Freedom Guns and Jesus

I’ve been “doing jail ministry” for about 5 or 6 months now, a weekly visit that has become the most rewarding appointment on my schedule.

This week, I find myself having to correct myself after the grace talk got out of bounds as I quoted “all things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial.”  I was trying to drive home the point that all mature believers know, that when our motives are rooted in love for Christ and others, nothing we do will be against the law, but some things will still have negative consequences.

2 Timothy 3:16 says: “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness…” (ESV).  The discussion persists – grace replaced the law.  Jesus showed how utterly impossible it is to attain righteousness though following the law, lest we would have to cut off our hands and gouge out our eyes!

The bloke I was teaching with wanted to drive home the true point that “If we are in relationship with the father, then we do not need the law”, but I ran with it in a wrong direction, and made a statement about all things being permissible, which I now need to correct.  We still need to instruct, correct, and train in righteousness, and using the 10 commandments is a good foundation for morality.  I think of it as the bar that is set really low, we need to discipline our selves to to them at the least!

Jesus raised the bar, and now God’s law is written in our hearts, and we will be subject to HIM–not the law of stone, out of love for Him.  This however is a concept that often takes a little maturity to grasp.

To illustrate this, consider the young couple getting married.  How much greater the chances of success would be if he were told “You can’t continue to go out with your old girlfriends.”?  It should seem obvious, but for too many immature married men, actions continue that sabotage the relationship.  Once the healthy marriage relationship is in place, after the honeymoon, intentional married life, children and shared experiences, the mature married man learns to love his wife more fully, be less selfish, and now would never consider doing things that would endanger the relationship.  He now will do all the right things out of love for his bride.

I was listening to a prayer leader pray, “Oh, Lord, forgive us of our sins of comission and omission…”

What didn’t I do again?  How about this:  Have you robbed someone of the opportunity to learn from you or to be inspired by your faith or action simply because you “wanted God to get the credit”?  It’s a tough question.  How many church goers when they give a testimony of a healing or a good act or ministry involvement say, “Oh, it’s not me–It’s the Holy Spirit”; or “I’m so not after my own glory, so don’t think I had anything to do with this because God totally made this all possible.”?

Yes, GLORY TO GOD!!! but….

If a sense of false humility makes us downplay our own responsibility for the blessings that God makes available, then we are literally robbing others of the opportunity to  see an example of what it takes to have a blessed life and to be a blessing.  And we do it out of “fear of man”, which is nothing more than thinking that others will think that we are pridful of we stand up and take credit for our part in something great.

And why do others need to see that example?  To know that it is possible for them.  They will only experience the same types of blessing if they take the same type of action, make the same kind of choices, pray the same kind of prayers, etc.

So take the risk, show the world what a Christian does and what we are capable of!  Allow others to look up to you, and then yes–give the Glory to God.  This is discipleship, when we are “pridefull” enough to admit we have something to teach, something to give, and that we do something well enough that others should emulate us to attain a similar level of success.

I once heard a great difinition of humility: an accurate assessment of onesself.  If you’re not great, don’t act great, but if you are great, be great!

My Beloved,

You are my child, because I am your God.

You are my sibling, because we are “joint heirs” and children of my Father.

You are my bride, because I died for you, washed you clean with my blood and continue to do so with my Word.

I don’t expect you to understand me in full… yet.  But I do want you to trust me and seek to know me fully, as I know you.

I don’t judge or condemn you.  I came to save, set free, heal, and start our eternal relationship.

I have defeated fear, disease, lying spirits, and I stand between you and the one who accuses and destroys.

The more you lean on me and accept who I created you to be, the more peace you will have.

I speak to your heart.  Your mind is offended, just as the world was offended when I came.  Your intellect provides an irrational fear of the voice of your heart because sometimes I do things that your mind cannot comprehend.

As you are with your children, I ask you to trust me even when you don’t understand, because I am concerned for your well-being, your health, and have a plan to prosper, and not to harm you.

Keep asking, keep seeking.  Not only will you find me, but we will have deep, solid, intimate relationshp.  It is why I made you!

I have always loved you.

– Jesus

This word was introduced to me by a famous south-american evangelist.

Definition of PENUMBRA

I saw this with my own eyes in Brazil last October.  It was even in the paper there, as it apparently is not a very common occurrance.  The strange thing about this is that unlike it’s definition, this phenomena caused the space between the rainbow and the sun to be both darker and clearer than the sky around it.

