First of all I thought it was because we are an older congregation but most of the kids love our worship and style of church. So whats next? Why are they not coming to church? Here is where it gets interesting.

The social media has most kids convinced that we are out to turn them into little us’s instead of letting them be themselves. To be honest with you that is probably very close to the truth. I have a young man in my church that I love like a son, literally. He is in my thoughts all the time, this kid owns a piece of my heart. When his dad got sick I tried to step up for him and lead him the best I could, but guess what? I found I expected him to follow where God had not called him. I wanted him to work hard, buy cars, date girls, you know, all the normal stuff, but this kid ain’t normal, he’s special. I found I couldn’t figure him out in fact I couldn’t even think like him.

We had this prophet come in to the church and he starts speaking over this kid and says something like, “I see you trying to come up with a math problem no one can solve.” The kids laughing, his moms laughing and I’m finally figuring out my problem, Iv’e set my sights to low for this kid. I wanted him to be like me when all along he was already way past me. I had to settle in my heart that times they are a changing and our kids are changing with them.

Beloved we are not being left behind. Just because we don’t understand is no reason to keep our youth from who they are. I promise most of them will never do it like we did, and for good reason. It’s called progression, it’s something life does weather we want it to or not. My great grandmother came out west in a covered wagon and before she died she saw her grandson fly a rocket to the moon, true story. He didn’t do anything like she did, but she help mold him into a man who could. She would never have dreamed that the things she saw in life would transpire right in front of her eyes, but they did.

It would be a crying shame for the church to put that kind of pressure on our youth, the pressure to be like us instead of like themselves. God didn’t make a mistake when He created them in mom’s womb and He certainly isn’t making a mistake when He calls them out. The best we can do is help mold them and believe in the one who created them. He has a plan we know nothing of.

What a awesome weekend. God lit the body up, in a good way. For a church that believes in body ministry this was definitely the most intense time we have had yet. God spoke to us that we were in 40 days of hope and then really gave us something to hope towards.

I find that as we actively receive the Word of the Lord, it becomes progressively easyer to not only walk out the immediate Word, but also to hear the next one. We have all heard hope defined as eager expectation, but this weekend we also saw the eager imagination that God intended for that same word, hope.

When we gave ourselves over to letting Holy Spirit operate through our imaginations we saw an immediate increase in body participation. We had a young girl who walked in the door, got hit with Holy Ghost, and in turn spread the fire of God around the house in a matter of minuets. Beloved it was a blessing to be in that service. To see the people of God step out free of fear was the greatest gift I received all weekend.

Now that we have embraced this Word of 40 days of hope, we need to remember we also had a Word at the end of the service that said we were coming into the summer of hope. Use your own imagination as to what that will look like..

He allowed as how it really had nothing to do with Him but it was more about me not giving the offence a place to land. Because it was Him I was willing to take a little heat. He said I had every right in this world to stand up for myself and reminded me that I did so on a regular basis. It’s weird, I can be offended by my wife with as little as a look of displeasure, but God can ream me out and I’m happy as a pig in a poke, go figure that one out.

The more we talked about offence the more I came to realize that you can’t be offended if it has no place to land. The only thing that gives offence power in my life is literally my attitude. When I’m talking with God I’m looking for correction and guidance with a Philippians 4:8 attitude, when I’m talking with my wife I’m looking to be the authority with a worldly attitude. Again I have that right in this world but to what end does this attitude bring me?

To be or not to be offended is all on us beloved. No one can offend us if we chose not to be offended. To teach our souls to be free of offence is simple and easy but it is not natural. To do what is natural is the way of the world, to walk in the way of the Word takes a willful, deliberate, consideration. I can testify that walking in the way of the Word brings about benefits that are other worldly, I’m just saying.

It was both surprising and refreshing to know that God would not put up with my beating around the bush. He was there to push through to some things in my life, things I had asked Him to show me. Beloved He took me at my word and treated me with the respect He would expect from me in return. The ground rules were easy enough, no lying or excuses. That’s all, pure and simple. He said I could lie to the world, I could lie to myself, but I couldn’t lie to Him. You would think I should have known that, in fact I even commented on it to Him. He said most people lie to Him so they can feel better about what they are going through.

