legitimate expression of Christ’s church today’. God has many different expressions.

(498)  I am almost finished with the book by Brian ‘head’ Welch. It tells a lot of times when Welch was thinking of getting off of drugs and would find himself doing more. The feeling I have had for a while now reminds me of being on an ‘Acid’ trip. The bad ‘trip’ I had years ago had me seeing ‘things’ pretty badly. I remember looking into this mirror of a bowling alley and seeing my face black/purple. Seeing yourself this way while also experiencing no feeling to your body is a trip. You think your dead. One time during the year where I backslid, I took a friend over to Robstown to score some stuff. He was going to shoot it up, I just went for the ride [really!]. My pay was some real good weed. I sat in the car and got high on this joint. Before I smoked it he told me ‘this is some real good weed’ but he then used a term, which too me in my early days meant ‘week weed’ but in South Texas language this term meant ‘really strong’. Oh well. After smoking this joint I got absolutely wasted. There obviously was something more than just ‘pot’ in it. I drove a few blocks [my friend was still inside fixing] and parked by some Rail Road tracks. I just laid down in the car and went on this trip. It reminded me somewhat of the acid trip I had years before. I later [or earlier] had snorted some cocaine with my friends, but this weed had something much more potent in it. I remember how at times in the past where I would be totally wasted, yet I would not stop partying. It was like I felt ‘man, I really need to come down’ and then keep getting high. In the book I could identify somewhat with Brian’s seeming inability to just stop. Ultimately God does the ‘stopping’ for you. When people are in this cycle they don’t seem to realize the danger of dieing. You seem to think nothing will happen. And then when your ‘tripping’ you think ‘O my God, I feel like I am going to die’ it really is deceptive. Only God can save people from this. NOTE: This brother was one of a whole family of guys I met while preaching to the father in jail. One of these brothers is now one of our main guys in Kingsville serving the Lord. During this year of backsliding, I took him to H.E.B. [our grocery stores in Texas- like Path Mark to all you Yankees!] and he goes in. He comes out with something that he was going to steel from one of the hardware aisles. He walks out with the look on his face like ‘there’s nothing strange about the way I look, I am just normal’ as I see him walking across the parking lot, I could spot the stolen thing under his shirt a mile away! It looked so obvious, like a pregnant woman! When he got to the car I was like ‘I could see you a mile away you idiot, how did you get away with it?’ Of course he bought a stick of gum or something on the way out, he told me ‘I think the chick at the register liked me’ I guess so! NOTE: One time when we were having ‘church’ in an old rented hospital building, I would go and pick up our guys before the service. One day both of my friends had been out the night before shooting up. So when I went to get them the wives and kids got in my suburban but the guys were no where to be found, and as we were driving back to the building, we stopped right at a stop sign where these 2 guys were right next to us in the car that they were using all night to score drugs. Of course their wives were mad, these guys were out all night shooting up. It was too late to hide, but as they were looking straight at  us, my one friend [Elias] just ducks down and hides in the seat, my other friend [Juan Saldana] just looked straight forward. It was kinda funny, we did laugh about it later. Elias eventually became the preacher of the local Victory Outreach. He died from a brain aneurism while serving the Lord. Juan, I haven’t heard from him years. I think he is working with a ministry in El Paso?

(499)  The benefit of blogging like this is it allows you to hear God and just write what you hear. When writing a book you really cant jump like that. For some strange reason I just saw a whole scenario of legitimacy that comes from being a child of God and how that relates to family/community. We often see believers as a ‘part of the church’. God does deal with us as a community, as well as individuals. You will find the strong Orthodox/ Catholic brothers emphasize the community aspect of Christianity. You will also see the more individualistic style of Christianity emphasize the ‘individualistic’ aspect. ‘Me and Jesus’ both of these are true. What I want you to see right now is how we often try to ‘de legitimize’ Christians by saying ‘who’s local church are you under? What family do you belong to, you cant function/operate outside of the family. You derive your authority from the family’. Now look at this for a moment. When you are born, you are born into some type of family. It might not be fully functional, but there at least had to have been a mom and a dad at the beginning. Now as you develop you are part of a family. You are part of this family by virtue of your birth. You actually do not derive your life from the family. God created you. But family is vital to your growth and health. As you grow older you learn to depend less and less on the authority figures that God has placed over you. Some times the parents want the children to stay ‘under their authority’ for insecure reasons. The empty nest syndrome. But if the family is healthy the children will eventually launch out. There may be times where the waters get rough and they return for a season, but ultimately they launch. If you were to tell little Johnny ‘who do you think you are leaving us? Don’t you realize that you really don’t have a life apart from us? You were born here, we raised you, everything God has done thru you up until this moment has been in the family context. You leaving us is rebelling against our parenthood over you. Don’t forget what happens when you rebel against us. O well you’ll find out the hard way’ Johnny’s parents are sincerely seeing his role as it relates to them, they don’t fully see or function in the reality that their roles are meant to change over the course of Johnnies life. They sincerely think his step of independence is rebellion. After all they have been ‘over’ Johnnie his whole life. Who does he think he is anyway? Sure enough Johnnie will launch out [to the dismay of his other siblings who tried to launch before and had failures. They later returned back home and thought their failures were a sign from God that they should have never launched] When  Johnnie does eventually succeed there is an initial reaction of ‘who needs families anyway, they were just holding me back’ this is a natural result from the way the family tried to hold him past the ‘launch date’. As Johnnie matures he will lose this harshness that he is experiencing at this time. Ultimately Johnnie and a whole new generation of ‘Johnnies’ will grow and leave and become all that God originally intended. The insecure parents will warn all the older children who are still relating to them in co dependant ways ‘don’t do like all these rebels, you know what can happen’ and this reinforces the mindset of never fully growing up. And yet the parents will at times say ‘when are you ever going to grow up?’ not realizing that they have had a big part in creating this unhealthy long-term environment. I feel today we are seeing this play out on a large scale in the Body of Christ. There are so many ‘Johnnies’ who have been told ‘your identity to our family is Gods purpose [true] therefore you really have no authority on your own’ [false]. The authority for both family and Johnnie launching are both from God. They all receive their right to do what God is telling them because they were all born of God. It is easy to only view legitimacy from the standpoint of ‘family’. Not seeing that God originally told the man ‘When you launch out on your own someday [a God given thing] then you will leave your parents and cleave to your wife’ [the wife can be the Ecclesia/oikos that God wants you to relate to as an ‘elder’ as well. While all believers are not ‘5-fold’ ministers, they all are to grow and mature. Becoming an ‘elder’ more mature one who gives oversight to others, is a natural function of your growth] God always intended the oversight role of parents [Pastors/Elders] to be temporary. This launching will eventually create a whole new family, with a whole new home of Johnnies. And the process repeats. I find a lot of believers at the ‘launching dock’ who are fearful to launch. They have seen some launch, and sad to say they drowned. A natural risk inherent in all journeys. These have made ‘shipwreck of the faith’. Others launched and never returned for reunions because they were so mad at the original parents calling them ‘lost children’ when they first left. Ultimately when enough Johnnies do it right then the whole family will see and realize that they were at an immature stage and are now seeing this ‘launching’ as in Gods original plan. Have you launched yet? NOTE: Often times the ‘parents’ [Pastors/elders] find their identity in ‘being parents’ they feel good functioning in this oversight role. They preach, organize, strategize and do many good things. Sometimes out of insecurity they add to their preaching, themes that warn the children ‘don’t ever leave us, it would be a big mistake’ and if they see someone leave, they will often say ‘well, now that you left, who is your new father [Pastor] and which family did you join in order to pay your dues?’ [Tithe]. The former Pastor is trying to say to Johnnie ‘well, you left this nest, you cannot function outside of it’ unless you yourself become one of us [a Pastor] then you have the right to not be under one of us. ‘This is Gods order’. The whole thing can be a big mess. Truly God does have order in his family, but we need to be careful that we are not superimposing a modern way of church, and then calling that ‘Gods Order’. NOTE: It is common amongst ‘apostolic people’[people who feel they hold the office of Apostle] to struggle with ‘who’s local church will I be under’. They often start a 501c3 ministry, relate to other ‘local churches’ and preach a very strong ‘You must be under a Pastor’ type message. They then will struggle with ‘which Local church will be my covering, as I also ‘cover’ many other Local churches/Pastors’ all of this language and covering and everything associated with it is really not seen in the New Testament function of Apostles. Apostles were not people going around ‘covering’ all ready established groups of Christians. The true fruit of an Apostle is someone who has the gift to ‘birth’ communities of believers thru the preaching of the gospel. You never find Paul, ever, telling the new believers to be ‘under the covering of a Pastor’ you do find admonitions to submit to Godly leadership that God has placed in ‘your church’ meaning ‘your community of believers that are around you’. You actually will find references in the New Testament to the ‘Elders of your Church/ Elders of your city’ [i.e.; ordain Elders in every city as I ordained you] so the submission to Elders was the simple ‘growing up stage’ in your life as a believer, until you are mature enough to ‘launch’.

(500)  I was watching ‘journey home’ on E.W.T.N. last night. I do like the catholic station. They  had a panel of ‘ex-Pastors’ from Pentecostal churches who are now Catholic. It was a good discussion and I do see them as Gods people. One area that I often hear on this show is ‘When I was Protestant/Pentecostal we all had our own ideas of what scripture meant. Without the teaching authority [magesterium] of the Catholic Church there is no true order to what scripture means’. Let me address this a little. I too see the danger of everyone coming up with their own interpretation of scripture. Believe it or not I also believe in the ‘teaching authority of the church’ but I see ‘the church’ as all the corporate people of God from century one until today. Therefore all that the Spirit has communicated in unity to the people of God thru out the last 2 thousand years is ‘the teaching authority of the church’. It is obvious to me, and many other voices [even Catholics!] that the ‘Catholic church’ has things that most believers understand to not be true. If most believers [Even many Catholics] as well as many great reformers of the church, who also were Catholic, if they with one voice disagree with the hierarchal interpretation of the ancient church, then this in itself is a function of the ‘teaching authority of the church [Holy Spirit] revealing truth to and thru the Church [corporate people of God]’. Now I don’t want to get too technical here, and I love my Catholic brothers. But the argument that because there are so many wrong interpretations of scripture, for that to lead a person, as humble and sincere as he is. For that person to say ‘therefore, because of the inconsistencies  of my former Pentecostal Pastor friends, I have now come to accept a certain strain of hiearchacal truth. Now I am in truth’ without being offensive, this part of the church [Catholic] have erred in the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception as well as other things. It is not me saying this, but the ‘Spirits witness’ thru the church down thru the ages, as expressed thru her own people [i.e.; the many Catholic reformers who have spoken out from inside her walls]. So to be clear, I love the Catholic people, our only safety to guide us into all truth is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He has surely operated inside of the Catholic Church, as well as all the others ‘churches’ who have spoken in line with the Spirits testimony thru the centuries. The ‘magesterium’ if you will, is the Spirits corporate witness of unity as he has spoken thru the people of God down thru the centuries. The ‘teaching authority’ of the church is not limited to that which comes down from any one ‘part’ of the Body of Christ. God does not ask us to lay down our own moral conscience to accept teachings that in our heart we know are wrong. In many of these testimonies when the Protestant Pastor who has converted to Catholicism is asked ‘how did you overcome your ‘inner rejection’ to finally accept Mary’s role in the Church, and to accept that she was born sinless?’ Many of the brothers simply say ‘I got to a point where I had to overcome my own beliefs [conscience!] and to accept the witness of the ancient church’. This to me is not what God asks of his people. To ‘overcome your inner witness’. Scripture speaks of truth being revealed to us by Gods Spirit as an inner witness. ‘Well brother, then where is the safety mechanism from keeping everyone from going off track’? Well, ultimately it is a function of the Spirit of God working in the people of God [the true magesterium] thru out the centuries. Why does over 90 % of all the church believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ? Who has ‘engrained’ this truth into the minds of so many various denominations? Was it a function of the Catholic churches ‘teaching authority’? It was a function of the Spirit guiding the people of God thru out the centuries into all truth. If someone out of fear or confusion relinquishes his own conscience to the interpretation of any ‘institution’ no matter how early their institution began, then you are overlooking the ability of the Spirit, to reveal all truth to all men. I realize that the Catholic argument is ‘the Spirit does this thru the church’ to which I say ‘Amen’, but once again I see the church as all who have seen the father thru the Son. If no man can come to the Father, but by him. Then all who are now in him [all believers regardless of background] are ‘in him’. Therefore all who are ‘in him’ [including Luther, Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, etc.] are part of the corporate voice of the Spirit as he ‘speaks thru the church’ down thru the ages. The ‘safety mechanism’ to keep every one from his own interpretation is the ability of the Spirit to speak with one voice thru all of his people. Thus we wind up with over 90 % of all believers embracing the true gospel. Well, what about the other 10%? Well, some who don’t embrace this gospel are in all of the other camps. Catholic, Protestant, etc. Liberalism that denies Christ’s bodily resurrection can be found in all ‘churches’. Therefore the ‘magesterium’ did not prevent their own catholic people from ‘departing from the faith’. All Christians are dependant on the Spirit, as well as the guidance from the majority of Christian voices that have come to us down from the centuries. I include Catholics as well as Protestants in this ‘corporate voice’. It’s humility to be able to embrace this.

(501)  Over the years I have given lots of my books away. I give them all away now, I don’t sell anything anymore. I actually did have a publishing house print the first few batches of books. This was not cheap! I gave them to a friend as well as all of my other books as I wrote them. This friend had a family member write a book. I told him, ‘as soon as it’s done, give me one!’ After it was finished, the person let me know they were for sale. I wasn’t really offended, I kinda really didn’t have time to read the book. I initially said ‘give me one’ to encourage them in the writing of the book, they are still good friends of mine till this day, real good Christian people. I got the sense that he got offended because I didn’t buy one. Too be honest I had given him all my books for free over the years! I know he was thinking ‘hey, we got this book published. I cant give it to him for free’ I got mine published too, and I gave almost all of them away for free! Even to him! The point is, we see giving the tithe as necessity. But we don’t truly see giving all the other gifts and things we have the same way. I have friends who cant believe I will give away 20 dollars at the drop of a hat. Or simply pay a 100 dollar light bill [not my own, sad to say 100 dollars wouldn’t cover it!] I have been doing it for years with no regret. This stuff is taught in scripture man! Yet most Christians will willingly put 200 dollars in as a tithe, but to give even something worth 10 dollars [a book] is too hard to do.

(502)  I just got done doing a little yard work. Nothing heavy, but I risked moving a few bricks and stuff and my back started killing me. I knew better, but o well. To be honest the pain is nothing compared to the vertigo thing. I am remembering some old drug experiences as I read the book from Brian Welch [Korn]. I remembered how after my worst overdose on acid I had flashbacks for years. There came a time in the beginning where I just determined ‘well, if I wind up dieing, there is nothing I can do about it. So be it’ I just remembered this recently. There was a putting of everything into Gods hand, even though I didn’t really know him! I was thinking about the people I know, some who have been diagnosed with fatal diseases. I am praying much for them. No matter what people have done, God is very compassionate. I think we [or at least I] don’t show the level of mercy and compassion that we should. What would you do if you were on death row and knew the exact date of your death? ‘Month away, 2 more weeks, 3 days left, tomorrow when I wake up I am going to die’ how would you react. I am not justifying anything that these guys have done; I just think it takes courage to face it like a man. Some ask both Gods and their victim’s families to forgive them. They go out well. I am praying for a few more people who I have come to know while researching my sickness. I didn’t meet them thru any Christian means, just thru finding answers thru the net. I have given them my blog site and told them up front I am a believer. Maybe they are reading this now! I just think if I could have trusted God and went thru those early years of acid trips and stuff, how much more should we as believers overcome the desolate places we find ourselves at today.

(503)  Isaiah 59- ‘Gods hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear dull that it cannot hear. But our sins have separated us from God acting on our behalf’ one of the themes we will see in this chapter is God wanting us to speak truth and to stand for justice. He will reprove the times we lie and don’t really speak and walk in truth. There are so many issues with the American church at this season. I saw Benny Hinn speaking to a meeting of Pastors. I have sent Benny my books and stuff. I was encouraged to hear him reprove those who teach that Job [in the bible] was making a bad confession and God recorded his words, but didn’t justify Jobs confession. Those of you in the ‘know’ remember how it was [and still is!] taught that Job went thru trials because of a bad confession, and in essence God doesn’t want us reading Job and believing Jobs confession. You just read Job to see what not to do! I have dealt with this error before. But I was glad to see Benny hit on it in such a public way. This is an example of God telling us ‘Church, I love you guys. I have given you time to overcome this. You can’t keep speaking ‘lies’ and think I am going to move in your country [The U.S.]’ So God is dealing with us in mercy, but he is telling all of us ‘I really want to move on your behalf, you must humble yourselves and repent. I want justice, I want truth. You need mercy and love, but they cannot trump my desire for truth and righteous justice’. ‘None calleth for justice, none speak truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies’ There has been a stubbornness on certain parts of the American church that have consistently ‘trusted fake things, and continue to speak fake things’ we are all guilty of this, Gods agenda is for us to seek him and return to a pure biblical gospel. I am so excited about this younger generation. I have been watching the ‘call’ or the ‘cause’. Basically a group of young people on fire for Jesus. The I.H.O.P. meetings with Mike Bickle. The ‘merchant band’ all of these radical kids seeking the face of God. They put me to shame. And in the midst of this there exists an older generation who insist on ‘speaking lies, trusting in vanity’ the older generation needs to listen to these ‘babes’, out of their mouths God is speaking. They sing things like ‘don’t sell out for the stuff of this world’. ‘They hatch eggs, whoever eats their eggs dies. They will not continue to cover themselves with their teachings’ when we steer off course of Christ’s main message, the things we produce [books, blogs, tapes, etc.] only hurt others. We can’t keep ‘feeding rotten eggs’ to Gods kids. These movements who have veered away from the gospel will not continue to ‘cover themselves’ [hide within their groups] because God is calling for repentance and justice. ‘They have made crooked paths, those who go in them will not have peace’ when teachers establish wrong doctrines and teachings in the church, they become ‘crooked paths’ paths that many will go down. It is very hard to undo this. Jesus actually said ‘let them go down these paths. They will all fall into a ditch’ sometimes God allows the wrong paths to exist until both the leaders and followers see the error of their way. I remember reading how Jim Bakker saw how wrong he was. He started reading the gospels while in prison and couldn’t believe that he was a money preacher who taught that Jesus was rich. After reading the gospels he saw how wrong he was. God is going to take those who have made ‘crooked paths’ and he will use them to go straight again.

NOTE: Let me interject a reminder here. All Christians, especially those who feel the Lord has called them to the prophetic ministry, are required to confront [in love] obvious abuses and error in the church. One of the most difficult things about this calling is the majority of people you are called to speak into will reject you at the start. The gift brings with it an ‘inner mechanism’ that causes the messenger to be rejected initially. Why? Be cause to confront and undo mindsets that have existed in certain areas of the people of God is ‘tumultuous’. You go thru a season where you ‘pluck up, root out, tear down’ and then you get to the place where you ‘build and strengthen’ again. I look at these contractors who buy nice homes on prime lots of real estate. They go in and begin to dismantle the house! Even though it is an ‘OK’ structure, it has provided shelter for many years. Lots of kids grew up in that house. Man, what are you doing coming against all my memories! Well the contractor realizes that it served a purpose, but the time has come to realize that the structure is insufficient for the next level of community growth. So I see the temptation for those whom the Lord has called to prophetic things, to go thru this type of rejection. And when these people go thru difficulty it is own natural to say ‘Physician, heal thyself’ those whom the message is directed will have a tendency to say ‘see, that Isaiah fellow, he thought he was such a voice for God, look at him now’ [or Jeremiah or any of the other prophets]. So as we continue thru Isaiah we will eventually get to the ‘building up process’ but first God has to make sure all the debris is truly removed before the next structure can go up. Remember what I said about the prophecy given to the Virgin Mary ‘a sword shall pierce thru your own heart also, that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed’ God allows prophetic people to be ‘pierced’ so he can see the response of those around them. Note; I have found myself at times thinking ‘If I could just overcome this obstacle, if I didn’t have to deal with these difficulties at this time, I would be so much more effective’ I have to remind myself that ‘when I am weak, then God can be glorified thru me’ natural thinking says ‘why the Cross?’ then you learn to say ‘nevertheless not my will, but yours be done’ amen!

‘Therefore we behold obscurity’ I have found one of the worst judgments in my own life is when I ‘behold obscurity’. When I am in sin in some area of my life, Gods mercy is always there, but there is a real sense of the absence of Gods presence. Jesus said ‘the pure in heart see God’ when our hearts are not pure, we ‘see obscurity’. ‘We roar like bears, and mourn like doves’ Have you ever experienced extreme highs and lows. Days where you were ‘roaring like a bear’ and the next day ‘crying like a dove’. When our hearts are not right, these ups and downs are inevitable. Sometimes we even experience this when our hearts are right, but in this context sin is the main reason for it. ‘our transgressions are with us and our iniquities, we know them’ transgressions are the actual breaking of Gods law, the ‘act of sin’ if you will. The ‘iniquity’ is that tendency in us to gravitate towards certain sins. That ‘bent’ that keeps turning us in the wrong direction. You say ‘why brother, I have no idea what you are talking about’. You’re lying! Here God says ‘we know them’. ‘Truth faileth and he that departs from error makes himself a target’ I find it interesting, when people repent from ‘wrong paths’ they then become the target of those who are still on the path! Why? Because if you can do it, make the change, go to the next level. Then there is no more excuse for those who are not changing. This is at the heart of murder and hatred. The bible says ‘for this reason Cain slew Able, because his own works were wicked and his brothers righteous’ Envy and pride are horrible things. They cause us to want the failure of others who are succeeding. We really don’t want ‘that other church to succeed’ in our hearts. If they get 6 thousand people to attend, then all my excuses of why I only have so many attend my church are no longer valid. Those who start going on the better paths than we have been on become a target! ‘And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, those that turn away from transgression in Jacob’ God will come to those who ‘turn away from sin in Jacob’ like Paul says in the New Testament, it is not natural birth that counts. To simply be ‘Jacob’ [Israel] doesn’t cut it. You need to have ‘turned away from sin’ and accepted Gods sacrifice, Jesus! To those [Jew or Gentile] that ‘turn away from transgression’ [this means the actual act of disobedience!] God will reveal himself. ‘This is my promise to you, the word that I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seeds seed, from this time forth and forever more’ Yesterday we had a good home meeting in Kingsville. One of the ‘sons’ of the fathers I used to preach to years ago in jail. The son is the ‘seed’ [offspring] of the original person from this family that I preached to. His son [the grandson] lives in Corpus and also is a part of what the Lord is doing. God promises that if you speak his words, they will remain in the mouths of ‘the children’s children’ God is always thinking generationaly /dynastically. Man thinks short term.

(504)  I was watching a preacher the other day teaching on end time things. He is very dogmatic in his view. The Rapture and all. I thought it funny, because as he got to the part where he was teaching on the ‘4 horseman of Revelation’ he flatly says ‘the rider on the white horse is the anti-christ’. I know this view fairly well. I was taught it as a new Christian. The last few times I have read Revelation I lean more towards this rider being Christ who is conquering against the forces of evil. Some say ‘well, we know this isn’t Christ, because after him come the other 3 horses which represent death and destruction and bad stuff’. The point I will make is in Revelation your are seeing ‘the wrath of God’ it is Gods judgment on the unbelieving world. It would seem fitting for Christ to appear at the beginning of these judgments, after all ‘all judgment has been committed to the Son’. I really have no idea why I am even getting into this, I haven’t read Revelation in a while. I just thought it funny, how someone can be so sure of his end time scenario, where he might actually be calling a reference to Christ ‘the anti-christ’.[a bit prophetic, don’t you think? Revelation is about the story of the Son of God triumphing over the forces of evil, but those who hold to the strong antichrist view, it just seems fitting for them to mistake ‘Christ’ for ‘antichrist’, if this is all you see when you read the book, then that’s what you will SEE!] NOTE; Let me overview a little bit more. The above interpretation of the rider on the white horse being ‘antichrist’ grows out of an entire ‘scheme’ of end time events that was developed in the 19th and 20th centuries. These were good men [John Nelson Darby] who came to embrace certain views of end time things [Rapture]. To these brothers they see the Church [believers] ‘taken away’ in the first few chapters of Revelation. They say ‘Jesus is speaking to the churches by his Spirit, then you have no more ‘churches’ being spoken to’. God tells John to ‘come up here’ [heaven] and they see this as the ‘secret Rapture’ where the church is taken away. The reason they see it like this is in Revelation you see Gods wrath on those that ‘dwell on the earth’ and therefore believers can’t be here! Even though you will find actual references of the Devil fighting the Saints. Making war against those who ‘keep the Word of God’ and all sorts of references of the enemy fighting believers thru out the book. The ‘Rapture’ brothers will say ‘these groups are those who got saved after the church left’ well, if they are saved, they are ‘in the church’ technically speaking. So it is possible [very likely too me!] that ‘Christians’ are on the planet when these hard times take place. They also will say ‘these references to those who keep the Word of God’ are to certain Jews who are converted [again all new testament language to ‘the Israel of God’ and things like this are speaking of those who have come to know God by faith, even Jews] so the fact that thru out the rest of the book you find language like this, tells me the ‘church’ didn’t get secretly taken away. And then most importantly, you find CLEAR verses actually speaking of Jesus coming, in PLAIN LANGUAGE, and these verses are looked at as ‘the final stage of the second coming’ or other verses referencing Christ [like the rider on the white horse] being called ‘anit christ’. To me all these brothers ‘suffer from’ a mistake that they warn others about making. That is ‘interpret the plain meaning of scripture first, before going to lengths to develop doctrines from that which isn’t plainly in the text’. If God has ANY PEOPLE ON THE EARTH WHO ARE CALLED ‘SAINTS’ THOSE WHO KEEP THE WORD OF GOD and any other references like this, then plainly these references show that Christians are on the planet during this time. The Rapture guys will so much as accept this, but then they come up with all sorts of different categories for these ‘converts’ who are ‘saved’ during the tribulation. My argument would simply be ‘so if you admit there are actual converts in this tribulation time, then it very much is possible, even thru your own interpretation, to have believers on the earth during this time’. So how then does God ‘spare them from his wrath’ while they are going thru all these difficulties? He does it by divine power. You see the believers thru out history going thru many times of ‘great tribulation’. You also see the lost world going thru many periods of ‘Gods wrath’. To the casual observer, these might look like the same thing. But to those going thru it, they know the difference. The simple fact that God has the ability to ‘keep those’ in Christ from his wrath is the answer. You don’t have to come up with all types of belief systems that say ‘Jesus secretly appeared between chapters 3 and 4 and the reason we know this is ….’ Why do stuff like this? There are very real and plain references to Jesus coming again in the book of Revelation. Don’t go and find some doctrine that comes from ‘silence’. That is ‘since the Spirit is no longer speaking directly to the churches after chapter 3, therefore Jesus came and took them all away’. Jesus is no longer speaking ‘to the churches’ because the main issue after chapter 3 is the outpoured wrath of God on an unbelieving world. We know he didn’t come and take all the believers away, because there are many verses dealing with his people being here, as well as very plain and open verses that say when he comes. So lets stick with the plain meaning first, and then you can try and ‘figure out who the 144,000 are’. Another note; I am really ‘delving’ into it for those who were taught his. At the end of the book of Revelation you do see ‘Jesus coming back with his saints’ and in the book of Thessalonians it says ‘don’t worry about those who have died, when Christ comes back, he will bring them also’. There was a very real 1st century fear that the loved ones who have died were gone. Paul deals with this in Thessalonians as well as Corinthians chapter 15. I know to us it seems silly for believers to have held to this fear, but the fact is it was something the Apostle Paul dealt with. So you see the New Testament speaking of ‘Christ coming back with the Saints’ as a hope of the resurrection. That is Jesus brings back [at the 2nd coming] the ‘spirits’ if you will, of all who have been with him for thousands of years. These will ‘reunite’ with their bodies at the Resurrection. Those who are living at this point will be instantly glorified [1st Thessalonians 4] so to read a verse that says ‘Jesus comes back with his saints’ shouldn’t cause you to think ‘well, how did all the saints get there? He must have secretly come back and taken them, there you have it’ well they got there BY DIEING! Jesus brings them back with him as was taught thru out the whole New Testament. Don’t go and develop some doctrine that believers didn’t ‘know about’ for 1800 years to explain this stuff. It’s simple if you just read and believe scripture as it is written. Also there is a real event at the second coming that ‘raptures’ believers into the air to meet with Christ. This event does happen. It happens at the second coming. So we too who are alive will be ‘caught up together with the Lord’. The return of Jesus back to earth takes place with all of the saints at the ‘touch down’ of Jesus feet on the planet. Truly he ‘comes back with all his saints’. Don’t go and develop a secret ‘second coming’ [rapture] that took every one away at another time. The ‘rapture’ takes place at the ‘second coming’ it is the event of us going up to meet him in the air at the moment of resurrection! NOTE; this also brings us back to the verses in Isaiah ‘not speaking your own words’. Many of the brothers who teach these things are well meaning gospel preachers. Good churches who lead people to Christ. Most of them are taught this stuff at bible school, or from well meaning ‘fathers of the faith’ that they looked up to. During these formative years they are told ‘this is what the Rapture is’ along with all sorts of other learning. They don’t have time to spend years ‘un learning’ this stuff. They mean well. Often times they only question it as they leave the learning environment of college and become long term students of the bible and history. A lot of times when we put ‘preachers out into the work’ they come with these pre conceived ideas that they learned along the way. The problem is if people are teaching things that ‘are the words of men’ [to put it nicely!] then they are ‘speaking their own words’. While every teacher is susceptible to this, we do it at an alarming rate in today’s media world. It’s so easy to catch a preacher teaching this on TV, or to read a Tim Lahaye book on the end times. I see some of this as a result of the Protestant churches ‘coming out from all historical truth, the fathers of the ancient church’ and going with the ‘bible only’. Now going with the ‘bible only’ is a good thing. I have used the bible to show you in this whole entry why the Rapture as taught today holds no ground. But the strong independent protestants truncate themselves from the heritage of all the saints [All the great church fathers, down thru the present time] and leave themselves open to having too much influence from a small part of the Christian church. In my experience I found it ‘amusing’ how the Fundamental Baptists were so much like the Assembly of God in all of these doctrines, and yet the fundamental Baptists viewed them as heretics over the gift of tongues. They couldn’t see that they had so much in common, even the wrong stuff on the Rapture! So it would do us all good to sit back, read the writings of church history, study the bible, pray, DO EVANGELISM [the great commission was to go and make disciples, not even get into all this stuff!] and over time allow the Spirit of God to lead you. You will find that you as a believer can disagree on these end time issues and still work together for the cause Of Christ in your community.

(505)  The other day when I took one of my homeless buddies for a ride to see some of the new development around town, we stopped by the new baseball field and being we were right there I took for the first time some real good pictures of the Harbor Bridge. I have taken lots of pictures these last few years with my cell phone, sometimes the pictures are prophetic. Once I took some pictures of a train, the same day I read some real significant prophecies on trains. So for around a week I have had this cool looking picture of a bridge on the phone. Just 3 days ago the worst bridge collapse in years [possibly ever] happened in the U.S. It was the I 35 bridge in Minnesota. All you can see on the news for the last few days is the bridge collapse. NOTE; I don’t want to make light of this incident, people died. But I do want to say, people might think ‘hey, go take a picture of a bank, you might get some money!’ It doesn’t work that way. I remember one time at the Fire House I was watching them say the lotto numbers on the news with a friend. I guessed like 3 or 4 of the numbers. My friend, who played ‘religiously’ was a little surprised. So he says ‘how did you do that’ I told him ‘usually the Lord gives me all the numbers, but I don’t think he would want me to use it for this’ he seriously tells me ‘I don’t think the Lord would mind if you gave them to me’!

(506)  Today’s 8-3-07, I have been looking forward to this week. I basically have been ‘lying low’ for the summer, and really needed to get out and see our guys. Today I will be ‘driving the perimeter’ of a bunch of cities that I used to drive while going to work. I am still on workman’s comp but plan on putting in for retirement soon. So as I have been looking forward to re connecting with a few brothers, and launching some regional home groups, yesterday I do a little yard work and move some bricks and stuff. Sure enough my back hurt so bad I could barely walk. Besides the fact that I still am having some residual effects of ‘disorientation’ from this viral infection of the inner ear. Its like I can’t walk anyway, plus I can’t see straight! ‘Screw it’ [sorry] but I have too much to do than to sit around and whine about it. I am looking forward to this day, I believe I am going to see some good fruit. ‘Get out of the City and dwell in the fields, even in Babylon. There I will be with you and there I will deliver you from the hand of the enemy’ [bible]. You will never get better if you don’t ‘GO’.

(507)  Woke up this morning after a very difficult day, I knew it was going to be hard to pray. I then sat down and wrote for around 2 hours straight! I went back to some older entries and added a bunch of stuff. Was my day hard because of not being able to walk well, or feeling ‘stoned’ 24/7? No, not really. If that’s all I had to deal with, I would have been happy. Why am I sharing this? Because as I sat down to write I covered things that I had no idea I was going to write about, to be honest it feels like a prophetic function. Many times as I made radio messages, I had no idea I was going to say the stuff I said. I will later review the tapes and see things that I didn’t even know I knew! So Paul tells Timothy ‘Preach the word, be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke and exhort with all longsuffering [ouch- maybe in the Greek it really means ‘short suffering’?] and doctrine. For in doing this YOU WILL SAVE YOURSELF, AND THOSE WHO HEAR YOU’. There is a prophetic function that causes both the hearers and the speakers to ‘receive salvation’ as a result. Paul said ‘woe is me if I preach not the gospel’ Paul knew that he would actually be ‘cursing himself’ if he didn’t preach, or communicate the Word of the Lord. Jeremiah said ‘I determined not to speak anymore in the name of the Lord’ but then there was this ‘fire in his bones’. God said ‘I put this thing in you, if you don’t let this fire out, it will consume you’. It says in Revelation ‘fire proceeds out of their mouths and consumes their adversaries’ ‘we overcame him [enemy] by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony’. God makes deposits into prophetic people [all of us are prophetic!] these deposits are like ‘fire inside you’ it is meant to ‘devour the enemy’. If you don’t let it out it can ‘burn you from the inside out!’

(508) I kid my daughter’s friends and stuff. They will do something silly, and I say ‘I am going to put that on the blog’ or ‘I told that story on the radio’ they know I am kidding, they will say ‘you better not!’ These are all 13-15 year olds. I am finally going to tell one. One of the girls is a real nice kid. She is a Christian and her family goes to church and all. She has a stepfather and a bunch of brothers and sisters. She is Hispanic [I say this for a reason] [actually I was just going to kid and say the reason is ‘I don’t like Hispanics’- but I think that would have been going overboard. Many of my best buddies are Hispanic!] A couple of years ago this girl got on the school bus with a pocket knife. And basically the no tolerance policy had her kicked out of school, and my daughter got put in a disciplinary area of our schools for a few months. It was a mess. Right after it happened I of course forgave the little girl, and I dealt with the whole problem of my daughter getting involved. It was so easy for this nice ‘Hispanic’ family to want to retreat and hide and maybe even move from the block. After all, it was ‘living up’ to all the stereo types that exist. I actually right away waved to the family when I saw them. After the initial punishments that the kids went thru, I let my kids be friends and all. I could tell that at first the family was real worried about living with this ‘mark’ or stereotype. I even would wind up kidding the girl when she would come over. I would say ‘let’s put up all the knives’ and stuff like that. Not to take it too lightly, but to be real. I have been much worse than this in my life. I shared with her a few weeks ago about how I was dreaming of the floods coming, and then a few weeks later Texas got the worst floods on record [apart from a hurricane]. She was shocked, as I was telling her the dream; she said ‘I too just had those dreams’. I shared how the bible says ‘God will pour out his Spirit on all flesh and your sons and DAUGHTERS will prophesy, and dream dreams’. She is a cute kid. I will have to tell her name now, for the rest of the story. Her name is ‘Hannah’ the reason I had to share it is because one time one of the girls asked what a certain name meant [?] and I shared the spiritual meaning behind it. This kid asks ‘what’s my name mean John’ [I know I shouldn’t have] but I said something like ‘the devils child’. Now right away they knew I was kidding ‘like, shut up’ and then I told her the story of Hannah in scripture. But the whole point is it would have been so easy to stereotype this family. This little girl has a calling, like all kids, we obviously don’t want our kids hanging out with kids who get in trouble, but be sensitive to the Spirits leading. These kids remember the stories you tell them about God. It stays with them!

(509)  Let me make a distinction here between ‘professional clergy/salary’ and New Testament giving. Jesus had a treasury [a collection of money/material goods to meet his needs and the disciples during the 3 year ministry of Christ]. During this time THEY WERE THE ONLY ‘STOREHOUSE’ OF GOD ON THE EARTH. [Apart from the actual one at the Temple, this is a transition stage if you will] They were the fledgling movement of Jesus in the beginning stage. Theologians usually point to Pentecost [Acts 2] as the birthing of the church; I have no real problem with that. Jesus said if you have a disagreement take it to the church [what church? He said this before Acts 2. And scripture speaks of ‘the church in the wilderness with Moses’ the point is you had groups of people following hard after God!] During the time of Christ’s earthly ministry people did voluntarily give of material goods to Jesus and the disciples, this is acceptable in Christian circles. You also had the Pharisees [hired clergy!] operating along a legalistic system of giving that came along with their religion [The Tithe!] so right from the start you are seeing a major difference in the way the New Testament church would function, as opposed to the religious law. During this time of giving to Jesus they simply received whatever was freely given. Sort of like the ‘freewill offerings’ taught in the Old Testament. You find Judas getting upset because the woman poured the expensive perfume on Jesus. Judas wanted to sell it because he was stealing from ‘the bag’ [of cash]. So during Jesus ministry we find a great example of how giving and receiving would be carried out in the church. Pretty simple. This style was keeping true to the actual teachings Jesus taught ‘give freely, freely you have received, freely give’ and all the other things Jesus taught. Later on in the Epistles and the book of Acts you see real examples of this being carried out. The only ‘tithers’ were the Jerusalem church. I have explained this before. Not real hard to see! But if you never ‘saw’ this before now, then it is hard. After God shows it to you, you begin to see it all thru out scripture. This leaves us today with the free grace and duty to give to those in need, which can include ‘laboring elders/pastors’ a major difference between ‘hired clergy’ or ‘using your gift to make money’. Jesus and the disciples used their gifts many times with out taking offerings. They did not see this as wrong. You often hear in today’s world ‘I am only asking you to give to me for your benefit’ now Paul does say this at times, the point is you have the average believer hearing this thru TV, when he ‘goes to church’ and the appeal is endless. There are many times where ministry was carried out with no appeals for an offering. Let’s be attentive to what God is saying. Paul did like me, he basically said to the Corinthians ‘I have not charged you for the gospel’ he also said ‘I had a right to receive support, but I chose to lay this right down’ it seems quite plain to me that it is very scriptural for lots of ‘ministers’ to decide to take this route. Some do [not just me] but we often don’t leave this option on the table when training young men to be Pastors. We teach a form of giving that simply looks at the basic need for upkeep of the building, paying salary and stuff like this. In this environment you can’t really teach it the way I just did. But then you have the rise of ‘home/cell’ churches. The ‘emerging churches’ and all types of free flowing styles of Christians getting together and sharing their faith. Many of these movements do not take money at all, except maybe for the meeting of the real needs of people around them. As you can imagine this can cause a type of insecurity to rise up in the hired clergy. The Pharisees said ‘If Jesus keeps doing his stuff, we will lose our position and place in society’. There is a real fear when someone sees the possibility of ‘loosing his job’. So the old time clergy will fight against this more legitimate expression of ‘church’ by saying ‘they are not a church’. And then you have all the problems you have seen me write about up until now! So in grace give to support the work of God, there definitely are good ‘churches’ and Pastors doing good works. Use discernment, go with Gods leading. Give freely. Pastors, some of you can take Paul’s example and ‘do it for free’. Some already do! NOTE; I have heard it taught like this ‘well, if people get offended and think churches/ministries are asking for too much money, then let them get offended. I am doing it for their own good’. Paul actually said one of the reasons why he didn’t take money from the Corinthians was so people couldn’t use the ‘money excuse’ against him. Paul’s attitude wasn’t ‘well, if they get offended, let them’ Paul said ‘I will go out of my way to not offend people, or give them excuses to speak against the gospel’ so much of today’s ‘offense’ that is given because of the churches money focus is a bad thing. Christians are responsible to remove any barriers that the world has. Even if we have a ‘right’ to the offering, sometimes you lay that ‘right’ down for the sake of the gospel.

(510) I read a book years ago on ‘church planting’. It was a good book. I remember one of the stories how a brother came to preach a series of meetings in some church. During the week of meetings they collected thousands of dollars. The type of teaching focused on all the scriptures on ‘giving to get’. After the week was over the ‘evangelist’ took the Pastor and their wives to a jewelry store. The Evangelist bought his wife a diamond [or some other jewelry?] and spent all the money on it. He sincerely told the Pastor ‘this is the reward for my service to God’. Because of the tremendous lack of balance in today’s church, stuff like this happens. I do not see this above brother as a ‘fake’ or false prophet [you might!] I see him as a victim [willingly] of the wrong focus and understanding of all we have taught these past few years. I do wonder what they think when they read 1st Timothy 6, or the verses on ‘watch out for the love of money’ or Peters words on ‘elders, take oversight of Gods flock, not for the sake of filthy money, but out of a pure heart’. They seem to think the other verses on Gods provisions trump these verses. It just isn’t so. We do have a long way to go.

