Today while in the work place I was “befriended” by a few people. The irony of it was the people who wanted to talk to me were most likely considered “outcasts”. They reached out to help me. An odd group in all honesty. It caused me to think about my ability to always be around those not churched. In 2007 I wrote the following piece.
Continue reading The World Out There
I thought a lot about the blood moon as we drove back from Boston last night. I thought about it through my sleepless night. I thought how far I have come in my journey with Jesus. When I started I was fearful, tired and really at the end of my rope. But the entrance of Jesus into my heart and my life energized me, changed me. Clearly it was less about me and more about Him.
I know what I believe now causes many to say “good bye” but my thinking was changed by Him and not because I woke up one day and said “this will be a great idea”. I think in retrospect I came in by fear and not by faith only to find something, some one I could believe in. Continue reading Life – A Spiritual Quest
(1 Samuel 8)
Israel asked for a king. Samuel was disappointed but the people were not pleased with his sons. As he prayed the Lord told him that it was Him, God Himself they had not wanted. “Give them what they want.”
People often ask but they frequently do not know what they are asking. More often they are asking for something more comfortable, less intense and not as dangerous.
I have more and more dreams as well as frequent visions of change in our region. I am sure others have their dreams of their regions as well. (Recently I saw New England changing dramatically. I saw pagans and witches being converted to the One.) Continue reading The Asking Of The People
(Because many have asked my take on Halloween, let me share my recent thoughts. My old thoughts are all over the internet!)
So many know my background prior to becoming a believer and how I got here. In a nutshell I went from being one who religion did not really mean much to, to one day being confronted by God.
I had various touches with His word, but not so much Him. When I went through a tough time with alcohol and drugs I went to a minister and asked him to help me. He told me he “did not think God could help” me.At another time, I fell in love with a girl. Her mom was dying of cancer. I found that white covered bible from my early days in an Episcopal or Congregational church that had been given to me. For some reason I was drawn to the book of John. I talked to her a few times about God(in my limited understanding) and tried to bring comfort to her life. Her mom died, she found another guy and I gave up on God.
It was not the first time I felt like God “let me down.” (This is just one of the problems of giving people rules and regulations, and not relationship(s).) I went through it another time when I was going out with another “religious” girl. I just could not match up.
In the early 80’s I started a business. Jewelry and gifts and what was soon to become so much more. I was going along making a good living. One day while I was gone, a gal stopped by the store and left some of her creations for me to view. What I found myself attracted to was the ugliest ring you could imagine. I put it on and I could “feel” something. I found myself ordering things for my store I had never previously cared about.
Soon, books, potions, herbs and you name it, began to fill my stores. 5 of them at one point. What began as no understanding progressed to New Age and more. Never one to just go slow, I went crazy. In more ways than one. Even friends who had worked with me saw. Now people working with me had names like Raven and Princess. I found myself drawn into the darkest of realms. My mind was out of control.
And that brings me to Halloween. So many have asked me my thoughts on things related to this. I have been around long enough to know the many ways the church has dealt with Halloween. I have two thoughts I feel that are important.
One, each one of us i called to handle Halloween in our own way and as God leads. My biggest concern with Halloween is and always will be children. My grandson is 6 and he will do what I do. He tells people he wants to be like me. My over riding concern is the desensitization of children. Someone sent me a photo of a beheaded person a few weeks ago. An honor killing. They asked my thoughts. I COULD NOT LOOK AT IT! And yet kids today, many have no problem with some of this stuff. Cartoons, videos, the internet. The value of human life has been cheapened by the world.
And now the bigger problem. The church. For years we have practiced isolation. Maybe bad theology. Maybe bad eschatology. Maybe no grace. The issue is this. We will never turn people around until we, the church, turn around and turn away. From our buildings, programs and thinking that keeps us from reaching out and seeing the kingdom of God for what it is…people.
Maybe it was 12 plus years of pastoring. Maybe kids and grandkids. Maybe I am just old enough to see love, really does cover a multitude of sins.
This morning I felt like I was hearing stop educating, start processing. I look around and I see people who want to “know” more. Knowing more is not bad, unless it stagnates by lack of use. For years I have shared how the human mind processes facts. For instance if you were to go to a conference on healing, you might receive the “education” to heal through teaching. But in two weeks if you were to be asked if you “heal” your answer would be yes, even though you might not have laid hands on someone.
Now some of it could be relegated to how we communicate or language, but at the core of it is a process of the mind that thinks something is done, with out the experience. (In a good way we call this imagination.) Continue reading Start Processing
I wrote this 7 years ago. How things have changed and how many things have come to pass.
Yesterday morning I awoke from a dream. There was not much to guess about the dream or to figure out. In the dream I was working around the home and all I heard over and over was “work like an evangelist.” The music played over and over in my head. It was like “walk Like An Egyptian” by the Bangles. Even after I woke up the music was pulsing. Like I said, there wasn’t much to think about. Continue reading The World Out There