The sermon described drawing nearer to God, and pushing through that haze, pressing on through the boundary that many never reach — intimacy with God, into a place where there is a greater spiritual clarity.  For me, it’s not only a greater “spiritual clarity”, but also a more heavenly perspective.  When you start to understand the love of God and his process in everyone and everything, it takes the stress out of relationships.   You begin to see difficult circumstances as simply the test before a promotion, and you find that you’re living life on a higher level, kind of like when I finally picked up some rank as a Corporal in the USMC, but a whole lot better, because this is the abundant life–the beginning of the realization that Satan’s schemes can no longer steal your joy, difficulties are only temporary, and you truly can be thankful in all circumstances.

I imagine that there are many such boundaries, levels, breakthroughs or whatever you want to call them (Penumbras) to cross on our journey toward the Light of the World.  It’s awesome to find such truth, something I never would have understood if I wasn’t in the habit of looking up, instead of down.

I was trying to figure out how to say no negative positively.  The answer is “positive”.

I will try to convey this concept without going negative, or at least only going negative on the fact that we tend to do so.

I’m increasingly agitated (righteous indignation) when Christians speak negatively about other Christians.  I have become more aware about all negative that flows out of my mouth, and frankly, I’m about done with it.  What does it accomplish?

How you doing?…. Well, OK,  but man, yesterday was rough…. and today I……blah, blah, blah blah.

You know what?  I’m awesome! [doing awesomely that is, but when you broadcast an awesome state, people confuse you with awesome]

If you’re speaking about others negatively, you’re judging.

How simple is that?  How about this one:

Now here’s the frustrating part:  I can’t even complain about the people who judge and are negative!

Imagine a world full of people who not only don’t judge and complain, but who don’t judge and complain about those who do!

My response:  As soon as I’m done lodging this anonymous complaint concerning all the complainers,  I’m going to start being ONLY positive.

I’ve been back from Brasil for one week now, and I must say, going from operating all day in the spiritual and supernatural to the mundane physical existence of “normal” American life–it’s been a bit of a downer.

Learned so much about pulling on the Kingdom to allow miracles to manifest in the lives of those who hope in Christ.  Let’s face it, anyone who lets you pray for them is hoping in Christ!  One of the most memorable teachings I grasped from the recent trip, is to “embrace the mystery”.  Being available for the work of the Kingdom, without presuming, just accepting what does or doesn’t come.  God doesn’t heal after every prayer, but He wants to.  My faith has definitely increased after seeing so many healed, filled with the Holy Spirit, or emotionally healed after praying for them.

Yesterday, I listened to a wonderful teaching by Bill Johnson about operating out of a place of inner rest.  The key is to think on Kingdom (eternal, positive) things rather than just planning out how you expect every physical thing to happen.  When we truly trust God for every outcome, and realize that He can change our direction at any time, then we can be ready for those small moments of opportunity that really matter.

I half blew it the other day:  I was on-time for a 1 pm appointment (driving there), and there was a couple on the side of the road with a sign that said  they needed money for gas.  The guy was holding a 2-gallon gas can.  They were out of money and stuck.  I turned around, picked him up, and got him some gas and gave him the $4 I had in cash on me at the time.  During the ride, he told me about his wife, she was ill and they needed to drive to Costco to get her medication.  I asked if they were saved, (yes).  I told them where I go to church and invited them.  When I dropped him off, the woman was looking at me, and I remember thinking that she had a hungry look–a hopeless look.  I failed to stop, encourage them with words and pray for her healing.

Yes, I got them temporarily un-stuck.  But I missed the greater opportunity, because I was not at rest inside.  I was more concerned about being a couple minutes late to one of my nicest clients who wouldn’t have cared.

This is just a reminder to not only stop, not only help, but to look hard for the opportunity to bless someone, to hand out the Kingdom goods–or to be the “rich uncle” as Bill says.

I’m excited to report that every night and most days on this 10-day mission trip in Brazil, we are seeing miracles.  Not just a few.

The numbers are increasing every day, and for a “missionary” the goal is to be used by God for Kingdom work.  This is really hard for my left brain.

Letting go, not being in control, trusting that nothing is up to me except to obey in the moment–these things have temporarily taken the place of getting business, paying the bills, and checking off the to-do list.

I am happy to report that I was able to pray for several people today, one lame man who could not lift his right foot is now walking and marching, he got some of his speech back, and much movement in his right arm.  I believe he had suffered a pretty serious stroke, but I couldn’t be sure because we were short on translators, and then when I got one (after the healing in his leg and arm) that was when I found out that he couldn’t speak.  He was very happy, kept giving me two thumbs up and was speaking intelligibly to the translators when I was done, and yet I still wonder why not TOTAL healing?  (I’m just being honest.)  He was brought to me in a chair (OMG).  I prayed for him for about 15 min, and saw no results, exept for the slight unfolding of an atrophied hand.  Then I got mad in my spirit, and just decided that something was going to get done.  I put my hands under his armpits and picked him out of the chair, and told him to stand, by the power of Jesus.  He did.  I probably prayed for him for half an hour, and there was steady improvement up to a point.  Glory to God.