(511) I don’t know how many of you old Jersey friends are reading this blog. I know there are a few. To my old friend John Lattarulo, I am looking at some old pictures that I have when we were kids. It’s got one of me and you flying a kite in Hudson County Park. My old friend Mark Lillis is holding the kite. I am holding the string and you are holding the spool of string. The reason I had to laugh is the ‘spool’ of string must have a few 100 thousand yards of string on it. It looks like a full roll of paper towels or something. I said to myself ‘gee, you think we had enough string?’ Thought it was funny.

(512)  500 years ago the bible was written in Latin. A man named William Tyndale secretly published thousands of New Testaments in English. The ‘church’ saw this as absolute rebellion. It wasn’t just the ‘wicked Catholics’ it was a mindset that began to see as ‘sacred’ something that was once truly used of God. But the church couldn’t distinguish between that which they saw as ‘untouchable’ and the true intent of God. I see the same thing among Protestants today. Many of them see it sacrilegious to challenge the whole idea of ‘Sunday Church’. They see this structure that worked well for hundreds of years, and they cant see that God can operate ‘outside’ of this limited perspective. Many believers were killed if they were found with Tyndales bibles. The ‘institutional church’ came against the organic one in a big way. Today we see our mistakes, and we understand that God is merciful. Those who are fighting against the purpose of God for his Ecclesia really think they are ‘doing God service’. In a few centuries we will see different. NOTE; why do I harp on this issue so much? Some theologians actually understand all the things I have written on the ‘Local Church’ and agree that she was a ‘community of people’ as opposed to what we think today. They believe that maybe it was Gods plan for the church to ‘grow into’ a hierarchal institution as seen in the Catholic/Orthodox church. Some think ‘what the church has become is what God wanted, even though it is not what she was like in the first century’. The reason this is bad/wrong is because one of the most basic truths of Christianity is the believers ‘full access and acceptance with God by faith’ Luther’s doctrine of ‘the Priesthood of all believers’. To then develop an idea about ‘church’ that seems to say to believers ‘you are not legitimate unless you do such and such’ this takes away the heart of the believers right to function and spread the Kingdom by virtue of the fact that ‘they believe’. God chose ‘justification by faith’ I know we usually see ‘justification’ in terms of ‘being saved’ but it carries with it someone who at one time was ‘illegitimate’ and has now become ‘legitimate’. So any so called ‘development’ of an institutional church, that lends itself to the de legitimizing of the average believer, in my view is not what God intended. In essence these ‘structures’ can be a real hindrance to the freedom of all believers, if we use them to declare to Christians ‘you are not under the authority of a local church’.

(513)  A few months ago, before I got sick or had any physical problems, I wrote a dream on this blog. I forget where it is, but it is on the blog. It said ‘I was in a shop area; I was going to different stands. I stopped at one that was a ‘physician’s stand’ I purchased a trumpet and walked away with a limp’. Now I know I gave the best interpretation that I thought at the time. It just recently dawned on me that I have spent the summer going to ‘physician’s offices’ and I have been walking away from them with this real limp. Sometimes we have a tendency to ‘spiritualize’ prophetic things. Some times they turn out to be more real than you could have imagined!

(514)  I am praying one of my ‘intercessory’ prayers where I go thru a long list of things that I feel are important. I just prayed for the church worldwide, the Korean hostages in Afghanistan and a bunch of other stuff. Even by name for the people who have emailed me and asked for prayer! I told them I would regularly pray for them by name! The reason I stopped is not to ‘brag about my praying’ but I just prayed for all the unbelievers in the world. I don’t generalize it too much; I try to pray for specific people groups. I say ‘Father, I pray for every group outside of the Covenant of your Son. For all Muslims, for all Israel and for every one else outside of Christ. Father reveal your Son to them. Send laborers into the harvest’ When scripture says ‘pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ it doesn’t mean for her military success. It doesn’t mean for her ‘standing’ in the geopolitical world ‘more money for defense’. When you ‘pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ or any other people group, you pray that God would open their eyes to the Prince of Peace!

(515)  I want to talk a little on politics. I am not a Republican or a Democrat. This week the House of Representatives took a vote on certain pending legislation that would have given illegal aliens Social Security, it was added to a bill as one of the ‘add ons’ that politicians do to ‘slip’ things thru. Both sides play this game. Now during the floor vote the little machine that actually tallies the vote said ‘215-213’ in favor of the minority party [Republicans]. But being the Majority party is Democrat, they actually have the right to ‘say’ what the vote is. So they simply announced ‘the vote is 214 to 214’ and the tie always goes to the majority party. I am sure they figured ahead of time ‘this is what we are going to do, we believe that we are helping people, so what if we do this ‘little lie’. I admit it is no real big thing in the scheme of things, I do find it funny that this same group will state that one of its greatest achievements in this congressional year is ‘ethics reform’. I guess it means the ethics of the opposing side? The whole point is our country is really in serious trouble. This type of major childish division fuels our political parties. It goes on endlessly. I will try and explain the ‘Valerie Plame’ outing. Before we invaded Iraq [which I personally was against from the get go!] you had political people that were for it and against it. A book was just written that shows how the C.I.A. has been in open opposition to the Bush administration from day one. It goes into detail how for various reasons the C.I.A. had things against Bush. So before we invaded Iraq, you had a few people [in the CIA] that were actively trying to come up with evidence of why we shouldn’t invade. During this time a person named Joe Wilson went overseas to see if he could find proof that Iraq wasn’t trying to buy ‘yellow cake’ from the country of Niger. If he could show that there was no evidence, then this would undermine one of the reasons for invasion. He comes back after his trip and writes an open article in the New York Times that says ‘The Bush administration sent me to see if there was evidence, I went and came back and told them there was none. They obviously are ignoring their own people that they sent’. Now when the Bush administration read this, they went ‘huh’ [or some other cuss word]. In essence they had no idea who this guy was, and who sent him. Joe Wilson claimed that the Vice President sent him. Cheney calls the C.I.A. [the group that is overjoyed about this by the way] and finds out after digging into it that some lady named Valerie Plame sent him. She suggested he go, because he speaks French and would be able to handle the people better [I think it was French?] O, I left out one little detail. Valerie Plame is the wife of Joe Wilson. So after a few weeks of the press saying ‘look, Bush ignored his own guy who brought back evidence’ Cheney does something that is natural. It is a real part of politics. He tells his staff [Lewis Libby] get the word out that we didn’t send this guy, his wife did. Why would you do this? So people wouldn’t think that Cheney’s office sent him, like he was saying. During all of this, there was a little ‘oversight’ that nobody took into account. Valerie Wilson had what was called ‘undercover status’ she had previously done some undercover work for the C.I.A. and held this status. This made it illegal to ‘out her name’ in public. Now most reporters in town knew who she was. She had even appeared on the cover of a magazine, using her name! If you are really undercover you don’t do this. Even Andrea Mitchell [a well respected reporter] said ‘everyone knew she worked for the C.I.A.’ Now, of course the other side [Democrats] demanded ‘who outed her on purpose’ they do a special investigation and find out it was Dick Armitage [someone who the Democrats like!] who inadvertently told her name to Robert Novak [who at the time worked for C.N.N.] So what was really a story about ‘get the truth out, we didn’t send Joe Wilson, his wife did’ became a national joke. A huge game of ‘I got you now’ played out on a national scale by politicians who are acting like children while the world is facing real problems. This is why the Democrats will say one of their greatest achievements this year is ‘ethics reform’ they see ‘getting the other side’ as achievement. Today I don’t defend either side. The fact is if these childish games are played on such a large scale. The public thinking ‘wow, Scooter Libby got off Scott free’ for a horrible crime [he did lie during the investigation, and they got him on perjury- Bush commuted his sentence]. While the politicians are playing a game of ‘gottcha’ it is hurting this country. Most of you didn’t even realize all the stuff I just showed you in context, because we are victims of the news medias ‘sound bites’. Pray for our country. No side [Republican/Democrat] are perfect. Scripture says a house divided against itself can not stand. Sad to say, we are looking like that house more and more as the years go by. NOTE; Joe Wilson sued the White House saying they purposely caused harm to him and his family by outing his wife. A Federal judge just recently ruled on their case. The judge said ‘when you plunge yourself into the fray of political action to the degree that you say openly ‘Cheney sent me’. That in this environment it is perfectly acceptable for the other side to ‘get the facts out’. The judge saw it the way I just explained it to you. Also during this whole time, congress did a special investigation concerning Joe Wilson’s open claims that ‘Cheney sent me’ they found him to have been lying. Another interesting thing, the book that just came out exposing the tremendous political rift between the C.I.A. and the Bush administration, shows that there were a few people in the C.I.A. that actually held to the conspiracy theory that the Bush administration knew the planes were heading towards the towers, and let them hit so we would have an excuse to invade Iraq. Sort of like the ‘Gulf of Tonkin’ or how some believe that F.D.R. knew of the Pearl Harbor attack, but let it happen anyway. You will find these ideas on the internet from all types of people. It is alarming to think that people in the C.I.A. actually held to this. I believe Joe Wilson is a good man at heart, his wife also. He sincerely believes that there was more to the ‘outing of his wife’. He felt like Karl Rove was secretly behind it to get him. While there is no doubt that the White House ‘pushed back’ against him and his wife, the evidence seems to show that it was for the purpose that I revealed above. During this time many Democrats knew this to be true, they just played the man to their advantage. It’s like going along with someone’s miss conceptions, because after all ‘he might just take down this President, or at Least Cheney’. So people become tools in the hands of the parties to get what they want. The fact is poor Wilson really had this conspiracy thing going ‘they got my wife’. The judge ruled ‘yes they got her, but it was to show that your story wasn’t true’. It’s like lying on the vote ‘215-213’ into ‘214-214’ you sincerely believe what you are doing is right for the country, so if it means you have to lie to achieve it, you do. Despite the fact that you just passed ‘ethics reform’. All people have ways to justify their own sin, while finding the other sides to be deplorable. NOTE; Let me give you a few known facts in this case. Before the war, Colin Powel gave a speech at the U.N. that included a reference to Iraq trying to purchase ‘yellow cake’ [an ingredient needed to build a Nuclear bomb] from Niger. The C.I.A. had said ‘we are not sure about this piece of intelligence, it is possible to be not true’. The fact that Powel used it is seen to be the Bush administrations ‘selective use’ of intelligence for their own purpose. There was a lot of ‘fabricated’ intelligence that the opposing side in Iraq actually made up so the U.S. would invade. Saddam's enemies weren’t idiots! Now after all was said and done in this affair, some today still believe that Iraq really was trying to obtain this stuff from Niger, others don’t. Great Britain has stated they believe other intelligence to be true, despite the possibility that some was made up. They insist that they have other reasons to believe it. So the Joe Wilson premise, that Iraq wasn’t proved to be trying to get this stuff has some truth to it. After Powell left the administration he also felt like the Bush administration might have taken advantage of his standing by allowing this in the speech. What was also true is the open fact, that many countries intelligence agencies all pointed to the fact that Iraq was wanting a Nuclear Weapon. So to many people this point is moot. My point is both sides play into the game of ‘gotcha on this one’. Most politicians who were fueling the ‘go get em Wilson’ had to have known the basic premise of all I just showed you in this entry. They will ‘blow it out of proportion’ on purpose. After all the Republicans did it to Clinton! [they did!] So the game is non stop. Joe Wilson lied, an investigation showed this. Not about the major stuff, but about the fact that Bush didn’t send him. Clinton lied, not about ‘major stuff’ but about, well you know! Libby lied, not about outing Wilson’s wife, but about who first told him Wilson’s wife was Valerie Plame. He did lie about this, even though he wasn’t the main ‘leaker’. They caught him in a lie. The Judge gave him over 2 years in prison and a huge financial fine. Bush commuted the prison term. Of course the Democrats were outraged. The game never stops! NOTE; Jesus said a strange thing in the gospel. He said ‘if these injustices can happen when the tree is green, what will happen when anarchy is here’ [my paraphrase]. Scripture says ‘where envying and strife are, this is confusion and EVERY EVIL WORK’ The strategy of the enemy is to cause there to be this type of environment. The crucifixion of Jesus took place in the heated political posturing of the day. The Jews saying ‘he claims to be our king, we have no king but Caesar’ [even though they despised Caesar!] the inference was ‘Pilate, if you don’t kill this guy, well you must not think too highly of Caesar’. Pilate writes ‘the King of the Jews’ over the Cross. The Jews say ‘don’t put that! Put ‘he said I was the king of The Jews’ [because this would make it look like the Jews had him killed because of their so called ‘love for Caesar’] Pilate says ‘I have written it and it will stay’. All this happened according to Jesus ‘in a green tree’ which meant during a time of true govt. and law existing. Though Rome was not Christian, they actually had a system of courts and justice that allowed appeals to me made and all. Jesus is saying ‘if they can do this type of injustice during true govt. just wait till anarchy gets here’. When you have this type of political posturing take place, the enemy can ‘slip in’ abortion and all types of stuff. The actual fact that there are occasions in this country where babies ‘slipped out’ during an abortion and made it. And the Doctors cant ‘kill it’ because it’s too late [these things have happened] makes you think ‘what in the world are we doing’ but in the midst of all this strife, there is confusion and ‘every evil work’. The answer is not to be found in politics. Its found in ‘if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray and turn from their sins. Then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land’. Our land desperately needs to be healed! NOTE; I do find it ironic that politicians try to pass ‘ethics reform’ while at the same time openly say ‘it is not a politicians job to legislate morality’ ethics [moral standards] reform [repentance] is ‘imposing morality’ by definition! Yet if you were to ask them ‘why do you support the murder of babies in the womb’ they will say ‘I am personally against it, but it is not my job to impose morality’ this my friends is hypocrisy in it’s highest form. NOTE; Jesus one time told the Jews ‘I come to you in truth, I come in the name of my Father. I present myself to you in truth as his Son. I have told you truth. Yet  you will not believe me. Yet when another comes to you in his name, you believe him’ Scholars have related this to the anti Christ. It’s possible. But if you put this in context of all I just showed you, it’s also possible that Jesus is foreseeing their future accusation against him by their so called allegiance to Caesar. In essence he might be saying ‘not too long from now you guys will be appealing to Caesar as your king, though you will be doing it at the rejection of your true king’. They were more than willing to acknowledge Rome’s authority over them when it seemed convenient to their cause. Yet the King they have been waiting for, for thousands of years shows up and they wont take his word for it!

(515)  I want to challenge you guys. I have spoken a lot on this blog on your responsibility to ‘bring the Kingdom’ wherever you go. Remember, because we have access to God [Jacobs ladder/the Cross] wherever we go we are ‘setting up that ladder’ [bringing an atmosphere where God and man meet]. I have also shown you how God commands us all to go into the world and preach the gospel. Many times we spend way too much time trying to figure out ‘how will I fund it, where will the money come from’ well I hate to say this, but it comes from YOU! What! Show me scripture! Well just a reminder ‘he that is not working, let him get a job so HE CAN HAVE TO GIVE TO THOSE IN NEED’ ‘See a brother in need. Feed him’ ‘give to him that asketh of thee’ ‘how can you say you love God, who you don’t see. When you don’t meet the real needs of your brothers, who you do see’. Now, for sure there are verses where Paul asks for others to give financially into the work. I am not saying there is no biblical authority for doing this. I am saying God does expect all believers to share of their own time and resources to spread the Kingdom. You don’t get off the hook just because you gave into the church offering basket! I want to exhort you today to give yourself away somehow for the kingdom. If all you do is sit around and listen to talk radio, or read the papers and are inundated with how the poor and hurting are such a drain on society, you will get a critical spirit. If you begin touching the lost you will see them as real friends and people. Don’t try and figure out how you will fund your ministry, give yourself away instead!

(516)  One of my buddies at the firehouse is a Christian. He sees the ministry stuff I do and all. So one time he makes an honest effort to do something out of charity. He tells me how this lady called the firehouse and asked if any guys wanted some fire wood, all they had to do is come and trim all her trees. To be honest, the cost of trimming these Mesquites would have been more than the value of the wood, but my buddy wanted to do a good deed. He goes over and trims a bunch of trees, he uses his chain saw. As he goes to get more limbs and stuff to bring them back to the truck, he sees his chainsaw  is gone! Sure enough someone stole it. He says ‘see, John. I am trying to help the Lord out and the Devil goes and steals my chainsaw’. I told him ‘the way the enemy works, I am surprised when you went back to get the limbs, the lady didn’t say ‘sonny, I hope you don’t think you’re getting that wood for free!’

(517)  A few weeks ago I dropped off the tapes for my radio program. The station is right across the street from our mental health clinic. A lot of ‘homeless/mentally challenged’ people always walking around. The secretary from the radio station has told me they lock the doors because they are always getting these guys walking in and stuff. They basically are ‘hiding out’ in their building. So being I think I am the only ‘preacher’ who actually hand delivers the tapes, there is no mail box or anything to put them in. So I have found myself knocking at the door, sometimes for around 10 minutes or so before anyone opens the door. I have told you guys I kinda have long hair, look at little ‘rough’ myself, definitely not what you would think a ‘preacher’ would look like. So the last time I waited for the secretary to get the door, she always looks a little apologetic when they let me in after standing their a few minutes. I finally realized that they must see me thru the tinted glass doors and think I am one of the ‘mentally challenged’ people always walking around. So as I ‘prophetically saw this’ [kidding] I told her as she opened the door ‘Now I realize why you make me wait, you guys think I am one of the ‘strays’, to be honest her face turned a little red. I said ‘I am going to put this on my blog’ she said ‘I never admitted to this!’ I know she didn’t, but to be faithful I thought I would put this entry in like I said. NOTE: If she ever reads this I know she will say ‘I can’t believe he really put this on the blog!’

(518)  Yesterday we had a real good outreach day in Bishop. The Lord allowed for a lot of my homeless friends to meet a lot of the original group of guys. Today we plan on going back to Kingsville and just doing an outreach at one of the parks. I feel the Lord wants people to simply ‘act’. Not be a ‘faker’ but an initiator! Get out of the city and dwell in the fields! Sometimes it is the simple act of motion that starts the ball rolling. One of the guys asked me about the vision in Ezekiel ‘a wheel within a wheel’ is it U.F.O.s? I told him I doubt it, but one of the meanings of the vision is God is ‘continually in motion’ as Saint Thomas Aquinas taught, God is the ‘prime mover’. He got the ball rolling! As Gods kids he has given us the inherent ability to ‘get the ball rolling’. Why do we hesitate to act? Out of fear, greed, I want my own thing. All sorts of base lusts and sins keep us from moving. Sometimes we are waiting for the specific exact thing to do, and God says ‘I will give you all the details son, but I can’t give them to you unless your start rolling’! I found it interesting that I hooked up with one of the original families in Bishop. The brother and nephew of real good friends. They have all been to our church in the early days. The brother accepted the Lord thru our ministry [I think the nephew too; I will be baptizing him soon. I know he is a believer for sure, I just didn’t bother to ask if he got saved during those early days] I thought it interesting because the brother [the kid’s uncle] had another brother who was one of our original guys, who died years ago from bad stuff. The brother mentions how I used to know ‘BeBe’ and the nephew says ‘you knew my other uncle brother John’. I didn’t realize he never knew him. There are so many related friends and all thru these families it never dawned on me that this kid was too little to remember the uncle who died years earlier. As we were talking I then re tell some old stories [good ones!] and I trace the original family member, who is this kids Grandfather, who by the way is also dead [many years of drugs] and how the granddad and uncle were some of the original friends of mine. This nephew, who really sees me as his original ‘Pastor’ learned a lot of his family tree from this time. I finally gave him the card to this blog site and he was going to go home and get with another friend [the son of one of our main guys, also related to this family thru the marriage of the mom to the father. It’s a long story!] But these 2 younger kids [now in their early 20’s] were going to get online and read the whole story of the ministry that they never knew before. I just wanted to update you guys today. I didn’t want you to think all I am going thru is struggles. The Lord has really opened some regional doors for us this past week, so keep doing what God is telling you to do, and don’t forget to ‘get moving!’ NOTE; it was weird, as the nephew was asking me if I knew his other uncle who he never saw, but heard stories how he was crazy [shooting cops!] I remembered how 25 years earlier I was visiting his uncle in this exact same ranch property that this family owned. It was another old house that is now gone, but it just happened to have been this exact location of ranch, 25 years earlier! [It’s on the outskirts of Bishop, by Kingsville]. Also I spoke at this uncles funeral years ago, he is buried around 20 yards away from where we were having this discussion, in a little cemetery right next to the house. Also as I was dropping the nephew off in Corpus, he told me ‘brother John, we have your name hanging up in our house’ he told me that his mom has a baby picture of him, I guess when he was born, and it has me signing it ‘brother John’ along with other family members. I surely don’t remember, but it was special for him to have seen this picture for all these years. He must think ‘how in the ‘hell’ has this  guy been involved in so many things. This white boy from Jersey’. He is like his dad, still alive by the way, but ‘in hiding’ if you will, he likes to kid a lot! NOTE: I remember taking this boys dad out to eat years ago. His dad tells me ‘brother John, where are we going to eat? I feel uncomfortable being in a crowded place’ he has done lots of prison time and all, but doesn’t like being where he might run into an off duty cop or something. I tell him ‘don’t worry Rudy, it’s just the buffet at Pizza hut’ [Kingsville] sure enough we go in and it’s not too crowded, after around 10 minutes about 25 on duty state troopers walk in and start eating, I guess they were having some convention or something. You could see the panic in my buddies face. It was funny!

(519)  Since I have been sick these last few months, one of the results of the ‘vertigo/feeling always high’ thing has caused me to be claustrophobic. I have avoided closed spaces. So these doctor visits and stuff have me going to the stairs and avoiding the elevator. So what, a few flights of stairs are good for you. It’s not like Jersey, where all the buildings are high. Well, I have this appointment at one of our older hospitals. This building is high. I go in and find the doctors name on the wall map. Floor 8! So, you think the Lord made me face my fears? I hoofed it 8 floors! [Note; I just rode in one yesterday, I got tired of the stairs.]

(520)  Recently a local ministrty came under fire for some things. They are friends of mine and run a christrian camp. I am not sure of all the accusations in the news. But when these types of problems arise with ministries it is common to hear ‘they are not under a local church’ or ‘a Pastor’. I also recently watched a service from a church in the Dallas area, it’s a large church with thousands of people. One of the comments from the Pastor was ‘the reason you have all these ‘little churches’ on every street corner is because no body wants to submit, everyone wants to do ‘their own thing’. He is a good man, he has been to Corpus before, he holds to strong apostolic thinking in terms of ‘Apostles are over churches’ and stuff. As I finished the book by Brian Welch [Korn] he shared how as he began learning and growing in the Lord that one Pastor/church told him ‘If you keep visiting these other churches I cant mentor you. You must choose loyalty’. Now in all of these areas above, where do people find safety? Is safety found in ‘being loyal to your church’? What if when we say things like this, if we really say it out of insecurity. The Pastors fear of ‘loosing this famous convert’. Or for other less than noble reasons. How can the Pastor with the large independent church see all the ‘little churches’ as ‘Pastors doing their own thing’ but yet not see how he falls into this same category when being looked at by the traditional church? They see all ‘independent bible churches’ in this light. The New testament shows Jesus preaching the gospel to people. Freely sharing and teaching the love of God. Jesus demanded loyalty to him. As the head of the church this is right. All Christian leadership also has a role to play in being ‘under shepherds’ they take oversight of new and upcoming believers. Safety is found in growing and learning from each other. Mutual submission to one another’s gifts. Seeing and partaking from all the believers in your area. It is not found in giving loyalty or submission to a specific group that meets in your part of town, to the exclusion of all other groups. ‘Well, are you with us or not’? When this wording is used to demand allegiance to a project or to tithe to a certain church, then it is unbiblical. Why? Because nowhere in the New testament do you see these divisions. I too believe a lot of the little ‘churches’ who meet on every corner U.S.A. are a result of wrong thinking and acting. It comes from Christians seeing an ‘overabundance’ of Pastors [millions] to the neglecting of the other gifts in the church. The simple fact that other titles/gifts are mentioned more in scripture than ‘the Pastor’ and yet in today’s church this title seems to mean ‘the main person in charge of a local church’ should cause us to re think our dependence on this office. It also leaves you with the majority of young men who feel this stirring in them to serve God, they are taught this stirring means ‘go be a Pastor’ and then of course you need to ‘start a church’ to be one! There you have it, all well meaning people starting tons of ‘well meaning churches’ [places to meet] and even though many of these churches [big and small] have found themselves in deep heresy and problems, yet when a ‘Para church’ ministry gets in trouble, the Pastors think ‘told you, they are not under us’. It is all a big mess. Safety, freedom, staying on course are all outgrowths of believers being ‘part of the Body’. You must be influenced by as many of the church leaders that have gone on before, as well as those speaking Gods Word today. Your loyalty to the people of God and the purpose of God should be fierce. As a leader yourself, don’t demand allegiance from others in a way that violates peoples consciences ‘you are either with me or not’ to the degree where you do like the Pastor did with Brian Welch. You are stifling their growth when you do this. Sure, if someone you are discipling goes off track, or heads towards a cult. You warn them, but this strong ‘you are under me, sit under my ministry for 20 years’ mindset is a hindrance to the growth of the kingdom. It is often born out of insecurity. The underlying idea that the main problem with today’s church is ‘too many people not willing to submit’ might be true. It would be right if ‘submit’ meant to surrender to Gods cause and purpose. But when we use it in a self serving way. To apply it to other independent ministers/churches because they are small, and yet not see it apply to you, because you ‘are big’ is self serving. It tends to say to those in hearing distance ‘get on board with this highly independent ministry’ who in many ways is just as truncated from the rest of the Body as the ‘little churches’ they are referring to. All Christians should function daily with each other as much as possible. Be in touch with all the people of God in your area. Don’t see a limited form of ‘church/Pastor/tithe’ as the primary measurements of your loyalty. I have already shown you how these ideas didn’t even operate in the early church like they do today. The overall themes of all of us as one people, striving for unity as we learn and mature in Christ. Overcoming the sectarian mindset that says ‘be a part of this church only’ rise above these fleshly divisions and tendencies that exist in Gods people. You will find safety in ‘the church’ [all the people of God, past and present!] and in him whom is the refuge of the Saints! ‘The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe’.

(521)  Was listening to T.D. Jakes the other day. He was preaching on empowering people for the next level. He did share good points. One of the examples was ‘you need people to accomplish something. You can’t do it by yourself. You might be able to make a pound cake, but if you are going to run Sara Lee, you need help’. A good point, scripture shows us how even Moses taught delegated authority. Jesus was the Master at it! My teaching has come against the prevailing mindset in the modern church that says ‘you really can’t make a big impact on your own, you need to give money to us, and then you can reach the world’. Now if you said this, I am not talking about you. I have heard this many times over the years. My point is when we tell people ‘your pound cake doesn’t really matter, or have a big impact’ then we are violating the principle of Jesus when he taught us that our ‘little bit of loaves and fishes’ matters. I know bro. Jakes would agree, he was teaching right on the principle of business that he was sharing. I just wanted to show you how your little bit does matter. Jesus delegated all of us to do our little bit. True delegation empowers everyone. In today’s world we make appeals to people based on money ‘give your money and you will have a reward in all the ministries you support’. There is some truth to this, but Jesus really didn’t teach us that we could ‘witness’ vicariously. Or ‘touch the world vicariously’ he actually told us to GO. So to view the principle of partnering in a way that seems to let the people think if they give money they are off the hook, isn’t a viable biblical alternative. At the judgment he says ‘when I was hungry and thirsty and in jail you didn’t come to me’ he doesn’t say ‘you didn’t support financially the programs that were doing it’. So, go ahead and make your pound cake, you would be surprised how far it can go!

(522)  I spent some time the other day with one of my new friends. He is homeless and does suffer from mental problems, more than most. He is a great friend and very smart. He retells all of the movies he has ever seen. He remembers every detail from them, and tells the spiritual lessons that God has shown him thru the movies. Disney stories and stuff ‘Iron Will’ ‘Where the Red Fern grows’. Somehow I mentioned the verse ‘where no Oxen are the crib is clean, but much increase comes from the strength of the Ox’ [somewhere in Proverbs]. I talked about the ‘stuff’ we sometimes have to wade thru in order to see increase. It is popular today to avoid the ‘stuff’ as you make your way to Sunday church. Try to make the goal ‘don’t step in the stuff’ . Heaven forbid one of these guys holding up a sign gets too close to the car, the ‘stuff’ might get on you. It’s possible to live your whole life staying clean and avoiding ‘the stuff’, but you would be surprised of the riches and treasures you can find in the people who are ‘covered by the stuff’.

(523)  Yesterday [Sunday] we had a good fellowship day with some of our guys. We went to my church [a mega church] and also visited a friend’s tent church service that he holds in a park. A lot of my homeless friends were there. We also watched a few T.V. church services in between [at my house. Isaiah 58 says you’re blessed if you take the homeless to YOUR OWN HOUSE!] Thru it all we heard the themes of giving for Gods work, that God wants you to have favor and that Paul was content when he had both a little and a lot! I found it interesting, the message on ‘You don’t have to go thru life struggling, you have a ‘crown’ of favor on you’ was good to hear. A little too unbalanced. One of the verses on ‘our crown’ actually spoke of the blessings that the believer gets at the end of his life, a crown [reward] waiting for us at the resurrection. So in context you really can’t apply it to God always wanting us to have ‘the overabundance’ because part of the ‘being content’ verse speaks of being content even in lack. The teaching on giving was fine. Overall it seemed like the Lord was speaking to us that day on giving and serving and being part of the ‘Body of Christ’. All of the ‘church’ are the people of God. My friend who holds the tent meeting invited me to preach. I respectfully told him ‘I don’t do that anymore’. I didn’t want to let him down, there are so many others who can do it, I already speak too much! Radio and writing and all, give someone else a chance. I just have gotten away from the whole routine of ‘preaching at churches’ I feel I am not supposed to do it. Well I thought I would share this one with you guys, hope you got something from it.

(524)  Let me give you guys a health update. I at this time only take natural supplements [vitamins and stuff] and am trusting the Lord to heal me. These last few months I have been prescribed various things for pain and the ‘dizziness’ and other stuff. In keeping with what I told you guys in the past, I have basically chosen to not take any medication long term. I have taken some of the med’s I was given, but nothing long term. The last back doctor kind of saw that I was in pain, but I told him ‘Doc, this is my last visit. I don’t want any med’s, lets just wrap this up’. So I don’t want to tell you guys to do this, but I wanted to let you know that this is what’s happening. I am not totally healed yet and I still want you guys to pray for me! But thought I would give you this update.

(525)  Isaiah 60  ‘Arise, shine; for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Darkness shall cover thee earth and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee’ Like we said when we spoke on the kingdom of God, though the world is getting darker, the church gets brighter! We are ‘the light of the world’ the world needs us! They don’t want to admit it, but at the end of all atheism, humanism and every other ‘ism’ there is a void. They will be drawn to the light! ‘Gentiles SHALL come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising’ ‘thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side’ though these verses are Messianic in nature [they speak prophetically of Christ] yet they are also fulfilled thru us, because we are ‘extensions of Christ’ in the earth. We ARE his Body! ‘Then thou shalt see, and FLOW TOGETHER, and thy heart shall fear and be enlarged’ When the Lord is magnified, when his will and purpose take precedence, we FEAR him and are enlarged. We also flow together as Gods people. There is a real sense of your success being found in your brothers and sister’s success. We flow together. ‘In my wrath I smote thee, but in my favor I have had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually’ in the ‘New Jerusalem’ [the Church] our gates are ‘open always’ people find access to come in and rest in God. But open gates also allow for there to be exit. Not ‘damnation’ here, but a going into all the world to preach the gospel. The people of God are made to find rest in him and be by still waters. Then there comes this churning, this ‘inner pull’ to go out ‘is it from God’ yes! God allows you to have seasons of rest and refuge, and then he calls you to the example of Christ. He compels you to look at the harvest and say ‘here am I, send me’. ‘The glory of Lebanon shall come to thee, the Fir tree, the Pine tree and the Box tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, AND I WILL MAKE THE PLACE OF MY FEET GLORIOUS’ God will bring great diversity [Pine, Box, Fir tree’s] into one corporate function and purpose. We will no more say ‘I am Charismatic’ I am Baptist, I am Catholic, I am this or that. We will truly bring our diversity together and lay them at Christ’s feet. He makes the place of his feet glorious. Jesus washed the disciple’s feet; he was showing that this place of humility and service will be honored in Gods economy. It is the place of value and exaltation. He offers it to all, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of takers. ‘Whereas thou hast been afflicted and hated, I will make thee an eternal excellency; a joy of many generations’ God allows affliction and hatred for a season. Both natural Israel and her Messiah went thru this. We all will partake of it at one time or another; REJOICE when it happens, because God is preparing you for eternal excellency! ‘For brass I will bring gold, for iron silver, for wood brass and for stones iron, I will make thy officers peace’ we often preach and teach ‘for stones you will get gold’ we ‘skip’ the steps! God’s prosperity comes to those who patiently and consistently give and love and work and invest and do many things in stages. These people are not trying to turn stones into gold. They realize you go from stones to iron to silver and to gold. They have realistic expectations on living a consistent life. God will make our ‘officials’ peace. The verse that says let all your requests be known to God and Gods peace will keep your hearts and minds, this speaks of Gods peace being the ‘officiator’ Christians make good decisions when they cast all their care over to God. Gods peace comes in to officiate for us, we don’t have to worry about the next step, we simply need to rest and walk in it as it is revealed. ‘Violence shall be no more in the land, nor destruction in our borders, your walls shall be Salvation and your gates Praise’ this is speaking of a spiritual/heavenly city. God is already showing that his future place of rest, the ‘eternal city’ that needs no light, because the Lamb is the light, God is showing that it is a place where walls and gates are praise and salvation. Not brick and mortar! He will make this place glorious. ‘The Lord shall be the everlasting light, the days of mourning shall be ended Thy people shall all be righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will do it in my time’ God will extend you and cause all the people you work with to be right. A day is coming where the smallest one [least significant] shall have great influence. He will ‘grow you and your people like a branch thru the earth’ thru the people you bring into the Kingdom, God will allow great influence to go forth. God told Abraham ‘thru your seed shall all nations be blessed’ you are simply the ‘instigator/initiator’ of the thing, it will get carried out thru your spiritual children!

(526) One of the homeless brothers told me how he started feeling dizzy a few weeks back, before I started getting with him on a regular basis. Another friend shared his testimony with me, how God visited him years ago and he had this awesome experience. One of the ‘effects’ was he felt like he was ‘looking thru a glass’. Our key brother in Kingsville [one of them, I have a few] reminded me of a dream he had in prison, where he was on the highway overpass looking into the city and he saw as it were a ‘sea of people’. I have spoken on all of these experiences and images over these past few months. Often time’s people from the same spiritual family go thru like things. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Pray for those who you regularly work with and interact with as a Body. Three fold cords are not easily broken. There is strength in unity and agreement. Jesus said ‘where 2 or more agree, God will act’ be loyal to the brotherhood that exists in Christ.

(527)  I was reading on a movement of Christians out of Austin who left the concept of ‘church’ as being the ‘place we go to on Sunday’ and have relocated their families to the lower class areas of town. These are Chinese believers who are seeing ‘church’ as community. I also remember reading an article a few years ago on ‘out of church Christians’. The article spoke on why so many people are ‘leaving church’ and addressed a lot of good things. Later in the article the writer then talked about ‘coming back from the wilderness journey into the church’. He still ‘saw’ church as the Sunday meeting. He misread what God was doing. Those who have left the ‘Sunday church model’ are not ‘in the wilderness’ so to speak. They are seeing ‘church’ as the entire community action that they are involved with. This is much different than simply ‘seeing’ the people who are ‘leaving Sunday church’ as disgruntled or dissatisfied believers. The new paradigm [really not new, it was around for the first few centuries] sees the actual community of people as ‘the church’. So for these to then see ‘going back to the Sunday model’ as coming out from the wilderness is not seeing the heart of the movement. I also read the critics who are against the ‘emergent model’. Some feel that they are giving in to liberal trends in theology [I am sure some are] and are fighting against the community model thinking they are ‘defending the faith’. You don’t have to embrace theological liberalism to see this new way of doing church. The first century Apostles were certainly not theological liberals, but they viewed church as community. I just thought I would share these few thoughts today, hope it helped. NOTE; Another interesting fact about the ‘out of the church building’ movement is that the Lord allowed for there to be a whole new way to communicate this truth thru the internet. During the time of the reformation you recently had the printing press invented by Guttenberg. It’s like the Lord opened up a door of mass communication right at the time of him raising up prophetic voices who would speak into the church at large. There were new groups of believers for the first time publishing all these small articles [Tractarians] and these writings were having a tremendous impact on the church. So today you have the availability of the net to allow the ‘common voices’ to speak into the church at large. This is actually part of the concept of the corporate voice versus the singular one [Pastor]. Many home church movements see the teaching of Paul in Corinthians as telling the church to all have an input, not just one main speaker. This is what is happening thru the net. Many voices are being heard. You then of course have the danger that our Catholic brothers raised during the reformation. The Catholics [some] believed if the bible was translated from Latin into the common language there would be all sorts of interpretations and stuff. Some of this came true! You had certain radical people who started ‘Waco’ [Muenster Prophets? If I remember well] type cults during this time. And it was a result of individuals coming up with their own ‘private’ interpretation of scripture. But the answer wasn’t to stifle the church, but to allow all believers to freely read and see the truth of God, despite the danger of a few going off track. So in the world of ‘being on line’ you can see a real revolution take place, are there possible areas of danger? Sure. But overall the internet has become a ‘printing press’ for the modern reformation! NOTE; another result of the reformation was the fact that many new believers would no longer ‘pay tithes’ into the old system. The instigating factor of the reformation was the abuse of indulgences, a money issue! So likewise today you are also seeing the strong ‘tithe or you are under the curse’ versus ‘give to your brothers in need’ mentality. It is only normal for those dependant on the tithe to fight against this. They see all the good things they want to accomplish, and they realize it can’t be done unless so many people tithe. The new churches are getting away from this. They see the actual concept of all Gods people living every day as ‘the church’ to be the real ‘change factor’ in the world. They don’t view the need for lots of money to come into the institution, they see all the people as the ‘institution’ and therefore the act of releasing them into the harvest will have a greater effect than all the money in the world.

(528)  Isaiah 61  ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me BECAUSE the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound’ Jesus read this verse in the gospel and said it was being fulfilled thru him. God anoints Jesus and us for set purposes. I find it interesting how this coincides with chapter 58 and deals with the hand of God to free people. To actually minister to real needs. In chapter 58 God rebukes Israel for thinking the anointing [Spirit] is for ritualistic religion, he tells them to do justice and reach out to the hurting. Jesus exemplifies this. He ‘proclaims’ liberty to captives. It’s like if someone were in a jail cell and the governor sent a message that said ‘you are already pardoned’. The message of the gospel is ‘you are free, God is not holding your sins against you. Only believe!’ We often preach ‘you must do so and so to get free’ Jesus said ‘you already are’. ‘To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of vengeance of our God’ we must make it clear that a day of judgment is coming. The reality is God does forgive you, but you must come thru the Cross. It must be plain that all who reject Christ face a sure and certain judgment. A few years ago a very famous Charismatic preacher became a ‘universalist’ [someone who believes that everyone goes to heaven, or in this case that hell and judgment do not exist] He shared how when he stopped preaching ‘hell’ that it just made everyone feel better. It might make you feel better, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real! God wants us to tell people about this ‘acceptable time of the Lord’ but also warn them that if they refuse Gods grace, judgment is coming down the road. ‘To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness’ Now we are going to see a theme thru out the rest of the chapter. God wants to bring you out of mourning and into full restoration. I said in the previous chapters that rebuke and correction lead up to restoration. It is vital that we enter into joy! God wants us to come out of places of ‘heaviness’ [depression] and bring us to places of joy and peace ‘that we might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, and they shall build up the waste places, repair waste cities’ Who will do these things ? Those who have truly entered into praise! This is why it’s vital to make the transition into joy. It is the restoration process that enables us to move on to the next level. God says ‘you will have a scar, but no open wound’ There will be reminders of the desert you were in, that’s good. God says I want you to remember how awful it really was, never forget the ‘pit that I took you out of’ now that you are out, go and do my works! I have claimed these verses for over 20 years concerning building up waste cities and God doing it thru your seed. Yesterday we had a good outreach day in Kingsville. We got with some brothers and met at a park. I have a friend who is a musician, but he only knows the old classics ‘amazing grace’ and stuff. Fine with me, we sang and praised in that park. I felt the Lord said that he was going to restore joy to ‘our mourners’ and it will be thru this restored joy that he will ‘build the old waste places’. ‘You shall be named the Priests of the Lord, the ministers of our God’ this is all of us! No special class here, no ‘clergy’. This is you and me. ‘For your shame ye shall have double, and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion, they shall posses double, everlasting joy shall be with them’ In Hebrews it says of Jesus ‘he despised the shame, looking ahead to the reward’. Here it says God will reward you by giving you many converts and blessing these converts exponentially based on the shame and confusion you experience. Don’t try to get out of the shame/difficulty/persecution, but see it as part of the cost. Know that as you suffer, God is promising to reward you thru your seed. ‘I the Lord love judgment, I HATE ROBBERY FOR BURNT OFFERINGS’ now I want you to pay attention here. In the New Testament Jesus teaches the way people ‘rob God’ is by not meeting the needs of people. He rebuked the Pharisees for tithing to the temple and using this as an excuse to not meet the needs of their parents. Jesus said when you didn’t meet the needs of the destitute that you were NOT MEETING HIS NEEDS, Jesus is God! John says ‘how can you say you love God who you don’t see, when you don’t meet the needs [love demonstrated] of the brother that you do see’. It is common today to use Malachi and teach ‘robbing God’ in the context of ‘not tithing’. Because the New Testament temple are made up of people, the New Testament teaches ‘robbing God’ is done by not ‘giving’ to this temple, which are people! I have taught all this before, but I want to change your thinking in this area. You must see the people as the temple in order to not ROB GOD. ‘I WILL GREATLY REJOICE IN THE LORD, MY SOUL SHALL BE JOYFUL IN MY GOD’ I want to end on this high note, even though the last verse of this chapter is also good [go read it!] I personally believe this to be a key ingredient at this time for us. The joy of the Lord is our strength. ‘But brother, you ‘rebuke’ so much in your writings, you teach correction a lot. How can you have joy when there is so much difficulty and trials and stuff?’ Our joy is not dependant on our situation, it is fixed in God. Read the Psalms, David understood this principle. Paul said his contentment was not based on outward circumstances. Let’s grasp hold of the great reality of what God has done for us; we are going to live forever! Don’t lose sight of the great things God has done. Be joyful in God at all times. I know he is going to do great things for all of us, let’s rejoice in the Lord, and again I say REJOICE! NOTE; ‘for confusion and shame your children shall posses a double portion in the land’ [my paraphrase] this past year my 2 oldest daughters [19-21] both purchased their own homes. They ‘possessed’ double of what I own. I see God doing things in the natural first, then the spiritual. A couple of our friends from the early years have just begun doing home groups in their cities, they have been serving the Lord, but it’s been a while since we really established anything consistent with these guys. I felt like the Lord was saying ‘our seed [yours too!] will begin possessing the Land this year’.

