Remembering a Man of God

I love reading about Godly men and women from our past. You will find me writing about them frequently. They have given us a gift in their stories and writings that continue to stir hearts to this day. This one even has a Canadian connection where he lived in Nova Scotia .

This man has alegacy inscribed on a tablet behind a pulpit that was preached on by John Geddie in a church in the South Seas. Every time I read this it gives me the shivers.

"When he landed in 1848 there were no Christians here; when he left in 1872 there were no heathen."

This missionary is not the most well known name, but he has an interesting story of evangelism to the south seas. If you want to learn more
http://johanunwoundstories.blogspot.com

Spring Break

Ahhh....the joy of working at a school is that you get that same feeling you did when you were a kid when Spring Break comes. The clock moves slower than any other day, but when it finally hits the 3pm mark you leave your work worries at the door and the joy of a break seeps in. I'm hoping to do a bit of recording during the break, I have over 70 songs written on my songbase. I'm not saying I would record 70 songs, the fact of the matter is probably 10 of those songs are decent enough to be recorded and heard by anybody ears but my own. Some are personal, songs written just for myself in the prayer room; others could work corporately but often need to be on tested water before I will record them. In the best of situations there would be someone who would just take my songs and record them, I would simply be the writer. But that is a whole other subject.
Anyway, besides recording stuff I am mostly looking forward to rest. It's been a busy few months and I am tired. I look forward to getting to some prayer meetings where I am having high expectations for what the Lord wants to do. This is the best place to get rest, if only there was a place where it was happening 24/7 in our city. That time will come. Spring Break, hopefully I can connect with some of my good friends and get some time outside with my kids.
For now I will start my break by flippin on the BBQ.

The Bike Store

I'm no avid cyclist. But I thought I would save some money and get my bike tuned up to take to work more often. I walk into the bike store to pick up some parts yesterday and I felt like I entered a whole different world. Normally when you walk into a store wearing jeans you would not be the strange person in odd clothes. Instead, I walk in and all around me were tight pants...an a lot of them...and people actually wearing them. I knew about cyclists pants and shirts (usually trying to avoid them on the road) but I didn't know people spent literally hundreds of dollars on cyclist underwear (also very tight looking), cyclist shoes, cyclist goggles, cyclist socks...strange contraptions that you would probably find on a Back to the Future Bicycle (if it existed). Tools that you never knew existed for everything. I'm fairly sure I saw them selling Batman Belts to hold all these items. I don't think I would need those tools, if MacGyver could get along with a simple Swiss Army knife, I think I could. And everything is soo overpriced.

I think I'll stick to the basics. Remember, I am only cycling to SAVE money, not to be outfitted to ride my bike through the Mojave desert. One should never have to take out a loan to feed any habit or hobby, including biking. So if you if you ever see me riding on the street in over-tight, over-priced pants...steal my bike...take it away...Don't let me become what I call the "Avid Cyclist". No offense to the avid cyclists out there, but I just cannot fit into your world. Or your pants.

Contemporary Christian?

They say music reflects culture. If this is the case I have no concept of where the state of the contemporary church is. I don't normally listen to the music radio, tonight I decided to see what kind of contemporary Christian music is out there nowadays, because I have no clue. We have a couple of Christian radio stations in our city, keeping in mind that style and genre are all relative...I find one radio station mostly cheesy and lyrically lacking in any deep revelation of God; and tonight I discovered that the other station seems more like a non-Christian-Christian radio station (both are run by the same people). The latter station can technically call themselves Christian radio because all the bands they play consider themselves Christian bands. Now I am not questioning the faith of the radio station people or the bands; my concern lies in my beginning statement. "Music reflects culture". During the time I listened to the more alternative station I got through about 8 songs before turning it off, all 8 songs had absolutely nothing to do with God. I heard 1 positive message, 3 about relationships with girls and the rest of them were incoherent non-sense. The lyrics made no sense. This was literally one of the choruses, "How can I not love you? You give me flowers. How can I trust you? The flowers died." Another one talked about chasing a little girl around the house.
I'm willing to give these bands the benefit of the doubt, but as for me; I now feel as my kids grow older, I will have to preview even Christian music before they listen to it. If this is contemporary Christian culture, I don't want anything to do with it. Is this music reflecting what is being taught on many of our pulpits? I have no clue (it's not where I come from.
I don't want to come across as judgemental, but I always have to ask my self, "Is this music engaging my heart with God's heart? Or is it simply feeding me a positive message on how to live better in the world?" I don't want to learn how to live better in the world because I know where it is going. I want to be clothed in Christ and walking in Holiness. I want to be listening to music that is God breathed and is ministering to my Spirit and not my flesh. Music that creates worship in my heart. Considering all this, I may have just listened to a REALLY bad stretch of songs on the radio. If people are finding music from these bands that sows into their Spirit, that is awesome and continue in it. This experience has just caused me to pay closer attention to what I'm giving my ears to and it makes me desire the church to have a deeper revelation of who he is.