We will talk about excuses first. A excuse is nothing more that justification for wrong behaviour. If your doing it right you won’t need an excuse. The thing I have found with God is that He is not moved by sin, sin being defined as doing something you know not to do. A later mirror experience will give you a greater revelation of this, but for now God simply is not moved by sin. Sin is under the blood, and the death and resurection of Christ finalized it. The blood covers all sin and it was more that enough. The blood also gave us an environment to walk excuse free in. As I’m standing in front of the mirror I see myself and all my excuses trailing behind me like a mile long shadow. God asked if I was satisfied with what I saw but the truth is I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. Then He said move over here next to me, now what do you see. It was just me with no shadow flowing out behind me. Then I moved over again and there was the shadow.

After going through the same thing a few times God finally said, if you were truly in Me there are no shadows of excuses and no need for lies. All of this is going on and I realize I’m feeling no guilt or shame. Condemnation and fear are no where to be found. Love, joy, peace, and fullness is all that I feel coming from God, and it hits me, He sees me different than I see myself. He sees me fully in Himself while I’m hoping to get there some day. Then He said it was time for me to stop making excuses for myself and step into His fullness. Just like that. No more beating around the bush (excuse) of I’m not good enough, and I saw what He was talking about. I walked back up to the mirror and there was the shadow. I looked into the mirror and said I will not accept any more lies or excuses in my life, I will walk out my life in Christ. When I looked back in the mirror it was just my reflection standing there looking back at me, and the beginning of a new adventure was born in me. With the revelation of Christ in me resounding in my heart I stepped into the next faze of the ministry God has called us to. 

When we start walking in the things of God we are  mostly on new ground, ground we haven’t walk through yet. As we navigate these new grounds we sometimes take wrong steps. Wrong steps means mistakes, and mistakes mean’s a decision must be made. Many of the beloved have been tricked into thinking if they make a mistake then they must have missed God and abandon the undertaking.

Now comes the tricky part, because we want to be encouraged but need to be honest. So I will encourage you first. You can’t make a  mistake if you never step out. The faith required to step out is more than enough faith to sustain you through failure. The simple truth is you stepped out which is more that you had done the day before, and much more than what the majority of the church does daily.

If we are honest with ourselves we will see that there is always a learning curve. That means we will make mistakes. Come see the progression of the remodel of our home. When we started all we had was a chain saw and a hammer. Needless to say we made some mistakes, but we kept at it and the ol place is starting to come around. Our skills are improving as is our eye for what is right and what will work.

Now comes the most encouragement I can give you. God gave you an assignment and you said yes. You stepped out of your comfort zone and put yourself out there and you lived. The Fathers great joy in your obedience is reason enough to to be joyful in failure, I’m just saying.

Everything you see around you is just staging by God so we could have an environment to be with Him in this physical form. He created man to fellowship with Him and nothing has changed. You can’t watch Him from afar and actually know Him, in fact in this world that would be known as stalking. To truly know Him you have to put in some time with Him.

Adam would walk in the cool of the evening with God and they would just chat about his day, and God enjoyed this relationship. In fact this was His intention all along. So as that revelation came to me I decided to set aside time every day to walk and talk with God. It took a while before I got the hang of it. I had a ton of religious thinking to overcome before I could just release my mind and soul to  hear Him. The more I pursued Him the more I heard, the more I heard the harder I pursued and a habit was formed.

The time came when I believe that we started to met face to face. I know that sounds a little wild but I’m also getting an idea of what Paul meant when he said I knew a man who got caught up into heaven and he didn’t know if it was in the spirit or the real thing. My walking and talking with God is as real to me as my writing this article. There came a time in this relationship when God did something that has transformed me from the inside out, and this is the story I would like to share with you.