(529)  The other week I took some homeless friends to the church I attend, as well as to a ‘tent church’ that had around a hundred homeless people show up. My intent in telling this is not to condemn any particular style of church. I want to share the reaction/way my friends saw things. In my church the service was focused on tithing. The church recently built a big building [seats around 3 thousand] and it just so happened that this Sunday the message was on tithing. My friends also saw in the church pamphlet that around 8 million was raised from the 10 million needed for the building campaign. Now all of these scenarios play out all across the world on a regular basis. There are well meaning and good intended brothers/churches that find them selves in these scenarios often. My friends liked the church, I was happy to have them see it for the first time. I was not critical nor did I critique the tithing message. My friends later made comments about how the money could be used to house and feed poor people. And they simply saw the other things that the money could be used for, they were seeing thru their world. Later at the tent church many destitute people came. They all had church and ate donated chili dogs. More of a street ministry. Over the years of teaching on church and trying to change the mindset of believers, I have run across well meaning believers who question ‘well brother, where are all the believers going to meet? If you want to reach 20 thousand people, you will need a 20 thousand seat auditorium!’ This is why I am trying to steer us more towards the New Testament mindset. It is all too common to truly reach between 1 to 5 thousand people. To then see growing as expanding in the size of the meeting place, and then the believers see the next level thru the eyes of ‘bring in the money so the rest of the people can be reached’. All well intended, but it lacks the focus of New Testament evangelism. Paul and all the other first century Apostles and believers practiced a type of ‘church growth’ that simply said ‘preach the gospel, allow all the people in the cities to spread the word to all the other people. Meet in your homes, break bread, share the great message of redemption. Send people out to other places as God leads’ [Acts 13- Paul from Antioch] and keep growing along the lines of spreading a revolutionary message about Christ. This New Testament mindset never appealed for the Galatians or Ephesians or any other city of believers to get into building campaigns to reach the rest of the harvest field. This mindset also allows for the rapid growth of the gospel to go forth. It is empowering all Christians to do their part. You see your responsibility more along the lines of spreading the gospel, than along the lines of raising money. I do believe and understand that their truly are good guys [Pastors] and others who are advancing along the lines of mega churches. And it is hard to write entries like this. I just wanted you to see the perspective of my homeless friends, and also how the contemporary church sees evangelism along the lines of ‘I need so many members in order to have the funds needed to go to the next level’. This mindset sees the amount of people that need to come to church and give so much for the organization to grow. It can become very limited in its appeal to the Sunday church goer. They can begin to see themselves solely along the lines of ‘We need to be faithful to raise so much money’ they begin to see their main measure of faithfulness and sacrifice along these lines. The New Testament believers were seeing faithfulness in different ways. There were appeals to help Paul go to the next city to preach, and appeals to help the needy, but they weren’t seeing the appeals that are common today. Paul wasn’t asking ‘we need to raise lots of money to go to Galatia and build a church’ or to fund a huge ministry to reach Galatia. They were simply needing the money to survive and get their bodies to the next city in order to preach the word. This is real people evangelism, all the people seeing their main responsibility as being involved, not giving money. Well I don’t mean to offend in these entries, I pray for the success of all of us [I really do!] I just wanted to share some input. I also at times feel bad for the young Pastors who can get in over their heads financially. They are doing it for the most part out of a true love of God. I feel they put themselves at times under great financial strain because they see it as what God wants. It might be at certain times, but it also is an out growth of seeing ‘church’ as having the building big enough for everyone to attend. Sometimes God wants the growth to go outward. You didn’t see the Ephesians or other New Testament churches finding places big enough where they could all get together. They grew along the lines of more people meeting across the cities and being a part of one family of believers in the city. No need for one place to all meet. Say if you had 50 thousand in a city turn to Christ. I know some mega churches [Paul Yongi Cho-Korea] do try to simply build bigger places, as well as home church growth. But the New Testament mindset was not seeing it at all along these lines. They were spreading a radical revolutionary message in the hearts of people. This allowed for the people themselves to run with the message. NOTE; I usually don’t give examples that ‘hit this close to home’. I want the church I mentioned above to succeed. Those of you in the Corpus area that read this blog and attend this church, I want you to do all you can to give and support the church. If you are not giving money in other well established Christian avenues on a regular basis, then give all you can to help the church you go to! Give 10 % or more! Our goal is to see the overall transition of Gods people from the normal view of church, back to a radical 1st century view. It is common in revolutionaries to go overboard [I have!] and then want to see the ‘old church model’ fail. This is not what God wants. Don’t take entries like this and then wait for your view to win while the other guy fails. This is not Christian! So to all the local brothers who read this, support the church financially as much as possible, also begin spreading the Kingdom as well.

(530)  A few years ago a famous atheist, Anthony Flew, renounced atheism and professed belief in God. A very intelligent atheist, he saw the impossibility of life and all things being a result of a past history where supposedly nothing existed. It is impossible! I just read an article how in the year 2000 a famous Paleontologist, Meave Leakey, discovered evidence against evolution. In Kenya she found 2 skulls that were supposed to have been ancestors who ‘evolved’ millions of years apart. She found them in the same location. The same ‘level’ that proved beyond all doubt that these so called ‘ancestors’ lived at the same time. To be honest these so called ‘ancestors’ are simply different species of Apes and Monkeys that people find thru out time. The knowledgeable person realizes this, the evolutionist doesn’t! The fact that Leakey’s find wasn’t published until 2007 [ in the scientific journal ‘Nature’ August 9] makes me wonder why it took so long. Well obviously the find goes against evolution, the evolutionists religiously defend their belief. If they themselves find evidence against their theory, it doesn’t help their ‘religious belief’ to publish it! I just thought it worthwhile to keep you all up to date on the evidence from both atheists and evolutionists that back up Christian belief.

(531)  I watched a panel of 3 of the top Prosperity Preachers host a talk show. I thought it was real interesting, the brother hosting the show was informally talking to his friends, but you could tell he wanted to share something. He then reads from Acts where it says ‘the Holy Spirit witnesses in every city that bonds and afflictions await me at Jerusalem’. It is speaking of Paul. I noticed one of the other Prosperity guys kind of looked a little perplexed [?] as the verse was read. I know they have all taught in the past that bonds and afflictions are not what God wants for us. They have intricate systems of belief that do get around persecutions. But the brother shared it in love and seemed to allow the Lord to use him in this public forum to bring some balance back to this thing. The other brothers had no problem receiving the truth, because it was coming from someone within their own camp. I just felt this was interesting to share. We all need reproof at times, and God is jealous for his reputation. He will gain it back in this camp. NOTE; These brothers have taught in the past that when Paul spoke on his thorn in the flesh, that God was saying ‘his grace is sufficient for thee’ meant that God was saying ‘you have the grace/ability to make it go away’ kind of a perverted view of the  verse. God actually told Paul ‘you can live with certain difficulties, because my grace is all you need’ in essence ‘you don’t need a perfect, affliction free environment to operate in, I am all you need’ Basically God was not telling Paul ‘you make it go away yourself’. Now I had one of my homeless friends say the other day ‘I think Paul went thru sufferings because he was reaping what he sowed when he persecuted Christians’ you could tell he has been influenced by this teaching. It was a little sad because this friend does suffer from mental problems, and he was telling me that Paul was suffering affliction as a result of his past sins. I then told him this is not true, and I quoted the verses that say ‘it is given to us also to suffer for his name’ God telling Paul ‘I will show thee the sufferings that you will go thru’ at his initial conversion. In context I explained to my friend that these verses show us the afflictions and sufferings that Paul went thru were NOT a result of him reaping what he sowed. They were an up front part of the cost that all the early believers understood. The sad thing is this poor mentally challenged brother was going thru life with a ‘form of doctrine’ that denied Gods power and reality. It had him thinking that he was really reaping what he sowed by going thru mental challenges. This is why I have said in the past that it is no light thing to undermine the word of God and to distort it. Even though many of these teachings are defined as ‘Word churches’ and stuff. This still doesn’t give you the right to distort the Word.

(532)  Isaiah 62  ‘For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and salvation like a lamp that burns’ This is intercession based on natural Israel’s spiritual conversion. He is praying ‘open up Israel’s eyes to true salvation and righteousness’. ‘And gentiles shall see thy righteousness [Christ] and all kings thy glory, and thou shall be called by a new name [the Body of Christ! Spiritual Israel, a ‘new name’ that no one knows but he who gave it] which the mouth of the Lord shall name’. ‘Thou shall no longer be called forsaken or desolate, thy land shall be married’ The great ‘marriage supper of the Lamb’ a day when Israel will no longer be ‘separated/divorced’ from God, but will be part of the ‘bride of Christ’ and thru this holy union be ‘married’ back to God! ‘As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride [this is actually an intimate term ‘rejoiceth over’ God will actually be intimate with us and we with him!] so shall God rejoice over thee’. ‘I have set watchman on thy walls oh Jerusalem, they shall never be quiet day or night, give him no rest till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth’ Pray over Israel/Jerusalem until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth, this will be at the appearing of her Messiah. NOTE; some theologians today are called ‘New Perspective’ they are giving a new perspective on Paul’s theology. There are some good points they bring out. One area is they are showing how the New Testament offer of ‘faith’ to the gentiles was ‘come and believe and you too will be part of the commonwealth of Israel’ they emphasize that faith allowed gentiles to partake of the community that God already had with Israel. There is some truth to this. The extreme says ‘Israel really is in line with God now, gentiles just need to get in on what she has’ this view doesn’t see that in Christ the TWO are made INTO ONE NEW MAN. God is actually creating one new man [not asking gentiles to come into an old man] and this happens thru Christ! ‘The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, surely I will no longer give thy corn to be food for thy enemies, and the son of the stranger shall not drink thy wine for which you have worked, but they that have earned it shall eat it and praise the Lord’ One of the curses for being disobedient is the wages and things you earn count for nothing. There are different types of judgment on sin, one is you have no power to posses wealth. The other is you have no power to keep it! Here God is saying when people are in judgment they lose the stuff they earned. One of the greatest financial wreckers in society today is divorce. Some high wage people have lived in difficulty because of this. They might earn 10 thousand a month and still be broke! This is common. God is telling his people if we get right with him, not only will he give us great opportunities to earn wealth, but we also get to keep it! [That is use it for right things, not horde it!] ‘go thru, go thru the gates, prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway, gather out the stones, lift up a standard for the people’ A few years ago [2004] I felt the Lord tell me to start driving to work in Kingsville thru a longer route that would take me thru regional cities. During this time they also built all these new overpasses that allowed you to ‘drive on the walls of the cities’ and pray over them from a ‘high place’. This was for 3 years until I would retire [which I am in the process of doing]. I felt the lord gave me 3 intense years of prayer and intercession over a region that we have long prayed for. When I read these verses ‘go thru the gates/highway and take out the stones and prepare a way for the people’ as well as God saying ‘I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the land’ I felt things like this were signifying how God wants us to lay the groundwork thru prayer first. As I drove thru the land and ‘prophesied’ and prayed, God was ‘breaking up the fallow ground’. God has ‘land’ for you, you will begin possessing it as you are faithful to ‘go thru the land’ but also ‘gather out the stones’ this speaks of a willingness to both reprove [in love] and remove the ‘stones’ that are hindering the highway. When a road is filled with obstacles, you can still drive it, but very slow. I felt like the Lord was speaking of ‘acceleration’ a ‘suddenly’ when he acts quickly on our behalf. If we want to ‘advance rapidly thru out the land’ then we must get the stones out of the road! NOTE; I have told you guys in the past that sometimes my ‘spell check’ is prophetic. When I wrote ‘reprove’ it spelt ‘repave’.

(533)  Just read a letter from my old buddy in New Jersey state prison. He ran into another old buddy of ours in prison. He gave him my books, but wants them back. So he asked if I could send some more, I will today. It’s funny, these are buddies from the past that did bad stuff. I had some crazy times with these guys in the past. Now their interested in the books and stuff. God will open doors if you maintain real friendships with people. My friend even said ‘now you have 2 friends in New Jersey prisons’. I know the Lord will use these guys in some way.

(534) I just remembered a funny story about the friend in prison. Years ago on one of my visits back to Jersey I ran into this friend. I always liked his family. He told his dad ‘Johns in town’ and the dad said ‘bring him by, I want to say hi’. Sure enough the day I am going to see him, my friend takes me down to these docks by the Hudson River. It’s close to Jersey City. We go under some bridge and wind up in some real ‘on the waterfront’ type hideout. My friend brings me to his dads ‘shop’ and he pulls open this raggedy garage door. These guys are ‘working’ on some cars in the dark. They are surprised by us opening the door. The dads ‘worker’ was cutting some car in the back and looks up with this look of ‘I hope I’m not busted’ like from the TV show ‘cops’. The dad then realizes it’s us and is real happy to see me. He was a great guy. My friend introduces me to the other guy in the corner ‘skeeter’ or something? It was hilarious.

(535)  Isaiah 63  The first part of the chapter speaks of Gods righteous judgment ‘the day of vengeance’ and then mixes in mercy! ‘In all their affliction, he was afflicted’ this is interesting, God says ‘when you were afflicted, I too experienced it’. Wow, how could our afflictions be experienced by God? In Corinthians you have the doctrine of the ‘sin unto death’. There are various interpretations on this. You see certain believers who are in open sin. God allows judgment on them, even to the point of death, because they are ‘part of his body’. Sort of like God is saying ‘you guys are intricately attached to me, when you, as my Body, sin, then you are dragging me into the situation’. It seems as if God was saying his judgment is a result of them being the church, and at the same time ‘drinking the cup of devils’. You can’t have both! So in this case judgment was pronounced because they were ‘making the Spirit of God partake of evil things’ so to speak. Understand when we go thru things, especially open rebellion, God will eventually judge. It’s not out of meanness, but mercy. You read in Corinthians that when God judges us it is so we will not be condemned with the world. His judgment proves we are his kids and therefore it is really an act of divine mercy! ‘But they rebelled and VEXED his Holy Spirit’ it was ‘vexing’ to the Spirit because they were the temple of the Spirit. ‘O Lord, why hast THOU made us to err from thy ways’ Interesting! One of the prophets said ‘you deceived me, and I was deceived’. A lot of modern translations try to change this. They try to say God wouldn’t be an active partaker in ‘deceiving you’. I see it along these lines, God knows us intimately, he even knows there are fears and shortcomings that prevent us from truly entering into our destiny. He will actively allow us to ‘be deceived’ or cause us to ‘err from his ways’ because he wants us to get to the point of doing his will, he knows it’s best for us. If we don’t do his will voluntarily, he allows us to stray so ‘in the desert’ we will turn back to him. ‘Return for thy servants sake’ after the desert we then are willing! In the day of thy wrath you made us willing!

(536)  Isaiah 64  ‘Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou would come down, that the mountains might flow at thy presence’ There are pivotal times in our lives where we have done all the planning we could imagine. We have prayed, read the Word and done all the things that we thought were necessary to see God move. It is often at the end of all of our efforts that we get to a place where we see the futility of it all, apart from God! In the end, like Paul said, some water, some plant, but only God can cause it to grow! Have you seen the need for God to come down and move on your behalf? You’ve done everything else, might as well call on God and believe that he alone can do it. ‘As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causes the waters to boil’ WOW! Jesus said ‘I am come to set fire to the earth, how I wish it were already burning’ [my translation]. We will read in this chapter ‘God is a consuming fire’. Jesus understood the role he was to play. He knew it would end in violence and resurrection. He knew it would be revolutionary in nature. How can you expect to come to a group of people who truly believe in God, and then show them that they have fallen away from the true intent of God and then say ‘God sent me to tell you this’. The role of a Prophet is revolutionary by its very nature. It will ‘burn’ things, things that need to be burnt. Jesus knew the course he was on, he knew he was going to start a fire that would consume everything in its path, he said he wished it were already burning. ‘For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what you have prepared for those who wait for you’ Paul quotes this to the Corinthians. This is not really talking about the great ministries and things that we think, it can include that. But this is speaking of the unbelievable mystery of redemption thru Christ. The things that Angels desire to look into. The story of mans redemption and how God preplanned it before the world began is a tremendous mystery that no man can see unless God reveals it to him. Paul says ‘no man can say Jesus is Lord but by Gods Spirit’ Paul was not saying no one could ‘mouth’ it, he was saying no human understanding can grasp it apart from the revelation of God. ‘Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways’ God instituted things so his people would ‘remember him’. The Passover, the Lords Supper. Often time’s people remember him in these rituals, but forget him in ‘their ways’. This is the main rebuke Isaiah gives to Israel in this book. When religion digresses to a point of ritual, apart from righteous action [justice] then we are not remembering God in his ways. Because his ways are justice and mercy and caring for the downtrodden and oppressed. It is too easy today to associate Christianity with ‘conservatism’. I am neither liberal or conservative, but you will find I hold to beliefs in both of these camps. The danger of aligning Christiantiy with a political cause is then you begin to think the ‘cause’ is Christian. You can fight against the illegal alien, or be against ‘welfare’ and the people on it, and if taken to the extreme you begin to see Christianity thru a lens that says ‘we are moral preachers to a fallen society’ to a point where we no longer practice charity or justice for the oppressed. God says he wants us to remember him in ‘ritual’ as long as we also remember him in deed. ‘But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our good deeds are as filthy rags’ This verse has been a key verse in many of the revivalist movements of the 19th and 20th  centuries. They focused on mans inability to please God and be good. Later on the ‘Word of Faith/Prosperity movement’ brought out good points when they emphasized that we are now made the righteousness of God in Christ. The balance here is apart from God, we are absolutely unrighteous and unable to please God. In Christ we are ‘acceptable to God’. God sees us as totally righteous. The caveat is Paul will still refer to himself at times as ‘the worst of sinners’ even after his conversion. I see the balance like this; In God we are accepted and God sees his Sons righteousness as being imputed to us by faith. During our journey we are progressively being made actually righteous. We are being sanctified. There are obvious times in this walk where we totally fail God. We then confess and repent and continue the journey. The closer we get to God, the further we see how far we really are. So Paul [and us] can at times see how ‘we are the worst of sinners’ and at the same time thank God that he doesn’t view us that way! ‘Our iniquities like the wind have taken us away’ Jesus says in John 3 ‘those that are born of the Spirit are like the wind’ Paul also teaches that as we once were controlled by sin, now we are to be controlled by righteousness. The ‘wind’ can describe how either we are led by sin or by God. It is an unseen force that cause’s things to turn in a certain direction. You can look at the wind blowing a tree and say ‘wow, that tree is being bent severely’ and yet you know it is a result of the wind. Often times I have seen [and experienced!] the lifestyle of going down paths that you seem to have no control over, friends who are at the stage of being in the street, robbing everything they can get their hands on for the next fix, and then going off to prison. At these stages they are allowing sin to bend them like the wind. I have also seen these same guys later be controlled by the Spirit and serving God. Paul said the way to ‘not walk in the flesh’ is to ‘walk in the Spirit’. Religion tells people ‘don’t do this or that’ while Gods recovery program is ‘do what the Spirit is saying’. The secret to deliverance is for a person to actively give them selves over to God and to do his works. If you ‘walk in the Spirit, then you will not do the works of the flesh’. ‘Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts will be established’ we need a breakthrough in obedience, in getting out and fulfilling Gods will. Most Christians who are running around from deliverance conference to deliverance conference are not yet ‘delivered’ because they haven’t yet fully given themselves into the active service of the Lord! ‘There is none that calls upon thy name, that stirs himself up to take hold of thee’ Why? Because our sins have separated us from God! In Hebrews it says ‘let us come boldly before the throne with a clear conscience’ it says this in context of the work of Christ in redemption. Because legally God refuses to hold our sins against us, therefore we have confidence. One of the most devastating things about sin is it separates us from God. It keeps us from coming to him. We feel guilty and unworthy and we can’t seem to get thru in prayer. God says ‘come’ and he will heal and forgive and restore. ‘But you are our father, we are the clay, you are the potter, we are the work of your hand. Don’t be really mad, don’t remember our sins, we are your people’ Isaiah uses the same ‘strategy’ as Moses ‘we are yours, we bare your name. For this reason please come and help us. It won’t look good on your record if your people don’t make it!’ We are asking God to help us because all we are is from him. He chose us and fashioned us with a specific destiny in mind. Tell God ‘you made me to do your will, move on my behalf Father, help me at this time. I have come to do thy will O God’ he often will ‘take away the first that he might establish the second’ [Hebrews]. Look for God to allow the first works of ministry to ‘dissolve’ as he transitions you into new things. Sometimes we hold onto our Ishmael’s because we truly have an affinity for them, yet God says ‘let go of Ishmael, I will still bless him, but the promise will be fulfilled in Isaac’. ‘Our holy and our beautiful house is burned up with fire’ interesting, we just read how ‘God is a consuming fire’ and how Jesus said ‘I have come to start a fire’. In the New Testament God transitioned his ‘holy place’ from the natural temple to the spiritual temple [the church/Body of Christ]. Thru out Israel’s history the destruction of the temple always represented Gods judgment. That was the significance of Jesus saying ‘destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up’ this was offensive to the Jewish mind. It was like desecrating the flag [even though Jesus was speaking of his body, the Jews were offended because they took it to mean their temple]. The fact that Israel, as a nation, would not make the full transition into the New Covenant left them with their temple and sacrifices that God already said were an abomination to him [Hebrews]. Ultimately this would lead to the temples final destruction in A.D. 70 under Titus. The destruction of the temple again was Gods way of saying ‘I no longer dwell in temples made with hands, I no longer will accept animal sacrifices. I will dwell in those who accept the sacrifice of my son, and I will receive their sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, this is the temple I will build, the temple of the Body of Christ’.

(537)  Isaiah65  ‘I am sought of them that asked not for me, I am found of them that sought me not’ Paul uses these verses in Romans to show how Gods justification went to the Gentiles and not to Israel. The nation that prided herself in ‘seeking God’ were not accepted because of pride and her refusal to acknowledge the Messiah, the Gentiles were not even thinking there could be a chance of acceptance, and Jesus says ‘to all of you who weren’t even looking, you didn’t even bother to seek me, I am now opening my arms to you’ Wow! ‘I have stretched out my hands ALL DAY LONG unto a rebellious people, which walk after their own thoughts, they continually provoke me to anger, they sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on altars of brick’ God prescribed the way to sacrifice, Israel went another way. In Israel’s history you find times where she introduced a priesthood and system of sacrifice that ‘veered away’ from the ‘orthodox order’. During these times the people still had sacrifice, which they figured was good enough, but God detested sacrifices that were not in his prescribed order. Now all this points to the Cross. In Hebrews God says ‘I will not accept any more animal sacrifices, the prescribed order is now one sacrifice made on the altar of the Cross’. God is showing us here that even though many good people continue to ‘serve God in their own way’ this doesn’t cut it! You must come Gods way, his sacrifice and altar are the only way. It might seem ‘culturally incorrect’ to look at all religion outside of the Cross and deem it useless, but this is what God is saying! Don’t come to me with your own ideas of acceptable sacrifice [Cain/Able] but come to me thru the one sacrifice that I deem worthy. ‘As the new wine is found in the cluster and one saith, destroy it not for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servant’s sake, that I may not destroy them all. I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains’ God said if he found 10 righteous people in Sodom he would have spared the whole city for the remnants sake. This is a theme in scripture. God says he spares nations and people groups for the sake of the few who still have potential in them. God does this with individuals also. He sees remnants of good still left in you. You might have failed miserably, done terrible things. Why in the world does God still stick with you? He sees potential in you still, and knows it’s worth the wait! ‘The former troubles are forgotten, they are hid from mine eyes, for I create new heavens and a new earth, the former shall not be remembered or come into mind’ Now, I don’t want to whitewash what comes before this. God does rebuke and punish the people for walking in their own ways, after their own thoughts. God brings very severe judgment on the people for their sin! But after they turn back to God he says ‘I choose to forget the past, don’t keep going back to your ‘old world’ I am creating a new atmosphere for you to operate in’ I don’t want to over spiritualize this. God will make a real new heaven and earth someday. This is true. But he also wants to make a ‘new heaven and earth’ for you right now. He wants you to come out of your own small world of problems. Don’t spend your whole life surrounded by little insignificant problems. I don’t want to demean you; I want to show you that we have a tendency to see everything thru a myopic view. In the microscope everything looks huge, until you pull your head back and look at everything else around you. Sometimes the solution to our problem is to simply pull back and see the new heaven and earth that God has waiting for you; don’t spend so much time looking thru the microscope! ‘For as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and they shall long enjoy the work of their hands’ I have often used the analogy of a tree to describe Gods people, scripture does the same. Jesus is the vine, ‘the man whose name is the branch, he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord’. God wants to branch out thru you, he wants you to grow and extend thru the disciples that you bring to Christ. ‘I am the vine; ye are the branches’ you ‘branch out’ thru the people you bring to the Lord. Are you branching out yet? ‘They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble, they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them’ these last few passages I have committed to memory. These verses are about as good as any to memorize and pray and claim. I like them better than the prayer of Jabez! ‘It shall come to pass before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear’ A few years ago I was in a Church service and the Pastor asked the whole congregation to pray that the Lord would pay the salary of another staff worker for a campus church in Kingsville [Bay Area Fellowship]. As the Pastor and the congregation prayed this prayer, a few minutes later another staff person came to the front and announced that earlier in the morning, before we prayed, someone already volunteered to pay the salary of the person for one year. Before we asked, God answered!

(538)  This past week the Jehovah Witnesses held a regional convention in our city, the theme was ‘Jesus Christ’. The papers said they were making an all out effort to appeal to Christians at large by doing this. The Pope’s most recent book is ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ he is defending the supernatural and historical accuracy of Jesus as described in the Gospels. He is basically defending the truth of Christ. I find it interesting that most ‘Christian’ groups, even those like the Jehovah witnesses, who historically fall into the cult category, realize that the way to be ‘politically correct’ amongst other groups is to acknowledge Christ. Now I am not saying all groups are doing this out of a pure motive, Jesus said many would come in his name and say ‘I am Christ’ this not only can mean they are claiming to be Christ [Moonies] but it can also mean they are saying ‘Jesus is Christ’ but they don’t truly acknowledge his full deity. The point is even Muslims acknowledge Christ as well as do the Jews. They see him differently than Christians, but they can’t deny him fully! God will draw men to Christ; some of them will preach him out of impure motives, like Paul said. But he also said ‘either way Christ is preached’. I find it interesting that God will even use his enemies to preach his name! [Note: I am not saying this about our Catholic brothers!]

(539)  Isaiah 66  ‘Thus saith the lord, the heaven is my throne and the earth my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest’ Here we begin to see the transition that will take place in 1st century Rome. These descriptions from Isaiah are prophetic of Gods offer to Israel. Isaiah is saying ‘where is the temple that you can build for me to dwell in’? I do not want a man made temple any more. I am done with all animal sacrifices [we read that next!] God will end the prophetic message of Isaiah with his intent to transfer from an earthly natural temple, to a heavenly spiritual one, the Body of Christ! God will show his displeasure with all animal sacrifices, not just certain ones. For Isaiah to claim to be speaking for God, and to say these things seems blasphemous to Israel at this time. You must see that Isaiah is coming against all the ceremony and system that God instituted. To say these things was to put himself in the same category of Paul who the Jews will accuse of trying to destroy the law and Temple worship. But Paul was saying this post Christ, Isaiah was saying it before the Cross. How could Isaiah get away with this while the law was still in effect? The Spirit of prophecy sees and functions in future realities. When God opens up the future to a prophet, he simply speaks what he is seeing. It is Gods prerogative to proclaim his disapproval of the old system in anticipation of the new one that was to come. ‘For all those things hath mine hand made, but to this man will I look, to him that is of a poor and contrite spirit’ God says ‘I will not dwell in the temples of men, but in those who are humble and contrite’. Jesus said unless we humble ourselves and become as little children, we will not enter Gods kingdom. Here we see the ‘stones’ that the new temple will be made of, humble contrite people. ‘He that killeth an ox is like he slew a man, he that sacraficeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dogs neck, he that offers an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood [and you guys think I am harsh!] and he that burneth incense as if he blessed an idol’ In essence Isaiah is saying the same as the book of Hebrews. You must see that in the mind of God, all animal sacrifice, after the Cross[which Isaiah is seeing thru prophecy, he is speaking ‘post Cross prophetically’] is an insult and an abomination. I am going to start a commentary on Hebrews as soon as I finish Isaiah, I want to put the book in proper perspective. When the writer of Hebrews says ‘those who continue to sin after they were enlightened, that God will not allow them to renew their repentance’ it is not speaking of believers, as commonly taught. But it is telling Israel ‘if you reject Messiah, and think you can keep bringing me all these sacrifices of repentance, I won’t accept them anymore. You cant be ‘renewed again unto repentance, you have done despite to the Spirit of Grace and have trampled under foot the sacrifice of God’ The reason the language is so strong here, is because God is saying when you continue to sacrifice animals after the once and for all sacrifice of my Son, then you are doing disgrace to Grace. For Isaiah to being saying this, pre Cross, is amazing! ‘Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out FOR MY NAMES SAKE said, let the Lord be glorified, but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed’ the brethren of Jesus cast him out for what they thought was Gods will. The rejection of Messiah was seen to be an act of Israel’s orthodox belief. They truly thought they were doing the will of God. Jesus even said a time was coming when people would kill believers thinking they were doing Gods service. But in the end God appeared to Jesus joy and they were ashamed. ‘A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple’ Gods ‘city’ and ‘temple’ are the people of God. God has a voice that comes forth out of the temple. Rivers flow from this temple. Jesus said he who believes, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. God speaks thru his church. Some have attempted to ‘de gender’ God. They will say that God is both male and female. This is not so. God is definitively male. Then where is the feminine voice? It comes from what the Spirit is saying thru the bride, the Lambs wife. God has purposed to speak this way. So you have both the male and female sides seen. Paul said that the Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all. The ‘Jerusalem from above’ is the church, the city of God. Scripture says listen to the voice of your mother and your father. We are to hear what God says [Father] and our mother, the corporate voice of the Spirit that has spoken thru the church, the mother of us all. ‘Before she travailed she brought forth, before her pain came she was delivered of a man child, who hath heard such a thing? For as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth?’ God is saying there is a process to the things he wants to birth from you. Part of the process is travailing, it is the severe pain experienced at the end of pregnancy. We often equate that pain the wrong way. We think ‘well, things are so hard here at the end, I want to quit and go home’ God is saying don’t quit, you are about to give birth. Don’t misread the labor pains; it is a culmination of the long months of waiting. I determined to bring you to this point of extreme pain, it is my process. Don’t abort! ‘Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, be glad all ye that love her’ It is vital for us to enter into joy. Jesus said after the woman gives birth, she forgets all the pain she went thru, because of the joy of bringing forth the child. Begin rejoicing in God, he will do great things. Scripture says ‘when the Lord turned the captivity of Zion, it was like a dream’ God is going to so move on your behalf that you will think it is too good to be true! ‘I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the gentiles like a flowing stream’ Jesus said ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you, let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid’ You have the inner ability to ‘not let your heart be troubled’ the world runs to doctors and drugs, we run to God. ‘As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem’ God comforts us ‘in Jerusalem’. In the book of Galatians the Body of Christ is called ‘the New Jerusalem, the Church, the mother of us all’ in the book of Revelation John says ‘the city that comes down from God out of heaven, the New Jerusalem, is the bride, the Lambs wife’ God says we are comforted in community. John also says [in 1st John] ‘when WE walk in the light, WE have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses US from all sin’ God works in community, as well as with individuals. Some times we as believers go to one extreme or another. Soren Kierkegaard, the great 19th century Philosopher/Theologian wrote as a Prophet against what he saw as the abuses of the institutional church. The Danish state church had a lot of formality and ‘spectator’ Christianity. Kierkegaard emphasized Gods desire to reveal himself to people individually, outside of ‘the church’. He would say things like ‘the congregations are totally useless, there is nothing good to be found there’ and then he would say you can only truly serve God outside of ‘the church’. Well God does see all of us ‘as the church’ and he works thru individuals as well as ‘groups of people’. God wants to ‘attach’ you to people for his purpose and destiny. You need to ‘walk in the light’ with other believers, so God can ‘comfort you in Jerusalem’ the corporate city of God. ‘For I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations… to the Isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither seen my glory, and they shall declare my name among the gentiles’ sound familiar? This sounds just like the day of Pentecost, in Acts. God gathered all types of people groups to Jerusalem for the outpouring of the Spirit, and these nations/people groups went back to their own areas and spread the gospel. God sends those ‘who escape’, out to be evangelists. Many times you will ‘go thru hell’ and barley escape with your life, but the reason God let you escape was for the purpose of sending you out to other places and people. Don’t make bargains with God and not keep them! How many times have people said ‘God, if you get me out of this one I sware to do this or that’ are you out? Then do what you said! [note: in the New testament Jesus and  James taught to not even make these types of vows, so I am not advocating doing this, but the point is many of us have, so if you did do it, now fulfill what you promised God you would do!] ‘For as the new heavens and the new earth shall remain before me, so shall your seed and name remain… and all flesh shall come to worship me.. and they shall go forth and look upon the bodies of those who transgressed against me, for their worm dieth not, neither shall the fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh’ I want to end our study of these last 15 or so chapters of Isaiah with a brief overview. God tells us ‘I am going to make all things new’ God has a real future eternal hope for all those who are in Christ. We need to reaffirm the truth that heaven is real! As well as a ‘new earth’ that he will make new some day. God also affirms thru the Prophet that hell is real! Theologians, even good ones, have differing views on hell. I like R.C. Sproul, he is one of my favorite theologians, he believes the references to ‘hell fire’ are symbolic, but he states ‘the real punishment will be worse than real fire’ the reason I wanted to add the above verses on ‘the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched’ is because Jesus himself uses this terminology when describing eternal punishment, the ‘worm dieth not’ indicates that there will be a real physical judgment that lasts forever! God doesn’t want ANYBODY to go there. How many will go? I don’t know, but this I do know, we as believers have the only hope in the world to keep people from going there, his name is Jesus Christ. I exhort all of you to begin doing all you can to reap in a huge harvest of souls for God, we can’t bring our cars and houses and money and stocks and all these other things with us, but we can bring people! Gather up as many of them as you can, so you will have some friends and family when you get to the other side.

(540)   I got with some friends the other day. We were talking about the Lord. One of the guys brought up the verse where Jesus says ‘it is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven then for a camel to go thru the eye of a needle’ both of these friends are homeless [or about to be]. They are poor and have struggles. The one friend shared the verse to show how riches are not as important as people think. The other friend shared the interpretation that I have heard before. He said some people teach that the ‘eye of the needle’ was a low gate in the wall of Jerusalem, and that the camels can get thru the gate, but they have to crouch down and that makes it difficult. Now this teaching has been taught publicly by prosperity teachers. It used to be fairly popular in this camp. I find it sad that even this homeless guy was affected by it. I told my friend that I too was familiar with this teaching, and that it is fake. Historically there is no evidence of a gate being the ‘eye of the needle’. Second, the response of the disciples to Jesus saying this was ‘who then can be saved?’ they took Jesus words the way you and I would take it. That he was saying something that was impossible to do, except for God. It’s stuff like this that we need to be warned of. You interpret scripture thru the plain meaning, the fact that the context of the verse shows that the disciples didn’t think he was speaking about a ‘low gate’ in the wall should guide us into the right view of the verse. The word for ‘needle’ in this passage is the word used for a regular sewing needle. False teaching is harmful; Christians should refute it in love. 

(541)   Sometimes we overlook the obvious. In our local news paper they have been doing a story on one of the staff that follows her efforts to lose weight. She is overweight and every week they tell you how good or bad she has been doing ‘this week I feel bad, I ate too much’ and stuff like that. I read a commentary from the section of the paper where they print the public’s letters and comments. Some lady wrote in and said ‘can’t you show us an uplifting story on people who have lost weight’? She went on to describe how this story is depressing, the poor girl is never overcoming anything, always falling off the diet. She then said she even caught her at one of our restaurants with a ‘rather healthy portion of unhealthy food’ [ouch!]. Well I just read her story yesterday. She shared how when she was getting up to walk in the mornings, you are supposed to eat before you walk, so she would. Also you should eat when you get done, she did! Then she found out you shouldn’t eat right before walking, and she walks early, so should you get up at 4:00 a.m. and eat and go back to sleep and wake up at 6:00 a.m. and then walk and come home and catch your ‘after workout meal’ and maybe catch a few more zee’s before starting your day? Obviously the problem is TOO MUCH FOOD! Now, I don’t want to be mean. I have the habit of not eating at all until around 3 or 4 pm. I then will have a light snack around 7 or so. I only eat once a day. I am not bragging, and I have had people tell me this is unhealthy, maybe it is. The point I am making is if you’re ‘routine’ to lose weight has you possibly waking up at 4 a.m. to eat, you have a wrong routine! Don’t overlook the obvious. Christians are notorious for this. I was talking to one of my homeless friends who struggles with mental issues. He is very smart and suffers from a form of Autism. He also has battles in the mind. I recommended him to read a chapter of Proverbs a day. I also have seen Christians who can’t understand why nothing good is happening in their lives. I ask them ‘are you praying, do you read Gods word’? the basics, often they answer ‘no’. Don’t fall into the category of our poor ‘dieting lady’ do what's obvious. If you are having trouble loosing weight, well for heavens sake don’t wake up early and eat 2 meals before you start the day, you are obviously stumbling over a food issue if you are doing this!

(542)   I have had an interesting few days. The other day I went to the homeless hangout to see some friends. I usually have a few people ask me for a few dollars, I usually give it. I had an old friend ask for a dollar, I really didn’t have one, but I did have a twenty. I have given away twenty before. But I took a risk and gave him the 20 and asked him to bring me the change. I have done this before and without fail I have always got the change back, often with the receipt! They have to go to the corner store and come back. They usually want it for cigarettes, I know some will rebuke me for this, but I won’t do it for beer. The reason I take the risk by giving them a 10 or 20 is because they can’t believe someone trusts them again, after the many failures they have had in their lives. This is why they can’t wait to get back with the receipt, to them it is an honor to get another chance. Well I waited for Angel to bring me back the change, he never showed up. I am not mad or angry at all, I saw it only as an opportunity to really show trust, I know he failed and I am out the 20, but I have spent many 20’s before. Well I knew as soon as I would see him I would forgive him. I don’t want him to avoid coming around the homeless mission over this. I didn’t realize he was doing that bad. For someone to break trust like this means they are probably on some drug, ‘ice’ is real popular on the street right now. Later in the day I had a few of the homeless guys come back to the house for a fellowship, it was good. The next day my daughter was real sick and I had to admit her to the hospital for a few days [she is still there] sure enough I needed that ‘darn’ 20 for coffee and stuff, no big deal, I hit the ATM machine. I thought it interesting how some people would  give up completely on these homeless guys if this happened to them. Mercy and grace are things that are undeserved. God doesn’t require us to let people walk all over us [to a degree] but he does require of us to show love and compassion to those who at times are ungrateful and unworthy. Jesus was spit at, they tore the beard from his face. They put a bag over his face, punched him, took the bag off and said ‘now big prophet, who hit you, you think you’re such a prophet’. They stripped him and nailed his Body to a Cross, they hung him up over this ancient hill. They made his mother watch in tears and agony. They [we] were very cruel to the Son of God. He says ‘Father, forgive them for they don’t understand what they are doing’ and then a little while later will cry ‘my God, my God, why have you left me’. I think we can put up with not getting the change back from a 20! NOTE; I had both the Catholic and Protestant Chaplains come by and see us at the Hospital. They were making the rounds. I spoke to the Protestant brother for over an hour, I was ‘preaching’ and downloading stuff into him at an alarming rate. Usually you can only communicate so much to a person at one time. The Lord really opened a door to fellowship. He has many friends in Alice and told me how he just transferred from the Alice hospital to Corpus this year. I told him I felt the Lord was going to give us an ‘Alice’ connection this year [Alice is the name of one of our regional cities] he indicated he thought it might be him. He is a real good brother, open to the many things the Lord is doing. Maybe we will do a home group or something with him. I gave him this blog site, hopefully we will keep in touch. His name is Jeff, if you read this brother send me an email!