How many times do we (like that man did) give God glory for getting part of what we want?  I choose to.  This day, I thank God for letting me get as far as I have, with my family, my health, my wealth, my spiritual process, and my perspective.

Just a quick correction.  Since my last post, the IMF has  been the focal point of at least 3 articles a week in the World News section of BBC news,  CNN or Fox, which are the news posts I monitor.  It’s almost like they are trying to gain trust, through familiarity.  So they’re NOW in the news…regularly.

An exerpt from the International Monetary Fund. More on this when I have time.
http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2010/041310a.pdf

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
Reserve Accumulation and International Monetary Stability:
Supplementary Information
Prepared by the Strategy, Policy and Review Department
In collaboration with the Finance, Legal, Monetary and Capital Markets, Research and
Statistics Departments, and consultation with the Area Departments
Approved by Reza Moghadam
April 13, 2010

V. A GLOBAL CURRENCY: INSTITUTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
7
1. Institutional underpinnings. Setting up a bancor-based system requires resolving technical and governance challenges related to the creation of a global central bank with a clear policy objectives and instruments, along with a financial and governance structure that ensure its credibility and legitimacy. These challenges are described below. A key hurdle is political, although that applies to all other solutions for systemic reform.
 Global central bank. The global central bank that issues bancor would need to earn a very strong reputation and credibility. Appropriate rules and governance are essential, and the bank should have a strong balance sheet. Members would need to pledge to back up the liabilities of the bank and annually cover any losses incurred in its operations. Such credibility could be bolstered by capital subscriptions from member countries at a level that ensures the highest possible credit rating (“AAA”). Member subscriptions could be similar to IMF quotas and determined by a transparent formula that reflects relative weight in the global economy. Profits (and seigniorage) could be distributed to members according to the capital subscriptions.
 Policy objective. Issuance of bancor, or more generally the implementation of monetary policy, could be targeted towards stabilizing the price of a representative basket of goods and services (and perhaps assets). An international standard basket
could be defined, with weights on the baskets of different countries on the basis of their respective GDPs. The stable value of bancor would be defined in terms of this international basket.
 Instruments. The central bank would conduct market operations, buying and selling bancor-denominated securities issued by member governments, in exchange for bancor issuances and bancor-denominated deposits at the central bank. These
operations could be distributed across markets, perhaps in proportion to countries’ economic and financial weights. The amount of operations by market would be determined by the overall objectives and fined tuned with experience, with due
consideration to balancing the trade-off between ensuring adequate liquidity provision, including in times of stress, and maintaining the store of value of bancor.
 Governance. The governing body of the central bank would be made up of representatives of national governments or central banks, whose voting shares reflect the shares of their economies in global GDP, trade, and finance, as well as the
domestic usage of bancors (since those with relatively more bancor usage would want to have a greater say). These shares would need to be adjusted periodically for differential growth. Representatives should have strong monetary policy credentials,
and the governance structure designed to protect the bank’s operational decisions from political influence and maintain credibility. Accountability structures of the bank to its membership would also need to be put in place.
 Transition to bancor-based system. A fiat declaring sole use of bancor in member countries, particularly systemically important ones, would launch the bancor-based system once the above technical and governance matters are resolved. In its absence, however, sustained public sector support for enhancing bancor’s use will be necessary akin to the proposals outlined in the SDR system above, until such time a critical mass of bancor and bancor-denominated securities is achieved. Alternatively, a transition from an SDR-based system could be envisaged, with eventual conversion of SDRs to bancor.

I was going to title this post, “A Lesson from the Suction Cup”.  But I was discussing my sense of humor as well as long titles with a friend, and was reminded that less is more… not to mention that most people just wouldn’t get it.  But now I have you “hooked”, so here you go:

I’m in the shower this morning, and I reach for the scrubby thing.  As I take it off the hook, I notice that the suction cup holding the hook needs a little press (again) to make sure it’s still there and not on the floor the next time I get in the shower.

Sometimes, I feel like that suction cup-hook-thing.  It’s small, transparent and reliable.  People depend on it to be there, and to faithfully do…whatever:  hold a scrubby thing… fix a computer, bring home the bacon, pray with a troubled person, help with a move, a yard sale, pick up cigarette butts, it doesn’t really matter.  But like that little thing, I need an occasional touch, just a little push to help me with staying power, to say “I notice you, you’re doing a good job, hang in there.”  After all, a suction cup holding on to slick glass in the midst of water, soap, conditioner, not to mention the constant sucking…. get air in there and off you go–on the floor again.

19 times in the New Testament (NLV) the Word tells us to Encourage one another.  I think this one is my favorite:

Romans 1:12 When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.