One night we came together and Father brought me before a mirror. He asked me to look in the mirror and tell Him what I saw. I tried to give Him my best religious sounding answer and all He said to me was,”oh really, that’s what you see?” Then He said “you can lie to the world, you can even lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me.” The weird thing was when He said that to me I felt no condemnation, guilt, regret, none of the things we are taught to believe that God would rain down on us for, you know, lying to His face. Instead I saw His heart for me, full of loving grace and His desire for me to succeed, and I saw that success depended on my being honest with myself.

So beloved God started me on a journey that night. Many nights since then we have gotten together and He has brought out the mirror and asked me questions. I find that I don’t always like what I see but then I don’t always see things the same way God does. He sees me in a whole different light than I see myself. Beloved He’s out to change me from the inside out. Every time we come before the mirror I see more of Him and less of me. He won’t stop until I see myself the same way He does. That’s our deal, as long as He dosn’t give up on me I won’t stop coming before the mirror.

So God willing I will share some of the mirror experiences I have been through these last few months. As we go on this excellent adventure together I ask only one thing, keep an open mind to what is being said because some of it is kinda mind blowing. Pastor T

It’s note worthy that folks take advantage of God’s calling. He said His calling is without repentance and He meant it. These same folks play nice right up until they get what they want from God, then put in His face. They try to hide behind some kind of a grace message that has no biblical basis but sounds good to the itchy ear. If you truly believe that sin has no cost then you must be reading a completely different bible than the one I am.

James says that sin is not unknown to us, we know whats right and whats wrong. When we willfully do wrong it is sin and the wages of sin is death. I was that guy who went to the bar in my freedom to preach and all the guys knew if they got a couple of beers in me I would really get to preaching. It was a joke to them and brought shame on the Lord but I had grace to do it. That’s the problem with this ultra grace message, its all about us being able to sin instead of us bringing honor to the Father.

In the end this ultra grace message I just knew was not only right but God’s plan for man cost me years of ministry. The simple truth is folks don’t and won’t trust a drunk,  grace or not. A liar is still a liar and a cheat a cheat. The ultra grace mentality took years off of the shelf life of the ministry God had put in my hands to handle. I didn’t count the cost of my actions before I had my own way in my life.

Beloved look and think before you leap into the mier of self indulgence in the name of grace, we don’t have enough time left to waste on things you will only regret later.

God’s planning is really quite clear, from the time He created the universe He has exposed what He was up to. He created all that we see around us from below the earth to whats on the earth to whats above and beyond just to show His love. His desire to hang with mankind is another tell as to His play.

Beloved our Father in heaven is aching for us to display is plan and His will to the earth. All that is required of us to forgive and love and we have a hard time doing either. Hanging on to the hurts you have received in this world only keeps you from doing His will His way. Love truly is the answer and it starts with us. How can a lost and dying world make it if we can’t. God is expecting us to lead the way.

One thought on how to maintain His level of love and peace in our lives is to meditate on Phil 4:8 for an half hour a day, just a start, an see what happens. If you are thinking on whatsoever is good, pure, just, you know the rest then your soul won’t have time to be bugged. God created this for us the least we can do is maintain it His way.

We have an obligation to the Father to show the world who He is both in us and through us. As we walk out the word of the Lord in our lives we should look more and more like the answer, and less like the problem. If you ask the question how then you either don’t know who you are in Christ, or you are afraid to be who you are in Christ. No matter which it is we need to remember there is no condemnation in Christ and God said yes.

His word is yea and amen and will accomplish what He say’s no matter what the circumstances are. That yes in us gives us the hope and strength to “do all things through Christ Jesus” even if we don’t feel worthy of His call and unction. Beloved before the world was formed He had a plan for you, one of hope, prosperity, with an expected end of good. His plan for you is yes so don’t take no for any answer.

His yes in you means He has no regrets in appointing you to the task at hand. That yes to you means you cannot fail not because of your greatness but in spite of it, it’s “Christ in you the hope of glory” that makes it all possible. His love is manifesting through His beloved and His yes is changing the world.