(543)   While at the hospital I had the chance to catch the local religious cable channel. I have direct TV at the house and don’t get to see it. I was a little embarrassed, the level of what Christians broadcast makes you wonder if God wants the ‘TV’ to be a medium for anyone who holds a church service. I also saw a commercial for a national ministry who broadcasts locally. It was a short clip on how it is always Gods will for you to have an abundance of money. This is the well known ministry out of the Fort Worth area. There are times in our growth as Christians where we are at a level that is immature. It’s OK to be there when you are growing. It is not good to then broadcast this level on a wide scale to a broad audience. It would be like taking your 3rd grade class lectures and putting them out on the air as university lectures. It just doesn’t fit. The commercial that said it is always Gods will for you to have an over abundance in all areas [money] is a very unbalanced view. I know they sincerely teach this, but it is unbalanced. For the whole region of south Texas [and all the other places where this ministry broadcasts] to hear this level of teaching is not good. Maybe in some cases it would be OK to teach the biblical concept of God meeting our needs in an abundant way, he surely can do this. But to miss the whole point of ‘being content and in Gods will when both having an abundance and lack’ is directly opposed to what this ministry broadcast. So all I wanted to share today is we as Gods people need to recognize when we are really not at the ‘level’ of a broad audience. Don’t seek to make your voice heard beyond the parameters that God has ordained. Let God lead in all the teaching and outreach you do, if he says not to go ‘regional’ or ‘worldwide’ then don’t! If he says ‘go’ then go! But don’t simply get into this arena because you can. Just because a local cable channel allows you to broadcast to a wide region, doesn’t mean you should. It has a tendency to ‘fill the air with our words’ instead of what the Spirit is speaking.

(544)   To you guys who never read the introduction any more, I just posted our latest book in the book section of this blog, it is a commentary on Hebrews. That’s why I haven’t updated this section in a while [for those of you who come to this section every week!]. Don’t forget to read the introduction every so often for new updates. Hope you like the commentary, John.

(545)   I am reading Deuteronomy and thought I would share a few thoughts [chaps 1-8]. As Moses is standing on the edge of the promised land he asks God ‘can I please go into this land’ God says ‘no, and don’t ask me any more about it’. It seems kind of harsh. It also seems like God is saying ‘I know I have called you to this place. Your whole desire to see the land is something I put in you, but because you represented me in a wrong way before the people, I can’t let you in [yet!]’. Did you know that I found a verse where God let him in? I am not spiritualizing it either. You know the verse also. The Mount of Transfiguration! After all those years God said ‘now I will let your feet touch the land my son!’ it’s like God knew how bad Moses wanted to posses it, so during the true time of inheritance, the coming of Messiah, God said ‘inherit’. God gives a lot of promise’s and lessons in these first 8 chapters of Deuteronomy. He also tells Israel ‘because you didn’t believe me when I told you to go into the Promised Land, therefore I made you wander in the wilderness for 40 years and I caused you to learn a lesson’. What was the lesson? He taught them that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God! How did he teach them this lesson? He gave them plain Manna every day for 40 years. They couldn’t store it up, they had to trust him for ‘beggars bread’ if you will. Hey, if they took the one big step of faith 40 years earlier they would have had tons of great food that they didn’t have to ‘believe for’ every day, it would have just been there, in abundance! But instead he showed them what it means to trust his word. They got to a point after 40 years where if some stranger showed up and said ‘how are all you guys getting fed?’ they would have said ‘no big deal, every morning God gives us Angel food’. It would have seemed like a big deal to the stranger! God taught them to believe in his consistency. They learned that to believe for the big moment [40 years earlier] would have been better than to believe for the ‘little moments’ thru out the 40 years! We just finished Hebrews. Why does God allow Samson to be in the great ‘heroes of the faith’ chapter? Samson had a lot of problems; he had moral failures and was actually quite the playboy. He also had moments of ‘great faith’. He knew when to lay it all out on the line and risk it all. He pulled down the pillars and killed all the enemies of Israel, and oh yes, he knew he would die too. That made up for a lot! I think it would be easier for us to believe God at the edge of ‘our promised land’ than to go 40 years learning the same lesson, in little bits at a time! They still displayed a lot of faith, but it took 40 years of it to make up for that one day!

(546)  Deuteronomy 9-11 In chapter 10 God tells Moses ‘this time when you come up and get the 2nd set of commandments, build me an ark [box!] so you don’t ‘accidentally’ drop them again’. It is a little funny, Moses broke the first set of commandments out of anger. God says ‘lets do it one more time, but just in case you lose it again, bring a box to put them in!’. Moses had an anger problem. This is what kept him out of the Promised Land! But God even uses this as a prophetic type. Moses actually led the people thru their journey under a ‘second covenant’. Of course the 2nd set of commandments had the same words on them as the first. But it was a type of the prophetic ministry of Moses who was a symbol of Jesus. Jesus of course would establish a new covenant in his blood, so Moses was symbolizing that 2nd covenant thru this act. Also if you review the first 10 or so chapters you will see Moses emphasize again and again the need for obedience. He tells the people ‘if you obey, your kids and land and businesses will be blessed. God will take away all sickness and disease from you. All will go well with you and your kids and you will prolong your days in the land’. God also says ‘you have been at this mountain long enough, it is time to move on. Go north’ I felt like the Lord was telling us to begin looking ‘northward’ see beyond where you have been. You might have spent 40 years in a wilderness place, begin obeying and believing God for new things. Look to him alone. When God called Abraham he called him by himself and took him and brought him to a strange land and made of him a great nation [the children we are reading about right now!] Can’t you remember when God called you in the early days, how it was just you and him? Rekindle that original flame, tell God ‘it’s just me and you again Father, show yourself strong on my behalf’. God wants to do great things with you again. One more thing, when God told Moses to come up the 2nd time to get the 10 commandments, he said ‘bring blank slates’. God asks us to bring a clean slate to him. Sort of like a blank canvas that he can paint on. If we have too many preconceived ideas on how we think things should be done, then that hinders God from painting the beautiful picture that he has in mind. Let your life be clean and open for him to do what he wants. God bless you guys, and don’t forget ‘don't brake what he paints this time around!’

(547)  I woke up yesterday and wrote down ‘subscribe to a few Christian magazines’. I have subscribed to some years ago, but it’s been a while. When I went to my P.O. Box later in the day, I saw that Charisma magazine sent me a free subscription! The issue [Oct/sept 2007] dealt with so much of what I have been teaching this last year. I wonder if Lee Grady reads my blog? [I have sent him my books over the years] I liked the article he wrote. It was a warning against exalting natural Israel to a point where we undermine the need for Jews to be saved thru the blood of Christ. It was a lot like the themes I have spoken on this year. Then when you went thru the rest of the magazine it was filled with articles and ad’s for all types of Jewish stuff! ‘Buy this Hebrew prayer shawl’ and things like that. It was a little funny to be honest with you. I have subscribed to charisma before, to be honest they are way to ‘shallow’ to truly learn from. Now I am not saying I am too good for them, I think the abundance of articles from well meaning women preachers [I am not against women!] on ‘you can have what you say’ or ‘you can achieve some goal’ is not cutting it in preparing believers to live in society. I was at the homeless shelter a few years back and just hanging out with some homeless friends. I wasn’t preaching or anything. Some brothers were talking about the Lord and a new guy but in. He said he was at one time a professor from Berkeley [the liberal university in California] and that he had taught an entire course on how Greek wisdom and writings contained all types of Christian thought before Christ. Things like the story of Hercules and  myths on ‘a son of the gods who would come and save the world’. He explained in true atheistic fashion that all of these sources contained much of what you find in scripture, therefore scripture and the story of Jesus are fake imitations of Greek wisdom. Now I usually do not get into these debates with homeless guys, and to be honest this guy probably thought I was homeless! The long hair and scraggly clothes fit in well with this bunch. But I had to correct this ‘professors’ attack on the faith. I explained to him that I was familiar with this teaching, and that the way I usually answer it is to tell the person [which I was about to do!] that before you had ‘Greek thought’ you had ‘Jewish though’ [the Old testament Prophets and stuff] and that in ‘Jewish thought’ are contained all the hidden shadows of a future Messiah and all other types of ‘pre Christian’ ideas. Therefore any overflow of this ‘thought’ into ‘Greek thought’ was simply a Greek copy of the true! So therefore all of this ‘professors’ refutation of Christianity is now refuted! Touché. He seemed a little depressed over this. It was like he never heard his false ideas challenged before. I did do it in love. But he should have just kept his mouth shut and not have tried to use his ‘Berkeley wisdom’ on some red neck town deep in the heart of Texas [Kidding a little here!] What’s the point? The point is if we keep feeding the church messages on how to get wealthy and to have a successful career, then we are not truly equipping them for society. I thank Charisma for sending me the free magazine, but like I said in the past, the only good stuff in it seems to be the short introduction from Lee Grady.

(548)   In reading Deuteronomy God tells Israel to tear down the altars and high places where the pagan nations worshipped their god’s. Later in Israel’s history we find out that they didn’t fully obey God in this. Eventually Israel would wind up offering their children on the altar of Moloch. Moloch was a god [demon] that the pagans made an idol of. This statue was heated up by fire until the arms of the idol were bright red. Then the people would place their babies into the arms. God told Israel they made their babies pass thru the fire unto Moloch. They eventually adopted the practices of the other nations. We do this today, in a much more hidden environment. We allow for a woman to go to an abortion clinic and for a doctor to insert a knife and dismember the baby. We do this under the guise of ‘a free and open minded society’. We lie! I have found it sad how those who pride themselves in being liberal minded often hold to the most bigoted idea’s one could espouse. In Darwin’s last book [descent of man] he taught a type of evolution that said ‘the whites are further along down the path of evolving. It is obvious that the Negro is still much closer to the Monkey/Ape than the white. Both physically and mentally’[paraphrase]. Now, for any liberal to hold to this mans ignorant ideas, and to hold to them in such a way that he is proud to say ‘I believe in Darwin’ is total stupidity. Darwin’s theory has come apart at the seems in the world of science. Many scientists have come to the conclusion that the theory can lo longer be honestly held. There are tons of scientific reasons for this. But the simple fact that many in today’s society pride themselves in being ‘disciples’ of Darwin then also think that those who oppose his views are ‘bigoted’ these same people hold to one of the most racist ideas ever put in print. Hitler himself read and was a believer in Darwin’s theory. He actually believed that the extermination of the Jews was a faster way to eliminate the inferior races. This theory of Evolution is demonic at its core. It makes it easy to abort children with no consideration of the actual life of the child. We have our own Moloch’s today! NOTE; God Said that men who did not retain him in their minds would be given over to foolishness. Recently the fossil ‘Lucy’ has been making the rounds to different countries by way of airplane. Many scientists were up in arms that the flying around of this ‘precious fossil’ might endanger it. There were all sorts of debates on how to protect it and all, the best first class service for sure. How satan must be laughing at the stupidity of men who go to great lengths to protect the flying bones of a monkey, while at the same time aborting thousands of children on the planet who were created in the image of God!

(549)   I had a Pastor friend years ago who was struggling to raise money for his church. He was a good man, but because of the heavy emphasis at the time on ‘bring in the wealth’ and other off balanced teaching in the church at large, he began to focus on all the money promises in scripture. A big part of the Sunday service was on God doing ‘money miracles’ any correction would of course be seen as ‘you are an instigator causing trouble’. It was so easy to fall into the category of spending most of you waking hours believing God for a financial miracle. These types of scenarios play out time and again with good Pastors. It becomes easy to fall into the mindset of viewing God and his resources as the primary thing to believe for, because after all these good men are all surrounded by other good Pastors who are all raising money for good churches. We don’t even see the great body of Christian teaching that speaks of the Kingdom of God being carried out by the poor and humble person. There is so much evidence in scripture, but we overlook it in order to fund the modern machine! Paul lived in a day where wealth and meeting places [buildings] were in abundance. You even had huge coliseums! For Paul to have reached as many areas as he did with the gospel, and with the average salary of say ‘a firefighter’ or some other average paying job, is completely overlooked by the good ministers who appeal to Paul's writings to raise wealth. These brothers don’t seem to see that Paul could have easily gone down the road of ‘renting the coliseum’ or organizing the early church around a multi million dollar organization, yet he saw in the simple proclaiming of the gospel, with minimal financial resources, the key to reaching ‘his world’. I want to exhort all the pastors and leaders who read this blog, look to the simple reality of God again. Don’t become so tunnel visioned that you see God only thru the lens of a money miracle. Money is a small aspect of completing the mission, it can become large if you see it that way, but it is small in the overall scope of the Kingdom.

(550)  Deuteronomy 13-18  The Lord instructs the people that he will meet all their needs financially, and that they will always have the poor among them. Just like Jesus taught! The balance is that God would give more than enough provision into the community, and whether or not all the needs were met was up to the generosity of the community. The same thing you see in the book of Acts. Certain rich people gave and the poor had their needs met. To develop a doctrine form Deuteronomy that says to the poor ‘if you just had faith you would be rich’ violates Paul’s teachings in Timothy [chapter 6] where he says certain teaches in the last days will teach that gain is godliness [that is you can measure godliness by material wealth] from such turn away, they have erred from the faith. So in context God will bless us all as a family of people, but do not teach a material gospel. Also the Lord tells Israel ‘when you get into the land and set up a King over you, don’t let him accumulate great wealth unto himself’ interesting, God says make sure your leaders are not living high on the hog thru your money. We violate this all the time in today’s church. How many stories of teachers with million dollar condos and homes, all the while appealing to a broad audience of Christians to give sacrificially. God isn’t saying that leaders can’t prosper, but he is saying they should not be getting rich from the overall giving of many average wage workers. It is so easy to simply read all the wealth verses in this book and to look right past all these warnings. Why do we do this? We all have a tendency to ‘see’ what we want to see and overlook the rest. The Lord also gives instruction on Prophets, he says ‘if a Prophet prophesies something and it comes to pass, but he leads you away from the true God, don’t listen’ also ‘if he prophesies something and it doesn’t happen, don’t listen to him’. It is easy to recognize the second one as false, but we often overlook the first one. I have heard so many times over the years ‘well brother, I know my teachers teach that Jesus was a millionaire, and it works for me, that’s all that counts’ no it isn’t! Whether it works or not is irrelevant [in this instance] God says if it leads you away from the truth, then it’s false! Let all of our teaching and instruction bring us back into alignment with the character and nature of God, he is the goal.

(551)   Deuteronomy 20-25  You read ‘the elders of the city’ a lot in these chapters. Paul will eventually choose to use this terminology to describe the leadership of the New Testament church. These were plural leaders among a group of believers in a city. Not singular preachers of groups of people in buildings on a set day of the week! You did have the singular model in Paul’s day. Where? In the system of the Pharisees and Synagogues! The concept of a ‘president’ of the synagogue leading the people on Sabbath day in Christian [Jewish] instruction was being carried out in Paul’s day. Paul used to be part of the system! He chose the concept of elders over a city, instead of a singular title over a part of the people that met in a building. I think we need to get back to the better model. Also instruction is given that when the children enter the land they are to share the fruits of the land with the stranger. They are not to totally reap all the fruit from the trees or the fields. The stranger can walk in your fields and eat whatever he wants; he just can’t take it with him. These guidelines are given for the benefit of the alien [stranger]. God says I want you to remember that you too were strangers in Egypt. This cuts to the heart of so much of the present debate over the illegal alien issue of our day. I do understand the anger that some have over this issue, God says ‘remember, you were all aliens at one time or another, don’t get so self righteous. If I tell you to share your goods with those who don’t deserve it, then do it. I am the one who brings forth the produce, so share it with others’. God has blessed us financially and materially, he requires us to share it with others. A few difficult verse’s 23:1 God says if a man is wounded in the ‘private area’ he cannot come into the congregation. God is not telling people if they have had some sexual accident that they cant serve God, he is saying he wants people who can ‘procreate’ in his church! He wants people to be able to ‘reproduce’ [soul winners] for his Kingdom. 23:14-15 God says when you ‘go to the bathroom in the land’ dig a hole and bury it, because he is in the land and your land must be sanctified. If it isn’t then he can’t ‘walk among you’. The spiritual lesson is we can’t accomplish anything without God’s presence. We need him, stay clean so he can work among us. Only by the blood. Also when a man dies without having children, his widow shall marry the brother so he can have seed remain in his name. If the brother says ‘no, I do not want to raise up seed to my brother’ then he is taken before the elders and they take off his shoe, spit in his face, and his name is called ‘the man who has no shoe’. What’s this all about? God is saying be willing to build others up, your gift is not given for you to build your ministry, or the people who relate only to you [church members]. But I have given you gifts to raise up ‘seed to your brethren’ as well. Use your gift to help others, others who can’t repay you [I think I heard this somewhere before? Jesus!] If you don’t, all the people will know your church well, it will be the one in town where every body where’s one shoe!

(552)  Deuteronomy 28-31 The Lord promises much material blessings in these chapters, but he also says the Levites who receive the tithes are not to own anything. They could not use the tithe as a means to accumulate wealth. I find it funny that the modern church teaches the tithe, but leaves this part out! Also Moses is told ‘you will not go into the land, but help Joshua go in’. Moses must see his gift as something to use to build others and help them achieve goals that he himself will not achieve. Moses learns the true principle of the least being the greatest. He will be the only one who will enter in after death! Out of all the adults who were in the wilderness, only Joshua and Caleb go in to the Promised Land. Moses goes in after death at the mount of transfiguration. He fulfills the symbol of Christ as the first fruits unto God. Moses tells Joshua ‘you must go in with this people’. In the world of church and Pastoral ministry, I have seen how good men will start a ‘work’ and sometimes out of fear begin to look for someone to ‘take it over’. God tells Joshua ‘you must go in too!’ In Moses case the word of the Lord was ‘don’t go in’ [yet!] in Joshua’s case ‘don’t not go in!’ Have you allowed fear and intimidation to lead you to think it’s time to ‘get out’. Only move [remove] as God directs, don’t start looking for a replacement, you have too many years to fulfill, you must go in with this people! NOTE; I thought I just ‘heard’ someone say ‘is this guy talking about me’? Hey, if it’s for you, then yes!

(553)  Deuteronomy 32-34 Moses tells the people after he dies they will fall away from God and spend years in judgment. This is a necessary failure. He will hide his face from them and they will realize that God alone is God and they will find help no where else. God does stuff like this a lot! One of the verses in chapter 28 says ‘you will have confusion for the sight of your eyes’. This summer I had a terrible case of vertigo. I eventually found out it was from damage that is done to the inner ear from a viral infection. I researched some natural supplements and had to choose between 2 types. I chose St. Johns Wort and also eventually took Valerian root as well. The ‘St. Johns Wort’ seemed ‘prophetic’ enough, it has my name in it! But I never saw any prophetic indications with the Valerian Root. I have a homeless friend who is a deep bible student, he has been asking me to look up Spikenard for him. It is a biblical thing. He has been talking about it for a while. Yesterday we were at my house fellowshipping and I gave him a bible dictionary and said ‘look it up’. He reads the definition, it comes from Valerian Root, Oh well there’s the ‘prophetic’ thing. The real point is God allowed me to go thru a season of ‘disorientation’ cause of ‘the sight of my eyes’. You mean to tell me brother that God chastens you? Oh my, I would never go thru stuff like that. You lie! In the last chapter Moses dies and scripture says ‘no man knows where his tomb is till this day’. I like this. Moses is still fulfilling prophetic imagery in death. Years later a prophet would arise in Israel whose name is Jesus. He will claim to be sent from God. Many will challenge this claim. He will do no wrong, and no deceit will ever be found in his mouth. They will get tired of him. They will finally railroad him in an unjust court and bring false witnesses to testify against him. They will crucify him in front of his friends and family. They will put him in a grave and 3 days later he will come back to life. He will give instructions to his followers and ascend into heaven. This fact is the singular most historical fact of the first century [of all centuries!] many will testify to this. Because of the significance of this movement many will do their best over the centuries to disprove his story. They will search high and low for ways to disprove Jesus. They will spend years and millions looking for ‘the tomb of Jesus’ with a body in it. They will never find one. Just like the people of Moses day would never find his body in a tomb either. NOTE; a few verses that I liked at the end. God says ‘a fiery law shall proceed out of thy right hand’ ‘everyone shall receive of thy words’ and ‘my doctrine shall drop down like rain’. I like these images. I have prayed the scriptures ‘pour out your Spirit on my seed, your blessing on my offspring’ ‘I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground’. I felt like the Lord was saying he is going to give power and authority to those who are truly speaking what the Spirit is saying. Not just motivational stuff! God raises up prophetic voices to deal with real issues, not just to motivate you into a successful life. They said of Jesus ‘he speaks with authority, not like the regular preachers’ if you want this type of effect, then you must say what the Spirit is saying.

(554)   I just got back from some fellowship with one of my homeless friends. He was studying some end time scenarios and discussing the book of revelation. He is very knowledgeable. I tried to steer the conversation more towards the spiritual signs of the end times versus the geopolitical signs. I shared how Jesus will come back for a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle. So an important sign is the condition of the church, the true temple of God. To look at the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem as a major hinge event of Christ’s return, and to the many different end time scenarios as what must happen and when, this gets us off of the main themes taught by Jesus in Matthew. Jesus teaching on the end time is much more basic than these elaborate scenarios. Jesus actually says that after the tribulation of those days that the sign of the coming of the Son of man will be seen. He also says that after the tribulation one will be taken and another left. Pretty plain. I realize that the brothers who hold to the more elaborate themes see that Jesus will take away believers before the tribulation. I know all the explanations of this [I think!] but I shared with my friend that if you simply picked up the bible and read that after the tribulation of those days Jesus will come back and some will be taken and others left, that you would see that Jesus will return and take people after the tribulation. To then develop all types of ‘secret’ comings, to view the verses where the Lord says to John ‘come up hither’ in revelation, and then to say ‘this is where Jesus secretly catches away believers’ is to complicate the simple eschatology of Jesus. My friend was discussing a lot of the other ideas of the end times, I tried to focus him on the fact that Jesus wants us to grow in him, evangelize the world, and not get sidetracked into trying to figure out all types of national scenarios of global proportions. My friend did say that Jesus said the gospel will be preached in all the world before the end comes. I agreed and shared with him that Jesus told us that when the church is loving each other the way he taught [full maturity] then all nations will know that we are his. In essence we got back to the ‘sign’ of the church being mature and being the holy temple that God desires when he returns. My friend saw the point. NOTE; During the conversation I mentioned how we sometimes get locked into certain viewpoints that can lead to ‘seeing’ a possible reference of Jesus and saying ‘this is anti-christ’. I mentioned how many modern preachers see the verse on the rider on a white horse who is going forth to conquer and freely say ‘this is anti christ’ [Revelation 6- Zechariah chapter 6 actually calls these horses the 4 spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of the earth, hardly a picture of anti christ!] You will see images of Jesus being on a white horse later in revelation, and also one of the reasons people have seen this first reference as ‘anti christ’ is because of the plagues and judgments that follow this rider. I shared with my friend how in Revelation the seals and bowls and other images of judgment are the judgments of God, not satan. So it would not be inconsistent to see Jesus on a white horse prior to the release of judgments, as a matter of fact this is one of the main themes of Revelation. My friend almost saw this idea as heresy. He told me how he too views the rider as anti christ, and how because this rider has a bow [a pagan symbol from Rome] that he is anti-christ. I briefly quoted off the top of my head a few scriptures where God uses a bow in prophetic imagery ‘I will bend Judah like a bow’ ‘children are like arrows in the hand of a mighty man’. I didn’t want to argue with my friend, I just tried to show him how we can be so sure of certain ways of seeing things that we never even give a second thought to interpreting a possible Jesus verse as ‘anti-christ’. This is the problem with a lot of these drawn out end time ‘prophecy charts’ they have way too many dogmatic scenarios that seem to lose sight of Jesus! Revelation says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit [intent] of prophecy. All prophecy should ultimately testify of Christ, not anti christ! 

(555)  I mentioned the other day how one morning I woke up and thought I heard the Lord telling me to subscribe to a few Christian magazines, and then later in the day I found a Charisma magazine in my p.o. box, well a friend also just gave me a year old Christianity today magazine that someone had given him. I read some articles, I was happy to see the amount of deep Christian books, put out by well respected theologians, on the view of church that I espouse. There were a lot of articles on the church as a natural organic community of people as opposed to the institutional thing. Many thoughts and ideas I have taught. They were coming from brilliant minds. I felt this to be a confirmation to a lot of the things I have taught. So in the past few weeks I saw the Lord confirm many of the things I have been speaking over the years, and it was confirmation that I didn’t expect or seek for. Why is this important? We all need to be encouraged and affirmed in the message we speak. In the previous entry, why is it so hard for intelligent Christians, who really know the word, to see obvious ‘Jesus’ verse’s and see them as ‘anti chirst’. Because we have been taught certain views of religious things and we hold to these views ‘religiously’. When someone comes along and says you need to re examine your views, it hurts! Old Testament prophets were rejected on these grounds. God will often confirm to you a ‘new way’ of seeing things thru the mouths of 2 or more witnesses. I think when I woke up the other day and heard the Lord say ‘get Christian magazines’ that what he was really telling me was he would confirm to me that we were on track thru the witness of 2 Christian magazines. I didn’t look for them; they just ‘accidentally’ found their way into my hands. NOTE; I just looked up the chapters in revelation that deal with the riders on white horses. In chapter 6 you see the rider on the white horse that some say is anti chirst. I think it is Christ. In chapter 5 you see Jesus as the one who has power to open the book that releases judgments on the earth. He is the one opening the judgments in chapter 6. In chapter 19 you see Jesus coming back on a white horse going forth to judge and make war. Some say the verse in chapter 6 can’t be Jesus [hey, you only have 2 mentions of riders on white horse’s in Revelation. In both references war and judgment are seen to be tied in with the rider] because war and judgment come right after. That is exactly why it just might be Jesus! NOTE; I see this thinking as being indicative to the way we truncate Jesus and his prophetic role in judgment and magnify the doctrine of anti chirst. In revelation [the book!] you are not seeing anti christ as someone going forth to conquer, you are seeing the righteous judgments of God and the vindication of Christ’s Kingdom in the earth. The ‘judgment’ of the beast and satan are things coming down upon them, not them going forth to conquer. It is this overall view of prophecy that permeates modern evangelicalism, it has a tendency to see prophecy thru the lens of the anti christ and the beast. It unintentionally ‘exalts’ the work of the enemy. If we follow the guideline given in the book of Revelation itself, that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit [intent] of prophecy, then when you come upon verses of judgment being released after the appearing of a rider on a white horse, your initial reaction isn’t to see this rider as anti christ, but as Christ, the one whom prophecy points too! NOTE; Might as well run with this a little more. Scholarship has shown us that one of the earliest new testament books written was Thessalonians. That’s interesting, why would the lord inspire this book before the others? Because it dealt with a major threat to the early church that was imminent. Paul knew there were to be extreme persecutions coming to the early church. He would write the early believers and warn them of demonized leaders who would attack God's people. Many believe the early writings of anti christ refer to early Roman Emperors [Nero and others]. Now if this is true, and Paul was warning the church of future persecutions that were on the horizon, then it only makes sense that this letter would be written early on, before the persecutions got into full swing. I mention this because another field of teaching goes into elaborate schemes of what will happen in the rebuilding of the temple in the last days. While it is possible that there will be a rebuilding, it is not necessary! You can argue about all the technical details surrounding the scriptures that speak of the destruction and desecration of the temple. You have had multiple times in history where these things happened. Some believe that the later references [like in Thessalonians!] refer to events surrounding the destruction in a.d. 70 under Titus. Now we didn’t always know for sure that Thessalonians was written before a.d. 70 and that would eliminate the references as referring to the a.d. 70 date. But now we are sure that Thessalonians was written before that date, around a.d. 50. So without being dogmatic, I wanted to put some context to the debate. You do not need the revived Roman empire to fulfill things in prophecy if the 1st Roman empire already fulfilled it! So let’s get some balance and knowledge to go along with all our end time scenarios. We might be looking for things that already happened [like the destruction of the temple]. NOTE; It is still possible that a temple will be built in Jerusalem, I just want you to see that there were immediate concerns that Paul was addressing to the readers of his letters. Warning the Christians in Corinthians about marrying, maybe it had something to do with the Lord revealing to him the upcoming persecutions of believers. Paul might have been saying ‘for the present time, don’t get married, we have lots of persecution coming ahead’. The point is we need to understand the real significance that the early epistles had to the hearers of the letters. We can not allow our belief in the inspiration of scripture [which I hold to!] to bypass the practical aspects of the letters that were being written. The recipients had to have had some practical application to what was being written. So any letters referencing the destruction of the temple, or future leaders who would destroy Gods people and desecrate the temple, these references must be seen in the context of the times. If Paul prophesied a coming desecration of the temple, and he said it a few years prior to it’s destruction, then you must question whether or not this is what he was referring to. Jesus early on prophesied the destruction, it is only natural for the Apostles to have held to this belief as an early tradition of the church. It was quite obvious that the destruction that Jesus spoke about happened in a.d 70, it is very possible that this was the same event Paul was speaking of. Don’t always read these letters as future dates, they were future at the time of writing, but a few thousand years have gone by, some of the ‘future’ things might have now past! NOTE; It’s funny, but some of these brothers believe that Jesus comes back in Revelation 4 secretly and takes away half the planet [the church] they seem to find this ‘taking away’ from the verse that says to John ‘come up hither’. They also see a possible verse describing Jesus on a white horse and call him ‘the antichrist’ and these same dear brothers think I am the heretic![they ‘see’ him where he is not. They see Jesus coming and taking away a large population of earth from a verse that simply says ‘come up hither’ to John. They then have a very plain verse of a conquering rider on a white horse and say ‘this cant be Jesus because he has a bow instead of a sword’ this reasoning is crazy!] God does have a sense of humor. Also in the book of revelation you have prophetic imagery. The beast and the dragon and the lamb. Revelation uses extreme figures to clearly show forth either the righteousness [white horse] or the judgment [pale horse] of things. John is seeing things in stark images. To then translate the rider on the white horse in a way that is ‘secretive’ [i.e.; satan appearing as an angel of light] would be going against the main flow of the images in revelation. This prophetic book clearly uses symbols in stark contrast. Though the book itself has many ‘tricky’ symbols, the symbols themselves are not hidden, but obvious. Like the ‘great whore’ and stuff like that. I want to stress that the brothers who believe these silly interpretations are very smart. In the above example they will have all types of deep reasons why a certain image means a certain thing. Deep studies into the possible rise of the Roman Empire and things. While I personally do not see their views as correct, they have done lots of research and background work in espousing their views. How than can intelligent people overlook some of the plain stuff I just showed you? It’s because we have a tendency to go down certain paths in our thinking, and once we go down these paths it never dawns on us to take a breath before you so adamantly describe the rider on the white horse ‘oh, he is the anti christ’. All of us need to lay our knowledge and past influences at the foot of the Cross. I am not saying leave your brain at the door! But we need to approach scripture with a broad view of Gods overall purpose. If you see revelation from the context of Kingdoms being in conflict, and you view Johns prophetic writings as the Spirit showing us that the Kingdom of God will face fierce resistance from the kingdoms of men, then you will be looking for images of Jesus conquering in the face of fierce opposition. You will also see the church going thru great trials throughout the centuries. You will see God vindicating his people, and even honoring the prayers of his martyrs. You will see the empire that John was living in at the time as one of the most severe threats to the fledgling church [Rome and the early centuries]. This will help in the overall view of the book, seeing it in the light of the way it was written. This style of literature was called ‘apocalyptic’ in the early church. There were ways to see this type of writing. I am not saying that revelation isn’t inspired, but see it in context of the larger picture. John shows the Kingdom of God ultimately triumphing over the kingdoms of men at the end of the age. We know that these figures are still in the future, but much of the imagery of Rome [the city on 7 hills] and its war against the saints had fulfillment during the early centuries. It had real meaning to the church then, as it does to us today. Why resurrect the Roman Empire as well as all the other images in order to fit our day. The book was meant for all the church. So our brother’s who lived 2000 years ago had stuff about them and their struggles, as well as the future hopes contained in it for us. The book is a wonderful prophetic vision given to encourage the people of God thru out the ages. The message is the ultimate triumph of the Kingdom of God over the kingdoms of men. We see a victorious Jesus leading a white robed [righteous] army of saints in certain victory. Don’t read the book looking for 666 and stuff, I know it’s in there, but the purpose of the book is to testify of Jesus conquering Kingdom, not the anti Christ.

(556)   Started reading Joshua. As God brings them into the land Joshua is like Jesus in Revelation, leading the people into a triumphant victory. In both books you see 2 spies [witnesses] you have the harlot Rahab getting judged [she is declared righteous, a Divine act of justification-Hebrews 11] and you have the great whore of Babylon getting judged in Revelation. You have the Old Testament Joshua which means Jesus in the New. As the children of Israel take Jericho they see how God is working supernaturally on their behalf. They then go to the next city, Ai, and only send in a few thousand troops. They lose around 36 men. Joshua overreacts to this loss and falls on his face. Tells God ‘why did you make us come over this Jordan, we could have stayed on the other side. When all our enemies hear about this they will surround us and kill us’. He has quite a pity party! It’s like God is looking down and telling Jesus ‘hey, I know I picked the boy, but who would have thought he was going to take it this bad!’ It’s funny, the Lord finally appears to him and says ‘get up, what are you doing on your face? You have encountered a problem, so deal with it’ God reveals to Joshua that one of his men has some of the goods hidden in his camp and that’s the sin that caused the defeat. They get the guy, make him confess, and everything is O.K. Not! They stone the brother to death and then to make sure he’s dead, they burn the guy! Ouch! I could just see one of our local gangs standing by thinking ‘and we thought our gang was bad’. The Lord deals with the sin and they regroup. I find it funny how Gods leaders all have a tendency to overreact to problems. I think it’s in our nature. Leaders have the ability to see farther than the rest of the community, they also come to more drastic conclusions when things go wrong. Elijah, Moses, etc... The Lords solution was ‘deal with the problem, do what you have to do, get up off of your face for heavens sake, and let’s get on with the program’. I don’t like these types of answers either. I wish the Lord would give me a special response like ‘son, I see the problem. Your right. I will rapture you and destroy all your enemies. And I will make all those people who talked about you feel bad that you aren’t around anymore. We’ll show them’ God doesn’t do this, he tells us ‘get off the ground and start moving’ are you moving forward yet?

(557) Joshua- As Joshua takes Jericho, they experience failure at Ai. They violate the principle of God being with them as a community. They split off and send a few thousand to Ai, God stayed in the camp! Our victory comes when we see all of our brothers in our region as the corporate people of God, don’t divide the Body of Christ, it is certainly not limited to the Christians who meet in buildings on Sunday. It is also not divided into all these different ‘churches’. We are all the Church, even the ones who don’t ‘go to church on Sunday!’ [That is if you are a believer]. Gibeon sees Israel’s victory and pretends they are travelers going thru the land. They put old clothes on and have moldy bread. They tell Joshua ‘we are traveling thru the land, make a league with us’ Joshua does, and they find out that they are really inhabitants of the land. The people blame the leaders for this bad decision, even though they all thought it was a good idea at the time! This happens all the time in church situations, if you haven’t experienced it yet, you will. So as the children of Israel start possessing land, it becomes easy. They form a habit of possessing! God will bring you to a place where you begin overcoming obstacles on a routine basis. Another dynamic that takes place is the inhabitants of the land begin forming alliances against Israel. One alliance forms, and Joshua conquers them. Then another one forms. Scripture says God put it in their hearts to do this so Joshua would cover more territory rapidly. God was allowing Israel to ‘kill 2 birds with one stone’ so to speak. Do you see your enemies forming alliances against you? Sort of like ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. Do people who could never agree on things unite now in opposition to you? Then praise God, he is giving you possession rapidly! The tribe Of Joseph asks Joshua for more land, they have 2 tribes to represent [Ephraim and Manasseh] Joshua says ‘you are right, go take the wood land [forest]’ they say ‘it’s to hard to take’ Joshua says ‘be strong; you would be surprised what you can do with Gods help’ Joshua learned this lesson from experience. Some times we are like the tribe of Joseph, we want people to give us opportunities. We want land given to us free and clear. We have developed this entitlement mentality in the church [and country!] Often times the answer to our problem is ‘overcome it’. We don’t like this answer.

(558)  A few more things from Joshua. He tells Israel to build cities of refuge, so when someone is guilty of the blood of another person he can flee into the city for refuge. This is a type of the church. The bible calls the church the New Jerusalem, John calls her the city of God coming down from God out of heaven, the bride the lamb’s wife. All men are guilty of the blood of Jesus, he died for our sins. We can flee into the Body of Christ and find refuge in the church. Those who fled to the cities of refuge stayed there until the death of the high priest. After his death they could go out from the city and live the rest of their days in their land. The death of our high priest, Jesus, allows us to ‘go out and come in and find pasture’ we have release thru the death of Jesus as well as thru his life! The 2 and a half tribes, Rueben, Gad and Manasseh go back to the other side of the Jordan to posses their land. They build an altar on the coast of Jordan. The tribes in the Promised Land hear about it and confront them ‘why did you build this altar? Are you rebelling against God?’ They reassure their brothers that it is an altar of witness only, they will never sacrifice an animal on it. It is standing there alone, away from the tabernacle and is free from all animal sacrifice. What a picture of the Cross! And last but not least Joshua commands all the people to honor God, he makes them publicly commit to serve the Lord. He then sets up this ‘great stone’ and says ‘this stone is a witness for you, it has heard all the words you have spoken. Don’t go against what you have said’. This is another type of Christ. Jesus is the ‘great stone’ that all judgment has been given to. He has ‘heard all the words we have spoken’ and seen our thoughts and intents. Don’t rebel against him. He also is the ‘capstone/headstone’ that completes the temple of God [the church]. In the prophets [Haggai/Zechariah] they shout ‘grace, grace’ unto it as it is being placed at the temples completion. Jesus will return someday and complete the glorious temple of God, the church, and he does it with absolute grace. He is the great stone!

(559)  Felt like the lord had a word for you ‘Those who I give great authority to, are required to walk in humility. The authority requires it. If pride gets in the way, I will not remove the authority, but instead allow humiliation. Either you humble yourself, or I will humble you. I am more concerned with fulfilling the mandate thru you, than for your own personal comfort’.

(560)  This goes with the last entry, but I wanted that word to stand alone. In the early church you had leaders who raised the dead and operated in miraculous signs. None of them organized a ministry around their personalities or saw their gift as a means to obtain financial independence. They were not operating with today’s mindset. When undue attention was given to them because of their gifts, they saw it as their responsibility to reject it. They would not allow themselves to become famous and become the center of attention. I often hear talk on the return of the early power once again. Until we rethink the purpose and nature of our gifts, we will not have the character to handle it. The present church thru pride has grasped an ideology that sees the gifts and the people as tools to bring success to themselves. This spirit must come down. It is no accident that Jesus dealt with the money changers the way he did. He understood that the merchandising of the gospel would be a tremendous hindrance to his purpose in the earth. We, as a people, must repent and return to a simple concept of all Gods people being equals, and the gifted ones in our midst are simply carriers of the gifts for the mutual benefit of all Gods people. We need to humble ourselves once again.

(561)  I heard a brother speak the other day. He shared a good message. He confessed that most of his background and study came from a certain type of Christianity. He shared from A.A. Allen, John G lake, Kathryn Kuhlman and others who were part of the ‘latter rain’ or healing movements from the middle of the last century. He also said how after he became a Christian he called Rhema Bible college and ordered ‘one of everything’ they had. He had quite a big load of books and tapes! The message the brother shared was good, he seems to be a very humble man. I remember studying many of these movements myself, I realized the danger that comes from seeing only one particular aspect of the church. Like studying year’s worth of teachings that all have the same fundamental error. You might think you are learning year’s worth of knowledge, but in reality you are feeding from a very skewed idea of Christianity. The people the lord used in the latter rain movement were good people [with many flaws] that for the most part were gifted in great ways. I feel the problem with this movement was the whole concept of fame and ‘platform performance’. They didn’t see the wrong paradigm that they were operating from. They didn’t realize that these gifts should be used in a limited way from such a platform. They fell into the mindset of the day that created an organization around them and their personas. So you had tremendously gifted people, like William Branham, who operated in tremendous giftings, but who also had some serious doctrinal flaws. He taught racist ideas about blacks, the ‘seed of the serpent’ and things like this. I do not view all of these people as false prophets, the danger was the individualistic style and performance mentality that went along with the gifts. Real gifts, less than ideal ways of expressing them.