Now to plug my friend Alyssa on University radio who does the Righteous Radio program, if you are looking for good Christian music, check out her show! http://www.myspace.com/righteousradio/

Hebrides

I believe there is a revival coming to Winnipeg. I believe it is in the likes of the Hebrides revival. One thing that has struck me about this specific revival is that it didn't center around a specific ministry or congregation. It was simply the presence of God descending on a geographical area. It came out of a few people praying consistently for revival. People on this small Island simply had an awareness of God that they have never felt before. No one told them there was a revival happening, yet villagers would travel miles down the road to get to the churches. Along those same roads you would find people lying in the ditches under the power of God. You would find people leaving the bars and crying in the streets "Is there mercy for me! Is there mercy for me!"
And when the churches were full it's been documented that there was a line up outside of a police station with people wanting to get saved. Why the police station? Simply because the officer that worked there was a God fearing man. Can you imagine a revival where people simply flock to the nearest Christian they could find just to hear about Jesus? I could imagine coworkers flocking to see a simple intercessor because they NEED to hear about this man. This makes me want to be bolder now as well as be a man that knows Jesus myself. I need to get a revelation of this man so that when the time comes for Revival, I will be a witness. I am convinced that this thing is coming to MY city and if you want to know a little more of what it looked like back at Hebrides, look up a man by the name of Duncan Campbell. (find it at sermonindex.com)

Sing A New Song

Looking at Psalm 96 I've learned a bit about the importance of singing. The Psalm urges that EVERYONE would sing, but for what reasons in this particular Psalm? To bless His name, tell of His salvation, declare His glory, and sing about what he is doing or his works. Then the Psalm declares the enormity of God and why he is worthy of our such songs. I then got really interested in the Psalm where it has the heavens and the earth and all of creation singing for to judge the earth. I believe God has appointed songs to usher in His very judgements and his second coming.

"The spirit and the bride say come". Why sing to the Lord a new song? Because he wants us to be aware of the seasons of the spirit. Singing is the language of the Spirit and the best way to get revelation of who He is and what He is doing. That's why David says to sing of his works and who he is, because singing engages us with the Spirit, engages us in what He is doing and give us revelation who he is. A new song can be words or just utterances of toungue. He tells us to sing a new song because He wants to speak to your heart...it's new because it comes out of fresh revelation from being engaged with the Spirit in song.

The Lord wants his church in unison, and the one time everybody in is saying the same thing is when they are in song. You can't have 10 preachers preaching in unison! The angels join in singing not in speech. Songs are the language of the spirit and when we are engaged in song with the Spirit and the Spirit is finally saying "COME", the church will be singing in unison with the Spirit, "COME" and that's when HE WILL! Why does the very earth sing and rejoice when he comes? Because all of creation will finally be singing the same song that has ushured in the rule of God.

His kingdom will be established and the absence of sin will renew even the land (sin causes pollution of the very land (Lev 18:24-27, Garden of Eden ect...) People are so paranoid about climate change and the enviroment...which they have right to be, because we have to live here. We need to be good stewards, but we also need to remember that scripture says things like this are going to happen, like when revelation says a third of water life is going to be wiped out. The increased hurricanes and natural disasters; these are the groanings of the land wanting the spirit of God to dwell on it, the groaning is the longing to sing the song when God returns to judge the earth (Psalm 96). Keep in mind that climate change is not going to be the demise of the human race...sin will, and for the unredeemed. God will not let the earth completely fade away before He fulfills his promises (because they are YES and AMEN)...it will get bad...and that's why we do Joel 2 (solumn assembly).

Sing that you might be engaged with the Spirit and what he is doing and saying in these seasons. If we call ourselves part of the army of God we need to call ourselves singers first because they are at the head of His army. Singing puts MIGHT on our Spirits, his weapons are not carnal but they are mighty. The power of song will tear down strongholds, government systems, free demonized men and women (David and Saul), and bring healing.

Engagement & Worship

I've been thinking lately on engagement when it comes to worship. Sometimes it's easy to enter right in, some times we have to wean our way into it, and other times its like walking into a brick wall over and over again. I am convinced that the Lord consistently gives us each of these three scenarios time and time again, not to make things difficult for us but to see how we respond. This is what he is looking for in all three scenerios.