(562) John:1 Jesus is called the Word of God, he comes into the earth as the incarnation, the ‘fleshed out’ fulfillment of Gods Word. John the Baptist is asked who he is. The Jewish leaders ask ‘are you that prophet?’ he says ‘no’. What prophet? The one Moses said would come ‘the Lord God will raise up a prophet unto you, like me. Whoever doesn’t listen to him will be destroyed’. We covered this in Deuteronomy. They ask him ‘are you Elijah’ he says ‘no’. John was the fulfillment of the Malachi prophecy that said before the Lord comes he will send Elijah the prophet. Jesus says this about John. Why did John deny it? I am not sure,  but it might be because he really didn’t know. Sort of like the thorn in Paul’s side, God allowed things to happen to Paul so he would not get puffed up in pride and side track his mission. Maybe the Lord never let John see how truly effective he was. John does say ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness’ John does see himself thru the prophet Isaiah. I like this. I have personally had many words from Isaiah that I felt the Lord had given me, John saw himself in this book too. John was ‘the voice’ just like Jesus is ‘the Word’  John is ‘the voice’. John was a voice before he was a man. God had predestined John to carry a message before he was born. He had this word in his DNA at birth. His body was simply a carrier, an ‘incarnation’ of the voice that he was to have. God has predestined all of us with a purpose before we were born. Our appearing on the planet is for the sole purpose of carrying out this destiny. You are not here to be happy, have a nice income, go to a nice church. You are here to fulfill Gods will, you can have the other things or not, that is irrelevant. You must first fulfill the mission! John testifies of Christ by the Spirit descending on Jesus. John says ‘I knew him not, but by the Spirit’ John knew Jesus, he was his cousin! But John was only going to recognize the gifts and callings on people. He would follow Paul's admonition ‘know no man after the flesh’. It is incumbent upon us to recognize the gifts in others and to operate accordingly. Don’t make alliances and pacts with people based on friendship and personal affiliations. It’s good to have friends and all, but the Kingdom is built upon recognizing and receiving those who have come with a mandate from God. John saw Jesus in this light. Scripture says ‘the world was made by him, he was in the world, yet they knew him not’ Jesus was creating a divine atmosphere of grace for people to access. They didn’t even know or recognize him, yet this didn’t side track him from his purpose. Understand that God has placed you in a geographical location with a pre planned destiny in mind. God has chosen you to be where you are and for this season. You will fulfill your calling whether people ‘know’ you or not. God requires us to see the gifts in each other, but many will not appreciate what you are doing, do it any way, you have come with a destiny to fulfill, so fulfill it!

(563)  John 2- Jesus does his first miracle, changes water into wine. They say ‘most people put the good wine out first, but you have saved the best for last’. This is a type of the new covenant of his blood [wine], Jesus will introduce a better covenant thru his blood. Many will not accept this new way because they have been ‘drinking’ old wine for so long, they are not willing to change. We often see this in Christian circles, people who have functioned in a limited way for years, God might bring to them new ways of seeing things, they will often reject the new wine on the basis of being comfortable with the old way, we don’t want to shake the apple cart. God wants us to shake it! Jesus finds the money changers in the temple and drives them out with a whip, turns the tables over and gets mad. He didn’t take the ecumenical approach! There are times for radical transition, I feel we are at that place now as the people of God. The gospel is not about us increasing our portfolio, it’s about laying our goals down for the kingdom. These money changers lost their influence in the ‘temple’ after Jesus got thru with them, I think it was prophetic. Jesus says ‘destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up’ those hearing this mistake his Body [temple] with the building [temple in Jerusalem]. Evangelicals [some of them] make the same mistake today. They are looking to the natural events in natural Jerusalem, they should be looking at the real temple! [Both Jesus and the Body of Christ]. Jesus goes to the Passover, the people hail him and Jesus says he will not commit himself to them, because he knew what was in man. What was in man? These same people will be asking for his death not long from now. Jesus did not seek commitment from men, contrary to the way we see ministry today. Modern ministry seeks to increase man’s commitment to them ‘pledge so much money, join this or that’ Jesus knew he had a destiny, he would fulfill it without the help of man!

(564)  DREAM- I just woke up, I dreamt that I was in this room with a Catholic Bishop. We were friends and helping each other out. He was going to go to some nation or place, before he left I laid hands on him and he was being filled with the Spirit. I feel like this spoke to us ministering to a large Catholic community of people. I have both given and received ministry from Catholics. I felt the Lord was saying we would have influence with our Catholic brothers. Sometimes I ‘spiritualize’ these dreams, it might be that a Catholic Bishop was filled with the Spirit while listening to us?

(565)  John 3- Nicodemus comes secretly to Jesus, he is one of the few in leadership that is having doubts. The others with one voice reject Jesus, Nicodemus is wondering. Jesus rebukes him for being a ‘ruler’ of the Jews and not being able to comprehend the most basic stuff. I have found it disheartening over the years to talk with Pastors who heard someone teach that because Jesus had an expensive coat, that he must have been rich. Despite all the evidence in the New Testament how Jesus was the son of a carpenter and lived an average life. The tons of verses where Jesus is reproving rich people. The whole historical and biblical truth of Jesus being a man of humble means. The fact that he had an expensive coat can more than likely be explained by the custom of people doing extravagant acts of worship towards him. The woman and the expensive perfume poured on him. Things like this. Someone probably gave him the coat. But for Pastors, who are good men, to fall for this stuff was unbelievable. Sort of like Jesus telling Nicodemus ‘you are a leader and can’t discern the most basic stuff’! Jesus teaches the reality of the new birth. All people must be born of God thru belief in Jesus, or they will not be saved. We must stand strong for Jesus as the only way to God. John the Baptist will be told that all men are going to Jesus. John says ‘great, he must increase and I must decrease’ John understood that the role of leadership [prophets] was to point to the fame and persona of Jesus. Not to go down the common road of pointing people towards us. In modern ministry we draw people to our gifts and abilities. We structure modern churches around the gift of the Pastor. We allow leadership to become preeminent in our minds and thoughts. John knew better. We also see that the wrath of God abides on all who do not believe in Jesus. If you believe in Jesus you escape Gods wrath. It can’t touch you. Whether you are in heaven or earth, or like David said ‘in hell you are there’. That is you can’t escape Gods presence anywhere. So if you are in Christ, wrath can’t get you. If you are not in Christ, it continually abides on you. You do not escape wrath by leaving the planet during the tribulation. If an unbeliever was on a rocket ship right before the tribulation started, and wound up on the moon during the 7 years of wrath, he wouldn’t escape Gods wrath. You don’t escape judgment by being in the right geographical location, you escape it by being IN HIM! John also says a man can receive nothing unless it is given to him. Why be jealous if all of our gifts and abilities are free gifts? We act like we earned them! John says no man receives his testimony, then he says ‘to those who have received it’. What’s this mean? Paul told the Corinthians that we have received the Spirit of God so we might know the things that are freely given to us from God. God gives us his Spirit first, so we can receive his testimony. This goes back to the early centuries of the church and hits all the major doctrines on sovereignty. Augustine, Calvin, Luther [Yes Luther was a strong believer in predestination, it was no accident that he was an Augustinian monk!] Paul tells the Ephesians that were are dead in sins and completely incapable of receiving spiritual truth until God pours his Spirit into us and we become alive. Thank God that even though no man [in the natural] can receive his testimony, that God gives us his Spirit and births us so we can know the things that he has freely given to us in Christ!

(566)  John 4- Jesus talks to the woman at the well. She is Samaritan and he violates the cultural norms of the day by speaking to this woman. Critics often say Christianity is bigoted against women, Jesus gave more honor to women than any other religion of the day. He tells the woman that if she asked, he would give her the Spirit that would be a well of water in her. God wants us to flow in revelation and truth, not just teach from the intellect. Now the intellect is important, God says ‘worship me with you heart, soul, MIND and might’ but you must allow the Spirit to spring up from you like a well. Jesus tells the woman ‘you have had 5 husbands and the guy you’re shacking up with now is not your husband’ she then says ‘I perceive you are a prophet’. Funny, she turns the conversation over to religion! She recognizes the prophetic aspect of Jesus words and says ‘I think you’re a prophet’. Unlike many Christians today, she believed that prophecy was more than just preaching, she knew it carried a supernatural element. They continue to talk ‘religion’ and Jesus tells her all worship takes place in Spirit and truth, not at a specific location. The religious mind looks for ‘religious’ places to carry out worship, Jesus says ‘from now on it will be done thru all who worship in Spirit and truth’. He is speaking of the new concept of the people of God being the temple. No longer will they need the temple down the block, but they will be the actual dwelling place of God. Jesus says his meat is to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work. We often do the will, but don’t finish the task! I just retired after 25 years as a firefighter [actually the retirement is in process] and I have seen so many talented guys join the dept and do a few years and go somewhere else. They might stay a few years at the next dept. and leave again. It’s not that they aren’t talented, they just don’t stick it out. God wants us to finish his task, don’t have a resume with a lot of activity, have one that has some assignments that were completed. Jesus says look on the fields, they are ready. Don’t say ‘4 more months and then comes harvest’. We are always in the harvest. It is not something that only happens in church on Sunday. Break the mindset that is always looking down the road for ministry to happen. Ministry happens right now, all the time. You and I are in the harvest, are you picking any fruit? Jesus says a prophet has no honor in his own country. We often want a prophetic word from some out of town prophet. We enjoy going out of town to a conference or some vacation venue to get a ‘word from the Lord’. We do not like to receive from prophets in our midst. They often don’t give good words like ‘Thus saith the Lord, you will be rich’ and stuff like that. We need to stop looking for the word we want to hear, and receive from prophets in our area.

(567) John 5- Jesus heals the man at the pool of Bethesda. Scripture says an angel went down into this pool at a certain time and stirred the water, whoever got in after the water was stirred was healed. How do we explain this? Were the people superstitious? Well I think it happened just like John wrote it. We believe in a supernatural God, he raised his Son from the dead, he surely can send an angel to stir up some water. Jesus asks the man ‘do you want to be healed’? You would think ‘of course’ but people that are in situations that can lend to being irresponsible, having others take care of them, they often want to stay that way. It gives them an excuse to ‘not act responsibly’. The man says ‘I have no man to put me into the water after the angel comes’ he is looking for others to do something for him. He has a victim mentality. Jesus says ‘quit blaming everyone else, take up your bed and walk’. It’s time for our society to tell people ‘take up your bed and walk, we love you, we want to help you as much as possible, but you need to eventually take up your bed and walk’ hard stuff! Jesus will call God his father, making himself equal with God. The Jewish leaders will be offended. He then will tell them if they do not honor him, they are not honoring the Father. He says he only does what he sees the Father doing first. His life was an exact duplicate of the heart of God. Our lives should be the result of what God wants and reveals to us. Your life is not the result of your confession, or you seeking success. Your life should be the outcome of what God has revealed to you. It might mean less money, or less success. It might mean a Cross or martyrdom. Don’t presume that Gods plan for you is simply to have lots of money and be successful, it might mean less money and obscurity. But it will be an abundant life because you lived it in the purpose of God. Jesus says the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear will live. You had as much to do with your spiritual birth as you did with your natural one. Before you were born you had no power or ability to choose to be born, so in your new birth you were dead in sin and unable to ‘choose God’ he chose you. Jesus will tell the religious leaders ‘how can you believe if you seek the honor of men’ he will challenge the religious  mindset of the day that thrived off of the notoriety of ‘being in ministry’. The leaders loved the greetings in the markets and public places. They lived for the honor that came from their status as ‘preachers’ who were well known. Jesus condemned this mindset. He says ‘I receive not honor from men’ in essence I am here to lay my life down, I will suffer shame and public humiliation, I will do the will of my Father and bare tremendous reproach and hatred from men. I will please my Father. Jesus tells the Jewish leaders ‘Moses wrote about me, you have his writings. If you don’t believe his writings, how can you believe in me, he wrote about me’ we have covered a lot of the ‘hidden’ images of Jesus found in the Old Testament. Paul will use these images time and again in his debates with Israel. I find it interesting that Jesus saw himself in the Old Testament also.

(568)  John 6- We see the first miracle of the feeding of the multitudes. It has been commonly taught that this was a miracle of ‘location’, that is they were far from the market and couldn’t get food to feed everyone. This is not the heart of the story. It is actually a question of finance. Jesus in essence asks ‘how can we buy enough food for everyone to eat, where’s the money gonna come from?’ His disciples say ‘200 pennyworth is not enough to feed them’. They tell Jesus we don’t have the cash to cover it. This is important to see, many have taught a doctrine that says Jesus and the disciples had a large treasury with lots of money. This refutes that. This story is one of God being our supply, we don’t need to trust him for the millions of dollars we think we need to reach the world. We need to believe that he can use our limited finances to reach the world! He did it with Paul, why not you? We also see the doctrine of sovereignty again. Jesus says all who the Father gave to him will come to him, and he will raise them up at the last day. No man can come unless the Father draws him. The Father will draw all who are called. Jesus will lose none of the ones the father gives to him. These doctrines are without a doubt taught in this Gospel. I believe them. Some try to make them ‘fit’ the reasoning of men. They eventually taught that Jesus died only for the elect. That the ‘world’ in John 3:16 speaks of the ‘world of the elect’. Others taught that Jesus blood was only shed for the elect [limited atonement]. Christians have fought for centuries over these doctrines. Our Catholic brothers do not officially teach predestination, though Catholic scholars have believed in it [Augustine]. Some will later be called ‘5 point Calvinists’ others ‘4 points’ and so on. I simply believe the words of Jesus. All that the Father gave to him will come to him, those who come will be raised at the last day. No one comes unless God brings them. The point is God is the initiator, sustainer and completer of our salvation. In our minds we can’t grasp this, but without a doubt Jesus teaches it in this chapter. Now, Jesus will also teach that he is the bread from heaven and unless a man eats his flesh and drinks his blood he will not have eternal life. Many good Christians have taught that the way this is carried out is thru transubstantiation, they teach that the bread and wine turn into the literal body and blood of Jesus at the Mass [Catholic theologian Scott Hahn believes John chapter 6 is the foundational chapter for all Catholic theology]. That it just looks like bread and wine, but it is really flesh and blood. Luther and Calvin taught something almost identical, consubstantiation. The doctrine that the bread and wine stay bread and wine, but that the flesh and blood of Jesus are also literally contained within the bread and wine. This doctrine differs very little from the Catholic one. Both of these doctrines are called ‘the real presence’. The only reformer who taught what much of modern Evangelicals believe was Zwingli. He took it to be a symbol only. Zwingli was the dear brother who killed the Ana Baptists for their faith! I visited the spot where this took place in Switzerland many years ago. There is this huge statue of Zwingli overlooking the town where he drowned the poor brothers! The Jews in this chapter say ‘how can this man give us his flesh to eat and blood to drink?’ They are clearly seeing this in the natural. Jesus goes on and teaches that all who believe in him will never hunger again. He is associating eating with faith. He also says ‘the flesh profits nothing, the words I am speaking to you give life’ he is clearly teaching that he was not going to figure out a way to change bread and wine into his literal flesh. He was teaching that all who would believe in his death and resurrection were eating and getting life from Jesus, they would have eternal life. The bread that if a man eats from will live forever. I believe my Catholic and Orthodox and Lutheran brothers are Christian, I do not hold to the  view that the ‘real presence’ is a doctrine from hell. I believe good Christians took the words of Jesus literally and developed a belief that became an historic belief amongst many Christians. Some of the greatest Christian theologians hold to this belief. I simply disagree with them.

(569)  In reading this new book I came across a verse I like ‘The rescuer will come out of Zion and rip away iniquity from Jacob’. I am not sure which version of the bible it is, but it sure works!

(570)  DREAM- I just dreamt that I took my van to the tire shop to get some new tires and an oil change. The guy asked me how far I was going, 100 miles? I told him no, around a 1,000 miles. I felt like the Lord was saying he is going to increase our [you too!] distance and influence. ‘GET OUT OF THE CITY AND DWELL IN THE FIELDS’ ‘YOU HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL OVER A LITTLE, I WILL NOW GIVE YOU AUTHORITY OVER 10 CITIES’ Be sensitive to the new areas that God is going to open for you. One word from the Lord will accomplish much more than all the good ideas you can come up with. Don’t think in 100 mile parameters, but in a thousand!

(571)  Just heard from a friend in Jersey, he just did 5 months in jail. He is a few years younger than me, didn’t grow up with him but met him a few years ago. He told me he had a jail mate [room mate!] that was from my old neighborhood, he was my age and all. He told me the name and I recognized the guy, I went to high school with him. He told my friend how he got busted for holding up the gas station in my old neighborhood with a gun. He is a crack addict and spent the last 27 years after graduating [class of 1980- my graduation year] high school robbing and doing drugs. Sad. A few years ago when I was up north I was walking by my old high school and saw his parent’s deli, they own a deli right by my old high school. I went in to see if he was still around. I spoke to his brother and he simply acknowledged that he was still around, but gave no details. I guess they didn’t want to say anymore. I feel time is running out for some of us. A lot of people reap at the age of 45 [both of our ages as I write this]. Read the death row stories that come out in the paper. Most of the guys are right around that age. The harvest is ready, the laborers are few. If you are a believer and are reading this, go out into the fields and bring in some harvest before it’s too late.

(572)  John 7- His brethren say ‘if you do these things, go up to the feast and show yourself openly’. The mindset was if you are really as special or gifted as you think, then go public! Jesus did not seek honor from men. He will ‘go public’ at the right time, but it will be a public crucifixion before many witnesses. He would not let them make him a king, or exalt him in their own way. Before exaltation there would be a Cross. ‘Some say he is a good man, others that he is a deceiver’ Jesus caused polarizing reactions from people. Prophets will be seen as false or good, there is very little middle ground. ‘How knoweth this man letters, having never learned’ Jesus learned, he was a good Jewish boy. They had the Old Covenant and were taught it ‘religiously’. The leaders meant he did not have the ‘higher education’ from the institutions of the day. I want to make a note here, I am not against higher education, Jesus did avail himself of the Old Testament, which was the ‘library’ of the day. A great collection of books and wisdom, if you read the gospels carefully you will also see that Jesus knew current events, he was not an isolated person coming up with his individual conclusions of scripture. I think it hurts the church to have an attitude of ‘all I need to know is the bible’ while it is good to know the Word, you should also expand your knowledge as much as possible. You don’t need the ‘letters’ or titles from men, but you should be educated as much as possible. ‘I have done one work and you all marvel’ the leaders were condemning Jesus for healing the man on the Sabbath, he tells them ‘you circumcise on the Sabbath, why cant I make someone whole on the Sabbath?’ circumcision was the cutting away of the ‘flesh’ in consecration to God. In essence it was saying ‘all that proceeds from me from this day forward, my lineage and seed and everything I am, is dedicated to God’ if they were allowed, by their own conscience, to ‘cut the flesh away’ on the Sabbath, then why not permit [in their own mind] the ‘adding’ unto a person by healing his flesh and giving him back his health. Jesus showed them that even in their own reasoning they could allow for what he did, but they didn’t give him the same lenience that they gave themselves. We often reject what a person is saying based on the actions he has done in the past, even though we allow many of the same things. Jesus said ‘judge rightly’ use the same measure that you would use on your self. ‘Yet a little while I am with you, you will seek me and not find me’ Jesus says this to the Jews who do not accept him as Messiah, they have been looking for him [unknowingly] for 2 thousand years and haven’t found him yet, boy are they gonna be surprised! The Pharisees send the officers to take Jesus, even though he didn’t openly go up to the feast, he later went secretly. He is teaching publicly and the people are amazed. They say ‘if this is the one the leaders are trying to get, why don’t they just take him?’ the officers couldn’t stop him! The Pharisees ask ‘why didn’t you capture him like we asked’ they respond ‘never man spake like him’ the authority that he had from God protected him. As the Pharisees discuss Jesus, they say ‘this people who do not know the law [word] are going after him, none of us are’. Well Nicodemus is in this group, and we know he snuck out in chapter 3 and did go ‘after him’. He is feeling a little guilty about it and speaks up on Jesus behalf ‘well, let’s not be so quick to judge, lets hear him out’. The other Pharisees reject him too ‘are you also from Galilee?’ They had this intellectual argument going that took all the Old Testament prophecies about Messiah and where he would come from. There are different prophecies that speak of Jesus in different ways, they held to a belief that when Messiah came, no one would no where he came from. Their understanding kept them in the dark. They were not willing to be corrected, they saw everyone else as ignorant, and they were the true ‘elites’ of the day. Pride keeps people form truth. We often can’t be corrected, we think the ‘correctors’ just don’t know the word. This comes from spiritual pride. Many who view themselves as religious leaders, or gifted in some way with bible knowledge, can not humble themselves and receive correction in the area where they pride themselves. For the Pharisees to have accepted Jesus, they would have had to admit that they were wrong about certain prophecies, and that the ‘under class’ was right, this was too much for them to accept.

(573)  Jesus asked once ‘who do men say that I am?’ then the disciples gave a short list of ideas. How would this question be answered today? If you looked at the best selling Christian books of the last few years you would think God was a cosmic Santa Claus, some success guru who lived to give us a happy, wealthy, trouble free life. We are not the first generation of people that ‘created God in our own image’. That is we see a ‘god’ of our own choosing. We see what we want! Who do you say that he is? NOTE; The problem with modern publishing is the book publishers are in it for profit [nothing wrong about profit] this cause’s them to publish popular names, regardless of the content. So once a Christian preacher becomes famous, his stuff gets published, because it will sell. This lends to the flooding of the market with ‘average’ [or less than average] stuff. The real good stuff can be found, but you have to wade thru the ‘dung’.

(574)  I was just praying and incorporated a verse into it. I usually pray for the Lord to ‘pour out his Spirit on our seed [people we are birthing into the kingdom- seed can mean various things in scripture, one of them means offspring] I also pray ‘let your doctrine drop down like rain, your speech distil like due [Deuteronomy]’ ‘Pour floods upon the dry ground’. All of these verses have been added as I read and memorize scripture. The one that we just read in John ‘out of our bellies shall flow rivers of living water’ speak of Gods flow of life and revelation thru his people. So I added this one too. May God flow thru all of you guys and flood the earth so the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. You have a river of life inside of you, it gives life to all who come in contact with it, let your life be a river. God wants you to overflow with his Spirit so everything that touches you comes to life.

(575)  There is a trend going on among evangelicals that I like. Many of the up and coming believers are getting away from the spooky looking presentations of the TV preachers that you and I are familiar with. Many are becoming environmentally minded, they are holding to more liberal views in politics and describe themselves openly as liberal minded. I too see many of the things they see. I purposefully avoid the whole persona of the religious right. Some on the religious right mean well, some seem to be in it for the glory of the crusade. I believe we all should stand for life, that is abortion is wrong, very wrong. We should have compassion on the abused women who have been victims of the whole mindset of ‘the right to choose’. They are guinea pigs in the system. I recently heard a testimony from a person who worked at an abortion clinic. The girl getting the abortion wanted to see ‘it’ after it was over. The nurse brought the ‘it’ to her. She broke down crying and screaming, she begged God to forgive her for what she had just done. The damage done this poor girl will be with her for the rest of her life. The nurse telling the story said ‘I guess she didn’t realize what she was going to see’. This girl was a victim of the system. She was under the impression that doing this was the ‘progressive’ thing to do. It was ‘open minded’. Though I disagree with the whole persona of the moral crusaders, don’t forget what’s truly important. The death of these little babies is neither a ‘right’ or ‘left’ issue, it is one of truth. Have mercy on all those involved, but do all you can in love to defend the defenseless. NOTE; Let me give you an example on how both sides [right and left] can be ‘married’ to their cause more than truth. I personally was against the war in Iraq from the start. It was not for many of the reasons you hear the liberals give today. Many of their arguments are false. Some of them say ‘I voted for the war, but it didn’t work because Bush mishandled it, he is incompetent!’ the same group will say ‘what idiot thought you could get these warring factions in Iraq to work together, they have been fighting for thousands of years and have never been at harmony’. First, if you thought it could have worked, but bush messed it up, fine. Then don’t come back a year later and give the other argument, both cant be true! Second, these ‘tribes’ have lived together for years in a measure of ‘harmony’. They did it Under Saddam Hussein. This is the very argument that they make, that all was ‘well’ before we went in. These guys are all over the map with their reasoning. Now, when Bush got in office, he was told by the outgoing Clinton administration that the single greatest threat was militant Islam and terrorism. At the same time Saddam just stepped up his shooting at our pilots who were regularly flying the no fly zone [remember Bush 1, he signed a surrender agreement with the guy!] so Bush 2 gets in office, is told the number one threat is militant Islam, Saddam is regularly firing at our planes, also kicking out the weapons inspectors. All the intelligence from ALL the countries said ‘Saddam is massing or developing weapons of mass destruction’. Then 9-11 happens. It was a judgment decision to go in and invade. Many of Bush’s advisors had the ideology [neo con’s] that the only way to truly change the region and deal with this ongoing threat was to go in and establish a democracy in this area. They sincerely believed this, they felt Clintons strategy was not working, just ‘smart bombing’ every now and then to try and kill Osama bin Laden [or 'bin hiding'!] So the critics today would have you believe that all was well in the world before Bush started his crusade against Islam, not true. Can you imagine what Chris Matthews and all the other talking heads would have said if Bush didn’t go in? Saddam just might have succeeded in downing our planes, then what? He would have had no weapons inspectors. Over time things just might have gotten pretty bad. The fact that we did tie up much of Al Qaeda has had an affect on us not getting hit again since 9-11. It is very possible that the invasion has caused the terrorists to focus on Iraq and not have the time or resource’s to hit us at home. The critics of the war never even seem to give this a second thought. Now, why was I against this war? I felt we were spreading ourselves to thin. To go and occupy another country on the other side of the world was just doing too much. If we had to eliminate the guy, then do it like Israel does. Just send a commando force in and do it. I know this also would have had tremendous reverberations, the critics would have decried the instability of Iraq as all the tribes would be fighting for control of the country, and sure enough all the talking heads would have said ‘what in the world is Bush doing, doesn’t he know that you have to occupy a country to change it, you cant just assassinate the leader’ you will never please these news guys [note; It is the policy of our country to not assassinate leaders of other countries, some think we should re think this policy]. So anyway I just thought I would throw this in being we are talking about Christians being both liberal and conservative on various issues. NOTE; recently we have had terrible wild fires in California. Chris Matthews had the Lt. Governor of California on his show [he interviewed him on the screen, he is a Democrat] Bush was going to fly in and see the damage and support the people. Matthews asks the question ‘by Bush flying in, will it hurt or help’ he asks this in a loaded way, expecting the anti Bush answer. The politician says ‘ it will hurt us, he will be taking security resources and be a big distraction’. Matthews espouses the thought that Bush is going for purely political reasons and is actually causing great damage to the state. In essence ‘he shouldn’t go’. This is the same guy who couldn’t stop accusing Bush of insensitivity because he waited too long before he went to Louisiana after hurricane Katrina. No matter what Bush does, Matthews will find something wrong. This is not news reporting, this is simply division for the sake of ratings. I am an avid news watcher, I watch all the stations, both liberal and conservative. Matthews [hardball on MSNBC] is doing a disservice to this country. He also accused Bush of racism and neglecting the poor, he interviewed Peter King [congressman from New York] after Katrina and wanted to know why more money was cut from Louisiana’s budget than any other state in the years before Katrina. He was leading the whole audience to believe Bush was a racist, didn’t care about the poor blacks. He went on for days about this. Finally Peter King informs him on the air, that the same year Matthews is asking about, that Louisiana received more federal money than any other state [not the year of the disaster]. Obviously this is why their budget was cut the most, they still received the most out of all the other states. They cut to a commercial and you never hear Matthews recant of his racist accusations. He just drops the whole matter. So all the viewers of his show who were led to believe that Bush is a racist, they heard it for weeks from this guy, they then never were told the truth. Matthews just stopped talking about it. This guy is dangerous to this country, whether you are to the right or the left of the political spectrum, consistent lying is of no value whatsoever. NOTE; to be honest I have since come to the conclusion that the massive effort, expense and loss of life has caused me to think that the war has not been worth the cost. Hopefully things will work out better than they look right now [11-07] but the fact remains that eventually whoever runs the country in the future, we have no guarantee they will be better than Saddam. As it looks now, the group who holds the most seats in their govt. are the same religious sect that Iran’s madman holds to. Not very comforting! Also the other thing is Christians should question how the teachings of Jesus should mold our thinking in the area of war. I am not a pacifist, I do hold to the classic Christian doctrine of just war, but there are many believers who are pacifists. I remember reading somewhere how a leading Christian pacifist was debating someone who believed in war, the ‘war guy’ said ‘look at how dangerous your doctrine can be, say if everybody embraced it, what would happen?’ The pacifist answered ‘no more war’. I understand it is naïve to believe that sinful man could ever embrace it on a global scale. James tells us all wars come from mans sin and strife, so as believers we should be very ‘slow’ to go to war, a very last resort. Overall I do think the cost of the Iraq war was too much in life and money to have been justified. Do I advocate pulling out before we give the current govt. a chance to stabilize? No, that would be totally irresponsible on our part. We need to do our best to help them stabilize, but we also want to get our guys out as fast as we can. Some believe the problem is the lack of ‘financial well being’ that these Muslim countries have that cause’s the problem. They espouse the view that if the rich nations helped the poor ones [even though many of these nations have wealth, the standard of living for the average Muslim is low] that this would solve the problem of radical Islam. They don’t seem to realize that Osama was very wealthy and affluent. The problem is much deeper than money, seeing money as the answer is symptomatic of the problem with western thought in the world and church. We seem to think that money is the answer to everything, we see our God thru the lens of how he can increase our portfolio. The problem with all mankind is sin, the only solution to the sin dilemma is Christ. This is why I have said before the answer is not killing the radical Muslim, but bringing the truth of the gospel to him. Muhammad saw the idolatry in the Christian church and how far she fell from the standards of God, he saw the inconsistencies of western Christianity [really western, Rome] in the way she allowed the setting up of statues, which Muhammad saw as a violation of the commandment not to make any graven images. He saw the expressions of the Trinity, some that actually said ‘we have 3 separate Gods who are all equal’ this expression violated the teaching in scripture of ‘the Lord our God is one’. Now I am a Trinitarian, but it is not hard to see how even Muhammad could have disagreed with the above language, it is not easy to explain the Trinity! So there were some real problems that Islam saw with Christianity and went down a wrong road. Any road that doesn’t accept the full deity of Christ leads to destruction. So the answer isn’t to kill these guys, or to lift up their standard of living. But to bring the true freedom of Christ to them. Now I realize that our country wasn’t in the business of preaching the gospel of pacifism after we got hit at 9-11, but the overall answer to mans problem [all mankind, Jew, Muslim [Arab], nominal Christians] is Jesus Christ. He said ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No man can come to the Father but by me’. NOTE; strife is in mans nature. I have a friend up north who was telling me how one of their friends was looking for a place to live, the place he is now living at is not good. The landlords are his sister and her husband. The husband has a bad temper, he has been in prison for murder! So my friend says ‘you can rent from me, I have a room where you can stay’. So they go over to get his stuff, and as their walking up to the house my friend notices they have a nice pool in the yard of this 2 story home [in Jersey where I grew up]. As they keep walking my friend sees all types of stuff in the pool, furniture and stuff. The pool is full of water. My fiend asks ‘what’s all the furniture doing in the pool’ the other guy says ‘o, it’s my landlord, he fights with his wife and throws the stuff out the window and they land in the pool’!

(576)  I have a homeless friend who doesn’t like Bush [or the mayor of our city]. He is a believer and is upset that Bush has said that Allah and God are the same, they certainly are not! Every now and then when he is upset about the president, or tells me something that leads to political talk, I will kid him and say ‘well, you know what Bush says ‘Allah and God are the same’ and he will go on for at least an hour after this! He also has something against our Mayor, maybe it’s an authority thing? But he has been harassed over the years by the cops, he doesn’t drink and is a strong believer, but he is homeless. So every so often the cops harass him, he blames it on the Mayor. Sure enough I tell him ‘you mean Henry Garret’ that is the Mayors name. Well my friend didn’t know his full name, my friends name is also Henry, he wasn’t to pleased with this development. Then one day we were just fellowshipping, and I was reading the paper. The Mayor is on the front page with a broad smile, just rejoicing and full of life. I tell my friend ‘hey, your buddies picture is on the front page’ I show it to him and he must have went on for 2 hours about him, I don’t say anything about the Mayor anymore.

(577) Now that I’m telling stories, let me throw this one in. A friend was driving with another friend one day and they make an illegal turn, sure enough the cops are right behind them and turn on the lights. My friend says ‘act like your having a seizure or something, and I’ll pretend I am taking you to the hospital’. Well the cop walks up and asks why they made the illegal turn. Sure enough my friend goes into the explanation as the other person is faking the seizure or something [?] The cop then says ‘I think you are faking it’ and they get a ticket [I think they got the ticket?] Well as my friend is telling me this whole story you can see how mad they were ‘who does this guy think he is, accusing us of lying to get out of a ticket. I should make a formal complaint, how dare they question my integrity’ they went on about how unjust this cop was. I said ‘so you are basically mad that you got caught’ they admitted it!

(578)  We are still going to cover the gospel of John, I just felt like the Lord had me sidetrack for these last few entries. I actually have been reading this morning as I penned the last 2 or 3 entries. Let me overview something. I am reading chapter 8 right now, I will cover it soon, but I want to focus you in on the greater objective of Jesus and the introduction of the Kingdom of God to planet earth. In Jesus dealings you see him dealing with the issues of forgiveness, restoration and the breaking in to society of a different kingdom. His concerns are not those of today’s church for the most part. We have a tendency to view scripture and Christianity thru the lens of ‘starting churches’ [Christian places for believers to meet] we view the Kingdom [those of us who don’t believe it is on hold!] thru the lens of man. We see change as something we effect by becoming wealthy and influential in society ‘the world will have to pay attention to us now, look at all the wealth we have’ or ‘look at the big voting block we represent, they will pay attention to this sleeping giant now’ we lose sight of the principles of sacrifice and humility and truly being Christ like. We want the world to notice us because we are more ‘threatening’ and influential than they are. This might get their attention, but it doesn’t really reach them for the kingdom. As we read thru the gospel of John, pay attention to the ‘other worldliness’ of Jesus statements ‘I am not alone, the one who sent me is with me’ ‘you are from below, I am from above’ ‘you can not hear or understand me, you are of this world, I am not’ there is this whole sense of Jesus operating outside of the structures and influence of men. He says ‘I am speaking these things to the world’ yet he never traveled far from his hometown, he did not have the types of journeys that Paul had. Yet he was confident that if he spoke what the Father was saying, then it was Gods job to get the message out. He knew his job was humility and the Cross, he chose to not seek the honor of men, and yet he has had more honor than any other person who has walked the planet. I just wanted to do a little ‘course correction’ here at midstream of our overview of John, don’t just read it for principles to fit in to your present paradigm and structure. It is a gospel that calls us to new birth and new ways of seeing the kingdom. Get your eyes off of the natural, see Jesus for real in this book.

(579)  I feel the Lord wants me to speak out on a subject that is controversial. The death penalty. I have never been against it as far as I can tell. I usually answered any questions about it in this way ‘In the bible [Genesis] God says if a man takes another persons life, by man [govt.] his life will be taken’ so this is the justification for the death penalty. Some Christians believe that the teaching of Jesus on the New Covenant being one of turning the other cheek should mean that we should be against the death penalty. I still believe that the govt. has the right to take a life if it is proven beyond any doubt that the person is guilty of murder, and I see the teaching of Jesus as applying to the believer on not personally taking action or revenge. If you apply the teachings of Jesus to all human govts. then you would have a hard time with the teachings of Paul who taught that human govt. has with in it the ability to punish evil doers [Romans]. Now, there have been cases these last few years where people who were in prison with the death penalty have been found to be innocent, I just feel the possibility of executing an innocent person has to override the reality that there are also guilty people on death row. The problem is not with the punishment itself, it is with the weakness of a system that has actually overturned verdicts of people who were on death row. I personally think it’s time for us as a country to put a hold on the death penalty until we can fix the system, or possibly outlaw the death penalty all together. I have felt the Lord wanting me to speak out on this for a while, so here it is. NOTE; I have had friends over the years who came from big families [lots of brothers] who were all robbing, doing drugs and going to prison. One of these guys told me how he got picked up for a robbery that he actually didn’t do. During court the lady pointed him out and swore it was him, he couldn’t believe it. He went and did the time. While in prison his brother, who looked like him, confessed that he did it. My friend did the time, he told me he had done so many other robberies without ever getting caught that he just looked at it as doing time for the other stuff. Well, I just read a story about a guy who was put to death on eyewitness testimony. Someone swore he shot a cop in Texas, after his death years later they found a letter written by his nephew that said his dad [the brother of the man executed] really shot the cop. I do not know all of the details, but I know from personal experience with my friend that it is possible to be found guilty of a crime that your brother committed, the problem is if you already put the guy to death it’s too late to undo it. Also the racial disparity in the amount of blacks that are populating the prison system causes concern. Now, I know whites and Hispanics and other races are also in prison, but the percentage of blacks is not good. Many black kids do not have the same ability to hire lawyers like others due to a lack of finances. So the odds on a black person being executed innocently are higher. The racial disparity should cause us to rethink this policy in our country.

(580)  I picked up a book at the bookstore a few weeks ago, I didn’t get it at the Christian bookstore, but at a regular bookstore. It was written by a Catholic theologian and it’s defending Paul’s writings in the New Testament against his critics. A hobby among people today is to say that Paul ‘hijacked’ the real message of Jesus and preached this anti gay, women hating, anti Semitic message. These critics will tell you how Jesus never said anything against homosexuality, but the homophobia you see in the church is a result of Paul. Well needless to say I disagree. Even though the author is trying to defend Paul, he is one of those higher critics who questions the authenticity of some of Paul’s letters. In his defense of Paul he falls into the category of ‘New Perspective Theology’ that just looks at Paul’s statements on Gentiles being brought in to the community of fellowship that Israel already had with God, sort of like focusing only on the verses of us sharing in the fellowship with God that Israel had. This truth, apart from the other verses on how Israel too must accept Messiah, leaves the perception that Israel is just fine in her current state [of being!]. Well in our study of John we read the Jews respond to Jesus ‘God is our Father’ and Jesus says ‘if you don’t honor me, you can’t have the Father’ though Israel ‘believes’ in the true God, yet she doesn’t know him, according to Jesus. So anyway the book wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. A few weeks back I read ‘My new kind of normal’ [I think that’s the title, it’s by Carol Kent] it was real good. She tells the story of how her son joined the military and married a nice girl who had some children from a previous marriage. The son winds up shooting and killing the ex-husband to protect his step daughters. The story is very real, that which is lacking in Christian books today. We have famous Christian celebrity authors writing things that don’t really matter, this book matters. I also just got a book in the mail from Amazon Books on the ‘Children of God’ group. I have studied this movement before, they are a cult. And I have another book coming in a few days on the story of the conversion of Jeffrey Dahmer, he was the serial killer who ‘ate’ his victims. He did accept the lord in prison and I have been wanting to read his story for a while. Have you read any good books lately [or at all]? NOTE; when I went back to spell check this entry it sounds like all I am reading is on cults and killers, trust me I read other good stuff too!

(581)  Just reviewing some of the stuff in John’s gospel. The verse ‘those that believe in Jesus, as the scripture hath said, out of their bellies shall flow rivers of living water’ God wants to ‘flow’ multiple streams [rivers-plural] from your life. You must believe on him as the scripture hath said, you can’t come up with your own ideas of Jesus, they must be formed by the witness of the Spirit and the scripture. I can’t help but notice the tremendous lack of authority that comes from the average ‘preaching’ that we hear today. If you are believing in a Jesus that is really not found in scripture, you can’t have ‘multiple’ streams of life flowing thru you.

(582)  We have a blind dog, she is old and sweet. Some people were going to put her to sleep and we took her. My daughter gave her a haircut the other day and it looks terrible! All chopped up. I tell her ‘look on the bright side of it, at least she’s blind’.

(583)  I just heard on the radio how a famous baseball manager left the Yankees for the Dodgers. The team he was with offered him 5 million a year, he got a better deal somewhere else. I do like the man, Joe Torre. It got me to thinking about some of the mindsets in the corporate/church world. I have heard it taught that if a C.E.O. of a ‘worldly’ business makes 100 million a year, how much more should Gods people value themselves. Now, Paul was the greatest writer of the first century. Though he wasn’t a great speaker, you had others who were [Apollos]. You had the most gifted people in the church in the first century. The writing of the Gospels and the teachings of Jesus have been called the greatest teachings ever. You also had the profession of speaking [rhetoric] and writing books for money that did exist at the time. Why didn’t Paul ‘value’ his letters and get a good price for them? Why didn’t they charge for their ‘value’ in speaking and philosophy? Others did. There was a built in teaching that Jesus left them ‘freely you have received, freely give’. Peter would write leaders in the first century and say ‘take oversight of Gods flock, not for money, but out of a pure heart’. The Old Testament prophets rebuked the shepherds of Israel’s day for ‘fleecing the sheep’, getting gain from the community of God. So, even though it was very possible for Paul and other gifted saints to have made a huge amount of money, they didn’t. We must see this, because the way it is taught today is Christians find the truth out about God blessing Abraham and making him wealthy. They see the many promises of God meeting our needs, and then they go off on this tangent to see nothing wrong about becoming rich off of the people, even though becoming rich off of the people is explicitly forbidden in scripture! If you look at Paul, he was living well below the means that his tremendous gift could have earned him. He is the most well read author today [along with the whole New Testament]. Many people made a good living this way, Paul didn’t. So don’t confuse the times where Paul does speak on contributing to laboring Elders, or where he praises a church [Philippians] for sending him money. He is simply talking about the basic needs being met in these scenarios, it is all too popular for the modern minister to appeal to Paul’s writings on money and then to develop a lifestyle of wealth that Paul himself would warn against [1st Timothy 6]. So today, we do have good men serving the Lord with an honest heart, many are doing good works for the Lord. Some do make a good salary, that’s really not wrong. What I am warning against is the mindset that seems to say ‘if a C.E.O. can make so much, why not Gods leaders’? Well I just showed you why, this is not my idea, it is scripture. That’s the problem, most brothers think an argument like this is simply ‘old tradition wanting to keep Gods people under’ or ‘that old religious spirit again, rearing it’s ugly head’. Sincere people don’t realize the error of this thinking, that’s why we need to be balanced in scripture. I am sure Paul knew the ‘money promises’ in scripture. I know Jesus knew the nature of God as our provider, the God of more than enough. Yet you will find both of them giving many warnings against materialistic mindsets. ‘A mans life doesn’t consist in the abundance of the things he possesses’ ‘it is easier for a camel to go thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven’ to the man who was experiencing great financial increase in his business ‘thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then who will get the things you lived for’ [his kids will fight over it with Anna Nicole Smith!] The point is You can go thru the many warnings in the New Testament against materialism and develop a doctrine that says ‘this is why Paul and the others ‘devalued’ their earnings potential’ they were explicitly taught that their spiritual gifts [whether preaching or writing bestsellers] were freely given to them, and it was on this basis that they didn’t ‘charge’ or require a salary for their services. I know this is hard to deal with if you are already ‘making a killing’ in the ministry, it’s something that we just cant get around. Don’t take all the verses where you find Paul speaking of receiving offerings, and then use them in a way that violates the warnings he gave to Timothy in 1st Timothy 6. You shall know the truth and it will set you free, but first it makes you miserable! NOTE; Over the years I have noticed a progression that takes place. Very often you will find good men who do not see what I just showed you, after seeing it they usually come back to balance [after being mad for a while!]. Others are so busy fighting their critics that they don’t even listen to any reproof in any area, these often ‘fall’ for the proof texts [individual verses] that say Jesus wore an expensive coat, Judas was stealing out of the ‘bag’ [and ‘the bag’ must have contained millions because Jesus didn’t notice the few thousand that Judas took] and then in total ignorance start teaching a doctrine that says Jesus was rich. Once people espouse views publicly, or teach them for many years to generations of people, it is almost impossible to bring them back from the brink of obvious heresy. They cant admit to themselves that what they thought all along was true revelation from God, was really total deception. It is hard to repent after you have put out tons of books and tapes on these things. My goal is to ‘catch’ the average Pastor before he spends 10-15 years teaching this stuff to his people. If a man is warned in the beginning then he can deal with it better. Why have so many fallen for this? Good men, Assemblies of God, Baptists, etc. I think one of the reasons is other ‘good men’ particularly Prophets, have not warned against it like they should have. Jesus flat out said ‘beware of covetousness’ Paul warns Timothy about this doctrine[1st Timothy 6]. Peter plainly tells the Elders of his day ‘don’t go into ministry with money in mind’. Leaders are plainly told that part of the cost is to warn against this stuff. So many didn’t warn, and many fell for it. So now what? Well at least those of you reading this can avoid this path, and as God directs use the tools you have to warn others. Take this whole blog site and send it to others you know who are dealing with this. Print sections that you think are relevant and send them out. My goal is not to build an organization [we have none!] or to get speaking engagements [I don’t do that] or to make money [we do not take offerings!] my goal is to get this thing back on track before some innocent Pastor spends 20 years wasting his life teaching this stuff! NOTE; so am I saying Christian leaders can’t be rich? No! But brother if Joe Torre can make 5 million or more, why not a believer? You can. It’s just a fact that God ordained that believers do not become rich thru the administration of their spiritual gift in a way that has other believers giving money as a direct result of the administration of the gift. The verses I showed you above do say this. Aren’t the natural gifts, say of a baseball manager, also God given? Yes. Then why can’t you get rich off of a spiritual gift, just like a natural ability, God is the giver of both. I don’t know, why don’t you ask God about it? The point is we get into natural thinking and we come to conclusions that violate scripture. Jesus said it’s very possible for the pursuit of wealth to sidetrack you [the deceitfulness of riches choke the word] Paul said those that desire to become rich have sidetracked from the faith [1st Timothy 6]. There are clear restrictions and warnings given, as well as the reality of God being able to supernaturally give millions of dollars. God is God, he has the right to be the God of abundance and also to put the restrictions in place that I just showed you. We simply need to obey all scripture. NOTE; Let me give you an example, years ago I was watching a famous prosperity teacher who still teaches many of the errors I have shown you. He said when he was younger he remembers looking up as a plane flew overhead, and with great joy and expectation said ‘you wait and see, someday I will own one of those’ he then went on to explain that that day has arrived. The years of faith and confession and ‘thinking on abundance’ finally produced this harvest. I can imagine a young Billy Graham, as a boy looking out over the harvest field of people, of reading where Jesus said ‘go into all the world and peach the gospel’ how he must have believed and confessed and ‘obsessed’ over reaching his world for Christ. A time would come where Billy would become known as the greatest evangelist of all time. What’s the difference? Billy also has brought in huge amounts of money over the years, much more than the brother who saw the obtaining of things as the goal. Billy lived and exemplified the words of Jesus ‘seek ye first the Kingdom and all these things [planes and money and stuff] will be added unto you’ one man made souls the priority, the other saw the ‘stuff’ as the goal and message. Now to be fair the prosperity guy does win souls to the Lord to a degree, but if you listen long enough the gospel of wealth is entrenched in his belief system. I share this to warn you guys, many good men do see financial miracles happen all the time. There are real stories of God doing these things with good men. When they happen we should rejoice, praise God and stick with the main message of the gospel. The deception comes in when a good man sees the true financial miracle and then falls into the trap of seeing God and his kingdom thru the lens of abundance and money and always believing and speaking and centering his life around finances. The reason Jesus and Paul said ‘beware’ is because you must BE WARE! If it wasn’t a dangerous and difficult balance to keep, then they wouldn’t have been so strong in their warnings!

 (584)  [THIS ENTRY IS FOR ALL OF YOU ON THE ‘MOVING ON’ WEB SITE, THOSE WHO I HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH THRU THE SITE]- This version is ‘Post critics!’ Thanks to ‘Fish’ ‘Limmiwinks’ ‘smshgrl’ ‘sar’ ‘afflic’ [Sp?] and all the other comments from you guys! I sure wish you guys had real names!

 I had the book ‘Jesus freaks’ sitting on my desk still wrapped in the box that Amazon used to send it in. I cut the box open and read the whole book in one sitting [around 225 pages, not real big] I have read on this group before and want to share some stuff. First, the thing that caught my interest was not that they are a ‘sex cult’. It was the fact that they started at the time of the Jesus movement out in California in the late 60’s early 70’s. The Jesus movement was a time where many hippies and young people rebelled against authority and were dropping out of the ‘suit and tie’ establishment of their parents.

 Many of these kids found Jesus for real, some great ministries came out of this period. Calvary Chapel with Chuck Smith, the Vineyard Churches with Ken Gulliksen and JohnWimber, and the great music of Keith Green and ‘Last Days Ministries’ that was headquartered in Lyndale Texas [now owned by Teenmania ministries with Ron Luce]. One of the ‘coffee houses’ was called ‘The Living Room’, people like Arthur Blessit were popular at the time, the group from the Living Room would also be called ‘Jesus people U.S.A.’ and re locate and start a great magazine that also did a lot of ‘cult exposing’ and even did an expose on ‘ALBERTO’ the Catholic Priest in the ‘CHICK TRACKS’ it showed him to be a total fraud. They also exposed Mike Warnke [sp?] the author of the best selling ‘Satan seller’ who claimed to have run a coven of witches before he was converted. Mike was also a Christian comedian. I actually read the book in the early days and was a fan of Mike. I even invited him to come to our little church at one time, it never worked out. I liked Mike, and after he was ‘exposed’ it seemed to show that Mike really liked ‘telling stories’.  A lot of his friends said Mike was sort of a chronic story teller. Mike was a Christian, and after this incident he did submit to other Pastors to oversee his restoration, but the fact was Mike made up most of the stuff in his best selling book. I think the name of the magazine that the ‘Jesus People’ put out was Cornerstone? It is no longer in print but you can find old copies on line.

 A lot of good came out from this time. Some of the converts wound up back in their ‘daddy’s religion’. That is after they ‘got saved’ they became true students of the bible and church history and began ‘rebelling’ against their ‘rebellion’. They saw that many of the historic churches had great roots and were not totally worthless. Some went back to the older churches. Jack Sparks had a ministry called ‘World Liberation Front’ and espoused many of the ideas of the strong authoritarian ‘Apostolic’ ministries. These were the ‘shepherding’ movements that were very influential in ‘covering’ young Christians. Bob Mumford and others were leading the Discipling Movement. Sparks got into the strong apostolic stuff and would write ‘we are going to get noticed, those in the churches that do not recognize us, we will take your people’ pretty authoritarian don’t you think? Well Sparks also got into the ‘cult exposing’ movement, which also was birthed at this time, and he eventually became a Greek Orthodox Priest and as far as I know is still one today [Sparks eventually would become one of the critics of the ‘Local Church Movement’ of Watchman Nee, being led by ‘Witness Lee’ in California. The ‘Local Church’ would eventually take the cult exposing ministries to court over this] so you had some interesting fellows at this time.

 One of the  most interesting was a man named ‘David Berg’ AKA ‘Moses David Berg’. He was the son of Christian ministers, his mom, Virginia, was a traveling evangelist who would eventually set up shop in Florida. David learned ministry and the gospel from his years as his mother’s main helper. He also did a short stint as a Pastor of a Protestant church. David was in his 50’s about the time the Jesus movement hit, he wound up back in California at his moms house. He eventually worked his way into reaching the kids of the area, Huntington Beach and places where the hippies were hanging out. His ministry grew, eventually they would be called ‘the Children of God’ ‘The Family’ and the ‘Family international’. They were around at the same time as the other good ministries that I mentioned.

 They were like a commune of hippies/Jesus freaks that eventually would have outposts all over the world. Their language and beliefs were a lot like any evangelical group of the day. Over a period of time their leader ‘David/Moses’ would espouse the doctrine of ‘free love’ which taught ‘we love everyone like ourselves’ and should share everything with everybody else. I mean everything! They became known as a sex cult. They are not the first to believe this either. John Humphrey Noyes of the Oneida Community in upstate New York taught and practiced this ‘open love’ in the 1800’s. Bergs group got a lot of heat when word got out that they practiced sex with under age children. A few magazines and news papers would introduce this strange cult to the world as they covered the story in the 70’s and 80’s. As I have read a lot about this group over the years, I have come to see how many of the kids sincerely thought they were following the Lord, and some were never involved in the strange sex practices [most knew of the open love doctrine, but some did not experience the under age abuse. I say ‘some’ for the benefit of those still in the group who have said this, but there are tons of stories of children who were abused]. Some of these today are still on the mission field with their families and are witnessing for Jesus in the exact same way that many other missionaries do. But of course the doctrine of the leader of this group was classic cult material.

 You can go on line and find both pro and con web sites. Just Google ‘The Family’ or ‘Moses David Berg’ and you will find them. The reason I just read this most recent book [the other one I read is ‘Heavens Harlot’s’] is because after a few years of them fading away from public memory, one of the sons of the wife of David Berg [though not Bergs actual son] who was being groomed to be the prophet to take over the group, killed another group member out of revenge and a feeling of trying to get more heat on the group and to bring the group down [The boys mom was Karen Zerby, the leader of the group today, she became pregnant from an Hispanic waiter thru the ‘flirty fishing’[actually called ‘FFing’!] doctrine of the group which taught witnessing and ‘fishing for men’ can be done thru sleeping with men, you sleep with them, show them ‘Gods love’ and there you have it!]

 This boy was sexually abused from birth and was to be an experiment on what it would be like if someone enjoyed open sex from birth, sort of a guinea pig for Moses Berg’s doctrine. Eventfully the boy left the group and became part of a growing number of second generation defectors who have made it their goal to expose and bring the group down. Many who are still in the group live in various parts of the world and have said they do not practice sex with kids any more, but still believe in the ‘open love doctrine’.

 The young prophet who was to eventually take over the group was called ‘Davidito’ he eventually changed his name to Ricky Rodriguez. By all accounts he was a good young man, who rejected his cultic upbringing and was trying to make a life for himself after leaving the group. A smart, intelligent well liked young man. He could never get over his rage and in 2005 made a videotape of himself getting ready to murder one of the female leaders who molested him as a little boy. He would stab the woman to death, send three copies of his confession video to 3 friends and pull up on some deserted highway in California and put a bullet thru his head. This is why the recent book ‘Jesus Freaks’ just came out, they covered this most recent affair.

This is such a sad story. Many still in the group are trying to change it into a more ‘respectable’ group, those who have defected are trying to bring the group down. All of these kids, being taught scripture, growing up in this perverted environment. Learning true bible stuff along with the distorted stuff. Lifetimes of trying to serve Jesus mixed in with these cruel ideas and actions that are a part of their lives. Many who have defected have committed suicide. Truly David Berg was a false Prophet of the highest order, he has met God now.

 There actually has been a very popular well known preacher out of the Atlanta area, Earl Paulk, who I have been praying for now for a few years. I liked watching him on TBN for years. He had a few accusations against him over the years of sexual misconduct. I do not know whether they were true or false. Paulk admitted to certain past indiscretions, but never to the allegations of certain women. They claimed Paulk secretly taught them ‘kingdom /covenant relationships’ which were basically a doctrine to justify adultery. I was hesitant about sharing the Paulk story, but I did so for a reason. Why would I see this doctrine as false, and those who teach it as ‘cultic’, and not hold the same standard to a Jimmy Swaggart or a Ted Haggard? All humans can fall into any type of sin, Paul wrote the Corinthians and told them ‘you have a brother who is sleeping with his mother, this must stop’ If a believer falls into a sexual sin, he either repents or falls into Gods discipline. But if a teacher begins justifying sin as a doctrinal truth, then you have problems. Many of these cults have done this, they see the truth in scripture about loving each other and living communally and sharing what you have with everyone else, but they don’t see the other warnings against immorality. They find polygamy taught in the old testament, or the fact that Adam and Eve’s kids had to have married each other, and they will teach incest or polygamy is for today, not realizing that the new testament speaks of being married to one wife and any thing else is adultery.

 When leaders use scripture to justify sin this becomes a cult. I think we should all pray for those involved. Brother Earl Paulk has been sick [he might have even died by now?] but the latest accusation from his worship leader of many years has caused him to step down [a good thing!] but I still pray for the man. Let’s pray for all these kids still in the ‘family’ as well as those who have come out, they need our prayers.

[NOTE; I was just outside praying for you guys as a ‘community’ of people. To be honest I have added all of you as a group to my ‘prayer region’ [whole groups of people I fiercely pray over]. This is what I felt the Lord saying. Many of you have without a doubt come to know the Lord thru this time period in your lives. Many ‘regular’ Christians can’t really discern this. Much of what you see and hear in other Christian groups looks and sounds almost identical to the ‘family’ except for the ‘free love’ stuff. This dynamic has made it hard for you to relate to other Christians. They just look at you as ‘thank God you are free from that sex cult, now God brought you to us to show you all this true stuff’. The problem is many of you already know the ‘true stuff’. I felt the Lord was encouraging you as a group of people to ‘move on’ with him. Many of you are so turned off by what you have seen in other Christian groups, it’s like ‘I’ve been there’. God loves you guys so much [even this sounds abusive to you, you have heard this your whole life from the lips of people that abused you]. My heart breaks for you guys, I am so happy to read some of your stories and how some of you are still walking with ‘Jesus’ so to speak. I personally am worried that I too might come off as a religious nut. All the ‘prophecy’ and stuff I do. Teaching on Prophets and all. I do believe that God has placed Prophets in the church, but what you experienced thru Berg was almost a demonic type of Prophet. A man that had real gifts and talents, but also developed a doctrine that would justify to himself his own impulses and sinful desires that he struggled with his whole life. I believe there were aspects of David’s life that truly wanted to serve God, but like others before him [Noyes] he developed a ‘scheme’ that would appease his own conscience, and he released this evil desire on a whole community of young people. The most difficult thing for some of you is to realize that you truly do love God and have found him while being in this group. I love you guys and will continue to pray for you. As you read [or listen to our radio show] and you hear me speak on Prophets and the Prophetic movement, understand I in no way am speaking of the abusive ‘family’ that you have been involved with thru out your lives. God bless all of you and feel free to email or write me at my P.O. Box. If any of you want to get together while in the area contact me before you come and I will try and get with you. Thanks, John.]

 During the time of Bergs rise to ‘Prophet’ he was in an atmosphere where other well known ministries were espousing many of the same views on end time things. You also had Hal Lindsey and many others who taught the same as Berg in the area of the Tribulation and the nearness of the end of the world. Hal wrote the bestseller ‘The Late great Planet Earth’. While Hal obviously isn’t near the category of Berg, it was common for people at the time to be living on the edge of their seats thinking that the world might end at any moment. This led to an environment amongst many well meaning followers of Jesus that had an attitude of ‘if the world will end soon, what the heck, why bother going to school or even worry about planning for a future’ This mindset would later make it hard for those who tried to get out of the cult. They found the most basic things, like writing a check, difficult.

 The thing that first interested me about this group was the ‘apostolic’ concept of community. Many who have studied ‘ecclesiology’ [church government] have seen in scripture the more biblical idea of church as community. Some have tried to duplicate the early environment seen in the book of Acts. A common purse and sharing of their goods with the needy. Berg also was a student of communism like Jim Jones, a whole other story. Even though you had all believers sharing and helping each other in Acts, you didn’t see an environment where people surrendered their individual identities and ‘morphed’ into the identity of a group.

In Acts they still lived in their own homes and maintained a family idea. To be sure today’s idea of ‘church at the building on Sunday’ as being ‘the church’ did not exist, but you also didn’t have communes. I believe it is OK for believers who radically sell out to leave the comforts of a home environment and to live daily trusting God. I have met ‘homeless’ friends who were on their own serving God and surviving. But to force a communistic idea upon people, and to cause them to lose their own personal identity for the ‘cause of the group’ is cultic right from the start.

 God wants us to be more than ‘pew warmers who are preached at every week’ he wants us to experience this Journey with him as being part of a wonderful Christian family, with many wonderful brothers and sisters. Seeing the ‘other churches’ not as the institutionalized monster, but as sincere Christian’s in the Lord. I know there are times in my own writing that I seem to be hard on ‘the church’ but I do not hold to the view that they are all of the devil!

 Berg seemed to confuse the ‘religions of men’ and the establishment with the true boundaries put down in scripture. He would view his own feelings of guilt about his sexual weakness and failure and eventually blame the ‘established church’ for his ‘guilt feelings’. He would develop a doctrine that fit in well with the ‘anti church’ atmosphere of the time. He would see all the free loving hippies and how they jumped in to the open love of the 60’s and 70’s sexual revolution, and then compare that to his own struggle of trying to suppress his sexual desires for many years under what he saw to be the authoritarian religious morals that he heard time and again thru his mothers preaching. It was natural for Berg to view the ‘established religions of men’ as the cause for all the years he spent repressing his sexual urges. Hey, he thought, if God created me [and others] to be able to enjoy the feelings of sex from a young age, then why do I feel guilty if I act out sexually in a way that society deems wrong?

 Berg would challenge the mindset of minors being sexually active. He thought it was society that caused the guilt, not his sin. So in the California environment of ‘church religion’ being deceived, he thought ‘they must also be wrong on the sex part too’. Well if Berg was a true student of scripture, he would not have come to this conclusion. Scripture most definitely speaks of God as the creator of sex, but it also puts down definite parameters. ‘Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. But adulterers and whoremongers God will judge’ [Hebrews]. Berg thought for sure his belief in open sex with anyone at anytime was a true revelation from God, as opposed to the ‘moral old time religion’ of the past.

 His great experiment would be to raise a child from day one in a hyper sexualized atmosphere and to then have the child diagnosed by professionals to see if any emotional damage was done. This experiment was what happened with ‘Davidito’. As Ricky grew older they tested him and others to see if they were harmed emotionally in any way. The ‘family’ found doctors to go along with their belief and to testify that the children were emotionally healthy. Later when Ricky [Davidito] would leave the group and kill one of the ladies who abused him as a child, the group tried to explain that when Ricky was in the group he harbored no ill feelings. It was when he got out and then ‘society’ taught him that what he did was wrong, that at that time he had guilt.

 This diabolical social experiment that Berg thought would surely justify his sexual indiscretions did not work the way the family thought. While there are obvious problems with ‘organized religion’ we have to make sure we are not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Many of the old churches have carried the true gospel of Christ for centuries before us. Scripture says we ‘shouldn’t remove the ancient landmarks that out fathers have set down’. This speaks of being very careful when we critique older religious churches that have been serving God for centuries. There were many ‘Jesus Freaks’ that left the old time churches of their fathers and have done well, they are still serving God and have never went back to the old church model. Others have gone back and even become ‘part of the old church’. But regardless of where you find yourself today, you must be careful that the things you think are ‘just religion making me feel guilty’ aren’t really things that the bible says are wrong. Many people ‘feel guilty’ because they are guilty! The way to get over the guilt is to receive Gods forgiveness and ask him to help you ‘sin no more’.

 NOTE; I am not speaking about the guilt that some one might experience as a result of being abused in this group. It is common for victims of sexual abuse to ‘feel guilty’ even though they were victims. In some cases people feel guilty because they might have responded sexually while being abused, thinking that they in some way condoned the abuse, this is not so! Many of you guys have had to deal with this, maybe this had something to do with Ricky’s rage? So I just wanted to release you guys from this.

 Let me mention some other stuff on cults and prophets. I have studied various cults over the years, some of them have definitely had demonic powers behind the leadership. When studying ‘heavens gate’ there were things that people experienced that fall under the category of demonic power. People who had a sense of being ‘mesmerized’ while listening to the leader. Or the leader’s ability to actually know what happened or predict future events. A fake imitation of a true prophetic gift.

 Others, like David Korresh with the group ‘the branch davidians’ which were an offshoot of the seventh Day Adventist Church would come under the ‘spell’ of Korresh and begin viewing him as one of the end time witnesses spoken of in the book of Revelation. They would eventually see themselves as directly being referenced in scripture. They fulfilled their own ‘prophecy’ about being destroyed at the end of the world. Other ‘non cult’ prophets have also had this strong influence over people. William Brahnam was a very gifted Prophet in the middle of the last century, he without a doubt had extraordinary gifts, some till this day see him as either one of the seven angels in Revelation, or as one of the 2 witnesses in chapter 11.

 So it seems to be a theme in some of these groups to come under the ‘mesmerizing’ influence of the gifted leader and to begin to view him in a way that associates him with actual biblical figures. The early church had some doubts about putting the book of Revelation in the New Testament, one of the reasons for this was they feared individuals might interpret it in a way that could cause trouble, a bit prophetic don’t you think? While reading about David Berg I have come to believe he had demonic powers working with him. You might think ‘no kidding man’. I don’t always believe this to be the case, I feel many contemporary Christians have a tendency to over do the ‘demon possession’ thing, always trying to cast a demon out of someone ‘I cast the demon of Marlboro cigarettes out of you’ or the ‘demon of poverty’ and silly stuff like that. I think in some of these cases we should cast the ‘demon of thinking that everything is a demon’ out of them! But in Bergs case there have been some leaders who ran into him thru out their lives and sensed a ‘presence’ that was strange. The brother who had a commune in Texas that Berg would eventually take over and call it ‘The Texas Soul Clinic’ felt like the group had a force behind them that was unstoppable, he till this day has never gotten over his impact with ‘the family’.

 So it is more than likely that Berg had some demonic stuff going on. I am asked sometimes about people like John Edwards of the show ‘crossing over’ or other people who seem to have true gifts. I try to distinguish between out right fakers, and those who are really operating with a supernatural ‘element’. I believe many of the Psychics actually have a connection with the ‘spirit world’ that would simply be in the category of ‘soothsayer’ or like the witch of Endor spoken of in the bible. In her story she is requested by King Saul to bring back the Prophet Samuel from the dead. God’s people were forbidden to consult a soothsayer or ‘psychic’. The fact was she was well known, sort of like all these ‘card readers’ and stuff I see as I travel thru South Texas. Well this witch does bring back Samuels spirit, to the amazement of Saul and herself! She actually is portrayed as being afraid when her ‘soothsaying’ works. She was surprised he came back! Some think this was because she knew her gift was fake, and when it worked she scared herself. It’s also possible that the usual ‘spirits’ that did come thru for her were not there this time, she really got Samuel.

The point is in some of the people that are doing these things it is possible that they are ‘picking up’ something in the ‘spirit’, it’s just not what they think! In Edwards’s case he feels he is ‘crossing over’ and contacting the spirits of dead relatives, he might really believe that this is who is speaking to him during his shows. The truth is scripture speaks of ‘familiar spirits’ and demons. A person might have some real gifting going on, but it might not be what they think.

 Edgar Casey [sp? It might be Cayce] is another example of a famous ‘prophet’. He was dubbed the ‘sleeping prophet’ because he would give readings while lying down and falling asleep and going into a trance. In all of these cases Christians are forbidden to delve into the ‘unknown’ thru these means. Some believers have gone too far in rejecting ‘prophets’. They do not see the true biblical gift as spoken of in the New Testament. God has clearly placed Prophets in the church, the book of Ephesians says this [as well as Corinthians and other references]. Some Christians believe it is because of the lack of biblical Prophets today, that this is why the world runs to the psychics, that if the church just functioned in the real gift, then you wouldn’t have all the popular psychics. Some who say this have some truth, but then I get a little worried because they seem to espouse the idea that true prophets should have their own call in shows and stuff, sort of ‘1-800-prophecy’ and stuff like that. I don’t think so!

 So anyway I think Berg had some demonic stuff going on, as believers we should ‘test the spirits, for every spirit is not of God’ it says this in 1st John. If you read it in context it is not speaking of ‘disembodied spirits’ that are floating around in the sky [which is another off balanced teaching in the Church, Christians starting whole spiritual warfare movements and going around casting these spirits out of the sky. Jesus never cast demons out of the sky, but out of people!] But this verse is speaking of ‘testing spirits’ that are operating in people! That is whether people are ‘true prophets’ or’ false’. Don’t allow the strong giftings of leaders ‘pull you in’ but test everything by Gods Spirit. Be open to true prophetic gifts, don’t reject all prophecy, but be discerning.

 I just reviewed the family photos of Ricky Rodriguez on the site ‘moving on’ he looked like such a wonderful kid. Go check them out, they give a face to this whole sad story. A few years ago someone wrote a book on dangerous communal groups, I believe the author was Ron Enroth [churches that abuse?] while the book served a good purpose, they drew some heat over the fact they included some Christian groups that seemed to be serving the Lord. One of the groups they singled out responded in defense of their faith. They answered their critics well [not like the official response of those still in the family. I have read some of the articles from their web site and something seems ‘off’ sort of like a ‘stepford wives’ type response] They explained while it is true that many cults have embraced communal living, Christians have also experimented with these models. They showed that those living in this type of atmosphere, where you are always together [sort of like my job as a firefighter in a way, when you live in 24 hour shifts with people, you get on each others nerves] lends to the complaints of authoritarianism and control.

 The fact that the average Christian only spends an hour on Sunday with other believers, while those in a communal atmosphere live all the time with other believers, then you are going to get more complaints from those living together, it’s only natural. So I didn’t want to group every ‘communal group’ as being bad, though they do have a tendency to ‘lord it over the people’. The Boston Churches of Christ [a specific movement, not all the churches of Christ in Boston] are not communal, but they practice a fierce ‘shepherding’ doctrine, where the people must answer to the shepherds in a way that is dangerous.

 This was the error of the ‘discipling movement’ also know as the shepherding movement. Berg’s group most definitely had this going on. This type of idea teaches a strong accountability to ‘over shepherds’ in a way that violates the true freedom that we have in Christ. So you don’t have to be living communally to be cultic, you can be ‘doing church’ the Sunday way and also be ‘cultic’.

I am a little hesitant to put this in, but will take the chance. I believe in God giving us prophetic signs and stuff, but many have used ‘signs’ and ‘prophecy’ as a tool of abuse. Yesterday I was out among a lot of my friends who are homeless. Ran into a Pastor friend and some other old friends. For some reason they were calling me ‘David’ and then they realized my name is John. I kinda felt this to be a little strange. I have been praying for the ‘moving on’ group as a Father would pray over his ‘spiritual children’. Now stick with me, I AM NOT SAYING THAT I AM CHANNELING THE DAVID BERG SPIRIT! In a strange way when leaders oversee a group of people they become a ‘Father’ to the group. They carry a special responsibility to lead the people. Berg had this ‘fathering’ responsibility, and he became a ‘child abuser’ towards a whole family of people. So I just felt the ‘sign’ of people calling me David, the day after I spent time praying and trying to speak into the community was in a sense prophetic. Sort of like God saying ‘One by the name of David abused these people severely, I will raise up other ‘spiritual fathers’ who will make up for the abuse they have received, David’s who are men after my own heart’ [King David in scripture is called a man after Gods own heart].

 Just felt like the Lord was saying this about multiple people, those who will care for you in the original way God intended, as representative in some way I would like to say ‘please forgive us [Christian leadership] I am so sorry for what I have done to you’. ‘I am the good shepherd, all that ever came before me were thieves and robbers. I come that you might have life. The robber came to steal, kill and destroy you. I am the good shepherd, I have given my life for the sheep’ Jesus Christ.

(585)  John 8- The Pharisees catch the woman in adultery and bring her to Jesus ‘Moses in the law says kill her, what about it Jesus?’ Religion digressed into this conservative moral crusade that went and found people in sin and singled them out for judgment. Jesus doesn’t say ‘oh, don’t worry about that silly law of Moses’ he says in essence ‘you guys are right, justice demands strict holiness, you got me now’ instead he agrees that justice does require her death, and he says ‘go ahead, start stoning’. One thing ‘you must be free of sin in order to carry out this punishment’. The law required total righteousness from everyone, even the moral crusaders! When religion digresses to the point where all it does is go out into society and find fault, then this type of religion is powerless to change the ‘fault finders’. Jesus doesn’t side with the ultra liberals either, you don’t see him marching for the right for homosexuals to marry. He tells the woman ‘neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more’. Jesus said this to the guy he healed a few chapters ago. ‘Go and sin no more less a worse thing happen to thee’. Was Jesus simply telling them the same thing that they heard from the religious right their whole lives? Was he simply saying ‘watch out, if you sin again you will get in trouble’ not really. Jesus words had tremendous power and authority, he told people who couldn’t see ‘see’ and they would! People who couldn’t walk ‘get up’ and they did. He was empowering these people by his words. When he said ‘sin no more’ he was giving them the first freedom from years of bondage that they ever had. He also was saying ‘I don’t condone sin’ but he was saying much more! Jesus tells the Jews who ‘believe in him’ if you continue in my word ye shall be free. In the next chapter [9] we will read of the guy Jesus heals, who also says ‘Jesus healed me’ but doesn’t know who Jesus is yet, then later he believes in him as Messiah. This is the type of belief that Israel and Islam and other religions have about Jesus. They accept him as a good man, prophet even. But not the Son of God. To these he says ‘if ye continue in my word then you will know the truth and be free’ if they stick around long enough they might just see that Jesus is for real! Truth is progressive, often times I will give a book to someone, or teach something over the radio. People will see things that they haven’t seen before. A few years go by and they ‘fall back’ into the old mindset. They sincerely forgot that some of the questions they have now have actually been answered already. ‘Go read the first book I wrote, it explains it’ oh yhea, I see now. People need to ‘continue in the word’ in order to be changed. It is not just the one time ‘revelation’ of a certain doctrine that changes you, it is continuing in Gods truth and knowing him, that is Jesus, who is the way and truth and life. Knowing doctrine does not set people free, knowing Jesus does.

 [#’s 586-693] TEACHINGS PART 4

(586)  John 8-9  before I cover this, last night I was watching a preacher from a classic type ministry. Not the flamboyant ‘prosperity’ type with gold hanging off and all. I was a bit surprised [let down] to hear him teach the classic errors of the prosperity movement. He took the verse in Corinthians where it says ‘though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor’ and taught that Jesus died to make you rich financially [ a direct violation of 1st Timothy 6]. He went to Genesis and showed how Abraham was rich, then jumped to Galatians 3 and taught ‘we are Abrahams kids, therefore we get his blessings[stuff]’ a classic mistake in doctrine. I explained this in the book ‘House of Prayer or Den of Thieves’ in the chapter ‘The Abrahamic Blessing’[you can read this book on this site!]. This stuff shouldn’t have been coming from this program, they are not the type that teach this stuff. You could tell from the look on the faces of the audience that they were feeling uncomfortable with what this guy was teaching! Now John 8-9. Jesus says ‘you seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth that I heard from God’ often times when people are reproved, they don’t like it. It’s not that what the ‘reprover’ is saying is wrong, it’s just we don’t like being confronted with truth. We usually take it out on the messenger. Jesus says ‘before Abraham was, I AM’ this is the name of God in the Old Testament ‘the I AM’. Jesus is the ‘I AM’ in Johns gospel. I AM the door, I AM the resurrection, I AM the way and the truth and the life. I believe you find 7 different ‘I AM’s’ of Jesus in this gospel. Jesus now heals the man who was blind from birth. They ask him ‘who sinned, this man or his parents’? They had a mentality that always wanted to place blame on someone for sickness, sort of like some in the healing movements of today. Jesus said ‘neither’. He simply said ‘this happened to him so I would heal him and God would get glory’. He heals the man and the leaders are mad. ‘Who healed you’? A man called Jesus. They get the guys parents and say ‘you say he was blind, then how come he can see?’ They say ‘ask him’. They go back and ask again. The healed guy answers ‘how many times do you want to hear it, I told you already’. Though the man still doesn’t know Jesus is the Messiah, yet he starts to defend him, and even prophesy! ‘We know that if any man be a worshipper of God, and does his will, him God hears’ good stuff coming from an ‘unsaved’ guy! Jesus hears that they rejected him, he tells the guy ‘I am messiah’ and the guy believes. Jesus says ‘I come to give sight to those who are blind [admit they need help] and to take away sight from those who see’ [think they know it all]. We often can’t receive correction because of religious pride, we think we ‘see everything’ someone comes along and shakes the cart, our first response is ‘who does he think he is, doesn’t he know that we all know more than him’. Quite often whole groups of leaders have the same blind spot. This is what enforces the belief that they must be right! Jesus told them ‘you guys are blind, if you could just admit you didn’t know it all, then I could show you some good stuff, but because you think you already ‘see’ everything, then you are gonna miss out’. Pride is destructive, it keeps us in the dark spiritually. NOTE; Let me give an example. I remember reading an article on tithing from one of the best Christian historical review magazines in print. They do exhaustive historical research on many subjects. To the surprise of the readers, this well respected historical magazine, read by many theologians, showed that all the historical evidence points to the fact that the churches of the first century did not practice tithing! This seemed to go against the grain of what many of the theologians believed, who regularly read this magazine. But you could have easily come to this same understanding from simply reading the New Testament in context. I have basically taught you guys this for years, from scripture. Yet this ‘blind spot’ was an area where many intelligent ‘religious leaders’ were all wrong. They ‘corporately’ were wrong on this subject. It took a ‘jolt’ from true historical evidence before they could ‘see’ the obvious! It would be too humbling to have seen it from a ‘layman firefighter’ who has a web site. NOTE; Tithing as a practice for Christians developed at the same time as ‘the church building’ and the office of ‘Priest’ and eventually the altar [in the Catholic system] and the mass. The church got away from the family/community mindset and took on more of the ‘church building’ form. Tithing fit in easily into an idea of church that asked ‘how much should we put in the offering basket on Sunday’. The whole language and style of church called for the doctrine of tithing to be taught, sort of like a ‘tax’ on the people of God to support ‘the church’. Now, there are some good things that came out of the ‘dark ages’ of Christianity. The ‘desert fathers’, the Catholic mystics and other good spiritual disciplines. I don’t want to fall into the category of those who see the dark ages as a time of no good whatsoever. But we also need to see how the church during that time was very legalistic in the sense that the Mass and Altar and  'Priest’ presiding over the liturgy were all forms of Christian service that were absent from the churches in Scripture. The tithe was just one added aspect of this legalistic approach that seemed to make it all the way into the Protestant churches of today. All these churches are good Christians in my view, but we need to be open to change and reformation as the Spirit leads.

(587)  Didn’t plan on writing today, but was praying for you guys and felt something strange. I kinda pray for all of you corporately as a group, I use the image of a field or vineyard. That God would bless you guys, pour out his Spirit on you as a field/garden of people. As I was in this ‘mode’ I prayed that the Lord would ‘flood this vineyard with the Blood of Jesus’ I then felt like the Lord leading me to sing a verse from the old song 'there is a fountain filled with Blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains’ as I sang this verse there was a powerful baptism of the Spirit that came over me, sort of like when you ‘get the chills’ and the hair on your arms stands up! I think the Lord was cleansing a lot of us at that moment in a corporate way, it was weird!

(588) John 10- I forgot to mention in John 9 when they asked Jesus who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus said ‘no one’. Later in the chapter after the Pharisees get done with the guy, they say ‘you were altogether born in sin [after all you were BORN blind!] who do you think you are, trying to tell us what to do!’ that secret mentality of condemnation came out. Religion does this to people. It treats them like ‘yes, God is merciful and we are all sinners’ but in the heat of the argument the mentality of ‘we are really better than you’ exists. Now in this chapter Jesus says ‘I am the door’ and also ‘I am the shepherd who comes thru the door’ how can he be both? Jesus was the one who would fulfill all the required prophetic aspects spoken of in scripture. There were tons of Old Testament prophecies that Jesus met to the tee. These requirements were like a door, as the Jews were waiting for their Messiah they were looking for someone who met this criteria, Jesus met them! He also IS the door, from this time onward all other future leadership in the church would have to come ‘thru’ him and exemplify the servant attitude that he had. Jesus says ‘the hireling flees when the wolf comes’ the hireling is a mentality that looks at church leadership as a hired position. People vote on their pastor, if he does a good job he stays, if not he leaves and they screen for another hired position. Many good men have been down this road. Often when the ‘wolf comes’ he actually says to the leader ‘you cant stay in this town any longer, look at all the mistakes you made’ the accuser gets the hireling to flee, sometimes without the pastor realizing what’s going on. Jesus wants us to ‘come thru the door’ into the sheepfold. The ‘prescribed way’ of servant hood and giving your life for the sheep. I want to encourage all the pastors who read this site, don’t see your job as completing some vision, or rallying people to a cause. Though these things are included in pastoring, the main job for all of us is to give our lives unselfishly for others. It is easy to fall into the trap of ‘the hireling’ but God wants us to view our callings thru a servant hood mentality. The good shepherd gives his life [goals, dreams, etc...] up for the sheep. The Pharisees say ‘he is a mad man, he has a devil, why do you even listen to him?’ The leaders decided to bypass Jesus, they thought ‘we will just ignore him and he will go away’ the only problem was the average ‘congregant’ was listening! Often times in prophetic ministry you will find the bulk of leadership by passing the prophetic word [that which God is saying at the season] it is only later, after the ‘people’ hear it, that leaders will give it a second look. Leaders, don’t fall into this category, if you get in on what God is saying from the start, then you can partake of the good stuff along with the people!  Jesus in these last few chapters said he is Gods Son and the Jews understood it to mean his claim of equality with God. They understood right! I mention this because some feel that Jesus didn’t claim deity, he most certainly did. Even 1st century historians noted this in their writings, that the believers worshipped ‘a God named Jesus’. The deity question is vital, if you miss this one, you’ve missed it all! NOTE; Let me make a note here. It would be very easy for me to develop a teaching from this chapter that says ‘because of all you have seen about the idea of modern church, and the unbiblical roles of the hired clergy. That therefore all ‘pastors’ are hirelings’. Some have actually taught this. There are a few reasons why I don’t fall into this camp. First, when God initiates reformation ‘a reforming of the practices of modern church’ he does it with the sheep in mind. Jesus told the disciples ‘I have many things to say to you, but you are unable to hear it’ he could have blown them away with doctrine, but the goal was their development. If all doctrine, even true doctrine, does not build you up in some way, then it is not accomplishing the purpose that God intends. So in all the stuff I have taught you guys, the goal is for all of us [Pastors and people] to grow and change in Gods timing. To use my influence in a way that would split churches, or have the people viewing their pastors as ‘hirelings’ would be unprofitable. Eventually we all, as a Body, will change and reform as God directs. But to use this chapter to tear down all current forms of leadership presently functioning in the church would be irresponsible. With knowledge comes responsibility. God will give us knowledge and wisdom for the purpose of edification, not destruction.