When it's easy to enter in...am I trying to go deeper? Pressing to get to know him better? Having communion with the spirit while he is near? Am I using the time he has chosen to come in an increased measure to minister to his heart while I can tangilbly feel that I am at his feet?

Then the times when I have to wean myself into becoming engaged. I could go either way, I could choose to enter in or I could choose to be bored. In these times it takes a little bit of pressing on my part to get to the place where I am engaged.

The third is where I am hitting a wall no matter how I position myself. No matter what I do or how much I want to be engaged it's just not getting there. This is the situation that quite often brings out my view of God. It makes me question...is he really worthy of my praise even if I don't get anything out of it and it is difficult? This is a situation that I will have to actually CHOOSE to declare truths about him even if I feel dull in my spirit.

The fact is the response in all three situations is essentially the same. My response needs to be a decision to enter in and say yes. It needs to be a response of faith that whenever I enter in, it touches his heart and it does good for my spirit. It is a response that gives us a higher view of God and his holiness. The fact of the matter is that He is worthy of my praise whether I go to hell at the end of the road or not. Thank goodness it is not up in the air if I have a relationship with him. But all things were created for His pleasure. My goal in the end is to respond to him in worship in all three situations. At the end of the day it should not be the proportion of my engagement and enjoyment that should determine the amount of worship that rises to the one that is Worthy. There is no formula that makes worship easier or engagement easier, I just know that I need to have the "Yes" in my spirit no matter what arises. He will not deny a heart that has the "Yes". We will often come up against the wall simply because we have a low view of God.For no matter what happens to me or for me, He NEVER changes, he ALWAYS remains Holy, He always remains Worthy.

Vision

It may be common sense to most people, how you spend your time now will determine the degree of what you will be doing in the future. That brings the question, "what do I want to do with my future?" ("People without vision perish" Pr 29:18") This is where it gets complicated. If you don't know exactly what you want to do...how do you spend your time? This is my recommendation "GET A VISION!" It may change time and time again, but if you have a vision you will be producing fruit in different areas of you life as you work towards getting there. You will find strengths and weaknesses and of then the Lord will highlight areas that he wants to take you...even if you will end up where you never thought you would. My son's vision for what he wants to be when he get's old changes almost daily. But I try to encourage him in each of those ventures because I want him to always have a vision; even if it changes day to day. I can tell him what my desires are for him and sometimes he will get exited about it and sometime he will say "no, no, no, no...I'm going to be a farmer AND a guitar player" Ultimately it will be up to him. I can only encourage him along the way. My life has an interesting example of finding a vision.

All my life I known the Lord has been calling me to be doing some sort of ministry full time. I've seen visions, had dreams and time and time again had people speak it over my life prophetically. I just did not know what it was suppose to look like. At different points in my life I was going to be a preacher, evangelist, worship leader, worship evangelist, bible teacher, youth pastor, healing evangelist and even a Christian music artist (with band included). To accomplish these things, I've gone on evangelism trips, treasure hunts, music lessons, conferences, christian school, formed music groups, street evangelism teams, street drama teams, healing teams and preached at camps and churches, youthgroups ect... I spent my time and energy learning how to do different things and experiencing different things so that I would reach my goal as a person doing full time ministry. Little did I know my view of what that meant was narrow compared to what the Lord's ideas for me were (and in many ways still are). Knowing now that I am not called to any one of those things exclusively, my pursuit of my vision produced fruit that brought me to where I am.

Now I KNOW what the vision for my life is and it is still in the ministry, it's the the two things that were not on my original list: a missionary and an intercessor. Those are two things that I thought I would never do and low an behold here I am a part time intercessory missionary (one day full time... Lord willing). The things I learned along this journey made me who I am and has built me up to be an intercessory missionary, I just did not see it for so many years. But now that I have a clearer picture...how do I spend my time working towards being a intercessory missionary? All the things I have done in the past help my life as a Christian but don't really train me specifically for the ministry of intercessory missionary. There are of course many overlapping parts, but what should I be doing now? The simple answer to this question is...step into your calling with the time you are given now! Balancing a full time job, many hours in the prayer room, time for myself and my wife and kids make a schedule busy. It only took me a few years into starting SHOP to realize that sleep was less important in the morning than spending an hour with the Lord, doing what I'm actually called to do. Don't just find time...make time. And do it at a time that is consistent and possible...for me it's before everyone is awake. I just wish I hadn't taken so long to realize this....oh the hours I have missed being in the secret place with God. There's no going back now.

Perhaps I will share the story of how this vision came to me at a later time.