(589)  Yesterday I got with some homeless friends. I met Andy a few months back, I have seen him drunk on a few occasions. It surprised me one day when I was giving him a ride to a friend of his house where he was crashing at the time, he asked if I had a big letter King James bible to lend him. This day he was on fire for the Lord. He told me his story about feeling the Lords call on his life, he went thru tons of scriptures and all. I knew he wasn’t faking it. Well I had this expensive large print King James bible in the truck, I gave it to him. I bought it a few months back for 30 dollars, it was worth around 100. They were old bibles that had notes in them from the late 1800’s. Real good study bibles, just outdated. I got it at half price books, it was a collector thing for me. Man he would see me every so often and tell me ‘I am reading the crap  [he used the SH-T word!] out of that bible’. I knew he was! Then one day he told me how some college kids ripped him off, that happens to these homeless guys, and he lost the bible. I was kinda mad, I actually valued it. I have a bad habit of giving my books away. I gave away my Greek Lexicon [you use it to study bible words in the original language] and a bible dictionary. Then sure enough I needed them a few weeks later. I have to stop doing this! [I actually got the dictionary back, but let the guy keep the other stuff]. Well yesterday I saw Andy at the homeless mission, he was sober and doing well. He will bring up the Lord to others while I am around, not to brag, I have noticed some of the guys start thinking about the Lord when I am around, even though I usually am just hanging out. They will mention him to others, sure enough Andy witnessed to some new kid [20’s] who was hanging out complaining about his life. Andy told him about the Lord in a straight up way. The kid walked away. Andy says ‘you never know, a few years from now the seeds that I just planted might bring fruit, like Paul says in Corinthians’. I agreed. Another guy, Huey, asked if I could give him a ride back to the hotel where he was staying, he had some clothes and stuff that the mission gave him. I said sure. I gave him some gas a few weeks back, but his truck is broken right now[I actually put the gas in at the station, he would have used the cash for beer]. As far as I know I never witnessed to him before, but he knew I was a believer. He was bringing up the Lord and stuff, talking about the reality of God. As we were leaving the mission, he sees Andy walking and says ‘brother, you need a ride too?’ sure enough we pick up Andy. As I drop them off they are calling each other brother, I do this a lot myself. I then find out they really are brothers! Kinda sad that they are both living this tuff life, they must have had some upbringing from a home that taught them something about God [probably a Mom or Grandma] but for them to both be homeless means they have had problems also. I found it strange how they still cared for each other and all, there are guys who are family on the streets and you would never know it. One day Andy gave me this prophecy that was right on. He didn’t know it, but it was for me. He actually was telling me how he preached to this guy years ago, and as he was telling me the story and recounting what he said, it fit me perfect! This is how I can tell he is not faking ‘the Jesus thing’. After all he was reading the ‘sh-t out if his bible’! [I don’t add this to be funny, I think it shows you the real situations that people are in and this brings us out of our religious shells. God interacts with people all the time, we seem to be un aware of this. Jesus said the harvest is ready but their aren’t enough workers. Find time to give yourself away, it will be worth it].

(590)  As a boy growing up I learned how fire fighters can use their badge. My dad was a captain [retired after 25 years] and would keep his badge in his wallet. He would take me over to the city [New York] to go to the museums, he would flash that badge and we would get in free! He would get pulled over one time by a cop for  making an illegal turn, sure enough the badge comes out and no ticket! Wow, I liked this. Well when I became a fire fighter you know where that badge went. Right in the wallet. The other guys at the station never caught on to this until years after I was doing it, bunch of rookies! Of course they found out it helps with the cover charge to clubs and all. One day I was going to our post office [Kingsville] and the way the mail boxes are set up is you have to drive around the block to get in the one way street to drop off the mail [if you didn’t want to park and walk it over]. So lots of times people would cheat and just drive in to the one way a few feet and drop off the mail, I am sure I probably did this myself at times. The mail box was so close to the corner it was easy to do. But if there are other cars coming it wont work. So one day I am driving the right way and was going to drop the mail, sure enough some other guy drives in the one way and sort of blocks me, he wants to turn and all, but he doesn’t realize I am also going for the mail box, so he does stuff that I usually do [like when someone tailgates me, watch out. I have been known to slow down to 5 miles an hour in a 55 mile zone. I am not kidding! As they finally pass you can see them cussing and flipping the finger and I just laugh it off, making sure they can see how happy I am] so this guy sees I am getting ready to go to the box and he pulls right next to me in a way where he knows he is winning at this game and I am losing [I don’t like to lose!] So as he does his ‘block’, he pulls up right like he is going to pass me and get to the spot. I roll down my window and tell him ‘stop’. He does, I then pull out the wallet, flash the badge and yell ‘this is a one way man!’ sure enough he backs all the way out apologizing the whole way. You say ‘brother, you lied’. No I didn’t, I never said I was a cop! One time I was driving to the store and some kids are beating up another kid at a bus stop, I pull up and flash the badge and tell them to stop, it worked. One of the guys at the station said ‘you are gonna get shot by a gang kid or something’ I never thought of that. Well I would tease my wife about this over the years. She hates the badge action and all. Sure enough we are in New York City one year for Christmas. We went to Rockefeller center and all. As me and my Dad and Mom are on the bus, the bus was empty except for my wife and my parents. So we are talking to this real nice black bus driver. My dad already had a few beers and was feeling good. Somehow the driver says how when they were kids they used to race on the street and if a cop pulled over and flashed his badge [undercover] they knew the show was over. I don’t remember how it came up, but the driver says something  like ‘you know, when you see those badges it puts the fear of God in you’. My dad says ‘yeah, you wanna see 2 of them’ [like father like son] I just glance at my wife and you could see she was ready to go home! NOTE : There are a few Kingsville firefighters who live In Corpus Christi and drive the 40 mile drive to work. Over the years I learned it’s easier for me to drive at 60 MPH and enjoy the ride. I get up real early anyway, why rush and drive 75. In Texas they use the shoulder to let others pass. It took me a few years to figure this out, up north you don’t do this [ in Texas we don’t pass on the shoulder, we pull over and let the other guy by]. So I have a friend at work who would always pass me up at 75 while I am doing 60. He didn’t mind, but would complain that I was one of the ‘slow pokes’ that at times can be a nuisance. Like when there are fifty cars in a line and you cant pass them up. One day my car breaks down at work and in the morning my friend gives me a ride back to Corpus. We pull up to some lady doing around 50, he says ‘that must be your mother’ I tell him ‘no, but this lady is always riding my bumper!’

(591)  John 11- Lazarus is sick and Mary and Martha send for Jesus. They were all friends and supporters of Jesus ministry, surely they will get special treatment, they know for sure he will be healed! Jesus waits a few days and lets Lazarus die. When he finally shows up, Martha comes to ask him ‘why weren’t you here! He would have not died if you were here!’ Jesus also earlier said ‘I am glad I was not there’ not ‘I am glad I didn’t heal him’ it’s like Jesus knew if he were there he would have had no choice but to have healed him, his compassion would have taken over. Martha and Mary knew it too. These are Jewish friends that are all sympathetic to his cause, they were known to have been friends with Jesus, they already carried a cross for him. For him to have let this group down was hard. He knew God had a better plan, but it still was hard. Martha tells Mary ‘come quickly, Jesus wants you’ Mary gets up and runs to Jesus. I don’t read where Jesus asked for Mary, I think Martha might have just said this to encourage Mary. Often times the closest followers of Jesus need to be encouraged. They have been with the Lord for years, they have given so much to the cause. They see how God is doing so much for others and yet all things don’t seem to be working out for them. They feel like Mary ‘what’s the use, I was following him years before these others, and yet he doesn’t even have time to come and heal my brother, he’s out all over the place healing everyone else, his so called ‘great ministry for God’ and yet I really needed him’ Mary needed to be encouraged, Martha encouraged her! Jesus does raise Lazarus and God is glorified. Word gets back to the religious leaders and they are afraid if they don’t do something they will lose their influence and power among the people. It was a power issue. Often times leadership will resist the ‘Body of Jesus’ coming into full functioning maturity, they are afraid that if the Body of Jesus becomes too influential, they might lose their place. John the Baptist taught us earlier that this was to be, the Pharisees had other plans. As they hold a council, Caiaphas the high priest says ‘leave him alone, Rome will come and kill him and it will be better. That way they can vent on him instead of all of the Jewish nation’ he prophesies the truth of Christ’s substitutionary death, and doesn’t even realize what he’s saying! Often times you will get a word from the Lord from people that don’t even realize they are prophesying! NOTE; I forgot something. When Jesus and his disciples are going to raise Lazarus, they will be entering an area where the Jewish leaders ‘have a contract on him’ they are looking to get him! Jesus reassures the guys they will be safe if they walk in ‘the light’ of Gods will. Thomas says ‘Oh great, lets all go and die with him’. Gee thanks for the support brother! Jesus never kicks Thomas off of the ministry ‘team’ he lets him stay on. You often hear ‘if you are the smartest person in your group get a new group’ or ‘evil communications corrupt good manners’ [scripture does say this]. But we sometimes teach it in a way that says ‘Don’t ever listen to the naysayers, eliminate them from your group. They will destroy your team spirit’ while there is some truth to this, remember Jesus was the smartest person in the group, his critics actually accused him of having ‘a bad group’ [this man eateth with sinners] so keep a balance in this. We are here to help the sick, not the well. If you don’t have some ‘bad apples’ in your sphere of influence than how are you gonna help them?

(592)  This year I gave a prophetic word about a prosperity ministry ‘no mountain shall be able to stand against what God is doing, not even Eagle mountain’ it’s somewhere on this site [do a word search]. Just recently [11-07] the senate finance committee, for the first time ever, broke past precedent and began investigating 6 large prosperity ministries, one of them is the Eagle mountain ministry I spoke of in the prophecy. Over the years I have seen obvious blatant abuse in the area of Bible teaching from this ministry. I did like them as a young believer, but after a while I saw how the brother simply did not truly understand scripture, in many areas. It wasn’t just a mistake here or there, that any one can make, but a ‘current’ of ‘mistakes’ that ran all thru out their teaching. The struggle to finally speak out on these teachers was overcome when I realized how many young believers they were affecting [not to mention Pastors!] They taught that Jesus was very wealthy, that he died to make us very wealthy, that all the warnings that Jesus gave against money were really teachings about getting money. When Jesus says ‘the deceitfulness of riches choke the word’ he taught ‘the deceitfulness of riches is that old tradition that says ‘you cant have lots of money’. Paul to Timothy ‘those that desire to be rich fall into a snare’ they say this is talking about those who don’t already know and believe the prosperity message, because those who believe it are already rich. Paul in Galatians ‘we are the children of Abraham, so the blessing of Abraham comes on us. We receive the promise of the Spirit by faith’ which really means being justified and receiving the Spirit, the blessing that comes ‘thru faith’ [like Abraham had] as opposed to law. These guys teach the ‘blessing of Abraham’ are his stuff. I could go on for days with this. The point is after seeing this non stop attack on the basic truth of scripture, to the point where Jesus actual warnings against money were translated to say the exact opposite, I finally realized there is something more going on here than just a few bad mistakes. It falls into the category of real heresy. So any way, let’s pray God will restore all of these brothers, but I wanted to update you on the prophecy we gave this year. ‘I have raised up one from the north, from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name. He shall come upon princes as mortar, and the coastlands shall wait for his law’. NOTE; Let me give a little example. Many of these brothers are not obvious ‘crooks’, like the guys who have been caught blatantly robbing churches, or putting microphones in their ears during healing crusades. Many of these men are honest in their dealings. When scripture speaks of ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ we often think ‘outright hucksters’ this is not always the case. Jesus said ‘beware of the deceitfulness of riches’ Jesus taught there is a real deception involved with some of these distorted money doctrines. Over the years I have read books from these brothers [not about them!] and have come to see how they fall into this trap. After you justify a particular doctrine, you begin actually believing it to the point where you see your group as having ‘revelation knowledge’ that the mainline churches don’t have. As time goes by any reproof that is given, even reproof that is backed up from scripture, is seen as ‘that old tradition, they don’t see what we see’ [spiritual pride]. Over time the obvious faults in their doctrine are so obvious, that those who are in this camp think ‘surely we cant be this wrong’ like when someone quotes ‘for the love of money is the root of all evil’ they are trained to say ‘see brother, this doesn’t say money, but the love of it’ and this simple explanation justifies the error in their mind. Not realizing that when you ‘love something’ you are consumed with that thing. They can’t see that the love of money, that they teach, is shown by the fact that they have distorted scriptures for years to justify wealth seeking, to the point where they actually changed the image of Jesus and have taken the words from his mouth and turned them around. They truly have fallen down the path of the love of money, but can’t see it! John the Baptist said to leadership ‘It is unlawful for thee to have thy brothers wife’ for a long time these teachers ‘have had the wife’ that is they ‘cohabitated’ with the Bride, who really belongs to Jesus [Jesus called us his brother’s] it is unlawful for them to have had such influence with ‘their brothers wife’ it is time to let her go.

(593)  John 12- Jesus goes to Bethany, the town where he raised Lazarus. At the house Mary pours expensive perfume on Jesus. Judas gets mad! ‘We could have sold it and used the money for the poor!’ Judas was the treasurer, he had ‘the bag’. He didn’t care about the poor, but was stealing from the treasury. Some teach that the treasury had millions of dollars in it, if this were so then why would Judas be worried about some perfume worth around $132.00 dollars? You guys teaching this ‘rich Jesus’ stuff need to read your bibles! In the town of Bethany Lazarus is the talk of the town ‘hey, did you see the guy Jesus raised from the dead’? The Pharisees were devising a way to kill Lazarus too! It’s a funny thing, these leaders were sticklers for the law, real legalistic. The number one law out of their 10 commandments was ‘thou shalt not kill’ yet they seemed to be thinking of killing an awful lot! Religion does this to people, it causes you to overlook the obvious while worrying about the details. Jesus called this ‘straining at gnats while swallowing whole Camels’. You see this later on at the Crucifixion, they are all concerned over what day they kill Jesus ‘God forbid we break our rules of purity WHILE KILLING THE SON OF GOD!’ Pathetic bunch of losers. The Greeks come to Jesus disciples and say ‘we want to see Jesus’. They go and tell Jesus ‘these Greeks want to meet you’ Jesus responds in a strange way ‘unless a grain of wheat dies it abides alone, but if it dies it brings forth fruit… If any man serves me, where I am they will be’. In essence Jesus says ‘I am not here to present myself to people on some platform, I am here to do the will of my father. If they want to see me they must lay their lives down and die to self and carry the cross also, where I am they can be’. His answer was a call to self sacrifice and denial of self. Today we have an atmosphere of performance ‘lets go watch the great Prophet’. Going to conferences and stuff. Jesus said prophetic gifts function thru sacrifice, if you are laying your life down for the gospel you will interact with all of Gods gifted 5 fold ministers, but they were not designed to be seen on a stage. ‘While you have the light, walk in it. The darkness comes, and no one can function then’ Jesus was showing us to ‘strike when the irons hot’ act when God opens the door. I have found when I ‘go for it’ during seasons of God showing me stuff, then whatever is instituted at the time [some function of ministry] becomes really effective. Then there are times where I don’t go for it when the Lord opens the door, I miss the ‘open window’ and then later try to get something going, it never works! Like the children of Israel not entering the Promised Land on the first try, the next day they thought ‘what the hell, lets do it today’ it didn’t work! Walk while ye have the light [God showing you the next step] because when it gets dark [you missed the window] no one can work.

(594) Got with 2 homeless buddies yesterday, Steve and Martin [Steve Martin!] met them a few weeks back. They camp about a half mile from my house, right off the bay front. My fishing spot! I told them for a bunch of homeless guys they have it made. Living on the water front. I didn’t realize that Martin is Muslim. He knew I was a Christian and never mentioned it. But Yesterday he brought it up. He didn’t immediately come out and say it, but he was saying ‘I like Jesus as a Prophet, but you shouldn’t worship him’ after a while I caught on. I was honest with him and told him I believe Muhammad made some good points [like being against idols] but that he missed it on Jesus as the Son of God. I did quote some stuff from John’s gospel and gave a lot of scripture on Jesus as being more than a prophet. He did listen to me. I also shared how many Muslims have reported having dreams about Jesus appearing to them and getting converted. This has happened a lot over the last few years. He told me he had a dream he can’t forget, he dreamt of a new book that was to come out. It was Gold and looked like a new ‘book from God’. I interpreted his dream to mean God was going to reveal Jesus [the divine Logos- Gold speaks of divinity, Jesus is the ‘book/word’ of God] to him. He couldn’t really see what I was saying. I tried to explain the concept, he didn’t grasp it [yet!] On my way to drop them off at the fishing spot, I decided I would do some crabbing also. We went to my house to get some traps and I showed the guys my classic mustang. It’s a 1966 with a 281 engine. Real nice car. Martin loved it. I told him I too had a dream, I dreamt I was to give the car away to a Muslim, but he had to convert to Christianity. He looked at me for a second thinking I was serious, I told him I was just kidding. But I did laugh a little, I said ‘you liked like you were ready to say ‘Muhammad, it’s been fun while it lasted’. He laughed too! I caught about a dozen crabs, Martin got a drum and red fish. I also gave them a few of my books, they both are avid readers.

(595) I am a little hesitant to do this, but what the heck! Let’s do another book review. The last one I did, I put on another site [moving on] and the kids ‘cussed’ me out real good! I did not expect the negative response. Some was good criticism, but others were really offended over it. They are ‘ex cult’ members and did not like Christians posting stuff on their site at all. Well I finished the Dahmer book ‘Dark Journey Deep Grace’. It tells of Dahmers conversion in prison. I liked it a lot. The Minister who worked with Jeff was Church of Christ, so some might have some theological differences over Baptism, but it is very real. No doubt that Jeff was a Christian. Found it interesting that Jeff was concerned about a lot of the legalistic problems facing the Church of Christ. He had questions on music in worship, how to take the Lords supper and certain technical issues that the Minister was surprised that Jeff was even concerned about. The minister was a man of grace and tried to focus Jeff on grace. Jeff also said how after his father sent him some materials on Evolution being fake, that this was a ‘hinge’ point in his conversion. He states how he actually used evolution as a way to appease his conscience when committing his horrible crimes. He would think ‘if we are all just random acts of slime, we then have no one to answer to’. After his dad sent him the stuff, Jeff began thinking about answering to a higher court! The story is a good read. Jeff is killed in prison to the dismay of the minister who was developing a good friendship with him. I get the sense that Jeff was a real brother in the Lord. He of course committed terrible crimes, but God forgave him. I also used the name Jeff while writing this entry because one of the point’s of the book was how many people, even believers, were not willing to accept his conversion. No one wanted to speak of him as ‘Jeff’ but only ‘Dahmer’. To personalize it was too much for some. I don’t want to underestimate Jeff’s crimes, nor the great mercy of God and the power of Jesus blood!

(596) DREAM/VISION   I dreamt I was in an arcade type game room. I should say ‘half dreamt’. I was awake, but laying in bed. I had the Christian music station on the TV and saw a black man [in the vision] singing the song that was on the TV. I forget the song, but it spoke of this being a time of destiny. He was speaking/singing it to me. I then saw a chandelier light, it was crystal and bright. At this time I was wide awake with my eyes closed. It looked just like a vivid dream, seeing colors and all, but I was awake with my eyes closed. From the light there came down beautiful jewels/crystals that were pouring down like rain. I felt this spoke of a season of ‘releasing precious pearls’ of wisdom to a large group of people. The arcade spoke of a fun type atmosphere. I simply felt the Lord saying ‘release nuggets of wisdom freely, enjoy the time’. I hope you guys are receiving and giving freely, don’t cast your ‘pearls’ before swine, but cast them!

(597) Just outside praying, nice and cold! A few days after Thanksgiving and its nice. Had a thought. We have a tendency to excel in the paradigm that we are given. We have so many talented young men [Pastors] who we graduate from college and put them ‘into the ministry’. They often excel beyond their ‘fore fathers’ in advancing the ministry. Usually they do it in the current ‘framework’ of building centered church. The idea that ‘to excel’ means better ways to do ‘Sunday church’. More innovation, new technology, a ‘jet set’ ideology that goes further and faster than the ‘old time’ guys. All of this is okay to a degree. I think it would be better if we instill the idea of ‘church’ into the next group of leaders as being various communities of people whom you will implant the gospel into and the people themselves become ‘church’. A highly mobile community of people on the move for God. You can have ‘on line campuses’ [which, by the way, I feel are really on the cutting edge of ‘new paradigm’. We often speak in terms of ‘new paradigm/ new wine’ but are really just speaking of doing church in different ways in the same old auditorium mindset!] free flowing ‘open air’ [parks] groups. Meeting in clubs [bars!] on a weekday. Making ‘church’ available in all new types of ways. We can still have the old cathedrals, our eastern orthodox friends, and yes, even a good Old Catholic church! Hey, I like getting in on a Mass every now and then. You would be surprised how ‘prophetic’ the traditional scripture reading can be! My point is we need to ‘re think’ our approach on ‘how to do church’ in this next century [millennia!] Jesus spoke of ‘new wineskins’, as believers we need to ‘divorce’ ourselves from the marriage relationship that we have with ‘going to church on Sunday’. It’s time to expand the paradigm! NOTE; Let me say this. Recently I have had some good conversation [interaction] with a very popular orthodox writer. Most theologians would know his name. I realize that when they first come to our site, we LOOK STRANGE! Many of these guys are very uncomfortable with ‘dreams, visions,…’ and stuff like that. At the risk of offending all my charismatic friends, I confess that out of all the ‘theological communities’ out there, I like Reformed theology the most. I consider myself ‘non denominational’ for the most part, but have found reformed theology the ‘most likeable’ if you will. NOTE; in the ‘Emergent conversation’ I think the danger is in ‘the conversation’. We have a tendency to ‘talk things to death’. I too am guilty of this. The hardest thing for believers is to transition into ‘the doing’ aspect. There is a ton of good teaching out there right now on the church transitioning into this new paradigm, but I feel there really aren’t enough ‘doers’. Jesus said ‘look on the fields, they are ready to harvest. But there aren’t enough doers’. I don’t want to sound self righteous, I too am guilty! I just thought I would throw this in.

(598) I am going a little ‘theological’ today! In the ‘Emergent conversation’, as well as just ‘the conversation’ there are questions about the Kingdom versus the ‘Church’. When Jesus sent the disciples out he told them to cast out devils [demons] heal the sick and proclaim ‘the Kingdom of God has been here’. I see the Kingdom being expressed and manifested wherever Christ’s ambassadors are journeying at the time. In these areas where the gospel would spread certain groups of people would ‘submit’ to the message of the King. The outward sign of this submission was baptism. Those in the surrounding areas knew who these subjects of the Kingdom were, they were ‘branded’ if you will, with the ‘mark of the Kingdom’. Now, these cities [Ephesus, Corinth, Galatia { a group of cities}] would become ‘out posts’ of the Kingdom on earth. The ‘church’ [Ecclesia] in these areas were actual territories of people in whom the King would dwell and have expression thru. From these ‘local churches’ [groups of believers residing locally! Get the idea of a 501 c 3 organization out of your head!] Others would eventually go out and establish ‘new outposts’ thru the proclaiming of this good news [of the Kings reign!]. This organic thing we call ‘Ecclesia’ was the natural outgrowth of the Kingdom in the earth. The scholar N.T. Wright says the Kingdom message was really a proclamation of the Kings reign thru the lips of the Apostles. In essence they weren’t just preaching ‘get saved and join a ‘local church’ but were saying ‘the Kingdom has been inaugurated, submit to the King while you still have time!’ I like this! So today you have ‘regions/groups’ of people on planet earth who are ‘citizens’ of this heavenly Kingdom. The fact that the Spirit of God has taken up residence permanently in these groups of believers shows the ‘long term’ thinking of the Father when he started this thing! There most certainly will be a future aspect of this Kings great entry back into the planet, at that time all will see the outward reality of the fact that the King has been alive and well for a few thousand years [or more, depending on when he returns]. But make no mistake about it, the Kingdom of God has been invading this planet ever since the King took his seat of authority and vested the church with this authority by the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost. Be assured that ‘the Kingdom of God has come among you’.

(599) Let me talk some on why I align myself with reformed thinking. After I first ‘got saved’ I became a student of scripture. Within a short time I read the New Testament. I simply saw the passages dealing with Predestination as meaning ‘Predestination’ in the classical sense [Augustine, Luther, Calvin, etc...] .I was then taught that this belief was heresy! So I rejected it. The Baptist Pastor who said that this was ‘hyper Calvinism’ meant well. I would eventually see that believing in Predestination was not heresy. Many of the churches greatest theologians have believed in it. Many groups of Christians have embraced it thru out the ages. I most certainly am one! Now, I am very familiar with the arguments for and against this doctrine. Paul knew about the arguments against it. He actually takes the ‘Augustinian’ view in his defense of this doctrine in Romans [I know Augustine got it from Paul!] the simple fact that Paul, in his defense of this teaching, would actually not defend it from an Arminian view, but from a Calvinistic one, show’s you that he believed it! This really doesn’t take a genius to see [though it takes some basic level of thinking!] So any way I thought I would throw this out there being I have already come out of the closet as being Reformed. To be honest the passages that led me to this belief, before I was even aware of any historical anything, were the verses in Ephesians from my old King James bible. They make it very clear that Predestination not only speaks of being Predestined to conformity into Christ’s image [which Arminians bring out] but that Predestination  most definitely speaks of a chosen group of people [the elect] as being predestined before birth unto the adoption of Sons. I always found it strange why Arminians, who are most certainly good brothers, would use the argument that Predestination refers only to those who accept Jesus and are ‘predestined’ to become like him. It takes only a surface, one time reading to see that Predestination speaks of this as well as what I just showed you. Many modern defenses of Arminianism [or semi Pelagianism- wow I really let the cat out of the bag now!] seem to overlook this simple fact. I can’t explain all the ramifications of this, neither could Paul! And the fact that he even said he couldn’t, proves it to be a biblical doctrine! [I blame any recent correspondence with Scot McKnight for this entry!]

(600) I do not feel like writing today. I want to be very honest with you guys. To have a history like I have had, struggling with things thru out my life. It might sound like a good testimony, but make no mistake about it, to have made bad decisions thru out my life has played a toll on me. Don’t think you can dabble in rebellion with out it affecting you! Now, why am I here right now? This last week I took a break from getting with my homeless friends, it was thanksgiving week and I spent time updating this blog. I wound up interacting with a very famous Orthodox scholar. I ‘accidentally’ went to his sight ‘Jesus Creed blog’ [great site, go check it out!] and meant to give my blog to him, I sent it on a comment section and realized it posted to all his readers. I didn’t mean to do this! After an hour or so they took it off the blog. I don’t blame them! We are a little radical for a bunch of orthodox brothers! But I guess the Lord wanted it. Let’s talk a little about the communion of the saints. I feel that protestant/independent Christians make a grave mistake when they view the older church traditions as ‘those deceived traditionalists’. Our brothers and sisters who are either Orthodox or Catholic are truly believers. They have come to the table with things to contribute. We often view them in a wrong light. It is common to hear ‘they practice infant baptism’ or ‘iconography’ [inclusion of art in worship] and to think ‘wow, what a bunch of idol worshippers’. Not realizing that they have come to these beliefs with much thought. Now do I agree? No. But I see how they have come to this belief. Infant baptism [pedo baptism] for the most part was seen as the New Covenant sign of dedicating children to Christ. Sort of like the rite of circumcision in the Old covenant. Those who were circumcised as infants were certainly not aware of what was going on, but God initiated it as a rite to introduce infants into his covenant. So certain new covenant believers saw infant baptism in this same way. Does the New Testament teach this? Probably not, but the Jailer in acts 16 got baptized ‘with his whole house’. Were there younger family members in this? Possibly. Did they all know the doctrines of Christian faith before their baptism? I doubt it. So the possibility of younger family members being baptized can be argued from scripture. Do I believe in infant baptism? No. But I can see how other Christians can believe it. So we shouldn’t just assume that our Orthodox/Catholic brothers are all deceived! It works like this with a lot of stuff. The historic church is really the ‘Father’ [or mother] to a lot of us today. Where did we get our bible from? Whether you like it or not, the Canon developed out of the ancient church. The reformed brothers say ‘we have a fallible collection of infallible books’ the Catholics say ‘we have an infallible collection of infallible books’ hate to say it, but the Catholics are right! Do I believe in the Apocrypha? No. But the truth is God most certainly used the historic church to give us the bible. Protestants who say ‘the bible was simply in existence and the church recognized it’ don’t understand history! God most definitely used the church, thru divine guidance, to give us his word. You can’t get around it. To think that ‘a bible’ was circulating in the first few centuries, like we have today, is simply historically inaccurate. God used his people to get the Canon together and deliver it to the rest of the church, no bones about it! The church is the pillar and ground of the truth, Paul did say this in the New Testament. So today, we have a beautiful people of God, made up of all types [denominations] of believers. We should strive for the unity of the church as Jesus taught us in John 17. We should avoid the mindset that simply looks at all of our brothers and sisters as being lost or deceived. Do we have differences? Yes. Are there important differences that have meaning. Yes. The Protestant reformation didn’t happen in a vacuum, God had real truth that he wanted to bring forth at that time. He brought it forth. As the church progresses in to this next millennia we need to honestly evaluate where we are at, and also see where our brothers and sisters stand. I am not one of those who think returning to orthodoxy [Frankie Schaffer] or Catholicism [Newman – or more recently Frances Beckwith] is a viable alternative, but we need to at least see them as viable Christian communions. Let’s not approach it like George from the Seinfeld episode. He was going to convert to Greek Orthodoxy so he could date some girl. So he goes down to the Greek Orthodox Church and meets with these 2 Priests. As they are testing him for his conversion, they ask him ‘why do you want to be Orthodox’? He answers ‘I like the hats’ to the dismay of these 2 Fathers who are wearing these pontifical looking hats! NOTE; The justification for the use of Art in worship comes from the fact that God himself allowed the use of actual images in worship right after he gave the restrictions on graven images in the 10 commandments. He gave Moses instruction on making images of Angels that would be over the Mercy seat in the Holiest place in the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was the central piece of furniture for worship in the Old Testament story. Also God will instruct Moses to make a Brass serpent and put it on a pole and have the people ‘look at it as an image of Christ’! Jesus of course uses this story In John 3 with Nicodemus. So in both of these cases images were used with Gods permission [Explicit permission!]

(601) These last few years reformed theology has made a strong resurgence back into the Church. A few years back, the President of the Southern Baptist convention, Al Mohler, was a noted Calvinist. Mike Piper, a very popular Baptist preacher is also having great influence with many up and coming Evangelicals. I feel some of this is due to the fact that younger believers are really hungry for good theology. They are getting tired of all the motivational stuff. Also, like in my own case, if you see these things in scripture you tend to be drawn towards those who see it like you. It is all too common in the American Church to outright reject the true godly heritage of many of our Calvinistic brothers. Men like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield and others who were plainly Calvinistic in doctrine. When a younger believer is taught that they weren’t [like I was taught] it is a great revelation to find out that other great thinkers saw the same as you. I remember when I first read in one of the ancient councils of the church [council of Orange?] I read how many of my own conclusions were the same as brothers who lived centuries before. Or when I first studied the Puritans and realized how many of them were Calvinists. To underestimate the influential people who have held to this doctrine thru out the centuries is really miss guided. Now for sure there are some problems when man tries to logically explain the issues involving Predestination. And I feel that many of these explanations have done harm to the truth of this doctrine. I can’t see how telling people that Jesus didn’t die for them [limited atonement] squares with scripture. Some call this ‘4 point Calvinism’ as opposed to ‘5 Point’. My POINT is we do get into trouble when we try to figure out all the logical conclusions. Some times logic doesn’t work! [Sproul would be mad at me for this one]. So in all our teaching, especially when bringing young believers along. Don’t hide the historical fact that Calvinism played a big role in our heritage. It does a disservice to Christian education to tell people ‘Edwards wasn’t a Calvinist’ or for that matter ‘that Finney was’. We need to simply tell the truth about the historic record. Some great men were, some weren’t, no big deal. When you lay out the facts people can come to their own views. When you hide the facts you do a disservice to the work of the Spirit in education.

(602) Got with some homeless brothers yesterday, I will be seeing them in a few more hours. They read some of my stuff, one of them just lost his wife and child in a car crash this past year. He is struggling with it. He told me he was raised Mormon and hasn’t believed in God for years. But he started believing again in the last 2 weeks. I felt he wanted to kind of say ‘do you know why’? And maybe give me some credit, but I didn’t go down that road. I wanted him to believe because he chose to, not to impress me. I dealt with Mormonism in an honest way. Didn’t sugar coat the many problems with this belief [Like the total lack of any historical evidence backing up all of the so called tribes of people that Jesus supposedly appeared to in the Americas. All the names of people, cities, the money they used. None of these things have ever been found! Never mind the fact that the ‘angels’ who translated the ‘plates’ that Smith found in the ground, used King James English in his translation! EEEK!]. Well anyway when I went to see a good Christian friend who knows web sites, he was helping me with a few pointers. He started a business, was telling me how thru the business they get opportunities to witness. A good thing. He is an older man, involved in the local scene. He was getting ready to go the office, also spending time working at his house. I was hoping to finish with what he was showing me so I could get with some homeless guys at the mission. I don’t say this to boast or compare myself with my friend. I want to give an example. As he was telling me how thru the business they have opportunities to witness, he mentioned something about me being a fire fighter. I told him I am in the middle of retiring after 25 years. This brother has been financially independent for many years [he is rich!] I never knew this when I first met him. If I knew it I wouldn’t have paid for him and one of his employees when we went out to eat after a prayer meeting! The point is as we were talking, I was kind of rushing to get with the brothers. He was also rushing to go to the office. Why don’t we see the reality of touching people directly? If we retire as believers, or are financially well off, why not see your situation as being a direct conduit into the lost world around us? We often want to establish things [ministries, businesses, etc] and thru these other things we try to influence society. This is okay to a degree. But also leave yourself open to the concept of Jesus giving us authority and a responsibility to directly impact the world. I didn’t see my rushing to leave as ‘I need to go run the ministry’ or ‘establish our ministry’. I have left that mindset years ago. I saw my ‘rushing to leave’ more like Jesus going after the one sheep while leaving the 99 [I would not dare compare myself to the Lord!] The point is, if your child was starving on the street, strung out on drugs. Would your first thought be ‘how can I go start something that will affect them in the long run’? [a sort of Christian ‘trickle down economics!] Or would you take all you have, your time, resources and everything and directly go find that child and try and help them? I think we need to re evaluate what Jesus calls us to. Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in! Don’t just ‘go out’ hoping to have a successful career, give God 10 % on Sunday while hoping you will in some way have an impact in society. Jesus said ‘when I was hungry you never came to me, I was sick and in prison, where were you’ I don’t want to say ‘at the office’! [Or down at the church!] NOTE; let’s ‘tear down every high thought that comes against the knowledge of God’. I want you to see the subtle mindset of religion. We often appeal to people along the lines of ‘support your church financially, live a good Christian life. Come to church on Sunday and be excited about all the mission works and reaching out and supporting missionaries that the church [organization] is supporting’ while all of these works are good and noble, what this tends to do is develop a mindset in the church [the actual ecclesia who are sitting in the pews!] that their main job is to fund the organization [like giving to the Red Cross] and that by their being faithful to fund it, they will have a reward. Now, I am sure the Lord will honor those who have given this way, as well as honor those fulltime missionaries who are doing good works. But when we frame the conversation this way, the poor people in the pews are only spectators who are living vicariously thru the professionals. They hear all the exciting stories form the visiting missionaries. They see the great things that the Pastor has done over the past year. They are very excited about all the good things that are happening. Then they are told ‘it’s good to believe God to use you to excel in the business world and make more money so we can do more projects. Don’t you know if you only believe for your own needs, you are being selfish!’ So the condemnation is ‘why do I not feel fulfilled by simply supporting this system’? Because God didn’t design you to be fulfilled by simply making money and supporting others who are laying their lives down. He designed you to lay your life down as well. To personally be involved in some way by actually doing the work! Not by simply thinking you will get a reward by giving money to others who are doing it. I have found the breaking of this mindset to be one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of true revolution in the church. Every time you try and break this barrier, you are looked at as some rebel who doesn’t believe in tithing. Then to top it all off, every time a believer gets close to ‘making the break’ in his thinking and acting, he is then told ‘God will curse you if you rob from him’[Malachi]. May God help us all to get beyond this stuff! NOTE; Remember when we covered Exodus? [on radio] The children of Israel were told ‘you need to make more bricks, the reason the people are complaining is because they are not busy enough’! The bricks were being used to build Pharaohs cities, that which would bring glory to mans legacy. When we tell people ‘make more money, become millionaires so you can fund Christian stuff’ what we are doing is taking a very small percent of truth and applying it on a broad scale. In rare cases people are called to be rich to support ministries. The testimony of scripture does show this! Joseph of Arimathea, the rich guy who gave his grave to Jesus. Those in Acts who sold lands. There are examples of this. But you never see Jesus or Paul telling believers ‘trust God to make you rich so you can give us more money’. We err when we do this! We in essence are preaching a message to people that says ‘you are selfish if you are only working for your own needs, you need to give your life to become rich’ this message becomes a direct violation of scripture. In Hebrews it says ‘be content with what you have’. Paul says to Timothy ‘don’t desire to become rich’. This idea of telling believers to get rich to support ministries is way off. It actually falls into the category of ‘making more bricks for men’s glory’.

(603) Let’s delve into some stuff. In the discussion with my Orthodox friends, there are real differences. But in order to dialogue, Evangelicals need to see beyond their own mindset. While many Evangelicals today would reject ‘Sacerdotalism’ [sacramental salvation, a view of Sotereiology that incorporates the sacraments into salvation] many are also unaware that this belief existed in the minds of the great reformers. Especially Luther’s view on the Eucharist, as well as infant baptism and the remission of original sin! I found it funny how the Baptists, in an effort to be strong on Justification by faith, would kind of find ways to explain away the verses that seem to teach that water baptism has some role in salvation. Acts2:38 ‘repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins’ [I think it’s there, I am too busy to even check it out!] The Baptists would do cartwheels trying to get around this. I have a way to explain it, if I have time I will! The point is there wasn’t a totally honest approach to some of these verses. Peter again will say ‘the like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a pure heart towards God’ [somewhere in Peter. I like the way the writer of Hebrews does this ‘somewhere it is said’. He also didn’t look up the verses!] The Baptists would also explain these texts in ways that seemed to get around the text. ‘Well, we know water cant wash away sins’ Peter knew it too! He actually states it in this verse. This fact doesn’t answer the seeming ‘sacerdotal’ meaning of the verse. I even found it funny that the Baptists would quote Paul during water baptisms ‘buried with him in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life’ and not even see that applying this ‘baptism’ verse to water baptism is in itself sacerdotal! I believe the baptism spoken of by Paul in Romans is primarily the baptism of the Spirit placing us into the Body of Christ. Paul’s primary revelation was deeper than Peters. Peter will even say in his epistle that some things from Paul were hard to understand. There seemed to be a growing reality amongst the apostolic leadership of the first century that Paul was ‘seeing’ at a higher level. Some have developed this a little too much. Marcion would eventually develop a cannon based solely on Paul’s writings. The Protestant church has leaned heavily on Paul, while the Catholics on Peter. I see a prophetic significance to this. Now, I believe most of the baptism verses from Peter are dealing with water baptism, most of Paul’s with Spirit. I do not explain away, or spiritualize the water verses and say ‘it’s talking Spirit’. The main verse from Peter [acts 2:38] can be said to be speaking of an aspect of ‘salvation’ that deals more with ‘remission’ than ‘forgiveness’. The Greek word can mean both, but it is a little more than just basic forgiveness. My King James, which I quoted, says ‘remission’, newer ‘models’ say ‘forgiveness’. Don’t mean to split hairs, but there’s a reason for my madness! I feel it is perfectly in keeping with Paul’s theology to see Peter as saying ‘all who have just heard this gospel, if you get baptized, you will ‘sin less’. In essence ‘sins [actually doing them] will be removed. You will live better’. Now, I don’t want to be guilty of ‘explaining it away’ either. I believe it’s possible for Peter to be looking at a different timeline, a more surface understanding of ‘remission’ than Paul. Paul seems to see things from a longer trajectory both past and future. Paul is seeing the work of the Spirit baptizing before the actual ‘work of the water’ baptizing. How can Peter say ‘those who get baptized in water will have sins remitted’? Well he is seeing things a little later on the timeline. Possibly a few seconds later, but later. Peter didn’t know all the ramifications of legal justification like Paul. He did know that Jesus told him to go and baptize. He knew that those who believed and got baptized would ‘sin less’ [remission]. No need to twist all of Peter’s baptism verses into Paul’s way of seeing it. Paul was focused more on deeper stuff in salvation. Another difficulty with believers seeing this is a limited view of soteriology [doctrine of salvation]. Salvation in the New Testament is a much more fluid concept than we grasp today. Evangelicals have a tendency to see it solely on terms of the initial act of conversion, while the New Testament is much broader. The Catholic Church sees the communal aspect of Gods grace being present in society to ‘infuse’ grace, thru the sacraments, into society at large, and thru this making salvation a reality to all people. They see the church herself as a divine sacrament in the earth. Now, I don’t think Protestant’s are as far away from Catholic/Orthodox Christians if we can see some of this stuff. For a Baptist minister to tell a new convert ‘you are now justified, but you need to be baptized so you don’t ‘backslide’ [sin less] and for Peter to say ‘get baptized so you can get sins remitted [sin less]’ might not be as much of an obstacle as we have made it! NOTE; Some of the explanations of Acts 2:38 [wow, as much as I am quoting this, you would think I would go make sure I am quoting it right!] said Peter was saying ‘be baptized for [because of] the remission of sins’ that Peter was saying ‘because you have just accepted the Lord [at some hidden altar call!] now get baptized’. Or later in Acts ‘rise up and be baptized, washing away your sins’ speaking of Paul’s conversion. I think the best way to see it is like the way I just showed you. It seems obvious that early Christians saw a connection with water baptism and ‘washing away, remitting of sins’ but many believers try to interpret everything from the current context and damage scripture while doing it. These verses can all actually be saying ‘wash away, remit sin’ without referring to the act of legal justification that is the foundation of Paul’s teaching. Paul says ‘I thank God I baptized only a few of you guys [Corinthians] Christ sent me not to baptize, but preach the gospel.’ Paul has a deeper thing going on. Some dispensationalists try to ‘explain away’ the Peter verse by saying ‘Jews need it, Gentiles don’t’ and then go into the dispensation of works and explain that the ‘work’ of water baptism saves under the law dispensation that was existing for Israel and will ‘pick up again’ at the beginning of the tribulation. I see this also as silly. The first century church [and Judaism] connected ‘ceremonial/sacred’ cleansing in some way with their faith. In the gospel it says some disciples had a question over cleansing, speaking of baptism. John the Baptist ‘baptized for the remission of sins’ now, I can show you the whole thing on ‘Johns baptism’ versus ‘Christian baptism’ but that would be doing too much! Later on in church history you will see how many restorationist movements [church of Christ, Christian church] also saw water baptism as a restoration of truth and incorporated it into their understanding of salvation. The Baptist brothers would at times view them as a cult over this! Besides the Pentecostals down the road who were going to hell because they spoke in tongues [or didn’t believe in eternal security!]. I believe all of these brothers are Christians, hey they believe in Christ! I guess that would make me a liberal ecumenical heretic that believes in the one world church? [I felt like saying ‘if that’s true than I will at least be with all these brothers in hell’! But Christians get too uptight when you kid like this]. I believe the answer is in coming to the table with grace and humility. Don’t look for reasons to exclude people, but to include them. God’s revelation of himself tends to lean towards inclusion, not exclusion! Peter learned this lesson in Acts 10. NOTE; just to make sure you understand me, I believe a person is born again at the moment of belief. Prior to anything else. Even the ‘sinner’s prayer’. If I had the time I would show you how Romans 10 is not saying a person is saved [justified] when he asks Jesus into his heart. To see the word ‘saved’ as justification by faith would contradict the verse. The verse says ‘with the heart man believes unto righteousness [justification by faith] and with the mouth confesses unto salvation’ once again Paul’s point is if scripture says ‘whoever calls on the lord will be saved’ shows God is not partial. He ‘saves/delivers’ all who call, not just some. But in this argument he says ‘how can they call [pray] unless they already believe’? He just said all who believed were already ‘saved’ in the justification ‘sense’. So once again the fluid concept of Salvation is not seen because every time we see ‘saved’ we think of the initial act! So any way I guess I just explained it. So to me, the moment you believe you are born of God. God himself divinely deposits the ‘gift of faith’ into you, you don’t ‘choose to get saved’. He births you into his family and you are raised from the dead spiritually at that instant. Baptism in water is the outward sign, that also ‘remits’ sin in the same way you would tell any convert ‘obey God and you will grow in sanctification’. I know it’s a little stronger than this, but hey, that’s the best I can do. NOTE; by the way, seeing the word ‘saved’ in this more fluid context helps with all the other difficult passages. James ‘see how a man is saved by his works and not faith only’. I wont explain it now, I will try and just ‘cut and paste’ that entry [the one where I explained this] along with this entry, and put them under the section ‘REFORMED STUFF’ on this blog!

(604) Got with my homeless friend yesterday, the Muslim brother. Found out that he served in Iraq and went thru lots of stuff. His family is Jehovah witness. They were stressed when he became a Muslim. During our conversation I never really push conversion on people. After becoming real friends with people, with no hidden agenda, then when you talk with them the door is open to share truth with a friend. Jesus style! He is knowledgeable in many areas, does read scripture. I spent a few hours answering many misconceptions that he had. I rarely have a bible when doing this stuff, but I have memorized lots of scripture over the years. So during our conversation I realized that my human power of persuasion wasn’t cutting it, I would quote scripture along with my reasoning. Stuff like ‘great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, believed on in the world and received up into heaven’ and explain the truth of the incarnation. I went a little thru the history of Islam and the difference between the way Jewish people and Muslims view Jesus as a prophet, but not Gods Son. I did quote a lot from Isaiah 53 and noticed how my buddy was listening intently as I would quote scripture. You could see it was really the power of the gospel thru Gods word that was doing the work. As I was quoting and explaining the substitutionary aspect of Christ’s death, he confessed that he was just reading Isaiah 53 earlier in the day. Wow, I felt like the guy in Acts [Phillip] who was preaching to the Ethiopian Eunuch! [Acts 8?] After a good few hours of really teaching my Muslim friend, I was dropping him off at his spot where he camps by the bay. It’s kind of cold, but I told him [truthfully] that I planned on baptizing some people when the water gets warmer. It’s been too long and I don’t want to neglect this part of the great commission. I didn’t want to push it with my Muslim friend, but he eagerly told me that he wants to get baptized when we do it! Also wants to be involved with some home groups and stuff. It’s only been a few weeks of friendship with this brother and he’s ready to get converted! This is the same brother that I was kidding about giving my classic Mustang to a few entries back. I thank God that he is ready to take the plunge! But he isn’t getting the car! NOTE; Let me say something about this ‘style’ or way of ministry. It is all to easy in today’s current mind set to relate to people on the basis of ‘come to my church/ministry and we will provide services to you and you will give a tithe and we will pay for others [missionaries] to carry the gospel to the world. Just be real faithful to give and we will do great things’. The intent behind this thinking is well meaning, I just believe it is a little misguided. It is all to easy to fall into a style of ministry that begins ‘falling behind’ in the budget and then there develops a tension on ‘why aren’t the people giving’? I know! It’s because we have failed to teach the mandate to tithe! [though there really is no mandate to tithe!] So what starts out as well intentioned people [the Pastors and the congregants] digresses into this power struggle where every time you meet one of the main inferences is ‘lets go people, we have much to do. Obey God, don’t rob him!’ the whole thing is so far removed from true New Testament ministry, yet we don’t really see this! In the above interaction with my Muslim friend, it was obvious to me that he has ‘gotten into it’ with many Pastors thru out his life. He has told me how what turned him off was the arrogance [and ignorance] of ‘chaplains’ [prison] and guys who were always relating to him with an agenda. I don’t want to say ‘I am the first noble person who treated him right’ but I want you to see how all believers need to begin directly relating to people without seeing ‘my church [organization] or the missionaries we support are responsible to do this stuff’ We are all responsible! When the modern system teaches the ‘brick builders’ to simply ‘make more bricks’ [bring in more resources] we are giving the impression to the average believer that this is his main responsibility! NOTE; If you remember that in one of my books I shared some thoughts from my mission statement [I think the last chapter of ‘Further Talks on Church and Ministry’] I shared how in the great commission Jesus simply tells believers to go and preach the gospel and baptize those who believe. Also to teach and make disciples [more than just ‘getting saved’] but there really is no instruction on ‘starting churches’. Later in Acts after the Spirit is poured out on the believers they ‘continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and breaking of bread’. That is they were growing as a community of people, not a separate organization that was called ‘the local church’. They were ‘the local church’. Because of this subtle shift in our seeing the separate organization as ‘the local church’ it becomes natural to see the bringing in of more money into ‘the storehouse’ [eeek!] so the work of God can be carried out! After all, God chose ‘the local church’ as his instrument to do this stuff! We sure have a long way to go. NOTE; This is the friend who shared the dreams about the ‘gold book of God’ [few entries back]. He also just shared how when he was a boy he had a dream and heard the word ‘unity’ and his mom [or someone?] was aware of this. I think they heard the voice too? The point was I also told him [interpreted] this prophetic sign as from God. During my discussions with him one of he main obstacles of becoming Christian was certain expressions of the Trinity. How Muslims say ‘you cant worship Jesus as God’ or you cant have ‘3 gods’. I tried to explain that Jesus said ‘if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father in me’. I also explained how the historic church battled over certain expressions of the Trinity. I explained the ‘Arian’ controversy of the 4th [or 5th?] century when the Bishop Arias thought it was wrong to call Jesus God, and ultimately the church had an historic council and came down on the side of Trinitarian language. I brought all this up to show him how believers have struggled with explaining the Trinity. But I used his own prophetic experience of hearing the word ‘unity’ to show him how Jesus and God are one. This was the 2nd prophetic thing that happened with him in concert to bring him to conversion. Which in a way was a fulfillment of what I told him a few weeks back, that many Muslims were having dreams and visions and converting to Christ. This whole experience was a good prophetic clinic to those of you who are not familiar with these things. Signs and visions work in concert with the overall purpose of God in redemption. Just like the book of Acts, those of you who do not believe in these things need to see the ‘orthodoxy’ of all that has happened in bringing my friend to truth. It wasn’t ‘spooky’ charismatic stuff, it was real evangelism! NOTE; Let me give you guys a little ‘prophetic clinic’ in what happened with my Muslim friend. He had these 2 prophetic experiences that stuck with him his whole life. The ‘gold book of God’ and the ‘unity’ word/vision. Both of these signs speak of the deity of Christ, the main obstacle keeping a Muslim from becoming Christian. So for all these years God knew there would be a time where this buddy would go thru as being Muslim. God had a predestined course for him to have had these prophetic experiences in his background. God was waiting for the day to come where Martin would run into ‘an interpreter of dreams’ [don’t want to sound too big headed, at least someone who believed they weren’t from the devil!] so you see how these dream things were not simply ‘eating too much Pizza’ but a collaborative effort with the sovereignty of God to reveal his Son to Martin. God gave his Son for the world, he has the right to divinely arrange the ‘playing board’ so he wins every time!

(605) PARABLE OF AN AUTO MECHANIC  I just had this thought. Say if God sent Jesus into the world to solve another problem besides the sin issue. Say if the main problem with men were that their cars kept breaking down. Jesus shows up in 21st century USA and begins gathering a following of disciples. He walks with them for 3 years and sees all these cars broken down. He begins miraculously fixing them. He also shows the disciples how to ‘fix cars’. He gets to the point of his departure and tells his disciples ‘I am going away, but I will gift you with the supernatural ability to not only fix cars, but to train others to do the same. As soon as you fix a car, teach the owner and give him instructions on how to ‘pay it forward’. Then Jesus leaves, he decides one day to come back and see how we did. He thinks ‘for sure there will be a great improvement since I left’. To his dismay he shows up and finds that things really haven’t improved that much. Sure, there’s been some improvement [all the preachers have their cars fixed! Ouch] but the overall scene hasn’t really changed. He asks one of the ‘mechanics’ what happened. Don’t you know how important it was for you to have taken my ‘car fixing ability’ and to have used it to reach the world? The mechanic says ‘we know it’s very important. That’s why we have set up all these ‘mechanic shops’ all over the world. These shops on every corner operate like this. On Sunday all the mechanics go to the shops and read from the ‘mechanic book’. We have a ‘head mechanic’ who knows more about the book than the rest of us, he is really good! We listen to him talk for about an hour or so and he reads all these great stories from the book on how Jesus and the ‘early mechanics’ did great things. We then put in our money at the end of the mechanic talk and go home. So do you see how seriously we take the responsibility of being mechanics?’ What do you think Jesus would say? The simple fact is we have relegated the responsibility of carrying out the great commission to the ‘hired mechanics’. On our way to ‘mechanic shop’ each Sunday we are driving passed a world full of ‘broken cars’. We see the cars being broken, but we think the head mechanic only wants us to send money to other mechanics so they can fix them. We have lost sight of the direct responsibility that we carry as ‘mechanics’. If all Jesus wanted was for us to financially support ‘other mechanics’ or to think it was the job of the ‘mechanic shop’ to carry it out, then we have been duped into inactivity without us knowing it. Then you find a few mechanics along the way that have figured this out. They begin rapidly fixing cars all over the place. They implore their fellow mechanics to do the same. They are shouting at them on the way to mechanic shop and saying ‘stop, help us fix these cars’. The ones going to shop tell the lead mechanic that these new guys are actually fixing cars, without being licensed by the shop! Well, the chief mechanic can’t believe this. He has been taught his whole life that it is his job to talk about mechanics and be a teacher of mechanics, but for someone to break out on their own, and use this wisdom outside of the shop is total rebellion. He starts warning all the others ‘don’t do what these rebel mechanics  are doing’. They are told ‘just keep bringing the weekly dues to the shop, because if you don’t you will get in big trouble’. No matter how loud the real fixers of cars shout to the shop attendees, the attendees see the ‘attending’ of shop class on Sunday as the primary responsibility. They believe the doing of this is the main thing that Jesus wanted. When you ask them ‘don’t you remember when Jesus told us to go and fix all the cars in the world and when he comes back he will ask whether or not we actually fixed any cars’ what will your answer be? ‘I guess we will tell him that the dues we paid to the shop on Sunday supported others who were fixing them’? That my friends is not going to cut it!

(606) JOHN 13-  Jesus says ‘I am come from God, and I am going back to him’. He had this divine sense of mission. Theologians have disagreed over how much Jesus knew about his own calling as a young person. I kinda see it like he gradually came to greater wisdom and understanding as the father was revealing the mission to him. The fact that Jesus became human also brought with it certain limitations of knowledge and growth. He did come to see his mission at a young age. When he was in the temple as a boy he said ‘I am doing my fathers business’. So I see how he grew in his sense of mission and destiny. You have come from the father, you will some day go back. Live with destiny in mind. At the table Jesus tells the guys ‘I am giving you an example’ as he washes their feet. Peter is like preachers today ‘heavens forbid that you wash me, are you saying I need some correcting’! I have found this response common among leaders [even me!] we sought of cant get corrected, then when we do realize we need it, we go to the other extreme ‘well, go ahead and give me a bath!’ We want to tear everything down and start all over! It is funny. Jesus says ‘what I am showing you, you don’t really know what it means yet, you understand it in your head, but not for real’ I feel the example of ‘servant leadership’ is a subject that most leaders ‘know’ but the fact of it being really lived out is rare. We still see ‘ministry’ and ‘church’ from the paradigm of ‘my successful career’. I am not saying everyone is wrong, I am saying the level we are at is sort of where the disciples were. We ‘know it’ in our heads, but we still ask ‘who will be the greatest in your Kingdom. Can we sit at your right Hand?’ Jesus makes one of the worst statements in all of scripture ‘one of you shall betray me’ he also says in another place ‘it were better for that man if he were never born’ WOW! How would you feel if this were said about you? At the table the disciples were feeling insecure. ‘John, ask Jesus who it is for heavens sake!’ John and Judas know, I don’t know about the others. It seems as if they leave the meal with the possibility of ‘Oh my God, could it be me’ this lets you see into the later distress that Peter has over his denials. He must have thought ‘I am the bad one’. Peter makes every attempt to not be the one. Jesus says ‘where I am going, you can’t follow’ Peter says ‘why not, I will die for you’! Jesus says ‘I tell you, before the cock crows, you will deny me 3 times’! “OH MY GOD IT IS ME!’ do you see the drama here? Why would Jesus say about Judas ‘it would have been better if you were never born’? It sure seems hard. Jesus said this for Judas benefit, not his own. Jesus knew that for the fathers plan to work, someone would have to hate him so much that he would betray him. Jesus loved Judas, he lived with him for 3 years. He saw THE SINCERITY of Judas as a zealot for his political cause. You say ‘but he was a thief from the start’ true. But I am sure he justified it like cheating on your taxes! The point was Judas really thought he was getting in on this new ‘progressive’ political movement of the day. Sure he was stealing, but after all ‘I deserve it, the Pay Jesus gives us isn’t cutting it. Doesn’t he realize we are risking our lives with him. I am deserving of it’. Jesus knew Judas was the average Joe. Jesus had some good times during the 3 years of friendship. Jesus didn’t lie when he said ‘friend, why are you betraying me with a kiss’? Jesus wished he had never been born. NOTE; in the current discussion with ‘Emergent Church’ stuff, some are bringing up the possibility of hell being symbolic in nature. Does ‘fire’ mean ‘fire’ and stuff like that. I believe it does, but want you to understand that true thinkers and movers have differences of opinion on this. Origen, one of the early intellectual church fathers, taught universalism. That all people will ultimately be saved. Of more recent fame, Carlton Pearson left his charismatic roots and embraced ‘no hell’. To be honest, he has gone a lot further than simply being ‘no hell’. He denies the authority of scripture, thinks John wrote Revelation as an expression of being delusional. I feel Pearson, in his journey towards universalism, went way too far. Clark Pinnock, a modern theologian has taught ‘annihilationism’ that all the wicked will be burned up and non existent. There are a few verses where you can get this from! The point is some very good people [and bad] have differences of opinion on this. My point is this statement from Jesus ‘it would have been better if Judas were never born’ sure seems to indicate that every one will not wind up in heaven! It seems as a harsh thing to say if Jesus knew his buddy would one day be in heaven. Judas could rightfully ask ‘why did you say it would have been better if I were never born, after all, all people who were ever born wind up in heaven.’

(607) I just read an article in my local paper on a school teacher who was fired over an evolution thing. I remember watching the whole court case a few years ago on some northern state trying to get ‘intelligent design’ taught in the schools. I think it was Pennsylvania? The judge would rule against intelligent design on the grounds that the schools should teach science and not religion. To put it bluntly, the judge was truly an idiot! Now, why do I say this? If you watched the whole case you saw the evidence, given by the scientific community, that showed Darwin’s theory to have been proven wrong. All the evidence showed how no where do we see any scientific proof that ‘macro evolution’ ever happened in a natural environment. Macro evolution is Darwin’s theory that species change from one thing into another. This has never once happened, ever, according to the evidence. What has happened is ‘Micro evolution’ the adapting of species to its environment. Now, during the hearings this was brought out very plainly by the scientists on the creation side. To be honest, the other side for some reason did not have scientists defend evolution. They had an arrogant school board lawyer who was out of his league on all the scientific issues. Those hearing the case even brought this out. Ultimately when the judge ruled against creationism, it really wasn’t based on science. During the case the evolution side tried to show that ‘Intelligent design’ was a secret way to slip ‘creationism’ into the classroom, and therefore it would be a violation of the separation of church and state. The interesting thing about the case [I think it was in a town called Dover?] was the fact that Darwin’s theory was proven false. Now, the other side can say ‘but you never know, we might find other evidence some day?’ while that may be true, the school system should not be teaching a theory as fact when all scientific evidence shows it to be wrong! This argument is really not about religion, it’s about science. All the fossils and stuff clearly show that things [life forms] appeared on the scene at set times. Not ‘slowly’. This evidence shows that some where these life forms had to have been ‘designed’ prior to there appearing. This is fact, seen from the evidence! Now, whether you want to delve into a creator having designed them, or some other theory, is really irrelevant to the debate. The fact is the evidence shows these life forms to have shown up in complete form, not slowly changing. I find it funny how those who fight creationism by saying they believe in science, really can’t see how science goes against Darwin’s theory, and backs up the Christian worldview!

(608) Let’s do a little more on Evolution. When Darwin popularized the theory, he knew that over a period of time he would be proven right or wrong. If his theory was right you would eventually find Fossils of all types of species in the transition stage. You obviously wouldn’t find something actually changing, but you would see stage 1. Then over a few million years stage 2 and so forth. As a matter of fact you would find these ‘stages’ of fossils all thru out the Evolutionary time table. You would not only need them for one species going to the next, but for all the species that have changed! Over a few hundred years how many have we found? A thousand? 500 hundred? 50? How about the big ZERO! That’s right, science has found none. Wow, you think if this were true that scientists would drop the idea. Many have. Even those who hate God! I have read where scientists have said the biggest problem with Darwin’s idea is the blatant hole in the fossil evidence. They have said ‘we don’t have the evidence to back it up’ or ‘as a matter of fact the evidence we have disproves Evolution’. Now there have been some famous hoaxes. As a kid I used to go to the museum of natural history in New York City. I remember seeing the famous ‘stages of evolution’ on display. They were statues of man evolving. They showed the proof behind each level. One of the levels was a whole man developed by a tooth they found in the ground. Surely science deals with facts. The tooth later was proven to have come from a pig! They built the whole guy from a pig. You guys are really smart. Another great proof was a skull that was found in the ground. It was trumpeted for years as a missing link. They found out it was fake. They were testing it and found ‘Plaster of Paris’ in its ‘DNA’. What has happened is a theory has been held to religiously and made us look like a bunch of idiots. The simple fact that atheistic scientists have come out and said ‘Darwin’s theory is fake, not because religion says so, but because science says so’ should concern all the evolutionists who think they are aligned with the evidence.

(609) Over the years I have seen how division happens among good believers. On this site you can read some good stuff [I think!] on doctrine. You can also read lots of stuff on visions and dreams. I realize that there is a whole sector of the church who believe that the current church ‘is rampant with false doctrine’. I hear a local commercial on the radio station that I broadcast on say this. When I hear it I hope I am not coming across as someone who only sees ‘rampant false doctrine’ in our day. I also see how these reformed guys see ‘rampant false doctrine’. But sometimes there are honest disagreements that wouldn’t fall into the ‘false doctrine’ category. Paul was a tremendous theologian, reformed as much as any one! Yet what would you think if your favorite reformed theologian was raising the dead? Or sending handkerchiefs to sick people to get well? [it might have been Peter?] Or casting blindness on demon possessed followers? We often see only one side of the argument. Then you have the Charismatics who operate in these things, but it is next to impossible to show them that this same Paul who did these things wrote first Timothy 6, one of the strongest reproofs to the money gospel ever written. So we all have a tendency to take what we like and leave the rest behind. Sort of like some of the first canons of scripture, some guys just cut out the stuff they didn’t like! Even the great Luther had problems with James, Hebrews, Revelation, 2nd Peter and others. Sometimes our minds become idols. I want to exhort all my reformed friends to read the New Testament with an open mind, as well as my Charismatic friends. We all have blind spots that we don’t know are there [even me!] God ordained this to be so! That way we would realize we need each other in order to complete the mission. Let the iron sharpen iron.

(610) As you can tell by now, I like to jump around a lot! Recently I have been studying various movements in Christianity. To some degree people would define me as ‘Emergent’ that is I challenge the way we practice church. I have been doing this for years. I have also seen some in this movement who challenge the ‘myth of the Cross’ [ouch!] and historic Christianities content. Just thought I would let you know I do not align my self with this part of being ‘Emergent’.

(611) JOHN 14- Jesus says he is going away to prepare a place for us. He tells the disciples they know where he is going and how to get there. Thomas says ‘we have no idea where you are going, how can we know the way’. Jesus wasn’t talking ‘location’ as much as communion with the Trinity. He was saying I am going to THE FATHER and you now know the Father, because I have revealed him to you. You have seen me, you have seen him. Also, the way to the father is thru the Son, so you not only know where I am going [Father] but the way [Son]. Now I get it! You can take this 2 ways [not three!] you can look at it as Jesus speaking of the sending of the Spirit as his ‘coming again’, in verse 18 he does say this. He says ‘I will come to you’ and he is speaking of the Spirits coming. Thru this chapter the comforter is one just like him. Also you can read this as the literal second coming. We believe Jesus will come again! Some have said this chapter is speaking of something else besides these 2 options, they think this ‘coming’ is the rapture. A separate event from the 2nd coming. I don’t see how you can believe it this way. Also in this chapter Jesus is showing the intent of redemption. He didn’t just come to take us to heaven. In chapter 17 we will read that he prays to the father for us not to be taken out of the world, but to keep us from the evil in it. Thomas seems to be thinking ‘location and how to get there’ when he says ‘we have no idea where you are going, how can you think we know how to get there’? But Jesus is really speaking the language of fellowship in the Trinity/Unity that he has with the father and the Spirit. He is telling Thomas ‘my purpose is to bring you into this oneness that I have with the father, to invite you to partake in this fellowship’ in essence ‘I am not talking about getting you to a location [heaven] in as much as bringing you into a state of being with me and my father’ true ‘HOLY COMMUNION’! You do see this concept thru out the chapter. The disciples seem to be struggling ‘how will you come back and reveal yourself to us and not to the world’ Jesus says ‘if a man loves me he will keep my words, the Spirit will then come and indwell him and we will all have community together’ [Father, Son, Spirit and all believers]. They are grappling with these ideas. They were like us, always thinking in terms of being saved to go to heaven when we die. Now, I thank God for this benefit. I am very happy that I am not going to Hell! Don’t underestimate this blessing. But Jesus is speaking on a much higher plane. He even says ‘the words I am speaking are not mine, but the Fathers’. A few practical things. Jesus says when I leave you will do greater works because I am leaving and the Spirit will come and indwell you. The ‘non Charismatics’ say this is evangelism. Jesus will give us the Spirit and we will evangelize on a mass scale, greater works. The Charismatics say this is doing more miracles, raising the dead and healing the sick and casting out devils. Who is right? Take them all! Just be sure and bring people into the Kingdom. The gifts are not for you to get famous or gain a following, they are for the purpose of evangelism and expanding the Kingdom. In this chapter we see Jesus great promises of peace and his dwelling with us forever. The promise of the Spirit showing us the things of the father. We are invited into this wonderful communion with him. Let’s allow the work of the Spirit to use us to bring others into this community. The 2 great commandments Jesus gives us is to love God and others. The ‘others’ speaks of his desire to bring people into this community. NOTE; on the radio when I spoke on this entry I mentioned some stuff on the historic creeds and the language that the early church used to define the Trinity. In the world today the 3 main religions are Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Islam and Judaism claim to be Monotheistic. Christians also claim this, but Islam and Judaism don’t agree. The reason for this is in the way the historic church came to define the Trinity. There have been Jewish converts to Christianity who accept Jesus as Messiah but do not accept the classic language of the Trinity. The verse that says ‘the Lord our God is one’ is a main text for both Muslims and Jews in their understanding of Gods oneness. Some of the Trinitarian language has been an obstacle to Muslims and Jews converting. Now, like I said before, I do believe in the Trinity. But if you notice the language that Jesus will use in our study in John, it seems more in line with ‘Unity’ then ‘Trinity’. The truth of the Trinity is there, but the explanations that Jesus gives sound better than the way the creeds say it. One of the creeds says Jesus was begotten eternally. That there was never a time where he was begotten. He was always ‘begotten’. They came to this language by trying to defend Christ’s deity. The problem is scripture teaches us that there was a definite point in time when Jesus ‘was begotten’. The fact that Jesus existed always with the father is different from saying ‘he was always born as a man’ which is what begotten refers to. So to be honest about it, the language in this creed is an obstacle. In my recent conversations with my Muslim friend I stood strong for the deity of Christ and God becoming man thru the incarnation, but I also tried to use the actual language of scripture when explaining it. This is going to be important for the future of the church as she tries to bring both Muslims and Jews into the church. We don’t want to compromise on the historic truths of Christianity, but we also want to express our belief in Monotheism in ways that are in keeping with scripture. Also when I say ‘into the church’ I mean bringing them to God thru Christ, not into some ‘culture of Christianity’ that the world sees as ‘church’. NOTE; I also spoke on the second coming and Preterism. Preterism is a way of interpreting the Second coming as having happened in A.D. 70. This belief arose out of a well intentioned answer to the critics of Christianity. Some critics have brought out the idea that the early church were all expecting an imminent return of Jesus, that they took the obvious scriptures that speak of Jesus coming quickly and stuff like that and were let down when Jesus did not come for the first few centuries. So some scholars developed the idea that Jesus did come in ‘judgment’ and fulfilled all the verses of the second coming in A.D. 70. Others have taught how the early church had to later adjust it’s theology around the ‘obvious’ mistaken teachings of Jesus. Some of these guys are believers, but they fall into the liberal camp. My belief is Jesus will literally come again. A Protestant scholar actually made an argument for the ‘literalness’ of Jesus return thru the Catholic teaching on Transubstantiation. He defended our Catholic brother’s ideas on the Real Presence in the Eucharist. He said the church has been faithful to the literal return of Jesus and his immediate presence by the reality of Jesus being present in Communion. Good effort, but a little too much spiritualizing for me. I believe the best argument that can be made, if you were going to go down this road, would be this chapter. Jesus says he will come again and also says the comforter will be the fulfillment of this coming. Now, I also believe in the future literal return of Jesus, because later on in the New testament you see Paul teaching a future return after the initial outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. I was watching an end time teacher using the verse where Jesus spoke on the destruction of the Temple and he was applying it to a future Temple. He was wrong. I also believe the Preterists are wrong. I believe the rapture as a separate event from the second coming is ‘extra biblical’. But in all of our seeking for truth, I don’t throw out the historic belief of Christ’s return. I believe the best way to explain the supposed delay of his return is to look at the character of God. The New Testament says the longsuffering of God is because he wants to bring as many people into the church as possible. That which seems to be a delay is really mercy. No need to try and find ways to explain this to the critics, Jesus is delaying his return for their benefit!

(612) I got with some homeless friends yesterday. An older brother showed up. He is a friend of mine, I had met him a few years back. He is very strong on Jewish stuff. I actually refer to him as a ‘Messianic Gentile’. A Gentile Christian who is enamored with natural Israel. When we first met I let him know my feelings on this. Those of you who have read this site know what I mean. I am against the exalting of any natural heritage. But this brother has become a reader of my site and has told a mutual friend that he thinks I am ‘very deep’ in Christian understanding. To be honest I don’t see how prosperity guys and ‘Messianic Gentiles’ could even put up with me. But somehow they see things from our teaching that they like. That’s great! During the conversation my friend was telling everyone how Jesus birthday was today [the first day of Hanukah] and my other friend kinda told me he was announcing this to everyone. I told my friend that most Christians think Jesus wasn’t born in winter. You can look at the surroundings of the birth of Jesus in the gospels and it would seem like it wasn’t in winter. I am not dogmatic at all, I celebrate Christmas with a tree and all. I tried to avoid my Messianic friend. So he and another conservative right winger came and sat at my table [outdoor picnic tables] and started their talk. The conservative guy was also Messianic. He was telling the other guy how he went to the local Jewish meeting last night to light the candlestick and all. Then they started talking about some Christian/Jewish prophet who has this world wide ministry. Moved his family to Israel, looks like a true full blown rabbi and all. I really felt like puking up at this point, but I held it in. The conservative guy would actually ask a question and say ‘I am throwing this out on the table for anyone’s in put’ and as soon as I gave some in put, he would cut me off and say ‘lets stay on track here’. I realized I shouldn’t even get into it with these guys. I tried to ignore the whole deal, but hey they came to my table. After a while I spoke up, didn’t let the guy cut me off. Gave them about a ten minute reproof on some stuff. Quoted lots of scripture and all. Reproved the conservative guys teaching on ‘we create things with prophecy’ sort of a mixture of word of faith elements that he was espousing. I taught the biblical view of Old and New Testament prophecy. Also the ‘extra biblical view’ of Christians being little gods who have the power to create with words just like the ‘Big God’. I explained the reality of prophecy and also the reality of decreeing things as believers. But shot down the ‘we create things with our words like God does’ doctrine. Somehow the conservative Jewish guy had this understanding also. Well I rebuked them for a few minutes, didn’t mean to be mean. But you can only swallow so much of this stuff at one sitting. I have noticed I am becoming a little more known around this mission, kinda uncomfortable with it. A few guys have become avid readers of my stuff. Sometimes people will ask ‘oh, you run the radio ministry for ‘Corpus Outreach’ do you help the main speaker?’ They think someone else is doing the talking on the show. I tell them it’s me, they can’t believe some radio guy would be hanging out with homeless guys. I really like the anonymity, but I figured sooner or later people would become more familiar with what I do. I don’t hide the ministry stuff, I need for friends to listen to the show and read our stuff, I just try to avoid the persona of being ‘a preacher’. There are a few times where the persona comes in handy, like when I rebuked the brothers at the table! Did it in full biblical fashion, quoting scripture and all. Man, all you preachers would have liked me at that point!

(613) This entry is sort of my statement of faith. I believe in the Trinity. I believe in a real Hell. I believe in a real Heaven. I believe in the literal Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe in the full Deity of Christ. I believe in the Physical Return of Jesus to the planet. I do not believe in the Rapture as a separate event from the Second Coming. I believe that all men must be saved, Born Again thru faith In Jesus Christ or they will not go to heaven. I believe in the continuation of the Gifts of the Spirit for the function of the church today. In short, I agree with the historic majority view of all Christians today [Catholic/Orthodox/Protestant] on most major Christian doctrines except for Pedo Baptism [infant baptism] and would disagree with some Protestant views of the cessation of the Gifts of the Spirit and the late development of Dispensational Theology.

(614) JOHN 15 [Radio # 598] Jesus tells the disciples they are the branches, he is the vine. If they truncate themselves from him they will perish. In the world of ‘once saved always saved’ and ‘if you walk away you are lost’ a lot of these verses become arguing points. I believe the main context here is sort of like when I taught Hebrews [read chapter 6 of the commentary on this blog]. I see Jesus telling the disciples as a microcosm of the Nation of Israel ‘If you don’t continue in the Old Testament revelation of me as Messiah, then you will be cut off [AD 70] and be destroyed’. Basically Jesus telling Israel ‘you must remain in me [after all you have all come from me! John 1:1] if you want to be fruitful’. Jesus says ‘I want you to have full joy’ in the same context of bearing fruit. God designed all of us to be active participants in the spreading of his kingdom. In many modern scenarios you have the Pastors and staff finding fulfillment, but the average church attendee is simply a funder of the organization. They see everything thru this paradigm. ‘Give sacrificially, we can reach the world!’ It’s good to give sacrificially, but God wants all of us to ‘reach the world’ to be active participants in this thing. You can’t have ‘full joy’ unless you do the stuff! Jesus says ‘If I had not come and spoken unto them [religious leaders] they wouldn’t have known they were wrong’ also ‘if I had not done the works among them that no one else was doing’. Jesus reproved by word and deed. I find it funny how after preaching that you don’t need lots of money to reach the world for Christ, that preachers get really mad at this. Then when we do impact a large region [basically Texas, New York area and all the African preachers who have been reading/listening to us on the internet] with me paying for everything, that this really gets the ‘religious leaders’ mad. Don’t be mad, instill this same concept into your people and you will have a full reward. Tell them like Jesus told his disciples ‘go into the world, don’t think you need a lot of equipment for this, you are the equipment. No special appeals for funds, keep it simple’ [Message Bible] Jesus taught and lived contrary to the professional clergies agenda. They got mad! NOTE; Jesus says ‘ye are clean thru the word that I have spoken unto you’. As I was reading this chapter for a few days, getting ready to write on it. I usually get up early and pray ‘aggressively’ for a while before I write. Sometimes I just wait on the Lord and just listen [for about an hour] and hear what he is saying. All of these entries come from this ‘hearing’ time, not from much ‘head knowledge’. As I was waiting the other day, the Lord spoke to me about this verse ‘ye are clean [set apart for my purpose] thru the word I speak to you, not thru what you speak [pray] to me’. I felt like the Lord was saying there are times in our lives where we simply receive and become the ‘incarnate’ purpose of God. That God desires to reveal himself to people thru us. The purpose of receiving his word is not for didactic teaching only, but for becoming what he says. Sort of like the imagery I taught in John 1 [go back and read it!] we in essence become what he is communicating. We don’t just ‘hear’ it, we experience it. Like the Prophets in the Old Testament, God would communicate thru them, but they also would go thru some strange stuff! Jesus also says ‘if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will and it will be done’. I want to credit the Word of Faith guys for bringing out truth in this area. They popularized the idea of knowing Gods will and purpose by knowing his word. His will is his word, if you will. The problem became an unbalanced teaching thru only seeing the ‘good stuff’ and avoiding the suffering verses. It would become next to impossible to correct these brothers as they went headlong down the path of materialism. Any attempt to reprove them would be seen as ‘don’t listen to the negative naysayer’ and they would develop a mindset that would not receive correction. In the reality of Gods will being his word, we must understand it is his whole word. Even the verses that give warnings about end time teachers who would stray from the faith by becoming money focused! [1st Timothy 6]. So let’s give credit where it is due, but also stay on course.

(615) Took a ride yesterday to San Antonio to pick up family from the airport. It reminded me of the old days. I tuned in to one of the classic rock stations and caught a ‘re-play’ of the first Led Zeppelin concert in 19 years! They played the night before in London. I hope to catch the replay on VH1 some day. The rock station was playing the list that Zeppelin sang, but it was from their old albums. It’s too soon to play the live stuff. Well any way it felt good to jam to Zeppelin while driving thru some real traffic, you know the cutting in front of people and stuff, while all the time not wearing my seatbelt. I guess the old rebellious nature comes out every now and then. At the airport the ladies with the Jehovah Witnesses had a stand and invited me over. I spent around an hour just really having an open discussion. One was an older black woman, the other Hispanic. Very nice ladies. I did the normal routine of quoting scripture and really relating one on one. I actually quoted John 17 ‘to know God and his Son is life’ and then the Hispanic lady walked up [she didn’t hear me] and says ‘do you know what John 17 says’ and the Black lady had to admit ‘he just quoted it!’ I like prophetic stuff! I could tell I was truly having an honest impact with the ladies. The Black lady at one point said ‘do you mean I might have been wrong all these years, I can’t accept that’ she kinda said it in true concern. I was treating them nice [not like the prosperity guys!] I really brought the reality of Gods ‘true church’ as being all who have come to know the Father thru the Son [one of their favorite verses] and tried to show how this ‘true group’ are made up of all those who believe, even the ‘deceived Catholics’! That was a little too much for them. But as I had to leave, they really wanted to keep talking, not so much to convince me, but they seemed taken aback by meeting someone who was knowledgeable and all about their group. Quoted scripture and all, plus looks like one of these hippies who is looking for a fix! I had to go but left them my info. I told them to get the Saturday San Antonio paper and our blog ad and radio stuff is in it. They were too old to know the blog stuff, but the radio program does reach San Antonio. I enjoyed the time, hopefully if I get back to the truck in time I can catch some more Zeppelin on the way home! NOTE; Just got the recent release of their C.D. for Christmas, will be hearing ‘stairway to heaven’ soon!

(616) A few months ago my wife bought a bottle of ‘Pina Colloda’. An alcoholic drink to all you really holy Christians! It was a one time deal for a birthday or something? I told her to save the bottle so I could use it for my water. I fill up bottles of water and keep them in the fridge. I also fill up a gallon jug, but the kids empty it and leave it in the fridge empty. When I go for the drink it’s empty! So I devised a scheme where I fill up bottles, preferably glass ones, and keep them in the fridge. The kids know ‘they are dad’s water bottles, don’t use them’. So this addiction of mine [drinking water!] has led to some funny incidents. Once I took the bottle in the truck and picked up one of the homeless brothers. He sees me sucking on this Pina Colloda thing and asks ‘hey brother, is that straight Vodka you’re drinking’? Of course I couldn’t help it, I told him ‘Yea, the bible doesn’t say drinking is wrong, just that you shouldn’t get drunk!’ he’s like ‘praise God, finally found a preacher who sees the truth on this stuff’. Of course I burst his bubble and told him its water. Then yesterday I went with some family relatives who are down from New York looking for a house. Around 3 o’clock I am getting anxious to get home and start cooking. Hey I get up at 3 AM, by 8 AM I have done a lot of work. At three o’clock I am ready to call it a day. But the realtor just got started at noon! So they can see I’m like ‘just drop me off, I need to get back and do some stuff’. Well when I got home I was desperate for some water. My brother in law sees me go to the fridge and devour that water bottle like a raving drunk. He’s like ‘what’s that your drinking’ it took a good few minutes to convince him that it’s really water! Hey I looked like a drunk who was desperate to get home! I think I need to change the water bottles to something a little less dramatic. NOTE; to be honest, this homeless friend is not a drinker. But I have many others who are. And they have expressed the above sentiment many times!

(617) Let me do one on Politics. At the time of this writing the current presidential field has both a Baptist minister and a Mormon running. Being I leave these entries on for ever, I don’t want to simply comment on the current race, but want to overview some concepts. Some political pundits, as well as leading Christians have brought up the idea that to choose to vote for the Baptist Pastor based on his religious views would be a direct violation of the constitutions article on ‘no religious test’. These same commentators will accuse Christians of religious bigotry if they won’t vote for the Mormon because of his faith. I wonder if these pundits would tell a Muslim that if he voted for a Muslim because he agreed with the basic moral underpinnings of the Muslim candidate, that he would be violating the constitution? The fact is the article of the constitution that speaks of ‘no religious test’ is not telling individual voters that they can’t use their own personal views of religion while deciding who to vote for! You might personally be against this sort of idea, but if any religious person wants to vote for someone of the same religion, that is totally their own free choice. The constitution in no way forbids the individual voters conscience on religion! You would think that these political pundits [Chris Matthews] would be smart enough to figure this out. Now, the constitution does forbid the govt. from having a religious test on who can run for office. This is in keeping with the idea of freedom of religion that was in the founding of our country. My personal view is I don’t believe in picking a candidate on these grounds at all. I like the Baptist Pastor who is running, he sounds fine. My choice out of the Republicans would be the Senator who was a P.O.W. during Vietnam. I doubt he will get the nomination, but I like him the most. I also understand that many Christians do not like him, he has made some bad comments in the past about ‘conservative right wingers’, but I still like him the most. What about the Democrats? If I were ever going to vote for a Pro Choice candidate [which I will never do] the Black candidate would without a doubt get my vote. It actually offends me that other Black leaders are really not rallying behind him. Also that the Woman candidate and her ‘henchman’ make it sound like the Blacks should vote for her, because her husband [Clinton] really deserves the Black support. Frankly, I like the Black guy better than all the other Democrats. I think the lack of support from other Black civil rights leaders shows that they are stuck in a victim mentality that they can’t break out of. Well anyway I am sure I got a few people mad with this entry, the main point is you have the right to vote for whoever you want, even if you choose to pick someone based on your affinity for his religion. Don’t let the pundits tell you otherwise!

{This entry is the introduction to Race, Religion and Politics}

RACE, RELIGION AND POLITICS

They say you should never talk about religion and politics, I guess I’m a glutton for punishment!

Seriously, I believe these issues need to be addressed honestly before we can see real healing in our country. I stand against all racism! Even discriminating against Whites by hiring quotas and affirmative action. I agree with chief justice John Roberts [current Chief justice on the Supreme Court] when he said ‘the best way to stop discriminating against people by race, is to stop discriminating against people because of their race’! This might seem obvious enough, but he was saying this in the context of affirmative action. The policy that looks at a White kid and says ‘you lose 5 points because you are White’ and then says to the Black kid ‘you get 5 points because of your skin color’. Can’t get more racist then that. ‘Why brother, you get me mad when you say that’ good, you need to get mad if you believe in any form of discrimination! As you can see, I am against all racism, even the kind that Parades under the banner of Civil Rights!